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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13633 ***
+
+                      BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                  EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+
+
+
+     No. CCCXLII.     APRIL, 1844.        VOL. LV.
+
+
+
+
+                  TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+    THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.
+      --A TALE OF VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.--PART II.
+
+    THE SLAVE-TRADE.
+
+    MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.
+      --THE ARABS OF CORDOVA.
+
+    TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.
+      --A FRAGMENT FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.
+
+    THE BRITISH FLEET.
+
+    MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+      --PART X.
+
+    THE CHILD'S WARNING.
+
+    THE TWO PATRONS.
+
+    IRELAND.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.
+
+A TALE OF VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.
+
+PART II.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE.
+
+
+The time occupied by the events detailed in the three preceding
+chapters, had been passed by Antonio in a state of self-exile from his
+master's studio. Conscious of having disobeyed the earnest injunctions
+of Contarini, the weakness of his character withheld him alike from
+confessing his fault, and from encountering the penetrating gaze of
+the old painter. Neglecting thus his usual occupation, he passed his
+days in his gondola, wandering about the canals in the hope of again
+meeting with the mysterious being who had made such an impression on
+his excitable fancy. Hitherto all his researches had been fruitless;
+but although day after day passed without his finding the smallest
+trace of her he sought, his repeated disappointments seemed only to
+increase the obstinacy with which he continued the search.
+
+The incognita not only engrossed all his waking thoughts, but she
+still haunted him in his dreams. Scarcely a night passed that her
+wrinkled countenance did not hover round his pillow, now partially
+shrouded by the ample veil, then again fully exposed and apparently
+exulting in its unearthly ugliness; or else peering at him from behind
+the drapery that covered the walls of his apartment. In vain did he
+attempt to address the vision, or to follow it as it gradually receded
+and finally melted away into distance.
+
+It was from a dream of this description that he was one morning
+awakened by his faithful gondolier Jacopo. The sun was shining
+brightly through his chamber windows, and he heard an unusual degree
+of noise and bustle upon the canal without.
+
+"Up, Signor mio!" cried the gondolier joyously, and with a mixture of
+respect and affectionate familiarity in his tone and manner. "Up,
+Signor Antonio! You were not wont to oversleep yourself on the day of
+the Bridge Fight. All Venice is hastening thither. Quick, quick! or we
+shall never be able to make our way through the press of gondolas."
+
+The words of the gondolier reminded Antonio that this was the day
+appointed for the celebration of a festival, which for weeks past had
+been looked forward to with the greatest impatience and interest, by
+Venetians of all ranks, ages, and sexes; a festival which he himself
+was in the habit of regularly attending, though on this occasion his
+preoccupied thoughts and feelings had made him utterly unconscious
+that it was so near at hand.
+
+Although the ancient and bitter hatred of the Guelphs and Ghibellines
+had died away, and the factions which divided northern Italy had sunk
+into insignificance, nearly a century before this period, the memory
+of their feuds was still kept up by their great grandchildren, and
+Venice was still severed into two parties or communities, separated
+from each other by the grand canal. Those who dwelt on the western or
+land side of this boundary were styled the Nicolotti, after the parish
+of San Nicolo; while those on the eastern or sea side took the
+appellation of Castellani, from the district of Castello. Not only the
+inhabitants of the city itself, but those of the suburbs and
+neighbouring country, were included in these two denominations; the
+people from Mestre and the continent ranging themselves under the
+banners of the Nicolotti, while those from the islands were strenuous
+Castellani.
+
+The frequent and sanguinary conflicts of the Guelphs and Ghibellines
+were now replaced and commemorated by a popular festival, occurring
+sometimes once, sometimes oftener in the year; usually in the autumn
+or spring. "In order that," says an old chronicler of the time, "the
+heat being less great at those seasons, the blood of the combatants
+should not become too heated and the fight too dangerous." "Also on
+cloudy days," says the same authority, "that the spectators might not
+be molested by the sun; and on Sundays or Saints' days, that the
+people thereby might not be hindered from their occupations." On these
+occasions one of the numerous bridges was selected as the scene of the
+mock combat that constituted the chief amusement of the day. The quays
+afforded good standing-room to the spectators; and here, under the
+inspection of ædiles appointed by the people, the two parties met, and
+disputed for supremacy in a battle, in which, however, no more
+dangerous weapons than fists were allowed to be brought into play.
+
+It was not the populace alone that divided itself into these two
+factions. Accordingly as the palaces of the nobles stood on the one or
+the other side of the canal, were their owners Castellani or
+Nicolotti, although their partizanship existed but in jest, and only
+showed itself in the form of encouragement to their respective
+parties; whereas with the lower orders the strife, begun in
+good-humour, not unfrequently turned to bitter earnest, and had
+dangerous and even fatal results. In the wish, however, to keep up a
+warlike spirit in the people, and perhaps still more with a view to
+make them forget, in a temporary and boundless license, the strict
+subjection in which they were habitually held, the senate was induced
+to permit the continuance of a diversion, which from the local
+arrangements of Venice, the narrowness of the streets and bridges, and
+the depth of the larger canals, was unavoidably dangerous, and almost
+invariably attended with loss of life.
+
+Hastily dressing himself, Antonio hurried into his gondola in order to
+proceed to the bridge of San Barnaba, opposite to the church of the
+same name and to the Foscarini palace, that being the spot appointed
+for the combat. The canal of the Giudecca was one black mass of
+gondolas, which rendered even a casual glimpse of the water scarcely
+obtainable; and it was amidst the cries of the gondoliers and the
+noise of boats knocking against each other, that the young painter
+passed the Dogana and reached the grand canal. There the crowd became
+so dense, that Jacopo, seeing the impossibility of passing, turned
+aside in time, and making a circuit, entered the Rio de San Trovaso,
+whence, through innumerable narrow canals, he succeeded in reaching
+the scene of the approaching conflict.
+
+The combatants were attending mass, and had not yet made their
+appearance. Wonderfully great, however, was the concourse of
+spectators already assembled. Since sunrise they had been thronging
+thither from all sides, eager to secure places which might afford them
+a good view of the fight. Every roof, gable, and chimney had its
+occupants; not a projection however small, not a wall however lofty
+and perilous, but was covered with people, for the most part provided
+with baskets of provisions, and evidently determined to sit or stand
+out the whole of the spectacle. In the anxiety to obtain good places,
+the most extraordinary risks were run, and feats of activity
+displayed. Here might be seen individuals clambering up perpendicular
+buildings, by the aid of ledges and projections which appeared far too
+narrow to afford either grasp or foot-hold; further on, some herculean
+gondolier or peasant served as base to a sort of human column,
+composed of five or six men, who, scrambling over each other's
+shoulders, attained in this manner some seemingly inaccessible
+position. The seafaring habits of the Venetian populace, who were
+accustomed from boyhood to climb the masts and rigging of vessels, now
+stood them in good stead; and notwithstanding all the noise,
+confusion, and apparent peril, it was very rarely that an accident
+occurred.
+
+Under the red awnings covering the balconies and flat roofs of the
+palaces, were seated groups of ladies, whose rich dresses, glittering
+with the costliest jewels and embroideries, appeared the more
+magnificent from being contrasted with the black attire of the grave
+patricians who accompanied them. But perhaps the most striking feature
+of this striking scene was to be found in the custom of masking, then
+almost universal in Venice, and the origin of which may be traced in
+great part to dread of the Inquisition, and of its prying enquiries
+into the actions and affairs of individuals. Amidst the sea of faces
+that thronged roofs, windows, balconies, streets, and quays, the
+minority only were uncovered, and the immense collection of masks, of
+every form and colour, had something in it peculiarly fantastic and
+unnatural, conveying an impression that the wearers mimicked human
+nature rather than belonged to it.
+
+Venice, whose trade and mercantile importance were at this period
+greatly on the decline, saw nevertheless, on occasions like the
+present, strangers from the most opposite nations of Europe, and even
+Asia, mingling peaceably on her canals. Here were Turks in their
+bright red caftans and turbans; there Armenians in long black robes;
+and Jews, whose habitually greedy and crafty countenances had for the
+nonce assumed an expression of eager curiosity and expectation. The
+mercantile spirit of the Venetians prevented them from extending to
+individuals the quarrels of states; and although the republic was then
+at war with Spain, more than one superb hidalgo might be seen, wrapped
+in his national gravity as in a mantle, and affecting a total
+disregard of the blunt or hostile observations made within his hearing
+by sailors of the Venetian navy, or by individuals smarting under the
+loss of ships and cargoes captured by Spanish galleys.
+
+Scattered here and there amongst the crowd, Antonio's searching eye
+soon remarked a number of men, to whom, accustomed as he was to
+analyse the heterogeneous composition of a Venetian mob, he was yet at
+a loss to assign any distinct class or country. Their sunburnt and
+strongly marked features were partially hidden by the folds of ample
+cloaks, in which they kept themselves closely muffled; and it appeared
+to Antonio, that in their selection of places they were more anxious
+to escape observation than to obtain a good view of the approaching
+fight. In the dark patches of shadow thrown by the overhanging
+balconies, in the recesses of deep and gloomy portals, or peering out
+from the entrance of some narrow and tortuous alley, these men were
+grouped, silent, scowling, and alone, and apparently known to none of
+the surrounding crowd. But suspicious as were the appearance and
+deportment of the persons in question, Antonio's thoughts were too
+much engrossed by another and far more interesting subject, to accord
+them much attention. He nourished the hope of discovering amongst the
+multitude assembled around him, the mysterious being who had taken so
+strong a hold on his imagination. Vainly, however, did he scan every
+balcony and window and strain his eyes to distinguish the faces of the
+more distant of the assembled dames. More than once the flutter of a
+white robe, or a momentarily fancied resemblance of figure, made his
+heart beat high with expectation, until a second glance destroyed his
+hopes; and the turning of a head or drawing aside of a veil disclosed
+the blooming features of some youthful beauty, to which, in his then
+state of mind, the wrinkled and unearthly visage of the incognita
+would have been infinitely preferable.
+
+While the young painter was thus fluctuating between hope and
+disappointment, several lads with naked arms, or but slightly
+encumbered with clothing, were giving the spectators a foretaste of
+the approaching conflict; and, encouraged by the applause which was
+liberally vouchsafed them, making violent efforts to drive one another
+off the bridge. At times the spirit of partizanship would induce some
+of the bystanders to come to the aid of those who seemed likely to be
+defeated--an interference that was repressed by the ædiles stationed
+at either end of the bridge, who did their utmost to enforce the laws
+of this popular tournament. Notwithstanding their efforts, however,
+the _mostra_ or duello between two persons, by which the combat should
+begin, was often converted into the _frotta_ or mêlée, in which all
+pressed forward without order. The first advantage was held to be--for
+one of the combatants to draw blood, if it were only a single drop,
+from the nose or mouth of his opponent. Loud applause rewarded the
+skill and vigour of him who succeeded in throwing his adversary into
+the canal; but the clamour became deafening when a champion was found
+who maintained his station in the centre of the bridge, without any of
+the opposite party venturing to attack him. This feat won the highest
+honour that could be obtained; and he who achieved it retired from his
+post amid the waving of scarfs and handkerchiefs, and the enthusiastic
+cheers of the gratified spectators.
+
+At length the bell of the Campanile announced that mass was over, and
+presently, out of two opposite streets that had been purposely kept
+clear, the combatants emerged, pressing forward in eager haste towards
+the bridge; their arms naked to the shoulders, their breasts protected
+by leathern doublets, and their heads by closely fitting caps--their
+dress altogether as light as possible, and well adapted to the
+struggle in which they were about to engage. The loud hum of the
+multitude was hushed on their appearance, and the deepest silence
+reigned while the ædiles marshaled them to their respective places, on
+which they planted themselves in threatening attitudes, their broad
+and muscular chests expanded, their fists clenched, their feet seeming
+to grasp the ground on which they stood.
+
+A loud flourish of trumpets gave the signal of the onset, and with
+inconceivable impetuosity the two parties threw themselves on each
+other. In spite, however, of the fury and violence of the shock,
+neither side yielded an inch of ground. The bridge was completely
+filled with men from end to end, and from side to side; there was no
+parapet or barrier of any kind to prevent the combatants from pushing
+one another into the canal; yet so equally balanced was the strength
+of the two parties, that after nearly half an hour's struggle very few
+men had been thrown from the bridge, and not the smallest advantage
+had been obtained either by Castellani or Nicolotti. Those in the
+rear, who had as yet done nothing but push the others forward, now
+came to the front, and the combat was renewed with fresh vigour, but
+for a long time without any result. Again and again were the
+combatants changed; but it was past noon before Antonio, whose
+thoughts had been gradually diverted from the incognita by the
+struggle that was going on, perceived symptoms of weariness amongst
+those indefatigable athletes. Here and there a knee was seen to bend,
+or a muscular form to sink, under some well-directed blow, or before a
+sudden rush of the opposite party. First one, then another of the
+combatants was hurled from the bridge into the canal, an immersion
+that, dripping with perspiration as they were, not unfrequently caused
+death or severe illness. Nevertheless the fury of the fight seemed
+rather to increase than diminish. So long as only a man here and there
+fell into the water, they were dragged out by their friends; and the
+spectators even seemed to feel pity and sympathy for the unfortunates,
+as they saw them carried along, some covered with blood, others
+paralysed by the sudden cold, with faces pale as death and limbs stiff
+and rigid. But as the fury and violence of the combatants augmented,
+the bystanders forgot every other feeling in the excitement of the
+fight, about the result of which they seemed as anxious as those who
+were actively engaged in it. Even women might be seen encouraging
+those who were driven back, and urging them once more to the charge;
+applauding and cheering them on when they advanced, and assailing
+those who hung back with vehement reproaches. The uproar and shouting,
+shrieks and yells, exceeded any thing that could be imagined. The
+partizans had got completely mixed together; and, instead of the
+struggle being confined to the foremost ranks of the contending
+parties, the whole bridge was now one coil of raging combatants. Men
+fell into the canal by scores, but no one thought of rendering them
+any assistance. Their places were immediately filled up, and the fight
+lost none of its fury from their absence.
+
+Evening was now approaching, and the combat was more violent than it
+had yet been, or than it had for years been known to be, when Antonio
+saw the cloaked and mysterious individuals who had already attracted
+his attention, emerge from their lurking-places, and disappear in
+different directions. Presently he thought he observed some of them on
+the bridge mingling with the combatants, whose blind rage prevented
+them from noticing the intrusion. Wherever they passed, there did the
+fight augment in obstinacy and fury. Suddenly there was a violent rush
+upon the bridge, a frightful outcry, and a clash of steel. At the same
+moment the blades of several swords and daggers were seen crossed and
+glittering upon the bridge, without its being possible for any one to
+divine whence the weapons came. The spectators, seized with a panic
+fear, fled in every direction, and sprang in crowds from the quays to
+seek shelter under the awnings of the gondolas covering the canal. In
+vain did the gondoliers resist the intrusion of the fugitives: all
+considerations of rank and property were lost sight of in the terror
+of the moment, and some of the boats sank under the weight of the
+multitudes that poured into them. In their haste to get away, the
+gondolas impeded each other, and became wedged together in the canal;
+and amidst the screams of the ladies and angry exclamations of the
+men, the gondoliers laid down their oars and began to dispute the
+precedence with blows. Meanwhile the people on the roofs of the
+houses, believing themselves in safety, espoused different sides, and
+threw stones and bricks at each other, and at those standing below. In
+an incredibly short time houses were entirely unroofed, and a perfect
+storm of tiles rained upon the quays and streets. Those who had first
+fled, when they attained what appeared a safe distance, halted to look
+on, and thus prevented others from getting away. Antonio was amongst
+the number whose escape was thus impeded. His gondolier lay at the
+bottom of the boat, stunned by a blow from a stone; he himself was
+bruised and wounded by the missiles that fell in all directions.
+
+The tumult was at its height when suddenly a sound was heard that had
+a truly magical effect upon the rioters, for such they might now be
+termed. The alarm-bell of St Mark's rang out its awful peal. In an
+instant the yells of defiance were hushed; the arm that was already
+drawn back to deal a blow fell harmless by its owner's side, the storm
+of missiles ceased, the contending factions parted, and left the
+combat undecided. The habit of obedience and the intimation of some
+danger to the city, stilled in an instant the rage of party feeling,
+and combatants and spectators alike hurried away in the direction of
+St Mark's place, the usual point of rendezvous on such occasions.
+
+Jacopo had now recovered his senses, and Antonio's gondola was one of
+the first which reached the square in front of the cathedral. Thence
+the young painter at once discovered the cause of the alarm. Smoke and
+flame were issuing from some buildings on the opposite island of San
+Giorgio Maggiore, where the greater part of the merchants' warehouses
+were situated. Thither the crowd of gondolas now steered, and Antonio
+found himself carried along with the stream. But although the fire was
+already beginning to subside before the prompt measures taken to
+subdue it, the alarm-bell kept clanging on; and Antonio soon perceived
+that there must be some other point of danger to which it was intended
+to turn the attention of the people. Gazing about for some indication
+of its source, he saw several gondolas hurrying towards the grand
+canal, on which most of the palaces of the nobles were situated, and
+he ordered Jacopo to steer in the same direction.
+
+On reaching the palazzo of the Malipieri family, a strange scene
+presented itself to him. The open space between the side of the palace
+and the adjacent church of San Samuele, was crowded with men engaged
+in a furious and sanguinary conflict. At one of the windows of the
+palace, a tall man in a flowing white robe, with a naked sabre in one
+hand and a musquetoon in the other, which, from the smoke still
+issuing from its muzzle, had apparently just been discharged, stood
+defending himself desperately against a band of fierce and bearded
+ruffians, who swarmed up a rope ladder fixed below the window. The
+person making so gallant a defence was the Senator Malipiero; the
+assailants were Uzcoques from the fortress of Segna.
+
+The arrival of the Proveditore Marcello at Gradiska, and his
+subsequent recognition of his jewels at the ball, having destroyed
+Strasolda's hopes of obtaining her father's liberation through the
+intervention of the archducal counsellors, the high-spirited maiden
+resolved to execute a plan she had herself devised, and which,
+although in the highest degree rash and hazardous, might still succeed
+if favoured by circumstances and conducted with skill and decision.
+This was to seize upon the person of a Venetian of note, in order to
+exchange him for the Uzcoques then languishing in the dungeons of the
+republic.
+
+The Venetians were not yet aware that the much-dreaded woivode
+Dansowich was among their prisoners. The time chosen by the Uzcoques
+for their expeditions and surprises was usually the night; and this,
+added to the custom of mask-wearing, was the cause that the features
+of Dansowich were unknown to his captors. Nevertheless the striking
+countenance and lofty bearing of the chieftain, and of one or two of
+those who were taken prisoners with him, raised suspicions that they
+were persons of mark--suspicions which were not dissipated by their
+reiterated denial of being any thing more than common Uzcoques. It was
+this doubt which saved their lives; for their captors, instead of
+hanging them at once at the yard-arm of the galleys, which was the
+usual manner of disposing of Segnarese prisoners, took them to Venice,
+and placed them at the disposal of the senate. All subsequent threats
+and promises proved ineffectual to extort from the pirates an
+acknowledgment of superior rank; and the Venetian authorities would
+perhaps have ended in believing the account they gave of themselves,
+had not the urgent applications made by the Austrian Envoy and the
+Capitano of Fiume, for the release of the Uzcoques, given their
+suspicions new strength. The object of the Venetians was, if they
+could ascertain that there was a chief among the prisoners, to obtain
+from him, by torture or otherwise, confessions which might enable them
+to prove to the Archduke the encouragement afforded by his counsellors
+to the piracies of the Segnarese. They accordingly delayed, by every
+possible pretext, giving an answer to the archducal ambassador, doing
+their utmost meanwhile to find out the real quality of the prisoners.
+This, Strasolda was most anxious that they should not discover; and
+her anxiety was scarcely less to prevent the captivity of their leader
+from becoming known among the pirates themselves. His daughter's
+entreaties, and his own better nature, had frequently caused Dansowich
+to check his followers in the atrocities they were too apt to commit.
+In consequence of this interference, Strasolda suspected her father to
+be more feared than liked by Jurissa Caiduch and some others of the
+inferior woivodes or officers; and she apprehended that, if she
+confided her plan to them, they would be more likely to thwart than to
+aid her in it. The crews of the two boats which had been engaged in
+the skirmish with the Venetian galleys when Dansowich was captured,
+and the men composing the garrison of the castle on the evening of
+that fatal occurrence, were therefore all whose assistance she could
+reckon upon. Some of those were her relatives, and the others tried
+and trusty adherents. They alone knew of their leader's captivity, his
+absence having been accounted for to the mass of Uzcoques dwelling in
+the town of Segna, by a pretended journey to Gradiska; and being too
+few in number to attack a Venetian galley, the sole plan that seemed
+to offer a chance of success to this handful of faithful followers,
+was the hazardous one devised by Strasolda. Of this, they did not
+hesitate to attempt the execution.
+
+With the utmost cunning and audacity did the Uzcoques enter Venice on
+the day appointed for the Battle of the Bridge, singly, and by twos
+and threes, variously disguised, and mingled with the country people
+and inhabitants of the islands who were hastening to the festival.
+Watching their opportunity when the fight was at the fiercest, one
+party mixed with the combatants, exciting and urging them on, and
+doing all in their power to increase the confusion; others set fire to
+the warehouses on the island of San Giorgio, in order to draw the
+public attention in that direction; while the third and most numerous
+division, favoured by the deepening twilight and the deserted state of
+that part of the city, succeeded in fixing a rope ladder to the window
+of the Malipieri palace, the chief of which noble house was, as they
+had previously ascertained, lying sick in bed in a side-chamber,
+attended only by a few domestics.
+
+But there were two things which Strasolda and the Uzcoques had
+forgotten to include in their calculations. These were, first, the
+slavish obedience of the Venetian populace to the call of their
+superiors--an obedience to which they were accustomed to sacrifice
+every feeling and passion; secondly, the Argus eyes and omnipresent
+vigilance of the Secret Tribunal. Scarcely was the ladder applied,
+when the first gush of flame from the warehouses brought a deafening
+peal from the alarm-bell; and at the same moment, the masked and armed
+familiars of the Venetian police, rising as it seemed out of the very
+earth, surrounded the ladder, and a fierce conflict began. Even the
+watchfulness and precautions of the Inquisition, however, were to a
+certain extent overmatched by Uzcoque cunning and foresight. Had it
+not been necessary to ring the alarm bell on account of the fire, the
+police, who were far the most numerous, and who each moment received
+an accession to their numbers, could scarcely have failed to capture
+some of their opponents, and thus have ascertained to a certainty what
+the promoters and the object of this audacious attempt really were.
+But before they could accomplish this, the small piazza where the
+conflict was going on was thronged with the populace, half intoxicated
+with the excitement of the scarcely less serious fight they had been
+witnessing and sharing in. In the crush and confusion that ensued,
+familiars and Uzcoques were separated; and the latter, mingling with
+the crowd, and no longer distinguishable from the cloaked and masked
+figures that surrounded them, easily succeeded in effecting their
+escape.
+
+When Antonio, who was pushed hither and thither by the mob, was able
+to extricate himself sufficiently to get another view of the window,
+the invalid nobleman, delivered from his assailants, had retired into
+his apartment, while the ladder, now deserted by the Uzcoques, had
+been cut and thrown down. Desirous of escaping from this scene of
+confusion, the young painter was making his way towards the quay,
+close to which his gondola was waiting, when his heart suddenly leaped
+within him at the sight of a muffled figure that passed near him, and
+in which he thought he recognized the mysterious old woman who had of
+late occupied so much of his thoughts. She was followed by a number of
+the rabble, who pressed upon her with oaths and curses, asserting that
+she was one of the party which had attacked the palace of the
+Malipieri.
+
+"I saw her holding the ladder," exclaimed one fellow.
+
+"Nay, she was climbing up it herself," cried a second.
+
+"Strike the foul witch dead!" shouted a score of voices.
+
+The old woman's life was in the greatest peril, when a strange and
+unaccountable, but at the same time irresistible impulse, moved
+Antonio to go to her rescue. He was forcing his way through the crowd
+with this intention, when the object of the popular fury turned her
+head towards him. Her veil was for a moment partially drawn aside,
+affording a glimpse of her features in profile; and Antonio, still the
+slave of his diseased imagination, fancied that her yellow shriveled
+features had been metamorphosed into a countenance of regular beauty;
+such a countenance, in short, as befitted the graceful and symmetrical
+form to which it belonged. Confused and bewildered, the naturally weak
+and undecided youth stood deliberating and uncertain whether he should
+attempt the rescue, which would have been by no means difficult to
+accomplish by the display of a little boldness and promptitude. Whilst
+he was thus hesitating, there suddenly broke through the crowd a
+young man, attired like himself in a black dress, and holding a naked
+rapier in his hand. The new comer had probably lost his mask in the
+tumult and confusion, for his features were uncovered, and Antonio
+saw, to his inexpressible consternation and astonishment, that they
+were the exact counterpart of his own. Before he could recover from
+this new shock, the stranger, by the aid of his fierce and determined
+demeanour, and the rapid play of his weapon, had made his way to the
+mysterious old woman, whose back was turned towards him, and seizing
+her round the waist he again forced a passage through the throng to
+the nearest gondola, which happened to be that of the young painter.
+The crowd pressed after him, and Antonio was hurried along with it to
+the edge of the quay. But at the very moment that, to avoid being
+pushed into the water by the throng, he sprang into one end of his
+gondola, he saw the stranger, who had just entered it at the other,
+gaze with a look of disgust and dismay on the features of her he had
+rescued, and then with a cry of horror, leap into another boat, which
+immediately rowed rapidly away. At the same instant Jacopo, by a
+strong sweep of the oar, spun the gondola round, and shot into a
+narrow canal which soon led them out of sight and sound of the scene
+of confusion they had just left.
+
+These various events had succeeded each other so rapidly, that Antonio
+could hardly credit his senses when he found himself in this strange
+manner the deliverer of the mysterious being who now sat under the
+awning of his gondola, her frightful countenance, unveiled in the
+struggle and no longer seen through the beautifying prism of the young
+artist's imagination, again displaying the yellow and wrinkled skin,
+and the deep-set glittering eyes, which now seemed fixed upon him with
+an expression of love and gratitude that froze his blood. With a
+shuddering sensation he retreated to the stern of the boat, where
+Jacopo stood pale and trembling, crossing himself without a moment's
+intermission.
+
+"Are you mad, Signore," whispered the gondolier, "to risk your life in
+behalf of such a frightful witch? Never did I see you so ready with
+your rapier, flashing it in people's eyes as though it had been one of
+your painting brushes."
+
+"By Heaven, Jacopo," answered Antonio, "that was not I"--
+
+"The saints protect us!" interrupted the gondolier. "You are assuredly
+bewitched, or have lost your senses, Signore. To think of your thus
+denying your own noble daring! Do, for the blessed virgin's sake, let
+us jump out upon the next landing-place, and leave the gondola to the
+sorceress who has bewitched you. Holy mother! she is coming this way!"
+
+A prey to the strangest and most contradictory emotions, Antonio
+hastily advanced to meet the mysterious being, whom he could not help
+regarding with superstitious awe, though he at the same time felt
+himself drawn towards her by a fascination, against which he found it
+was in vain to contend. The features of the unknown were again
+shrouded carefully in her veil, but her black and brilliant eyes
+glittered through it like nebulous stars.
+
+"To the house of the Capitano of Fiume," whispered she to Antonio, and
+then retreated, as if anxious to avoid further conversation, into the
+interior of the gondola.
+
+In the district of Castello, through which Antonio and his strange
+companion were now passing, the canals and quays were deserted, and
+not a sound was heard except the distant hum of the multitude
+assembled in the quarter of St Mark's. Without exciting suspicion or
+attracting observation, they reached the Rialto and the grand canal,
+and the gondola stopped at a landing-place opposite the church of San
+Moyses.
+
+As the young painter assisted his mysterious charge out of the boat, a
+gentle pressure from the warm soft hand which for a moment rested upon
+his, quickened every pulse in his frame; and long after the
+enigmatical being had disappeared behind the angle of a palace, he
+stood gazing, like one entranced, at the spot where he had last seen
+her imposing and graceful figure. The approach of Jacopo, still
+crossing himself, and calling upon all the saints for protection
+against the snares of the evil one, roused the perplexed youth from
+his reverie; and, stepping into the gondola, he was soon gliding
+rapidly over the canals in the direction of his father's palace.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE PICTURE.
+
+
+The gondola of the young painter, gliding rapidly and silently over
+the still waters of the canals, was passing a turn leading to the
+Giudecca, when it suddenly occurred to Antonio that he would seek his
+old master, and, after confessing his disobedience, relate to him the
+events of the day, and make him the confidant of his troubles and
+perplexities. A word to Jacopo changed the direction of the gondola,
+and they entered the grand canal, on which Contarini's dwelling was
+situated.
+
+The brief twilight of Italy had passed, and it was now completely
+night, dark and starless, which made more startling the sudden
+appearance of several blazing torches, borne by masked and hooded
+figures attired in black, who struck loud and repeated blows on the
+gates of the Palazzo Contarini.
+
+"Antonio Marcello! We seek Antonio Marcello!" exclaimed a deep and
+hollow voice.
+
+It would be necessary to be a Venetian, and to have lived in those
+days, fully to comprehend the feeling of horror which caused Antonio's
+blood to run cold, and the sweat to stand in beads upon his forehead,
+when he heard his name uttered by the familiars of the state
+Inquisition. Frightful dungeons, masked judges, halls hung with black,
+the block and the gleaming axe, the rack and its blood-stained
+attendants, the whole grim paraphernalia of the Secret Tribunal,
+passed like the scenes of a phantasmagoria before the mental vision of
+the young painter. He at once conjectured the cause for which they
+were seeking him. He had doubtless been taken for the youth who, by
+his energy and promptitude, had rescued the mysterious old woman from
+the mob, and who bore so striking and unaccountable resemblance to
+himself; and it must be on suspicion of his being connected with the
+attack on the Malipieri palace, that the ministers of justice were
+hunting him out. Nor did he see how he should he able to convince his
+judges of his innocence. The tale he had to tell, although the truth,
+was still too marvellous and improbable to obtain credence, and would
+be more likely to draw upon him severe punishment, or perhaps the
+torture, with the view of inducing him to confess its falsehood.
+Bewildered by his terror, Antonio sat trembling, and utterly incapable
+of deciding as to the course he should adopt, when the trusty
+gondolier again came to his rescue.
+
+"Cospetto! Signor!" he exclaimed, "have you lost your senses, that you
+run thus into the very jaws of those devil's messengers? To one like
+myself flight would certainly avail little; but, with a Proveditore
+for your father, you may arrange matters if you only take time before
+you become their prisoner. Quick, then, to the palazzo! Don't you see
+old Contarini's head stuck out of his window? He is telling them you
+are not there. They have doubtless been to your father's palace, and
+will not be likely to return thither at present."
+
+While the faithful fellow's tongue was thus wagging, his arms were not
+idle. Intimately acquainted, as became his calling, with the numerous
+windings and intricacies of the Venetian canals, he threaded them with
+unhesitating confidence; and, favoured by the darkness of the night,
+succeeded in getting Antonio unobserved through a back entrance of his
+father's palace.
+
+The first impulse of the terrified youth on finding himself thus in at
+least temporary security, was to destroy the picture of the mysterious
+old woman, which, if found by the agents of the Inquisition, might
+bear false but fatal witness against him. With pallid cheek, and still
+trembling with alarm, he was hurrying to his chamber to execute his
+intention, when he encountered his father, who advanced to meet him,
+and, grasping his arm, fixed upon him for some moments his stern and
+searching gaze.
+
+"The picture, father!" exclaimed the terror-stricken Antonio. "For the
+love of Heaven, stay me not! Let me destroy that fatal picture!"
+
+Regardless of his son's agitation and terror, the Proveditore half
+led, half forced him to a seat in a part of the room, when the red
+blaze from the larch logs that were crackling on the hearth, lit up
+the young man's features.
+
+"What means this, Antonio?" he said; "what has befallen during my
+absence at Gradiska? The familiars of the Inquisition have been
+seeking you here--you, the last person whose name I should expect to
+hear in such mouths. Alarm me it did not; for well I know that you are
+too scant of energy and settled purpose to be mixed up in conspiracies
+against the state."
+
+Antonio was still too much preoccupied by his terror to understand, or
+at any rate to heed, the severity of his father's remark. Collecting
+his scattered thoughts, he proceeded to narrate all that had occurred
+to him, not only on that day, but since his first meeting with the
+incognita near the church of San Moyses, on the very same spot whither
+he had conveyed her in his gondola but a short hour ago.
+
+"Let me destroy the painting, father!" he concluded; "it may be found,
+and used as testimony against me."
+
+The Proveditore had listened with a smile, that was at once
+contemptuous and sorrowful, to his son's narrative, and to the
+confession of his weakness and disobedience to the injunctions of his
+aged teacher. When he had finished speaking, there was a minute's
+silence, broken at last by the elder Marcello.
+
+"I have long been convinced," he said, "that Contarini would never
+succeed in making of you a painter fit to rank with those old and
+illustrious masters of whom Venice is so justly proud. But I had not
+thought so poorly of you, Antonio, as to believe that you would want
+courage to defend an object, for the attainment of which you scrupled
+not to disobey your venerable instructor. What the kind entreaties and
+remonstrances of Contarini could not induce you to abandon, you are
+ready to annihilate on the very first symptom of danger. Oh, Venice!"
+exclaimed the Proveditore, his fine countenance assuming an expression
+of extreme bitterness, as he gazed mournfully at the portraits of his
+ancestors, including more than one Doge, which were suspended round
+the walls of the apartment--"Venice! thou art indeed degenerate, when
+peril so remote can blanch the cheek of thy patrician youth."
+
+He strode twice up and down the hall, then returning to his son, bade
+him fetch the picture which he was so desirous of destroying. Antonio,
+downcast and abashed by these reproaches, which, however, were
+insufficient to awaken nobler aspirations in his weak and irresolute
+nature, hurried to his chamber, and presently returned with a roll of
+canvass in his hand, which he unfolded and spread before the
+Proveditore--then, dreading to encounter his father's ridicule, he
+shrunk back out of the firelight. But the effect produced upon
+Marcello by the portrait of the old woman, was very different from
+that anticipated by his son. Scarcely had he cast his eyes upon the
+unearthly visage, when he started back with an exclamation of horror
+and astonishment.
+
+"By all the saints, Antonio," cried he in an altered voice, "that is a
+fearful portrait! Alas, poor wretch! thou art long since in thy
+grave," continued he, addressing the picture, and with looks and tones
+strangely at variance with his usually stern and imperturbable
+deportment. "The worms have preyed on thee, and thou art as dust and
+ashes. Why, then, dost thou rise from the dead to fright me with that
+ghastly visage?"
+
+"Is the face known to you, father?" the astonished Antonio ventured to
+exclaim.
+
+"Known to me! Ay, too well! That wrinkled skin, that unearthly
+complexion, those deep-set eyes glowing like burning coals. Just so
+did she glare upon me as she swung from the tree, the blood driven
+into her features by the agonizing pressure of the halter. 'Tis the
+very look that has haunted me for years, and caused me many bitter
+moments of remorse; though, God knows, the deed was lawful and
+justifiable, done in the execution of my duty to the republic. And
+yet she lives," he continued musingly. "How could she have been saved?
+True, she had not been hanging long when we left the place. Some of
+her people, doubtless, were concealed hard by, and cut her down ere
+life had entirely fled. But, ha! 'tis a clue this to the perpetrators
+of to-day's outrage, for she was with them. Uzcoques, then they must
+have been! Said you not, Antonio, that she came from the house of the
+Capitano when first you saw her, and that to-day you left her there?"
+
+"At her own special desire, father," replied Antonio.
+
+"Then is the chain of evidence almost complete," continued the
+Proveditore. "It must have been herself. And now--this attack on the
+Malipieri palace. What was its object? A hostage?--Ay, I see it all,
+and our prisoner is none other than Dansowich himself. But we must
+have proof of that from his own confession; and this portrait may help
+to extort it."
+
+Whilst uttering these broken sentences, which were totally
+incomprehensible to the bewildered Antonio, the Proveditore had donned
+his mantle, and placed his plumed cap upon his head.
+
+"No, Antonio," said he, "we will not destroy this picture, hideous
+though it be. It may prove the means of rendering weighty service to
+the republic."
+
+And with these words, inexplicable to his son, the Proveditore left
+the apartment; and, taking with him the mysterious portrait, hastened
+to the prison were the Uzcoque leader was immured.
+
+The pirate chief was a man of large and athletic frame, of strong
+feelings, and great intellectual capabilities. His brow was large,
+open, and commanding; his countenance, bronzed with long exposure to
+the elements, and scarred with wounds, was repulsive, but by no means
+ignoble; his hair and beard had long been silvered over by time and
+calamity; but his vast bodily strength was unimpaired, and when roused
+into furious resentment, his manly chest emitted a volume of sound
+that awed every listener. Upon a larger stage, and under circumstances
+more favourable to the fair development of his natural powers and
+dispositions, the pirate Dansowich would have become one of the most
+distinguished and admirable men of his time. Placed by the accident of
+birth upon the frontiers of Christian Europe, and cherishing from
+early youth a belief that the highest interests of the human race were
+involved in the struggle between the Crescent and the Cross, he had
+embraced the glorious cause with that enthusiastic and fiery zeal
+which raises men into heroes and martyrs. Too soon, however, were
+these lofty aspirations checked and blighted by the anti-Christian
+policy of trading Venice, the bad faith of Austria towards the Uzcoque
+race, and the extortions of her counsellors. Cursing in the bitterness
+of his heart, not only Turks, Austrians, and Venetians, but all
+mankind, he no longer opposed the piratical tendencies of his
+neglected people, and eventually headed many of their marauding
+expeditions.
+
+It was nearly midnight when Dansowich was awakened from a deep but
+troubled slumber by a grating noise at the door of his dungeon.
+Anxiety of mind, and still more, the effect of confinement in an
+impure and stifling atmosphere, upon one accustomed to the breezes of
+the Adriatic and the free air of the mountains, had impaired his
+health, and his sleep was broken by harassing and painful dreams. In
+that from which he now awoke, with the sweat of anguish on his brow,
+he had fancied himself before the tribunal of the Inquisition. The
+rack was shown to him, and they bade him choose between confession and
+torture. He then thought he heard his name repeated several times in
+tones deep and sepulchral. Starting up in alarm, he saw the door of
+his prison open, and give admittance to a man muffled in a black
+cloak, who walked up to the foot of his bed of damp straw, and threw
+the rays of a dark lantern full into his dazzled eyes.
+
+The traces of recent and strong emotion, visible at that moment on the
+pirate's countenance, did not escape the Proveditore, who attributed
+them, and rightly, to an artifice he had practised. Previously to
+entering the dungeon, he had caused the name of Nicolo Dansowich to
+be repeated several times in a deep hollow voice. Aware of the
+superstitious credulity of the Uzcoques, the wily Venetian had devised
+this stratagem as one likely to produce a startling effect upon the
+prisoner, and to forward the end he proposed to obtain by his visit.
+He now seated himself upon a wooden bench, the only piece of furniture
+in the dungeon, and addressed the captive in a mild and conciliating
+tone.
+
+"You should keep better watch over your dreams," said he, "if you wish
+our tribunals to remain in ignorance of your secrets."
+
+"My dreams!" repeated the Uzcoque, somewhat startled by the ominous
+coincidence between Marcello's words and the visions that had broken
+his slumber.
+
+"Ay, friend, your dreams! The jailers are watchful, and little passes
+in these prisons without coming to their knowledge. More than once
+have they heard you revealing in your sleep that which, during your
+waking hours, you so strenuously deny.--'Enough! Enough!' you cried.
+'I will confess all. I am Nicolo Dansowich.'"
+
+While Marcello was speaking, the old Uzcoque had had time to collect
+his thoughts, and call to mind the numerous snares and devices by
+which the Venetian tribunals obtained confessions from their
+prisoners. With an intuitive keenness of perception, he in a moment
+saw through the Proveditore's stratagem, and resolved to defeat it. A
+contemptuous smile played over his features, and, shaking his head
+incredulously, he answered the Venetian--
+
+"The watchful jailers you speak of have doubtless been cheering their
+vigils with the wine flask," said he. "Their draughts must have been
+deep, to make them hear that which was never spoken."
+
+"Subterfuge will avail you nothing," replied Marcello. "Your sleeping
+confessions, although you may now wish to retract them, are yet
+sufficient grounds for the tribunal to go upon, and the most
+excruciating tortures will be used, if needful, to procure their
+waking confirmation. Reflect, Dansowich," continued the Proveditore in
+a persuasive and gentle tone, "on the position in which you now find
+yourself. Your life is forfeited; and, if you persist in your denials,
+you will never leave this dungeon but for the rack or scaffold. On the
+other hand, the senate respects you as a brave and honourable,
+although misguided man, and would gladly see you turn from the error
+of your ways. Now is the time to ensure yourself a tranquil and
+respected old age. Hearken to the proposals I am empowered to make
+you. The Signoria offers you life, freedom, and a captainship in the
+island of Candia, on the sole condition, on your part, of disclosing
+the intrigues and perfidy of the council at Gradiska, and furnishing
+us, as you are assuredly able to do, with documents by which we may
+prove to the Archduke the treachery of his ministers. Again, I
+say--Reflect! or rather hesitate not, but decide at once between a
+prosperous and honourable life, and a death of degradation and
+anguish."
+
+Neither the threats nor the temptations held out by the Proveditore
+seemed to have the smallest effect upon the Uzcoque.
+
+"You are mistaken," replied he calmly. "I am not Dansowich, nor have I
+any knowledge of the intrigues at Gradiska. I could not therefore, if
+I wished it, buy my life by the treachery demanded of me; and if the
+woivodes of Segna think as I do, they will let themselves be hewn in
+pieces before they do the bidding of your senators, or concede aught
+to the wishes of false and crafty Venice."
+
+"You are a brave man, Dansowich!" resumed the Proveditore, who saw the
+necessity of changing his tactics. "You care little for the dangers
+and sufferings of this world. But yet--pause and reflect. Your hair is
+silvered by time, and even should you escape your present peril, you
+will still, ere many years are past, have to render an account to a
+higher tribunal than ours. By an upright course you might atone for
+the crimes of your youth and manhood, and become the chosen instrument
+of Heaven to deliver your fellow-Christians from a cruel scourge and
+sore infliction."
+
+"And who has brought the scourge upon you?" demanded the old man in a
+raised voice, measuring the Proveditore with a stern and contemptuous
+look. "Is it our fault that, whilst we were striving to keep the Turk
+from the door of Christendom, you sought every means of thwarting our
+efforts by forming treaties with the infidel? You do well to remind me
+that my head is grey. I was still a youth when the name of Uzcoque was
+a title of honour as it is now a term of reproach--when my people were
+looked upon as heroes, by whose valour the Cross was exalted, and the
+Crescent bowed down to the dust. Those were the days when, on the
+ruins of Spalatro, we swore to live like eagles, amidst barren cliffs
+and naked rocks, the better to harass the heathen--the days when the
+power of the Moslem quailed and fled before us. And had not your
+sordid Venetian traders stepped in, courting the infidel for love of
+gain, the Cross would still be worshipped on all the shores of the
+Adriatic, and the Uzcoques would still combat for honour and victory
+instead of revenge and plunder. But your hand has ever been against
+us. Your long galleys were ever ready to sink our barks or blockade
+our coast; and the fate of robbers and murderers awaited our people if
+they had the mishap to fall into your hands. You reduced us at last to
+despair. Each valiant deed performed against the Turk was recompensed
+by you with new persecutions, till at last you converted into deadly
+enemies those who would willingly have been your friends and fast
+allies. Thank yourselves, then, for the foe you have raised up. Your
+own cowardice and greed have engendered the hydra which now preys upon
+your heart's blood."
+
+The Proveditore remarked with satisfaction, not unmingled with
+surprise, that the old pirate, who had hitherto replied to all
+interrogatories with a degree of cold reserve and cunning which had
+baffled his examiners, was becoming visibly excited, and losing his
+power of self-control. This was favourable to the meditated stratagem
+of the Venetian, who now, in pursuance of the scheme he had combined,
+gave the conversation another direction.
+
+"I an willing to acknowledge," said he, "that the republic has at
+times dealt somewhat hardly with your people. But which is in fact the
+worst foe, he who openly attacks you, or he who makes you his tool to
+sow discord amongst Christians, and to excite the Turks against
+Venice, while under pretence of protection he squeezes from you the
+booty obtained at the price of your blood?"
+
+"And who does that?" demanded the Uzcoque.
+
+"Who! Need you ask the question? What do you give for the shelter you
+receive from Austria? At what price do you inhabit the town and castle
+of Segna?"
+
+"At none that I am aware of," replied Dansowich fiercely. "We dwell
+there, in virtue of our compact with the Emperor, as soldiers of the
+Archduke, bound to defend the post confided to us against the
+aggressions of the infidel. As soldiers we have our pay, as mariners
+we have our lawful booty."
+
+"Pay and booty!" repeated the Proveditore scornfully. "Whence comes,
+then, your manifest misery and poverty? Whence comes it that you turn
+robbers, if in the pay of Austria? No, Dansowich, you will not deceive
+us by such flimsy pretexts! Your gains, lawful and unlawful, are
+wrested from you by the archducal counsellors, in whose hands you are
+mere puppets. 'Twas they who prompted you to tell the Turks that you
+were in league with Venice; that the republic encouraged your
+misdeeds, and shared the profits of your aggressions on the subjects
+of the Porte. They it was who caused the documents to be prepared,
+with forged seals and signatures of the illustrious Signoria, which
+were to serve as proofs of your lying assertions. Deny this, if you
+can."
+
+The beard and mustache of the old Uzcoque appeared to curl and bristle
+with fury at the insulting imputations of the Proveditore. For a
+moment he seemed about to fly at his interlocutor; his fingers
+clutched and tore the straw upon which he was sitting; and his fetters
+clanked as his whole frame shook with rage. After a brief pause, and
+by a strong effort, he restrained himself, and replied calmly to the
+taunting accusation of the Venetian.
+
+"Why go so far," said he, "to seek for motives that may be found
+nearer home? You seem to have forgotten how many times the Archduke
+has compelled us to make restitution of booty wrested from Venetian
+subjects. You forget, too, that it was in consequence of your
+complaints he sent to the cruel Rabbata to control us--Rabbata whom we
+slew in our wrath, for we are freemen and brook no tyranny. If we are
+poor individually, it is because we yield up our booty into the hands
+of our woivodes, to be used for the common good of seven hundred
+families. No, Signor! if the republic has to complain of us, let her
+remember the provocations received at her hands, the persecutions
+which converted a band of heroes into a pirate horde, and which
+changed our holy zeal against the enemies of the Cross into
+remorseless hatred of all mankind. As to the forged seals and
+signatures you talk of, and the deceptions practised on the Turks, if
+such there were, they were the self-willed act of our woivodes, and in
+no way instigated by Austria."
+
+"Thou liest, Dansowich!" said the Proveditore sternly. "Did you not
+proclaim and swear in the public market-place of the Austrian town of
+Segna, that you were the friends and allies of Venice? This you would
+never have dared to do, but with the approval and connivance of the
+archducal government."
+
+The eyes of the pirate sparkled with a strange and significant gleam
+as the Proveditore recalled the circumstance to his recollection.
+
+"Know ye not," said he with a grim smile, "whom ye have to thank for
+that good office? 'Twas Dansowich himself, who thereby but half
+fulfilled his vow of vengeance against the republic. And when did it
+occur?" he continued with rising fury. "Was it not shortly after the
+day in which that heartless villain, the Proveditore Marcello,
+captured the woivode's wife, and hung her, unoffending and
+defenceless, unshriven and unabsolved, upon a tree on the Dalmatian
+shore?"
+
+The Uzcoque paused, overcome by the bitter memories he was calling up,
+and by the fury and hatred they revived in his breast. His eyes were
+bloodshot, and the foam stood upon his lips as he concluded. The
+Proveditore smiled. The favourable moment he had been waiting had
+arrived, the moment when he doubted not that Dansowich would betray
+himself. Taking Antonio's drawing from under his cloak, he suddenly
+unrolled and held it before the Uzcoque, in such a manner that the
+light of the lantern fell full upon the ghastly countenance of the old
+woman.
+
+"Behold!" said he. "Does that resemble her you speak of?"
+
+The object of the Proveditore was gained, but he had not well
+calculated all the consequences of his stratagem.
+
+"Fiend of hell!" shouted Dansowich in a voice of thunder, while a
+sudden light seemed to burst upon him. "'Tis thou who are her
+murderer!" And bounding forward with a violence that at once freed him
+from his fetters, which fell clattering on the dungeon floor, he
+clutched the senator by the throat, and hurled him to the ground
+before the astonished Venetian had time to make the slightest
+resistance.
+
+"Art thou still in being?" he muttered, while his teeth gnashed and
+ground together. "I thought thee long since dead. But, no! 'twas
+written thou shouldst die by my hand. Be it done to thee as thou didst
+to the wife of my bosom," continued he, while kneeling on the breast
+of the Proveditore, and compressing his throat in an iron gripe that
+threatened to prove as efficacious and nearly as speedy in its
+operation as the bow-string of the Turk. In vain did Marcello struggle
+violently to free himself from the crushing pressure of the pirate's
+fingers. Although a very powerful man, and in the full vigour of his
+strength, the disadvantage at which he had been taken prevented his
+being a match for the old Uzcoque, whose sinews were braced by a long
+life of hardship. Fortunately, however, for the Venetian, the furious
+shout of Dansowich had been overheard by the guards and jailers, who
+now rushed into the dungeon, and rescued the half strangled
+Proveditore from the grasp of his fierce antagonist.
+
+"Do him no hurt!" exclaimed Marcello, so soon as he was able to speak,
+seeing that the guards were disposed to handle the Uzcoque somewhat
+roughly; "the secret I have won is well worth the risk. The prisoner
+is Dansowich, woivode of Segna."
+
+The fetters which the pirate had snapped with such facility, were,
+upon examination, found to be filed more than half through. The
+instrument by which this had been effected was sought for and
+discovered, and the prisoner, having been doubly manacled, was again
+left to the solitude of his cell. After directing all imaginable
+vigilance to be used for the safe custody of so important a captive,
+the Proveditore re-entered his gondola and was conveyed back to his
+palace.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE PIRATES.
+
+
+The desperate attempt on the life of the Proveditore, and the evidence
+given by him as to the identity of the prisoner, had the result that
+may be supposed, and the old Uzcoque was put to the torture. But the
+ingenuity of Venetian tormentors was vainly exhausted upon him; the
+most unheard of sufferings failed to extort a syllable of confession
+from his lips. At last, despairing of obtaining the desired
+information by these means, the senate commissioned Marcello, as one
+well acquainted with the localities, to make a descent on the
+Dalmatian coast, and profiting by the consternation of the Uzcoqes at
+the loss of their leader, to endeavour to surprise a small fort
+situated at some distance from Segna, and which was the abode of
+Dansowich. In the absence of the old pirate it would probably be
+carelessly guarded and easily surprised; and it was hoped that
+documents would be found there, proving that which the Venetians were
+so anxious to establish. Another object of the expedition was to
+capture, if possible, the mysterious female who had been lately seen
+more than once in Venice, and who had taken so prominent a part in the
+attack on the palace of the Malipieri.
+
+Accompanied by his son, whom for various reasons he had resolved to
+take with him, Marcello went on board an armed galley, and with a
+favouring breeze steered for the Dalmatian coast. He had little doubt
+of accomplishing the object of his expedition with ease and safety;
+for a Venetian Fleet was already blockading the channel of Segna, and
+the archducal city of Fiume, where several of the Uzcoque barks were
+undergoing repairs. The blockade had been instituted in consequence of
+the outrageous piracies committed by the Uzcoques during the Easter
+festival, and was a measure frequently adopted by the republic; which,
+although carefully avoiding a war, neglected no other means of
+enforcing their applications to the court at Gradiska for an energetic
+interference in the proceedings of the pirates. The inconvenience and
+interruption to the trade of Fiume occasioned by these blockades,
+usually induced the archducal government to institute a pretended
+investigation into the conduct of the Uzcoques, or at least to promise
+the Venetians some reparation--a mockery of satisfaction with which
+the latter, in their then state of decline and weakness, were fain to
+content themselves. Reckoning upon the terror inspired by the presence
+of the squadron now employed in the blockade, as well as upon its
+support, should he require it, the Proveditore made sure of success.
+He was doomed, however, to be cruelly disappointed in his sanguine
+anticipations.
+
+When the attempt to get possession of the person of a Venetian
+nobleman had failed, Strasolda found it impossible to keep her
+father's captivity any longer a secret, and was compelled to appeal to
+the whole of the Uzcoques to assist her in his deliverance.
+Information of the woivode's recognition, and of the tortures he had
+suffered, soon reached the ears of the pirates, who were not slow to
+perceive that the safety, and even the existence of their tribe, were
+now at stake. Although well acquainted with the inflexible character
+of Dansowich, they trembled lest the agonies he was made to suffer
+should force from him a confession, which would enable the Venetians
+to convince the archduke of the criminal collusion between his
+counsellors and the Uzcoques. This would be the signal for the
+withdrawal of the archducal protection from the pirates, who then,
+exposed to the vengeance of all whom they had plundered, must
+inevitably succumb in the unequal conflict that would ensue.
+
+The imminence of the peril inspired the Uzcoques with unwonted courage
+and energy. Jurissa Caiduch himself, forgetting any cause of dislike
+he might have to Dansowich, joined heart and hand in the plans formed
+by the pirates for the deliverance of their leader. Every man in
+Segna, whether young or old, all who could wield a cimeter or clutch a
+knife, hastily armed themselves, and crowded into the fleet of long
+light skiffs in which they were wont to make their predatory
+excursions. Then breaking furiously through the line of Venetian
+ships, stationed between Veglia and the mainland, and which were
+totally unprepared for this sudden and daring manoeuvre, they
+disappeared amidst the shoals and in the small creeks and inlets of
+the Dalmatian islands belonging to the republic, where the ponderous
+Venetian galleys would vainly attempt to follow them. Their object was
+the same which they had already attempted to carry out in Venice on
+the day of the Bridge Fight; namely, to seize upon some Venetian
+magistrate or person of importance whom they might exchange for
+Dansowich. Under the guidance of Jurissa Caiduch they waylaid and
+boarded every vessel that passed up or down the Adriatic, especially
+those coming from the Ionian islands, in hope of meeting with a
+Venetian of rank. Nor did they pursue their researches upon the water
+alone. Not a night passed that one or other of the islands was not
+lighted up by the blaze of villages, hamlets, and villas. In the
+absence of Dansowich, there was no restraint upon their fury; and
+urged on by the bloodthirsty Jurissa, the cruelties they committed
+were unprecedented even in their sanguinary annals. Nor were they
+without hope that the barbarities they were perpetrating might induce
+the Venetians to restore their leader to liberty, in order that he
+might, as was well known to be his wont, check the excesses of his
+followers.
+
+The outbreak of the pirates had been so sudden and unexpected, that
+the Proveditore, who sailed from Venice on the same day on which it
+occurred, had received no intelligence of it, and, unconscious of his
+peril, steered straight for the islands. One circumstance alone
+appeared strange to him, which was, that during the last part of his
+voyage he did not meet a single vessel, although the quarter of the
+Adriatic through which he was passing was usually crowded with
+shipping. But he was far from attributing this extraordinary change to
+its real cause.
+
+It was afternoon when Marcello's galley cane in sight of the white
+cliffs of Cherso, and shortly afterwards entered the channel, running
+between that island and Veglia. The masses of dark clouds in the
+western horizon were becoming momentarily more threatening, and
+various signs of an approaching storm made the captain of the galley
+especially anxious to get, before nightfall, into the nearest harbour,
+which was that of Pesca, at the southern extremity of the island of
+Veglia. All sail was made upon the galley, and they were running
+rapidly down the channel, when a red light suddenly flashed over the
+waves in the quarter of the horizon they were approaching, and was
+reflected back upon the sky, now darkened with clouds and by the
+approach of night. Attracted by this unusual appearance, Antonio
+hurried to the high quarterdeck of the galley; and scarcely had he
+ascended it, when the fiery glow fell in a flood of rosy light upon
+the distant chalk cliffs. Entranced by the picturesque beauty of the
+scene, the young painter forgot to enquire the cause of this singular
+illumination, when suddenly his attention was caught by a shout from
+the man at the helm.
+
+"By Heavens, 'tis a fire!" ejaculated the sailor, who had been
+watching the unusual appearance. "All Pesca must be in flames."
+
+He had scarcely uttered the words when the galley rounded a projecting
+point of land, and the correctness of the seaman's conjecture was
+apparent. A thick cloud of smoke hung like a pall over the unfortunate
+town of Pesca. Tongues of flame darted upwards from the dense black
+vapour, lighting up sea and land to an immense distance.
+
+Scarcely had Antonio's startled glance been able to take in this
+imposing spectacle, when the storm, which had long been impending,
+burst forth with tremendous violence; the wind howled furiously
+amongst the rigging, and the galley was tossed like a nutshell from
+crest to crest of the foaming waves; each moment bringing it into more
+dangerous proximity to the rocky shoals of that iron-bound shore. The
+light from the burning town showed the Venetians all the dangers of
+their situation; and their peril was the more imminent because the
+signal usually made for boats to tow large vessels through the rocks
+and breakers, was at such a moment not likely to be observed or
+attended to by the people of Pesca. Nevertheless the signal was
+hoisted; but instead of bringing the assistance so much needed by the
+Venetians, it drew upon them an enemy far more formidable than the
+elements with which they were already contending. Boats were soon seen
+approaching the galley; but as they drew near it was evident they were
+not manned by the peaceful fishermen, who usually came out to render
+assistance to vessels. They were crowded with wild, fierce-looking
+figures, who, on arriving within a short distance of the ship, set up
+a savage yell of defiance, and sent a deadly volley of musket-balls
+amongst the astounded Venetians. Before the latter had recovered from
+their astonishment, the light skiffs of the Uzcoques were within a few
+yards of the galley. Another fatally effective volley of musketry; and
+then, throwing down their fire-arms, the pirates grasped their sabres
+and made violent efforts to board. But each time that they succeeded
+in closing, the plunging of the ponderous galley into the trough of
+the sea, or the rising of some huge wave, severed them from their
+prey, and prevented them from setting foot on the decks of the
+Venetian vessel. This delay was made the most of by the officers of
+the latter, in making arrangements for defence. The Proveditore
+himself, a man of tried and chivalrous courage, and great experience
+both in land and sea warfare, lent his personal aid to the
+preparations, and in a few pithy and emphatic words strove to
+encourage the crew to a gallant resistance. But the soldiers and
+mariners who manned the galley had already sustained a heavy loss by
+the fire of the Uzcoques, and were moreover alarmed by their near
+approach to that perilous shore, as well as disheartened by the
+prospect of a contest with greatly superior numbers. Although some few
+took to their arms and occupied the posts assigned them by their
+officers, the majority seemed more disposed to tell beads and mutter
+prayers, than to display the energy and decision which alone could
+rescue them from the double peril by which they were menaced. The
+pirates, meanwhile, were constantly foiled in their attempts to board
+by the fury of the elements, till at last, becoming maddened by
+repeated disappointments, they threw off their upper garments, and
+fixing their long knives firmly between their teeth, dashed in crowds
+into the water. Familiar with that element from childhood, they
+skimmed over its surface with the lightness and rapidity of sea-mews,
+and swarmed up the sides of the galley. A vigorous defence might yet
+have saved the vessel; but the heroic days of Venice were long
+past--the race of men who had so long maintained the supremacy of the
+republic in all the Italian seas, was now extinct. After a feeble and
+irresolute resistance, the Venetians threw down their arms and begged
+for quarter; while the Proveditore, disgusted at the cowardice of his
+countrymen, indignantly broke his sword, and retreating to the
+quarterdeck, there seated himself beside his son, and calmly awaited
+his fate.
+
+Foremost among the assailants was Jurissa Caiduch, who sprang upon the
+deck of the galley, foaming with rage, and slaughtering all he met on
+his passage. The blazing town lighted up the scene, and showed him and
+his followers where to strike. In vain did the unfortunate crew
+implore quarter. None was given, and the decks of the ship soon
+streamed with blood, while each moment the cries of the victims became
+fewer and fainter.
+
+Totally forgetting in his blind fury the object of the expedition,
+Jurissa stayed not his hand in quest of hostages, but rushed with
+uplifted knife on Marcello and his son. The latter shrieked for mercy;
+while the Proveditore, unmoved by the imminence of the peril,
+preserved his dignity of mien, and fixed his deep stern gaze upon the
+pirate. Jurissa paused for an instant, staggered by the look, and awed
+by the commanding aspect, of the Venetian. Soon, however, as though
+indignant at his own momentary hesitation, he rushed forward with a
+furious shout and uplifted blade. The knife was descending, the next
+instant it would have entered the heart of Marcello; when an Uzcoque,
+recognizing by the light of the conflagration the patrician garb of
+the Proveditore, uttered a cry of surprise, and seized the arm of his
+bloodthirsty leader.
+
+"Caiduch!" exclaimed the pirate, "would you again blast our purpose?
+This man is a Venetian noble. His life may buy that of Dansowich."
+
+"It is the Proveditore Marcello!" cried Antonio, eager to profit by
+the momentary respite.
+
+The words of the young painter passed from mouth to mouth, and in a
+few seconds the whole of the Uzcoques were acquainted with the
+important capture that had been made. For a moment astonishment kept
+them tongue-tied, and then a wild shout of exultation conveyed to
+their companions on shore the intelligence of some joyful event.
+
+Ropes were now thrown out to the pirate skiffs, the galley was safely
+towed into the harbour, and the Proveditore, his son, and the few
+Venetian sailors who had escaped the general slaughter, were conducted
+to the burning town, amidst the jeers and ill-treatment of their
+captors. Exposed to great danger from the falling roofs and timbers of
+the blazing houses, they were led through the streets of Pesca, and on
+their way had ample opportunity of witnessing the incredible cruelties
+exercised by the pirates upon the inhabitants of that ill-fated town.
+What made these cruelties appear still more horrible, was the part
+taken in them by the Uzcoque women, who, as was the case at that
+period with most of the Sclavonian races, were all trained to the use
+of arms,[1] and who on this occasion swelled the ranks of the
+freebooters. Their ferocity exceeded, if possible, that of the men.
+Neither age, sex, nor station afforded any protection against these
+furies, who perpetrated barbarities the details of which would exceed
+belief.
+
+    [1] The reader of German literature will call to mind the
+    anecdote, in Jean Paul's _Levana_, of a Moldavian woman who in
+    one day slew seven men with her own hand, and the same evening
+    was delivered of a child.
+
+The violence of the flames rendering it impossible to remain in the
+town, the Uzcoques betook themselves to the castle of a nobleman,
+situated on a rising ground a short distance from Pesca. On first
+landing, the pirates had broken into this castle and made it their
+headquarters. After pillaging every thing of value, they had gratified
+their savage love of destruction by breaking and destroying what they
+could not well carry away. In the court-yard were collected piles of
+furniture, pictures of price, and fragments of rich tapestry, rent by
+those ruthless spoilers from the walls of the apartments. With this
+costly fuel had the Uzcoques lit fires, at which quarters of oxen and
+whole sheep were now roasting.
+
+A shout of triumph burst forth when the news of the Proveditore's
+capture was announced to the pirates who had remained at the castle,
+and they crowded round the unfortunate prisoners, overwhelming them
+with threats and curses. Something like silence being at length
+obtained, Jurissa commanded instant preparations to be made for the
+banquet appointed to celebrate the success of their expedition. Tables
+were arranged in a spacious hall of the castle, and upon them soon
+smoked the huge joints of meat that had been roasting at the fires,
+placed on the bare boards without dish or plate. Casks of wine that
+had been rescued from the flames of the town, or extracted from the
+castle cellars, were broached, or the heads knocked in, and the
+contents poured into jugs and flagons of every shape and size.
+Although the light of the conflagration, glaring red through the tall
+Gothic windows, lit up the hall and rendered any further illumination
+unnecessary, a number of torches had been fixed round the apartment,
+the resinous smoke of which floated in clouds over the heads of the
+revelers. Seating themselves upon benches, chairs, and empty casks,
+the Uzcoques commenced a ravenous attack upon the coarse but abundant
+viands set before them.
+
+The scene was a strange one. The brutal demeanour of the men, their
+bearded and savage aspect; the disheveled bloodstained women, mingling
+their shrill voices with the hoarse tones of their male companions;
+the disordered but often picturesque garb and various weapons of the
+pirates; the whole seen by the light of the burning houses--more
+resembled an orgie of demons than an assemblage of human beings; and
+even the cool and resolute Proveditore felt himself shudder and turn
+pale as he contemplated this carnival of horrors, celebrated by
+wretches on whose hands the blood of their fellow-men was as yet
+hardly dry. Antonio sat supporting himself against the table, seeming
+scarcely conscious of what passed around him. Both father and son had
+been compelled to take their places at the board, amidst the jeers and
+insults of the Uzcoques.
+
+The revel was at its height, when Jurissa suddenly started from his
+seat, and struck the table violently with his drinking-cup.
+
+"Hold, Uzcoques!" he exclaimed; "we have forgotten the crowning
+ornament of our banquet."
+
+He whispered something to an Uzcoque seated beside him, who left the
+room. While the pirates were still asking one another the meaning of
+Jurissa's words, the man returned, bearing before him a trencher
+covered with a cloth, which he placed at the upper end of the table.
+
+"Behold the last and best dish we can offer to our noble guests!" said
+Jurissa; "'twill suit, I doubt not, their dainty palates." And,
+tearing off the cloth, he exposed to view the grizzly and distorted
+features of a human head.
+
+The shout of savage exultation that burst from the pirates at this
+ghastly spectacle, drowned the groan of rage and grief uttered by the
+Proveditore, as he recognised in the pale and rigid countenance the
+well-known features of his friend Christophoro Veniero. That
+unfortunate nobleman, on his return from a voyage to the Levant, had
+fallen into the hands of Jurissa, who, before he was aware of the rank
+of his prisoner, had barbarously slain him. This had occurred not many
+hours before the capture of Marcello; and it was to the murder of
+Veniero that the Uzcoque made allusion, when he seized Jurissa's arm
+at the moment he was about to stab the Proveditore.
+
+One of the pirates, a man of gigantic stature and hideous aspect, now
+rose from his seat, staggering with drunkenness, and forcing open the
+jaws of the dead, placed a piece of meat between the teeth. The
+wildest laughter and applause greeted this frightful pantomime, which
+made the blood of the Proveditore run cold.
+
+"Infernal and bloody villains!" shouted he, unable to restrain his
+indignation, and starting to his feet as he spoke. There was a
+momentary pause, during which the pirates gazed at the noble Venetian,
+seemingly struck dumb with surprise at his temerity. Then, however, a
+dozen sinewy arms were extended to seize him, and a dozen daggers
+menaced his life. Dignified and immovable, the high-souled senator
+offered no resistance, but inwardly ejaculating a short prayer,
+awaited the death-stroke. It came not, however. Although some of the
+Uzcoques, in their fury and intoxication, would have immolated their
+valuable hostage, others, who had drunk less deeply, protested against
+the madness of such an act, and rushed forward to protect him. Their
+interference was resented, and a violent quarrel ensued. Knives were
+drawn, benches overturned, chairs broken up and converted into
+weapons; on all sides bare steel was flashing, deep oaths resounding,
+and missiles of various kinds flying across the tables. It would be
+impossible to say how long this scene of drunken violence would have
+lasted, or how long the Proveditore and his son would have remained
+unscathed amidst the storm, had not the advent of a fresh actor upon
+the scene stilled the tumult in a manner so sudden as to appear almost
+miraculous.
+
+The new comer was no other than the ghastly old woman who has been
+seen to play such an important part in this history, and who now
+entered the banqueting hall with hasty step and impatient gesture.
+
+"Uzcoques!" she exclaimed in a shrill, clear, and emphatic voice, that
+rose above the clamour of the brawl; "Uzcoques! what means this savage
+uproar? Are you not yet sated with rapine and slaughter, that you thus
+fall upon and tear each other? Are ye men, or wolves and tigers? Is
+this the way to obtain your leader's deliverance; and will the news of
+this day's havoc, think you, better the position of Dansowich?"
+
+The pirates hung their heads in silent confusion at this reproof. None
+dared to reply; Jurissa alone grumbled something inaudible.
+
+"Follow me!" continued the singular woman whose words had so
+extraordinary an effect on this brutal band. "Follow, every man! and
+stop as far as may be, the ruin you have begun."
+
+Obedient to her voice the Uzcoques left the hall, some of them
+sullenly and slowly enough, but none venturing to dispute the
+injunction laid upon them. The old woman waited till the scene of
+tumult and revel was abandoned by all but Marcello and his son, and
+then hurrying after the pirates, led the way to the burning town. In a
+few minutes the two Venetians beheld, from the castle windows, the
+dark forms of the freebooters moving about in the firelight, as they
+busied themselves to extinguish the conflagration. Here and there the
+white robe of the mysterious old woman was discernible as she flitted
+from one group to another, directing their efforts, and urging them to
+greater exertions.
+
+"Strange!" said the Proveditore musingly, "that so hideous and
+repulsive an old creature should exercise such commanding influence
+over these bandits."
+
+He looked round to his son as he spoke; but Antonio, worn out by the
+fatigues and agitation of the day, had stretched himself upon a bench
+and was already in a deep sleep. The Proveditore gazed at him for a
+brief space, with an expression of mingled pity, regret, and paternal
+affection upon his countenance.
+
+"As weak of body as infirm of purpose," he murmured. "Alas! that a
+name derived from old Roman ancestors should be borne by one so little
+qualified to do it honour! Had it pleased Heaven to preserve to me the
+child stolen in his infancy by the Moslem, how different would have
+been my position! That masculine and noble boy, so full of life and
+promise, would have proved a prop to my old age, and an ornament to
+his country. But now, alas!"--
+
+He continued for a while to indulge in vain regrets that the course of
+events had not been otherwise; then turning to the window, he watched
+the efforts made by the pirates to extinguish the flames, until a
+dense cloud of smoke that overhung the town was the only sign
+remaining of the conflagration.
+
+For some time the Proveditore paced up and down the hall in anxious
+thought upon his critical position, and the strange circumstances that
+had led to it. In vain did he endeavour to reconcile, with what now
+seemed more than ever inexplicable, the vindictive rage of Dansowich
+in the dungeon, and the evidence before him that the pirate's wife was
+still in existence. It was a riddle which he was unable to solve; and
+at last, despairing of success, he abandoned the attempt, and sought
+in slumber a temporary oblivion of the perils that surrounded him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE RECOGNITION.
+
+
+Upon a divan in the splendid armoury of the pacha's palace at
+Bosnia-Serai, the young Turk Ibrahim was seated in deep thought, the
+day after his return home. On the walls around him were displayed
+weapons and military accoutrements of every kind. Damascus sabres
+richly inlaid, and many with jeweled hilts, embroidered banners,
+golden stirrups, casques of embossed silver, burnished armour and
+coats-of-mail, were arranged in picturesque and fanciful devices. As
+the young Moslem gazed around him, and beheld these trophies of
+victories won by Turkish viziers and pachas in their wars against
+Austria and Venice, his martial and fearless spirit rose high, and he
+reproached himself with weakness and pusillanimity for having
+abandoned the pursuit of her he loved. Bitterly did he now regret his
+precipitation in leaving Venice the morning after the Battle of the
+Bridge, and while under the influence of the shock he had received, in
+beholding the hideous features of an old woman where he had expected
+to find the blooming countenance of Strasolda. His love for the
+Uzcoque maiden, as he had seen her when his captive, and again in the
+cavern on the coast by Segna, returned in full force. He was already
+planning a journey to Venice, when he was interrupted in his
+meditations by the noise of a horse's hoofs dashing full speed into
+the court of the palace. In another minute an attendant summoned him
+to the presence of the pacha, and there he heard the news just
+received, of the wild outbreak of the Uzcoques. The Martellossi and
+other troops were ordered to proceed immediately to the frontier, in
+order to protect Turkish Dalmatia from the pirates; and Ibrahim, at
+his urgent request, was appointed to a command in the expedition.
+
+With joyful alacrity did the young Turk arm and hurry to horse; and
+then, putting himself at the head of a troop of light cavalry, sped
+onwards in the direction of the country where he hoped to gain tidings
+of Strasolda. Having received strict orders to content himself with
+protecting the Turkish frontier, and above all not to infringe on
+Archducal territory, Ibrahim, on arriving at the boundary of the
+pachalic, left his troop in charge of the second in command, and with
+a handful of men entered Venetian Dalmatia, with the intention of
+obtaining information concerning the Uzcoques, and more especially
+concerning her he loved. He was assisted in his enquiries by the good
+understanding existing between Venice and the Porte; and he soon
+learned that, after the burning of Pesca, the pirates had suddenly
+ceased their excesses and returned to Segna, taking the Proveditore
+with them. They had not gone, however, either to the castle or the
+town; but fearful lest the Archduke should interfere, and make them
+give up their illustrious prisoners, had betaken themselves to the
+mountains, in the numerous caverns and lurking-places of which they
+were able to conceal their captives. From every mouth did the eager
+enquirer hear praises of the female who accompanied the Uzcoques. None
+spoke of her but in terms of love and gratitude. As regarded her
+appearance accounts were at variance, some representing her as young
+and beautiful, while others compassionated her frightful ugliness;
+and, more than ever perplexed by this conflicting testimony, Ibrahim
+pursued his march and his enquiries, still hoping by perseverance to
+arrive at a solution of the enigma.
+
+While the young Turk was thus employed, the Proveditore and his son
+were conveyed by their captors from one place of security to another,
+passing one night in the depths of some ravine, the next amongst the
+crags and clefts of the mountains, but always moving about in the
+daytime, and never sleeping twice in the same place. Since the evening
+of the revel at Pesca they had not again beheld the mysterious old
+woman, although they had more than once heard her clear and silvery
+voice near the place allotted to them for confinement and repose. In
+certain attentions and comforts, intended as alleviations of their
+unpleasant position, female care and thought were also visible; but
+all their efforts were vain to obtain a sight of the friendly being
+who thus hovered around them.
+
+It was on a beautiful evening some fourteen days after their capture,
+that the Proveditore and his son lay upon the bank of the only river
+that waters the rocky vicinity of Segna, wearied by a long and rapid
+march. There was an unusual degree of bustle observable amongst the
+Uzcoques, and numerous messengers had been passing to and from the
+castle of Segna, which was at no great distance from the spot where
+they had now halted. From the various indications of some
+extraordinary occurrence, the two Venetians began to hope that the
+crisis of their fate was approaching, and that they should at last
+know in what manner their captors meant to dispose of them. Nor were
+they wrong in their expectations. Suddenly the mysterious old woman
+stood before them, her partially veiled features bearing their wonted
+hideous aspect, and her eyes, usually so brilliant, dimmed with tears.
+
+"You are free," said she in an agitated voice to the Proveditore and
+his son. "Our people will escort you to Fiume in all safety, and there
+you will find galleys of the republic to convey you back to Venice."
+
+At the sight of the old woman's unearthly countenance, Antonio covered
+his face with his hands; the Proveditore rose from the ground deeply
+moved.
+
+"Singular being!" he exclaimed, "by this mildness and mercy you punish
+me more effectually than by the bloodiest revenge you could have taken
+for my cruel treatment of you."
+
+"You owe me no thanks," was the reply; "thank rather the holy Virgin,
+who sent the youth beside you to be your guardian angel, and who
+delivered you into the hands of the Uzcoques at a time when they had
+need of a hostage. Surely it was by the special intervention of Heaven
+that the murderer of the wife was sent to serve as ransom for the
+captive husband. But the atonement has come too late, the noble
+Dansowich was basely ensnared into an act of violence, and his life
+paid the forfeit of his wrath--he died upon the rack. And now the wily
+counsellors at Gradiska compel us to release you."
+
+She paused, interrupted by a flood of tears. After a short silence,
+broken only by her sobs, she became more composed, and the Proveditore
+again addressed her.
+
+"But what," said he, "could have driven Dansowich to an act of
+violence, which he must have known would entail a severe punishment?
+Surely his wife's safety and the lapse of years might have enabled him
+to forgive, if not to forget, the unsuccessful attempt upon her life."
+
+"His wife's safety!" exclaimed the old woman. "Have the trials and
+fatigues of the last few days turned your brain? Alas! too surely was
+the rope fixed round her neck; and had you not carried off her remains
+how could you have possessed her portrait, and by the devilish
+stratagem of showing it to the bereaved husband, have driven him to
+the act which cost him his life?"
+
+"Gracious Heaven! what hideous jest is this?" exclaimed Marcello. "Do
+I not see you living and standing before me; and think you I could
+ever forget your features, or the look you gave me when hanging from
+the tree? You were cut down and saved after our departure; and but a
+few weeks have elapsed since my son painted your likeness, after
+conveying you across the canal in his gondola."
+
+The old woman stood for a few moments as though petrified by what she
+had just heard. At last she passed her hand slowly across her face, as
+if to convince herself of her identity.
+
+"And she you murdered resembled _me_?" she exclaimed in a trembling
+voice. "It was of _me_ that the portrait was taken, and by _him_!" she
+continued, pointing to Antonio with a gesture of horror and contempt.
+"_My_ picture was it, that was held before Dansowich, and by _you_,
+the murderer of his wife? Holy Virgin!" she exclaimed, as the truth
+seemed to flash upon her, "how has my faith in thee misled me! I
+beheld in this youth one sent by Heaven to aid me; but now I see that
+he was prompted by the powers of darkness to steal my portrait, and
+thus become the instrument of destruction to the best and noblest of
+our race."
+
+"Forgive and spare us!" exclaimed Antonio, conscience-stricken as he
+remembered the admonitions of Contarini. "'Tis true, I was the
+instrument, but most unwittingly. How could I know so sad an end would
+follow?"
+
+"'Tis not my wont to seek revenge," replied the old woman; "nor do I
+forget that you saved my life from the fury of the Venetians."
+
+Antonio essayed to speak, but had not courage to correct the error
+into which she had been led by his strong resemblance to the gallant
+stranger.
+
+"But," she continued, "'tis time you should have full proof that the
+features you painted were not those of the wife of Dansowich."
+
+With these words she threw back her veil, unfastened some small hooks
+concealed in her abundant tresses, and took off a mask of thin and
+untanned lambskin, wrinkled and stained with yellow and purple streaks
+by exposure to sun and storm. This mask, closely fitted to features
+regular and prominent, and strongly resembling those of her
+unfortunate mother, whose large, dark, and very brilliant eyes she had
+also inherited, will explain the misconception of the Proveditore as
+well as that of Dansowich, who had never seen his daughter in a
+disguise worn only at Venice or other places of peril, and while away
+from her father and his protection.
+
+While the beautiful but still tearful Uzcoque maid stood thus revealed
+before the astonished senator, and his enraptured and speechless son,
+the approaching footfall of a horse at full speed was heard, and in an
+instant there darted round the angle of a cliff the martial figure of
+a Turk, mounted upon a large and powerful steed, of that noble race
+bred in the deserts eastward of the Caspian. The tall and graceful
+person of the stranger was attired in a close riding-dress of scarlet
+cloth, from the open breast of which gleamed a light coat-of-mail. A
+twisted turban bound with chains of glittering steel defended and
+adorned his head. A crooked cimeter suspended from his belt was his
+only weapon. His countenance bore a striking resemblance to that of
+Antonio, and had the same sweet and graceful expression about the
+mouth and chin; but the more ample and commanding forehead, the well
+opened flashing eyes, the more prominent and masculine nose, the
+clear, rich, olive complexion and soldierly bearing, proclaimed him to
+be of a widely different and higher nature. Riding close up to the
+side of Strasolda, he reined in his steed with a force and suddenness
+that threw him on his haunches; but speedily recovering his balance,
+the noble animal stood pawing the earth and lashing his sides with his
+long tail, like some untamed and kingly creature of the desert; his
+veins starting out in sharp relief, his broad chest and beautiful
+limbs spotted with foam, and his long mane, that would have swept the
+ground, streaming like a banner in the sea-breeze.
+
+For a moment the startled Strasolda gazed alternately, and in wild and
+mute amazement, at Antonio and the stranger; but all doubt and
+hesitation were dispersed in an instant by the well-remembered and
+impassioned tones, the martial bearing and Moslem garb of Ibrahim,
+whose captive she had been before she saw him in the cavern.
+
+Leaping from his saddle and circling her slender waist with his arm,
+he addressed her in those accents of truth and passion which go at
+once to the heart--
+
+"Heroic daughter of Dansowich! thou art the bright star of my destiny,
+the light of my soul! Thou must be mine! Come, then, to my heart and
+home! Gladden with thy love the life of Ibrahim, and he will give thee
+truth unfailing and love without end."
+
+Strasolda did not long hesitate. Already prepossessed in favour of the
+young and noble-minded Moslem; her allegiance to the Christian powers
+and faith weakened by the treachery of Austria; her people degraded
+into robbers; a soldier's daughter, and keenly alive to the splendours
+of martial gallantry and glory; an orphan, too, and desolate--can it
+be wondered at if she surrendered, at once and for ever, to this
+generous and impassioned lover all the sympathies of her affectionate
+nature? She spoke not; but, as she leaned half-fainting on his arm,
+her eloquent looks said that which made Ibrahim's pulses thrill with
+grateful rapture. Pressing her fondly to his bosom, he placed her on
+the back of his faithful steed, and vaulted into the saddle. Snorting
+as the vapour flew from his red nostrils, and neighing with mad
+delight, the impatient animal threw out his iron hoofs into the air,
+flew round the angle of the cliff, and joined erelong a dozen mounted
+spearmen. Then, bending their headlong course towards the far east, in
+a few seconds all had disappeared.
+
+During this scene, which passed almost with the speed of thought, the
+Proveditore, who was seated on a ledge of the cliff, had gazed
+anxiously and wildly at the youthful stranger. He knew him in an
+instant, and would have singled him out amidst thousands; but was so
+overwhelmed by a rushing tide of strong and heartrending emotions,
+that he could neither rise nor speak, and remained, long after the
+Turk had disappeared, with out-stretched arms and straining eye-balls.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed the bewildered Antonio, half suspecting
+the truth, "who was that daring youth?"
+
+After a pause, and in tones broken and inarticulate, his father
+answered--"Thy twin brother, Antonio! When a child he was stolen from
+me by some Turks in Candia; and those who stole have given him their
+own daring and heroic nature, for they are great and rising, while
+Venice and her sons are falling and degenerate. Oh Ercole! my dear and
+long-lost son--seen but a moment and then lost for ever!" ejaculated
+the bereaved father, as, refusing all comfort, he folded his cloak
+over his face and wept bitterly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--Shortly after these events, Venice, urged at last beyond all
+endurance, took up arms against Austria on account of the protection
+afforded by the latter power to the Uzcoques. The pirate vessels were
+burned, Segna besieged and taken, the Uzcoques slain or dispersed. The
+quarrel between Austria and the republic was put an end to by the
+mediation of Spain shortly before the breaking out of the Thirty
+Years' War.
+
+"Ces misérables," says a distinguished French writer, speaking of the
+Uzcoques, "fûrent bien plus criminels par la faute des puissances, que
+par l'instinct de leur propre nature. Les Vénétiens les aigrirent;
+l'église Romaine préféra de les persécuter au devoir de les éclaircir;
+la maison d'Autriche en fit les instruments de sa politique, et quand
+le philosophe examine leur histoire il ne voit pas que les Uscoques
+soient les seuls criminels."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SLAVE-TRADE.[2]
+
+    [2] Fifty Days on board a Slave vessel, in 1843. By the Rev.
+    PASCOE GRENFELL HILL, Chaplain of H.M.S. Cleopatra.
+
+
+The extraordinary change which took place in the public mind in the
+beginning of the century on the subject of the slave-trade,
+unquestionably justified the determination of Government to abolish a
+traffic contradictory to every principle of Christianity. It had taken
+twenty years to obtain this victory of justice. But we must exonerate
+the mind of England from the charge of abetting this guilty traffic in
+human misery. The nation had been almost wholly ignorant of its
+nature. Of course, that Africans were shipped for the West Indies was
+known; that, as slaves, they were liable to the severities of labour,
+or the temper of masters, was also known; but in a country like
+England, where every man is occupied with the concerns of public or
+private life, and where the struggle for competence, if not for
+existence, is often of the most trying order, great evils may occur in
+the distant dependencies of the crown without receiving general notice
+from the nation. It seems to have been one of the singular results of
+the war with America, that the calamities of the slave-trade should
+have been originally brought to the knowledge of the people. The loss
+of our colonies on the mainland, naturally directed public attention
+to the increased importance of the West Indian colonies. A large
+proportion of our supplies for the war had been drawn from those
+islands; they had become the station of powerful fleets during the
+latter portion of the war; large garrisons were placed in them; the
+intercourse became enlarged from a merely commercial connexion with
+our ports, to a governmental connection with the empire; and the whole
+machinery of the West Indian social system was brought before the eye
+of England.
+
+The result was the exposure of the cruelties which slavery entails,
+and the growing resolution to clear the country of the stigma, and the
+benevolent desire to relieve a race of beings, who, however differing
+in colour and clime from ourselves, were sons of the same common
+blood, and objects of the same Divine mercy. The exertions of
+Wilberforce, and the intelligent and benevolent men whom he associated
+with himself in this great cause, were at last successful; and he
+gained for the British the noblest triumph ever gained for a nation
+over its own habits, its selfishness, its pride, and its popular
+opinion.
+
+But the manner in which this great redemption of national character
+was effected, did less honour to the wisdom of the cabinet than to the
+benevolence of the people. Fox, probably sincere, but certainly
+headlong, rushed into emancipation as he had rushed into every measure
+that bore the name of popularity. Impatient of the delay which might
+take the honour of this crowning act out of the hands of his
+party--and unquestionably, in any shape, it was an honour to any
+party--he hurried it forward without securing the concert, or
+compelling the acquiescence, of any one of the European kingdoms
+engaged in the slave-trade. It is true that England was then at war
+with them all; but there was thus only the stronger opportunity of
+pronouncing the national resolve, never to tolerate the commerce in
+slaves, and never to receive any country into our protection by which
+that most infamous of all trades was tolerated. The opportunity was
+amply given for establishing the principle, in the necessity which
+every kingdom in succession felt for the aid of England, and the
+abolition ought to have been the first article of the treaty. But the
+occasion was thrown away.
+
+The parliamentary regulations, which had largely provided for the
+comfort of the slaves on the passage from Africa, and their protection
+in the British colonies, could not be extended to the new and
+tremendous traffic which was engaged in by all the commercial states
+of Europe and the West. The closing of the British mart of slavery
+flooded the African shore with desperate dealers in the flesh and
+blood of man; whose only object was profit, and who regarded the
+miseries of the African only as they affected his sale. The ships
+which, by the British regulations, had been suffered to carry only a
+number limited to their accommodation, were now crowded with wretches,
+stowed in spaces that scarcely allowed them to breathe. The cheapness
+of the living cargo, produced by the withdrawal of the British from
+the slave coast, excited the activity, almost the fury, of the trade;
+and probably 100,000 miserable beings were thus annually dragged from
+their own country, to undergo the labour of brutes, and die the death
+of brutes in the Western World.
+
+Another source of evil was added to the original crime. The colonial
+possessions of Spain had been broken up into republics, and those were
+all slave-dealers. The great colony of Portugal, Brazil, had rushed
+into this frightful commerce with the feverish avidity of avarice set
+free from all its old restrictions. North America, coquetting with
+philanthropy, and nominally abjuring the principle of slavery,
+suffered herself to undergo the corruption of the practice for the
+temptation of the lucre, and the Atlantic was covered with
+slave-ships.
+
+But rash, ill considered, and unfortunate as was the precipitate
+measure of Fox, we shall never but rejoice at the abolition of the
+slave-trade by our country. If England had stood alone for ever in
+that abolition, it would be a national glory. To have cast that
+commerce from her at all apparent loss, was the noblest of national
+gains; and it may be only when higher knowledge shall be given to man,
+of the causes which have protected the empire through the struggles of
+war and the trials of peace, that we may know the full virtue of that
+most national and magnanimous achievement of charity to man.
+
+It is only in the spirit of this principle that the legislature has
+followed up those early exertions, by the purchase of the final
+freedom of the slave, by the astonishing donative of twenty millions
+sterling, the largest sum ever given for the purposes of humanity. It
+is only in the same spirit that our cabinet continues to press upon
+the commercial states the right of search, a right which we solicit on
+the simple ground of humanity; and which, though it cannot be our duty
+to enforce at the hazard of hostility, must never be abandoned where
+we can succeed by the representations of reason, justice, and
+religion.
+
+The curious and succinct narrative to which we now advert, gives the
+experience of a short voyage on board of one of those slave ships. And
+the miseries witnessed by its writer, whose detail seems as accurate
+as it is simple, more than justify the zeal of our foreign secretary
+in labouring to effect the total extinction of this death-dealing
+trade.
+
+H.M.S. the Cleopatra, of twenty-six guns, commanded by Captain Wyvill,
+arriving at Rio Janeiro in September 1842, the reverend writer took
+the opportunity of being transferred from the Malabar, as chaplain. In
+the beginning of September the Cleopatra left the Mauritius, to
+proceed to the Mozambique Channel, off Madagascar, her appointed
+station, to watch the slave-traders. After various cruises along the
+coast, and as far as Algoa Bay, they at last captured a slaver.
+
+_April 12._--At daybreak the look-out at the topmast-head perceived a
+vessel on the lee quarter, at such a distance as to be scarcely
+visible; but her locality being pronounced "very suspicious," the
+order was given to bear up for her. The breeze falling, the boats were
+ordered out, and in a few minutes the barge and the first gig were
+pulling away in the direction of the stranger. So variable, however,
+is the weather at this season, that before the boats had rowed a mile
+from the ship, a thick haze surrounded the ship, and the chase was
+lost sight of. The rain fell in torrents, and the ship was going seven
+knots through the water. On the clearing up of the fog, the chase was
+again visible. The sun broke forth, and the rakish-looking brigantine
+appeared to have carried on all sail during the squall. They could
+see, under her sails, the low black hull pitching up and down; and,
+approaching within range, one of the forecastle guns was cleared away
+for a bow-chaser. The British ensign had been for some time flying at
+the peak. It was at length answered by the green and yellow Brazilian
+flag. At length, after a variety of dexterous manoeuvres to escape,
+and from fifteen to twenty shots fired after her, she shortened sail
+and lay to. Dark naked forms passing across the deck, removed any
+remaining doubt as to her character, and showed that she had her slave
+cargo on board. An officer was sent to take possession, and the
+British ensign displaced the Brazilian. The scene on board was a
+sufficiently strange one; the deck was crowded with negroes to the
+number of 450, in almost riotous confusion, having risen but a little
+while before against the crew. The meagre, famished-looking throng,
+having broken through all control, had seized every thing for which
+they had a fancy in the vessel; some with handfuls of the powdered
+roots of the cassava, others with large pieces of pork and beef,
+having broken open the casks, and others with fowls, which they had
+torn from the coops. Many were busily dipping rags, fastened with bits
+of string, into the water-casks to act as sponges, and had got at the
+contents of a cask of Brazilian rum, which they greatly enjoyed.
+However, they exhibited the wildest joy, mingled with the clank of the
+iron, as they were knocking off their fetters on every side. From the
+moment the first ball had been fired, they had been actively employed
+in thus freeing themselves. The crew found but thirty thus shackled in
+pairs, but many more pairs of shackles were found below. There could
+not be a moment's doubt as to the light in which they viewed their
+captors, now become their liberators. They rushed towards them in
+crowds, and rubbed their feet and hands caressingly, even rolling
+themselves on the deck before them; and, when they saw the crew of the
+vessel rather unceremoniously sent over the side into the boat which
+was to take them prisoners to the frigate, they set up a long
+universal shout of triumph and delight. The actual number of the
+negroes now on board, amounted to 447. Of those 180 were men, few,
+however, exceeding twenty years of age; 45 women; 213 boys. The name
+of the prize was the Progresso, last from Brazil, and bound to Rio
+Janeiro. The crew were seventeen; three Spaniards, and the rest
+Brazilians. The vessel was of about 140 tons; the length of the
+slave-deck, 37 feet; its mean breadth, 21½ feet; its height, 3½
+feet--a horrible space to contain between four and five hundred human
+beings. How they could even breathe is scarcely conceivable. The
+captain and one of the crew were said to have been drowned in the surf
+at the embarkation of the negroes. Two Spaniards, and a Portuguese
+cook, were sent back into the prize.
+
+As the writer understood Spanish, and as some one was wanting to
+interpret between the English crew and those managers of the negroes,
+he proposed to go on board with them to their place of destination,
+the Cape of Good Hope. The English crew were a lieutenant, three petty
+officers, and nine seamen. It had been the captain's first intention
+to take a hundred of the negroes on board the frigate, which would
+probably have prevented the fearful calamities that followed; but an
+unfortunate impression prevailed, that some of them were infected with
+the small-pox. In the same evening the Progresso set sail. For the
+first few hours all went on well--the breeze was light, the weather
+warm, and the negroes were sleeping on the deck; their slender supple
+limbs entwined in a surprisingly small compass, resembling in the
+moonlight confused piles of arms and legs, rather than distinct human
+forms. But about an hour after midnight, the sky began to gather
+clouds, a haze overspread the horizon to windward, and a squall
+approached. The hands, having to shorten sail, suddenly found the
+negroes in the way, and the order was given to send them all below.
+
+There seems to have been some dreadful mismanagement to cause the
+horrid scene that followed. Why _all_ the negroes should have been
+driven down together; or why, when the vessel was put to rights, they
+should not have been allowed to return to the deck; or why, when
+driven down, the hatches should have been forced upon them--are
+matters which we cannot comprehend; but nothing could be more
+unfortunate than the consequence of those rash measures. We state the
+event in the words of the narrative:--
+
+    "The night being intensely hot and close, 400 wretched beings
+    crammed into a hold twelve yards in length, seven in breadth,
+    and only three and a half feet in height, speedily began to
+    make an effort to re-issue to the open air; being thrust back,
+    and striving the more to get out, the _after hatch_ was forced
+    down upon them. Over the other hatchway, in the fore part of
+    the vessel, a wooden grating was fastened. A scene of agony
+    followed those most unfortunate measures, unequaled by any
+    thing that we have heard of since the Black Hole of Calcutta.
+    To this _sole inlet_ for the air, the suffocating heat of the
+    hold, and perhaps panic from the strangeness of their
+    situation, made them press. They crowded to the grating, and,
+    clinging to it for air, completely barred its entrance. They
+    strove to force their way through apertures in length fourteen
+    inches, and barely six inches in breadth, and in some
+    instances succeeded. The cries, the heat, I may say without
+    exaggeration, 'the smoke of their torment,' which ascended,
+    can be compared to nothing earthly. One of the Spaniards gave
+    warning that the consequence would be many deaths--_manana
+    habra muchos muertos_."
+
+If this statement with its consequences be true, we cannot conceive
+how the conduct of those persons by whom it was brought about can be
+passed over without enquiry. There seems to have been nothing in the
+shape of _necessity_ for its palliation. There was no storm, the
+vessel was in no danger of foundering unless the hatches were fastened
+down. That the negroes might have lumbered the deck for the first few
+minutes of preparing to meet the squall is probable; but why, when
+they were palpably suffocating, they should still have been kept down,
+is one of the most unaccountable circumstances we ever remember. We
+must hope that while we are nationally incurring an enormous
+expenditure to extinguish this most guilty and detestable traffic,
+such scenes will be guarded against for ever, by the strictest orders
+to the captors of the slave-traders. It would have been infinitely
+better for the wretched cargo if they had been carried to their
+original destination, and sent to toil in the fields of Brazil.
+
+The Spaniard's prediction was true. Next morning no less than
+fifty-four crushed and mangled corpses were lifted up from the slave
+deck, and thrown overboard. We shall avoid disgusting our readers with
+mentioning the state in which their struggles had left those trampled
+and strangled beings. On the survivors being released from their
+torrid dungeon, they drank their allowance of water, somewhat more
+than half a pint to each, with inconceivable eagerness. A heavy shower
+having freshened the air, in the evening most of the negroes went
+below of their own accord, the hatchways having been left open to
+allow them air. But a short time, however, had elapsed, when they
+began tumultuously to reascend; and some of the persons on deck,
+fearful of their crowding it too much, repelled them, and they were
+trampled back, screaming and writhing in a confused mass. The hatch
+was about to be forced down upon them; and had not the lieutenant in
+charge left positive orders to the contrary, the catastrophe of last
+night would have been re-enacted. On explaining to the Spaniard that
+it was desired he should dispose those who came on deck in proper
+places, he set himself to the task with great alacrity; and he showed
+with much satisfaction how soon and how quietly they might be arranged
+out of the way of the ropes, covered with long rugs provided for the
+purpose. "To-morrow," said he, "there will be no deaths, except
+perhaps among some of those who are sick already." On the next day
+there was but one dead, but three were reported dying from the
+sufferings of the first night. They now saw the Cleopatra once more,
+and the alarm of small-pox having been found groundless, the captain
+took on board fifty of the boys.
+
+To our surprise, the provisions on board the slaver were ample for the
+negroes, consisting of Monte Video dried beef, small beans, rice, and
+cassava flour. The cabin stores were profuse; lockers filled with ale
+and porter, barrels of wine, liqueurs of various sorts, cases of
+English pickles, raisins, &c. &c.; and its list of medicines amounted
+to almost the whole _Materia Medica_. On questioning the Spaniards as
+to the probability of extinguishing the slave-trade, their reply was,
+that though in the creeks of Brazil it might be difficult, yet it had
+grown a desperate adventure. Four vessels had been already taken on
+the east coast of Africa this year; but the venture is so lucrative,
+that the profits of a fifth which escaped, would probably more than
+compensate the loss of the four.
+
+On the east coast negroes are paid for in money or coarse cottons, at
+the rate of eighteen dollars for men, and twelve for boys. At Rio
+Janeiro their value may be estimated at £52 for men, £41, 10s. for
+women, and £31 for boys. Thus, on a cargo of 500, at the mean price
+the profit will exceed £19,000--
+
+    Cost price of 500, average fifteen
+        dollars, or £3 5s. each,          £1,625
+    Selling price at Rio Janeiro, average
+        £41 10s.,                        £20,730
+
+While these enormous profits continue, it must be a matter of extreme
+difficulty to suppress the trade, especially while the principals,
+captains, and crews, have perfect impunity. At present, all that they
+suffer is the loss of their cargo. But if enactments were made, by
+which heavy fines and imprisonment were to be inflicted on the
+merchants to whom the expedition could be traced, and corporal
+punishment and transportation for life for the crews, and for the
+captains service as common sailors on board our frigates, we should
+soon find the ardour for the traffic diminished.
+
+The voyage was slow from the frequent calms. By the 20th of April they
+had advanced only to the tropic, 350 miles. From day to day the sick
+among the negroes were dropping off. A large shark followed the ship,
+which they conceived might have gorged some of the corpses. He was
+caught, but the stomach was empty. When brought on the deck, he
+exhibited the usual and remarkable tenacity of life. Though his tail
+was chopped, and even his entrails taken out, in neither of which
+operations it exhibited any sign of sensation, yet no sooner was a
+bucket of salt water poured on it to wash the deck, than it began to
+flounder about and bite on all sides.
+
+Symptoms of fever now began to appear on board, and the Portuguese
+cook died.
+
+_April 29_.--A storm, the lightning intolerably vivid, flash
+succeeding flash with scarcely a sensible intermission; blue, red, and
+of a still more dazzling white, which made the eye shrink, lighting up
+every object on deck as clearly as at mid-day. All the winds of heaven
+seemed let loose, as it blew alternately from every point of the
+compass. The screams of distress from the sick and weak in the hold,
+were heard through the roar of the tempest. From the rolling and
+creaking, one might fancy every thing going asunder. The woman's shed
+on deck had been washed down, and the planks which formed its roof
+falling in a heap, a woman was found dead under the ruin.
+
+_May 1_.--In this hemisphere, marking the approach of the cold
+weather, the naked negroes began to shiver, and their teeth to
+chatter.
+
+_May 3_.--Another storm, with severe cold. Seven negroes were found
+dead this morning. The wretched beings had begun now to steal water
+and brandy from the hold. "None can tell," says the writer, "save he
+who has tried, the pangs of thirst which may excite them in that
+heated hold, many of them fevered by mortal disease. Their daily
+allowance of water is about a half pint in the morning, and the same
+quantity in the evening." This passage now became all storms. A heavy
+squall came on _May 8_, which continued next day a strong gale. The
+first object which met the eye in the morning, was three negroes dead
+on the deck.
+
+_May 11_.--Another storm, heavier than any of the preceding ones.
+Towards evening the report of the helmsman was the gratifying one,
+that the heart of the gale was broke; yet a yellow haze overspread the
+setting sun, and it continued to blow as wildly as ever. Squalls
+rapidly succeeding each other mingled sea and air in one sheet of
+spray, blinding the eyes of the helmsman; waves towering high above
+us, tossing up the foam from their crests towards the sky, threatened
+to engulf the vessel at every moment. When the squalls, breaking
+heavily on the vessel, caused her to heel over, and the negroes to
+tumble one against each other in the hold, the shrieks of the
+sufferers through the darkness of the night, rising above the noise of
+the winds and waves, seemed of all horrors in this unhappy vessel the
+saddest. Dysentery now attacked the crew, and the boatswain's mate
+died. We pass over the melancholy details of this miserable voyage, in
+which disgusts and distresses of every kind seemed to threaten all on
+board with death, every day bringing its mortality. At last on Sunday,
+May 28th, the welcome sight of Cape Agulhas cheered them at the
+distance of ten miles. The weather was now fine, but the mortality
+continued, the fatal cases averaging four a-day. On the 1st of June
+eight were found dead in the morning; and, when the morning mist had
+cleared away, they found themselves within three miles of Simon's Bay.
+As soon as the Progresso anchored, the superintendent of the naval
+hospital came on board, and the writer descended with him for the last
+time to the slave hold. Accustomed as he had been to scenes of
+suffering, he was unable to endure a sight, surpassing all he could
+have conceived, he said, of human misery, and made a hasty retreat.
+The numbers who had died within the fifty days were 163. Even this was
+not all; for, on returning to the vessel next day, six corpses were
+added to the eight of the preceding day, and the fourteen were piled
+on deck for interment on the shore. A hundred of the healthiest
+negroes were landed at the pier to proceed in waggons to Cape Town;
+but though rescued from a state of extreme misery, the change seemed
+to excite anxiety and apprehension. Each of the men had received on
+landing a new warm jacket and trousers, and the women had each a new
+white blanket in addition to an under dress, and they were placed
+snugly in waggons; yet their countenances resembled those of condemned
+victims. Of the whole of the original cargo, not far short of one half
+had died. To what causes this horrible mortality must be imputed, it
+is not our purpose to decide; but that it did not arise from the
+original tendency of the negroes to sickness seems evident--the fact
+being, that of the fifty who were taken on board the frigate, but one
+had died at sea and one on shore. Within a few days the liberated
+negroes had acquired a more cheerful look, their first conception
+having been that they were to be devoured by the people of the
+country, and they were reluctant to eat, fearing that it was intended
+to fatten them for the purpose. However, the negroes in the colonies
+soon freed them from this apprehension.
+
+We shall be rejoiced if the publicity given to this little but
+intelligent pamphlet by our means, may assist in drawing the attention
+of the influential classes to the subject. We fully believe that, if
+we were to look for the deepest misery that was ever inflicted in this
+world, and the greatest mass of it, we should find it in the
+slave-trade. It is the misery, not as in civilized life, of scattered
+individuals, but of multitudes, and a misery comprehending every
+other; sudden separation from every tie of the human heart, parent,
+child, spouse, and country; the misery of bodily affliction, disease,
+famine, storms, shipwreck, and ultimately slavery, with all its
+wretchedness of toil and tyranny for life. We certainly do not think
+it our duty to go to war for the object of teaching humanity to other
+nations. We must no attempt to heal the calamity of the African by the
+greatest of all calamities and crimes--an unnecessary war. But England
+has only to persevere sincerely and steadily, however calmly, and she
+will, by the blessing of that supreme Disposer of the ways of men, who
+desires the happiness of all his creatures, succeed in the extinction
+of a traffic which has brought a curse, and brings it at this hour,
+and will bring it deeper still, upon every nation which insults the
+laws of humanity and the dictates of religion, by dealing in the flesh
+and blood of man.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.[3]--THE ARABS OF CORDOVA.
+
+    [3] The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. By AHMED
+    IBN MOHAMMED AL-MAKKARI of Telemsan. Translated and
+    illustrated with Critical Notes by Pascual de Gayangos, late
+    Professor of Arabic in the Athenæum of Madrid.--Printed for
+    the Oriental Translation Fund. 2 vols. 4to. 1840-43.
+
+    "The second day was that when Martel broke
+    The Mussulmen, delivering France opprest,
+    And in one mighty conflict, from the yoke
+    Of unbelieving Mecca saved the West."
+                                    SOUTHEY.
+
+
+The Arab domination in Spain is the grand romance of European history.
+The splendid but mysterious fabric of Asiatic power and science is
+seen for age after age, like the fairy castle of St John, exalted far
+above the rugged plain of Frank semi-barbarism--till the spell is at
+last broken by the iron prowess of Christian chivalry; and the
+glittering edifice vanishes from the land as though it had never been,
+leaving, like the fabled structure of the poet, only a wreath of
+laurel to bind the brows of the victor. Yet though replete with
+gorgeous materials both for history and fiction, and stored not only
+with the recondite lore of Asia and Egypt, but with the borrowed
+treasures of ancient Greece, (long known to Christendom only by
+versions through an Arabic medium,) the language and literature of
+this marvellous people, and even their history, except so far as it
+related to their never-ceasing warfare with their Christian foes,
+remained, up to the middle of the last century, a sealed book to their
+Spanish successors. Coming into possession, like the Israelites of
+old, "of a land for which they did not labour, of cities which they
+built not, of vineyards and olive-yards which they planted not," the
+Spaniards not merely contemned, but persecuted with the fiercest
+bigotry, all that was left in the peninsula of the genius and learning
+of their predecessors. Eighty thousand volumes were publicly burned in
+one fatal _auto-da-fé_ at Granada by order of Cardinal Ximenes, in
+whom the literature of his own language yet found a munificent patron;
+and so meritorious, did the deed appear in the eyes of his
+contemporaries, that the number has been magnified to an incredible
+amount by his biographers, in their zeal for the renown of their hero!
+So complete was the destruction or deportation[4] of the seventy
+public libraries, which, a century and a half before the subjugation
+of the Moors, were open in different cities of Spain, that the
+valuable collection now in the Escurial owes its origin to the
+accidental capture, early in the seventeenth century, of three ships
+laden with books belonging to Muley Zidan, emperor of Morocco--and
+even of this casual prize so little was the value appreciated, that it
+was not till more than a hundred years later, and after three-fourths
+of the books had been consumed by fire in 1671, that the learned and
+diligent Casiri was commissioned to make a catalogue of the remainder.
+The result was the well-known _Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana
+Escurialensis_, which appeared in 1760-70; and which, in the words of
+the present learned translator, "though hasty and superficial, and
+containing frequent unaccountable blunders, must, with all its
+imperfections, ever be valuable as affording palpable proof of the
+literary cultivation of the Spanish Arabs, and as containing the first
+glimpses of historical truth." Up to this time the only authority on
+Spanish history purporting to be drawn from Mohammedan sources, was
+the work of a Morisco named Miguel de Luna, written by command of the
+Inquisition; which was first printed at Granada in 1592, and has
+passed through many editions. Its value may be estimated from its
+placing the Mohammedan conquest of Spain in the time of Yakub
+Al-mansor, the actual date of whose reign was from A.D. 1184 to 1199;
+insomuch that Señor de Gayangos suggests, as a possible explanation of
+its glaring inaccuracies, that it was the writer's intention to hoax
+his employers. Casiri had, however, opened the door for further
+researches; and he was followed in the same path by Don Faustino de
+Borbon, whose works, valuable rather from the erudition which they
+display than from their judgment or critical acumen, have now become
+extremely scarce--and next by Don Antonio José Condé, one of the most
+zealous and laborious, if not the most accurate, of Spanish
+orientalists. His "History of the Domination of the Arabs and Moors in
+Spain," has been generally regarded as of high authority, and is in
+truth the first work on the subject drawn wholly from Arab sources;
+but it receives summary condemnation from Señor de Gayangos, for "the
+uncouth arrangement of the materials, the entire want of critical or
+explanatory notes, the unaccountable neglect to cite authorities, the
+numerous repetitions, blunders, and contradictions." These charges are
+certainly not without foundation; but they are in some measure
+accounted for by the trouble and penury in which the author's last
+years were spent, and the unfinished state in which the work was left
+at his death in 1820.
+
+    [4] The Almoravide and Almohade princes, who ruled both in
+    Spain and Africa, often inserted a clause in their treaties
+    with the Christians for the restoration of the libraries
+    captured in the towns taken from the Moslems; and Ibn Khaldun
+    mentions, that Yakob Al-mansor destined a college at Fez for
+    the reception of the books thus recovered.
+
+An authentic and comprehensive view of the Arab period, as described
+by their own writers, was therefore still a desideratum in European
+literature, which the publication before us may be considered as the
+first step towards supplying. The work of Al-Makkari, which has been
+taken as a text-book, is not so much an original history as a
+collection of extracts, sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed
+in full, from more ancient historians; and frequently giving two or
+three versions of the same event from different authorities--so that,
+though it can claim but little merit as a composition, it is of
+extreme value as a repository of fragments of authors in many cases
+now lost; and further, as the only "uninterrupted narrative of the
+conquests, wars, and settlements of the Spanish Moslems, from their
+first invasion of the Peninsula to their final expulsion." In the
+arrangement of his materials, the translator has departed
+considerably, and with advantage, from the original; giving the
+historical books in the form of a continuous narrative, and omitting
+several sections relating to matters of little interest--while the
+deficiencies and omissions of the author are supplied by an appendix,
+containing, in addition to a valuable body of original notes, copious
+extracts from numerous unpublished Arabic MSS. relating to Spain,
+which afford ample proof of the extent and diligence of his researches
+among the Oriental treasures of Paris and London. To those in the
+Escurial, however, he was denied access during his labours--an almost
+incredible measure of illiberality, which, if he be correct in
+ascribing it to his known intention of publishing in England, "ill
+suits a country" (as he justly remarks in the preface) "which has
+lately seen its archives and monastic libraries reduced to cinders,
+and scattered or sold in foreign markets, without the least struggle
+to rescue or secure them."
+
+Ahmed Al-Makkari, the author or compiler of the present work, derived
+his surname from a village near Telemsan called Makkarah, where his
+family had been established since the conquest of Africa by the Arabs.
+He was born at Telemsan some time in the latter half of the sixteenth
+century, and educated by his uncle, who held the office of Mufti in
+that city; but having quitted his native country in 1618 on a
+pilgrimage to Mekka, he married and settled in Cairo. During a visit
+to Damascus in 1628, he was received with high distinction by Ahmed
+Ibn Shahin Effendi, the director of the college of Jakmak in that
+city, and a distinguished patron of literature; at whose suggestion
+(he tells us) he undertook this work. His original purpose had been
+only to write the life of Abu Abdullah Lisanuddin, a celebrated
+historian and minister in Granada, better known to Oriental scholars
+as Ibnu'l-Khattib; but having completed this, the thought struck him
+of adding, as a second part, an historical account of the Moslems of
+Spain. He had formerly written an extensive and elaborate work on this
+subject, composed (to use his own words) "in such an elevated and
+pleasing style, that had it been publicly delivered by the common
+crier, it would have made even the stones deaf:--but, alas! the whole
+of this we had left in Maghreb (Morocco) with the rest of our
+library.... However, we have done our best to make the present work as
+useful and complete as possible." It was probably the last literary
+undertaking of his life; since he was on the point of quitting Cairo
+to fix his residence in Damascus, when he died of a fever in the
+second Jomada of A.H. 1041, (Jan. 1632,) leaving a high reputation as
+a traditionist and doctor of the Moslem law.
+
+The introductory chapter gives a sketch of the various nations which
+inhabited _Andalus_ or Spain before the Arab conquest, prefaced by
+extracts from numerous writers eulogistic of a country "whose
+excellences" (as Al-Makkari himself declares) "are such and so many
+that they cannot easily be contained in a book ... so that one of
+their wise men, who knew that the country had been called the bird's
+tail, owing to the supposed resemblance of the earth to a bird with
+extended wings, remarked that that bird was the peacock, the principal
+beauty of which was in the tail." These panegyrics are not in all
+cases exactly consistent; for while the famous geographer, Obeydullah
+Al-Bekri, "compares his native country to Syria for purity of air and
+water, to China for mines and precious stones, &c. &c., and to
+Al-Ahwaz (a district in Persia) _for the magnitude of its
+snakes_"--the Sheikh Ahmed Al-Razi (better known as the historian
+Razis) praises its comparative freedom from wild beasts and reptiles.
+The name _Andalus_ is derived by some authors from a great grandson of
+Noah so named, who settled there soon after the deluge; but Al-Makkari
+rather inclines, with Ibn Khaldun and other writers, to deduce it from
+the _Andalosh,_ (Vandals,) "a tribe of barbarians," who appear to be
+considered as the earliest inhabitants; but who, having incurred the
+divine wrath by their wickedness and idolatry, were all cut off by a
+terrible drought, which left the land for a hundred years an
+uninhabited desert. A colony then arrived from Africa, under a chief
+named Batrikus, eleven generations of whose descendants reigned for
+one hundred and fifty-seven years; after which they were all
+annihilated by the "barbarians of Rome, who invaded and conquered the
+country; and it was after their king Ishban, son of Titus, that
+Andalus was called Ishbaniah," (Hispania.) As Ishban is just after
+said to have "plundered and demolished Ilia, which is the same as
+Al-Kods the illustrious," (Jerusalem,) it is obvious that the name
+must be a corruption of Vespasian, who is thus made the son instead of
+the father of Titus. We are told that authors differ whether it was on
+this occasion, or at the former capture of Jerusalem by Bokht-Nasser,
+(Nebuchadnezzar,) at which a king of Spain named Berian was also
+present, that the table constructed by the genii for Solomon, and
+which Tarik afterwards found at Toledo, was transported to Spain--and
+Al-Makkari professes himself, as well he may, unable to reconcile the
+different accounts. Fifty-five kings descended from Ishban, whose race
+was dispossessed ("about the time of the Messiah, on whom be peace!")
+by a people called Bishtilikat, (Visigoths?) under a king called
+Talubush, (Ataulphus?) whom Al-Makkari holds to have been the same
+people as the "barbarians of Rome," though "there are not wanting
+authors who make the Goths and the Bishtilikat only one nation." After
+holding possession during the reigns of twenty-seven monarchs, they
+were in turn subdued by the Goths, whose royal residence was
+"Toleyalah, (Toledo,) though Isbiliah (Seville) continued to be the
+abode of the sciences." The Gothic kings are said to have been
+thirty-six;--but the only one particularized by name is
+"Khoshandinus, (Constantine,) who not only embraced Christianity
+himself, but called on his subjects to do the same, and is held by the
+Christians as the greatest king they ever had.... Several kings of his
+posterity reigned after him, till Andalus was finally subdued by the
+Arabs, by whose means God was pleased to make manifest the superiority
+of Islam over every other religion."
+
+With the Arab, conquest the authentic history commences; and the
+accounts given from the Moslem writers of this memorable event, which
+first gave the followers of the Prophet a footing in Europe, differ in
+no material point from the eloquent narrative of Gibbon. Al-Makkari,
+however, does not fail to inform us, that predictions had been rife
+from long past ages, which foretold the invasion and conquest of the
+country by a fierce people from Africa; and potent were the spells and
+talismans constructed to ward off the danger, "by the _Greek_ kings
+who reigned in old times." Several of these are described with due
+solemnity; and among them we find the tale of the visit paid by
+Roderic[5] to the magic tower at Toledo, which has been rendered
+familiar by the pages of Scott and Southey. We shall not here
+recapitulate the well-known incidents of the wrongs and revenge of
+Count Yllan, or Julian, the first landing of Tarif at Tarifa, the
+second expedition sent by Musa under Tarik Ibn Zeyad, and the death or
+disappearance of the Gothic king on the fatal day of Guadalete.[6] So
+complete was the discomfiture of the Christians, that the kingdom
+fell, without a second blow, before the victors of a single field; and
+was overrun with such rapidity, that from the inability of the
+conquerors to garrison the cities which surrendered, they were
+entrusted for the time to the guard of the Jews!--a singular
+circumstance, which, when coupled with the statement that many of the
+Berbers (of whom the invading army was almost wholly composed) were
+recent converts from Judaism,[7] would apparently imply that the
+conquest was facilitated by a previous correspondence. The subjugation
+of the country was completed by the arrival of Musa himself, who
+reduced Seville and the other towns which still held out, and is even
+said to have crossed the Pyrenees and sacked Narbonne;[8] but this is
+not mentioned by any Christian writer, and is referred by the
+translator to his invasion of Catalonia, which the Arabs considered as
+part of "the land of the Franks." After the first fury of conquest had
+subsided, the Christians who remained in their homes were permitted to
+live unmolested, on payment of the capitation-tax; but peculiar
+privileges were accorded to the Jews, and the hold of the Moslems on
+the country was strengthened by the vast influx of settlers, not only
+from Africa, but from Syria and Arabia, who were attracted by the
+reports of the riches and fertility of the new province. Nearly all
+the tribes of Arabia are enumerated by Al-Makkari as represented in
+Spain; and the feuds of the two great divisions, the Beni-Modhar[9] or
+race of Adnan, and the Beni-Kahttan or Arabs of Yemen, gave rise to
+most of the civil wars which subsequently desolated Andalus.
+
+    [5] He is called by the Arabic writers Ludherik--a name
+    afterwards applied as a general designation to the kings of
+    Castile.
+
+    [6] The translator adduces strong grounds for believing that
+    the battle was fought, not as usually held, in the plain of
+    Xeres, on the south bank of the Guadalete, but "nearer the
+    sea-shore, and not far from the town of Medina-Sidonia."
+
+    [7] This is not mentioned by the authors from whom Al-Makkari
+    has drawn his materials, but is stated by Professor de
+    Gayangos on the authority of Ibn Khaldun.
+
+    [8] A story is here told of Musa's reaching some colossal
+    ruins, and a monument inscribed with Arabic characters
+    pointing out that place as the term of his conquests--a legend
+    which perhaps gave the hint for one of the tales in the
+    Thousand and One Nights, in which he is sent on an expedition
+    to the city of Brass on the shores of the Western Ocean.--See
+    Lane's translation, chap. 21.
+
+    [9] Condé, and the writers who have followed him, constantly
+    speak of the Beni-Modhar as Egyptian--an error owing to the
+    neglect or omission of the point which in Arabic orthography
+    distinguishes _Modhar_ from _Missr_, (Egypt.)
+
+The spoil of the vanquished kingdom was immense--the accumulation of
+long years of luxury and freedom from foreign invasion in a country
+which, both from the fertility of the soil and the abundance of the
+precious metals, was then probably the richest in Europe. Whatever
+degree of credit we may attach to the famous table of Solomon, "said
+by some to be of pure gold, and by others green emerald," and the gems
+and ornaments of which are described with full Oriental luxuriance,
+every account referring to the booty acquired in the principal cities,
+gives ample evidence of the riches and splendour of the Visigoths.
+"The plunder found at Toledo[10] was beyond calculation. It was common
+for the lowest men in the army to find magnificent gold chains, and
+long strings of pearls and rubies. Among other precious objects were
+found 170 diadems of the purest red gold, set with every sort of
+precious stone; several measures full of emeralds, rubies, and other
+gems; and an immense number of gold and silver vases. Such was the
+eagerness for plunder, and the ignorance of some, especially the
+Berbers, that when two or more of this nation fell upon an article
+which they could not conveniently divide, they would cut it in pieces,
+whatever the material might be, and share it among them." Some of the
+victorious army seized some ships in the eastern ports, and set sail
+for their homes with their plunder; but they were speedily overtaken
+by a tremendous storm, and all perished in the waves--a manifest
+token, we are given to understand, of the Divine vengeance for the
+abandonment of the _holy_ warfare under the banners of Islam.
+
+    [10] Burkhardt (Travels in Arabia, i. 303) says, that all the
+    golden ornaments which the Khalif Walid gave to the mosque at
+    Mekka, "were sent from Toledo in Spain, and carried upon mules
+    through Africa and Arabia."
+
+Musa was on his march into Galicia to crush the last embers of
+national resistance, when his progress was checked by a peremptory
+summons from the Khalif, to answer at Damascus the charges forwarded
+against him by Tarik, whom he had unjustly disgraced and punished.
+Being convicted of falsehood, on the production by Tarik of the
+missing foot of the table of Solomon, the merit of finding which had
+been claimed by Musa, he was tortured and deprived of his riches; and
+the head of his gallant son Abdulaziz, whom he had left in command in
+Spain, was shown to him in public by the Khalif Soliman, the successor
+of Walid, with the cruel demand if he knew whose it was. "I do," was
+the father's reply: "it is the head of one who fasted and prayed; may
+the curse of Allah fall on it if he who slew him is a better man than
+he!" But though Musa was thus arrested in the last stage of his
+conquering career, so complete was the prostration of the Christians,
+that the viceroys who succeeded Abdulaziz, overlooking or disregarding
+this yet unsubdued corner of Spain, at once poured their forces across
+the Pyrenees, seeking new fields of conquest and glory in the
+countries of the Franks. But the antagonists whom they here
+encountered, unlike the luxurious Goths of Spain, still preserved the
+barbarian valour which they had brought from their German forests. And
+As-Samh, (the Zama of the Christian writers,) the first Saracen
+general who obtained a footing in France, "fell a martyr to the
+faith," with nearly his whole army, in a battle with Eudo, Duke of
+Aquitaine, before Toulouse, May 10, A.D. 721. But the fiery zeal of
+the Moslems was only stimulated by this reverse. In the course of the
+ten following years, their dominion was established as far as the
+Rhone and Garonne; till, in 732, the torrent of invasion, headed by
+the _Wali_ Abdurrahman, burst into the heart of the country; and the
+battle, decisive of the destinies of France, and perhaps of Europe,
+was fought between Tours and Poitiers, in October of that year,
+(Ramadhan, A.H. 114.) Few details are given by the Arab writers of the
+seven days' conflict, in which the ranks of the Moslems were shattered
+by the iron arm of Charles Martel; "and the army of Abdurrahman was
+cut to pieces at a spot called _Balatt-ush-Shohadá_, (the Pavement of
+the Martyrs,) he himself being in the number of the slain." Some
+confusion here appears, as the same epithet had been applied to the
+former battle near Toulouse; but this "disastrous day" of Tours
+virtually extinguished the schemes of Arab conquest in France, though
+it was not till many years later that they were completely dislodged
+from Narbonne, and their other acquisitions between the Garrone and
+the Pyrenees.
+
+Meanwhile the Christian remnant, left unmolested in the Asturian and
+Galician mountains, gradually recovered courage: and in 717-18, "a
+despicable barbarian," (as he is termed by Ibn Hayyan, a writer often
+cited by Al-Makkari,) "named Belay, (Pelayo or Pelagius,) rose in
+Galicia; and from that moment the Christians began to resist the
+Moslems, and to defend their wives and daughters; for till then they
+had not shown the least inclination to do so." "Would to God," piously
+subjoins Al-Makkari, "that the Moslems had then extinguished at once
+the sparkles of a fire destined to consume their whole dominion in
+those parts! But they said--'What are thirty barbarians, perched on a
+rock? they must inevitably die!'" The spark, which contained the germ
+of the future independence of Spain, was thus suffered to remain and
+spread, while the swords of the Moslems were occupied in France; and
+its growth was further favoured by the anarchy and civil dissensions
+which broke out among the conquerors. While the leaders of the
+different Arab factions contested, sword in hand, the viceroyalty of
+Spain, the Berbers (whose conversion to Islam was apparently yet but
+imperfect) rose in furious revolt both in Spain and Africa, and were
+only overpowered by a fresh army sent by the Khalif Hisham from Syria.
+But the arrival of these reinforcements added new fuel to the old
+feuds of the Beni-Modhar, and the Yemenis or Beni-Kahttan; and a
+desperate civil war raged till 746, when the Khalif's lieutenant, the
+Emir Abu'l-Khattar, who supported the Yemenis, was killed in a pitched
+battle fought near Cordova. The leader of the victorious tribe, Yusuf
+Al-Fehri,[11] now assumed supreme power, which he exercised nearly ten
+years as an independent ruler, without reference to the court of
+Damascus. The state of affairs in the East, indeed, left little
+leisure to the Umeyyan khalifs to attend to the regulation of a remote
+province. Their throne was already tottering before the arms and
+intrigues of the Abbasides, whose black banners, under the guidance of
+the formidable Abu-Moslem, were even now bearing down from Khorassan
+upon Syria. The unpopular cause of the Beni-Umeyyah, who were detested
+for the murder of the grandsons of the Prophet under the second of
+their line, was lost in a single battle; and the death of Merwan, the
+last khalif of the race, was followed by the unsparing proscription of
+the whole family. "Every where they were seized and put to death
+without mercy; and few escaped the search made by the emissaries of
+As-Seffah, (_the bloodshedder_, the surname of the first Abbaside
+khalif,) in every province of the empire."
+
+    [11] The tribe of Fehr hold a conspicuous place in the Spanish
+    annals, and one of them was the leader of the last attempt to
+    shake off the yoke of Castile, after the capture of Granada.
+
+Among the few survivors of the general doom, was a youth named
+Abdurrahman Ibn Muawiyah, a grandson of the Khalif Hisham. In his
+infancy his granduncle Moslemah, the leader of the first Saracen host
+sent against Constantinople, had indicated him, from certain marks, as
+the destined restorer of the fallen fortunes of his race; and he was
+preserved, by a timely warning from a client of his house, from the
+fatal banquet, in which ninety of the Beni-Umeyyah were treacherously
+massacred. Yet so hot was the pursuit, that his younger brother was
+taken and slain before his eyes, while swimming the Euphrates with him
+in their flight. But Abdurrahman, after numberless perils and
+adventures, at length reached Africa, which was ruled by the _wali_
+or viceroy Abdurrahman Ibn Habib, the father of Yusuf Al-Fehri, who
+had been a personal retainer of his family. But he soon found that he
+had erred in trusting to the faith of Ibn Habib; and, after narrowly
+escaping the search made for him by the emissaries of the governor,
+lay concealed for several years, a fugitive and outlaw, among the
+tribes of Northern Africa. In this extremity, he at length cast his
+eyes on Spain, where the Abbasides had never been recognized, and
+where his own clansmen of the Koreysh, with their _maulis_, (freedmen
+or clients,) were numerous and powerful. The overtures of the royal
+adventurer were eagerly listened to by the Yemenis, who burned to
+revenge their late defeat on the Beni-Modhar; and Abdurrahman, landing
+at Al-muñecar in the autumn of 755, found himself instantly at the
+head of 700 horse, and was speedily joined by the chieftain of the
+Yemenis, who admitted him into Seville. During the march the want of a
+banner was remarked, "and a long spear was produced, on the point of
+which a turban was to be placed; but as it would have been necessary
+to incline the head of the spear, which was supposed to be of
+extremely bad omen, it was held erect between two olive trees, and a
+man, ascending one of them, was enabled to fasten the turban to the
+spear without lowering it.... With this same banner did Abdurrahman,
+and his son Hisham, vanquish their enemies whenever they met them; and
+in such veneration was it held, that whenever the turban by long use
+decayed, it was not removed, but a new one placed over it. In this
+manner it was preserved till the days of Abdurrahman II.; some say
+till the days of his son Mohammed, when the turban on the spear being
+decayed, the vizirs of that monarch, seeing nothing under it but a few
+rags twisted round the spear, gave orders for their removal, and the
+whole was thrown away.... 'From that time,' remarks the judicious
+historian Ibn Hayyan, 'the empire of the Beni-Umeyyah began visibly to
+decline.'"
+
+Under the auspices of this novel _oriflamme_ the Umeyyan prince and
+his followers advanced upon Cordova, whither Yusuf Al-Fehri, who had
+been engaged in suppressing an insurrection in the _Thagher_,
+(Aragon,) had hastened to oppose them at the head of the Beni-Modhar.
+Exchanging for a mule the fiery courser which the jealous whispers of
+his adherents had remarked as designed to secure his escape in case of
+defeat, Abdurrahman led his troops to the attack; and his victory
+established on the throne of Spain a new dynasty of the Beni-Umeyyah,
+"who thus regained in the west the supremacy which they had lost in
+the east." Those of the fallen family who had escaped the general
+massacre, flocked to the court of their fortunate kinsman, "to all of
+whom he gave pensions, commands, and governments, by which means his
+empire was strengthened;"--and the robes and turbans of the monarch
+and the princes were always white, the colour assumed by the house of
+Umeyyah, in opposition to the black livery of their rivals. Though
+Abdurrahman never assumed the title of commander of the faithful, he
+suppressed the _khotbah_ or public prayers in the name of the
+Abbasides; and when Al-Ala, the _wali_ of Africa, invaded Spain in
+order to re-establish the supremacy of the eastern khalif, the head of
+his unsuccessful general, thrown before the tent of Al-mansor at
+Mekka, conveyed to him the first tidings of the destruction of the
+armament by the "hawk of the Koreysh," as he was wont to term
+Abdurrahman. In the elation of triumph from this success, he is even
+said to have contemplated marching through Africa to attack Al-mansor
+in the east; but this design was frustrated by the continual
+rebellions of the Arab tribes, whom all his address and prudence was
+unable to keep in order; and "while the Moslems were revolting against
+their sovereign, the Christians of Galicia gathered strength, took
+possession of the towns and fortresses on the frontier, and expelled
+their inhabitants." We find him at length obliged, in order to
+maintain his authority, to have recourse to the system, which in the
+next century became universal in the east, of entrusting the defence
+of his throne and person, not to the native levies of his kingdom, but
+to a standing army of purchased slaves or _Mamlukes_. "He began to
+cease all communication with the chiefs of the Arabian tribes, whom he
+found animated with a strong hatred against him, and to surround
+himself with slaves and people entirely devoted to him; for which end
+he engaged followers and took clients from every province of his
+empire, and sent over to Africa to enlist Berbers. 'Thus,' says Ibn
+Hayyan, 'Abdurrahman collected an army of slaves and Berbers,
+amounting to upwards of 40,000 men, by means of whom he always
+remained victorious, in every contest with the Arabian tribes of
+Andalus.'"
+
+The sciences and fine arts, which had been almost banished from Spain
+since the conquest, returned in the train of the new dynasty; and
+literature was encouraged by the example of Abdurrahman, who was
+himself a poet of no mean merit. His affectionate remembrance of his
+Syrian home, led him to introduce into his new kingdom the flowers and
+fruits of the east;--and the palm-tree, which was the parent of all
+those of its kind in Spain, and to which he addressed the well-known
+lines, lamenting their common fate as exiles from their fatherland,
+was planted by himself in the gardens of the Rissáfah, a country
+palace built on the model of one near Damascus, in which the first
+years of his life had been spent. In architectural magnificence he
+rivaled or surpassed the former princes of his race, the monuments of
+whose grandeur still exist in the mosque of the Beni-Umeyyah at
+Damascus, and other edifices adorning the cities of Syria. The palaces
+and aqueducts which he constructed in Cordova, testified his zeal for
+the splendour, as well as his care for the salubrity, of his
+capital;--and after expending the sum of 80,000 golden _dinars_ (the
+produce of the royal fifth of all spoil taken in war) in the erection
+of the stately mosque which bears his name, he bequeathed the
+completion of the structure, at his death, A.D. 788, to his younger
+son Hisham, whom he nominated as his successor, to the exclusion of
+the elder brother Soliman. Al-Makkari devotes an entire chapter to the
+wonders of this celebrated temple, which was finished A.D. 794, nine
+years after its commencement, and received additions from almost every
+successive sovereign of the house of Umeyyah. In its present state, as
+the cathedral of Cordova, it still covers more ground than any church
+in Christendom; but the inner roof, with its elaborate carving, the
+_mihrab_, or shrine, of minute inlaid work of ivory, gems, and
+precious woods, and containing a copy of the Koran which had belonged
+to the Khalif Othman--the embossed plates of gold and silver which
+encrusted the doors, and the apples of the same metals which
+surmounted the dome--have long since disappeared; and the thousand
+(or, as some say, thirteen hundred) columns of polished marble which
+it once boasted, have been grievously reduced in number, to make room
+for the shrines and chapels of Christian saints. The unequal length
+and proportions of those which remain, their irregular grouping, and
+the want of height in the roof which they support, indicate a far
+lower grade of architectural taste than that which we find in the
+aerial palaces of Granada; but all the Arabic writers who have
+described it, concur in considering it one of the wonders of the
+world; and it ranked, in the estimation of the Spanish Moslems, as
+inferior in point of sanctity to none but the Kaaba, and the mosque of
+Omar at Jerusalem.
+
+The mood of the Beni-Umeyyah, who appear in their eastern reign only
+as gloomy and execrated tyrants, had been chastened by their
+misfortunes; and the virtues of Abdurrahman _Ad-dakhel_ (_the enterer
+or conqueror_, as he is generally termed by historians) were emulated
+by his descendants. As an illustration of the character of his son
+Hisham, it is related by Al-Makkari, that on hearing that the people
+of Cordova said, that his only motive in restoring the great bridge
+over the Guadalquivir was to pass over it himself when he went out
+hunting, he bound himself by a solemn vow never to cross it again as
+long as he lived; but the reign of this beneficent prince lasted only
+eight years. His immediate successors, Al-hakem I., and Abdurrahman
+II., were almost constantly engaged in warfare, either against their
+own rebellious relatives and revolted subjects,[12] or against the
+Christians of Galicia, who, by the middle of the ninth century, had
+advanced their frontier to the Douro and repeatedly repulsed the
+armies sent against them from Cordova; but we find no mention in the
+writers cited by Al-Makkari, either of the annual tribute of a hundred
+virgins, popularly said to have been exacted by the Moslems, or of the
+great victory in 846, by which King Ramiro redeemed his country from
+this degrading badge of vassalage.[13] So widely extended was the
+martial renown of the Umeyyan sovereigns, that in 839 a suppliant
+embassy was received by Abdurrahman II. from the Greek Emperor
+_Tufilus_, (Theophilus,) then hard pressed by the arms of the Abbaside
+khalif Al-mutassem, to solicit his aid against their common enemy;
+and, though Abdurrahman declined to embark in this distant and
+hazardous enterprise, a friendly intercourse long continued to be kept
+up between the courts of Cordova and Constantinople. The military
+establishment was fully organized, and placed on a formidable footing.
+Besides the troops quartered in the provinces and receiving regular
+pay, the _haras_ or royal guard of Mamlukes, whose commander was one
+of the principal officers of the court, was augmented to 5000 horse
+and 1000 foot, all Christians or foreigners by birth, who occupied
+barracks close to the royal palace, and constantly mounted guard at
+the gates. The coast was also defended by a powerful fleet of armed
+vessels, of which each of the seaports fitted out its proportion,
+against the hostile attacks of the Abbaside lieutenauts of Africa, and
+the predatory descents of the _Majus_[14] or Northmen; who, after
+laying waste with fire and sword the French and English coasts, had
+extended their ravages into the southern seas even to the Straits of
+Gibraltar. Lisbon and Seville were sacked by them in 844; and their
+piratical fleets continued for many years to carry pillage and
+bloodshed along the shores of the Peninsula.
+
+    [12] It was by a body of exiles under Abu Hafss Omar, the
+    Apochapsus of the Greeks, (incorrectly called Abu _Caab_ by
+    Gibbon,) driven from Cordova after one of these insurrections,
+    that Crete was conquered in 823.
+
+    [13] In this battle, according to the veracious Spanish
+    chroniclers, Santiago first appeared on his white horse in the
+    mêlée, fighting for the Christians.--See the "Maiden Tribute,"
+    in Lockhart's _Spanish Ballads_.
+
+    [14] _Majus_--Magians or fire worshippers, is the term
+    invariably applied to these fierce Pagans by the Arabic
+    historians, apparently by a negative induction from their
+    being neither Moslems, Jews, nor Christians.
+
+The simplicity which the first Abdurrahman had uniformly preserved in
+his dress and habits of life, was soon exchanged by his successors for
+royal magnificence, rivaling that of the Abbaside court at Bagdad. It
+was Abdurrahman II. who, in a love quarrel with a beautiful inmate of
+his harem, caused the door of her chamber to be blocked up with bags
+of silver coin, to be removed on her relenting--"and she threw herself
+on her knees and kissed his feet; but," naïvely adds the Arab
+historian, "the money she kept, and no portion of it ever returned to
+the treasury." The same prince testified his esteem for the fine arts,
+by riding forth in state from his capital, to welcome the arrival of
+Zaryab, a far-famed musician, whom the jealousy of a rival had driven
+from Bagdad, and who founded in Spain a famous school of music; and in
+his convivial habits, and the freedom which he allowed to the
+companions of his festive hours, his character accords with that
+assigned in the _Thousand and One Nights_, though not in the page of
+history, to Haroon-Al-Rasheed. He died in 852, leaving the crown to
+his son Mohammed, whose reign, as well as those of his two sons
+Almundhir and Abdullah, who filled the throne in succession, is but
+briefly noticed by Al-Makkari, though Señor de Gayangos has supplied
+some valuable additional matter in his notes. The never-ceasing
+contest with the Christians was waged year by year; and the Princes
+of Oviedo, though often defeated in the plain and driven back into
+their mountains, when the forces of Andalus were gathered against
+them; yet surely, though slowly, gained ground against the provincial
+_walis_ or viceroys. At the death of "Ordhun Ibn Adefunsh," (Ordoño
+I.) in 866, their territory extended from the Atlantic and the Bay of
+Biscay to Salamanca; and the Moslem power was diverted by the rising
+strength of Navarre, where the Basques had shaken off the divided
+allegiance paid alternately to the court of Cordova and the
+Carlovingian rulers of France, and conferred on Garcia-Ramirez, in
+857, an independent regal title. But these distant hostilities, as
+yet, little affected the tranquillity of the seat of government, which
+was more nearly interested in the frequent revolts of the provinces
+under its rule,[15] and particularly by the rebellion of the
+_Muwallads_, (or descendants of Christian converts to Islam;) which,
+though the information extant respecting it is somewhat scanty, would
+appear to have been little less than a struggle between the two races
+for the dominion of Spain. One of the Muwallad chiefs, named Omar Ibn
+Hafssun,[16] maintained for years a sort of semi-independence in the
+Alpuxarras. Al-mundhir fell in a skirmish against him in 888, only two
+years after his accession; and the insurrection, after continuing
+through the whole reign of Abdullah, was only finally suppressed under
+Abdurrahman III.
+
+    [15] No fewer than twenty-seven insurgent leaders, in the
+    reign of Abdullah alone, are enumerated in the translator's
+    notes from Ibn Hayyan.
+
+    [16] The epithet of _kelb_, "dog," frequently applied to this
+    leader, has led Condé into the strange error of creating for
+    him a son, whom he calls _Kalib_ Ibun Hafssun. The term
+    _Muwallad_ is said to be the origin of _mulatto_.
+
+The system of government under these princes, appears to have remained
+in nearly the same form as it had been fixed by Abdurrahman I. The
+monarch nominated, during his lifetime, one of his sons as his
+successor; and the _wali-al-ahd_, or crown-prince, thus selected,
+received the oaths of allegiance of the dignitaries of the state, and
+was admitted to a share in the administration--a wise regulation,
+which prevented the recurrence of the civil wars arising from the
+ambition of princes of the blood, which had distracted the reigns of
+Al-hakem I. and Abdurrahman II. The council of the sovereign was
+composed of the _vizirs_ or ministers of the different departments,
+the _katibs_ or secretaries, and the chiefs of the law; the _walis_ of
+the six great provinces into which Abdurrahman I. divided his
+empire,[17] as well as the municipal chiefs of the principal cities
+were also summoned on emergencies:--while the prime minister, or
+highest officer of the state, in whom, as in the Turkish
+_Vizir-Azem_,[18] the supreme direction of both civil and military
+affairs was vested, was designated the _Hajib_ or chamberlain. Of the
+four orthodox[19] sects of the Soonis, the one which predominated in
+Spain, as it does to the present day in Barbary and Africa, was that
+of Malik Ibn Ans, whose doctrines were introduced in the reign of
+Al-hakem I., by doctors who had received instruction from the lips of
+the Imam Malik himself at Mekka; and was formally established by that
+prince throughout his dominions. The judicial offices were filled, as
+in other Moslem countries, by Kadis, whose decisions were regulated by
+the precepts of the Koran: but we find no mention (even before the
+assumption of the titles of Imam and Khalif by Abdurrahman III.) of
+any supreme ecclesiastical chief like the Sheikh-al-Islam or Mufti of
+the Ottomans;--though there were chief justices analogous to the
+Turkish Kadileskers, who bore the title of _Kadi-'l-jamah_.
+
+    [17] We do not find this division mentioned by the authors
+    cited by Al-Makkari; but it is stated by Condé, and appears to
+    have prevailed as long as the kingdom retained its unity. The
+    six provincial capitals were Saragossa, Toledo, Merida,
+    Valencia, Murcia, and Granada. Shortly before the arrival of
+    Abdurrahman, Yusuf Al-Fehri had organized _five_ great
+    governments, one of which comprised Narbonne and the
+    Trans-Pyrenean conquests.
+
+    [18] Under the Arab dynasties of the east, the _vizir_ was
+    exclusively an officer _of the pen_: and Makrizi expressly
+    mentions that Bedr-al-Jemali, who became vizir to the Fatimite
+    khalif Al-Mostanssor in 1074, was the first in whom _the sword
+    and the pen_ were united.
+
+    [19] See Sale's Koran. Preliminary Discourse. Sect. 8.
+
+The royal revenue was derived from a variety of sources. The principal
+were, a land-tax amounting to one-tenth of the produce of the soil and
+the mines, the capitation-tax paid by the Jews and Christians, and the
+fifth of the spoil taken from the enemy--an enormously productive item
+in a time of constant warfare--besides a duty of two and a half per
+cent on all exports and imports. These were the legitimate dues of the
+crown, sanctioned by the Koran; but the splendid court maintained by
+the later sovereigns of Cordova, their lavish expenditure in building,
+and their large military and naval establishments, often compelled
+them to have recourse to irregular methods of raising money, by forced
+loans and by duties laid on different articles of food, in direct
+violation of the Moslem law. The amount raised by all these means
+varied greatly at different periods. Under Abdurrahman II., the whole
+direct revenue is said not to have exceeded 1,000,000 of gold
+_din[=a]rs_:--but the royal fifths, and other extraordinary sources of
+income, appear not to have been included in this estimate:--and a
+century later, under the third and greatest prince of that name, we
+are told, on the authority of the biographer Ibn Khallekan, that "the
+revenues of Andalus amounted to 5,480,000 gold _din[=a]rs_, collected
+from taxes," (it is elsewhere said from the _land_-tax:) besides
+765,000 derived from markets--exclusive also of the royal fifth of the
+spoil, and the capitation-tax levied on Christians and Jews living in
+the Moslem dominions, the amount of which is said to have equaled all
+the rest. An annual sum of equal amount, reckoning the _din[=a]r_ at
+ten shillings, had never in the history of the world been raised in a
+territory of the same extent, and probably equaled the united incomes
+of all the Christian princes in Europe--if we except the revenue of
+the Greek Emperor, it certainly far exceeded them. "Of this vast
+income," Ibn Khallekan continues, "one-third was appropriated to the
+payment of the army, another third was deposited in the royal coffers
+to cover the expenses of the household, and the remainder was spent
+yearly in the construction of Az-zahra and such other buildings as
+were erected under his reign." This tripartite allotment of the
+revenue is alluded to under several reigns: the expenses of
+administration and the salaries of the civil functionaries were
+included under the second head; and the third portion was, in ordinary
+case, reserved "to repel invasions and meet emergencies."
+
+The prince under whom the vast revenue thus stated is said to have
+been collected, ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather
+Abdullah, in the 300th year of the Hejra, and the 912th of the
+Christian era:--and his reign, of more than fifty lunar years, saw the
+power and splendour of the Umeyyan dynasty attain its zenith. For some
+years after his accession, he headed his armies in person against the
+Christians and the partizans of Ibn Hafssun, who still continued in
+arms: but the severe defeat which he received in 939 at Simaneas, near
+Zamora, (called by Moslem writers the battle of Al-handik,) from
+Ramiro II. of Leon, disgusted him with active warfare; and he deputed
+the command of his armies to his generals and the princes of the
+blood, who, in annual campaigns, so effectually kept the Christians
+within their limits, that little territorial acquisition was made by
+them during his reign; while the voluntary adhesion of the Berber
+tribes, after the overthrow of the Edrisite dynasty in 941 by the arms
+of the Fatimite khalifs, gave him almost unresisted possession of
+great part of Fez and Morocco. The defeat of Al-handik, and the
+treason and execution in 950, of his elder son Abdullah, (whom
+disappointment at being postponed to his younger brother in the
+succession, had led to conspire against his father's life,) were
+almost the only clouds which dimmed the continual sunshine of his
+prosperity--and his grandeur was enhanced in the eyes of his subjects,
+by the assumption of the highest prerogatives of Islam. Hitherto the
+princes of his line had contented themselves with the style of _Amirs
+of the Moslems,_ and _Beni-Kholaifah_ or "sons of the Khalifs;" but in
+929, "seeing the state of weakness and degradation to which the
+khalifate of the Beni-Abbas at Bagdad had been reduced," he no longer
+hesitated to adopt the titles of Imam and Khalif, with the appellation
+of An-nasir Ledinillah, (defender of the religion of God,) under which
+he is generally mentioned by historians.
+
+The writers from whom Al-Makkari has drawn his materials, exhaust
+their powers of language in panegyrics on the unrivaled magnificence
+of the court of Abdurrahman; which was thronged both by men of letters
+whom the distracted state of the East had driven thither for refuge,
+and by ambassadors, not only from the princes of Islam, but from "Hoto
+the king of the Alaman," (Otho the Great of Germany,) the king of
+France, and numerous other Christian potentates. The reception of
+these missions was usually signalized by a gorgeous display of the
+pomp of the court--and the ceremonial on the arrival in 949 of the
+envoys of Constantine VII. of Constantinople, is described at length
+from Ibn Hayyan. "The vaulted hall in his palace of Az-zahra, which he
+had fixed upon as the place where he would receive their credentials,
+was beautifully decorated, and a throne glittering with gold and
+sparkling with gems raised in the midst. To the right of the throne
+stood five of the khalif's sons, to the left three others, one being
+absent from illness. Next to them were the vizirs, each at his post on
+the right or left of the throne. Then came the hajibs or chamberlains,
+the sons of the vizirs, the freed slaves of the khalif, and the wakils
+or officers of his household. The court of the palace had been strewn
+with the richest carpets; and silken awnings of the most gorgeous
+description had every where been thrown over the doors and arches.
+Presently the ambassadors entered the hall, and were struck with awe
+at the magnificence displayed, and the power of the Sultan before whom
+they stood. They advanced a few steps, and presented the letter of
+their master, Constantine son of Leo, Lord of Constantinah the Great,
+(Constantinople.) It was written on sky-blue paper, and the characters
+were of gold. Within the letter was an enclosure, the ground of which
+was also sky-blue like the first, but the characters were of silver:
+it was likewise written in Greek, and contained a list of the presents
+which the Lord of Constantinah sent to the Khalif. On the letter was a
+seal of gold of the weight of four mithkals, on one side of which was
+a likeness of the Messiah, and on the other those of the King
+Constantine and his son. The letter was enclosed in a bag of silver
+cloth, over which was a case of gold, with a portrait of King
+Constantine admirably executed on stained glass. All this was enclosed
+in a case covered with cloth of silk and gold tissue. On the first
+line of the _Inwan_ or introduction was written, 'Constantine and
+Romanin, (Romanus,) believers in the Messiah, kings of the Greeks;'
+and in the next, 'To the great and exalted in dignity and power, as he
+most deserves, the noble in descent, Abdurrahman the khalif, who rules
+over the Arabs of Andalus: may God preserve his life!'" The conclusion
+of this splendid ceremony was, however, less imposing than the
+commencement; for a learned _Faquih_, who had been appointed to
+harangue the envoys in a set speech, was so overawed by the grandeur
+around him, that "his tongue clove to his mouth, he could not
+aticulate a single word, and fell senseless to the ground" Nor did his
+successor, "who was reputed to be a prince in rhetoric, and an ocean
+of language," fare much better; for though he began fluently, "all of
+a sudden he stopped for want of a word which did not occur to him, and
+thus put an end to his peroration." In this awkward dilemma, the
+reputation of the Andalusian rhetoricians was saved by Mundhir Ibn
+Said, who not only poured forth a torrent of impromptu eloquence, but
+delivered a long ex-tempore poem, "which to this day stands
+unequalled; and Abdurrahman was so pleased, that he appointed him
+preacher and Imam to the great mosque; and some time after, the office
+of Kadi-'l-jamah, or supreme judge, being vacant, he named him to that
+high post, and made him besides reader of the Khoran to the mosque of
+Az-zahra."
+
+The palace of Az-zahra, where the eyes of the Greeks were dazzled by
+this costly pageant, is one of the familiar names of the romance of
+Spanish history:--it is known to all the world how Abdurrahman, to
+gratify the capricious fancy of a beautiful and beloved mistress,
+expended millions, and tasked the labour of thousands, in erecting on
+the plain beyond Cordova a fairy palace and city which might bear her
+name and be her own. And like a fairy fabric did Az-zahra vanish; for
+so utterly was it destroyed, during the wars and civil tumults
+attending the fall of the race which raised it, that at the present
+day not a stone can be found, not a vestige even of the foundations
+traced, to show where it once stood; and all that we know of this
+"wondrous freak of magnificence" is drawn from the glowing accounts of
+contemporary writers, who saw it during the brief period of its glory.
+It is principally from Ibn Hayyan that Al-Makkari has copied the
+details of this marvellous structure, with its "15,000 doors, counting
+each flap or fold as one," all covered either with plates of iron, or
+sheets of polished brass; and its 4000 columns, great and small, 140
+of which were presented by the Emperor of Constantinople, and 1013,
+mostly of green and rose-coloured marble, were brought from various
+parts of Africa. Among the principal ornaments were two fountains
+brought from Constantinople, "the larger of gilt bronze, beautifully
+carved with basso-relieve representing human figures,"--the smaller
+surrounded by twelve figures, made of red gold in the arsenal of
+Cordova: they were all ornamented with jewels, and the water poured
+out of their mouths. The famous fountain of quicksilver, which could
+be set in motion at pleasure, was placed in the _Kasr-al-Kholaifa_, or
+hall of the khalifs, "the roof and walls of which were of gold, and
+solid but transparent blocks of marble of various colours: on each
+side were eight doors fixed on arches of ivory and ebony, ornamented
+with gold and precious stones, and resting on pillars of variegated
+marble and transparent crystal:--and in the centre was fixed the
+unique pearl presented to An-nassir by the Greek Emperor." The mosque
+and baths attached to the palace were on a corresponding scale of
+magnificence: and the number of inmates, male and female, is said to
+have been not less than 20,000. The expenses of the establishment must
+have consumed the revenues of a kingdom, if we are to believe the
+statement, that 12,000 loaves of bread were daily allowed to feed the
+fish in the ponds! "But all this and more is recorded by orators and
+poets who have exhausted the mines of eloquence in the description,"
+--says Al-Makkari, who, after enlarging upon "the running streams, the
+luxuriant gardens, the stately buildings for the accommodation of the
+guards and high functionaries--the throngs of soldiers, pages,
+eunuchs, and slaves, attired in robes of silk and brocade, moving to
+and fro through its broad streets--and the crowds of judges, katibs,
+theologians, and poets, walking with becoming gravity through the
+spacious halls and ample courts of the palace,"--concludes with a
+burst of pious enthusiasm. "Praise be to God who allowed those
+contemptible creatures (mankind) to build such palaces, and to inhabit
+them as a recompense in this world, that the faithful might be
+stimulated to the path of virtue, by reflecting that the pleasures
+enjoyed by their owners were still very far from giving even a remote
+idea of those reserved for the true believers in paradise!"
+
+"Abdurrahman," as Al-Makkari sums up his character, "has been
+described as the mildest and most enlightened of sovereigns. His
+meekness, generosity, and love of justice, became proverbial: none of
+his ancestors surpased him in courage, zeal for religion, and other
+virtues which constitute an able and beloved monarch. He was fond of
+science, and the patron of the learned, with whom he loved to
+converse.... We should never finish, were we to transcribe the
+innumerable anecdotes respecting him which are scattered like loose
+pearls over the writings of the Andalusian poets and historians,"--but
+as the "pearls" selected possess but little novelty in the
+illustration of the kingly virtues which they commemorate, we prefer
+to quote once more the oft-repeated legacy to posterity, in which this
+"Soliman of the West," as he was called by his contemporaries,
+confessed that, like his eastern prototype, he had found all his
+grandeur "but vanity and vexation of spirit."--"After his death a
+paper was found in his on handwriting, in which were noted those days
+he had spent in happiness and without any cause of sorrow, and they
+were found to amount to fourteen. O, man of understanding! consider
+and observe the small portion of happiness the world affords, even in
+the most enviable position! The khalif An-nasir, whose prosperity in
+mundane affairs became proverbial, had only fourteen days of
+undisturbed enjoyment during a reign of fifty years, seven months, and
+three days. Praise be given to him, the Lord of eternal glory and
+everlasting empire! There is no God but he!"
+
+In the fulness of years and glory, Abdurrahman died of a paralytic
+stroke at Az-zahra, on the second or third of Ramadhan, A.H. 350,
+(Oct. 961,) and was succeeded, according to his previous nomination,
+by his son Al-hakem II., who assumed on this occasion the title of
+Al-mustanser-billah, (one who implores God's assistance.) This prince
+has been characterized, by one of the ablest of recent historians,[20]
+as "one of those rare beings, who have employed the awful engine of
+despotism in promoting the happiness and intelligence of his species;"
+and who rivaled, "in his elegant tastes, appetite for knowledge, and
+munificent patronage, the best of the Medici:"--nor is this high
+praise undeserved. Though he more than once headed his armies in
+person, with success, against the Christians and Northmen, and
+maintained on public occasions the state and magnificence which had
+been introduced by his father, the toils of war and the pomp of
+royalty were alike alien to his inclinations, which had been directed
+from his earliest years to pursuits of literature and science. The
+library which he amassed is said by some writers to have amounted to
+the almost incredible number of 400,000 volumes: and such was his
+ardour in the collection of books, that even in Persia and other
+remote regions, the munificence which he exercised through agents
+employed for the purpose, secured him copies of forthcoming works even
+before their appearance in their own country. "He made Andalus a great
+market for the literary productions of every clime ... so that rich
+men in Cordova, however illiterate they might be, rewarded writers and
+poets with the greatest munificence, and spared neither trouble nor
+expense in forming libraries." Nor were these treasures of literature
+idly accumulated, at least by Al-hakem himself; for so vast and
+various was his reading, that there was scarcely one of his books (as
+we are assured by the historian Ibn'ul-Abbar) which was not enriched
+with remarks and annotations from his pen. "In the knowledge
+especially of history, biography, and genealogy, he was surpassed by
+no living author of his days: and he wrote a voluminous history of
+Andalus, in which was displayed such sound criticism, that whatever he
+related, as borrowed from more ancient sources, might be implicitly
+relied upon."
+
+    [20] Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, i. 351.
+
+The reign of Al-hakem was the Augustan age of Andalusian literature;
+and besides the numerous learned men whom the fame of his father's and
+his own liberality, with the security of their rule, had attracted to
+Spain from other regions of Islam, we find in the pages of Al-Makkari
+an extensive list of native authors, principally in the departments of
+poetry, history, and philology, who are said to be "a few only of the
+most eminent who flourished during this reign"--but none of their
+names, however noted in their own day, are known in modern Europe.
+Nor was the gentler sex, as is usually the case in the lands of Islam,
+excluded from the general taste for letters; and one of our author's
+chapters is almost entirely filled with a catalogue of the poetesses
+who adorned Andalus at this and other periods of its history. One of
+these, Mariam or Mary, the daughter of Abu-Yakub Al-ansari, who rose
+into celebrity in the latter years of Al-hakem, appears to have been
+one of the earliest _bas-bleus_ on record. Independent of her poetical
+talents, she gave lectures at her residence at Seville "in rhetoric
+and literature; which, united to her piety, virtue, and amiable
+disposition, gained her the affection of her sex, and procured her
+many pupils: she lived to old age, and died after the 400th year of
+the Hejra," (A.D. 1010.) The favourite study of the Moslems, the
+divinity and law of the Koran, was cultivated with especial zeal under
+a monarch who was himself a rigid observer of its ordinances; and
+various anecdotes are related by Al-Makkari of the extraordinary
+deference paid by Al-hakem to the eminent theologians who frequented
+his court. The Khalif himself "attended public worship every Friday,
+and distributed alms to the poor; he laid out large sums in the
+construction of mosques, hospitals, and colleges for youth;[21] and
+being himself very strict in the observance of his religious duties,
+he enforced the precepts of the _Sunnah_ (tradition) throughout his
+dominions." With this view, severe edicts were directed against the
+use of wine, which had become prevalent among the Andalusian Moslems;
+and Al-hakem was with difficulty restrained, by representations of the
+ruin which would be thus brought on the cultivators, from ordering the
+destruction of all the vines in his dominions. But the reign of this
+excellent and enlightened prince lasted only fifteen years; and at his
+death, (Sept. 976,) which was caused by the same malady that had
+proved fatal to his father, the glory of the house of Umeyyah expired.
+
+    [21] Eighty free schools are said by other authorities to have
+    existed or been founded during this reign in Cordova; the
+    number of dwelling-houses in which at the same time, great and
+    small, is stated at 200,000.
+
+The evils of a minority had never yet been experienced in the
+succession of the Umeyyan princes, all of whom had ascended the throne
+at a mature age, and with some experience of administration from their
+previous recognition as heir. But Hisham II., (surnamed
+Al-muyyed-billah, the assisted by God,) the only son of Al-hakem, was
+but nine years old at the time of his father's decease; and for some
+time the government was directed in his name by the Hajib, Jafar
+Al-Mushafi; but the influence of the queen-mother erelong succeeded in
+displacing this faithful minister, in favour of Mohammed Ibn Abu Amir,
+who then held the post of _sahib-ush-shortah_, or captain of the
+guard. This remarkable personage (better known in history by his
+surname of Al-mansur) was the son of a religious devotee, and his
+condition in early life was so humble, that he supported himself as a
+public letter-writer in the streets of Cordova; but an accident having
+introduced him into the palace, he so skilfully wound his way among
+the intigues of the court, as to attain the highest place next the
+throne. But even this dignity was far from satisfying his ambition.
+Under various pretexts he destroyed or drove into exile, within a few
+years, all the princes of the blood, and others whose influence or
+station might have endangered the success of his projects, and
+concentrated in his own hands all the powers of the state; while the
+khalif, secluded from public view within his palace, was as completely
+a puppet in the hands of his all-powerful minister, as the khalifs of
+Bagdad at the same period in those of the _Emirs-al-Omrah_. Secure of
+the support of the soldiery, whose affections he had gained by his
+liberality, Al-mansur so little affected to disguise his assumption of
+supremacy, that he ordered his own name to be struck on the coin, and
+repeated in the public prayers, along with that of Hisham, thus
+arrogating to himself a share in the two most inalienable prerogatives
+of sovereignty. His robes were made of a peculiar fashion and stuff
+appropriated to royalty; he received embassies seated on the throne,
+and declared peace and war in his own name. To such utter helplessness
+was the khalif reduced,[22] that he was unable even to oppose the
+removal of the royal treasure fiom Cordova to a fortified palace which
+Al-mansur had built for his residence, not far from Az-zahra, and had
+named, as if in mockery, Az-zahirah;--and the Hajib was at one time
+obliged to quiet the murmurs of the populace, who doubted whether
+their sovereign was still in existence, by leading him in procession
+through the streets of the capital; "and the eyes of the people
+feasted on what had been so long concealed from them."
+
+    [22] Some historians even speak of this period as the "dynasty
+    of the Amirites," from Al-mansur's father, Abn Amir.
+
+But this daring usurpation was in part redeemed by qualities in the
+usurper worthy of a king. Though the bigotry of Al-masur led him to
+order the destruction of those volumes in the library of Al-hakem
+which treated of philosophy and the abstruse sciences, on the ground
+that such studies tended to irreligion, he was yet liberal to the
+learned men who visited his court at Az-zahirah, where he resided in
+royal splendour during the intervals of his campaigns; and he endeared
+hinself to the people, by his generosity, his rigid justice, and the
+strict control which he enforced over his subordinate officers. But it
+was on his fervent zeal for the cause of Islam, and his martial
+exploits against the Christians, (whence his surname of _Al-mansur_,
+or _the Victorious_, was derived,) that his fame and popularity
+chiefly rested. The martial spirit of the Spanish Moslems appears,
+from various anecdotes related by Al-Makkari, to have suffered great
+deterioration from the progress of luxury and decay of discipline; but
+the armies led by Al-mansur were mainly recruited from the fiery
+tribes of Barbary, and strengthened by numerous Christian slaves or
+Mamlukes, trained to serve their captors in arms against their own
+countrymen. With forces thus constituted, did Al-mansur, in whom once
+more shone forth the spirit of the Arab conquerors of past times,
+invade the Christian territories in each spring and autumn for
+twenty-six successive years, carrying the Moslem arms in triumph even
+to the shores of the "Green Sea," (Atlantic Ocean,) and into regions
+which Tarik and Musa had never reached. Astorga and Leon, in spite of
+the efforts of Bermudo II. to save his capital, were taken and razed
+to the ground in 983. Barcelona only escaped the same fate in the
+following year by submission and tribute; but the crowning glory of
+Al-mansur's achievements in the _al-jahid_ or holy war, was the
+capture, in 997, Santiago, the shrine and sepulchre of the patron
+saint of Spain. "No Moslem general had ever penetrated as far as that
+city, which is in an inaccessible position in the most remote part of
+Galicia, and is a sanctuary regarded by the Christians with veneration
+equal to that which the Moslems entertain for the Kaaba,"--but
+Al-mansur, supplied with provisions from a fleet which accompanied his
+march along the coast of Portugal, forced his way through the Galician
+defiles, and occupied the holy city without opposition--all the
+inhabitants having fled, according to Ibn Hayyan, with the exception
+of an old monk who tended the tomb. The city and cathedral were
+leveled with the ground; the shrine alone was left untouched in the
+midst of the ruins, from the belief of the Moslems that St James was
+the brother of the Messiah--and the church-bells were conveyed on the
+shoulders of the captives to Cordova, where they were suspended as
+lamps in the great mosque, to commemorate the triumph of Islam in the
+principal seat of Christian worship and pilgrimage.
+
+Such was the depression produced among the Christians by these
+repeated disasters, that, if we may believe Al-Makkari, "one of
+Al-mansur's soldiers having left his banner fixed in the earth on a
+mountain before a Christian town, the garrison dared not come out for
+several days after the retreat of the Moslem army, not knowing what
+troops might be behind it." The pressing sense of common danger, at
+length extinguished ("for the first time perhaps," as Conde remarks)
+the feuds of the Christian princes; and in the spring of 1002 the
+united forces of the Count of Castile, Sancho the Great of Navarre,
+and the King of Leon, confronted the Moslem host at Kalat-an-nosor,[23]
+(the Castle of the Eagles,) on the frontiers of Old Castile. The
+mighty conflict which ensued is very briefly dismissed by
+Al-Makkari--"Al-mansur attacked and defeated them with great
+loss"--but a far different account is given by the Christian
+chroniclers, who represent the Moslems as only saved from a total
+overthrow by the approach of night. It seems, in truth, to have been
+nearly a drawn battle, with immense carnage on both sides; but the
+advantage was decidedly with the Christians, who retained possession
+of the field; while Al-mansur, weakened by the loss of great numbers
+of his best men and officers, abandoned his camp, and retreated the
+next day across the Douro. In all his fifty-two campaigns he is said
+never before to have been defeated; and the chagrin occasioned by this
+severe reverse, joined to a malady under which he was previously
+suffering, ended his life shortly after[24] at Medinah-Selim,
+(Medinaceli.) He was buried by his sons in the same place; the dust
+which had adhered to his garments in his campaigns against the
+Christians, and which had been carefully preserved for the purpose,
+being placed in the tomb with the corpse--a practice not unusual at
+the funeral of a celebrated warrior. "This enlightened and
+never-vanquished Hajib"--says Al-Makkali, with whom Al-mansur is a
+favourite hero--"used continually to ask God to permit him to die in
+his service and in war against the infidels, and thus his desire was
+granted;... and after his death, the Mohammedan empire in Andalus
+began to show visible signs of decay."
+
+    [23] The precise locality of this famous battle is not very
+    clearly ascertained; but Condé places it betveen Soria and
+    Medinaceli.
+
+    [24] The battle is placed by the Christian writers in 998; but
+    the death of Al-mansur, which both Christians and Moslems
+    agree in stating to have taken place within a very short time,
+    is said by the latter to have been A.M. 392, A.D. 1002.
+
+Al-mansur had a worthy successor in his son Abdul-malek, who at once
+received the appointment of Hajib from the passive Khalif:--but on his
+death in 1008, the post was assumed by his brother Abdurrahman,
+popularly known as Shanjul, a Berber word signifying _madman_--a
+surname which he had earned by his habits of low vice and
+intemperance. Scarcely had he entered upon office, when, not contented
+with exercising sovereign authority, like his father and brother,
+under an appearance of delegation from the Khalif, he persuaded or
+compelled the feeble Hisham, who had no male issue, to appoint him
+_Wali-al-ahd,_ or heir-presumptive--the deed of nomination is given at
+length by Al-Makkari, and is a curious specimen of a state-paper. But
+this transfer was viewed with deep indignation by the people of
+Cordova, who were warmly attached to the line of their ancient
+princes; and their discontent being fomented by the members of the
+Umeyyan family, they rose in furious revolt during the absence of the
+Hajib on the Galician frontiers, deposed Hisham, and raised to the
+throne Mohammed-Al-muhdi, a great-grandson of Abdurrahman III.
+Abdurrahman, returning in haste to quell the insurrection, found
+himself deserted by his army, and was put to death with most of his
+family and principal adherents; and the power of the Amirites vanished
+in a day like the remembrance of dream. But the sceptre which had thus
+been struck from their grasp, found no other hand strong enough to
+seize it; and from the first deposition of Hisham II. in 1009, to the
+final dissolution of the monarchy on the abdication of Hisham III. in
+1031, the whole of Moslem Spain presented a frightful scene of
+anarchy and civil war. Besides the imbecile Hisham, who was at least
+once released and restored to the throne, and was personated by more
+than one pretender, the royal title was assumed, within twenty years
+by not fewer than six princes of the house of Umeyyah, and by three of
+a rival race--a branch of the Edrisites called Beni-Hammud, who
+endeavoured in the general confusion to assert their claims as
+descendants of the Khalif Ali. The aid of the Christians was called in
+by more than one faction; and Cordova was stormed and sacked after a
+long siege in 1013, by the African troops who followed the standard of
+Soliman Ab-muhdi, one of the Umeyyan competitors. The palaces of
+Az-zahra and Az-zahirah were utterly destroyed; the remains of Hakem's
+library, with the treasures amassed by former sovereigns, were either
+plundered or dispersed; nor did the ancient capital of Audalus, no
+more the seat of the Khalifate, ever recover its former grandeur. The
+provincial _walis_, many of whom owed their appointments to the Hajibs
+of the house of Amir, and were disaffected to the Beni-Umeyyah, every
+where threw off their allegiance and assumed independence, till only
+the districts in its immediate vicinity remained attached to Cordova,
+which was still considered the seat of the Mohammedan empire. The last
+Umeyyan prince who ruled there was a grandson of the great
+Abdurrahman, named Hisham Al-Mutadd; whom the inhabitants, after
+expelling the troops of the Beni-Hammud in 1027, invited to ascend the
+throne of his ancestors. "He was a mild and enlightened prince and
+possessed many brilliant qualities; but notwithstanding this, the
+volatile and degenerate citizens of Cordova grew discontented with
+him, and he was deposed by the army in 422, (A.D. 1031.) He left the
+capital and retired to Lerida, where he died in 428, (A.D. 1036.) He
+was the last member of that illustrious dynasty which had ruled over
+Andalus and a great portion of Africa for two hundred and eighty-four
+years, counting from the accession of Abdurrahman I., surnamed
+Ab-dakhel, in 138, (A.D. 756.) There is no God but God! He is the
+Almighty!"
+
+The fall of the Umeyyan khalifate closes the first of the two
+brilliant periods which illustrate the Arab history of Spain. The
+uninterrupted hereditary succession for ten generations, and the long
+average duration of the reign of each monarch, from the arrival in
+Spain of Abdurrahman I. in 756, to the death or disappearance of
+Hisham II. in 1009, are without a parallel it any other Moslem
+dynasty, with the single exception of the Ottoman line; and though, on
+pursuing the comparison, the Umeyyan princes cannot vie with the
+last-named race in extent of conquest and splendour of martial
+achievement, they far surpass not only the Ottomans, but almost every
+sovereign family in the annals of Islam, in the cultivation of kingly
+virtues and arts of peace, and the refinement and love of literature,
+which they introduced and fostered in their dominions. During the
+greater part of their rule, the court of Cordova was the most polished
+and enlightened in Europe removed equally from the martial rudeness of
+those of the Frank monarchs, and the punctilious attention to forms
+and jealous etiquette, within which the Grcek emperors studiously
+intrenched themselves. The useful arts, and in particular the science
+of agriculture, necessary for the support of a dense population, were
+cultivated to an extent of which no other country afforded an example;
+and the commerce which filled the ports of Spain, from all parts of
+Europe and the East, was the natural result of the industry of her
+people. In how great a degree the personal character of the Umeyyan
+sovereigns contributed to this state of political and social
+prosperity, is best proved by the rapid disruption and fall of the
+monarchy, when it passed into the feeble hands of Hisham II., and by
+the history of the two following centuries of anarchy, civil war, and
+foreign domination. But the sun of Andalusian glory, which had
+attained its meridian splendour under the Khalifs of Cordova, once
+more emerged before the close of its course from the clouds and
+darkness which surrounded it;--and its setting rays shone, with
+concentrated lustre, over the kingdom of GRANADA.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.
+
+A FRAGMENT FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.
+
+
+"A capital place this for our bivouac!" cried I, swinging myself off
+my mule, and stretching my arms and legs, which were stiffened by a
+long ride.
+
+It _was_ a fairish place, to all appearances--a snug ravine, well
+shaded by mahogany-trees, the ground covered with the luxuriant
+vegetation of that tropical region, a little stream bubbling and
+leaping and dashing down one of the high rocks that flanked the
+hollow, and rippling away through the tall fern towards the rear of
+the spot where we had halted, at the distance of a hundred yards from
+which the ground was low and shelving.
+
+"A capital place this for our bivouac!"
+
+My companion nodded. As to our lazy Mexican _arrieros_ and servants,
+they said nothing, but began making arrangements for passing the
+night. Curse the fellows! If they had seen us preparing to lie down in
+a swamp, cheek by jowl with an alligator, I believe they would not
+have offered a word of remonstrance. Those Mexican half-breeds, half
+Indian half Spaniard, with sometimes a dash of the Negro, are
+themselves so little pervious to the dangers and evils of their soil
+and climate, that they never seem to remember that Yankee flesh and
+blood may be rather more susceptible; that niguas[25] and musquittoes,
+and _vomito prieto_, as they call their infernal fever, are no trifles
+to encounter; without mentioning the snakes, and scorpions, and
+alligators, and other creatures of the kind, which infest their
+strange, wild, unnatural, and yet beautiful country.
+
+    [25] The nigua is a small but very dangerous insect which
+    fixes itself in the feet, bores holes in the skin, and lays
+    its eggs there. These, if not extracted, (which extraction by
+    the by is a most painful operation) cause first an intolerable
+    itching, and subsequently sores and ulcers of a sufficiently
+    serious nature to entail the loss of the feet.
+
+I had come to Mexico in company with Jonathan Rowley, a youth of
+Virginian raising, six and twenty years of age, six feet two in his
+stockings, with the limbs of a Hercules and shoulders like the side of
+a house. It was towards the close of 1824; and the recent emancipation
+of Mexico from the Spanish yoke, and its self-formation into a
+republic, had given it a new and strong interest to us Americans. We
+had been told much, too, of the beauty of the country--but in this we
+were at first rather disappointed; and we reached the capital without
+having seen any thing, except some parts of the province of Vera Cruz,
+that could justify the extravagant encomiums we had heard bestowed in
+the States upon the splendid scenery of Mexico. We had not, however,
+to go far southward from the chief city, before the character of the
+country altered, and became such as to satisfy our most sanguine
+expectations. Forests of palms, of oranges, citrons, and bananas,
+filled the valleys: the marshes and low grounds were crowded with
+mahogany-trees, and with immense fern plants, in height equal to
+trees. All nature was on a gigantic scale--the mountains of an
+enormous height, the face of the country seamed and split by
+_barrancas_ or ravines, hundreds, ay, thousands of feet deep, and
+filled with the most abundant and varied vegetation. The sky, too, was
+of the deep glowing blue of the tropics, the sort of blue which seems
+varnished or clouded with gold. But this ardent climate and teeming
+soil are not without their disadvantages. Vermin and reptiles of all
+kinds, and the deadly fever of these latitudes, render the low lands
+uninhabitable for eight months out of the twelve. At the same time
+there are large districts which are comparatively free from these
+plagues--perfect gardens of Eden, of such extreme beauty that the mere
+act of living and breathing amongst their enchanting scenes, becomes a
+positive and real enjoyment. The heart seems to leap with delight, and
+the soul to be elevated, by the contemplation of those regions of
+fairy-like magnificence.
+
+The most celebrated among these favoured provinces is the valley of
+Oaxaca, in which two mountainous districts, the Mistecca and
+Tzapoteca, bear off the palm of beauty. It was through this immense
+valley, nearly three hundred leagues in length, and surrounded by the
+highest mountains in Mexico, that we were now journeying. The kind
+attention of our chargé-d'affaires at the Mexican capital, had
+procured us every possible facility in travelling through a country,
+of which the soil was at that time rarely trodden by any but native
+feet. We had numerous letters to the alcaldes and authorities of the
+towns and villages which are sparingly sprinkled over the southern
+provinces of Mexico; we were to have escorts when necessary; every
+assistance, protection, and facility, were to be afforded us. But as
+neither the authorities nor his excellency, Uncle Sam's envoy, could
+make inns and houses where none existed, it followed that we were
+often obliged to sleep _à la belle étoile_, with the sky for a
+covering. And a right splendid roof it was to our bedchamber, that
+tropical sky, with its constellations, all new to us northerns, and
+every star magnified by the effect of the atmosphere to an incredible
+size. Mars and Saturn, Venus and Jupiter, had all disappeared; the
+great and little Bear were still to be seen; in the far distance the
+ship Argo and the glowing Centaur; and, beautiful above all, the
+glorious sign of Christianity the colossal Southern Cross, in all its
+brightness and sublimity, glittering in silvery magnificence out of
+its setting of dark blue crystal.
+
+We were travelling with a state and a degree of luxury that would have
+excited the contempt of our backwoodsmen; but in a strange country we
+thought it best to do as the natives did; and accordingly, instead of
+mounting our horses and setting forth alone, with our rifles slung
+over our shoulders, and a few handfuls of parched corn and dried flesh
+in our hunting pouches, we journeyed Mexican fashion, with a whole
+string of mules, a _topith_ or guide, a couple of _arrieros_ or
+muleteers, a cook, and one or two other attendants. While the latter
+were slinging our hammocks to the lowermost branches of a tree--for in
+that part of Mexico it is not very safe to sleep upon the ground, on
+account of the snakes and vermin--our _cocinero_ lit a fire against
+the rock, and in a very few minutes an iguana which we had shot that
+day was spitted and roasting before it. It looked strange to see this
+hideous creature, in shape between a lizard and a dragon, twisting and
+turning in the light of the fire; and its disgusting appearance might
+have taken away some people's appetites; but we knew by experience
+that there is no better eating than a roasted iguana. We made a hearty
+meal off this one, concluding it with a pull at the rum flask, and
+then clambered into our hammocks; the Mexicans stretched themselves on
+the ground with their heads upon the saddles of the mules, and both
+masters and men were soon asleep.
+
+It was somewhere about midnight when I was awakened by an
+indescribable sensation of oppression from the surrounding atmosphere.
+The air seemed to be no longer air, but some poisonous exhalation that
+had suddenly arisen and enveloped us. From the rear of the ravine in
+which we lay, billows of dark mephitic mist were rolling forward,
+surrounding us with their baleful influence. It was the _vomito
+prieto_, the fever itself, embodied in the shape of a fog. At the same
+moment, and while I was gasping for breath, a sort of cloud seemed to
+settle upon me, and a thousand stings, like redhot needles, were run
+into my hands, face, neck--into every part of my limbs and body that
+was not triply guarded by clothing. I instinctively stretched forth my
+hands and closed them, clutching by the action hundreds of enormous
+musquittoes, whose droning, singing noise how almost deafened me. The
+air was literally filled by a dense swarm of these insects; and the
+agony caused by their repeated and venomous stings was indescribable.
+It was a perfect plague of Egypt.
+
+Rowley, whose hammock was slung some ten yards from mine, soon gave
+tongue: I heard him kicking and plunging, spluttering and swearing,
+with a vigour and energy that would have been ludicrous under any
+other circumstances; but matters were just then too serious for a
+laugh. With the torture, for such it was, of the musquitto bites, and
+the effect of the insidious and poisonous vapours that were each
+moment thickening around me, I was already in a high state of fever,
+alternately glowing with heat and shivering with cold, my tongue
+parched, my eyelids throbbing, my brain seemingly on fire.
+
+There was a heavy thump upon the ground. It was Rowley jumping out of
+his hammock. "Damnation" roared he, "Where are we? On the earth, or
+under the earth?--We must be--we are--in their Mexican purgatory. We
+are, or there's no snakes in Virginny. Hallo, arrieros! Pablo!
+Matteo!"
+
+At that moment a scream--but a scream of such terror and anguish as I
+never heard before or since--a scream as of women in their hour of
+agony and extreme peril, sounded within a few paces of us. I sprang
+out of my hammock; and as I did so, two white and graceful female
+figures darted or rather flew by me, shrieking--and oh! in what
+heart-rending tones--for "_Socorro! Socorro! Por Dios_! Help! Help!"
+Close upon the heels of the fugitives, bounding and leaping along with
+enormous strides and springs, came three or four dark objects which
+resembled nothing earthly. The human form they certainly possessed;
+but so hideous and horrible, so unnatural and spectre-like was their
+aspect, that their sudden encounter in that gloomy ravine, and in the
+almost darkness that surrounded us, might well have shaken the
+strongest nerves. We stood for a second, Rowley and myself, paralysed
+with astonishment at these strange appearances; but another piercing
+scream restored to us our presence of mind. One of the women had
+either tripped or fallen from fatigue, and she lay a white heap, upon
+the ground. The drapery of the other was in the clutch of one of the
+spectres, or devils, or whatever they were, when Rowley, with a cry of
+horror, rushed forward and struck a furious blow at the monster with
+his _machetto_. At the same time, and almost without knowing how, I
+found myself engaged with another of the creatures. But the contest
+was no equal one. In vain did we stab and strike with our machettos;
+our antagonists were covered and defended with a hard bristly hide,
+which our knives, although keen and pointed, had great difficulty in
+penetrating; and on the other hand we found ourselves clutched in long
+sinewy arms, terminating in hands and fingers, of which the nails were
+as sharp and strong as an eagle's talons. I felt these horrible claws
+strike into my shoulders as the creature seized me, and, drawing me
+towards him, pressed me as in the hug of a bear; while his hideous
+half man half brute visage was grinning and snarling at me, and his
+long keen white teeth were snapping and gnashing within six inches of
+my face.
+
+"God of heaven! This is horrible! Rowley! Help me!"
+
+But Rowley, in spite of his gigantic strength, was powerless as an
+infant in the grasp of these terrible opponents. He was within a few
+paces of me, struggling with two of them, and making superhuman
+efforts to regain possession of his knife, which had dropped or been
+wrenched from his hand. And all this time, where were our arrieros?
+Were they attacked likewise? Why didn't they come and help us? All
+this time!--pshaw! it was no time: it all passed in the space of a few
+seconds, in the circumference of a few yards, and in the feeble
+glimmering light of the stars, and of the smouldering embers of our
+fire, which was at some distance from us.
+
+"Ha! That has told!" A stab, dealt with all the energy of despair, had
+entered my antagonist's side. But I was like to pay dearly for it.
+Uttering a deafening yell of pain and fury, the monster clasped me
+closer to his foul and loathsome body; his sharp claws, dug deeper
+into my back, seemed to tear up my flesh: the agony was
+insupportable--my eyes began to swim, and my senses to leave me. Just
+then--Crack! crack! Two--four--a dozen musket and pistol shots,
+followed by such a chorus of yellings and howlings and unearthly
+laughter! The creature that held me seemed startled--relaxed his grasp
+slightly. At that moment a dark arm was passed before my face, there
+was a blinding flash, a yell, and I fell to the ground released from
+the clutch of my opponent. I remember nothing more. Overcome by pain,
+fatigue, terror, and the noxious vapors of that vile ravine, my senses
+abandoned me, and I swooned away.
+
+When consciousness returned, I found myself lying upon some blankets,
+under a sort of arbour of foliage and flowers. It was broad day; the
+sun shone brightly, the blossoms smelled sweet, the gay-plumaged
+hummingbirds were darting and shooting about in the sunbeams like so
+many animated fragments of a prism. A Mexican Indian, standing beside
+my couch, and whose face was unknown to me, held out a cocoa-nutshell
+containing some liquid, which I eagerly seized, and drank off the
+contents. The draught (it was a mixture of citron juice and water)
+revived me greatly; and raising myself on my elbow, although with much
+pain and difficulty, I looked around, and beheld a scene of bustle and
+life which to me was quite unintelligible. Upon the shelving hillside
+on which I was lying, a sort of encampment was established. A number
+of mules and horses were wandering about at liberty, or fastened to
+trees and bushes, and eating the forage that had been collected and
+laid before them. Some were provided with handsome and commodious
+saddles, while others had pack-saddles, intended apparently for the
+conveyance of numerous sacks, cases, and wallets, that were scattered
+about on the ground. Several muskets and rifles were leaning here and
+there against the trees; and a dozen or fifteen men were occupied in
+various ways--some filling up saddle-bags or fastening luggage on the
+mules, others lying on the ground smoking, one party surrounding a
+fire at which cooking was going on. At a short distance from my bed
+was another similarly composed couch, occupied by a man muffled up in
+blankets, and having his back turned towards me, so that I was unable
+to obtain a view of his features.
+
+"What is all this? Where am I? Where is Rowley--our guide--where are
+they all?"
+
+"_Non entiendo_," answered my brown-visaged Ganymede, shaking his
+head, and with a good-humoured smile.
+
+"_Adonde estamos?_"
+
+"_In el valle de Chihuatan, in el gran valle de Oaxaca y Guatimala;
+diez leguas de Tarifa_. In the valley of Chihuatan; ten leagues from
+Tarifa."
+
+The figure lying on the bed near me now made a movement, and turned
+round. What could it be? Its face was like a lump of raw flesh
+streaked and stained with blood. No features were distinguishable.
+
+"Who are you? What are you?" cried I.
+
+"Rowley," it answered: "Rowley I was, at least, if those devils
+haven't changed me."
+
+"Then changed you they have," cried I, with a wild laugh. "Good God!
+have they scalped him alive, or what? That is not Rowley."
+
+The Mexican, who had gone to give some drink to the creature claiming
+to be Rowley, now opened a valise that lay on the ground a short
+distance off, and took out a small looking-glass, which he brought and
+held before my face. It was then only that I began to call to mind all
+that had occurred, and understood how it was that the mask of human
+flesh lying near me might indeed be Rowley. He was, if any thing, less
+altered than myself. My eyes were almost closed; my lips, nose, and
+whole face swollen to an immense size, and perfectly unrecognisable. I
+involuntarily recoiled in dismay and disgust at my own appearance. The
+horrible night passed in the ravine, the foul and suffocating vapours,
+the furious attack of the musquittoes--the bites of which, and the
+consequent fever and inflammation, had thus disfigured us--all
+recurred to our memory. But the women, the fight with the
+monsters--beasts--Indians--whatever they were, that was still
+incomprehensible. It was no dream: my back and shoulders were still
+smarting from the wounds that had been inflicted on them by the claws
+of those creatures, and I now felt that various parts of my limbs and
+body were swathed in wet bandages. I was mustering my Spanish to ask
+the Mexican who still stood by me for an explanation of all this, when
+I suddenly became aware of a great bustle in the encampment, and saw
+every body crowding to meet a number of persons who just then emerged
+from the high fern, and amongst whom I recognized our arrieros and
+servants. The new-comers were grouped around something which they
+seemed to be dragging along the ground; several women--for the most
+part young and graceful creatures, their slender supple forms muffled
+in the flowing picturesque _reboxos_ and _frazadas_--preceded the
+party, looking back occasionally with an expression of mingled horror
+and triumph; all with rosaries in their hands, the beads of which ran
+rapidly through their fingers, while they occasionally kissed the
+cross, or made the sign on their breasts or in the air.
+
+"_Un Zambo muerto! Un Zambo Muerto!_" shouted they as they drew near.
+
+"_Han matado un Zambo!_ They have killed a Zambo!" repeated my
+attendant in a tone of exultation.
+
+The party came close up to where Rowley and I were lying; the women
+stood aside, jumping and laughing, and crossing themselves, and crying
+out "_Un Zambo! Un Zambo Muerto!_" the group opened, and we saw, lying
+dead upon the ground, one of our horrible antagonists of the preceding
+night.
+
+"Good God, what is that?" cried Rowley and I, with one breath. "_Un
+demonio!_ a devil!"
+
+"_Perdonen vos, Senores--Un Zambo mono--muy terribles los Zambos._
+Terrible monkeys these Zambos."
+
+"Monkeys!" cried I.
+
+"Monkeys!" repeated poor Rowley, raising himself up into a sitting
+posture by the help of his hands. "Monkeys--apes--by Jove! We've been
+fighting with monkeys, and it's they who have mauled us in this way.
+Well, Jonathan Rowley, think of your coming from old Virginny to
+Mexico to be whipped by a monkey. It's gone goose with _your_
+character. You can never show your face in the States again. Whipped
+by an ape!--an ape, with a tail and a hairy--O Lord! Whipped by a
+monkey!"
+
+And the ludicrousness of the notion overcoming his mortification, and
+the pain of his wounds and bites, he sank back upon the bed of
+blankets and banana leaves, laughing as well as his swollen face and
+sausage-looking lips would allow him.
+
+It was as much as I could do to persuade myself, that the carcass
+lying before me had never been inhabited by a human soul. It was
+humiliating to behold the close affinity between this huge ape and our
+own species. Had it not been for the tail, I could have fancied I saw
+the dead body of some prairie hunter dressed in skins. It was exactly
+like a powerful, well-grown man; and even the expression of the face
+had more of bad human passions than of animal instinct. The feet and
+thighs were those of a muscular man: the legs rather too curved and
+calfless, though I have seen Negroes who had scarcely better ones; the
+tendons of the hands stood out like whipcords; the nails were as long
+as a tiger's claws. No wonder that we had been overmatched in our
+struggle with the brutes. No man could have withstood them. The arms
+of this one were like packets of cordage, all muscle, nerve, and
+sinew; and the hands were clasped together with such force, that the
+efforts of eight or ten Mexicans and Indians were insufficient to
+disunite them.
+
+Whatever remained to be cleared up in our night's adventures was now
+soon explained. Our guide, through ignorance or thoughtlessness, had
+allowed us to take up our bivouac within a very unsafe distance of one
+of the most pestiferous swamps in the whole province. Shortly after we
+had fallen asleep, a party of Mexican travellers had arrived, and
+established themselves within a few hundred yards of us, but on a
+rising ground, where they avoided the mephitic vapours and the
+musquittoes which had so tortured Rowley and myself. In the night two
+of the women, having ventured a short distance from the encampment,
+were surprised by the zambos, or huge man-apes, common in some parts
+of Southern Mexico; and finding themselves cut off from their
+friends, had fled they knew not whither, fortunately for them taking
+the direction of our bivouac. Their screams, our shouts, and the
+yellings and diabolical laughter of the zambos, had brought the
+Mexicans to our assistance. The monkeys showed no fight after the
+first volley; several of then must have been wounded, but only the one
+now lying before us had remained upon the field.
+
+The Mexicans we had fallen amongst were on the Tzapoteca, principally
+cochineal gatherers, and kinder-hearted people there could not well
+be. They seemed to think they never could do enough for us; the women
+especially, and more particularly the two whom we had endeavoured to
+rescue from the power of the apes. These latter certainly had cause to
+be grateful. It made us shudder to think of their fate had they not
+met with us. It was the delay caused by our attacking the brutes that
+had given the Mexicans time to come up.
+
+Every attention was shown to us. We were fanned with palm leaves,
+refreshed with cooling drinks, our wounds carefully dressed and
+bandaged, our heated, irritated, musquitto-bitten limbs and faces
+washed with balsam and the juice of herbs: more tender and careful
+nurses it would be impossible to find. We soon began to feel better,
+and were able to sit up and look about us; carefully avoiding,
+however, to look at each other, for we could not get reconciled to the
+horrible appearance of our swollen, bloody, and disgusting features.
+From our position on the rising ground, we had a full view over the
+frightful swamp at the entrance of which all our misfortunes had
+happened. There it lay, steaming like a great kettle; endless mists
+rising from it, out of which appeared here and there the crown of some
+mighty tree towering above the banks of vapour. To the left, cliffs
+and crags were to be seen which had the appearance of being baseless,
+and of swimming on the top of the mist. The vultures and carrion-birds
+circled screaming above the huge caldron, or perched on the tops of
+the tall palms, which looked like enormous umbrellas, or like the
+roofs of Chinese summer-houses. Out of the swamp itself proceeded the
+yellings, snarlings, and growlings of the alligators, bull-frogs, and
+myriads of unclean beasts that it harboured.
+
+The air was unusually sultry and oppressive: from time to time the
+rolling of distant thunder was audible. We could hear the Mexicans
+consulting amongst themselves as to the propriety of continuing their
+journey, to which our suffering state seemed to be the chief obstacle.
+From what we could collect of their discourse, they were unwilling to
+leave us in this dangerous district, and in our helpless condition,
+with a guide and attendants who were either untrustworthy or totally
+incompetent to lead us aright. Yet there seemed to be some pressing
+necessity for continuing the march; and presently some of the older
+Mexicans, who appeared to have the direction of the caravan, came up
+to us and enquired how we felt, and if we thought we were able to
+travel; adding, that from the signs on the earth and in the air, they
+feared a storm, and that the nearest habitation or shelter was at many
+leagues' distance. Thanks to the remedies that had been applied, our
+sufferings were much diminished. We felt weak and hungry, and telling
+the Mexicans we should be ready to proceed in half an hour, we desired
+our servants to get us something to eat. But our new friends
+forestalled them, and brought us a large piece of iguana, with roasted
+bananas, and cocoa-nutshell cups full of coffee, to all of which
+Rowley and I applied ourselves with much gusto. Meanwhile our
+muleteers and the Tzapotecans were busy packing their beasts and
+making ready for the start.
+
+We had not eaten a dozen mouthfuls when we say a man running down the
+hill with a branch in each hand. As soon as he appeared, a number of
+the Mexicans left their occupations and hurried to meet him.
+
+"_Siete horas!_" shouted the man. "Seven hours, and no more!"
+
+"No more than seven hours!" echoed the Tzapotecans, in tones of the
+wildest terror and alarm. "_La Santissima nos guarde!_ It will take
+more than ten to reach the village."
+
+"What's all that about?" said I with my mouth full, to Rowley.
+
+"Don't know--some of their Indian tricks, I suppose."
+
+"_Que es esto_?" asked I carelessly. "What's the matter?"
+
+"_Que es esto_!" repeated an old Tzapotecan, with long grey hair
+curling from under his _sombrero_, and a withered but finely marked
+countenance. "_Las aguas! El ouracan!_ In seven hours the deluge and
+the hurricane!"
+
+"_Vamos, por la Santissima!_ For the blessed Virgin's sake let us be
+gone!" cried a dozen of the Mexicans, pushing two green boughs into
+our very faces.
+
+"What are those branches?"
+
+"From the tempest-tree--the prophet of the storm," was the reply.
+
+And Tzapotecans and women, arrieros and servants, ran about in the
+utmost terror and confusion, with cries of "_Vamos, paso redoblado_!
+Off with us, or we are all lost, man and beast," and saddling,
+packing, and scrambling on their mules. And before Rowley and I knew
+where we were, they tore us away from our iguana and coffee, and
+hoisted and pushed us into our saddles. Such a scene of bustle and
+desperate hurry I never beheld. The place where the encampment had
+been was alive with men and women, horses and mules, shouting,
+shrieking and talking, neighing and kicking; but with all the
+confusion there was little time lost, and in less than three minutes
+from the first alarm being given, we were scampering away over stock
+and stone, in a long, wild, irregular sort of train.
+
+The rapidity and excitement of our ride seemed to have the effect of
+calming our various sufferings, or of making us forget them; and we
+soon thought no more of the fever, or of stings or musquitto bites. It
+was a ride for life or death, and our horses stepped out as if they
+knew how much depended on their exertions.
+
+In the hurry and confusion we had been mounted on horses instead of
+our our own mules; and splendid animals they were. I doubt if our
+Virginians could beat them, and that is saying a great deal. There was
+no effort or straining in their movements; it seemed mere play to them
+to surmount the numerous difficulties we encountered on our road. Over
+mountain and valley, swamp and barranca, always the same steady
+surefootedness--crawling like cats over the soft places, gliding like
+snakes up the steep rocky ascents, and stretching out with prodigious
+energy when the ground was favourable; yet with such easy action that
+we scarcely felt the motion. We should have sat in the roomy Spanish
+saddles as comfortably as in arm-chairs, had it not been for the
+numerous obstacles in our path, which was strewed with fallen trees
+and masses of rock. We were obliged to be perpetually stooping and
+bowing our heads to avoid the creeping plants that swung and twined
+and twisted across the track, intermingled often with huge thorns as
+long as a man's arm. These latter stuck out from the trees on which
+they grew like so many brown bayonets; and a man who had run up
+against one of them, would have been transfixed by it as surely as
+though it had been of steel. We pushed on, however, in Indian file,
+following the two guides, who kept at the head of the party, and
+making our way through places where a wild-cat would have difficulty
+in passing; through thickets of mangroves, mimosas, and tall fern, and
+cactuses with their thorny leaves full twenty feet long; the path
+turning and winding all the while. Now and then a momentary
+improvement in the nature of the ground enabled us to catch a glimpse
+of the whole column of march. We were struck by its picturesque
+appearance, the guides in front acting as pioneers, and looking out on
+all sides as cautiously and anxiously as though they had been soldiers
+expecting an ambuscade; the graceful forms of the women bowing and
+bending over their horses' manes, and often leaving fragments of their
+mantillas and rebozas on the branches and thorns of the labyrinth
+through which we were struggling. But it was no time to indulge in
+contemplation of the picturesque, and of this we were constantly made
+aware by the anxious vociferations of the Mexicans. "_Vamos! Por Dios,
+vamos!_" cried they, if the slightest symptom of flagging became
+visible in the movements of any one of the party; and at the words,
+our horses, as though gifted with understanding, pushed forward with
+renewed vigour and alacrity.
+
+On we went--up hill and down, in the depths of the valley and over the
+soft fetid swamp. That valley of Oaxaca has just as much right to be
+called a valley as our Alleghanies would have to be called bottoms. In
+the States we should call it a chain of mountains. Out of it rise at
+every step hills a good two thousand feet above the level of the
+valley, and four or five thousand above that of the sea; but these are
+lost sight of, and become flat ground by the force of comparison; that
+is, when compared with the gigantic mountains that surround the valley
+on all sides like a frame. And what a splendid frame they do compose,
+those colossal mountains, in their rich variety of form and colouring!
+here shining out like molten gold, there changing to a dark bronze;
+covered lower down with various shades of green, and with the crimson
+and purple, and violet and bright yellow, and azure and dazzling
+white, of the millions of paulinias and convolvoluses and other
+flowering plants, from amongst which rise the stately palm-trees, full
+a hundred feet high, their majestic green turbans towering like
+sultans' heads above the luxuriance of the surrounding flower and
+vegetable world. Then the mahogany-trees, the chicozapotes, and again
+in the barrancas the candelabra-like cactuses, and higher up the
+knotted and majestic live oak. An incessant change of plants, trees,
+and climate. We had been five hours in the saddle, and had already
+changed our climate three times; passed from the temperate zone, the
+_tierra templada_, into the torrid heat of the _tierra muy caliente_.
+It was in the latter temperature that we found ourselves at the
+expiration of the above-named time, dripping with perspiration,
+roasting and stewing in the heat. We were surrounded by a new world of
+plants and animals. The borax and mangroves and fern were here as
+lofty as forest-trees, whilst the trees themselves shot up like church
+steeples. In the thickets around us were numbers of black tigers--we
+saw dozens of those cowardly sneaking beasts--iguanas full three feet
+long, squirrels double the size of any we had ever seen, and panthers,
+and wild pigs, and jackals, and apes and monkeys of every tribe and
+description, who threatened and grinned and chattered at us from the
+branches of the trees. But what is that yonder to the right, that
+stands out so white against the dark blue sky and the bronze-coloured
+rocks? A town--Quidricovi, d'ye call it?
+
+We had now ridden a good five or six leagues, and begun to think we
+had escaped the _aguas_ or deluge, of which the prospect had so
+terrified our friends the Tzapotecans. Rowley calculated, as he went
+puffing and grumbling along, that it wouldn't do any harm to let our
+beasts draw breath for a minute or two. The scrambling and constant
+change of pace rendered necessary by the nature of the road, or rather
+track, that we followed, was certainly dreadfully fatiguing both to
+man and beast. As for conversation it was out of the question. We had
+plenty to do to avoid getting our necks broken, or our teeth knocked
+out, as we struggled along, up and down barrancas, through marshes and
+thickets, over rocks and fallen trees, and through mimosas and bushes
+laced and twined together with thorns and creeping plants--all of
+which would have been beautiful in a picture, but was most infernally
+unpoetical in reality.
+
+"_Vamos! Por la Santissima Madre, vamos!_" yelled our guides, and the
+cry was taken up by the Mexicans, in a shrill wild tone that jarred
+strangely upon our ears, and made the horses start and strain forward.
+Hurra! on we go, through thorns and bushes, which scratch and flog us,
+and tear our clothes to rags. We shall be naked if this lasts long. It
+is a regular race. In front the two guides, stooping, nodding, bowing,
+crouching down, first to one side, then to the other, like a couple of
+mandarins or Indian idols--behind them a Tzapotecan in his picturesque
+capa, then the women, then more Tzapotecans. There is little thought
+about precedence or ceremony; and Rowley and I, having been in the
+least hurry to start, find ourselves bringing up the rear of the whole
+column.
+
+"_Vamos! Por la Santissima! Las aguas, las aguas!_" is again yelled by
+twenty voices. Hang the fools! Can't they be quiet with their eternal
+_vamos_? We can have barely two leagues more to go to reach the
+_rancho_, or village, they were talking of, and appearances are not as
+yet very alarming. It is getting rather thick to be sure; but that's
+nothing, only the exhalations from the swamp, for we are again
+approaching one of those cursed swamps, and can hear the music of the
+alligators and bullfrogs. There they are, the beauties; a couple of
+them are taking a peep at us, sticking their elegant heads and long
+delicate snouts out of the slime and mud. The neighbourhood is none of
+the best; but luckily the path is firm and good, carefully made,
+evidently by Indian hands. None but Indians could live and labour and
+travel habitually, in such a pestilential atmosphere. Thank God! we
+are out of it at last. Again on firm forest ground, amidst the
+magnificent monotony of the eternal palms and mahogany-trees. But--see
+there!
+
+A new and surpassingly beautiful landscape burst suddenly upon our
+view, seeming to dance in the transparent atmosphere. On either side
+mountains, those on the left in deep shadow, those on the right
+standing forth like colossal figures of light, in a beauty and
+splendour that seemed really supernatural, every tree, every branch
+shining in its own vivid and glorious colouring. There lay the valley
+in its tropical luxuriance and beauty, one sheet of bloom and blossom
+up to the topmost crown of the palm-trees, that shot up, some of them,
+a hundred and fifty and a hundred and eighty feet high. Thousands and
+millions of convolvoluses, paulinias, bignonias, dendrobiums, climbing
+from the fern to the tree trunks, from the trunks to the branches and
+summits of the trees, and thence again falling gracefully down, and
+catching and clinging to the mangroves and blocks of granite. It burst
+upon us like a scene of enchantment, as we emerged from the darkness
+of the forest into the dazzling light and colouring of that glorious
+valley.
+
+"_Misericordia, misericordia! Audi nos peccadores! Misericordia, las
+aquas!_" suddenly screamed and exclaimed the Mexicans in various
+intonations of terror and despair. We looked around us. What can be
+the matter? We see nothing. Nothing, except that from just behind
+those two mountains, which project like mighty promontories into the
+valley, a cloud is beginning to rise. "What is it? What is wrong?" A
+dozen voices answered us--
+
+"_Por la Santa Virgen_, for the holy Virgin's sake, on, on! _No hay
+tiempo para hablar_. We have still two leagues to go, and in one hour
+comes the flood."
+
+And they recommenced their howling, yelling chorus of "_Misericordia!
+Audi nos peccadores!_" and "_Santissima Virgen_, and _Todos santos y
+angeles!_"
+
+"Are the fellows mad?" shouted Rowley, "What if the water does come?
+It won't swallow you. A ducking more or less is no such great matter.
+You are not made of sugar or salt. Many's the drenching I've had in
+the States, and none the worse for it. Yet our rains are no child's
+play neither."
+
+On looking round us, however, we were involuntarily struck with the
+sudden change in the appearance of the heavens. The usual golden black
+blue colour of the sky was gone, and had been replaced by a dull
+gloomy grey. The quality of the air appeared also to have changed; it
+was neither very warm nor very cold, but it had lost its lightness and
+elasticity, and seemed to oppress and weigh us down. Presently we saw
+the dark cloud rise gradually from behind the hills, completely
+clearing their summits, and then sweeping along until it hung over the
+valley, in form and appearance like some monstrous night-moth, resting
+the tips of its enormous wings on the mountains on either side. To our
+right we still saw the roofs and walls of Quidricovi, apparently at a
+very short distance.
+
+"Why not go to Quidricovi?" shouted I to the guides, "we cannot be far
+off."
+
+"More than five leagues," answered the men, shaking their heads and
+looking up anxiously at the huge moth, which was still creeping and
+crawling on, each moment darker and more threatening. It was like
+some frightful monster, or the fabled Kraken, working itself along by
+its claws, which were struck deep into the mountain-wall on either
+side of its line of progress, and casting its hideous shadow over hill
+and dale, forest and valley, clothing them in gloom and darkness. To
+our right hand and behind us, the mountains were still of a glowing
+golden red, lighted up by the sun, but to the left and in our front
+all was black and dark. With the same glance we beheld the deepest
+gloom and the brightest day, meeting each other but not mingling. It
+was a strange and ominous sight.
+
+Ominous enough; and the brute creation seem to feel it so as well as
+ourselves. The chattering parrots, the hopping, gibbering, quarrelsome
+apes, all the birds and beasts, scream and cry and flutter and spring
+about, as though seeking a refuge from some impending danger. Even our
+horses begin to tremble and groan--refuse to go on, start and snort.
+The whole animal world is in commotion, as if seized with an
+overwhelming panic. The forest is teeming with inhabitants. Whence
+come they, all these living things? On every side is heard the howling
+and snarling of beasts, the frightened cries and chirpings of birds.
+The vultures and turkey-buzzards, that a few minutes before were
+circling high in the air, are now screaming amidst the branches of the
+mahogany-trees; every creature that has life is running, scampering,
+flying--apes and tigers, birds and creeping things.
+
+"_Vamos, por la Santissima!_ On! or we are all lost."
+
+And we ride, we rush along--neither masses of rock, nor fallen trees,
+nor thorns and brambles, check our wild career. Over every thing we
+go, leaping, scrambling, plunging, riding like desperate men, flying
+from a danger of which the nature is not clearly defined, but which we
+feel to be great and imminent. It is a frightful terror-striking foe,
+that huge night-moth, which comes ever nearer, growing each moment
+bigger and blacker. Looking behind us, we catch one last glimpse of
+the red and bloodshot sun, which the next instant disappears behind
+the edge of the mighty cloud.
+
+Still we push on. Hosts of tigers, and monkeys both large and small,
+and squirrels and jackals, come close up to us as if seeking shelter,
+and then finding none, retreat howling into the forest. There is not a
+breath of air stirring, yet all nature--plants and trees, men and
+beasts--seem to quiver and tremble with apprehension. Our horses pant
+and groan as they bound along with dilated nostrils and glaring eyes,
+trembling in every limb, sweating at every pore, half wild with
+terror; giving springs and leaps that more resemble those of a hunted
+tiger than of a horse.
+
+The prayer and exclamations of the terrified Mexicans, continued
+without intermission, whispered and shrieked and groaned in every
+variety of intonation. The earthy hue of intense terror was upon every
+countenance. For some moments a death-like stillness, an unnatural
+calm, reigned around us: it was as though the elements were holding in
+their breath, and collecting their energies for some mighty outbreak.
+Then came a low indistinct moaning sound, that seemed to issue from
+the bowels of the earth. The warning was significant.
+
+"Halt! stop" shouted we to the guides. "Stop! and let us seek shelter
+from the storm."
+
+"On! for God's sake, on! or we are lost," was the reply.
+
+Thank Heaven! the path is getting wider--we come to a descent--they
+are leading us out of the forest. If the storm had come on while we
+were among the trees, we might be crushed to death by the falling
+branches. We are close to a barranca.
+
+"_Alerto! Alerto!_" shrieked the Mexicans. "_Madre de Dios! Dios!
+Dios!"_
+
+And well might they call to God for help in that awful moment. The
+gigantic night-moth gaped and shot forth tongues of fire--a ghastly
+white flame, that contrasted strangely and horribly with the dense
+black cloud from which it issued. There was a peal of thunder that
+seemed to shake the earth, then a pause during which nothing was heard
+but the panting of our horses as they dashed across the barranca, and
+began straining up the steep side of a knoll or hillock. The cloud
+again opened: for a second every thing was lighted up. Another thunder
+clap, and then, as though the gates of its prison had been suddenly
+burst open, the tempest came forth in its might and fury, breaking,
+crushing, and sweeping away all that opposed it. The trees of the
+forest staggered and tottered for a moment, as if making an effort to
+bear up against the storm; but it was in vain: the next instant, with
+a report like that of ten thousand cannon, whole acres of mighty trees
+were snapped off, their branches shivered, their roots torn up; it was
+no longer a forest but a chaos; an ocean of boughs and tree-trunks,
+that were tossed about like the waves of the sea, or thrown into the
+air like straws. The atmosphere was darkened with dust, and leaves,
+and branches.
+
+"God be merciful to us! Rowley! where are ye?--No answer. What is
+become of them all?"
+
+A second blast more furious than the first. Can the mountains resist
+it? will they stand? By the Almighty! they do not. The earth trembles;
+the hillock, on the leeside of which we are, rocks and shakes; and the
+air grows thick and suffocating--full of dust and saltpetre and
+sulphur. We are like to choke. All around is dark as night. We can see
+nothing, hear nothing but the howling of the hurricane, and the
+thunder and rattle of falling trees and shivered branches.
+
+Suddenly the hurricane ceases, and all is hushed; but so suddenly that
+the charge is startling and unnatural. No sound is audible save the
+creaking and moaning of the trees with which the ground is cumbered.
+It is like a sudden pause in a battle, when the roar of the cannon and
+clang of charging squadrons cease, and nought is heard but the
+groaning of the wounded, the agonized sobs and gasps of the dying.
+
+The report of a pistol is heard; then another, a third, hundreds,
+thousands of them. It is the flood, _las aguas_; the shots are drops
+of rain; but such drops! each as big as a hen's egg. They strike with
+the force of enormous hailstones--stunning and blinding us. The next
+moment there is no distinction of drops, the windows of heaven are
+opened; it is no longer rain nor flood, but a sea, a cataract, a
+Niagara. The hillock on which I am standing, undermined by the waters,
+gives way and crumbles under me; in ten seconds' time I find myself in
+the barranca, which is converted into a river, off my horse, which is
+gone I know not whither. The only person I see near me is Rowley, also
+dismounted and struggling against the stream, which is already up to
+our waists, and sweeps along with it huge branches and entire trees,
+that threaten each moment to carry us away with them, or to crush us
+against the rocks. We avoid these dangers, God knows how, make violent
+efforts to stem the torrent and gain the side of the barranca;
+although, even should we succeed, it is so steep that we can scarcely
+hope to climb it without assistance. And whence is that assistance to
+come? Of the Mexicans we see or hear nothing. They are doubtless all
+drowned or dashed to pieces. They were higher up on the hillock than
+we were, must consequently have been swept down with more force, and
+were probably carried away by the torrent. Nor can we hope for a
+better fate. Wearied by our ride, weakened by the fever and sufferings
+of the preceding night, we are in no condition to strive much longer
+with the furious elements. For one step that we gain, we lose two. The
+waters rise; already they are nearly up to our armpits. It is in vain
+to resist any longer. Our fate is sealed.
+
+"Rowley, all is over--let us die like men. God have mercy on our
+souls!"
+
+Rowley was a few paces higher up the barranca. He made me no answer,
+but looked at me with a calm, cold, and yet somewhat regretful smile
+upon his countenance. Then all at once he ceased the efforts he was
+making to resist the stream and gain the bank, folded his arms on his
+breast and gave a look up and around him as though to bid farewell to
+the world he was about to leave. The current was sweeping him rapidly
+down towards me, when suddenly a wild hurra burst from his lips, and
+he recommenced his struggles against the waters, striving violently to
+retain a footing on the slippery, uneven bed of the stream.
+
+"_Tenga! Tenga!_" screamed a dozen voices, that seemed to proceed from
+spirits of the air; and at the same moment something whistled about my
+ears and struck me a smart blow across the face. With the instinct of
+a drowning man, I clutched the _lasso_ that had been thrown to me.
+Rowley was at my elbow and seized it also. It was immediately drawn
+tight, and by its aid we gained the bank, and began ascending the side
+of the barranca, composed of rugged, declivitous rocks, affording but
+scanty foot-hold. God grant the lasso may prove tough! The strain on
+it is fearful. Rowley is a good fifteen stone, and I am no feather;
+and in some parts of our perilous ascent the rocks are almost as
+perpendicular and smooth as a wall of masonry, and we are obliged to
+cling with our whole weight to the lasso, which seems to stretch, and
+crack, and grow visibly thinner. Nothing but a strip of twisted
+cow-hide between us and a frightful agonizing death on the sharp rocks
+and in the foaming waters below. But the lasso holds good, and now the
+chief peril is past: we get some sort of footing--a point of rock, or
+a tree-root to clutch at. Another strain up this rugged slope of
+granite, another pull at the lasso; a leap, a last violent effort,
+and--_Viva_!--we are seized under the arms, dragged up, held upon our
+feet for a moment, and then--we sink exhausted to the ground in the
+midst of the Tzapotecans, mules, arrieros, guides, and women, who are
+sheltered from the storm in a sort of natural cavern. At the moment at
+which the hillock had given way under Rowley and myself, who were a
+short distance in rear of the party, the Mexicans had succeeded in
+attaining firm footing on a broad rocky ledge, a shelf of the
+precipice that flanked the barranca. Upon this ledge, which gradually
+widened into a platform, they found themselves in safety under some
+projecting crags that sheltered them completely from the tempest.
+Thence they looked down upon the barranca, where they descried Rowley
+and myself struggling for our lives in the roaring torrent; and
+thence, by knotting several lassos together, they were able to give us
+the opportune aid which had rescued us from our desperate situation.
+But whether this aid had come soon enough to save our lives was still
+a question, or at least for some time appeared to be so. The life
+seemed driven out of our bodies by all we had gone through: we were
+unable to move a finger, and lay helpless and motionless, with only a
+glimmering indistinct perception, not amounting to consciousness, of
+what was going on around us. Fatigue, the fever, the immersion in cold
+water when reeking with perspiration, the sufferings of all kinds we
+had endured in the course of the last twenty hours, had completely
+exhausted and broken us down.
+
+The storm did not last long in its violence, but swept onwards,
+leaving a broad track of desolation behind it. The Mexicans
+recommenced their journey, with the exception of four or five who
+remained with us and our arrieros and servants. The village to which
+we were proceeding was not above a league off; but even that short
+distance Rowley and myself were in no condition to accomplish. The
+kind-hearted Tzapotecans made us swallow cordials, stripped off our
+drenched and tattered garments, and wrapped us in an abundance of
+blankets. We fell into a deep sleep, which lasted all that evening and
+the greater part of the night, and so much refreshed us that about an
+hour before daybreak we were able to resume our march--at a slow pace,
+it is true, and suffering grievously in every part of our bruised and
+wounded limbs and bodies, at each jolt or rough motion of the mules on
+which we were clinging, rather than sitting.
+
+Our path lay over hill and dale, perpetually rising and falling. We
+soon got out of the district or zone that had been swept by the
+preceding day's hurricane, and after nearly an hour's ride, we paused
+on the crest of a steep descent, at the foot of which, as our guides
+informed us, lay the land of promise, the long looked-for _rancho_.
+While the muleteers were seeing to the girths of their beasts, and
+giving the due equilibrium to the baggage, before commencing the
+downward march, Rowley and I sat upon our mules, wrapped in large
+Mexican _capas_, gazing at the morning-star as it sank down and grew
+gradually paler and fainter. Suddenly the eastern sky began to
+brighten, and a brilliant beam appeared in the west, a point of light
+no bigger than a star--but yet not a star; it was of a far rosier hue.
+The next moment a second sparkling spot appeared, near to the first,
+which now swelled out into a sort of fiery tongue, that seemed to lick
+round the silvery summit of the snow-clad mountain. As we gazed,
+five--ten--twenty hill tops were tinged with the same rose-coloured
+glow; in another moment they became like fiery banners spread out
+against the heavens, while sparkling tongues and rays of golden light
+flashed and flamed round them, springing like meteors from one
+mountain summit to another, lighting them up like a succession of
+beacons. Scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the distant pinnacles
+of the mountains had appeared to us as huge phantom-like figures of a
+silvery white, dimly marked out upon a dark star-spangled ground; now
+the whole immense chain blazed like volcanoes covered with glowing
+lava, rising out of the darkness that still lingered on their flanks
+and bases, visible and wonderful witnesses to the omnipotence of _him_
+who said, "Let there be light, and there was light."
+
+Above, all was broad day, flaming sunlight; below, all black night.
+Here and there streams of light burst through clefts and openings in
+the mountains, and then ensued an extraordinary kind of conflict. The
+shades of darkness seemed to live and move, to struggle against the
+bright beams that fell amongst them and broke their masses, forcing
+them down the wooded heights, tearing them asunder and dispersing them
+like tissues of cobwebs; so that successively, and as if by a stroke
+of enchantment, there appeared, first the deep indigo blue of the
+tamarinds and chicozapotes, then the bright green of the sugar-canes,
+lower down the darker green of the nopal-trees, lower still the white
+and green and gold and bright yellow of the orange and citron groves,
+and lowest of all, the stately fan-palms, and date-palms, and bananas;
+all glittering with millions of dewdrops, that covered them like a
+ganze veil embroidered with diamonds and rubies. And still in the very
+next valley all was utter darkness.
+
+We sat silent and motionless, gazing at this scene of enchantment.
+
+Presently the sun rose higher, and a flood of light illumined the
+whole valley, which lay some few hundred feet below us--a perfect
+garden, such as no northern imagination could picture forth; a garden
+of sugar-canes, cotton, and nopal-trees, intermixed with thickets of
+pomegranate and strawberry-trees, and groves of orange, fig, and
+lemon, giants of their kind, shooting up to a far greater height than
+the oak attains in the States--every tree a perfect hothouse, a
+pyramid of flowers, covered with bloom and blossom to its topmost
+spray. All was light, and freshness, and beauty; every object seemed
+to dance and rejoice in the clear elastic golden atmosphere. It was an
+earthly paradise, fresh from the hand of its Creator, and at first we
+could discover no sign of man or his works. Presently, however, we
+discerned the village lying almost at our feet, the small stone houses
+overgrown with flowers and embedded in trees; so that scarcely a
+square foot of roof or wall was to be seen. Even the church was
+concealed in a garland of orange-trees, and had lianas and
+star-flowered creepers climbing over and dangling on it, up as high as
+the slender cross that surmounted its square white tower. As we gazed,
+the first sign of life appeared in the village. A puff of blue smoke
+rose curling and spiral from a chimney, and the matin bell rang out
+its summons to prayer. Our Mexicans fell on their knees and crossed
+themselves, repeating their Ave-marias. We involuntarily took off our
+hats, and whispered a thanksgiving to the God who had been with us in
+the hour of peril, and was now so visible to us in his works.
+
+The Mexicans rose from their knees.
+
+"_Vamos! Senores,_" said one of them, laying his hand on the bridle of
+my mule. "To the _rancho_, to breakfast."
+
+We rode slowly down into the valley.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE BRITISH FLEET[26].
+
+    [26] Memoirs of Admiral Earl St Vincent. By T.S. TUCKER. 2 vols.
+
+
+Were the question proposed to us, What is the most extraordinary,
+complete, and effective instance of skill, contrivance, science, and
+power, ever combined by man? we should unhesitatingly answer, an
+English line-of-battle ship. Take the model of a 120 gun ship--large
+as it may be for a floating body, its space is not great. For example,
+it is not half the ordinary size of a nobleman's mansion; yet that
+ship carries a thousand men with convenience, and lodges them day and
+night, with sufficient room for the necessary distinctions of
+obedience and command--has separate apartments for the admiral and the
+captain, for the different ranks of officers, and even for the
+different ranks of seamen--separate portions below decks for the
+sleeping of the crew, the dining of the officers, and the receptacle
+for the sick and wounded. Those thousand men are to be fed three times
+a-day, and provisions for four months are to be stowed. One hundred
+and twenty cannon, some of them of the heaviest metal, are to be
+carried; and room is to be found for all the weight of shot and
+quantities of powder, with other missiles, rockets, and signal fires,
+necessary for service. Besides this, room is to be provided for the
+stowage of fresh rigging, sails, ropes, cables, and yards, to replace
+those lost by accident, battle, or wear and tear. Besides this, too,
+there is to be a provision for the hospital. So far for the mere
+necessaries of the ship. Then we are to regard the science; for
+nothing can be more essential than the skill and the instruments of
+the navigator, as nothing can be more fatal than a scientific error, a
+false calculation, or a remission of vigilance. We shall do no more
+than allude to the habits of command essential to keep a thousand of
+these rough and daring spirits in order, and that, too, an order of
+the most implicit, steady, and active kind; nor to their knowledge of
+tactics, and conduct in battle. The true definition of the
+line-of-battle ship being, a floating regiment of artillery in a
+barrack, which, at the beat of a drum, may be turned into a field of
+battle, or, at the command of government, may be sent flying on the
+wings of the wind round the world. We think that we have thus
+established our proposition. If not, let any thing else be shown which
+exhibits the same quantity of power _packed_ within the same space;
+and that power, too, increasing daily by new contrivances of stowage
+and building, by new models of guns, and new inventions in machinery.
+England is at this moment building two hundred steam-ships, with guns
+of a calibre to which all the past were trifling, with room for a
+regiment of land troops besides their crews, and with the known power
+of defying wind and wave, and throwing an army in full equipment for
+the field, within a few days, on any coast of Europe.
+
+It is remarkable that the use of the navy, as a great branch of the
+military power of England, had been scarcely contemplated until the
+last century. Though the sea-coast of England, the largest of any
+European state, and the national habits of an insular country, might
+have pointed out this direction for the national energies from the
+earliest period, yet England was a kingdom for five hundred years
+before she seems to have thought of the use of ships as an instrument
+of public power. In the long war with France during the fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries, the ships were almost wholly mercantile; and,
+when employed in wars, were chiefly employed as transports to throw
+our troops on the French soil. It was the reign of Elizabeth, that
+true birth of the progress of England, that first developed the powers
+of an armed navy. The Spanish invasion forced the country to meet the
+Armada by means like its own; and the triumph, though won by a higher
+agency, and due to the winds and waves, or rather to the Supreme
+Providence which watched over the land of Protestantism, awoke the
+nation to the true faculty of defence; and from that period alone
+could the burden of the fine national song be realized, and Britain
+was to "rule the main." The expeditions against the Spanish West
+Indies, and the new ardour of discovery in regions where brilliant
+fable lent its aid to rational curiosity, carried on the process of
+naval power. The war against Holland, under Charles II., though
+disastrous and impolitic, showed at least that the fleet of England
+was the true arm of its strength; and the humiliation of the only
+rival of her commerce at once taught her where the sinews of war lay,
+and by what means the foundations of naval empire were to be laid. But
+it was not until the close of the last century that the truth came
+before the nation in its full form. The American war--a war of
+skirmishes--had its direct effect, perhaps its providential purpose,
+in compelling England to prepare for the tremendous collision which
+was so soon to follow, and which was to be the final security of the
+Continent itself. It was then, for the first time, that the nation was
+driven to the use of a navy on a great scale. The war, lying on the
+western shore of an ocean, made the use of naval armaments necessary
+to every operation. The treacherous hostility of the French cabinet,
+and the unfortunate subserviency of Spain to that treachery, made
+corresponding energy on the part of England a matter of public demand;
+and when France and Spain sent out fleets of a magnitude till then
+unknown, England was urged to follow their example. The defeats of the
+combined navies excited the nation to still more vigorous efforts; and
+the war closed with so full a demonstration of the matchless
+importance of a great navy to England, that the public feeling was
+fixed on giving it the largest contribution of the national
+confidence.
+
+The time was at hand when the trial was to involve every interest of
+England and mankind. The first grand struggle of revolutionary France
+with England was to be on the seas; and the generation of naval
+officers who had been reared in the American war, then rising into
+vigour, trained by its experience, and stimulated by its example,
+gallantly maintained the honour of their country. A succession of
+sanguinary battles followed, each on the largest scale, and each
+closing in British victory; until the republic, in despair, abandoned
+the fatal element, and tied her fortunes in the easier conflicts of
+the land. The accession of Napoleon renewed the struggle for naval
+supremacy, until one vast blow extinguished his hopes and his navy at
+Trafalgar. Peace now exists, and long may it exist! but France is
+rapidly renewing her navy, taking every opportunity of exercising its
+strength, and especially patronising the policy of founding those
+colonies which it idly imagines to be the source of British opulence.
+But whether the wisdom of Louis Philippe limits the protection of
+French trade to the benefits which commerce may confer on his vast
+kingdom, or looks forward to the support which a mercantile navy may
+give to a warlike one, we must not sleep on our posts. The life of any
+individual is brief on a national scale; and his successor, whether
+regent or republican, may be as hot-headed, rash, and ambitious, as
+this great monarch has shown himself rational, prudent, and peaceful.
+We must prepare for all chances; and our true preparation must be, a
+fleet that may defy all.
+
+It is a remarkable instance of the slowness with which science
+advances, that almost the whole scientific portion of seamanship has
+grown up since the middle of the seventeenth century, though America
+had been reached in 1492, and India in 1496; and thus the world had
+been nearly rounded before what would now be regarded as the ordinary
+knowledge of a navigator had been acquired. England has the honour of
+making the first advances. It was an Englishman, Norwood, who made the
+first measurement of a degree between London and York, and fixed it at
+122,399 English yards. The attention of the world thus once awakened,
+Huygens and Cassini applied themselves to ascertain the figure of the
+earth. The first experiments of the French _savans_ were in
+contradiction to Newton's theory of the flattening of the poles; but
+the controversy was the means of exciting new interest. The eyes of
+the scientific world were turned more intently on the subject. New
+experiments were made, which corrected the old; and finally, on the
+measurement of the arc in Peru, and in the north, truth and Newton
+triumphed, and the equatorial diameter was found to exceed the polar
+by a two hundred and fourth part of the whole. This was perhaps the
+finest problem ever solved by science; the most perplexing in its
+early state--exhibiting for a while the strongest contradiction of
+experiment and theory, occupying in a greater degree the attention of
+philosophers than any before or since, and finally established with a
+certainty which every subsequent observation has only tended to
+confirm. And this triumph belonged to an Englishman.
+
+The investigation by measurements has since been largely adopted. In
+1787, joint commissions were issued by England and France to connect
+the Greenwich and Parisian observations. Arcs of the meridian have
+since been measured across the whole breadth of France and Spain, and
+also near the Arctic circle, and in the Indian peninsula.
+
+In navigation, the grand point for the sailor is to ascertain his
+latitude and longitude; in other words, to know where he is. The
+discovery of the latitude is easily effected by the quadrant, but the
+longitude is the difficulty. Any means which ascertained the hour at
+Greenwich, at the instant of making a celestial observation in any
+other part, would answer the difficulty; for the difference in
+quarters of an hour would give the difference of the degrees. But
+clocks could not be used on shipboard, and the best watches failed to
+keep the time. In the reign of Anne, Parliament offered a reward of L.
+5000, perhaps not far from the value of twice the sum in the present
+day, for a watch within a certain degree of accuracy. Harrison, a
+watchmaker, sent in a watch which came within the limits, losing but
+two minutes in a voyage to the West Indies; yet even this was an error
+of thirty miles.
+
+But, though chronometers have since been considerably improved, there
+are difficulties in their preservation in good order which have made
+it expedient to apply to other means; and the lunar tables of Mayer of
+Gottingen, formed in 1755, and subsequently improved by Dr Maskelyne
+and others, have brought the error within seven miles and a half.
+
+Improvements of a very important order have also taken place in the
+mariner's compass; the variation of the needle has been reduced to
+rules, and some anomalies arising from the metallic attraction of the
+ship itself, have been corrected by Professor Barlow's experiments.
+The use of the marine barometer and thermometer have also largely
+assisted to give notice of tempests; and some ingenious theories have
+been lately formed, which, promising to give a knowledge of the origin
+and nature of tempests, are obviously not unlikely to assist the
+navigator in stemming their violence, or escaping them altogether.
+
+The construction of ships for both the merchant and the public service
+has undergone striking improvements within this century. Round sterns,
+for the defence of a vessel engaged with several opponents at once;
+compartments in the hold, for security against leaks; iron tanks for
+water, containing twice the quantity, and keeping it free from the
+impurities of casks; a better general stowage; provisions prepared so
+as to remain almost fresh during an East Indian voyage; every means of
+preserving health, suggested by science, and succeeding to the most
+remarkable degree; a more intelligent system of shipbuilding, and a
+constant series of experiments on the shape, stowage, and sailing of
+ships, are among the beneficial changes of later times. But the one
+great change--steam--will probably swallow up all the rest, and form a
+new era in shipbuilding, in navigation, in the power and nature of a
+navy, and in the comfort, safety, and protection of the crews in
+actual engagement. The use of steam is still so palpably in its
+infancy, yet that infancy is so gigantic, that it is equally difficult
+to say what it may yet become, and to limit its progress. It will have
+the one obvious advantage to mankind in general, of making the
+question of war turn more than ever on the financial and mechanical
+resources of a people; and thus increasing the necessity for
+commercial opulence and intellectual exertion. It may expose nations
+more to each other's attacks; but it will render hostility more
+dreaded, because more dangerous. On the whole, like the use of
+gunpowder, which made a Tartar war impossible, and which rapidly
+tended to civilize Europe, steam appears to be intended as a further
+step in the same high process, in which force is to be put down by
+intelligence, and success, even in war, is to depend on the industry
+of peace; thus, in fact, providing a perpetual restriction on the
+belligerent propensities of nations, and urging the uncivilized, by
+necessity, to own the superiority, and follow the example of the
+civilized, by knowledge, habit, and principle.
+
+It is not to be forgotten, even in this general and brief view of the
+values of the British fleet, that it has, within these few years,
+assumed a new character as an instrument of war. The Syrian campaign,
+the shortest, and, beyond all comparison, the most brilliant on
+record, if we are to estimate military distinction, not only by the
+gallantry of the conflict, but by the results of the victory--this
+campaign, which at once finished the war in Syria, gave peace to
+Turkey, reduced Egypt to obedience, rescued the sultan from Russian
+influence, and Egypt from French; or rather rescued all Europe from
+the collision of England, France, and Russia; and even, by the
+evidence of our naval capabilities, taught American faction the wisdom
+of avoiding hostilities--this grand operation was effected by a small
+portion of the British navy, well commanded, directed to the right
+point, and acting with national energy. The three hours' cannonade of
+Acre, the most effective achievement in the annals of war, exhibited a
+new use of a ship's broadside; for, though ships' guns had often
+battered forts before, it was the first instance of a _fleet_ employed
+in attack, and fully overpowering all opposition. The attack on
+Algiers was the only exploit of a similar kind; but its success was
+limited, and the result was so far disastrous, that it at once fixed
+the eye of France on the invasion of Algiers, and disabled and
+disheartened the native government from vigorous resistance. The
+victory of the fleet at Acre will also have the effect of changing the
+whole system of defence in fortresses and cities exposed to the sea.
+
+But a still further advance in the employment of fleets as an
+instrument of hostilities, has since occurred in the Chinese
+war--their simultaneous operation with troops. In former assaults of
+fortresses, the troops and ships attacked the same line of defence,
+and the consequence was the waste of force. From the moment when the
+troops approached the land, the fire of the ships necessarily ceased,
+and the fleet then remained spectators of the assault. But in this
+war, while the troops attacked on the land side, the fleet ran up to
+the sea batteries, and both attacks went on together--of course
+dividing the attention of the enemy, thus having a double chance of
+success, and employing both arms of the service in full energy. This
+masterly combination the Duke of Wellington, the highest military
+authority in Europe, pronounced to be a new principle in war; and even
+this is, perhaps, only the beginning of a system of combination which
+will lead to new victories, if war should ever unhappily return.
+
+We now revert to the history of a naval hero.
+
+John Jervis, the second son of Swynfen Jervis, Esq., was born on the
+20th of January 1735. He was descended, on both the paternal and
+maternal side, from families which had figured in the olden times of
+England. The family of Jervis possessed estates in Staffordshire as
+far back as the reign of Edward III. The family of Swynfen was also
+long established in Worcestershire. John Swynfen was a public
+character during the troubled times of Charles I. and Cromwell, and
+until a late period in the reign of Charles II. He had been originally
+a strong Parliamentarian; but, thinking that the party went too far,
+he was turned out of parliament for tardiness by the Protector. But
+his original politics adhered to him still; for, even after the
+restoration, he was joined with Hampden, the grandson of the
+celebrated patriot, in drawing up the Bill of Exclusion. Among his
+ancestors by the mother's side was Sir John Turton, a judge in the
+Court of King's Bench, married to a daughter of the brave Colonel
+Samuel Moore, who made the memorable defence of Hopton Castle in the
+Civil War.
+
+But no man less regarded ancestry than the subject of the present
+pages, who, in writing with reference to his pedigree, observed, in
+his usual frank and straightforward language--"They were all highly
+respectable; but, _et genus et proavos_, nearly all the Latin I now
+recollect, always struck my ear as the sound maxim for officers and
+statesmen."
+
+His first school was at Burton-upon-Trent, where a slight incident
+seemed to designate his future politics and fortitude. In 1745, when
+the Pretender marched into the heart of the kingdom, without being
+joined by his friends or opposed by his enemies, as Gibbon
+antithetically observed, all the boys at the school, excepting young
+Jervis and Dick Meux, (afterwards the eminent brewer,) wore plaid
+ribands sent to them from home, and they pelted their two
+constitutional playmates, calling them Whigs.
+
+His father designed young Jervis for the law; but, in 1747, removing
+to Greenwich on being appointed Counsel to the Admiralty and Auditor
+to the Hospital, naval sights were too near not to prove a strong
+temptation to the mind of an animated and vigorous boy. His parents
+were still strongly for the adoption of his father's profession; but
+there was another authority on the subject, the family coachman, one
+Pinkhorne, who, saying that it was a shame to go into a profession
+where all were rogues, determined the future hero; and, before the
+year was over, he ran away, to commence life as a sailor. He was
+reclaimed, however, by his family, and was regularly entered in the
+navy, in January 1748, on board the Gloucester, fifty guns, Commodore
+Townshend--twenty pounds being all that was given to him by his father
+for his equipment. The Gloucester sailed for the West Indies; and
+thus, at the age of thirteen, young Jervis began the world. It appears
+that the rigid economy of his father, combined with the singular good
+sense of this mere child, urged him to every means of acquiring the
+knowledge of his profession. The monotonous life of a guard-ship
+already seemed to him a waste of time, while the expenses on shore
+must have been ruinous to his slender finances. He therefore
+volunteered into whatever ship was going to sea. He thus writes to his
+sister from on board the Sphinx, 1753:--"There are many entertainments
+and public assemblies here, but they are rather above my sphere, many
+inconveniences and expenses attending them; so that my chief employ,
+when from my duty, is reading, studying navigation, and perusing my
+own letters, of which I have almost enough to make an octavo volume."
+
+At length, however, his twenty pounds were exhausted; and, at the end
+of three years, he drew for twenty pounds more. It is vexatious to say
+that his bill was dishonoured; and he never received another shilling
+from any one. It is scarcely possible to conceive that so harsh a
+measure could have been the result of intention; but it subjected this
+extraordinary boy to the severest privations. To take up the
+dishonoured bill, he was obliged to effect his discharge from one ship
+into another, so as to obtain his pay tickets, which he sold at forty
+per cent discount. His remaining six years on the station were spent
+in the exercise of a severe economy, and the endurance even of severe
+suffering. He was compelled to sell all his bedding, and sleep on the
+bare deck. He had no other resource than, generally, to make and mend,
+and always to wash, his own clothes. He never afforded himself any
+fresh meat; and even the fruit and vegetables, which are so necessary
+and so cheap, he could obtain only by barter from the negroes, for the
+small share of provisions which he could subduct from his own
+allowance. True as all this doubtless is, it reflects more severely on
+the captain and officers of his own ship, than even upon his parents.
+The latter, on the other side of the Atlantic, might have no knowledge
+of his difficulties; but that those who saw his sufferings from day to
+day could have allowed them to continue, argues a degree of negligence
+and inhumanity, of which we hope that no present instance occurs in
+our navy, and which at any period would appear incomprehensible. In
+1754, young Jervis returned to England, and passed his examination for
+lieutenant with great credit.
+
+The commencement of the war with France was, like the commencement of
+English wars in general, disastrous. We seldom make due preparation.
+Fleets inferior to the enemy in equipment and number, are sent out on
+the emergency; detachments of troops are sent where armies should have
+gone; and thus victory itself is without effect. Thus for a year or
+two we continue blundering if not beaten, and angry with our generals
+and admirals for failing to do impossibilities. At last the nation
+becomes fairly roused; the success of the enemy makes exertion
+necessary; their insolence inflames the popular indignation; a great
+effort is made; a triumph is obtained, and a peace follows, which
+might have been accomplished half a dozen years before, at a tenth
+part of the expense in blood and treasure which it cost to consummate
+the war. Our troops under Braddock, a brave fool, were beaten by the
+French and Indians in America. Our Mediterranean fleet was baffled
+under the unfortunate command of Byng. Minorca was taken before our
+eyes, and the naval and military stars of England seem to have gone
+down together. Yet this era of national dishonour and public disgust
+was followed by the three years of Chatham's administration, a period
+of triumph that equaled the campaigns of Marlborough at the
+commencement of the century, and was scarcely eclipsed even by the
+splendours that followed its close.
+
+The skill and talent of young Jervis had already given him distinction
+among the rising officers of the feet. He had become a favourite with
+Admiral Saunders, was taken with him from ship to ship; and when the
+admiral was recalled from the Mediterranean to take the command of the
+naval force destined to co-operate in the attack on Quebec, by the
+heroic and lamented General Wolfe, young Jervis was selected to be
+first lieutenant of the Prince, which bore the admiral's flag. On the
+passage out, the general and his aide-de-camp, Captain, afterwards the
+well-known Colonel Barré, were guests on board the Prince, and of
+course Jervis had the advantage of their intelligent society. In
+February 1759, the fleet sailed from England, and in June proceeded
+from Louisburg to the St Lawrence. Lieutenant Jervis was now appointed
+to the command of the Porcupine sloop; and on the general requesting a
+naval force to escort his transports past Quebec, the Porcupine was
+ordered by the admiral to lead. The service was one of extreme
+difficulty; for the attempt to sound the channel the day before had
+failed, though it was made by the master of the fleet, Cook,
+afterwards the celebrated navigator. The winds suddenly falling calm,
+prevented the Porcupine from reaching her station. A heavy fire was
+instantly opened upon her from every gun that could be brought to
+bear, and the army were in terror of her being destroyed, for the
+general was on board. But Jervis's skill was equal to his gallantry;
+he hoisted out his boats, cheered his men through the fire, and
+brought his ship to her station.
+
+A little incident occurred on the night before the memorable
+engagement, which even at this distance of time is of painful
+interest, but which shows the confidence reposed in the young naval
+officer by the hero of Quebec. After the orders for the assault next
+day were given, Wolfe requested a private interview with him; and
+saying that he had the strongest presentiment of falling on the field,
+yet that he should fall in victory, he took from his bosom the
+miniature of a young lady to whom he was attached, gave it to Jervis,
+desiring that, if the foreboding came to pass, he should return it to
+her on his arrival in England. Wolfe's gallant fate and brilliant
+victory are known: the picture was delivered to Miss Lowther.
+
+After the capture of Quebec, Jervis was dispatched to England; and was
+appointed to the Scorpion, to carry out important despatches to
+General Amherst. On this occasion, he gave an instance of that
+remarkable promptitude which characterised him throughout his whole
+career. The Scorpion was in such a crazy state that she had nearly
+foundered between Spithead and Plymouth. On reaching the latter port,
+and representing at once the condition of the vessel and the
+importance of the despatches, the port-admiral instantly ordered him
+to proceed to sea in the Albany, a sloop in the Sound. But the Albany
+had been a long time in commission; her people claimed arrears of pay;
+and by no means relishing a voyage across the Atlantic in such
+weather, they absolutely refused to heave the anchor. Their young
+commander first tried remonstrance, but in vain; he then took a more
+effectual means--he ordered his boat's crew, whom he had brought from
+the Scorpion, to take their hatchets and cut the cables, and then go
+aloft to loosen the foresail. Perceiving the kind of man with whom
+they had to do, the crew submitted, and the Albany instantly proceeded
+to sea: the ringleaders were punished; and the service was performed.
+The Albany made New York in twenty-four days.
+
+In October 1761, Commander Jervis was made Post, into the Gosport of
+60 guns. Among his midshipmen was the afterwards Admiral Lord Keith.
+In 1762, peace was made. The Gosport was paid off next year, and
+Captain Jervis did not serve again until 1769, when he commanded the
+Alarm of 32 guns for the next three years.
+
+A striking incident occurred during the cruise of this vessel in the
+Mediterranean, exhibiting not only the spirit of her captain, but the
+historic recollections by which that spirit was sustained. One Sunday
+afternoon, the day after her arrival at Genoa, two Turkish slaves, in
+enjoyment of the holiday's rest from labour, sauntered from their
+galley near the mole. Seeing the Alarm's boat, they jumped into her,
+wrapped themselves in the British colours, and exclaimed, "We are
+free!" The Genoese officer on duty, however, ordered them to be
+dragged out, which was done, though one of them tore away in his
+struggle a piece of the boat's pendant. On the circumstance reaching
+the captain's ears he was indignant, and demanded instant reparation.
+To use his own language:--"I required," said he, "of the Doge and
+Senate, that both the slaves should be brought on board, with the part
+of the torn pendant which the slave carried off with him; the officer
+of the guard punished; and an apology made on the quarterdeck of the
+Alarm, under the king's colours, for the outrage offered to the
+British nation."
+
+On the following Tuesday this was complied with in all the
+particulars; but, unhappily, the government at home did not exhibit
+the spirit of their gallant officer abroad; and in a letter which he
+addressed to his brother he says:--"_I had an opportunity of carrying
+the British flag, in relation to two Turkish slaves, as high as Blake
+had ever done_, for which I am publicly censured; though I hope we
+have too much virtue left, for me not to be justified in private."
+
+The result, however, of this transaction was, that for many years
+afterwards, in the Barbary states, if a slave could but touch the
+British colours, which all our men-of-war's boats carry in foreign
+ports, he could of right demand his release. This, however, was
+counteracted as far as possible by the renewed vigilance of the Moors,
+who kept all their slaves out of sight while a British flag flew in
+the harbour. The allusion to the famous Blake shows with what studies
+the young officer fed his mind, and in how high a spirit he was
+prepared to adopt them.
+
+Another instance of his skill and intrepidity soon followed. In March
+1770, the frigate, after a tempestuous cruise, came to anchor at
+Marseilles. An equinoctial gale came on, and after two days of
+desperate exertion, and throwing many of the guns overboard, the
+frigate was driven from her anchors, stranded on a reef of rocks, and
+the crew in such peril that they were saved only by the most
+extraordinary exertions, and the assistance of the people on shore.
+The port officer, M. de Peltier, exhibited great kindness and
+activity, and the ship was rapidly repaired, but with such an exact
+economy, that its complete refit, with the expense of the crew for
+three months, amounted only to £1415.
+
+The first act of this excellent son was to write to his father:--"Do
+not be alarmed, my dear sir, at the newspaper accounts which you will
+hear of the Alarm. The interposition of Divine Providence has
+miraculously preserved her. The same Providence will, I hope, give
+long life to my dear father, mother, and brother."
+
+In July he wrote to his sister from Mahon, after the repairs of the
+vessel:--"The Alarm is the completest thing I ever saw on the water,
+insomuch that I forgot she was the other day, in the opinion of most
+beholders, her own officers and crew not excepted, a miserable sunken
+wreck. Such is the reward of perseverance. Happily for my reputation,
+my health at that period happened to be equal to the task, or I had
+been lost for ever, instead of receiving continual marks of public and
+private approbation of my conduct; but this is _entre nous_. I never
+speak or write on the subject except to those I most love. You will
+easily believe Barrington to be one; his goodness to me is romantic."
+
+It is gratifying to state, that the English Admiralty, on the young
+captain's warm representation of the French superintendent, M. de
+Peltier's hospitality and kindness, sent a handsome piece of plate in
+public acknowledgment to that officer; and, as if to make the
+compliment perfect in all its parts, as it arrived before the frigate
+had left the station, the captain had the indulgence of presenting it
+in person; thus making, as his letter to his father mentioned, "the
+family of Pleville de Peltier happy beyond description."
+
+The frigate was soon after paid off, and as there was no probability
+of his being speedily employed, he applied himself to gain every
+species of knowledge connected with his profession. We strongly doubt
+whether the example of this rising officer is not even more important
+when we regard him in peace than in the activity and daring of war.
+There is no want of courage and conduct in the British fleet; but life
+on shore offers too many temptations to indolence, to be always turned
+to the use of which it is capable. Captain Jervis, on the contrary,
+appears always to have regarded life on shore preparatory to life
+afloat, and to be constantly employed in laying up knowledge for those
+emergencies which so often occur in the bold and perilous life of the
+sailor. There is often something like a predictive spirit in the early
+career of great men, which urges them to make provision for greatness;
+and remote as is the condition of a captain of a smart frigate from
+the commander of fleets, yet the captain of the Alarm, though the
+least ostentatious of men, seems always to have had a glance towards
+the highest duties of the British admiral. "Time," says Franklin, "is
+the stuff that life is made of;" and as France is the antagonist with
+which the power of England naturally expects to struggle, his first
+object was to acquire all possible knowledge of the naval means of
+France. The primary step was to acquire a knowledge of the language.
+Accordingly, he went to France, and placed himself in a _pension_.
+There he applied himself so closely to the study of the language, that
+his health became out of order, and his family requested him to
+return. But this he declined, and in his answer said that he had
+adopted this pursuit on the best view a military man in his situation
+could form. "For it will always," said he, "be useful to have a
+general idea of this prevalent language, and a knowledge of the
+country with which we have so long contended, and which must ever be
+our rival in arms and commerce."
+
+Having accomplished his object of acquiring sufficient fluency in
+speaking French, his next excursion was to St Petersburg. He and
+Captain Barrington went in a merchant vessel, and reached Cronstadt.
+While at sea, Captain Jervis kept a regular log. During the voyage,
+all the headlands are described, all the soundings noted, and every
+opportunity to test and correct the charts adopted. As an example, he
+remarks on the castle of Cronenburg, which guards the entrance into
+the Sound, that it may be overlooked by a line-of-battle ship, which
+may anchor in good ground as near the beach as she pleases. He remarks
+the two channels leading to Copenhagen, puts all the lighthouses down
+on his own chart, and lays down all the approaches to St Petersburg
+accurately; "because," said he, "I find all the charts are incorrect,
+and it may be useful." And he actually did find it useful; for when he
+was at the head of the Admiralty, this knowledge enabled him, while
+his colleagues hesitated, to give his orders confidently to Sir
+Charles Pole, in command of the Baltic fleet. His sojourn at St
+Petersburg was but brief; but it was at a time of remarkable
+excitement. The Empress Catharine was at the height of her splendour,
+a legislator and a conqueror, and surrounded by a court exhibiting all
+the daring and dashing characters of her vast empire. His description
+of this celebrated woman's character on one public occasion, shows the
+exactness with which he observed every thing:--"When she entered the
+cathedral, Catharine mingled her salutations to the saints and the
+people, showing at once her compliance with religious ceremonials, and
+her attentions to her servants and the foreign ambassadors. But she
+showed no devotion, in which she was not singular, old people and
+Cossack officers excepted. During the sermon she took occasion to
+smile and nod to those whom she meant to gratify; and surely no
+sovereign ever possessed the power of pleasing all within her eye to
+the degree she did. She was dressed in the Guards' uniform, which was
+a scarlet pelisse, and a green silk robe lapelled from top to bottom.
+Her hair was combed neatly, and boxed _en militaire_, with a small
+cap, and an ornament of diamonds in front; a blue riband, and the
+order of St Andrew on her right shoulder."
+
+He speaks of the empress excelling in that inclination of the body
+which the Russian ladies substitute for the curtsy, and which he
+justly regards as very becoming, the empress adding dignity and grace.
+He describes Orloff as an herculean figure, finely proportioned, with
+a cheerful eye, and, for a Russian, a good complexion: Potemkin as
+having stature and shoulders, but being ill limbed and of a most
+forbidding countenance. His examination of the Russian dockyards,
+naval armament, and general style of shipbuilding, was most exact; and
+he records in his notes his having seen, in the naval arsenals of
+Norway, sheds to cover ships on the stocks--an important arrangement,
+which was afterwards claimed as an invention at home.
+
+After inspecting the harbours of Sweden and Norway, the travellers
+returned by Holland, where they made similar investigations. In the
+following year they renewed their tour of inspection, and traversed
+the western parts of France. And this active pursuit of knowledge was
+carried on without any pecuniary assistance beyond his half-pay. He
+had hitherto made no prize-money. "To be sure," he said in after days,
+"we sometimes did fare rather roughly; but what signifies that now? my
+object was attained."
+
+His character was now high, but it is to be presumed that he had some
+powerful interest; for on his return he was appointed to two
+line-of-battle ships in succession, the Kent, 74, and the Foudroyant,
+84, a French prize, and reckoned the finest two-decker in the navy.
+
+From this period a new scene opened before him, and his career became
+a part of the naval history of England. In 1778 he joined the Channel
+fleet, and his ship was placed by the celebrated Keppel as one of his
+seconds in the order of battle, and immediately astern of the
+admiral's ship, the Victory, on the 27th of July, in the drawn battle
+off Ushant with the French fleet commanded by D'Orvilliers. The people
+of England are not content with drawn battles, and the result of this
+action produced a general uproar. Keppel threw the blame on the
+tardiness of Sir Hugh Palliser, the second in command. Palliser
+retorted, and the result was a court-martial on the commander of the
+fleet; which, however, ended in a triumphant acquittal. It was not
+generally known that Keppel's defence, which was admired as a model of
+intelligence, and even of eloquence, was drawn up by Captain Jervis.
+The transaction, though so long passed away, is not yet beyond
+discussion; and there is still some interest in knowing the opinion of
+so powerful a mind on the general subject. It was thus given in a
+private letter to his friend Jackson:--"I do not agree that we were
+outwitted. The French, I am convinced, never would have fought us if
+they had not been surprised into it by a sudden flow of wind; and when
+they formed their inimitable line after our brush, it was merely to
+cover their intention of flight."
+
+He then gives one of those comprehensive maxims which already show
+the experienced "admiral:"--"I have often told you that two fleets of
+equal force can never produce decisive events, unless they are equally
+determined to fight it out, or the commander-in-chief of one of them
+misconducts his line." We have then an instance of that manly feeling
+which is one of the truest characteristics of greatness, and yet which
+has been deficient in some very remarkable men.
+
+"I perceive," says he, "it is the fashion of people to puff
+themselves. For my part, I forbade my officers to write by the frigate
+that carried the despatches. I did not write a syllable myself, except
+touching my health; nor shall I, but to state the intrepidity of the
+officers and people under my command, (through the most infernal fire
+I ever saw or heard,) to Lord Sandwich," (first lord of the
+Admiralty.) But one cannot feel the merit of this self-denial without
+a glance at his actual hazards and services during the battle.
+
+"In justice to the Foudroyant," he thus ends his letter, "I must
+observe to you, that though she received the fire of seventeen sail,
+and had the Bretagne, Ville de Paris, and a seventy-four on her at the
+same time, and appeared more disabled in her masts and rigging than
+any other ship, she was the first in the line of battle, and truly
+fitter for business, in essentials, (because her people were cool,)
+than when she began. _Keep this to yourself_, unless you hear too much
+said in praise of others.
+
+"J.J."
+
+The national wrath was poured on Sir Hugh Palliser, Keppel's second in
+command, whose tardiness in obeying signals was charged as the cause
+of the French escape; so strong had already become the national
+assurance that a British fleet could go forth only to victory. But the
+succession of courts-martial cleared up nothing except the characters
+of the two admirals. Palliser was enabled to show that his ship had
+suffered so much from the enemy's fire as to be at least (plausibly)
+unfit for close action, and the whole dispute on land closed, like the
+naval conflict, in a drawn battle. Jervis was the chief witness for
+Keppel, as serving next his ship; and his testimony was of the highest
+order to the gallantry, skill, and perseverance of the admiral. But
+Palliser was acknowledged to be brave; and it is evident from Jervis's
+personal opinion, that when it was once the object of the enemy's
+commander to get away, it was next to impossible to have prevented his
+escape.
+
+But these were trying times for the British navy: it was scarcely
+acquainted with its own strength; the nation, disgusted with the
+nature of the American war, refused its sympathy; without that
+sympathy ministers could do nothing effectual, and never can do any
+thing effectual. The character of the cabinet was feebleness, the
+spirit of the metropolis was faction; the king, though one of the best
+of men, was singularly unpopular; and the war became a system of
+feeble defence against arrogant and increasing hostilities. France,
+powerful as she was, became more powerful by the national
+exultation--the frenzied rejoicing in the success of American
+revolt--and the revived hope of European supremacy in a nation which
+had been broken down since the days of Marlborough; a crush which had
+been felt in every sinew of France for a hundred angry years. Spain,
+always strong, but unable to use her strength, had now given it in to
+the training of discipline; and the combined fleets presented a
+display of force, which, in the haughty language of the Tuileries, was
+formed to sweep the seas.
+
+The threat was put in rapid and unexpected execution. The combined
+fleet moved up the Channel; and to the surprise, the sorrow, and the
+indignation of England, the British fleet, under Sir Charles Hardy,
+was seen making, what could only be called "a dignified retreat." The
+Foudroyant, on that melancholy occasion, had been astern of the
+Victory, the admiral's ship. If Jervis had been admiral, he would have
+tried the fate of battle--and he would have done right. No result of a
+battle could have been so painful to the national feelings, or so
+injurious in its effects on the feelings of Europe, as that retreat.
+If the whole British fleet on that occasion had perished, its
+gallantry would have only raised a new spirit of worth and power in
+the nation; and England has resources that, when once fully called
+into exertion, are absolutely unconquerable. But that was a dishonour;
+and even now we can echo the feelings of the brave and high-minded
+young officer, who was condemned to share in the disgrace. He writes
+to his sister, as if to relieve the fulness of his heart at the
+moment--"I am in the most humbled state of mind I ever experienced,
+from the retreat we have made before the combined fleets all
+_yesterday_ and _this morning_." The Admiralty ultimately gave the
+retreating admiral an official certificate of good behaviour, "their
+high approbation of Sir Charles Hardy's wise and prudent conduct;" but
+"gallant and bold conduct" would have been a better testimonial. The
+truth seems to be, that the Admiralty, blamable themselves in sending
+him to sea with an inadequate force, and scarcely expecting to escape
+if they had suffered him to lie under the charge, were glad to avail
+themselves of his personal character as a man of known bravery; and
+thus quash a process which must finally have brought them before the
+tribunal. But let naval officers remember, that the officer who fights
+is the officer of the nation. Nelson's maxim is unanswerable--"The
+captain cannot be mistaken who lays his ship alongside the enemy."
+
+This, too, was a period of cabinet revolutions. No favouritism can
+sustain a ministry which has become disgustful to the nation. Lord
+North, though ingenious, dexterous, and long enough in possession of
+power to have filled all its offices with his dependents, was driven
+from the premiership with such a storm of national contempt, that he
+could scarcely be sheltered by the curtains of the throne. Lord
+Rockingham, a dull minister, was transformed into a brilliant one by
+his contrast with the national weariness of Lord North; and it fell to
+the lot of Captain Jervis to give the country the first omen of
+returning victory. France had already combined Holland in her
+alliance, and the French minister, already made insolent by his
+triumph in the Channel, had determined on a blow in a quarter where
+English interests were most vulnerable, and where the assault was
+least expected. A squadron of French line-of-battle ships, convoying a
+fleet of transports, were prepared for an expedition to the East
+Indies.
+
+The preparations for the combined movement were on an immense scale.
+The fleets of France, Spain, and Holland were again to sweep the
+Channel; and while the attention of the British fleets was thus
+engrossed, the Eastern expedition was to sail from Brest. The
+Admiralty, in order to counteract, or at least delay, this formidable
+movement, immediately dispatched Admiral Barrington, with twelve sail
+of the line, to cruise in the bay of Biscay. On the 18th of April the
+French expedition sailed, and on the 20th, when Admiral Barrington had
+reached a few leagues beyond Ushant, the Artois frigate signaled a
+hostile fleet, but could not discover their flag or numbers. The
+signal being made for a general chase, the Foudroyant, Jervis's ship,
+soon left the rest of the fleet behind; and before night she had so
+much gained upon the enemy as to ascertain that they were six French
+ships of war, with eighteen sail of convoy. The whole of the British
+fleet, being several leagues astern, was now lost sight of, and did
+not come up till the following day. In the mean time Jervis was left
+alone. At ten at night, the French ships of war separating, Jervis,
+selecting the largest for pursuit, prepared to attack: at twelve, he
+had approached near enough to see that the chase was a ship of the
+line. The Foudroyant's superior manoeuvring enabled her to commence
+the engagement by a raking fire. Its effect was so powerful, that the
+enemy was thrown into extreme disorder, and was carried by boarding,
+after an action of only three quarters of an hour. The prize was the
+Pégase, seventy-four. The loss of life on board the enemy was great;
+but by an extraordinary piece of good fortune, on board the Foudroyant
+not a man was killed, Captain Jervis and five seamen being the only
+wounded.
+
+To the gallantry which produced this striking success, the young
+officer added extreme delicacy with respect to his prisoners. He would
+not allow the first boat to be sent on board the prize, until he had
+given written orders for the particular preservation of every thing
+in the shape of property belonging to the French officers, adding at
+the bottom of his memorandum,--"For though I have the highest opinion
+of my officers, we must not be suspected of designs to plunder."
+
+The result of the action was, that sixteen transports out of twenty
+were taken, according to the letter of young Ricketts, the captain's
+nephew. It must be owned, that brave as the French are, their admiral
+made but a bad figure in this business: why the sight of one vessel
+should have been sufficient to disperse a fleet of six men-of-war, and
+of course ruin an expedition which must thus be left without convoy,
+is not easily to be accounted for; or why, when the admiral saw that
+his pursuer was but a single ship, he should not have turned upon him
+and crushed him, it is equally difficult to say. It only shows that
+his court wanted common sense as much as he wanted discretion. The
+expedition was destroyed, and the Foudroyant had the whole honour of
+the victory.
+
+An action between single ships of this force is rare at any period,
+and nothing could be nearer a match in point of equipment then the two
+ships. The Foudroyant had the larger tonnage, and carried three more
+guns on her broadside; but the Pégase threw a greater weight of shot,
+had a more numerous crew, and a large proportion of soldiers on board.
+The English ship, however, had the incomparable advantage of a crew
+which had sailed together for six years, and been disciplined by such
+an officer as Jervis.
+
+The ministry and the king were equally rejoiced at this return of the
+naval distinctions of the country, and the immediate consequence was,
+the conferring of a baronetcy and the order of the Bath upon the
+gallant officer. Congratulations of all kinds were poured upon him by
+the ministry, his admiral, and his brother officers. The admiral
+writes, in speaking of the squadron's cruise, "but the Pégase is every
+thing, and does the highest honour to Jervis."
+
+Another instance of his decision, and, as in all probability will be
+thought, of the clearness of his judgment, was shortly after given in
+the memorable relief of Gibraltar. As it was likely that the combined
+fleets of France and Spain would oppose the passage of the British,
+Lord Howe, at an early period, called the flag-officers and captains
+on board the Victory, and proposed to them the question--Whether,
+considering the superiority of the enemy's numbers, it might not be
+advisable to fight the battle at night, when British discipline might
+counterbalance the numerical superiority? All the officers junior to
+Jervis gave their opinion for the night attack, but he dissented.
+"Expressing his regret that he must offer an opinion, not only
+contrary to that of his brother officers, but also, as he feared, to
+that of his commander-in-chief, he was convinced that battle in the
+day would be greatly preferable. In the first place, because it would
+give an opportunity for the display of his lordship's tactics, and
+afford the means of taking prompt advantage of any mistake of the
+enemy, change of the wind, or any other favourable circumstance; while
+in the mêlée of a battle at night, there must always be greater risk
+of separation, and of ships receiving the fire of their friends as
+well as their foes." It is obvious to every comprehension, that a
+night action must preclude all manoeuvring, and prevent the greater
+skill of the tactician from having any advantage over the blunderer
+who turns his ships into mere batteries. The only officer who
+coincided with Jervis was Admiral Barrington, who gave as an
+additional and a just argument for the attack by day, that it would
+give an opportunity of ascertaining the conduct of the respective
+captains in action. On those opinions Lord Howe made no comment; but
+it is presumed that he ultimately agreed with them, from his conduct
+in the celebrated action of the 1st of June 1794, when he had the
+enemy's fleet directly to leeward of him from the night before.
+
+In the relief of Gibraltar, the Foudroyant had the honour to be the
+ship which was dispatched from the fleet to escort the victuallers
+into the harbour, which was accomplished amid the acclamations of the
+garrison. It had been expected that Lord Howe would have attacked the
+combined fleets, and the nation of course looked forward to a victory;
+but they were disappointed. The fact is, that Lord Howe, though a
+brave man, and what is generally regarded as a good officer, was of a
+different class of mind from the Jervises and Nelsons. He did his
+duty, but he did no more. The men who were yet to give a character to
+the navy did more than their duty, suffered no opportunity of
+distinction to escape them, relied on the invincibility of British
+prowess when it was boldly directed, and by that reliance rendered it
+invincible.
+
+There was a kindness and generosity of nature in this future
+"thunderbolt of war," which shows how compatible the gentler feelings
+are with the gallant daring, and comprehensive talent of the great
+commander. Having happened to receive the Duc de Chabelais on board
+his ship when at Cadiz, the politeness of his reception caused the
+Sardinian prince to exhibit his gratitude in some handsome presents to
+the officers. One of Jervis's letters mentions, that the prince had
+given to each of the lieutenants a handsome gold box; to the
+lieutenant of marines and five of the midshipmen gold watches; and to
+the other officers and ship's company, a princely sum of money.
+
+"I pride myself," he adds, "exceedingly in the presents being so
+diffused; on all former occasions they have centred in the captain."
+In another letter he says,--"I was twenty-four hours in the bay of
+Marseilles about a fortnight ago, just time to receive the warm
+embraces of a man to whose bravery and friendship I had some months
+before been indebted for my reputation, the preservation of the people
+under my command, and of the Alarm. You would have felt infinite
+pleasure at the scene of our interview." In a letter to the
+under-secretary of the Admiralty, he says,--"My dear Jackson, you must
+allow me to interest your humanity in favour of poor Spicer, who,
+overwhelmed with dropsy, asthma, and a large family, and with nothing
+but his pay to support him under those afflictions, is appointed to
+the ---- under a mean man, and very likely to go to the East Indies.
+The letter which he writes to the Board, desiring to be excused from
+his appointment, is dictated by me."
+
+He then mentions a contingency, "in which case I shall write for
+Spicer to be first lieutenant of the Foudroyant, with intention to
+nurse him, and keep him clear of all expense." Shortly after the
+Foudroyant was paid off, Sir John Jervis was united to a lady to whom
+he had long been attached, the daughter of Sir Thomas Parker, Chief
+Baron of the Exchequer. Every man in England, as he rises into
+distinction, necessarily becomes a politician. It was the misfortune
+of Sir John Jervis, and it was his only misfortune, that he was a
+politician before he had risen into distinction. Having had the ill
+luck to profess himself a Whig, at a period when he could scarcely
+have known the nature of the connexion, he unhappily adhered to it
+long after Whiggism had ceased to possess either public utility or
+national respect. But his Whiggism was unconscious Toryism after all:
+it was what even his biographer is forced to call it, Whig Royalism,
+or pretty nearly what Blake's Republicanism was--a determination to
+raise his country to the highest eminence to which his talents and
+bravery could contribute, without regarding by whom the government was
+administered. At the general election of 1784, he sat for Yarmouth.
+
+In 1787, Sir John Jervis was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. At
+the general election in 1790, he was returned for Wycombe, and shared
+in parliament the successive defeats of his party; until, in 1793, he
+was called to a nobler field, in which, unembarrassed by party, and
+undegraded by Whiggism, his talents took their natural direction in
+the cause of his country. It is now scarcely necessary to remark upon
+the narrow system of enterprise with which England began the great
+revolutionary war; nor can it now be doubted that, if the energies of
+the country had been directed to meet the enemy in Europe, measureless
+misfortunes might have been averted. If the succession of fleets and
+armies which were wasted upon the conquest of the French West Indies,
+had been employed in the protection of the feebler European states,
+there can be no question that the progress of the French armies would
+have been signally retarded, if invasion had not been thrown back
+over the French frontier. For instance, it would have been utterly
+impossible for Napoleon, in 1796, to have marched triumphantly
+throughout Italy with the British fleet covering the coast, commanding
+all the harbours, and ready to throw in troops in aid of the
+insurrections in his rear.
+
+But it was the policy of the time to pacify the merchants, whose
+bugbear was a negro insurrection in the West Indies; and whether the
+genius or the fears of Pitt gave way to the impression, the
+consequence was equally lamentable--the mighty power of England was
+wasted on the capture of sugar islands, which we did not want, which
+we could not cultivate, and which cost the lives, by disease and
+climate, of ten times the number of gallant men who might have saved
+Europe. At the close of 1793, a grand expedition against the French
+Caribbee islands was resolved upon by the British cabinet; and it is a
+remarkable instance of both the reputation of Sir John Jervis and the
+impartiality of the great minister, that a Whig member of parliament
+should have been chosen to command the naval part of the expedition.
+
+The expedition consisted of twenty-two ships of war and six thousand
+troops, the troops divided into three brigades, of which one was
+commanded by the late Duke of Kent. Sir John Jervis hoisted his flag
+as vice-admiral of the blue on the 3d of October.
+
+A ludicrous circumstance occurred in the instance of a favourite
+officer, Mr Bayntun, who had applied for permission to join Sir John.
+Bayntun received in answer the following decisive note: "Sir, your
+having thought fit to take to yourself a wife, you are to look for no
+further attention from your humble servant, J. JERVIS." It happened
+that Bayntun was a bachelor, and he instantly wrote an exculpatory
+letter, denying that he had been guilty of so formidable a charge. The
+mistake arose from a misdirection in two notes which the admiral had
+written on the same subject. He had left them to Lady Jervis to
+direct, and she had addressed them to the wrong persons. The
+consequence, however, was, that Bayntun received the appointment, and
+the married man the refusal. This inveteracy against married officers
+seems strange in one who had committed the same crime himself; yet he
+constantly persisted in calling officers who married moon-struck, and
+appears at all times to have regarded matrimony in the service as
+little short of personal ruin.
+
+On the passage out, a curious circumstance occurred to the Zebra
+frigate, under command of the gallant Robert Faulknor. The Zebra,
+which had been separated from the rest of the squadron, saw one
+evening a ship on the horizon. All sail was made in chase, and the
+ship was discovered to be a twenty-eight gun frigate. All contrivances
+were adopted to induce her to show her colours, but without success.
+At length Faulknor, impatient of delay, and disregarding the disparity
+of force, closed upon her, and jumped on board at the head of his men.
+To his astonishment he found that she was a Dutch frigate, quietly
+pursuing her way; and as Holland was at peace with England, equally
+unexpecting and unprepared for an attack. This instance of apathy
+night have procured her a broadside; but luckily the affair finished
+with the shaking of hands.
+
+On the 5th of February the expedition reached Martinique. On the 18th
+of March Fort Lewis was stormed, General Rochambeau capitulated, and
+Martinique was taken, St Lucie followed, the Saintes next fell, and
+the final conquest was Guadaloupe. Thus in three months the capture of
+the French islands was complete.
+
+But an enemy more formidable than the sword was now to be encountered.
+The yellow fever began its ravages. The troops perished in such
+numbers, that the regiments were reduced to skeletons; and just at the
+moment when the disease was at its height, Victor Hughes was
+dispatched from France with an expedition. The islands fell one by one
+into his hands, and the campaign was utterly thrown away.
+
+The romantic portion of the European campaigns now began. The French
+Directory, unpopular at home, wearied by the sanguinary successes of
+the Vendéan insurrection, and baffled in their invasion of Germany,
+were in a condition of the greatest perplexity, when a new wonder of
+war taught France again to conquer. Napoleon Bonaparte, since so
+memorable, but then known only as commanding a company of artillery at
+Toulon, and repelling the armed mob in Paris, was appointed to command
+the army on the Italian frontier. Even now, with all our knowledge of
+his genius, and the splendid experience of his successes, his sudden
+elevation, his daring offer of command, his plan of the Italian
+campaign, and his almost instantaneous victories, are legitimate
+matter of astonishment. In him we have the instance of a young man of
+twenty-six, who had never seen a campaign, who had never commanded a
+brigade, nor even a regiment, undertaking the command of an army,
+proposing the invasion of a country of eighteen millions, garrisoned
+by the army of one of the greatest military powers of Europe, which
+had nearly 300,000 soldiers in the field, and which was in the most
+intimate alliance with all the sovereigns of Italy. Yet, extravagant
+as all those conceptions seem, and improbable as those results
+certainly were, two campaigns saw every project realized--Italy
+conquered, the Tyrol, the great southern barrier of Austria,
+overpassed, and peace signed within a hundred miles of Vienna. The
+invasion of Italy first awoke the British ministry to the true
+direction of the vast naval powers of England. To save Italy if
+possible, was the primary object; the next was to prevent the
+superiority of the French fleet in the Mediterranean. A powerful fleet
+had been prepared in Toulon, for the purpose of aiding the French army
+in its invasion, and finally taking possession of all the ports and
+islands, until it should have realized the project of Louis XIV., of
+turning the Mediterranean into a French lake. It was determined to
+keep up a powerful British fleet to oppose this project, and Sir John
+Jervis was appointed to the command. Nothing could be a higher
+testimony to the opinion entertained of his talents, as his connexion
+with the Whigs was undisguised. But Pitt's feeling for the public
+service overcame all personal predilections, and this great officer
+was sent to take the command of the most extensive and important
+station to which a British admiral could be appointed. Lord Hood had
+previously declined it, on the singular plea of inadequacy of force;
+and Sir Charles Hotham having solicited his recall in consequence of
+declining health, the gallant Jervis was sent forth to establish the
+renown of his country and his own.
+
+The fleet was a noble command. It consisted on the whole of about
+twenty-five sail of the line, two of them of a hundred guns, and five
+of ninety-eight; thirty-six frigates, and fifteen or sixteen sloops
+and other armed vessels.
+
+Among the officers of the fleet were almost all the names which
+subsequently obtained distinction in the great naval victories--
+Troubridge, Hallowell, Hood, Collingwood, &c., and first of the first,
+that star of the British seaman, Nelson. It is remarkable, and only a
+just tribute to the new admiral, that he, almost from his earliest
+intercourse with those gallant men, marked their merits, although
+hitherto they had found no opportunities of acquiring distinction--all
+were to come. Nelson, in writing to his wife, speaking of the
+admiral's notice of him, says, "Sir John Jervis was a perfect stranger
+to me, therefore I feel the more flattered." The admiral, in writing
+to the secretary of the Admiralty, says--"I am afraid of being thought
+a puffer, like many of my brethren, or I should before have dealt out
+to the Board the merits of Captain Troubridge, which are very
+uncommon."
+
+The French fleet, of fifteen sail of the line, lay in Toulon, ready to
+convoy an army to plunge upon the Roman states. Sir John Jervis
+instantly proceeded to block up Toulon, keeping what is called the
+in-shore squadron looking into the harbour's mouth, while the main
+body cruised outside. The admiral at once employed Nelson on the
+brilliant service for which he was fitted, and sent him with a flying
+squadron of a ship of the line, three frigates, and two sloops, to
+scour the coast of Italy. The duties of the Mediterranean fleet,
+powerful as the armament was, were immense. Independently of the
+blockade of Toulon, and the necessity of continually watching the
+enemy's fleet, which might be brought out by the same wind which blew
+off the British, the admiral had the responsibility of protecting the
+Mediterranean convoys, of sustaining the British interests in the
+neutral courts, of assisting the allies on shore, of overawing the
+Barbary powers, which were then peculiarly restless and insolent, and
+of upholding the general supremacy of England, from Smyrna to
+Gibraltar.
+
+The French campaign opened on the 9th of April 1797, and the Austrians
+were beaten on the following day at Montenotte, and in a campaign of a
+month Bonaparte reached Milan. The success of the enemy increased to
+an extraordinary degree the difficulties of the British admiral. The
+repairs of the fleet, the provisioning, and every other circumstance
+connected with the land, lay under increased impediments; but they
+were all gradually overcome by the vigilance and intelligence of the
+admiral.
+
+A curious and characteristic circumstance occurred, soon after his
+taking the command. Nelson had captured a vessel carrying 152 Austrian
+grenadiers, who had been made prisoners by the French, and actually
+sold by their captors to the Spaniards, for the purpose of enlisting
+them in the Spanish army. His letter to Jackson, the secretary of
+legation at Turin, on this subject, spiritedly expresses his
+feelings:--
+
+    "SIR,--From a Swiss dealer in human flesh, the demand made
+    upon me to deliver up 152 Austrian grenadiers, serving on
+    board his Majesty's fleet under my command, is natural enough,
+    but that a Spaniard, who is a noble creature, should join in
+    such a demand, I must confess astonishes me; and I can only
+    account for it by the Chevalier Caamano being ignorant that
+    the persons in question were made prisoners of war in the last
+    war with General Beaulieu, and are not deserters, and that
+    they were most basely sold by the French commissaries to the
+    vile crimps who recruit for the foreign regiments in the
+    service of Spain. It is high time a stop should be put to this
+    abominable traffic, a million times more disgraceful than the
+    African slave-trade."
+
+But other dangers now menaced the British supremacy in the
+Mediterranean. The victories of Bonaparte had terrified all the
+Italian states into neutrality or absolute submission; and the success
+of the Directory, and perhaps their bribes, influenced the miserably
+corrupt and feeble Spanish ministry, to make common cause with the
+conquering republic. Spain at last became openly hostile. This was a
+tremendous increase of hazards, because Spain had fifty-seven sail of
+the line, and a crowd of frigates. The difficulty of blockading Toulon
+was now increased by the failure of provisions. On the night of the 2d
+of November, the admiral sent for the master of the Victory, and told
+him that he now had not the least hope of being reinforced, and had
+made up his mind to push down to Gibraltar with all possible dispatch.
+
+The passage became a stormy one, and it was with considerable
+difficulty that the fleet reached Gibraltar. Some of the transports
+were lost, a ship of the line went down, and several of the fleet were
+disabled.
+
+The result of the French successes and the Austrian misfortunes, was
+an order for the fleet to leave the Mediterranean, and take up its
+station at the Tagus. The vivid spirit of Nelson was especially
+indignant at this change of scene. In one of his letters he says--"We
+are preparing to leave the Mediterranean, a measure which I cannot
+approve. They at home do not know what this fleet is capable of
+performing--any thing, and every thing. Of all the fleets I ever saw,
+I never saw one, in point of officers and men, equal to Sir John
+Jervis's, who is a commander able to lead them to glory." The
+admiral's merits were recognized by the government in a still more
+permanent manner; for, by a despatch from the Admiralty in February
+1797, it was announced that the king had raised him to the dignity of
+the peerage.
+
+The prospect now darkened round every quarter of the horizon. The
+power of Austria had given way; Spain and Holland were combined
+against our naval supremacy; Italy was lost; a French expedition
+threatened Ireland; there was a strong probability of the invasion of
+Portugal; and the junction of the French and Spanish fleets might
+endanger not merely the Tagus fleet, but expose the Channel fleet to
+an encounter with numbers so superior, as to leave the British shores
+open to invasion. The domestic difficulties, too, had their share.
+The necessity of suspending cash payments at the Bank had, if not
+thrown a damp upon the nation, at least given so formidable a ground
+for the fallacies and bitterness of the Opposition, as deeply to
+embarrass even the fortitude of the great minister. We can now see how
+slightly all these hazards eventually affected the real power of
+England; and we now feel how fully adequate the strength of this
+extraordinary and inexhaustible country was to resist all obstacles
+and turn the trial into triumph. But faction was busy, party predicted
+ruin, public men used every art to dispirit the nation and inflame the
+populace; and the result was, a state of public anxiety of which no
+former war had given the example.
+
+It is incontestable that the list of the British navy at this period
+of the war exhibited some of the noblest specimens of English
+character--brave, intelligent, and indefatigable men, ready for any
+service, and equal for all; with all the intrepidity of heroes,
+possessing the highest science of their profession, and exhibiting at
+once that lion-heartedness, and that knowledge, which gave the British
+navy the command of the ocean. And yet, if we were to assign the
+highest place where all were high, we should probably assign it to
+Lord St Vincent as an admiral. Nelson certainly, as an executive
+officer, defies all competition; his three battles, Copenhagen,
+Aboukir, and Trafalgar, each of them a title to eminent distinction,
+place him as a conqueror at the head of all. But an admiral has other
+duties than those of the line of battle; and for a great naval
+administrator, first disciplining a fleet, then supplying it with all
+the means of victory, and finally leading it to victory--Lord St
+Vincent was perhaps the most complete example on record of all the
+combined qualities that make the British admiral. His profound
+tactics, his stern but salutary exactness of command, his incomparable
+judgment, and his cool and unhesitating intrepidity, form one of the
+very noblest models of high command. All those qualities were now to
+be called into full exertion.
+
+The continental campaign had left Europe at the mercy of France.
+England was now the only enemy, and she was to be assailed, in the
+first instance, by a naval war. To prevent the junction of the Spanish
+and French fleets, the Tagus was the station fixed upon by Lord St
+Vincent. Ill luck seemed to frown upon the fleet. The Bombay Castle, a
+seventy-four, was lost going in; the St George, a ninety, grounded in
+coming out, and was obliged to be docked; still the admiral determined
+to keep the sea, though his fleet was reduced to eight sail of the
+line. The day before he left the Tagus, information was received that
+the enemy's fleets had both left the Mediterranean. The French had
+gone to Brest, the Spanish first to Toulon, then to Carthagena, and
+was now proceeding to join the French at Brest. A reinforcement of six
+sail of the line now fortunately joined the fleet off the Tagus; but
+at the same time information was received that the Spanish fleet of
+twenty-seven sail of the line, with fourteen frigates, had passed
+Cadiz, and could not be far distant. To prevent the junction of this
+immense force with the powerful fleet already prepared for a start in
+Brest, was of the utmost national importance; for, combined, they must
+sweep the Channel. The admiral instantly formed his plan, and sailed
+for Cape St Vincent.
+
+The details of the magnificent encounter which followed, are among the
+best portions of the volumes. They are strikingly given, and will
+attract the notice, as they might form the model, of the future
+historian of this glorious period of our annals. We can now give only
+an outline.
+
+On the announcement of the Spanish advance, the first object was to
+gain exact intelligence, and ships were stationed in all quarters on
+the look-out. But on the 13th Captain Foote, in the Niger frigate,
+joined, with the intelligence that he had kept sight of the enemy for
+three days. The admiral was now to have a new reinforcement, not in
+ships but in heroes; the Minerva frigate, bearing Nelson's broad
+pendant, from the Mediterranean, arrived, and Nelson shifted his
+pendant into the Captain. The Lively frigate, with Lord Garlies, also
+arrived from Corsica. The signal was made, "To keep close order, and
+prepare for battle." On that day, Lord Garlies, Sir Gilbert Elliot,
+and Captain Hallowell, with some other officers, dined on board the
+Victory. At breaking up, the toast was drunk, "Victory over the Dons,
+in the battle from which they cannot escape to-morrow!"
+
+The "gentlemen of England who live at home at ease," can probably have
+but little conception of the price which men in high command pay for
+glory. No language can describe the anxieties which have often
+exercised the minds of those bold and prominent characters, of whom we
+now know little but of their laurels. The solemn responsibilities of
+their condition, the consciousness that a false step might be ruin,
+the feeling that the eye of their country was fixed upon them, the
+hope of renown, the dread of tarnishing all their past distinctions,
+must pass powerfully and painfully through the mind of men fitted for
+the struggles by which greatness is to be alone achieved.
+
+"It is believed that Sir John Jervis did not go to bed that night, but
+sat up writing. It is certain that he executed his will." In the
+course of the first and second watches, the enemy's signal-guns were
+distinctly heard; and, as he noticed them sounding more and more
+audibly, Sir John made more earnest enquiries as to the compact order
+and situation of his own ships, as well as they could be made out in
+the darkness. Long before break of day, he walked the deck in more
+than even his usual silence. When the grey of the morning of the 14th
+enabled him to discern his fleet, his first remarks were high
+approbation of his captains, for "their admirably close order, and
+that he wished they were now well up with the enemy; for," added he
+thoughtfully, "a victory is very essential to England at this moment."
+
+Now came on the day of decision. The morning was foggy; but as the
+mist cleared up, the Lively, and then the Niger, signaled "a strange
+fleet." The Bonne Citoyenne was next ordered to reconnoitre. Soon
+after, the Culloden's guns announced the enemy. At twenty minutes past
+ten the signal was made to six of the ships--"to chase." Sir John
+still walked the quarterdeck, and, as the enemy's numbers were
+counted, they were duly reported to him by the captain of the fleet.
+
+"There are eight sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty-five sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty-seven sail of the line, Sir John." This was
+accompanied by some remark on the great disparity of the two forces.
+Sir John's gallant answer now was:--
+
+"Enough, sir--no more of that: the die is cast, and if there are fifty
+sail, I will go through them."
+
+At forty minutes past ten the signal was made to form line of battle
+ahead and astern of the Victory, and to steer S.S.W. The fog was now
+cleared off, and the British fleet were seen admirably formed in the
+closest order; while the Spaniards were stretching in two straggling
+bodies across the horizon, leaving an open space between. The
+opportunity of dividing their fleet struck the admiral at once, and at
+half-past eleven the signal was made to pass through the enemy's line,
+and engage them to leeward. At twelve o'clock, as the Culloden was
+reaching close up to the enemy, the British fleet hoisted their
+colours, and the Culloden opened her fire. An extraordinary incident,
+even in those colossal battles, occurred to this fine ship. The course
+of the Culloden brought her directly on board one of the enemy's
+three-deckers. The first lieutenant, Griffiths, reported to her
+captain, Troubridge, that a collision was inevitable. "Can't help it,
+Griffiths--let the weakest fend off," was the hero's reply. The
+Culloden, still pushing on, fired two of her double-shotted broadsides
+into the Spaniard with such tremendous effect, that the three-decker
+went about, and the guns of her other side not being even cast loose,
+she did not fire a single shot, while the Culloden passed triumphantly
+through. Scarcely had she broken the enemy's line, than the
+commander-in-chief signaled the order to tack in succession.
+Troubridge's manoeuvre was so dashingly performed, that the admiral
+could not restrain his delight and admiration.
+
+"Look, Jackson," he rapturously exclaimed, "look at Troubridge there!
+He tacks his ship to battle as if the eyes of all England were upon
+him; and would to God they were, for then they would see him to be
+what I know him."
+
+The leeward division of the enemy, perceiving the fatal consequences
+of their disunited order of sailing, now endeavoured to retrieve the
+day, and to break through the British line. A vice-admiral, in a
+three-decker, led them, and was reaching up to the Victory just as she
+had come up to tack in her station. The vice-admiral stood on with
+great apparent determination till within pistol-shot, but there he
+stopped; and when the Victory could bring her guns to bear upon him,
+she thundered in two of her broadsides, sweeping the Spaniard's decks,
+and so terrified him, that when his sails filled, he ran clear out of
+the battle altogether. The Victory then tacked into her station, and
+the conflict raged with desperate fury. At this period of the battle,
+the Spanish commander-in-chief bore up with nine sail of the line to
+run round the British, and rejoin his leeward division. This was a
+formidable manoeuvre; but no sooner was it commenced, than his eye
+caught it "whose greatest wish it ever was to be the first to find,
+and foremost to fight, his enemy." Nelson, instead of waiting till his
+turn to tack should bring him into action, took it upon himself to
+depart from the prescribed mode of attack, and ordered his ship to be
+immediately wore. This masterly manoeuvre was completely successful,
+at once arresting the Spanish commander-in-chief, and carrying Nelson
+and Collingwood into the van and brunt of the battle. He now attacked
+the four-decker, the Santissima Trinidada, also engaged by the
+Culloden. The Captain's fore-topmast being now shot away, Nelson put
+his helm down, and let her come to the wind, that he might board the
+San Nicolas; Captain, afterwards Sir Edward Berry, then a passenger
+with Nelson, jumping into her mizen-chains, was the first in the
+enemy's ship; Nelson leading his boarders, and a party of the 69th
+regiment, immediately followed, and the colours were hauled down.
+While he was on the deck of the San Nicolas, the San Josef, disabled,
+fell on board. Nelson instantly seized the opportunity of boarding her
+from his prize; followed by Captain Berry, and Lieutenant Pierson of
+the 69th, he led the boarders, and jumped into the San Josef's
+main-chains. He was then informed that the ship had surrendered. Four
+line-of-battle ships had now been taken, and the Santissima Trinidada
+had also struck; but she subsequently made her escape, for now the
+Spanish leeward division, fourteen sail, having re-formed their line,
+bore down to support their commander-in-chief: to receive them, Sir
+John Jervis was obliged to form a line of battle on the starboard
+tack--the enemy immediately retired. Thus, at five in the evening,
+concluded the most brilliant battle that had ever till then been
+fought at sea.
+
+Captain Calder was immediately sent off with the despatch, and arrived
+in London on the 3d of March. A battle gained over such a numerical
+superiority, for it was much more than two to one, when we take into
+our estimate the immense size of the enemy's ships, and their weight
+of metal, there being one four-decker of 130 guns, and six
+three-deckers of 112, of which two were taken; and further, the more
+interesting circumstance, that this great victory was gained on our
+part with only the loss of 73 killed and 227 wounded, the public
+feeling of exultation was unbounded; and when the minister on that
+very evening proposed that the vote of thanks should be taken on the
+following Monday, the House would hear of no delay, but insisted on
+recording its gratitude at the moment. The House of Peers gave a
+similar vote on the 8th; and the Commons and the Crown immediately
+proposed to settle upon the admiral a pension of three thousand
+a-year. A member of the House of Commons, on moving for an address to
+the Crown to confer some signal mark of favour on the admiral, was
+instantly replied to by the sonorous eloquence of the minister--"Can
+it be supposed," said he, "that the Crown can require to be prompted
+to pay the just tribute of approbation and honour to those who have
+eminently distinguished themselves by public services? On the part of
+his Majesty's ministers, I can safely affirm, that before the last
+splendid instance of the conduct of the gallant admiral, we have not
+been remiss in watching the uniform tenor of his professional career.
+We have witnessed the whole of his proceedings--such instances of
+perseverance, of diligence, and of exertion in the public service, as,
+though less brilliant and dazzling than the last exploit, are only
+less meritorious as they are put in competition with a single day,
+which has produced such incalculable benefit to the British empire."
+
+The result was an earldom. The first lord of the Admiralty, Lord
+Spencer, having already written to Sir John the royal pleasure to
+promote him to a peerage, and the letter not having reached him
+previously to the battle, he thus had notice of the two steps in the
+peerage nearly at once.
+
+Popular honours now flowed in upon him: London voted its freedom in a
+gold box, with swords to the admirals of the fleet and Nelson;
+vice-admirals Parker and Thompson were created baronets; Nelson
+received the red riband; the chief cities and towns of England and
+Ireland sent their freedoms and presents; and the king gave all the
+admirals and captains a gold medal.
+
+We must now be brief in our observations on the services of this most
+distinguished person. We have next a narrative of the suppression of
+the memorable mutiny of 1798, whose purpose it was to have suffered
+the enemy's fleet to leave their harbours, to revolutionize the
+Mediterranean fleet, and, after putting the admirals and captains to
+death, proceed to every folly and frenzy that could be committed by
+men conscious of power, and equally conscious that forgiveness was
+impossible. The fleet under Lord St Vincent was on the point of
+corruption, when it was restored to discipline by the singular
+firmness of the admiral, who, by exhibiting his determination to
+punish all insubordination, extinguished this most alarming
+disaffection, and saved the naval name of the country.
+
+On the resignation of Mr Pitt in 1801, and the appointment of Mr
+Addington as first lord of the treasury, a letter was written from the
+new minister to Lord St Vincent, offering him the appointment of first
+lord of the Admiralty. Having obtained an interview with the king, and
+explained the general tone of his political feelings, the king told
+him he very much wished to see him at the Admiralty, and to place the
+navy entirely in his hands. This was perhaps the only appointment of
+that singularly feeble administration which met with universal
+approval. There could be no question of the intelligence, high
+principle, or public services of the great admiral. Mr Addington came
+into power under circumstances which would have tried the talents of a
+man of first-rate ability. The war had exhausted the patience, though
+not the power, of the nation. All our allies had failed. The severity
+of the taxes was doubly felt, when the war had necessarily turned into
+a blockade on the Continent. We had thus all the exhaustion of
+hostilities without the excitement of triumph; and, to increase public
+anxieties, the failure of the harvest threatened a comparative famine.
+Wheat, which on an average of the preceding ten years had been 54s. a
+quarter, was now at 110s., then rose to 139s., and even reached as
+high as 180s. At one period the quartern loaf had risen to 1s. 10-1/2d.
+The popular cry now arose for peace. France, which with all her
+victories had been taught the precariousness of war, by the loss of
+Egypt and the capture of her army, was now also eager for peace.
+England had but two allies, Portugal and Turkey. At length the peace
+was made, and Lord St Vincent's attention was then drawn to an object
+which he had long in view, the reformation of the dockyards. This was
+indeed the Augean stable, and unexampled clamour arose from the
+multitude who had indolently fattened for years on the easy plunder of
+the public stores. However, the reform went on: perquisites were
+abolished, privileges taken away; and, rough as the operation was,
+nothing could be more salutary than its effect. The acuteness of the
+gallant old man at the head of the Admiralty could not be evaded, his
+vigour could not be defied, and his public spirit gave him an
+influence with the country, which enabled him to outlive faction and
+put down calumny. Yet this was evidently the most painful, and, to a
+certain extent, the most unsuccessful portion of his long career.
+Nominally a Whig, but practically a Tory--for his loyalty was
+unimpeachable and his honour without a stain--Lord St Vincent found
+himself in the condition of a man who presses reform on those with
+whom hitherto it has been only a watchword, and expects faction to act
+up to its professions.
+
+The Addington treaty was soon discovered to be nothing more than a
+truce. Napoleon lived only in war; hostilities were essential to the
+government which he had formed for France; and his theory of
+government, false as it was, and his passion for excitement, whatever
+might be its price, made even the two years of peace so irksome to
+him, that he actually adopted a gross and foolish insult to the
+British ambassador as the means of compelling us to renew the
+conflict. The first result was, the return of Pitt to power; the next,
+the total ruin of the French navy at Trafalgar; the next, the bloody
+and ruinous war with Russia, expressly for the ruin of England through
+the ruin of her commerce; and finally the crash of Waterloo, which
+extinguished his diadem and his dominion together--a series of events,
+occurring within little more than ten years, of a more stupendous
+order than had hitherto affected the fate of any individual, or
+influenced the destinies of an European kingdom.
+
+With the ministry of Mr Addington, Lord St Vincent retired from public
+life. He was now old, and the hardships of long service had partially
+exhausted his original vigour of frame. He retired to his seat,
+Rochetts in Essex, and there led the delightful life of a man who had
+gained opulence and distinction by pre-eminent services, and whose old
+age was surrounded by love, honour, and troops of friends. He appeared
+from time to time in the House of Lords, where, however, he spoke but
+seldom, but where he always spoke with dignity and effect.
+
+In the month of March 1823, Lord St Vincent was seized with a general
+feeling of infirmity which portended his speedy dissolution. He had a
+violent and convulsive cough; yet his intellects were strongly turned
+upon public events, and he expressed an anxiety to know all that could
+be known of events in France, which was then disturbed; of the Spanish
+revolution, which then threatened to involve Europe; and even of the
+affairs of Greece. In the course of the evening of the 13th, while his
+physician and family were round him, his strength suddenly gave way,
+and at half past eight he died, at the age of eighty-eight, and was
+buried at Stone in Staffordshire. He was succeeded in the peerage by
+his nephew, who, however, inherits only the viscounty.
+
+In our general notice of Lord St Vincent's career, we have adverted as
+little as possible to the opinions which his biographer had introduced
+from his own view of public affairs. We have no wish to make a peevish
+return to the writer of a work which has given us both information and
+pleasure. But it is necessary to caution Mr Tucker against giving
+trite and trifling opinions on subjects of which he evidently knows so
+little as of the Romish question, or the state of Ireland. Nothing is
+easier than to be at once solemn and superficial on such topics; and
+when a writer of this order flings his epithets of "bigoted, harsh,
+and impolitic," and the other stock phrases of party organs, he only
+enfeebles our respect for his authority in the immediate matters of
+his work, and rather lowers our respect for his faculties in all. The
+question of Popery in Ireland, is not a question of religion but of
+faction. Religious controversy on Romish doctrines has long ceased to
+exist. Romanism has no grounds on which a controversy can be
+sustained. It cannot appeal to the Scriptures, which it shuts up; and
+it will no longer be suffered to appeal to its mere childish pretence
+of infallibility. Its only ground in Ireland is party; and the present
+unhappy condition to which it has reduced Ireland, exhibits the
+natural consequences of indulgence to Popery, and the only means by
+which its spirit can be rendered consistent with the order of society.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART X.
+
+
+    "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+    Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+    Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+    Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+    And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+    Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+    Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+                                       SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+On reaching the prison, I gave up all for lost; sullenly resigned
+myself to what now seemed the will of fate; and without a word, except
+in answer to the interrogatory of my name and country, followed the
+two horrid-looking ruffians who performed the office of turnkeys. St
+Lazare had been a monastery, and its massiveness, grimness, and
+confusion of buildings, with its extreme silence at that late hour,
+gave me the strongest impression of a huge catacomb above ground. The
+door of a cell was opened for me after traversing a long succession of
+cloisters; and on a little wooden trestle, and wrapt in my cloak, I
+attempted to sleep. But if sleep has not much to boast of in Paris at
+any time, what was it then? I had scarcely closed my eyes when I was
+roused by a rapid succession of musket-shots, fired at the opposite
+side of the cloister, the light of torches flashing through the long
+avenues, and the shouts of men and women in wrath, terror, and agony.
+I threw myself off my uneasy bed, and climbing up by my prison bars,
+endeavoured to ascertain the cause of the mêlée. But the imperfect
+light served little more than to show a general mustering of the
+national guard in the court, and a huge and heavy building, into which
+they were discharging random shots whenever a head appeared at its
+casements. A loud huzza followed whenever one of those shots appeared
+to take effect, and a laugh equally loud ran through the ranks when
+the bullet wasted its effect on the massive mullions or stained glass
+of the windows. A tall figure on horseback, whom I afterwards learned
+to be Henriot, the commandant of the national guard, galloped up and
+down the court with the air of a general-in-chief manoeuvring an army.
+I think that he actually had provided himself with a truncheon to meet
+all the emergencies of supreme command. While this sanguinary, and yet
+mocking representation of warfare was going on, M. le Commandant was
+in full eloquence and prodigious gesticulation. "A la gloire, mes
+enfans!" was his constant cry. "Fight, _mes braves!_ the honour of
+France demands it: the eyes of Europe--of the world--are turned upon
+you. _Vive la Republique!_" And all this accompanied with waving his
+hat, and spurring his horse into foam and fury. But fortune is a jade
+after all; and the hero of the tricolored scarf was destined to have
+his laurels a little shorn, even on this narrow field. While his
+charger was caracoling over the cloisters, and his veterans from the
+cellars and counters of Paris were popping off their muskets at the
+unfortunates who started up against the old casement, I heard a sudden
+rush and run; a low postern of the cloister had been flung back, and
+the prisoners within the building had made a sally on their
+tormentors. A massacre at the Bicêtre, in which six thousand had
+perished, had warned these unhappy people that neither the prison
+wall, nor night, was to be security against the rage of the
+bloodhounds with whom murder seemed to have grown into a pastime; and
+after having seen several of their number shot down within their
+dungeon, they determined to attack them, and, if they must die, at
+least die in manly defence. Their rush was perfectly successful; it
+had the effect of a complete surprise; and though their only weapons
+were fragments of their firewood--for all fire-arms and knives had
+been taken from them immediately on their entrance into the
+prison--they routed the heroes of the guard at the first charge. Even
+the gallant commander himself only shared the chance of his
+"camarades:" a flourish or two of his sabre, and an adjuration of
+"liberty," had no other effect than to insure a heavier shower of
+blows, and I had the gratification of seeing the braggadocio go down
+from his saddle in the midst of a group, who certainly had no
+veneration for the majesty of the truncheon. The victory was achieved;
+but, like many another victory, it produced no results: the gates of
+the St Lazare were too strongly guarded to be forced by an unarmed
+crowd, and I saw the prisoners successively and gloomily return to the
+only roof, melancholy as that was, which now could shelter them.
+
+The morning brought my case before the authorities of this den. Half a
+dozen coarse and filthy uniformed men, and some of them evidently
+sufferers in the tumult of the night, for their heads were bound up
+and their arms bandaged--a matter which, if it did not improve their
+appearance, gave me every reason to expect increased brutishness in
+their tempers--formed the tribunal. The hall in which they had
+established their court had once been the kitchen of the convent; and,
+though all signs of hospitality had vanished, its rude and wild
+construction, its stone floor and vaulted roof, and even its yawning
+and dark recesses for the different operations which, in other days,
+had made it a scene of busy cheerfulness, now gave it a look of
+dreariness in the extreme. I could have easily imagined it to be a
+chamber of the Inquisition. But men in my circumstances have not much
+time for the work of fancy; and I was instantly called on for my name,
+and business in France. I had heard enough of popular justice to
+believe, that I had now arrived within sight of the last struggle, and
+I resolved to give these ruffians no triumph over the Englishman.
+
+"Citizen, who are you?" Was the first interrogatory.
+
+"I am no citizen, no Frenchman, and no republican," was my answer. My
+judges stared at each other.
+
+"You are a prisoner. How came you here?"
+
+"You are judges; how came you there?"
+
+"You are charged with crimes against the Republic."
+
+"In my country no man is expected to criminate himself."
+
+"But you are a traitor: can you deny that?"
+
+"I am no traitor to my king; can you say as much for yourselves?" They
+now began to cast furious glances at me.
+
+"You are insolent: what brought you into the territory of France?"
+
+"The same thing which placed you on that bench--force."
+
+"Are you mad?"
+
+"No--are you?"
+
+"Do you not know that we can send you to the"--
+
+"If you do, I shall only go before _you_."
+
+This put an end to my interrogatory at once. I had accidentally
+touched upon the nerve which quivered in every bosom of these fellows.
+There was a singular presentiment among even the boldest of the
+Revolutionists, that the new order of things would not last, and that,
+when the change came, it would be a bloody one. Life had become
+sufficiently precarious already among the possessors of power; and the
+least intimation of death was actually formidable to a race of
+villains whose hands were hourly imbued in slaughter. I had been
+hitherto placed in scarcely more than surveillance. An order for my
+confinement as a "Brigand Anglais," was made out by the indignant
+"commission," and I was transferred from my narrow and lonely cell
+into the huge crowded building in the opposite cloister, which had
+been the scene of the attack on the previous night. I could, with
+Cato, "smile on the drawn dagger and defy its point." I walked out
+with the air of a Cato.
+
+This change, intended for my infinite degradation until the guillotine
+should have dispatched its business in arrear, I found much to my
+advantage. The man who expects nothing, cannot be hurt by
+disappointment; and when I was conducted from my solitary cell into
+the midst of four or five hundred prisoners, I felt the human feelings
+kindle in me, which had been chilled between my four stone walls.
+
+The prisoners with whom I was now to take my chance, were of all
+ranks, professions, and degrees of crime. The true crime in the eyes
+of the republic being, to be rich. Yet there the culprit had some hope
+of being suffered to live, at least while daily examinations, with the
+hourly perspective of the axe, could make him contribute to the purses
+of the tribunal. Those who happened to be poor, were found guilty of
+_incivisme_ at once, and were daily drafted off to the Place de Grève,
+from which they never returned. But some of the prisoners were from La
+Vendée, peasants mixed with nobles; who, though no formal shape of
+resistance to the republic was yet declared, had exhibited enough of
+that gallant contempt of the new tyranny, which afterwards
+immortalized the name, to render them obnoxious to the ruffians at its
+head. It was this sturdy portion which had made the dash on the night
+of the riot, and their daring had the effect, at least, of saving
+their fellow-prisoners in future from being made marks, to teach the
+national guard the art of shooting. Even their sentries kept a
+respectful distance; and M. Henriot, wisely mindful of his
+flagellation, flourished his staff of command no more within our
+cloister. We were, in fact, left almost wholly to ourselves. Yet, if a
+philosopher desired to take a lesson in human nature, this was the
+spot of earth for the study. We had it in every shape and shade. We
+had it in the wits and blockheads, the courtiers and the clowns, the
+opulent and the ruined, the brave and the pusillanimous--and all under
+the strangest pressure of those feelings which rouse the nature of man
+to its most undisguised display. Death was before every eye. Where was
+the use of wearing a mask, when the wearer was so soon to part with
+his head? Pretence gradually vanished, and a general spirit of
+boldness, frankness, and something, if not exactly of dignity, at
+least of manliness, superseded the customary cringing of society under
+a despotism. In all but the name, we were better republicans than the
+tribe who shouted in the streets, or robbed in the tribunals.
+
+I made the remark one day to the Marquis de Cassini, a philosopher and
+pupil of the great Buffon. "The reason is," said he, "that men differ
+chiefly by circumstances, as they differ chiefly by their clothes.
+Throw off their dress, whether embroidery or rags, and you will find
+the same number of ribs in them all."
+
+"But my chief surprise is, to find in this prison more mutual
+kindness, and, in every sense, more generosity of sentiment, than one
+generally expects to meet in the world."
+
+"Helvetius would tell you that all this was self-interest," was my
+pale-visaged and contemplative friend's reply. "But I always regarded
+M. Helvetius in the light of a well-trained baboon, who thought, when
+men stared at his tricks, they were admiring his talents. The truth
+is, that self-interest is the mere creature of society, and is the
+most active in the basest society. It is the combined cowardice and
+cruelty of men struggling for existence; the savageness of the forest,
+where men cannot gather acorns enough to share with their fellows; the
+effort for life, where there is but one plank in a storm, and where,
+if you are to cling at all, it must be by drowning the weaker party.
+But here," and he cast his eyes calmly round the crowd, "as there is
+not the slightest possibility that any one of us will escape, we have
+the better opportunity of showing our original _bienséance_. All the
+struggling on earth will not save us from the guillotine; and
+therefore we resolve to accommodate each other for the rest of our
+journey."
+
+I agreed with him on the philosophy of the case, and in return he
+introduced me to some of the Vendéan nobles, who had hitherto
+exhibited their general scorn of Parisian contact by confining
+themselves to the circle of their followers. I was received with the
+distinction due to my introducer, and was invited to join their supper
+that night. The prison had once been the chapel of the convent; and
+though the desecration had taken place a hundred years before, and the
+revolutionary spoil had spared but little of the remaining ornaments,
+the original massiveness of the building, and the nobleness of the
+architecture, had withstood the assaults of both time and plunder. The
+roofs of the aisles could not be reached except by flame, and the
+monuments of the ancient priors and prelates, when they had once been
+stripped of their crosses, were too solid for the passing fury of the
+mob. And thus, in the midst of emblems of mortality, and the
+recollections of old solemnity, were set some hundreds of people, who
+knew as little of each other as if they had met in a caravansery, and
+who, perhaps, expected to part as soon. The scene was curious, but by
+no means uncheerful. The national spirit is inextinguishable; and,
+however my countrymen may bear up against the extremes of ill-fortune,
+no man meets its beginnings with so easy an air as the man of France.
+Our supper was laid out in one of the side chapels; and, coarse and
+scanty as it was, I seldom recollect an evening which I passed with a
+lighter sense of the burden of a prisoner's time. I found the Vendéan
+nobles a manlier race than their more courtly countrymen. Yet they had
+courtliness of their own; but it was more the manner of our own
+country gentlemen of the last century, than the polish of Versailles.
+Their habits of living on their domains, of country sports, of
+intercourse with their peasantry, and of the general simplicity of
+country life, had drawn a strong line of distinction between them and
+the dukes and marquises of the royal saloons. Like all Frenchmen of
+the day, they conversed largely upon the politics of France; but there
+was a striking reserve in their style. The existing royal family were
+but little mentioned, or mentioned only with a certain kind of sacred
+respect. Their misfortunes prohibited the slightest severity of
+language. Yet still it was not difficult to see, that those
+straightforward and honest lords of the soil, who were yet to prove
+themselves the true chevaliers of France, could feel as acutely, and
+express as strongly, the injuries inflicted by the absurdities and
+vices of the successive administrations of their reign, as if they had
+figured in the clubs of the capital. But the profligacies of the
+preceding monarch, and the tribe of fools and knaves whom those
+profligacies as naturally gathered round him as the plague propagates
+its own contagion, met with no mercy. And, though they were spoken of
+with the gravity which became the character and rank of the speakers,
+they were denounced with a sternness which seemed beyond the morals or
+the mind of their country. Louis XV., Du Barri, and the whole long
+succession of corrupting and corrupted cabinets, which had at length
+rendered the monarchy odious, were denounced in terms worthy of
+gallant men; who, though resolved to sink or swim with the throne,
+experienced all the bitterness of generous indignation at the crimes
+which had raised the storm.
+
+We had our songs too, and some of them were as contemptuous as ever
+came from the pen of Parisian satire. Among my recollections of the
+night was one of those songs, of which the _refrain_ was--
+
+    "Le Bien-Aimé--_de l'Almanac_."
+
+A burlesque on the title--Le Bien-Aimé, &c., which the court calendar,
+and the court calendar _alone_, had annually given to the late king. I
+can offer only a paraphrase.
+
+     "Louis Quinze, our burning shame,
+      Hear our song, 'old well-beloved,'
+    What if courts and camps are tame,
+      Pension'd beggars laced and gloved,
+    France's love grows rather slack,
+    Idol of--the Almanac.
+
+     "Let your flatterers hang or drown,
+      We are of another school,
+    Truth no more shall be put down,
+      We can call a fool a fool,
+    Fearless of Bastile or rack,
+    Titus of--the Almanac.
+
+     "Louis, trample on your serfs,
+      We'll be trampled on no more,
+    Revel in your _parc aux cerfs_,[27]
+      Eat and drink--'twill soon be o'er.
+    France will steer another tack,
+    Solon of--the Almanac!
+
+     "Hear your praises from your pages,
+      Hear them from your liveried lords,
+    Let your valets earn their wages,
+      Liars, living on their words;
+    We'll soon give them nuts to crack,
+    Cæsar of--the Almanac!
+
+     "When a dotard fills the throne,
+      Fit for nothing but a nurse,
+    When a nation's general groan,
+      Yields to nothing but its curse;
+    What are armies at thy back,
+    Henri of--the Almanac?
+
+     "When the truth is bought and sold,
+      When the wrongs of man are spurn'd,
+    Then the crown's last knell is toll'd,
+      Then, old Time, thy glass has turn'd,
+    And comes flying from thy pack
+    To nations a _new_ Almanac!
+
+     "Mistress, minister, Bourbon,
+      Rule by bayonets, bribes, and spies,
+    Charlatans in church and throne,
+      France is opening all her eyes--
+    Down go minion, king, and quack,
+    We'll have _our_ new Almanac!"
+
+    [27] A scene of peculiar infamy near Paris.
+
+When I returned to the place where my mattress was flung, the crowd
+had already sunk to rest, and there was a general silence throughout
+the building. The few lights which our jailers supplied to us, had
+become fewer; and, except for the heavy sound of the doubled sentries'
+tread outside, I might have imagined myself in a vast cemetery. The
+agitation of the day, followed by the somewhat unsuitable gayety of
+the evening, had thrown me into such a state of mental and bodily
+fatigue, that I had scarcely laid my side on my bed, untempting as it
+was, when I dropped into a heavy slumber. The ingenuity of our
+tormentors, however, prohibited our knowing any thing in the shape of
+indulgence; and in realisation of the dramatist's renowned _mot_,
+"traitors never sleep," the prison door was suddenly flung open--a
+drum rattled through the aisle--the whole body of the prisoners were
+ordered to stand forth and answer to their names; this ceremony
+concluding with the march of the whole night-guard into the chapel,
+and their being ordered to load with ball-cartridge, to give us the
+sufficient knowledge of what any attempt to escape would bring upon us
+in future. This refinement in cruelty we owed to the _escapade_ of the
+night before.
+
+At length, after a variety of insulting queries, even this scene was
+over. The guard marched out, the roll of their drum passed away among
+the cloisters; we went shivering to our beds--threw ourselves down
+dressed as we were, and tried to forget France and our jailers.
+
+But a French night in those times was like no other, and I had yet to
+witness a scene such as I believe could not have existed in any other
+country of the globe.
+
+After some period of feverish sleep I was awakened by a strange
+murmur, which, mixing with my dreams, had given me the comfortless
+idea of hearing the roar of the multitude at some of the horrid
+displays of the guillotine; and as I half opened my unwilling eyes,
+still heavy with sleep, I saw a long procession of figures, in flowing
+mantles and draperies, moving down the huge hall. A semicircle of beds
+filled the extremity of the chapel, which had been vacated by a draft
+of unfortunate beings, carried off during the day to that dreadful
+tribunal, whose sole employment seemed to be the supply of the axe,
+and from which no one was ever expected to return. While my eyes, with
+a strange and almost superstitious anxiety--such is the influence of
+time and place--followed this extraordinary train, I saw it take
+possession of the range of beds; each new possessor sitting wrapt in
+his pale vesture, and perfectly motionless. I can scarcely describe
+the singular sensations with which I continued to gaze on the
+spectacle. My eyes sometimes closed, and I almost conceived that the
+whole was a dream; but the forms were too distinct for this
+conjecture, and the question with me now became, "are they flesh and
+blood?" I had not sunk so far into reverie as to imagine that they
+were the actual spectres of the unhappy tenants of those beds on the
+night before, all of whom were now, doubtless, in the grave; but the
+silence, the distance, the dimness perplexed me, and I left the
+question to be settled by the event. At a gesture from the central
+figure they all stood up--and a man loaded with fetters was brought
+forward in front of their line. I now found that a trial was going on:
+the group were the judges, the man was the presumed criminal; there
+was an accuser, there was an advocate--in short, all the general
+process of a trial was passing before my view. Curiosity would
+naturally have made me spring from my bed and approach this
+extraordinary spectacle; but I am not ashamed now to acknowledge, that
+I felt a nervelessness and inability to speak or move, which for the
+time wholly awed me. All that I could discover was, that the accused
+was charged with _incivisme_, and that, defying the court and
+disdaining the charge, he was pronounced guilty--the whole circle,
+standing up as the sentence was pronounced, and with a solemn waving
+of their arms and murmur of their voices, assenting to the act of the
+judge. The victim was then seized on, swept away into the darkness,
+and after a brief pause I heard a shriek and a crash; the sentence had
+been fulfilled--all was over. The court now covered their heads with
+their mantles, as if in sorrow for this formidable necessity.
+
+But how shall I speak of the closing scene? However it surprised and
+absorbed me in that moment of nervous excitement, I can allude to it
+now only as characteristic of a time when every mind in France was
+half lunatic. I saw a figure enveloped in star-coloured light emerge
+from the darkness, slowly ascend, in a vesture floating round it like
+the robes which Raphael or Guido gives to the beings of another
+sphere, and, accompanied by a burst of harmony as it rose, ascend to
+the roof, where it suddenly disappeared. All was instantly the silence
+and the darkness of the grave.
+
+Daylight brought back my senses, and I was convinced that the
+pantomimic spirit of the people, however unaccountably it might
+disregard proprieties, had been busy with the scene. I should now
+certainly have abandoned the supernatural portion of the conjecture
+altogether; but on mentioning it to Cassini, he let me into the
+solution at once.
+
+"Have you never observed," said he, "the passion of all people for
+walking on the edge of a precipice, climbing a church tower, looking
+down from a battlement, or doing any one thing which gives them the
+nearest possible chance of breaking their necks?--then you can
+comprehend the performance of last night. There we are, like fowls in
+a coop: every day sees some of us taken out; and the amusement of the
+remaining fowls is to imagine how the heads of the others were taken
+from their bodies." The prisoners were practising a trial.
+
+I gave an involuntary look of surprise at this species of amusement,
+and remarked something on the violation of common feeling--to say
+nothing of the almost profaneness which it involved.
+
+"As to the feeling," said Cassini, with that shrug which no shoulders
+but those of a Frenchman can ever give, "it is a matter of taste; and
+perhaps we have no right to dictate in such matters to persons who
+would think a week a long lease of life, and who, instead of seven
+days, may not have so many hours. As to the profanation, if your
+English scruples made you sensitive on such points, I can assure you
+that you might have seen some things much more calculated to excite
+your sensibilities. The display last night was simply the trial of a
+royalist; and as we are all more or less angry with republicanism at
+this moment, and with some small reason too, the royalist, though he
+was condemned, as every body now is, was suffered to have his
+apotheosis. But _I_ have seen exhibitions in which the republican was
+the criminal, and the scene that followed was really startling even to
+my rather callous conceptions. Sometimes we even had one of the
+colossal ruffians who are now lording it over France. I have seen St
+Just, Couthon, Caier, Danton, nay Robespierre himself; arraigned
+before our midnight tribunal; for this amusement is the only one which
+we can enjoy without fear of interruption from our jailers. Thus we
+enjoy it with the greater gusto, and revenge ourselves for the
+tribulations of the day by trying our tormentors at night."
+
+"I am satisfied with the reason, although I am not yet quite
+reconciled to the performance. Who were the actors?"
+
+"You are now nearer the truth than you suspected. We have men of every
+trade here, and, among the rest, we have actors enough to stock the
+_Comédie Française_. If you remain long enough among us, you will see
+some of the best farces of the best time played uncommonly well by our
+fellow _détenus_. But in the interim--for our stage is permitted by
+the municipality to open in the St Lazare only four times a month--a
+piece of cruelty which we all regard as intolerable--our actors
+refresh their faculties with all kinds of displays. You acknowledge
+that the scene last night was well got up; and if you should see the
+trial of some of our 'Grands Democrats,' be assured that your
+admiration will not be attracted by showy vesture, blue lights, or the
+harmonies of the old asthmatic organ in yonder gallery; our pattern
+will be taken from the last scene of 'Il Don Giovanni.' You will have
+no pasteboard figure suspended from the roof, and wafted upward in
+starlight or moonlight. But if you wish to see the exhibition, I am
+concerned to tell you that you must wait, for to-night all our
+_artistes_ are busy. In what, do you conceive?"
+
+I professed my inability to fathom "the infinite resources of the
+native mind, where amusement was the question."
+
+"Well then--not to keep you in suspense--we are to have a masquerade."
+
+The fact was even so. France having grown tired of all things that had
+been, grew tired of weeks, and Decades were the law of the land. The
+year was divided into packs of ten days each, and she began the great
+game of time by shuffling and cutting her cards anew. The change was
+not marked by any peculiar good fortune; for it was laughed at, as
+every thing in France was except an order for deportation to the
+colonies, or a march to the scaffold. The populace, fully admitting
+the right of government to deal with kings and priests as it pleased,
+regarded the interference with their pleasures as a breach of compact;
+and the result was, that the populace had their Dimanche as well as
+their Decadi, and that the grand experiment for wiping out the Sunday,
+issued in giving them two holidays instead of one.
+
+It was still early in the day when some bustle in the porch of the
+prison turned all eyes towards it, and a new detachment of prisoners
+was brought in. I shall say nothing of the scenes of wretchedness
+which followed; the wild terrors of women on finding themselves in
+this melancholy place, which looked, and was, scarcely more than a
+vestibule to the tomb; the deep distress of parents, with their
+children clinging round them, and the general despair--a despair which
+was but too well founded. Yet the tumult of their settling and
+distribution among the various quarters of the chapel had scarcely
+subsided when another scene was at hand. The commissary of the
+district came in, with a list of the prisoners who were summoned
+before the tribunal. Our prison population was like the waters of a
+bath, as one stream flowed in another flowed out; the level was
+constantly sustained. With an instinctive pang I heard my name
+pronounced among those unhappy objects of sanguinary rule. Cassini
+approached me with a smile, which he evidently put on to conceal his
+emotion.
+
+"This is quick work, M. Marston," said he, taking my hand. "As the
+ruffian in the school fable says, 'Hodie tibi, cras nihi'--twelve
+hours will probably make all the difference between us."
+
+I took off the little locket coutaining my last remembrance of
+Clotilde, and put it into his hands, requesting him, if he survived,
+to transmit it to his incomparable countrywoman, with an assurance
+that I remembered her in an hour when all else was forgotten.
+
+"I shall perform the part of your legatee," said he, "till to-morrow;
+then I will find some other depositary. Here you must know that
+heirship is rapid, and that the will is executed before the ink is
+dry." He turned away to hide a tear. "I have not known you long, sir,"
+said he; "but in this place we must be expeditious in every thing. You
+are too young to die. If you are sacrificed, I am convinced that you
+will die like a gentleman and a man of honour. And yet I have some
+feeling, some presentiment, nay almost a consciousness, that you will
+not be cut off, at least until you are as weary of the world as I am."
+
+I endeavoured to put on a face of resignation, if not of cheerfulness,
+and said, "That though my country might revenge my death, my being
+engaged in its service would only make my condemnation inevitable. But
+I was prepared."
+
+"At all events, my young friend," said he, "if you escape from this
+pandemonium of France, take this paper, and vindicate the memory of
+Cassini."
+
+He gave me a memoir, which I could not help receiving with a smile,
+from the brevity of the period during which the trust was likely to
+hold. The gendarme now came up to demand my attendance. I shook hands
+with the marquis, who at that moment was certainly no philosopher, and
+followed the train.
+
+We were about fifty in number; and after being placed in open
+artillery waggons, the procession moved rapidly through the suburb,
+until we reached one of those dilapidated and hideous-looking
+buildings which were then to be found startling the stranger's eye
+with the recollections of the St Bartholomew and the Fronde.
+
+A crowd, assembled round the door of one of these melancholy shades,
+and the bayonets of a company of the national guard glittering above
+their heads, at length indicated the place of our destination. The
+crowd shouted, and called us "aristocrats, thirsting for the blood of
+the good citizens." The line of the guard opened, and we were rapidly
+passed through several halls, the very dwelling of decay, until we
+reached a large court, where the prisoners remained while the judges
+were occupied in deciding on the fate of the train which the morning
+had already provided. I say nothing of the insults which were
+intended, if not to add new bitterness to death, to indulge the
+wretched men and women who could find an existence in attending on the
+offices of the tribunal, with opportunities of triumphing over those
+born to better things. While we remained in the court exposed to the
+weather, which was now cold and gusty, shouts were heard at intervals,
+which, as the turnkeys informed us, arose from the spectators of the
+executions--death, in these fearful days, immediately following
+sentence. Yet, to the last the ludicrous often mingled with the
+melancholy. While I was taking my place in the file according to the
+order of our summons, and was next in rotation for trial, a smart and
+overdressed young man stepped out of his place in the rank, and
+drawing from his bosom a pamphlet in manuscript, presented it to me,
+with the special entreaty that, "in case I survived, I should take
+care of its propagation throughout Europe." My answer naturally was,
+"That my fate was fully as precarious as that of the rest, and that
+thus I had no hope of being able to give his pamphlet to mankind."
+
+"_Mais_, monsieur," that phrase which means so many inexpressible
+things--"But, sir, you must observe, that by putting my pamphlet into
+your charge, it has a double chance. You may read it as a part of your
+defence; it is a treatise on the government of France, which settles
+all the disputed questions, reconciles republicanism with monarchy,
+and shows how a revolution may be made to purify all things without
+overthrowing any. Thus my sentiments will become public at once, the
+world will be enlightened, and, though _you_ may perish, France will
+be saved."
+
+Nothing could be more convincing; yet I continued stubborn. He
+persisted. I suggested the "possibility of my not being suffered to
+make any defence whatever, but of being swept away at once; in this
+case endangering the total loss of his conceptions to the world;" but
+I had to deal with a man of resources.
+
+"No," said the author and philanthropist; "for that event I have
+provided. I have a second copy folded on my breast, which I shall read
+when I am called on for trial. Then those immortal truths shall not be
+left to accident; I shall have two chances for celebrity; the labour
+of my life shall be known; nor shall the name of Jean Jacques
+Pelletier go to the tomb without the renown due to a philosopher."
+
+But further deprecation on my part was cut short by the appearance of
+two of the guard, by whom I was marched to the presence of the
+tribunal. The day had now waned, and two or three lamps showed my
+weary eye the judges, whose decision was to make the difference to me
+between life and death, within the next half hour. Their appearance
+was the reverse of one likely to reconcile the unfortunate to the
+severity of the law. They were seven or eight sitting on a raised
+platform, with a long table in their front, covered with papers, with
+what seemed to be the property taken from the condemned at the
+moment--watches, purses, and trinkets; and among those piles, very
+visibly the fragments of a dinner--plates and soups, with several
+bottles of cognac and wine. Justice was so indefatigable in France,
+that its ministers were forced to mingle all the functions of public
+and private life together; and to be intoxicated in the act of passing
+sentence of death was no uncommon event.
+
+The judges of those sectional tribunals were generally ruffians of the
+lowest description, who, having made themselves notorious by violence
+and Jacobinism, had driven away the usual magistracy, and, under the
+pretext of administering justice, were actually driving a gainful
+trade in robbery of every kind. The old costume of the courts of law
+was of course abjured; and the new civic costume, which was obviously
+constructed on the principle of leaving the lands free for butchery,
+and preserving the garments free from any chance of being disfigured
+by the blood of the victim--for they were the perfection of savage
+squalidness--was displayed _à la rigueur_ on the bench. A short coat
+without sleeves, the shirt sleeves tucked up as for instant execution,
+the neck open, no collar, fierce mustaches, a head of clotted hair,
+sometimes a red nightcap stuck on one side, and sometimes a red
+handkerchief tied round it as a temporary "bonnet de nuit"--for the
+judges frequently, in drunkenness or fatigue, threw themselves on the
+bench or the floor, and slept--exhibited the regenerated aspect of
+Themis in the capital of the polished world.
+
+My name was now called. I shall not say with what a throb of heart I
+heard it. But at the moment when I was stepping forward, I felt my
+skirt pulled by one of the guard behind me. I looked, and recognized
+through all his beard, and the hair that in profusion covered his
+physiognomy, my police friend, who seemed to possess the faculty of
+being every where--a matter, however, rendered easier to him by his
+being in the employ of the government--and who simply whispered the
+words--"Be firm, and acknowledge nothing." Slight as the hint was, it
+had come in good time; for I had grown desperate from the sight of the
+perpetual casualties round me, and, like Cassini's idea of the man
+walking on the edge of the precipice, had felt some inclination to
+jump off, and take my chance. But now contempt and defiance took the
+place of despair; and instead of openly declaring my purposes and
+performances, my mind was made up to leave them to find out what they
+could.
+
+On my being marched up to the foot of the platform between two
+frightful-looking ruffians, whose coats and trousers seemed to have
+been dyed in gore, to show that they were worthy of the murders of
+September, and who, to make "assurance doubly sure," wore on their
+sword-belts the word "September," painted in broad characters, I
+remained for a while unquestioned, until they turned over a pile of
+names which they had flung on the table before them. At last their
+perplexity was relieved by one of the clerks, who pronounced my name.
+I was then interrogated in nearly the same style as before the
+committee of my first captors. I gave them short answers.
+
+"Who are you?" asked the principal distributor of rabble justice. The
+others stooped forward, pens in hand, to record my conviction.
+
+My answer was--
+
+"I am a man." (Murmurs on the platform.)
+
+"Whence come you?"
+
+"From your prison."
+
+"You are not a Frenchman?"
+
+"No, thank Heaven!" (Murmurs again.)
+
+"Beware, sir, of insolence to the tribunal. We can send you instantly
+to punishment."
+
+"I know it. Why then try me at all?"
+
+"Because, prisoner, we desire to hear the truth first."
+
+"First or last, can you bear to hear it?" (Angry looks, but more
+attention.)
+
+"We have no time to waste--the business of the Republic must be done.
+Are you a citizen?"
+
+"I am; a citizen of the world."
+
+"You must not equivocate with justice. Where did you live before you
+were arrested?"
+
+"On the globe." (A half-suppressed laugh among the crowd in the back
+ground.)
+
+"What profession?"
+
+"None."
+
+"On what then do you live, have lived, or expect to live?"
+
+"To-day on nothing, for your guards have given me nothing. Yesterday,
+I lived on what I could get. To-morrow, it depends on circumstances
+whether I shall want any thing." (A low murmur of applause among the
+bystanders, who now gathered closer to the front.)
+
+"Prisoner," said the chief, swilling a glass of cognac to strengthen
+the solemnity of his jurisprudence, "the Republic must not be trifled
+with. You are arraigned of _incivisme_. Of what country are you a
+subject?"
+
+"Of France, while I remain on her territory."
+
+"Have you fought for France?"
+
+"I have; for her laws, her liberty, her property, and her honour."
+(Bravo! from the crowd.)
+
+"Yet you are not a Republican?"
+
+"No; no more than you are."
+
+This produced confusion on the bench. The hit was contemptuously
+accidental; but it was a home-thrust at the chief, who had former been
+a domestic in the Tuileries, and was still strongly suspected of being
+a spy of the Bourbons. The crowd who knew his story, who are always
+delighted with a blow at power, burst into a general roar. But a
+little spruce fellow on the bench, who had already exhibited a desire
+to take his share in the interrogatory, now thrust his head over the
+table, and said in his most searching tone--
+
+"To come to the point--Prisoner, how do you live? What are your means?
+All honest men must have visible means. That is _my_ question." (All
+eyes were now turned on me.)
+
+I was now growing angry; and, pointing to the pile of purses and
+watches on the table--
+
+"No man," said I, "needs ask what are your visible means, when they
+see that pile before you. Yet I doubt if that proves you to be an
+honest man. That is _my_ answer."
+
+The little inquisitor looked furious, and glanced towards the chief
+for protection; but his intrusion had provoked wrath in that quarter,
+and his glance was returned with a rigid smile.
+
+"Prisoner," said the head of the tribunal, "though the question was
+put improperly, it was itself a proper one. How do you live?"
+
+"By my abilities."
+
+"That is a very doubtful support in those times."
+
+"I do not recommend you, or any of those around you, to make the
+experiment," was my indignant answer.
+
+The bystanders gave a general laugh, in which even the guard joined.
+To get the laugh against one, is the most unpardonable of all injuries
+in France, and this answer roused up the whole tribunal. They scarcely
+gave themselves the trouble of a moment's consultation. A few nods and
+whispers settled the whole affair; and the chief, standing up and
+drawing his sabre from its sheath--then the significant custom of
+those places of butchery, pronounced the fatal words, "Guilty of
+_incivisme_. Let the criminal be conducted _à la Force_," the
+well-known phrase for immediate execution.
+
+The door was opened from which none ever came back. Two torches were
+seen glaring down the passage, and I was seized by the grim escort who
+were to lead me to the axe.
+
+The affectation of cowardice is as childish as the affectation of
+courage; but I felt a sensation at that moment which took me by
+surprise. I had been perfectly assured of my sentence from the first
+glance at the judges. If ever there was a spot on earth which deserved
+Dante's motto of Erebus--
+
+    "Voi qui entrate, lasciate agui speranza"--
+
+it was the revolutionary tribunal. Despair was written all over it in
+characters impossible to be mistaken. I had fixed my resolution to go
+through the whole scene, if not with heroism, at least with that
+decent firmness which becomes a man; yet the sound of the words which
+consigned me to the scaffold struck me with a general chill. Momentary
+as the period was, the question passed through my mind, are those
+paralysed limbs the same which bore me so well through the hazards of
+the campaign? Why am I to feel the fluttering of heart now, more than
+when I was facing sabres and cannon-shot? Why am I thus frigid and
+feeble, when I so lately fought and marched, and defied alike fatigue
+and wounds? But I felt in this chamber of death an inconceivable
+exhaustion, which had never approached me in the havoc of the field.
+My feet refused to move, my lips to breathe; all objects swam round,
+and sick to death and fainting, I thrust out my hand to save me from
+falling, and thus gave the last triumph to my murderers.
+
+At this decisive moment I found my hand caught by a powerful grasp,
+and a strong voice exclaiming, "Messieurs, I demand the delay of this
+sentence. The criminal before you is of higher importance to the state
+than the wretches whom justice daily compels you to sacrifice. His
+crime is of a deeper dye. I exhibit the mandate of the Government to
+arrest the act of the tribunal, and order him to be reserved until he
+reveals the whole of the frightful plots which endanger the Republic."
+
+He then advanced to the platform; and, taking a paper from his bosom,
+displayed to the court and the crowd the order for my being remanded
+to prison, signed by the triumvirate, whose word was law in France.
+Some confusion followed on the bench, and some bustle among the
+spectators; but the document was undeniable, and my sentence was
+suspended. I am not sure that the people within much regretted the
+delay, however those who had been lingering outside might feel
+themselves ill-used by a pause in the executions, which had now become
+a popular amusement; for the crowd instantly pushed forward to witness
+another trial of sarcasm between me and my judges; but this the new
+authority sternly forbade.
+
+"The prisoner," said he, in a dictatorial tone, "is now in my charge.
+He is a prisoner of state--an Englishman--an agent of the monster
+Pitt"--(he paused, and was answered with a general shudder;) "and,
+above all, has actually been in arms with the fiend Brunswick, (a
+general groan,) and with those worse than fiends, those parricides,
+those emigrant nobles, who have come to burn our harvests, slay our
+wives and children, and destroy the proudest monument of human wisdom,
+the grandest triumph of human success, and the most illustrious
+monument of the age of regeneration--the Republic of France." Loud
+acclamations followed this popular rhetoric; and the panegyrist,
+firmly grasping me by the arm, walked with me rapidly out of court.
+All made way for him, and, before another word could be uttered by the
+astounded bench, we were in one of the covered carriages reserved for
+prisoners of the higher rank, and on our way, at full gallop, through
+the intricate streets of Paris.
+
+All this was done with such hurried action, that I had scarcely time
+to know what my own emotions were; but the relief from immediate
+death, or rather from those depressing and overwhelming sensations
+which perhaps make its worst bitterness, was something, and hope
+dawned in me once more. Still, it was wholly in vain that I attempted
+to make my man of mystery utter a word. Nothing could extort a
+syllable from him, and he was evidently unwilling that I should even
+see his face, imperfect as the chance was among the few lamps which
+Paris then exhibited to enlighten the dismal darkness of her
+thoroughfares. Yet the idea that my rescue was not without a purpose
+predominated; and I was beginning even to imagine that I already felt
+the fresh air of the fields, and that our journey would terminate
+outside the walls of Paris, when the carriage came to a full stop,
+and, by the light of a torch streaming on the wind in front, I saw the
+gate of the St Lazare. All was now over--resistance or escape was
+equally beyond me. The carriage was surrounded by the guard, who
+ordered me to descend; their officer received the rescript for my safe
+custody, and I had nothing before me but the dungeon. But at the
+moment when my foot was on the step of the vehicle, my companion
+stooped forward, and uttered in my ear, with a pressure of my hand,
+the word "Mordecai." I was hurried onward, and the carriage drove
+away.
+
+My surprise was excessive. This talismanic word changes the current
+of my thoughts at once. It had so often and so powerfully operated in
+my favour, that I could scarcely doubt its effect once more; yet
+before me were the stern realities of confinement. What spell was
+equal to those stonewalls, what dexterity of man or friendship, or
+even the stronger love of woman, could make my dungeon free, or my
+chains vanish into "thin air?" Still there had been a interposition,
+and to that interposition, whether for future good or ill, it
+certainly was due that I was not already mounting the scaffold, or
+flung, headless trunk, into the miserable and nameless grave.
+
+As I passed again through the cloisters, my ears were caught with the
+sound of music and dancing. The contrast was sufficiently strong to
+the scene from which I had just returned; yet this was the land of
+contrasts. To my look of surprise, the turnkey who attended me
+answered "Perhaps you have forgotten that this is Decadi, and on this
+night we always have our masquerade. If you have not got a dress, I
+shall supply you; my wife is a _fripier_ in the Antoine; she supplies
+all the civic fêtes with costumes, and you may have any dress you
+like, from a grand signor with his turban, down to a _colporteur_ with
+his pack, or a watchman with his nightcap."
+
+My mind was still too unsettled to enjoy masquerading, notwithstanding
+the temptation of the turnkey's wardrobe; and I felt all that absence
+of accommodation to circumstances, that want of plasticity, that
+failure of grasping at every hair's-breadth of enjoyment, which is
+declared by foreigners to form the prodigious deficiency of John Bull.
+If I could have taken refuge, for that night at least, in the saddest
+cell of the old convent, or in the deepest dungeon of the new prison,
+I should have gone to either with indulgence. I longed to lay down my
+aching brains upon my pillow, and forget the fever of the time. But
+prisoners have no choice; and the turnkey, after repeating his
+recommendations that I should not commit an act of such profound
+offence as to appear in the assembly without a domino, if I should
+take nothing else from the store of the most popular _marchande_ in
+Paris, the wife of his bosom, at last, with a shake of his head and a
+bending of his heavy brows at my want of taste, unlocked the gate, and
+thrust me into the midst of my old quarters, the chapel.
+
+There a new scene indeed awaited me. The place which I had left filled
+with trembling clusters of people, whole families clinging to each
+other in terror, loud or mute, but all in the deepest dread of their
+next summons, I found in a state of the most extravagant
+festivity--the chapel lighted up from floor to root--bouquets planted
+wherever it was possible to fix an artificial flower--gaudy wreaths
+depending from the galleries--and all the genius of this country of
+extremes lavished on attempts at decoration. Rude as the materials
+were, they produced at first sight a remarkably striking effect. More
+striking still was the spectacle of the whole multitude in every
+grotesque dress of the world, dancing away as if life was but one
+festival.
+
+As I stood aloof for a while, wholly dazzled by the glare, the
+movement, and the multitude, I was recognised by some of my "old"
+acquaintance--the acquaintance of twenty-four hours--but here time,
+like every thing else, had changed its meaning, and a new influx had
+recruited the hall. Cassini and some others came forward and welcomed
+me, like one who had returned from the tomb--the news of the day was
+given and exchanged--a bottle of champagne was prescribed as the true
+medicine for my lowness of pulse--and I gradually gave myself up to
+the spirit of the hour.
+
+As I wandered through the crowd, a mask dressed as a sylph bent its
+head over my shoulder, and I heard the words, "Why are you not in a
+domino?" I made some careless answer. "Go and get one immediately,"
+was the reply. "Take this card, fasten it on your robe, and meet me
+here again." The mask put a card marked with a large rose into my
+hand, and was gone waltzing away among the crowd. I still lingered,
+leaning against one of the pillars of the aisle. The mask again
+approached me. "Monsieur Anglais," was the whisper, "you do not know
+your friends. Go and furnish yourself with a domino. It is essential
+to your safety." "Who are my friends, and why do you give me this
+advice?" was my enquiry. The mask lightly tripped round me, laid its
+ungloved hand on mine, as if in the mere sport of the dance; and I saw
+that it was the hand of a female from its whiteness and delicacy. I
+was now more perplexed than ever. As the form floated round me with
+the lightness of a zephyr, it whispered the word "Mordecai," and flew
+off into an eddy of the moving multitude. I now obeyed the command;
+went to the little shrine where the turnkey's wife had opened her
+_friperie_, and equipped myself with the dress appointed; and, with
+the card fixed upon my bosom, returned to take my station beside the
+pillar. But no sylph came again; no form rivaled the zephyr before me.
+I listened for that soft, low voice; but listened in vain. Yet what
+was all this but the common sport of a masquerade?
+
+However, an object soon drew the general attention so strongly, as to
+put an end to private curiosity for the time. This was a mask in the
+uniform of a national guard, but so outrageously fine that his
+_entrée_ excited an universal burst of laughter. But when, after a few
+displays of what was apparently all but intoxication, he began a
+detail of his own exploits, it was evident that the whole was a daring
+caricature; and as nothing could be less popular among us than the
+heroes of the shops, the Colonels Calicot, and Mustaches _au
+comptoir_, all his burlesque told incomparably. The old officers among
+us, the Vendéans, and all the ladies--for the sex are aristocrats
+under every government and in every region of the globe--were
+especially delighted. "Alexandre Jules Cæsar," colonel of the "brave
+battalion of the Marais," was evidently worth a dozen field-marshals
+in his own opinion; and his contempt for Vendôme, Marlborough, and
+Frederick le Grand, was only less piquant than the perfect imitation
+and keen burlesque of Santerre, Henriot, and our municipal warriors.
+At length when his plaudits and popularity were at their height, he
+proposed a general toast to the "young heroism," of the capital, and
+prefaced it by a song, in great repute in the old French service.
+
+    "AVANCEZ, BRAVE GUERRIERS."
+
+    "Shoulder arms--brave regiment!
+      Hark, the bugle sounds 'advance.'
+    Pile the baggage--strike the tent;
+      France demands you--fight for France.
+    If the hero gets a ball,
+    His accounts are closed--that's all!
+
+    "Who'd stay wasting time at home,
+      Made for women to despise;
+    When, where'er we choose to roam,
+      All the world before us lies,
+    Following our bugle's call,
+    Life one holiday--that's all!
+
+    "When the soldier's coin is spent,
+      He has but to fight for more;
+    He pays neither tax nor rent,
+      He's but where he was before.
+    If he conquer, if he fall--
+    _Fortune de la guerre_--that's all!
+
+    "Let the pedant waste his oil,
+      With the soldier all is sport;
+    Let your blockheads make a coil
+      In the cloister or the court;
+    Let them fatten in their stall,
+    We can fatten too--that's all!
+
+    "What care we for fortune's frown,
+      All that comes is for the best;
+    What's the noble's bed of down
+      To the soldier's evening rest
+    On the heath or in the hall,
+    All alike to him--that's all!
+
+    "When the morn is on the sky,
+      Hark the gay _reveillé_ rings!
+    Glory lights the soldier's eye,
+      To the gory breach he springs,
+    Plants his colours on the wall
+    Wins and wears the _croix_--that's all!"
+
+The dashing style in which this hereditary song of the French camp was
+given by "Colonel Alexandre Jules Cæsar" of the "brave battalion of
+the Marais," his capitally awkward imitation of the soldier of the old
+_régime_, and his superb affectation of military nonchalance, were so
+admirable, that his song excited actual raptures of applause. His
+performance was encored, and he was surrounded by a group of nymphs
+and graces, among whom his towering figure looked like a grenadier of
+Brobdignag in the circle of a Liliputian light company. He carried on
+the farce for a while with great adroitness and animation; but at
+length he put the circle of tinsel and tiffany aside, and rushing up
+to me, insisted on making me a recruit for the "brave battalion of the
+Marais." But I had no desire to play a part in this pantomime, and
+tried to disengage myself. One word again made me a captive: that word
+was now "Lafontaine;" and at the same moment I saw the sylph bounding
+to my side. What was I to think of this extraordinary combination? All
+was as strange as a midsummer night's dream. The "colonel," as if
+fatigued, leaned against the pillar, and slightly removing his mask, I
+saw, with sudden rejoicing, the features of that gallant young friend,
+whom I had almost despaired of ever seeing again. "Wait in this spot
+until I return," was all that I heard, before he and the sylph had
+waltzed away far down the hall.
+
+I waited for some time in growing anxiety; but the pleasantry of the
+night went on as vividly as ever, and some clever _tableaux vivants_
+had varied the quadrilles. While the dancers gave way to a
+well-performed picture of Hector and Andromache from the _Iliad_, and
+the hero was in the act of taking the plumed helmet from his brow,
+with a grace which enchanted our whole female population, an old
+Savoyard and his daughter came up, one playing the little hand-organ
+of their country, and the other dancing to her tamborine. This was
+pretty, but my impatience was ill disposed to look or listen; when I
+was awakened by a laugh, and the old man's mask being again half
+turned aside, I again saw my friend: the man moved slowly through the
+crowd, and I followed. We gradually twined our way through the
+labyrinth of pillars, leaving the festivity further and further
+behind, until he came to a low door, at which the Savoyard tapped, and
+a watchword being given, the cell was opened. There our robes and
+masks were laid aside; we found peasant dresses, for which we
+exchanged them; and following a muffled figure who carried a lantern,
+we began our movements again through the recesses of the endless
+building. At length we came to a stop, and our guide lifting up a
+ponderous stone which covered the entrance to a deep and dark
+staircase, we began to descend. I now for the first time heard the
+cheerful voice of Lafontaine at my side. "I doubt," said he, "whether
+a hundred years ago any one of us would have ventured on a night march
+of this kind; for, be it known to you, that we are now in the vaults
+of the convent, and shall have to go through a whole regiment of monks
+and abbots in full parade." I observed that, "if we were to meet them
+at all, they would be less likely to impede our progress dead than
+alive;" but I still advised Lafontaine to allude as little as he could
+to the subject, lest it might have the effect of alarming our fair
+companion. "There is no fear of that," said he, "for little Julie is
+in love with M. le Comte, our gallant guide; and a girl of eighteen
+desperately in love, is afraid of nothing. You Englishmen are not
+remarkable for superstition; and as for me and my compatriots, we have
+lost our reverence for monks in any shape since the taking of the
+Bastile."
+
+We now went on drearily and wearily through a range of catacombs,
+stopping from time to time to ascertain whether we were pursued; and
+occasionally not a little startled by the sudden burst of sound that
+came from the revelry above, through the ventilators of these enormous
+vaults. But the Count had well prepared his measures, had evidently
+traced his way before, and led us on without hinderance, until we
+approached a species of sallyport, which, once opened, would have let
+us out into the suburb. Here misfortune first met us; none of the keys
+which the Count had brought with him would fit the lock. It was now
+concluded by our alarmed party, either that the design of escape had
+been discovered, or that the lock had been changed since the day
+before. Here was an insurmountable difficulty. To break down the gate,
+or break through it, was palpably impossible, for it was strongly
+plated with iron, and would have resisted every thing but a
+six-pounder. What was to be done? To remain where we were was
+starvation and death; to return, would be heart-breaking; yet escape
+was clearly out of the question. The Count was furious, as he tried in
+vain to shake the solid obstacle; Lafontaine was in despair. I,
+rather more quietly, took it for granted that the guillotine would
+settle all our troubles in the course of the next day; and the pretty
+Julie, in a deluge of tears, charging herself with having undone us
+all, hung upon the neck of her cavalier, and pledged herself, by all
+the hopes and fears of passion, to die along with him. While the
+lovers were exchanging their last vows, Lafontaine, in all the
+vexation of his soul, was explaining to me the matchless excellence of
+the plot, which had been thus defeated in the very moment of promised
+success.
+
+"You perhaps remember," said he, "the letter which the father of
+Mariamne, that dearest girl whom I shall now never see again in this
+world, gave you for one of his nation in Paris. On the night when I
+last saw you, I had found it lying on your table; and in the confusion
+of the moment, when I thought you killed, and rushed into the street
+to gain some tidings of you, I took charge of the letter, to assist me
+in the enquiry. Unlucky as usual, I fell into the hands of a rabble
+returning from the plunder of the palace, was fired on, was wounded,
+and carried to the St Lazare. The governor was a man of honour and a
+royalist, and he took care of me during a dangerous illness and a slow
+recovery. But to give me liberty was out of his power. I had lost
+sight of the world so long, that the world lost sight of me, and I
+remained, forgetting and forgotten; until, within these two days--when
+I received a note from the head of the family to whom your letter was
+directed, informing me that you had been arrested and sent to the very
+prison in which I was--my recollection of the world suddenly revived,
+and I determined to save you if possible. I had grown familiar with
+the proceedings of that tribunal of demons, the Revolutionary
+committee; and as I had no doubt of your condemnation, through the
+mere love of bloodshed, I concerted with my Jewish friend the plan of
+having you claimed as a British agent, who had the means of making
+important disclosures to the government. If this succeeded, your life
+was saved for the day, and your escape was prepared for the night.
+This weeping girl is the daughter of the late governor, who has
+engaged in our plot to save the life of her affianced husband; and
+now, within an hour of daylight, when escape will be impossible, all
+our plans are thrown away--we are brought to a dead stand by the want
+of one miserable key, and shall have nothing more to do than to make
+up our minds to die with what composure we can."
+
+Having finished his story, the narrator wrapt up his head in his
+cloak, and laid himself down like one determined never to rise again.
+The Count and his Julie were so engaged in recapitulating their
+sorrows, sitting side by side on a tombstone, like a pair of
+monumental figures, that they had neither ear nor eye for any thing
+else; but my English nature was made of sterner stuff, and thinking
+that at the last I could but die, I took the lantern and set sturdily
+to work to examine the gate. It was soon evident that it could be
+neither undermined nor broken down by any strength of ours; but it was
+also evident that the lock was the old one which had closed it perhaps
+for the last century, and that the right key was the only thing
+wanting. Leaving Lafontaine in his despair lying at the foot of the
+monument, on which the lovers sat murmuring like a pair of turtle
+doves, I determined to make a thorough search for the missing key, and
+made my way back through all the windings of the catacomb, tracing the
+ground step by step. Still no key was to be found. At last I reached
+the cell where we had changed our dresses, and examined table, floor,
+and chair. Still nothing was to be found; but, unluckily, the light of
+the lantern glancing through the loop-hole of the cell, caught the eye
+of the sentinel on the outside, and he challenged. The sound made me
+start; and I took up one of the robes to cover the light. Something
+hard struck my hand. It was in the gown of the Savoyard's daughter. I
+felt its pockets, and, to my infinite astonishment and delight,
+produced the key. The pretty Julie, who had procured it, had forgotten
+every thing in the rapture of meeting her lover, and had left it
+behind her when she threw off her masquerading costume.
+
+I now hastened back with the rapid step becoming the bearer of good
+tidings, and revived the group of despair. The key was applied to the
+lock, but it refused to move, and we had another pang of
+disappointment. Lafontaine uttered a groan, and Julie poured another
+gush of tears upon her companion's shoulder. I made the experiment
+again; the rust of the lock was now found to have been our only
+hinderance; and with a strong turn the bolt flew back, and the door
+was open.
+
+We had all been so much exhausted by agitation, and the dreary
+traverse of the catacomb, that the first gush of fresh air conveyed a
+sensation almost of new life. The passage had probably been formed in
+the period when every large building in Paris was a species of
+fortress; and we had still a portcullis to pass. When we first pushed
+against it, we felt another momentary pang; but age had made it an
+unfaithful guardian, and a few stout attacks on its decayed bars gave
+us free way. We were now under the open sky; but, to our
+consternation, a new and still more formidable difficulty presented
+itself. The moat was still to be passed. To attempt the drawbridge was
+hopeless; for we could hear the sentinel pacing up and down its
+creaking planks. The moment was critical; for a streak of grey light
+in the far east showed that the day was at hand. After resolving all
+imaginable plans, and abandoning them all as fruitless; determining,
+at all events, never to return, and yet without the slightest prospect
+of escape, except in the bottom of that sullen pool which lay at our
+feet--the thought occurred to me, that in my return through the vault
+I had stumbled over the planks which covered a vault lately dug for a
+prisoner. Communicating my idea to Lafontaine, we returned to the
+spot, loaded ourselves with the planks, and fortunately found them of
+the length that would reach across the narrowest part of the fosse.
+Our little bridge was made without delay, and Lafontaine led the way,
+followed by the count and Julie, I waiting to see them safe across,
+before I added my weight to the frail structure. But I was not yet
+fated to escape. The sentinel, whose vigilance I had startled by my
+lantern in the cell, had given the alarm; and, as I was setting my
+foot on the plank, a discharge of fire-arms came from the battlement
+above. I felt that I was struck, and a stunning sensation seized me. I
+made an attempt to spring forward, but suddenly found myself unable to
+move. The patrol from the drawbridge now surrounded me, and in this
+helpless state, bleeding, and as I thought dying, I was hurried back
+into the St Lazare.
+
+After a fortnight's suffering in the hospital of the prison, which
+alone probably saved me from the guillotine, then almost the natural
+death of all the suspected, I was enabled to get on my feet again. I
+found the prison as full as ever, but nearly all its inmates had been
+changed except the Vendéans, whom the crooked policy of the time kept
+alive, partly to avoid raising the whole province in revolt, partly as
+hostages for their countrymen.
+
+On my recovery, I had expected to be put down once more in the list
+for trial; but it reached even the prison, that the government were in
+a state of alarm for themselves, which prevented them from indulging
+their friends in the streets with the national amusement. The chance
+of mounting the scaffold themselves had put the guillotine out of
+fashion; and two or three minor attempts at the seizure of the Jacobin
+sceptre by the partisans of the Girondists and Cordeliers, had been
+put down with such difficulty, that even the Jacobin Club had begun to
+protest against bloodshed, through the prospect of a speedy
+retaliation. Thus we were suffered to linger on. But, "disguise
+thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, thou art a bitter draught," and
+the suspense was heart-sickening. At length, however, a bustle outside
+the walls, the firing of alarm guns, and the hurrying of the national
+guard through the streets, told us that some new measure of atrocity
+was at hand, and we too soon learned the cause.
+
+The army under Dumourier had been attacked by the Austrians under
+Clairfait, and had been defeated with heavy loss; despatches had been
+received from their favourite general, in all the rage of failure,
+declaring that the sole cause of the disaster was information
+conveyed from the capital to the Austrian headquarters, and demanding
+a strict enquiry into the intrigues which had thus tarnished the
+colours of the Republic. No intelligence could have been more
+formidable to a government, which lived from day to day on the breath
+of popularity; and, to turn the wrath of the rabble from themselves,
+an order was given to examine the prisons, and send the delinquents to
+immediate execution. It may be easily believed that the briefest
+enquiry was enough for vengeance, and the prisoners of St Lazare were
+the first to furnish the spectacle. A train of carts rattled over the
+pavement of our cloisters, and we were ordered to mount them without
+delay. The guard was so strong as to preclude all hope of resistance;
+and with all the pomp of a military pageant, drums beating, trumpets
+sounding, and bands playing _Ça Ira_ and the _Marseillaise_, we left
+our dreary dwelling, which habit had now almost turned into a home,
+and moved through the principal streets of the capital, for the
+express purposes of popular display, in the centre of a large body of
+horse and foot, and an incalculable multitude of spectators, until in
+the distance we saw the instrument of death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE CHILD'S WARNING.
+
+
+    There's blood upon the lady's cheek,
+      There's brightness in her eye:
+    Who says the sentence is gone forth
+      That that fair thing must die?
+
+    Must die before the flowering lime,
+      Out yonder, sheds its leaf--
+    Can this thing be, O human flower!
+      Thy blossoming so brief?
+
+    Nay, nay, 'tis but a passing cloud,
+      Thou didst but droop awhile;
+    There's life, long years, and love and joy,
+      Whole ages, in that smile--
+
+    In the gay call that to thy knee
+      Brings quick that loving child,
+    Who looks up in those laughing eyes
+      With his large eyes so mild.
+
+    Yet, thou art doom'd--art dying; all
+      The coming hour foresee,
+    But, in love's cowardice, withhold
+      The warning word from thee.
+
+    God keep thee and be merciful!
+      His strength is with the weak;
+    Through babes and sucklings, the Most High
+      Hath oft vouchsafed to speak--
+
+    And speaketh now--"Oh, mother dear!"
+      Murmurs the little child;
+    And there is trouble in its eyes,
+      Those large blue eyes so mild--
+
+    "Oh, mother dear! they say that soon,
+      When here I seek for thee,
+    I shall not find thee--nor out there,
+      Under the old oak-tree;
+
+    "Nor up stairs in the nursery,
+      Nor any where, they say.
+    Where wilt thou go to, mother dear?
+      Oh, do not go away!"
+
+    Then was long silence--a deep hush--
+      And then the child's low sob.
+    _Her_ quivering eyelids close--one hand
+      Keeps down the heart's quick throb.
+
+    And the lips move, though sound is none,
+      That inward voice is prayer.
+    And hark! "Thy will, O Lord, be done!"
+      And tears are trickling there,
+
+    Down that pale cheek, on that young head--
+      And round her neck he clings;
+    And child and mother murmur out
+      Unutterable things.
+
+    _He_ half unconscious--_she_ deep-struck
+      With sudden, solemn truth,
+    That number'd are her days on earth,
+      Her shroud prepared in youth--
+
+    That all in life her heart holds dear,
+      God calls her to resign.
+    She hears--feels--trembles--but looks up,
+      And sighs, "Thy will be mine!"
+
+                                           C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE TWO PATRONS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+The front door of a large house in Harley Street stood hospitably
+open, and leaning against the plaster pillars (which were of a very
+miscellaneous architecture) were two individuals, who appeared as if
+they had been set there expressly to invite the passengers to walk in.
+Beyond the red door that intersected the passage, was seen the
+coloured-glass entrance to a conservatory on the first landing of the
+drawing-room stairs; and a multitude of statues lined each side of the
+lobby, like soldiers at a procession, but which the inventive skill of
+the proprietor had converted to nearly as much use as ornament; for a
+plaster Apollo, in addition to watching the "arrow's deathful flight,"
+had been appointed custodier of a Taglioni and a Mackintosh, which he
+wore with easy negligence over his head--a distracted Niobe, in the
+same manner, had undertaken the charge of a grey silk hat and a green
+umbrella. The Gladiator wore a lady's bonnet; the Farnese Hercules
+looked like an old-fashioned watchman, and sported a dreadnought coat.
+A glaring red paper gave a rich appearance to the hall; the stair
+carpet also added its contribution to the rubicundity of the scene,
+which was brought to a _ne plus ultra_ by the nether habiliments of
+the two gentlemen who, as already stated, did the honours of the door.
+
+A more pleasing sight than two footmen refreshing themselves on the
+top of the front stairs with a view of the opposite houses, and
+gratifying the anxious public at the same time with a view of
+themselves, it is difficult to imagine. They always look so diffident
+and respectful, that involuntarily our interest in them becomes almost
+too lively for words. We think with disdain on miserable soldiers and
+hungry mechanics, and half-starved paupers and whole-starved
+labourers; and turn, with feelings of a very different kind, to the
+contemplation of virtue rewarded, and modesty well fed, in the persons
+of the two meditative gentlemen whose appearance at the front door in
+Harley Street has given rise to these reflections. The elder of them,
+who kept the post of honour on the right hand side, just opposite the
+bell-handle, and whose superiority over the other was marked by much
+larger legs, a more prominent blue waistcoat, and a slight covering of
+powder over his auburn locks, looked for some time at his companion,
+while an expression of ill-disguised contempt turned up to still more
+dignified altitude the point of his nose. At last, as if by an effort,
+he broke forth in speech.
+
+"Snipe," he said--and seeing that Mr Snipe's ears were open, he
+continued--"I can't tell how it is, but I saw, when first I came, you
+had never been in a reg'lar fambly--never."
+
+"We was always more reg'larer at Miss Hendy's nor here--bed every
+night at ten o'clock, and up in the morning at five."
+
+"You'll never get up to cribbage--you're so confounded slow," replied
+the senior; "you'll have to stick to dominoes, which is only fit for
+babbies. Did ye think I meant Miss Hendy's, or low people of that
+kind, when I spoke of a reg'lar fambly?--I meant that you had never
+seen life. Did you ever change plates for a marquis, Snipe?"
+
+"Never heared of one. Is he in a great way of business?"
+
+"A marquis is a reg'lar nob, you know; and gives reg'lar good wages
+when you gets 'em paid. A man can't be a gentleman as lives with
+vulgar people--old Pitskiver is a genuine snob."
+
+"He's a rich gentleman," returned Mr Snipe.
+
+"But he's low--uncommon low"--said the other--"reg'lar boiled mutton
+and turnips."
+
+"And a wery good dish too," observed Mr Snipe, whose intellect, being
+strictly limited to dominoes, was not quite equal to the metaphorical.
+
+"By mutton and turnips, I means--he may be rich; but he ain't genteel,
+Snipe. Look at our Sophiar's shoulders."
+
+Mr Snipe looked up towards his senior with a puzzled expression, as if
+he waited for information--"What has Miss Sophiar's shoulders to do
+with boiled mutton and turnips?"
+
+"Nothing won't do but to be at it from the very beginning," said the
+superior, with a toss of his powdered head; "fight after it as much as
+ever they like, wear the best of gownds, and go to the fustest of
+boarding-schools--though they plays ever so well on the piando, and
+talks Italian like a reg'lar Frenchman--nothing won't do--_there's_
+the boiled mutton and turnips--shocking wulgarity! Look again, I say,
+at our Sophiar's shoulders, and see how her head's set on. Spinks's
+Charlotte is a very different affair--and there she is at the winder
+over the way. That's quite the roast fowl and blamange," he continued,
+looking at a very beautiful girl who appeared at the window of one of
+the opposite houses--"a pretty blowen as ever I see, and uncommon fond
+of Spinks."
+
+"I see nothing like a fowl about the young lady," replied the prosaic
+Mr Snipe; "and Spinks is a horrid liar."
+
+"But can't you judge for yourself, Snipe? That girl opposite found two
+footmen and a butler all waiting to receive her, with a French
+governess and a lady's maid, the moment she got out of the cradle; and
+I say again she's nothing but roast fowl and blamange, or perhaps a
+breast slice of pheasant, for she's uncommon genteel. How different
+from our boiled veals, and parsley and butters! I shall give warning
+if we don't change soon."
+
+"She's a beautiful young lady," said Mr Snipe; "but I thinks not half
+so plump and jolly as our Miss Emily or Sophia."
+
+"Plump! do you think you've got a sporting license, and are on the
+look-out for a partridge? No; I tell you all the Pitskivers is low,
+and old Pits is the worst of the lot."
+
+"I used always to hear him called a great man at Miss Hendy's,"
+replied Snipe; "no end of money, and a reg'lar tip-topper. I really
+expected to see the queen very often drop in to supper."
+
+"And meet all the tag-rag we have here! What would the queen care for
+all them portrait-painters, and poets, and engineers, and writing
+vagabonds, as old Pits is eternally feeding? The queen knows a mighty
+sight better, and wouldn't ax any body to her table as had done
+nothing but write books or paint picters. No; old Pits is the boy for
+patronizing them there fellers; but mark ye, Snipe, he takes the wrong
+chaps. If a man is to demean himself by axing a riff-raff of authors
+to his house, let it be the big 'uns; I should not care to give a bit
+of dinner to Dickens or Bulwer myself."
+
+With this condescending confession of his interest in literature, the
+gentleman in the shining garments looked down the street, as if he
+expected some public approval of his praiseworthy sentiments.
+
+Being disappointed in this natural expectation, he resolved to revenge
+himself by severe observations on the passers-by; but the severity was
+partly lost on the slow-minded Mr Snipe--being clothed in the peculiar
+phraseology of his senior, in which it appeared that some particular
+dish was placed as the representative of the individual attacked. Not
+that Mr Daggles--for such was the philosophical footman's name--saw
+any resemblance between his master, Mr Pitskiver, and a dish of boiled
+mutton and turnips, or between the beautiful young lady opposite and
+the breast of a pheasant; but that, to his finely constituted mind,
+those dishes shadowed forth the relative degrees in aristocracy which
+Mr Pitskiver and the young lady occupied. He had probably established
+some one super-eminent article of food as a high "ideal" to which to
+refer all other kinds of edibles--perhaps an ortolan pie; and the
+further removed from this imaginary point of perfection any dish
+appeared, the more vulgar and commonplace it became; and taking it for
+granted, that as far as human gradations are concerned, the loftiest
+aristocracy corresponded with the ortolan pie, it is evident that Mr
+Daggles's mode of assigning rank and precedence was founded on
+strictly philosophical principles; as much so, perhaps, as the labours
+of Debrett.
+
+"Now, look at this old covey--twig his shorts and long gaiters: he's
+some old Suffolk squire, has grown too fat for harriers, and goes out
+with the greyhounds twice a-week--a truly respectable member of
+society"--continued Mr Daggles with a sneer, when the subject of his
+lecture had passed on--"reg'lar boiled beef and greens."
+
+"He ain't so fat as our Mr Pitskiver," replied Snipe; "I thinks I
+never see no gentleman with so broad a back; except p'raps a prize
+ox."
+
+"You should get a set of harrows to clean his Chesterfield with,
+instead of a brush--it's more like a field than a coat," said Daggles.
+"But look here--here comes a ticket!"
+
+The ticket alluded to was a well-made young man, with a very healthy
+complexion, long glossy black curls hanging down his cheek, a
+remarkably long-backed surtout, and a small silk hat resting on the
+very top of his umbrageous head. As he drew near, he slackened his
+pace--passed the house slowly, looking up to the drawing-room window,
+evidently in hopes of seeing some object more attractive than the vast
+hydrangia which rose majestically out of a large flowerpot, and
+darkened all the lower panes. Before he had proceeded ten yards, and
+just when Mr Daggles had fixed in his own mind on the particular
+effort of culinary skill suggested by his appearance, the ticket
+turned quickly round and darted up the steps. Snipe stepped forward in
+some alarm.
+
+"Your master's not at home," said the Ticket; "but the ladies"--
+
+"Is all out in the featon, sir."
+
+"Will you be good enough--I see I may trust you--to give this note to
+Miss Sophia? I shall take an opportunity of showing my gratitude very
+soon. Will you give it?"
+
+"Yes, sir, in course."
+
+"Secretly? And, be assured, I shall not forget you." So saying, the
+Ticket walked hurriedly away, and Snipe stood with the note still in
+his hand, and looked dubiously at his companion.
+
+Mr Daggle's eyes were fixed on the retreating figure of the Ticket;
+and, after a careful observation of every part of his dress, from the
+silk hat to the Wellingtons, he shook his head in a desponding manner,
+and merely said--"Tripe!"
+
+"What's to be done with this here letter?" enquired Snipe.
+
+"Open and read it of course. By dad! I don't think you _are_ up to
+dominoes; you must go back to skittles. He's evidently enclosed the
+sovereign in the note; for he never could have been fool enough to
+think that two gentlemen like us are to give tick for such a sum to a
+stranger."
+
+"What sum?" enquired Snipe.
+
+"Why, the sovereign he was to pay for delivering the letter. If you
+don't like to read it yourself, give it to the old snob--Pitskiver
+will give you a tip."
+
+"But the gentleman said he would show his gratitude"--
+
+"He should have showed his tin fust. There ain't no use of denying it,
+Snipe; this is a wery low establishment, and I shall cut it as soon as
+I can. What right has a dowdy like our Sophia to be getting billydoos
+from fellers as ought to be ashamed of theirselves for getting off
+their three-legged stools at this time of the day? Give the note to
+old Pits--and here, I think, he is."
+
+Mr Pitskiver--or old Pits, as he was irreverently called by his
+domestic--came rapidly up the street. He was a little man, between
+fifty and sixty years of age, with an exceedingly stout body and very
+thin legs. He was very red in the face, and very short in the neck. A
+bright blue coat, lively-coloured waistcoat, and light-green silk
+handkerchief fastened with two sparkling pins, united to each other by
+a gold chain, check trowsers, and polished French leather boots,
+composed his attire. He wore an eyeglass though he was not
+short-sighted, and a beautifully inlaid riding-whip though he never
+rode. His white muslin pocket-handkerchief hung very prominently out
+of the breast pocket of his coat, and his hat was set a little on one
+side of his head, and rested with a coquettish air on the top of the
+left whisker. What with his prodigious width, and the flourishing of
+his whip, and the imposing dignity of his appearance altogether, he
+seemed to fill the street. Several humble pedestrians stepped off the
+pavement on to the dirty causeway to give him room. Daggles drew up,
+Snipe slunk back to hold the door, and Mr Pitskiver retired from the
+eyes of men, and entered his own hall, followed by his retainers.
+
+"If you please, sir," said Snipe, "I have a letter for Miss Sophiar."
+
+"Then don't you think you had better give it her?" replied Mr
+Pitskiver.
+
+"A gentleman, sir, gave it to me."
+
+"I'll give it you, too," said the master of the mansion, shaking the
+whip over the astonished Snipe. "What are you bothering me with the
+ladies' notes for? Any thing for me, Daggles?"
+
+"A few parcels, sir--books, and a couple of pictures."
+
+"No statue? My friend Bristles has deceived me. It was to have been
+finished to-day. If he gives the first view to the Whalleys, I'll
+never speak to him again. Nothing else? Then have the phaeton at the
+door at half past five. I dine at Miss Hendy's, at Hammersmith."
+
+While Mr Pitskiver stepped up stairs, Snipe was going over in his own
+mind the different grammatical meanings of the words, "I'll give it
+you." And concluding at last that, in the mouth of his master, it
+meant nothing but a horsewhipping, he resolved, with the magnanimity
+of many other virtuous characters who find treachery unproductive, to
+be true to Miss Sophia, and give her the mysterious note with the
+greatest possible secrecy.
+
+"Now, donkey," said Daggles, aiding his benevolent advice with a kick
+that made it nearly superfluous, "get down them kitchen stairs and
+learn pitch-and-toss, for you haven't brains enough for any thing
+else--and recollect, you owes me a sovereign; half from master for
+telling, and half from the long-backed Ticket for keeping mum. You can
+keep the other to yourself; for the job was well worth a sovereign
+a-piece."
+
+A knock at the door interrupted the colloquy, and Snipe once more
+emerged from the lower regions, and admitted the two fair daughters of
+his master.
+
+They were stout, bustling, rosy-cheeked girls, two or three and twenty
+years of age, superbly dressed in flashy silks, and bedizened with
+ribands like a triumphal arch.
+
+"Miss," said Snipe, "I've got a summut for you." And he looked as
+knowing as it was possible for a student of pitch-and-toss to do.
+
+"For me? What is it? Make haste, Thomas."
+
+"A gentleman has been here, and left you this," replied the Mercury,
+holding out the note. "He said something about giving me a guinea; but
+I wasn't to let any body see."
+
+"It is his hand--I know it!" cried Miss Sophia, and hurried up stairs
+to her own room.
+
+"You donkey!" growled Mr Daggles, who had overheard Snipe's
+proceedings; "you've done me out of another ten shillings. Blowed if I
+don't put you under the pump! She would have given you a guinea for
+the letter by way of postage. But it all comes of living with red
+herrings and gooses' eggs." And so saying Mr Daggles resumed his usual
+seat in the dining-room, and went on with the perusal of the _Morning
+Post_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Mr Pitskiver's origin, like that of early Greece, is lost in the
+depths of antiquity. Through an infinite variety of posts and offices,
+he had risen to his present position, and was perhaps the most
+multifariously occupied gentleman in her majesty's dominions. He was
+chairman of three companies, steward of six societies, general agent,
+and had lately reached the crowning eminence of his hopes by being
+appointed trustee of unaudited accounts. In the midst of all these
+labours, he had gone on increasing in breadth and honour till his name
+was a symbol of every thing respectable and well to do in the world.
+With each new office his ambition rose, and a list of his residences
+would be a perfect index to the state of his fortunes. We can trace
+him from Stepney to Whitechapel; from Whitechapel to Finsbury square;
+from Finsbury square to Hammersmith; and finally, the last office
+(which, by the by, was without a salary) had raised him, three months
+before our account of him begins, to the centre of Harley Street. With
+his fortune and ambition, we must do him the justice to say, his
+liberality equally increased. He was a patron, and, would have
+travelled fifty miles to entertain a poet at his table; he had
+music-masters (without any other pupils) who were Mozarts and Handels
+for his daughters--Turners and Landseers (whose names were yet
+unknown) to teach them drawing--for, by a remarkable property
+possessed by him, in common with a great majority of mankind, every
+thing gained a new value when it came into contact with himself. He
+bought sets of china because they were _artistic_; changed his silver
+plate for a more _picturesque_ pattern; employed Stultz for his
+clothes, and, above all, Bell and Rannie for his wines. His cook was
+superb; and, thanks to the above-named Bell and Rannie, there were
+fewer headachs in the morning after a Mæcenatian dinner at
+Pitskiver's, than could have been expected by Father Matthew himself.
+With these two exceptions--wine and clothes--his patronage was more
+indiscriminate than judicious. In fact, he patronized for the sake of
+patronizing; and as he was always in search of a new miracle, it is no
+wonder that he was sometimes disappointed--that his Landseers
+sometimes turned out to have no eyes, and his musicians more fitted to
+play the Handel to a pump than an organ. But Pitskiver never lost
+heart. If he failed in one he was sure to succeed in another; he saw
+his name occasionally in the newspaper, by giving an invitation to one
+of the literary gentlemen who enliven the public with accounts of
+fearful accidents and desperate offences; had his picture at the
+Exhibition in the character of the "Portrait of a gentleman," and his
+bust in the same place as the semblance of the honorary Secretary to
+the Poor Man's Pension and Perpetual Annuity Institution. He was a
+widower, and looked dreadful things at all the widows of his
+acquaintance. And it was thought that, if he succeeded in marrying off
+his girls, he should himself become once more a candidate for the holy
+estate; and by this wise manoeuvre--for, in fact, he made no secret of
+his intention--he enlisted in his daughters' behalf all the elderly
+ladies who thought they had any claims on the attentions of that
+charming creature Mr Pitskiver. There were certainly no young ladies I
+have ever heard of, so well supplied with assistants in the great art
+of catching husbands as the two plump damsels whom we have already
+seen enter the house in Harley Street, and one of whom we have
+perceived placed in possession of the mysterious letter by the
+skittle-minded Mr Snipe.
+
+Miss Sophia Pitskiver, according to all ordinary ideas of romance and
+true love, had no right whatever to indulge in such luxuries, being
+more adapted to make pies than enter into the beauty of sonnets to the
+moon. She was short, stout--shall we be pardoned for saying the
+hateful word?--she was dumpy, but a perfect picture of rosy health and
+hilarious good-nature. And yet, if she had been half a foot taller,
+and half a yard thinner, and infinitely paler, she could not have been
+one jot more sentimental. She cultivated sentiment, because it was so
+pleasant, and her father approved of it because it was genteel. Her
+enthusiasm was tremendous. Her ideas were all crackers, and exploded
+at the slightest touch. She had a taste for every thing--poetry,
+history, fine arts in general, philosophy, glory, puseyism, and,
+perhaps more than all, for a certain tall young man, with an
+interesting complexion, whom we have introduced to the courteous
+reader by the name of the long-backed Ticket. It was this gentleman's
+note she was now about to read. Sundry palpitations about the robust
+regions of the heart might, to common eyes, have appeared to arise
+from her speed in running up stairs. But she knew better. She took but
+one look of the cheval glass, and broke the seal.
+
+"Stanzas!" she said; and, taking one other glance at the mirror, she
+exclaimed to the agitated young lady represented there, "only think!"
+and devoured the following lines:--
+
+    "There is a tear that will not fall
+      To cool the burning heart and brain;
+    Oh, I would give my life, my all,
+      To feel once more that blessed rain!
+
+    "There is a grief--I feel, in sooth,
+      It rends my soul, it quells my tongue;
+    It dims the sunshine of my youth,
+      But, oh, it will not dim it long!
+
+    "There is a place where life is o'er,
+      And sorrow's blasts innocuous rave;
+    A place where sadness comes no more.
+      Know'st thou the place? It is the grave.
+
+    "Yes, if within that gentle breast
+      Mild pity ever held her sway,
+    Thou'lt weep for one who finds no rest--
+      The reason he can never say.
+
+"P.S.--Miss Hendy is an angel upon earth. My friend Mr Bristles, of
+the _Universal Surveyor_, one of the most distinguished literary men
+of the age, has got me an invitation to go to her house to-night, to
+read the first act of my tragedy. Shall I have the happiness of seeing
+thee? Would to my stars my fate were so fortunate! I enclose you the
+above lines, which Bristles says are better than any of Lord Byron's,
+and will publish next week in the _Universal_. Mayest thou like them,
+sweetest, for they are dedicated to thee, Thine ever--ALMANSOR." What
+she might have done beyond reading the lines and letter six times
+over, and crying "beautiful, beautiful!" as fast as she could, it is
+impossible to say, for at that moment she was called by her venerable
+sire. She crumpled the note up after the manner of all other heroines,
+and hid it in her bosom; and hurried to the drawing-room, where she
+found her father in full dress, pulling on a pair of new kid gloves.
+
+"Well, Soph, I'm off for Miss Hendy's--don't give me any nonsense now
+about her being low, and all that sort of thing; she don't move in the
+same circle of society, certainly, as we do, but she has always
+distinguished people about her."
+
+"Oh, papa!" interrupted the young lady. "I don't object to Miss Hendy
+in the least. I love her of all things, and would give worlds to be
+going with you!"
+
+"That's right! You've heard of the new poet then? Tremendous they say;
+equal to Shakspeare--quite a great man."
+
+"Indeed! Oh, how I long to see him!"
+
+"Well, perhaps you may one of these days. Bristles--my friend Bristles
+of the _Universal_-says he's a perfect--what do they call that pretty
+street in Southampton?--Paragon--a perfect paragon, Bristles says:
+I'll ask him to dinner some day."
+
+"What day?--Oh, let it be soon, dear papa!"
+
+"There's a dear delightful enthusiastic girl! We ought to encourage
+people of genius. Curious we never heard of him before, for he was our
+neighbour, I hear, in Finsbury; but poor, I suppose, and did not mix
+with our set even then."
+
+Mr Pitskiver looked at the opposite side of the street while he spoke,
+as if to assure himself that he was in a still higher altitude above
+the poet now than some few years before. But, as if feeling called on
+to show his increased superiority by greater condescension, he said,
+as he walked out of the room, "I shall certainly have him to dinner,
+and Bristles, and some more men of talent to meet him--
+
+    'The feast of reason, and the flow of soul!'"
+
+the only quotation, by the way, in which Mr Pitskiver was ever known
+to indulge.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Miss Hendy had formerly kept a school, and her portrait would have
+done very well for a frontispiece to Mrs Trimmer. She was what is
+called prim in her manner, and as delicate as an American. She always
+called the legs of a table its props--for the word legs was highly
+unfeminine. She admired talent, and gave it vast quantities of tea and
+toast. Her drawing-room was a temple of the Muses, and only open to
+those who were bountifully endowed with the gifts of nature or of
+fortune; for she considered it a great part of her duty to act as a
+kind of link between Plutus and Minerva. In the effort to discover
+objects worthy of her recommendation, she was mainly aided by the
+celebrated Mr Bristles. Every month whole troops of Herschels and
+Wordsworths, and Humes and Gibbons, were presented to her by the great
+critic; and with a devout faith in all he told her, she listened
+enraptured to the praises of those astonishing geniuses, till she had
+begun to enter into Mr Bristles's own feelings of contempt for every
+body except the favoured few. And to-night was the grand debut of a
+more remarkable phenomenon than any of the others. A youth of
+twenty-three, tall, modest, intellectual, and long-haired--in short,
+the "Ticket"--was to read the opening of a tragedy; and sculptors,
+painters, mechanicians, and city Croesuses, were invited to be present
+at the display. Among these last shone our friend Mr Pitskiver,
+radiant in white waistcoat and gold chains, two rings on each finger,
+and a cameo the size of a cheese-cake on his neckcloth. The other
+critic, in right of his account at the bank, was a tall silent
+gentleman, a wood-merchant from the Boro', who nodded his head in an
+oracular manner when any thing was said above his comprehension; and
+who was a patron of rising talent, on the same enlightened principles
+as his friend Mr Pitskiver. Mr Whalley also showed his patronage in
+the same economical manner as the other, and expected immortality at
+the expense of a few roasts of beef and bottles of new wine.
+
+Mr Bristles was also of the dinner party--an arrangement made by the
+provident Miss Hendy, that the two _millionaires_ might receive a
+little preliminary information on the merits of the rest of the
+company, who were only invited to tea. Four maiden ladies (who had
+pulled on blue stockings in order to hide the increasing thickness of
+their ankles, and considered Miss Hendy the legitimate successor of
+Madame de Staël, and Mr Pitskiver in Harley Street the beau-ideal of
+love in a cottage) relieved the monotony of a gentleman party by as
+profuse a display of female charms as low gowns and short sleeves
+would allow. And about six o'clock there was a highly interesting and
+superior party of eight, to whom Miss Hendy administered cod's-head
+and shoulders, aphorisms and oyster sauce, in almost equal proportion;
+while Mr Pitskiver, like a "sweet seducer, blandly smiling," made
+polite enquiries whether he should not relieve her of the
+trouble.--"Oh no!--it degrades woman from the lofty sphere of equal
+usefulness with the rougher sex. Why shouldn't a lady help fish?--Why
+should she confess her inferiority? The post assigned to her by
+nature--though usurped by man--is to elevate by her example, to
+enlighten by her precepts, and to add to the great aggregate of human
+felicity by a manifestation of all the virtues;" saying this, she
+inserted her knife with astonishing dexterity just under the
+gills--and looked round for approbation.
+
+Mr Pitskiver had recourse to his usual expedient, and said something
+about the feast of reason; Mr Whalley shook his head in a way that
+would have made his fortune in a grocer's window in the character of
+Howqua; and Mr Bristles prepared himself to reply--while the four
+literary maidens turned their eyes on Aristarchus in expectation of
+hearing something fine. "I decidedly am of opinion," said that great
+man, "that woman's sphere is greatly misunderstood, and that you
+maintain the dignity of your glorious sex by carving the fish.--Yet on
+being further interrogated, I should be inclined to proceed with my
+statement, and assert that you deprive us of pleasure, in debarring us
+from giving you our assistance."
+
+"Then, why don't you help us with our samplers? why don't you aid us
+in our knitting? why don't you assist us in hemming garments?"--exclaimed
+Miss Hendy, digging her spoon into the oyster-boat.
+
+"This is what I call the feast and flow," said Mr Pitskiver; while Mr
+Whalley nearly shook his head off his shoulders on to the table-cloth.
+The young ladies looked slyly at Mr Pitskiver, and laughed.
+
+"It would be rather undignified," said Mr Bristles, "to see the Lord
+Chancellor darning a stocking."
+
+"Dignity! the very thing I complain of. Why more undignified in a Lord
+Chancellor, or a Bishop, than in his wife? Oh, will the time never
+come when society will be so regenerated, that man will know his own
+position, and woman--noble, elevating, surprising woman--will assume
+the rank to which her powers and virtues entitle her!"
+
+Mr Bristles was very hungry, and at that moment received his
+plate.--"Really, Miss Hendy," he said, with his mouth prodigiously
+distended with codfish--"there's no arguing against such eloquence. I
+must give in." But Miss Hendy, who had probably lunched, determined to
+accept no surrender.--"No," she cried--"you shall _not_ give in, till
+I have overwhelmed you with reasons for your submission. A great move
+is in progress--woman's rights and duties are becoming every day more
+widely appreciated. The old-fashioned scale must be re-adjusted, and
+woman--noble, elevating, surprising woman--ascend to the loftiest
+eminence, and sit superior on the topmost branch of the social tree."
+
+Mr Whalley, whose professional ear was caught by the last word, broke
+through his usual rule of only nodding his remarks, and ventured to
+say--"Uncommon bad climbers, for the most part in general, is women.
+Their clothes isn't adapted for it.--I minds once I see a woman climb
+a pole after a leg of mutting."
+
+If looks could have killed Mr Whalley, Mr Pitskiver's eyes would
+certainly have been tried for murder; but that matter-of-fact
+individual was impervious to the most impassioned glances. Miss Hendy
+sank her face in horror over her plate, and celestial rosy red
+overspread her countenance; while a look of the most extraordinary
+nature rewarded Mr Pitskiver for all his efforts in her behalf. A
+look!--it went quite through his waistcoat, and if it had gone
+straight on, must have reached his heart. Mr Pitskiver was amazed at
+the expression of the look; for he little knew that his labours under
+the table, in attempting to check Mr Whalley's oratory by pressing his
+toes, had unfortunately been bestowed on the delicate foot of his
+hostess; and what less could she do than respond to the gentle
+courtesy by a glance of gratitude for what she considered a movement
+of sympathy and condolence under the atrocious reminiscences of the
+wood-merchant? Mr Whalley, however, was struck with the mournful
+silence that followed his observation.
+
+"That was a thing as happing'd on a pole," he said. "In cooss it would
+be wery different on a tree--because of the branches, as I think you
+was a-saying, Miss Hendy?"
+
+Mr Pitskiver grew desperate. "Bristles," he cried, "any thing new in
+sculpture? By the by, you haven't sent me Stickleback's jack-ass as
+you promised. Is it a fine work?"
+
+"I have no hesitation," replied the critic, "with a perfect
+recollection of Canova's Venus, and even Moggs's Pandean Piper, which
+I reviewed in last number of the _Universal_, in declaring that
+Stickleback's work (it is a female, not a jack-ass) is the noblest
+effort of the English chisel; there is life about it--a power--a
+feeling--a sentiment--it is overwhelming! I shall express these ideas
+in print. Stickleback's fame is secured by a stupendous ass, at once
+so simple and so grand."
+
+"A female, I think you said?" enquired Miss Hendy.
+
+"A jeanie--miraculously soft, yet full of graceful dignity," replied
+Bristles bowing to the enquirer, as if the description applied to her.
+
+"I honour the sculptor for breaking through the prejudices of sex in
+this splendid instance!" exclaimed the lady. "The feminine star is in
+the ascendant. How much more illustrious the triumph! How greater the
+difficulty to express in visible types, the soft, subduing, humanizing
+graces of the female disposition, than to imprint the coarse outline
+of masculine strength! How rough the contour of an Irish hodman to the
+sweet flexibilities of the Venus of Canova!"
+
+"Canova was by no means equal to Stickleback," said Mr Bristles
+magisterially. "I have devoted much time to the study of the fine
+arts--I have seen many statues--I have frequently been in sculptors'
+studios; I prefer Stickleback to Canova."
+
+"I honour his moral elevation," observed Miss Hendy, "in stamping on
+eternal marble the femininity of the subject of his chisel."
+
+"I must really have the first view," whispered Mr Pitskiver. "Can't
+you remind him, Bristles? Don't send it to Whalley on my account."
+
+But Mr Whalley, who was a rival Mæcenas, put in a word for himself,
+"Mr Bristles," he said, "this must be a uncomming statty of a she-ass.
+I oncet was recommended to drink a she-ass's milk myself, and liked it
+uncomming. I must have the private sight you promised; and, if you'll
+fix a day, I vill ask you and the artist to dine."
+
+"Certainly, my dear sir--but Mr Pitskiver and Stickleback, they are
+friends, you know, Mr Whalley, and perhaps Mr P.'s interest may be
+useful in getting the great artist an order to ornament some of the
+new buildings. I have some thoughts of recommending him to offer the
+very statue we talk of for the front of the Mansion-house. A hint on
+the subject has already appeared in the _Universal_."
+
+"Miss Hendy," said Mr Pitskiver for the tenth time, "this is the
+regular feast and flow; and nothing pleases me so much in my good
+friend Bristles as his candid praise of other men's talents. You
+seldom find clever people allowing each other's merits."
+
+"Or stupid ones either"--replied Mr Bristles before the lady had time
+to answer; "the fact is, we are much improved since former days. Our
+great men don't quarrel as they used to do--conscious of one's own
+dignity, why refuse a just appreciation of others? Stickleback has
+often told me, that Chantrey was not altogether without merit--I
+myself pronounce Macauley far from stupid; and my intellectual friend,
+young Sidsby, who will read us the first act of his tragedy to-night,
+allows a very respectable degree of dramatic power to Lord Byron.
+Surely this is a far better state of things than the perpetual
+carpings of Popes and Addisons, Smiths and Johnsons, Foxes and Pitts."
+
+"And all owing to the rising influence of the female sex," interposed
+Miss Hendy. "But woman has not yet received her full development. The
+time will come when her influence is universal; when, softened,
+subdued, purified, and elevated, the animal now called Man will be
+unknown. You will be all women--can the world look for higher
+destiny?"
+
+"In cooss," observed Mr Whalley--"if we are all turned into woming,
+the world will come to a end. For 'spose a case;--'spose it had been
+my sister as married Mrs Whalley instead of me--it's probable there
+wouldn't have been no great fambly; wich in cooss, if there was no
+poppleation"--
+
+But what the fearful result of this supposed case would have been, has
+never been discovered; for Miss Hendy, making a signal to the four
+representatives of the female sex started out of the room as if she
+had heard Mr Whalley had the plague, and left the gentlemen to
+themselves.
+
+"De Staël was no match for that wonderful woman," said Mr Bristles,
+resuming his chair. "I don't believe so noble an intellect was ever
+enshrined in so beautiful a form before."
+
+"Do you think her pretty?" enquired Mr Pitskiver.
+
+"Pretty? no, sir--beautiful! Here is the finest sort of
+loveliness--the light blazing from within, that years cannot
+extinguish. I consider Miss Hendy the finest woman in England; and
+decidedly the most intellectual."
+
+The fact of Miss Hendy's beauty had never struck Mr Pitskiver before.
+But he knew that Bristles was a judge, and took it at once for
+granted. The finest woman in England had looked in a most marvellous
+manner into his face, and the small incident of the foot under the
+table was not forgotten.
+
+Mr Pitskiver was inspired by the subject of his contemplations, and
+proposed her health in a strain of eloquence which produced a
+wonderful amount of head-shaking from Mr Whalley, and frequent
+exclamations of "Demosthenes," "Cicero," "Burke all over!" from the
+more enraptured Mr Bristles.
+
+"I'm horrible afear'd," observed the elder gentleman putting down his
+empty glass, "as my son Bill Whalley is a reg'lar fool."
+
+"Oh, pardon me!" exclaimed Bristles--"I haven't the, honour of his
+intimacy, but--" "Only think the liberties he allows himself in
+regard to this here intellectual lady, Miss Hendy. He never hears her
+name without a putting of his thumb on the top of his nose, and a
+shaking of his fingers in my face, and a crying out for a friend of
+his'n of the name of Walker. Its uncomming provoking--and sich a
+steady good business hand there ain't in the Boro'. I can't fadom it."
+
+"Some people have positively no souls," chimed in Mr Pitskiver,
+looking complacently down his beautiful waistcoat, as if he felt that
+souls were in some sort of proportion to the tenements they inhabited,
+and that his was of gigantic size; "but I did not think that your son
+William was so totally void of ideas. I shall talk to him next
+Sunday's dinner."
+
+"If you talks to him about Memel and Dantzic, you'll find there ain't
+such a judge of timber in London," said the father, who was evidently
+proud of his son's mercantile qualifications; "but with regard to this
+here pottery, and scupshire, and other things as I myself delights in,
+he don't care nothin about 'em. He wouldn't give twopence to see
+Stickleback's statty."
+
+"Then he had better not have the honour," said Pitskiver. "Bristles,
+you'll send it to Harley Street. First view is every thing."
+
+"Really, gentlemen, you are both such exquisite judges of the arts,
+and such discriminating patrons of artists, that I find it difficult
+to determine between you. Shall we let Stickleback settle the point
+himself?"
+
+Both the Mæcenases consented, each at the same time making resolutions
+in his own mind to make the unhappy artist suffer, if by any chance
+his rival should get the preference. After another glass or two of the
+dark-coloured liquid which wore the label of port, and which Bristles
+maintained was the richest wine he had ever tasted, as it was
+furnished by a particular friend of his, who, in addition to being a
+wine merchant, was one of the most talented men in Europe, and a
+regular contributor to the _Universal_ under the signature
+"Squirk,"--after another glass or two of this bepraised beverage,
+which, at the same time, did not seem altogether to suit the taste of
+the two patrons of the arts and sciences, the gentlemen adjourned to
+the drawing-room, from which music had been sounding for a
+considerable time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+On entering the room they were nearly made fitting inmates of the deaf
+and dumb institution, by the most portentous sounds that ever
+endangered a human ear. A large party was assembled, ranged solemnly
+on chairs and sofas all round the wall, every eye turned with intense
+interest to the upper end of the apartment, where stood a tall stout
+man, blowing with incredible effect into a twisted horn, which, to all
+outward appearance, had not long ceased to ornament the forehead of a
+Highland bull. A common horn it was--and the skill of the
+strong-winded performer consisted in extracting a succession of roars
+and bellowings from its upper end, which would have done honour to the
+vocal powers of its late possessor. A tune it certainly was, for
+immense outbreaks of sound came at regular intervals, and the
+performer kept thumping his foot on the floor as if he were keeping
+time; but as the intermediate notes were of such a very soft nature as
+to be altogether inaudible, the company were left to fill up the
+blanks at their own discretion; and Mr Pitskiver, who was somewhat
+warlike, perceived at once it was Rule Britannia, while Mr Whalley
+shook his head in a state of profound loyalty, and thought it was God
+save the Queen. When the ingenious musician withdrew the bull's horn
+from his mouth, and paused after his labours in a state of extreme
+calefaction, murmurs of applause ran all round the room.
+
+"Mr Slingo," said Mr Bristles, "Mr Slingo, you have immortalized
+yourself, by evoking the soul of Handel from so common an instrument
+as an ox's horn. I have studied music as a science--I have reviewed an
+opera--and once met Sir Henry Bishop at the Chinese exhibition; and I
+will make bold to say, that more genius was never shown by Rossini or
+Cherubini, than you have displayed on this stupendous and interesting
+occasion. Allow me, Mr Slingo, to shake your hand."
+
+Mr Bristles gave a warm squeeze to the delighted musician's enormous
+fingers--and all the company were enchanted with the liberality and
+condescension of the celebrated author, and the humility and gratitude
+of the musical phenomenon, who could not find words to express his
+gratification. Miss Hendy was also profuse in her praises. "Pray, Mr
+Slingo," she said taking the horn, and examining it very closely, "do
+you know what animal we are indebted to for this delicious
+instrument?"
+
+"I took it from the head of a brown cow."
+
+"A cow!--ha!"--exclaimed the lady--"but I could have told you so
+before. There is a sweetness, a softness, and femininization of tone,
+in the slower passages, that it struck me at once could only proceed
+from the milder sex. We shall not have to wait long for the answer to
+a question which has stirred the heart of mankind to its
+foundations--can Women etherealize society? I say she can--I say she
+will--I say she shall!"
+
+Miss Hendy said this with considerable vehemence, and darted a look of
+the same extraordinary nature as had puzzled Mr Pitskiver at dinner,
+full in the face of that enraptured gentleman.
+
+"Oh, 'pon my soul, she's a very fine woman!" he said almost audibly;
+and again the commendations of Mr Bristles recurred to his
+thoughts--"and has such a fund of eloquence. I wish to heaven somebody
+would take a fancy to my girls! I will ask a lot of young men to
+dinner."
+
+In the midst of these cogitations he drew near Miss Hendy--and if you
+were to judge by the number of elbows which young ladies, in all parts
+of the room, nudged into other young ladies' sides, and the strange
+smiles and winks that were exchanged by the more distant members of
+the society--you might easily perceive that there was something very
+impressive in the manner of his address. He bowed at every word, while
+the gold chains across his waistcoat glistened and jingled at every
+motion. Miss Hendy's head also was bent till the white spangles on her
+turban seemed affected with St Vitus's dance; and their voices
+gradually sank lower and lower, till they descended at last to an
+actual whisper. There were seven female hearts in that assemblage
+bursting with spite, and one with triumph. Mr Pitskiver had never been
+known to whisper it any body's ear before.
+
+In the mean time Mr Bristles, as literary master of the ceremonies,
+had made a call on Mr Sidsby to proceed with his reading of the first
+act of his play. A tall young gentleman, very good-looking, and very
+shy, was with difficulty persuaded to seat himself in the middle of
+the room; and with trembling hands he drew from his pocket a roll of
+manuscript, though, to judge from his manner, he did not seem quite
+master of his subject.
+
+"Modesty, always the accompaniment of true genius," observed Mr
+Bristles, apologetically to the expectant audience. "Go on, my good
+sir; you will gain courage as you proceed."
+
+All was then silent. Mr Pitskiver at Miss Hendy's side, near the door;
+Mr Whalley straining his long neck to catch the faintest echo of their
+conversation; the others casting from time to time enquiring glances
+towards the illustrious pair; but all endeavouring to appear intensely
+interested in the drama. Mr Sidsby began:--
+
+It was a play of the passions. A black lady fell in love with a white
+general. Her language was fit for a dragon. She breathed nothing but
+fire. It seemed, by a strange coincidence of ideas between Sidsby and
+Shakspeare, to bear no small resemblance to Othello, with the
+distinction already stated of the colour of the Desdemona. But
+breathless attention rewarded the reader's toil; and though he
+occasionally missed a word, in which he was always set right by Mr
+Bristles, and did not enter very warmly into the more vigorous parts
+of the declamation, his efforts were received with overwhelming
+approbation, and Bristles as usual led the chorus of admiration.
+
+"A wonderful play! an astonishing effort! Certainly up to the finest
+things in Otway, if not of Shakspeare himself--a power, a life, an
+impetus. I have never met with such a magnificent opening act."
+
+"I wish you would bring him to taste my mutting, Mr Bristles," said Mr
+Whalley; "as he's a poet he most likely don't touch butcher meat every
+day, and a good tuck-out of a Sunday won't do him no harm. But I say,
+Mr Bristles, I must railly make a point of seeing Stickleback's donkey
+first. Say you'll do it--there's a good fellow."
+
+Mr Pitskiver also extended his hospitable invitation to the successful
+dramatist; and urged no less warmly his right to the first inspection
+of the masterpiece of the modern chisel.
+
+"I have had a very particular conversation with Miss Hendy," he said,
+laying his hand confidentially on the great critic's shoulder.
+
+"An extraordinary woman!" chimed in Bristles, "the glory of the
+present times."
+
+"I must have an additional treasure to boast of in my house," resumed
+Mr Pitskiver, whose heart seemed more than ever set on cutting out Mr
+Whalley in priority of inspection of the unequaled statue. "You'll
+help me, I know--I may depend on you, Mr Bristles."
+
+"You may indeed, sir--a house such as yours needed only such an
+addition to make it perfect."
+
+"You'll procure me the pride, the gratification--you'll manage it for
+me."
+
+"I will indeed," said Mr Bristles, seizing the offered hand of the
+overjoyed Pitskiver; "since your happiness depends on it, you may
+trust to me for every exertion."
+
+"And you'll plead my cause--you'll speak in the proper quarter?"
+
+"Certainly, you may consider it all arranged."
+
+"But secretly, quietly, no blabbing--these matters are always best
+done without noise. I would even keep it from my daughters' knowledge,
+till we are quite prepared to reveal it in all its charms."
+
+"It is indeed a masterpiece--a chef-d'oeuvre--beauty and expression
+unequaled."
+
+"I flatter myself I am a bit of a judge; and when I have had it in my
+possession for a short time, I will let you know the result."
+
+The party were now about to break up.
+
+"Them's uncomming pleasant little meetings, arn't them?" said Mr
+Whalley to one of the middle-aged spinsters who had been present at
+dinner; "and I thinks this one is like to have a very favourable
+conclusion."
+
+"Miss Hendy?" enquired the spinster in breathless anticipation.
+
+"Jist so," responded the other--"there can't be no mystery no longer,
+and they'll be off for France in a few days."
+
+"For France?--gracious! how do you know?"
+
+"I hear'd Mr Bristles, which is their confidant, say something about a
+chay and Dover. In cooss they will go that way to Boulogne."
+
+Oh, Mæcenas! is there no difference between the chef-d'oeuvre of the
+great Stickleback, and the town of Dover and a post-chaise.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+In a week after these events, six or seven gentlemen were gathered
+round a table in a room very near the skylight in the Minerva
+chambers. Our former acquaintance, Mr Bristles, whose name shone in
+white paint above the entrance door, was evidently strongly impressed
+with the dignity of his position; and as in the pauses of conversation
+he placed the pen he was using transversely in his mouth, and turned
+over the pages of various books on the table before him, it will be
+seen that he presided not at a feast of substantial meat and drink,
+but at one of those regular "feasts and flows" which the great Mr
+Pitskiver was in the habit of alluding to, in describing the
+intellectual treats of which he was so prodigious a glutton.
+
+"What success, Sidsby?" enquired Bristles with a vast appearance of
+interest.
+
+"None at all," replied the successful dramatist, or, in other words,
+the long-backed Ticket to whom we were introduced at the commencement
+of the story. "I have no invitation to dinner yet, and Sophy thinks he
+has forgotten me."
+
+"That's odd--very odd," mused Mr Bristles, "for I don't know that I
+ever praised any one half so highly before, not even Stickleback; and
+the first act was really superb. It took me a whole week to write it."
+
+"But I did not understand some parts of it, and I am afraid I spoiled
+it in the reading. But Sophy was enchanted with the poem you made me
+copy."
+
+"A sensible girl; but how to get at the father is the thing. I have
+mentioned a few of the perfections of our friend Miss Hendy to him in
+a way that I think will stick. If we could get _her_ good word."
+
+"Oh, she's very good!" replied Sidsby, "she says I'm far above Lord
+Byron and Thomas Moore."
+
+"Why not? haven't I told you to say, wherever you go, that she is
+above Corinne?"
+
+"Ah," said Sidsby, "but what's the use of all this to me? I am a
+wine-merchant, not a poet; my uncle will soon take me into
+partnership, and when they find out that I know no more about
+literature than a pig, what an impostor they'll think me!"
+
+"Not more of an impostor than half the other literary men of the day,
+who have got praised into fame as you have, by judicious and
+disinterested friends. No: you must still go on. I shall have the
+second act ready for you next week, and you can make it six dozen of
+sherry instead of three. You must please the girl first, and get at
+the father afterwards. She's of a decidedly intellectual turn, and has
+four thousand pounds in her own right."
+
+"I don't believe she is more intellectual than myself; but that silly
+old noodle, her father"--
+
+"Stop!" exclaimed Bristles in great agitation, "this is against all
+rule. Mr Pitskiver is our friend--a man of the profoundest judgment
+and most capacious understanding. I doubt whether a greater judge of
+merit ever existed than Mr Pitskiver."
+
+"Hear, hear!" resounded in various degrees of intensity all round the
+table.
+
+"Well, all I can say is this--that if I don't get on by shamming
+cleverness, I'll try what open honesty will do, and follow Bill
+Whalley's advice."
+
+"Bill Whalley! who is he?" asked Bristles with a sneer.
+
+"Son of the old Tom Noddy you make such a precious fool of."
+
+"Mr Whalley of the Boro' is _our_ friend, Mr Sidsby--a man of the
+profoundest judgment and most capacious understanding. I doubt whether
+a greater judge of merit ever existed than Mr Whalley of the Boro'."
+
+"Hear hear!" again resounded; and Mr Sidsby, shaking his head, said no
+more, but looked as sulky as his naturally good-tempered features
+would let him.
+
+"And now, Stickleback," said Mr Bristles--"I am happy to tell you your
+fortune is made; your fame will rise higher and higher."
+
+A little dark-complexioned man with very large mouth and very flat
+nose, looked a little disdainful at this speech, which to any one else
+would have sounded like a compliment.
+
+"I always knew that merit such as I felt I possessed, would force its
+way, in spite of envy and detraction," he said.
+
+"We have an uphill fight of it, I assure you," rejoined Mr Bristles;
+"but by dint of throwing it on pretty thick, we are in hopes some of
+it will stick."
+
+"Now, Mr Bristles," resumed the artist, "I don't at all like the style
+you talk in to me. You always speak as if my reputation had been made
+by your praises. Now, talents such as mine"--
+
+"Are very high, my good sir; no one who reads the _Universal_ doubts
+that fact for a moment."
+
+"Talents, I say, such as mine," pursued Mr Stickleback, "were sure to
+raise me to the highest honours; and it is too bad for you to claim
+all the merit of my success."
+
+"Not I; but all our friends here," said Bristles. "For two years we
+have done nothing but praise you wherever we went. Haven't we sneered
+at Bailey, and laughed at the ancient statues? Who wrote the epigram
+on Thorwaldsen--was it not our friend now present, Mr Banks? a
+gentleman, I must say, perfectly unequaled in the radiance of his wit
+and the delicious pungency of his satire. Without us, what would you
+have been?"
+
+"Exactly what I am. The only sculptor worth a sixpence since the fine
+arts were invented," replied the self-satisfied Mr Stickleback.
+
+"No," said Mr Bristles; "since you force us to tell you what we have
+done for you, I will mention it. We have persuaded all our friends, we
+have even persuaded yourself, that you have some knowledge of
+sculpture; whereas every one who follows his own judgment, and is not
+led astray by our puffs, must see that you could not carve an old
+woman's face out of a radish; that you are fit for nothing with the
+chisel but to smooth gravestones, and cut crying cherubs over a
+churchyard door; that your donkey"--
+
+"Well, what of my donkey, as you call it?" cried the enraged sculptor,
+"I have heard you praise it a thousand times."
+
+"Of course you have; but do you think I meant it?"
+
+"As much as I meant what I said, when I praised some of your
+ridiculous rubbish in the _Universal_."
+
+"Oh, indeed! Then you think my writings ridiculous rubbish?"
+
+"Yes--I do--very ridiculous rubbish."
+
+"Then let me tell you, Mr Stickleback, you are about as good a critic
+as a sculptor. My writings, sir, are universally appreciated. To find
+fault with _them_ shows you are unfit for our acquaintance; and with
+regard to Mr Pitskiver's recommendation to the city building
+committee, and your donkey to adorn the pediment of the
+Mansion-house--you have of course given up all hopes of any interest
+_I_ may possess."
+
+"Gentlemen," said a young man with small piercing eyes and a rather
+dirty complexion, with long hair rolling over the collar of his
+coat--"are you not a little premature in shivering the friendship by a
+blow of temper which had been consolidated by several years of mutual
+reciprocity?"
+
+"Silence, Snooksby!--I have been insulted. I was ever a foe to
+ingratitude, and grievous shall the expiation be," replied Bristles.
+
+"I now address myself to you, sir," continued Snooksby, turning to the
+wrathful sculptor, whose wrath, however, had begun to evaporate in
+reflecting on the diminished chance of the promotion so repeatedly
+promised by Mr Bristles for his donkey; "and I feel on this momintous
+occasion, that it is my impiritive duty to endeavour to reinimite the
+expiring imbers of amity, and re-knit the relaxed cords of unanimity.
+Mr Stickleback, you were wrong--decidedly, powerfully, undeniably
+wrong--in denominiting the splindid lucibritions of our illustrious
+friend by the name of ridiculous rubbish. Apoligise, apoligise,
+apoligise; and I know too well the glowing sympithies of that
+philinthripic heart to doubt for a moment that its vibrations will
+instantly beat in unisin with yours."
+
+"I never meant to call his writings rubbish," said the subdued
+sculptor. "I know he's the greatest writer in England."
+
+"And you, my dear Stickleback, the greatest sculptor the world has
+ever seen!" exclaimed the easily propitiated critic. "Why will you
+doubt my respect, my admiration of your surpassing talent? Let us
+understand each other better--we shall both be ever indebted to the
+eloquent Mr Snooksby--(may he soon get on the vestry, the object of
+his inadequate ambition;) for a speech more refulgent in simple
+pathos, varied metaphor, and conclusive reasoning, it has not been my
+good fortune to hear. When our other friends leave me, Stickleback, I
+hope you will stay for half an hour. I have a most important secret to
+confide to you, and a favour to ask."
+
+The hint seemed to be sufficient. The rest of the party soon retired;
+and Bristles and Stickleback began their confidential conclave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+But another confidential conclave, of rather a more interesting nature
+to the parties concerned, took place three days after these
+occurrences in the shady walk in St James's Park. Under the trees
+sauntered four people--equally divided--a lady and a gentleman; the
+ladies brilliantly dressed, stout, and handsome--the gentlemen also in
+the most fashionable costume: one tall and thin, the long-backed
+Ticket; and the other short and amazingly comfortable-looking, Mr
+William Whalley--for shortness called Bill. Whether, while he admired
+the trunks of the old elms, he calculated what would be their value in
+deals, this narrative disdains to mention; but it feels by no means
+bound to retain the same cautious reserve with regard to his
+sentiments while he gazed into the eyes of Emily Pitskiver. He thought
+them beautiful eyes; and if they had been turned upon you with the
+same loving, trusting expression, ten to one you would have thought
+them beautiful too. The other pair seemed equally happy.
+
+"So you don't like me the worse," said Mr Sidsby, "now that you know I
+am not a poet?"
+
+"I don't know how it is, but I don't think I care for poetry now at
+all," replied the lady. "In fact, I suppose my passion for it was
+never real, and I only fancied I was enchanted with it from hearing
+papa and Mr Bristles perpetually raving about strength and genius. Is
+Miss Hendy a really clever woman?"
+
+"A genuine humbug, I should say--gooseberry champagne at two shillings
+a bottle," was the somewhat professional verdict on Miss Hendy's
+claims.
+
+"Oh! you shouldn't talk that way of Miss Hendy--who knows but she may
+be my mamma soon?"
+
+"He can never be such a confounded jackass!" said Mr Sidsby, without
+giving a local habitation or a name to the personal pronoun _he_.
+
+"He loses his daughters, I can tell him," said Miss Sophy with a toss
+of her head, that set all the flowers on the top of her bonnet
+shaking--"Emily and I are quite resolved on that."
+
+"But what can you do?" enquired the gentleman, who did not appear to
+be very nearly akin to Oedipus.
+
+"Do? Why, don't we get possession of mamma's fortune if he marries;
+and can't we--oh, you've squeezed my ring into my finger!"
+
+"My dear Sophy, I was only trying to show you how much I admired your
+spirit. I hope he'll marry Miss Hendy with all my heart."
+
+When a conversation has got to this point, a chronicle of any
+pretensions to respectability will maintain a rigid silence; and we
+will therefore only observe, that by the time Mr William Whalley and
+Emily had come to Marlborough House, their conversation had arrived at
+a point where discretion becomes as indispensably a chronicler's duty
+as in the case of the other couple.
+
+"We must get home," said Sophy.
+
+"Why should you go yet? There is no chance of your father being back
+from the city for hours to come."
+
+"Oh! but we must get home. We have been out a long time." And so
+saying, she led the way up the steps by the Duke of York's column,
+followed by her sister and her swain--and attended at a respectful
+distance by a tall gentleman with an immense gold-headed
+walking-stick, displaying nether integuments of the brightest red, and
+white silk stockings of unexampled purity. The reader, if he had heard
+the various whispered allusions to different dishes, such as "sheep's
+head," "calf's foot jelly," "rhubarb tart," and "toasted cheese,"
+would have been at no loss to recognise the indignant Daggles, whose
+culinary vocabulary it seemed impossible to exhaust. He followed,
+watching every motion of the happy couples. "Well, if this ain't too
+bad!--I've a great mind to tell old Pits how them disgusting
+saussingers runs after his mince-pies--meets 'em in the Park;
+gallivants with them under the trees as if they was ortolans and
+beccaficas; bills and coos with 'em as if they was real turtles and
+punch _à la Romaine_. How the old cucumber would flare up! Up Regent
+Street, along Oxford Street, through the square, up to our own door.
+Well, blowed if that ain't a good one! Into the very house they goes;
+up stairs to the drawing-room. O Lord! that there should be such
+impudence in beefsteaks and ingans! They couldn't be more audacious if
+they was Perigord pies."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Half an hour passed--an hour--and yet the conversation was flowing on
+as briskly as ever. Mr Bill Whalley had explained the exact difference
+between Norway and Canada timber, greatly to Miss Emily's
+satisfaction; and Miss Sophia had again and again expressed her
+determination to leave the house the moment Miss Hendy entered it; and
+both the young ladies had related the energetic language in which they
+had expressed this resolution to their father, and threatened him with
+immediate desertion if he didn't cut that horrid old schoolmistress at
+once. The same speeches about happiness and simple cottages, with
+peace and contentment, had been made a dozen time over by all parties,
+when the great clock in the hall--a Dutch pendule, inserted in a
+statue of Time--struck three o'clock, and at the same moment a loud
+rap was heard at the front door.
+
+"Who can it be?" exclaimed Miss Sophia. "It isn't papa's knock;"--and
+hiding her face in the thick hydrangia which filled the drawing-room
+window, she gazed down to catch a glimpse of the entrance steps. She
+only saw the top of a large wooden case, and the white hat of a
+gentleman who rested his hand on the burden, and was giving directions
+to the bearers to be very careful how they carried it up stairs.
+
+Mr Whalley started up, as did Mr Sidsby, in no small alarm. "I
+wouldn't be found here for half-a-crown," said the former gentleman:
+"old father would shake his head into a reg'lar palsy if he knew I was
+philandering here, when the Riga brig is unloading at the wharf."
+
+"Let us go into the back drawing-room," suggested one of the young
+ladies, "and you can get out quite easily when the parcel, whatever it
+is, is delivered." They accordingly retired to the back drawing-room,
+and in a few minutes had the satisfaction of hearing heavy steps on
+the stairs, and the voice of the redoubtable Mr Bristles saying,
+"Gently, gently,--I have no hesitation in stating, that you were never
+entrusted with so valuable a burden before. Deposit it with gentleness
+on the large table in the middle; and, you may now boast, that your
+hands have borne the noblest specimen of grace and genius that modern
+ages have produced."
+
+"It's that everlasting donkey papa is always talking about!" whispered
+Sophia.
+
+"If it's Stickleback's statue," said Mr William Whalley, "the little
+vagabond promised the first sight of it to old father. He'll be in a
+precious stew when he finds his rival has been beforehand!"
+
+The porters now apparently retired, and the youthful prisoners in the
+back drawing-room tried to effect their escape by the door which
+opened on the stairs; but, alas! it was locked on the outside, and it
+was evident, from the soliloquy of Mr Bristles, that their retreat was
+cut off through the front room. A knock--the well-known rat, tat, tat,
+of the owner of the mansion--now completed their perplexity; and, in a
+moment more, they heard the steps of several persons rushing up
+stairs.
+
+"Mr Pitskiver!" exclaimed Bristles in intense agitation, "you have
+surely forgotten our agreement--Snooksby! Butters! Banks! Why, I am
+quite overpowered with the surprise! It was to have been alone,
+without witnesses; or at most, in my presence. But so public!"
+
+"Never mind, my dear Bristles. Why should I conceal my triumph--my
+happiness--the boast and gratification of my future days? Let us open
+the casket that enshrines such unequaled merits."
+
+"If you really wish for no further secresy," replied Mr Bristles.
+
+"Certainly! Don't I know that that case contains a masterpiece, softly
+sweet and beautifully feminine, as a talented friend of ours would
+say?"
+
+"An exquisite woman, indeed!" said Bristles; "and a truly talented
+friend. The case, as you justly observe," proceeded the critic, while
+he untied the cords, "contains the most glorious manifestation of the
+softening influences of sex."
+
+"It's a pity she's an ass," suggested Mr Pitskiver. "I can't help
+thinking that that's a drawback."
+
+"What?--what is a drawback, my dear sir?"
+
+"That femininity, as Miss Hendy calls it, should be brought so
+prominently forward in the person of an ass."
+
+"An ass?--I don't understand! Are you serious?"
+
+"Serious! to be sure, my dear Bristles. In spite of all efforts to
+assume an intellectual expression, the donkey, depend upon it,
+preponderates--the long visage, the dull eyes, the crooked legs--it is
+impossible to perceive any grace in such a wretched animal. I can't
+help thinking that if it had been a young girl you had brought
+me--say, a sleeping nymph--full of youth and beauty, 'twould have been
+a vast improvement on the scraggy jeanie contained in this box. But
+clear away, Bristles, we are all impatience."
+
+"My dear sir--Mr Pitskiver--unaccustomed as I am, his I can truly say
+is the most uncomfortable moment of my life."
+
+"Why, what's the matter with you, Bristles, can't you untie the
+string?"--"Here," continued Mr Pitskiver, "give me the cord," and so
+saying he untwisted it in a moment--down fell the side of the case,
+and to the astonished eyes of the assembled critics, and also of the
+party in the back drawing-room, revealed, not the masterpiece of the
+immortal Stickleback, but a female figure enveloped in a grey silk
+cloak, and covering its face with a white muslin handkerchief.
+
+"Why, what the mischief is all this?" exclaimed the bewildered Mr
+Pitskiver; "this isn't the jeanie-ass you promised me a sight of. Who
+the deuce is this?"
+
+The handkerchief was majestically removed, and the sharp eyes of Miss
+Hendy fixed in unspeakable disdain on the assembled party.
+
+"'Tis I, base man! Are all your protestations of admiration come to
+this? Who shall doubt hereafter that it is the task of noble, gentle,
+self-denying woman to elevate society?"
+
+A smothered but very audible laugh proceeding from the back
+drawing-room, interrupted the further eloquence of the regenerator of
+mankind; and, finding concealment useless, the two young ladies threw
+open the door, and advanced with their attendant lovers to the table.
+The female philosopher, with the assistance of Mr Bristles, descended
+from her lofty pedestal, and looked unutterable basilisks at the
+open-mouthed Mæcenas, who turned his eyes from the wooden box to Miss
+Hendy, and from Miss Hendy to the wooden box, without trusting himself
+with a word of either explanation or enquiry.
+
+"We told you of our intentions, papa," said Miss Sophia, "if you
+brought that old lady to your house."
+
+"I didn't bring her; I give you my honour 'twas that scoundrel
+Bristles," whispered the dismayed Pitskiver.
+
+"You told me sir," exclaimed Bristles, "that you would be for ever
+indebted to me if I brought this lady to your mansion--that she was
+the perfection of grace and innocence. By a friendly arrangement with
+Mr Stickleback, the greatest sculptor of ancient or modern times, I
+managed to secure to this illustrious woman an admission to your
+house, which, I understood, she could not openly obtain through the
+opposition of your daughters. I considered that you knew of the
+arrangement, sir; and I know that, with a soft and feminine
+trustfulness, this most gentle and intellectual ornament of her sex
+and species consented to meet the wish you had so ardently expressed."
+
+"I never had a wish of the kind," cried Mr Pitskiver; "and I believe
+you talking fellows and chattering women are all in a plot to make me
+ridiculous. I won't stand it any longer."
+
+"Stand what?" enquired Mr Bristles, knitting his brows.
+
+"Your nonsensical praises of each other--your boastings of
+Sticklebacks, and Snooksbys, and Bankses; a set of mere humbugs and
+blockheads! And even this foolish woman, with her femininities and
+re-invigorating society, I believe to be a regular quack. By dad! one
+would think there had never been a woman in the world before."
+
+"Your observations are uncalled for"--
+
+"By no manner of means," continued the senior, waxing bolder from the
+sound of his own voice. "I believe you're in a conspiracy to puff each
+other into reputation; and, if possible, get hold of some silly
+fellow's daughters. But no painting, chiseling, writing, or
+sonneteering blackguard, shall ever catch a girl of mine. What the
+deuce brings _you_ here, sir?" he added, fiercely turning to Mr
+Sidsby. "You're the impostor that read the first act of a play"--
+
+"I read it, sir," said the youth, "but didn't write a word of it, I
+assure you. Bristles is the author, and I gave him six dozen of
+sherry."
+
+"No indeed, papa; he never wrote a line in his life," said Sophia.
+
+"Then he may have you if he likes."
+
+"Nor I, except in the ledger," modestly observed Mr Bill Whalley.
+
+"Then take Emily with all my heart. Here, Daggles," he continue,
+ringing the bell, "open the street-door, and show these parties out!"
+
+Amidst muttered threats, fierce looks, and lips contorted into all
+modes and expression of indignation, the guests speedily disappeared.
+And while Mr Pitskiver, still panting from his exertions, related to
+his daughters and their enchanted partners his grounds for anger at
+the attempt to impose Miss Hendy on him instead of a statue, Mr
+Daggles shut the front door in great exultation as the last of the
+intruders vanished, and said--
+
+"Snipe, old Pits may do after all. He ain't a bad round of beef; and I
+almost like our two mutton-chops, since they have freed the house from
+such shocking sour-crouts and watery taties as I have just flinged
+into the street."
+
+But it was impossible to convert the great Mr Bristles to the belief
+into which his quondam follower, Mr Pitskiver, had fallen as to the
+qualities of Miss Hendy. That literary gentleman had too just a
+perception of the virtues of the modern Corinne, and of a comfortable
+house at Hammersmith, with an income of seven hundred a-year, to allow
+them to waste their sweetness on some indecent clown, unqualified by
+genius and education to appreciate them. The result of this resolution
+was seen in a very few days after the interesting scene in Harley
+Street; and the following announcement in the newspapers will put our
+readers in as full a state of knowledge as we can boast of being in
+ourselves:--
+
+"Woman's value Vindicated as the teacher and example of Man, by Mrs
+Bristles, late Miss Hendy, Hammersmith."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IRELAND.
+
+
+An interdict has rested, through four months, on the discussion of
+Irish affairs--an interdict self-imposed by the English press, in a
+spirit of honourable (almost of superstitious) jealousy on behalf of
+public justice; jealousy for the law, that it should not be biased by
+irresponsible statements--jealousy for the accused, that they should
+not be prejudiced by extra-judicial charges. At length the interdict
+is raised, and we are all free once more to discuss the great
+interests so long sealed up and sequestered by the tribunals of
+Dublin. Could it have been foreseen or fancied, pending this
+sequestration, that before it should be removed by the delivery of the
+verdict, nay, two months before the trial should have closed in a
+technical sense, by the delivery of the sentence, the original
+interest (profound as it was) would be obliterated, effaced,
+practically superseded, by a new phasis of the same unparalleled
+movement? Yet this has happened. A debate, which (like a series of
+natural echoes) has awakened and revived all the political
+transactions of last year in Ireland, should naturally have preserved
+the same relation to those transactions that any other shadow or
+reflection bears to the substance. And so it would: but unhappily with
+these rehearsals of the past, have mingled tumultuous menaces of a new
+plot. And these menaces, in the very act of uttering themselves,
+advertise for accomplices, and openly organize themselves as the
+principle of a new faction for refusing tranquillity once more to
+Ireland. Once more an opportunity is to be stifled for obtaining rest
+to that afflicted land.
+
+This "monster" debate, therefore, presents us in equal proportions
+with grounds of disgust and terror--a disgust which forces us often to
+forget the new form of terror--a terror (from a new conspiracy) which
+forces us to forget even the late conspiracy of Repeal, and that
+glorious catastrophe which has trampled it under foot for ever.
+
+It is painful to the understanding--this iteration of statements a
+thousand times refuted; it is painful to the heart--this eternal
+neglect (in exchange for a _hear, hear_) of what the speaker knows to
+be mere necessities of a poor distracted land: this folly privileged
+by courtesy, this treason privileged by the place. If indeed of every
+idle word--meaning not trivial word, but word consciously false--men
+shall hereafter give account, Heavens! what an arrear, in the single
+case of Ireland, will by this time have gathered against the House of
+Commons! Perfectly appalled we are when we look into the formless
+chaos of that nine nights' debate! Beginning with a motion which he
+who made it did not wish[28] to succeed--ending with a vote by which
+one-half of the parties to that vote meant the flattest contradiction
+of all that was contemplated by the rest. On this quarter, a section
+raging in the highest against the Protestant church--on that quarter,
+a section (in terror of their constituents) vowing aid to this church,
+and yet allying themselves with men pledged to her destruction.
+_Here_, men rampant against the Minister as having strained the laws,
+in what regarded Ireland, for the sake of a vigour altogether
+unnecessary; _there_, men threatening impeachment--as for a lenity in
+the same case altogether intolerable! To the right, "how durst you
+diminish the army in Ireland, leaving that country, up to March 1843,
+with a force lower by 2400 rank and file shall the lowest that the
+Whigs had maintained?" To the left, "how durst you govern Ireland by
+martial strength?" Question from the Minister--"Will you of the
+Opposition place popish bishops in the House of Lords?" Answer from a
+premature sponsor of Lord John's--"We will." Answer from Lord John--"I
+will not." _Question retrospective_ from the Conservatives--"What is
+it, not being already done, that we could have done for Ireland?"
+_Answer_ from the Liberals--"Oh, a thousand things!" _Question
+prospective_ from the Conservatives--"What is it, then, in particular,
+that you, in our places, would do for Ireland? Name it." _Answer_ from
+the Liberals--"Oh, nothing in particular!" Sir R. Peel ought to have
+done for Ireland whole worlds of new things. But the Liberals, with
+the very same power to _do_ heretofore, and to _propose_ now, neither
+did then, nor can propose at present. And why? partly because the
+privilege of acting for Ireland, so fruitful in reproaches, is barren
+in practice: the one thing that remained to be done,--viz. the putting
+down agitators--_has_ been done; and partly because the privilege of
+proposing for Ireland is dangerous: first, as pledging themselves
+hereafter; second, because to specify, though it were in so trivial a
+matter as the making pounds into guineas for Maynooth, is but to put
+on record, and to publish their own party incapacity to agree upon any
+one of the merest trifles imaginable. Anarchy of anarchies, very mob
+of very mobs, whose internal strife is greater than your common enmity
+_ab extra_--what shall we believe? Which is your true doctrine? Where
+do you fasten your real charge? Amongst conflicting arguments, which
+is it that you adopt? Amongst self-destroying purposes, for which is
+it that you make your election?
+
+    [28] The reader may suppose that Lord John Russell had no
+    motive for wishing his motion to fail, because (as he was
+    truly admonished by Sir Robert Peel) that motion pledged him
+    to nothing, and was "an exercise in political fluxions on the
+    problem of combining the _maximum_ of damage to his opponents
+    with the _minimum_ of prospective engagement to himself."
+    True: but for all that Lord John would have cursed the hour in
+    which he resolved on such a motion, had it succeeded. What
+    would have followed? Ministers would have gone out: Sir Robert
+    Peel has repeatedly said they would in the event of parliament
+    condemning their Irish policy. This would bring in Lord John,
+    and _then_ would be revealed the distraction of his party, the
+    chicanery of his late motion, and the mere incapacity of
+    moving at all upon Irish questions, either to the right or to
+    the left, for _any_ government which at this moment the
+    Whig-radicals could form. Doubtless, Lord John cherishes hopes
+    of future power; but not at present. "Wait a little," is his
+    secret caution to friends: let us see Ireland settled; let the
+    turn be taken; let the policy of Sir Robert Peel (at length
+    able to operate through the last assertion of the law) have
+    once taken root; and then, having the benefit of measures
+    which past declarations would not permit him personally to
+    initiate, nor his party even to propose, Lord John might
+    return to power securely--saying of the Peel policy, "Fieri
+    non debuit, _factum_ valet."
+
+It might seem almost unnecessary to answer those who thus answer
+themselves, or to expose the ruinous architecture of politicians, who
+thus with mutual hands tear down their own walls as they advance, were
+it not for the other aspect of the debate. But the times are agitated;
+the crisis of Ireland is upon us; now, or not at all, there is an
+opening for a new dawn to arise upon the distracted land; and when a
+public necessity calls for a contradiction of the enemy, it is a
+providential bounty that we are able to plead his _self_-contradiction.
+In the hurry of the public mind, there is always a danger that many
+great advantages for the truth should be overlooked: even things seen
+steadily, yet seen but once and amongst alien objects, are seen to
+little purpose. Lowered also in their apparent value by the prejudice,
+that what passes in parliament is but the harmless skirmishing of
+partisanship, dazzling the eye, but innocuous as the aurora borealis,
+demonstrations only too certain of coming evils receive but little
+attention in their earlier stages. Yet undoubtedly, if the laws
+applicable to conspiracy can in any way be evaded, we may see by the
+extensive cabal now organizing itself in England for aiding the Irish
+conspiracy to overthrow the Irish Protestant church, that we have but
+exchanged one form of agitation for a worse. Worse in what respect?
+Not as measured simply by the ruin it would cause--between ruin and
+ruin, there is little reason for choice; but worse, as having all the
+old supporters that Repeal ever counted, and many others beside.
+Especially with Repeal agitation recommending itself to the Irish
+priesthood, and to those whom the priesthood can put in motion, it
+will recommend itself also and separately to vast multitudes amongst
+ourselves. It is worse also--not because in the event more ruinous,
+but because in its means less desperate. All the factious in politics
+and the schismatic in religion--all those who, caring little or
+nothing about religion as a _spiritual_ interest, seek to overthrow
+the present Ministers--all those who (caring little or nothing about
+politics as a trading interest) seek to overthrow the Church of
+England--all, again, who are distressed in point of patriotism, as in
+Ireland many are, hoping to establish a foreign influence upon any
+prosperous body of native prejudice against British influence, are now
+throwing themselves, as by a forlorn hope, into this rearmost of their
+batteries, (but also the strongest)--a deadly and combined struggle to
+pull down the Irish Protestant establishment. And why? because nothing
+else is left to them as a hopeful subject of conspiracy, now that the
+Repeal conspiracy is crushed; and because in its own nature an assault
+upon Protestantism has always been a promising speculation--sure to
+draw support from England, whilst Repeal drew none; and because such
+an assault strikes at the citadel of our strength. For the established
+church of Ireland is the one main lever by which Great Britain carries
+out the machinery of her power over the Irish people. The Protestant
+church is by analogy the umbilical cord through which England connects
+herself _materially_ with Ireland; through _that_ she propagates her
+milder influence; _that_ gone, the rest would offer only coercive
+influence. Without going diffusively into such a point, two vast
+advantages to the civil administration, from the predominance of a
+Protestant church in Ireland, meet us at the threshold: 1st, that it
+moulds by the gentlest of all possible agencies the _recusant_ part of
+this Irish nation into a growing conformity with the two other limbs
+of the empire. The Irish population is usually assumed at about one
+fourth part of the total imperial population. Now, the gradual
+absorption of so large a section amongst our resources into the
+temper, sympathies, and moral habits of the rest, is an object to be
+kept in view by every successive government, let their politics
+otherwise be what they may; and therefore to be kept in view by all
+Irish institutions. In Canada everybody is _now_ aware how much this
+country has been wanting to herself, (that is, wanting to the united
+interests equally of England and Canada,) in not having operated from
+the first upon the political dispositions of the old French population
+by the powerful machinery of her own language, and in some cases of
+her institutions. Her neglect in this instance she now feels to have
+been at her own cost, and therefore politically to have been her
+crime. Granting to her population a certain degree of education, and
+of familiarity with the English language, certain civic privileges,
+(as those of voting at political elections, of holding offices,
+profitable or honorary, &c.,) under such reasonable latitude as to
+time as might have made the transition easy, England would have
+prevented the late wicked insurrection in Canada, and gradually have
+obliterated the external monuments of French remembrances, which have
+served only to nurse a senseless (because a hopeless) enmity. Now, in
+Ireland, the Protestant predominance has long since trained and
+moulded the channels through which flows the ordinary ambition of her
+national aristocracy. The Popery of Ireland settles and roots itself
+chiefly in the peasantry of three provinces. The bias of the gentry,
+and of the aspiring in all ranks, is towards Protestantism. Activity
+of mind and honourable ambition in every land, where the two forms of
+Christianity are politically in equilibrium, move in that same line of
+direction. Undoubtedly the Emancipation bill of 1829 was calculated,
+or might have seemed calculated, to disturb this old order of
+tendencies. But against that disturbance, and in defiance of the
+unexampled liberality shown to Papists upon _every_ mode of national
+competition, there is still in action (_and judging by the condition
+of the Irish bar, in undiminished action_) the old spontaneous
+tendency of Protestantism to 'go ahead;' the fact being that the
+original independency and freedom of the Protestant principle not only
+create this tendency, but also meet and favour it wherever nature has
+already created it, so as to operate in the way of a perpetual bounty
+upon Protestant leanings. Here, therefore, is _one_ of the great
+advantages to every English government from upholding and fostering,
+in all modes left open by the Emancipation bill, the Protestant
+principle--viz. as a principle which is the pledge of a continual
+tendency to union; since, as no prejudice can flatter itself with
+seeing the twenty-one millions of our Protestant population pass over
+to Popery, it remains that we encourage a tendency in the adverse
+direction, long since established and annually increasing amongst the
+six and a half Irish Papists. Thus only can our total population be
+fused; and without that fusion, it will scarcely be hoped that we can
+enjoy the whole unmutilated use of our own latent power.
+
+Towards such a purpose therefore, _as tending to union_ by its
+political effects, the Protestant predominancy is useful; and
+secondly, were it no otherwise useful, it is so to every possible
+administration by means of its patronage. This function of a
+government--which, being withdrawn, no government could have the means
+of sustaining itself for a year--connects the collateral channels of
+Irish honours and remunerations with the great national current of
+similar distributions at home. We see that the Scottish establishment,
+although differing essentially by church government, yet on the ground
+that doctrinally it is almost in alliance with the Church of England,
+has not (except by a transient caprice) refused to the crown a portion
+of its patronage. On the other hand, if the Roman Catholic church were
+installed as the ruling church, every avenue and access for the
+government to the administration of national resources so great, would
+be closed at once. These evils from the overthrow of the Protestant
+church, we mention _in limine_, not as the greatest--they are the
+least; or, at any rate, they are so with reference to the highest
+interests--but for their immediate results upon the purposes common to
+all governments; and _there_ they would be fatal, for any Roman
+Catholic church, where it happens also (like the Irish) to be a Papal
+church, neither will nor _can_ confide privileges of this nature to
+the state. A Papal church, not modified (as the Gallican church) by
+_original_ limitations of the Papal authority, not modified (as even
+the bigoted churches of Portugal and Austria) by modern _conventional_
+limitations of that alien authority, gloomily refuses and must refuse,
+to accept any thing from the state, for the simple reason that she is
+incapacitated for giving any thing. Wisely, according to the wisdom of
+this world, she cuts away from below the footing of the state all
+ground on which a pretence could ever be advanced for interfering with
+herself. Consequently, whosoever, and by whatsoever organs, would
+suffer from the overthrow of the Irish church as now established by
+law, the administration of the land would feel the effects from such a
+change, first and instantly. Let us not mistake the case. Mr O'Connell
+did not seriously aim at Repeal--_that_ he knew too well to be an
+enterprise which could not surmount its earliest stages without coming
+into collision with the armed forces of the land; and no man will ever
+believe that he dreamed of prevailing _there_. What was it, then, that
+he _did_ aim at? It was the establishment in supremacy of the Papal
+church. His meaning was, in case he had been left quietly to build up
+his aspiring purpose so high as seriously to alarm the government,
+then suddenly to halt, to propose by way of compromise some step in
+advance for his own church. Suppose that some arrangement which should
+have the effect of placing that church on a footing of equality, as a
+privileged (not as an endowed) church, with the present establishment;
+this gained, he might have safely left the church herself
+thenceforwards, from such a position of advantage, to fight her way
+onwards, to the utter destruction of her rival.
+
+Thus it was that the conspirators hoped to terrify the minister into
+secret negotiation and compromise. But that hope failed. The minister
+was firm. He watched and waited his opportunity; he kept his eye
+settled upon them, to profit by the first opening which their folly
+should offer to the dreadful artillery of law. At last, said the
+minister, we will put to proof this vaunt of yours. We dare not bring
+you to trial, is your boast. Now, we will see that settled; and, at
+the same time, we will try whether we cannot put you down for ever.
+That trial was made, and with what perfection of success the reader
+knows; for let us remind him, that the perfection we speak of lay as
+much in the manner of the trial as in its result--in the sanctities of
+abstinence, in the holy forbearance to use any one of many decent
+advantages, in the reverence for the sublime equities of law. Oh,
+mightiest of spectacles which human grandeur can unfold to the gaze of
+less civilized nations, when the ermine of the judge and the
+judgment-seat, belted by no swords, bristling with no bayonets--when
+the shadowy power of conscience, citing, as it were, into the
+immediate presence of God twelve upright men, accomplishing for great
+kingdoms, by one day's memorable verdict, that solemn revolution which
+elsewhere would have caused torrents of blood to flow, and would
+perhaps have unsealed the tears of generations. Since the trial of the
+seven bishops[29]--which inaugurated for England the certainty that
+for _her_ the "bloody writing" was torn which would have consigned her
+children to the mercies of despotism--there has been no such crisis,
+no such agitation, no such almighty triumph. Here was the _second_
+chapter of the history; and lastly, that the nine nights' debate
+attached itself as the _third_, is evident from its real purpose,
+which may be expressed strictly in this problem: Given, as a fact
+beyond all doubt, that O'Connell's Repeal conspiracy is for ever
+shattered; let it now be proposed, as a thing worthy of the combined
+parties in opposition, to find out some vicarious or supplementary
+matter for sedition. A new agitation must be found, gentlemen--a new
+grievance must be had, or Ireland is tranquillized, and we are lost.
+Was there ever a case illustrating so strongly the maxim, that no man
+can be effectually ruined except by himself? Here is Lord John
+Russell, taxed a thousand times with having not merely used Mr
+O'Connell as an ally, but actually as having lent himself to Mr
+O'Connell as an instrument. Is that true? A wise man, kind-hearted,
+and liberal in the construction of motives, will have found himself
+hitherto unwilling to suppose a thing so full of disgrace; he will
+have fancied arguments for scepticism. But just at this moment of
+critical suspense, forth steps Lord John himself, and by his own act
+dissipates all doubts, frankly subscribing the whole charge against
+himself; for his own motion reveals and publishes his wrath against
+the ministers for having extinguished the only man, viz. a piratical
+conspirator, by whose private license there was any safety for
+navigating the sea of Irish politics. The exact relation in which Lord
+John had hitherto stood to Mr O'Connell, was that of a land-owner
+paying black-mail to the cateran who guaranteed his flocks from
+molestation: how naturally must the grazier turn with fury on the man
+who, by suppressing his guardian, has made it hopeless for the future
+to gain private ease by trafficking in public wrongs! The real
+grievance was, the lopping Dagon of all power to stand erect, and thus
+laying the Whig-radical under the necessity of "walking in the light
+of the constitution" without aid from Irish crutches. The real _onus_
+imposed on Lord John's party is, where to look for, and how to suborn,
+some new idol and some fresh idolatry. Still to dispense with the laws
+in Ireland in the event of their own return to power, still to banish
+tranquillity from Ireland in the event of Sir Robert's power
+continuing, required that some new conspiracy should be cited to the
+public service, possibly (after the 15th of April) some new
+conspirator. The new seditious movement could not be doubtful: by many
+degrees of preference, the war upon the Irish church had the "call."
+This is to be the war now pursued, and with advantages (as we have
+already said) never possessed by the Repeal cause. The chief advantage
+of _that_ lay in the utter darkness to the Irish peasantry of the word
+"Repeal." What it meant no wizard could guess; and merely as a subject
+to allure by uncertain hopes, on the old maxim of "omne ignotum pro
+magnifico," the choice of that word had considerable merit. But the
+cause of Popery has another kind of merit, and (again we remind the
+reader) reposes upon another kind of support. In that cause the Irish
+peasantry will be unaffectedly and spontaneously zealous; in that
+cause there will be a confluence from many quarters of English aid.
+Far other phenomena will now come forward. Meetings, even of the kind
+convened by Mr O'Connell, are not, we must remember, found to be
+unlawful by the issue of the late trials. Had certain melodramatic
+features been as cautiously banished from Mr O'Connell's parades as
+latterly they were affectedly sought, it is certain that, to this
+hour, he and his pretended myriads would have been untouched by the
+petrific mace of the policeman. Lay aside this theatrical costuming of
+cavalry, of military step, &c., and it will be found that these
+meetings were lawful. Most certainly a meeting for the purpose of
+petitioning is not, and (unless by its own folly) never can be, found
+unlawful.
+
+    [29] The trial of the seven bishops for declining to obey the
+    king's order in council against what, in conscience, they
+    believed to be the law of the land, is the more strictly a
+    parallel case, because, as in Ireland, the whole Popish part
+    of the population--in effect, therefore, the whole physical
+    strength of the land--_seemed_ to have arrayed itself on the
+    side of the conspiracy; so in England, the only armed force,
+    and that close to London, was supposed to have been bought
+    over by the systematic indulgence of the king. Himself and the
+    queen (Mary of Modena) had courted them through the summer.
+    But all was fruitless against the overwhelming sympathy of the
+    troops with an universal popular feeling. Bishop Burnet
+    mentions that this army (about 10,000 men, and then encamped
+    beyond Hounslow) broke into tremendous cheers at the moment
+    when the news of the acquittal reached them. Whilst lauding
+    their Creator his majesty was present. But a far more
+    picturesque account of the case is given by an ancestor of the
+    present Lord Lonsdale's, whose memoirs (still in MS.) are
+    alluded to in one of his Ecclesiastic Sonnets by Mr
+    Wordsworth, our present illustrious laureate. One trait is of
+    a nature so fine, and so inevitable under similar
+    circumstances of interest, that, but for the intervention of
+    the sea, we should certainly have witnessed its repetition on
+    the termination of the Dublin trials. Lord Lowther (such was
+    the title at that time) mentions that, as the bishops came
+    down the Thames in their boat after their acquittal, a
+    perpetual series of men, linked knee to knee, knelt down along
+    the shore. The blessing given, up rose a continuous thunder of
+    huzzas; and these, by a kind of natural telegraph, ran along
+    the streets and the river, through Brentford, and so on to
+    Hounslow. According to the illustration of Lord L., this voice
+    of a nation rolled like a _feu-de-joie_, or running fire, the
+    whole ten miles from London to Hounslow, within a few minutes;
+    or, like a train of gunpowder laid from London to the camp,
+    this irresistible sentiment finally involved in its torrent
+    evenits professional and hired enemies. Cæsar mentions that
+    such a transmission, telegraphically propagated from mouth to
+    mouth, of a Roman victory, reached himself, at a distance of
+    160 miles, within about four hours.
+
+But may not this new conspiracy, which is now mustering and organizing
+itself, be put down summarily by force? We may judge of _that_ by what
+has happened to the old conspiracy. Put down by martial violence, or
+by the police, Repeal would have retired for the moment only to come
+forward and reconstruct itself in successive shapes of mischief not
+provided for by law, or not shaped to meet the grasp of an executive
+so limited as, in these days, any English executive must find itself.
+On the other hand, once brought under the cognizance of law, it has
+been crushed in its fraudulent form, and compelled to transmigrate at
+once into that sincere, substantial, and final form, towards which it
+was always tending. Whatever of extra peril is connected with a
+movement so much more intelligible than Repeal, and so much more in
+alliance with the natural prepossessions of the Irish mind--better it
+is, after all, that this peril should be forced to show itself in open
+daylight, than that it should be lurking in ambush or mining
+underground; ready for a burst when other mischief might be abroad, or
+evading the clue of our public guardians. Besides that, Repeal also
+had its own peculiar terrors, notwithstanding that it did not grow up
+originally upon any stock of popular wishes, but had been an
+artificial growth propagated by an artificial inoculation. That flame
+also could burn fiercely when fanned by incendiaries, although it did
+not supply its own combustibles. And, think as we may of the two
+evils, valued as mischief against mischief, Repeal against
+Anti-protestantism, certain it is, that one most important advantage
+has accrued to Government from the change. Fighting against Repeal,
+they had to rely upon one sole resource of doubtful issue; for, after
+all, the law stood on the interpretation of a jury, and therefore too
+much on the soundness of individual minds; whereas in meeting the
+assaults of Anti-protestantism, backed as it is by six millions of
+combatants, ministers will find themselves reposing on the whole
+strength of two nations, and of that section, even amongst the Irish,
+which is socially the strongest. An old enemy is thus replaced by a
+new one many hundred-fold more naturally malignant; true, but
+immediately the new one will call forth a natural antagonism many
+thousand-fold more determined. Such is the result; and, though
+alarming in itself, for ministers it remains an advantage and a
+trophy. How was this result accomplished? By a Fabian policy of
+watching, waiting, warding, and assaulting at the right moment. Three
+times within the last twelve months have the Government been thrown
+upon their energies of attack and defence; three times have they been
+summoned to the most trying exercise of skill--vigilantly to parry,
+and seasonably to strike: _first_, when their duty was to watch and to
+arrest agitation; _secondly_, when their duty was, by process of law,
+to crush agitation; _thirdly_, when their duty was to explain and
+justify before Parliament whatsoever they had done through the two
+former stages. Now, then, let us rapidly pursue the steps of our
+ministers through each severally of these three stages; and by
+seasonable _resumé_ or recapitulation, however brief, let us claim the
+public praise for what merits praise, and apply our vindication to
+what has been most misrepresented. The first charge preferred against
+the Government was, that it did not instantly attack the Repealers on
+their earliest appearance. We must all recollect this charge, and the
+bitterness with which it was urged during the whole of last summer;
+for, in fact, the difference of opinion upon this question led to a
+schism even amongst the Conservative party and press. The majority,
+headed by the leading morning paper, have treated it to this day as a
+ground of suspicion against Government, or at least as an impeachment
+of their courage, that they should have lingered or hesitated upon the
+proper policy. Our Journal was amongst the few which, after
+considerable reflection and perhaps doubt, defended the course
+adopted; and specifically upon the following suggestion, _inter alia_,
+viz. that Peel and the Wellesley were assuredly at that moment
+watching Mr O'Connell, not at all, therefore, hesitating as to the
+general character of the policy to be observed, but only waiting for
+the best mode (best in effect, best in popularity) of enforcing that
+policy. And we may remind our readers, that on that occasion we
+applied to the situation of the two parties, as they stood watching
+and watched, the passage from Wordsworth--
+
+    "The vacillating bondsman of the Pope
+    Shrinks from the verdict of that steadfast eye."
+
+There was no great merit in being right; but it is proper to remind
+our readers that we _were_ right. And there is considerable merit,
+more merit than appears, in not having been wrong; for in that we
+should have followed not only a vast leading majority amongst public
+authorities, but we should have followed an instinct of impassioned
+justice, which cannot endure to witness the triumph, though known to
+be but fugitive, of insolence and hyperbolical audacity. Not as
+partisans, which was proved by the caution of our manner, but after
+some deliberation, we expressed our conviction that Government was not
+slumbering, but surveying its ground, taking up its position, and
+trying the range of its artillery, in order to strike surely, to
+strike once, but so that no second blow should be needed. All this
+has been done; so far our predictions have been realized; and to that
+extent the Government has vindicated itself. But still it may be
+asked, to _what_ extent? Doubtless the thing has been done, and done
+completely. Yet _that_ will not necessarily excuse the Government. To
+be well done is, in many cases, all that we require; but in questions
+of civil policy often there is even more importance that it should be
+_soon_ done, done maturely, (that is, seasonably done with a view to
+certain evils growing up concurrently with the evil,) done even
+prematurely with respect to immediate bad consequences open to instant
+arrest. At this moment amongst the parliamentary opponents of
+ministers, though some are taxing them with unconstitutional
+harshness, (or at least with that _summum jus_ which the Roman proverb
+denounces as _summa injuria_,) in having ever interfered at all with
+Mr O'Connell, others of the same faction are roundly imputing to them
+a system of decoy, a "laying of traps," (that was the word,) in
+waiting so patiently for the ripening of the Repeal frenzy. Upon the
+same principle, a criminal may have a right to complain that her
+Majesty, when extending mercy to a first crime, or a crime palliated
+by its circumstances, and that a merciful prosecutor who intercedes
+effectually on his behalf with the court, have both been laying a trap
+for his future conduct; since, assuredly, there is one motive the less
+to a base nature for abstaining from evil in the mitigated
+consequences which the evil drew after it. On the same principle the
+Repealers, having found Sir R. Peel so anxious, in the first stages of
+their career, to spare them altogether, were seduced into thinking
+that surely he never would strike so hard when at length he had made
+ready to strike. Still, with submission, we think that to found false
+expectations upon a spirit of lenity, and upon that mistake to found
+an abuse of goodness that was really sincere, was not the fault of Sir
+R. Peel, but of the Repealers. Any man's goodness becomes a trap to
+him who is capable of making it such; since the most noble
+forbearance, misinterpreted as fear, will probably enough operate as a
+snare for such a person by tempting him into excesses calculated to
+rouse that courage with which all genuine forbearance is associated.
+If the early moderation of Government did really entrap any man, that
+man has himself, and his own meanness of heart, to thank for his
+delusion. But were it otherwise, and the Government became properly
+responsible for any possible misinterpretation of their own
+lenity--even in that case, it will remain to be enquired whether
+Government _could_ have acted otherwise than it did. For else, though
+Government could owe little enough to the conspirator; yet with
+respect to the ill-educated and misled labouring man, whose honest
+sensibilities were so grievously played upon by traitors, we do
+ourselves conceive that Government had a clamorous duty. If such men
+by thousands believed that the cause of Repeal was patriotic, that we
+consider a delusion not of a kind or a class to challenge exposure
+from Government; they have neither such functions assigned to them,
+nor could they assume any office of teaching without suspicion. But
+when the credulity of the poor was shown also in anticipating impunity
+for the leader of Repeal, and upon the ground that ministers feared
+him, when for this belief there was really much plausible sanction in
+the behaviour of the Whig ministers--too plainly it became a marked
+duty of Sir Robert Peel to warn them how matters stood; to let them
+know that sedition tended to dangerous results, and that _his_
+Government was bound by no secret understanding, with sedition for
+averting its natural penalties. So much, we all agree, was due from
+the present Government to the poorer classes; and exactly because
+former governments had practically taken another view of sedition. If,
+therefore, Sir R. Peel had left unpaid this great debt, he failed
+grievously in the duties of his high office; but we are of opinion
+that he did _not_. We have an obscure remembrance that the Queen's
+speech uttered a voice on this point--a solemn, a monitory, a parental
+voice. We seem to recollect also, that in his own parliamentary place
+he warned the deluded followers of Repeal--that they were engaged in a
+chase that must be fruitless, and might easily become criminal. What
+was open to him, therefore, Sir Robert did. He applied motives, such
+as there were within his power, to lure men away from this seditious
+service. The "traps" he laid were all in that direction. If more is
+required of him by people arguing the case at present, it remains to
+ask whether more was at that time in his power.
+
+The present administration came into power in September 1841. Why the
+Repealers did not go to work instantly, is more than we can explain;
+but so it was. In March of 1843, and not sooner, Mr O'Connell opened a
+new shop of mercenary agitation, and probably for the last time that
+he will ever do so. The _surveillance_ of Government, it now appears,
+commenced almost simultaneously; why not the reaction of Government?
+Upon that it is worth spending a few words. It is now made known to
+the public, that from the very first Sir R. Peel had taken such
+measures of precaution as were really open to him. In communicating,
+officially with any district whatsoever, in any one of the three
+kingdoms, the proper channel through which the directions travel is
+the lord-lieutenant of the particular county in which the district
+lies. He is the direct representative of the sovereign--he stands at
+the head of the county magistrates, and is officially the organ
+between the executive and his own rural province. To this officer in
+every county, Sir R. Peel addressed a letter of instructions; and the
+principle on which these instructions turned was--that for the present
+he was to exercise a jealous neutrality; not interfering without
+further directions in ordinary cases, that is, where simply Repeal was
+advocated, or individuals were abused; but that, on the first
+_suggestion_ of local outrages, the first _incitement_ to mischief,
+arrests and other precautionary measures were to take place. Not much
+more than twenty years are gone by, since magistrates moved on
+principles so wholly different, that now, and to the youthful of this
+generation, they would seem monstrous. In those days, let any man be
+found to swear that he apprehended danger to his property, or violence
+to his person, from the assembling of a mob in a place assigned, and
+the magistrate would have held it his duty to disperse or prevent that
+meeting. But now _on a changé tout cela_; and as easily might a
+magistrate of this day commit Fanny Elssler as a vagabond. Yet even in
+these days we have heard it mooted--
+
+1. On the mere ground of _numerical amount_, and as for that reason
+alone an uncontrollable mass, might not such a meeting have been
+liable to dispersion? _Answer_--this allegation of monstrous numbers
+was uniformly a falsehood; and a falsehood gross and childish. Was it
+for the dignity of Government to assume, as grounds of action, fables
+so absurd as these? _Not_ to have assumed them, will never be made an
+argument of blame against the Executive; and, indeed, it was not
+possible to do so, since Government had employed qualified persons to
+estimate the numbers, and in some instances to measure the ground. The
+only real charge against Government, in connexion with these fables,
+is (and we grieve to say it) that of having echoed them, in an
+ambiguous way, at one point of the trials; not exactly assuming them
+for true, and resting any other truth upon their credit, but repeating
+them as parts _inter alia_ of current popular hearsay. Now this,
+though probably the act of some subordinate officer, does a double
+indignity to Government; it is discreditable to the understanding, if
+such palpable nursery tales are adopted for any purpose; and openly to
+adulterate with falsehood, even in those cases where the falsehood is
+not associated with folly, still more deeply wounds the character of
+an honourable government. But, besides, had the numerical estimates
+stood upon any footing of truth, mere numbers could not have been
+pleaded as an argument for reasonable alarm. The false estimate was
+not pleaded by the Repealers until _after_ the meetings, and as an
+inference from facts. But the use of the argument was _before_ the
+meeting, and to prevent the meeting. And if the experience of past
+meetings were urged as an argument for presuming that the coming one
+would be not less numerous, concurrently would be urged this same
+experience as a demonstration that no danger was to be apprehended.
+Dangerous the meetings certainly were in another sense; but, in the
+police sense, so little dangerous, that each successive meeting
+squared, cubed, &c., in geometrical progression the guarantee in point
+of safety for all meetings that were to follow.
+
+2. On the ground of _sedition_, and disaffection to the Government,
+might not these assemblages have been lawfully dispersed or prevented?
+Unfortunately, not under our modern atmosphere of political
+liberality. In time of war, when it may again become necessary, for
+the very salvation of the land, to suspend the _habeas corpus_ act,
+sedition would revive into a new meaning. But, at all times, sedition
+is of too unlimited a nature to form the basis of an affidavit sworn
+before a police magistrate; and it is an idea which very much
+sympathizes with the _general_ principles of political rights. When
+these are unusually licentious, sedition is interpreted liberally and
+laxly. Where danger tightens the restraints upon popular liberty, the
+idea of sedition is more narrowly defined. Sedition, besides, very
+much depends upon overt acts as expounding it. And to take any
+controversial ground for the basis of restraint upon personal liberty,
+would probably end in disappointment. At the same time, we must make
+one remark. Some months ago, in considering what offence was committed
+by the public avowal of the Repeal doctrine, we contended, that it
+amounted constructively to treason; and on the following argument--Why
+had any body supposed it lawful to entertain or to propagate such a
+doctrine? Simply, on the reflexion that, up to the summer of 1800,
+there _was_ no union with Ireland: since August of that 1800, this
+great change had been made. And by what? By an act of Parliament. But
+could there be any harm in seeking the repeal of a parliamentary act?
+Is not _that_ done in every session of the two Houses? And as to the
+more or less importance of an act, _that_ is a matter of opinion. But
+we contended, that the sanctity of an act is to be deduced from the
+sanctity of the subjects for which it legislates. And in proof of
+this, we alleged the _Act of Settlement_. Were it so, that simply the
+term _Act of Parliament_ implied a license universally for undoing and
+canceling it, then how came the Act of Settlement to enjoy so peculiar
+a consecration? We take upon us to say--that, in any year since the
+Revolution of 1688-9, to have called a meeting for the purpose of
+framing a petition against this act, would have been treason. Might
+not Parliament itself entertain a motion for repealing it, or for
+modifying it? Certainly; for we have no laws resembling those Athenian
+laws, which made it capitally punishable to propose their repeal. And
+secondly,--no body external to the two Houses, however venerable, can
+have power to take cognizance of words uttered in either of those
+Houses. Every Parliament, of necessity, must be invested with a
+discretionary power over every arrangement made by their predecessors.
+Each several Parliament must have the same power to _undo_, which
+former Parliaments had to _do_. The two Houses have the keys of St
+Peter--to unloose in the nineteenth century whatever the earliest
+Parliament in the twelfth century could bind. But this privilege is
+proper and exclusive to the two Houses acting in conjunction. Outside
+their walls, no man has power to do more than to propose as a
+petitioner some lawful change. But how could that be a lawful change
+which must begin by proposing to shift the allegiance into some other
+channel than that in which it now flows? The line of succession, as
+limited in the act, is composed of persons all interested. As against
+_them_, merely contingent and reversionary heirs, no treason could
+exist. But we have supposed the attempt to be against the individual
+family then occupying the throne. And it is clear that no pretence,
+drawn from the repealable nature of an English law, can avail to make
+it less, or other than treason, for a person outside of Parliament to
+propose the repeal of _this_ act as to any point affecting the
+existing royal family, or at least, so many of that family as are
+privileged persons known to the constitution. Now, then, this remark
+instantly points to two classes of acts; one upon which to all men is
+open the right of calling for Repeal; another upon which no such
+right is open. But if this be so, then to urge the legality of calling
+for a Repeal of the Union, on the ground that this union rests only
+upon an act of Parliament, is absurd; because that leaves it still
+doubtful whether this act falls under the one class or the other.
+
+Why do we mention this? Because we think it exceedingly important that
+the attention of parliament should be called to the subject, and to
+the necessity of holding certain points in our constitution as
+absolutely sacred. If a man or party should go about proclaiming the
+unlawfulness, in a religious sense, of _property_, and agitating for
+that doctrine amongst the lower classes by appropriate arguments--it
+would soon be found necessary to check them, and the sanctity of
+property would soon be felt to merit civil support. Possibly it will
+be replied--"Supposing the revolutionary doctrines followed by overt
+acts, then the true redress is by attacking these acts." Yet every
+body feels that, if the doctrine and the acts continued to propagate
+themselves, very soon both would be punished. In the case where
+missionaries incited negro slaves to outrages on property, or were
+said to do so, nobody proposed to punish only the overt outrages. So,
+again, in the event of those doctrines being revived which denounced
+all differences of rank, and the official distinctions of civil
+government, it would be too late to punish the results after the bonds
+of society were generally relaxed. Ministers are placed in a very
+false position, continually taxing a man with proposing the repeal of
+a law as if _that_ were an admitted crime, and yet also pronouncing
+the proposed repeal of any law to be a privilege of every citizen.
+They will soon find it necessary to make their election for one or
+other of these incompatible views.
+
+Meantime, in direct opposition to this uncertainty of the ministers,
+the Irish Attorney-General has drawn the same argument from the Act of
+Settlement which we have drawn. In February 1844, the Irish
+Attorney-General pronounced his views; _Blackwood's Magazine_ in
+August or September 1843. A fact which we mention--not as imputing to
+that learned gentleman any obligation to ourselves; for, on the
+contrary, it strengthens the opinion to have been _independently_
+adopted by different minds, but in order to acquit ourselves from the
+natural suspicion of having, in a legal question, derived our own
+views from a high legal authority.
+
+3. Might not the Repeal Association have been arrested and prosecuted
+at first, viz. in March 1843, as six months afterwards they were, on a
+charge of conspiracy? That was a happy thought, by whomsoever
+suggested; and strange that an idea, so often applied to minor
+offences as well as to political offences, should not at once have
+been seen to press with crushing effect upon these disturbers of the
+public peace. Since the great change in the combination laws, this
+doctrine of conspiracy is the only means by which masters retain any
+power at all. Wheresoever there are reciprocal rights, for one of the
+two antagonist interests to combine in defence of their own,
+presupposes in very many cases an unfair disturbance of the legal
+equilibrium. Society, as being an inert body in relation to any
+separate interests of its own, and chiefly from the obscurity of these
+interests, cannot be supposed to combine; and therefore cannot combine
+even to prevent combinations. Government is the perpetual guardian and
+organ of society in relation to its interests. Government, therefore,
+prosecutes. This, however, left the original question as to the Repeal
+of the Irish Union act, whether a lawful attempt or not lawful,
+untouched. And necessary it was to do so. Had the prosecutor even been
+satisfied on that point, no jury would have regarded it as other than
+a delicate question in the casuistry of political metaphysics. But the
+offence of combining, by means of tumultuous meetings, and by means of
+connecting with this obscure question rancorous nationalities or
+personalities, so as to make _that_ a matter of agitating interest to
+poor men, which else they would have regarded as a pure scholastic
+abstraction--this was a crime well understood by the jury; and thence
+flowed the verdict. But could not the same verdict have been obtained
+in the month of March? Certainly not. For the act of _conspiracy_ must
+prove itself by collusion between speeches and speeches, between
+speeches and newspapers, between reporters and newspapers, between
+newspaper and newspaper. But in the infancy of such a concern, these
+links of concert and mutual reverberation are few, hard to collect,
+and unless carelessly diffused, (as in the palmy days of the Repeal
+Association they were,) difficult to prove.
+
+In short, no indictment could have availed that was not founded on the
+offence of conspiracy; and _that_ would not have been available with
+certainty much before the autumn, when in fact the conspirators were
+held to bail. To have failed would have been ruinous. We have seen how
+hardly the furious Opposition have submitted to the Government
+measure, under its present principle of simple confidence in the law
+as it is: had new laws, or suspension of old ones, been found
+requisite--the desperate resistance of the Liberals would have reacted
+contagiously on the excitement in Ireland, so as to cause more
+mischief in a secondary way, than any measure of restraint upon the
+Repealers could have healed directly.
+
+It is certain, meantime, that Sir R. Peel did not wish to provoke a
+struggle with the Repealers. Feeling, probably, considerable doubts
+upon the issue of any trial, moving upon whatsoever principle--because
+in any case the composition of the jury must depend a good deal upon
+chance, and one recusant juror, or one juror falling ill at a critical
+moment, might have reduced the whole process to a nihility--Sir
+Robert, like any moderate man, hoped that his warnings might meet with
+attention. They did not. So far from _that_, the Repealers kindled
+into more frenzy through their own violence, irritated no doubt by
+public sympathy with their worst counsels in America and elsewhere. At
+length the case indicated in the minister's instructions to the
+lords-lieutenant of counties, the _casus fæderis_, actually occurred.
+One meeting was fixed ostentatiously on the anniversary of the
+rebellion in 1798; and against the intended meeting at Clontarf, large
+displays of cavalry and of military discipline were publicly
+advertised. These things were decisive: the viceroy returned suddenly
+to Ireland: the Privy Council of Ireland assembled: a proclamation
+issued from government: the conspirators were arrested: and in the
+regular course the trials came on.
+
+Such is our account of the first stage in this great political
+transaction; and this first stage it is which most concerns the
+reputation of Government. For though the merit of the trials, or
+second stage, must also belong to Government, so far as regards the
+resolution to adopt this course, and the general principle of their
+movement; yet in the particular conduct of their parts, these trials
+naturally devolved upon the law-officers. In the admirable balance of
+firmness and forbearance it is hardly possible to imagine the minister
+exceeded. And here, where chiefly he stood between a double fire of
+attacks, irreconcilable in themselves, and proceeding not less on
+friends than foes, it is now found by official exposures that Sir
+Robert's conduct is not open to a trivial demur. He made his
+preparations for vindicating the laws in such a spirit of energy, as
+though he had resolved upon allowing no escape for the enemy; he
+opened a _locus penitentiæ_, noiseless and indulgent to the feelings
+of the offenders, with so constant an overture of placability as if he
+had resolved upon letting them _all_ escape. The kindness of the
+manner was as perfect as the brilliancy of the success.
+
+Next, as regards the trials, there is so very much diffused through
+the speeches or the incidents of what is noticeable on one ground or
+other--that we shall confine ourselves to those points which are
+chiefly concerned in the one great factious (let us add fraudulent)
+attempt within the House of Commons to disparage the justice of the
+trial. In all history, we remember nothing that ever issued from a
+baffled and mortified party more audacious than this. As, on the other
+hand, in all history we remember nothing more anxiously or sublimely
+conscientious than the whole conduct of the trial. More conspicuously
+are these qualities displayed, as it was inevitable they should, in
+the verdict. Never yet has there been a document of this nature more
+elaborate and fervent in the energy of its distinctions, than this
+most memorable verdict; and the immortal twelve will send down their
+names to posterity as the roll-call of those upright citizens, who, in
+defiance of menaces, purchased peace to their afflicted country at the
+price of peril to themselves. With partisans, of course, all this goes
+for nothing; and no cry was more steadily raised in the House of
+Commons than the revolting falsehood--that the conspirators had not
+obtained a fair trial. Upon the three pretences by which this
+monstrous allegation endeavoured to sustain itself, we will say a
+word. Two quarrels have been raised with incidents occurring at
+separate stages in the striking of the jury. What happened first of
+all was supposed to be a mere casual effect of hurry. Good reason
+there has since appeared, to suspect in this affair no such excusable
+accident, but a very fraudulent result of a plan for vitiating the
+whole proceedings. Such things are likely enough to be attempted by
+obscure partisans. But at all events any trick that may have been
+practised, is traced decisively to the party of the defendants. But
+the whole effect of the trick, if such it were, was to diminish the
+original fund from which the names of the second list were to be
+drawn, by about one twenty-ninth part. But this inconsiderable loss
+was as likely to serve the defendants as not; for the object, as we
+have said, was--simply by vitiating the proceeding to protract the
+trial, and thus to benefit by a larger range of favourable accidents.
+But why not cure this irregularity, however caused, by the means open
+to the court? Simply for these reasons, explained by the
+Attorney-General:--1st, that such a proceeding would operate
+injuriously upon many other trials; and 2d, as to this particular
+trial, that it would delay it until the year 1845. The next incident
+is still more illustrative of the determination, taken beforehand, to
+quarrel with the arrangements, on whatever principle conducted. When
+the list of persons eligible as jurors has been reduced by the
+unobjectionable process of balloting to forty-eight, from that amount
+they are further reduced by ultimate challenges; and the necessity
+resting upon each party to make these challenges is not discretional,
+but peremptory. It happened that the officer who challenged on behalf
+of the crown, struck off about ten Roman Catholics. The public are
+weary of hearing it explained--that these names were not challenged
+_as_ Catholics, but as Repealers. Some persons have gone so far as to
+maintain--that even Repealers ought not to have been challenged. This,
+however, has been found rather too strong a doctrine for the House of
+Commons--to have asked for a verdict of guilty from men glorying in
+the very name which expresses the offence. Did any man ever suggest a
+special jury of smugglers in a suit of our lady the Queen, for the
+offence of "running" goods? Yet certainly they are well qualified as
+respects professional knowledge of the case. We on our part maintain,
+that not merely Repealers were inadmissible on the Dublin jury, but
+generally Roman Catholics; and we say this without disrespect to that
+body, as will appear from what follows. It will often happen that men
+are challenged as labouring under prejudices which disqualify them for
+an impartial discharge of a juror's duty. But these prejudices may be
+of two kinds. First, they may be the natural product of a certain
+birth, education, and connexion; and these are cases in which it will
+almost be a _duty_ for one so biased to have contracted something of a
+permanent inability to judge fairly under circumstances which interest
+his prejudices. But secondly, there are other prejudices, as, for
+instance, of passions, of blind anger, or of selfish interest. Such
+cases of prejudice are less honourable; and yet no man scruples to
+tell another, under circumstances of this nature, that he cannot place
+confidence in his impartiality. No offence is either meant or taken. A
+trial is transferred from Radnorshire to Warwickshire in order to
+secure justice: yet Radnorshire is not offended. And every day a
+witness is told to stand down, when he is acknowledged to have the
+slightest pecuniary interest in the case, without feeling himself
+insulted. Yet the insinuation is a most gross one--that, because he
+might be ten guineas richer or poorer by the event of the trial, he is
+not capable of giving a fair testimony. This would be humiliating,
+were it not seen that keen interests compel men to speak bluntly and
+plainly: men cannot sacrifice their prospects of justice to ceremony
+and form. Now, when a Roman Catholic is challenged as a juryman, it is
+under the first and comparatively inoffensive mode of imputation. It
+is not said--you are under a cloud of passion, or under a bias of
+gross self-interest. But simply--you have certain religious opinions:
+no imputation is made on your integrity. On the contrary, it is
+honourable to you that you should be alive to the interests of your
+class. Some think, and so may you, that separation from England would
+elevate the Catholics; since, in such a case, undoubtedly your
+religion would become predominant in Ireland. It is but natural,
+therefore, that you should lean to the cause of those who favour
+yours. In setting aside a Catholic as a juryman on the trial of
+Repealers, this is the imputation made upon him. Now, what is there in
+that to wound any man's feelings? Lastly, it is alleged that the
+presiding judge summed up in terms unfavourable to the Repealers. Of
+course he did; and, as an upright judge, how could he have done
+otherwise? Let us for one moment consider this point also. It is often
+said that the judge is counsel for the prisoner. But this is a gross
+misconception. The judge, properly speaking, is counsel for the law,
+and for every thing which can effect the right understanding of the
+evidence. Consequently he sometimes appears to be advocating the
+prisoner's cause, merely because the point which he is clearing up
+happens to make for the prisoner. But equally he would have appeared
+to be against the prisoner, if he found it necessary to dissipate
+perplexities that would have benefited the prisoner. His business is
+with no personal interest, but generally with the interest of truth
+and equity--whichever way those may point. Upon this principle, in
+summing up, it is the judge's duty to appraise the entire evidence;
+and if any argument lurks obscurely in the evidence, he must strip it
+of its obscurity, and bring it forward with fuller advantage. That may
+happen to favour the prisoner, or it may weigh against him. But the
+judge cannot have any regard to these consequences. His concern is
+simply with the pressure and incidence of the testimony. If,
+therefore, a prisoner has brought forward witnesses who were able to
+depose any thing in his favour, be assured that the judge will not
+overlook that deposition. But, if no such deposition were made, is it
+meant that the judge is to invent it? The whole notion has grown out
+of the original conceit--that a defendant in relation to the judge is
+in the relation of a client to an advocate. But this is no otherwise
+true than as it is true of every party and interest connected with the
+case. All these alike the judge is to uphold in their true equitable
+position and rights. In summing up, the judge used such facts as had
+been furnished to him. All these happened to be against the Repealers;
+and therefore the judge appeared to be against then. But the same
+impression would have resulted, if he had simply read his notes of the
+evidence.
+
+Such are the desperate attempts to fasten charges of unfairness on
+this fairest of all recorded trials. And with an interest so keen in
+promoting the belief of some unfairness, was there ever yet a trial
+that could have satisfied the losing party? Losers have a proverbial
+privilege for being out of temper. But in this case more is sought
+than the mere gratification of wrath. Fresh hopes spring up in every
+stage of this protracted contest, and they are all equally groundless.
+First, Mr O'Connell was not to be arrested: it was impossible and
+absurd to suppose it. Next, _being_ arrested, he was not to be tried.
+We must all remember the many assurances in Dublin papers--that all
+was done to save appearances, but that no trial would take place.
+Then, when it was past denial that the trial had really begun, it was
+to break down on grounds past numbering. Finally, the jury would
+never dare to record a verdict of guilty. This, however, being
+actually done, then was Mr O'Connell to bring writs of error; he was
+to "take the sense" of the whole Irish bench; and, having taken all
+that, he was to take the sense of the Lords. And after all these
+things were accomplished, finally (as we then understood it) he was to
+take himself off in the direction pointed out by the judges. But we
+find that he has not yet reconciled himself to _that_. Intimations
+come out at intervals that the judges will never dare to pass any but
+a nominal sentence upon him. We conclude that all these endless
+conflicts with the legal necessities of his case are the mere
+gasconades of Irish newspapers, addressing themselves to provincial
+readers. Were there reason to suppose them authorized by the
+Repealers, there would be still higher argument for what we are going
+to say. But under any circumstances, we agree with the opinion
+expressed dispassionately and seasonably by the _Times_
+newspaper--that judgment must be executed in this case. We agree with
+that journal--that the nation requires it as a homage rendered
+necessary to the violated majesty of law. Nobody wishes that, at Mr
+O'Connell's age, any _severe_ punishment should be inflicted. Nobody
+will misunderstand, in such a case, the mitigation of the sentence.
+The very absence of all claim to mitigation, makes it impossible to
+mistake the motive to lenity in _his_ case. But judgment must be done
+on Cawdor. Two aggravations, and heavy ones, of the offence have
+occurred even since the trial. One is the tone of defiance still
+maintained by newspapers under his control. Already, with one voice,
+they are ready to assure the country, in case of the sentence being
+incommensurate to the case, that Government wished to be severe, but
+had not courage for the effort; and that Government dares not enforce
+the sentence. The other aggravation lies in this--that he, a convicted
+conspirator, has presumed to take his seat amongst the senators of the
+land--"Venit in senatum, fit particeps consilii." Yet Catiline, here
+denounced to the public rage, _was_ not a _convicted_ conspirator; and
+even his conspiracy rests very much on the word of an enemy. It is
+true that, in some formal sense, a man's conviction is not complete in
+our law until sentence has been pronounced. But this makes no real
+difference as to the scandalous affront which Mr O'Connell has thus
+put upon the laws of the land. And in that view it is, viz. as an
+atonement for the many outrages offered to the laws, that the nation
+waits for the consummation of this public example.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work_
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13633 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13633 ***</div>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1>
+
+    <h1>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1>
+    <hr />
+    <br />
+
+    <h2>No. CCCXLII. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;APRIL, 1844.
+    &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;VOL. LV.</h2>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <br />
+    <br />
+
+    <table summary="TOC"
+           align="center">
+        <tr>
+            <th>TABLE OF CONTENTS</th>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.&mdash;A TALE OF VENICE AND
+            THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.&mdash;PART II.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#pirates">401</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE SLAVE-TRADE.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#slave">425</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.&mdash;THE ARABS OF
+            CORDOVA.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#arabs">431</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.&mdash;A FRAGMENT
+            FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#mexico">449</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE BRITISH FLEET.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#fleet">462</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.&mdash;PART
+            X.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#marston">483</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE CHILD'S WARNING.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#warning">499</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE TWO PATRONS.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#patrons">500</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>IRELAND.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#ireland">518</a></td>
+        </tr>
+    </table><br />
+    <br />
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <a name="pirates"
+          id="pirates"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.</h2>
+
+    <h2>A TALE OF VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.</h2>
+
+    <h3>PART II.</h3>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER I.&mdash;THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE.</h3>
+
+    <p>The time occupied by the events detailed in the three
+    preceding chapters, had been passed by Antonio in a state of
+    self-exile from his master's studio. Conscious of having
+    disobeyed the earnest injunctions of Contarini, the weakness of
+    his character withheld him alike from confessing his fault, and
+    from encountering the penetrating gaze of the old painter.
+    Neglecting thus his usual occupation, he passed his days in his
+    gondola, wandering about the canals in the hope of again
+    meeting with the mysterious being who had made such an
+    impression on his excitable fancy. Hitherto all his researches
+    had been fruitless; but although day after day passed without
+    his finding the smallest trace of her he sought, his repeated
+    disappointments seemed only to increase the obstinacy with
+    which he continued the search.</p>
+
+    <p>The incognita not only engrossed all his waking thoughts,
+    but she still haunted him in his dreams. Scarcely a night
+    passed that her wrinkled countenance did not hover round his
+    pillow, now partially shrouded by the ample veil, then again
+    fully exposed and apparently exulting in its unearthly
+    ugliness; or else peering at him from behind the drapery that
+    covered the walls of his apartment. In vain did he attempt to
+    address the vision, or to follow it as it gradually receded and
+    finally melted away into distance.</p>
+
+    <p>It was from a dream of this description that he was one
+    morning awakened by his faithful gondolier Jacopo. The sun was
+    shining brightly through his chamber windows, and he heard an
+    unusual degree of noise and bustle upon the canal without.</p>
+
+    <p>"Up, Signor mio!" cried the gondolier joyously, and with a
+    mixture of respect and affectionate familiarity in his tone and
+    manner. "Up, Signor Antonio! You were not wont to oversleep
+    yourself on the day of the Bridge Fight. All Venice is
+    hastening thither. Quick, quick! or we shall never be able to
+    make our way through the press of gondolas."</p>
+
+    <p>The words of the gondolier reminded Antonio that this was
+    the day appointed for the celebration of a festival, which for
+    weeks past had been looked forward to with the greatest
+    impatience and interest, by Venetians of all ranks, ages, and
+    sexes; a festival which he himself was in the habit of
+    regularly attending, though on this occasion his preoccupied
+    thoughts and feelings had made him utterly unconscious that it
+    was so near at hand.</p>
+
+    <p>Although the ancient and bitter hatred of the Guelphs and
+    Ghibellines had died away, and the factions which divided
+    northern Italy had sunk into insignificance, nearly a century
+    before this period, the memory of their feuds was still kept up
+    by their great grandchildren, and Venice was still severed
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page402"
+       id="page402"></a>[pg 402]</span> into two parties or
+       communities, separated from each other by the grand canal.
+       Those who dwelt on the western or land side of this boundary
+       were styled the Nicolotti, after the parish of San Nicolo;
+       while those on the eastern or sea side took the appellation
+       of Castellani, from the district of Castello. Not only the
+       inhabitants of the city itself, but those of the suburbs and
+       neighbouring country, were included in these two
+       denominations; the people from Mestre and the continent
+       ranging themselves under the banners of the Nicolotti, while
+       those from the islands were strenuous Castellani.</p>
+
+    <p>The frequent and sanguinary conflicts of the Guelphs and
+    Ghibellines were now replaced and commemorated by a popular
+    festival, occurring sometimes once, sometimes oftener in the
+    year; usually in the autumn or spring. "In order that," says an
+    old chronicler of the time, "the heat being less great at those
+    seasons, the blood of the combatants should not become too
+    heated and the fight too dangerous." "Also on cloudy days,"
+    says the same authority, "that the spectators might not be
+    molested by the sun; and on Sundays or Saints' days, that the
+    people thereby might not be hindered from their occupations."
+    On these occasions one of the numerous bridges was selected as
+    the scene of the mock combat that constituted the chief
+    amusement of the day. The quays afforded good standing-room to
+    the spectators; and here, under the inspection of &aelig;diles
+    appointed by the people, the two parties met, and disputed for
+    supremacy in a battle, in which, however, no more dangerous
+    weapons than fists were allowed to be brought into play.</p>
+
+    <p>It was not the populace alone that divided itself into these
+    two factions. Accordingly as the palaces of the nobles stood on
+    the one or the other side of the canal, were their owners
+    Castellani or Nicolotti, although their partizanship existed
+    but in jest, and only showed itself in the form of
+    encouragement to their respective parties; whereas with the
+    lower orders the strife, begun in good-humour, not unfrequently
+    turned to bitter earnest, and had dangerous and even fatal
+    results. In the wish, however, to keep up a warlike spirit in
+    the people, and perhaps still more with a view to make them
+    forget, in a temporary and boundless license, the strict
+    subjection in which they were habitually held, the senate was
+    induced to permit the continuance of a diversion, which from
+    the local arrangements of Venice, the narrowness of the streets
+    and bridges, and the depth of the larger canals, was
+    unavoidably dangerous, and almost invariably attended with loss
+    of life.</p>
+
+    <p>Hastily dressing himself, Antonio hurried into his gondola
+    in order to proceed to the bridge of San Barnaba, opposite to
+    the church of the same name and to the Foscarini palace, that
+    being the spot appointed for the combat. The canal of the
+    Giudecca was one black mass of gondolas, which rendered even a
+    casual glimpse of the water scarcely obtainable; and it was
+    amidst the cries of the gondoliers and the noise of boats
+    knocking against each other, that the young painter passed the
+    Dogana and reached the grand canal. There the crowd became so
+    dense, that Jacopo, seeing the impossibility of passing, turned
+    aside in time, and making a circuit, entered the Rio de San
+    Trovaso, whence, through innumerable narrow canals, he
+    succeeded in reaching the scene of the approaching
+    conflict.</p>
+
+    <p>The combatants were attending mass, and had not yet made
+    their appearance. Wonderfully great, however, was the concourse
+    of spectators already assembled. Since sunrise they had been
+    thronging thither from all sides, eager to secure places which
+    might afford them a good view of the fight. Every roof, gable,
+    and chimney had its occupants; not a projection however small,
+    not a wall however lofty and perilous, but was covered with
+    people, for the most part provided with baskets of provisions,
+    and evidently determined to sit or stand out the whole of the
+    spectacle. In the anxiety to obtain good places, the most
+    extraordinary risks were run, and feats of activity displayed.
+    Here might be seen individuals clambering up perpendicular
+    buildings, by the aid of ledges and projections which appeared
+    far too narrow to afford either grasp or foot-hold; further on,
+    some herculean gondolier or peasant served as base to a sort of
+    human column, composed of five or six men, who, scrambling over
+    each other's <span class="pagenum"><a name="page403"
+       id="page403"></a>[pg 403]</span> shoulders, attained in this
+       manner some seemingly inaccessible position. The seafaring
+       habits of the Venetian populace, who were accustomed from
+       boyhood to climb the masts and rigging of vessels, now stood
+       them in good stead; and notwithstanding all the noise,
+       confusion, and apparent peril, it was very rarely that an
+       accident occurred.</p>
+
+    <p>Under the red awnings covering the balconies and flat roofs
+    of the palaces, were seated groups of ladies, whose rich
+    dresses, glittering with the costliest jewels and embroideries,
+    appeared the more magnificent from being contrasted with the
+    black attire of the grave patricians who accompanied them. But
+    perhaps the most striking feature of this striking scene was to
+    be found in the custom of masking, then almost universal in
+    Venice, and the origin of which may be traced in great part to
+    dread of the Inquisition, and of its prying enquiries into the
+    actions and affairs of individuals. Amidst the sea of faces
+    that thronged roofs, windows, balconies, streets, and quays,
+    the minority only were uncovered, and the immense collection of
+    masks, of every form and colour, had something in it peculiarly
+    fantastic and unnatural, conveying an impression that the
+    wearers mimicked human nature rather than belonged to it.</p>
+
+    <p>Venice, whose trade and mercantile importance were at this
+    period greatly on the decline, saw nevertheless, on occasions
+    like the present, strangers from the most opposite nations of
+    Europe, and even Asia, mingling peaceably on her canals. Here
+    were Turks in their bright red caftans and turbans; there
+    Armenians in long black robes; and Jews, whose habitually
+    greedy and crafty countenances had for the nonce assumed an
+    expression of eager curiosity and expectation. The mercantile
+    spirit of the Venetians prevented them from extending to
+    individuals the quarrels of states; and although the republic
+    was then at war with Spain, more than one superb hidalgo might
+    be seen, wrapped in his national gravity as in a mantle, and
+    affecting a total disregard of the blunt or hostile
+    observations made within his hearing by sailors of the Venetian
+    navy, or by individuals smarting under the loss of ships and
+    cargoes captured by Spanish galleys.</p>
+
+    <p>Scattered here and there amongst the crowd, Antonio's
+    searching eye soon remarked a number of men, to whom,
+    accustomed as he was to analyse the heterogeneous composition
+    of a Venetian mob, he was yet at a loss to assign any distinct
+    class or country. Their sunburnt and strongly marked features
+    were partially hidden by the folds of ample cloaks, in which
+    they kept themselves closely muffled; and it appeared to
+    Antonio, that in their selection of places they were more
+    anxious to escape observation than to obtain a good view of the
+    approaching fight. In the dark patches of shadow thrown by the
+    overhanging balconies, in the recesses of deep and gloomy
+    portals, or peering out from the entrance of some narrow and
+    tortuous alley, these men were grouped, silent, scowling, and
+    alone, and apparently known to none of the surrounding crowd.
+    But suspicious as were the appearance and deportment of the
+    persons in question, Antonio's thoughts were too much engrossed
+    by another and far more interesting subject, to accord them
+    much attention. He nourished the hope of discovering amongst
+    the multitude assembled around him, the mysterious being who
+    had taken so strong a hold on his imagination. Vainly, however,
+    did he scan every balcony and window and strain his eyes to
+    distinguish the faces of the more distant of the assembled
+    dames. More than once the flutter of a white robe, or a
+    momentarily fancied resemblance of figure, made his heart beat
+    high with expectation, until a second glance destroyed his
+    hopes; and the turning of a head or drawing aside of a veil
+    disclosed the blooming features of some youthful beauty, to
+    which, in his then state of mind, the wrinkled and unearthly
+    visage of the incognita would have been infinitely
+    preferable.</p>
+
+    <p>While the young painter was thus fluctuating between hope
+    and disappointment, several lads with naked arms, or but
+    slightly encumbered with clothing, were giving the spectators a
+    foretaste of the approaching conflict; and, encouraged by the
+    applause which was liberally vouchsafed them, making violent
+    efforts to drive one another off the bridge. At times the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page404"
+       id="page404"></a>[pg 404]</span> spirit of partizanship
+       would induce some of the bystanders to come to the aid of
+       those who seemed likely to be defeated&mdash;an interference
+       that was repressed by the &aelig;diles stationed at either
+       end of the bridge, who did their utmost to enforce the laws
+       of this popular tournament. Notwithstanding their efforts,
+       however, the <i>mostra</i> or duello between two persons, by
+       which the combat should begin, was often converted into the
+       <i>frotta</i> or m&ecirc;l&eacute;e, in which all pressed
+       forward without order. The first advantage was held to
+       be&mdash;for one of the combatants to draw blood, if it were
+       only a single drop, from the nose or mouth of his opponent.
+       Loud applause rewarded the skill and vigour of him who
+       succeeded in throwing his adversary into the canal; but the
+       clamour became deafening when a champion was found who
+       maintained his station in the centre of the bridge, without
+       any of the opposite party venturing to attack him. This feat
+       won the highest honour that could be obtained; and he who
+       achieved it retired from his post amid the waving of scarfs
+       and handkerchiefs, and the enthusiastic cheers of the
+       gratified spectators.</p>
+
+    <p>At length the bell of the Campanile announced that mass was
+    over, and presently, out of two opposite streets that had been
+    purposely kept clear, the combatants emerged, pressing forward
+    in eager haste towards the bridge; their arms naked to the
+    shoulders, their breasts protected by leathern doublets, and
+    their heads by closely fitting caps&mdash;their dress
+    altogether as light as possible, and well adapted to the
+    struggle in which they were about to engage. The loud hum of
+    the multitude was hushed on their appearance, and the deepest
+    silence reigned while the &aelig;diles marshaled them to their
+    respective places, on which they planted themselves in
+    threatening attitudes, their broad and muscular chests
+    expanded, their fists clenched, their feet seeming to grasp the
+    ground on which they stood.</p>
+
+    <p>A loud flourish of trumpets gave the signal of the onset,
+    and with inconceivable impetuosity the two parties threw
+    themselves on each other. In spite, however, of the fury and
+    violence of the shock, neither side yielded an inch of ground.
+    The bridge was completely filled with men from end to end, and
+    from side to side; there was no parapet or barrier of any kind
+    to prevent the combatants from pushing one another into the
+    canal; yet so equally balanced was the strength of the two
+    parties, that after nearly half an hour's struggle very few men
+    had been thrown from the bridge, and not the smallest advantage
+    had been obtained either by Castellani or Nicolotti. Those in
+    the rear, who had as yet done nothing but push the others
+    forward, now came to the front, and the combat was renewed with
+    fresh vigour, but for a long time without any result. Again and
+    again were the combatants changed; but it was past noon before
+    Antonio, whose thoughts had been gradually diverted from the
+    incognita by the struggle that was going on, perceived symptoms
+    of weariness amongst those indefatigable athletes. Here and
+    there a knee was seen to bend, or a muscular form to sink,
+    under some well-directed blow, or before a sudden rush of the
+    opposite party. First one, then another of the combatants was
+    hurled from the bridge into the canal, an immersion that,
+    dripping with perspiration as they were, not unfrequently
+    caused death or severe illness. Nevertheless the fury of the
+    fight seemed rather to increase than diminish. So long as only
+    a man here and there fell into the water, they were dragged out
+    by their friends; and the spectators even seemed to feel pity
+    and sympathy for the unfortunates, as they saw them carried
+    along, some covered with blood, others paralysed by the sudden
+    cold, with faces pale as death and limbs stiff and rigid. But
+    as the fury and violence of the combatants augmented, the
+    bystanders forgot every other feeling in the excitement of the
+    fight, about the result of which they seemed as anxious as
+    those who were actively engaged in it. Even women might be seen
+    encouraging those who were driven back, and urging them once
+    more to the charge; applauding and cheering them on when they
+    advanced, and assailing those who hung back with vehement
+    reproaches. The uproar and shouting, shrieks and yells,
+    exceeded any thing that could be imagined. The partizans had
+    got completely mixed together; and, instead of the struggle
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page405"
+       id="page405"></a>[pg 405]</span> being confined to the
+       foremost ranks of the contending parties, the whole bridge
+       was now one coil of raging combatants. Men fell into the
+       canal by scores, but no one thought of rendering them any
+       assistance. Their places were immediately filled up, and the
+       fight lost none of its fury from their absence.</p>
+
+    <p>Evening was now approaching, and the combat was more violent
+    than it had yet been, or than it had for years been known to
+    be, when Antonio saw the cloaked and mysterious individuals who
+    had already attracted his attention, emerge from their
+    lurking-places, and disappear in different directions.
+    Presently he thought he observed some of them on the bridge
+    mingling with the combatants, whose blind rage prevented them
+    from noticing the intrusion. Wherever they passed, there did
+    the fight augment in obstinacy and fury. Suddenly there was a
+    violent rush upon the bridge, a frightful outcry, and a clash
+    of steel. At the same moment the blades of several swords and
+    daggers were seen crossed and glittering upon the bridge,
+    without its being possible for any one to divine whence the
+    weapons came. The spectators, seized with a panic fear, fled in
+    every direction, and sprang in crowds from the quays to seek
+    shelter under the awnings of the gondolas covering the canal.
+    In vain did the gondoliers resist the intrusion of the
+    fugitives: all considerations of rank and property were lost
+    sight of in the terror of the moment, and some of the boats
+    sank under the weight of the multitudes that poured into them.
+    In their haste to get away, the gondolas impeded each other,
+    and became wedged together in the canal; and amidst the screams
+    of the ladies and angry exclamations of the men, the gondoliers
+    laid down their oars and began to dispute the precedence with
+    blows. Meanwhile the people on the roofs of the houses,
+    believing themselves in safety, espoused different sides, and
+    threw stones and bricks at each other, and at those standing
+    below. In an incredibly short time houses were entirely
+    unroofed, and a perfect storm of tiles rained upon the quays
+    and streets. Those who had first fled, when they attained what
+    appeared a safe distance, halted to look on, and thus prevented
+    others from getting away. Antonio was amongst the number whose
+    escape was thus impeded. His gondolier lay at the bottom of the
+    boat, stunned by a blow from a stone; he himself was bruised
+    and wounded by the missiles that fell in all directions.</p>
+
+    <p>The tumult was at its height when suddenly a sound was heard
+    that had a truly magical effect upon the rioters, for such they
+    might now be termed. The alarm-bell of St Mark's rang out its
+    awful peal. In an instant the yells of defiance were hushed;
+    the arm that was already drawn back to deal a blow fell
+    harmless by its owner's side, the storm of missiles ceased, the
+    contending factions parted, and left the combat undecided. The
+    habit of obedience and the intimation of some danger to the
+    city, stilled in an instant the rage of party feeling, and
+    combatants and spectators alike hurried away in the direction
+    of St Mark's place, the usual point of rendezvous on such
+    occasions.</p>
+
+    <p>Jacopo had now recovered his senses, and Antonio's gondola
+    was one of the first which reached the square in front of the
+    cathedral. Thence the young painter at once discovered the
+    cause of the alarm. Smoke and flame were issuing from some
+    buildings on the opposite island of San Giorgio Maggiore, where
+    the greater part of the merchants' warehouses were situated.
+    Thither the crowd of gondolas now steered, and Antonio found
+    himself carried along with the stream. But although the fire
+    was already beginning to subside before the prompt measures
+    taken to subdue it, the alarm-bell kept clanging on; and
+    Antonio soon perceived that there must be some other point of
+    danger to which it was intended to turn the attention of the
+    people. Gazing about for some indication of its source, he saw
+    several gondolas hurrying towards the grand canal, on which
+    most of the palaces of the nobles were situated, and he ordered
+    Jacopo to steer in the same direction.</p>
+
+    <p>On reaching the palazzo of the Malipieri family, a strange
+    scene presented itself to him. The open space between the side
+    of the palace and the adjacent church of San Samuele, was
+    crowded with men engaged in a furious and sanguinary conflict.
+    At one of the windows of the palace, a
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page406"
+       id="page406"></a>[pg 406]</span> tall man in a flowing white
+       robe, with a naked sabre in one hand and a musquetoon in the
+       other, which, from the smoke still issuing from its muzzle,
+       had apparently just been discharged, stood defending himself
+       desperately against a band of fierce and bearded ruffians,
+       who swarmed up a rope ladder fixed below the window. The
+       person making so gallant a defence was the Senator
+       Malipiero; the assailants were Uzcoques from the fortress of
+       Segna.</p>
+
+    <p>The arrival of the Proveditore Marcello at Gradiska, and his
+    subsequent recognition of his jewels at the ball, having
+    destroyed Strasolda's hopes of obtaining her father's
+    liberation through the intervention of the archducal
+    counsellors, the high-spirited maiden resolved to execute a
+    plan she had herself devised, and which, although in the
+    highest degree rash and hazardous, might still succeed if
+    favoured by circumstances and conducted with skill and
+    decision. This was to seize upon the person of a Venetian of
+    note, in order to exchange him for the Uzcoques then
+    languishing in the dungeons of the republic.</p>
+
+    <p>The Venetians were not yet aware that the much-dreaded
+    woivode Dansowich was among their prisoners. The time chosen by
+    the Uzcoques for their expeditions and surprises was usually
+    the night; and this, added to the custom of mask-wearing, was
+    the cause that the features of Dansowich were unknown to his
+    captors. Nevertheless the striking countenance and lofty
+    bearing of the chieftain, and of one or two of those who were
+    taken prisoners with him, raised suspicions that they were
+    persons of mark&mdash;suspicions which were not dissipated by
+    their reiterated denial of being any thing more than common
+    Uzcoques. It was this doubt which saved their lives; for their
+    captors, instead of hanging them at once at the yard-arm of the
+    galleys, which was the usual manner of disposing of Segnarese
+    prisoners, took them to Venice, and placed them at the disposal
+    of the senate. All subsequent threats and promises proved
+    ineffectual to extort from the pirates an acknowledgment of
+    superior rank; and the Venetian authorities would perhaps have
+    ended in believing the account they gave of themselves, had not
+    the urgent applications made by the Austrian Envoy and the
+    Capitano of Fiume, for the release of the Uzcoques, given their
+    suspicions new strength. The object of the Venetians was, if
+    they could ascertain that there was a chief among the
+    prisoners, to obtain from him, by torture or otherwise,
+    confessions which might enable them to prove to the Archduke
+    the encouragement afforded by his counsellors to the piracies
+    of the Segnarese. They accordingly delayed, by every possible
+    pretext, giving an answer to the archducal ambassador, doing
+    their utmost meanwhile to find out the real quality of the
+    prisoners. This, Strasolda was most anxious that they should
+    not discover; and her anxiety was scarcely less to prevent the
+    captivity of their leader from becoming known among the pirates
+    themselves. His daughter's entreaties, and his own better
+    nature, had frequently caused Dansowich to check his followers
+    in the atrocities they were too apt to commit. In consequence
+    of this interference, Strasolda suspected her father to be more
+    feared than liked by Jurissa Caiduch and some others of the
+    inferior woivodes or officers; and she apprehended that, if she
+    confided her plan to them, they would be more likely to thwart
+    than to aid her in it. The crews of the two boats which had
+    been engaged in the skirmish with the Venetian galleys when
+    Dansowich was captured, and the men composing the garrison of
+    the castle on the evening of that fatal occurrence, were
+    therefore all whose assistance she could reckon upon. Some of
+    those were her relatives, and the others tried and trusty
+    adherents. They alone knew of their leader's captivity, his
+    absence having been accounted for to the mass of Uzcoques
+    dwelling in the town of Segna, by a pretended journey to
+    Gradiska; and being too few in number to attack a Venetian
+    galley, the sole plan that seemed to offer a chance of success
+    to this handful of faithful followers, was the hazardous one
+    devised by Strasolda. Of this, they did not hesitate to attempt
+    the execution.</p>
+
+    <p>With the utmost cunning and audacity did the Uzcoques enter
+    Venice on the day appointed for the Battle of the Bridge,
+    singly, and by twos and threes, variously disguised, and
+    mingled with the country people and inhabitants
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page407"
+       id="page407"></a>[pg 407]</span> of the islands who were
+       hastening to the festival. Watching their opportunity when
+       the fight was at the fiercest, one party mixed with the
+       combatants, exciting and urging them on, and doing all in
+       their power to increase the confusion; others set fire to
+       the warehouses on the island of San Giorgio, in order to
+       draw the public attention in that direction; while the third
+       and most numerous division, favoured by the deepening
+       twilight and the deserted state of that part of the city,
+       succeeded in fixing a rope ladder to the window of the
+       Malipieri palace, the chief of which noble house was, as
+       they had previously ascertained, lying sick in bed in a
+       side-chamber, attended only by a few domestics.</p>
+
+    <p>But there were two things which Strasolda and the Uzcoques
+    had forgotten to include in their calculations. These were,
+    first, the slavish obedience of the Venetian populace to the
+    call of their superiors&mdash;an obedience to which they were
+    accustomed to sacrifice every feeling and passion; secondly,
+    the Argus eyes and omnipresent vigilance of the Secret
+    Tribunal. Scarcely was the ladder applied, when the first gush
+    of flame from the warehouses brought a deafening peal from the
+    alarm-bell; and at the same moment, the masked and armed
+    familiars of the Venetian police, rising as it seemed out of
+    the very earth, surrounded the ladder, and a fierce conflict
+    began. Even the watchfulness and precautions of the
+    Inquisition, however, were to a certain extent overmatched by
+    Uzcoque cunning and foresight. Had it not been necessary to
+    ring the alarm bell on account of the fire, the police, who
+    were far the most numerous, and who each moment received an
+    accession to their numbers, could scarcely have failed to
+    capture some of their opponents, and thus have ascertained to a
+    certainty what the promoters and the object of this audacious
+    attempt really were. But before they could accomplish this, the
+    small piazza where the conflict was going on was thronged with
+    the populace, half intoxicated with the excitement of the
+    scarcely less serious fight they had been witnessing and
+    sharing in. In the crush and confusion that ensued, familiars
+    and Uzcoques were separated; and the latter, mingling with the
+    crowd, and no longer distinguishable from the cloaked and
+    masked figures that surrounded them, easily succeeded in
+    effecting their escape.</p>
+
+    <p>When Antonio, who was pushed hither and thither by the mob,
+    was able to extricate himself sufficiently to get another view
+    of the window, the invalid nobleman, delivered from his
+    assailants, had retired into his apartment, while the ladder,
+    now deserted by the Uzcoques, had been cut and thrown down.
+    Desirous of escaping from this scene of confusion, the young
+    painter was making his way towards the quay, close to which his
+    gondola was waiting, when his heart suddenly leaped within him
+    at the sight of a muffled figure that passed near him, and in
+    which he thought he recognized the mysterious old woman who had
+    of late occupied so much of his thoughts. She was followed by a
+    number of the rabble, who pressed upon her with oaths and
+    curses, asserting that she was one of the party which had
+    attacked the palace of the Malipieri.</p>
+
+    <p>"I saw her holding the ladder," exclaimed one fellow.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, she was climbing up it herself," cried a second.</p>
+
+    <p>"Strike the foul witch dead!" shouted a score of voices.</p>
+
+    <p>The old woman's life was in the greatest peril, when a
+    strange and unaccountable, but at the same time irresistible
+    impulse, moved Antonio to go to her rescue. He was forcing his
+    way through the crowd with this intention, when the object of
+    the popular fury turned her head towards him. Her veil was for
+    a moment partially drawn aside, affording a glimpse of her
+    features in profile; and Antonio, still the slave of his
+    diseased imagination, fancied that her yellow shriveled
+    features had been metamorphosed into a countenance of regular
+    beauty; such a countenance, in short, as befitted the graceful
+    and symmetrical form to which it belonged. Confused and
+    bewildered, the naturally weak and undecided youth stood
+    deliberating and uncertain whether he should attempt the
+    rescue, which would have been by no means difficult to
+    accomplish by the display of a little boldness and promptitude.
+    Whilst he was thus hesitating, there suddenly broke
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page408"
+       id="page408"></a>[pg 408]</span> through the crowd a young
+       man, attired like himself in a black dress, and holding a
+       naked rapier in his hand. The new comer had probably lost
+       his mask in the tumult and confusion, for his features were
+       uncovered, and Antonio saw, to his inexpressible
+       consternation and astonishment, that they were the exact
+       counterpart of his own. Before he could recover from this
+       new shock, the stranger, by the aid of his fierce and
+       determined demeanour, and the rapid play of his weapon, had
+       made his way to the mysterious old woman, whose back was
+       turned towards him, and seizing her round the waist he again
+       forced a passage through the throng to the nearest gondola,
+       which happened to be that of the young painter. The crowd
+       pressed after him, and Antonio was hurried along with it to
+       the edge of the quay. But at the very moment that, to avoid
+       being pushed into the water by the throng, he sprang into
+       one end of his gondola, he saw the stranger, who had just
+       entered it at the other, gaze with a look of disgust and
+       dismay on the features of her he had rescued, and then with
+       a cry of horror, leap into another boat, which immediately
+       rowed rapidly away. At the same instant Jacopo, by a strong
+       sweep of the oar, spun the gondola round, and shot into a
+       narrow canal which soon led them out of sight and sound of
+       the scene of confusion they had just left.</p>
+
+    <p>These various events had succeeded each other so rapidly,
+    that Antonio could hardly credit his senses when he found
+    himself in this strange manner the deliverer of the mysterious
+    being who now sat under the awning of his gondola, her
+    frightful countenance, unveiled in the struggle and no longer
+    seen through the beautifying prism of the young artist's
+    imagination, again displaying the yellow and wrinkled skin, and
+    the deep-set glittering eyes, which now seemed fixed upon him
+    with an expression of love and gratitude that froze his blood.
+    With a shuddering sensation he retreated to the stern of the
+    boat, where Jacopo stood pale and trembling, crossing himself
+    without a moment's intermission.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you mad, Signore," whispered the gondolier, "to risk
+    your life in behalf of such a frightful witch? Never did I see
+    you so ready with your rapier, flashing it in people's eyes as
+    though it had been one of your painting brushes."</p>
+
+    <p>"By Heaven, Jacopo," answered Antonio, "that was not
+    I"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The saints protect us!" interrupted the gondolier. "You are
+    assuredly bewitched, or have lost your senses, Signore. To
+    think of your thus denying your own noble daring! Do, for the
+    blessed virgin's sake, let us jump out upon the next
+    landing-place, and leave the gondola to the sorceress who has
+    bewitched you. Holy mother! she is coming this way!"</p>
+
+    <p>A prey to the strangest and most contradictory emotions,
+    Antonio hastily advanced to meet the mysterious being, whom he
+    could not help regarding with superstitious awe, though he at
+    the same time felt himself drawn towards her by a fascination,
+    against which he found it was in vain to contend. The features
+    of the unknown were again shrouded carefully in her veil, but
+    her black and brilliant eyes glittered through it like nebulous
+    stars.</p>
+
+    <p>"To the house of the Capitano of Fiume," whispered she to
+    Antonio, and then retreated, as if anxious to avoid further
+    conversation, into the interior of the gondola.</p>
+
+    <p>In the district of Castello, through which Antonio and his
+    strange companion were now passing, the canals and quays were
+    deserted, and not a sound was heard except the distant hum of
+    the multitude assembled in the quarter of St Mark's. Without
+    exciting suspicion or attracting observation, they reached the
+    Rialto and the grand canal, and the gondola stopped at a
+    landing-place opposite the church of San Moyses.</p>
+
+    <p>As the young painter assisted his mysterious charge out of
+    the boat, a gentle pressure from the warm soft hand which for a
+    moment rested upon his, quickened every pulse in his frame; and
+    long after the enigmatical being had disappeared behind the
+    angle of a palace, he stood gazing, like one entranced, at the
+    spot where he had last seen her imposing and graceful figure.
+    The approach of Jacopo, still crossing himself, and calling
+    upon all the saints for protection against the snares of the
+    evil one, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page409"
+       id="page409"></a>[pg 409]</span> roused the perplexed youth
+       from his reverie; and, stepping into the gondola, he was
+       soon gliding rapidly over the canals in the direction of his
+       father's palace.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+    <h3>THE PICTURE.</h3>
+
+    <p>The gondola of the young painter, gliding rapidly and
+    silently over the still waters of the canals, was passing a
+    turn leading to the Giudecca, when it suddenly occurred to
+    Antonio that he would seek his old master, and, after
+    confessing his disobedience, relate to him the events of the
+    day, and make him the confidant of his troubles and
+    perplexities. A word to Jacopo changed the direction of the
+    gondola, and they entered the grand canal, on which Contarini's
+    dwelling was situated.</p>
+
+    <p>The brief twilight of Italy had passed, and it was now
+    completely night, dark and starless, which made more startling
+    the sudden appearance of several blazing torches, borne by
+    masked and hooded figures attired in black, who struck loud and
+    repeated blows on the gates of the Palazzo Contarini.</p>
+
+    <p>"Antonio Marcello! We seek Antonio Marcello!" exclaimed a
+    deep and hollow voice.</p>
+
+    <p>It would be necessary to be a Venetian, and to have lived in
+    those days, fully to comprehend the feeling of horror which
+    caused Antonio's blood to run cold, and the sweat to stand in
+    beads upon his forehead, when he heard his name uttered by the
+    familiars of the state Inquisition. Frightful dungeons, masked
+    judges, halls hung with black, the block and the gleaming axe,
+    the rack and its blood-stained attendants, the whole grim
+    paraphernalia of the Secret Tribunal, passed like the scenes of
+    a phantasmagoria before the mental vision of the young painter.
+    He at once conjectured the cause for which they were seeking
+    him. He had doubtless been taken for the youth who, by his
+    energy and promptitude, had rescued the mysterious old woman
+    from the mob, and who bore so striking and unaccountable
+    resemblance to himself; and it must be on suspicion of his
+    being connected with the attack on the Malipieri palace, that
+    the ministers of justice were hunting him out. Nor did he see
+    how he should he able to convince his judges of his innocence.
+    The tale he had to tell, although the truth, was still too
+    marvellous and improbable to obtain credence, and would be more
+    likely to draw upon him severe punishment, or perhaps the
+    torture, with the view of inducing him to confess its
+    falsehood. Bewildered by his terror, Antonio sat trembling, and
+    utterly incapable of deciding as to the course he should adopt,
+    when the trusty gondolier again came to his rescue.</p>
+
+    <p>"Cospetto! Signor!" he exclaimed, "have you lost your
+    senses, that you run thus into the very jaws of those devil's
+    messengers? To one like myself flight would certainly avail
+    little; but, with a Proveditore for your father, you may
+    arrange matters if you only take time before you become their
+    prisoner. Quick, then, to the palazzo! Don't you see old
+    Contarini's head stuck out of his window? He is telling them
+    you are not there. They have doubtless been to your father's
+    palace, and will not be likely to return thither at
+    present."</p>
+
+    <p>While the faithful fellow's tongue was thus wagging, his
+    arms were not idle. Intimately acquainted, as became his
+    calling, with the numerous windings and intricacies of the
+    Venetian canals, he threaded them with unhesitating confidence;
+    and, favoured by the darkness of the night, succeeded in
+    getting Antonio unobserved through a back entrance of his
+    father's palace.</p>
+
+    <p>The first impulse of the terrified youth on finding himself
+    thus in at least temporary security, was to destroy the picture
+    of the mysterious old woman, which, if found by the agents of
+    the Inquisition, might bear false but fatal witness against
+    him. With pallid cheek, and still trembling with alarm, he was
+    hurrying to his chamber to execute his intention, when he
+    encountered his father, who advanced to meet him, and, grasping
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page410"
+       id="page410"></a>[pg 410]</span> his arm, fixed upon him for
+       some moments his stern and searching gaze.</p>
+
+    <p>"The picture, father!" exclaimed the terror-stricken
+    Antonio. "For the love of Heaven, stay me not! Let me destroy
+    that fatal picture!"</p>
+
+    <p>Regardless of his son's agitation and terror, the
+    Proveditore half led, half forced him to a seat in a part of
+    the room, when the red blaze from the larch logs that were
+    crackling on the hearth, lit up the young man's features.</p>
+
+    <p>"What means this, Antonio?" he said; "what has befallen
+    during my absence at Gradiska? The familiars of the Inquisition
+    have been seeking you here&mdash;you, the last person whose
+    name I should expect to hear in such mouths. Alarm me it did
+    not; for well I know that you are too scant of energy and
+    settled purpose to be mixed up in conspiracies against the
+    state."</p>
+
+    <p>Antonio was still too much preoccupied by his terror to
+    understand, or at any rate to heed, the severity of his
+    father's remark. Collecting his scattered thoughts, he
+    proceeded to narrate all that had occurred to him, not only on
+    that day, but since his first meeting with the incognita near
+    the church of San Moyses, on the very same spot whither he had
+    conveyed her in his gondola but a short hour ago.</p>
+
+    <p>"Let me destroy the painting, father!" he concluded; "it may
+    be found, and used as testimony against me."</p>
+
+    <p>The Proveditore had listened with a smile, that was at once
+    contemptuous and sorrowful, to his son's narrative, and to the
+    confession of his weakness and disobedience to the injunctions
+    of his aged teacher. When he had finished speaking, there was a
+    minute's silence, broken at last by the elder Marcello.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have long been convinced," he said, "that Contarini would
+    never succeed in making of you a painter fit to rank with those
+    old and illustrious masters of whom Venice is so justly proud.
+    But I had not thought so poorly of you, Antonio, as to believe
+    that you would want courage to defend an object, for the
+    attainment of which you scrupled not to disobey your venerable
+    instructor. What the kind entreaties and remonstrances of
+    Contarini could not induce you to abandon, you are ready to
+    annihilate on the very first symptom of danger. Oh, Venice!"
+    exclaimed the Proveditore, his fine countenance assuming an
+    expression of extreme bitterness, as he gazed mournfully at the
+    portraits of his ancestors, including more than one Doge, which
+    were suspended round the walls of the apartment&mdash;"Venice!
+    thou art indeed degenerate, when peril so remote can blanch the
+    cheek of thy patrician youth."</p>
+
+    <p>He strode twice up and down the hall, then returning to his
+    son, bade him fetch the picture which he was so desirous of
+    destroying. Antonio, downcast and abashed by these reproaches,
+    which, however, were insufficient to awaken nobler aspirations
+    in his weak and irresolute nature, hurried to his chamber, and
+    presently returned with a roll of canvass in his hand, which he
+    unfolded and spread before the Proveditore&mdash;then, dreading
+    to encounter his father's ridicule, he shrunk back out of the
+    firelight. But the effect produced upon Marcello by the
+    portrait of the old woman, was very different from that
+    anticipated by his son. Scarcely had he cast his eyes upon the
+    unearthly visage, when he started back with an exclamation of
+    horror and astonishment.</p>
+
+    <p>"By all the saints, Antonio," cried he in an altered voice,
+    "that is a fearful portrait! Alas, poor wretch! thou art long
+    since in thy grave," continued he, addressing the picture, and
+    with looks and tones strangely at variance with his usually
+    stern and imperturbable deportment. "The worms have preyed on
+    thee, and thou art as dust and ashes. Why, then, dost thou rise
+    from the dead to fright me with that ghastly visage?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Is the face known to you, father?" the astonished Antonio
+    ventured to exclaim.</p>
+
+    <p>"Known to me! Ay, too well! That wrinkled skin, that
+    unearthly complexion, those deep-set eyes glowing like burning
+    coals. Just so did she glare upon me as she swung from the
+    tree, the blood driven into her features by the agonizing
+    pressure of the halter. 'Tis the very look that has haunted me
+    for years, and caused me many bitter moments of remorse;
+    though, God knows, the deed was lawful and justifiable, done in
+    the execution <span class="pagenum"><a name="page411"
+       id="page411"></a>[pg 411]</span> of my duty to the republic.
+       And yet she lives," he continued musingly. "How could she
+       have been saved? True, she had not been hanging long when we
+       left the place. Some of her people, doubtless, were
+       concealed hard by, and cut her down ere life had entirely
+       fled. But, ha! 'tis a clue this to the perpetrators of
+       to-day's outrage, for she was with them. Uzcoques, then they
+       must have been! Said you not, Antonio, that she came from
+       the house of the Capitano when first you saw her, and that
+       to-day you left her there?"</p>
+
+    <p>"At her own special desire, father," replied Antonio.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then is the chain of evidence almost complete," continued
+    the Proveditore. "It must have been herself. And now&mdash;this
+    attack on the Malipieri palace. What was its object? A
+    hostage?&mdash;Ay, I see it all, and our prisoner is none other
+    than Dansowich himself. But we must have proof of that from his
+    own confession; and this portrait may help to extort it."</p>
+
+    <p>Whilst uttering these broken sentences, which were totally
+    incomprehensible to the bewildered Antonio, the Proveditore had
+    donned his mantle, and placed his plumed cap upon his head.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, Antonio," said he, "we will not destroy this picture,
+    hideous though it be. It may prove the means of rendering
+    weighty service to the republic."</p>
+
+    <p>And with these words, inexplicable to his son, the
+    Proveditore left the apartment; and, taking with him the
+    mysterious portrait, hastened to the prison were the Uzcoque
+    leader was immured.</p>
+
+    <p>The pirate chief was a man of large and athletic frame, of
+    strong feelings, and great intellectual capabilities. His brow
+    was large, open, and commanding; his countenance, bronzed with
+    long exposure to the elements, and scarred with wounds, was
+    repulsive, but by no means ignoble; his hair and beard had long
+    been silvered over by time and calamity; but his vast bodily
+    strength was unimpaired, and when roused into furious
+    resentment, his manly chest emitted a volume of sound that awed
+    every listener. Upon a larger stage, and under circumstances
+    more favourable to the fair development of his natural powers
+    and dispositions, the pirate Dansowich would have become one of
+    the most distinguished and admirable men of his time. Placed by
+    the accident of birth upon the frontiers of Christian Europe,
+    and cherishing from early youth a belief that the highest
+    interests of the human race were involved in the struggle
+    between the Crescent and the Cross, he had embraced the
+    glorious cause with that enthusiastic and fiery zeal which
+    raises men into heroes and martyrs. Too soon, however, were
+    these lofty aspirations checked and blighted by the
+    anti-Christian policy of trading Venice, the bad faith of
+    Austria towards the Uzcoque race, and the extortions of her
+    counsellors. Cursing in the bitterness of his heart, not only
+    Turks, Austrians, and Venetians, but all mankind, he no longer
+    opposed the piratical tendencies of his neglected people, and
+    eventually headed many of their marauding expeditions.</p>
+
+    <p>It was nearly midnight when Dansowich was awakened from a
+    deep but troubled slumber by a grating noise at the door of his
+    dungeon. Anxiety of mind, and still more, the effect of
+    confinement in an impure and stifling atmosphere, upon one
+    accustomed to the breezes of the Adriatic and the free air of
+    the mountains, had impaired his health, and his sleep was
+    broken by harassing and painful dreams. In that from which he
+    now awoke, with the sweat of anguish on his brow, he had
+    fancied himself before the tribunal of the Inquisition. The
+    rack was shown to him, and they bade him choose between
+    confession and torture. He then thought he heard his name
+    repeated several times in tones deep and sepulchral. Starting
+    up in alarm, he saw the door of his prison open, and give
+    admittance to a man muffled in a black cloak, who walked up to
+    the foot of his bed of damp straw, and threw the rays of a dark
+    lantern full into his dazzled eyes.</p>
+
+    <p>The traces of recent and strong emotion, visible at that
+    moment on the pirate's countenance, did not escape the
+    Proveditore, who attributed them, and rightly, to an artifice
+    he had practised. Previously to entering
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page412"
+       id="page412"></a>[pg 412]</span> the dungeon, he had caused
+       the name of Nicolo Dansowich to be repeated several times in
+       a deep hollow voice. Aware of the superstitious credulity of
+       the Uzcoques, the wily Venetian had devised this stratagem
+       as one likely to produce a startling effect upon the
+       prisoner, and to forward the end he proposed to obtain by
+       his visit. He now seated himself upon a wooden bench, the
+       only piece of furniture in the dungeon, and addressed the
+       captive in a mild and conciliating tone.</p>
+
+    <p>"You should keep better watch over your dreams," said he,
+    "if you wish our tribunals to remain in ignorance of your
+    secrets."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dreams!" repeated the Uzcoque, somewhat startled by the
+    ominous coincidence between Marcello's words and the visions
+    that had broken his slumber.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, friend, your dreams! The jailers are watchful, and
+    little passes in these prisons without coming to their
+    knowledge. More than once have they heard you revealing in your
+    sleep that which, during your waking hours, you so strenuously
+    deny.&mdash;'Enough! Enough!' you cried. 'I will confess all. I
+    am Nicolo Dansowich.'"</p>
+
+    <p>While Marcello was speaking, the old Uzcoque had had time to
+    collect his thoughts, and call to mind the numerous snares and
+    devices by which the Venetian tribunals obtained confessions
+    from their prisoners. With an intuitive keenness of perception,
+    he in a moment saw through the Proveditore's stratagem, and
+    resolved to defeat it. A contemptuous smile played over his
+    features, and, shaking his head incredulously, he answered the
+    Venetian&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The watchful jailers you speak of have doubtless been
+    cheering their vigils with the wine flask," said he. "Their
+    draughts must have been deep, to make them hear that which was
+    never spoken."</p>
+
+    <p>"Subterfuge will avail you nothing," replied Marcello. "Your
+    sleeping confessions, although you may now wish to retract
+    them, are yet sufficient grounds for the tribunal to go upon,
+    and the most excruciating tortures will be used, if needful, to
+    procure their waking confirmation. Reflect, Dansowich,"
+    continued the Proveditore in a persuasive and gentle tone, "on
+    the position in which you now find yourself. Your life is
+    forfeited; and, if you persist in your denials, you will never
+    leave this dungeon but for the rack or scaffold. On the other
+    hand, the senate respects you as a brave and honourable,
+    although misguided man, and would gladly see you turn from the
+    error of your ways. Now is the time to ensure yourself a
+    tranquil and respected old age. Hearken to the proposals I am
+    empowered to make you. The Signoria offers you life, freedom,
+    and a captainship in the island of Candia, on the sole
+    condition, on your part, of disclosing the intrigues and
+    perfidy of the council at Gradiska, and furnishing us, as you
+    are assuredly able to do, with documents by which we may prove
+    to the Archduke the treachery of his ministers. Again, I
+    say&mdash;Reflect! or rather hesitate not, but decide at once
+    between a prosperous and honourable life, and a death of
+    degradation and anguish."</p>
+
+    <p>Neither the threats nor the temptations held out by the
+    Proveditore seemed to have the smallest effect upon the
+    Uzcoque.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are mistaken," replied he calmly. "I am not Dansowich,
+    nor have I any knowledge of the intrigues at Gradiska. I could
+    not therefore, if I wished it, buy my life by the treachery
+    demanded of me; and if the woivodes of Segna think as I do,
+    they will let themselves be hewn in pieces before they do the
+    bidding of your senators, or concede aught to the wishes of
+    false and crafty Venice."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are a brave man, Dansowich!" resumed the Proveditore,
+    who saw the necessity of changing his tactics. "You care little
+    for the dangers and sufferings of this world. But
+    yet&mdash;pause and reflect. Your hair is silvered by time, and
+    even should you escape your present peril, you will still, ere
+    many years are past, have to render an account to a higher
+    tribunal than ours. By an upright course you might atone for
+    the crimes of your youth and manhood, and become the chosen
+    instrument of Heaven to deliver your fellow-Christians from a
+    cruel scourge and sore infliction."</p>
+
+    <p>"And who has brought the scourge upon you?" demanded the old
+    man in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page413"
+       id="page413"></a>[pg 413]</span> a raised voice, measuring
+       the Proveditore with a stern and contemptuous look. "Is it
+       our fault that, whilst we were striving to keep the Turk
+       from the door of Christendom, you sought every means of
+       thwarting our efforts by forming treaties with the infidel?
+       You do well to remind me that my head is grey. I was still a
+       youth when the name of Uzcoque was a title of honour as it
+       is now a term of reproach&mdash;when my people were looked
+       upon as heroes, by whose valour the Cross was exalted, and
+       the Crescent bowed down to the dust. Those were the days
+       when, on the ruins of Spalatro, we swore to live like
+       eagles, amidst barren cliffs and naked rocks, the better to
+       harass the heathen&mdash;the days when the power of the
+       Moslem quailed and fled before us. And had not your sordid
+       Venetian traders stepped in, courting the infidel for love
+       of gain, the Cross would still be worshipped on all the
+       shores of the Adriatic, and the Uzcoques would still combat
+       for honour and victory instead of revenge and plunder. But
+       your hand has ever been against us. Your long galleys were
+       ever ready to sink our barks or blockade our coast; and the
+       fate of robbers and murderers awaited our people if they had
+       the mishap to fall into your hands. You reduced us at last
+       to despair. Each valiant deed performed against the Turk was
+       recompensed by you with new persecutions, till at last you
+       converted into deadly enemies those who would willingly have
+       been your friends and fast allies. Thank yourselves, then,
+       for the foe you have raised up. Your own cowardice and greed
+       have engendered the hydra which now preys upon your heart's
+       blood."</p>
+
+    <p>The Proveditore remarked with satisfaction, not unmingled
+    with surprise, that the old pirate, who had hitherto replied to
+    all interrogatories with a degree of cold reserve and cunning
+    which had baffled his examiners, was becoming visibly excited,
+    and losing his power of self-control. This was favourable to
+    the meditated stratagem of the Venetian, who now, in pursuance
+    of the scheme he had combined, gave the conversation another
+    direction.</p>
+
+    <p>"I an willing to acknowledge," said he, "that the republic
+    has at times dealt somewhat hardly with your people. But which
+    is in fact the worst foe, he who openly attacks you, or he who
+    makes you his tool to sow discord amongst Christians, and to
+    excite the Turks against Venice, while under pretence of
+    protection he squeezes from you the booty obtained at the price
+    of your blood?"</p>
+
+    <p>"And who does that?" demanded the Uzcoque.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who! Need you ask the question? What do you give for the
+    shelter you receive from Austria? At what price do you inhabit
+    the town and castle of Segna?"</p>
+
+    <p>"At none that I am aware of," replied Dansowich fiercely.
+    "We dwell there, in virtue of our compact with the Emperor, as
+    soldiers of the Archduke, bound to defend the post confided to
+    us against the aggressions of the infidel. As soldiers we have
+    our pay, as mariners we have our lawful booty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pay and booty!" repeated the Proveditore scornfully.
+    "Whence comes, then, your manifest misery and poverty? Whence
+    comes it that you turn robbers, if in the pay of Austria? No,
+    Dansowich, you will not deceive us by such flimsy pretexts!
+    Your gains, lawful and unlawful, are wrested from you by the
+    archducal counsellors, in whose hands you are mere puppets.
+    'Twas they who prompted you to tell the Turks that you were in
+    league with Venice; that the republic encouraged your misdeeds,
+    and shared the profits of your aggressions on the subjects of
+    the Porte. They it was who caused the documents to be prepared,
+    with forged seals and signatures of the illustrious Signoria,
+    which were to serve as proofs of your lying assertions. Deny
+    this, if you can."</p>
+
+    <p>The beard and mustache of the old Uzcoque appeared to curl
+    and bristle with fury at the insulting imputations of the
+    Proveditore. For a moment he seemed about to fly at his
+    interlocutor; his fingers clutched and tore the straw upon
+    which he was sitting; and his fetters clanked as his whole
+    frame shook with rage. After a brief pause, and by a strong
+    effort, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page414"
+       id="page414"></a>[pg 414]</span> he restrained himself, and
+       replied calmly to the taunting accusation of the
+       Venetian.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why go so far," said he, "to seek for motives that may be
+    found nearer home? You seem to have forgotten how many times
+    the Archduke has compelled us to make restitution of booty
+    wrested from Venetian subjects. You forget, too, that it was in
+    consequence of your complaints he sent to the cruel Rabbata to
+    control us&mdash;Rabbata whom we slew in our wrath, for we are
+    freemen and brook no tyranny. If we are poor individually, it
+    is because we yield up our booty into the hands of our
+    woivodes, to be used for the common good of seven hundred
+    families. No, Signor! if the republic has to complain of us,
+    let her remember the provocations received at her hands, the
+    persecutions which converted a band of heroes into a pirate
+    horde, and which changed our holy zeal against the enemies of
+    the Cross into remorseless hatred of all mankind. As to the
+    forged seals and signatures you talk of, and the deceptions
+    practised on the Turks, if such there were, they were the
+    self-willed act of our woivodes, and in no way instigated by
+    Austria."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thou liest, Dansowich!" said the Proveditore sternly. "Did
+    you not proclaim and swear in the public market-place of the
+    Austrian town of Segna, that you were the friends and allies of
+    Venice? This you would never have dared to do, but with the
+    approval and connivance of the archducal government."</p>
+
+    <p>The eyes of the pirate sparkled with a strange and
+    significant gleam as the Proveditore recalled the circumstance
+    to his recollection.</p>
+
+    <p>"Know ye not," said he with a grim smile, "whom ye have to
+    thank for that good office? 'Twas Dansowich himself, who
+    thereby but half fulfilled his vow of vengeance against the
+    republic. And when did it occur?" he continued with rising
+    fury. "Was it not shortly after the day in which that heartless
+    villain, the Proveditore Marcello, captured the woivode's wife,
+    and hung her, unoffending and defenceless, unshriven and
+    unabsolved, upon a tree on the Dalmatian shore?"</p>
+
+    <p>The Uzcoque paused, overcome by the bitter memories he was
+    calling up, and by the fury and hatred they revived in his
+    breast. His eyes were bloodshot, and the foam stood upon his
+    lips as he concluded. The Proveditore smiled. The favourable
+    moment he had been waiting had arrived, the moment when he
+    doubted not that Dansowich would betray himself. Taking
+    Antonio's drawing from under his cloak, he suddenly unrolled
+    and held it before the Uzcoque, in such a manner that the light
+    of the lantern fell full upon the ghastly countenance of the
+    old woman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Behold!" said he. "Does that resemble her you speak
+    of?"</p>
+
+    <p>The object of the Proveditore was gained, but he had not
+    well calculated all the consequences of his stratagem.</p>
+
+    <p>"Fiend of hell!" shouted Dansowich in a voice of thunder,
+    while a sudden light seemed to burst upon him. "'Tis thou who
+    are her murderer!" And bounding forward with a violence that at
+    once freed him from his fetters, which fell clattering on the
+    dungeon floor, he clutched the senator by the throat, and
+    hurled him to the ground before the astonished Venetian had
+    time to make the slightest resistance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Art thou still in being?" he muttered, while his teeth
+    gnashed and ground together. "I thought thee long since dead.
+    But, no! 'twas written thou shouldst die by my hand. Be it done
+    to thee as thou didst to the wife of my bosom," continued he,
+    while kneeling on the breast of the Proveditore, and
+    compressing his throat in an iron gripe that threatened to
+    prove as efficacious and nearly as speedy in its operation as
+    the bow-string of the Turk. In vain did Marcello struggle
+    violently to free himself from the crushing pressure of the
+    pirate's fingers. Although a very powerful man, and in the full
+    vigour of his strength, the disadvantage at which he had been
+    taken prevented his being a match for the old Uzcoque, whose
+    sinews were braced by a long life of hardship. Fortunately,
+    however, for the Venetian, the furious shout of Dansowich had
+    been overheard <span class="pagenum"><a name="page415"
+       id="page415"></a>[pg 415]</span> by the guards and jailers,
+       who now rushed into the dungeon, and rescued the half
+       strangled Proveditore from the grasp of his fierce
+       antagonist.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do him no hurt!" exclaimed Marcello, so soon as he was able
+    to speak, seeing that the guards were disposed to handle the
+    Uzcoque somewhat roughly; "the secret I have won is well worth
+    the risk. The prisoner is Dansowich, woivode of Segna."</p>
+
+    <p>The fetters which the pirate had snapped with such facility,
+    were, upon examination, found to be filed more than half
+    through. The instrument by which this had been effected was
+    sought for and discovered, and the prisoner, having been doubly
+    manacled, was again left to the solitude of his cell. After
+    directing all imaginable vigilance to be used for the safe
+    custody of so important a captive, the Proveditore re-entered
+    his gondola and was conveyed back to his palace.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+    <h3>THE PIRATES.</h3>
+
+    <p>The desperate attempt on the life of the Proveditore, and
+    the evidence given by him as to the identity of the prisoner,
+    had the result that may be supposed, and the old Uzcoque was
+    put to the torture. But the ingenuity of Venetian tormentors
+    was vainly exhausted upon him; the most unheard of sufferings
+    failed to extort a syllable of confession from his lips. At
+    last, despairing of obtaining the desired information by these
+    means, the senate commissioned Marcello, as one well acquainted
+    with the localities, to make a descent on the Dalmatian coast,
+    and profiting by the consternation of the Uzcoqes at the loss
+    of their leader, to endeavour to surprise a small fort situated
+    at some distance from Segna, and which was the abode of
+    Dansowich. In the absence of the old pirate it would probably
+    be carelessly guarded and easily surprised; and it was hoped
+    that documents would be found there, proving that which the
+    Venetians were so anxious to establish. Another object of the
+    expedition was to capture, if possible, the mysterious female
+    who had been lately seen more than once in Venice, and who had
+    taken so prominent a part in the attack on the palace of the
+    Malipieri.</p>
+
+    <p>Accompanied by his son, whom for various reasons he had
+    resolved to take with him, Marcello went on board an armed
+    galley, and with a favouring breeze steered for the Dalmatian
+    coast. He had little doubt of accomplishing the object of his
+    expedition with ease and safety; for a Venetian Fleet was
+    already blockading the channel of Segna, and the archducal city
+    of Fiume, where several of the Uzcoque barks were undergoing
+    repairs. The blockade had been instituted in consequence of the
+    outrageous piracies committed by the Uzcoques during the Easter
+    festival, and was a measure frequently adopted by the republic;
+    which, although carefully avoiding a war, neglected no other
+    means of enforcing their applications to the court at Gradiska
+    for an energetic interference in the proceedings of the
+    pirates. The inconvenience and interruption to the trade of
+    Fiume occasioned by these blockades, usually induced the
+    archducal government to institute a pretended investigation
+    into the conduct of the Uzcoques, or at least to promise the
+    Venetians some reparation&mdash;a mockery of satisfaction with
+    which the latter, in their then state of decline and weakness,
+    were fain to content themselves. Reckoning upon the terror
+    inspired by the presence of the squadron now employed in the
+    blockade, as well as upon its support, should he require it,
+    the Proveditore made sure of success. He was doomed, however,
+    to be cruelly disappointed in his sanguine anticipations.</p>
+
+    <p>When the attempt to get possession of the person of a
+    Venetian nobleman had failed, Strasolda found it impossible to
+    keep her father's captivity any longer a secret, and was
+    compelled to appeal to the whole of the Uzcoques to assist her
+    in his deliverance. Information of the woivode's recognition,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page416"
+       id="page416"></a>[pg 416]</span> and of the tortures he had
+       suffered, soon reached the ears of the pirates, who were not
+       slow to perceive that the safety, and even the existence of
+       their tribe, were now at stake. Although well acquainted
+       with the inflexible character of Dansowich, they trembled
+       lest the agonies he was made to suffer should force from him
+       a confession, which would enable the Venetians to convince
+       the archduke of the criminal collusion between his
+       counsellors and the Uzcoques. This would be the signal for
+       the withdrawal of the archducal protection from the pirates,
+       who then, exposed to the vengeance of all whom they had
+       plundered, must inevitably succumb in the unequal conflict
+       that would ensue.</p>
+
+    <p>The imminence of the peril inspired the Uzcoques with
+    unwonted courage and energy. Jurissa Caiduch himself,
+    forgetting any cause of dislike he might have to Dansowich,
+    joined heart and hand in the plans formed by the pirates for
+    the deliverance of their leader. Every man in Segna, whether
+    young or old, all who could wield a cimeter or clutch a knife,
+    hastily armed themselves, and crowded into the fleet of long
+    light skiffs in which they were wont to make their predatory
+    excursions. Then breaking furiously through the line of
+    Venetian ships, stationed between Veglia and the mainland, and
+    which were totally unprepared for this sudden and daring
+    man&oelig;uvre, they disappeared amidst the shoals and in the
+    small creeks and inlets of the Dalmatian islands belonging to
+    the republic, where the ponderous Venetian galleys would vainly
+    attempt to follow them. Their object was the same which they
+    had already attempted to carry out in Venice on the day of the
+    Bridge Fight; namely, to seize upon some Venetian magistrate or
+    person of importance whom they might exchange for Dansowich.
+    Under the guidance of Jurissa Caiduch they waylaid and boarded
+    every vessel that passed up or down the Adriatic, especially
+    those coming from the Ionian islands, in hope of meeting with a
+    Venetian of rank. Nor did they pursue their researches upon the
+    water alone. Not a night passed that one or other of the
+    islands was not lighted up by the blaze of villages, hamlets,
+    and villas. In the absence of Dansowich, there was no restraint
+    upon their fury; and urged on by the bloodthirsty Jurissa, the
+    cruelties they committed were unprecedented even in their
+    sanguinary annals. Nor were they without hope that the
+    barbarities they were perpetrating might induce the Venetians
+    to restore their leader to liberty, in order that he might, as
+    was well known to be his wont, check the excesses of his
+    followers.</p>
+
+    <p>The outbreak of the pirates had been so sudden and
+    unexpected, that the Proveditore, who sailed from Venice on the
+    same day on which it occurred, had received no intelligence of
+    it, and, unconscious of his peril, steered straight for the
+    islands. One circumstance alone appeared strange to him, which
+    was, that during the last part of his voyage he did not meet a
+    single vessel, although the quarter of the Adriatic through
+    which he was passing was usually crowded with shipping. But he
+    was far from attributing this extraordinary change to its real
+    cause.</p>
+
+    <p>It was afternoon when Marcello's galley cane in sight of the
+    white cliffs of Cherso, and shortly afterwards entered the
+    channel, running between that island and Veglia. The masses of
+    dark clouds in the western horizon were becoming momentarily
+    more threatening, and various signs of an approaching storm
+    made the captain of the galley especially anxious to get,
+    before nightfall, into the nearest harbour, which was that of
+    Pesca, at the southern extremity of the island of Veglia. All
+    sail was made upon the galley, and they were running rapidly
+    down the channel, when a red light suddenly flashed over the
+    waves in the quarter of the horizon they were approaching, and
+    was reflected back upon the sky, now darkened with clouds and
+    by the approach of night. Attracted by this unusual appearance,
+    Antonio hurried to the high quarterdeck of the galley; and
+    scarcely had he ascended it, when the fiery glow fell in a
+    flood of rosy light upon the distant chalk cliffs. Entranced by
+    the picturesque beauty of the scene, the young painter forgot
+    to enquire the cause of this singular illumination,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page417"
+       id="page417"></a>[pg 417]</span> when suddenly his attention
+       was caught by a shout from the man at the helm.</p>
+
+    <p>"By Heavens, 'tis a fire!" ejaculated the sailor, who had
+    been watching the unusual appearance. "All Pesca must be in
+    flames."</p>
+
+    <p>He had scarcely uttered the words when the galley rounded a
+    projecting point of land, and the correctness of the seaman's
+    conjecture was apparent. A thick cloud of smoke hung like a
+    pall over the unfortunate town of Pesca. Tongues of flame
+    darted upwards from the dense black vapour, lighting up sea and
+    land to an immense distance.</p>
+
+    <p>Scarcely had Antonio's startled glance been able to take in
+    this imposing spectacle, when the storm, which had long been
+    impending, burst forth with tremendous violence; the wind
+    howled furiously amongst the rigging, and the galley was tossed
+    like a nutshell from crest to crest of the foaming waves; each
+    moment bringing it into more dangerous proximity to the rocky
+    shoals of that iron-bound shore. The light from the burning
+    town showed the Venetians all the dangers of their situation;
+    and their peril was the more imminent because the signal
+    usually made for boats to tow large vessels through the rocks
+    and breakers, was at such a moment not likely to be observed or
+    attended to by the people of Pesca. Nevertheless the signal was
+    hoisted; but instead of bringing the assistance so much needed
+    by the Venetians, it drew upon them an enemy far more
+    formidable than the elements with which they were already
+    contending. Boats were soon seen approaching the galley; but as
+    they drew near it was evident they were not manned by the
+    peaceful fishermen, who usually came out to render assistance
+    to vessels. They were crowded with wild, fierce-looking
+    figures, who, on arriving within a short distance of the ship,
+    set up a savage yell of defiance, and sent a deadly volley of
+    musket-balls amongst the astounded Venetians. Before the latter
+    had recovered from their astonishment, the light skiffs of the
+    Uzcoques were within a few yards of the galley. Another fatally
+    effective volley of musketry; and then, throwing down their
+    fire-arms, the pirates grasped their sabres and made violent
+    efforts to board. But each time that they succeeded in closing,
+    the plunging of the ponderous galley into the trough of the
+    sea, or the rising of some huge wave, severed them from their
+    prey, and prevented them from setting foot on the decks of the
+    Venetian vessel. This delay was made the most of by the
+    officers of the latter, in making arrangements for defence. The
+    Proveditore himself, a man of tried and chivalrous courage, and
+    great experience both in land and sea warfare, lent his
+    personal aid to the preparations, and in a few pithy and
+    emphatic words strove to encourage the crew to a gallant
+    resistance. But the soldiers and mariners who manned the galley
+    had already sustained a heavy loss by the fire of the Uzcoques,
+    and were moreover alarmed by their near approach to that
+    perilous shore, as well as disheartened by the prospect of a
+    contest with greatly superior numbers. Although some few took
+    to their arms and occupied the posts assigned them by their
+    officers, the majority seemed more disposed to tell beads and
+    mutter prayers, than to display the energy and decision which
+    alone could rescue them from the double peril by which they
+    were menaced. The pirates, meanwhile, were constantly foiled in
+    their attempts to board by the fury of the elements, till at
+    last, becoming maddened by repeated disappointments, they threw
+    off their upper garments, and fixing their long knives firmly
+    between their teeth, dashed in crowds into the water. Familiar
+    with that element from childhood, they skimmed over its surface
+    with the lightness and rapidity of sea-mews, and swarmed up the
+    sides of the galley. A vigorous defence might yet have saved
+    the vessel; but the heroic days of Venice were long
+    past&mdash;the race of men who had so long maintained the
+    supremacy of the republic in all the Italian seas, was now
+    extinct. After a feeble and irresolute resistance, the
+    Venetians threw down their arms and begged for quarter; while
+    the Proveditore, disgusted at the cowardice of his countrymen,
+    indignantly broke his sword, and retreating to the quarterdeck,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page418"
+       id="page418"></a>[pg 418]</span> there seated himself beside
+       his son, and calmly awaited his fate.</p>
+
+    <p>Foremost among the assailants was Jurissa Caiduch, who
+    sprang upon the deck of the galley, foaming with rage, and
+    slaughtering all he met on his passage. The blazing town
+    lighted up the scene, and showed him and his followers where to
+    strike. In vain did the unfortunate crew implore quarter. None
+    was given, and the decks of the ship soon streamed with blood,
+    while each moment the cries of the victims became fewer and
+    fainter.</p>
+
+    <p>Totally forgetting in his blind fury the object of the
+    expedition, Jurissa stayed not his hand in quest of hostages,
+    but rushed with uplifted knife on Marcello and his son. The
+    latter shrieked for mercy; while the Proveditore, unmoved by
+    the imminence of the peril, preserved his dignity of mien, and
+    fixed his deep stern gaze upon the pirate. Jurissa paused for
+    an instant, staggered by the look, and awed by the commanding
+    aspect, of the Venetian. Soon, however, as though indignant at
+    his own momentary hesitation, he rushed forward with a furious
+    shout and uplifted blade. The knife was descending, the next
+    instant it would have entered the heart of Marcello; when an
+    Uzcoque, recognizing by the light of the conflagration the
+    patrician garb of the Proveditore, uttered a cry of surprise,
+    and seized the arm of his bloodthirsty leader.</p>
+
+    <p>"Caiduch!" exclaimed the pirate, "would you again blast our
+    purpose? This man is a Venetian noble. His life may buy that of
+    Dansowich."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is the Proveditore Marcello!" cried Antonio, eager to
+    profit by the momentary respite.</p>
+
+    <p>The words of the young painter passed from mouth to mouth,
+    and in a few seconds the whole of the Uzcoques were acquainted
+    with the important capture that had been made. For a moment
+    astonishment kept them tongue-tied, and then a wild shout of
+    exultation conveyed to their companions on shore the
+    intelligence of some joyful event.</p>
+
+    <p>Ropes were now thrown out to the pirate skiffs, the galley
+    was safely towed into the harbour, and the Proveditore, his
+    son, and the few Venetian sailors who had escaped the general
+    slaughter, were conducted to the burning town, amidst the jeers
+    and ill-treatment of their captors. Exposed to great danger
+    from the falling roofs and timbers of the blazing houses, they
+    were led through the streets of Pesca, and on their way had
+    ample opportunity of witnessing the incredible cruelties
+    exercised by the pirates upon the inhabitants of that ill-fated
+    town. What made these cruelties appear still more horrible, was
+    the part taken in them by the Uzcoque women, who, as was the
+    case at that period with most of the Sclavonian races, were all
+    trained to the use of arms,<a id="fn_1_tag1"
+       name="fn_1_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_1_1"><sup>1</sup></a> and
+       who on this occasion swelled the ranks of the freebooters.
+       Their ferocity exceeded, if possible, that of the men.
+       Neither age, sex, nor station afforded any protection
+       against these furies, who perpetrated barbarities the
+       details of which would exceed belief.</p>
+
+    <p>The violence of the flames rendering it impossible to remain
+    in the town, the Uzcoques betook themselves to the castle of a
+    nobleman, situated on a rising ground a short distance from
+    Pesca. On first landing, the pirates had broken into this
+    castle and made it their headquarters. After pillaging every
+    thing of value, they had gratified their savage love of
+    destruction by breaking and destroying what they could not well
+    carry away. In the court-yard were collected piles of
+    furniture, pictures of price, and fragments of rich tapestry,
+    rent by those ruthless spoilers from the walls of the
+    apartments. With this costly fuel had the Uzcoques lit fires,
+    at which quarters of oxen and whole sheep were now
+    roasting.</p>
+
+    <p>A shout of triumph burst forth when the news of the
+    Proveditore's capture was announced to the pirates
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page419"
+       id="page419"></a>[pg 419]</span> who had remained at the
+       castle, and they crowded round the unfortunate prisoners,
+       overwhelming them with threats and curses. Something like
+       silence being at length obtained, Jurissa commanded instant
+       preparations to be made for the banquet appointed to
+       celebrate the success of their expedition. Tables were
+       arranged in a spacious hall of the castle, and upon them
+       soon smoked the huge joints of meat that had been roasting
+       at the fires, placed on the bare boards without dish or
+       plate. Casks of wine that had been rescued from the flames
+       of the town, or extracted from the castle cellars, were
+       broached, or the heads knocked in, and the contents poured
+       into jugs and flagons of every shape and size. Although the
+       light of the conflagration, glaring red through the tall
+       Gothic windows, lit up the hall and rendered any further
+       illumination unnecessary, a number of torches had been fixed
+       round the apartment, the resinous smoke of which floated in
+       clouds over the heads of the revelers. Seating themselves
+       upon benches, chairs, and empty casks, the Uzcoques
+       commenced a ravenous attack upon the coarse but abundant
+       viands set before them.</p>
+
+    <p>The scene was a strange one. The brutal demeanour of the
+    men, their bearded and savage aspect; the disheveled
+    bloodstained women, mingling their shrill voices with the
+    hoarse tones of their male companions; the disordered but often
+    picturesque garb and various weapons of the pirates; the whole
+    seen by the light of the burning houses&mdash;more resembled an
+    orgie of demons than an assemblage of human beings; and even
+    the cool and resolute Proveditore felt himself shudder and turn
+    pale as he contemplated this carnival of horrors, celebrated by
+    wretches on whose hands the blood of their fellow-men was as
+    yet hardly dry. Antonio sat supporting himself against the
+    table, seeming scarcely conscious of what passed around him.
+    Both father and son had been compelled to take their places at
+    the board, amidst the jeers and insults of the Uzcoques.</p>
+
+    <p>The revel was at its height, when Jurissa suddenly started
+    from his seat, and struck the table violently with his
+    drinking-cup.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold, Uzcoques!" he exclaimed; "we have forgotten the
+    crowning ornament of our banquet."</p>
+
+    <p>He whispered something to an Uzcoque seated beside him, who
+    left the room. While the pirates were still asking one another
+    the meaning of Jurissa's words, the man returned, bearing
+    before him a trencher covered with a cloth, which he placed at
+    the upper end of the table.</p>
+
+    <p>"Behold the last and best dish we can offer to our noble
+    guests!" said Jurissa; "'twill suit, I doubt not, their dainty
+    palates." And, tearing off the cloth, he exposed to view the
+    grizzly and distorted features of a human head.</p>
+
+    <p>The shout of savage exultation that burst from the pirates
+    at this ghastly spectacle, drowned the groan of rage and grief
+    uttered by the Proveditore, as he recognised in the pale and
+    rigid countenance the well-known features of his friend
+    Christophoro Veniero. That unfortunate nobleman, on his return
+    from a voyage to the Levant, had fallen into the hands of
+    Jurissa, who, before he was aware of the rank of his prisoner,
+    had barbarously slain him. This had occurred not many hours
+    before the capture of Marcello; and it was to the murder of
+    Veniero that the Uzcoque made allusion, when he seized
+    Jurissa's arm at the moment he was about to stab the
+    Proveditore.</p>
+
+    <p>One of the pirates, a man of gigantic stature and hideous
+    aspect, now rose from his seat, staggering with drunkenness,
+    and forcing open the jaws of the dead, placed a piece of meat
+    between the teeth. The wildest laughter and applause greeted
+    this frightful pantomime, which made the blood of the
+    Proveditore run cold.</p>
+
+    <p>"Infernal and bloody villains!" shouted he, unable to
+    restrain his indignation, and starting to his feet as he spoke.
+    There was a momentary pause, during which the pirates gazed at
+    the noble Venetian, seemingly struck dumb with surprise at his
+    temerity. Then, however, a dozen sinewy arms were extended to
+    seize him, and a dozen daggers menaced his life. Dignified and
+    immovable, the high-souled senator offered no resistance, but
+    inwardly ejaculating a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page420"
+       id="page420"></a>[pg 420]</span> short prayer, awaited the
+       death-stroke. It came not, however. Although some of the
+       Uzcoques, in their fury and intoxication, would have
+       immolated their valuable hostage, others, who had drunk less
+       deeply, protested against the madness of such an act, and
+       rushed forward to protect him. Their interference was
+       resented, and a violent quarrel ensued. Knives were drawn,
+       benches overturned, chairs broken up and converted into
+       weapons; on all sides bare steel was flashing, deep oaths
+       resounding, and missiles of various kinds flying across the
+       tables. It would be impossible to say how long this scene of
+       drunken violence would have lasted, or how long the
+       Proveditore and his son would have remained unscathed amidst
+       the storm, had not the advent of a fresh actor upon the
+       scene stilled the tumult in a manner so sudden as to appear
+       almost miraculous.</p>
+
+    <p>The new comer was no other than the ghastly old woman who
+    has been seen to play such an important part in this history,
+    and who now entered the banqueting hall with hasty step and
+    impatient gesture.</p>
+
+    <p>"Uzcoques!" she exclaimed in a shrill, clear, and emphatic
+    voice, that rose above the clamour of the brawl; "Uzcoques!
+    what means this savage uproar? Are you not yet sated with
+    rapine and slaughter, that you thus fall upon and tear each
+    other? Are ye men, or wolves and tigers? Is this the way to
+    obtain your leader's deliverance; and will the news of this
+    day's havoc, think you, better the position of Dansowich?"</p>
+
+    <p>The pirates hung their heads in silent confusion at this
+    reproof. None dared to reply; Jurissa alone grumbled something
+    inaudible.</p>
+
+    <p>"Follow me!" continued the singular woman whose words had so
+    extraordinary an effect on this brutal band. "Follow, every
+    man! and stop as far as may be, the ruin you have begun."</p>
+
+    <p>Obedient to her voice the Uzcoques left the hall, some of
+    them sullenly and slowly enough, but none venturing to dispute
+    the injunction laid upon them. The old woman waited till the
+    scene of tumult and revel was abandoned by all but Marcello and
+    his son, and then hurrying after the pirates, led the way to
+    the burning town. In a few minutes the two Venetians beheld,
+    from the castle windows, the dark forms of the freebooters
+    moving about in the firelight, as they busied themselves to
+    extinguish the conflagration. Here and there the white robe of
+    the mysterious old woman was discernible as she flitted from
+    one group to another, directing their efforts, and urging them
+    to greater exertions.</p>
+
+    <p>"Strange!" said the Proveditore musingly, "that so hideous
+    and repulsive an old creature should exercise such commanding
+    influence over these bandits."</p>
+
+    <p>He looked round to his son as he spoke; but Antonio, worn
+    out by the fatigues and agitation of the day, had stretched
+    himself upon a bench and was already in a deep sleep. The
+    Proveditore gazed at him for a brief space, with an expression
+    of mingled pity, regret, and paternal affection upon his
+    countenance.</p>
+
+    <p>"As weak of body as infirm of purpose," he murmured. "Alas!
+    that a name derived from old Roman ancestors should be borne by
+    one so little qualified to do it honour! Had it pleased Heaven
+    to preserve to me the child stolen in his infancy by the
+    Moslem, how different would have been my position! That
+    masculine and noble boy, so full of life and promise, would
+    have proved a prop to my old age, and an ornament to his
+    country. But now, alas!"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>He continued for a while to indulge in vain regrets that the
+    course of events had not been otherwise; then turning to the
+    window, he watched the efforts made by the pirates to
+    extinguish the flames, until a dense cloud of smoke that
+    overhung the town was the only sign remaining of the
+    conflagration.</p>
+
+    <p>For some time the Proveditore paced up and down the hall in
+    anxious thought upon his critical position, and the strange
+    circumstances that had led to it. In vain did he endeavour to
+    reconcile, with what now seemed more than ever inexplicable,
+    the vindictive rage of Dansowich in the dungeon, and the
+    evidence before him that the pirate's wife was still in
+    existence. It was a riddle which he was unable to solve; and at
+    last, despairing of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page421"
+       id="page421"></a>[pg 421]</span> success, he abandoned the
+       attempt, and sought in slumber a temporary oblivion of the
+       perils that surrounded him.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+    <h3>THE RECOGNITION.</h3>
+
+    <p>Upon a divan in the splendid armoury of the pacha's palace
+    at Bosnia-Serai, the young Turk Ibrahim was seated in deep
+    thought, the day after his return home. On the walls around him
+    were displayed weapons and military accoutrements of every
+    kind. Damascus sabres richly inlaid, and many with jeweled
+    hilts, embroidered banners, golden stirrups, casques of
+    embossed silver, burnished armour and coats-of-mail, were
+    arranged in picturesque and fanciful devices. As the young
+    Moslem gazed around him, and beheld these trophies of victories
+    won by Turkish viziers and pachas in their wars against Austria
+    and Venice, his martial and fearless spirit rose high, and he
+    reproached himself with weakness and pusillanimity for having
+    abandoned the pursuit of her he loved. Bitterly did he now
+    regret his precipitation in leaving Venice the morning after
+    the Battle of the Bridge, and while under the influence of the
+    shock he had received, in beholding the hideous features of an
+    old woman where he had expected to find the blooming
+    countenance of Strasolda. His love for the Uzcoque maiden, as
+    he had seen her when his captive, and again in the cavern on
+    the coast by Segna, returned in full force. He was already
+    planning a journey to Venice, when he was interrupted in his
+    meditations by the noise of a horse's hoofs dashing full speed
+    into the court of the palace. In another minute an attendant
+    summoned him to the presence of the pacha, and there he heard
+    the news just received, of the wild outbreak of the Uzcoques.
+    The Martellossi and other troops were ordered to proceed
+    immediately to the frontier, in order to protect Turkish
+    Dalmatia from the pirates; and Ibrahim, at his urgent request,
+    was appointed to a command in the expedition.</p>
+
+    <p>With joyful alacrity did the young Turk arm and hurry to
+    horse; and then, putting himself at the head of a troop of
+    light cavalry, sped onwards in the direction of the country
+    where he hoped to gain tidings of Strasolda. Having received
+    strict orders to content himself with protecting the Turkish
+    frontier, and above all not to infringe on Archducal territory,
+    Ibrahim, on arriving at the boundary of the pachalic, left his
+    troop in charge of the second in command, and with a handful of
+    men entered Venetian Dalmatia, with the intention of obtaining
+    information concerning the Uzcoques, and more especially
+    concerning her he loved. He was assisted in his enquiries by
+    the good understanding existing between Venice and the Porte;
+    and he soon learned that, after the burning of Pesca, the
+    pirates had suddenly ceased their excesses and returned to
+    Segna, taking the Proveditore with them. They had not gone,
+    however, either to the castle or the town; but fearful lest the
+    Archduke should interfere, and make them give up their
+    illustrious prisoners, had betaken themselves to the mountains,
+    in the numerous caverns and lurking-places of which they were
+    able to conceal their captives. From every mouth did the eager
+    enquirer hear praises of the female who accompanied the
+    Uzcoques. None spoke of her but in terms of love and gratitude.
+    As regarded her appearance accounts were at variance, some
+    representing her as young and beautiful, while others
+    compassionated her frightful ugliness; and, more than ever
+    perplexed by this conflicting testimony, Ibrahim pursued his
+    march and his enquiries, still hoping by perseverance to arrive
+    at a solution of the enigma.</p>
+
+    <p>While the young Turk was thus employed, the Proveditore and
+    his son were conveyed by their captors from one place of
+    security to another, passing one night in the depths of some
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page422"
+       id="page422"></a>[pg 422]</span> ravine, the next amongst
+       the crags and clefts of the mountains, but always moving
+       about in the daytime, and never sleeping twice in the same
+       place. Since the evening of the revel at Pesca they had not
+       again beheld the mysterious old woman, although they had
+       more than once heard her clear and silvery voice near the
+       place allotted to them for confinement and repose. In
+       certain attentions and comforts, intended as alleviations of
+       their unpleasant position, female care and thought were also
+       visible; but all their efforts were vain to obtain a sight
+       of the friendly being who thus hovered around them.</p>
+
+    <p>It was on a beautiful evening some fourteen days after their
+    capture, that the Proveditore and his son lay upon the bank of
+    the only river that waters the rocky vicinity of Segna, wearied
+    by a long and rapid march. There was an unusual degree of
+    bustle observable amongst the Uzcoques, and numerous messengers
+    had been passing to and from the castle of Segna, which was at
+    no great distance from the spot where they had now halted. From
+    the various indications of some extraordinary occurrence, the
+    two Venetians began to hope that the crisis of their fate was
+    approaching, and that they should at last know in what manner
+    their captors meant to dispose of them. Nor were they wrong in
+    their expectations. Suddenly the mysterious old woman stood
+    before them, her partially veiled features bearing their wonted
+    hideous aspect, and her eyes, usually so brilliant, dimmed with
+    tears.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are free," said she in an agitated voice to the
+    Proveditore and his son. "Our people will escort you to Fiume
+    in all safety, and there you will find galleys of the republic
+    to convey you back to Venice."</p>
+
+    <p>At the sight of the old woman's unearthly countenance,
+    Antonio covered his face with his hands; the Proveditore rose
+    from the ground deeply moved.</p>
+
+    <p>"Singular being!" he exclaimed, "by this mildness and mercy
+    you punish me more effectually than by the bloodiest revenge
+    you could have taken for my cruel treatment of you."</p>
+
+    <p>"You owe me no thanks," was the reply; "thank rather the
+    holy Virgin, who sent the youth beside you to be your guardian
+    angel, and who delivered you into the hands of the Uzcoques at
+    a time when they had need of a hostage. Surely it was by the
+    special intervention of Heaven that the murderer of the wife
+    was sent to serve as ransom for the captive husband. But the
+    atonement has come too late, the noble Dansowich was basely
+    ensnared into an act of violence, and his life paid the forfeit
+    of his wrath&mdash;he died upon the rack. And now the wily
+    counsellors at Gradiska compel us to release you."</p>
+
+    <p>She paused, interrupted by a flood of tears. After a short
+    silence, broken only by her sobs, she became more composed, and
+    the Proveditore again addressed her.</p>
+
+    <p>"But what," said he, "could have driven Dansowich to an act
+    of violence, which he must have known would entail a severe
+    punishment? Surely his wife's safety and the lapse of years
+    might have enabled him to forgive, if not to forget, the
+    unsuccessful attempt upon her life."</p>
+
+    <p>"His wife's safety!" exclaimed the old woman. "Have the
+    trials and fatigues of the last few days turned your brain?
+    Alas! too surely was the rope fixed round her neck; and had you
+    not carried off her remains how could you have possessed her
+    portrait, and by the devilish stratagem of showing it to the
+    bereaved husband, have driven him to the act which cost him his
+    life?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven! what hideous jest is this?" exclaimed
+    Marcello. "Do I not see you living and standing before me; and
+    think you I could ever forget your features, or the look you
+    gave me when hanging from the tree? You were cut down and saved
+    after our departure; and but a few weeks have elapsed since my
+    son painted your likeness, after conveying you across the canal
+    in his gondola."</p>
+
+    <p>The old woman stood for a few moments as though petrified by
+    what she had just heard. At last she passed her hand slowly
+    across her face, as if to convince herself of her identity.</p>
+
+    <p>"And she you murdered resembled <i>me</i>?" she exclaimed in
+    a trembling voice. "It was of <i>me</i> that the portrait was
+    taken, and by <i>him</i>!" she continued, pointing to Antonio
+    with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page423"
+       id="page423"></a>[pg 423]</span> a gesture of horror and
+       contempt. "<i>My</i> picture was it, that was held before
+       Dansowich, and by <i>you</i>, the murderer of his wife? Holy
+       Virgin!" she exclaimed, as the truth seemed to flash upon
+       her, "how has my faith in thee misled me! I beheld in this
+       youth one sent by Heaven to aid me; but now I see that he
+       was prompted by the powers of darkness to steal my portrait,
+       and thus become the instrument of destruction to the best
+       and noblest of our race."</p>
+
+    <p>"Forgive and spare us!" exclaimed Antonio,
+    conscience-stricken as he remembered the admonitions of
+    Contarini. "'Tis true, I was the instrument, but most
+    unwittingly. How could I know so sad an end would follow?"</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis not my wont to seek revenge," replied the old woman;
+    "nor do I forget that you saved my life from the fury of the
+    Venetians."</p>
+
+    <p>Antonio essayed to speak, but had not courage to correct the
+    error into which she had been led by his strong resemblance to
+    the gallant stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"But," she continued, "'tis time you should have full proof
+    that the features you painted were not those of the wife of
+    Dansowich."</p>
+
+    <p>With these words she threw back her veil, unfastened some
+    small hooks concealed in her abundant tresses, and took off a
+    mask of thin and untanned lambskin, wrinkled and stained with
+    yellow and purple streaks by exposure to sun and storm. This
+    mask, closely fitted to features regular and prominent, and
+    strongly resembling those of her unfortunate mother, whose
+    large, dark, and very brilliant eyes she had also inherited,
+    will explain the misconception of the Proveditore as well as
+    that of Dansowich, who had never seen his daughter in a
+    disguise worn only at Venice or other places of peril, and
+    while away from her father and his protection.</p>
+
+    <p>While the beautiful but still tearful Uzcoque maid stood
+    thus revealed before the astonished senator, and his enraptured
+    and speechless son, the approaching footfall of a horse at full
+    speed was heard, and in an instant there darted round the angle
+    of a cliff the martial figure of a Turk, mounted upon a large
+    and powerful steed, of that noble race bred in the deserts
+    eastward of the Caspian. The tall and graceful person of the
+    stranger was attired in a close riding-dress of scarlet cloth,
+    from the open breast of which gleamed a light coat-of-mail. A
+    twisted turban bound with chains of glittering steel defended
+    and adorned his head. A crooked cimeter suspended from his belt
+    was his only weapon. His countenance bore a striking
+    resemblance to that of Antonio, and had the same sweet and
+    graceful expression about the mouth and chin; but the more
+    ample and commanding forehead, the well opened flashing eyes,
+    the more prominent and masculine nose, the clear, rich, olive
+    complexion and soldierly bearing, proclaimed him to be of a
+    widely different and higher nature. Riding close up to the side
+    of Strasolda, he reined in his steed with a force and
+    suddenness that threw him on his haunches; but speedily
+    recovering his balance, the noble animal stood pawing the earth
+    and lashing his sides with his long tail, like some untamed and
+    kingly creature of the desert; his veins starting out in sharp
+    relief, his broad chest and beautiful limbs spotted with foam,
+    and his long mane, that would have swept the ground, streaming
+    like a banner in the sea-breeze.</p>
+
+    <p>For a moment the startled Strasolda gazed alternately, and
+    in wild and mute amazement, at Antonio and the stranger; but
+    all doubt and hesitation were dispersed in an instant by the
+    well-remembered and impassioned tones, the martial bearing and
+    Moslem garb of Ibrahim, whose captive she had been before she
+    saw him in the cavern.</p>
+
+    <p>Leaping from his saddle and circling her slender waist with
+    his arm, he addressed her in those accents of truth and passion
+    which go at once to the heart&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Heroic daughter of Dansowich! thou art the bright star of
+    my destiny, the light of my soul! Thou must be mine! Come,
+    then, to my heart and home! Gladden with thy love the life of
+    Ibrahim, and he will give thee truth unfailing and love without
+    end."</p>
+
+    <p>Strasolda did not long hesitate. Already prepossessed in
+    favour of the young and noble-minded Moslem; her
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page424"
+       id="page424"></a>[pg 424]</span> allegiance to the Christian
+       powers and faith weakened by the treachery of Austria; her
+       people degraded into robbers; a soldier's daughter, and
+       keenly alive to the splendours of martial gallantry and
+       glory; an orphan, too, and desolate&mdash;can it be wondered
+       at if she surrendered, at once and for ever, to this
+       generous and impassioned lover all the sympathies of her
+       affectionate nature? She spoke not; but, as she leaned
+       half-fainting on his arm, her eloquent looks said that which
+       made Ibrahim's pulses thrill with grateful rapture. Pressing
+       her fondly to his bosom, he placed her on the back of his
+       faithful steed, and vaulted into the saddle. Snorting as the
+       vapour flew from his red nostrils, and neighing with mad
+       delight, the impatient animal threw out his iron hoofs into
+       the air, flew round the angle of the cliff, and joined
+       erelong a dozen mounted spearmen. Then, bending their
+       headlong course towards the far east, in a few seconds all
+       had disappeared.</p>
+
+    <p>During this scene, which passed almost with the speed of
+    thought, the Proveditore, who was seated on a ledge of the
+    cliff, had gazed anxiously and wildly at the youthful stranger.
+    He knew him in an instant, and would have singled him out
+    amidst thousands; but was so overwhelmed by a rushing tide of
+    strong and heartrending emotions, that he could neither rise
+    nor speak, and remained, long after the Turk had disappeared,
+    with out-stretched arms and straining eye-balls.</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed the bewildered Antonio, half
+    suspecting the truth, "who was that daring youth?"</p>
+
+    <p>After a pause, and in tones broken and inarticulate, his
+    father answered&mdash;"Thy twin brother, Antonio! When a child
+    he was stolen from me by some Turks in Candia; and those who
+    stole have given him their own daring and heroic nature, for
+    they are great and rising, while Venice and her sons are
+    falling and degenerate. Oh Ercole! my dear and long-lost
+    son&mdash;seen but a moment and then lost for ever!" ejaculated
+    the bereaved father, as, refusing all comfort, he folded his
+    cloak over his face and wept bitterly.</p>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <p>NOTE.&mdash;Shortly after these events, Venice, urged at
+    last beyond all endurance, took up arms against Austria on
+    account of the protection afforded by the latter power to the
+    Uzcoques. The pirate vessels were burned, Segna besieged and
+    taken, the Uzcoques slain or dispersed. The quarrel between
+    Austria and the republic was put an end to by the mediation of
+    Spain shortly before the breaking out of the Thirty Years'
+    War.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ces mis&eacute;rables," says a distinguished French writer,
+    speaking of the Uzcoques, "f&ucirc;rent bien plus criminels par
+    la faute des puissances, que par l'instinct de leur propre
+    nature. Les V&eacute;n&eacute;tiens les aigrirent;
+    l'&eacute;glise Romaine pr&eacute;f&eacute;ra de les
+    pers&eacute;cuter au devoir de les &eacute;claircir; la maison
+    d'Autriche en fit les instruments de sa politique, et quand le
+    philosophe examine leur histoire il ne voit pas que les
+    Uscoques soient les seuls criminels."</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_1_1"
+                    name="fn_1_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_1_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The reader of German literature will call to mind the
+        anecdote, in Jean Paul's <i>Levana</i>, of a Moldavian
+        woman who in one day slew seven men with her own hand, and
+        the same evening was delivered of a child.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page425"
+       id="page425"></a>[pg 425]</span> <a name="slave"
+          id="slave"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE SLAVE-TRADE.<a id="fn_2_tag1"
+       name="fn_2_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_2_1"><sup>1</sup></a></h2>
+
+    <p>The extraordinary change which took place in the public mind
+    in the beginning of the century on the subject of the
+    slave-trade, unquestionably justified the determination of
+    Government to abolish a traffic contradictory to every
+    principle of Christianity. It had taken twenty years to obtain
+    this victory of justice. But we must exonerate the mind of
+    England from the charge of abetting this guilty traffic in
+    human misery. The nation had been almost wholly ignorant of its
+    nature. Of course, that Africans were shipped for the West
+    Indies was known; that, as slaves, they were liable to the
+    severities of labour, or the temper of masters, was also known;
+    but in a country like England, where every man is occupied with
+    the concerns of public or private life, and where the struggle
+    for competence, if not for existence, is often of the most
+    trying order, great evils may occur in the distant dependencies
+    of the crown without receiving general notice from the nation.
+    It seems to have been one of the singular results of the war
+    with America, that the calamities of the slave-trade should
+    have been originally brought to the knowledge of the people.
+    The loss of our colonies on the mainland, naturally directed
+    public attention to the increased importance of the West Indian
+    colonies. A large proportion of our supplies for the war had
+    been drawn from those islands; they had become the station of
+    powerful fleets during the latter portion of the war; large
+    garrisons were placed in them; the intercourse became enlarged
+    from a merely commercial connexion with our ports, to a
+    governmental connection with the empire; and the whole
+    machinery of the West Indian social system was brought before
+    the eye of England.</p>
+
+    <p>The result was the exposure of the cruelties which slavery
+    entails, and the growing resolution to clear the country of the
+    stigma, and the benevolent desire to relieve a race of beings,
+    who, however differing in colour and clime from ourselves, were
+    sons of the same common blood, and objects of the same Divine
+    mercy. The exertions of Wilberforce, and the intelligent and
+    benevolent men whom he associated with himself in this great
+    cause, were at last successful; and he gained for the British
+    the noblest triumph ever gained for a nation over its own
+    habits, its selfishness, its pride, and its popular
+    opinion.</p>
+
+    <p>But the manner in which this great redemption of national
+    character was effected, did less honour to the wisdom of the
+    cabinet than to the benevolence of the people. Fox, probably
+    sincere, but certainly headlong, rushed into emancipation as he
+    had rushed into every measure that bore the name of popularity.
+    Impatient of the delay which might take the honour of this
+    crowning act out of the hands of his party&mdash;and
+    unquestionably, in any shape, it was an honour to any
+    party&mdash;he hurried it forward without securing the concert,
+    or compelling the acquiescence, of any one of the European
+    kingdoms engaged in the slave-trade. It is true that England
+    was then at war with them all; but there was thus only the
+    stronger opportunity of pronouncing the national resolve, never
+    to tolerate the commerce in slaves, and never to receive any
+    country into our protection by which that most infamous of all
+    trades was tolerated. The opportunity was amply given for
+    establishing the principle, in the necessity which every
+    kingdom in succession felt for the aid of England, and the
+    abolition ought to have been the first article of the treaty.
+    But the occasion was thrown away.</p>
+
+    <p>The parliamentary regulations, which had largely provided
+    for the comfort of the slaves on the passage from Africa, and
+    their protection in the British colonies, could not be extended
+    to the new and tremendous traffic which was engaged in by all
+    the commercial states of Europe and
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page426"
+       id="page426"></a>[pg 426]</span> the West. The closing of
+       the British mart of slavery flooded the African shore with
+       desperate dealers in the flesh and blood of man; whose only
+       object was profit, and who regarded the miseries of the
+       African only as they affected his sale. The ships which, by
+       the British regulations, had been suffered to carry only a
+       number limited to their accommodation, were now crowded with
+       wretches, stowed in spaces that scarcely allowed them to
+       breathe. The cheapness of the living cargo, produced by the
+       withdrawal of the British from the slave coast, excited the
+       activity, almost the fury, of the trade; and probably
+       100,000 miserable beings were thus annually dragged from
+       their own country, to undergo the labour of brutes, and die
+       the death of brutes in the Western World.</p>
+
+    <p>Another source of evil was added to the original crime. The
+    colonial possessions of Spain had been broken up into
+    republics, and those were all slave-dealers. The great colony
+    of Portugal, Brazil, had rushed into this frightful commerce
+    with the feverish avidity of avarice set free from all its old
+    restrictions. North America, coquetting with philanthropy, and
+    nominally abjuring the principle of slavery, suffered herself
+    to undergo the corruption of the practice for the temptation of
+    the lucre, and the Atlantic was covered with slave-ships.</p>
+
+    <p>But rash, ill considered, and unfortunate as was the
+    precipitate measure of Fox, we shall never but rejoice at the
+    abolition of the slave-trade by our country. If England had
+    stood alone for ever in that abolition, it would be a national
+    glory. To have cast that commerce from her at all apparent
+    loss, was the noblest of national gains; and it may be only
+    when higher knowledge shall be given to man, of the causes
+    which have protected the empire through the struggles of war
+    and the trials of peace, that we may know the full virtue of
+    that most national and magnanimous achievement of charity to
+    man.</p>
+
+    <p>It is only in the spirit of this principle that the
+    legislature has followed up those early exertions, by the
+    purchase of the final freedom of the slave, by the astonishing
+    donative of twenty millions sterling, the largest sum ever
+    given for the purposes of humanity. It is only in the same
+    spirit that our cabinet continues to press upon the commercial
+    states the right of search, a right which we solicit on the
+    simple ground of humanity; and which, though it cannot be our
+    duty to enforce at the hazard of hostility, must never be
+    abandoned where we can succeed by the representations of
+    reason, justice, and religion.</p>
+
+    <p>The curious and succinct narrative to which we now advert,
+    gives the experience of a short voyage on board of one of those
+    slave ships. And the miseries witnessed by its writer, whose
+    detail seems as accurate as it is simple, more than justify the
+    zeal of our foreign secretary in labouring to effect the total
+    extinction of this death-dealing trade.</p>
+
+    <p>H.M.S. the Cleopatra, of twenty-six guns, commanded by
+    Captain Wyvill, arriving at Rio Janeiro in September 1842, the
+    reverend writer took the opportunity of being transferred from
+    the Malabar, as chaplain. In the beginning of September the
+    Cleopatra left the Mauritius, to proceed to the Mozambique
+    Channel, off Madagascar, her appointed station, to watch the
+    slave-traders. After various cruises along the coast, and as
+    far as Algoa Bay, they at last captured a slaver.</p>
+
+    <p><i>April 12.</i>&mdash;At daybreak the look-out at the
+    topmast-head perceived a vessel on the lee quarter, at such a
+    distance as to be scarcely visible; but her locality being
+    pronounced "very suspicious," the order was given to bear up
+    for her. The breeze falling, the boats were ordered out, and in
+    a few minutes the barge and the first gig were pulling away in
+    the direction of the stranger. So variable, however, is the
+    weather at this season, that before the boats had rowed a mile
+    from the ship, a thick haze surrounded the ship, and the chase
+    was lost sight of. The rain fell in torrents, and the ship was
+    going seven knots through the water. On the clearing up of the
+    fog, the chase was again visible. The sun broke forth, and the
+    rakish-looking brigantine appeared to have carried on all sail
+    during the squall. They could see, under her sails, the low
+    black hull pitching up and down; and, approaching within range,
+    one of the forecastle guns was cleared away for a bow-chaser.
+    The <span class="pagenum"><a name="page427"
+       id="page427"></a>[pg 427]</span> British ensign had been for
+       some time flying at the peak. It was at length answered by
+       the green and yellow Brazilian flag. At length, after a
+       variety of dexterous man&oelig;uvres to escape, and from
+       fifteen to twenty shots fired after her, she shortened sail
+       and lay to. Dark naked forms passing across the deck,
+       removed any remaining doubt as to her character, and showed
+       that she had her slave cargo on board. An officer was sent
+       to take possession, and the British ensign displaced the
+       Brazilian. The scene on board was a sufficiently strange
+       one; the deck was crowded with negroes to the number of 450,
+       in almost riotous confusion, having risen but a little while
+       before against the crew. The meagre, famished-looking
+       throng, having broken through all control, had seized every
+       thing for which they had a fancy in the vessel; some with
+       handfuls of the powdered roots of the cassava, others with
+       large pieces of pork and beef, having broken open the casks,
+       and others with fowls, which they had torn from the coops.
+       Many were busily dipping rags, fastened with bits of string,
+       into the water-casks to act as sponges, and had got at the
+       contents of a cask of Brazilian rum, which they greatly
+       enjoyed. However, they exhibited the wildest joy, mingled
+       with the clank of the iron, as they were knocking off their
+       fetters on every side. From the moment the first ball had
+       been fired, they had been actively employed in thus freeing
+       themselves. The crew found but thirty thus shackled in
+       pairs, but many more pairs of shackles were found below.
+       There could not be a moment's doubt as to the light in which
+       they viewed their captors, now become their liberators. They
+       rushed towards them in crowds, and rubbed their feet and
+       hands caressingly, even rolling themselves on the deck
+       before them; and, when they saw the crew of the vessel
+       rather unceremoniously sent over the side into the boat
+       which was to take them prisoners to the frigate, they set up
+       a long universal shout of triumph and delight. The actual
+       number of the negroes now on board, amounted to 447. Of
+       those 180 were men, few, however, exceeding twenty years of
+       age; 45 women; 213 boys. The name of the prize was the
+       Progresso, last from Brazil, and bound to Rio Janeiro. The
+       crew were seventeen; three Spaniards, and the rest
+       Brazilians. The vessel was of about 140 tons; the length of
+       the slave-deck, 37 feet; its mean breadth, 21&frac12; feet;
+       its height, 3&frac12; feet&mdash;a horrible space to contain
+       between four and five hundred human beings. How they could
+       even breathe is scarcely conceivable. The captain and one of
+       the crew were said to have been drowned in the surf at the
+       embarkation of the negroes. Two Spaniards, and a Portuguese
+       cook, were sent back into the prize.</p>
+
+    <p>As the writer understood Spanish, and as some one was
+    wanting to interpret between the English crew and those
+    managers of the negroes, he proposed to go on board with them
+    to their place of destination, the Cape of Good Hope. The
+    English crew were a lieutenant, three petty officers, and nine
+    seamen. It had been the captain's first intention to take a
+    hundred of the negroes on board the frigate, which would
+    probably have prevented the fearful calamities that followed;
+    but an unfortunate impression prevailed, that some of them were
+    infected with the small-pox. In the same evening the Progresso
+    set sail. For the first few hours all went on well&mdash;the
+    breeze was light, the weather warm, and the negroes were
+    sleeping on the deck; their slender supple limbs entwined in a
+    surprisingly small compass, resembling in the moonlight
+    confused piles of arms and legs, rather than distinct human
+    forms. But about an hour after midnight, the sky began to
+    gather clouds, a haze overspread the horizon to windward, and a
+    squall approached. The hands, having to shorten sail, suddenly
+    found the negroes in the way, and the order was given to send
+    them all below.</p>
+
+    <p>There seems to have been some dreadful mismanagement to
+    cause the horrid scene that followed. Why <i>all</i> the
+    negroes should have been driven down together; or why, when the
+    vessel was put to rights, they should not have been allowed to
+    return to the deck; or why, when driven down, the hatches
+    should have been forced upon them&mdash;are matters which we
+    cannot comprehend; but nothing could be more unfortunate than
+    the consequence of those rash measures. We
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page428"
+       id="page428"></a>[pg 428]</span> state the event in the
+       words of the narrative:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"The night being intensely hot and close, 400 wretched
+        beings crammed into a hold twelve yards in length, seven in
+        breadth, and only three and a half feet in height, speedily
+        began to make an effort to re-issue to the open air; being
+        thrust back, and striving the more to get out, the <i>after
+        hatch</i> was forced down upon them. Over the other
+        hatchway, in the fore part of the vessel, a wooden grating
+        was fastened. A scene of agony followed those most
+        unfortunate measures, unequaled by any thing that we have
+        heard of since the Black Hole of Calcutta. To this <i>sole
+        inlet</i> for the air, the suffocating heat of the hold,
+        and perhaps panic from the strangeness of their situation,
+        made them press. They crowded to the grating, and, clinging
+        to it for air, completely barred its entrance. They strove
+        to force their way through apertures in length fourteen
+        inches, and barely six inches in breadth, and in some
+        instances succeeded. The cries, the heat, I may say without
+        exaggeration, 'the smoke of their torment,' which ascended,
+        can be compared to nothing earthly. One of the Spaniards
+        gave warning that the consequence would be many
+        deaths&mdash;<i>manana habra muchos muertos</i>."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>If this statement with its consequences be true, we cannot
+    conceive how the conduct of those persons by whom it was
+    brought about can be passed over without enquiry. There seems
+    to have been nothing in the shape of <i>necessity</i> for its
+    palliation. There was no storm, the vessel was in no danger of
+    foundering unless the hatches were fastened down. That the
+    negroes might have lumbered the deck for the first few minutes
+    of preparing to meet the squall is probable; but why, when they
+    were palpably suffocating, they should still have been kept
+    down, is one of the most unaccountable circumstances we ever
+    remember. We must hope that while we are nationally incurring
+    an enormous expenditure to extinguish this most guilty and
+    detestable traffic, such scenes will be guarded against for
+    ever, by the strictest orders to the captors of the
+    slave-traders. It would have been infinitely better for the
+    wretched cargo if they had been carried to their original
+    destination, and sent to toil in the fields of Brazil.</p>
+
+    <p>The Spaniard's prediction was true. Next morning no less
+    than fifty-four crushed and mangled corpses were lifted up from
+    the slave deck, and thrown overboard. We shall avoid disgusting
+    our readers with mentioning the state in which their struggles
+    had left those trampled and strangled beings. On the survivors
+    being released from their torrid dungeon, they drank their
+    allowance of water, somewhat more than half a pint to each,
+    with inconceivable eagerness. A heavy shower having freshened
+    the air, in the evening most of the negroes went below of their
+    own accord, the hatchways having been left open to allow them
+    air. But a short time, however, had elapsed, when they began
+    tumultuously to reascend; and some of the persons on deck,
+    fearful of their crowding it too much, repelled them, and they
+    were trampled back, screaming and writhing in a confused mass.
+    The hatch was about to be forced down upon them; and had not
+    the lieutenant in charge left positive orders to the contrary,
+    the catastrophe of last night would have been re-enacted. On
+    explaining to the Spaniard that it was desired he should
+    dispose those who came on deck in proper places, he set himself
+    to the task with great alacrity; and he showed with much
+    satisfaction how soon and how quietly they might be arranged
+    out of the way of the ropes, covered with long rugs provided
+    for the purpose. "To-morrow," said he, "there will be no
+    deaths, except perhaps among some of those who are sick
+    already." On the next day there was but one dead, but three
+    were reported dying from the sufferings of the first night.
+    They now saw the Cleopatra once more, and the alarm of
+    small-pox having been found groundless, the captain took on
+    board fifty of the boys.</p>
+
+    <p>To our surprise, the provisions on board the slaver were
+    ample for the negroes, consisting of Monte Video dried beef,
+    small beans, rice, and cassava flour. The cabin stores were
+    profuse; lockers filled with ale and porter, barrels of wine,
+    liqueurs of various sorts, cases of English pickles, raisins,
+    &amp;c. &amp;c.; and its list of medicines amounted to almost
+    the whole <span class="pagenum"><a name="page429"
+       id="page429"></a>[pg 429]</span> <i>Materia Medica</i>. On
+       questioning the Spaniards as to the probability of
+       extinguishing the slave-trade, their reply was, that though
+       in the creeks of Brazil it might be difficult, yet it had
+       grown a desperate adventure. Four vessels had been already
+       taken on the east coast of Africa this year; but the venture
+       is so lucrative, that the profits of a fifth which escaped,
+       would probably more than compensate the loss of the
+       four.</p>
+
+    <p>On the east coast negroes are paid for in money or coarse
+    cottons, at the rate of eighteen dollars for men, and twelve
+    for boys. At Rio Janeiro their value may be estimated at
+    &pound;52 for men, &pound;41, 10s. for women, and &pound;31 for
+    boys. Thus, on a cargo of 500, at the mean price the profit
+    will exceed &pound;19,000&mdash;</p>
+
+    <table align="center"
+           summary="Slave profit"
+           cellpadding="5">
+        <colgroup>
+            <col span="2"
+                 align="left" />
+            <col align="right" />
+        </colgroup>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td>Cost price of 500, average fifteen dollars, or
+            &pound;3 5s. each</td>
+
+            <td>&pound;1,625</td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td>Selling price at Rio Janeiro, average &pound;41
+            10s.,</td>
+
+            <td>&pound;20,730</td>
+        </tr>
+    </table>
+
+    <p>While these enormous profits continue, it must be a matter
+    of extreme difficulty to suppress the trade, especially while
+    the principals, captains, and crews, have perfect impunity. At
+    present, all that they suffer is the loss of their cargo. But
+    if enactments were made, by which heavy fines and imprisonment
+    were to be inflicted on the merchants to whom the expedition
+    could be traced, and corporal punishment and transportation for
+    life for the crews, and for the captains service as common
+    sailors on board our frigates, we should soon find the ardour
+    for the traffic diminished.</p>
+
+    <p>The voyage was slow from the frequent calms. By the 20th of
+    April they had advanced only to the tropic, 350 miles. From day
+    to day the sick among the negroes were dropping off. A large
+    shark followed the ship, which they conceived might have gorged
+    some of the corpses. He was caught, but the stomach was empty.
+    When brought on the deck, he exhibited the usual and remarkable
+    tenacity of life. Though his tail was chopped, and even his
+    entrails taken out, in neither of which operations it exhibited
+    any sign of sensation, yet no sooner was a bucket of salt water
+    poured on it to wash the deck, than it began to flounder about
+    and bite on all sides.</p>
+
+    <p>Symptoms of fever now began to appear on board, and the
+    Portuguese cook died.</p>
+
+    <p><i>April 29</i>.&mdash;A storm, the lightning intolerably
+    vivid, flash succeeding flash with scarcely a sensible
+    intermission; blue, red, and of a still more dazzling white,
+    which made the eye shrink, lighting up every object on deck as
+    clearly as at mid-day. All the winds of heaven seemed let
+    loose, as it blew alternately from every point of the compass.
+    The screams of distress from the sick and weak in the hold,
+    were heard through the roar of the tempest. From the rolling
+    and creaking, one might fancy every thing going asunder. The
+    woman's shed on deck had been washed down, and the planks which
+    formed its roof falling in a heap, a woman was found dead under
+    the ruin.</p>
+
+    <p><i>May 1</i>.&mdash;In this hemisphere, marking the approach
+    of the cold weather, the naked negroes began to shiver, and
+    their teeth to chatter.</p>
+
+    <p><i>May 3</i>.&mdash;Another storm, with severe cold. Seven
+    negroes were found dead this morning. The wretched beings had
+    begun now to steal water and brandy from the hold. "None can
+    tell," says the writer, "save he who has tried, the pangs of
+    thirst which may excite them in that heated hold, many of them
+    fevered by mortal disease. Their daily allowance of water is
+    about a half pint in the morning, and the same quantity in the
+    evening." This passage now became all storms. A heavy squall
+    came on <i>May 8</i>, which continued next day a strong gale.
+    The first object which met the eye in the morning, was three
+    negroes dead on the deck.</p>
+
+    <p><i>May 11</i>.&mdash;Another storm, heavier than any of the
+    preceding ones. Towards evening the report of the helmsman was
+    the gratifying one, that the heart of the gale was broke; yet a
+    yellow haze overspread the setting sun, and it continued to
+    blow as wildly as ever. Squalls rapidly succeeding each other
+    mingled sea and air in one sheet of spray, blinding the eyes of
+    the helmsman; waves towering high above us, tossing up the foam
+    from their crests towards the sky, threatened to engulf the
+    vessel at every moment. When the squalls,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page430"
+       id="page430"></a>[pg 430]</span> breaking heavily on the
+       vessel, caused her to heel over, and the negroes to tumble
+       one against each other in the hold, the shrieks of the
+       sufferers through the darkness of the night, rising above
+       the noise of the winds and waves, seemed of all horrors in
+       this unhappy vessel the saddest. Dysentery now attacked the
+       crew, and the boatswain's mate died. We pass over the
+       melancholy details of this miserable voyage, in which
+       disgusts and distresses of every kind seemed to threaten all
+       on board with death, every day bringing its mortality. At
+       last on Sunday, May 28th, the welcome sight of Cape Agulhas
+       cheered them at the distance of ten miles. The weather was
+       now fine, but the mortality continued, the fatal cases
+       averaging four a-day. On the 1st of June eight were found
+       dead in the morning; and, when the morning mist had cleared
+       away, they found themselves within three miles of Simon's
+       Bay. As soon as the Progresso anchored, the superintendent
+       of the naval hospital came on board, and the writer
+       descended with him for the last time to the slave hold.
+       Accustomed as he had been to scenes of suffering, he was
+       unable to endure a sight, surpassing all he could have
+       conceived, he said, of human misery, and made a hasty
+       retreat. The numbers who had died within the fifty days were
+       163. Even this was not all; for, on returning to the vessel
+       next day, six corpses were added to the eight of the
+       preceding day, and the fourteen were piled on deck for
+       interment on the shore. A hundred of the healthiest negroes
+       were landed at the pier to proceed in waggons to Cape Town;
+       but though rescued from a state of extreme misery, the
+       change seemed to excite anxiety and apprehension. Each of
+       the men had received on landing a new warm jacket and
+       trousers, and the women had each a new white blanket in
+       addition to an under dress, and they were placed snugly in
+       waggons; yet their countenances resembled those of condemned
+       victims. Of the whole of the original cargo, not far short
+       of one half had died. To what causes this horrible mortality
+       must be imputed, it is not our purpose to decide; but that
+       it did not arise from the original tendency of the negroes
+       to sickness seems evident&mdash;the fact being, that of the
+       fifty who were taken on board the frigate, but one had died
+       at sea and one on shore. Within a few days the liberated
+       negroes had acquired a more cheerful look, their first
+       conception having been that they were to be devoured by the
+       people of the country, and they were reluctant to eat,
+       fearing that it was intended to fatten them for the purpose.
+       However, the negroes in the colonies soon freed them from
+       this apprehension.</p>
+
+    <p>We shall be rejoiced if the publicity given to this little
+    but intelligent pamphlet by our means, may assist in drawing
+    the attention of the influential classes to the subject. We
+    fully believe that, if we were to look for the deepest misery
+    that was ever inflicted in this world, and the greatest mass of
+    it, we should find it in the slave-trade. It is the misery, not
+    as in civilized life, of scattered individuals, but of
+    multitudes, and a misery comprehending every other; sudden
+    separation from every tie of the human heart, parent, child,
+    spouse, and country; the misery of bodily affliction, disease,
+    famine, storms, shipwreck, and ultimately slavery, with all its
+    wretchedness of toil and tyranny for life. We certainly do not
+    think it our duty to go to war for the object of teaching
+    humanity to other nations. We must not attempt to heal the
+    calamity of the African by the greatest of all calamities and
+    crimes&mdash;an unnecessary war. But England has only to
+    persevere sincerely and steadily, however calmly, and she will,
+    by the blessing of that supreme Disposer of the ways of men,
+    who desires the happiness of all his creatures, succeed in the
+    extinction of a traffic which has brought a curse, and brings
+    it at this hour, and will bring it deeper still, upon every
+    nation which insults the laws of humanity and the dictates of
+    religion, by dealing in the flesh and blood of man.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_2_1"
+                    name="fn_2_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_2_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Fifty Days on board a Slave vessel, in 1843. By the Rev.
+        PASCOE GRENFELL HILL, Chaplain of H.M.S. Cleopatra.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page431"
+       id="page431"></a>[pg 431]</span> <a name="arabs"
+          id="arabs"></a>
+
+    <h2>MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.<a id="fn_3_tag1"
+       name="fn_3_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_3_1"><sup>1</sup></a></h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ARABS OF CORDOVA.</h3>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"The second day was that when Martel broke</p>
+
+            <p>The Mussulmen, delivering France opprest,</p>
+
+            <p>And in one mighty conflict, from the yoke</p>
+
+            <p>Of unbelieving Mecca saved the West."</p>
+
+            <p style="margin-left: 50%">SOUTHEY.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The Arab domination in Spain is the grand romance of
+    European history. The splendid but mysterious fabric of Asiatic
+    power and science is seen for age after age, like the fairy
+    castle of St John, exalted far above the rugged plain of Frank
+    semi-barbarism&mdash;till the spell is at last broken by the
+    iron prowess of Christian chivalry; and the glittering edifice
+    vanishes from the land as though it had never been, leaving,
+    like the fabled structure of the poet, only a wreath of laurel
+    to bind the brows of the victor. Yet though replete with
+    gorgeous materials both for history and fiction, and stored not
+    only with the recondite lore of Asia and Egypt, but with the
+    borrowed treasures of ancient Greece, (long known to
+    Christendom only by versions through an Arabic medium,) the
+    language and literature of this marvellous people, and even
+    their history, except so far as it related to their
+    never-ceasing warfare with their Christian foes, remained, up
+    to the middle of the last century, a sealed book to their
+    Spanish successors. Coming into possession, like the Israelites
+    of old, "of a land for which they did not labour, of cities
+    which they built not, of vineyards and olive-yards which they
+    planted not," the Spaniards not merely contemned, but
+    persecuted with the fiercest bigotry, all that was left in the
+    peninsula of the genius and learning of their predecessors.
+    Eighty thousand volumes were publicly burned in one fatal
+    <i>auto-da-f&eacute;</i> at Granada by order of Cardinal
+    Ximenes, in whom the literature of his own language yet found a
+    munificent patron; and so meritorious, did the deed appear in
+    the eyes of his contemporaries, that the number has been
+    magnified to an incredible amount by his biographers, in their
+    zeal for the renown of their hero! So complete was the
+    destruction or deportation<a id="fn_3_tag2"
+       name="fn_3_tag2"></a><a href="#fn_3_2"><sup>2</sup></a> of
+       the seventy public libraries, which, a century and a half
+       before the subjugation of the Moors, were open in different
+       cities of Spain, that the valuable collection now in the
+       Escurial owes its origin to the accidental capture, early in
+       the seventeenth century, of three ships laden with books
+       belonging to Muley Zidan, emperor of Morocco&mdash;and even
+       of this casual prize so little was the value appreciated,
+       that it was not till more than a hundred years later, and
+       after three-fourths of the books had been consumed by fire
+       in 1671, that the learned and diligent Casiri was
+       commissioned to make a catalogue of the remainder. The
+       result was the well-known <i>Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana
+       Escurialensis</i>, which appeared in 1760-70; and which, in
+       the words of the present learned translator, "though hasty
+       and superficial, and containing frequent unaccountable
+       blunders, must, with all its imperfections, ever be valuable
+       as affording palpable proof of the literary cultivation of
+       the Spanish Arabs, and as containing the first glimpses of
+       historical truth." Up to
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page432"
+       id="page432"></a>[pg 432]</span> this time the only
+       authority on Spanish history purporting to be drawn from
+       Mohammedan sources, was the work of a Morisco named Miguel
+       de Luna, written by command of the Inquisition; which was
+       first printed at Granada in 1592, and has passed through
+       many editions. Its value may be estimated from its placing
+       the Mohammedan conquest of Spain in the time of Yakub
+       Al-mansor, the actual date of whose reign was from A.D. 1184
+       to 1199; insomuch that Se&ntilde;or de Gayangos suggests, as
+       a possible explanation of its glaring inaccuracies, that it
+       was the writer's intention to hoax his employers. Casiri
+       had, however, opened the door for further researches; and he
+       was followed in the same path by Don Faustino de Borbon,
+       whose works, valuable rather from the erudition which they
+       display than from their judgment or critical acumen, have
+       now become extremely scarce&mdash;and next by Don Antonio
+       Jos&eacute; Cond&eacute;, one of the most zealous and
+       laborious, if not the most accurate, of Spanish
+       orientalists. His "History of the Domination of the Arabs
+       and Moors in Spain," has been generally regarded as of high
+       authority, and is in truth the first work on the subject
+       drawn wholly from Arab sources; but it receives summary
+       condemnation from Se&ntilde;or de Gayangos, for "the uncouth
+       arrangement of the materials, the entire want of critical or
+       explanatory notes, the unaccountable neglect to cite
+       authorities, the numerous repetitions, blunders, and
+       contradictions." These charges are certainly not without
+       foundation; but they are in some measure accounted for by
+       the trouble and penury in which the author's last years were
+       spent, and the unfinished state in which the work was left
+       at his death in 1820.</p>
+
+    <p>An authentic and comprehensive view of the Arab period, as
+    described by their own writers, was therefore still a
+    desideratum in European literature, which the publication
+    before us may be considered as the first step towards
+    supplying. The work of Al-Makkari, which has been taken as a
+    text-book, is not so much an original history as a collection
+    of extracts, sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed in
+    full, from more ancient historians; and frequently giving two
+    or three versions of the same event from different
+    authorities&mdash;so that, though it can claim but little merit
+    as a composition, it is of extreme value as a repository of
+    fragments of authors in many cases now lost; and further, as
+    the only "uninterrupted narrative of the conquests, wars, and
+    settlements of the Spanish Moslems, from their first invasion
+    of the Peninsula to their final expulsion." In the arrangement
+    of his materials, the translator has departed considerably, and
+    with advantage, from the original; giving the historical books
+    in the form of a continuous narrative, and omitting several
+    sections relating to matters of little interest&mdash;while the
+    deficiencies and omissions of the author are supplied by an
+    appendix, containing, in addition to a valuable body of
+    original notes, copious extracts from numerous unpublished
+    Arabic MSS. relating to Spain, which afford ample proof of the
+    extent and diligence of his researches among the Oriental
+    treasures of Paris and London. To those in the Escurial,
+    however, he was denied access during his labours&mdash;an
+    almost incredible measure of illiberality, which, if he be
+    correct in ascribing it to his known intention of publishing in
+    England, "ill suits a country" (as he justly remarks in the
+    preface) "which has lately seen its archives and monastic
+    libraries reduced to cinders, and scattered or sold in foreign
+    markets, without the least struggle to rescue or secure
+    them."</p>
+
+    <p>Ahmed Al-Makkari, the author or compiler of the present
+    work, derived his surname from a village near Telemsan called
+    Makkarah, where his family had been established since the
+    conquest of Africa by the Arabs. He was born at Telemsan some
+    time in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and educated
+    by his uncle, who held the office of Mufti in that city; but
+    having quitted his native country in 1618 on a pilgrimage to
+    Mekka, he married and settled in Cairo. During a visit to
+    Damascus in 1628, he was received with high distinction by
+    Ahmed Ibn Shahin Effendi, the director of the college of Jakmak
+    in that city, and a distinguished patron of literature; at
+    whose suggestion (he tells us) he undertook this work.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page433"
+       id="page433"></a>[pg 433]</span> His original purpose had
+       been only to write the life of Abu Abdullah Lisanuddin, a
+       celebrated historian and minister in Granada, better known
+       to Oriental scholars as Ibnu'l-Khattib; but having completed
+       this, the thought struck him of adding, as a second part, an
+       historical account of the Moslems of Spain. He had formerly
+       written an extensive and elaborate work on this subject,
+       composed (to use his own words) "in such an elevated and
+       pleasing style, that had it been publicly delivered by the
+       common crier, it would have made even the stones
+       deaf:&mdash;but, alas! the whole of this we had left in
+       Maghreb (Morocco) with the rest of our library.... However,
+       we have done our best to make the present work as useful and
+       complete as possible." It was probably the last literary
+       undertaking of his life; since he was on the point of
+       quitting Cairo to fix his residence in Damascus, when he
+       died of a fever in the second Jomada of A.H. 1041, (Jan.
+       1632,) leaving a high reputation as a traditionist and
+       doctor of the Moslem law.</p>
+
+    <p>The introductory chapter gives a sketch of the various
+    nations which inhabited <i>Andalus</i> or Spain before the Arab
+    conquest, prefaced by extracts from numerous writers eulogistic
+    of a country "whose excellences" (as Al-Makkari himself
+    declares) "are such and so many that they cannot easily be
+    contained in a book ... so that one of their wise men, who knew
+    that the country had been called the bird's tail, owing to the
+    supposed resemblance of the earth to a bird with extended
+    wings, remarked that that bird was the peacock, the principal
+    beauty of which was in the tail." These panegyrics are not in
+    all cases exactly consistent; for while the famous geographer,
+    Obeydullah Al-Bekri, "compares his native country to Syria for
+    purity of air and water, to China for mines and precious
+    stones, &amp;c. &amp;c., and to Al-Ahwaz (a district in Persia)
+    <i>for the magnitude of its snakes</i>"&mdash;the Sheikh Ahmed
+    Al-Razi (better known as the historian Razis) praises its
+    comparative freedom from wild beasts and reptiles. The name
+    <i>Andalus</i> is derived by some authors from a great grandson
+    of Noah so named, who settled there soon after the deluge; but
+    Al-Makkari rather inclines, with Ibn Khaldun and other writers,
+    to deduce it from the <i>Andalosh,</i> (Vandals,) "a tribe of
+    barbarians," who appear to be considered as the earliest
+    inhabitants; but who, having incurred the divine wrath by their
+    wickedness and idolatry, were all cut off by a terrible
+    drought, which left the land for a hundred years an uninhabited
+    desert. A colony then arrived from Africa, under a chief named
+    Batrikus, eleven generations of whose descendants reigned for
+    one hundred and fifty-seven years; after which they were all
+    annihilated by the "barbarians of Rome, who invaded and
+    conquered the country; and it was after their king Ishban, son
+    of Titus, that Andalus was called Ishbaniah," (Hispania.) As
+    Ishban is just after said to have "plundered and demolished
+    Ilia, which is the same as Al-Kods the illustrious,"
+    (Jerusalem,) it is obvious that the name must be a corruption
+    of Vespasian, who is thus made the son instead of the father of
+    Titus. We are told that authors differ whether it was on this
+    occasion, or at the former capture of Jerusalem by
+    Bokht-Nasser, (Nebuchadnezzar,) at which a king of Spain named
+    Berian was also present, that the table constructed by the
+    genii for Solomon, and which Tarik afterwards found at Toledo,
+    was transported to Spain&mdash;and Al-Makkari professes
+    himself, as well he may, unable to reconcile the different
+    accounts. Fifty-five kings descended from Ishban, whose race
+    was dispossessed ("about the time of the Messiah, on whom be
+    peace!") by a people called Bishtilikat, (Visigoths?) under a
+    king called Talubush, (Ataulphus?) whom Al-Makkari holds to
+    have been the same people as the "barbarians of Rome," though
+    "there are not wanting authors who make the Goths and the
+    Bishtilikat only one nation." After holding possession during
+    the reigns of twenty-seven monarchs, they were in turn subdued
+    by the Goths, whose royal residence was "Toleyalah, (Toledo,)
+    though Isbiliah (Seville) continued to be the abode of the
+    sciences." The Gothic kings are said to have been
+    thirty-six;&mdash;but the only one particularized by name is
+    "Khoshandinus, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page434"
+       id="page434"></a>[pg 434]</span> (Constantine,) who not only
+       embraced Christianity himself, but called on his subjects to
+       do the same, and is held by the Christians as the greatest
+       king they ever had.... Several kings of his posterity
+       reigned after him, till Andalus was finally subdued by the
+       Arabs, by whose means God was pleased to make manifest the
+       superiority of Islam over every other religion."</p>
+
+    <p>With the Arab, conquest the authentic history commences; and
+    the accounts given from the Moslem writers of this memorable
+    event, which first gave the followers of the Prophet a footing
+    in Europe, differ in no material point from the eloquent
+    narrative of Gibbon. Al-Makkari, however, does not fail to
+    inform us, that predictions had been rife from long past ages,
+    which foretold the invasion and conquest of the country by a
+    fierce people from Africa; and potent were the spells and
+    talismans constructed to ward off the danger, "by the
+    <i>Greek</i> kings who reigned in old times." Several of these
+    are described with due solemnity; and among them we find the
+    tale of the visit paid by Roderic<a id="fn_3_tag3"
+       name="fn_3_tag3"></a><a href="#fn_3_3"><sup>3</sup></a> to
+       the magic tower at Toledo, which has been rendered familiar
+       by the pages of Scott and Southey. We shall not here
+       recapitulate the well-known incidents of the wrongs and
+       revenge of Count Yllan, or Julian, the first landing of
+       Tarif at Tarifa, the second expedition sent by Musa under
+       Tarik Ibn Zeyad, and the death or disappearance of the
+       Gothic king on the fatal day of Guadalete.<a id="fn_3_tag4"
+       name="fn_3_tag4"></a><a href="#fn_3_4"><sup>4</sup></a> So
+       complete was the discomfiture of the Christians, that the
+       kingdom fell, without a second blow, before the victors of a
+       single field; and was overrun with such rapidity, that from
+       the inability of the conquerors to garrison the cities which
+       surrendered, they were entrusted for the time to the guard
+       of the Jews!&mdash;a singular circumstance, which, when
+       coupled with the statement that many of the Berbers (of whom
+       the invading army was almost wholly composed) were recent
+       converts from Judaism,<a id="fn_3_tag5"
+       name="fn_3_tag5"></a><a href="#fn_3_5"><sup>5</sup></a>
+       would apparently imply that the conquest was facilitated by
+       a previous correspondence. The subjugation of the country
+       was completed by the arrival of Musa himself, who reduced
+       Seville and the other towns which still held out, and is
+       even said to have crossed the Pyrenees and sacked
+       Narbonne;<a id="fn_3_tag6"
+       name="fn_3_tag6"></a><a href="#fn_3_6"><sup>6</sup></a> but
+       this is not mentioned by any Christian writer, and is
+       referred by the translator to his invasion of Catalonia,
+       which the Arabs considered as part of "the land of the
+       Franks." After the first fury of conquest had subsided, the
+       Christians who remained in their homes were permitted to
+       live unmolested, on payment of the capitation-tax; but
+       peculiar privileges were accorded to the Jews, and the hold
+       of the Moslems on the country was strengthened by the vast
+       influx of settlers, not only from Africa, but from Syria and
+       Arabia, who were attracted by the reports of the riches and
+       fertility of the new province. Nearly all the tribes of
+       Arabia are enumerated by Al-Makkari as represented in Spain;
+       and the feuds of the two great divisions, the
+       Beni-Modhar<a id="fn_3_tag7"
+       name="fn_3_tag7"></a><a href="#fn_3_7"><sup>7</sup></a> or
+       race of Adnan, and the Beni-Kahttan or Arabs of Yemen, gave
+       rise to most of the civil wars which subsequently desolated
+       Andalus.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page435"
+       id="page435"></a>[pg 435]</span>
+
+    <p>The spoil of the vanquished kingdom was immense&mdash;the
+    accumulation of long years of luxury and freedom from foreign
+    invasion in a country which, both from the fertility of the
+    soil and the abundance of the precious metals, was then
+    probably the richest in Europe. Whatever degree of credit we
+    may attach to the famous table of Solomon, "said by some to be
+    of pure gold, and by others green emerald," and the gems and
+    ornaments of which are described with full Oriental luxuriance,
+    every account referring to the booty acquired in the principal
+    cities, gives ample evidence of the riches and splendour of the
+    Visigoths. "The plunder found at Toledo<a id="fn_3_tag8"
+       name="fn_3_tag8"></a><a href="#fn_3_8"><sup>8</sup></a> was
+       beyond calculation. It was common for the lowest men in the
+       army to find magnificent gold chains, and long strings of
+       pearls and rubies. Among other precious objects were found
+       170 diadems of the purest red gold, set with every sort of
+       precious stone; several measures full of emeralds, rubies,
+       and other gems; and an immense number of gold and silver
+       vases. Such was the eagerness for plunder, and the ignorance
+       of some, especially the Berbers, that when two or more of
+       this nation fell upon an article which they could not
+       conveniently divide, they would cut it in pieces, whatever
+       the material might be, and share it among them." Some of the
+       victorious army seized some ships in the eastern ports, and
+       set sail for their homes with their plunder; but they were
+       speedily overtaken by a tremendous storm, and all perished
+       in the waves&mdash;a manifest token, we are given to
+       understand, of the Divine vengeance for the abandonment of
+       the <i>holy</i> warfare under the banners of Islam.</p>
+
+    <p>Musa was on his march into Galicia to crush the last embers
+    of national resistance, when his progress was checked by a
+    peremptory summons from the Khalif, to answer at Damascus the
+    charges forwarded against him by Tarik, whom he had unjustly
+    disgraced and punished. Being convicted of falsehood, on the
+    production by Tarik of the missing foot of the table of
+    Solomon, the merit of finding which had been claimed by Musa,
+    he was tortured and deprived of his riches; and the head of his
+    gallant son Abdulaziz, whom he had left in command in Spain,
+    was shown to him in public by the Khalif Soliman, the successor
+    of Walid, with the cruel demand if he knew whose it was. "I
+    do," was the father's reply: "it is the head of one who fasted
+    and prayed; may the curse of Allah fall on it if he who slew
+    him is a better man than he!" But though Musa was thus arrested
+    in the last stage of his conquering career, so complete was the
+    prostration of the Christians, that the viceroys who succeeded
+    Abdulaziz, overlooking or disregarding this yet unsubdued
+    corner of Spain, at once poured their forces across the
+    Pyrenees, seeking new fields of conquest and glory in the
+    countries of the Franks. But the antagonists whom they here
+    encountered, unlike the luxurious Goths of Spain, still
+    preserved the barbarian valour which they had brought from
+    their German forests. And As-Samh, (the Zama of the Christian
+    writers,) the first Saracen general who obtained a footing in
+    France, "fell a martyr to the faith," with nearly his whole
+    army, in a battle with Eudo, Duke of Aquitaine, before
+    Toulouse, May 10, A.D. 721. But the fiery zeal of the Moslems
+    was only stimulated by this reverse. In the course of the ten
+    following years, their dominion was established as far as the
+    Rhone and Garonne; till, in 732, the torrent of invasion,
+    headed by the <i>Wali</i> Abdurrahman, burst into the heart of
+    the country; and the battle, decisive of the destinies of
+    France, and perhaps of Europe, was fought between Tours and
+    Poitiers, in October of that year, (Ramadhan, A.H. 114.) Few
+    details are given by the Arab writers of the seven days'
+    conflict, in which the ranks of the Moslems were shattered by
+    the iron arm of Charles Martel;
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page436"
+       id="page436"></a>[pg 436]</span> "and the army of
+       Abdurrahman was cut to pieces at a spot called
+       <i>Balatt-ush-Shohad&aacute;</i>, (the Pavement of the
+       Martyrs,) he himself being in the number of the slain." Some
+       confusion here appears, as the same epithet had been applied
+       to the former battle near Toulouse; but this "disastrous
+       day" of Tours virtually extinguished the schemes of Arab
+       conquest in France, though it was not till many years later
+       that they were completely dislodged from Narbonne, and their
+       other acquisitions between the Garrone and the Pyrenees.</p>
+
+    <p>Meanwhile the Christian remnant, left unmolested in the
+    Asturian and Galician mountains, gradually recovered courage:
+    and in 717-18, "a despicable barbarian," (as he is termed by
+    Ibn Hayyan, a writer often cited by Al-Makkari,) "named Belay,
+    (Pelayo or Pelagius,) rose in Galicia; and from that moment the
+    Christians began to resist the Moslems, and to defend their
+    wives and daughters; for till then they had not shown the least
+    inclination to do so." "Would to God," piously subjoins
+    Al-Makkari, "that the Moslems had then extinguished at once the
+    sparkles of a fire destined to consume their whole dominion in
+    those parts! But they said&mdash;'What are thirty barbarians,
+    perched on a rock? they must inevitably die!'" The spark, which
+    contained the germ of the future independence of Spain, was
+    thus suffered to remain and spread, while the swords of the
+    Moslems were occupied in France; and its growth was further
+    favoured by the anarchy and civil dissensions which broke out
+    among the conquerors. While the leaders of the different Arab
+    factions contested, sword in hand, the viceroyalty of Spain,
+    the Berbers (whose conversion to Islam was apparently yet but
+    imperfect) rose in furious revolt both in Spain and Africa, and
+    were only overpowered by a fresh army sent by the Khalif Hisham
+    from Syria. But the arrival of these reinforcements added new
+    fuel to the old feuds of the Beni-Modhar, and the Yemenis or
+    Beni-Kahttan; and a desperate civil war raged till 746, when
+    the Khalif's lieutenant, the Emir Abu'l-Khattar, who supported
+    the Yemenis, was killed in a pitched battle fought near
+    Cordova. The leader of the victorious tribe, Yusuf
+    Al-Fehri,<a id="fn_3_tag9"
+       name="fn_3_tag9"></a><a href="#fn_3_9"><sup>9</sup></a> now
+       assumed supreme power, which he exercised nearly ten years
+       as an independent ruler, without reference to the court of
+       Damascus. The state of affairs in the East, indeed, left
+       little leisure to the Umeyyan khalifs to attend to the
+       regulation of a remote province. Their throne was already
+       tottering before the arms and intrigues of the Abbasides,
+       whose black banners, under the guidance of the formidable
+       Abu-Moslem, were even now bearing down from Khorassan upon
+       Syria. The unpopular cause of the Beni-Umeyyah, who were
+       detested for the murder of the grandsons of the Prophet
+       under the second of their line, was lost in a single battle;
+       and the death of Merwan, the last khalif of the race, was
+       followed by the unsparing proscription of the whole family.
+       "Every where they were seized and put to death without
+       mercy; and few escaped the search made by the emissaries of
+       As-Seffah, (<i>the bloodshedder</i>, the surname of the
+       first Abbaside khalif,) in every province of the
+       empire."</p>
+
+    <p>Among the few survivors of the general doom, was a youth
+    named Abdurrahman Ibn Muawiyah, a grandson of the Khalif
+    Hisham. In his infancy his granduncle Moslemah, the leader of
+    the first Saracen host sent against Constantinople, had
+    indicated him, from certain marks, as the destined restorer of
+    the fallen fortunes of his race; and he was preserved, by a
+    timely warning from a client of his house, from the fatal
+    banquet, in which ninety of the Beni-Umeyyah were treacherously
+    massacred. Yet so hot was the pursuit, that his younger brother
+    was taken and slain before his eyes, while swimming the
+    Euphrates with him in their flight. But Abdurrahman, after
+    numberless perils and adventures, at
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page437"
+       id="page437"></a>[pg 437]</span> length reached Africa,
+       which was ruled by the <i>wali</i> or viceroy Abdurrahman
+       Ibn Habib, the father of Yusuf Al-Fehri, who had been a
+       personal retainer of his family. But he soon found that he
+       had erred in trusting to the faith of Ibn Habib; and, after
+       narrowly escaping the search made for him by the emissaries
+       of the governor, lay concealed for several years, a fugitive
+       and outlaw, among the tribes of Northern Africa. In this
+       extremity, he at length cast his eyes on Spain, where the
+       Abbasides had never been recognized, and where his own
+       clansmen of the Koreysh, with their <i>maulis</i>, (freedmen
+       or clients,) were numerous and powerful. The overtures of
+       the royal adventurer were eagerly listened to by the
+       Yemenis, who burned to revenge their late defeat on the
+       Beni-Modhar; and Abdurrahman, landing at Al-mu&ntilde;ecar
+       in the autumn of 755, found himself instantly at the head of
+       700 horse, and was speedily joined by the chieftain of the
+       Yemenis, who admitted him into Seville. During the march the
+       want of a banner was remarked, "and a long spear was
+       produced, on the point of which a turban was to be placed;
+       but as it would have been necessary to incline the head of
+       the spear, which was supposed to be of extremely bad omen,
+       it was held erect between two olive trees, and a man,
+       ascending one of them, was enabled to fasten the turban to
+       the spear without lowering it.... With this same banner did
+       Abdurrahman, and his son Hisham, vanquish their enemies
+       whenever they met them; and in such veneration was it held,
+       that whenever the turban by long use decayed, it was not
+       removed, but a new one placed over it. In this manner it was
+       preserved till the days of Abdurrahman II.; some say till
+       the days of his son Mohammed, when the turban on the spear
+       being decayed, the vizirs of that monarch, seeing nothing
+       under it but a few rags twisted round the spear, gave orders
+       for their removal, and the whole was thrown away.... 'From
+       that time,' remarks the judicious historian Ibn Hayyan, 'the
+       empire of the Beni-Umeyyah began visibly to decline.'"</p>
+
+    <p>Under the auspices of this novel <i>oriflamme</i> the
+    Umeyyan prince and his followers advanced upon Cordova, whither
+    Yusuf Al-Fehri, who had been engaged in suppressing an
+    insurrection in the <i>Thagher</i>, (Aragon,) had hastened to
+    oppose them at the head of the Beni-Modhar. Exchanging for a
+    mule the fiery courser which the jealous whispers of his
+    adherents had remarked as designed to secure his escape in case
+    of defeat, Abdurrahman led his troops to the attack; and his
+    victory established on the throne of Spain a new dynasty of the
+    Beni-Umeyyah, "who thus regained in the west the supremacy
+    which they had lost in the east." Those of the fallen family
+    who had escaped the general massacre, flocked to the court of
+    their fortunate kinsman, "to all of whom he gave pensions,
+    commands, and governments, by which means his empire was
+    strengthened;"&mdash;and the robes and turbans of the monarch
+    and the princes were always white, the colour assumed by the
+    house of Umeyyah, in opposition to the black livery of their
+    rivals. Though Abdurrahman never assumed the title of commander
+    of the faithful, he suppressed the <i>khotbah</i> or public
+    prayers in the name of the Abbasides; and when Al-Ala, the
+    <i>wali</i> of Africa, invaded Spain in order to re-establish
+    the supremacy of the eastern khalif, the head of his
+    unsuccessful general, thrown before the tent of Al-mansor at
+    Mekka, conveyed to him the first tidings of the destruction of
+    the armament by the "hawk of the Koreysh," as he was wont to
+    term Abdurrahman. In the elation of triumph from this success,
+    he is even said to have contemplated marching through Africa to
+    attack Al-mansor in the east; but this design was frustrated by
+    the continual rebellions of the Arab tribes, whom all his
+    address and prudence was unable to keep in order; and "while
+    the Moslems were revolting against their sovereign, the
+    Christians of Galicia gathered strength, took possession of the
+    towns and fortresses on the frontier, and expelled their
+    inhabitants." We find him at length obliged, in order to
+    maintain his authority, to have recourse to the system, which
+    in the next century became universal in the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page438"
+       id="page438"></a>[pg 438]</span> east, of entrusting the
+       defence of his throne and person, not to the native levies
+       of his kingdom, but to a standing army of purchased slaves
+       or <i>Mamlukes</i>. "He began to cease all communication
+       with the chiefs of the Arabian tribes, whom he found
+       animated with a strong hatred against him, and to surround
+       himself with slaves and people entirely devoted to him; for
+       which end he engaged followers and took clients from every
+       province of his empire, and sent over to Africa to enlist
+       Berbers. 'Thus,' says Ibn Hayyan, 'Abdurrahman collected an
+       army of slaves and Berbers, amounting to upwards of 40,000
+       men, by means of whom he always remained victorious, in
+       every contest with the Arabian tribes of Andalus.'"</p>
+
+    <p>The sciences and fine arts, which had been almost banished
+    from Spain since the conquest, returned in the train of the new
+    dynasty; and literature was encouraged by the example of
+    Abdurrahman, who was himself a poet of no mean merit. His
+    affectionate remembrance of his Syrian home, led him to
+    introduce into his new kingdom the flowers and fruits of the
+    east;&mdash;and the palm-tree, which was the parent of all
+    those of its kind in Spain, and to which he addressed the
+    well-known lines, lamenting their common fate as exiles from
+    their fatherland, was planted by himself in the gardens of the
+    Riss&aacute;fah, a country palace built on the model of one
+    near Damascus, in which the first years of his life had been
+    spent. In architectural magnificence he rivaled or surpassed
+    the former princes of his race, the monuments of whose grandeur
+    still exist in the mosque of the Beni-Umeyyah at Damascus, and
+    other edifices adorning the cities of Syria. The palaces and
+    aqueducts which he constructed in Cordova, testified his zeal
+    for the splendour, as well as his care for the salubrity, of
+    his capital;&mdash;and after expending the sum of 80,000 golden
+    <i>dinars</i> (the produce of the royal fifth of all spoil
+    taken in war) in the erection of the stately mosque which bears
+    his name, he bequeathed the completion of the structure, at his
+    death, A.D. 788, to his younger son Hisham, whom he nominated
+    as his successor, to the exclusion of the elder brother
+    Soliman. Al-Makkari devotes an entire chapter to the wonders of
+    this celebrated temple, which was finished A.D. 794, nine years
+    after its commencement, and received additions from almost
+    every successive sovereign of the house of Umeyyah. In its
+    present state, as the cathedral of Cordova, it still covers
+    more ground than any church in Christendom; but the inner roof,
+    with its elaborate carving, the <i>mihrab</i>, or shrine, of
+    minute inlaid work of ivory, gems, and precious woods, and
+    containing a copy of the Koran which had belonged to the Khalif
+    Othman&mdash;the embossed plates of gold and silver which
+    encrusted the doors, and the apples of the same metals which
+    surmounted the dome&mdash;have long since disappeared; and the
+    thousand (or, as some say, thirteen hundred) columns of
+    polished marble which it once boasted, have been grievously
+    reduced in number, to make room for the shrines and chapels of
+    Christian saints. The unequal length and proportions of those
+    which remain, their irregular grouping, and the want of height
+    in the roof which they support, indicate a far lower grade of
+    architectural taste than that which we find in the aerial
+    palaces of Granada; but all the Arabic writers who have
+    described it, concur in considering it one of the wonders of
+    the world; and it ranked, in the estimation of the Spanish
+    Moslems, as inferior in point of sanctity to none but the
+    Kaaba, and the mosque of Omar at Jerusalem.</p>
+
+    <p>The mood of the Beni-Umeyyah, who appear in their eastern
+    reign only as gloomy and execrated tyrants, had been chastened
+    by their misfortunes; and the virtues of Abdurrahman
+    <i>Ad-dakhel</i> (<i>the enterer or conqueror</i>, as he is
+    generally termed by historians) were emulated by his
+    descendants. As an illustration of the character of his son
+    Hisham, it is related by Al-Makkari, that on hearing that the
+    people of Cordova said, that his only motive in restoring the
+    great bridge over the Guadalquivir was to pass over it himself
+    when he went out hunting, he bound himself by a solemn vow
+    never to cross it again as long as he lived; but the reign of
+    this beneficent prince lasted only eight years. His
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page439"
+       id="page439"></a>[pg 439]</span> immediate successors,
+       Al-hakem I., and Abdurrahman II., were almost constantly
+       engaged in warfare, either against their own rebellious
+       relatives and revolted subjects,<a id="fn_3_tag10"
+       name="fn_3_tag10"></a><a href="#fn_3_10"><sup>10</sup></a>
+       or against the Christians of Galicia, who, by the middle of
+       the ninth century, had advanced their frontier to the Douro
+       and repeatedly repulsed the armies sent against them from
+       Cordova; but we find no mention in the writers cited by
+       Al-Makkari, either of the annual tribute of a hundred
+       virgins, popularly said to have been exacted by the Moslems,
+       or of the great victory in 846, by which King Ramiro
+       redeemed his country from this degrading badge of
+       vassalage.<a id="fn_3_tag11"
+       name="fn_3_tag11"></a><a href="#fn_3_11"><sup>11</sup></a>
+       So widely extended was the martial renown of the Umeyyan
+       sovereigns, that in 839 a suppliant embassy was received by
+       Abdurrahman II. from the Greek Emperor <i>Tufilus</i>,
+       (Theophilus,) then hard pressed by the arms of the Abbaside
+       khalif Al-mutassem, to solicit his aid against their common
+       enemy; and, though Abdurrahman declined to embark in this
+       distant and hazardous enterprise, a friendly intercourse
+       long continued to be kept up between the courts of Cordova
+       and Constantinople. The military establishment was fully
+       organized, and placed on a formidable footing. Besides the
+       troops quartered in the provinces and receiving regular pay,
+       the <i>haras</i> or royal guard of Mamlukes, whose commander
+       was one of the principal officers of the court, was
+       augmented to 5000 horse and 1000 foot, all Christians or
+       foreigners by birth, who occupied barracks close to the
+       royal palace, and constantly mounted guard at the gates. The
+       coast was also defended by a powerful fleet of armed
+       vessels, of which each of the seaports fitted out its
+       proportion, against the hostile attacks of the Abbaside
+       lieutenauts of Africa, and the predatory descents of the
+       <i>Majus</i><a id="fn_3_tag12"
+       name="fn_3_tag12"></a><a href="#fn_3_12"><sup>12</sup></a>
+       or Northmen; who, after laying waste with fire and sword the
+       French and English coasts, had extended their ravages into
+       the southern seas even to the Straits of Gibraltar. Lisbon
+       and Seville were sacked by them in 844; and their piratical
+       fleets continued for many years to carry pillage and
+       bloodshed along the shores of the Peninsula.</p>
+
+    <p>The simplicity which the first Abdurrahman had uniformly
+    preserved in his dress and habits of life, was soon exchanged
+    by his successors for royal magnificence, rivaling that of the
+    Abbaside court at Bagdad. It was Abdurrahman II. who, in a love
+    quarrel with a beautiful inmate of his harem, caused the door
+    of her chamber to be blocked up with bags of silver coin, to be
+    removed on her relenting&mdash;"and she threw herself on her
+    knees and kissed his feet; but," na&iuml;vely adds the Arab
+    historian, "the money she kept, and no portion of it ever
+    returned to the treasury." The same prince testified his esteem
+    for the fine arts, by riding forth in state from his capital,
+    to welcome the arrival of Zaryab, a far-famed musician, whom
+    the jealousy of a rival had driven from Bagdad, and who founded
+    in Spain a famous school of music; and in his convivial habits,
+    and the freedom which he allowed to the companions of his
+    festive hours, his character accords with that assigned in the
+    <i>Thousand and One Nights</i>, though not in the page of
+    history, to Haroon-Al-Rasheed. He died in 852, leaving the
+    crown to his son Mohammed, whose reign, as well as those of his
+    two sons Almundhir and Abdullah, who filled the throne in
+    succession, is but briefly noticed by Al-Makkari, though
+    Se&ntilde;or de Gayangos has supplied some valuable additional
+    matter in his notes. The never-ceasing contest
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page440"
+       id="page440"></a>[pg 440]</span> with the Christians was
+       waged year by year; and the Princes of Oviedo, though often
+       defeated in the plain and driven back into their mountains,
+       when the forces of Andalus were gathered against them; yet
+       surely, though slowly, gained ground against the provincial
+       <i>walis</i> or viceroys. At the death of "Ordhun Ibn
+       Adefunsh," (Ordo&ntilde;o I.) in 866, their territory
+       extended from the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay to
+       Salamanca; and the Moslem power was diverted by the rising
+       strength of Navarre, where the Basques had shaken off the
+       divided allegiance paid alternately to the court of Cordova
+       and the Carlovingian rulers of France, and conferred on
+       Garcia-Ramirez, in 857, an independent regal title. But
+       these distant hostilities, as yet, little affected the
+       tranquillity of the seat of government, which was more
+       nearly interested in the frequent revolts of the provinces
+       under its rule,<a id="fn_3_tag13"
+       name="fn_3_tag13"></a><a href="#fn_3_13"><sup>13</sup></a>
+       and particularly by the rebellion of the <i>Muwallads</i>,
+       (or descendants of Christian converts to Islam;) which,
+       though the information extant respecting it is somewhat
+       scanty, would appear to have been little less than a
+       struggle between the two races for the dominion of Spain.
+       One of the Muwallad chiefs, named Omar Ibn
+       Hafssun,<a id="fn_3_tag14"
+       name="fn_3_tag14"></a><a href="#fn_3_14"><sup>14</sup></a>
+       maintained for years a sort of semi-independence in the
+       Alpuxarras. Al-mundhir fell in a skirmish against him in
+       888, only two years after his accession; and the
+       insurrection, after continuing through the whole reign of
+       Abdullah, was only finally suppressed under Abdurrahman
+       III.</p>
+
+    <p>The system of government under these princes, appears to
+    have remained in nearly the same form as it had been fixed by
+    Abdurrahman I. The monarch nominated, during his lifetime, one
+    of his sons as his successor; and the <i>wali-al-ahd</i>, or
+    crown-prince, thus selected, received the oaths of allegiance
+    of the dignitaries of the state, and was admitted to a share in
+    the administration&mdash;a wise regulation, which prevented the
+    recurrence of the civil wars arising from the ambition of
+    princes of the blood, which had distracted the reigns of
+    Al-hakem I. and Abdurrahman II. The council of the sovereign
+    was composed of the <i>vizirs</i> or ministers of the different
+    departments, the <i>katibs</i> or secretaries, and the chiefs
+    of the law; the <i>walis</i> of the six great provinces into
+    which Abdurrahman I. divided his empire,<a id="fn_3_tag15"
+       name="fn_3_tag15"></a><a href="#fn_3_15"><sup>15</sup></a>
+       as well as the municipal chiefs of the principal cities were
+       also summoned on emergencies:&mdash;while the prime
+       minister, or highest officer of the state, in whom, as in
+       the Turkish <i>Vizir-Azem</i>,<a id="fn_3_tag16"
+       name="fn_3_tag16"></a><a href="#fn_3_16"><sup>16</sup></a>
+       the supreme direction of both civil and military affairs was
+       vested, was designated the <i>Hajib</i> or chamberlain. Of
+       the four orthodox<a id="fn_3_tag17"
+       name="fn_3_tag17"></a><a href="#fn_3_17"><sup>17</sup></a>
+       sects of the Soonis, the one which predominated in Spain, as
+       it does to the present day in Barbary and Africa, was that
+       of Malik Ibn Ans, whose doctrines were introduced in the
+       reign of Al-hakem I., by doctors who had received
+       instruction from the lips of the Imam Malik himself at
+       Mekka; and was formally established by that prince
+       throughout his dominions. The judicial offices were filled,
+       as in other Moslem countries, by Kadis, whose decisions were
+       regulated by the precepts of the Koran: but we find no
+       mention (even before the assumption of the titles of Imam
+       and Khalif by Abdurrahman III.) of any supreme
+       ecclesiastical chief like the Sheikh-al-Islam or Mufti of
+       the Ottomans;&mdash;though there were chief justices
+       analogous to the Turkish Kadileskers, who bore the title of
+       <i>Kadi-'l-jamah</i>.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page441"
+       id="page441"></a>[pg 441]</span>
+
+    <p>The royal revenue was derived from a variety of sources. The
+    principal were, a land-tax amounting to one-tenth of the
+    produce of the soil and the mines, the capitation-tax paid by
+    the Jews and Christians, and the fifth of the spoil taken from
+    the enemy&mdash;an enormously productive item in a time of
+    constant warfare&mdash;besides a duty of two and a half per
+    cent on all exports and imports. These were the legitimate dues
+    of the crown, sanctioned by the Koran; but the splendid court
+    maintained by the later sovereigns of Cordova, their lavish
+    expenditure in building, and their large military and naval
+    establishments, often compelled them to have recourse to
+    irregular methods of raising money, by forced loans and by
+    duties laid on different articles of food, in direct violation
+    of the Moslem law. The amount raised by all these means varied
+    greatly at different periods. Under Abdurrahman II., the whole
+    direct revenue is said not to have exceeded 1,000,000 of gold
+    <i>din&#257;rs</i>:&mdash;but the royal fifths, and other
+    extraordinary sources of income, appear not to have been
+    included in this estimate:&mdash;and a century later, under the
+    third and greatest prince of that name, we are told, on the
+    authority of the biographer Ibn Khallekan, that "the revenues
+    of Andalus amounted to 5,480,000 gold <i>din&#257;rs</i>,
+    collected from taxes," (it is elsewhere said from the
+    <i>land</i>-tax:) besides 765,000 derived from
+    markets&mdash;exclusive also of the royal fifth of the spoil,
+    and the capitation-tax levied on Christians and Jews living in
+    the Moslem dominions, the amount of which is said to have
+    equaled all the rest. An annual sum of equal amount, reckoning
+    the <i>din&#257;r</i> at ten shillings, had never in the
+    history of the world been raised in a territory of the same
+    extent, and probably equaled the united incomes of all the
+    Christian princes in Europe&mdash;if we except the revenue of
+    the Greek Emperor, it certainly far exceeded them. "Of this
+    vast income," Ibn Khallekan continues, "one-third was
+    appropriated to the payment of the army, another third was
+    deposited in the royal coffers to cover the expenses of the
+    household, and the remainder was spent yearly in the
+    construction of Az-zahra and such other buildings as were
+    erected under his reign." This tripartite allotment of the
+    revenue is alluded to under several reigns: the expenses of
+    administration and the salaries of the civil functionaries were
+    included under the second head; and the third portion was, in
+    ordinary case, reserved "to repel invasions and meet
+    emergencies."</p>
+
+    <p>The prince under whom the vast revenue thus stated is said
+    to have been collected, ascended the throne on the death of his
+    grandfather Abdullah, in the 300th year of the Hejra, and the
+    912th of the Christian era:&mdash;and his reign, of more than
+    fifty lunar years, saw the power and splendour of the Umeyyan
+    dynasty attain its zenith. For some years after his accession,
+    he headed his armies in person against the Christians and the
+    partizans of Ibn Hafssun, who still continued in arms: but the
+    severe defeat which he received in 939 at Simaneas, near
+    Zamora, (called by Moslem writers the battle of Al-handik,)
+    from Ramiro II. of Leon, disgusted him with active warfare; and
+    he deputed the command of his armies to his generals and the
+    princes of the blood, who, in annual campaigns, so effectually
+    kept the Christians within their limits, that little
+    territorial acquisition was made by them during his reign;
+    while the voluntary adhesion of the Berber tribes, after the
+    overthrow of the Edrisite dynasty in 941 by the arms of the
+    Fatimite khalifs, gave him almost unresisted possession of
+    great part of Fez and Morocco. The defeat of Al-handik, and the
+    treason and execution in 950, of his elder son Abdullah, (whom
+    disappointment at being postponed to his younger brother in the
+    succession, had led to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page442"
+       id="page442"></a>[pg 442]</span> conspire against his
+       father's life,) were almost the only clouds which dimmed the
+       continual sunshine of his prosperity&mdash;and his grandeur
+       was enhanced in the eyes of his subjects, by the assumption
+       of the highest prerogatives of Islam. Hitherto the princes
+       of his line had contented themselves with the style of
+       <i>Amirs of the Moslems,</i> and <i>Beni-Kholaifah</i> or
+       "sons of the Khalifs;" but in 929, "seeing the state of
+       weakness and degradation to which the khalifate of the
+       Beni-Abbas at Bagdad had been reduced," he no longer
+       hesitated to adopt the titles of Imam and Khalif, with the
+       appellation of An-nasir Ledinillah, (defender of the
+       religion of God,) under which he is generally mentioned by
+       historians.</p>
+
+    <p>The writers from whom Al-Makkari has drawn his materials,
+    exhaust their powers of language in panegyrics on the unrivaled
+    magnificence of the court of Abdurrahman; which was thronged
+    both by men of letters whom the distracted state of the East
+    had driven thither for refuge, and by ambassadors, not only
+    from the princes of Islam, but from "Hoto the king of the
+    Alaman," (Otho the Great of Germany,) the king of France, and
+    numerous other Christian potentates. The reception of these
+    missions was usually signalized by a gorgeous display of the
+    pomp of the court&mdash;and the ceremonial on the arrival in
+    949 of the envoys of Constantine VII. of Constantinople, is
+    described at length from Ibn Hayyan. "The vaulted hall in his
+    palace of Az-zahra, which he had fixed upon as the place where
+    he would receive their credentials, was beautifully decorated,
+    and a throne glittering with gold and sparkling with gems
+    raised in the midst. To the right of the throne stood five of
+    the khalif's sons, to the left three others, one being absent
+    from illness. Next to them were the vizirs, each at his post on
+    the right or left of the throne. Then came the hajibs or
+    chamberlains, the sons of the vizirs, the freed slaves of the
+    khalif, and the wakils or officers of his household. The court
+    of the palace had been strewn with the richest carpets; and
+    silken awnings of the most gorgeous description had every where
+    been thrown over the doors and arches. Presently the
+    ambassadors entered the hall, and were struck with awe at the
+    magnificence displayed, and the power of the Sultan before whom
+    they stood. They advanced a few steps, and presented the letter
+    of their master, Constantine son of Leo, Lord of Constantinah
+    the Great, (Constantinople.) It was written on sky-blue paper,
+    and the characters were of gold. Within the letter was an
+    enclosure, the ground of which was also sky-blue like the
+    first, but the characters were of silver: it was likewise
+    written in Greek, and contained a list of the presents which
+    the Lord of Constantinah sent to the Khalif. On the letter was
+    a seal of gold of the weight of four mithkals, on one side of
+    which was a likeness of the Messiah, and on the other those of
+    the King Constantine and his son. The letter was enclosed in a
+    bag of silver cloth, over which was a case of gold, with a
+    portrait of King Constantine admirably executed on stained
+    glass. All this was enclosed in a case covered with cloth of
+    silk and gold tissue. On the first line of the <i>Inwan</i> or
+    introduction was written, 'Constantine and Romanin, (Romanus,)
+    believers in the Messiah, kings of the Greeks;' and in the
+    next, 'To the great and exalted in dignity and power, as he
+    most deserves, the noble in descent, Abdurrahman the khalif,
+    who rules over the Arabs of Andalus: may God preserve his
+    life!'" The conclusion of this splendid ceremony was, however,
+    less imposing than the commencement; for a learned
+    <i>Faquih</i>, who had been appointed to harangue the envoys in
+    a set speech, was so overawed by the grandeur around him, that
+    "his tongue clove to his mouth, he could not aticulate a single
+    word, and fell senseless to the ground" Nor did his successor,
+    "who was reputed to be a prince in rhetoric, and an ocean of
+    language," fare much better; for though he began fluently, "all
+    of a sudden he stopped for want of a word which did not occur
+    to him, and thus put an end to his peroration." In this awkward
+    dilemma, the reputation of the Andalusian rhetoricians was
+    saved by Mundhir Ibn Said, who not only poured forth a torrent
+    of impromptu eloquence, but delivered a long ex-tempore
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page443"
+       id="page443"></a>[pg 443]</span> poem, "which to this day
+       stands unequalled; and Abdurrahman was so pleased, that he
+       appointed him preacher and Imam to the great mosque; and
+       some time after, the office of Kadi-'l-jamah, or supreme
+       judge, being vacant, he named him to that high post, and
+       made him besides reader of the Khoran to the mosque of
+       Az-zahra."</p>
+
+    <p>The palace of Az-zahra, where the eyes of the Greeks were
+    dazzled by this costly pageant, is one of the familiar names of
+    the romance of Spanish history:&mdash;it is known to all the
+    world how Abdurrahman, to gratify the capricious fancy of a
+    beautiful and beloved mistress, expended millions, and tasked
+    the labour of thousands, in erecting on the plain beyond
+    Cordova a fairy palace and city which might bear her name and
+    be her own. And like a fairy fabric did Az-zahra vanish; for so
+    utterly was it destroyed, during the wars and civil tumults
+    attending the fall of the race which raised it, that at the
+    present day not a stone can be found, not a vestige even of the
+    foundations traced, to show where it once stood; and all that
+    we know of this "wondrous freak of magnificence" is drawn from
+    the glowing accounts of contemporary writers, who saw it during
+    the brief period of its glory. It is principally from Ibn
+    Hayyan that Al-Makkari has copied the details of this
+    marvellous structure, with its "15,000 doors, counting each
+    flap or fold as one," all covered either with plates of iron,
+    or sheets of polished brass; and its 4000 columns, great and
+    small, 140 of which were presented by the Emperor of
+    Constantinople, and 1013, mostly of green and rose-coloured
+    marble, were brought from various parts of Africa. Among the
+    principal ornaments were two fountains brought from
+    Constantinople, "the larger of gilt bronze, beautifully carved
+    with basso-relieve representing human figures,"&mdash;the
+    smaller surrounded by twelve figures, made of red gold in the
+    arsenal of Cordova: they were all ornamented with jewels, and
+    the water poured out of their mouths. The famous fountain of
+    quicksilver, which could be set in motion at pleasure, was
+    placed in the <i>Kasr-al-Kholaifa</i>, or hall of the khalifs,
+    "the roof and walls of which were of gold, and solid but
+    transparent blocks of marble of various colours: on each side
+    were eight doors fixed on arches of ivory and ebony, ornamented
+    with gold and precious stones, and resting on pillars of
+    variegated marble and transparent crystal:&mdash;and in the
+    centre was fixed the unique pearl presented to An-nassir by the
+    Greek Emperor." The mosque and baths attached to the palace
+    were on a corresponding scale of magnificence: and the number
+    of inmates, male and female, is said to have been not less than
+    20,000. The expenses of the establishment must have consumed
+    the revenues of a kingdom, if we are to believe the statement,
+    that 12,000 loaves of bread were daily allowed to feed the fish
+    in the ponds! "But all this and more is recorded by orators and
+    poets who have exhausted the mines of eloquence in the
+    description,"&mdash;says Al-Makkari, who, after enlarging upon
+    "the running streams, the luxuriant gardens, the stately
+    buildings for the accommodation of the guards and high
+    functionaries&mdash;the throngs of soldiers, pages, eunuchs,
+    and slaves, attired in robes of silk and brocade, moving to and
+    fro through its broad streets&mdash;and the crowds of judges,
+    katibs, theologians, and poets, walking with becoming gravity
+    through the spacious halls and ample courts of the
+    palace,"&mdash;concludes with a burst of pious enthusiasm.
+    "Praise be to God who allowed those contemptible creatures
+    (mankind) to build such palaces, and to inhabit them as a
+    recompense in this world, that the faithful might be stimulated
+    to the path of virtue, by reflecting that the pleasures enjoyed
+    by their owners were still very far from giving even a remote
+    idea of those reserved for the true believers in paradise!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Abdurrahman," as Al-Makkari sums up his character, "has
+    been described as the mildest and most enlightened of
+    sovereigns. His meekness, generosity, and love of justice,
+    became proverbial: none of his ancestors surpased him in
+    courage, zeal for religion, and other virtues which constitute
+    an able and beloved monarch. He was fond of science, and the
+    patron of the learned, with whom he
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page444"
+       id="page444"></a>[pg 444]</span> loved to converse.... We
+       should never finish, were we to transcribe the innumerable
+       anecdotes respecting him which are scattered like loose
+       pearls over the writings of the Andalusian poets and
+       historians,"&mdash;but as the "pearls" selected possess but
+       little novelty in the illustration of the kingly virtues
+       which they commemorate, we prefer to quote once more the
+       oft-repeated legacy to posterity, in which this "Soliman of
+       the West," as he was called by his contemporaries, confessed
+       that, like his eastern prototype, he had found all his
+       grandeur "but vanity and vexation of spirit."&mdash;"After
+       his death a paper was found in his on handwriting, in which
+       were noted those days he had spent in happiness and without
+       any cause of sorrow, and they were found to amount to
+       fourteen. O, man of understanding! consider and observe the
+       small portion of happiness the world affords, even in the
+       most enviable position! The khalif An-nasir, whose
+       prosperity in mundane affairs became proverbial, had only
+       fourteen days of undisturbed enjoyment during a reign of
+       fifty years, seven months, and three days. Praise be given
+       to him, the Lord of eternal glory and everlasting empire!
+       There is no God but he!"</p>
+
+    <p>In the fulness of years and glory, Abdurrahman died of a
+    paralytic stroke at Az-zahra, on the second or third of
+    Ramadhan, A.H. 350, (Oct. 961,) and was succeeded, according to
+    his previous nomination, by his son Al-hakem II., who assumed
+    on this occasion the title of Al-mustanser-billah, (one who
+    implores God's assistance.) This prince has been characterized,
+    by one of the ablest of recent historians,<a id="fn_3_tag18"
+       name="fn_3_tag18"></a><a href="#fn_3_18"><sup>18</sup></a>
+       as "one of those rare beings, who have employed the awful
+       engine of despotism in promoting the happiness and
+       intelligence of his species;" and who rivaled, "in his
+       elegant tastes, appetite for knowledge, and munificent
+       patronage, the best of the Medici:"&mdash;nor is this high
+       praise undeserved. Though he more than once headed his
+       armies in person, with success, against the Christians and
+       Northmen, and maintained on public occasions the state and
+       magnificence which had been introduced by his father, the
+       toils of war and the pomp of royalty were alike alien to his
+       inclinations, which had been directed from his earliest
+       years to pursuits of literature and science. The library
+       which he amassed is said by some writers to have amounted to
+       the almost incredible number of 400,000 volumes: and such
+       was his ardour in the collection of books, that even in
+       Persia and other remote regions, the munificence which he
+       exercised through agents employed for the purpose, secured
+       him copies of forthcoming works even before their appearance
+       in their own country. "He made Andalus a great market for
+       the literary productions of every clime ... so that rich men
+       in Cordova, however illiterate they might be, rewarded
+       writers and poets with the greatest munificence, and spared
+       neither trouble nor expense in forming libraries." Nor were
+       these treasures of literature idly accumulated, at least by
+       Al-hakem himself; for so vast and various was his reading,
+       that there was scarcely one of his books (as we are assured
+       by the historian Ibn'ul-Abbar) which was not enriched with
+       remarks and annotations from his pen. "In the knowledge
+       especially of history, biography, and genealogy, he was
+       surpassed by no living author of his days: and he wrote a
+       voluminous history of Andalus, in which was displayed such
+       sound criticism, that whatever he related, as borrowed from
+       more ancient sources, might be implicitly relied upon."</p>
+
+    <p>The reign of Al-hakem was the Augustan age of Andalusian
+    literature; and besides the numerous learned men whom the fame
+    of his father's and his own liberality, with the security of
+    their rule, had attracted to Spain from other regions of Islam,
+    we find in the pages of Al-Makkari an extensive list of native
+    authors, principally in the departments of poetry, history, and
+    philology, who are said to be "a few only of the most eminent
+    who flourished during this reign"&mdash;but none of their
+    names, however noted in their own day, are known in
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page445"
+       id="page445"></a>[pg 445]</span> modern Europe. Nor was the
+       gentler sex, as is usually the case in the lands of Islam,
+       excluded from the general taste for letters; and one of our
+       author's chapters is almost entirely filled with a catalogue
+       of the poetesses who adorned Andalus at this and other
+       periods of its history. One of these, Mariam or Mary, the
+       daughter of Abu-Yakub Al-ansari, who rose into celebrity in
+       the latter years of Al-hakem, appears to have been one of
+       the earliest <i>bas-bleus</i> on record. Independent of her
+       poetical talents, she gave lectures at her residence at
+       Seville "in rhetoric and literature; which, united to her
+       piety, virtue, and amiable disposition, gained her the
+       affection of her sex, and procured her many pupils: she
+       lived to old age, and died after the 400th year of the
+       Hejra," (A.D. 1010.) The favourite study of the Moslems, the
+       divinity and law of the Koran, was cultivated with especial
+       zeal under a monarch who was himself a rigid observer of its
+       ordinances; and various anecdotes are related by Al-Makkari
+       of the extraordinary deference paid by Al-hakem to the
+       eminent theologians who frequented his court. The Khalif
+       himself "attended public worship every Friday, and
+       distributed alms to the poor; he laid out large sums in the
+       construction of mosques, hospitals, and colleges for
+       youth;<a id="fn_3_tag19"
+       name="fn_3_tag19"></a><a href="#fn_3_19"><sup>19</sup></a>
+       and being himself very strict in the observance of his
+       religious duties, he enforced the precepts of the
+       <i>Sunnah</i> (tradition) throughout his dominions." With
+       this view, severe edicts were directed against the use of
+       wine, which had become prevalent among the Andalusian
+       Moslems; and Al-hakem was with difficulty restrained, by
+       representations of the ruin which would be thus brought on
+       the cultivators, from ordering the destruction of all the
+       vines in his dominions. But the reign of this excellent and
+       enlightened prince lasted only fifteen years; and at his
+       death, (Sept. 976,) which was caused by the same malady that
+       had proved fatal to his father, the glory of the house of
+       Umeyyah expired.</p>
+
+    <p>The evils of a minority had never yet been experienced in
+    the succession of the Umeyyan princes, all of whom had ascended
+    the throne at a mature age, and with some experience of
+    administration from their previous recognition as heir. But
+    Hisham II., (surnamed Al-muyyed-billah, the assisted by God,)
+    the only son of Al-hakem, was but nine years old at the time of
+    his father's decease; and for some time the government was
+    directed in his name by the Hajib, Jafar Al-Mushafi; but the
+    influence of the queen-mother erelong succeeded in displacing
+    this faithful minister, in favour of Mohammed Ibn Abu Amir, who
+    then held the post of <i>sahib-ush-shortah</i>, or captain of
+    the guard. This remarkable personage (better known in history
+    by his surname of Al-mansur) was the son of a religious
+    devotee, and his condition in early life was so humble, that he
+    supported himself as a public letter-writer in the streets of
+    Cordova; but an accident having introduced him into the palace,
+    he so skilfully wound his way among the intigues of the court,
+    as to attain the highest place next the throne. But even this
+    dignity was far from satisfying his ambition. Under various
+    pretexts he destroyed or drove into exile, within a few years,
+    all the princes of the blood, and others whose influence or
+    station might have endangered the success of his projects, and
+    concentrated in his own hands all the powers of the state;
+    while the khalif, secluded from public view within his palace,
+    was as completely a puppet in the hands of his all-powerful
+    minister, as the khalifs of Bagdad at the same period in those
+    of the <i>Emirs-al-Omrah</i>. Secure of the support of the
+    soldiery, whose affections he had gained by his liberality,
+    Al-mansur so little affected to disguise his assumption of
+    supremacy, that he ordered his own name to be struck on the
+    coin, and repeated in the public prayers, along with that of
+    Hisham, thus arrogating to himself a share in the two most
+    inalienable prerogatives of sovereignty.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page446"
+       id="page446"></a>[pg 446]</span> His robes were made of a
+       peculiar fashion and stuff appropriated to royalty; he
+       received embassies seated on the throne, and declared peace
+       and war in his own name. To such utter helplessness was the
+       khalif reduced,<a id="fn_3_tag20"
+       name="fn_3_tag20"></a><a href="#fn_3_20"><sup>20</sup></a>
+       that he was unable even to oppose the removal of the royal
+       treasure fiom Cordova to a fortified palace which Al-mansur
+       had built for his residence, not far from Az-zahra, and had
+       named, as if in mockery, Az-zahirah;&mdash;and the Hajib was
+       at one time obliged to quiet the murmurs of the populace,
+       who doubted whether their sovereign was still in existence,
+       by leading him in procession through the streets of the
+       capital; "and the eyes of the people feasted on what had
+       been so long concealed from them."</p>
+
+    <p>But this daring usurpation was in part redeemed by qualities
+    in the usurper worthy of a king. Though the bigotry of Al-masur
+    led him to order the destruction of those volumes in the
+    library of Al-hakem which treated of philosophy and the
+    abstruse sciences, on the ground that such studies tended to
+    irreligion, he was yet liberal to the learned men who visited
+    his court at Az-zahirah, where he resided in royal splendour
+    during the intervals of his campaigns; and he endeared hinself
+    to the people, by his generosity, his rigid justice, and the
+    strict control which he enforced over his subordinate officers.
+    But it was on his fervent zeal for the cause of Islam, and his
+    martial exploits against the Christians, (whence his surname of
+    <i>Al-mansur</i>, or <i>the Victorious</i>, was derived,) that
+    his fame and popularity chiefly rested. The martial spirit of
+    the Spanish Moslems appears, from various anecdotes related by
+    Al-Makkari, to have suffered great deterioration from the
+    progress of luxury and decay of discipline; but the armies led
+    by Al-mansur were mainly recruited from the fiery tribes of
+    Barbary, and strengthened by numerous Christian slaves or
+    Mamlukes, trained to serve their captors in arms against their
+    own countrymen. With forces thus constituted, did Al-mansur, in
+    whom once more shone forth the spirit of the Arab conquerors of
+    past times, invade the Christian territories in each spring and
+    autumn for twenty-six successive years, carrying the Moslem
+    arms in triumph even to the shores of the "Green Sea,"
+    (Atlantic Ocean,) and into regions which Tarik and Musa had
+    never reached. Astorga and Leon, in spite of the efforts of
+    Bermudo II. to save his capital, were taken and razed to the
+    ground in 983. Barcelona only escaped the same fate in the
+    following year by submission and tribute; but the crowning
+    glory of Al-mansur's achievements in the <i>al-jahid</i> or
+    holy war, was the capture, in 997, Santiago, the shrine and
+    sepulchre of the patron saint of Spain. "No Moslem general had
+    ever penetrated as far as that city, which is in an
+    inaccessible position in the most remote part of Galicia, and
+    is a sanctuary regarded by the Christians with veneration equal
+    to that which the Moslems entertain for the Kaaba,"&mdash;but
+    Al-mansur, supplied with provisions from a fleet which
+    accompanied his march along the coast of Portugal, forced his
+    way through the Galician defiles, and occupied the holy city
+    without opposition&mdash;all the inhabitants having fled,
+    according to Ibn Hayyan, with the exception of an old monk who
+    tended the tomb. The city and cathedral were leveled with the
+    ground; the shrine alone was left untouched in the midst of the
+    ruins, from the belief of the Moslems that St James was the
+    brother of the Messiah&mdash;and the church-bells were conveyed
+    on the shoulders of the captives to Cordova, where they were
+    suspended as lamps in the great mosque, to commemorate the
+    triumph of Islam in the principal seat of Christian worship and
+    pilgrimage.</p>
+
+    <p>Such was the depression produced among the Christians by
+    these repeated disasters, that, if we may believe Al-Makkari,
+    "one of Al-mansur's soldiers having left his banner fixed in
+    the earth on a mountain before a Christian town, the garrison
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page447"
+       id="page447"></a>[pg 447]</span> dared not come out for
+       several days after the retreat of the Moslem army, not
+       knowing what troops might be behind it." The pressing sense
+       of common danger, at length extinguished ("for the first
+       time perhaps," as Conde remarks) the feuds of the Christian
+       princes; and in the spring of 1002 the united forces of the
+       Count of Castile, Sancho the Great of Navarre, and the King
+       of Leon, confronted the Moslem host at
+       Kalat-an-nosor,<a id="fn_3_tag21"
+       name="fn_3_tag21"></a><a href="#fn_3_21"><sup>21</sup></a>
+       (the Castle of the Eagles,) on the frontiers of Old Castile.
+       The mighty conflict which ensued is very briefly dismissed
+       by Al-Makkari&mdash;"Al-mansur attacked and defeated them
+       with great loss"&mdash;but a far different account is given
+       by the Christian chroniclers, who represent the Moslems as
+       only saved from a total overthrow by the approach of night.
+       It seems, in truth, to have been nearly a drawn battle, with
+       immense carnage on both sides; but the advantage was
+       decidedly with the Christians, who retained possession of
+       the field; while Al-mansur, weakened by the loss of great
+       numbers of his best men and officers, abandoned his camp,
+       and retreated the next day across the Douro. In all his
+       fifty-two campaigns he is said never before to have been
+       defeated; and the chagrin occasioned by this severe reverse,
+       joined to a malady under which he was previously suffering,
+       ended his life shortly after<a id="fn_3_tag22"
+       name="fn_3_tag22"></a><a href="#fn_3_22"><sup>22</sup></a>
+       at Medinah-Selim, (Medinaceli.) He was buried by his sons in
+       the same place; the dust which had adhered to his garments
+       in his campaigns against the Christians, and which had been
+       carefully preserved for the purpose, being placed in the
+       tomb with the corpse&mdash;a practice not unusual at the
+       funeral of a celebrated warrior. "This enlightened and
+       never-vanquished Hajib"&mdash;says Al-Makkali, with whom
+       Al-mansur is a favourite hero&mdash;"used continually to ask
+       God to permit him to die in his service and in war against
+       the infidels, and thus his desire was granted;... and after
+       his death, the Mohammedan empire in Andalus began to show
+       visible signs of decay."</p>
+
+    <p>Al-mansur had a worthy successor in his son Abdul-malek, who
+    at once received the appointment of Hajib from the passive
+    Khalif:&mdash;but on his death in 1008, the post was assumed by
+    his brother Abdurrahman, popularly known as Shanjul, a Berber
+    word signifying <i>madman</i>&mdash;a surname which he had
+    earned by his habits of low vice and intemperance. Scarcely had
+    he entered upon office, when, not contented with exercising
+    sovereign authority, like his father and brother, under an
+    appearance of delegation from the Khalif, he persuaded or
+    compelled the feeble Hisham, who had no male issue, to appoint
+    him <i>Wali-al-ahd,</i> or heir-presumptive&mdash;the deed of
+    nomination is given at length by Al-Makkari, and is a curious
+    specimen of a state-paper. But this transfer was viewed with
+    deep indignation by the people of Cordova, who were warmly
+    attached to the line of their ancient princes; and their
+    discontent being fomented by the members of the Umeyyan family,
+    they rose in furious revolt during the absence of the Hajib on
+    the Galician frontiers, deposed Hisham, and raised to the
+    throne Mohammed-Al-muhdi, a great-grandson of Abdurrahman III.
+    Abdurrahman, returning in haste to quell the insurrection,
+    found himself deserted by his army, and was put to death with
+    most of his family and principal adherents; and the power of
+    the Amirites vanished in a day like the remembrance of dream.
+    But the sceptre which had thus been struck from their grasp,
+    found no other hand strong enough to seize it; and from the
+    first deposition of Hisham II. in 1009, to the final
+    dissolution of the monarchy on the abdication of Hisham III. in
+    1031, the whole of Moslem Spain presented a frightful scene of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page448"
+       id="page448"></a>[pg 448]</span> anarchy and civil war.
+       Besides the imbecile Hisham, who was at least once released
+       and restored to the throne, and was personated by more than
+       one pretender, the royal title was assumed, within twenty
+       years by not fewer than six princes of the house of Umeyyah,
+       and by three of a rival race&mdash;a branch of the Edrisites
+       called Beni-Hammud, who endeavoured in the general confusion
+       to assert their claims as descendants of the Khalif Ali. The
+       aid of the Christians was called in by more than one
+       faction; and Cordova was stormed and sacked after a long
+       siege in 1013, by the African troops who followed the
+       standard of Soliman Ab-muhdi, one of the Umeyyan
+       competitors. The palaces of Az-zahra and Az-zahirah were
+       utterly destroyed; the remains of Hakem's library, with the
+       treasures amassed by former sovereigns, were either
+       plundered or dispersed; nor did the ancient capital of
+       Audalus, no more the seat of the Khalifate, ever recover its
+       former grandeur. The provincial <i>walis</i>, many of whom
+       owed their appointments to the Hajibs of the house of Amir,
+       and were disaffected to the Beni-Umeyyah, every where threw
+       off their allegiance and assumed independence, till only the
+       districts in its immediate vicinity remained attached to
+       Cordova, which was still considered the seat of the
+       Mohammedan empire. The last Umeyyan prince who ruled there
+       was a grandson of the great Abdurrahman, named Hisham
+       Al-Mutadd; whom the inhabitants, after expelling the troops
+       of the Beni-Hammud in 1027, invited to ascend the throne of
+       his ancestors. "He was a mild and enlightened prince and
+       possessed many brilliant qualities; but notwithstanding
+       this, the volatile and degenerate citizens of Cordova grew
+       discontented with him, and he was deposed by the army in
+       422, (A.D. 1031.) He left the capital and retired to Lerida,
+       where he died in 428, (A.D. 1036.) He was the last member of
+       that illustrious dynasty which had ruled over Andalus and a
+       great portion of Africa for two hundred and eighty-four
+       years, counting from the accession of Abdurrahman I.,
+       surnamed Ab-dakhel, in 138, (A.D. 756.) There is no God but
+       God! He is the Almighty!"</p>
+
+    <p>The fall of the Umeyyan khalifate closes the first of the
+    two brilliant periods which illustrate the Arab history of
+    Spain. The uninterrupted hereditary succession for ten
+    generations, and the long average duration of the reign of each
+    monarch, from the arrival in Spain of Abdurrahman I. in 756, to
+    the death or disappearance of Hisham II. in 1009, are without a
+    parallel it any other Moslem dynasty, with the single exception
+    of the Ottoman line; and though, on pursuing the comparison,
+    the Umeyyan princes cannot vie with the last-named race in
+    extent of conquest and splendour of martial achievement, they
+    far surpass not only the Ottomans, but almost every sovereign
+    family in the annals of Islam, in the cultivation of kingly
+    virtues and arts of peace, and the refinement and love of
+    literature, which they introduced and fostered in their
+    dominions. During the greater part of their rule, the court of
+    Cordova was the most polished and enlightened in Europe removed
+    equally from the martial rudeness of those of the Frank
+    monarchs, and the punctilious attention to forms and jealous
+    etiquette, within which the Grcek emperors studiously
+    intrenched themselves. The useful arts, and in particular the
+    science of agriculture, necessary for the support of a dense
+    population, were cultivated to an extent of which no other
+    country afforded an example; and the commerce which filled the
+    ports of Spain, from all parts of Europe and the East, was the
+    natural result of the industry of her people. In how great a
+    degree the personal character of the Umeyyan sovereigns
+    contributed to this state of political and social prosperity,
+    is best proved by the rapid disruption and fall of the
+    monarchy, when it passed into the feeble hands of Hisham II.,
+    and by the history of the two following centuries of anarchy,
+    civil war, and foreign domination. But the sun of Andalusian
+    glory, which had attained its meridian splendour under the
+    Khalifs of Cordova, once more emerged before the close of its
+    course from the clouds and darkness which surrounded
+    it;&mdash;and its setting rays shone, with concentrated lustre,
+    over the kingdom of GRANADA.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_1"
+                    name="fn_3_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. By
+        AHMED IBN MOHAMMED AL-MAKKARI of Telemsan. Translated and
+        illustrated with Critical Notes by Pascual de Gayangos,
+        late Professor of Arabic in the Athen&aelig;um of
+        Madrid.&mdash;Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund. 2
+        vols. 4to. 1840-43.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_2"
+                    name="fn_3_2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag2">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The Almoravide and Almohade princes, who ruled both in
+        Spain and Africa, often inserted a clause in their treaties
+        with the Christians for the restoration of the libraries
+        captured in the towns taken from the Moslems; and Ibn
+        Khaldun mentions, that Yakob Al-mansor destined a college
+        at Fez for the reception of the books thus recovered.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_3"
+                    name="fn_3_3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag3">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>He is called by the Arabic writers Ludherik&mdash;a name
+        afterwards applied as a general designation to the kings of
+        Castile.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_4"
+                    name="fn_3_4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag4">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The translator adduces strong grounds for believing that
+        the battle was fought, not as usually held, in the plain of
+        Xeres, on the south bank of the Guadalete, but "nearer the
+        sea-shore, and not far from the town of
+        Medina-Sidonia."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_5"
+                    name="fn_3_5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag5">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>This is not mentioned by the authors from whom
+        Al-Makkari has drawn his materials, but is stated by
+        Professor de Gayangos on the authority of Ibn Khaldun.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_6"
+                    name="fn_3_6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag6">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>A story is here told of Musa's reaching some colossal
+        ruins, and a monument inscribed with Arabic characters
+        pointing out that place as the term of his
+        conquests&mdash;a legend which perhaps gave the hint for
+        one of the tales in the Thousand and One Nights, in which
+        he is sent on an expedition to the city of Brass on the
+        shores of the Western Ocean.&mdash;See Lane's translation,
+        chap. 21.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_7"
+                    name="fn_3_7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag7">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Cond&eacute;, and the writers who have followed him,
+        constantly speak of the Beni-Modhar as Egyptian&mdash;an
+        error owing to the neglect or omission of the point which
+        in Arabic orthography distinguishes <i>Modhar</i> from
+        <i>Missr</i>, (Egypt.)</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_8"
+                    name="fn_3_8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag8">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Burkhardt (Travels in Arabia, i. 303) says, that all the
+        golden ornaments which the Khalif Walid gave to the mosque
+        at Mekka, "were sent from Toledo in Spain, and carried upon
+        mules through Africa and Arabia."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_9"
+                    name="fn_3_9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag9">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The tribe of Fehr hold a conspicuous place in the
+        Spanish annals, and one of them was the leader of the last
+        attempt to shake off the yoke of Castile, after the capture
+        of Granada.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_10"
+                    name="fn_3_10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag10">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>It was by a body of exiles under Abu Hafss Omar, the
+        Apochapsus of the Greeks, (incorrectly called Abu
+        <i>Caab</i> by Gibbon,) driven from Cordova after one of
+        these insurrections, that Crete was conquered in 823.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_11"
+                    name="fn_3_11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag11">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>In this battle, according to the veracious Spanish
+        chroniclers, Santiago first appeared on his white horse in
+        the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e, fighting for the
+        Christians.&mdash;See the "Maiden Tribute," in Lockhart's
+        <i>Spanish Ballads</i>.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_12"
+                    name="fn_3_12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag12">(return)</a>
+
+        <p><i>Majus</i>&mdash;Magians or fire worshippers, is the
+        term invariably applied to these fierce Pagans by the
+        Arabic historians, apparently by a negative induction from
+        their being neither Moslems, Jews, nor Christians.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_13"
+                    name="fn_3_13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag13">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>No fewer than twenty-seven insurgent leaders, in the
+        reign of Abdullah alone, are enumerated in the translator's
+        notes from Ibn Hayyan.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_14"
+                    name="fn_3_14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag14">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The epithet of <i>kelb</i>, "dog," frequently applied to
+        this leader, has led Cond&eacute; into the strange error of
+        creating for him a son, whom he calls <i>Kalib</i> Ibun
+        Hafssun. The term <i>Muwallad</i> is said to be the origin
+        of <i>mulatto</i>.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_15"
+                    name="fn_3_15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag15">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>We do not find this division mentioned by the authors
+        cited by Al-Makkari; but it is stated by Cond&eacute;, and
+        appears to have prevailed as long as the kingdom retained
+        its unity. The six provincial capitals were Saragossa,
+        Toledo, Merida, Valencia, Murcia, and Granada. Shortly
+        before the arrival of Abdurrahman, Yusuf Al-Fehri had
+        organized <i>five</i> great governments, one of which
+        comprised Narbonne and the Trans-Pyrenean conquests.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_16"
+                    name="fn_3_16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag16">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Under the Arab dynasties of the east, the <i>vizir</i>
+        was exclusively an officer <i>of the pen</i>: and Makrizi
+        expressly mentions that Bedr-al-Jemali, who became vizir to
+        the Fatimite khalif Al-Mostanssor in 1074, was the first in
+        whom <i>the sword and the pen</i> were united.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_17"
+                    name="fn_3_17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag17">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>See Sale's Koran. Preliminary Discourse. Sect. 8.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_18"
+                    name="fn_3_18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag18">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, i. 351.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_19"
+                    name="fn_3_19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag19">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Eighty free schools are said by other authorities to
+        have existed or been founded during this reign in Cordova;
+        the number of dwelling-houses in which at the same time,
+        great and small, is stated at 200,000.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_20"
+                    name="fn_3_20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag20">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Some historians even speak of this period as the
+        "dynasty of the Amirites," from Al-mansur's father, Abn
+        Amir.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_21"
+                    name="fn_3_21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag21">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The precise locality of this famous battle is not very
+        clearly ascertained; but Cond&eacute; places it betveen
+        Soria and Medinaceli.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_22"
+                    name="fn_3_22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag22">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The battle is placed by the Christian writers in 998;
+        but the death of Al-mansur, which both Christians and
+        Moslems agree in stating to have taken place within a very
+        short time, is said by the latter to have been A.M. 392,
+        A.D. 1002.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page449"
+       id="page449"></a>[pg 449]</span> <a name="mexico"
+          id="mexico"></a>
+
+    <h2>TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.</h2>
+
+    <h3>A FRAGMENT FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.</h3>
+
+    <p>"A capital place this for our bivouac!" cried I, swinging
+    myself off my mule, and stretching my arms and legs, which were
+    stiffened by a long ride.</p>
+
+    <p>It <i>was</i> a fairish place, to all appearances&mdash;a
+    snug ravine, well shaded by mahogany-trees, the ground covered
+    with the luxuriant vegetation of that tropical region, a little
+    stream bubbling and leaping and dashing down one of the high
+    rocks that flanked the hollow, and rippling away through the
+    tall fern towards the rear of the spot where we had halted, at
+    the distance of a hundred yards from which the ground was low
+    and shelving.</p>
+
+    <p>"A capital place this for our bivouac!"</p>
+
+    <p>My companion nodded. As to our lazy Mexican <i>arrieros</i>
+    and servants, they said nothing, but began making arrangements
+    for passing the night. Curse the fellows! If they had seen us
+    preparing to lie down in a swamp, cheek by jowl with an
+    alligator, I believe they would not have offered a word of
+    remonstrance. Those Mexican half-breeds, half Indian half
+    Spaniard, with sometimes a dash of the Negro, are themselves so
+    little pervious to the dangers and evils of their soil and
+    climate, that they never seem to remember that Yankee flesh and
+    blood may be rather more susceptible; that
+    niguas<a id="fn_4_tag1"
+       name="fn_4_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_4_1"><sup>1</sup></a> and
+       musquittoes, and <i>vomito prieto</i>, as they call their
+       infernal fever, are no trifles to encounter; without
+       mentioning the snakes, and scorpions, and alligators, and
+       other creatures of the kind, which infest their strange,
+       wild, unnatural, and yet beautiful country.</p>
+
+    <p>I had come to Mexico in company with Jonathan Rowley, a
+    youth of Virginian raising, six and twenty years of age, six
+    feet two in his stockings, with the limbs of a Hercules and
+    shoulders like the side of a house. It was towards the close of
+    1824; and the recent emancipation of Mexico from the Spanish
+    yoke, and its self-formation into a republic, had given it a
+    new and strong interest to us Americans. We had been told much,
+    too, of the beauty of the country&mdash;but in this we were at
+    first rather disappointed; and we reached the capital without
+    having seen any thing, except some parts of the province of
+    Vera Cruz, that could justify the extravagant encomiums we had
+    heard bestowed in the States upon the splendid scenery of
+    Mexico. We had not, however, to go far southward from the chief
+    city, before the character of the country altered, and became
+    such as to satisfy our most sanguine expectations. Forests of
+    palms, of oranges, citrons, and bananas, filled the valleys:
+    the marshes and low grounds were crowded with mahogany-trees,
+    and with immense fern plants, in height equal to trees. All
+    nature was on a gigantic scale&mdash;the mountains of an
+    enormous height, the face of the country seamed and split by
+    <i>barrancas</i> or ravines, hundreds, ay, thousands of feet
+    deep, and filled with the most abundant and varied vegetation.
+    The sky, too, was of the deep glowing blue of the tropics, the
+    sort of blue which seems varnished or clouded with gold. But
+    this ardent climate and teeming soil are not without their
+    disadvantages. Vermin and reptiles of all kinds, and the deadly
+    fever of these latitudes, render the low lands uninhabitable
+    for eight months out of the twelve. At the same time there are
+    large districts which are comparatively free
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page450"
+       id="page450"></a>[pg 450]</span> from these
+       plagues&mdash;perfect gardens of Eden, of such extreme
+       beauty that the mere act of living and breathing amongst
+       their enchanting scenes, becomes a positive and real
+       enjoyment. The heart seems to leap with delight, and the
+       soul to be elevated, by the contemplation of those regions
+       of fairy-like magnificence.</p>
+
+    <p>The most celebrated among these favoured provinces is the
+    valley of Oaxaca, in which two mountainous districts, the
+    Mistecca and Tzapoteca, bear off the palm of beauty. It was
+    through this immense valley, nearly three hundred leagues in
+    length, and surrounded by the highest mountains in Mexico, that
+    we were now journeying. The kind attention of our
+    charg&eacute;-d'affaires at the Mexican capital, had procured
+    us every possible facility in travelling through a country, of
+    which the soil was at that time rarely trodden by any but
+    native feet. We had numerous letters to the alcaldes and
+    authorities of the towns and villages which are sparingly
+    sprinkled over the southern provinces of Mexico; we were to
+    have escorts when necessary; every assistance, protection, and
+    facility, were to be afforded us. But as neither the
+    authorities nor his excellency, Uncle Sam's envoy, could make
+    inns and houses where none existed, it followed that we were
+    often obliged to sleep <i>&agrave; la belle &eacute;toile</i>,
+    with the sky for a covering. And a right splendid roof it was
+    to our bedchamber, that tropical sky, with its constellations,
+    all new to us northerns, and every star magnified by the effect
+    of the atmosphere to an incredible size. Mars and Saturn, Venus
+    and Jupiter, had all disappeared; the great and little Bear
+    were still to be seen; in the far distance the ship Argo and
+    the glowing Centaur; and, beautiful above all, the glorious
+    sign of Christianity the colossal Southern Cross, in all its
+    brightness and sublimity, glittering in silvery magnificence
+    out of its setting of dark blue crystal.</p>
+
+    <p>We were travelling with a state and a degree of luxury that
+    would have excited the contempt of our backwoodsmen; but in a
+    strange country we thought it best to do as the natives did;
+    and accordingly, instead of mounting our horses and setting
+    forth alone, with our rifles slung over our shoulders, and a
+    few handfuls of parched corn and dried flesh in our hunting
+    pouches, we journeyed Mexican fashion, with a whole string of
+    mules, a <i>topith</i> or guide, a couple of <i>arrieros</i> or
+    muleteers, a cook, and one or two other attendants. While the
+    latter were slinging our hammocks to the lowermost branches of
+    a tree&mdash;for in that part of Mexico it is not very safe to
+    sleep upon the ground, on account of the snakes and
+    vermin&mdash;our <i>cocinero</i> lit a fire against the rock,
+    and in a very few minutes an iguana which we had shot that day
+    was spitted and roasting before it. It looked strange to see
+    this hideous creature, in shape between a lizard and a dragon,
+    twisting and turning in the light of the fire; and its
+    disgusting appearance might have taken away some people's
+    appetites; but we knew by experience that there is no better
+    eating than a roasted iguana. We made a hearty meal off this
+    one, concluding it with a pull at the rum flask, and then
+    clambered into our hammocks; the Mexicans stretched themselves
+    on the ground with their heads upon the saddles of the mules,
+    and both masters and men were soon asleep.</p>
+
+    <p>It was somewhere about midnight when I was awakened by an
+    indescribable sensation of oppression from the surrounding
+    atmosphere. The air seemed to be no longer air, but some
+    poisonous exhalation that had suddenly arisen and enveloped us.
+    From the rear of the ravine in which we lay, billows of dark
+    mephitic mist were rolling forward, surrounding us with their
+    baleful influence. It was the <i>vomito prieto</i>, the fever
+    itself, embodied in the shape of a fog. At the same moment, and
+    while I was gasping for breath, a sort of cloud seemed to
+    settle upon me, and a thousand stings, like redhot needles,
+    were run into my hands, face, neck&mdash;into every part of my
+    limbs and body that was not triply guarded by clothing. I
+    instinctively stretched forth my hands and closed them,
+    clutching by the action hundreds of enormous musquittoes, whose
+    droning, singing noise how almost deafened me. The air was
+    literally filled by a dense swarm of these insects; and the
+    agony caused <span class="pagenum"><a name="page451"
+       id="page451"></a>[pg 451]</span> by their repeated and
+       venomous stings was indescribable. It was a perfect plague
+       of Egypt.</p>
+
+    <p>Rowley, whose hammock was slung some ten yards from mine,
+    soon gave tongue: I heard him kicking and plunging, spluttering
+    and swearing, with a vigour and energy that would have been
+    ludicrous under any other circumstances; but matters were just
+    then too serious for a laugh. With the torture, for such it
+    was, of the musquitto bites, and the effect of the insidious
+    and poisonous vapours that were each moment thickening around
+    me, I was already in a high state of fever, alternately glowing
+    with heat and shivering with cold, my tongue parched, my
+    eyelids throbbing, my brain seemingly on fire.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a heavy thump upon the ground. It was Rowley
+    jumping out of his hammock. "Damnation" roared he, "Where are
+    we? On the earth, or under the earth?&mdash;We must be&mdash;we
+    are&mdash;in their Mexican purgatory. We are, or there's no
+    snakes in Virginny. Hallo, arrieros! Pablo! Matteo!"</p>
+
+    <p>At that moment a scream&mdash;but a scream of such terror
+    and anguish as I never heard before or since&mdash;a scream as
+    of women in their hour of agony and extreme peril, sounded
+    within a few paces of us. I sprang out of my hammock; and as I
+    did so, two white and graceful female figures darted or rather
+    flew by me, shrieking&mdash;and oh! in what heart-rending
+    tones&mdash;for "<i>Socorro! Socorro! Por Dios</i>! Help!
+    Help!" Close upon the heels of the fugitives, bounding and
+    leaping along with enormous strides and springs, came three or
+    four dark objects which resembled nothing earthly. The human
+    form they certainly possessed; but so hideous and horrible, so
+    unnatural and spectre-like was their aspect, that their sudden
+    encounter in that gloomy ravine, and in the almost darkness
+    that surrounded us, might well have shaken the strongest
+    nerves. We stood for a second, Rowley and myself, paralysed
+    with astonishment at these strange appearances; but another
+    piercing scream restored to us our presence of mind. One of the
+    women had either tripped or fallen from fatigue, and she lay a
+    white heap, upon the ground. The drapery of the other was in
+    the clutch of one of the spectres, or devils, or whatever they
+    were, when Rowley, with a cry of horror, rushed forward and
+    struck a furious blow at the monster with his <i>machetto</i>.
+    At the same time, and almost without knowing how, I found
+    myself engaged with another of the creatures. But the contest
+    was no equal one. In vain did we stab and strike with our
+    machettos; our antagonists were covered and defended with a
+    hard bristly hide, which our knives, although keen and pointed,
+    had great difficulty in penetrating; and on the other hand we
+    found ourselves clutched in long sinewy arms, terminating in
+    hands and fingers, of which the nails were as sharp and strong
+    as an eagle's talons. I felt these horrible claws strike into
+    my shoulders as the creature seized me, and, drawing me towards
+    him, pressed me as in the hug of a bear; while his hideous half
+    man half brute visage was grinning and snarling at me, and his
+    long keen white teeth were snapping and gnashing within six
+    inches of my face.</p>
+
+    <p>"God of heaven! This is horrible! Rowley! Help me!"</p>
+
+    <p>But Rowley, in spite of his gigantic strength, was powerless
+    as an infant in the grasp of these terrible opponents. He was
+    within a few paces of me, struggling with two of them, and
+    making superhuman efforts to regain possession of his knife,
+    which had dropped or been wrenched from his hand. And all this
+    time, where were our arrieros? Were they attacked likewise? Why
+    didn't they come and help us? All this time!&mdash;pshaw! it
+    was no time: it all passed in the space of a few seconds, in
+    the circumference of a few yards, and in the feeble glimmering
+    light of the stars, and of the smouldering embers of our fire,
+    which was at some distance from us.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha! That has told!" A stab, dealt with all the energy of
+    despair, had entered my antagonist's side. But I was like to
+    pay dearly for it. Uttering a deafening yell of pain and fury,
+    the monster clasped me closer to his foul and loathsome body;
+    his sharp claws, dug deeper into my back, seemed to tear up my
+    flesh: the agony was <span class="pagenum"><a name="page452"
+       id="page452"></a>[pg 452]</span> insupportable&mdash;my eyes
+       began to swim, and my senses to leave me. Just
+       then&mdash;Crack! crack! Two&mdash;four&mdash;a dozen musket
+       and pistol shots, followed by such a chorus of yellings and
+       howlings and unearthly laughter! The creature that held me
+       seemed startled&mdash;relaxed his grasp slightly. At that
+       moment a dark arm was passed before my face, there was a
+       blinding flash, a yell, and I fell to the ground released
+       from the clutch of my opponent. I remember nothing more.
+       Overcome by pain, fatigue, terror, and the noxious vapors of
+       that vile ravine, my senses abandoned me, and I swooned
+       away.</p>
+
+    <p>When consciousness returned, I found myself lying upon some
+    blankets, under a sort of arbour of foliage and flowers. It was
+    broad day; the sun shone brightly, the blossoms smelled sweet,
+    the gay-plumaged hummingbirds were darting and shooting about
+    in the sunbeams like so many animated fragments of a prism. A
+    Mexican Indian, standing beside my couch, and whose face was
+    unknown to me, held out a cocoa-nutshell containing some
+    liquid, which I eagerly seized, and drank off the contents. The
+    draught (it was a mixture of citron juice and water) revived me
+    greatly; and raising myself on my elbow, although with much
+    pain and difficulty, I looked around, and beheld a scene of
+    bustle and life which to me was quite unintelligible. Upon the
+    shelving hillside on which I was lying, a sort of encampment
+    was established. A number of mules and horses were wandering
+    about at liberty, or fastened to trees and bushes, and eating
+    the forage that had been collected and laid before them. Some
+    were provided with handsome and commodious saddles, while
+    others had pack-saddles, intended apparently for the conveyance
+    of numerous sacks, cases, and wallets, that were scattered
+    about on the ground. Several muskets and rifles were leaning
+    here and there against the trees; and a dozen or fifteen men
+    were occupied in various ways&mdash;some filling up saddle-bags
+    or fastening luggage on the mules, others lying on the ground
+    smoking, one party surrounding a fire at which cooking was
+    going on. At a short distance from my bed was another similarly
+    composed couch, occupied by a man muffled up in blankets, and
+    having his back turned towards me, so that I was unable to
+    obtain a view of his features.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is all this? Where am I? Where is Rowley&mdash;our
+    guide&mdash;where are they all?"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Non entiendo</i>," answered my brown-visaged Ganymede,
+    shaking his head, and with a good-humoured smile.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Adonde estamos?</i>"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>In el valle de Chihuatan, in el gran valle de Oaxaca y
+    Guatimala; diez leguas de Tarifa</i>. In the valley of
+    Chihuatan; ten leagues from Tarifa."</p>
+
+    <p>The figure lying on the bed near me now made a movement, and
+    turned round. What could it be? Its face was like a lump of raw
+    flesh streaked and stained with blood. No features were
+    distinguishable.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who are you? What are you?" cried I.</p>
+
+    <p>"Rowley," it answered: "Rowley I was, at least, if those
+    devils haven't changed me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then changed you they have," cried I, with a wild laugh.
+    "Good God! have they scalped him alive, or what? That is not
+    Rowley."</p>
+
+    <p>The Mexican, who had gone to give some drink to the creature
+    claiming to be Rowley, now opened a valise that lay on the
+    ground a short distance off, and took out a small
+    looking-glass, which he brought and held before my face. It was
+    then only that I began to call to mind all that had occurred,
+    and understood how it was that the mask of human flesh lying
+    near me might indeed be Rowley. He was, if any thing, less
+    altered than myself. My eyes were almost closed; my lips, nose,
+    and whole face swollen to an immense size, and perfectly
+    unrecognisable. I involuntarily recoiled in dismay and disgust
+    at my own appearance. The horrible night passed in the ravine,
+    the foul and suffocating vapours, the furious attack of the
+    musquittoes&mdash;the bites of which, and the consequent fever
+    and inflammation, had thus disfigured us&mdash;all recurred to
+    our memory. But the women, the fight with the
+    monsters&mdash;beasts&mdash;Indians&mdash;whatever they were,
+    that was still incomprehensible. It was no dream: my back and
+    shoulders were still smarting from the wounds that had been
+    inflicted on them by the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page453"
+       id="page453"></a>[pg 453]</span> claws of those creatures,
+       and I now felt that various parts of my limbs and body were
+       swathed in wet bandages. I was mustering my Spanish to ask
+       the Mexican who still stood by me for an explanation of all
+       this, when I suddenly became aware of a great bustle in the
+       encampment, and saw every body crowding to meet a number of
+       persons who just then emerged from the high fern, and
+       amongst whom I recognized our arrieros and servants. The
+       new-comers were grouped around something which they seemed
+       to be dragging along the ground; several women&mdash;for the
+       most part young and graceful creatures, their slender supple
+       forms muffled in the flowing picturesque <i>reboxos</i> and
+       <i>frazadas</i>&mdash;preceded the party, looking back
+       occasionally with an expression of mingled horror and
+       triumph; all with rosaries in their hands, the beads of
+       which ran rapidly through their fingers, while they
+       occasionally kissed the cross, or made the sign on their
+       breasts or in the air.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Un Zambo muerto! Un Zambo Muerto!</i>" shouted they as
+    they drew near.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Han matado un Zambo!</i> They have killed a Zambo!"
+    repeated my attendant in a tone of exultation.</p>
+
+    <p>The party came close up to where Rowley and I were lying;
+    the women stood aside, jumping and laughing, and crossing
+    themselves, and crying out "<i>Un Zambo! Un Zambo Muerto!</i>"
+    the group opened, and we saw, lying dead upon the ground, one
+    of our horrible antagonists of the preceding night.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God, what is that?" cried Rowley and I, with one
+    breath. "<i>Un demonio!</i> a devil!"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Perdonen vos, Senores&mdash;Un Zambo mono&mdash;muy
+    terribles los Zambos.</i> Terrible monkeys these Zambos."</p>
+
+    <p>"Monkeys!" cried I.</p>
+
+    <p>"Monkeys!" repeated poor Rowley, raising himself up into a
+    sitting posture by the help of his hands.
+    "Monkeys&mdash;apes&mdash;by Jove! We've been fighting with
+    monkeys, and it's they who have mauled us in this way. Well,
+    Jonathan Rowley, think of your coming from old Virginny to
+    Mexico to be whipped by a monkey. It's gone goose with
+    <i>your</i> character. You can never show your face in the
+    States again. Whipped by an ape!&mdash;an ape, with a tail and
+    a hairy&mdash;O Lord! Whipped by a monkey!"</p>
+
+    <p>And the ludicrousness of the notion overcoming his
+    mortification, and the pain of his wounds and bites, he sank
+    back upon the bed of blankets and banana leaves, laughing as
+    well as his swollen face and sausage-looking lips would allow
+    him.</p>
+
+    <p>It was as much as I could do to persuade myself, that the
+    carcass lying before me had never been inhabited by a human
+    soul. It was humiliating to behold the close affinity between
+    this huge ape and our own species. Had it not been for the
+    tail, I could have fancied I saw the dead body of some prairie
+    hunter dressed in skins. It was exactly like a powerful,
+    well-grown man; and even the expression of the face had more of
+    bad human passions than of animal instinct. The feet and thighs
+    were those of a muscular man: the legs rather too curved and
+    calfless, though I have seen Negroes who had scarcely better
+    ones; the tendons of the hands stood out like whipcords; the
+    nails were as long as a tiger's claws. No wonder that we had
+    been overmatched in our struggle with the brutes. No man could
+    have withstood them. The arms of this one were like packets of
+    cordage, all muscle, nerve, and sinew; and the hands were
+    clasped together with such force, that the efforts of eight or
+    ten Mexicans and Indians were insufficient to disunite
+    them.</p>
+
+    <p>Whatever remained to be cleared up in our night's adventures
+    was now soon explained. Our guide, through ignorance or
+    thoughtlessness, had allowed us to take up our bivouac within a
+    very unsafe distance of one of the most pestiferous swamps in
+    the whole province. Shortly after we had fallen asleep, a party
+    of Mexican travellers had arrived, and established themselves
+    within a few hundred yards of us, but on a rising ground, where
+    they avoided the mephitic vapours and the musquittoes which had
+    so tortured Rowley and myself. In the night two of the women,
+    having ventured a short distance from the encampment, were
+    surprised by the zambos, or huge man-apes, common in some parts
+    of Southern <span class="pagenum"><a name="page454"
+       id="page454"></a>[pg 454]</span> Mexico; and finding
+       themselves cut off from their friends, had fled they knew
+       not whither, fortunately for them taking the direction of
+       our bivouac. Their screams, our shouts, and the yellings and
+       diabolical laughter of the zambos, had brought the Mexicans
+       to our assistance. The monkeys showed no fight after the
+       first volley; several of then must have been wounded, but
+       only the one now lying before us had remained upon the
+       field.</p>
+
+    <p>The Mexicans we had fallen amongst were on the Tzapoteca,
+    principally cochineal gatherers, and kinder-hearted people
+    there could not well be. They seemed to think they never could
+    do enough for us; the women especially, and more particularly
+    the two whom we had endeavoured to rescue from the power of the
+    apes. These latter certainly had cause to be grateful. It made
+    us shudder to think of their fate had they not met with us. It
+    was the delay caused by our attacking the brutes that had given
+    the Mexicans time to come up.</p>
+
+    <p>Every attention was shown to us. We were fanned with palm
+    leaves, refreshed with cooling drinks, our wounds carefully
+    dressed and bandaged, our heated, irritated, musquitto-bitten
+    limbs and faces washed with balsam and the juice of herbs: more
+    tender and careful nurses it would be impossible to find. We
+    soon began to feel better, and were able to sit up and look
+    about us; carefully avoiding, however, to look at each other,
+    for we could not get reconciled to the horrible appearance of
+    our swollen, bloody, and disgusting features. From our position
+    on the rising ground, we had a full view over the frightful
+    swamp at the entrance of which all our misfortunes had
+    happened. There it lay, steaming like a great kettle; endless
+    mists rising from it, out of which appeared here and there the
+    crown of some mighty tree towering above the banks of vapour.
+    To the left, cliffs and crags were to be seen which had the
+    appearance of being baseless, and of swimming on the top of the
+    mist. The vultures and carrion-birds circled screaming above
+    the huge caldron, or perched on the tops of the tall palms,
+    which looked like enormous umbrellas, or like the roofs of
+    Chinese summer-houses. Out of the swamp itself proceeded the
+    yellings, snarlings, and growlings of the alligators,
+    bull-frogs, and myriads of unclean beasts that it
+    harboured.</p>
+
+    <p>The air was unusually sultry and oppressive: from time to
+    time the rolling of distant thunder was audible. We could hear
+    the Mexicans consulting amongst themselves as to the propriety
+    of continuing their journey, to which our suffering state
+    seemed to be the chief obstacle. From what we could collect of
+    their discourse, they were unwilling to leave us in this
+    dangerous district, and in our helpless condition, with a guide
+    and attendants who were either untrustworthy or totally
+    incompetent to lead us aright. Yet there seemed to be some
+    pressing necessity for continuing the march; and presently some
+    of the older Mexicans, who appeared to have the direction of
+    the caravan, came up to us and enquired how we felt, and if we
+    thought we were able to travel; adding, that from the signs on
+    the earth and in the air, they feared a storm, and that the
+    nearest habitation or shelter was at many leagues' distance.
+    Thanks to the remedies that had been applied, our sufferings
+    were much diminished. We felt weak and hungry, and telling the
+    Mexicans we should be ready to proceed in half an hour, we
+    desired our servants to get us something to eat. But our new
+    friends forestalled them, and brought us a large piece of
+    iguana, with roasted bananas, and cocoa-nutshell cups full of
+    coffee, to all of which Rowley and I applied ourselves with
+    much gusto. Meanwhile our muleteers and the Tzapotecans were
+    busy packing their beasts and making ready for the start.</p>
+
+    <p>We had not eaten a dozen mouthfuls when we say a man running
+    down the hill with a branch in each hand. As soon as he
+    appeared, a number of the Mexicans left their occupations and
+    hurried to meet him.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Siete horas!</i>" shouted the man. "Seven hours, and no
+    more!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No more than seven hours!" echoed the Tzapotecans, in tones
+    of the wildest terror and alarm. "<i>La Santissima nos
+    guarde!</i> It will take more than ten to reach the
+    village."</p>
+
+    <p>"What's all that about?" said I with my mouth full, to
+    Rowley.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page455"
+       id="page455"></a>[pg 455]</span>
+
+    <p>"Don't know&mdash;some of their Indian tricks, I
+    suppose."</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Que es esto</i>?" asked I carelessly. "What's the
+    matter?"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Que es esto</i>!" repeated an old Tzapotecan, with long
+    grey hair curling from under his <i>sombrero</i>, and a
+    withered but finely marked countenance. "<i>Las aguas! El
+    ouracan!</i> In seven hours the deluge and the hurricane!"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos, por la Santissima!</i> For the blessed Virgin's
+    sake let us be gone!" cried a dozen of the Mexicans, pushing
+    two green boughs into our very faces.</p>
+
+    <p>"What are those branches?"</p>
+
+    <p>"From the tempest-tree&mdash;the prophet of the storm," was
+    the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>And Tzapotecans and women, arrieros and servants, ran about
+    in the utmost terror and confusion, with cries of "<i>Vamos,
+    paso redoblado</i>! Off with us, or we are all lost, man and
+    beast," and saddling, packing, and scrambling on their mules.
+    And before Rowley and I knew where we were, they tore us away
+    from our iguana and coffee, and hoisted and pushed us into our
+    saddles. Such a scene of bustle and desperate hurry I never
+    beheld. The place where the encampment had been was alive with
+    men and women, horses and mules, shouting, shrieking and
+    talking, neighing and kicking; but with all the confusion there
+    was little time lost, and in less than three minutes from the
+    first alarm being given, we were scampering away over stock and
+    stone, in a long, wild, irregular sort of train.</p>
+
+    <p>The rapidity and excitement of our ride seemed to have the
+    effect of calming our various sufferings, or of making us
+    forget them; and we soon thought no more of the fever, or of
+    stings or musquitto bites. It was a ride for life or death, and
+    our horses stepped out as if they knew how much depended on
+    their exertions.</p>
+
+    <p>In the hurry and confusion we had been mounted on horses
+    instead of our our own mules; and splendid animals they were. I
+    doubt if our Virginians could beat them, and that is saying a
+    great deal. There was no effort or straining in their
+    movements; it seemed mere play to them to surmount the numerous
+    difficulties we encountered on our road. Over mountain and
+    valley, swamp and barranca, always the same steady
+    surefootedness&mdash;crawling like cats over the soft places,
+    gliding like snakes up the steep rocky ascents, and stretching
+    out with prodigious energy when the ground was favourable; yet
+    with such easy action that we scarcely felt the motion. We
+    should have sat in the roomy Spanish saddles as comfortably as
+    in arm-chairs, had it not been for the numerous obstacles in
+    our path, which was strewed with fallen trees and masses of
+    rock. We were obliged to be perpetually stooping and bowing our
+    heads to avoid the creeping plants that swung and twined and
+    twisted across the track, intermingled often with huge thorns
+    as long as a man's arm. These latter stuck out from the trees
+    on which they grew like so many brown bayonets; and a man who
+    had run up against one of them, would have been transfixed by
+    it as surely as though it had been of steel. We pushed on,
+    however, in Indian file, following the two guides, who kept at
+    the head of the party, and making our way through places where
+    a wild-cat would have difficulty in passing; through thickets
+    of mangroves, mimosas, and tall fern, and cactuses with their
+    thorny leaves full twenty feet long; the path turning and
+    winding all the while. Now and then a momentary improvement in
+    the nature of the ground enabled us to catch a glimpse of the
+    whole column of march. We were struck by its picturesque
+    appearance, the guides in front acting as pioneers, and looking
+    out on all sides as cautiously and anxiously as though they had
+    been soldiers expecting an ambuscade; the graceful forms of the
+    women bowing and bending over their horses' manes, and often
+    leaving fragments of their mantillas and rebozas on the
+    branches and thorns of the labyrinth through which we were
+    struggling. But it was no time to indulge in contemplation of
+    the picturesque, and of this we were constantly made aware by
+    the anxious vociferations of the Mexicans. "<i>Vamos! Por Dios,
+    vamos!</i>" cried they, if the slightest symptom of flagging
+    became visible in the movements of any one of the party; and at
+    the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page456"
+       id="page456"></a>[pg 456]</span> words, our horses, as
+       though gifted with understanding, pushed forward with
+       renewed vigour and alacrity.</p>
+
+    <p>On we went&mdash;up hill and down, in the depths of the
+    valley and over the soft fetid swamp. That valley of Oaxaca has
+    just as much right to be called a valley as our Alleghanies
+    would have to be called bottoms. In the States we should call
+    it a chain of mountains. Out of it rise at every step hills a
+    good two thousand feet above the level of the valley, and four
+    or five thousand above that of the sea; but these are lost
+    sight of, and become flat ground by the force of comparison;
+    that is, when compared with the gigantic mountains that
+    surround the valley on all sides like a frame. And what a
+    splendid frame they do compose, those colossal mountains, in
+    their rich variety of form and colouring! here shining out like
+    molten gold, there changing to a dark bronze; covered lower
+    down with various shades of green, and with the crimson and
+    purple, and violet and bright yellow, and azure and dazzling
+    white, of the millions of paulinias and convolvoluses and other
+    flowering plants, from amongst which rise the stately
+    palm-trees, full a hundred feet high, their majestic green
+    turbans towering like sultans' heads above the luxuriance of
+    the surrounding flower and vegetable world. Then the
+    mahogany-trees, the chicozapotes, and again in the barrancas
+    the candelabra-like cactuses, and higher up the knotted and
+    majestic live oak. An incessant change of plants, trees, and
+    climate. We had been five hours in the saddle, and had already
+    changed our climate three times; passed from the temperate
+    zone, the <i>tierra templada</i>, into the torrid heat of the
+    <i>tierra muy caliente</i>. It was in the latter temperature
+    that we found ourselves at the expiration of the above-named
+    time, dripping with perspiration, roasting and stewing in the
+    heat. We were surrounded by a new world of plants and animals.
+    The borax and mangroves and fern were here as lofty as
+    forest-trees, whilst the trees themselves shot up like church
+    steeples. In the thickets around us were numbers of black
+    tigers&mdash;we saw dozens of those cowardly sneaking
+    beasts&mdash;iguanas full three feet long, squirrels double the
+    size of any we had ever seen, and panthers, and wild pigs, and
+    jackals, and apes and monkeys of every tribe and description,
+    who threatened and grinned and chattered at us from the
+    branches of the trees. But what is that yonder to the right,
+    that stands out so white against the dark blue sky and the
+    bronze-coloured rocks? A town&mdash;Quidricovi, d'ye call
+    it?</p>
+
+    <p>We had now ridden a good five or six leagues, and begun to
+    think we had escaped the <i>aguas</i> or deluge, of which the
+    prospect had so terrified our friends the Tzapotecans. Rowley
+    calculated, as he went puffing and grumbling along, that it
+    wouldn't do any harm to let our beasts draw breath for a minute
+    or two. The scrambling and constant change of pace rendered
+    necessary by the nature of the road, or rather track, that we
+    followed, was certainly dreadfully fatiguing both to man and
+    beast. As for conversation it was out of the question. We had
+    plenty to do to avoid getting our necks broken, or our teeth
+    knocked out, as we struggled along, up and down barrancas,
+    through marshes and thickets, over rocks and fallen trees, and
+    through mimosas and bushes laced and twined together with
+    thorns and creeping plants&mdash;all of which would have been
+    beautiful in a picture, but was most infernally unpoetical in
+    reality.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos! Por la Santissima Madre, vamos!</i>" yelled our
+    guides, and the cry was taken up by the Mexicans, in a shrill
+    wild tone that jarred strangely upon our ears, and made the
+    horses start and strain forward. Hurra! on we go, through
+    thorns and bushes, which scratch and flog us, and tear our
+    clothes to rags. We shall be naked if this lasts long. It is a
+    regular race. In front the two guides, stooping, nodding,
+    bowing, crouching down, first to one side, then to the other,
+    like a couple of mandarins or Indian idols&mdash;behind them a
+    Tzapotecan in his picturesque capa, then the women, then more
+    Tzapotecans. There is little thought about precedence or
+    ceremony; and Rowley and I, having been in the least hurry to
+    start, find ourselves bringing up the rear of the whole
+    column.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page457"
+       id="page457"></a>[pg 457]</span>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos! Por la Santissima! Las aguas, las aguas!</i>" is
+    again yelled by twenty voices. Hang the fools! Can't they be
+    quiet with their eternal <i>vamos</i>? We can have barely two
+    leagues more to go to reach the <i>rancho</i>, or village, they
+    were talking of, and appearances are not as yet very alarming.
+    It is getting rather thick to be sure; but that's nothing, only
+    the exhalations from the swamp, for we are again approaching
+    one of those cursed swamps, and can hear the music of the
+    alligators and bullfrogs. There they are, the beauties; a
+    couple of them are taking a peep at us, sticking their elegant
+    heads and long delicate snouts out of the slime and mud. The
+    neighbourhood is none of the best; but luckily the path is firm
+    and good, carefully made, evidently by Indian hands. None but
+    Indians could live and labour and travel habitually, in such a
+    pestilential atmosphere. Thank God! we are out of it at last.
+    Again on firm forest ground, amidst the magnificent monotony of
+    the eternal palms and mahogany-trees. But&mdash;see there!</p>
+
+    <p>A new and surpassingly beautiful landscape burst suddenly
+    upon our view, seeming to dance in the transparent atmosphere.
+    On either side mountains, those on the left in deep shadow,
+    those on the right standing forth like colossal figures of
+    light, in a beauty and splendour that seemed really
+    supernatural, every tree, every branch shining in its own vivid
+    and glorious colouring. There lay the valley in its tropical
+    luxuriance and beauty, one sheet of bloom and blossom up to the
+    topmost crown of the palm-trees, that shot up, some of them, a
+    hundred and fifty and a hundred and eighty feet high. Thousands
+    and millions of convolvoluses, paulinias, bignonias,
+    dendrobiums, climbing from the fern to the tree trunks, from
+    the trunks to the branches and summits of the trees, and thence
+    again falling gracefully down, and catching and clinging to the
+    mangroves and blocks of granite. It burst upon us like a scene
+    of enchantment, as we emerged from the darkness of the forest
+    into the dazzling light and colouring of that glorious
+    valley.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Misericordia, misericordia! Audi nos peccadores!
+    Misericordia, las aquas!</i>" suddenly screamed and exclaimed
+    the Mexicans in various intonations of terror and despair. We
+    looked around us. What can be the matter? We see nothing.
+    Nothing, except that from just behind those two mountains,
+    which project like mighty promontories into the valley, a cloud
+    is beginning to rise. "What is it? What is wrong?" A dozen
+    voices answered us&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Por la Santa Virgen</i>, for the holy Virgin's sake, on,
+    on! <i>No hay tiempo para hablar</i>. We have still two leagues
+    to go, and in one hour comes the flood."</p>
+
+    <p>And they recommenced their howling, yelling chorus of
+    "<i>Misericordia! Audi nos peccadores!</i>" and "<i>Santissima
+    Virgen</i>, and <i>Todos santos y angeles!</i>"</p>
+
+    <p>"Are the fellows mad?" shouted Rowley, "What if the water
+    does come? It won't swallow you. A ducking more or less is no
+    such great matter. You are not made of sugar or salt. Many's
+    the drenching I've had in the States, and none the worse for
+    it. Yet our rains are no child's play neither."</p>
+
+    <p>On looking round us, however, we were involuntarily struck
+    with the sudden change in the appearance of the heavens. The
+    usual golden black blue colour of the sky was gone, and had
+    been replaced by a dull gloomy grey. The quality of the air
+    appeared also to have changed; it was neither very warm nor
+    very cold, but it had lost its lightness and elasticity, and
+    seemed to oppress and weigh us down. Presently we saw the dark
+    cloud rise gradually from behind the hills, completely clearing
+    their summits, and then sweeping along until it hung over the
+    valley, in form and appearance like some monstrous night-moth,
+    resting the tips of its enormous wings on the mountains on
+    either side. To our right we still saw the roofs and walls of
+    Quidricovi, apparently at a very short distance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not go to Quidricovi?" shouted I to the guides, "we
+    cannot be far off."</p>
+
+    <p>"More than five leagues," answered the men, shaking their
+    heads and looking up anxiously at the huge moth, which was
+    still creeping and crawling on, each moment darker and
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page458"
+       id="page458"></a>[pg 458]</span> more threatening. It was
+       like some frightful monster, or the fabled Kraken, working
+       itself along by its claws, which were struck deep into the
+       mountain-wall on either side of its line of progress, and
+       casting its hideous shadow over hill and dale, forest and
+       valley, clothing them in gloom and darkness. To our right
+       hand and behind us, the mountains were still of a glowing
+       golden red, lighted up by the sun, but to the left and in
+       our front all was black and dark. With the same glance we
+       beheld the deepest gloom and the brightest day, meeting each
+       other but not mingling. It was a strange and ominous
+       sight.</p>
+
+    <p>Ominous enough; and the brute creation seem to feel it so as
+    well as ourselves. The chattering parrots, the hopping,
+    gibbering, quarrelsome apes, all the birds and beasts, scream
+    and cry and flutter and spring about, as though seeking a
+    refuge from some impending danger. Even our horses begin to
+    tremble and groan&mdash;refuse to go on, start and snort. The
+    whole animal world is in commotion, as if seized with an
+    overwhelming panic. The forest is teeming with inhabitants.
+    Whence come they, all these living things? On every side is
+    heard the howling and snarling of beasts, the frightened cries
+    and chirpings of birds. The vultures and turkey-buzzards, that
+    a few minutes before were circling high in the air, are now
+    screaming amidst the branches of the mahogany-trees; every
+    creature that has life is running, scampering,
+    flying&mdash;apes and tigers, birds and creeping things.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos, por la Santissima!</i> On! or we are all
+    lost."</p>
+
+    <p>And we ride, we rush along&mdash;neither masses of rock, nor
+    fallen trees, nor thorns and brambles, check our wild career.
+    Over every thing we go, leaping, scrambling, plunging, riding
+    like desperate men, flying from a danger of which the nature is
+    not clearly defined, but which we feel to be great and
+    imminent. It is a frightful terror-striking foe, that huge
+    night-moth, which comes ever nearer, growing each moment bigger
+    and blacker. Looking behind us, we catch one last glimpse of
+    the red and bloodshot sun, which the next instant disappears
+    behind the edge of the mighty cloud.</p>
+
+    <p>Still we push on. Hosts of tigers, and monkeys both large
+    and small, and squirrels and jackals, come close up to us as if
+    seeking shelter, and then finding none, retreat howling into
+    the forest. There is not a breath of air stirring, yet all
+    nature&mdash;plants and trees, men and beasts&mdash;seem to
+    quiver and tremble with apprehension. Our horses pant and groan
+    as they bound along with dilated nostrils and glaring eyes,
+    trembling in every limb, sweating at every pore, half wild with
+    terror; giving springs and leaps that more resemble those of a
+    hunted tiger than of a horse.</p>
+
+    <p>The prayer and exclamations of the terrified Mexicans,
+    continued without intermission, whispered and shrieked and
+    groaned in every variety of intonation. The earthy hue of
+    intense terror was upon every countenance. For some moments a
+    death-like stillness, an unnatural calm, reigned around us: it
+    was as though the elements were holding in their breath, and
+    collecting their energies for some mighty outbreak. Then came a
+    low indistinct moaning sound, that seemed to issue from the
+    bowels of the earth. The warning was significant.</p>
+
+    <p>"Halt! stop" shouted we to the guides. "Stop! and let us
+    seek shelter from the storm."</p>
+
+    <p>"On! for God's sake, on! or we are lost," was the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>Thank Heaven! the path is getting wider&mdash;we come to a
+    descent&mdash;they are leading us out of the forest. If the
+    storm had come on while we were among the trees, we might be
+    crushed to death by the falling branches. We are close to a
+    barranca.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Alerto! Alerto!</i>" shrieked the Mexicans. "<i>Madre de
+    Dios! Dios! Dios!"</i></p>
+
+    <p>And well might they call to God for help in that awful
+    moment. The gigantic night-moth gaped and shot forth tongues of
+    fire&mdash;a ghastly white flame, that contrasted strangely and
+    horribly with the dense black cloud from which it issued. There
+    was a peal of thunder that seemed to shake the earth, then a
+    pause during which nothing was heard but the panting of our
+    horses as they dashed across the barranca, and began straining
+    up the steep side of a knoll or hillock. The
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page459"
+       id="page459"></a>[pg 459]</span> cloud again opened: for a
+       second every thing was lighted up. Another thunder clap, and
+       then, as though the gates of its prison had been suddenly
+       burst open, the tempest came forth in its might and fury,
+       breaking, crushing, and sweeping away all that opposed it.
+       The trees of the forest staggered and tottered for a moment,
+       as if making an effort to bear up against the storm; but it
+       was in vain: the next instant, with a report like that of
+       ten thousand cannon, whole acres of mighty trees were
+       snapped off, their branches shivered, their roots torn up;
+       it was no longer a forest but a chaos; an ocean of boughs
+       and tree-trunks, that were tossed about like the waves of
+       the sea, or thrown into the air like straws. The atmosphere
+       was darkened with dust, and leaves, and branches.</p>
+
+    <p>"God be merciful to us! Rowley! where are ye?&mdash;No
+    answer. What is become of them all?"</p>
+
+    <p>A second blast more furious than the first. Can the
+    mountains resist it? will they stand? By the Almighty! they do
+    not. The earth trembles; the hillock, on the leeside of which
+    we are, rocks and shakes; and the air grows thick and
+    suffocating&mdash;full of dust and saltpetre and sulphur. We
+    are like to choke. All around is dark as night. We can see
+    nothing, hear nothing but the howling of the hurricane, and the
+    thunder and rattle of falling trees and shivered branches.</p>
+
+    <p>Suddenly the hurricane ceases, and all is hushed; but so
+    suddenly that the charge is startling and unnatural. No sound
+    is audible save the creaking and moaning of the trees with
+    which the ground is cumbered. It is like a sudden pause in a
+    battle, when the roar of the cannon and clang of charging
+    squadrons cease, and nought is heard but the groaning of the
+    wounded, the agonized sobs and gasps of the dying.</p>
+
+    <p>The report of a pistol is heard; then another, a third,
+    hundreds, thousands of them. It is the flood, <i>las aguas</i>;
+    the shots are drops of rain; but such drops! each as big as a
+    hen's egg. They strike with the force of enormous
+    hailstones&mdash;stunning and blinding us. The next moment
+    there is no distinction of drops, the windows of heaven are
+    opened; it is no longer rain nor flood, but a sea, a cataract,
+    a Niagara. The hillock on which I am standing, undermined by
+    the waters, gives way and crumbles under me; in ten seconds'
+    time I find myself in the barranca, which is converted into a
+    river, off my horse, which is gone I know not whither. The only
+    person I see near me is Rowley, also dismounted and struggling
+    against the stream, which is already up to our waists, and
+    sweeps along with it huge branches and entire trees, that
+    threaten each moment to carry us away with them, or to crush us
+    against the rocks. We avoid these dangers, God knows how, make
+    violent efforts to stem the torrent and gain the side of the
+    barranca; although, even should we succeed, it is so steep that
+    we can scarcely hope to climb it without assistance. And whence
+    is that assistance to come? Of the Mexicans we see or hear
+    nothing. They are doubtless all drowned or dashed to pieces.
+    They were higher up on the hillock than we were, must
+    consequently have been swept down with more force, and were
+    probably carried away by the torrent. Nor can we hope for a
+    better fate. Wearied by our ride, weakened by the fever and
+    sufferings of the preceding night, we are in no condition to
+    strive much longer with the furious elements. For one step that
+    we gain, we lose two. The waters rise; already they are nearly
+    up to our armpits. It is in vain to resist any longer. Our fate
+    is sealed.</p>
+
+    <p>"Rowley, all is over&mdash;let us die like men. God have
+    mercy on our souls!"</p>
+
+    <p>Rowley was a few paces higher up the barranca. He made me no
+    answer, but looked at me with a calm, cold, and yet somewhat
+    regretful smile upon his countenance. Then all at once he
+    ceased the efforts he was making to resist the stream and gain
+    the bank, folded his arms on his breast and gave a look up and
+    around him as though to bid farewell to the world he was about
+    to leave. The current was sweeping him rapidly down towards me,
+    when suddenly a wild hurra burst from his lips, and he
+    recommenced his struggles against the waters, striving
+    violently to retain <span class="pagenum"><a name="page460"
+       id="page460"></a>[pg 460]</span> a footing on the slippery,
+       uneven bed of the stream.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Tenga! Tenga!</i>" screamed a dozen voices, that seemed
+    to proceed from spirits of the air; and at the same moment
+    something whistled about my ears and struck me a smart blow
+    across the face. With the instinct of a drowning man, I
+    clutched the <i>lasso</i> that had been thrown to me. Rowley
+    was at my elbow and seized it also. It was immediately drawn
+    tight, and by its aid we gained the bank, and began ascending
+    the side of the barranca, composed of rugged, declivitous
+    rocks, affording but scanty foot-hold. God grant the lasso may
+    prove tough! The strain on it is fearful. Rowley is a good
+    fifteen stone, and I am no feather; and in some parts of our
+    perilous ascent the rocks are almost as perpendicular and
+    smooth as a wall of masonry, and we are obliged to cling with
+    our whole weight to the lasso, which seems to stretch, and
+    crack, and grow visibly thinner. Nothing but a strip of twisted
+    cow-hide between us and a frightful agonizing death on the
+    sharp rocks and in the foaming waters below. But the lasso
+    holds good, and now the chief peril is past: we get some sort
+    of footing&mdash;a point of rock, or a tree-root to clutch at.
+    Another strain up this rugged slope of granite, another pull at
+    the lasso; a leap, a last violent effort,
+    and&mdash;<i>Viva</i>!&mdash;we are seized under the arms,
+    dragged up, held upon our feet for a moment, and then&mdash;we
+    sink exhausted to the ground in the midst of the Tzapotecans,
+    mules, arrieros, guides, and women, who are sheltered from the
+    storm in a sort of natural cavern. At the moment at which the
+    hillock had given way under Rowley and myself, who were a short
+    distance in rear of the party, the Mexicans had succeeded in
+    attaining firm footing on a broad rocky ledge, a shelf of the
+    precipice that flanked the barranca. Upon this ledge, which
+    gradually widened into a platform, they found themselves in
+    safety under some projecting crags that sheltered them
+    completely from the tempest. Thence they looked down upon the
+    barranca, where they descried Rowley and myself struggling for
+    our lives in the roaring torrent; and thence, by knotting
+    several lassos together, they were able to give us the
+    opportune aid which had rescued us from our desperate
+    situation. But whether this aid had come soon enough to save
+    our lives was still a question, or at least for some time
+    appeared to be so. The life seemed driven out of our bodies by
+    all we had gone through: we were unable to move a finger, and
+    lay helpless and motionless, with only a glimmering indistinct
+    perception, not amounting to consciousness, of what was going
+    on around us. Fatigue, the fever, the immersion in cold water
+    when reeking with perspiration, the sufferings of all kinds we
+    had endured in the course of the last twenty hours, had
+    completely exhausted and broken us down.</p>
+
+    <p>The storm did not last long in its violence, but swept
+    onwards, leaving a broad track of desolation behind it. The
+    Mexicans recommenced their journey, with the exception of four
+    or five who remained with us and our arrieros and servants. The
+    village to which we were proceeding was not above a league off;
+    but even that short distance Rowley and myself were in no
+    condition to accomplish. The kind-hearted Tzapotecans made us
+    swallow cordials, stripped off our drenched and tattered
+    garments, and wrapped us in an abundance of blankets. We fell
+    into a deep sleep, which lasted all that evening and the
+    greater part of the night, and so much refreshed us that about
+    an hour before daybreak we were able to resume our
+    march&mdash;at a slow pace, it is true, and suffering
+    grievously in every part of our bruised and wounded limbs and
+    bodies, at each jolt or rough motion of the mules on which we
+    were clinging, rather than sitting.</p>
+
+    <p>Our path lay over hill and dale, perpetually rising and
+    falling. We soon got out of the district or zone that had been
+    swept by the preceding day's hurricane, and after nearly an
+    hour's ride, we paused on the crest of a steep descent, at the
+    foot of which, as our guides informed us, lay the land of
+    promise, the long looked-for <i>rancho</i>. While the muleteers
+    were seeing to the girths of their beasts, and giving the due
+    equilibrium to the baggage, before commencing the downward
+    march, Rowley <span class="pagenum"><a name="page461"
+       id="page461"></a>[pg 461]</span> and I sat upon our mules,
+       wrapped in large Mexican <i>capas</i>, gazing at the
+       morning-star as it sank down and grew gradually paler and
+       fainter. Suddenly the eastern sky began to brighten, and a
+       brilliant beam appeared in the west, a point of light no
+       bigger than a star&mdash;but yet not a star; it was of a far
+       rosier hue. The next moment a second sparkling spot
+       appeared, near to the first, which now swelled out into a
+       sort of fiery tongue, that seemed to lick round the silvery
+       summit of the snow-clad mountain. As we gazed,
+       five&mdash;ten&mdash;twenty hill tops were tinged with the
+       same rose-coloured glow; in another moment they became like
+       fiery banners spread out against the heavens, while
+       sparkling tongues and rays of golden light flashed and
+       flamed round them, springing like meteors from one mountain
+       summit to another, lighting them up like a succession of
+       beacons. Scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the distant
+       pinnacles of the mountains had appeared to us as huge
+       phantom-like figures of a silvery white, dimly marked out
+       upon a dark star-spangled ground; now the whole immense
+       chain blazed like volcanoes covered with glowing lava,
+       rising out of the darkness that still lingered on their
+       flanks and bases, visible and wonderful witnesses to the
+       omnipotence of <i>him</i> who said, "Let there be light, and
+       there was light."</p>
+
+    <p>Above, all was broad day, flaming sunlight; below, all black
+    night. Here and there streams of light burst through clefts and
+    openings in the mountains, and then ensued an extraordinary
+    kind of conflict. The shades of darkness seemed to live and
+    move, to struggle against the bright beams that fell amongst
+    them and broke their masses, forcing them down the wooded
+    heights, tearing them asunder and dispersing them like tissues
+    of cobwebs; so that successively, and as if by a stroke of
+    enchantment, there appeared, first the deep indigo blue of the
+    tamarinds and chicozapotes, then the bright green of the
+    sugar-canes, lower down the darker green of the nopal-trees,
+    lower still the white and green and gold and bright yellow of
+    the orange and citron groves, and lowest of all, the stately
+    fan-palms, and date-palms, and bananas; all glittering with
+    millions of dewdrops, that covered them like a ganze veil
+    embroidered with diamonds and rubies. And still in the very
+    next valley all was utter darkness.</p>
+
+    <p>We sat silent and motionless, gazing at this scene of
+    enchantment.</p>
+
+    <p>Presently the sun rose higher, and a flood of light
+    illumined the whole valley, which lay some few hundred feet
+    below us&mdash;a perfect garden, such as no northern
+    imagination could picture forth; a garden of sugar-canes,
+    cotton, and nopal-trees, intermixed with thickets of
+    pomegranate and strawberry-trees, and groves of orange, fig,
+    and lemon, giants of their kind, shooting up to a far greater
+    height than the oak attains in the States&mdash;every tree a
+    perfect hothouse, a pyramid of flowers, covered with bloom and
+    blossom to its topmost spray. All was light, and freshness, and
+    beauty; every object seemed to dance and rejoice in the clear
+    elastic golden atmosphere. It was an earthly paradise, fresh
+    from the hand of its Creator, and at first we could discover no
+    sign of man or his works. Presently, however, we discerned the
+    village lying almost at our feet, the small stone houses
+    overgrown with flowers and embedded in trees; so that scarcely
+    a square foot of roof or wall was to be seen. Even the church
+    was concealed in a garland of orange-trees, and had lianas and
+    star-flowered creepers climbing over and dangling on it, up as
+    high as the slender cross that surmounted its square white
+    tower. As we gazed, the first sign of life appeared in the
+    village. A puff of blue smoke rose curling and spiral from a
+    chimney, and the matin bell rang out its summons to prayer. Our
+    Mexicans fell on their knees and crossed themselves, repeating
+    their Ave-marias. We involuntarily took off our hats, and
+    whispered a thanksgiving to the God who had been with us in the
+    hour of peril, and was now so visible to us in his works.</p>
+
+    <p>The Mexicans rose from their knees.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos! Senores,</i>" said one of them, laying his hand
+    on the bridle of my mule. "To the <i>rancho</i>, to
+    breakfast."</p>
+
+    <p>We rode slowly down into the valley.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_4_1"
+                    name="fn_4_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_4_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The nigua is a small but very dangerous insect which
+        fixes itself in the feet, bores holes in the skin, and lays
+        its eggs there. These, if not extracted, (which extraction
+        by the by is a most painful operation) cause first an
+        intolerable itching, and subsequently sores and ulcers of a
+        sufficiently serious nature to entail the loss of the
+        feet.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page462"
+       id="page462"></a>[pg 462]</span> <a name="fleet"
+          id="fleet"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE BRITISH FLEET.<a id="fn_5_tag1"
+       name="fn_5_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_5_1"><sup>1</sup></a></h2>
+
+    <p>Were the question proposed to us, What is the most
+    extraordinary, complete, and effective instance of skill,
+    contrivance, science, and power, ever combined by man? we
+    should unhesitatingly answer, an English line-of-battle ship.
+    Take the model of a 120 gun ship&mdash;large as it may be for a
+    floating body, its space is not great. For example, it is not
+    half the ordinary size of a nobleman's mansion; yet that ship
+    carries a thousand men with convenience, and lodges them day
+    and night, with sufficient room for the necessary distinctions
+    of obedience and command&mdash;has separate apartments for the
+    admiral and the captain, for the different ranks of officers,
+    and even for the different ranks of seamen&mdash;separate
+    portions below decks for the sleeping of the crew, the dining
+    of the officers, and the receptacle for the sick and wounded.
+    Those thousand men are to be fed three times a-day, and
+    provisions for four months are to be stowed. One hundred and
+    twenty cannon, some of them of the heaviest metal, are to be
+    carried; and room is to be found for all the weight of shot and
+    quantities of powder, with other missiles, rockets, and signal
+    fires, necessary for service. Besides this, room is to be
+    provided for the stowage of fresh rigging, sails, ropes,
+    cables, and yards, to replace those lost by accident, battle,
+    or wear and tear. Besides this, too, there is to be a provision
+    for the hospital. So far for the mere necessaries of the ship.
+    Then we are to regard the science; for nothing can be more
+    essential than the skill and the instruments of the navigator,
+    as nothing can be more fatal than a scientific error, a false
+    calculation, or a remission of vigilance. We shall do no more
+    than allude to the habits of command essential to keep a
+    thousand of these rough and daring spirits in order, and that,
+    too, an order of the most implicit, steady, and active kind;
+    nor to their knowledge of tactics, and conduct in battle. The
+    true definition of the line-of-battle ship being, a floating
+    regiment of artillery in a barrack, which, at the beat of a
+    drum, may be turned into a field of battle, or, at the command
+    of government, may be sent flying on the wings of the wind
+    round the world. We think that we have thus established our
+    proposition. If not, let any thing else be shown which exhibits
+    the same quantity of power <i>packed</i> within the same space;
+    and that power, too, increasing daily by new contrivances of
+    stowage and building, by new models of guns, and new inventions
+    in machinery. England is at this moment building two hundred
+    steam-ships, with guns of a calibre to which all the past were
+    trifling, with room for a regiment of land troops besides their
+    crews, and with the known power of defying wind and wave, and
+    throwing an army in full equipment for the field, within a few
+    days, on any coast of Europe.</p>
+
+    <p>It is remarkable that the use of the navy, as a great branch
+    of the military power of England, had been scarcely
+    contemplated until the last century. Though the sea-coast of
+    England, the largest of any European state, and the national
+    habits of an insular country, might have pointed out this
+    direction for the national energies from the earliest period,
+    yet England was a kingdom for five hundred years before she
+    seems to have thought of the use of ships as an instrument of
+    public power. In the long war with France during the fourteenth
+    and fifteenth centuries, the ships were almost wholly
+    mercantile; and, when employed in wars, were chiefly employed
+    as transports to throw our troops on the French soil. It was
+    the reign of Elizabeth, that true birth of the progress of
+    England, that first developed the powers of an armed navy. The
+    Spanish invasion forced the country to meet the Armada by means
+    like its own; and the triumph, though won by a higher agency,
+    and due to the winds and waves, or rather to the Supreme
+    Providence which watched over the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page463"
+       id="page463"></a>[pg 463]</span> land of Protestantism,
+       awoke the nation to the true faculty of defence; and from
+       that period alone could the burden of the fine national song
+       be realized, and Britain was to "rule the main." The
+       expeditions against the Spanish West Indies, and the new
+       ardour of discovery in regions where brilliant fable lent
+       its aid to rational curiosity, carried on the process of
+       naval power. The war against Holland, under Charles II.,
+       though disastrous and impolitic, showed at least that the
+       fleet of England was the true arm of its strength; and the
+       humiliation of the only rival of her commerce at once taught
+       her where the sinews of war lay, and by what means the
+       foundations of naval empire were to be laid. But it was not
+       until the close of the last century that the truth came
+       before the nation in its full form. The American war&mdash;a
+       war of skirmishes&mdash;had its direct effect, perhaps its
+       providential purpose, in compelling England to prepare for
+       the tremendous collision which was so soon to follow, and
+       which was to be the final security of the Continent itself.
+       It was then, for the first time, that the nation was driven
+       to the use of a navy on a great scale. The war, lying on the
+       western shore of an ocean, made the use of naval armaments
+       necessary to every operation. The treacherous hostility of
+       the French cabinet, and the unfortunate subserviency of
+       Spain to that treachery, made corresponding energy on the
+       part of England a matter of public demand; and when France
+       and Spain sent out fleets of a magnitude till then unknown,
+       England was urged to follow their example. The defeats of
+       the combined navies excited the nation to still more
+       vigorous efforts; and the war closed with so full a
+       demonstration of the matchless importance of a great navy to
+       England, that the public feeling was fixed on giving it the
+       largest contribution of the national confidence.</p>
+
+    <p>The time was at hand when the trial was to involve every
+    interest of England and mankind. The first grand struggle of
+    revolutionary France with England was to be on the seas; and
+    the generation of naval officers who had been reared in the
+    American war, then rising into vigour, trained by its
+    experience, and stimulated by its example, gallantly maintained
+    the honour of their country. A succession of sanguinary battles
+    followed, each on the largest scale, and each closing in
+    British victory; until the republic, in despair, abandoned the
+    fatal element, and tied her fortunes in the easier conflicts of
+    the land. The accession of Napoleon renewed the struggle for
+    naval supremacy, until one vast blow extinguished his hopes and
+    his navy at Trafalgar. Peace now exists, and long may it exist!
+    but France is rapidly renewing her navy, taking every
+    opportunity of exercising its strength, and especially
+    patronising the policy of founding those colonies which it idly
+    imagines to be the source of British opulence. But whether the
+    wisdom of Louis Philippe limits the protection of French trade
+    to the benefits which commerce may confer on his vast kingdom,
+    or looks forward to the support which a mercantile navy may
+    give to a warlike one, we must not sleep on our posts. The life
+    of any individual is brief on a national scale; and his
+    successor, whether regent or republican, may be as hot-headed,
+    rash, and ambitious, as this great monarch has shown himself
+    rational, prudent, and peaceful. We must prepare for all
+    chances; and our true preparation must be, a fleet that may
+    defy all.</p>
+
+    <p>It is a remarkable instance of the slowness with which
+    science advances, that almost the whole scientific portion of
+    seamanship has grown up since the middle of the seventeenth
+    century, though America had been reached in 1492, and India in
+    1496; and thus the world had been nearly rounded before what
+    would now be regarded as the ordinary knowledge of a navigator
+    had been acquired. England has the honour of making the first
+    advances. It was an Englishman, Norwood, who made the first
+    measurement of a degree between London and York, and fixed it
+    at 122,399 English yards. The attention of the world thus once
+    awakened, Huygens and Cassini applied themselves to ascertain
+    the figure of the earth. The first experiments of the French
+    <i>savans</i> were in contradiction to Newton's theory of the
+    flattening of the poles; but the controversy was the means of
+    exciting new <span class="pagenum"><a name="page464"
+       id="page464"></a>[pg 464]</span> interest. The eyes of the
+       scientific world were turned more intently on the subject.
+       New experiments were made, which corrected the old; and
+       finally, on the measurement of the arc in Peru, and in the
+       north, truth and Newton triumphed, and the equatorial
+       diameter was found to exceed the polar by a two hundred and
+       fourth part of the whole. This was perhaps the finest
+       problem ever solved by science; the most perplexing in its
+       early state&mdash;exhibiting for a while the strongest
+       contradiction of experiment and theory, occupying in a
+       greater degree the attention of philosophers than any before
+       or since, and finally established with a certainty which
+       every subsequent observation has only tended to confirm. And
+       this triumph belonged to an Englishman.</p>
+
+    <p>The investigation by measurements has since been largely
+    adopted. In 1787, joint commissions were issued by England and
+    France to connect the Greenwich and Parisian observations. Arcs
+    of the meridian have since been measured across the whole
+    breadth of France and Spain, and also near the Arctic circle,
+    and in the Indian peninsula.</p>
+
+    <p>In navigation, the grand point for the sailor is to
+    ascertain his latitude and longitude; in other words, to know
+    where he is. The discovery of the latitude is easily effected
+    by the quadrant, but the longitude is the difficulty. Any means
+    which ascertained the hour at Greenwich, at the instant of
+    making a celestial observation in any other part, would answer
+    the difficulty; for the difference in quarters of an hour would
+    give the difference of the degrees. But clocks could not be
+    used on shipboard, and the best watches failed to keep the
+    time. In the reign of Anne, Parliament offered a reward of L.
+    5000, perhaps not far from the value of twice the sum in the
+    present day, for a watch within a certain degree of accuracy.
+    Harrison, a watchmaker, sent in a watch which came within the
+    limits, losing but two minutes in a voyage to the West Indies;
+    yet even this was an error of thirty miles.</p>
+
+    <p>But, though chronometers have since been considerably
+    improved, there are difficulties in their preservation in good
+    order which have made it expedient to apply to other means; and
+    the lunar tables of Mayer of Gottingen, formed in 1755, and
+    subsequently improved by Dr Maskelyne and others, have brought
+    the error within seven miles and a half.</p>
+
+    <p>Improvements of a very important order have also taken place
+    in the mariner's compass; the variation of the needle has been
+    reduced to rules, and some anomalies arising from the metallic
+    attraction of the ship itself, have been corrected by Professor
+    Barlow's experiments. The use of the marine barometer and
+    thermometer have also largely assisted to give notice of
+    tempests; and some ingenious theories have been lately formed,
+    which, promising to give a knowledge of the origin and nature
+    of tempests, are obviously not unlikely to assist the navigator
+    in stemming their violence, or escaping them altogether.</p>
+
+    <p>The construction of ships for both the merchant and the
+    public service has undergone striking improvements within this
+    century. Round sterns, for the defence of a vessel engaged with
+    several opponents at once; compartments in the hold, for
+    security against leaks; iron tanks for water, containing twice
+    the quantity, and keeping it free from the impurities of casks;
+    a better general stowage; provisions prepared so as to remain
+    almost fresh during an East Indian voyage; every means of
+    preserving health, suggested by science, and succeeding to the
+    most remarkable degree; a more intelligent system of
+    shipbuilding, and a constant series of experiments on the
+    shape, stowage, and sailing of ships, are among the beneficial
+    changes of later times. But the one great
+    change&mdash;steam&mdash;will probably swallow up all the rest,
+    and form a new era in shipbuilding, in navigation, in the power
+    and nature of a navy, and in the comfort, safety, and
+    protection of the crews in actual engagement. The use of steam
+    is still so palpably in its infancy, yet that infancy is so
+    gigantic, that it is equally difficult to say what it may yet
+    become, and to limit its progress. It will have the one obvious
+    advantage to mankind in general, of making the question of war
+    turn more than ever on the financial and mechanical resources
+    of a people; and thus increasing
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page465"
+       id="page465"></a>[pg 465]</span> the necessity for
+       commercial opulence and intellectual exertion. It may expose
+       nations more to each other's attacks; but it will render
+       hostility more dreaded, because more dangerous. On the
+       whole, like the use of gunpowder, which made a Tartar war
+       impossible, and which rapidly tended to civilize Europe,
+       steam appears to be intended as a further step in the same
+       high process, in which force is to be put down by
+       intelligence, and success, even in war, is to depend on the
+       industry of peace; thus, in fact, providing a perpetual
+       restriction on the belligerent propensities of nations, and
+       urging the uncivilized, by necessity, to own the
+       superiority, and follow the example of the civilized, by
+       knowledge, habit, and principle.</p>
+
+    <p>It is not to be forgotten, even in this general and brief
+    view of the values of the British fleet, that it has, within
+    these few years, assumed a new character as an instrument of
+    war. The Syrian campaign, the shortest, and, beyond all
+    comparison, the most brilliant on record, if we are to estimate
+    military distinction, not only by the gallantry of the
+    conflict, but by the results of the victory&mdash;this
+    campaign, which at once finished the war in Syria, gave peace
+    to Turkey, reduced Egypt to obedience, rescued the sultan from
+    Russian influence, and Egypt from French; or rather rescued all
+    Europe from the collision of England, France, and Russia; and
+    even, by the evidence of our naval capabilities, taught
+    American faction the wisdom of avoiding hostilities&mdash;this
+    grand operation was effected by a small portion of the British
+    navy, well commanded, directed to the right point, and acting
+    with national energy. The three hours' cannonade of Acre, the
+    most effective achievement in the annals of war, exhibited a
+    new use of a ship's broadside; for, though ships' guns had
+    often battered forts before, it was the first instance of a
+    <i>fleet</i> employed in attack, and fully overpowering all
+    opposition. The attack on Algiers was the only exploit of a
+    similar kind; but its success was limited, and the result was
+    so far disastrous, that it at once fixed the eye of France on
+    the invasion of Algiers, and disabled and disheartened the
+    native government from vigorous resistance. The victory of the
+    fleet at Acre will also have the effect of changing the whole
+    system of defence in fortresses and cities exposed to the
+    sea.</p>
+
+    <p>But a still further advance in the employment of fleets as
+    an instrument of hostilities, has since occurred in the Chinese
+    war&mdash;their simultaneous operation with troops. In former
+    assaults of fortresses, the troops and ships attacked the same
+    line of defence, and the consequence was the waste of force.
+    From the moment when the troops approached the land, the fire
+    of the ships necessarily ceased, and the fleet then remained
+    spectators of the assault. But in this war, while the troops
+    attacked on the land side, the fleet ran up to the sea
+    batteries, and both attacks went on together&mdash;of course
+    dividing the attention of the enemy, thus having a double
+    chance of success, and employing both arms of the service in
+    full energy. This masterly combination the Duke of Wellington,
+    the highest military authority in Europe, pronounced to be a
+    new principle in war; and even this is, perhaps, only the
+    beginning of a system of combination which will lead to new
+    victories, if war should ever unhappily return.</p>
+
+    <p>We now revert to the history of a naval hero.</p>
+
+    <p>John Jervis, the second son of Swynfen Jervis, Esq., was
+    born on the 20th of January 1735. He was descended, on both the
+    paternal and maternal side, from families which had figured in
+    the olden times of England. The family of Jervis possessed
+    estates in Staffordshire as far back as the reign of Edward
+    III. The family of Swynfen was also long established in
+    Worcestershire. John Swynfen was a public character during the
+    troubled times of Charles I. and Cromwell, and until a late
+    period in the reign of Charles II. He had been originally a
+    strong Parliamentarian; but, thinking that the party went too
+    far, he was turned out of parliament for tardiness by the
+    Protector. But his original politics adhered to him still; for,
+    even after the restoration, he was joined with Hampden, the
+    grandson of the celebrated patriot, in drawing up the Bill of
+    Exclusion. Among his ancestors by the mother's side was Sir
+    John Turton, a judge in the Court of King's
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page466"
+       id="page466"></a>[pg 466]</span> Bench, married to a
+       daughter of the brave Colonel Samuel Moore, who made the
+       memorable defence of Hopton Castle in the Civil War.</p>
+
+    <p>But no man less regarded ancestry than the subject of the
+    present pages, who, in writing with reference to his pedigree,
+    observed, in his usual frank and straightforward
+    language&mdash;"They were all highly respectable; but, <i>et
+    genus et proavos</i>, nearly all the Latin I now recollect,
+    always struck my ear as the sound maxim for officers and
+    statesmen."</p>
+
+    <p>His first school was at Burton-upon-Trent, where a slight
+    incident seemed to designate his future politics and fortitude.
+    In 1745, when the Pretender marched into the heart of the
+    kingdom, without being joined by his friends or opposed by his
+    enemies, as Gibbon antithetically observed, all the boys at the
+    school, excepting young Jervis and Dick Meux, (afterwards the
+    eminent brewer,) wore plaid ribands sent to them from home, and
+    they pelted their two constitutional playmates, calling them
+    Whigs.</p>
+
+    <p>His father designed young Jervis for the law; but, in 1747,
+    removing to Greenwich on being appointed Counsel to the
+    Admiralty and Auditor to the Hospital, naval sights were too
+    near not to prove a strong temptation to the mind of an
+    animated and vigorous boy. His parents were still strongly for
+    the adoption of his father's profession; but there was another
+    authority on the subject, the family coachman, one Pinkhorne,
+    who, saying that it was a shame to go into a profession where
+    all were rogues, determined the future hero; and, before the
+    year was over, he ran away, to commence life as a sailor. He
+    was reclaimed, however, by his family, and was regularly
+    entered in the navy, in January 1748, on board the Gloucester,
+    fifty guns, Commodore Townshend&mdash;twenty pounds being all
+    that was given to him by his father for his equipment. The
+    Gloucester sailed for the West Indies; and thus, at the age of
+    thirteen, young Jervis began the world. It appears that the
+    rigid economy of his father, combined with the singular good
+    sense of this mere child, urged him to every means of acquiring
+    the knowledge of his profession. The monotonous life of a
+    guard-ship already seemed to him a waste of time, while the
+    expenses on shore must have been ruinous to his slender
+    finances. He therefore volunteered into whatever ship was going
+    to sea. He thus writes to his sister from on board the Sphinx,
+    1753:&mdash;"There are many entertainments and public
+    assemblies here, but they are rather above my sphere, many
+    inconveniences and expenses attending them; so that my chief
+    employ, when from my duty, is reading, studying navigation, and
+    perusing my own letters, of which I have almost enough to make
+    an octavo volume."</p>
+
+    <p>At length, however, his twenty pounds were exhausted; and,
+    at the end of three years, he drew for twenty pounds more. It
+    is vexatious to say that his bill was dishonoured; and he never
+    received another shilling from any one. It is scarcely possible
+    to conceive that so harsh a measure could have been the result
+    of intention; but it subjected this extraordinary boy to the
+    severest privations. To take up the dishonoured bill, he was
+    obliged to effect his discharge from one ship into another, so
+    as to obtain his pay tickets, which he sold at forty per cent
+    discount. His remaining six years on the station were spent in
+    the exercise of a severe economy, and the endurance even of
+    severe suffering. He was compelled to sell all his bedding, and
+    sleep on the bare deck. He had no other resource than,
+    generally, to make and mend, and always to wash, his own
+    clothes. He never afforded himself any fresh meat; and even the
+    fruit and vegetables, which are so necessary and so cheap, he
+    could obtain only by barter from the negroes, for the small
+    share of provisions which he could subduct from his own
+    allowance. True as all this doubtless is, it reflects more
+    severely on the captain and officers of his own ship, than even
+    upon his parents. The latter, on the other side of the
+    Atlantic, might have no knowledge of his difficulties; but that
+    those who saw his sufferings from day to day could have allowed
+    them to continue, argues a degree of negligence and inhumanity,
+    of which we hope that no present instance occurs in our navy,
+    and which at any period would appear incomprehensible.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page467"
+       id="page467"></a>[pg 467]</span> In 1754, young Jervis
+       returned to England, and passed his examination for
+       lieutenant with great credit.</p>
+
+    <p>The commencement of the war with France was, like the
+    commencement of English wars in general, disastrous. We seldom
+    make due preparation. Fleets inferior to the enemy in equipment
+    and number, are sent out on the emergency; detachments of
+    troops are sent where armies should have gone; and thus victory
+    itself is without effect. Thus for a year or two we continue
+    blundering if not beaten, and angry with our generals and
+    admirals for failing to do impossibilities. At last the nation
+    becomes fairly roused; the success of the enemy makes exertion
+    necessary; their insolence inflames the popular indignation; a
+    great effort is made; a triumph is obtained, and a peace
+    follows, which might have been accomplished half a dozen years
+    before, at a tenth part of the expense in blood and treasure
+    which it cost to consummate the war. Our troops under Braddock,
+    a brave fool, were beaten by the French and Indians in America.
+    Our Mediterranean fleet was baffled under the unfortunate
+    command of Byng. Minorca was taken before our eyes, and the
+    naval and military stars of England seem to have gone down
+    together. Yet this era of national dishonour and public disgust
+    was followed by the three years of Chatham's administration, a
+    period of triumph that equaled the campaigns of Marlborough at
+    the commencement of the century, and was scarcely eclipsed even
+    by the splendours that followed its close.</p>
+
+    <p>The skill and talent of young Jervis had already given him
+    distinction among the rising officers of the feet. He had
+    become a favourite with Admiral Saunders, was taken with him
+    from ship to ship; and when the admiral was recalled from the
+    Mediterranean to take the command of the naval force destined
+    to co-operate in the attack on Quebec, by the heroic and
+    lamented General Wolfe, young Jervis was selected to be first
+    lieutenant of the Prince, which bore the admiral's flag. On the
+    passage out, the general and his aide-de-camp, Captain,
+    afterwards the well-known Colonel Barr&eacute;, were guests on
+    board the Prince, and of course Jervis had the advantage of
+    their intelligent society. In February 1759, the fleet sailed
+    from England, and in June proceeded from Louisburg to the St
+    Lawrence. Lieutenant Jervis was now appointed to the command of
+    the Porcupine sloop; and on the general requesting a naval
+    force to escort his transports past Quebec, the Porcupine was
+    ordered by the admiral to lead. The service was one of extreme
+    difficulty; for the attempt to sound the channel the day before
+    had failed, though it was made by the master of the fleet,
+    Cook, afterwards the celebrated navigator. The winds suddenly
+    falling calm, prevented the Porcupine from reaching her
+    station. A heavy fire was instantly opened upon her from every
+    gun that could be brought to bear, and the army were in terror
+    of her being destroyed, for the general was on board. But
+    Jervis's skill was equal to his gallantry; he hoisted out his
+    boats, cheered his men through the fire, and brought his ship
+    to her station.</p>
+
+    <p>A little incident occurred on the night before the memorable
+    engagement, which even at this distance of time is of painful
+    interest, but which shows the confidence reposed in the young
+    naval officer by the hero of Quebec. After the orders for the
+    assault next day were given, Wolfe requested a private
+    interview with him; and saying that he had the strongest
+    presentiment of falling on the field, yet that he should fall
+    in victory, he took from his bosom the miniature of a young
+    lady to whom he was attached, gave it to Jervis, desiring that,
+    if the foreboding came to pass, he should return it to her on
+    his arrival in England. Wolfe's gallant fate and brilliant
+    victory are known: the picture was delivered to Miss
+    Lowther.</p>
+
+    <p>After the capture of Quebec, Jervis was dispatched to
+    England; and was appointed to the Scorpion, to carry out
+    important despatches to General Amherst. On this occasion, he
+    gave an instance of that remarkable promptitude which
+    characterised him throughout his whole career. The Scorpion was
+    in such a crazy state that she had nearly foundered between
+    Spithead and Plymouth. On reaching
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page468"
+       id="page468"></a>[pg 468]</span> the latter port, and
+       representing at once the condition of the vessel and the
+       importance of the despatches, the port-admiral instantly
+       ordered him to proceed to sea in the Albany, a sloop in the
+       Sound. But the Albany had been a long time in commission;
+       her people claimed arrears of pay; and by no means relishing
+       a voyage across the Atlantic in such weather, they
+       absolutely refused to heave the anchor. Their young
+       commander first tried remonstrance, but in vain; he then
+       took a more effectual means&mdash;he ordered his boat's
+       crew, whom he had brought from the Scorpion, to take their
+       hatchets and cut the cables, and then go aloft to loosen the
+       foresail. Perceiving the kind of man with whom they had to
+       do, the crew submitted, and the Albany instantly proceeded
+       to sea: the ringleaders were punished; and the service was
+       performed. The Albany made New York in twenty-four days.</p>
+
+    <p>In October 1761, Commander Jervis was made Post, into the
+    Gosport of 60 guns. Among his midshipmen was the afterwards
+    Admiral Lord Keith. In 1762, peace was made. The Gosport was
+    paid off next year, and Captain Jervis did not serve again
+    until 1769, when he commanded the Alarm of 32 guns for the next
+    three years.</p>
+
+    <p>A striking incident occurred during the cruise of this
+    vessel in the Mediterranean, exhibiting not only the spirit of
+    her captain, but the historic recollections by which that
+    spirit was sustained. One Sunday afternoon, the day after her
+    arrival at Genoa, two Turkish slaves, in enjoyment of the
+    holiday's rest from labour, sauntered from their galley near
+    the mole. Seeing the Alarm's boat, they jumped into her,
+    wrapped themselves in the British colours, and exclaimed, "We
+    are free!" The Genoese officer on duty, however, ordered them
+    to be dragged out, which was done, though one of them tore away
+    in his struggle a piece of the boat's pendant. On the
+    circumstance reaching the captain's ears he was indignant, and
+    demanded instant reparation. To use his own language:&mdash;"I
+    required," said he, "of the Doge and Senate, that both the
+    slaves should be brought on board, with the part of the torn
+    pendant which the slave carried off with him; the officer of
+    the guard punished; and an apology made on the quarterdeck of
+    the Alarm, under the king's colours, for the outrage offered to
+    the British nation."</p>
+
+    <p>On the following Tuesday this was complied with in all the
+    particulars; but, unhappily, the government at home did not
+    exhibit the spirit of their gallant officer abroad; and in a
+    letter which he addressed to his brother he says:&mdash;"<i>I
+    had an opportunity of carrying the British flag, in relation to
+    two Turkish slaves, as high as Blake had ever done</i>, for
+    which I am publicly censured; though I hope we have too much
+    virtue left, for me not to be justified in private."</p>
+
+    <p>The result, however, of this transaction was, that for many
+    years afterwards, in the Barbary states, if a slave could but
+    touch the British colours, which all our men-of-war's boats
+    carry in foreign ports, he could of right demand his release.
+    This, however, was counteracted as far as possible by the
+    renewed vigilance of the Moors, who kept all their slaves out
+    of sight while a British flag flew in the harbour. The allusion
+    to the famous Blake shows with what studies the young officer
+    fed his mind, and in how high a spirit he was prepared to adopt
+    them.</p>
+
+    <p>Another instance of his skill and intrepidity soon followed.
+    In March 1770, the frigate, after a tempestuous cruise, came to
+    anchor at Marseilles. An equinoctial gale came on, and after
+    two days of desperate exertion, and throwing many of the guns
+    overboard, the frigate was driven from her anchors, stranded on
+    a reef of rocks, and the crew in such peril that they were
+    saved only by the most extraordinary exertions, and the
+    assistance of the people on shore. The port officer, M. de
+    Peltier, exhibited great kindness and activity, and the ship
+    was rapidly repaired, but with such an exact economy, that its
+    complete refit, with the expense of the crew for three months,
+    amounted only to &pound;1415.</p>
+
+    <p>The first act of this excellent son was to write to his
+    father:&mdash;"Do not be alarmed, my dear sir, at the newspaper
+    accounts which you will hear of the Alarm. The interposition
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page469"
+       id="page469"></a>[pg 469]</span> of Divine Providence has
+       miraculously preserved her. The same Providence will, I
+       hope, give long life to my dear father, mother, and
+       brother."</p>
+
+    <p>In July he wrote to his sister from Mahon, after the repairs
+    of the vessel:&mdash;"The Alarm is the completest thing I ever
+    saw on the water, insomuch that I forgot she was the other day,
+    in the opinion of most beholders, her own officers and crew not
+    excepted, a miserable sunken wreck. Such is the reward of
+    perseverance. Happily for my reputation, my health at that
+    period happened to be equal to the task, or I had been lost for
+    ever, instead of receiving continual marks of public and
+    private approbation of my conduct; but this is <i>entre
+    nous</i>. I never speak or write on the subject except to those
+    I most love. You will easily believe Barrington to be one; his
+    goodness to me is romantic."</p>
+
+    <p>It is gratifying to state, that the English Admiralty, on
+    the young captain's warm representation of the French
+    superintendent, M. de Peltier's hospitality and kindness, sent
+    a handsome piece of plate in public acknowledgment to that
+    officer; and, as if to make the compliment perfect in all its
+    parts, as it arrived before the frigate had left the station,
+    the captain had the indulgence of presenting it in person; thus
+    making, as his letter to his father mentioned, "the family of
+    Pleville de Peltier happy beyond description."</p>
+
+    <p>The frigate was soon after paid off, and as there was no
+    probability of his being speedily employed, he applied himself
+    to gain every species of knowledge connected with his
+    profession. We strongly doubt whether the example of this
+    rising officer is not even more important when we regard him in
+    peace than in the activity and daring of war. There is no want
+    of courage and conduct in the British fleet; but life on shore
+    offers too many temptations to indolence, to be always turned
+    to the use of which it is capable. Captain Jervis, on the
+    contrary, appears always to have regarded life on shore
+    preparatory to life afloat, and to be constantly employed in
+    laying up knowledge for those emergencies which so often occur
+    in the bold and perilous life of the sailor. There is often
+    something like a predictive spirit in the early career of great
+    men, which urges them to make provision for greatness; and
+    remote as is the condition of a captain of a smart frigate from
+    the commander of fleets, yet the captain of the Alarm, though
+    the least ostentatious of men, seems always to have had a
+    glance towards the highest duties of the British admiral.
+    "Time," says Franklin, "is the stuff that life is made of;" and
+    as France is the antagonist with which the power of England
+    naturally expects to struggle, his first object was to acquire
+    all possible knowledge of the naval means of France. The
+    primary step was to acquire a knowledge of the language.
+    Accordingly, he went to France, and placed himself in a
+    <i>pension</i>. There he applied himself so closely to the
+    study of the language, that his health became out of order, and
+    his family requested him to return. But this he declined, and
+    in his answer said that he had adopted this pursuit on the best
+    view a military man in his situation could form. "For it will
+    always," said he, "be useful to have a general idea of this
+    prevalent language, and a knowledge of the country with which
+    we have so long contended, and which must ever be our rival in
+    arms and commerce."</p>
+
+    <p>Having accomplished his object of acquiring sufficient
+    fluency in speaking French, his next excursion was to St
+    Petersburg. He and Captain Barrington went in a merchant
+    vessel, and reached Cronstadt. While at sea, Captain Jervis
+    kept a regular log. During the voyage, all the headlands are
+    described, all the soundings noted, and every opportunity to
+    test and correct the charts adopted. As an example, he remarks
+    on the castle of Cronenburg, which guards the entrance into the
+    Sound, that it may be overlooked by a line-of-battle ship,
+    which may anchor in good ground as near the beach as she
+    pleases. He remarks the two channels leading to Copenhagen,
+    puts all the lighthouses down on his own chart, and lays down
+    all the approaches to St Petersburg accurately; "because," said
+    he, "I find all the charts are incorrect, and it may be
+    useful." And he actually did find it useful; for when he was at
+    the head of the Admiralty, this knowledge enabled him, while
+    his colleagues <span class="pagenum"><a name="page470"
+       id="page470"></a>[pg 470]</span> hesitated, to give his
+       orders confidently to Sir Charles Pole, in command of the
+       Baltic fleet. His sojourn at St Petersburg was but brief;
+       but it was at a time of remarkable excitement. The Empress
+       Catharine was at the height of her splendour, a legislator
+       and a conqueror, and surrounded by a court exhibiting all
+       the daring and dashing characters of her vast empire. His
+       description of this celebrated woman's character on one
+       public occasion, shows the exactness with which he observed
+       every thing:&mdash;"When she entered the cathedral,
+       Catharine mingled her salutations to the saints and the
+       people, showing at once her compliance with religious
+       ceremonials, and her attentions to her servants and the
+       foreign ambassadors. But she showed no devotion, in which
+       she was not singular, old people and Cossack officers
+       excepted. During the sermon she took occasion to smile and
+       nod to those whom she meant to gratify; and surely no
+       sovereign ever possessed the power of pleasing all within
+       her eye to the degree she did. She was dressed in the
+       Guards' uniform, which was a scarlet pelisse, and a green
+       silk robe lapelled from top to bottom. Her hair was combed
+       neatly, and boxed <i>en militaire</i>, with a small cap, and
+       an ornament of diamonds in front; a blue riband, and the
+       order of St Andrew on her right shoulder."</p>
+
+    <p>He speaks of the empress excelling in that inclination of
+    the body which the Russian ladies substitute for the curtsy,
+    and which he justly regards as very becoming, the empress
+    adding dignity and grace. He describes Orloff as an herculean
+    figure, finely proportioned, with a cheerful eye, and, for a
+    Russian, a good complexion: Potemkin as having stature and
+    shoulders, but being ill limbed and of a most forbidding
+    countenance. His examination of the Russian dockyards, naval
+    armament, and general style of shipbuilding, was most exact;
+    and he records in his notes his having seen, in the naval
+    arsenals of Norway, sheds to cover ships on the stocks&mdash;an
+    important arrangement, which was afterwards claimed as an
+    invention at home.</p>
+
+    <p>After inspecting the harbours of Sweden and Norway, the
+    travellers returned by Holland, where they made similar
+    investigations. In the following year they renewed their tour
+    of inspection, and traversed the western parts of France. And
+    this active pursuit of knowledge was carried on without any
+    pecuniary assistance beyond his half-pay. He had hitherto made
+    no prize-money. "To be sure," he said in after days, "we
+    sometimes did fare rather roughly; but what signifies that now?
+    my object was attained."</p>
+
+    <p>His character was now high, but it is to be presumed that he
+    had some powerful interest; for on his return he was appointed
+    to two line-of-battle ships in succession, the Kent, 74, and
+    the Foudroyant, 84, a French prize, and reckoned the finest
+    two-decker in the navy.</p>
+
+    <p>From this period a new scene opened before him, and his
+    career became a part of the naval history of England. In 1778
+    he joined the Channel fleet, and his ship was placed by the
+    celebrated Keppel as one of his seconds in the order of battle,
+    and immediately astern of the admiral's ship, the Victory, on
+    the 27th of July, in the drawn battle off Ushant with the
+    French fleet commanded by D'Orvilliers. The people of England
+    are not content with drawn battles, and the result of this
+    action produced a general uproar. Keppel threw the blame on the
+    tardiness of Sir Hugh Palliser, the second in command. Palliser
+    retorted, and the result was a court-martial on the commander
+    of the fleet; which, however, ended in a triumphant acquittal.
+    It was not generally known that Keppel's defence, which was
+    admired as a model of intelligence, and even of eloquence, was
+    drawn up by Captain Jervis. The transaction, though so long
+    passed away, is not yet beyond discussion; and there is still
+    some interest in knowing the opinion of so powerful a mind on
+    the general subject. It was thus given in a private letter to
+    his friend Jackson:&mdash;"I do not agree that we were
+    outwitted. The French, I am convinced, never would have fought
+    us if they had not been surprised into it by a sudden flow of
+    wind; and when they formed their inimitable line after our
+    brush, it was merely to cover their intention of flight."</p>
+
+    <p>He then gives one of those comprehensive maxims which
+    already show <span class="pagenum"><a name="page471"
+       id="page471"></a>[pg 471]</span> the experienced
+       "admiral:"&mdash;"I have often told you that two fleets of
+       equal force can never produce decisive events, unless they
+       are equally determined to fight it out, or the
+       commander-in-chief of one of them misconducts his line." We
+       have then an instance of that manly feeling which is one of
+       the truest characteristics of greatness, and yet which has
+       been deficient in some very remarkable men.</p>
+
+    <p>"I perceive," says he, "it is the fashion of people to puff
+    themselves. For my part, I forbade my officers to write by the
+    frigate that carried the despatches. I did not write a syllable
+    myself, except touching my health; nor shall I, but to state
+    the intrepidity of the officers and people under my command,
+    (through the most infernal fire I ever saw or heard,) to Lord
+    Sandwich," (first lord of the Admiralty.) But one cannot feel
+    the merit of this self-denial without a glance at his actual
+    hazards and services during the battle.</p>
+
+    <p>"In justice to the Foudroyant," he thus ends his letter, "I
+    must observe to you, that though she received the fire of
+    seventeen sail, and had the Bretagne, Ville de Paris, and a
+    seventy-four on her at the same time, and appeared more
+    disabled in her masts and rigging than any other ship, she was
+    the first in the line of battle, and truly fitter for business,
+    in essentials, (because her people were cool,) than when she
+    began. <i>Keep this to yourself</i>, unless you hear too much
+    said in praise of others.</p>
+
+    <p style="text-align: right;">"J.J."</p>
+
+    <p>The national wrath was poured on Sir Hugh Palliser, Keppel's
+    second in command, whose tardiness in obeying signals was
+    charged as the cause of the French escape; so strong had
+    already become the national assurance that a British fleet
+    could go forth only to victory. But the succession of
+    courts-martial cleared up nothing except the characters of the
+    two admirals. Palliser was enabled to show that his ship had
+    suffered so much from the enemy's fire as to be at least
+    (plausibly) unfit for close action, and the whole dispute on
+    land closed, like the naval conflict, in a drawn battle. Jervis
+    was the chief witness for Keppel, as serving next his ship; and
+    his testimony was of the highest order to the gallantry, skill,
+    and perseverance of the admiral. But Palliser was acknowledged
+    to be brave; and it is evident from Jervis's personal opinion,
+    that when it was once the object of the enemy's commander to
+    get away, it was next to impossible to have prevented his
+    escape.</p>
+
+    <p>But these were trying times for the British navy: it was
+    scarcely acquainted with its own strength; the nation,
+    disgusted with the nature of the American war, refused its
+    sympathy; without that sympathy ministers could do nothing
+    effectual, and never can do any thing effectual. The character
+    of the cabinet was feebleness, the spirit of the metropolis was
+    faction; the king, though one of the best of men, was
+    singularly unpopular; and the war became a system of feeble
+    defence against arrogant and increasing hostilities. France,
+    powerful as she was, became more powerful by the national
+    exultation&mdash;the frenzied rejoicing in the success of
+    American revolt&mdash;and the revived hope of European
+    supremacy in a nation which had been broken down since the days
+    of Marlborough; a crush which had been felt in every sinew of
+    France for a hundred angry years. Spain, always strong, but
+    unable to use her strength, had now given it in to the training
+    of discipline; and the combined fleets presented a display of
+    force, which, in the haughty language of the Tuileries, was
+    formed to sweep the seas.</p>
+
+    <p>The threat was put in rapid and unexpected execution. The
+    combined fleet moved up the Channel; and to the surprise, the
+    sorrow, and the indignation of England, the British fleet,
+    under Sir Charles Hardy, was seen making, what could only be
+    called "a dignified retreat." The Foudroyant, on that
+    melancholy occasion, had been astern of the Victory, the
+    admiral's ship. If Jervis had been admiral, he would have tried
+    the fate of battle&mdash;and he would have done right. No
+    result of a battle could have been so painful to the national
+    feelings, or so injurious in its effects on the feelings of
+    Europe, as that retreat. If the whole British fleet on that
+    occasion had perished, its gallantry would have only raised a
+    new spirit of worth and power in the nation; and England has
+    resources that, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page472"
+       id="page472"></a>[pg 472]</span> when once fully called into
+       exertion, are absolutely unconquerable. But that was a
+       dishonour; and even now we can echo the feelings of the
+       brave and high-minded young officer, who was condemned to
+       share in the disgrace. He writes to his sister, as if to
+       relieve the fulness of his heart at the moment&mdash;"I am
+       in the most humbled state of mind I ever experienced, from
+       the retreat we have made before the combined fleets all
+       <i>yesterday</i> and <i>this morning</i>." The Admiralty
+       ultimately gave the retreating admiral an official
+       certificate of good behaviour, "their high approbation of
+       Sir Charles Hardy's wise and prudent conduct;" but "gallant
+       and bold conduct" would have been a better testimonial. The
+       truth seems to be, that the Admiralty, blamable themselves
+       in sending him to sea with an inadequate force, and scarcely
+       expecting to escape if they had suffered him to lie under
+       the charge, were glad to avail themselves of his personal
+       character as a man of known bravery; and thus quash a
+       process which must finally have brought them before the
+       tribunal. But let naval officers remember, that the officer
+       who fights is the officer of the nation. Nelson's maxim is
+       unanswerable&mdash;"The captain cannot be mistaken who lays
+       his ship alongside the enemy."</p>
+
+    <p>This, too, was a period of cabinet revolutions. No
+    favouritism can sustain a ministry which has become disgustful
+    to the nation. Lord North, though ingenious, dexterous, and
+    long enough in possession of power to have filled all its
+    offices with his dependents, was driven from the premiership
+    with such a storm of national contempt, that he could scarcely
+    be sheltered by the curtains of the throne. Lord Rockingham, a
+    dull minister, was transformed into a brilliant one by his
+    contrast with the national weariness of Lord North; and it fell
+    to the lot of Captain Jervis to give the country the first omen
+    of returning victory. France had already combined Holland in
+    her alliance, and the French minister, already made insolent by
+    his triumph in the Channel, had determined on a blow in a
+    quarter where English interests were most vulnerable, and where
+    the assault was least expected. A squadron of French
+    line-of-battle ships, convoying a fleet of transports, were
+    prepared for an expedition to the East Indies.</p>
+
+    <p>The preparations for the combined movement were on an
+    immense scale. The fleets of France, Spain, and Holland were
+    again to sweep the Channel; and while the attention of the
+    British fleets was thus engrossed, the Eastern expedition was
+    to sail from Brest. The Admiralty, in order to counteract, or
+    at least delay, this formidable movement, immediately
+    dispatched Admiral Barrington, with twelve sail of the line, to
+    cruise in the bay of Biscay. On the 18th of April the French
+    expedition sailed, and on the 20th, when Admiral Barrington had
+    reached a few leagues beyond Ushant, the Artois frigate
+    signaled a hostile fleet, but could not discover their flag or
+    numbers. The signal being made for a general chase, the
+    Foudroyant, Jervis's ship, soon left the rest of the fleet
+    behind; and before night she had so much gained upon the enemy
+    as to ascertain that they were six French ships of war, with
+    eighteen sail of convoy. The whole of the British fleet, being
+    several leagues astern, was now lost sight of, and did not come
+    up till the following day. In the mean time Jervis was left
+    alone. At ten at night, the French ships of war separating,
+    Jervis, selecting the largest for pursuit, prepared to attack:
+    at twelve, he had approached near enough to see that the chase
+    was a ship of the line. The Foudroyant's superior
+    man&oelig;uvring enabled her to commence the engagement by a
+    raking fire. Its effect was so powerful, that the enemy was
+    thrown into extreme disorder, and was carried by boarding,
+    after an action of only three quarters of an hour. The prize
+    was the P&eacute;gase, seventy-four. The loss of life on board
+    the enemy was great; but by an extraordinary piece of good
+    fortune, on board the Foudroyant not a man was killed, Captain
+    Jervis and five seamen being the only wounded.</p>
+
+    <p>To the gallantry which produced this striking success, the
+    young officer added extreme delicacy with respect to his
+    prisoners. He would not allow the first boat to be sent on
+    board the prize, until he had given written orders for the
+    particular preservation <span class="pagenum"><a name="page473"
+       id="page473"></a>[pg 473]</span> of every thing in the shape
+       of property belonging to the French officers, adding at the
+       bottom of his memorandum,&mdash;"For though I have the
+       highest opinion of my officers, we must not be suspected of
+       designs to plunder."</p>
+
+    <p>The result of the action was, that sixteen transports out of
+    twenty were taken, according to the letter of young Ricketts,
+    the captain's nephew. It must be owned, that brave as the
+    French are, their admiral made but a bad figure in this
+    business: why the sight of one vessel should have been
+    sufficient to disperse a fleet of six men-of-war, and of course
+    ruin an expedition which must thus be left without convoy, is
+    not easily to be accounted for; or why, when the admiral saw
+    that his pursuer was but a single ship, he should not have
+    turned upon him and crushed him, it is equally difficult to
+    say. It only shows that his court wanted common sense as much
+    as he wanted discretion. The expedition was destroyed, and the
+    Foudroyant had the whole honour of the victory.</p>
+
+    <p>An action between single ships of this force is rare at any
+    period, and nothing could be nearer a match in point of
+    equipment then the two ships. The Foudroyant had the larger
+    tonnage, and carried three more guns on her broadside; but the
+    P&eacute;gase threw a greater weight of shot, had a more
+    numerous crew, and a large proportion of soldiers on board. The
+    English ship, however, had the incomparable advantage of a crew
+    which had sailed together for six years, and been disciplined
+    by such an officer as Jervis.</p>
+
+    <p>The ministry and the king were equally rejoiced at this
+    return of the naval distinctions of the country, and the
+    immediate consequence was, the conferring of a baronetcy and
+    the order of the Bath upon the gallant officer. Congratulations
+    of all kinds were poured upon him by the ministry, his admiral,
+    and his brother officers. The admiral writes, in speaking of
+    the squadron's cruise, "but the P&eacute;gase is every thing,
+    and does the highest honour to Jervis."</p>
+
+    <p>Another instance of his decision, and, as in all probability
+    will be thought, of the clearness of his judgment, was shortly
+    after given in the memorable relief of Gibraltar. As it was
+    likely that the combined fleets of France and Spain would
+    oppose the passage of the British, Lord Howe, at an early
+    period, called the flag-officers and captains on board the
+    Victory, and proposed to them the question&mdash;Whether,
+    considering the superiority of the enemy's numbers, it might
+    not be advisable to fight the battle at night, when British
+    discipline might counterbalance the numerical superiority? All
+    the officers junior to Jervis gave their opinion for the night
+    attack, but he dissented. "Expressing his regret that he must
+    offer an opinion, not only contrary to that of his brother
+    officers, but also, as he feared, to that of his
+    commander-in-chief, he was convinced that battle in the day
+    would be greatly preferable. In the first place, because it
+    would give an opportunity for the display of his lordship's
+    tactics, and afford the means of taking prompt advantage of any
+    mistake of the enemy, change of the wind, or any other
+    favourable circumstance; while in the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e of a
+    battle at night, there must always be greater risk of
+    separation, and of ships receiving the fire of their friends as
+    well as their foes." It is obvious to every comprehension, that
+    a night action must preclude all man&oelig;uvring, and prevent
+    the greater skill of the tactician from having any advantage
+    over the blunderer who turns his ships into mere batteries. The
+    only officer who coincided with Jervis was Admiral Barrington,
+    who gave as an additional and a just argument for the attack by
+    day, that it would give an opportunity of ascertaining the
+    conduct of the respective captains in action. On those opinions
+    Lord Howe made no comment; but it is presumed that he
+    ultimately agreed with them, from his conduct in the celebrated
+    action of the 1st of June 1794, when he had the enemy's fleet
+    directly to leeward of him from the night before.</p>
+
+    <p>In the relief of Gibraltar, the Foudroyant had the honour to
+    be the ship which was dispatched from the fleet to escort the
+    victuallers into the harbour, which was accomplished amid the
+    acclamations of the garrison. It had been expected that Lord
+    Howe would have attacked the combined fleets, and the nation of
+    course looked forward to a victory; but they were disappointed.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page474"
+       id="page474"></a>[pg 474]</span> The fact is, that Lord
+       Howe, though a brave man, and what is generally regarded as
+       a good officer, was of a different class of mind from the
+       Jervises and Nelsons. He did his duty, but he did no more.
+       The men who were yet to give a character to the navy did
+       more than their duty, suffered no opportunity of distinction
+       to escape them, relied on the invincibility of British
+       prowess when it was boldly directed, and by that reliance
+       rendered it invincible.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a kindness and generosity of nature in this future
+    "thunderbolt of war," which shows how compatible the gentler
+    feelings are with the gallant daring, and comprehensive talent
+    of the great commander. Having happened to receive the Duc de
+    Chabelais on board his ship when at Cadiz, the politeness of
+    his reception caused the Sardinian prince to exhibit his
+    gratitude in some handsome presents to the officers. One of
+    Jervis's letters mentions, that the prince had given to each of
+    the lieutenants a handsome gold box; to the lieutenant of
+    marines and five of the midshipmen gold watches; and to the
+    other officers and ship's company, a princely sum of money.</p>
+
+    <p>"I pride myself," he adds, "exceedingly in the presents
+    being so diffused; on all former occasions they have centred in
+    the captain." In another letter he says,&mdash;"I was
+    twenty-four hours in the bay of Marseilles about a fortnight
+    ago, just time to receive the warm embraces of a man to whose
+    bravery and friendship I had some months before been indebted
+    for my reputation, the preservation of the people under my
+    command, and of the Alarm. You would have felt infinite
+    pleasure at the scene of our interview." In a letter to the
+    under-secretary of the Admiralty, he says,&mdash;"My dear
+    Jackson, you must allow me to interest your humanity in favour
+    of poor Spicer, who, overwhelmed with dropsy, asthma, and a
+    large family, and with nothing but his pay to support him under
+    those afflictions, is appointed to the &mdash;&mdash; under a
+    mean man, and very likely to go to the East Indies. The letter
+    which he writes to the Board, desiring to be excused from his
+    appointment, is dictated by me."</p>
+
+    <p>He then mentions a contingency, "in which case I shall write
+    for Spicer to be first lieutenant of the Foudroyant, with
+    intention to nurse him, and keep him clear of all expense."
+    Shortly after the Foudroyant was paid off, Sir John Jervis was
+    united to a lady to whom he had long been attached, the
+    daughter of Sir Thomas Parker, Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
+    Every man in England, as he rises into distinction, necessarily
+    becomes a politician. It was the misfortune of Sir John Jervis,
+    and it was his only misfortune, that he was a politician before
+    he had risen into distinction. Having had the ill luck to
+    profess himself a Whig, at a period when he could scarcely have
+    known the nature of the connexion, he unhappily adhered to it
+    long after Whiggism had ceased to possess either public utility
+    or national respect. But his Whiggism was unconscious Toryism
+    after all: it was what even his biographer is forced to call
+    it, Whig Royalism, or pretty nearly what Blake's Republicanism
+    was&mdash;a determination to raise his country to the highest
+    eminence to which his talents and bravery could contribute,
+    without regarding by whom the government was administered. At
+    the general election of 1784, he sat for Yarmouth.</p>
+
+    <p>In 1787, Sir John Jervis was promoted to the rank of
+    rear-admiral. At the general election in 1790, he was returned
+    for Wycombe, and shared in parliament the successive defeats of
+    his party; until, in 1793, he was called to a nobler field, in
+    which, unembarrassed by party, and undegraded by Whiggism, his
+    talents took their natural direction in the cause of his
+    country. It is now scarcely necessary to remark upon the narrow
+    system of enterprise with which England began the great
+    revolutionary war; nor can it now be doubted that, if the
+    energies of the country had been directed to meet the enemy in
+    Europe, measureless misfortunes might have been averted. If the
+    succession of fleets and armies which were wasted upon the
+    conquest of the French West Indies, had been employed in the
+    protection of the feebler European states, there can be no
+    question that the progress of the French armies would have been
+    signally retarded, if invasion had
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page475"
+       id="page475"></a>[pg 475]</span> not been thrown back over
+       the French frontier. For instance, it would have been
+       utterly impossible for Napoleon, in 1796, to have marched
+       triumphantly throughout Italy with the British fleet
+       covering the coast, commanding all the harbours, and ready
+       to throw in troops in aid of the insurrections in his
+       rear.</p>
+
+    <p>But it was the policy of the time to pacify the merchants,
+    whose bugbear was a negro insurrection in the West Indies; and
+    whether the genius or the fears of Pitt gave way to the
+    impression, the consequence was equally lamentable&mdash;the
+    mighty power of England was wasted on the capture of sugar
+    islands, which we did not want, which we could not cultivate,
+    and which cost the lives, by disease and climate, of ten times
+    the number of gallant men who might have saved Europe. At the
+    close of 1793, a grand expedition against the French Caribbee
+    islands was resolved upon by the British cabinet; and it is a
+    remarkable instance of both the reputation of Sir John Jervis
+    and the impartiality of the great minister, that a Whig member
+    of parliament should have been chosen to command the naval part
+    of the expedition.</p>
+
+    <p>The expedition consisted of twenty-two ships of war and six
+    thousand troops, the troops divided into three brigades, of
+    which one was commanded by the late Duke of Kent. Sir John
+    Jervis hoisted his flag as vice-admiral of the blue on the 3d
+    of October.</p>
+
+    <p>A ludicrous circumstance occurred in the instance of a
+    favourite officer, Mr Bayntun, who had applied for permission
+    to join Sir John. Bayntun received in answer the following
+    decisive note: "Sir, your having thought fit to take to
+    yourself a wife, you are to look for no further attention from
+    your humble servant, J. JERVIS." It happened that Bayntun was a
+    bachelor, and he instantly wrote an exculpatory letter, denying
+    that he had been guilty of so formidable a charge. The mistake
+    arose from a misdirection in two notes which the admiral had
+    written on the same subject. He had left them to Lady Jervis to
+    direct, and she had addressed them to the wrong persons. The
+    consequence, however, was, that Bayntun received the
+    appointment, and the married man the refusal. This inveteracy
+    against married officers seems strange in one who had committed
+    the same crime himself; yet he constantly persisted in calling
+    officers who married moon-struck, and appears at all times to
+    have regarded matrimony in the service as little short of
+    personal ruin.</p>
+
+    <p>On the passage out, a curious circumstance occurred to the
+    Zebra frigate, under command of the gallant Robert Faulknor.
+    The Zebra, which had been separated from the rest of the
+    squadron, saw one evening a ship on the horizon. All sail was
+    made in chase, and the ship was discovered to be a twenty-eight
+    gun frigate. All contrivances were adopted to induce her to
+    show her colours, but without success. At length Faulknor,
+    impatient of delay, and disregarding the disparity of force,
+    closed upon her, and jumped on board at the head of his men. To
+    his astonishment he found that she was a Dutch frigate, quietly
+    pursuing her way; and as Holland was at peace with England,
+    equally unexpecting and unprepared for an attack. This instance
+    of apathy night have procured her a broadside; but luckily the
+    affair finished with the shaking of hands.</p>
+
+    <p>On the 5th of February the expedition reached Martinique. On
+    the 18th of March Fort Lewis was stormed, General Rochambeau
+    capitulated, and Martinique was taken, St Lucie followed, the
+    Saintes next fell, and the final conquest was Guadaloupe. Thus
+    in three months the capture of the French islands was
+    complete.</p>
+
+    <p>But an enemy more formidable than the sword was now to be
+    encountered. The yellow fever began its ravages. The troops
+    perished in such numbers, that the regiments were reduced to
+    skeletons; and just at the moment when the disease was at its
+    height, Victor Hughes was dispatched from France with an
+    expedition. The islands fell one by one into his hands, and the
+    campaign was utterly thrown away.</p>
+
+    <p>The romantic portion of the European campaigns now began.
+    The French Directory, unpopular at home, wearied by the
+    sanguinary successes of the Vend&eacute;an insurrection, and
+    baffled in their invasion of Germany, were in a condition of
+    the greatest perplexity, when a new wonder of war taught France
+    again to conquer. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page476"
+       id="page476"></a>[pg 476]</span> Napoleon Bonaparte, since
+       so memorable, but then known only as commanding a company of
+       artillery at Toulon, and repelling the armed mob in Paris,
+       was appointed to command the army on the Italian frontier.
+       Even now, with all our knowledge of his genius, and the
+       splendid experience of his successes, his sudden elevation,
+       his daring offer of command, his plan of the Italian
+       campaign, and his almost instantaneous victories, are
+       legitimate matter of astonishment. In him we have the
+       instance of a young man of twenty-six, who had never seen a
+       campaign, who had never commanded a brigade, nor even a
+       regiment, undertaking the command of an army, proposing the
+       invasion of a country of eighteen millions, garrisoned by
+       the army of one of the greatest military powers of Europe,
+       which had nearly 300,000 soldiers in the field, and which
+       was in the most intimate alliance with all the sovereigns of
+       Italy. Yet, extravagant as all those conceptions seem, and
+       improbable as those results certainly were, two campaigns
+       saw every project realized&mdash;Italy conquered, the Tyrol,
+       the great southern barrier of Austria, overpassed, and peace
+       signed within a hundred miles of Vienna. The invasion of
+       Italy first awoke the British ministry to the true direction
+       of the vast naval powers of England. To save Italy if
+       possible, was the primary object; the next was to prevent
+       the superiority of the French fleet in the Mediterranean. A
+       powerful fleet had been prepared in Toulon, for the purpose
+       of aiding the French army in its invasion, and finally
+       taking possession of all the ports and islands, until it
+       should have realized the project of Louis XIV., of turning
+       the Mediterranean into a French lake. It was determined to
+       keep up a powerful British fleet to oppose this project, and
+       Sir John Jervis was appointed to the command. Nothing could
+       be a higher testimony to the opinion entertained of his
+       talents, as his connexion with the Whigs was undisguised.
+       But Pitt's feeling for the public service overcame all
+       personal predilections, and this great officer was sent to
+       take the command of the most extensive and important station
+       to which a British admiral could be appointed. Lord Hood had
+       previously declined it, on the singular plea of inadequacy
+       of force; and Sir Charles Hotham having solicited his recall
+       in consequence of declining health, the gallant Jervis was
+       sent forth to establish the renown of his country and his
+       own.</p>
+
+    <p>The fleet was a noble command. It consisted on the whole of
+    about twenty-five sail of the line, two of them of a hundred
+    guns, and five of ninety-eight; thirty-six frigates, and
+    fifteen or sixteen sloops and other armed vessels.</p>
+
+    <p>Among the officers of the fleet were almost all the names
+    which subsequently obtained distinction in the great naval
+    victories&mdash;Troubridge, Hallowell, Hood, Collingwood,
+    &amp;c., and first of the first, that star of the British
+    seaman, Nelson. It is remarkable, and only a just tribute to
+    the new admiral, that he, almost from his earliest intercourse
+    with those gallant men, marked their merits, although hitherto
+    they had found no opportunities of acquiring
+    distinction&mdash;all were to come. Nelson, in writing to his
+    wife, speaking of the admiral's notice of him, says, "Sir John
+    Jervis was a perfect stranger to me, therefore I feel the more
+    flattered." The admiral, in writing to the secretary of the
+    Admiralty, says&mdash;"I am afraid of being thought a puffer,
+    like many of my brethren, or I should before have dealt out to
+    the Board the merits of Captain Troubridge, which are very
+    uncommon."</p>
+
+    <p>The French fleet, of fifteen sail of the line, lay in
+    Toulon, ready to convoy an army to plunge upon the Roman
+    states. Sir John Jervis instantly proceeded to block up Toulon,
+    keeping what is called the in-shore squadron looking into the
+    harbour's mouth, while the main body cruised outside. The
+    admiral at once employed Nelson on the brilliant service for
+    which he was fitted, and sent him with a flying squadron of a
+    ship of the line, three frigates, and two sloops, to scour the
+    coast of Italy. The duties of the Mediterranean fleet, powerful
+    as the armament was, were immense. Independently of the
+    blockade of Toulon, and the necessity of continually watching
+    the enemy's fleet, which might be brought out by the same wind
+    which blew off the British, the admiral had the responsibility
+    of protecting the Mediterranean convoys, of sustaining the
+    British interests <span class="pagenum"><a name="page477"
+       id="page477"></a>[pg 477]</span> in the neutral courts, of
+       assisting the allies on shore, of overawing the Barbary
+       powers, which were then peculiarly restless and insolent,
+       and of upholding the general supremacy of England, from
+       Smyrna to Gibraltar.</p>
+
+    <p>The French campaign opened on the 9th of April 1797, and the
+    Austrians were beaten on the following day at Montenotte, and
+    in a campaign of a month Bonaparte reached Milan. The success
+    of the enemy increased to an extraordinary degree the
+    difficulties of the British admiral. The repairs of the fleet,
+    the provisioning, and every other circumstance connected with
+    the land, lay under increased impediments; but they were all
+    gradually overcome by the vigilance and intelligence of the
+    admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>A curious and characteristic circumstance occurred, soon
+    after his taking the command. Nelson had captured a vessel
+    carrying 152 Austrian grenadiers, who had been made prisoners
+    by the French, and actually sold by their captors to the
+    Spaniards, for the purpose of enlisting them in the Spanish
+    army. His letter to Jackson, the secretary of legation at
+    Turin, on this subject, spiritedly expresses his
+    feelings:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"SIR,&mdash;From a Swiss dealer in human flesh, the
+        demand made upon me to deliver up 152 Austrian grenadiers,
+        serving on board his Majesty's fleet under my command, is
+        natural enough, but that a Spaniard, who is a noble
+        creature, should join in such a demand, I must confess
+        astonishes me; and I can only account for it by the
+        Chevalier Caamano being ignorant that the persons in
+        question were made prisoners of war in the last war with
+        General Beaulieu, and are not deserters, and that they were
+        most basely sold by the French commissaries to the vile
+        crimps who recruit for the foreign regiments in the service
+        of Spain. It is high time a stop should be put to this
+        abominable traffic, a million times more disgraceful than
+        the African slave-trade."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>But other dangers now menaced the British supremacy in the
+    Mediterranean. The victories of Bonaparte had terrified all the
+    Italian states into neutrality or absolute submission; and the
+    success of the Directory, and perhaps their bribes, influenced
+    the miserably corrupt and feeble Spanish ministry, to make
+    common cause with the conquering republic. Spain at last became
+    openly hostile. This was a tremendous increase of hazards,
+    because Spain had fifty-seven sail of the line, and a crowd of
+    frigates. The difficulty of blockading Toulon was now increased
+    by the failure of provisions. On the night of the 2d of
+    November, the admiral sent for the master of the Victory, and
+    told him that he now had not the least hope of being
+    reinforced, and had made up his mind to push down to Gibraltar
+    with all possible dispatch.</p>
+
+    <p>The passage became a stormy one, and it was with
+    considerable difficulty that the fleet reached Gibraltar. Some
+    of the transports were lost, a ship of the line went down, and
+    several of the fleet were disabled.</p>
+
+    <p>The result of the French successes and the Austrian
+    misfortunes, was an order for the fleet to leave the
+    Mediterranean, and take up its station at the Tagus. The vivid
+    spirit of Nelson was especially indignant at this change of
+    scene. In one of his letters he says&mdash;"We are preparing to
+    leave the Mediterranean, a measure which I cannot approve. They
+    at home do not know what this fleet is capable of
+    performing&mdash;any thing, and every thing. Of all the fleets
+    I ever saw, I never saw one, in point of officers and men,
+    equal to Sir John Jervis's, who is a commander able to lead
+    them to glory." The admiral's merits were recognized by the
+    government in a still more permanent manner; for, by a despatch
+    from the Admiralty in February 1797, it was announced that the
+    king had raised him to the dignity of the peerage.</p>
+
+    <p>The prospect now darkened round every quarter of the
+    horizon. The power of Austria had given way; Spain and Holland
+    were combined against our naval supremacy; Italy was lost; a
+    French expedition threatened Ireland; there was a strong
+    probability of the invasion of Portugal; and the junction of
+    the French and Spanish fleets might endanger not merely the
+    Tagus fleet, but expose the Channel fleet to an encounter with
+    numbers so superior, as to leave the British shores open to
+    invasion. The domestic difficulties, too, had
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page478"
+       id="page478"></a>[pg 478]</span> their share. The necessity
+       of suspending cash payments at the Bank had, if not thrown a
+       damp upon the nation, at least given so formidable a ground
+       for the fallacies and bitterness of the Opposition, as
+       deeply to embarrass even the fortitude of the great
+       minister. We can now see how slightly all these hazards
+       eventually affected the real power of England; and we now
+       feel how fully adequate the strength of this extraordinary
+       and inexhaustible country was to resist all obstacles and
+       turn the trial into triumph. But faction was busy, party
+       predicted ruin, public men used every art to dispirit the
+       nation and inflame the populace; and the result was, a state
+       of public anxiety of which no former war had given the
+       example.</p>
+
+    <p>It is incontestable that the list of the British navy at
+    this period of the war exhibited some of the noblest specimens
+    of English character&mdash;brave, intelligent, and
+    indefatigable men, ready for any service, and equal for all;
+    with all the intrepidity of heroes, possessing the highest
+    science of their profession, and exhibiting at once that
+    lion-heartedness, and that knowledge, which gave the British
+    navy the command of the ocean. And yet, if we were to assign
+    the highest place where all were high, we should probably
+    assign it to Lord St Vincent as an admiral. Nelson certainly,
+    as an executive officer, defies all competition; his three
+    battles, Copenhagen, Aboukir, and Trafalgar, each of them a
+    title to eminent distinction, place him as a conqueror at the
+    head of all. But an admiral has other duties than those of the
+    line of battle; and for a great naval administrator, first
+    disciplining a fleet, then supplying it with all the means of
+    victory, and finally leading it to victory&mdash;Lord St
+    Vincent was perhaps the most complete example on record of all
+    the combined qualities that make the British admiral. His
+    profound tactics, his stern but salutary exactness of command,
+    his incomparable judgment, and his cool and unhesitating
+    intrepidity, form one of the very noblest models of high
+    command. All those qualities were now to be called into full
+    exertion.</p>
+
+    <p>The continental campaign had left Europe at the mercy of
+    France. England was now the only enemy, and she was to be
+    assailed, in the first instance, by a naval war. To prevent the
+    junction of the Spanish and French fleets, the Tagus was the
+    station fixed upon by Lord St Vincent. Ill luck seemed to frown
+    upon the fleet. The Bombay Castle, a seventy-four, was lost
+    going in; the St George, a ninety, grounded in coming out, and
+    was obliged to be docked; still the admiral determined to keep
+    the sea, though his fleet was reduced to eight sail of the
+    line. The day before he left the Tagus, information was
+    received that the enemy's fleets had both left the
+    Mediterranean. The French had gone to Brest, the Spanish first
+    to Toulon, then to Carthagena, and was now proceeding to join
+    the French at Brest. A reinforcement of six sail of the line
+    now fortunately joined the fleet off the Tagus; but at the same
+    time information was received that the Spanish fleet of
+    twenty-seven sail of the line, with fourteen frigates, had
+    passed Cadiz, and could not be far distant. To prevent the
+    junction of this immense force with the powerful fleet already
+    prepared for a start in Brest, was of the utmost national
+    importance; for, combined, they must sweep the Channel. The
+    admiral instantly formed his plan, and sailed for Cape St
+    Vincent.</p>
+
+    <p>The details of the magnificent encounter which followed, are
+    among the best portions of the volumes. They are strikingly
+    given, and will attract the notice, as they might form the
+    model, of the future historian of this glorious period of our
+    annals. We can now give only an outline.</p>
+
+    <p>On the announcement of the Spanish advance, the first object
+    was to gain exact intelligence, and ships were stationed in all
+    quarters on the look-out. But on the 13th Captain Foote, in the
+    Niger frigate, joined, with the intelligence that he had kept
+    sight of the enemy for three days. The admiral was now to have
+    a new reinforcement, not in ships but in heroes; the Minerva
+    frigate, bearing Nelson's broad pendant, from the
+    Mediterranean, arrived, and Nelson shifted his pendant into the
+    Captain. The Lively frigate, with Lord Garlies, also arrived
+    from Corsica. The signal was made, "To keep close order, and
+    prepare for battle." On that day,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page479"
+       id="page479"></a>[pg 479]</span> Lord Garlies, Sir Gilbert
+       Elliot, and Captain Hallowell, with some other officers,
+       dined on board the Victory. At breaking up, the toast was
+       drunk, "Victory over the Dons, in the battle from which they
+       cannot escape to-morrow!"</p>
+
+    <p>The "gentlemen of England who live at home at ease," can
+    probably have but little conception of the price which men in
+    high command pay for glory. No language can describe the
+    anxieties which have often exercised the minds of those bold
+    and prominent characters, of whom we now know little but of
+    their laurels. The solemn responsibilities of their condition,
+    the consciousness that a false step might be ruin, the feeling
+    that the eye of their country was fixed upon them, the hope of
+    renown, the dread of tarnishing all their past distinctions,
+    must pass powerfully and painfully through the mind of men
+    fitted for the struggles by which greatness is to be alone
+    achieved.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is believed that Sir John Jervis did not go to bed that
+    night, but sat up writing. It is certain that he executed his
+    will." In the course of the first and second watches, the
+    enemy's signal-guns were distinctly heard; and, as he noticed
+    them sounding more and more audibly, Sir John made more earnest
+    enquiries as to the compact order and situation of his own
+    ships, as well as they could be made out in the darkness. Long
+    before break of day, he walked the deck in more than even his
+    usual silence. When the grey of the morning of the 14th enabled
+    him to discern his fleet, his first remarks were high
+    approbation of his captains, for "their admirably close order,
+    and that he wished they were now well up with the enemy; for,"
+    added he thoughtfully, "a victory is very essential to England
+    at this moment."</p>
+
+    <p>Now came on the day of decision. The morning was foggy; but
+    as the mist cleared up, the Lively, and then the Niger,
+    signaled "a strange fleet." The Bonne Citoyenne was next
+    ordered to reconnoitre. Soon after, the Culloden's guns
+    announced the enemy. At twenty minutes past ten the signal was
+    made to six of the ships&mdash;"to chase." Sir John still
+    walked the quarterdeck, and, as the enemy's numbers were
+    counted, they were duly reported to him by the captain of the
+    fleet.</p>
+
+    <p>"There are eight sail of the line, Sir John."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are twenty sail of the line, Sir John."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are twenty-five sail of the line, Sir John."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are twenty-seven sail of the line, Sir John." This
+    was accompanied by some remark on the great disparity of the
+    two forces. Sir John's gallant answer now was:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Enough, sir&mdash;no more of that: the die is cast, and if
+    there are fifty sail, I will go through them."</p>
+
+    <p>At forty minutes past ten the signal was made to form line
+    of battle ahead and astern of the Victory, and to steer S.S.W.
+    The fog was now cleared off, and the British fleet were seen
+    admirably formed in the closest order; while the Spaniards were
+    stretching in two straggling bodies across the horizon, leaving
+    an open space between. The opportunity of dividing their fleet
+    struck the admiral at once, and at half-past eleven the signal
+    was made to pass through the enemy's line, and engage them to
+    leeward. At twelve o'clock, as the Culloden was reaching close
+    up to the enemy, the British fleet hoisted their colours, and
+    the Culloden opened her fire. An extraordinary incident, even
+    in those colossal battles, occurred to this fine ship. The
+    course of the Culloden brought her directly on board one of the
+    enemy's three-deckers. The first lieutenant, Griffiths,
+    reported to her captain, Troubridge, that a collision was
+    inevitable. "Can't help it, Griffiths&mdash;let the weakest
+    fend off," was the hero's reply. The Culloden, still pushing
+    on, fired two of her double-shotted broadsides into the
+    Spaniard with such tremendous effect, that the three-decker
+    went about, and the guns of her other side not being even cast
+    loose, she did not fire a single shot, while the Culloden
+    passed triumphantly through. Scarcely had she broken the
+    enemy's line, than the commander-in-chief signaled the order to
+    tack in succession. Troubridge's man&oelig;uvre was so
+    dashingly performed, that the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page480"
+       id="page480"></a>[pg 480]</span> admiral could not restrain
+       his delight and admiration.</p>
+
+    <p>"Look, Jackson," he rapturously exclaimed, "look at
+    Troubridge there! He tacks his ship to battle as if the eyes of
+    all England were upon him; and would to God they were, for then
+    they would see him to be what I know him."</p>
+
+    <p>The leeward division of the enemy, perceiving the fatal
+    consequences of their disunited order of sailing, now
+    endeavoured to retrieve the day, and to break through the
+    British line. A vice-admiral, in a three-decker, led them, and
+    was reaching up to the Victory just as she had come up to tack
+    in her station. The vice-admiral stood on with great apparent
+    determination till within pistol-shot, but there he stopped;
+    and when the Victory could bring her guns to bear upon him, she
+    thundered in two of her broadsides, sweeping the Spaniard's
+    decks, and so terrified him, that when his sails filled, he ran
+    clear out of the battle altogether. The Victory then tacked
+    into her station, and the conflict raged with desperate fury.
+    At this period of the battle, the Spanish commander-in-chief
+    bore up with nine sail of the line to run round the British,
+    and rejoin his leeward division. This was a formidable
+    man&oelig;uvre; but no sooner was it commenced, than his eye
+    caught it "whose greatest wish it ever was to be the first to
+    find, and foremost to fight, his enemy." Nelson, instead of
+    waiting till his turn to tack should bring him into action,
+    took it upon himself to depart from the prescribed mode of
+    attack, and ordered his ship to be immediately wore. This
+    masterly man&oelig;uvre was completely successful, at once
+    arresting the Spanish commander-in-chief, and carrying Nelson
+    and Collingwood into the van and brunt of the battle. He now
+    attacked the four-decker, the Santissima Trinidada, also
+    engaged by the Culloden. The Captain's fore-topmast being now
+    shot away, Nelson put his helm down, and let her come to the
+    wind, that he might board the San Nicolas; Captain, afterwards
+    Sir Edward Berry, then a passenger with Nelson, jumping into
+    her mizen-chains, was the first in the enemy's ship; Nelson
+    leading his boarders, and a party of the 69th regiment,
+    immediately followed, and the colours were hauled down. While
+    he was on the deck of the San Nicolas, the San Josef, disabled,
+    fell on board. Nelson instantly seized the opportunity of
+    boarding her from his prize; followed by Captain Berry, and
+    Lieutenant Pierson of the 69th, he led the boarders, and jumped
+    into the San Josef's main-chains. He was then informed that the
+    ship had surrendered. Four line-of-battle ships had now been
+    taken, and the Santissima Trinidada had also struck; but she
+    subsequently made her escape, for now the Spanish leeward
+    division, fourteen sail, having re-formed their line, bore down
+    to support their commander-in-chief: to receive them, Sir John
+    Jervis was obliged to form a line of battle on the starboard
+    tack&mdash;the enemy immediately retired. Thus, at five in the
+    evening, concluded the most brilliant battle that had ever till
+    then been fought at sea.</p>
+
+    <p>Captain Calder was immediately sent off with the despatch,
+    and arrived in London on the 3d of March. A battle gained over
+    such a numerical superiority, for it was much more than two to
+    one, when we take into our estimate the immense size of the
+    enemy's ships, and their weight of metal, there being one
+    four-decker of 130 guns, and six three-deckers of 112, of which
+    two were taken; and further, the more interesting circumstance,
+    that this great victory was gained on our part with only the
+    loss of 73 killed and 227 wounded, the public feeling of
+    exultation was unbounded; and when the minister on that very
+    evening proposed that the vote of thanks should be taken on the
+    following Monday, the House would hear of no delay, but
+    insisted on recording its gratitude at the moment. The House of
+    Peers gave a similar vote on the 8th; and the Commons and the
+    Crown immediately proposed to settle upon the admiral a pension
+    of three thousand a-year. A member of the House of Commons, on
+    moving for an address to the Crown to confer some signal mark
+    of favour on the admiral, was instantly replied to by the
+    sonorous eloquence of the minister&mdash;"Can it be supposed,"
+    said he, "that the Crown can require to be prompted to pay the
+    just tribute of approbation and honour to those who have
+    eminently <span class="pagenum"><a name="page481"
+       id="page481"></a>[pg 481]</span> distinguished themselves by
+       public services? On the part of his Majesty's ministers, I
+       can safely affirm, that before the last splendid instance of
+       the conduct of the gallant admiral, we have not been remiss
+       in watching the uniform tenor of his professional career. We
+       have witnessed the whole of his proceedings&mdash;such
+       instances of perseverance, of diligence, and of exertion in
+       the public service, as, though less brilliant and dazzling
+       than the last exploit, are only less meritorious as they are
+       put in competition with a single day, which has produced
+       such incalculable benefit to the British empire."</p>
+
+    <p>The result was an earldom. The first lord of the Admiralty,
+    Lord Spencer, having already written to Sir John the royal
+    pleasure to promote him to a peerage, and the letter not having
+    reached him previously to the battle, he thus had notice of the
+    two steps in the peerage nearly at once.</p>
+
+    <p>Popular honours now flowed in upon him: London voted its
+    freedom in a gold box, with swords to the admirals of the fleet
+    and Nelson; vice-admirals Parker and Thompson were created
+    baronets; Nelson received the red riband; the chief cities and
+    towns of England and Ireland sent their freedoms and presents;
+    and the king gave all the admirals and captains a gold
+    medal.</p>
+
+    <p>We must now be brief in our observations on the services of
+    this most distinguished person. We have next a narrative of the
+    suppression of the memorable mutiny of 1798, whose purpose it
+    was to have suffered the enemy's fleet to leave their harbours,
+    to revolutionize the Mediterranean fleet, and, after putting
+    the admirals and captains to death, proceed to every folly and
+    frenzy that could be committed by men conscious of power, and
+    equally conscious that forgiveness was impossible. The fleet
+    under Lord St Vincent was on the point of corruption, when it
+    was restored to discipline by the singular firmness of the
+    admiral, who, by exhibiting his determination to punish all
+    insubordination, extinguished this most alarming disaffection,
+    and saved the naval name of the country.</p>
+
+    <p>On the resignation of Mr Pitt in 1801, and the appointment
+    of Mr Addington as first lord of the treasury, a letter was
+    written from the new minister to Lord St Vincent, offering him
+    the appointment of first lord of the Admiralty. Having obtained
+    an interview with the king, and explained the general tone of
+    his political feelings, the king told him he very much wished
+    to see him at the Admiralty, and to place the navy entirely in
+    his hands. This was perhaps the only appointment of that
+    singularly feeble administration which met with universal
+    approval. There could be no question of the intelligence, high
+    principle, or public services of the great admiral. Mr
+    Addington came into power under circumstances which would have
+    tried the talents of a man of first-rate ability. The war had
+    exhausted the patience, though not the power, of the nation.
+    All our allies had failed. The severity of the taxes was doubly
+    felt, when the war had necessarily turned into a blockade on
+    the Continent. We had thus all the exhaustion of hostilities
+    without the excitement of triumph; and, to increase public
+    anxieties, the failure of the harvest threatened a comparative
+    famine. Wheat, which on an average of the preceding ten years
+    had been 54s. a quarter, was now at 110s., then rose to 139s.,
+    and even reached as high as 180s. At one period the quartern
+    loaf had risen to 1s. 10-1/2d. The popular cry now arose for
+    peace. France, which with all her victories had been taught the
+    precariousness of war, by the loss of Egypt and the capture of
+    her army, was now also eager for peace. England had but two
+    allies, Portugal and Turkey. At length the peace was made, and
+    Lord St Vincent's attention was then drawn to an object which
+    he had long in view, the reformation of the dockyards. This was
+    indeed the Augean stable, and unexampled clamour arose from the
+    multitude who had indolently fattened for years on the easy
+    plunder of the public stores. However, the reform went on:
+    perquisites were abolished, privileges taken away; and, rough
+    as the operation was, nothing could be more salutary than its
+    effect. The acuteness of the gallant old man at the head of the
+    Admiralty could not be evaded, his vigour could not be
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page482"
+       id="page482"></a>[pg 482]</span> defied, and his public
+       spirit gave him an influence with the country, which enabled
+       him to outlive faction and put down calumny. Yet this was
+       evidently the most painful, and, to a certain extent, the
+       most unsuccessful portion of his long career. Nominally a
+       Whig, but practically a Tory&mdash;for his loyalty was
+       unimpeachable and his honour without a stain&mdash;Lord St
+       Vincent found himself in the condition of a man who presses
+       reform on those with whom hitherto it has been only a
+       watchword, and expects faction to act up to its
+       professions.</p>
+
+    <p>The Addington treaty was soon discovered to be nothing more
+    than a truce. Napoleon lived only in war; hostilities were
+    essential to the government which he had formed for France; and
+    his theory of government, false as it was, and his passion for
+    excitement, whatever might be its price, made even the two
+    years of peace so irksome to him, that he actually adopted a
+    gross and foolish insult to the British ambassador as the means
+    of compelling us to renew the conflict. The first result was,
+    the return of Pitt to power; the next, the total ruin of the
+    French navy at Trafalgar; the next, the bloody and ruinous war
+    with Russia, expressly for the ruin of England through the ruin
+    of her commerce; and finally the crash of Waterloo, which
+    extinguished his diadem and his dominion together&mdash;a
+    series of events, occurring within little more than ten years,
+    of a more stupendous order than had hitherto affected the fate
+    of any individual, or influenced the destinies of an European
+    kingdom.</p>
+
+    <p>With the ministry of Mr Addington, Lord St Vincent retired
+    from public life. He was now old, and the hardships of long
+    service had partially exhausted his original vigour of frame.
+    He retired to his seat, Rochetts in Essex, and there led the
+    delightful life of a man who had gained opulence and
+    distinction by pre-eminent services, and whose old age was
+    surrounded by love, honour, and troops of friends. He appeared
+    from time to time in the House of Lords, where, however, he
+    spoke but seldom, but where he always spoke with dignity and
+    effect.</p>
+
+    <p>In the month of March 1823, Lord St Vincent was seized with
+    a general feeling of infirmity which portended his speedy
+    dissolution. He had a violent and convulsive cough; yet his
+    intellects were strongly turned upon public events, and he
+    expressed an anxiety to know all that could be known of events
+    in France, which was then disturbed; of the Spanish revolution,
+    which then threatened to involve Europe; and even of the
+    affairs of Greece. In the course of the evening of the 13th,
+    while his physician and family were round him, his strength
+    suddenly gave way, and at half past eight he died, at the age
+    of eighty-eight, and was buried at Stone in Staffordshire. He
+    was succeeded in the peerage by his nephew, who, however,
+    inherits only the viscounty.</p>
+
+    <p>In our general notice of Lord St Vincent's career, we have
+    adverted as little as possible to the opinions which his
+    biographer had introduced from his own view of public affairs.
+    We have no wish to make a peevish return to the writer of a
+    work which has given us both information and pleasure. But it
+    is necessary to caution Mr Tucker against giving trite and
+    trifling opinions on subjects of which he evidently knows so
+    little as of the Romish question, or the state of Ireland.
+    Nothing is easier than to be at once solemn and superficial on
+    such topics; and when a writer of this order flings his
+    epithets of "bigoted, harsh, and impolitic," and the other
+    stock phrases of party organs, he only enfeebles our respect
+    for his authority in the immediate matters of his work, and
+    rather lowers our respect for his faculties in all. The
+    question of Popery in Ireland, is not a question of religion
+    but of faction. Religious controversy on Romish doctrines has
+    long ceased to exist. Romanism has no grounds on which a
+    controversy can be sustained. It cannot appeal to the
+    Scriptures, which it shuts up; and it will no longer be
+    suffered to appeal to its mere childish pretence of
+    infallibility. Its only ground in Ireland is party; and the
+    present unhappy condition to which it has reduced Ireland,
+    exhibits the natural consequences of indulgence to Popery, and
+    the only means by which its spirit can be rendered consistent
+    with the order of society.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_5_1"
+                    name="fn_5_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_5_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Memoirs of Admiral Earl St Vincent. By T.S. TUCKER. 2
+        vols.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page483"
+       id="page483"></a>[pg 483]</span> <a name="marston"
+          id="marston"></a>
+
+    <h2>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</h2>
+
+    <h3>PART X.</h3>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?</p>
+
+            <p>Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,</p>
+
+            <p>Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?</p>
+
+            <p>Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,</p>
+
+            <p>And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?</p>
+
+            <p>Have I not in the pitched battle heard</p>
+
+            <p>Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets
+            clang?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p style="margin-left: 50%;">SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>On reaching the prison, I gave up all for lost; sullenly
+    resigned myself to what now seemed the will of fate; and
+    without a word, except in answer to the interrogatory of my
+    name and country, followed the two horrid-looking ruffians who
+    performed the office of turnkeys. St Lazare had been a
+    monastery, and its massiveness, grimness, and confusion of
+    buildings, with its extreme silence at that late hour, gave me
+    the strongest impression of a huge catacomb above ground. The
+    door of a cell was opened for me after traversing a long
+    succession of cloisters; and on a little wooden trestle, and
+    wrapt in my cloak, I attempted to sleep. But if sleep has not
+    much to boast of in Paris at any time, what was it then? I had
+    scarcely closed my eyes when I was roused by a rapid succession
+    of musket-shots, fired at the opposite side of the cloister,
+    the light of torches flashing through the long avenues, and the
+    shouts of men and women in wrath, terror, and agony. I threw
+    myself off my uneasy bed, and climbing up by my prison bars,
+    endeavoured to ascertain the cause of the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e.
+    But the imperfect light served little more than to show a
+    general mustering of the national guard in the court, and a
+    huge and heavy building, into which they were discharging
+    random shots whenever a head appeared at its casements. A loud
+    huzza followed whenever one of those shots appeared to take
+    effect, and a laugh equally loud ran through the ranks when the
+    bullet wasted its effect on the massive mullions or stained
+    glass of the windows. A tall figure on horseback, whom I
+    afterwards learned to be Henriot, the commandant of the
+    national guard, galloped up and down the court with the air of
+    a general-in-chief man&oelig;uvring an army. I think that he
+    actually had provided himself with a truncheon to meet all the
+    emergencies of supreme command. While this sanguinary, and yet
+    mocking representation of warfare was going on, M. le
+    Commandant was in full eloquence and prodigious gesticulation.
+    "A la gloire, mes enfans!" was his constant cry. "Fight, <i>mes
+    braves!</i> the honour of France demands it: the eyes of
+    Europe&mdash;of the world&mdash;are turned upon you. <i>Vive la
+    Republique!</i>" And all this accompanied with waving his hat,
+    and spurring his horse into foam and fury. But fortune is a
+    jade after all; and the hero of the tricolored scarf was
+    destined to have his laurels a little shorn, even on this
+    narrow field. While his charger was caracoling over the
+    cloisters, and his veterans from the cellars and counters of
+    Paris were popping off their muskets at the unfortunates who
+    started up against the old casement, I heard a sudden rush and
+    run; a low postern of the cloister had been flung back, and the
+    prisoners within the building had made a sally on their
+    tormentors. A massacre at the Bic&ecirc;tre, in which six
+    thousand had perished, had warned these unhappy people that
+    neither the prison wall, nor night, was to be security against
+    the rage of the bloodhounds with whom murder seemed to have
+    grown into a pastime; and after having seen several of their
+    number shot down within their dungeon, they determined to
+    attack them, and, if they must die, at least die in manly
+    defence. Their rush was perfectly successful; it had the effect
+    of a complete surprise; and though their only weapons were
+    fragments of their firewood&mdash;for all fire-arms and knives
+    had been taken from them immediately
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page484"
+       id="page484"></a>[pg 484]</span> on their entrance into the
+       prison&mdash;they routed the heroes of the guard at the
+       first charge. Even the gallant commander himself only shared
+       the chance of his "camarades:" a flourish or two of his
+       sabre, and an adjuration of "liberty," had no other effect
+       than to insure a heavier shower of blows, and I had the
+       gratification of seeing the braggadocio go down from his
+       saddle in the midst of a group, who certainly had no
+       veneration for the majesty of the truncheon. The victory was
+       achieved; but, like many another victory, it produced no
+       results: the gates of the St Lazare were too strongly
+       guarded to be forced by an unarmed crowd, and I saw the
+       prisoners successively and gloomily return to the only roof,
+       melancholy as that was, which now could shelter them.</p>
+
+    <p>The morning brought my case before the authorities of this
+    den. Half a dozen coarse and filthy uniformed men, and some of
+    them evidently sufferers in the tumult of the night, for their
+    heads were bound up and their arms bandaged&mdash;a matter
+    which, if it did not improve their appearance, gave me every
+    reason to expect increased brutishness in their
+    tempers&mdash;formed the tribunal. The hall in which they had
+    established their court had once been the kitchen of the
+    convent; and, though all signs of hospitality had vanished, its
+    rude and wild construction, its stone floor and vaulted roof,
+    and even its yawning and dark recesses for the different
+    operations which, in other days, had made it a scene of busy
+    cheerfulness, now gave it a look of dreariness in the extreme.
+    I could have easily imagined it to be a chamber of the
+    Inquisition. But men in my circumstances have not much time for
+    the work of fancy; and I was instantly called on for my name,
+    and business in France. I had heard enough of popular justice
+    to believe, that I had now arrived within sight of the last
+    struggle, and I resolved to give these ruffians no triumph over
+    the Englishman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Citizen, who are you?" Was the first interrogatory.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am no citizen, no Frenchman, and no republican," was my
+    answer. My judges stared at each other.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are a prisoner. How came you here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are judges; how came you there?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are charged with crimes against the Republic."</p>
+
+    <p>"In my country no man is expected to criminate himself."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you are a traitor: can you deny that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am no traitor to my king; can you say as much for
+    yourselves?" They now began to cast furious glances at me.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are insolent: what brought you into the territory of
+    France?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The same thing which placed you on that
+    bench&mdash;force."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you mad?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;are you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you not know that we can send you to the"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"If you do, I shall only go before <i>you</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>This put an end to my interrogatory at once. I had
+    accidentally touched upon the nerve which quivered in every
+    bosom of these fellows. There was a singular presentiment among
+    even the boldest of the Revolutionists, that the new order of
+    things would not last, and that, when the change came, it would
+    be a bloody one. Life had become sufficiently precarious
+    already among the possessors of power; and the least intimation
+    of death was actually formidable to a race of villains whose
+    hands were hourly imbued in slaughter. I had been hitherto
+    placed in scarcely more than surveillance. An order for my
+    confinement as a "Brigand Anglais," was made out by the
+    indignant "commission," and I was transferred from my narrow
+    and lonely cell into the huge crowded building in the opposite
+    cloister, which had been the scene of the attack on the
+    previous night. I could, with Cato, "smile on the drawn dagger
+    and defy its point." I walked out with the air of a Cato.</p>
+
+    <p>This change, intended for my infinite degradation until the
+    guillotine should have dispatched its business in arrear, I
+    found much to my advantage. The man who expects nothing, cannot
+    be hurt by disappointment; and when I was conducted from my
+    solitary cell into the midst of four or five hundred prisoners,
+    I felt the human feelings kindle in me, which had been chilled
+    between my four stone walls.</p>
+
+    <p>The prisoners with whom I was
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page485"
+       id="page485"></a>[pg 485]</span> now to take my chance, were
+       of all ranks, professions, and degrees of crime. The true
+       crime in the eyes of the republic being, to be rich. Yet
+       there the culprit had some hope of being suffered to live,
+       at least while daily examinations, with the hourly
+       perspective of the axe, could make him contribute to the
+       purses of the tribunal. Those who happened to be poor, were
+       found guilty of <i>incivisme</i> at once, and were daily
+       drafted off to the Place de Gr&egrave;ve, from which they
+       never returned. But some of the prisoners were from La
+       Vend&eacute;e, peasants mixed with nobles; who, though no
+       formal shape of resistance to the republic was yet declared,
+       had exhibited enough of that gallant contempt of the new
+       tyranny, which afterwards immortalized the name, to render
+       them obnoxious to the ruffians at its head. It was this
+       sturdy portion which had made the dash on the night of the
+       riot, and their daring had the effect, at least, of saving
+       their fellow-prisoners in future from being made marks, to
+       teach the national guard the art of shooting. Even their
+       sentries kept a respectful distance; and M. Henriot, wisely
+       mindful of his flagellation, flourished his staff of command
+       no more within our cloister. We were, in fact, left almost
+       wholly to ourselves. Yet, if a philosopher desired to take a
+       lesson in human nature, this was the spot of earth for the
+       study. We had it in every shape and shade. We had it in the
+       wits and blockheads, the courtiers and the clowns, the
+       opulent and the ruined, the brave and the
+       pusillanimous&mdash;and all under the strangest pressure of
+       those feelings which rouse the nature of man to its most
+       undisguised display. Death was before every eye. Where was
+       the use of wearing a mask, when the wearer was so soon to
+       part with his head? Pretence gradually vanished, and a
+       general spirit of boldness, frankness, and something, if not
+       exactly of dignity, at least of manliness, superseded the
+       customary cringing of society under a despotism. In all but
+       the name, we were better republicans than the tribe who
+       shouted in the streets, or robbed in the tribunals.</p>
+
+    <p>I made the remark one day to the Marquis de Cassini, a
+    philosopher and pupil of the great Buffon. "The reason is,"
+    said he, "that men differ chiefly by circumstances, as they
+    differ chiefly by their clothes. Throw off their dress, whether
+    embroidery or rags, and you will find the same number of ribs
+    in them all."</p>
+
+    <p>"But my chief surprise is, to find in this prison more
+    mutual kindness, and, in every sense, more generosity of
+    sentiment, than one generally expects to meet in the
+    world."</p>
+
+    <p>"Helvetius would tell you that all this was self-interest,"
+    was my pale-visaged and contemplative friend's reply. "But I
+    always regarded M. Helvetius in the light of a well-trained
+    baboon, who thought, when men stared at his tricks, they were
+    admiring his talents. The truth is, that self-interest is the
+    mere creature of society, and is the most active in the basest
+    society. It is the combined cowardice and cruelty of men
+    struggling for existence; the savageness of the forest, where
+    men cannot gather acorns enough to share with their fellows;
+    the effort for life, where there is but one plank in a storm,
+    and where, if you are to cling at all, it must be by drowning
+    the weaker party. But here," and he cast his eyes calmly round
+    the crowd, "as there is not the slightest possibility that any
+    one of us will escape, we have the better opportunity of
+    showing our original <i>biens&eacute;ance</i>. All the
+    struggling on earth will not save us from the guillotine; and
+    therefore we resolve to accommodate each other for the rest of
+    our journey."</p>
+
+    <p>I agreed with him on the philosophy of the case, and in
+    return he introduced me to some of the Vend&eacute;an nobles,
+    who had hitherto exhibited their general scorn of Parisian
+    contact by confining themselves to the circle of their
+    followers. I was received with the distinction due to my
+    introducer, and was invited to join their supper that night.
+    The prison had once been the chapel of the convent; and though
+    the desecration had taken place a hundred years before, and the
+    revolutionary spoil had spared but little of the remaining
+    ornaments, the original massiveness of the building, and the
+    nobleness of the architecture, had withstood the assaults of
+    both time and plunder. The roofs of the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page486"
+       id="page486"></a>[pg 486]</span> aisles could not be reached
+       except by flame, and the monuments of the ancient priors and
+       prelates, when they had once been stripped of their crosses,
+       were too solid for the passing fury of the mob. And thus, in
+       the midst of emblems of mortality, and the recollections of
+       old solemnity, were set some hundreds of people, who knew as
+       little of each other as if they had met in a caravansery,
+       and who, perhaps, expected to part as soon. The scene was
+       curious, but by no means uncheerful. The national spirit is
+       inextinguishable; and, however my countrymen may bear up
+       against the extremes of ill-fortune, no man meets its
+       beginnings with so easy an air as the man of France. Our
+       supper was laid out in one of the side chapels; and, coarse
+       and scanty as it was, I seldom recollect an evening which I
+       passed with a lighter sense of the burden of a prisoner's
+       time. I found the Vend&eacute;an nobles a manlier race than
+       their more courtly countrymen. Yet they had courtliness of
+       their own; but it was more the manner of our own country
+       gentlemen of the last century, than the polish of
+       Versailles. Their habits of living on their domains, of
+       country sports, of intercourse with their peasantry, and of
+       the general simplicity of country life, had drawn a strong
+       line of distinction between them and the dukes and marquises
+       of the royal saloons. Like all Frenchmen of the day, they
+       conversed largely upon the politics of France; but there was
+       a striking reserve in their style. The existing royal family
+       were but little mentioned, or mentioned only with a certain
+       kind of sacred respect. Their misfortunes prohibited the
+       slightest severity of language. Yet still it was not
+       difficult to see, that those straightforward and honest
+       lords of the soil, who were yet to prove themselves the true
+       chevaliers of France, could feel as acutely, and express as
+       strongly, the injuries inflicted by the absurdities and
+       vices of the successive administrations of their reign, as
+       if they had figured in the clubs of the capital. But the
+       profligacies of the preceding monarch, and the tribe of
+       fools and knaves whom those profligacies as naturally
+       gathered round him as the plague propagates its own
+       contagion, met with no mercy. And, though they were spoken
+       of with the gravity which became the character and rank of
+       the speakers, they were denounced with a sternness which
+       seemed beyond the morals or the mind of their country. Louis
+       XV., Du Barri, and the whole long succession of corrupting
+       and corrupted cabinets, which had at length rendered the
+       monarchy odious, were denounced in terms worthy of gallant
+       men; who, though resolved to sink or swim with the throne,
+       experienced all the bitterness of generous indignation at
+       the crimes which had raised the storm.</p>
+
+    <p>We had our songs too, and some of them were as contemptuous
+    as ever came from the pen of Parisian satire. Among my
+    recollections of the night was one of those songs, of which the
+    <i>refrain</i> was&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Le Bien-Aim&eacute;&mdash;<i>de l'Almanac</i>."</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>A burlesque on the title&mdash;Le Bien-Aim&eacute;, &amp;c.,
+    which the court calendar, and the court calendar <i>alone</i>,
+    had annually given to the late king. I can offer only a
+    paraphrase.</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Louis Quinze, our burning shame,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hear our song, 'old well-beloved,'</p>
+
+            <p>What if courts and camps are tame,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Pension'd beggars laced and gloved,</p>
+
+            <p>France's love grows rather slack,</p>
+
+            <p>Idol of&mdash;the Almanac.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Let your flatterers hang or drown,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">We are of another school,</p>
+
+            <p>Truth no more shall be put down,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">We can call a fool a fool,</p>
+
+            <p>Fearless of Bastile or rack,</p>
+
+            <p>Titus of&mdash;the Almanac.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Louis, trample on your serfs,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">We'll be trampled on no more,</p>
+
+            <p>Revel in your <i>parc aux
+            cerfs</i>,<a id="fn_6_tag1"
+               name="fn_6_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_6_1"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Eat and drink&mdash;'twill soon be
+            o'er.</p>
+
+            <p>France will steer another tack,</p>
+
+            <p>Solon of&mdash;the Almanac!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Hear your praises from your pages,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hear them from your liveried lords,</p>
+
+            <p>Let your valets earn their wages,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Liars, living on their words;</p>
+
+            <p>We'll soon give them nuts to crack,</p>
+
+            <p>C&aelig;sar of&mdash;the Almanac!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page487"
+       id="page487"></a>[pg 487]</span>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"When a dotard fills the throne,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Fit for nothing but a nurse,</p>
+
+            <p>When a nation's general groan,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Yields to nothing but its curse;</p>
+
+            <p>What are armies at thy back,</p>
+
+            <p>Henri of&mdash;the Almanac?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"When the truth is bought and sold,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">When the wrongs of man are spurn'd,</p>
+
+            <p>Then the crown's last knell is toll'd,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Then, old Time, thy glass has turn'd,</p>
+
+            <p>And comes flying from thy pack</p>
+
+            <p>To nations a <i>new</i> Almanac!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Mistress, minister, Bourbon,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Rule by bayonets, bribes, and spies,</p>
+
+            <p>Charlatans in church and throne,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">France is opening all her eyes&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Down go minion, king, and quack,</p>
+
+            <p>We'll have <i>our</i> new Almanac!"</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>When I returned to the place where my mattress was flung,
+    the crowd had already sunk to rest, and there was a general
+    silence throughout the building. The few lights which our
+    jailers supplied to us, had become fewer; and, except for the
+    heavy sound of the doubled sentries' tread outside, I might
+    have imagined myself in a vast cemetery. The agitation of the
+    day, followed by the somewhat unsuitable gayety of the evening,
+    had thrown me into such a state of mental and bodily fatigue,
+    that I had scarcely laid my side on my bed, untempting as it
+    was, when I dropped into a heavy slumber. The ingenuity of our
+    tormentors, however, prohibited our knowing any thing in the
+    shape of indulgence; and in realisation of the dramatist's
+    renowned <i>mot</i>, "traitors never sleep," the prison door
+    was suddenly flung open&mdash;a drum rattled through the
+    aisle&mdash;the whole body of the prisoners were ordered to
+    stand forth and answer to their names; this ceremony concluding
+    with the march of the whole night-guard into the chapel, and
+    their being ordered to load with ball-cartridge, to give us the
+    sufficient knowledge of what any attempt to escape would bring
+    upon us in future. This refinement in cruelty we owed to the
+    <i>escapade</i> of the night before.</p>
+
+    <p>At length, after a variety of insulting queries, even this
+    scene was over. The guard marched out, the roll of their drum
+    passed away among the cloisters; we went shivering to our
+    beds&mdash;threw ourselves down dressed as we were, and tried
+    to forget France and our jailers.</p>
+
+    <p>But a French night in those times was like no other, and I
+    had yet to witness a scene such as I believe could not have
+    existed in any other country of the globe.</p>
+
+    <p>After some period of feverish sleep I was awakened by a
+    strange murmur, which, mixing with my dreams, had given me the
+    comfortless idea of hearing the roar of the multitude at some
+    of the horrid displays of the guillotine; and as I half opened
+    my unwilling eyes, still heavy with sleep, I saw a long
+    procession of figures, in flowing mantles and draperies, moving
+    down the huge hall. A semicircle of beds filled the extremity
+    of the chapel, which had been vacated by a draft of unfortunate
+    beings, carried off during the day to that dreadful tribunal,
+    whose sole employment seemed to be the supply of the axe, and
+    from which no one was ever expected to return. While my eyes,
+    with a strange and almost superstitious anxiety&mdash;such is
+    the influence of time and place&mdash;followed this
+    extraordinary train, I saw it take possession of the range of
+    beds; each new possessor sitting wrapt in his pale vesture, and
+    perfectly motionless. I can scarcely describe the singular
+    sensations with which I continued to gaze on the spectacle. My
+    eyes sometimes closed, and I almost conceived that the whole
+    was a dream; but the forms were too distinct for this
+    conjecture, and the question with me now became, "are they
+    flesh and blood?" I had not sunk so far into reverie as to
+    imagine that they were the actual spectres of the unhappy
+    tenants of those beds on the night before, all of whom were
+    now, doubtless, in the grave; but the silence, the distance,
+    the dimness perplexed me, and I left the question to be settled
+    by the event. At a gesture from the central figure they all
+    stood up&mdash;and a man loaded with fetters was brought
+    forward in front of their line. I now found that a trial was
+    going on: the group were the judges, the man was the presumed
+    criminal; there was an accuser, there was an advocate&mdash;in
+    short, all the general process of a trial was passing before my
+    view. Curiosity would naturally have made me spring from my bed
+    and approach this extraordinary spectacle; but I am not ashamed
+    now to acknowledge, that I felt a
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page488"
+       id="page488"></a>[pg 488]</span> nervelessness and inability
+       to speak or move, which for the time wholly awed me. All
+       that I could discover was, that the accused was charged with
+       <i>incivisme</i>, and that, defying the court and disdaining
+       the charge, he was pronounced guilty&mdash;the whole circle,
+       standing up as the sentence was pronounced, and with a
+       solemn waving of their arms and murmur of their voices,
+       assenting to the act of the judge. The victim was then
+       seized on, swept away into the darkness, and after a brief
+       pause I heard a shriek and a crash; the sentence had been
+       fulfilled&mdash;all was over. The court now covered their
+       heads with their mantles, as if in sorrow for this
+       formidable necessity.</p>
+
+    <p>But how shall I speak of the closing scene? However it
+    surprised and absorbed me in that moment of nervous excitement,
+    I can allude to it now only as characteristic of a time when
+    every mind in France was half lunatic. I saw a figure enveloped
+    in star-coloured light emerge from the darkness, slowly ascend,
+    in a vesture floating round it like the robes which Raphael or
+    Guido gives to the beings of another sphere, and, accompanied
+    by a burst of harmony as it rose, ascend to the roof, where it
+    suddenly disappeared. All was instantly the silence and the
+    darkness of the grave.</p>
+
+    <p>Daylight brought back my senses, and I was convinced that
+    the pantomimic spirit of the people, however unaccountably it
+    might disregard proprieties, had been busy with the scene. I
+    should now certainly have abandoned the supernatural portion of
+    the conjecture altogether; but on mentioning it to Cassini, he
+    let me into the solution at once.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you never observed," said he, "the passion of all
+    people for walking on the edge of a precipice, climbing a
+    church tower, looking down from a battlement, or doing any one
+    thing which gives them the nearest possible chance of breaking
+    their necks?&mdash;then you can comprehend the performance of
+    last night. There we are, like fowls in a coop: every day sees
+    some of us taken out; and the amusement of the remaining fowls
+    is to imagine how the heads of the others were taken from their
+    bodies." The prisoners were practising a trial.</p>
+
+    <p>I gave an involuntary look of surprise at this species of
+    amusement, and remarked something on the violation of common
+    feeling&mdash;to say nothing of the almost profaneness which it
+    involved.</p>
+
+    <p>"As to the feeling," said Cassini, with that shrug which no
+    shoulders but those of a Frenchman can ever give, "it is a
+    matter of taste; and perhaps we have no right to dictate in
+    such matters to persons who would think a week a long lease of
+    life, and who, instead of seven days, may not have so many
+    hours. As to the profanation, if your English scruples made you
+    sensitive on such points, I can assure you that you might have
+    seen some things much more calculated to excite your
+    sensibilities. The display last night was simply the trial of a
+    royalist; and as we are all more or less angry with
+    republicanism at this moment, and with some small reason too,
+    the royalist, though he was condemned, as every body now is,
+    was suffered to have his apotheosis. But <i>I</i> have seen
+    exhibitions in which the republican was the criminal, and the
+    scene that followed was really startling even to my rather
+    callous conceptions. Sometimes we even had one of the colossal
+    ruffians who are now lording it over France. I have seen St
+    Just, Couthon, Caier, Danton, nay Robespierre himself;
+    arraigned before our midnight tribunal; for this amusement is
+    the only one which we can enjoy without fear of interruption
+    from our jailers. Thus we enjoy it with the greater gusto, and
+    revenge ourselves for the tribulations of the day by trying our
+    tormentors at night."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am satisfied with the reason, although I am not yet quite
+    reconciled to the performance. Who were the actors?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are now nearer the truth than you suspected. We have
+    men of every trade here, and, among the rest, we have actors
+    enough to stock the <i>Com&eacute;die Fran&ccedil;aise</i>. If
+    you remain long enough among us, you will see some of the best
+    farces of the best time played uncommonly well by our fellow
+    <i>d&eacute;tenus</i>. But in the interim&mdash;for our stage
+    is permitted by the municipality to open in the St Lazare only
+    four times a month&mdash;a piece of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page489"
+       id="page489"></a>[pg 489]</span> cruelty which we all regard
+       as intolerable&mdash;our actors refresh their faculties with
+       all kinds of displays. You acknowledge that the scene last
+       night was well got up; and if you should see the trial of
+       some of our 'Grands Democrats,' be assured that your
+       admiration will not be attracted by showy vesture, blue
+       lights, or the harmonies of the old asthmatic organ in
+       yonder gallery; our pattern will be taken from the last
+       scene of 'Il Don Giovanni.' You will have no pasteboard
+       figure suspended from the roof, and wafted upward in
+       starlight or moonlight. But if you wish to see the
+       exhibition, I am concerned to tell you that you must wait,
+       for to-night all our <i>artistes</i> are busy. In what, do
+       you conceive?"</p>
+
+    <p>I professed my inability to fathom "the infinite resources
+    of the native mind, where amusement was the question."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well then&mdash;not to keep you in suspense&mdash;we are to
+    have a masquerade."</p>
+
+    <p>The fact was even so. France having grown tired of all
+    things that had been, grew tired of weeks, and Decades were the
+    law of the land. The year was divided into packs of ten days
+    each, and she began the great game of time by shuffling and
+    cutting her cards anew. The change was not marked by any
+    peculiar good fortune; for it was laughed at, as every thing in
+    France was except an order for deportation to the colonies, or
+    a march to the scaffold. The populace, fully admitting the
+    right of government to deal with kings and priests as it
+    pleased, regarded the interference with their pleasures as a
+    breach of compact; and the result was, that the populace had
+    their Dimanche as well as their Decadi, and that the grand
+    experiment for wiping out the Sunday, issued in giving them two
+    holidays instead of one.</p>
+
+    <p>It was still early in the day when some bustle in the porch
+    of the prison turned all eyes towards it, and a new detachment
+    of prisoners was brought in. I shall say nothing of the scenes
+    of wretchedness which followed; the wild terrors of women on
+    finding themselves in this melancholy place, which looked, and
+    was, scarcely more than a vestibule to the tomb; the deep
+    distress of parents, with their children clinging round them,
+    and the general despair&mdash;a despair which was but too well
+    founded. Yet the tumult of their settling and distribution
+    among the various quarters of the chapel had scarcely subsided
+    when another scene was at hand. The commissary of the district
+    came in, with a list of the prisoners who were summoned before
+    the tribunal. Our prison population was like the waters of a
+    bath, as one stream flowed in another flowed out; the level was
+    constantly sustained. With an instinctive pang I heard my name
+    pronounced among those unhappy objects of sanguinary rule.
+    Cassini approached me with a smile, which he evidently put on
+    to conceal his emotion.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is quick work, M. Marston," said he, taking my hand.
+    "As the ruffian in the school fable says, 'Hodie tibi, cras
+    nihi'&mdash;twelve hours will probably make all the difference
+    between us."</p>
+
+    <p>I took off the little locket coutaining my last remembrance
+    of Clotilde, and put it into his hands, requesting him, if he
+    survived, to transmit it to his incomparable countrywoman, with
+    an assurance that I remembered her in an hour when all else was
+    forgotten.</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall perform the part of your legatee," said he, "till
+    to-morrow; then I will find some other depositary. Here you
+    must know that heirship is rapid, and that the will is executed
+    before the ink is dry." He turned away to hide a tear. "I have
+    not known you long, sir," said he; "but in this place we must
+    be expeditious in every thing. You are too young to die. If you
+    are sacrificed, I am convinced that you will die like a
+    gentleman and a man of honour. And yet I have some feeling,
+    some presentiment, nay almost a consciousness, that you will
+    not be cut off, at least until you are as weary of the world as
+    I am."</p>
+
+    <p>I endeavoured to put on a face of resignation, if not of
+    cheerfulness, and said, "That though my country might revenge
+    my death, my being engaged in its service would only make my
+    condemnation inevitable. But I was prepared."</p>
+
+    <p>"At all events, my young friend,"
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page490"
+       id="page490"></a>[pg 490]</span> said he, "if you escape
+       from this pandemonium of France, take this paper, and
+       vindicate the memory of Cassini."</p>
+
+    <p>He gave me a memoir, which I could not help receiving with a
+    smile, from the brevity of the period during which the trust
+    was likely to hold. The gendarme now came up to demand my
+    attendance. I shook hands with the marquis, who at that moment
+    was certainly no philosopher, and followed the train.</p>
+
+    <p>We were about fifty in number; and after being placed in
+    open artillery waggons, the procession moved rapidly through
+    the suburb, until we reached one of those dilapidated and
+    hideous-looking buildings which were then to be found startling
+    the stranger's eye with the recollections of the St Bartholomew
+    and the Fronde.</p>
+
+    <p>A crowd, assembled round the door of one of these melancholy
+    shades, and the bayonets of a company of the national guard
+    glittering above their heads, at length indicated the place of
+    our destination. The crowd shouted, and called us "aristocrats,
+    thirsting for the blood of the good citizens." The line of the
+    guard opened, and we were rapidly passed through several halls,
+    the very dwelling of decay, until we reached a large court,
+    where the prisoners remained while the judges were occupied in
+    deciding on the fate of the train which the morning had already
+    provided. I say nothing of the insults which were intended, if
+    not to add new bitterness to death, to indulge the wretched men
+    and women who could find an existence in attending on the
+    offices of the tribunal, with opportunities of triumphing over
+    those born to better things. While we remained in the court
+    exposed to the weather, which was now cold and gusty, shouts
+    were heard at intervals, which, as the turnkeys informed us,
+    arose from the spectators of the executions&mdash;death, in
+    these fearful days, immediately following sentence. Yet, to the
+    last the ludicrous often mingled with the melancholy. While I
+    was taking my place in the file according to the order of our
+    summons, and was next in rotation for trial, a smart and
+    overdressed young man stepped out of his place in the rank, and
+    drawing from his bosom a pamphlet in manuscript, presented it
+    to me, with the special entreaty that, "in case I survived, I
+    should take care of its propagation throughout Europe." My
+    answer naturally was, "That my fate was fully as precarious as
+    that of the rest, and that thus I had no hope of being able to
+    give his pamphlet to mankind."</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Mais</i>, monsieur," that phrase which means so many
+    inexpressible things&mdash;"But, sir, you must observe, that by
+    putting my pamphlet into your charge, it has a double chance.
+    You may read it as a part of your defence; it is a treatise on
+    the government of France, which settles all the disputed
+    questions, reconciles republicanism with monarchy, and shows
+    how a revolution may be made to purify all things without
+    overthrowing any. Thus my sentiments will become public at
+    once, the world will be enlightened, and, though <i>you</i> may
+    perish, France will be saved."</p>
+
+    <p>Nothing could be more convincing; yet I continued stubborn.
+    He persisted. I suggested the "possibility of my not being
+    suffered to make any defence whatever, but of being swept away
+    at once; in this case endangering the total loss of his
+    conceptions to the world;" but I had to deal with a man of
+    resources.</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said the author and philanthropist; "for that event I
+    have provided. I have a second copy folded on my breast, which
+    I shall read when I am called on for trial. Then those immortal
+    truths shall not be left to accident; I shall have two chances
+    for celebrity; the labour of my life shall be known; nor shall
+    the name of Jean Jacques Pelletier go to the tomb without the
+    renown due to a philosopher."</p>
+
+    <p>But further deprecation on my part was cut short by the
+    appearance of two of the guard, by whom I was marched to the
+    presence of the tribunal. The day had now waned, and two or
+    three lamps showed my weary eye the judges, whose decision was
+    to make the difference to me between life and death, within the
+    next half hour. Their appearance was the reverse of one likely
+    to reconcile the unfortunate to the severity of the law. They
+    were seven or eight sitting on a raised platform, with a long
+    table in their front, covered with papers, with
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page491"
+       id="page491"></a>[pg 491]</span> what seemed to be the
+       property taken from the condemned at the
+       moment&mdash;watches, purses, and trinkets; and among those
+       piles, very visibly the fragments of a dinner&mdash;plates
+       and soups, with several bottles of cognac and wine. Justice
+       was so indefatigable in France, that its ministers were
+       forced to mingle all the functions of public and private
+       life together; and to be intoxicated in the act of passing
+       sentence of death was no uncommon event.</p>
+
+    <p>The judges of those sectional tribunals were generally
+    ruffians of the lowest description, who, having made themselves
+    notorious by violence and Jacobinism, had driven away the usual
+    magistracy, and, under the pretext of administering justice,
+    were actually driving a gainful trade in robbery of every kind.
+    The old costume of the courts of law was of course abjured; and
+    the new civic costume, which was obviously constructed on the
+    principle of leaving the lands free for butchery, and
+    preserving the garments free from any chance of being
+    disfigured by the blood of the victim&mdash;for they were the
+    perfection of savage squalidness&mdash;was displayed
+    <i>&agrave; la rigueur</i> on the bench. A short coat without
+    sleeves, the shirt sleeves tucked up as for instant execution,
+    the neck open, no collar, fierce mustaches, a head of clotted
+    hair, sometimes a red nightcap stuck on one side, and sometimes
+    a red handkerchief tied round it as a temporary "bonnet de
+    nuit"&mdash;for the judges frequently, in drunkenness or
+    fatigue, threw themselves on the bench or the floor, and
+    slept&mdash;exhibited the regenerated aspect of Themis in the
+    capital of the polished world.</p>
+
+    <p>My name was now called. I shall not say with what a throb of
+    heart I heard it. But at the moment when I was stepping
+    forward, I felt my skirt pulled by one of the guard behind me.
+    I looked, and recognized through all his beard, and the hair
+    that in profusion covered his physiognomy, my police friend,
+    who seemed to possess the faculty of being every where&mdash;a
+    matter, however, rendered easier to him by his being in the
+    employ of the government&mdash;and who simply whispered the
+    words&mdash;"Be firm, and acknowledge nothing." Slight as the
+    hint was, it had come in good time; for I had grown desperate
+    from the sight of the perpetual casualties round me, and, like
+    Cassini's idea of the man walking on the edge of the precipice,
+    had felt some inclination to jump off, and take my chance. But
+    now contempt and defiance took the place of despair; and
+    instead of openly declaring my purposes and performances, my
+    mind was made up to leave them to find out what they could.</p>
+
+    <p>On my being marched up to the foot of the platform between
+    two frightful-looking ruffians, whose coats and trousers seemed
+    to have been dyed in gore, to show that they were worthy of the
+    murders of September, and who, to make "assurance doubly sure,"
+    wore on their sword-belts the word "September," painted in
+    broad characters, I remained for a while unquestioned, until
+    they turned over a pile of names which they had flung on the
+    table before them. At last their perplexity was relieved by one
+    of the clerks, who pronounced my name. I was then interrogated
+    in nearly the same style as before the committee of my first
+    captors. I gave them short answers.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who are you?" asked the principal distributor of rabble
+    justice. The others stooped forward, pens in hand, to record my
+    conviction.</p>
+
+    <p>My answer was&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I am a man." (Murmurs on the platform.)</p>
+
+    <p>"Whence come you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"From your prison."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are not a Frenchman?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, thank Heaven!" (Murmurs again.)</p>
+
+    <p>"Beware, sir, of insolence to the tribunal. We can send you
+    instantly to punishment."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know it. Why then try me at all?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because, prisoner, we desire to hear the truth first."</p>
+
+    <p>"First or last, can you bear to hear it?" (Angry looks, but
+    more attention.)</p>
+
+    <p>"We have no time to waste&mdash;the business of the Republic
+    must be done. Are you a citizen?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am; a citizen of the world."</p>
+
+    <p>"You must not equivocate with justice. Where did you live
+    before you were
+    arrested?"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page492"
+       id="page492"></a>[pg 492]</span>
+
+    <p>"On the globe." (A half-suppressed laugh among the crowd in
+    the back ground.)</p>
+
+    <p>"What profession?"</p>
+
+    <p>"None."</p>
+
+    <p>"On what then do you live, have lived, or expect to
+    live?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To-day on nothing, for your guards have given me nothing.
+    Yesterday, I lived on what I could get. To-morrow, it depends
+    on circumstances whether I shall want any thing." (A low murmur
+    of applause among the bystanders, who now gathered closer to
+    the front.)</p>
+
+    <p>"Prisoner," said the chief, swilling a glass of cognac to
+    strengthen the solemnity of his jurisprudence, "the Republic
+    must not be trifled with. You are arraigned of
+    <i>incivisme</i>. Of what country are you a subject?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of France, while I remain on her territory."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you fought for France?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have; for her laws, her liberty, her property, and her
+    honour." (Bravo! from the crowd.)</p>
+
+    <p>"Yet you are not a Republican?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; no more than you are."</p>
+
+    <p>This produced confusion on the bench. The hit was
+    contemptuously accidental; but it was a home-thrust at the
+    chief, who had former been a domestic in the Tuileries, and was
+    still strongly suspected of being a spy of the Bourbons. The
+    crowd who knew his story, who are always delighted with a blow
+    at power, burst into a general roar. But a little spruce fellow
+    on the bench, who had already exhibited a desire to take his
+    share in the interrogatory, now thrust his head over the table,
+    and said in his most searching tone&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"To come to the point&mdash;Prisoner, how do you live? What
+    are your means? All honest men must have visible means. That is
+    <i>my</i> question." (All eyes were now turned on me.)</p>
+
+    <p>I was now growing angry; and, pointing to the pile of purses
+    and watches on the table&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"No man," said I, "needs ask what are your visible means,
+    when they see that pile before you. Yet I doubt if that proves
+    you to be an honest man. That is <i>my</i> answer."</p>
+
+    <p>The little inquisitor looked furious, and glanced towards
+    the chief for protection; but his intrusion had provoked wrath
+    in that quarter, and his glance was returned with a rigid
+    smile.</p>
+
+    <p>"Prisoner," said the head of the tribunal, "though the
+    question was put improperly, it was itself a proper one. How do
+    you live?"</p>
+
+    <p>"By my abilities."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is a very doubtful support in those times."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not recommend you, or any of those around you, to make
+    the experiment," was my indignant answer.</p>
+
+    <p>The bystanders gave a general laugh, in which even the guard
+    joined. To get the laugh against one, is the most unpardonable
+    of all injuries in France, and this answer roused up the whole
+    tribunal. They scarcely gave themselves the trouble of a
+    moment's consultation. A few nods and whispers settled the
+    whole affair; and the chief, standing up and drawing his sabre
+    from its sheath&mdash;then the significant custom of those
+    places of butchery, pronounced the fatal words, "Guilty of
+    <i>incivisme</i>. Let the criminal be conducted <i>&agrave; la
+    Force</i>," the well-known phrase for immediate execution.</p>
+
+    <p>The door was opened from which none ever came back. Two
+    torches were seen glaring down the passage, and I was seized by
+    the grim escort who were to lead me to the axe.</p>
+
+    <p>The affectation of cowardice is as childish as the
+    affectation of courage; but I felt a sensation at that moment
+    which took me by surprise. I had been perfectly assured of my
+    sentence from the first glance at the judges. If ever there was
+    a spot on earth which deserved Dante's motto of
+    Erebus&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Voi qui entrate, lasciate agui speranza"&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>it was the revolutionary tribunal. Despair was written all
+    over it in characters impossible to be mistaken. I had fixed my
+    resolution to go through the whole scene, if not with heroism,
+    at least with that decent firmness which becomes a man; yet the
+    sound of the words which consigned me to the scaffold struck me
+    with a general chill. Momentary as the period was, the question
+    passed through my mind, are those paralysed limbs the same
+    which bore me so well through the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page493"
+       id="page493"></a>[pg 493]</span> hazards of the campaign?
+       Why am I to feel the fluttering of heart now, more than when
+       I was facing sabres and cannon-shot? Why am I thus frigid
+       and feeble, when I so lately fought and marched, and defied
+       alike fatigue and wounds? But I felt in this chamber of
+       death an inconceivable exhaustion, which had never
+       approached me in the havoc of the field. My feet refused to
+       move, my lips to breathe; all objects swam round, and sick
+       to death and fainting, I thrust out my hand to save me from
+       falling, and thus gave the last triumph to my murderers.</p>
+
+    <p>At this decisive moment I found my hand caught by a powerful
+    grasp, and a strong voice exclaiming, "Messieurs, I demand the
+    delay of this sentence. The criminal before you is of higher
+    importance to the state than the wretches whom justice daily
+    compels you to sacrifice. His crime is of a deeper dye. I
+    exhibit the mandate of the Government to arrest the act of the
+    tribunal, and order him to be reserved until he reveals the
+    whole of the frightful plots which endanger the Republic."</p>
+
+    <p>He then advanced to the platform; and, taking a paper from
+    his bosom, displayed to the court and the crowd the order for
+    my being remanded to prison, signed by the triumvirate, whose
+    word was law in France. Some confusion followed on the bench,
+    and some bustle among the spectators; but the document was
+    undeniable, and my sentence was suspended. I am not sure that
+    the people within much regretted the delay, however those who
+    had been lingering outside might feel themselves ill-used by a
+    pause in the executions, which had now become a popular
+    amusement; for the crowd instantly pushed forward to witness
+    another trial of sarcasm between me and my judges; but this the
+    new authority sternly forbade.</p>
+
+    <p>"The prisoner," said he, in a dictatorial tone, "is now in
+    my charge. He is a prisoner of state&mdash;an
+    Englishman&mdash;an agent of the monster Pitt"&mdash;(he
+    paused, and was answered with a general shudder;) "and, above
+    all, has actually been in arms with the fiend Brunswick, (a
+    general groan,) and with those worse than fiends, those
+    parricides, those emigrant nobles, who have come to burn our
+    harvests, slay our wives and children, and destroy the proudest
+    monument of human wisdom, the grandest triumph of human
+    success, and the most illustrious monument of the age of
+    regeneration&mdash;the Republic of France." Loud acclamations
+    followed this popular rhetoric; and the panegyrist, firmly
+    grasping me by the arm, walked with me rapidly out of court.
+    All made way for him, and, before another word could be uttered
+    by the astounded bench, we were in one of the covered carriages
+    reserved for prisoners of the higher rank, and on our way, at
+    full gallop, through the intricate streets of Paris.</p>
+
+    <p>All this was done with such hurried action, that I had
+    scarcely time to know what my own emotions were; but the relief
+    from immediate death, or rather from those depressing and
+    overwhelming sensations which perhaps make its worst
+    bitterness, was something, and hope dawned in me once more.
+    Still, it was wholly in vain that I attempted to make my man of
+    mystery utter a word. Nothing could extort a syllable from him,
+    and he was evidently unwilling that I should even see his face,
+    imperfect as the chance was among the few lamps which Paris
+    then exhibited to enlighten the dismal darkness of her
+    thoroughfares. Yet the idea that my rescue was not without a
+    purpose predominated; and I was beginning even to imagine that
+    I already felt the fresh air of the fields, and that our
+    journey would terminate outside the walls of Paris, when the
+    carriage came to a full stop, and, by the light of a torch
+    streaming on the wind in front, I saw the gate of the St
+    Lazare. All was now over&mdash;resistance or escape was equally
+    beyond me. The carriage was surrounded by the guard, who
+    ordered me to descend; their officer received the rescript for
+    my safe custody, and I had nothing before me but the dungeon.
+    But at the moment when my foot was on the step of the vehicle,
+    my companion stooped forward, and uttered in my ear, with a
+    pressure of my hand, the word "Mordecai." I was hurried onward,
+    and the carriage drove away.</p>
+
+    <p>My surprise was excessive. This talismanic word changes the
+    current <span class="pagenum"><a name="page494"
+       id="page494"></a>[pg 494]</span> of my thoughts at once. It
+       had so often and so powerfully operated in my favour, that I
+       could scarcely doubt its effect once more; yet before me
+       were the stern realities of confinement. What spell was
+       equal to those stonewalls, what dexterity of man or
+       friendship, or even the stronger love of woman, could make
+       my dungeon free, or my chains vanish into "thin air?" Still
+       there had been a interposition, and to that interposition,
+       whether for future good or ill, it certainly was due that I
+       was not already mounting the scaffold, or flung, headless
+       trunk, into the miserable and nameless grave.</p>
+
+    <p>As I passed again through the cloisters, my ears were caught
+    with the sound of music and dancing. The contrast was
+    sufficiently strong to the scene from which I had just
+    returned; yet this was the land of contrasts. To my look of
+    surprise, the turnkey who attended me answered "Perhaps you
+    have forgotten that this is Decadi, and on this night we always
+    have our masquerade. If you have not got a dress, I shall
+    supply you; my wife is a <i>fripier</i> in the Antoine; she
+    supplies all the civic f&ecirc;tes with costumes, and you may
+    have any dress you like, from a grand signor with his turban,
+    down to a <i>colporteur</i> with his pack, or a watchman with
+    his nightcap."</p>
+
+    <p>My mind was still too unsettled to enjoy masquerading,
+    notwithstanding the temptation of the turnkey's wardrobe; and I
+    felt all that absence of accommodation to circumstances, that
+    want of plasticity, that failure of grasping at every
+    hair's-breadth of enjoyment, which is declared by foreigners to
+    form the prodigious deficiency of John Bull. If I could have
+    taken refuge, for that night at least, in the saddest cell of
+    the old convent, or in the deepest dungeon of the new prison, I
+    should have gone to either with indulgence. I longed to lay
+    down my aching brains upon my pillow, and forget the fever of
+    the time. But prisoners have no choice; and the turnkey, after
+    repeating his recommendations that I should not commit an act
+    of such profound offence as to appear in the assembly without a
+    domino, if I should take nothing else from the store of the
+    most popular <i>marchande</i> in Paris, the wife of his bosom,
+    at last, with a shake of his head and a bending of his heavy
+    brows at my want of taste, unlocked the gate, and thrust me
+    into the midst of my old quarters, the chapel.</p>
+
+    <p>There a new scene indeed awaited me. The place which I had
+    left filled with trembling clusters of people, whole families
+    clinging to each other in terror, loud or mute, but all in the
+    deepest dread of their next summons, I found in a state of the
+    most extravagant festivity&mdash;the chapel lighted up from
+    floor to root&mdash;bouquets planted wherever it was possible
+    to fix an artificial flower&mdash;gaudy wreaths depending from
+    the galleries&mdash;and all the genius of this country of
+    extremes lavished on attempts at decoration. Rude as the
+    materials were, they produced at first sight a remarkably
+    striking effect. More striking still was the spectacle of the
+    whole multitude in every grotesque dress of the world, dancing
+    away as if life was but one festival.</p>
+
+    <p>As I stood aloof for a while, wholly dazzled by the glare,
+    the movement, and the multitude, I was recognised by some of my
+    "old" acquaintance&mdash;the acquaintance of twenty-four
+    hours&mdash;but here time, like every thing else, had changed
+    its meaning, and a new influx had recruited the hall. Cassini
+    and some others came forward and welcomed me, like one who had
+    returned from the tomb&mdash;the news of the day was given and
+    exchanged&mdash;a bottle of champagne was prescribed as the
+    true medicine for my lowness of pulse&mdash;and I gradually
+    gave myself up to the spirit of the hour.</p>
+
+    <p>As I wandered through the crowd, a mask dressed as a sylph
+    bent its head over my shoulder, and I heard the words, "Why are
+    you not in a domino?" I made some careless answer. "Go and get
+    one immediately," was the reply. "Take this card, fasten it on
+    your robe, and meet me here again." The mask put a card marked
+    with a large rose into my hand, and was gone waltzing away
+    among the crowd. I still lingered, leaning against one of the
+    pillars of the aisle. The mask again approached me. "Monsieur
+    Anglais," was the whisper, "you do not know your friends. Go
+    and furnish yourself with
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page495"
+       id="page495"></a>[pg 495]</span> a domino. It is essential
+       to your safety." "Who are my friends, and why do you give me
+       this advice?" was my enquiry. The mask lightly tripped round
+       me, laid its ungloved hand on mine, as if in the mere sport
+       of the dance; and I saw that it was the hand of a female
+       from its whiteness and delicacy. I was now more perplexed
+       than ever. As the form floated round me with the lightness
+       of a zephyr, it whispered the word "Mordecai," and flew off
+       into an eddy of the moving multitude. I now obeyed the
+       command; went to the little shrine where the turnkey's wife
+       had opened her <i>friperie</i>, and equipped myself with the
+       dress appointed; and, with the card fixed upon my bosom,
+       returned to take my station beside the pillar. But no sylph
+       came again; no form rivaled the zephyr before me. I listened
+       for that soft, low voice; but listened in vain. Yet what was
+       all this but the common sport of a masquerade?</p>
+
+    <p>However, an object soon drew the general attention so
+    strongly, as to put an end to private curiosity for the time.
+    This was a mask in the uniform of a national guard, but so
+    outrageously fine that his <i>entr&eacute;e</i> excited an
+    universal burst of laughter. But when, after a few displays of
+    what was apparently all but intoxication, he began a detail of
+    his own exploits, it was evident that the whole was a daring
+    caricature; and as nothing could be less popular among us than
+    the heroes of the shops, the Colonels Calicot, and Mustaches
+    <i>au comptoir</i>, all his burlesque told incomparably. The
+    old officers among us, the Vend&eacute;ans, and all the
+    ladies&mdash;for the sex are aristocrats under every government
+    and in every region of the globe&mdash;were especially
+    delighted. "Alexandre Jules C&aelig;sar," colonel of the "brave
+    battalion of the Marais," was evidently worth a dozen
+    field-marshals in his own opinion; and his contempt for
+    Vend&ocirc;me, Marlborough, and Frederick le Grand, was only
+    less piquant than the perfect imitation and keen burlesque of
+    Santerre, Henriot, and our municipal warriors. At length when
+    his plaudits and popularity were at their height, he proposed a
+    general toast to the "young heroism," of the capital, and
+    prefaced it by a song, in great repute in the old French
+    service.</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"AVANCEZ, BRAVE GUERRIERS."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Shoulder arms&mdash;brave regiment!</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hark, the bugle sounds 'advance.'</p>
+
+            <p>Pile the baggage&mdash;strike the tent;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">France demands you&mdash;fight for
+            France.</p>
+
+            <p>If the hero gets a ball,</p>
+
+            <p>His accounts are closed&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Who'd stay wasting time at home,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Made for women to despise;</p>
+
+            <p>When, where'er we choose to roam,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">All the world before us lies,</p>
+
+            <p>Following our bugle's call,</p>
+
+            <p>Life one holiday&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"When the soldier's coin is spent,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">He has but to fight for more;</p>
+
+            <p>He pays neither tax nor rent,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">He's but where he was before.</p>
+
+            <p>If he conquer, if he fall&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p><i>Fortune de la guerre</i>&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Let the pedant waste his oil,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">With the soldier all is sport;</p>
+
+            <p>Let your blockheads make a coil</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">In the cloister or the court;</p>
+
+            <p>Let them fatten in their stall,</p>
+
+            <p>We can fatten too&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"What care we for fortune's frown,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">All that comes is for the best;</p>
+
+            <p>What's the noble's bed of down</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To the soldier's evening rest</p>
+
+            <p>On the heath or in the hall,</p>
+
+            <p>All alike to him&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"When the morn is on the sky,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hark the gay <i>reveill&eacute;</i>
+            rings!</p>
+
+            <p>Glory lights the soldier's eye,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To the gory breach he springs,</p>
+
+            <p>Plants his colours on the wall</p>
+
+            <p>Wins and wears the <i>croix</i>&mdash;that's
+            all!"</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The dashing style in which this hereditary song of the
+    French camp was given by "Colonel Alexandre Jules C&aelig;sar"
+    of the "brave battalion of the Marais," his capitally awkward
+    imitation of the soldier of the old <i>r&eacute;gime</i>, and
+    his superb affectation of military nonchalance, were so
+    admirable, that his song excited actual raptures of applause.
+    His performance was encored, and he was surrounded by a group
+    of nymphs and graces, among whom his towering figure looked
+    like a grenadier of Brobdignag in the circle of a Liliputian
+    light company. He carried on the farce for a while with great
+    adroitness and animation; but at length he put the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page496"
+       id="page496"></a>[pg 496]</span> circle of tinsel and
+       tiffany aside, and rushing up to me, insisted on making me a
+       recruit for the "brave battalion of the Marais." But I had
+       no desire to play a part in this pantomime, and tried to
+       disengage myself. One word again made me a captive: that
+       word was now "Lafontaine;" and at the same moment I saw the
+       sylph bounding to my side. What was I to think of this
+       extraordinary combination? All was as strange as a midsummer
+       night's dream. The "colonel," as if fatigued, leaned against
+       the pillar, and slightly removing his mask, I saw, with
+       sudden rejoicing, the features of that gallant young friend,
+       whom I had almost despaired of ever seeing again. "Wait in
+       this spot until I return," was all that I heard, before he
+       and the sylph had waltzed away far down the hall.</p>
+
+    <p>I waited for some time in growing anxiety; but the
+    pleasantry of the night went on as vividly as ever, and some
+    clever <i>tableaux vivants</i> had varied the quadrilles. While
+    the dancers gave way to a well-performed picture of Hector and
+    Andromache from the <i>Iliad</i>, and the hero was in the act
+    of taking the plumed helmet from his brow, with a grace which
+    enchanted our whole female population, an old Savoyard and his
+    daughter came up, one playing the little hand-organ of their
+    country, and the other dancing to her tamborine. This was
+    pretty, but my impatience was ill disposed to look or listen;
+    when I was awakened by a laugh, and the old man's mask being
+    again half turned aside, I again saw my friend: the man moved
+    slowly through the crowd, and I followed. We gradually twined
+    our way through the labyrinth of pillars, leaving the festivity
+    further and further behind, until he came to a low door, at
+    which the Savoyard tapped, and a watchword being given, the
+    cell was opened. There our robes and masks were laid aside; we
+    found peasant dresses, for which we exchanged them; and
+    following a muffled figure who carried a lantern, we began our
+    movements again through the recesses of the endless building.
+    At length we came to a stop, and our guide lifting up a
+    ponderous stone which covered the entrance to a deep and dark
+    staircase, we began to descend. I now for the first time heard
+    the cheerful voice of Lafontaine at my side. "I doubt," said
+    he, "whether a hundred years ago any one of us would have
+    ventured on a night march of this kind; for, be it known to
+    you, that we are now in the vaults of the convent, and shall
+    have to go through a whole regiment of monks and abbots in full
+    parade." I observed that, "if we were to meet them at all, they
+    would be less likely to impede our progress dead than alive;"
+    but I still advised Lafontaine to allude as little as he could
+    to the subject, lest it might have the effect of alarming our
+    fair companion. "There is no fear of that," said he, "for
+    little Julie is in love with M. le Comte, our gallant guide;
+    and a girl of eighteen desperately in love, is afraid of
+    nothing. You Englishmen are not remarkable for superstition;
+    and as for me and my compatriots, we have lost our reverence
+    for monks in any shape since the taking of the Bastile."</p>
+
+    <p>We now went on drearily and wearily through a range of
+    catacombs, stopping from time to time to ascertain whether we
+    were pursued; and occasionally not a little startled by the
+    sudden burst of sound that came from the revelry above, through
+    the ventilators of these enormous vaults. But the Count had
+    well prepared his measures, had evidently traced his way
+    before, and led us on without hinderance, until we approached a
+    species of sallyport, which, once opened, would have let us out
+    into the suburb. Here misfortune first met us; none of the keys
+    which the Count had brought with him would fit the lock. It was
+    now concluded by our alarmed party, either that the design of
+    escape had been discovered, or that the lock had been changed
+    since the day before. Here was an insurmountable difficulty. To
+    break down the gate, or break through it, was palpably
+    impossible, for it was strongly plated with iron, and would
+    have resisted every thing but a six-pounder. What was to be
+    done? To remain where we were was starvation and death; to
+    return, would be heart-breaking; yet escape was clearly out of
+    the question. The Count was furious, as he tried in vain
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page497"
+       id="page497"></a>[pg 497]</span> to shake the solid
+       obstacle; Lafontaine was in despair. I, rather more quietly,
+       took it for granted that the guillotine would settle all our
+       troubles in the course of the next day; and the pretty
+       Julie, in a deluge of tears, charging herself with having
+       undone us all, hung upon the neck of her cavalier, and
+       pledged herself, by all the hopes and fears of passion, to
+       die along with him. While the lovers were exchanging their
+       last vows, Lafontaine, in all the vexation of his soul, was
+       explaining to me the matchless excellence of the plot, which
+       had been thus defeated in the very moment of promised
+       success.</p>
+
+    <p>"You perhaps remember," said he, "the letter which the
+    father of Mariamne, that dearest girl whom I shall now never
+    see again in this world, gave you for one of his nation in
+    Paris. On the night when I last saw you, I had found it lying
+    on your table; and in the confusion of the moment, when I
+    thought you killed, and rushed into the street to gain some
+    tidings of you, I took charge of the letter, to assist me in
+    the enquiry. Unlucky as usual, I fell into the hands of a
+    rabble returning from the plunder of the palace, was fired on,
+    was wounded, and carried to the St Lazare. The governor was a
+    man of honour and a royalist, and he took care of me during a
+    dangerous illness and a slow recovery. But to give me liberty
+    was out of his power. I had lost sight of the world so long,
+    that the world lost sight of me, and I remained, forgetting and
+    forgotten; until, within these two days&mdash;when I received a
+    note from the head of the family to whom your letter was
+    directed, informing me that you had been arrested and sent to
+    the very prison in which I was&mdash;my recollection of the
+    world suddenly revived, and I determined to save you if
+    possible. I had grown familiar with the proceedings of that
+    tribunal of demons, the Revolutionary committee; and as I had
+    no doubt of your condemnation, through the mere love of
+    bloodshed, I concerted with my Jewish friend the plan of having
+    you claimed as a British agent, who had the means of making
+    important disclosures to the government. If this succeeded,
+    your life was saved for the day, and your escape was prepared
+    for the night. This weeping girl is the daughter of the late
+    governor, who has engaged in our plot to save the life of her
+    affianced husband; and now, within an hour of daylight, when
+    escape will be impossible, all our plans are thrown
+    away&mdash;we are brought to a dead stand by the want of one
+    miserable key, and shall have nothing more to do than to make
+    up our minds to die with what composure we can."</p>
+
+    <p>Having finished his story, the narrator wrapt up his head in
+    his cloak, and laid himself down like one determined never to
+    rise again. The Count and his Julie were so engaged in
+    recapitulating their sorrows, sitting side by side on a
+    tombstone, like a pair of monumental figures, that they had
+    neither ear nor eye for any thing else; but my English nature
+    was made of sterner stuff, and thinking that at the last I
+    could but die, I took the lantern and set sturdily to work to
+    examine the gate. It was soon evident that it could be neither
+    undermined nor broken down by any strength of ours; but it was
+    also evident that the lock was the old one which had closed it
+    perhaps for the last century, and that the right key was the
+    only thing wanting. Leaving Lafontaine in his despair lying at
+    the foot of the monument, on which the lovers sat murmuring
+    like a pair of turtle doves, I determined to make a thorough
+    search for the missing key, and made my way back through all
+    the windings of the catacomb, tracing the ground step by step.
+    Still no key was to be found. At last I reached the cell where
+    we had changed our dresses, and examined table, floor, and
+    chair. Still nothing was to be found; but, unluckily, the light
+    of the lantern glancing through the loop-hole of the cell,
+    caught the eye of the sentinel on the outside, and he
+    challenged. The sound made me start; and I took up one of the
+    robes to cover the light. Something hard struck my hand. It was
+    in the gown of the Savoyard's daughter. I felt its pockets,
+    and, to my infinite astonishment and delight, produced the key.
+    The pretty Julie, who had procured it, had forgotten every
+    thing in the rapture of meeting her lover, and had left it
+    behind her when she threw off her masquerading
+    costume.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page498"
+       id="page498"></a>[pg 498]</span>
+
+    <p>I now hastened back with the rapid step becoming the bearer
+    of good tidings, and revived the group of despair. The key was
+    applied to the lock, but it refused to move, and we had another
+    pang of disappointment. Lafontaine uttered a groan, and Julie
+    poured another gush of tears upon her companion's shoulder. I
+    made the experiment again; the rust of the lock was now found
+    to have been our only hinderance; and with a strong turn the
+    bolt flew back, and the door was open.</p>
+
+    <p>We had all been so much exhausted by agitation, and the
+    dreary traverse of the catacomb, that the first gush of fresh
+    air conveyed a sensation almost of new life. The passage had
+    probably been formed in the period when every large building in
+    Paris was a species of fortress; and we had still a portcullis
+    to pass. When we first pushed against it, we felt another
+    momentary pang; but age had made it an unfaithful guardian, and
+    a few stout attacks on its decayed bars gave us free way. We
+    were now under the open sky; but, to our consternation, a new
+    and still more formidable difficulty presented itself. The moat
+    was still to be passed. To attempt the drawbridge was hopeless;
+    for we could hear the sentinel pacing up and down its creaking
+    planks. The moment was critical; for a streak of grey light in
+    the far east showed that the day was at hand. After resolving
+    all imaginable plans, and abandoning them all as fruitless;
+    determining, at all events, never to return, and yet without
+    the slightest prospect of escape, except in the bottom of that
+    sullen pool which lay at our feet&mdash;the thought occurred to
+    me, that in my return through the vault I had stumbled over the
+    planks which covered a vault lately dug for a prisoner.
+    Communicating my idea to Lafontaine, we returned to the spot,
+    loaded ourselves with the planks, and fortunately found them of
+    the length that would reach across the narrowest part of the
+    fosse. Our little bridge was made without delay, and Lafontaine
+    led the way, followed by the count and Julie, I waiting to see
+    them safe across, before I added my weight to the frail
+    structure. But I was not yet fated to escape. The sentinel,
+    whose vigilance I had startled by my lantern in the cell, had
+    given the alarm; and, as I was setting my foot on the plank, a
+    discharge of fire-arms came from the battlement above. I felt
+    that I was struck, and a stunning sensation seized me. I made
+    an attempt to spring forward, but suddenly found myself unable
+    to move. The patrol from the drawbridge now surrounded me, and
+    in this helpless state, bleeding, and as I thought dying, I was
+    hurried back into the St Lazare.</p>
+
+    <p>After a fortnight's suffering in the hospital of the prison,
+    which alone probably saved me from the guillotine, then almost
+    the natural death of all the suspected, I was enabled to get on
+    my feet again. I found the prison as full as ever, but nearly
+    all its inmates had been changed except the Vend&eacute;ans,
+    whom the crooked policy of the time kept alive, partly to avoid
+    raising the whole province in revolt, partly as hostages for
+    their countrymen.</p>
+
+    <p>On my recovery, I had expected to be put down once more in
+    the list for trial; but it reached even the prison, that the
+    government were in a state of alarm for themselves, which
+    prevented them from indulging their friends in the streets with
+    the national amusement. The chance of mounting the scaffold
+    themselves had put the guillotine out of fashion; and two or
+    three minor attempts at the seizure of the Jacobin sceptre by
+    the partisans of the Girondists and Cordeliers, had been put
+    down with such difficulty, that even the Jacobin Club had begun
+    to protest against bloodshed, through the prospect of a speedy
+    retaliation. Thus we were suffered to linger on. But, "disguise
+    thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, thou art a bitter
+    draught," and the suspense was heart-sickening. At length,
+    however, a bustle outside the walls, the firing of alarm guns,
+    and the hurrying of the national guard through the streets,
+    told us that some new measure of atrocity was at hand, and we
+    too soon learned the cause.</p>
+
+    <p>The army under Dumourier had been attacked by the Austrians
+    under Clairfait, and had been defeated with heavy loss;
+    despatches had been received from their favourite general, in
+    all the rage of failure, declaring that the sole cause of the
+    disaster was <span class="pagenum"><a name="page499"
+       id="page499"></a>[pg 499]</span> information conveyed from
+       the capital to the Austrian headquarters, and demanding a
+       strict enquiry into the intrigues which had thus tarnished
+       the colours of the Republic. No intelligence could have been
+       more formidable to a government, which lived from day to day
+       on the breath of popularity; and, to turn the wrath of the
+       rabble from themselves, an order was given to examine the
+       prisons, and send the delinquents to immediate execution. It
+       may be easily believed that the briefest enquiry was enough
+       for vengeance, and the prisoners of St Lazare were the first
+       to furnish the spectacle. A train of carts rattled over the
+       pavement of our cloisters, and we were ordered to mount them
+       without delay. The guard was so strong as to preclude all
+       hope of resistance; and with all the pomp of a military
+       pageant, drums beating, trumpets sounding, and bands playing
+       <i>&Ccedil;a Ira</i> and the <i>Marseillaise</i>, we left
+       our dreary dwelling, which habit had now almost turned into
+       a home, and moved through the principal streets of the
+       capital, for the express purposes of popular display, in the
+       centre of a large body of horse and foot, and an
+       incalculable multitude of spectators, until in the distance
+       we saw the instrument of death.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_6_1"
+                    name="fn_6_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_6_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>A scene of peculiar infamy near Paris.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr />
+    <a name="warning"
+          id="warning"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE CHILD'S WARNING.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>There's blood upon the lady's cheek,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">There's brightness in her eye:</p>
+
+            <p>Who says the sentence is gone forth</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">That that fair thing must die?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Must die before the flowering lime,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Out yonder, sheds its leaf&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Can this thing be, O human flower!</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Thy blossoming so brief?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Nay, nay, 'tis but a passing cloud,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Thou didst but droop awhile;</p>
+
+            <p>There's life, long years, and love and joy,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Whole ages, in that smile&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>In the gay call that to thy knee</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Brings quick that loving child,</p>
+
+            <p>Who looks up in those laughing eyes</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">With his large eyes so mild.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Yet, thou art doom'd&mdash;art dying; all</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">The coming hour foresee,</p>
+
+            <p>But, in love's cowardice, withhold</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">The warning word from thee.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>God keep thee and be merciful!</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">His strength is with the weak;</p>
+
+            <p>Through babes and sucklings, the Most High</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hath oft vouchsafed to speak&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>And speaketh now&mdash;"Oh, mother dear!"</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Murmurs the little child;</p>
+
+            <p>And there is trouble in its eyes,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Those large blue eyes so mild&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Oh, mother dear! they say that soon,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">When here I seek for thee,</p>
+
+            <p>I shall not find thee&mdash;nor out there,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Under the old oak-tree;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Nor up stairs in the nursery,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Nor any where, they say.</p>
+
+            <p>Where wilt thou go to, mother dear?</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Oh, do not go away!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Then was long silence&mdash;a deep hush&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And then the child's low sob.</p>
+
+            <p><i>Her</i> quivering eyelids close&mdash;one
+            hand</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Keeps down the heart's quick throb.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>And the lips move, though sound is none,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">That inward voice is prayer.</p>
+
+            <p>And hark! "Thy will, O Lord, be done!"</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And tears are trickling there,</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Down that pale cheek, on that young head&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And round her neck he clings;</p>
+
+            <p>And child and mother murmur out</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Unutterable things.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p><i>He</i> half unconscious&mdash;<i>she</i>
+            deep-struck</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">With sudden, solemn truth,</p>
+
+            <p>That number'd are her days on earth,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Her shroud prepared in youth&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>That all in life her heart holds dear,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">God calls her to resign.</p>
+
+            <p>She hears&mdash;feels&mdash;trembles&mdash;but looks
+            up,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And sighs, "Thy will be mine!"</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p style="margin-left: 50%">C.</p>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page500"
+       id="page500"></a>[pg 500]</span> <a name="patrons"
+          id="patrons"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE TWO PATRONS.</h2>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+    <p>The front door of a large house in Harley Street stood
+    hospitably open, and leaning against the plaster pillars (which
+    were of a very miscellaneous architecture) were two
+    individuals, who appeared as if they had been set there
+    expressly to invite the passengers to walk in. Beyond the red
+    door that intersected the passage, was seen the coloured-glass
+    entrance to a conservatory on the first landing of the
+    drawing-room stairs; and a multitude of statues lined each side
+    of the lobby, like soldiers at a procession, but which the
+    inventive skill of the proprietor had converted to nearly as
+    much use as ornament; for a plaster Apollo, in addition to
+    watching the "arrow's deathful flight," had been appointed
+    custodier of a Taglioni and a Mackintosh, which he wore with
+    easy negligence over his head&mdash;a distracted Niobe, in the
+    same manner, had undertaken the charge of a grey silk hat and a
+    green umbrella. The Gladiator wore a lady's bonnet; the Farnese
+    Hercules looked like an old-fashioned watchman, and sported a
+    dreadnought coat. A glaring red paper gave a rich appearance to
+    the hall; the stair carpet also added its contribution to the
+    rubicundity of the scene, which was brought to a <i>ne plus
+    ultra</i> by the nether habiliments of the two gentlemen who,
+    as already stated, did the honours of the door.</p>
+
+    <p>A more pleasing sight than two footmen refreshing themselves
+    on the top of the front stairs with a view of the opposite
+    houses, and gratifying the anxious public at the same time with
+    a view of themselves, it is difficult to imagine. They always
+    look so diffident and respectful, that involuntarily our
+    interest in them becomes almost too lively for words. We think
+    with disdain on miserable soldiers and hungry mechanics, and
+    half-starved paupers and whole-starved labourers; and turn,
+    with feelings of a very different kind, to the contemplation of
+    virtue rewarded, and modesty well fed, in the persons of the
+    two meditative gentlemen whose appearance at the front door in
+    Harley Street has given rise to these reflections. The elder of
+    them, who kept the post of honour on the right hand side, just
+    opposite the bell-handle, and whose superiority over the other
+    was marked by much larger legs, a more prominent blue
+    waistcoat, and a slight covering of powder over his auburn
+    locks, looked for some time at his companion, while an
+    expression of ill-disguised contempt turned up to still more
+    dignified altitude the point of his nose. At last, as if by an
+    effort, he broke forth in speech.</p>
+
+    <p>"Snipe," he said&mdash;and seeing that Mr Snipe's ears were
+    open, he continued&mdash;"I can't tell how it is, but I saw,
+    when first I came, you had never been in a reg'lar
+    fambly&mdash;never."</p>
+
+    <p>"We was always more reg'larer at Miss Hendy's nor
+    here&mdash;bed every night at ten o'clock, and up in the
+    morning at five."</p>
+
+    <p>"You'll never get up to cribbage&mdash;you're so confounded
+    slow," replied the senior; "you'll have to stick to dominoes,
+    which is only fit for babbies. Did ye think I meant Miss
+    Hendy's, or low people of that kind, when I spoke of a reg'lar
+    fambly?&mdash;I meant that you had never seen life. Did you
+    ever change plates for a marquis, Snipe?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Never heared of one. Is he in a great way of business?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A marquis is a reg'lar nob, you know; and gives reg'lar
+    good wages when you gets 'em paid. A man can't be a gentleman
+    as lives with vulgar people&mdash;old Pitskiver is a genuine
+    snob."</p>
+
+    <p>"He's a rich gentleman," returned Mr Snipe.</p>
+
+    <p>"But he's low&mdash;uncommon low"&mdash;said the
+    other&mdash;"reg'lar boiled mutton and turnips."</p>
+
+    <p>"And a wery good dish too," observed Mr Snipe, whose
+    intellect, being strictly limited to dominoes, was not quite
+    equal to the metaphorical.</p>
+
+    <p>"By mutton and turnips, I means&mdash;he may be rich; but he
+    ain't genteel, Snipe. Look at our Sophiar's
+    shoulders."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page501"
+       id="page501"></a>[pg 501]</span>
+
+    <p>Mr Snipe looked up towards his senior with a puzzled
+    expression, as if he waited for information&mdash;"What has
+    Miss Sophiar's shoulders to do with boiled mutton and
+    turnips?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing won't do but to be at it from the very beginning,"
+    said the superior, with a toss of his powdered head; "fight
+    after it as much as ever they like, wear the best of gownds,
+    and go to the fustest of boarding-schools&mdash;though they
+    plays ever so well on the piando, and talks Italian like a
+    reg'lar Frenchman&mdash;nothing won't do&mdash;<i>there's</i>
+    the boiled mutton and turnips&mdash;shocking wulgarity! Look
+    again, I say, at our Sophiar's shoulders, and see how her
+    head's set on. Spinks's Charlotte is a very different
+    affair&mdash;and there she is at the winder over the way.
+    That's quite the roast fowl and blamange," he continued,
+    looking at a very beautiful girl who appeared at the window of
+    one of the opposite houses&mdash;"a pretty blowen as ever I
+    see, and uncommon fond of Spinks."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see nothing like a fowl about the young lady," replied
+    the prosaic Mr Snipe; "and Spinks is a horrid liar."</p>
+
+    <p>"But can't you judge for yourself, Snipe? That girl opposite
+    found two footmen and a butler all waiting to receive her, with
+    a French governess and a lady's maid, the moment she got out of
+    the cradle; and I say again she's nothing but roast fowl and
+    blamange, or perhaps a breast slice of pheasant, for she's
+    uncommon genteel. How different from our boiled veals, and
+    parsley and butters! I shall give warning if we don't change
+    soon."</p>
+
+    <p>"She's a beautiful young lady," said Mr Snipe; "but I thinks
+    not half so plump and jolly as our Miss Emily or Sophia."</p>
+
+    <p>"Plump! do you think you've got a sporting license, and are
+    on the look-out for a partridge? No; I tell you all the
+    Pitskivers is low, and old Pits is the worst of the lot."</p>
+
+    <p>"I used always to hear him called a great man at Miss
+    Hendy's," replied Snipe; "no end of money, and a reg'lar
+    tip-topper. I really expected to see the queen very often drop
+    in to supper."</p>
+
+    <p>"And meet all the tag-rag we have here! What would the queen
+    care for all them portrait-painters, and poets, and engineers,
+    and writing vagabonds, as old Pits is eternally feeding? The
+    queen knows a mighty sight better, and wouldn't ax any body to
+    her table as had done nothing but write books or paint picters.
+    No; old Pits is the boy for patronizing them there fellers; but
+    mark ye, Snipe, he takes the wrong chaps. If a man is to demean
+    himself by axing a riff-raff of authors to his house, let it be
+    the big 'uns; I should not care to give a bit of dinner to
+    Dickens or Bulwer myself."</p>
+
+    <p>With this condescending confession of his interest in
+    literature, the gentleman in the shining garments looked down
+    the street, as if he expected some public approval of his
+    praiseworthy sentiments.</p>
+
+    <p>Being disappointed in this natural expectation, he resolved
+    to revenge himself by severe observations on the passers-by;
+    but the severity was partly lost on the slow-minded Mr
+    Snipe&mdash;being clothed in the peculiar phraseology of his
+    senior, in which it appeared that some particular dish was
+    placed as the representative of the individual attacked. Not
+    that Mr Daggles&mdash;for such was the philosophical footman's
+    name&mdash;saw any resemblance between his master, Mr
+    Pitskiver, and a dish of boiled mutton and turnips, or between
+    the beautiful young lady opposite and the breast of a pheasant;
+    but that, to his finely constituted mind, those dishes shadowed
+    forth the relative degrees in aristocracy which Mr Pitskiver
+    and the young lady occupied. He had probably established some
+    one super-eminent article of food as a high "ideal" to which to
+    refer all other kinds of edibles&mdash;perhaps an ortolan pie;
+    and the further removed from this imaginary point of perfection
+    any dish appeared, the more vulgar and commonplace it became;
+    and taking it for granted, that as far as human gradations are
+    concerned, the loftiest aristocracy corresponded with the
+    ortolan pie, it is evident that Mr Daggles's mode of assigning
+    rank and precedence was founded on strictly philosophical
+    principles; as much so, perhaps, as the labours of Debrett.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, look at this old covey&mdash;twig his shorts and long
+    gaiters: he's some old Suffolk squire, has grown too fat
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page502"
+       id="page502"></a>[pg 502]</span> for harriers, and goes out
+       with the greyhounds twice a-week&mdash;a truly respectable
+       member of society"&mdash;continued Mr Daggles with a sneer,
+       when the subject of his lecture had passed on&mdash;"reg'lar
+       boiled beef and greens."</p>
+
+    <p>"He ain't so fat as our Mr Pitskiver," replied Snipe; "I
+    thinks I never see no gentleman with so broad a back; except
+    p'raps a prize ox."</p>
+
+    <p>"You should get a set of harrows to clean his Chesterfield
+    with, instead of a brush&mdash;it's more like a field than a
+    coat," said Daggles. "But look here&mdash;here comes a
+    ticket!"</p>
+
+    <p>The ticket alluded to was a well-made young man, with a very
+    healthy complexion, long glossy black curls hanging down his
+    cheek, a remarkably long-backed surtout, and a small silk hat
+    resting on the very top of his umbrageous head. As he drew
+    near, he slackened his pace&mdash;passed the house slowly,
+    looking up to the drawing-room window, evidently in hopes of
+    seeing some object more attractive than the vast hydrangia
+    which rose majestically out of a large flowerpot, and darkened
+    all the lower panes. Before he had proceeded ten yards, and
+    just when Mr Daggles had fixed in his own mind on the
+    particular effort of culinary skill suggested by his
+    appearance, the ticket turned quickly round and darted up the
+    steps. Snipe stepped forward in some alarm.</p>
+
+    <p>"Your master's not at home," said the Ticket; "but the
+    ladies"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Is all out in the featon, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you be good enough&mdash;I see I may trust
+    you&mdash;to give this note to Miss Sophia? I shall take an
+    opportunity of showing my gratitude very soon. Will you give
+    it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir, in course."</p>
+
+    <p>"Secretly? And, be assured, I shall not forget you." So
+    saying, the Ticket walked hurriedly away, and Snipe stood with
+    the note still in his hand, and looked dubiously at his
+    companion.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Daggle's eyes were fixed on the retreating figure of the
+    Ticket; and, after a careful observation of every part of his
+    dress, from the silk hat to the Wellingtons, he shook his head
+    in a desponding manner, and merely said&mdash;"Tripe!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What's to be done with this here letter?" enquired
+    Snipe.</p>
+
+    <p>"Open and read it of course. By dad! I don't think you
+    <i>are</i> up to dominoes; you must go back to skittles. He's
+    evidently enclosed the sovereign in the note; for he never
+    could have been fool enough to think that two gentlemen like us
+    are to give tick for such a sum to a stranger."</p>
+
+    <p>"What sum?" enquired Snipe.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, the sovereign he was to pay for delivering the letter.
+    If you don't like to read it yourself, give it to the old
+    snob&mdash;Pitskiver will give you a tip."</p>
+
+    <p>"But the gentleman said he would show his
+    gratitude"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"He should have showed his tin fust. There ain't no use of
+    denying it, Snipe; this is a wery low establishment, and I
+    shall cut it as soon as I can. What right has a dowdy like our
+    Sophia to be getting billydoos from fellers as ought to be
+    ashamed of theirselves for getting off their three-legged
+    stools at this time of the day? Give the note to old
+    Pits&mdash;and here, I think, he is."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver&mdash;or old Pits, as he was irreverently
+    called by his domestic&mdash;came rapidly up the street. He was
+    a little man, between fifty and sixty years of age, with an
+    exceedingly stout body and very thin legs. He was very red in
+    the face, and very short in the neck. A bright blue coat,
+    lively-coloured waistcoat, and light-green silk handkerchief
+    fastened with two sparkling pins, united to each other by a
+    gold chain, check trowsers, and polished French leather boots,
+    composed his attire. He wore an eyeglass though he was not
+    short-sighted, and a beautifully inlaid riding-whip though he
+    never rode. His white muslin pocket-handkerchief hung very
+    prominently out of the breast pocket of his coat, and his hat
+    was set a little on one side of his head, and rested with a
+    coquettish air on the top of the left whisker. What with his
+    prodigious width, and the flourishing of his whip, and the
+    imposing dignity of his appearance altogether, he seemed to
+    fill the street. Several humble pedestrians stepped off the
+    pavement on to the dirty causeway to give him room. Daggles
+    drew up, Snipe slunk back to hold the door,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page503"
+       id="page503"></a>[pg 503]</span> and Mr Pitskiver retired
+       from the eyes of men, and entered his own hall, followed by
+       his retainers.</p>
+
+    <p>"If you please, sir," said Snipe, "I have a letter for Miss
+    Sophiar."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then don't you think you had better give it her?" replied
+    Mr Pitskiver.</p>
+
+    <p>"A gentleman, sir, gave it to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll give it you, too," said the master of the mansion,
+    shaking the whip over the astonished Snipe. "What are you
+    bothering me with the ladies' notes for? Any thing for me,
+    Daggles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A few parcels, sir&mdash;books, and a couple of
+    pictures."</p>
+
+    <p>"No statue? My friend Bristles has deceived me. It was to
+    have been finished to-day. If he gives the first view to the
+    Whalleys, I'll never speak to him again. Nothing else? Then
+    have the phaeton at the door at half past five. I dine at Miss
+    Hendy's, at Hammersmith."</p>
+
+    <p>While Mr Pitskiver stepped up stairs, Snipe was going over
+    in his own mind the different grammatical meanings of the
+    words, "I'll give it you." And concluding at last that, in the
+    mouth of his master, it meant nothing but a horsewhipping, he
+    resolved, with the magnanimity of many other virtuous
+    characters who find treachery unproductive, to be true to Miss
+    Sophia, and give her the mysterious note with the greatest
+    possible secrecy.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, donkey," said Daggles, aiding his benevolent advice
+    with a kick that made it nearly superfluous, "get down them
+    kitchen stairs and learn pitch-and-toss, for you haven't brains
+    enough for any thing else&mdash;and recollect, you owes me a
+    sovereign; half from master for telling, and half from the
+    long-backed Ticket for keeping mum. You can keep the other to
+    yourself; for the job was well worth a sovereign a-piece."</p>
+
+    <p>A knock at the door interrupted the colloquy, and Snipe once
+    more emerged from the lower regions, and admitted the two fair
+    daughters of his master.</p>
+
+    <p>They were stout, bustling, rosy-cheeked girls, two or three
+    and twenty years of age, superbly dressed in flashy silks, and
+    bedizened with ribands like a triumphal arch.</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss," said Snipe, "I've got a summut for you." And he
+    looked as knowing as it was possible for a student of
+    pitch-and-toss to do.</p>
+
+    <p>"For me? What is it? Make haste, Thomas."</p>
+
+    <p>"A gentleman has been here, and left you this," replied the
+    Mercury, holding out the note. "He said something about giving
+    me a guinea; but I wasn't to let any body see."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is his hand&mdash;I know it!" cried Miss Sophia, and
+    hurried up stairs to her own room.</p>
+
+    <p>"You donkey!" growled Mr Daggles, who had overheard Snipe's
+    proceedings; "you've done me out of another ten shillings.
+    Blowed if I don't put you under the pump! She would have given
+    you a guinea for the letter by way of postage. But it all comes
+    of living with red herrings and gooses' eggs." And so saying Mr
+    Daggles resumed his usual seat in the dining-room, and went on
+    with the perusal of the <i>Morning Post</i>.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver's origin, like that of early Greece, is lost in
+    the depths of antiquity. Through an infinite variety of posts
+    and offices, he had risen to his present position, and was
+    perhaps the most multifariously occupied gentleman in her
+    majesty's dominions. He was chairman of three companies,
+    steward of six societies, general agent, and had lately reached
+    the crowning eminence of his hopes by being appointed trustee
+    of unaudited accounts. In the midst of all these labours, he
+    had gone on increasing in breadth and honour till his name was
+    a symbol of every thing respectable and well to do in the
+    world. With each new office his ambition rose, and a list of
+    his residences would be a perfect index to the state of his
+    fortunes. We can trace him from Stepney to Whitechapel; from
+    Whitechapel to Finsbury square; from Finsbury square to
+    Hammersmith; and finally, the last office (which, by the by,
+    was without a salary) had raised him,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page504"
+       id="page504"></a>[pg 504]</span> three months before our
+       account of him begins, to the centre of Harley Street. With
+       his fortune and ambition, we must do him the justice to say,
+       his liberality equally increased. He was a patron, and,
+       would have travelled fifty miles to entertain a poet at his
+       table; he had music-masters (without any other pupils) who
+       were Mozarts and Handels for his daughters&mdash;Turners and
+       Landseers (whose names were yet unknown) to teach them
+       drawing&mdash;for, by a remarkable property possessed by
+       him, in common with a great majority of mankind, every thing
+       gained a new value when it came into contact with himself.
+       He bought sets of china because they were <i>artistic</i>;
+       changed his silver plate for a more <i>picturesque</i>
+       pattern; employed Stultz for his clothes, and, above all,
+       Bell and Rannie for his wines. His cook was superb; and,
+       thanks to the above-named Bell and Rannie, there were fewer
+       headachs in the morning after a M&aelig;cenatian dinner at
+       Pitskiver's, than could have been expected by Father Matthew
+       himself. With these two exceptions&mdash;wine and
+       clothes&mdash;his patronage was more indiscriminate than
+       judicious. In fact, he patronized for the sake of
+       patronizing; and as he was always in search of a new
+       miracle, it is no wonder that he was sometimes
+       disappointed&mdash;that his Landseers sometimes turned out
+       to have no eyes, and his musicians more fitted to play the
+       Handel to a pump than an organ. But Pitskiver never lost
+       heart. If he failed in one he was sure to succeed in
+       another; he saw his name occasionally in the newspaper, by
+       giving an invitation to one of the literary gentlemen who
+       enliven the public with accounts of fearful accidents and
+       desperate offences; had his picture at the Exhibition in the
+       character of the "Portrait of a gentleman," and his bust in
+       the same place as the semblance of the honorary Secretary to
+       the Poor Man's Pension and Perpetual Annuity Institution. He
+       was a widower, and looked dreadful things at all the widows
+       of his acquaintance. And it was thought that, if he
+       succeeded in marrying off his girls, he should himself
+       become once more a candidate for the holy estate; and by
+       this wise man&oelig;uvre&mdash;for, in fact, he made no
+       secret of his intention&mdash;he enlisted in his daughters'
+       behalf all the elderly ladies who thought they had any
+       claims on the attentions of that charming creature Mr
+       Pitskiver. There were certainly no young ladies I have ever
+       heard of, so well supplied with assistants in the great art
+       of catching husbands as the two plump damsels whom we have
+       already seen enter the house in Harley Street, and one of
+       whom we have perceived placed in possession of the
+       mysterious letter by the skittle-minded Mr Snipe.</p>
+
+    <p>Miss Sophia Pitskiver, according to all ordinary ideas of
+    romance and true love, had no right whatever to indulge in such
+    luxuries, being more adapted to make pies than enter into the
+    beauty of sonnets to the moon. She was short, stout&mdash;shall
+    we be pardoned for saying the hateful word?&mdash;she was
+    dumpy, but a perfect picture of rosy health and hilarious
+    good-nature. And yet, if she had been half a foot taller, and
+    half a yard thinner, and infinitely paler, she could not have
+    been one jot more sentimental. She cultivated sentiment,
+    because it was so pleasant, and her father approved of it
+    because it was genteel. Her enthusiasm was tremendous. Her
+    ideas were all crackers, and exploded at the slightest touch.
+    She had a taste for every thing&mdash;poetry, history, fine
+    arts in general, philosophy, glory, puseyism, and, perhaps more
+    than all, for a certain tall young man, with an interesting
+    complexion, whom we have introduced to the courteous reader by
+    the name of the long-backed Ticket. It was this gentleman's
+    note she was now about to read. Sundry palpitations about the
+    robust regions of the heart might, to common eyes, have
+    appeared to arise from her speed in running up stairs. But she
+    knew better. She took but one look of the cheval glass, and
+    broke the seal.</p>
+
+    <p>"Stanzas!" she said; and, taking one other glance at the
+    mirror, she exclaimed to the agitated young lady represented
+    there, "only think!" and devoured the following
+    lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"There is a tear that will not fall</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To cool the burning heart and brain;</p>
+
+            <p>Oh, I would give my life, my all,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To feel once more that blessed rain!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page505"
+       id="page505"></a>[pg 505]</span>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"There is a grief&mdash;I feel, in sooth,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">It rends my soul, it quells my
+            tongue;</p>
+
+            <p>It dims the sunshine of my youth,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">But, oh, it will not dim it long!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"There is a place where life is o'er,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And sorrow's blasts innocuous rave;</p>
+
+            <p>A place where sadness comes no more.</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Know'st thou the place? It is the
+            grave.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Yes, if within that gentle breast</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Mild pity ever held her sway,</p>
+
+            <p>Thou'lt weep for one who finds no rest&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">The reason he can never say.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"P.S.&mdash;Miss Hendy is an angel upon earth. My friend Mr
+    Bristles, of the <i>Universal Surveyor</i>, one of the most
+    distinguished literary men of the age, has got me an invitation
+    to go to her house to-night, to read the first act of my
+    tragedy. Shall I have the happiness of seeing thee? Would to my
+    stars my fate were so fortunate! I enclose you the above lines,
+    which Bristles says are better than any of Lord Byron's, and
+    will publish next week in the <i>Universal</i>. Mayest thou
+    like them, sweetest, for they are dedicated to thee, Thine
+    ever&mdash;ALMANSOR." What she might have done beyond reading
+    the lines and letter six times over, and crying "beautiful,
+    beautiful!" as fast as she could, it is impossible to say, for
+    at that moment she was called by her venerable sire. She
+    crumpled the note up after the manner of all other heroines,
+    and hid it in her bosom; and hurried to the drawing-room, where
+    she found her father in full dress, pulling on a pair of new
+    kid gloves.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Soph, I'm off for Miss Hendy's&mdash;don't give me
+    any nonsense now about her being low, and all that sort of
+    thing; she don't move in the same circle of society, certainly,
+    as we do, but she has always distinguished people about
+    her."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, papa!" interrupted the young lady. "I don't object to
+    Miss Hendy in the least. I love her of all things, and would
+    give worlds to be going with you!"</p>
+
+    <p>"That's right! You've heard of the new poet then? Tremendous
+    they say; equal to Shakspeare&mdash;quite a great man."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! Oh, how I long to see him!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, perhaps you may one of these days. Bristles&mdash;my
+    friend Bristles of the <i>Universal</i>-says he's a
+    perfect&mdash;what do they call that pretty street in
+    Southampton?&mdash;Paragon&mdash;a perfect paragon, Bristles
+    says: I'll ask him to dinner some day."</p>
+
+    <p>"What day?&mdash;Oh, let it be soon, dear papa!"</p>
+
+    <p>"There's a dear delightful enthusiastic girl! We ought to
+    encourage people of genius. Curious we never heard of him
+    before, for he was our neighbour, I hear, in Finsbury; but
+    poor, I suppose, and did not mix with our set even then."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver looked at the opposite side of the street while
+    he spoke, as if to assure himself that he was in a still higher
+    altitude above the poet now than some few years before. But, as
+    if feeling called on to show his increased superiority by
+    greater condescension, he said, as he walked out of the room,
+    "I shall certainly have him to dinner, and Bristles, and some
+    more men of talent to meet him&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>'The feast of reason, and the flow of soul!'"</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>the only quotation, by the way, in which Mr Pitskiver was
+    ever known to indulge.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+    <p>Miss Hendy had formerly kept a school, and her portrait
+    would have done very well for a frontispiece to Mrs Trimmer.
+    She was what is called prim in her manner, and as delicate as
+    an American. She always called the legs of a table its
+    props&mdash;for the word legs was highly unfeminine. She
+    admired talent, and gave it vast quantities of tea and toast.
+    Her drawing-room was a temple of the Muses, and only open to
+    those who were bountifully endowed with the gifts of nature or
+    of fortune; for she considered it a great part of her duty to
+    act as a kind of link between Plutus and Minerva. In the effort
+    to discover objects worthy of her recommendation, she was
+    mainly aided by the celebrated Mr Bristles. Every
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page506"
+       id="page506"></a>[pg 506]</span> month whole troops of
+       Herschels and Wordsworths, and Humes and Gibbons, were
+       presented to her by the great critic; and with a devout
+       faith in all he told her, she listened enraptured to the
+       praises of those astonishing geniuses, till she had begun to
+       enter into Mr Bristles's own feelings of contempt for every
+       body except the favoured few. And to-night was the grand
+       debut of a more remarkable phenomenon than any of the
+       others. A youth of twenty-three, tall, modest, intellectual,
+       and long-haired&mdash;in short, the "Ticket"&mdash;was to
+       read the opening of a tragedy; and sculptors, painters,
+       mechanicians, and city Croesuses, were invited to be present
+       at the display. Among these last shone our friend Mr
+       Pitskiver, radiant in white waistcoat and gold chains, two
+       rings on each finger, and a cameo the size of a cheese-cake
+       on his neckcloth. The other critic, in right of his account
+       at the bank, was a tall silent gentleman, a wood-merchant
+       from the Boro', who nodded his head in an oracular manner
+       when any thing was said above his comprehension; and who was
+       a patron of rising talent, on the same enlightened
+       principles as his friend Mr Pitskiver. Mr Whalley also
+       showed his patronage in the same economical manner as the
+       other, and expected immortality at the expense of a few
+       roasts of beef and bottles of new wine.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Bristles was also of the dinner party&mdash;an
+    arrangement made by the provident Miss Hendy, that the two
+    <i>millionaires</i> might receive a little preliminary
+    information on the merits of the rest of the company, who were
+    only invited to tea. Four maiden ladies (who had pulled on blue
+    stockings in order to hide the increasing thickness of their
+    ankles, and considered Miss Hendy the legitimate successor of
+    Madame de Sta&euml;l, and Mr Pitskiver in Harley Street the
+    beau-ideal of love in a cottage) relieved the monotony of a
+    gentleman party by as profuse a display of female charms as low
+    gowns and short sleeves would allow. And about six o'clock
+    there was a highly interesting and superior party of eight, to
+    whom Miss Hendy administered cod's-head and shoulders,
+    aphorisms and oyster sauce, in almost equal proportion; while
+    Mr Pitskiver, like a "sweet seducer, blandly smiling," made
+    polite enquiries whether he should not relieve her of the
+    trouble.&mdash;"Oh no!&mdash;it degrades woman from the lofty
+    sphere of equal usefulness with the rougher sex. Why shouldn't
+    a lady help fish?&mdash;Why should she confess her inferiority?
+    The post assigned to her by nature&mdash;though usurped by
+    man&mdash;is to elevate by her example, to enlighten by her
+    precepts, and to add to the great aggregate of human felicity
+    by a manifestation of all the virtues;" saying this, she
+    inserted her knife with astonishing dexterity just under the
+    gills&mdash;and looked round for approbation.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver had recourse to his usual expedient, and said
+    something about the feast of reason; Mr Whalley shook his head
+    in a way that would have made his fortune in a grocer's window
+    in the character of Howqua; and Mr Bristles prepared himself to
+    reply&mdash;while the four literary maidens turned their eyes
+    on Aristarchus in expectation of hearing something fine. "I
+    decidedly am of opinion," said that great man, "that woman's
+    sphere is greatly misunderstood, and that you maintain the
+    dignity of your glorious sex by carving the fish.&mdash;Yet on
+    being further interrogated, I should be inclined to proceed
+    with my statement, and assert that you deprive us of pleasure,
+    in debarring us from giving you our assistance."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, why don't you help us with our samplers? why don't
+    you aid us in our knitting? why don't you assist us in hemming
+    garments?"&mdash;exclaimed Miss Hendy, digging her spoon into
+    the oyster-boat.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is what I call the feast and flow," said Mr Pitskiver;
+    while Mr Whalley nearly shook his head off his shoulders on to
+    the table-cloth. The young ladies looked slyly at Mr Pitskiver,
+    and laughed.</p>
+
+    <p>"It would be rather undignified," said Mr Bristles, "to see
+    the Lord Chancellor darning a stocking."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dignity! the very thing I complain of. Why more undignified
+    in a Lord Chancellor, or a Bishop, than in his wife? Oh, will
+    the time never come when society will be so regenerated, that
+    man will know his own position, and woman&mdash;noble,
+    elevating, surprising woman&mdash;will assume the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page507"
+       id="page507"></a>[pg 507]</span> rank to which her powers
+       and virtues entitle her!"</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Bristles was very hungry, and at that moment received his
+    plate.&mdash;"Really, Miss Hendy," he said, with his mouth
+    prodigiously distended with codfish&mdash;"there's no arguing
+    against such eloquence. I must give in." But Miss Hendy, who
+    had probably lunched, determined to accept no
+    surrender.&mdash;"No," she cried&mdash;"you shall <i>not</i>
+    give in, till I have overwhelmed you with reasons for your
+    submission. A great move is in progress&mdash;woman's rights
+    and duties are becoming every day more widely appreciated. The
+    old-fashioned scale must be re-adjusted, and woman&mdash;noble,
+    elevating, surprising woman&mdash;ascend to the loftiest
+    eminence, and sit superior on the topmost branch of the social
+    tree."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Whalley, whose professional ear was caught by the last
+    word, broke through his usual rule of only nodding his remarks,
+    and ventured to say&mdash;"Uncommon bad climbers, for the most
+    part in general, is women. Their clothes isn't adapted for
+    it.&mdash;I minds once I see a woman climb a pole after a leg
+    of mutting."</p>
+
+    <p>If looks could have killed Mr Whalley, Mr Pitskiver's eyes
+    would certainly have been tried for murder; but that
+    matter-of-fact individual was impervious to the most
+    impassioned glances. Miss Hendy sank her face in horror over
+    her plate, and celestial rosy red overspread her countenance;
+    while a look of the most extraordinary nature rewarded Mr
+    Pitskiver for all his efforts in her behalf. A look!&mdash;it
+    went quite through his waistcoat, and if it had gone straight
+    on, must have reached his heart. Mr Pitskiver was amazed at the
+    expression of the look; for he little knew that his labours
+    under the table, in attempting to check Mr Whalley's oratory by
+    pressing his toes, had unfortunately been bestowed on the
+    delicate foot of his hostess; and what less could she do than
+    respond to the gentle courtesy by a glance of gratitude for
+    what she considered a movement of sympathy and condolence under
+    the atrocious reminiscences of the wood-merchant? Mr Whalley,
+    however, was struck with the mournful silence that followed his
+    observation.</p>
+
+    <p>"That was a thing as happing'd on a pole," he said. "In
+    cooss it would be wery different on a tree&mdash;because of the
+    branches, as I think you was a-saying, Miss Hendy?"</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver grew desperate. "Bristles," he cried, "any
+    thing new in sculpture? By the by, you haven't sent me
+    Stickleback's jack-ass as you promised. Is it a fine work?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have no hesitation," replied the critic, "with a perfect
+    recollection of Canova's Venus, and even Moggs's Pandean Piper,
+    which I reviewed in last number of the <i>Universal</i>, in
+    declaring that Stickleback's work (it is a female, not a
+    jack-ass) is the noblest effort of the English chisel; there is
+    life about it&mdash;a power&mdash;a feeling&mdash;a
+    sentiment&mdash;it is overwhelming! I shall express these ideas
+    in print. Stickleback's fame is secured by a stupendous ass, at
+    once so simple and so grand."</p>
+
+    <p>"A female, I think you said?" enquired Miss Hendy.</p>
+
+    <p>"A jeanie&mdash;miraculously soft, yet full of graceful
+    dignity," replied Bristles bowing to the enquirer, as if the
+    description applied to her.</p>
+
+    <p>"I honour the sculptor for breaking through the prejudices
+    of sex in this splendid instance!" exclaimed the lady. "The
+    feminine star is in the ascendant. How much more illustrious
+    the triumph! How greater the difficulty to express in visible
+    types, the soft, subduing, humanizing graces of the female
+    disposition, than to imprint the coarse outline of masculine
+    strength! How rough the contour of an Irish hodman to the sweet
+    flexibilities of the Venus of Canova!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Canova was by no means equal to Stickleback," said Mr
+    Bristles magisterially. "I have devoted much time to the study
+    of the fine arts&mdash;I have seen many statues&mdash;I have
+    frequently been in sculptors' studios; I prefer Stickleback to
+    Canova."</p>
+
+    <p>"I honour his moral elevation," observed Miss Hendy, "in
+    stamping on eternal marble the femininity of the subject of his
+    chisel."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must really have the first view," whispered Mr Pitskiver.
+    "Can't you <span class="pagenum"><a name="page508"
+       id="page508"></a>[pg 508]</span> remind him, Bristles? Don't
+       send it to Whalley on my account."</p>
+
+    <p>But Mr Whalley, who was a rival M&aelig;cenas, put in a word
+    for himself, "Mr Bristles," he said, "this must be a uncomming
+    statty of a she-ass. I oncet was recommended to drink a
+    she-ass's milk myself, and liked it uncomming. I must have the
+    private sight you promised; and, if you'll fix a day, I vill
+    ask you and the artist to dine."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, my dear sir&mdash;but Mr Pitskiver and
+    Stickleback, they are friends, you know, Mr Whalley, and
+    perhaps Mr P.'s interest may be useful in getting the great
+    artist an order to ornament some of the new buildings. I have
+    some thoughts of recommending him to offer the very statue we
+    talk of for the front of the Mansion-house. A hint on the
+    subject has already appeared in the <i>Universal</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss Hendy," said Mr Pitskiver for the tenth time, "this is
+    the regular feast and flow; and nothing pleases me so much in
+    my good friend Bristles as his candid praise of other men's
+    talents. You seldom find clever people allowing each other's
+    merits."</p>
+
+    <p>"Or stupid ones either"&mdash;replied Mr Bristles before the
+    lady had time to answer; "the fact is, we are much improved
+    since former days. Our great men don't quarrel as they used to
+    do&mdash;conscious of one's own dignity, why refuse a just
+    appreciation of others? Stickleback has often told me, that
+    Chantrey was not altogether without merit&mdash;I myself
+    pronounce Macauley far from stupid; and my intellectual friend,
+    young Sidsby, who will read us the first act of his tragedy
+    to-night, allows a very respectable degree of dramatic power to
+    Lord Byron. Surely this is a far better state of things than
+    the perpetual carpings of Popes and Addisons, Smiths and
+    Johnsons, Foxes and Pitts."</p>
+
+    <p>"And all owing to the rising influence of the female sex,"
+    interposed Miss Hendy. "But woman has not yet received her full
+    development. The time will come when her influence is
+    universal; when, softened, subdued, purified, and elevated, the
+    animal now called Man will be unknown. You will be all
+    women&mdash;can the world look for higher destiny?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In cooss," observed Mr Whalley&mdash;"if we are all turned
+    into woming, the world will come to a end. For 'spose a
+    case;&mdash;'spose it had been my sister as married Mrs Whalley
+    instead of me&mdash;it's probable there wouldn't have been no
+    great fambly; wich in cooss, if there was no
+    poppleation"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>But what the fearful result of this supposed case would have
+    been, has never been discovered; for Miss Hendy, making a
+    signal to the four representatives of the female sex started
+    out of the room as if she had heard Mr Whalley had the plague,
+    and left the gentlemen to themselves.</p>
+
+    <p>"De Sta&euml;l was no match for that wonderful woman," said
+    Mr Bristles, resuming his chair. "I don't believe so noble an
+    intellect was ever enshrined in so beautiful a form
+    before."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you think her pretty?" enquired Mr Pitskiver.</p>
+
+    <p>"Pretty? no, sir&mdash;beautiful! Here is the finest sort of
+    loveliness&mdash;the light blazing from within, that years
+    cannot extinguish. I consider Miss Hendy the finest woman in
+    England; and decidedly the most intellectual."</p>
+
+    <p>The fact of Miss Hendy's beauty had never struck Mr
+    Pitskiver before. But he knew that Bristles was a judge, and
+    took it at once for granted. The finest woman in England had
+    looked in a most marvellous manner into his face, and the small
+    incident of the foot under the table was not forgotten.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver was inspired by the subject of his
+    contemplations, and proposed her health in a strain of
+    eloquence which produced a wonderful amount of head-shaking
+    from Mr Whalley, and frequent exclamations of "Demosthenes,"
+    "Cicero," "Burke all over!" from the more enraptured Mr
+    Bristles.</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm horrible afear'd," observed the elder gentleman putting
+    down his empty glass, "as my son Bill Whalley is a reg'lar
+    fool."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, pardon me!" exclaimed Bristles&mdash;"I haven't the,
+    honour of his intimacy,
+    but&mdash;"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page509"
+       id="page509"></a>[pg 509]</span>
+
+    <p>"Only think the liberties he allows himself in regard to
+    this here intellectual lady, Miss Hendy. He never hears her
+    name without a putting of his thumb on the top of his nose, and
+    a shaking of his fingers in my face, and a crying out for a
+    friend of his'n of the name of Walker. Its uncomming
+    provoking&mdash;and sich a steady good business hand there
+    ain't in the Boro'. I can't fadom it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Some people have positively no souls," chimed in Mr
+    Pitskiver, looking complacently down his beautiful waistcoat,
+    as if he felt that souls were in some sort of proportion to the
+    tenements they inhabited, and that his was of gigantic size;
+    "but I did not think that your son William was so totally void
+    of ideas. I shall talk to him next Sunday's dinner."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you talks to him about Memel and Dantzic, you'll find
+    there ain't such a judge of timber in London," said the father,
+    who was evidently proud of his son's mercantile qualifications;
+    "but with regard to this here pottery, and scupshire, and other
+    things as I myself delights in, he don't care nothin about 'em.
+    He wouldn't give twopence to see Stickleback's statty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then he had better not have the honour," said Pitskiver.
+    "Bristles, you'll send it to Harley Street. First view is every
+    thing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Really, gentlemen, you are both such exquisite judges of
+    the arts, and such discriminating patrons of artists, that I
+    find it difficult to determine between you. Shall we let
+    Stickleback settle the point himself?"</p>
+
+    <p>Both the M&aelig;cenases consented, each at the same time
+    making resolutions in his own mind to make the unhappy artist
+    suffer, if by any chance his rival should get the preference.
+    After another glass or two of the dark-coloured liquid which
+    wore the label of port, and which Bristles maintained was the
+    richest wine he had ever tasted, as it was furnished by a
+    particular friend of his, who, in addition to being a wine
+    merchant, was one of the most talented men in Europe, and a
+    regular contributor to the <i>Universal</i> under the signature
+    "Squirk,"&mdash;after another glass or two of this bepraised
+    beverage, which, at the same time, did not seem altogether to
+    suit the taste of the two patrons of the arts and sciences, the
+    gentlemen adjourned to the drawing-room, from which music had
+    been sounding for a considerable time.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+    <p>On entering the room they were nearly made fitting inmates
+    of the deaf and dumb institution, by the most portentous sounds
+    that ever endangered a human ear. A large party was assembled,
+    ranged solemnly on chairs and sofas all round the wall, every
+    eye turned with intense interest to the upper end of the
+    apartment, where stood a tall stout man, blowing with
+    incredible effect into a twisted horn, which, to all outward
+    appearance, had not long ceased to ornament the forehead of a
+    Highland bull. A common horn it was&mdash;and the skill of the
+    strong-winded performer consisted in extracting a succession of
+    roars and bellowings from its upper end, which would have done
+    honour to the vocal powers of its late possessor. A tune it
+    certainly was, for immense outbreaks of sound came at regular
+    intervals, and the performer kept thumping his foot on the
+    floor as if he were keeping time; but as the intermediate notes
+    were of such a very soft nature as to be altogether inaudible,
+    the company were left to fill up the blanks at their own
+    discretion; and Mr Pitskiver, who was somewhat warlike,
+    perceived at once it was Rule Britannia, while Mr Whalley shook
+    his head in a state of profound loyalty, and thought it was God
+    save the Queen. When the ingenious musician withdrew the bull's
+    horn from his mouth, and paused after his labours in a state of
+    extreme calefaction, murmurs of applause ran all round the
+    room.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr Slingo," said Mr Bristles, "Mr Slingo, you have
+    immortalized yourself, by evoking the soul of Handel from so
+    common an instrument as an ox's horn. I have studied music as a
+    science&mdash;I have reviewed an
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page510"
+       id="page510"></a>[pg 510]</span> opera&mdash;and once met
+       Sir Henry Bishop at the Chinese exhibition; and I will make
+       bold to say, that more genius was never shown by Rossini or
+       Cherubini, than you have displayed on this stupendous and
+       interesting occasion. Allow me, Mr Slingo, to shake your
+       hand."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Bristles gave a warm squeeze to the delighted musician's
+    enormous fingers&mdash;and all the company were enchanted with
+    the liberality and condescension of the celebrated author, and
+    the humility and gratitude of the musical phenomenon, who could
+    not find words to express his gratification. Miss Hendy was
+    also profuse in her praises. "Pray, Mr Slingo," she said taking
+    the horn, and examining it very closely, "do you know what
+    animal we are indebted to for this delicious instrument?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I took it from the head of a brown cow."</p>
+
+    <p>"A cow!&mdash;ha!"&mdash;exclaimed the lady&mdash;"but I
+    could have told you so before. There is a sweetness, a
+    softness, and femininization of tone, in the slower passages,
+    that it struck me at once could only proceed from the milder
+    sex. We shall not have to wait long for the answer to a
+    question which has stirred the heart of mankind to its
+    foundations&mdash;can Women etherealize society? I say she
+    can&mdash;I say she will&mdash;I say she shall!"</p>
+
+    <p>Miss Hendy said this with considerable vehemence, and darted
+    a look of the same extraordinary nature as had puzzled Mr
+    Pitskiver at dinner, full in the face of that enraptured
+    gentleman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, 'pon my soul, she's a very fine woman!" he said almost
+    audibly; and again the commendations of Mr Bristles recurred to
+    his thoughts&mdash;"and has such a fund of eloquence. I wish to
+    heaven somebody would take a fancy to my girls! I will ask a
+    lot of young men to dinner."</p>
+
+    <p>In the midst of these cogitations he drew near Miss
+    Hendy&mdash;and if you were to judge by the number of elbows
+    which young ladies, in all parts of the room, nudged into other
+    young ladies' sides, and the strange smiles and winks that were
+    exchanged by the more distant members of the society&mdash;you
+    might easily perceive that there was something very impressive
+    in the manner of his address. He bowed at every word, while the
+    gold chains across his waistcoat glistened and jingled at every
+    motion. Miss Hendy's head also was bent till the white spangles
+    on her turban seemed affected with St Vitus's dance; and their
+    voices gradually sank lower and lower, till they descended at
+    last to an actual whisper. There were seven female hearts in
+    that assemblage bursting with spite, and one with triumph. Mr
+    Pitskiver had never been known to whisper it any body's ear
+    before.</p>
+
+    <p>In the mean time Mr Bristles, as literary master of the
+    ceremonies, had made a call on Mr Sidsby to proceed with his
+    reading of the first act of his play. A tall young gentleman,
+    very good-looking, and very shy, was with difficulty persuaded
+    to seat himself in the middle of the room; and with trembling
+    hands he drew from his pocket a roll of manuscript, though, to
+    judge from his manner, he did not seem quite master of his
+    subject.</p>
+
+    <p>"Modesty, always the accompaniment of true genius," observed
+    Mr Bristles, apologetically to the expectant audience. "Go on,
+    my good sir; you will gain courage as you proceed."</p>
+
+    <p>All was then silent. Mr Pitskiver at Miss Hendy's side, near
+    the door; Mr Whalley straining his long neck to catch the
+    faintest echo of their conversation; the others casting from
+    time to time enquiring glances towards the illustrious pair;
+    but all endeavouring to appear intensely interested in the
+    drama. Mr Sidsby began:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>It was a play of the passions. A black lady fell in love
+    with a white general. Her language was fit for a dragon. She
+    breathed nothing but fire. It seemed, by a strange coincidence
+    of ideas between Sidsby and Shakspeare, to bear no small
+    resemblance to Othello, with the distinction already stated of
+    the colour of the Desdemona. But breathless attention rewarded
+    the reader's toil; and though he occasionally missed a word, in
+    which he was always set right by Mr Bristles, and did not enter
+    very warmly into the more vigorous parts of the declamation,
+    his efforts were <span class="pagenum"><a name="page511"
+       id="page511"></a>[pg 511]</span> received with overwhelming
+       approbation, and Bristles as usual led the chorus of
+       admiration.</p>
+
+    <p>"A wonderful play! an astonishing effort! Certainly up to
+    the finest things in Otway, if not of Shakspeare
+    himself&mdash;a power, a life, an impetus. I have never met
+    with such a magnificent opening act."</p>
+
+    <p>"I wish you would bring him to taste my mutting, Mr
+    Bristles," said Mr Whalley; "as he's a poet he most likely
+    don't touch butcher meat every day, and a good tuck-out of a
+    Sunday won't do him no harm. But I say, Mr Bristles, I must
+    railly make a point of seeing Stickleback's donkey first. Say
+    you'll do it&mdash;there's a good fellow."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver also extended his hospitable invitation to the
+    successful dramatist; and urged no less warmly his right to the
+    first inspection of the masterpiece of the modern chisel.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have had a very particular conversation with Miss Hendy,"
+    he said, laying his hand confidentially on the great critic's
+    shoulder.</p>
+
+    <p>"An extraordinary woman!" chimed in Bristles, "the glory of
+    the present times."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must have an additional treasure to boast of in my
+    house," resumed Mr Pitskiver, whose heart seemed more than ever
+    set on cutting out Mr Whalley in priority of inspection of the
+    unequaled statue. "You'll help me, I know&mdash;I may depend on
+    you, Mr Bristles."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may indeed, sir&mdash;a house such as yours needed only
+    such an addition to make it perfect."</p>
+
+    <p>"You'll procure me the pride, the gratification&mdash;you'll
+    manage it for me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will indeed," said Mr Bristles, seizing the offered hand
+    of the overjoyed Pitskiver; "since your happiness depends on
+    it, you may trust to me for every exertion."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you'll plead my cause&mdash;you'll speak in the proper
+    quarter?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, you may consider it all arranged."</p>
+
+    <p>"But secretly, quietly, no blabbing&mdash;these matters are
+    always best done without noise. I would even keep it from my
+    daughters' knowledge, till we are quite prepared to reveal it
+    in all its charms."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is indeed a masterpiece&mdash;a
+    chef-d'oeuvre&mdash;beauty and expression unequaled."</p>
+
+    <p>"I flatter myself I am a bit of a judge; and when I have had
+    it in my possession for a short time, I will let you know the
+    result."</p>
+
+    <p>The party were now about to break up.</p>
+
+    <p>"Them's uncomming pleasant little meetings, arn't them?"
+    said Mr Whalley to one of the middle-aged spinsters who had
+    been present at dinner; "and I thinks this one is like to have
+    a very favourable conclusion."</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss Hendy?" enquired the spinster in breathless
+    anticipation.</p>
+
+    <p>"Jist so," responded the other&mdash;"there can't be no
+    mystery no longer, and they'll be off for France in a few
+    days."</p>
+
+    <p>"For France?&mdash;gracious! how do you know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I hear'd Mr Bristles, which is their confidant, say
+    something about a chay and Dover. In cooss they will go that
+    way to Boulogne."</p>
+
+    <p>Oh, M&aelig;cenas! is there no difference between the
+    chef-d'oeuvre of the great Stickleback, and the town of Dover
+    and a post-chaise.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+    <p>In a week after these events, six or seven gentlemen were
+    gathered round a table in a room very near the skylight in the
+    Minerva chambers. Our former acquaintance, Mr Bristles, whose
+    name shone in white paint above the entrance door, was
+    evidently strongly impressed with the dignity of his position;
+    and as in the pauses of conversation he placed the pen he was
+    using transversely in his mouth, and turned over the pages of
+    various books on the table before him, it will be seen that he
+    presided not at a feast of substantial meat and drink, but at
+    one of those regular "feasts and flows" which the great Mr
+    Pitskiver was in the habit of alluding to, in describing the
+    intellectual treats of which he was so prodigious a
+    glutton.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page512"
+       id="page512"></a>[pg 512]</span>
+
+    <p>"What success, Sidsby?" enquired Bristles with a vast
+    appearance of interest.</p>
+
+    <p>"None at all," replied the successful dramatist, or, in
+    other words, the long-backed Ticket to whom we were introduced
+    at the commencement of the story. "I have no invitation to
+    dinner yet, and Sophy thinks he has forgotten me."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's odd&mdash;very odd," mused Mr Bristles, "for I don't
+    know that I ever praised any one half so highly before, not
+    even Stickleback; and the first act was really superb. It took
+    me a whole week to write it."</p>
+
+    <p>"But I did not understand some parts of it, and I am afraid
+    I spoiled it in the reading. But Sophy was enchanted with the
+    poem you made me copy."</p>
+
+    <p>"A sensible girl; but how to get at the father is the thing.
+    I have mentioned a few of the perfections of our friend Miss
+    Hendy to him in a way that I think will stick. If we could get
+    <i>her</i> good word."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, she's very good!" replied Sidsby, "she says I'm far
+    above Lord Byron and Thomas Moore."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not? haven't I told you to say, wherever you go, that
+    she is above Corinne?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah," said Sidsby, "but what's the use of all this to me? I
+    am a wine-merchant, not a poet; my uncle will soon take me into
+    partnership, and when they find out that I know no more about
+    literature than a pig, what an impostor they'll think me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not more of an impostor than half the other literary men of
+    the day, who have got praised into fame as you have, by
+    judicious and disinterested friends. No: you must still go on.
+    I shall have the second act ready for you next week, and you
+    can make it six dozen of sherry instead of three. You must
+    please the girl first, and get at the father afterwards. She's
+    of a decidedly intellectual turn, and has four thousand pounds
+    in her own right."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't believe she is more intellectual than myself; but
+    that silly old noodle, her father"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Stop!" exclaimed Bristles in great agitation, "this is
+    against all rule. Mr Pitskiver is our friend&mdash;a man of the
+    profoundest judgment and most capacious understanding. I doubt
+    whether a greater judge of merit ever existed than Mr
+    Pitskiver."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hear, hear!" resounded in various degrees of intensity all
+    round the table.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, all I can say is this&mdash;that if I don't get on by
+    shamming cleverness, I'll try what open honesty will do, and
+    follow Bill Whalley's advice."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bill Whalley! who is he?" asked Bristles with a sneer.</p>
+
+    <p>"Son of the old Tom Noddy you make such a precious fool
+    of."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr Whalley of the Boro' is <i>our</i> friend, Mr
+    Sidsby&mdash;a man of the profoundest judgment and most
+    capacious understanding. I doubt whether a greater judge of
+    merit ever existed than Mr Whalley of the Boro'."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hear hear!" again resounded; and Mr Sidsby, shaking his
+    head, said no more, but looked as sulky as his naturally
+    good-tempered features would let him.</p>
+
+    <p>"And now, Stickleback," said Mr Bristles&mdash;"I am happy
+    to tell you your fortune is made; your fame will rise higher
+    and higher."</p>
+
+    <p>A little dark-complexioned man with very large mouth and
+    very flat nose, looked a little disdainful at this speech,
+    which to any one else would have sounded like a compliment.</p>
+
+    <p>"I always knew that merit such as I felt I possessed, would
+    force its way, in spite of envy and detraction," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"We have an uphill fight of it, I assure you," rejoined Mr
+    Bristles; "but by dint of throwing it on pretty thick, we are
+    in hopes some of it will stick."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, Mr Bristles," resumed the artist, "I don't at all like
+    the style you talk in to me. You always speak as if my
+    reputation had been made by your praises. Now, talents such as
+    mine"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Are very high, my good sir; no one who reads the
+    <i>Universal</i> doubts that fact for a moment."</p>
+
+    <p>"Talents, I say, such as mine," pursued Mr Stickleback,
+    "were sure to raise me to the highest honours; and it is too
+    bad for you to claim all the merit of my success."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not I; but all our friends here," said Bristles. "For two
+    years we <span class="pagenum"><a name="page513"
+       id="page513"></a>[pg 513]</span> have done nothing but
+       praise you wherever we went. Haven't we sneered at Bailey,
+       and laughed at the ancient statues? Who wrote the epigram on
+       Thorwaldsen&mdash;was it not our friend now present, Mr
+       Banks? a gentleman, I must say, perfectly unequaled in the
+       radiance of his wit and the delicious pungency of his
+       satire. Without us, what would you have been?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly what I am. The only sculptor worth a sixpence since
+    the fine arts were invented," replied the self-satisfied Mr
+    Stickleback.</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said Mr Bristles; "since you force us to tell you what
+    we have done for you, I will mention it. We have persuaded all
+    our friends, we have even persuaded yourself, that you have
+    some knowledge of sculpture; whereas every one who follows his
+    own judgment, and is not led astray by our puffs, must see that
+    you could not carve an old woman's face out of a radish; that
+    you are fit for nothing with the chisel but to smooth
+    gravestones, and cut crying cherubs over a churchyard door;
+    that your donkey"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what of my donkey, as you call it?" cried the enraged
+    sculptor, "I have heard you praise it a thousand times."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course you have; but do you think I meant it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"As much as I meant what I said, when I praised some of your
+    ridiculous rubbish in the <i>Universal</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, indeed! Then you think my writings ridiculous
+    rubbish?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;I do&mdash;very ridiculous rubbish."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then let me tell you, Mr Stickleback, you are about as good
+    a critic as a sculptor. My writings, sir, are universally
+    appreciated. To find fault with <i>them</i> shows you are unfit
+    for our acquaintance; and with regard to Mr Pitskiver's
+    recommendation to the city building committee, and your donkey
+    to adorn the pediment of the Mansion-house&mdash;you have of
+    course given up all hopes of any interest <i>I</i> may
+    possess."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gentlemen," said a young man with small piercing eyes and a
+    rather dirty complexion, with long hair rolling over the collar
+    of his coat&mdash;"are you not a little premature in shivering
+    the friendship by a blow of temper which had been consolidated
+    by several years of mutual reciprocity?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Silence, Snooksby!&mdash;I have been insulted. I was ever a
+    foe to ingratitude, and grievous shall the expiation be,"
+    replied Bristles.</p>
+
+    <p>"I now address myself to you, sir," continued Snooksby,
+    turning to the wrathful sculptor, whose wrath, however, had
+    begun to evaporate in reflecting on the diminished chance of
+    the promotion so repeatedly promised by Mr Bristles for his
+    donkey; "and I feel on this momintous occasion, that it is my
+    impiritive duty to endeavour to reinimite the expiring imbers
+    of amity, and re-knit the relaxed cords of unanimity. Mr
+    Stickleback, you were wrong&mdash;decidedly, powerfully,
+    undeniably wrong&mdash;in denominiting the splindid
+    lucibritions of our illustrious friend by the name of
+    ridiculous rubbish. Apoligise, apoligise, apoligise; and I know
+    too well the glowing sympithies of that philinthripic heart to
+    doubt for a moment that its vibrations will instantly beat in
+    unisin with yours."</p>
+
+    <p>"I never meant to call his writings rubbish," said the
+    subdued sculptor. "I know he's the greatest writer in
+    England."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you, my dear Stickleback, the greatest sculptor the
+    world has ever seen!" exclaimed the easily propitiated critic.
+    "Why will you doubt my respect, my admiration of your
+    surpassing talent? Let us understand each other better&mdash;we
+    shall both be ever indebted to the eloquent Mr
+    Snooksby&mdash;(may he soon get on the vestry, the object of
+    his inadequate ambition;) for a speech more refulgent in simple
+    pathos, varied metaphor, and conclusive reasoning, it has not
+    been my good fortune to hear. When our other friends leave me,
+    Stickleback, I hope you will stay for half an hour. I have a
+    most important secret to confide to you, and a favour to
+    ask."</p>
+
+    <p>The hint seemed to be sufficient. The rest of the party soon
+    retired; and Bristles and Stickleback began their confidential
+    conclave.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page514"
+       id="page514"></a>[pg 514]</span>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+    <p>But another confidential conclave, of rather a more
+    interesting nature to the parties concerned, took place three
+    days after these occurrences in the shady walk in St James's
+    Park. Under the trees sauntered four people&mdash;equally
+    divided&mdash;a lady and a gentleman; the ladies brilliantly
+    dressed, stout, and handsome&mdash;the gentlemen also in the
+    most fashionable costume: one tall and thin, the long-backed
+    Ticket; and the other short and amazingly comfortable-looking,
+    Mr William Whalley&mdash;for shortness called Bill. Whether,
+    while he admired the trunks of the old elms, he calculated what
+    would be their value in deals, this narrative disdains to
+    mention; but it feels by no means bound to retain the same
+    cautious reserve with regard to his sentiments while he gazed
+    into the eyes of Emily Pitskiver. He thought them beautiful
+    eyes; and if they had been turned upon you with the same
+    loving, trusting expression, ten to one you would have thought
+    them beautiful too. The other pair seemed equally happy.</p>
+
+    <p>"So you don't like me the worse," said Mr Sidsby, "now that
+    you know I am not a poet?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know how it is, but I don't think I care for poetry
+    now at all," replied the lady. "In fact, I suppose my passion
+    for it was never real, and I only fancied I was enchanted with
+    it from hearing papa and Mr Bristles perpetually raving about
+    strength and genius. Is Miss Hendy a really clever woman?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A genuine humbug, I should say&mdash;gooseberry champagne
+    at two shillings a bottle," was the somewhat professional
+    verdict on Miss Hendy's claims.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! you shouldn't talk that way of Miss Hendy&mdash;who
+    knows but she may be my mamma soon?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He can never be such a confounded jackass!" said Mr Sidsby,
+    without giving a local habitation or a name to the personal
+    pronoun <i>he</i>.</p>
+
+    <p>"He loses his daughters, I can tell him," said Miss Sophy
+    with a toss of her head, that set all the flowers on the top of
+    her bonnet shaking&mdash;"Emily and I are quite resolved on
+    that."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what can you do?" enquired the gentleman, who did not
+    appear to be very nearly akin to &OElig;dipus.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do? Why, don't we get possession of mamma's fortune if he
+    marries; and can't we&mdash;oh, you've squeezed my ring into my
+    finger!"</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear Sophy, I was only trying to show you how much I
+    admired your spirit. I hope he'll marry Miss Hendy with all my
+    heart."</p>
+
+    <p>When a conversation has got to this point, a chronicle of
+    any pretensions to respectability will maintain a rigid
+    silence; and we will therefore only observe, that by the time
+    Mr William Whalley and Emily had come to Marlborough House,
+    their conversation had arrived at a point where discretion
+    becomes as indispensably a chronicler's duty as in the case of
+    the other couple.</p>
+
+    <p>"We must get home," said Sophy.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why should you go yet? There is no chance of your father
+    being back from the city for hours to come."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! but we must get home. We have been out a long time."
+    And so saying, she led the way up the steps by the Duke of
+    York's column, followed by her sister and her swain&mdash;and
+    attended at a respectful distance by a tall gentleman with an
+    immense gold-headed walking-stick, displaying nether
+    integuments of the brightest red, and white silk stockings of
+    unexampled purity. The reader, if he had heard the various
+    whispered allusions to different dishes, such as "sheep's
+    head," "calf's foot jelly," "rhubarb tart," and "toasted
+    cheese," would have been at no loss to recognise the indignant
+    Daggles, whose culinary vocabulary it seemed impossible to
+    exhaust. He followed, watching every motion of the happy
+    couples. "Well, if this ain't too bad!&mdash;I've a great mind
+    to tell old Pits how them disgusting saussingers runs after his
+    mince-pies&mdash;meets 'em in the Park; gallivants with them
+    under the trees as if they was ortolans and beccaficas; bills
+    and coos with 'em as if they was real turtles and punch
+    <i>&agrave; la Romaine</i>.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page515"
+       id="page515"></a>[pg 515]</span> How the old cucumber would
+       flare up! Up Regent Street, along Oxford Street, through the
+       square, up to our own door. Well, blowed if that ain't a
+       good one! Into the very house they goes; up stairs to the
+       drawing-room. O Lord! that there should be such impudence in
+       beefsteaks and ingans! They couldn't be more audacious if
+       they was Perigord pies."</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+    <p>Half an hour passed&mdash;an hour&mdash;and yet the
+    conversation was flowing on as briskly as ever. Mr Bill Whalley
+    had explained the exact difference between Norway and Canada
+    timber, greatly to Miss Emily's satisfaction; and Miss Sophia
+    had again and again expressed her determination to leave the
+    house the moment Miss Hendy entered it; and both the young
+    ladies had related the energetic language in which they had
+    expressed this resolution to their father, and threatened him
+    with immediate desertion if he didn't cut that horrid old
+    schoolmistress at once. The same speeches about happiness and
+    simple cottages, with peace and contentment, had been made a
+    dozen time over by all parties, when the great clock in the
+    hall&mdash;a Dutch pendule, inserted in a statue of
+    Time&mdash;struck three o'clock, and at the same moment a loud
+    rap was heard at the front door.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who can it be?" exclaimed Miss Sophia. "It isn't papa's
+    knock;"&mdash;and hiding her face in the thick hydrangia which
+    filled the drawing-room window, she gazed down to catch a
+    glimpse of the entrance steps. She only saw the top of a large
+    wooden case, and the white hat of a gentleman who rested his
+    hand on the burden, and was giving directions to the bearers to
+    be very careful how they carried it up stairs.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Whalley started up, as did Mr Sidsby, in no small alarm.
+    "I wouldn't be found here for half-a-crown," said the former
+    gentleman: "old father would shake his head into a reg'lar
+    palsy if he knew I was philandering here, when the Riga brig is
+    unloading at the wharf."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us go into the back drawing-room," suggested one of the
+    young ladies, "and you can get out quite easily when the
+    parcel, whatever it is, is delivered." They accordingly retired
+    to the back drawing-room, and in a few minutes had the
+    satisfaction of hearing heavy steps on the stairs, and the
+    voice of the redoubtable Mr Bristles saying, "Gently,
+    gently,&mdash;I have no hesitation in stating, that you were
+    never entrusted with so valuable a burden before. Deposit it
+    with gentleness on the large table in the middle; and, you may
+    now boast, that your hands have borne the noblest specimen of
+    grace and genius that modern ages have produced."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's that everlasting donkey papa is always talking about!"
+    whispered Sophia.</p>
+
+    <p>"If it's Stickleback's statue," said Mr William Whalley,
+    "the little vagabond promised the first sight of it to old
+    father. He'll be in a precious stew when he finds his rival has
+    been beforehand!"</p>
+
+    <p>The porters now apparently retired, and the youthful
+    prisoners in the back drawing-room tried to effect their escape
+    by the door which opened on the stairs; but, alas! it was
+    locked on the outside, and it was evident, from the soliloquy
+    of Mr Bristles, that their retreat was cut off through the
+    front room. A knock&mdash;the well-known rat, tat, tat, of the
+    owner of the mansion&mdash;now completed their perplexity; and,
+    in a moment more, they heard the steps of several persons
+    rushing up stairs.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr Pitskiver!" exclaimed Bristles in intense agitation,
+    "you have surely forgotten our agreement&mdash;Snooksby!
+    Butters! Banks! Why, I am quite overpowered with the surprise!
+    It was to have been alone, without witnesses; or at most, in my
+    presence. But so public!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Never mind, my dear Bristles. Why should I conceal my
+    triumph&mdash;my happiness&mdash;the boast and gratification of
+    my future days? Let us <span class="pagenum"><a name="page516"
+       id="page516"></a>[pg 516]</span> open the casket that
+       enshrines such unequaled merits."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you really wish for no further secresy," replied Mr
+    Bristles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly! Don't I know that that case contains a
+    masterpiece, softly sweet and beautifully feminine, as a
+    talented friend of ours would say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"An exquisite woman, indeed!" said Bristles; "and a truly
+    talented friend. The case, as you justly observe," proceeded
+    the critic, while he untied the cords, "contains the most
+    glorious manifestation of the softening influences of sex."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's a pity she's an ass," suggested Mr Pitskiver. "I can't
+    help thinking that that's a drawback."</p>
+
+    <p>"What?&mdash;what is a drawback, my dear sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That femininity, as Miss Hendy calls it, should be brought
+    so prominently forward in the person of an ass."</p>
+
+    <p>"An ass?&mdash;I don't understand! Are you serious?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Serious! to be sure, my dear Bristles. In spite of all
+    efforts to assume an intellectual expression, the donkey,
+    depend upon it, preponderates&mdash;the long visage, the dull
+    eyes, the crooked legs&mdash;it is impossible to perceive any
+    grace in such a wretched animal. I can't help thinking that if
+    it had been a young girl you had brought me&mdash;say, a
+    sleeping nymph&mdash;full of youth and beauty, 'twould have
+    been a vast improvement on the scraggy jeanie contained in this
+    box. But clear away, Bristles, we are all impatience."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear sir&mdash;Mr Pitskiver&mdash;unaccustomed as I am,
+    his I can truly say is the most uncomfortable moment of my
+    life."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, what's the matter with you, Bristles, can't you untie
+    the string?"&mdash;"Here," continued Mr Pitskiver, "give me the
+    cord," and so saying he untwisted it in a moment&mdash;down
+    fell the side of the case, and to the astonished eyes of the
+    assembled critics, and also of the party in the back
+    drawing-room, revealed, not the masterpiece of the immortal
+    Stickleback, but a female figure enveloped in a grey silk
+    cloak, and covering its face with a white muslin
+    handkerchief.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, what the mischief is all this?" exclaimed the
+    bewildered Mr Pitskiver; "this isn't the jeanie-ass you
+    promised me a sight of. Who the deuce is this?"</p>
+
+    <p>The handkerchief was majestically removed, and the sharp
+    eyes of Miss Hendy fixed in unspeakable disdain on the
+    assembled party.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis I, base man! Are all your protestations of admiration
+    come to this? Who shall doubt hereafter that it is the task of
+    noble, gentle, self-denying woman to elevate society?"</p>
+
+    <p>A smothered but very audible laugh proceeding from the back
+    drawing-room, interrupted the further eloquence of the
+    regenerator of mankind; and, finding concealment useless, the
+    two young ladies threw open the door, and advanced with their
+    attendant lovers to the table. The female philosopher, with the
+    assistance of Mr Bristles, descended from her lofty pedestal,
+    and looked unutterable basilisks at the open-mouthed
+    M&aelig;cenas, who turned his eyes from the wooden box to Miss
+    Hendy, and from Miss Hendy to the wooden box, without trusting
+    himself with a word of either explanation or enquiry.</p>
+
+    <p>"We told you of our intentions, papa," said Miss Sophia, "if
+    you brought that old lady to your house."</p>
+
+    <p>"I didn't bring her; I give you my honour 'twas that
+    scoundrel Bristles," whispered the dismayed Pitskiver.</p>
+
+    <p>"You told me sir," exclaimed Bristles, "that you would be
+    for ever indebted to me if I brought this lady to your
+    mansion&mdash;that she was the perfection of grace and
+    innocence. By a friendly arrangement with Mr Stickleback, the
+    greatest sculptor of ancient or modern times, I managed to
+    secure to this illustrious woman an admission to your house,
+    which, I understood, she could not openly obtain through the
+    opposition of your daughters. I considered that you knew of the
+    arrangement, sir; and I know that, with a soft and feminine
+    trustfulness, this most gentle and intellectual ornament of her
+    sex and species consented to meet the wish you had so ardently
+    expressed."</p>
+
+    <p>"I never had a wish of the kind," cried Mr Pitskiver; "and I
+    believe you talking fellows and chattering
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page517"
+       id="page517"></a>[pg 517]</span> women are all in a plot to
+       make me ridiculous. I won't stand it any longer."</p>
+
+    <p>"Stand what?" enquired Mr Bristles, knitting his brows.</p>
+
+    <p>"Your nonsensical praises of each other&mdash;your boastings
+    of Sticklebacks, and Snooksbys, and Bankses; a set of mere
+    humbugs and blockheads! And even this foolish woman, with her
+    femininities and re-invigorating society, I believe to be a
+    regular quack. By dad! one would think there had never been a
+    woman in the world before."</p>
+
+    <p>"Your observations are uncalled for"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"By no manner of means," continued the senior, waxing bolder
+    from the sound of his own voice. "I believe you're in a
+    conspiracy to puff each other into reputation; and, if
+    possible, get hold of some silly fellow's daughters. But no
+    painting, chiseling, writing, or sonneteering blackguard, shall
+    ever catch a girl of mine. What the deuce brings <i>you</i>
+    here, sir?" he added, fiercely turning to Mr Sidsby. "You're
+    the impostor that read the first act of a play"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I read it, sir," said the youth, "but didn't write a word
+    of it, I assure you. Bristles is the author, and I gave him six
+    dozen of sherry."</p>
+
+    <p>"No indeed, papa; he never wrote a line in his life," said
+    Sophia.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then he may have you if he likes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor I, except in the ledger," modestly observed Mr Bill
+    Whalley.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then take Emily with all my heart. Here, Daggles," he
+    continue, ringing the bell, "open the street-door, and show
+    these parties out!"</p>
+
+    <p>Amidst muttered threats, fierce looks, and lips contorted
+    into all modes and expression of indignation, the guests
+    speedily disappeared. And while Mr Pitskiver, still panting
+    from his exertions, related to his daughters and their
+    enchanted partners his grounds for anger at the attempt to
+    impose Miss Hendy on him instead of a statue, Mr Daggles shut
+    the front door in great exultation as the last of the intruders
+    vanished, and said&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Snipe, old Pits may do after all. He ain't a bad round of
+    beef; and I almost like our two mutton-chops, since they have
+    freed the house from such shocking sour-crouts and watery
+    taties as I have just flinged into the street."</p>
+
+    <p>But it was impossible to convert the great Mr Bristles to
+    the belief into which his quondam follower, Mr Pitskiver, had
+    fallen as to the qualities of Miss Hendy. That literary
+    gentleman had too just a perception of the virtues of the
+    modern Corinne, and of a comfortable house at Hammersmith, with
+    an income of seven hundred a-year, to allow them to waste their
+    sweetness on some indecent clown, unqualified by genius and
+    education to appreciate them. The result of this resolution was
+    seen in a very few days after the interesting scene in Harley
+    Street; and the following announcement in the newspapers will
+    put our readers in as full a state of knowledge as we can boast
+    of being in ourselves:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Woman's value Vindicated as the teacher and example of Man,
+    by Mrs Bristles, late Miss Hendy, Hammersmith."</p>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page518"
+       id="page518"></a>[pg 518]</span> <a name="ireland"
+          id="ireland"></a>
+
+    <h2>IRELAND.</h2>
+
+    <p>An interdict has rested, through four months, on the
+    discussion of Irish affairs&mdash;an interdict self-imposed by
+    the English press, in a spirit of honourable (almost of
+    superstitious) jealousy on behalf of public justice; jealousy
+    for the law, that it should not be biased by irresponsible
+    statements&mdash;jealousy for the accused, that they should not
+    be prejudiced by extra-judicial charges. At length the
+    interdict is raised, and we are all free once more to discuss
+    the great interests so long sealed up and sequestered by the
+    tribunals of Dublin. Could it have been foreseen or fancied,
+    pending this sequestration, that before it should be removed by
+    the delivery of the verdict, nay, two months before the trial
+    should have closed in a technical sense, by the delivery of the
+    sentence, the original interest (profound as it was) would be
+    obliterated, effaced, practically superseded, by a new phasis
+    of the same unparalleled movement? Yet this has happened. A
+    debate, which (like a series of natural echoes) has awakened
+    and revived all the political transactions of last year in
+    Ireland, should naturally have preserved the same relation to
+    those transactions that any other shadow or reflection bears to
+    the substance. And so it would: but unhappily with these
+    rehearsals of the past, have mingled tumultuous menaces of a
+    new plot. And these menaces, in the very act of uttering
+    themselves, advertise for accomplices, and openly organize
+    themselves as the principle of a new faction for refusing
+    tranquillity once more to Ireland. Once more an opportunity is
+    to be stifled for obtaining rest to that afflicted land.</p>
+
+    <p>This "monster" debate, therefore, presents us in equal
+    proportions with grounds of disgust and terror&mdash;a disgust
+    which forces us often to forget the new form of terror&mdash;a
+    terror (from a new conspiracy) which forces us to forget even
+    the late conspiracy of Repeal, and that glorious catastrophe
+    which has trampled it under foot for ever.</p>
+
+    <p>It is painful to the understanding&mdash;this iteration of
+    statements a thousand times refuted; it is painful to the
+    heart&mdash;this eternal neglect (in exchange for a <i>hear,
+    hear</i>) of what the speaker knows to be mere necessities of a
+    poor distracted land: this folly privileged by courtesy, this
+    treason privileged by the place. If indeed of every idle
+    word&mdash;meaning not trivial word, but word consciously
+    false&mdash;men shall hereafter give account, Heavens! what an
+    arrear, in the single case of Ireland, will by this time have
+    gathered against the House of Commons! Perfectly appalled we
+    are when we look into the formless chaos of that nine nights'
+    debate! Beginning with a motion which he who made it did not
+    wish<a id="fn_7_tag1"
+       name="fn_7_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_7_1"><sup>1</sup></a> to
+       succeed&mdash;ending <span class="pagenum"><a name="page519"
+       id="page519"></a>[pg 519]</span> with a vote by which
+       one-half of the parties to that vote meant the flattest
+       contradiction of all that was contemplated by the rest. On
+       this quarter, a section raging in the highest against the
+       Protestant church&mdash;on that quarter, a section (in
+       terror of their constituents) vowing aid to this church, and
+       yet allying themselves with men pledged to her destruction.
+       <i>Here</i>, men rampant against the Minister as having
+       strained the laws, in what regarded Ireland, for the sake of
+       a vigour altogether unnecessary; <i>there</i>, men
+       threatening impeachment&mdash;as for a lenity in the same
+       case altogether intolerable! To the right, "how durst you
+       diminish the army in Ireland, leaving that country, up to
+       March 1843, with a force lower by 2400 rank and file shall
+       the lowest that the Whigs had maintained?" To the left, "how
+       durst you govern Ireland by martial strength?" Question from
+       the Minister&mdash;"Will you of the Opposition place popish
+       bishops in the House of Lords?" Answer from a premature
+       sponsor of Lord John's&mdash;"We will." Answer from Lord
+       John&mdash;"I will not." <i>Question retrospective</i> from
+       the Conservatives&mdash;"What is it, not being already done,
+       that we could have done for Ireland?" <i>Answer</i> from the
+       Liberals&mdash;"Oh, a thousand things!" <i>Question
+       prospective</i> from the Conservatives&mdash;"What is it,
+       then, in particular, that you, in our places, would do for
+       Ireland? Name it." <i>Answer</i> from the
+       Liberals&mdash;"Oh, nothing in particular!" Sir R. Peel
+       ought to have done for Ireland whole worlds of new things.
+       But the Liberals, with the very same power to <i>do</i>
+       heretofore, and to <i>propose</i> now, neither did then, nor
+       can propose at present. And why? partly because the
+       privilege of acting for Ireland, so fruitful in reproaches,
+       is barren in practice: the one thing that remained to be
+       done,&mdash;viz. the putting down agitators&mdash;<i>has</i>
+       been done; and partly because the privilege of proposing for
+       Ireland is dangerous: first, as pledging themselves
+       hereafter; second, because to specify, though it were in so
+       trivial a matter as the making pounds into guineas for
+       Maynooth, is but to put on record, and to publish their own
+       party incapacity to agree upon any one of the merest trifles
+       imaginable. Anarchy of anarchies, very mob of very mobs,
+       whose internal strife is greater than your common enmity
+       <i>ab extra</i>&mdash;what shall we believe? Which is your
+       true doctrine? Where do you fasten your real charge? Amongst
+       conflicting arguments, which is it that you adopt? Amongst
+       self-destroying purposes, for which is it that you make your
+       election?</p>
+
+    <p>It might seem almost unnecessary to answer those who thus
+    answer themselves, or to expose the ruinous architecture of
+    politicians, who thus with mutual hands tear down their own
+    walls as they advance, were it not for the other aspect of the
+    debate. But the times are agitated; the crisis of Ireland is
+    upon us; now, or not at all, there is an opening for a new dawn
+    to arise upon the distracted land; and when a public necessity
+    calls for a contradiction of the enemy, it is a providential
+    bounty that we are able to plead his <i>self</i>-contradiction.
+    In the hurry of the public mind, there is always a danger that
+    many great advantages for the truth should be overlooked: even
+    things seen steadily, yet seen but once and amongst alien
+    objects, are seen to little purpose. Lowered also in their
+    apparent value by the prejudice, that what passes in parliament
+    is but the harmless skirmishing of partisanship, dazzling the
+    eye, but innocuous as the aurora borealis, demonstrations only
+    too certain of coming evils receive but little attention in
+    their earlier stages. Yet undoubtedly, if the laws applicable
+    to conspiracy can in any way be evaded, we may see by the
+    extensive cabal now organizing itself in England for aiding the
+    Irish conspiracy to overthrow the Irish Protestant church, that
+    we have but exchanged one form of agitation for a worse. Worse
+    in what respect? Not as measured simply by the ruin it would
+    cause&mdash;between ruin and ruin, there is little reason for
+    choice; but worse, as having all the old supporters that Repeal
+    ever counted, and many others beside. Especially with Repeal
+    agitation recommending itself to the Irish priesthood, and to
+    those whom the priesthood can put in motion, it will recommend
+    itself also and separately to vast multitudes amongst
+    ourselves. It is worse also&mdash;not because in the event more
+    ruinous, but because in its means less desperate. All the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page520"
+       id="page520"></a>[pg 520]</span> factious in politics and
+       the schismatic in religion&mdash;all those who, caring
+       little or nothing about religion as a <i>spiritual</i>
+       interest, seek to overthrow the present Ministers&mdash;all
+       those who (caring little or nothing about politics as a
+       trading interest) seek to overthrow the Church of
+       England&mdash;all, again, who are distressed in point of
+       patriotism, as in Ireland many are, hoping to establish a
+       foreign influence upon any prosperous body of native
+       prejudice against British influence, are now throwing
+       themselves, as by a forlorn hope, into this rearmost of
+       their batteries, (but also the strongest)&mdash;a deadly and
+       combined struggle to pull down the Irish Protestant
+       establishment. And why? because nothing else is left to them
+       as a hopeful subject of conspiracy, now that the Repeal
+       conspiracy is crushed; and because in its own nature an
+       assault upon Protestantism has always been a promising
+       speculation&mdash;sure to draw support from England, whilst
+       Repeal drew none; and because such an assault strikes at the
+       citadel of our strength. For the established church of
+       Ireland is the one main lever by which Great Britain carries
+       out the machinery of her power over the Irish people. The
+       Protestant church is by analogy the umbilical cord through
+       which England connects herself <i>materially</i> with
+       Ireland; through <i>that</i> she propagates her milder
+       influence; <i>that</i> gone, the rest would offer only
+       coercive influence. Without going diffusively into such a
+       point, two vast advantages to the civil administration, from
+       the predominance of a Protestant church in Ireland, meet us
+       at the threshold: 1st, that it moulds by the gentlest of all
+       possible agencies the <i>recusant</i> part of this Irish
+       nation into a growing conformity with the two other limbs of
+       the empire. The Irish population is usually assumed at about
+       one fourth part of the total imperial population. Now, the
+       gradual absorption of so large a section amongst our
+       resources into the temper, sympathies, and moral habits of
+       the rest, is an object to be kept in view by every
+       successive government, let their politics otherwise be what
+       they may; and therefore to be kept in view by all Irish
+       institutions. In Canada everybody is <i>now</i> aware how
+       much this country has been wanting to herself, (that is,
+       wanting to the united interests equally of England and
+       Canada,) in not having operated from the first upon the
+       political dispositions of the old French population by the
+       powerful machinery of her own language, and in some cases of
+       her institutions. Her neglect in this instance she now feels
+       to have been at her own cost, and therefore politically to
+       have been her crime. Granting to her population a certain
+       degree of education, and of familiarity with the English
+       language, certain civic privileges, (as those of voting at
+       political elections, of holding offices, profitable or
+       honorary, &amp;c.,) under such reasonable latitude as to
+       time as might have made the transition easy, England would
+       have prevented the late wicked insurrection in Canada, and
+       gradually have obliterated the external monuments of French
+       remembrances, which have served only to nurse a senseless
+       (because a hopeless) enmity. Now, in Ireland, the Protestant
+       predominance has long since trained and moulded the channels
+       through which flows the ordinary ambition of her national
+       aristocracy. The Popery of Ireland settles and roots itself
+       chiefly in the peasantry of three provinces. The bias of the
+       gentry, and of the aspiring in all ranks, is towards
+       Protestantism. Activity of mind and honourable ambition in
+       every land, where the two forms of Christianity are
+       politically in equilibrium, move in that same line of
+       direction. Undoubtedly the Emancipation bill of 1829 was
+       calculated, or might have seemed calculated, to disturb this
+       old order of tendencies. But against that disturbance, and
+       in defiance of the unexampled liberality shown to Papists
+       upon <i>every</i> mode of national competition, there is
+       still in action (<i>and judging by the condition of the
+       Irish bar, in undiminished action</i>) the old spontaneous
+       tendency of Protestantism to 'go ahead;' the fact being that
+       the original independency and freedom of the Protestant
+       principle not only create this tendency, but also meet and
+       favour it wherever nature has already created it, so as to
+       operate in the way of a perpetual bounty upon Protestant
+       leanings. Here, therefore, is <i>one</i> of the great
+       advantages to every English government
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page521"
+       id="page521"></a>[pg 521]</span> from upholding and
+       fostering, in all modes left open by the Emancipation bill,
+       the Protestant principle&mdash;viz. as a principle which is
+       the pledge of a continual tendency to union; since, as no
+       prejudice can flatter itself with seeing the twenty-one
+       millions of our Protestant population pass over to Popery,
+       it remains that we encourage a tendency in the adverse
+       direction, long since established and annually increasing
+       amongst the six and a half Irish Papists. Thus only can our
+       total population be fused; and without that fusion, it will
+       scarcely be hoped that we can enjoy the whole unmutilated
+       use of our own latent power.</p>
+
+    <p>Towards such a purpose therefore, <i>as tending to union</i>
+    by its political effects, the Protestant predominancy is
+    useful; and secondly, were it no otherwise useful, it is so to
+    every possible administration by means of its patronage. This
+    function of a government&mdash;which, being withdrawn, no
+    government could have the means of sustaining itself for a
+    year&mdash;connects the collateral channels of Irish honours
+    and remunerations with the great national current of similar
+    distributions at home. We see that the Scottish establishment,
+    although differing essentially by church government, yet on the
+    ground that doctrinally it is almost in alliance with the
+    Church of England, has not (except by a transient caprice)
+    refused to the crown a portion of its patronage. On the other
+    hand, if the Roman Catholic church were installed as the ruling
+    church, every avenue and access for the government to the
+    administration of national resources so great, would be closed
+    at once. These evils from the overthrow of the Protestant
+    church, we mention <i>in limine</i>, not as the
+    greatest&mdash;they are the least; or, at any rate, they are so
+    with reference to the highest interests&mdash;but for their
+    immediate results upon the purposes common to all governments;
+    and <i>there</i> they would be fatal, for any Roman Catholic
+    church, where it happens also (like the Irish) to be a Papal
+    church, neither will nor <i>can</i> confide privileges of this
+    nature to the state. A Papal church, not modified (as the
+    Gallican church) by <i>original</i> limitations of the Papal
+    authority, not modified (as even the bigoted churches of
+    Portugal and Austria) by modern <i>conventional</i> limitations
+    of that alien authority, gloomily refuses and must refuse, to
+    accept any thing from the state, for the simple reason that she
+    is incapacitated for giving any thing. Wisely, according to the
+    wisdom of this world, she cuts away from below the footing of
+    the state all ground on which a pretence could ever be advanced
+    for interfering with herself. Consequently, whosoever, and by
+    whatsoever organs, would suffer from the overthrow of the Irish
+    church as now established by law, the administration of the
+    land would feel the effects from such a change, first and
+    instantly. Let us not mistake the case. Mr O'Connell did not
+    seriously aim at Repeal&mdash;<i>that</i> he knew too well to
+    be an enterprise which could not surmount its earliest stages
+    without coming into collision with the armed forces of the
+    land; and no man will ever believe that he dreamed of
+    prevailing <i>there</i>. What was it, then, that he <i>did</i>
+    aim at? It was the establishment in supremacy of the Papal
+    church. His meaning was, in case he had been left quietly to
+    build up his aspiring purpose so high as seriously to alarm the
+    government, then suddenly to halt, to propose by way of
+    compromise some step in advance for his own church. Suppose
+    that some arrangement which should have the effect of placing
+    that church on a footing of equality, as a privileged (not as
+    an endowed) church, with the present establishment; this
+    gained, he might have safely left the church herself
+    thenceforwards, from such a position of advantage, to fight her
+    way onwards, to the utter destruction of her rival.</p>
+
+    <p>Thus it was that the conspirators hoped to terrify the
+    minister into secret negotiation and compromise. But that hope
+    failed. The minister was firm. He watched and waited his
+    opportunity; he kept his eye settled upon them, to profit by
+    the first opening which their folly should offer to the
+    dreadful artillery of law. At last, said the minister, we will
+    put to proof this vaunt of yours. We dare not bring you to
+    trial, is your boast. Now, we will see that settled; and, at
+    the same time, we will try whether
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page522"
+       id="page522"></a>[pg 522]</span> we cannot put you down for
+       ever. That trial was made, and with what perfection of
+       success the reader knows; for let us remind him, that the
+       perfection we speak of lay as much in the manner of the
+       trial as in its result&mdash;in the sanctities of
+       abstinence, in the holy forbearance to use any one of many
+       decent advantages, in the reverence for the sublime equities
+       of law. Oh, mightiest of spectacles which human grandeur can
+       unfold to the gaze of less civilized nations, when the
+       ermine of the judge and the judgment-seat, belted by no
+       swords, bristling with no bayonets&mdash;when the shadowy
+       power of conscience, citing, as it were, into the immediate
+       presence of God twelve upright men, accomplishing for great
+       kingdoms, by one day's memorable verdict, that solemn
+       revolution which elsewhere would have caused torrents of
+       blood to flow, and would perhaps have unsealed the tears of
+       generations. Since the trial of the seven
+       bishops<a id="fn_7_tag2"
+       name="fn_7_tag2"></a><a href="#fn_7_2"><sup>2</sup></a>&mdash;which
+       inaugurated for England the certainty that for <i>her</i>
+       the "bloody writing" was torn which would have consigned her
+       children to the mercies of despotism&mdash;there has been no
+       such crisis, no such agitation, no such almighty triumph.
+       Here was the <i>second</i> chapter of the history; and
+       lastly, that the nine nights' debate attached itself as the
+       <i>third</i>, is evident from its real purpose, which may be
+       expressed strictly in this problem: Given, as a fact beyond
+       all doubt, that O'Connell's Repeal conspiracy is for ever
+       shattered; let it now be proposed, as a thing worthy of the
+       combined parties in opposition, to find out some vicarious
+       or supplementary matter for sedition. A new agitation must
+       be found, gentlemen&mdash;a new grievance must be had, or
+       Ireland is tranquillized, and we are lost. Was there ever a
+       case illustrating so strongly the maxim, that no man can be
+       effectually ruined except by himself? Here is Lord John
+       Russell, taxed a thousand times with having not merely used
+       Mr O'Connell as an ally, but actually as having lent himself
+       to Mr O'Connell as an instrument. Is that true? A wise man,
+       kind-hearted, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page523"
+       id="page523"></a>[pg 523]</span> and liberal in the
+       construction of motives, will have found himself hitherto
+       unwilling to suppose a thing so full of disgrace; he will
+       have fancied arguments for scepticism. But just at this
+       moment of critical suspense, forth steps Lord John himself,
+       and by his own act dissipates all doubts, frankly
+       subscribing the whole charge against himself; for his own
+       motion reveals and publishes his wrath against the ministers
+       for having extinguished the only man, viz. a piratical
+       conspirator, by whose private license there was any safety
+       for navigating the sea of Irish politics. The exact relation
+       in which Lord John had hitherto stood to Mr O'Connell, was
+       that of a land-owner paying black-mail to the cateran who
+       guaranteed his flocks from molestation: how naturally must
+       the grazier turn with fury on the man who, by suppressing
+       his guardian, has made it hopeless for the future to gain
+       private ease by trafficking in public wrongs! The real
+       grievance was, the lopping Dagon of all power to stand
+       erect, and thus laying the Whig-radical under the necessity
+       of "walking in the light of the constitution" without aid
+       from Irish crutches. The real<i>onus</i> imposed on Lord
+       John's party is, where to look for, and how to suborn, some
+       new idol and some fresh idolatry. Still to dispense with the
+       laws in Ireland in the event of their own return to power,
+       still to banish tranquillity from Ireland in the event of
+       Sir Robert's power continuing, required that some new
+       conspiracy should be cited to the public service, possibly
+       (after the 15th of April) some new conspirator. The new
+       seditious movement could not be doubtful: by many degrees of
+       preference, the war upon the Irish church had the "call."
+       This is to be the war now pursued, and with advantages (as
+       we have already said) never possessed by the Repeal cause.
+       The chief advantage of <i>that</i> lay in the utter darkness
+       to the Irish peasantry of the word "Repeal." What it meant
+       no wizard could guess; and merely as a subject to allure by
+       uncertain hopes, on the old maxim of "omne ignotum pro
+       magnifico," the choice of that word had considerable merit.
+       But the cause of Popery has another kind of merit, and
+       (again we remind the reader) reposes upon another kind of
+       support. In that cause the Irish peasantry will be
+       unaffectedly and spontaneously zealous; in that cause there
+       will be a confluence from many quarters of English aid. Far
+       other phenomena will now come forward. Meetings, even of the
+       kind convened by Mr O'Connell, are not, we must remember,
+       found to be unlawful by the issue of the late trials. Had
+       certain melodramatic features been as cautiously banished
+       from Mr O'Connell's parades as latterly they were affectedly
+       sought, it is certain that, to this hour, he and his
+       pretended myriads would have been untouched by the petrific
+       mace of the policeman. Lay aside this theatrical costuming
+       of cavalry, of military step, &amp;c., and it will be found
+       that these meetings were lawful. Most certainly a meeting
+       for the purpose of petitioning is not, and (unless by its
+       own folly) never can be, found unlawful.</p>
+
+    <p>But may not this new conspiracy, which is now mustering and
+    organizing itself, be put down summarily by force? We may judge
+    of <i>that</i> by what has happened to the old conspiracy. Put
+    down by martial violence, or by the police, Repeal would have
+    retired for the moment only to come forward and reconstruct
+    itself in successive shapes of mischief not provided for by
+    law, or not shaped to meet the grasp of an executive so limited
+    as, in these days, any English executive must find itself. On
+    the other hand, once brought under the cognizance of law, it
+    has been crushed in its fraudulent form, and compelled to
+    transmigrate at once into that sincere, substantial, and final
+    form, towards which it was always tending. Whatever of extra
+    peril is connected with a movement so much more intelligible
+    than Repeal, and so much more in alliance with the natural
+    prepossessions of the Irish mind&mdash;better it is, after all,
+    that this peril should be forced to show itself in open
+    daylight, than that it should be lurking in ambush or mining
+    underground; ready for a burst when other mischief might be
+    abroad, or evading the clue of our public guardians. Besides
+    that, Repeal also had its own peculiar terrors, notwithstanding
+    that it did not grow up originally upon any stock of popular
+    wishes, but <span class="pagenum"><a name="page524"
+       id="page524"></a>[pg 524]</span> had been an artificial
+       growth propagated by an artificial inoculation. That flame
+       also could burn fiercely when fanned by incendiaries,
+       although it did not supply its own combustibles. And, think
+       as we may of the two evils, valued as mischief against
+       mischief, Repeal against Anti-protestantism, certain it is,
+       that one most important advantage has accrued to Government
+       from the change. Fighting against Repeal, they had to rely
+       upon one sole resource of doubtful issue; for, after all,
+       the law stood on the interpretation of a jury, and therefore
+       too much on the soundness of individual minds; whereas in
+       meeting the assaults of Anti-protestantism, backed as it is
+       by six millions of combatants, ministers will find
+       themselves reposing on the whole strength of two nations,
+       and of that section, even amongst the Irish, which is
+       socially the strongest. An old enemy is thus replaced by a
+       new one many hundred-fold more naturally malignant; true,
+       but immediately the new one will call forth a natural
+       antagonism many thousand-fold more determined. Such is the
+       result; and, though alarming in itself, for ministers it
+       remains an advantage and a trophy. How was this result
+       accomplished? By a Fabian policy of watching, waiting,
+       warding, and assaulting at the right moment. Three times
+       within the last twelve months have the Government been
+       thrown upon their energies of attack and defence; three
+       times have they been summoned to the most trying exercise of
+       skill&mdash;vigilantly to parry, and seasonably to strike:
+       <i>first</i>, when their duty was to watch and to arrest
+       agitation; <i>secondly</i>, when their duty was, by process
+       of law, to crush agitation; <i>thirdly</i>, when their duty
+       was to explain and justify before Parliament whatsoever they
+       had done through the two former stages. Now, then, let us
+       rapidly pursue the steps of our ministers through each
+       severally of these three stages; and by seasonable
+       <i>resum&eacute;</i> or recapitulation, however brief, let
+       us claim the public praise for what merits praise, and apply
+       our vindication to what has been most misrepresented. The
+       first charge preferred against the Government was, that it
+       did not instantly attack the Repealers on their earliest
+       appearance. We must all recollect this charge, and the
+       bitterness with which it was urged during the whole of last
+       summer; for, in fact, the difference of opinion upon this
+       question led to a schism even amongst the Conservative party
+       and press. The majority, headed by the leading morning
+       paper, have treated it to this day as a ground of suspicion
+       against Government, or at least as an impeachment of their
+       courage, that they should have lingered or hesitated upon
+       the proper policy. Our Journal was amongst the few which,
+       after considerable reflection and perhaps doubt, defended
+       the course adopted; and specifically upon the following
+       suggestion, <i>inter alia</i>, viz. that Peel and the
+       Wellesley were assuredly at that moment watching Mr
+       O'Connell, not at all, therefore, hesitating as to the
+       general character of the policy to be observed, but only
+       waiting for the best mode (best in effect, best in
+       popularity) of enforcing that policy. And we may remind our
+       readers, that on that occasion we applied to the situation
+       of the two parties, as they stood watching and watched, the
+       passage from Wordsworth&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"The vacillating bondsman of the Pope</p>
+
+            <p>Shrinks from the verdict of that steadfast eye."</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>There was no great merit in being right; but it is proper to
+    remind our readers that we <i>were</i> right. And there is
+    considerable merit, more merit than appears, in not having been
+    wrong; for in that we should have followed not only a vast
+    leading majority amongst public authorities, but we should have
+    followed an instinct of impassioned justice, which cannot
+    endure to witness the triumph, though known to be but fugitive,
+    of insolence and hyperbolical audacity. Not as partisans, which
+    was proved by the caution of our manner, but after some
+    deliberation, we expressed our conviction that Government was
+    not slumbering, but surveying its ground, taking up its
+    position, and trying the range of its artillery, in order to
+    strike surely, to strike once, but so that no second blow
+    should be needed. All <span class="pagenum"><a name="page525"
+       id="page525"></a>[pg 525]</span> this has been done; so far
+       our predictions have been realized; and to that extent the
+       Government has vindicated itself. But still it may be asked,
+       to <i>what</i> extent? Doubtless the thing has been done,
+       and done completely. Yet <i>that</i> will not necessarily
+       excuse the Government. To be well done is, in many cases,
+       all that we require; but in questions of civil policy often
+       there is even more importance that it should be <i>soon</i>
+       done, done maturely, (that is, seasonably done with a view
+       to certain evils growing up concurrently with the evil,)
+       done even prematurely with respect to immediate bad
+       consequences open to instant arrest. At this moment amongst
+       the parliamentary opponents of ministers, though some are
+       taxing them with unconstitutional harshness, (or at least
+       with that <i>summum jus</i> which the Roman proverb
+       denounces as <i>summa injuria</i>,) in having ever
+       interfered at all with Mr O'Connell, others of the same
+       faction are roundly imputing to them a system of decoy, a
+       "laying of traps," (that was the word,) in waiting so
+       patiently for the ripening of the Repeal frenzy. Upon the
+       same principle, a criminal may have a right to complain that
+       her Majesty, when extending mercy to a first crime, or a
+       crime palliated by its circumstances, and that a merciful
+       prosecutor who intercedes effectually on his behalf with the
+       court, have both been laying a trap for his future conduct;
+       since, assuredly, there is one motive the less to a base
+       nature for abstaining from evil in the mitigated
+       consequences which the evil drew after it. On the same
+       principle the Repealers, having found Sir R. Peel so
+       anxious, in the first stages of their career, to spare them
+       altogether, were seduced into thinking that surely he never
+       would strike so hard when at length he had made ready to
+       strike. Still, with submission, we think that to found false
+       expectations upon a spirit of lenity, and upon that mistake
+       to found an abuse of goodness that was really sincere, was
+       not the fault of Sir R. Peel, but of the Repealers. Any
+       man's goodness becomes a trap to him who is capable of
+       making it such; since the most noble forbearance,
+       misinterpreted as fear, will probably enough operate as a
+       snare for such a person by tempting him into excesses
+       calculated to rouse that courage with which all genuine
+       forbearance is associated. If the early moderation of
+       Government did really entrap any man, that man has himself,
+       and his own meanness of heart, to thank for his delusion.
+       But were it otherwise, and the Government became properly
+       responsible for any possible misinterpretation of their own
+       lenity&mdash;even in that case, it will remain to be
+       enquired whether Government <i>could</i> have acted
+       otherwise than it did. For else, though Government could owe
+       little enough to the conspirator; yet with respect to the
+       ill-educated and misled labouring man, whose honest
+       sensibilities were so grievously played upon by traitors, we
+       do ourselves conceive that Government had a clamorous duty.
+       If such men by thousands believed that the cause of Repeal
+       was patriotic, that we consider a delusion not of a kind or
+       a class to challenge exposure from Government; they have
+       neither such functions assigned to them, nor could they
+       assume any office of teaching without suspicion. But when
+       the credulity of the poor was shown also in anticipating
+       impunity for the leader of Repeal, and upon the ground that
+       ministers feared him, when for this belief there was really
+       much plausible sanction in the behaviour of the Whig
+       ministers&mdash;too plainly it became a marked duty of Sir
+       Robert Peel to warn them how matters stood; to let them know
+       that sedition tended to dangerous results, and that
+       <i>his</i> Government was bound by no secret understanding,
+       with sedition for averting its natural penalties. So much,
+       we all agree, was due from the present Government to the
+       poorer classes; and exactly because former governments had
+       practically taken another view of sedition. If, therefore,
+       Sir R. Peel had left unpaid this great debt, he failed
+       grievously in the duties of his high office; but we are of
+       opinion that he did <i>not</i>. We have an obscure
+       remembrance that the Queen's speech uttered a voice on this
+       point&mdash;a solemn, a monitory, a parental voice. We seem
+       to recollect also, that in his own parliamentary place he
+       warned the deluded followers of Repeal&mdash;that they were
+       engaged in a chase that must be fruitless, and
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page526"
+       id="page526"></a>[pg 526]</span> might easily become
+       criminal. What was open to him, therefore, Sir Robert did.
+       He applied motives, such as there were within his power, to
+       lure men away from this seditious service. The "traps" he
+       laid were all in that direction. If more is required of him
+       by people arguing the case at present, it remains to ask
+       whether more was at that time in his power.</p>
+
+    <p>The present administration came into power in September
+    1841. Why the Repealers did not go to work instantly, is more
+    than we can explain; but so it was. In March of 1843, and not
+    sooner, Mr O'Connell opened a new shop of mercenary agitation,
+    and probably for the last time that he will ever do so. The
+    <i>surveillance</i> of Government, it now appears, commenced
+    almost simultaneously; why not the reaction of Government? Upon
+    that it is worth spending a few words. It is now made known to
+    the public, that from the very first Sir R. Peel had taken such
+    measures of precaution as were really open to him. In
+    communicating, officially with any district whatsoever, in any
+    one of the three kingdoms, the proper channel through which the
+    directions travel is the lord-lieutenant of the particular
+    county in which the district lies. He is the direct
+    representative of the sovereign&mdash;he stands at the head of
+    the county magistrates, and is officially the organ between the
+    executive and his own rural province. To this officer in every
+    county, Sir R. Peel addressed a letter of instructions; and the
+    principle on which these instructions turned was&mdash;that for
+    the present he was to exercise a jealous neutrality; not
+    interfering without further directions in ordinary cases, that
+    is, where simply Repeal was advocated, or individuals were
+    abused; but that, on the first <i>suggestion</i> of local
+    outrages, the first <i>incitement</i> to mischief, arrests and
+    other precautionary measures were to take place. Not much more
+    than twenty years are gone by, since magistrates moved on
+    principles so wholly different, that now, and to the youthful
+    of this generation, they would seem monstrous. In those days,
+    let any man be found to swear that he apprehended danger to his
+    property, or violence to his person, from the assembling of a
+    mob in a place assigned, and the magistrate would have held it
+    his duty to disperse or prevent that meeting. But now <i>on a
+    chang&eacute; tout cela</i>; and as easily might a magistrate
+    of this day commit Fanny Elssler as a vagabond. Yet even in
+    these days we have heard it mooted&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>1. On the mere ground of <i>numerical amount</i>, and as for
+    that reason alone an uncontrollable mass, might not such a
+    meeting have been liable to dispersion?
+    <i>Answer</i>&mdash;this allegation of monstrous numbers was
+    uniformly a falsehood; and a falsehood gross and childish. Was
+    it for the dignity of Government to assume, as grounds of
+    action, fables so absurd as these? <i>Not</i> to have assumed
+    them, will never be made an argument of blame against the
+    Executive; and, indeed, it was not possible to do so, since
+    Government had employed qualified persons to estimate the
+    numbers, and in some instances to measure the ground. The only
+    real charge against Government, in connexion with these fables,
+    is (and we grieve to say it) that of having echoed them, in an
+    ambiguous way, at one point of the trials; not exactly assuming
+    them for true, and resting any other truth upon their credit,
+    but repeating them as parts <i>inter alia</i> of current
+    popular hearsay. Now this, though probably the act of some
+    subordinate officer, does a double indignity to Government; it
+    is discreditable to the understanding, if such palpable nursery
+    tales are adopted for any purpose; and openly to adulterate
+    with falsehood, even in those cases where the falsehood is not
+    associated with folly, still more deeply wounds the character
+    of an honourable government. But, besides, had the numerical
+    estimates stood upon any footing of truth, mere numbers could
+    not have been pleaded as an argument for reasonable alarm. The
+    false estimate was not pleaded by the Repealers until
+    <i>after</i> the meetings, and as an inference from facts. But
+    the use of the argument was <i>before</i> the meeting, and to
+    prevent the meeting. And if the experience of past meetings
+    were urged as an argument for presuming that the coming one
+    would be not less numerous, concurrently would be urged this
+    same experience as a demonstration that no
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page527"
+       id="page527"></a>[pg 527]</span> danger was to be
+       apprehended. Dangerous the meetings certainly were in
+       another sense; but, in the police sense, so little
+       dangerous, that each successive meeting squared, cubed,
+       &amp;c., in geometrical progression the guarantee in point
+       of safety for all meetings that were to follow.</p>
+
+    <p>2. On the ground of <i>sedition</i>, and disaffection to the
+    Government, might not these assemblages have been lawfully
+    dispersed or prevented? Unfortunately, not under our modern
+    atmosphere of political liberality. In time of war, when it may
+    again become necessary, for the very salvation of the land, to
+    suspend the <i>habeas corpus</i> act, sedition would revive
+    into a new meaning. But, at all times, sedition is of too
+    unlimited a nature to form the basis of an affidavit sworn
+    before a police magistrate; and it is an idea which very much
+    sympathizes with the <i>general</i> principles of political
+    rights. When these are unusually licentious, sedition is
+    interpreted liberally and laxly. Where danger tightens the
+    restraints upon popular liberty, the idea of sedition is more
+    narrowly defined. Sedition, besides, very much depends upon
+    overt acts as expounding it. And to take any controversial
+    ground for the basis of restraint upon personal liberty, would
+    probably end in disappointment. At the same time, we must make
+    one remark. Some months ago, in considering what offence was
+    committed by the public avowal of the Repeal doctrine, we
+    contended, that it amounted constructively to treason; and on
+    the following argument&mdash;Why had any body supposed it
+    lawful to entertain or to propagate such a doctrine? Simply, on
+    the reflexion that, up to the summer of 1800, there <i>was</i>
+    no union with Ireland: since August of that 1800, this great
+    change had been made. And by what? By an act of Parliament. But
+    could there be any harm in seeking the repeal of a
+    parliamentary act? Is not <i>that</i> done in every session of
+    the two Houses? And as to the more or less importance of an
+    act, <i>that</i> is a matter of opinion. But we contended, that
+    the sanctity of an act is to be deduced from the sanctity of
+    the subjects for which it legislates. And in proof of this, we
+    alleged the <i>Act of Settlement</i>. Were it so, that simply
+    the term <i>Act of Parliament</i> implied a license universally
+    for undoing and canceling it, then how came the Act of
+    Settlement to enjoy so peculiar a consecration? We take upon us
+    to say&mdash;that, in any year since the Revolution of 1688-9,
+    to have called a meeting for the purpose of framing a petition
+    against this act, would have been treason. Might not Parliament
+    itself entertain a motion for repealing it, or for modifying
+    it? Certainly; for we have no laws resembling those Athenian
+    laws, which made it capitally punishable to propose their
+    repeal. And secondly,&mdash;no body external to the two Houses,
+    however venerable, can have power to take cognizance of words
+    uttered in either of those Houses. Every Parliament, of
+    necessity, must be invested with a discretionary power over
+    every arrangement made by their predecessors. Each several
+    Parliament must have the same power to <i>undo</i>, which
+    former Parliaments had to <i>do</i>. The two Houses have the
+    keys of St Peter&mdash;to unloose in the nineteenth century
+    whatever the earliest Parliament in the twelfth century could
+    bind. But this privilege is proper and exclusive to the two
+    Houses acting in conjunction. Outside their walls, no man has
+    power to do more than to propose as a petitioner some lawful
+    change. But how could that be a lawful change which must begin
+    by proposing to shift the allegiance into some other channel
+    than that in which it now flows? The line of succession, as
+    limited in the act, is composed of persons all interested. As
+    against <i>them</i>, merely contingent and reversionary heirs,
+    no treason could exist. But we have supposed the attempt to be
+    against the individual family then occupying the throne. And it
+    is clear that no pretence, drawn from the repealable nature of
+    an English law, can avail to make it less, or other than
+    treason, for a person outside of Parliament to propose the
+    repeal of <i>this</i> act as to any point affecting the
+    existing royal family, or at least, so many of that family as
+    are privileged persons known to the constitution. Now, then,
+    this remark instantly points to two classes of acts; one upon
+    which to all men is open
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page528"
+       id="page528"></a>[pg 528]</span> the right of calling for
+       Repeal; another upon which no such right is open. But if
+       this be so, then to urge the legality of calling for a
+       Repeal of the Union, on the ground that this union rests
+       only upon an act of Parliament, is absurd; because that
+       leaves it still doubtful whether this act falls under the
+       one class or the other.</p>
+
+    <p>Why do we mention this? Because we think it exceedingly
+    important that the attention of parliament should be called to
+    the subject, and to the necessity of holding certain points in
+    our constitution as absolutely sacred. If a man or party should
+    go about proclaiming the unlawfulness, in a religious sense, of
+    <i>property</i>, and agitating for that doctrine amongst the
+    lower classes by appropriate arguments&mdash;it would soon be
+    found necessary to check them, and the sanctity of property
+    would soon be felt to merit civil support. Possibly it will be
+    replied&mdash;"Supposing the revolutionary doctrines followed
+    by overt acts, then the true redress is by attacking these
+    acts." Yet every body feels that, if the doctrine and the acts
+    continued to propagate themselves, very soon both would be
+    punished. In the case where missionaries incited negro slaves
+    to outrages on property, or were said to do so, nobody proposed
+    to punish only the overt outrages. So, again, in the event of
+    those doctrines being revived which denounced all differences
+    of rank, and the official distinctions of civil government, it
+    would be too late to punish the results after the bonds of
+    society were generally relaxed. Ministers are placed in a very
+    false position, continually taxing a man with proposing the
+    repeal of a law as if <i>that</i> were an admitted crime, and
+    yet also pronouncing the proposed repeal of any law to be a
+    privilege of every citizen. They will soon find it necessary to
+    make their election for one or other of these incompatible
+    views.</p>
+
+    <p>Meantime, in direct opposition to this uncertainty of the
+    ministers, the Irish Attorney-General has drawn the same
+    argument from the Act of Settlement which we have drawn. In
+    February 1844, the Irish Attorney-General pronounced his views;
+    <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i> in August or September 1843. A fact
+    which we mention&mdash;not as imputing to that learned
+    gentleman any obligation to ourselves; for, on the contrary, it
+    strengthens the opinion to have been <i>independently</i>
+    adopted by different minds, but in order to acquit ourselves
+    from the natural suspicion of having, in a legal question,
+    derived our own views from a high legal authority.</p>
+
+    <p>3. Might not the Repeal Association have been arrested and
+    prosecuted at first, viz. in March 1843, as six months
+    afterwards they were, on a charge of conspiracy? That was a
+    happy thought, by whomsoever suggested; and strange that an
+    idea, so often applied to minor offences as well as to
+    political offences, should not at once have been seen to press
+    with crushing effect upon these disturbers of the public peace.
+    Since the great change in the combination laws, this doctrine
+    of conspiracy is the only means by which masters retain any
+    power at all. Wheresoever there are reciprocal rights, for one
+    of the two antagonist interests to combine in defence of their
+    own, presupposes in very many cases an unfair disturbance of
+    the legal equilibrium. Society, as being an inert body in
+    relation to any separate interests of its own, and chiefly from
+    the obscurity of these interests, cannot be supposed to
+    combine; and therefore cannot combine even to prevent
+    combinations. Government is the perpetual guardian and organ of
+    society in relation to its interests. Government, therefore,
+    prosecutes. This, however, left the original question as to the
+    Repeal of the Irish Union act, whether a lawful attempt or not
+    lawful, untouched. And necessary it was to do so. Had the
+    prosecutor even been satisfied on that point, no jury would
+    have regarded it as other than a delicate question in the
+    casuistry of political metaphysics. But the offence of
+    combining, by means of tumultuous meetings, and by means of
+    connecting with this obscure question rancorous nationalities
+    or personalities, so as to make <i>that</i> a matter of
+    agitating interest to poor men, which else they would have
+    regarded as a pure scholastic abstraction&mdash;this was a
+    crime well understood by the jury; and thence
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page529"
+       id="page529"></a>[pg 529]</span> flowed the verdict. But
+       could not the same verdict have been obtained in the month
+       of March? Certainly not. For the act of <i>conspiracy</i>
+       must prove itself by collusion between speeches and
+       speeches, between speeches and newspapers, between reporters
+       and newspapers, between newspaper and newspaper. But in the
+       infancy of such a concern, these links of concert and mutual
+       reverberation are few, hard to collect, and unless
+       carelessly diffused, (as in the palmy days of the Repeal
+       Association they were,) difficult to prove.</p>
+
+    <p>In short, no indictment could have availed that was not
+    founded on the offence of conspiracy; and <i>that</i> would not
+    have been available with certainty much before the autumn, when
+    in fact the conspirators were held to bail. To have failed
+    would have been ruinous. We have seen how hardly the furious
+    Opposition have submitted to the Government measure, under its
+    present principle of simple confidence in the law as it is: had
+    new laws, or suspension of old ones, been found
+    requisite&mdash;the desperate resistance of the Liberals would
+    have reacted contagiously on the excitement in Ireland, so as
+    to cause more mischief in a secondary way, than any measure of
+    restraint upon the Repealers could have healed directly.</p>
+
+    <p>It is certain, meantime, that Sir R. Peel did not wish to
+    provoke a struggle with the Repealers. Feeling, probably,
+    considerable doubts upon the issue of any trial, moving upon
+    whatsoever principle&mdash;because in any case the composition
+    of the jury must depend a good deal upon chance, and one
+    recusant juror, or one juror falling ill at a critical moment,
+    might have reduced the whole process to a nihility&mdash;Sir
+    Robert, like any moderate man, hoped that his warnings might
+    meet with attention. They did not. So far from <i>that</i>, the
+    Repealers kindled into more frenzy through their own violence,
+    irritated no doubt by public sympathy with their worst counsels
+    in America and elsewhere. At length the case indicated in the
+    minister's instructions to the lords-lieutenant of counties,
+    the <i>casus f&aelig;deris</i>, actually occurred. One meeting
+    was fixed ostentatiously on the anniversary of the rebellion in
+    1798; and against the intended meeting at Clontarf, large
+    displays of cavalry and of military discipline were publicly
+    advertised. These things were decisive: the viceroy returned
+    suddenly to Ireland: the Privy Council of Ireland assembled: a
+    proclamation issued from government: the conspirators were
+    arrested: and in the regular course the trials came on.</p>
+
+    <p>Such is our account of the first stage in this great
+    political transaction; and this first stage it is which most
+    concerns the reputation of Government. For though the merit of
+    the trials, or second stage, must also belong to Government, so
+    far as regards the resolution to adopt this course, and the
+    general principle of their movement; yet in the particular
+    conduct of their parts, these trials naturally devolved upon
+    the law-officers. In the admirable balance of firmness and
+    forbearance it is hardly possible to imagine the minister
+    exceeded. And here, where chiefly he stood between a double
+    fire of attacks, irreconcilable in themselves, and proceeding
+    not less on friends than foes, it is now found by official
+    exposures that Sir Robert's conduct is not open to a trivial
+    demur. He made his preparations for vindicating the laws in
+    such a spirit of energy, as though he had resolved upon
+    allowing no escape for the enemy; he opened a <i>locus
+    penitenti&aelig;</i>, noiseless and indulgent to the feelings
+    of the offenders, with so constant an overture of placability
+    as if he had resolved upon letting them <i>all</i> escape. The
+    kindness of the manner was as perfect as the brilliancy of the
+    success.</p>
+
+    <p>Next, as regards the trials, there is so very much diffused
+    through the speeches or the incidents of what is noticeable on
+    one ground or other&mdash;that we shall confine ourselves to
+    those points which are chiefly concerned in the one great
+    factious (let us add fraudulent) attempt within the House of
+    Commons to disparage the justice of the trial. In all history,
+    we remember nothing that ever issued from a baffled and
+    mortified party more audacious than this. As, on the other
+    hand, in all history we remember nothing more anxiously or
+    sublimely conscientious than the whole
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page530"
+       id="page530"></a>[pg 530]</span> conduct of the trial. More
+       conspicuously are these qualities displayed, as it was
+       inevitable they should, in the verdict. Never yet has there
+       been a document of this nature more elaborate and fervent in
+       the energy of its distinctions, than this most memorable
+       verdict; and the immortal twelve will send down their names
+       to posterity as the roll-call of those upright citizens,
+       who, in defiance of menaces, purchased peace to their
+       afflicted country at the price of peril to themselves. With
+       partisans, of course, all this goes for nothing; and no cry
+       was more steadily raised in the House of Commons than the
+       revolting falsehood&mdash;that the conspirators had not
+       obtained a fair trial. Upon the three pretences by which
+       this monstrous allegation endeavoured to sustain itself, we
+       will say a word. Two quarrels have been raised with
+       incidents occurring at separate stages in the striking of
+       the jury. What happened first of all was supposed to be a
+       mere casual effect of hurry. Good reason there has since
+       appeared, to suspect in this affair no such excusable
+       accident, but a very fraudulent result of a plan for
+       vitiating the whole proceedings. Such things are likely
+       enough to be attempted by obscure partisans. But at all
+       events any trick that may have been practised, is traced
+       decisively to the party of the defendants. But the whole
+       effect of the trick, if such it were, was to diminish the
+       original fund from which the names of the second list were
+       to be drawn, by about one twenty-ninth part. But this
+       inconsiderable loss was as likely to serve the defendants as
+       not; for the object, as we have said, was&mdash;simply by
+       vitiating the proceeding to protract the trial, and thus to
+       benefit by a larger range of favourable accidents. But why
+       not cure this irregularity, however caused, by the means
+       open to the court? Simply for these reasons, explained by
+       the Attorney-General:&mdash;1st, that such a proceeding
+       would operate injuriously upon many other trials; and 2d, as
+       to this particular trial, that it would delay it until the
+       year 1845. The next incident is still more illustrative of
+       the determination, taken beforehand, to quarrel with the
+       arrangements, on whatever principle conducted. When the list
+       of persons eligible as jurors has been reduced by the
+       unobjectionable process of balloting to forty-eight, from
+       that amount they are further reduced by ultimate challenges;
+       and the necessity resting upon each party to make these
+       challenges is not discretional, but peremptory. It happened
+       that the officer who challenged on behalf of the crown,
+       struck off about ten Roman Catholics. The public are weary
+       of hearing it explained&mdash;that these names were not
+       challenged <i>as</i> Catholics, but as Repealers. Some
+       persons have gone so far as to maintain&mdash;that even
+       Repealers ought not to have been challenged. This, however,
+       has been found rather too strong a doctrine for the House of
+       Commons&mdash;to have asked for a verdict of guilty from men
+       glorying in the very name which expresses the offence. Did
+       any man ever suggest a special jury of smugglers in a suit
+       of our lady the Queen, for the offence of "running" goods?
+       Yet certainly they are well qualified as respects
+       professional knowledge of the case. We on our part maintain,
+       that not merely Repealers were inadmissible on the Dublin
+       jury, but generally Roman Catholics; and we say this without
+       disrespect to that body, as will appear from what follows.
+       It will often happen that men are challenged as labouring
+       under prejudices which disqualify them for an impartial
+       discharge of a juror's duty. But these prejudices may be of
+       two kinds. First, they may be the natural product of a
+       certain birth, education, and connexion; and these are cases
+       in which it will almost be a <i>duty</i> for one so biased
+       to have contracted something of a permanent inability to
+       judge fairly under circumstances which interest his
+       prejudices. But secondly, there are other prejudices, as,
+       for instance, of passions, of blind anger, or of selfish
+       interest. Such cases of prejudice are less honourable; and
+       yet no man scruples to tell another, under circumstances of
+       this nature, that he cannot place confidence in his
+       impartiality. No offence is either meant or taken. A trial
+       is transferred from Radnorshire to Warwickshire in order to
+       secure justice: yet Radnorshire is not offended. And every
+       day a witness is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page531"
+       id="page531"></a>[pg 531]</span> told to stand down, when he
+       is acknowledged to have the slightest pecuniary interest in
+       the case, without feeling himself insulted. Yet the
+       insinuation is a most gross one&mdash;that, because he might
+       be ten guineas richer or poorer by the event of the trial,
+       he is not capable of giving a fair testimony. This would be
+       humiliating, were it not seen that keen interests compel men
+       to speak bluntly and plainly: men cannot sacrifice their
+       prospects of justice to ceremony and form. Now, when a Roman
+       Catholic is challenged as a juryman, it is under the first
+       and comparatively inoffensive mode of imputation. It is not
+       said&mdash;you are under a cloud of passion, or under a bias
+       of gross self-interest. But simply&mdash;you have certain
+       religious opinions: no imputation is made on your integrity.
+       On the contrary, it is honourable to you that you should be
+       alive to the interests of your class. Some think, and so may
+       you, that separation from England would elevate the
+       Catholics; since, in such a case, undoubtedly your religion
+       would become predominant in Ireland. It is but natural,
+       therefore, that you should lean to the cause of those who
+       favour yours. In setting aside a Catholic as a juryman on
+       the trial of Repealers, this is the imputation made upon
+       him. Now, what is there in that to wound any man's feelings?
+       Lastly, it is alleged that the presiding judge summed up in
+       terms unfavourable to the Repealers. Of course he did; and,
+       as an upright judge, how could he have done otherwise? Let
+       us for one moment consider this point also. It is often said
+       that the judge is counsel for the prisoner. But this is a
+       gross misconception. The judge, properly speaking, is
+       counsel for the law, and for every thing which can effect
+       the right understanding of the evidence. Consequently he
+       sometimes appears to be advocating the prisoner's cause,
+       merely because the point which he is clearing up happens to
+       make for the prisoner. But equally he would have appeared to
+       be against the prisoner, if he found it necessary to
+       dissipate perplexities that would have benefited the
+       prisoner. His business is with no personal interest, but
+       generally with the interest of truth and
+       equity&mdash;whichever way those may point. Upon this
+       principle, in summing up, it is the judge's duty to appraise
+       the entire evidence; and if any argument lurks obscurely in
+       the evidence, he must strip it of its obscurity, and bring
+       it forward with fuller advantage. That may happen to favour
+       the prisoner, or it may weigh against him. But the judge
+       cannot have any regard to these consequences. His concern is
+       simply with the pressure and incidence of the testimony. If,
+       therefore, a prisoner has brought forward witnesses who were
+       able to depose any thing in his favour, be assured that the
+       judge will not overlook that deposition. But, if no such
+       deposition were made, is it meant that the judge is to
+       invent it? The whole notion has grown out of the original
+       conceit&mdash;that a defendant in relation to the judge is
+       in the relation of a client to an advocate. But this is no
+       otherwise true than as it is true of every party and
+       interest connected with the case. All these alike the judge
+       is to uphold in their true equitable position and rights. In
+       summing up, the judge used such facts as had been furnished
+       to him. All these happened to be against the Repealers; and
+       therefore the judge appeared to be against then. But the
+       same impression would have resulted, if he had simply read
+       his notes of the evidence.</p>
+
+    <p>Such are the desperate attempts to fasten charges of
+    unfairness on this fairest of all recorded trials. And with an
+    interest so keen in promoting the belief of some unfairness,
+    was there ever yet a trial that could have satisfied the losing
+    party? Losers have a proverbial privilege for being out of
+    temper. But in this case more is sought than the mere
+    gratification of wrath. Fresh hopes spring up in every stage of
+    this protracted contest, and they are all equally groundless.
+    First, Mr O'Connell was not to be arrested: it was impossible
+    and absurd to suppose it. Next, <i>being</i> arrested, he was
+    not to be tried. We must all remember the many assurances in
+    Dublin papers&mdash;that all was done to save appearances, but
+    that no trial would take place. Then, when it was past denial
+    that the trial had really begun, it was to break down on
+    grounds past numbering. Finally,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page532"
+       id="page532"></a>[pg 532]</span> the jury would never dare
+       to record a verdict of guilty. This, however, being actually
+       done, then was Mr O'Connell to bring writs of error; he was
+       to "take the sense" of the whole Irish bench; and, having
+       taken all that, he was to take the sense of the Lords. And
+       after all these things were accomplished, finally (as we
+       then understood it) he was to take himself off in the
+       direction pointed out by the judges. But we find that he has
+       not yet reconciled himself to <i>that</i>. Intimations come
+       out at intervals that the judges will never dare to pass any
+       but a nominal sentence upon him. We conclude that all these
+       endless conflicts with the legal necessities of his case are
+       the mere gasconades of Irish newspapers, addressing
+       themselves to provincial readers. Were there reason to
+       suppose them authorized by the Repealers, there would be
+       still higher argument for what we are going to say. But
+       under any circumstances, we agree with the opinion expressed
+       dispassionately and seasonably by the <i>Times</i>
+       newspaper&mdash;that judgment must be executed in this case.
+       We agree with that journal&mdash;that the nation requires it
+       as a homage rendered necessary to the violated majesty of
+       law. Nobody wishes that, at Mr O'Connell's age, any
+       <i>severe</i> punishment should be inflicted. Nobody will
+       misunderstand, in such a case, the mitigation of the
+       sentence. The very absence of all claim to mitigation, makes
+       it impossible to mistake the motive to lenity in <i>his</i>
+       case. But judgment must be done on Cawdor. Two aggravations,
+       and heavy ones, of the offence have occurred even since the
+       trial. One is the tone of defiance still maintained by
+       newspapers under his control. Already, with one voice, they
+       are ready to assure the country, in case of the sentence
+       being incommensurate to the case, that Government wished to
+       be severe, but had not courage for the effort; and that
+       Government dares not enforce the sentence. The other
+       aggravation lies in this&mdash;that he, a convicted
+       conspirator, has presumed to take his seat amongst the
+       senators of the land&mdash;"Venit in senatum, fit particeps
+       consilii." Yet Catiline, here denounced to the public rage,
+       <i>was</i> not a <i>convicted</i> conspirator; and even his
+       conspiracy rests very much on the word of an enemy. It is
+       true that, in some formal sense, a man's conviction is not
+       complete in our law until sentence has been pronounced. But
+       this makes no real difference as to the scandalous affront
+       which Mr O'Connell has thus put upon the laws of the land.
+       And in that view it is, viz. as an atonement for the many
+       outrages offered to the laws, that the nation waits for the
+       consummation of this public example.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_7_1"
+                    name="fn_7_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_7_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The reader may suppose that Lord John Russell had no
+        motive for wishing his motion to fail, because (as he was
+        truly admonished by Sir Robert Peel) that motion pledged
+        him to nothing, and was "an exercise in political fluxions
+        on the problem of combining the <i>maximum</i> of damage to
+        his opponents with the <i>minimum</i> of prospective
+        engagement to himself." True: but for all that Lord John
+        would have cursed the hour in which he resolved on such a
+        motion, had it succeeded. What would have followed?
+        Ministers would have gone out: Sir Robert Peel has
+        repeatedly said they would in the event of parliament
+        condemning their Irish policy. This would bring in Lord
+        John, and <i>then</i> would be revealed the distraction of
+        his party, the chicanery of his late motion, and the mere
+        incapacity of moving at all upon Irish questions, either to
+        the right or to the left, for <i>any</i> government which
+        at this moment the Whig-radicals could form. Doubtless,
+        Lord John cherishes hopes of future power; but not at
+        present. "Wait a little," is his secret caution to friends:
+        let us see Ireland settled; let the turn be taken; let the
+        policy of Sir Robert Peel (at length able to operate
+        through the last assertion of the law) have once taken
+        root; and then, having the benefit of measures which past
+        declarations would not permit him personally to initiate,
+        nor his party even to propose, Lord John might return to
+        power securely&mdash;saying of the Peel policy, "Fieri non
+        debuit, <i>factum</i> valet."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_7_2"
+                    name="fn_7_2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_7_tag2">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The trial of the seven bishops for declining to obey the
+        king's order in council against what, in conscience, they
+        believed to be the law of the land, is the more strictly a
+        parallel case, because, as in Ireland, the whole Popish
+        part of the population&mdash;in effect, therefore, the
+        whole physical strength of the land&mdash;<i>seemed</i> to
+        have arrayed itself on the side of the conspiracy; so in
+        England, the only armed force, and that close to London,
+        was supposed to have been bought over by the systematic
+        indulgence of the king. Himself and the queen (Mary of
+        Modena) had courted them through the summer. But all was
+        fruitless against the overwhelming sympathy of the troops
+        with an universal popular feeling. Bishop Burnet mentions
+        that this army (about 10,000 men, and then encamped beyond
+        Hounslow) broke into tremendous cheers at the moment when
+        the news of the acquittal reached them. Whilst lauding
+        their Creator his majesty was present. But a far more
+        picturesque account of the case is given by an ancestor of
+        the present Lord Lonsdale's, whose memoirs (still in MS.)
+        are alluded to in one of his Ecclesiastic Sonnets by Mr
+        Wordsworth, our present illustrious laureate. One trait is
+        of a nature so fine, and so inevitable under similar
+        circumstances of interest, that, but for the intervention
+        of the sea, we should certainly have witnessed its
+        repetition on the termination of the Dublin trials. Lord
+        Lowther (such was the title at that time) mentions that, as
+        the bishops came down the Thames in their boat after their
+        acquittal, a perpetual series of men, linked knee to knee,
+        knelt down along the shore. The blessing given, up rose a
+        continuous thunder of huzzas; and these, by a kind of
+        natural telegraph, ran along the streets and the river,
+        through Brentford, and so on to Hounslow. According to the
+        illustration of Lord L., this voice of a nation rolled like
+        a <i>feu-de-joie</i>, or running fire, the who le ten miles
+        from London to Hounslow, within a few minutes; or, like a
+        train of gunpowder laid from London to the camp, this
+        irresistible sentiment finally involved in its torrent
+        evenits professional and hired enemies. C&aelig;sar
+        mentions that such a transmission, telegraphically
+        propagated from mouth to mouth, of a Roman victory, reached
+        himself, at a distance of 160 miles, within about four
+        hours.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <h4><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's
+    Work</i></h4>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13633 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13633 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13633)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844, 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: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: October 5, 2004 [EBook #13633]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jon Ingram, Victoria Woosley, the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team, and The Internet Library of Early Journals
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                  EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+
+
+
+     No. CCCXLII.     APRIL, 1844.        VOL. LV.
+
+
+
+
+                  TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+    THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.
+      --A TALE OF VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.--PART II.
+
+    THE SLAVE-TRADE.
+
+    MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.
+      --THE ARABS OF CORDOVA.
+
+    TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.
+      --A FRAGMENT FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.
+
+    THE BRITISH FLEET.
+
+    MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+      --PART X.
+
+    THE CHILD'S WARNING.
+
+    THE TWO PATRONS.
+
+    IRELAND.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.
+
+A TALE OF VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.
+
+PART II.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE.
+
+
+The time occupied by the events detailed in the three preceding
+chapters, had been passed by Antonio in a state of self-exile from his
+master's studio. Conscious of having disobeyed the earnest injunctions
+of Contarini, the weakness of his character withheld him alike from
+confessing his fault, and from encountering the penetrating gaze of
+the old painter. Neglecting thus his usual occupation, he passed his
+days in his gondola, wandering about the canals in the hope of again
+meeting with the mysterious being who had made such an impression on
+his excitable fancy. Hitherto all his researches had been fruitless;
+but although day after day passed without his finding the smallest
+trace of her he sought, his repeated disappointments seemed only to
+increase the obstinacy with which he continued the search.
+
+The incognita not only engrossed all his waking thoughts, but she
+still haunted him in his dreams. Scarcely a night passed that her
+wrinkled countenance did not hover round his pillow, now partially
+shrouded by the ample veil, then again fully exposed and apparently
+exulting in its unearthly ugliness; or else peering at him from behind
+the drapery that covered the walls of his apartment. In vain did he
+attempt to address the vision, or to follow it as it gradually receded
+and finally melted away into distance.
+
+It was from a dream of this description that he was one morning
+awakened by his faithful gondolier Jacopo. The sun was shining
+brightly through his chamber windows, and he heard an unusual degree
+of noise and bustle upon the canal without.
+
+"Up, Signor mio!" cried the gondolier joyously, and with a mixture of
+respect and affectionate familiarity in his tone and manner. "Up,
+Signor Antonio! You were not wont to oversleep yourself on the day of
+the Bridge Fight. All Venice is hastening thither. Quick, quick! or we
+shall never be able to make our way through the press of gondolas."
+
+The words of the gondolier reminded Antonio that this was the day
+appointed for the celebration of a festival, which for weeks past had
+been looked forward to with the greatest impatience and interest, by
+Venetians of all ranks, ages, and sexes; a festival which he himself
+was in the habit of regularly attending, though on this occasion his
+preoccupied thoughts and feelings had made him utterly unconscious
+that it was so near at hand.
+
+Although the ancient and bitter hatred of the Guelphs and Ghibellines
+had died away, and the factions which divided northern Italy had sunk
+into insignificance, nearly a century before this period, the memory
+of their feuds was still kept up by their great grandchildren, and
+Venice was still severed into two parties or communities, separated
+from each other by the grand canal. Those who dwelt on the western or
+land side of this boundary were styled the Nicolotti, after the parish
+of San Nicolo; while those on the eastern or sea side took the
+appellation of Castellani, from the district of Castello. Not only the
+inhabitants of the city itself, but those of the suburbs and
+neighbouring country, were included in these two denominations; the
+people from Mestre and the continent ranging themselves under the
+banners of the Nicolotti, while those from the islands were strenuous
+Castellani.
+
+The frequent and sanguinary conflicts of the Guelphs and Ghibellines
+were now replaced and commemorated by a popular festival, occurring
+sometimes once, sometimes oftener in the year; usually in the autumn
+or spring. "In order that," says an old chronicler of the time, "the
+heat being less great at those seasons, the blood of the combatants
+should not become too heated and the fight too dangerous." "Also on
+cloudy days," says the same authority, "that the spectators might not
+be molested by the sun; and on Sundays or Saints' days, that the
+people thereby might not be hindered from their occupations." On these
+occasions one of the numerous bridges was selected as the scene of the
+mock combat that constituted the chief amusement of the day. The quays
+afforded good standing-room to the spectators; and here, under the
+inspection of ædiles appointed by the people, the two parties met, and
+disputed for supremacy in a battle, in which, however, no more
+dangerous weapons than fists were allowed to be brought into play.
+
+It was not the populace alone that divided itself into these two
+factions. Accordingly as the palaces of the nobles stood on the one or
+the other side of the canal, were their owners Castellani or
+Nicolotti, although their partizanship existed but in jest, and only
+showed itself in the form of encouragement to their respective
+parties; whereas with the lower orders the strife, begun in
+good-humour, not unfrequently turned to bitter earnest, and had
+dangerous and even fatal results. In the wish, however, to keep up a
+warlike spirit in the people, and perhaps still more with a view to
+make them forget, in a temporary and boundless license, the strict
+subjection in which they were habitually held, the senate was induced
+to permit the continuance of a diversion, which from the local
+arrangements of Venice, the narrowness of the streets and bridges, and
+the depth of the larger canals, was unavoidably dangerous, and almost
+invariably attended with loss of life.
+
+Hastily dressing himself, Antonio hurried into his gondola in order to
+proceed to the bridge of San Barnaba, opposite to the church of the
+same name and to the Foscarini palace, that being the spot appointed
+for the combat. The canal of the Giudecca was one black mass of
+gondolas, which rendered even a casual glimpse of the water scarcely
+obtainable; and it was amidst the cries of the gondoliers and the
+noise of boats knocking against each other, that the young painter
+passed the Dogana and reached the grand canal. There the crowd became
+so dense, that Jacopo, seeing the impossibility of passing, turned
+aside in time, and making a circuit, entered the Rio de San Trovaso,
+whence, through innumerable narrow canals, he succeeded in reaching
+the scene of the approaching conflict.
+
+The combatants were attending mass, and had not yet made their
+appearance. Wonderfully great, however, was the concourse of
+spectators already assembled. Since sunrise they had been thronging
+thither from all sides, eager to secure places which might afford them
+a good view of the fight. Every roof, gable, and chimney had its
+occupants; not a projection however small, not a wall however lofty
+and perilous, but was covered with people, for the most part provided
+with baskets of provisions, and evidently determined to sit or stand
+out the whole of the spectacle. In the anxiety to obtain good places,
+the most extraordinary risks were run, and feats of activity
+displayed. Here might be seen individuals clambering up perpendicular
+buildings, by the aid of ledges and projections which appeared far too
+narrow to afford either grasp or foot-hold; further on, some herculean
+gondolier or peasant served as base to a sort of human column,
+composed of five or six men, who, scrambling over each other's
+shoulders, attained in this manner some seemingly inaccessible
+position. The seafaring habits of the Venetian populace, who were
+accustomed from boyhood to climb the masts and rigging of vessels, now
+stood them in good stead; and notwithstanding all the noise,
+confusion, and apparent peril, it was very rarely that an accident
+occurred.
+
+Under the red awnings covering the balconies and flat roofs of the
+palaces, were seated groups of ladies, whose rich dresses, glittering
+with the costliest jewels and embroideries, appeared the more
+magnificent from being contrasted with the black attire of the grave
+patricians who accompanied them. But perhaps the most striking feature
+of this striking scene was to be found in the custom of masking, then
+almost universal in Venice, and the origin of which may be traced in
+great part to dread of the Inquisition, and of its prying enquiries
+into the actions and affairs of individuals. Amidst the sea of faces
+that thronged roofs, windows, balconies, streets, and quays, the
+minority only were uncovered, and the immense collection of masks, of
+every form and colour, had something in it peculiarly fantastic and
+unnatural, conveying an impression that the wearers mimicked human
+nature rather than belonged to it.
+
+Venice, whose trade and mercantile importance were at this period
+greatly on the decline, saw nevertheless, on occasions like the
+present, strangers from the most opposite nations of Europe, and even
+Asia, mingling peaceably on her canals. Here were Turks in their
+bright red caftans and turbans; there Armenians in long black robes;
+and Jews, whose habitually greedy and crafty countenances had for the
+nonce assumed an expression of eager curiosity and expectation. The
+mercantile spirit of the Venetians prevented them from extending to
+individuals the quarrels of states; and although the republic was then
+at war with Spain, more than one superb hidalgo might be seen, wrapped
+in his national gravity as in a mantle, and affecting a total
+disregard of the blunt or hostile observations made within his hearing
+by sailors of the Venetian navy, or by individuals smarting under the
+loss of ships and cargoes captured by Spanish galleys.
+
+Scattered here and there amongst the crowd, Antonio's searching eye
+soon remarked a number of men, to whom, accustomed as he was to
+analyse the heterogeneous composition of a Venetian mob, he was yet at
+a loss to assign any distinct class or country. Their sunburnt and
+strongly marked features were partially hidden by the folds of ample
+cloaks, in which they kept themselves closely muffled; and it appeared
+to Antonio, that in their selection of places they were more anxious
+to escape observation than to obtain a good view of the approaching
+fight. In the dark patches of shadow thrown by the overhanging
+balconies, in the recesses of deep and gloomy portals, or peering out
+from the entrance of some narrow and tortuous alley, these men were
+grouped, silent, scowling, and alone, and apparently known to none of
+the surrounding crowd. But suspicious as were the appearance and
+deportment of the persons in question, Antonio's thoughts were too
+much engrossed by another and far more interesting subject, to accord
+them much attention. He nourished the hope of discovering amongst the
+multitude assembled around him, the mysterious being who had taken so
+strong a hold on his imagination. Vainly, however, did he scan every
+balcony and window and strain his eyes to distinguish the faces of the
+more distant of the assembled dames. More than once the flutter of a
+white robe, or a momentarily fancied resemblance of figure, made his
+heart beat high with expectation, until a second glance destroyed his
+hopes; and the turning of a head or drawing aside of a veil disclosed
+the blooming features of some youthful beauty, to which, in his then
+state of mind, the wrinkled and unearthly visage of the incognita
+would have been infinitely preferable.
+
+While the young painter was thus fluctuating between hope and
+disappointment, several lads with naked arms, or but slightly
+encumbered with clothing, were giving the spectators a foretaste of
+the approaching conflict; and, encouraged by the applause which was
+liberally vouchsafed them, making violent efforts to drive one another
+off the bridge. At times the spirit of partizanship would induce some
+of the bystanders to come to the aid of those who seemed likely to be
+defeated--an interference that was repressed by the ædiles stationed
+at either end of the bridge, who did their utmost to enforce the laws
+of this popular tournament. Notwithstanding their efforts, however,
+the _mostra_ or duello between two persons, by which the combat should
+begin, was often converted into the _frotta_ or mêlée, in which all
+pressed forward without order. The first advantage was held to be--for
+one of the combatants to draw blood, if it were only a single drop,
+from the nose or mouth of his opponent. Loud applause rewarded the
+skill and vigour of him who succeeded in throwing his adversary into
+the canal; but the clamour became deafening when a champion was found
+who maintained his station in the centre of the bridge, without any of
+the opposite party venturing to attack him. This feat won the highest
+honour that could be obtained; and he who achieved it retired from his
+post amid the waving of scarfs and handkerchiefs, and the enthusiastic
+cheers of the gratified spectators.
+
+At length the bell of the Campanile announced that mass was over, and
+presently, out of two opposite streets that had been purposely kept
+clear, the combatants emerged, pressing forward in eager haste towards
+the bridge; their arms naked to the shoulders, their breasts protected
+by leathern doublets, and their heads by closely fitting caps--their
+dress altogether as light as possible, and well adapted to the
+struggle in which they were about to engage. The loud hum of the
+multitude was hushed on their appearance, and the deepest silence
+reigned while the ædiles marshaled them to their respective places, on
+which they planted themselves in threatening attitudes, their broad
+and muscular chests expanded, their fists clenched, their feet seeming
+to grasp the ground on which they stood.
+
+A loud flourish of trumpets gave the signal of the onset, and with
+inconceivable impetuosity the two parties threw themselves on each
+other. In spite, however, of the fury and violence of the shock,
+neither side yielded an inch of ground. The bridge was completely
+filled with men from end to end, and from side to side; there was no
+parapet or barrier of any kind to prevent the combatants from pushing
+one another into the canal; yet so equally balanced was the strength
+of the two parties, that after nearly half an hour's struggle very few
+men had been thrown from the bridge, and not the smallest advantage
+had been obtained either by Castellani or Nicolotti. Those in the
+rear, who had as yet done nothing but push the others forward, now
+came to the front, and the combat was renewed with fresh vigour, but
+for a long time without any result. Again and again were the
+combatants changed; but it was past noon before Antonio, whose
+thoughts had been gradually diverted from the incognita by the
+struggle that was going on, perceived symptoms of weariness amongst
+those indefatigable athletes. Here and there a knee was seen to bend,
+or a muscular form to sink, under some well-directed blow, or before a
+sudden rush of the opposite party. First one, then another of the
+combatants was hurled from the bridge into the canal, an immersion
+that, dripping with perspiration as they were, not unfrequently caused
+death or severe illness. Nevertheless the fury of the fight seemed
+rather to increase than diminish. So long as only a man here and there
+fell into the water, they were dragged out by their friends; and the
+spectators even seemed to feel pity and sympathy for the unfortunates,
+as they saw them carried along, some covered with blood, others
+paralysed by the sudden cold, with faces pale as death and limbs stiff
+and rigid. But as the fury and violence of the combatants augmented,
+the bystanders forgot every other feeling in the excitement of the
+fight, about the result of which they seemed as anxious as those who
+were actively engaged in it. Even women might be seen encouraging
+those who were driven back, and urging them once more to the charge;
+applauding and cheering them on when they advanced, and assailing
+those who hung back with vehement reproaches. The uproar and shouting,
+shrieks and yells, exceeded any thing that could be imagined. The
+partizans had got completely mixed together; and, instead of the
+struggle being confined to the foremost ranks of the contending
+parties, the whole bridge was now one coil of raging combatants. Men
+fell into the canal by scores, but no one thought of rendering them
+any assistance. Their places were immediately filled up, and the fight
+lost none of its fury from their absence.
+
+Evening was now approaching, and the combat was more violent than it
+had yet been, or than it had for years been known to be, when Antonio
+saw the cloaked and mysterious individuals who had already attracted
+his attention, emerge from their lurking-places, and disappear in
+different directions. Presently he thought he observed some of them on
+the bridge mingling with the combatants, whose blind rage prevented
+them from noticing the intrusion. Wherever they passed, there did the
+fight augment in obstinacy and fury. Suddenly there was a violent rush
+upon the bridge, a frightful outcry, and a clash of steel. At the same
+moment the blades of several swords and daggers were seen crossed and
+glittering upon the bridge, without its being possible for any one to
+divine whence the weapons came. The spectators, seized with a panic
+fear, fled in every direction, and sprang in crowds from the quays to
+seek shelter under the awnings of the gondolas covering the canal. In
+vain did the gondoliers resist the intrusion of the fugitives: all
+considerations of rank and property were lost sight of in the terror
+of the moment, and some of the boats sank under the weight of the
+multitudes that poured into them. In their haste to get away, the
+gondolas impeded each other, and became wedged together in the canal;
+and amidst the screams of the ladies and angry exclamations of the
+men, the gondoliers laid down their oars and began to dispute the
+precedence with blows. Meanwhile the people on the roofs of the
+houses, believing themselves in safety, espoused different sides, and
+threw stones and bricks at each other, and at those standing below. In
+an incredibly short time houses were entirely unroofed, and a perfect
+storm of tiles rained upon the quays and streets. Those who had first
+fled, when they attained what appeared a safe distance, halted to look
+on, and thus prevented others from getting away. Antonio was amongst
+the number whose escape was thus impeded. His gondolier lay at the
+bottom of the boat, stunned by a blow from a stone; he himself was
+bruised and wounded by the missiles that fell in all directions.
+
+The tumult was at its height when suddenly a sound was heard that had
+a truly magical effect upon the rioters, for such they might now be
+termed. The alarm-bell of St Mark's rang out its awful peal. In an
+instant the yells of defiance were hushed; the arm that was already
+drawn back to deal a blow fell harmless by its owner's side, the storm
+of missiles ceased, the contending factions parted, and left the
+combat undecided. The habit of obedience and the intimation of some
+danger to the city, stilled in an instant the rage of party feeling,
+and combatants and spectators alike hurried away in the direction of
+St Mark's place, the usual point of rendezvous on such occasions.
+
+Jacopo had now recovered his senses, and Antonio's gondola was one of
+the first which reached the square in front of the cathedral. Thence
+the young painter at once discovered the cause of the alarm. Smoke and
+flame were issuing from some buildings on the opposite island of San
+Giorgio Maggiore, where the greater part of the merchants' warehouses
+were situated. Thither the crowd of gondolas now steered, and Antonio
+found himself carried along with the stream. But although the fire was
+already beginning to subside before the prompt measures taken to
+subdue it, the alarm-bell kept clanging on; and Antonio soon perceived
+that there must be some other point of danger to which it was intended
+to turn the attention of the people. Gazing about for some indication
+of its source, he saw several gondolas hurrying towards the grand
+canal, on which most of the palaces of the nobles were situated, and
+he ordered Jacopo to steer in the same direction.
+
+On reaching the palazzo of the Malipieri family, a strange scene
+presented itself to him. The open space between the side of the palace
+and the adjacent church of San Samuele, was crowded with men engaged
+in a furious and sanguinary conflict. At one of the windows of the
+palace, a tall man in a flowing white robe, with a naked sabre in one
+hand and a musquetoon in the other, which, from the smoke still
+issuing from its muzzle, had apparently just been discharged, stood
+defending himself desperately against a band of fierce and bearded
+ruffians, who swarmed up a rope ladder fixed below the window. The
+person making so gallant a defence was the Senator Malipiero; the
+assailants were Uzcoques from the fortress of Segna.
+
+The arrival of the Proveditore Marcello at Gradiska, and his
+subsequent recognition of his jewels at the ball, having destroyed
+Strasolda's hopes of obtaining her father's liberation through the
+intervention of the archducal counsellors, the high-spirited maiden
+resolved to execute a plan she had herself devised, and which,
+although in the highest degree rash and hazardous, might still succeed
+if favoured by circumstances and conducted with skill and decision.
+This was to seize upon the person of a Venetian of note, in order to
+exchange him for the Uzcoques then languishing in the dungeons of the
+republic.
+
+The Venetians were not yet aware that the much-dreaded woivode
+Dansowich was among their prisoners. The time chosen by the Uzcoques
+for their expeditions and surprises was usually the night; and this,
+added to the custom of mask-wearing, was the cause that the features
+of Dansowich were unknown to his captors. Nevertheless the striking
+countenance and lofty bearing of the chieftain, and of one or two of
+those who were taken prisoners with him, raised suspicions that they
+were persons of mark--suspicions which were not dissipated by their
+reiterated denial of being any thing more than common Uzcoques. It was
+this doubt which saved their lives; for their captors, instead of
+hanging them at once at the yard-arm of the galleys, which was the
+usual manner of disposing of Segnarese prisoners, took them to Venice,
+and placed them at the disposal of the senate. All subsequent threats
+and promises proved ineffectual to extort from the pirates an
+acknowledgment of superior rank; and the Venetian authorities would
+perhaps have ended in believing the account they gave of themselves,
+had not the urgent applications made by the Austrian Envoy and the
+Capitano of Fiume, for the release of the Uzcoques, given their
+suspicions new strength. The object of the Venetians was, if they
+could ascertain that there was a chief among the prisoners, to obtain
+from him, by torture or otherwise, confessions which might enable them
+to prove to the Archduke the encouragement afforded by his counsellors
+to the piracies of the Segnarese. They accordingly delayed, by every
+possible pretext, giving an answer to the archducal ambassador, doing
+their utmost meanwhile to find out the real quality of the prisoners.
+This, Strasolda was most anxious that they should not discover; and
+her anxiety was scarcely less to prevent the captivity of their leader
+from becoming known among the pirates themselves. His daughter's
+entreaties, and his own better nature, had frequently caused Dansowich
+to check his followers in the atrocities they were too apt to commit.
+In consequence of this interference, Strasolda suspected her father to
+be more feared than liked by Jurissa Caiduch and some others of the
+inferior woivodes or officers; and she apprehended that, if she
+confided her plan to them, they would be more likely to thwart than to
+aid her in it. The crews of the two boats which had been engaged in
+the skirmish with the Venetian galleys when Dansowich was captured,
+and the men composing the garrison of the castle on the evening of
+that fatal occurrence, were therefore all whose assistance she could
+reckon upon. Some of those were her relatives, and the others tried
+and trusty adherents. They alone knew of their leader's captivity, his
+absence having been accounted for to the mass of Uzcoques dwelling in
+the town of Segna, by a pretended journey to Gradiska; and being too
+few in number to attack a Venetian galley, the sole plan that seemed
+to offer a chance of success to this handful of faithful followers,
+was the hazardous one devised by Strasolda. Of this, they did not
+hesitate to attempt the execution.
+
+With the utmost cunning and audacity did the Uzcoques enter Venice on
+the day appointed for the Battle of the Bridge, singly, and by twos
+and threes, variously disguised, and mingled with the country people
+and inhabitants of the islands who were hastening to the festival.
+Watching their opportunity when the fight was at the fiercest, one
+party mixed with the combatants, exciting and urging them on, and
+doing all in their power to increase the confusion; others set fire to
+the warehouses on the island of San Giorgio, in order to draw the
+public attention in that direction; while the third and most numerous
+division, favoured by the deepening twilight and the deserted state of
+that part of the city, succeeded in fixing a rope ladder to the window
+of the Malipieri palace, the chief of which noble house was, as they
+had previously ascertained, lying sick in bed in a side-chamber,
+attended only by a few domestics.
+
+But there were two things which Strasolda and the Uzcoques had
+forgotten to include in their calculations. These were, first, the
+slavish obedience of the Venetian populace to the call of their
+superiors--an obedience to which they were accustomed to sacrifice
+every feeling and passion; secondly, the Argus eyes and omnipresent
+vigilance of the Secret Tribunal. Scarcely was the ladder applied,
+when the first gush of flame from the warehouses brought a deafening
+peal from the alarm-bell; and at the same moment, the masked and armed
+familiars of the Venetian police, rising as it seemed out of the very
+earth, surrounded the ladder, and a fierce conflict began. Even the
+watchfulness and precautions of the Inquisition, however, were to a
+certain extent overmatched by Uzcoque cunning and foresight. Had it
+not been necessary to ring the alarm bell on account of the fire, the
+police, who were far the most numerous, and who each moment received
+an accession to their numbers, could scarcely have failed to capture
+some of their opponents, and thus have ascertained to a certainty what
+the promoters and the object of this audacious attempt really were.
+But before they could accomplish this, the small piazza where the
+conflict was going on was thronged with the populace, half intoxicated
+with the excitement of the scarcely less serious fight they had been
+witnessing and sharing in. In the crush and confusion that ensued,
+familiars and Uzcoques were separated; and the latter, mingling with
+the crowd, and no longer distinguishable from the cloaked and masked
+figures that surrounded them, easily succeeded in effecting their
+escape.
+
+When Antonio, who was pushed hither and thither by the mob, was able
+to extricate himself sufficiently to get another view of the window,
+the invalid nobleman, delivered from his assailants, had retired into
+his apartment, while the ladder, now deserted by the Uzcoques, had
+been cut and thrown down. Desirous of escaping from this scene of
+confusion, the young painter was making his way towards the quay,
+close to which his gondola was waiting, when his heart suddenly leaped
+within him at the sight of a muffled figure that passed near him, and
+in which he thought he recognized the mysterious old woman who had of
+late occupied so much of his thoughts. She was followed by a number of
+the rabble, who pressed upon her with oaths and curses, asserting that
+she was one of the party which had attacked the palace of the
+Malipieri.
+
+"I saw her holding the ladder," exclaimed one fellow.
+
+"Nay, she was climbing up it herself," cried a second.
+
+"Strike the foul witch dead!" shouted a score of voices.
+
+The old woman's life was in the greatest peril, when a strange and
+unaccountable, but at the same time irresistible impulse, moved
+Antonio to go to her rescue. He was forcing his way through the crowd
+with this intention, when the object of the popular fury turned her
+head towards him. Her veil was for a moment partially drawn aside,
+affording a glimpse of her features in profile; and Antonio, still the
+slave of his diseased imagination, fancied that her yellow shriveled
+features had been metamorphosed into a countenance of regular beauty;
+such a countenance, in short, as befitted the graceful and symmetrical
+form to which it belonged. Confused and bewildered, the naturally weak
+and undecided youth stood deliberating and uncertain whether he should
+attempt the rescue, which would have been by no means difficult to
+accomplish by the display of a little boldness and promptitude. Whilst
+he was thus hesitating, there suddenly broke through the crowd a
+young man, attired like himself in a black dress, and holding a naked
+rapier in his hand. The new comer had probably lost his mask in the
+tumult and confusion, for his features were uncovered, and Antonio
+saw, to his inexpressible consternation and astonishment, that they
+were the exact counterpart of his own. Before he could recover from
+this new shock, the stranger, by the aid of his fierce and determined
+demeanour, and the rapid play of his weapon, had made his way to the
+mysterious old woman, whose back was turned towards him, and seizing
+her round the waist he again forced a passage through the throng to
+the nearest gondola, which happened to be that of the young painter.
+The crowd pressed after him, and Antonio was hurried along with it to
+the edge of the quay. But at the very moment that, to avoid being
+pushed into the water by the throng, he sprang into one end of his
+gondola, he saw the stranger, who had just entered it at the other,
+gaze with a look of disgust and dismay on the features of her he had
+rescued, and then with a cry of horror, leap into another boat, which
+immediately rowed rapidly away. At the same instant Jacopo, by a
+strong sweep of the oar, spun the gondola round, and shot into a
+narrow canal which soon led them out of sight and sound of the scene
+of confusion they had just left.
+
+These various events had succeeded each other so rapidly, that Antonio
+could hardly credit his senses when he found himself in this strange
+manner the deliverer of the mysterious being who now sat under the
+awning of his gondola, her frightful countenance, unveiled in the
+struggle and no longer seen through the beautifying prism of the young
+artist's imagination, again displaying the yellow and wrinkled skin,
+and the deep-set glittering eyes, which now seemed fixed upon him with
+an expression of love and gratitude that froze his blood. With a
+shuddering sensation he retreated to the stern of the boat, where
+Jacopo stood pale and trembling, crossing himself without a moment's
+intermission.
+
+"Are you mad, Signore," whispered the gondolier, "to risk your life in
+behalf of such a frightful witch? Never did I see you so ready with
+your rapier, flashing it in people's eyes as though it had been one of
+your painting brushes."
+
+"By Heaven, Jacopo," answered Antonio, "that was not I"--
+
+"The saints protect us!" interrupted the gondolier. "You are assuredly
+bewitched, or have lost your senses, Signore. To think of your thus
+denying your own noble daring! Do, for the blessed virgin's sake, let
+us jump out upon the next landing-place, and leave the gondola to the
+sorceress who has bewitched you. Holy mother! she is coming this way!"
+
+A prey to the strangest and most contradictory emotions, Antonio
+hastily advanced to meet the mysterious being, whom he could not help
+regarding with superstitious awe, though he at the same time felt
+himself drawn towards her by a fascination, against which he found it
+was in vain to contend. The features of the unknown were again
+shrouded carefully in her veil, but her black and brilliant eyes
+glittered through it like nebulous stars.
+
+"To the house of the Capitano of Fiume," whispered she to Antonio, and
+then retreated, as if anxious to avoid further conversation, into the
+interior of the gondola.
+
+In the district of Castello, through which Antonio and his strange
+companion were now passing, the canals and quays were deserted, and
+not a sound was heard except the distant hum of the multitude
+assembled in the quarter of St Mark's. Without exciting suspicion or
+attracting observation, they reached the Rialto and the grand canal,
+and the gondola stopped at a landing-place opposite the church of San
+Moyses.
+
+As the young painter assisted his mysterious charge out of the boat, a
+gentle pressure from the warm soft hand which for a moment rested upon
+his, quickened every pulse in his frame; and long after the
+enigmatical being had disappeared behind the angle of a palace, he
+stood gazing, like one entranced, at the spot where he had last seen
+her imposing and graceful figure. The approach of Jacopo, still
+crossing himself, and calling upon all the saints for protection
+against the snares of the evil one, roused the perplexed youth from
+his reverie; and, stepping into the gondola, he was soon gliding
+rapidly over the canals in the direction of his father's palace.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE PICTURE.
+
+
+The gondola of the young painter, gliding rapidly and silently over
+the still waters of the canals, was passing a turn leading to the
+Giudecca, when it suddenly occurred to Antonio that he would seek his
+old master, and, after confessing his disobedience, relate to him the
+events of the day, and make him the confidant of his troubles and
+perplexities. A word to Jacopo changed the direction of the gondola,
+and they entered the grand canal, on which Contarini's dwelling was
+situated.
+
+The brief twilight of Italy had passed, and it was now completely
+night, dark and starless, which made more startling the sudden
+appearance of several blazing torches, borne by masked and hooded
+figures attired in black, who struck loud and repeated blows on the
+gates of the Palazzo Contarini.
+
+"Antonio Marcello! We seek Antonio Marcello!" exclaimed a deep and
+hollow voice.
+
+It would be necessary to be a Venetian, and to have lived in those
+days, fully to comprehend the feeling of horror which caused Antonio's
+blood to run cold, and the sweat to stand in beads upon his forehead,
+when he heard his name uttered by the familiars of the state
+Inquisition. Frightful dungeons, masked judges, halls hung with black,
+the block and the gleaming axe, the rack and its blood-stained
+attendants, the whole grim paraphernalia of the Secret Tribunal,
+passed like the scenes of a phantasmagoria before the mental vision of
+the young painter. He at once conjectured the cause for which they
+were seeking him. He had doubtless been taken for the youth who, by
+his energy and promptitude, had rescued the mysterious old woman from
+the mob, and who bore so striking and unaccountable resemblance to
+himself; and it must be on suspicion of his being connected with the
+attack on the Malipieri palace, that the ministers of justice were
+hunting him out. Nor did he see how he should he able to convince his
+judges of his innocence. The tale he had to tell, although the truth,
+was still too marvellous and improbable to obtain credence, and would
+be more likely to draw upon him severe punishment, or perhaps the
+torture, with the view of inducing him to confess its falsehood.
+Bewildered by his terror, Antonio sat trembling, and utterly incapable
+of deciding as to the course he should adopt, when the trusty
+gondolier again came to his rescue.
+
+"Cospetto! Signor!" he exclaimed, "have you lost your senses, that you
+run thus into the very jaws of those devil's messengers? To one like
+myself flight would certainly avail little; but, with a Proveditore
+for your father, you may arrange matters if you only take time before
+you become their prisoner. Quick, then, to the palazzo! Don't you see
+old Contarini's head stuck out of his window? He is telling them you
+are not there. They have doubtless been to your father's palace, and
+will not be likely to return thither at present."
+
+While the faithful fellow's tongue was thus wagging, his arms were not
+idle. Intimately acquainted, as became his calling, with the numerous
+windings and intricacies of the Venetian canals, he threaded them with
+unhesitating confidence; and, favoured by the darkness of the night,
+succeeded in getting Antonio unobserved through a back entrance of his
+father's palace.
+
+The first impulse of the terrified youth on finding himself thus in at
+least temporary security, was to destroy the picture of the mysterious
+old woman, which, if found by the agents of the Inquisition, might
+bear false but fatal witness against him. With pallid cheek, and still
+trembling with alarm, he was hurrying to his chamber to execute his
+intention, when he encountered his father, who advanced to meet him,
+and, grasping his arm, fixed upon him for some moments his stern and
+searching gaze.
+
+"The picture, father!" exclaimed the terror-stricken Antonio. "For the
+love of Heaven, stay me not! Let me destroy that fatal picture!"
+
+Regardless of his son's agitation and terror, the Proveditore half
+led, half forced him to a seat in a part of the room, when the red
+blaze from the larch logs that were crackling on the hearth, lit up
+the young man's features.
+
+"What means this, Antonio?" he said; "what has befallen during my
+absence at Gradiska? The familiars of the Inquisition have been
+seeking you here--you, the last person whose name I should expect to
+hear in such mouths. Alarm me it did not; for well I know that you are
+too scant of energy and settled purpose to be mixed up in conspiracies
+against the state."
+
+Antonio was still too much preoccupied by his terror to understand, or
+at any rate to heed, the severity of his father's remark. Collecting
+his scattered thoughts, he proceeded to narrate all that had occurred
+to him, not only on that day, but since his first meeting with the
+incognita near the church of San Moyses, on the very same spot whither
+he had conveyed her in his gondola but a short hour ago.
+
+"Let me destroy the painting, father!" he concluded; "it may be found,
+and used as testimony against me."
+
+The Proveditore had listened with a smile, that was at once
+contemptuous and sorrowful, to his son's narrative, and to the
+confession of his weakness and disobedience to the injunctions of his
+aged teacher. When he had finished speaking, there was a minute's
+silence, broken at last by the elder Marcello.
+
+"I have long been convinced," he said, "that Contarini would never
+succeed in making of you a painter fit to rank with those old and
+illustrious masters of whom Venice is so justly proud. But I had not
+thought so poorly of you, Antonio, as to believe that you would want
+courage to defend an object, for the attainment of which you scrupled
+not to disobey your venerable instructor. What the kind entreaties and
+remonstrances of Contarini could not induce you to abandon, you are
+ready to annihilate on the very first symptom of danger. Oh, Venice!"
+exclaimed the Proveditore, his fine countenance assuming an expression
+of extreme bitterness, as he gazed mournfully at the portraits of his
+ancestors, including more than one Doge, which were suspended round
+the walls of the apartment--"Venice! thou art indeed degenerate, when
+peril so remote can blanch the cheek of thy patrician youth."
+
+He strode twice up and down the hall, then returning to his son, bade
+him fetch the picture which he was so desirous of destroying. Antonio,
+downcast and abashed by these reproaches, which, however, were
+insufficient to awaken nobler aspirations in his weak and irresolute
+nature, hurried to his chamber, and presently returned with a roll of
+canvass in his hand, which he unfolded and spread before the
+Proveditore--then, dreading to encounter his father's ridicule, he
+shrunk back out of the firelight. But the effect produced upon
+Marcello by the portrait of the old woman, was very different from
+that anticipated by his son. Scarcely had he cast his eyes upon the
+unearthly visage, when he started back with an exclamation of horror
+and astonishment.
+
+"By all the saints, Antonio," cried he in an altered voice, "that is a
+fearful portrait! Alas, poor wretch! thou art long since in thy
+grave," continued he, addressing the picture, and with looks and tones
+strangely at variance with his usually stern and imperturbable
+deportment. "The worms have preyed on thee, and thou art as dust and
+ashes. Why, then, dost thou rise from the dead to fright me with that
+ghastly visage?"
+
+"Is the face known to you, father?" the astonished Antonio ventured to
+exclaim.
+
+"Known to me! Ay, too well! That wrinkled skin, that unearthly
+complexion, those deep-set eyes glowing like burning coals. Just so
+did she glare upon me as she swung from the tree, the blood driven
+into her features by the agonizing pressure of the halter. 'Tis the
+very look that has haunted me for years, and caused me many bitter
+moments of remorse; though, God knows, the deed was lawful and
+justifiable, done in the execution of my duty to the republic. And
+yet she lives," he continued musingly. "How could she have been saved?
+True, she had not been hanging long when we left the place. Some of
+her people, doubtless, were concealed hard by, and cut her down ere
+life had entirely fled. But, ha! 'tis a clue this to the perpetrators
+of to-day's outrage, for she was with them. Uzcoques, then they must
+have been! Said you not, Antonio, that she came from the house of the
+Capitano when first you saw her, and that to-day you left her there?"
+
+"At her own special desire, father," replied Antonio.
+
+"Then is the chain of evidence almost complete," continued the
+Proveditore. "It must have been herself. And now--this attack on the
+Malipieri palace. What was its object? A hostage?--Ay, I see it all,
+and our prisoner is none other than Dansowich himself. But we must
+have proof of that from his own confession; and this portrait may help
+to extort it."
+
+Whilst uttering these broken sentences, which were totally
+incomprehensible to the bewildered Antonio, the Proveditore had donned
+his mantle, and placed his plumed cap upon his head.
+
+"No, Antonio," said he, "we will not destroy this picture, hideous
+though it be. It may prove the means of rendering weighty service to
+the republic."
+
+And with these words, inexplicable to his son, the Proveditore left
+the apartment; and, taking with him the mysterious portrait, hastened
+to the prison were the Uzcoque leader was immured.
+
+The pirate chief was a man of large and athletic frame, of strong
+feelings, and great intellectual capabilities. His brow was large,
+open, and commanding; his countenance, bronzed with long exposure to
+the elements, and scarred with wounds, was repulsive, but by no means
+ignoble; his hair and beard had long been silvered over by time and
+calamity; but his vast bodily strength was unimpaired, and when roused
+into furious resentment, his manly chest emitted a volume of sound
+that awed every listener. Upon a larger stage, and under circumstances
+more favourable to the fair development of his natural powers and
+dispositions, the pirate Dansowich would have become one of the most
+distinguished and admirable men of his time. Placed by the accident of
+birth upon the frontiers of Christian Europe, and cherishing from
+early youth a belief that the highest interests of the human race were
+involved in the struggle between the Crescent and the Cross, he had
+embraced the glorious cause with that enthusiastic and fiery zeal
+which raises men into heroes and martyrs. Too soon, however, were
+these lofty aspirations checked and blighted by the anti-Christian
+policy of trading Venice, the bad faith of Austria towards the Uzcoque
+race, and the extortions of her counsellors. Cursing in the bitterness
+of his heart, not only Turks, Austrians, and Venetians, but all
+mankind, he no longer opposed the piratical tendencies of his
+neglected people, and eventually headed many of their marauding
+expeditions.
+
+It was nearly midnight when Dansowich was awakened from a deep but
+troubled slumber by a grating noise at the door of his dungeon.
+Anxiety of mind, and still more, the effect of confinement in an
+impure and stifling atmosphere, upon one accustomed to the breezes of
+the Adriatic and the free air of the mountains, had impaired his
+health, and his sleep was broken by harassing and painful dreams. In
+that from which he now awoke, with the sweat of anguish on his brow,
+he had fancied himself before the tribunal of the Inquisition. The
+rack was shown to him, and they bade him choose between confession and
+torture. He then thought he heard his name repeated several times in
+tones deep and sepulchral. Starting up in alarm, he saw the door of
+his prison open, and give admittance to a man muffled in a black
+cloak, who walked up to the foot of his bed of damp straw, and threw
+the rays of a dark lantern full into his dazzled eyes.
+
+The traces of recent and strong emotion, visible at that moment on the
+pirate's countenance, did not escape the Proveditore, who attributed
+them, and rightly, to an artifice he had practised. Previously to
+entering the dungeon, he had caused the name of Nicolo Dansowich to
+be repeated several times in a deep hollow voice. Aware of the
+superstitious credulity of the Uzcoques, the wily Venetian had devised
+this stratagem as one likely to produce a startling effect upon the
+prisoner, and to forward the end he proposed to obtain by his visit.
+He now seated himself upon a wooden bench, the only piece of furniture
+in the dungeon, and addressed the captive in a mild and conciliating
+tone.
+
+"You should keep better watch over your dreams," said he, "if you wish
+our tribunals to remain in ignorance of your secrets."
+
+"My dreams!" repeated the Uzcoque, somewhat startled by the ominous
+coincidence between Marcello's words and the visions that had broken
+his slumber.
+
+"Ay, friend, your dreams! The jailers are watchful, and little passes
+in these prisons without coming to their knowledge. More than once
+have they heard you revealing in your sleep that which, during your
+waking hours, you so strenuously deny.--'Enough! Enough!' you cried.
+'I will confess all. I am Nicolo Dansowich.'"
+
+While Marcello was speaking, the old Uzcoque had had time to collect
+his thoughts, and call to mind the numerous snares and devices by
+which the Venetian tribunals obtained confessions from their
+prisoners. With an intuitive keenness of perception, he in a moment
+saw through the Proveditore's stratagem, and resolved to defeat it. A
+contemptuous smile played over his features, and, shaking his head
+incredulously, he answered the Venetian--
+
+"The watchful jailers you speak of have doubtless been cheering their
+vigils with the wine flask," said he. "Their draughts must have been
+deep, to make them hear that which was never spoken."
+
+"Subterfuge will avail you nothing," replied Marcello. "Your sleeping
+confessions, although you may now wish to retract them, are yet
+sufficient grounds for the tribunal to go upon, and the most
+excruciating tortures will be used, if needful, to procure their
+waking confirmation. Reflect, Dansowich," continued the Proveditore in
+a persuasive and gentle tone, "on the position in which you now find
+yourself. Your life is forfeited; and, if you persist in your denials,
+you will never leave this dungeon but for the rack or scaffold. On the
+other hand, the senate respects you as a brave and honourable,
+although misguided man, and would gladly see you turn from the error
+of your ways. Now is the time to ensure yourself a tranquil and
+respected old age. Hearken to the proposals I am empowered to make
+you. The Signoria offers you life, freedom, and a captainship in the
+island of Candia, on the sole condition, on your part, of disclosing
+the intrigues and perfidy of the council at Gradiska, and furnishing
+us, as you are assuredly able to do, with documents by which we may
+prove to the Archduke the treachery of his ministers. Again, I
+say--Reflect! or rather hesitate not, but decide at once between a
+prosperous and honourable life, and a death of degradation and
+anguish."
+
+Neither the threats nor the temptations held out by the Proveditore
+seemed to have the smallest effect upon the Uzcoque.
+
+"You are mistaken," replied he calmly. "I am not Dansowich, nor have I
+any knowledge of the intrigues at Gradiska. I could not therefore, if
+I wished it, buy my life by the treachery demanded of me; and if the
+woivodes of Segna think as I do, they will let themselves be hewn in
+pieces before they do the bidding of your senators, or concede aught
+to the wishes of false and crafty Venice."
+
+"You are a brave man, Dansowich!" resumed the Proveditore, who saw the
+necessity of changing his tactics. "You care little for the dangers
+and sufferings of this world. But yet--pause and reflect. Your hair is
+silvered by time, and even should you escape your present peril, you
+will still, ere many years are past, have to render an account to a
+higher tribunal than ours. By an upright course you might atone for
+the crimes of your youth and manhood, and become the chosen instrument
+of Heaven to deliver your fellow-Christians from a cruel scourge and
+sore infliction."
+
+"And who has brought the scourge upon you?" demanded the old man in a
+raised voice, measuring the Proveditore with a stern and contemptuous
+look. "Is it our fault that, whilst we were striving to keep the Turk
+from the door of Christendom, you sought every means of thwarting our
+efforts by forming treaties with the infidel? You do well to remind me
+that my head is grey. I was still a youth when the name of Uzcoque was
+a title of honour as it is now a term of reproach--when my people were
+looked upon as heroes, by whose valour the Cross was exalted, and the
+Crescent bowed down to the dust. Those were the days when, on the
+ruins of Spalatro, we swore to live like eagles, amidst barren cliffs
+and naked rocks, the better to harass the heathen--the days when the
+power of the Moslem quailed and fled before us. And had not your
+sordid Venetian traders stepped in, courting the infidel for love of
+gain, the Cross would still be worshipped on all the shores of the
+Adriatic, and the Uzcoques would still combat for honour and victory
+instead of revenge and plunder. But your hand has ever been against
+us. Your long galleys were ever ready to sink our barks or blockade
+our coast; and the fate of robbers and murderers awaited our people if
+they had the mishap to fall into your hands. You reduced us at last to
+despair. Each valiant deed performed against the Turk was recompensed
+by you with new persecutions, till at last you converted into deadly
+enemies those who would willingly have been your friends and fast
+allies. Thank yourselves, then, for the foe you have raised up. Your
+own cowardice and greed have engendered the hydra which now preys upon
+your heart's blood."
+
+The Proveditore remarked with satisfaction, not unmingled with
+surprise, that the old pirate, who had hitherto replied to all
+interrogatories with a degree of cold reserve and cunning which had
+baffled his examiners, was becoming visibly excited, and losing his
+power of self-control. This was favourable to the meditated stratagem
+of the Venetian, who now, in pursuance of the scheme he had combined,
+gave the conversation another direction.
+
+"I an willing to acknowledge," said he, "that the republic has at
+times dealt somewhat hardly with your people. But which is in fact the
+worst foe, he who openly attacks you, or he who makes you his tool to
+sow discord amongst Christians, and to excite the Turks against
+Venice, while under pretence of protection he squeezes from you the
+booty obtained at the price of your blood?"
+
+"And who does that?" demanded the Uzcoque.
+
+"Who! Need you ask the question? What do you give for the shelter you
+receive from Austria? At what price do you inhabit the town and castle
+of Segna?"
+
+"At none that I am aware of," replied Dansowich fiercely. "We dwell
+there, in virtue of our compact with the Emperor, as soldiers of the
+Archduke, bound to defend the post confided to us against the
+aggressions of the infidel. As soldiers we have our pay, as mariners
+we have our lawful booty."
+
+"Pay and booty!" repeated the Proveditore scornfully. "Whence comes,
+then, your manifest misery and poverty? Whence comes it that you turn
+robbers, if in the pay of Austria? No, Dansowich, you will not deceive
+us by such flimsy pretexts! Your gains, lawful and unlawful, are
+wrested from you by the archducal counsellors, in whose hands you are
+mere puppets. 'Twas they who prompted you to tell the Turks that you
+were in league with Venice; that the republic encouraged your
+misdeeds, and shared the profits of your aggressions on the subjects
+of the Porte. They it was who caused the documents to be prepared,
+with forged seals and signatures of the illustrious Signoria, which
+were to serve as proofs of your lying assertions. Deny this, if you
+can."
+
+The beard and mustache of the old Uzcoque appeared to curl and bristle
+with fury at the insulting imputations of the Proveditore. For a
+moment he seemed about to fly at his interlocutor; his fingers
+clutched and tore the straw upon which he was sitting; and his fetters
+clanked as his whole frame shook with rage. After a brief pause, and
+by a strong effort, he restrained himself, and replied calmly to the
+taunting accusation of the Venetian.
+
+"Why go so far," said he, "to seek for motives that may be found
+nearer home? You seem to have forgotten how many times the Archduke
+has compelled us to make restitution of booty wrested from Venetian
+subjects. You forget, too, that it was in consequence of your
+complaints he sent to the cruel Rabbata to control us--Rabbata whom we
+slew in our wrath, for we are freemen and brook no tyranny. If we are
+poor individually, it is because we yield up our booty into the hands
+of our woivodes, to be used for the common good of seven hundred
+families. No, Signor! if the republic has to complain of us, let her
+remember the provocations received at her hands, the persecutions
+which converted a band of heroes into a pirate horde, and which
+changed our holy zeal against the enemies of the Cross into
+remorseless hatred of all mankind. As to the forged seals and
+signatures you talk of, and the deceptions practised on the Turks, if
+such there were, they were the self-willed act of our woivodes, and in
+no way instigated by Austria."
+
+"Thou liest, Dansowich!" said the Proveditore sternly. "Did you not
+proclaim and swear in the public market-place of the Austrian town of
+Segna, that you were the friends and allies of Venice? This you would
+never have dared to do, but with the approval and connivance of the
+archducal government."
+
+The eyes of the pirate sparkled with a strange and significant gleam
+as the Proveditore recalled the circumstance to his recollection.
+
+"Know ye not," said he with a grim smile, "whom ye have to thank for
+that good office? 'Twas Dansowich himself, who thereby but half
+fulfilled his vow of vengeance against the republic. And when did it
+occur?" he continued with rising fury. "Was it not shortly after the
+day in which that heartless villain, the Proveditore Marcello,
+captured the woivode's wife, and hung her, unoffending and
+defenceless, unshriven and unabsolved, upon a tree on the Dalmatian
+shore?"
+
+The Uzcoque paused, overcome by the bitter memories he was calling up,
+and by the fury and hatred they revived in his breast. His eyes were
+bloodshot, and the foam stood upon his lips as he concluded. The
+Proveditore smiled. The favourable moment he had been waiting had
+arrived, the moment when he doubted not that Dansowich would betray
+himself. Taking Antonio's drawing from under his cloak, he suddenly
+unrolled and held it before the Uzcoque, in such a manner that the
+light of the lantern fell full upon the ghastly countenance of the old
+woman.
+
+"Behold!" said he. "Does that resemble her you speak of?"
+
+The object of the Proveditore was gained, but he had not well
+calculated all the consequences of his stratagem.
+
+"Fiend of hell!" shouted Dansowich in a voice of thunder, while a
+sudden light seemed to burst upon him. "'Tis thou who are her
+murderer!" And bounding forward with a violence that at once freed him
+from his fetters, which fell clattering on the dungeon floor, he
+clutched the senator by the throat, and hurled him to the ground
+before the astonished Venetian had time to make the slightest
+resistance.
+
+"Art thou still in being?" he muttered, while his teeth gnashed and
+ground together. "I thought thee long since dead. But, no! 'twas
+written thou shouldst die by my hand. Be it done to thee as thou didst
+to the wife of my bosom," continued he, while kneeling on the breast
+of the Proveditore, and compressing his throat in an iron gripe that
+threatened to prove as efficacious and nearly as speedy in its
+operation as the bow-string of the Turk. In vain did Marcello struggle
+violently to free himself from the crushing pressure of the pirate's
+fingers. Although a very powerful man, and in the full vigour of his
+strength, the disadvantage at which he had been taken prevented his
+being a match for the old Uzcoque, whose sinews were braced by a long
+life of hardship. Fortunately, however, for the Venetian, the furious
+shout of Dansowich had been overheard by the guards and jailers, who
+now rushed into the dungeon, and rescued the half strangled
+Proveditore from the grasp of his fierce antagonist.
+
+"Do him no hurt!" exclaimed Marcello, so soon as he was able to speak,
+seeing that the guards were disposed to handle the Uzcoque somewhat
+roughly; "the secret I have won is well worth the risk. The prisoner
+is Dansowich, woivode of Segna."
+
+The fetters which the pirate had snapped with such facility, were,
+upon examination, found to be filed more than half through. The
+instrument by which this had been effected was sought for and
+discovered, and the prisoner, having been doubly manacled, was again
+left to the solitude of his cell. After directing all imaginable
+vigilance to be used for the safe custody of so important a captive,
+the Proveditore re-entered his gondola and was conveyed back to his
+palace.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE PIRATES.
+
+
+The desperate attempt on the life of the Proveditore, and the evidence
+given by him as to the identity of the prisoner, had the result that
+may be supposed, and the old Uzcoque was put to the torture. But the
+ingenuity of Venetian tormentors was vainly exhausted upon him; the
+most unheard of sufferings failed to extort a syllable of confession
+from his lips. At last, despairing of obtaining the desired
+information by these means, the senate commissioned Marcello, as one
+well acquainted with the localities, to make a descent on the
+Dalmatian coast, and profiting by the consternation of the Uzcoqes at
+the loss of their leader, to endeavour to surprise a small fort
+situated at some distance from Segna, and which was the abode of
+Dansowich. In the absence of the old pirate it would probably be
+carelessly guarded and easily surprised; and it was hoped that
+documents would be found there, proving that which the Venetians were
+so anxious to establish. Another object of the expedition was to
+capture, if possible, the mysterious female who had been lately seen
+more than once in Venice, and who had taken so prominent a part in the
+attack on the palace of the Malipieri.
+
+Accompanied by his son, whom for various reasons he had resolved to
+take with him, Marcello went on board an armed galley, and with a
+favouring breeze steered for the Dalmatian coast. He had little doubt
+of accomplishing the object of his expedition with ease and safety;
+for a Venetian Fleet was already blockading the channel of Segna, and
+the archducal city of Fiume, where several of the Uzcoque barks were
+undergoing repairs. The blockade had been instituted in consequence of
+the outrageous piracies committed by the Uzcoques during the Easter
+festival, and was a measure frequently adopted by the republic; which,
+although carefully avoiding a war, neglected no other means of
+enforcing their applications to the court at Gradiska for an energetic
+interference in the proceedings of the pirates. The inconvenience and
+interruption to the trade of Fiume occasioned by these blockades,
+usually induced the archducal government to institute a pretended
+investigation into the conduct of the Uzcoques, or at least to promise
+the Venetians some reparation--a mockery of satisfaction with which
+the latter, in their then state of decline and weakness, were fain to
+content themselves. Reckoning upon the terror inspired by the presence
+of the squadron now employed in the blockade, as well as upon its
+support, should he require it, the Proveditore made sure of success.
+He was doomed, however, to be cruelly disappointed in his sanguine
+anticipations.
+
+When the attempt to get possession of the person of a Venetian
+nobleman had failed, Strasolda found it impossible to keep her
+father's captivity any longer a secret, and was compelled to appeal to
+the whole of the Uzcoques to assist her in his deliverance.
+Information of the woivode's recognition, and of the tortures he had
+suffered, soon reached the ears of the pirates, who were not slow to
+perceive that the safety, and even the existence of their tribe, were
+now at stake. Although well acquainted with the inflexible character
+of Dansowich, they trembled lest the agonies he was made to suffer
+should force from him a confession, which would enable the Venetians
+to convince the archduke of the criminal collusion between his
+counsellors and the Uzcoques. This would be the signal for the
+withdrawal of the archducal protection from the pirates, who then,
+exposed to the vengeance of all whom they had plundered, must
+inevitably succumb in the unequal conflict that would ensue.
+
+The imminence of the peril inspired the Uzcoques with unwonted courage
+and energy. Jurissa Caiduch himself, forgetting any cause of dislike
+he might have to Dansowich, joined heart and hand in the plans formed
+by the pirates for the deliverance of their leader. Every man in
+Segna, whether young or old, all who could wield a cimeter or clutch a
+knife, hastily armed themselves, and crowded into the fleet of long
+light skiffs in which they were wont to make their predatory
+excursions. Then breaking furiously through the line of Venetian
+ships, stationed between Veglia and the mainland, and which were
+totally unprepared for this sudden and daring manoeuvre, they
+disappeared amidst the shoals and in the small creeks and inlets of
+the Dalmatian islands belonging to the republic, where the ponderous
+Venetian galleys would vainly attempt to follow them. Their object was
+the same which they had already attempted to carry out in Venice on
+the day of the Bridge Fight; namely, to seize upon some Venetian
+magistrate or person of importance whom they might exchange for
+Dansowich. Under the guidance of Jurissa Caiduch they waylaid and
+boarded every vessel that passed up or down the Adriatic, especially
+those coming from the Ionian islands, in hope of meeting with a
+Venetian of rank. Nor did they pursue their researches upon the water
+alone. Not a night passed that one or other of the islands was not
+lighted up by the blaze of villages, hamlets, and villas. In the
+absence of Dansowich, there was no restraint upon their fury; and
+urged on by the bloodthirsty Jurissa, the cruelties they committed
+were unprecedented even in their sanguinary annals. Nor were they
+without hope that the barbarities they were perpetrating might induce
+the Venetians to restore their leader to liberty, in order that he
+might, as was well known to be his wont, check the excesses of his
+followers.
+
+The outbreak of the pirates had been so sudden and unexpected, that
+the Proveditore, who sailed from Venice on the same day on which it
+occurred, had received no intelligence of it, and, unconscious of his
+peril, steered straight for the islands. One circumstance alone
+appeared strange to him, which was, that during the last part of his
+voyage he did not meet a single vessel, although the quarter of the
+Adriatic through which he was passing was usually crowded with
+shipping. But he was far from attributing this extraordinary change to
+its real cause.
+
+It was afternoon when Marcello's galley cane in sight of the white
+cliffs of Cherso, and shortly afterwards entered the channel, running
+between that island and Veglia. The masses of dark clouds in the
+western horizon were becoming momentarily more threatening, and
+various signs of an approaching storm made the captain of the galley
+especially anxious to get, before nightfall, into the nearest harbour,
+which was that of Pesca, at the southern extremity of the island of
+Veglia. All sail was made upon the galley, and they were running
+rapidly down the channel, when a red light suddenly flashed over the
+waves in the quarter of the horizon they were approaching, and was
+reflected back upon the sky, now darkened with clouds and by the
+approach of night. Attracted by this unusual appearance, Antonio
+hurried to the high quarterdeck of the galley; and scarcely had he
+ascended it, when the fiery glow fell in a flood of rosy light upon
+the distant chalk cliffs. Entranced by the picturesque beauty of the
+scene, the young painter forgot to enquire the cause of this singular
+illumination, when suddenly his attention was caught by a shout from
+the man at the helm.
+
+"By Heavens, 'tis a fire!" ejaculated the sailor, who had been
+watching the unusual appearance. "All Pesca must be in flames."
+
+He had scarcely uttered the words when the galley rounded a projecting
+point of land, and the correctness of the seaman's conjecture was
+apparent. A thick cloud of smoke hung like a pall over the unfortunate
+town of Pesca. Tongues of flame darted upwards from the dense black
+vapour, lighting up sea and land to an immense distance.
+
+Scarcely had Antonio's startled glance been able to take in this
+imposing spectacle, when the storm, which had long been impending,
+burst forth with tremendous violence; the wind howled furiously
+amongst the rigging, and the galley was tossed like a nutshell from
+crest to crest of the foaming waves; each moment bringing it into more
+dangerous proximity to the rocky shoals of that iron-bound shore. The
+light from the burning town showed the Venetians all the dangers of
+their situation; and their peril was the more imminent because the
+signal usually made for boats to tow large vessels through the rocks
+and breakers, was at such a moment not likely to be observed or
+attended to by the people of Pesca. Nevertheless the signal was
+hoisted; but instead of bringing the assistance so much needed by the
+Venetians, it drew upon them an enemy far more formidable than the
+elements with which they were already contending. Boats were soon seen
+approaching the galley; but as they drew near it was evident they were
+not manned by the peaceful fishermen, who usually came out to render
+assistance to vessels. They were crowded with wild, fierce-looking
+figures, who, on arriving within a short distance of the ship, set up
+a savage yell of defiance, and sent a deadly volley of musket-balls
+amongst the astounded Venetians. Before the latter had recovered from
+their astonishment, the light skiffs of the Uzcoques were within a few
+yards of the galley. Another fatally effective volley of musketry; and
+then, throwing down their fire-arms, the pirates grasped their sabres
+and made violent efforts to board. But each time that they succeeded
+in closing, the plunging of the ponderous galley into the trough of
+the sea, or the rising of some huge wave, severed them from their
+prey, and prevented them from setting foot on the decks of the
+Venetian vessel. This delay was made the most of by the officers of
+the latter, in making arrangements for defence. The Proveditore
+himself, a man of tried and chivalrous courage, and great experience
+both in land and sea warfare, lent his personal aid to the
+preparations, and in a few pithy and emphatic words strove to
+encourage the crew to a gallant resistance. But the soldiers and
+mariners who manned the galley had already sustained a heavy loss by
+the fire of the Uzcoques, and were moreover alarmed by their near
+approach to that perilous shore, as well as disheartened by the
+prospect of a contest with greatly superior numbers. Although some few
+took to their arms and occupied the posts assigned them by their
+officers, the majority seemed more disposed to tell beads and mutter
+prayers, than to display the energy and decision which alone could
+rescue them from the double peril by which they were menaced. The
+pirates, meanwhile, were constantly foiled in their attempts to board
+by the fury of the elements, till at last, becoming maddened by
+repeated disappointments, they threw off their upper garments, and
+fixing their long knives firmly between their teeth, dashed in crowds
+into the water. Familiar with that element from childhood, they
+skimmed over its surface with the lightness and rapidity of sea-mews,
+and swarmed up the sides of the galley. A vigorous defence might yet
+have saved the vessel; but the heroic days of Venice were long
+past--the race of men who had so long maintained the supremacy of the
+republic in all the Italian seas, was now extinct. After a feeble and
+irresolute resistance, the Venetians threw down their arms and begged
+for quarter; while the Proveditore, disgusted at the cowardice of his
+countrymen, indignantly broke his sword, and retreating to the
+quarterdeck, there seated himself beside his son, and calmly awaited
+his fate.
+
+Foremost among the assailants was Jurissa Caiduch, who sprang upon the
+deck of the galley, foaming with rage, and slaughtering all he met on
+his passage. The blazing town lighted up the scene, and showed him and
+his followers where to strike. In vain did the unfortunate crew
+implore quarter. None was given, and the decks of the ship soon
+streamed with blood, while each moment the cries of the victims became
+fewer and fainter.
+
+Totally forgetting in his blind fury the object of the expedition,
+Jurissa stayed not his hand in quest of hostages, but rushed with
+uplifted knife on Marcello and his son. The latter shrieked for mercy;
+while the Proveditore, unmoved by the imminence of the peril,
+preserved his dignity of mien, and fixed his deep stern gaze upon the
+pirate. Jurissa paused for an instant, staggered by the look, and awed
+by the commanding aspect, of the Venetian. Soon, however, as though
+indignant at his own momentary hesitation, he rushed forward with a
+furious shout and uplifted blade. The knife was descending, the next
+instant it would have entered the heart of Marcello; when an Uzcoque,
+recognizing by the light of the conflagration the patrician garb of
+the Proveditore, uttered a cry of surprise, and seized the arm of his
+bloodthirsty leader.
+
+"Caiduch!" exclaimed the pirate, "would you again blast our purpose?
+This man is a Venetian noble. His life may buy that of Dansowich."
+
+"It is the Proveditore Marcello!" cried Antonio, eager to profit by
+the momentary respite.
+
+The words of the young painter passed from mouth to mouth, and in a
+few seconds the whole of the Uzcoques were acquainted with the
+important capture that had been made. For a moment astonishment kept
+them tongue-tied, and then a wild shout of exultation conveyed to
+their companions on shore the intelligence of some joyful event.
+
+Ropes were now thrown out to the pirate skiffs, the galley was safely
+towed into the harbour, and the Proveditore, his son, and the few
+Venetian sailors who had escaped the general slaughter, were conducted
+to the burning town, amidst the jeers and ill-treatment of their
+captors. Exposed to great danger from the falling roofs and timbers of
+the blazing houses, they were led through the streets of Pesca, and on
+their way had ample opportunity of witnessing the incredible cruelties
+exercised by the pirates upon the inhabitants of that ill-fated town.
+What made these cruelties appear still more horrible, was the part
+taken in them by the Uzcoque women, who, as was the case at that
+period with most of the Sclavonian races, were all trained to the use
+of arms,[1] and who on this occasion swelled the ranks of the
+freebooters. Their ferocity exceeded, if possible, that of the men.
+Neither age, sex, nor station afforded any protection against these
+furies, who perpetrated barbarities the details of which would exceed
+belief.
+
+    [1] The reader of German literature will call to mind the
+    anecdote, in Jean Paul's _Levana_, of a Moldavian woman who in
+    one day slew seven men with her own hand, and the same evening
+    was delivered of a child.
+
+The violence of the flames rendering it impossible to remain in the
+town, the Uzcoques betook themselves to the castle of a nobleman,
+situated on a rising ground a short distance from Pesca. On first
+landing, the pirates had broken into this castle and made it their
+headquarters. After pillaging every thing of value, they had gratified
+their savage love of destruction by breaking and destroying what they
+could not well carry away. In the court-yard were collected piles of
+furniture, pictures of price, and fragments of rich tapestry, rent by
+those ruthless spoilers from the walls of the apartments. With this
+costly fuel had the Uzcoques lit fires, at which quarters of oxen and
+whole sheep were now roasting.
+
+A shout of triumph burst forth when the news of the Proveditore's
+capture was announced to the pirates who had remained at the castle,
+and they crowded round the unfortunate prisoners, overwhelming them
+with threats and curses. Something like silence being at length
+obtained, Jurissa commanded instant preparations to be made for the
+banquet appointed to celebrate the success of their expedition. Tables
+were arranged in a spacious hall of the castle, and upon them soon
+smoked the huge joints of meat that had been roasting at the fires,
+placed on the bare boards without dish or plate. Casks of wine that
+had been rescued from the flames of the town, or extracted from the
+castle cellars, were broached, or the heads knocked in, and the
+contents poured into jugs and flagons of every shape and size.
+Although the light of the conflagration, glaring red through the tall
+Gothic windows, lit up the hall and rendered any further illumination
+unnecessary, a number of torches had been fixed round the apartment,
+the resinous smoke of which floated in clouds over the heads of the
+revelers. Seating themselves upon benches, chairs, and empty casks,
+the Uzcoques commenced a ravenous attack upon the coarse but abundant
+viands set before them.
+
+The scene was a strange one. The brutal demeanour of the men, their
+bearded and savage aspect; the disheveled bloodstained women, mingling
+their shrill voices with the hoarse tones of their male companions;
+the disordered but often picturesque garb and various weapons of the
+pirates; the whole seen by the light of the burning houses--more
+resembled an orgie of demons than an assemblage of human beings; and
+even the cool and resolute Proveditore felt himself shudder and turn
+pale as he contemplated this carnival of horrors, celebrated by
+wretches on whose hands the blood of their fellow-men was as yet
+hardly dry. Antonio sat supporting himself against the table, seeming
+scarcely conscious of what passed around him. Both father and son had
+been compelled to take their places at the board, amidst the jeers and
+insults of the Uzcoques.
+
+The revel was at its height, when Jurissa suddenly started from his
+seat, and struck the table violently with his drinking-cup.
+
+"Hold, Uzcoques!" he exclaimed; "we have forgotten the crowning
+ornament of our banquet."
+
+He whispered something to an Uzcoque seated beside him, who left the
+room. While the pirates were still asking one another the meaning of
+Jurissa's words, the man returned, bearing before him a trencher
+covered with a cloth, which he placed at the upper end of the table.
+
+"Behold the last and best dish we can offer to our noble guests!" said
+Jurissa; "'twill suit, I doubt not, their dainty palates." And,
+tearing off the cloth, he exposed to view the grizzly and distorted
+features of a human head.
+
+The shout of savage exultation that burst from the pirates at this
+ghastly spectacle, drowned the groan of rage and grief uttered by the
+Proveditore, as he recognised in the pale and rigid countenance the
+well-known features of his friend Christophoro Veniero. That
+unfortunate nobleman, on his return from a voyage to the Levant, had
+fallen into the hands of Jurissa, who, before he was aware of the rank
+of his prisoner, had barbarously slain him. This had occurred not many
+hours before the capture of Marcello; and it was to the murder of
+Veniero that the Uzcoque made allusion, when he seized Jurissa's arm
+at the moment he was about to stab the Proveditore.
+
+One of the pirates, a man of gigantic stature and hideous aspect, now
+rose from his seat, staggering with drunkenness, and forcing open the
+jaws of the dead, placed a piece of meat between the teeth. The
+wildest laughter and applause greeted this frightful pantomime, which
+made the blood of the Proveditore run cold.
+
+"Infernal and bloody villains!" shouted he, unable to restrain his
+indignation, and starting to his feet as he spoke. There was a
+momentary pause, during which the pirates gazed at the noble Venetian,
+seemingly struck dumb with surprise at his temerity. Then, however, a
+dozen sinewy arms were extended to seize him, and a dozen daggers
+menaced his life. Dignified and immovable, the high-souled senator
+offered no resistance, but inwardly ejaculating a short prayer,
+awaited the death-stroke. It came not, however. Although some of the
+Uzcoques, in their fury and intoxication, would have immolated their
+valuable hostage, others, who had drunk less deeply, protested against
+the madness of such an act, and rushed forward to protect him. Their
+interference was resented, and a violent quarrel ensued. Knives were
+drawn, benches overturned, chairs broken up and converted into
+weapons; on all sides bare steel was flashing, deep oaths resounding,
+and missiles of various kinds flying across the tables. It would be
+impossible to say how long this scene of drunken violence would have
+lasted, or how long the Proveditore and his son would have remained
+unscathed amidst the storm, had not the advent of a fresh actor upon
+the scene stilled the tumult in a manner so sudden as to appear almost
+miraculous.
+
+The new comer was no other than the ghastly old woman who has been
+seen to play such an important part in this history, and who now
+entered the banqueting hall with hasty step and impatient gesture.
+
+"Uzcoques!" she exclaimed in a shrill, clear, and emphatic voice, that
+rose above the clamour of the brawl; "Uzcoques! what means this savage
+uproar? Are you not yet sated with rapine and slaughter, that you thus
+fall upon and tear each other? Are ye men, or wolves and tigers? Is
+this the way to obtain your leader's deliverance; and will the news of
+this day's havoc, think you, better the position of Dansowich?"
+
+The pirates hung their heads in silent confusion at this reproof. None
+dared to reply; Jurissa alone grumbled something inaudible.
+
+"Follow me!" continued the singular woman whose words had so
+extraordinary an effect on this brutal band. "Follow, every man! and
+stop as far as may be, the ruin you have begun."
+
+Obedient to her voice the Uzcoques left the hall, some of them
+sullenly and slowly enough, but none venturing to dispute the
+injunction laid upon them. The old woman waited till the scene of
+tumult and revel was abandoned by all but Marcello and his son, and
+then hurrying after the pirates, led the way to the burning town. In a
+few minutes the two Venetians beheld, from the castle windows, the
+dark forms of the freebooters moving about in the firelight, as they
+busied themselves to extinguish the conflagration. Here and there the
+white robe of the mysterious old woman was discernible as she flitted
+from one group to another, directing their efforts, and urging them to
+greater exertions.
+
+"Strange!" said the Proveditore musingly, "that so hideous and
+repulsive an old creature should exercise such commanding influence
+over these bandits."
+
+He looked round to his son as he spoke; but Antonio, worn out by the
+fatigues and agitation of the day, had stretched himself upon a bench
+and was already in a deep sleep. The Proveditore gazed at him for a
+brief space, with an expression of mingled pity, regret, and paternal
+affection upon his countenance.
+
+"As weak of body as infirm of purpose," he murmured. "Alas! that a
+name derived from old Roman ancestors should be borne by one so little
+qualified to do it honour! Had it pleased Heaven to preserve to me the
+child stolen in his infancy by the Moslem, how different would have
+been my position! That masculine and noble boy, so full of life and
+promise, would have proved a prop to my old age, and an ornament to
+his country. But now, alas!"--
+
+He continued for a while to indulge in vain regrets that the course of
+events had not been otherwise; then turning to the window, he watched
+the efforts made by the pirates to extinguish the flames, until a
+dense cloud of smoke that overhung the town was the only sign
+remaining of the conflagration.
+
+For some time the Proveditore paced up and down the hall in anxious
+thought upon his critical position, and the strange circumstances that
+had led to it. In vain did he endeavour to reconcile, with what now
+seemed more than ever inexplicable, the vindictive rage of Dansowich
+in the dungeon, and the evidence before him that the pirate's wife was
+still in existence. It was a riddle which he was unable to solve; and
+at last, despairing of success, he abandoned the attempt, and sought
+in slumber a temporary oblivion of the perils that surrounded him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE RECOGNITION.
+
+
+Upon a divan in the splendid armoury of the pacha's palace at
+Bosnia-Serai, the young Turk Ibrahim was seated in deep thought, the
+day after his return home. On the walls around him were displayed
+weapons and military accoutrements of every kind. Damascus sabres
+richly inlaid, and many with jeweled hilts, embroidered banners,
+golden stirrups, casques of embossed silver, burnished armour and
+coats-of-mail, were arranged in picturesque and fanciful devices. As
+the young Moslem gazed around him, and beheld these trophies of
+victories won by Turkish viziers and pachas in their wars against
+Austria and Venice, his martial and fearless spirit rose high, and he
+reproached himself with weakness and pusillanimity for having
+abandoned the pursuit of her he loved. Bitterly did he now regret his
+precipitation in leaving Venice the morning after the Battle of the
+Bridge, and while under the influence of the shock he had received, in
+beholding the hideous features of an old woman where he had expected
+to find the blooming countenance of Strasolda. His love for the
+Uzcoque maiden, as he had seen her when his captive, and again in the
+cavern on the coast by Segna, returned in full force. He was already
+planning a journey to Venice, when he was interrupted in his
+meditations by the noise of a horse's hoofs dashing full speed into
+the court of the palace. In another minute an attendant summoned him
+to the presence of the pacha, and there he heard the news just
+received, of the wild outbreak of the Uzcoques. The Martellossi and
+other troops were ordered to proceed immediately to the frontier, in
+order to protect Turkish Dalmatia from the pirates; and Ibrahim, at
+his urgent request, was appointed to a command in the expedition.
+
+With joyful alacrity did the young Turk arm and hurry to horse; and
+then, putting himself at the head of a troop of light cavalry, sped
+onwards in the direction of the country where he hoped to gain tidings
+of Strasolda. Having received strict orders to content himself with
+protecting the Turkish frontier, and above all not to infringe on
+Archducal territory, Ibrahim, on arriving at the boundary of the
+pachalic, left his troop in charge of the second in command, and with
+a handful of men entered Venetian Dalmatia, with the intention of
+obtaining information concerning the Uzcoques, and more especially
+concerning her he loved. He was assisted in his enquiries by the good
+understanding existing between Venice and the Porte; and he soon
+learned that, after the burning of Pesca, the pirates had suddenly
+ceased their excesses and returned to Segna, taking the Proveditore
+with them. They had not gone, however, either to the castle or the
+town; but fearful lest the Archduke should interfere, and make them
+give up their illustrious prisoners, had betaken themselves to the
+mountains, in the numerous caverns and lurking-places of which they
+were able to conceal their captives. From every mouth did the eager
+enquirer hear praises of the female who accompanied the Uzcoques. None
+spoke of her but in terms of love and gratitude. As regarded her
+appearance accounts were at variance, some representing her as young
+and beautiful, while others compassionated her frightful ugliness;
+and, more than ever perplexed by this conflicting testimony, Ibrahim
+pursued his march and his enquiries, still hoping by perseverance to
+arrive at a solution of the enigma.
+
+While the young Turk was thus employed, the Proveditore and his son
+were conveyed by their captors from one place of security to another,
+passing one night in the depths of some ravine, the next amongst the
+crags and clefts of the mountains, but always moving about in the
+daytime, and never sleeping twice in the same place. Since the evening
+of the revel at Pesca they had not again beheld the mysterious old
+woman, although they had more than once heard her clear and silvery
+voice near the place allotted to them for confinement and repose. In
+certain attentions and comforts, intended as alleviations of their
+unpleasant position, female care and thought were also visible; but
+all their efforts were vain to obtain a sight of the friendly being
+who thus hovered around them.
+
+It was on a beautiful evening some fourteen days after their capture,
+that the Proveditore and his son lay upon the bank of the only river
+that waters the rocky vicinity of Segna, wearied by a long and rapid
+march. There was an unusual degree of bustle observable amongst the
+Uzcoques, and numerous messengers had been passing to and from the
+castle of Segna, which was at no great distance from the spot where
+they had now halted. From the various indications of some
+extraordinary occurrence, the two Venetians began to hope that the
+crisis of their fate was approaching, and that they should at last
+know in what manner their captors meant to dispose of them. Nor were
+they wrong in their expectations. Suddenly the mysterious old woman
+stood before them, her partially veiled features bearing their wonted
+hideous aspect, and her eyes, usually so brilliant, dimmed with tears.
+
+"You are free," said she in an agitated voice to the Proveditore and
+his son. "Our people will escort you to Fiume in all safety, and there
+you will find galleys of the republic to convey you back to Venice."
+
+At the sight of the old woman's unearthly countenance, Antonio covered
+his face with his hands; the Proveditore rose from the ground deeply
+moved.
+
+"Singular being!" he exclaimed, "by this mildness and mercy you punish
+me more effectually than by the bloodiest revenge you could have taken
+for my cruel treatment of you."
+
+"You owe me no thanks," was the reply; "thank rather the holy Virgin,
+who sent the youth beside you to be your guardian angel, and who
+delivered you into the hands of the Uzcoques at a time when they had
+need of a hostage. Surely it was by the special intervention of Heaven
+that the murderer of the wife was sent to serve as ransom for the
+captive husband. But the atonement has come too late, the noble
+Dansowich was basely ensnared into an act of violence, and his life
+paid the forfeit of his wrath--he died upon the rack. And now the wily
+counsellors at Gradiska compel us to release you."
+
+She paused, interrupted by a flood of tears. After a short silence,
+broken only by her sobs, she became more composed, and the Proveditore
+again addressed her.
+
+"But what," said he, "could have driven Dansowich to an act of
+violence, which he must have known would entail a severe punishment?
+Surely his wife's safety and the lapse of years might have enabled him
+to forgive, if not to forget, the unsuccessful attempt upon her life."
+
+"His wife's safety!" exclaimed the old woman. "Have the trials and
+fatigues of the last few days turned your brain? Alas! too surely was
+the rope fixed round her neck; and had you not carried off her remains
+how could you have possessed her portrait, and by the devilish
+stratagem of showing it to the bereaved husband, have driven him to
+the act which cost him his life?"
+
+"Gracious Heaven! what hideous jest is this?" exclaimed Marcello. "Do
+I not see you living and standing before me; and think you I could
+ever forget your features, or the look you gave me when hanging from
+the tree? You were cut down and saved after our departure; and but a
+few weeks have elapsed since my son painted your likeness, after
+conveying you across the canal in his gondola."
+
+The old woman stood for a few moments as though petrified by what she
+had just heard. At last she passed her hand slowly across her face, as
+if to convince herself of her identity.
+
+"And she you murdered resembled _me_?" she exclaimed in a trembling
+voice. "It was of _me_ that the portrait was taken, and by _him_!" she
+continued, pointing to Antonio with a gesture of horror and contempt.
+"_My_ picture was it, that was held before Dansowich, and by _you_,
+the murderer of his wife? Holy Virgin!" she exclaimed, as the truth
+seemed to flash upon her, "how has my faith in thee misled me! I
+beheld in this youth one sent by Heaven to aid me; but now I see that
+he was prompted by the powers of darkness to steal my portrait, and
+thus become the instrument of destruction to the best and noblest of
+our race."
+
+"Forgive and spare us!" exclaimed Antonio, conscience-stricken as he
+remembered the admonitions of Contarini. "'Tis true, I was the
+instrument, but most unwittingly. How could I know so sad an end would
+follow?"
+
+"'Tis not my wont to seek revenge," replied the old woman; "nor do I
+forget that you saved my life from the fury of the Venetians."
+
+Antonio essayed to speak, but had not courage to correct the error
+into which she had been led by his strong resemblance to the gallant
+stranger.
+
+"But," she continued, "'tis time you should have full proof that the
+features you painted were not those of the wife of Dansowich."
+
+With these words she threw back her veil, unfastened some small hooks
+concealed in her abundant tresses, and took off a mask of thin and
+untanned lambskin, wrinkled and stained with yellow and purple streaks
+by exposure to sun and storm. This mask, closely fitted to features
+regular and prominent, and strongly resembling those of her
+unfortunate mother, whose large, dark, and very brilliant eyes she had
+also inherited, will explain the misconception of the Proveditore as
+well as that of Dansowich, who had never seen his daughter in a
+disguise worn only at Venice or other places of peril, and while away
+from her father and his protection.
+
+While the beautiful but still tearful Uzcoque maid stood thus revealed
+before the astonished senator, and his enraptured and speechless son,
+the approaching footfall of a horse at full speed was heard, and in an
+instant there darted round the angle of a cliff the martial figure of
+a Turk, mounted upon a large and powerful steed, of that noble race
+bred in the deserts eastward of the Caspian. The tall and graceful
+person of the stranger was attired in a close riding-dress of scarlet
+cloth, from the open breast of which gleamed a light coat-of-mail. A
+twisted turban bound with chains of glittering steel defended and
+adorned his head. A crooked cimeter suspended from his belt was his
+only weapon. His countenance bore a striking resemblance to that of
+Antonio, and had the same sweet and graceful expression about the
+mouth and chin; but the more ample and commanding forehead, the well
+opened flashing eyes, the more prominent and masculine nose, the
+clear, rich, olive complexion and soldierly bearing, proclaimed him to
+be of a widely different and higher nature. Riding close up to the
+side of Strasolda, he reined in his steed with a force and suddenness
+that threw him on his haunches; but speedily recovering his balance,
+the noble animal stood pawing the earth and lashing his sides with his
+long tail, like some untamed and kingly creature of the desert; his
+veins starting out in sharp relief, his broad chest and beautiful
+limbs spotted with foam, and his long mane, that would have swept the
+ground, streaming like a banner in the sea-breeze.
+
+For a moment the startled Strasolda gazed alternately, and in wild and
+mute amazement, at Antonio and the stranger; but all doubt and
+hesitation were dispersed in an instant by the well-remembered and
+impassioned tones, the martial bearing and Moslem garb of Ibrahim,
+whose captive she had been before she saw him in the cavern.
+
+Leaping from his saddle and circling her slender waist with his arm,
+he addressed her in those accents of truth and passion which go at
+once to the heart--
+
+"Heroic daughter of Dansowich! thou art the bright star of my destiny,
+the light of my soul! Thou must be mine! Come, then, to my heart and
+home! Gladden with thy love the life of Ibrahim, and he will give thee
+truth unfailing and love without end."
+
+Strasolda did not long hesitate. Already prepossessed in favour of the
+young and noble-minded Moslem; her allegiance to the Christian powers
+and faith weakened by the treachery of Austria; her people degraded
+into robbers; a soldier's daughter, and keenly alive to the splendours
+of martial gallantry and glory; an orphan, too, and desolate--can it
+be wondered at if she surrendered, at once and for ever, to this
+generous and impassioned lover all the sympathies of her affectionate
+nature? She spoke not; but, as she leaned half-fainting on his arm,
+her eloquent looks said that which made Ibrahim's pulses thrill with
+grateful rapture. Pressing her fondly to his bosom, he placed her on
+the back of his faithful steed, and vaulted into the saddle. Snorting
+as the vapour flew from his red nostrils, and neighing with mad
+delight, the impatient animal threw out his iron hoofs into the air,
+flew round the angle of the cliff, and joined erelong a dozen mounted
+spearmen. Then, bending their headlong course towards the far east, in
+a few seconds all had disappeared.
+
+During this scene, which passed almost with the speed of thought, the
+Proveditore, who was seated on a ledge of the cliff, had gazed
+anxiously and wildly at the youthful stranger. He knew him in an
+instant, and would have singled him out amidst thousands; but was so
+overwhelmed by a rushing tide of strong and heartrending emotions,
+that he could neither rise nor speak, and remained, long after the
+Turk had disappeared, with out-stretched arms and straining eye-balls.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed the bewildered Antonio, half suspecting
+the truth, "who was that daring youth?"
+
+After a pause, and in tones broken and inarticulate, his father
+answered--"Thy twin brother, Antonio! When a child he was stolen from
+me by some Turks in Candia; and those who stole have given him their
+own daring and heroic nature, for they are great and rising, while
+Venice and her sons are falling and degenerate. Oh Ercole! my dear and
+long-lost son--seen but a moment and then lost for ever!" ejaculated
+the bereaved father, as, refusing all comfort, he folded his cloak
+over his face and wept bitterly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--Shortly after these events, Venice, urged at last beyond all
+endurance, took up arms against Austria on account of the protection
+afforded by the latter power to the Uzcoques. The pirate vessels were
+burned, Segna besieged and taken, the Uzcoques slain or dispersed. The
+quarrel between Austria and the republic was put an end to by the
+mediation of Spain shortly before the breaking out of the Thirty
+Years' War.
+
+"Ces misérables," says a distinguished French writer, speaking of the
+Uzcoques, "fûrent bien plus criminels par la faute des puissances, que
+par l'instinct de leur propre nature. Les Vénétiens les aigrirent;
+l'église Romaine préféra de les persécuter au devoir de les éclaircir;
+la maison d'Autriche en fit les instruments de sa politique, et quand
+le philosophe examine leur histoire il ne voit pas que les Uscoques
+soient les seuls criminels."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SLAVE-TRADE.[2]
+
+    [2] Fifty Days on board a Slave vessel, in 1843. By the Rev.
+    PASCOE GRENFELL HILL, Chaplain of H.M.S. Cleopatra.
+
+
+The extraordinary change which took place in the public mind in the
+beginning of the century on the subject of the slave-trade,
+unquestionably justified the determination of Government to abolish a
+traffic contradictory to every principle of Christianity. It had taken
+twenty years to obtain this victory of justice. But we must exonerate
+the mind of England from the charge of abetting this guilty traffic in
+human misery. The nation had been almost wholly ignorant of its
+nature. Of course, that Africans were shipped for the West Indies was
+known; that, as slaves, they were liable to the severities of labour,
+or the temper of masters, was also known; but in a country like
+England, where every man is occupied with the concerns of public or
+private life, and where the struggle for competence, if not for
+existence, is often of the most trying order, great evils may occur in
+the distant dependencies of the crown without receiving general notice
+from the nation. It seems to have been one of the singular results of
+the war with America, that the calamities of the slave-trade should
+have been originally brought to the knowledge of the people. The loss
+of our colonies on the mainland, naturally directed public attention
+to the increased importance of the West Indian colonies. A large
+proportion of our supplies for the war had been drawn from those
+islands; they had become the station of powerful fleets during the
+latter portion of the war; large garrisons were placed in them; the
+intercourse became enlarged from a merely commercial connexion with
+our ports, to a governmental connection with the empire; and the whole
+machinery of the West Indian social system was brought before the eye
+of England.
+
+The result was the exposure of the cruelties which slavery entails,
+and the growing resolution to clear the country of the stigma, and the
+benevolent desire to relieve a race of beings, who, however differing
+in colour and clime from ourselves, were sons of the same common
+blood, and objects of the same Divine mercy. The exertions of
+Wilberforce, and the intelligent and benevolent men whom he associated
+with himself in this great cause, were at last successful; and he
+gained for the British the noblest triumph ever gained for a nation
+over its own habits, its selfishness, its pride, and its popular
+opinion.
+
+But the manner in which this great redemption of national character
+was effected, did less honour to the wisdom of the cabinet than to the
+benevolence of the people. Fox, probably sincere, but certainly
+headlong, rushed into emancipation as he had rushed into every measure
+that bore the name of popularity. Impatient of the delay which might
+take the honour of this crowning act out of the hands of his
+party--and unquestionably, in any shape, it was an honour to any
+party--he hurried it forward without securing the concert, or
+compelling the acquiescence, of any one of the European kingdoms
+engaged in the slave-trade. It is true that England was then at war
+with them all; but there was thus only the stronger opportunity of
+pronouncing the national resolve, never to tolerate the commerce in
+slaves, and never to receive any country into our protection by which
+that most infamous of all trades was tolerated. The opportunity was
+amply given for establishing the principle, in the necessity which
+every kingdom in succession felt for the aid of England, and the
+abolition ought to have been the first article of the treaty. But the
+occasion was thrown away.
+
+The parliamentary regulations, which had largely provided for the
+comfort of the slaves on the passage from Africa, and their protection
+in the British colonies, could not be extended to the new and
+tremendous traffic which was engaged in by all the commercial states
+of Europe and the West. The closing of the British mart of slavery
+flooded the African shore with desperate dealers in the flesh and
+blood of man; whose only object was profit, and who regarded the
+miseries of the African only as they affected his sale. The ships
+which, by the British regulations, had been suffered to carry only a
+number limited to their accommodation, were now crowded with wretches,
+stowed in spaces that scarcely allowed them to breathe. The cheapness
+of the living cargo, produced by the withdrawal of the British from
+the slave coast, excited the activity, almost the fury, of the trade;
+and probably 100,000 miserable beings were thus annually dragged from
+their own country, to undergo the labour of brutes, and die the death
+of brutes in the Western World.
+
+Another source of evil was added to the original crime. The colonial
+possessions of Spain had been broken up into republics, and those were
+all slave-dealers. The great colony of Portugal, Brazil, had rushed
+into this frightful commerce with the feverish avidity of avarice set
+free from all its old restrictions. North America, coquetting with
+philanthropy, and nominally abjuring the principle of slavery,
+suffered herself to undergo the corruption of the practice for the
+temptation of the lucre, and the Atlantic was covered with
+slave-ships.
+
+But rash, ill considered, and unfortunate as was the precipitate
+measure of Fox, we shall never but rejoice at the abolition of the
+slave-trade by our country. If England had stood alone for ever in
+that abolition, it would be a national glory. To have cast that
+commerce from her at all apparent loss, was the noblest of national
+gains; and it may be only when higher knowledge shall be given to man,
+of the causes which have protected the empire through the struggles of
+war and the trials of peace, that we may know the full virtue of that
+most national and magnanimous achievement of charity to man.
+
+It is only in the spirit of this principle that the legislature has
+followed up those early exertions, by the purchase of the final
+freedom of the slave, by the astonishing donative of twenty millions
+sterling, the largest sum ever given for the purposes of humanity. It
+is only in the same spirit that our cabinet continues to press upon
+the commercial states the right of search, a right which we solicit on
+the simple ground of humanity; and which, though it cannot be our duty
+to enforce at the hazard of hostility, must never be abandoned where
+we can succeed by the representations of reason, justice, and
+religion.
+
+The curious and succinct narrative to which we now advert, gives the
+experience of a short voyage on board of one of those slave ships. And
+the miseries witnessed by its writer, whose detail seems as accurate
+as it is simple, more than justify the zeal of our foreign secretary
+in labouring to effect the total extinction of this death-dealing
+trade.
+
+H.M.S. the Cleopatra, of twenty-six guns, commanded by Captain Wyvill,
+arriving at Rio Janeiro in September 1842, the reverend writer took
+the opportunity of being transferred from the Malabar, as chaplain. In
+the beginning of September the Cleopatra left the Mauritius, to
+proceed to the Mozambique Channel, off Madagascar, her appointed
+station, to watch the slave-traders. After various cruises along the
+coast, and as far as Algoa Bay, they at last captured a slaver.
+
+_April 12._--At daybreak the look-out at the topmast-head perceived a
+vessel on the lee quarter, at such a distance as to be scarcely
+visible; but her locality being pronounced "very suspicious," the
+order was given to bear up for her. The breeze falling, the boats were
+ordered out, and in a few minutes the barge and the first gig were
+pulling away in the direction of the stranger. So variable, however,
+is the weather at this season, that before the boats had rowed a mile
+from the ship, a thick haze surrounded the ship, and the chase was
+lost sight of. The rain fell in torrents, and the ship was going seven
+knots through the water. On the clearing up of the fog, the chase was
+again visible. The sun broke forth, and the rakish-looking brigantine
+appeared to have carried on all sail during the squall. They could
+see, under her sails, the low black hull pitching up and down; and,
+approaching within range, one of the forecastle guns was cleared away
+for a bow-chaser. The British ensign had been for some time flying at
+the peak. It was at length answered by the green and yellow Brazilian
+flag. At length, after a variety of dexterous manoeuvres to escape,
+and from fifteen to twenty shots fired after her, she shortened sail
+and lay to. Dark naked forms passing across the deck, removed any
+remaining doubt as to her character, and showed that she had her slave
+cargo on board. An officer was sent to take possession, and the
+British ensign displaced the Brazilian. The scene on board was a
+sufficiently strange one; the deck was crowded with negroes to the
+number of 450, in almost riotous confusion, having risen but a little
+while before against the crew. The meagre, famished-looking throng,
+having broken through all control, had seized every thing for which
+they had a fancy in the vessel; some with handfuls of the powdered
+roots of the cassava, others with large pieces of pork and beef,
+having broken open the casks, and others with fowls, which they had
+torn from the coops. Many were busily dipping rags, fastened with bits
+of string, into the water-casks to act as sponges, and had got at the
+contents of a cask of Brazilian rum, which they greatly enjoyed.
+However, they exhibited the wildest joy, mingled with the clank of the
+iron, as they were knocking off their fetters on every side. From the
+moment the first ball had been fired, they had been actively employed
+in thus freeing themselves. The crew found but thirty thus shackled in
+pairs, but many more pairs of shackles were found below. There could
+not be a moment's doubt as to the light in which they viewed their
+captors, now become their liberators. They rushed towards them in
+crowds, and rubbed their feet and hands caressingly, even rolling
+themselves on the deck before them; and, when they saw the crew of the
+vessel rather unceremoniously sent over the side into the boat which
+was to take them prisoners to the frigate, they set up a long
+universal shout of triumph and delight. The actual number of the
+negroes now on board, amounted to 447. Of those 180 were men, few,
+however, exceeding twenty years of age; 45 women; 213 boys. The name
+of the prize was the Progresso, last from Brazil, and bound to Rio
+Janeiro. The crew were seventeen; three Spaniards, and the rest
+Brazilians. The vessel was of about 140 tons; the length of the
+slave-deck, 37 feet; its mean breadth, 21½ feet; its height, 3½
+feet--a horrible space to contain between four and five hundred human
+beings. How they could even breathe is scarcely conceivable. The
+captain and one of the crew were said to have been drowned in the surf
+at the embarkation of the negroes. Two Spaniards, and a Portuguese
+cook, were sent back into the prize.
+
+As the writer understood Spanish, and as some one was wanting to
+interpret between the English crew and those managers of the negroes,
+he proposed to go on board with them to their place of destination,
+the Cape of Good Hope. The English crew were a lieutenant, three petty
+officers, and nine seamen. It had been the captain's first intention
+to take a hundred of the negroes on board the frigate, which would
+probably have prevented the fearful calamities that followed; but an
+unfortunate impression prevailed, that some of them were infected with
+the small-pox. In the same evening the Progresso set sail. For the
+first few hours all went on well--the breeze was light, the weather
+warm, and the negroes were sleeping on the deck; their slender supple
+limbs entwined in a surprisingly small compass, resembling in the
+moonlight confused piles of arms and legs, rather than distinct human
+forms. But about an hour after midnight, the sky began to gather
+clouds, a haze overspread the horizon to windward, and a squall
+approached. The hands, having to shorten sail, suddenly found the
+negroes in the way, and the order was given to send them all below.
+
+There seems to have been some dreadful mismanagement to cause the
+horrid scene that followed. Why _all_ the negroes should have been
+driven down together; or why, when the vessel was put to rights, they
+should not have been allowed to return to the deck; or why, when
+driven down, the hatches should have been forced upon them--are
+matters which we cannot comprehend; but nothing could be more
+unfortunate than the consequence of those rash measures. We state the
+event in the words of the narrative:--
+
+    "The night being intensely hot and close, 400 wretched beings
+    crammed into a hold twelve yards in length, seven in breadth,
+    and only three and a half feet in height, speedily began to
+    make an effort to re-issue to the open air; being thrust back,
+    and striving the more to get out, the _after hatch_ was forced
+    down upon them. Over the other hatchway, in the fore part of
+    the vessel, a wooden grating was fastened. A scene of agony
+    followed those most unfortunate measures, unequaled by any
+    thing that we have heard of since the Black Hole of Calcutta.
+    To this _sole inlet_ for the air, the suffocating heat of the
+    hold, and perhaps panic from the strangeness of their
+    situation, made them press. They crowded to the grating, and,
+    clinging to it for air, completely barred its entrance. They
+    strove to force their way through apertures in length fourteen
+    inches, and barely six inches in breadth, and in some
+    instances succeeded. The cries, the heat, I may say without
+    exaggeration, 'the smoke of their torment,' which ascended,
+    can be compared to nothing earthly. One of the Spaniards gave
+    warning that the consequence would be many deaths--_manana
+    habra muchos muertos_."
+
+If this statement with its consequences be true, we cannot conceive
+how the conduct of those persons by whom it was brought about can be
+passed over without enquiry. There seems to have been nothing in the
+shape of _necessity_ for its palliation. There was no storm, the
+vessel was in no danger of foundering unless the hatches were fastened
+down. That the negroes might have lumbered the deck for the first few
+minutes of preparing to meet the squall is probable; but why, when
+they were palpably suffocating, they should still have been kept down,
+is one of the most unaccountable circumstances we ever remember. We
+must hope that while we are nationally incurring an enormous
+expenditure to extinguish this most guilty and detestable traffic,
+such scenes will be guarded against for ever, by the strictest orders
+to the captors of the slave-traders. It would have been infinitely
+better for the wretched cargo if they had been carried to their
+original destination, and sent to toil in the fields of Brazil.
+
+The Spaniard's prediction was true. Next morning no less than
+fifty-four crushed and mangled corpses were lifted up from the slave
+deck, and thrown overboard. We shall avoid disgusting our readers with
+mentioning the state in which their struggles had left those trampled
+and strangled beings. On the survivors being released from their
+torrid dungeon, they drank their allowance of water, somewhat more
+than half a pint to each, with inconceivable eagerness. A heavy shower
+having freshened the air, in the evening most of the negroes went
+below of their own accord, the hatchways having been left open to
+allow them air. But a short time, however, had elapsed, when they
+began tumultuously to reascend; and some of the persons on deck,
+fearful of their crowding it too much, repelled them, and they were
+trampled back, screaming and writhing in a confused mass. The hatch
+was about to be forced down upon them; and had not the lieutenant in
+charge left positive orders to the contrary, the catastrophe of last
+night would have been re-enacted. On explaining to the Spaniard that
+it was desired he should dispose those who came on deck in proper
+places, he set himself to the task with great alacrity; and he showed
+with much satisfaction how soon and how quietly they might be arranged
+out of the way of the ropes, covered with long rugs provided for the
+purpose. "To-morrow," said he, "there will be no deaths, except
+perhaps among some of those who are sick already." On the next day
+there was but one dead, but three were reported dying from the
+sufferings of the first night. They now saw the Cleopatra once more,
+and the alarm of small-pox having been found groundless, the captain
+took on board fifty of the boys.
+
+To our surprise, the provisions on board the slaver were ample for the
+negroes, consisting of Monte Video dried beef, small beans, rice, and
+cassava flour. The cabin stores were profuse; lockers filled with ale
+and porter, barrels of wine, liqueurs of various sorts, cases of
+English pickles, raisins, &c. &c.; and its list of medicines amounted
+to almost the whole _Materia Medica_. On questioning the Spaniards as
+to the probability of extinguishing the slave-trade, their reply was,
+that though in the creeks of Brazil it might be difficult, yet it had
+grown a desperate adventure. Four vessels had been already taken on
+the east coast of Africa this year; but the venture is so lucrative,
+that the profits of a fifth which escaped, would probably more than
+compensate the loss of the four.
+
+On the east coast negroes are paid for in money or coarse cottons, at
+the rate of eighteen dollars for men, and twelve for boys. At Rio
+Janeiro their value may be estimated at £52 for men, £41, 10s. for
+women, and £31 for boys. Thus, on a cargo of 500, at the mean price
+the profit will exceed £19,000--
+
+    Cost price of 500, average fifteen
+        dollars, or £3 5s. each,          £1,625
+    Selling price at Rio Janeiro, average
+        £41 10s.,                        £20,730
+
+While these enormous profits continue, it must be a matter of extreme
+difficulty to suppress the trade, especially while the principals,
+captains, and crews, have perfect impunity. At present, all that they
+suffer is the loss of their cargo. But if enactments were made, by
+which heavy fines and imprisonment were to be inflicted on the
+merchants to whom the expedition could be traced, and corporal
+punishment and transportation for life for the crews, and for the
+captains service as common sailors on board our frigates, we should
+soon find the ardour for the traffic diminished.
+
+The voyage was slow from the frequent calms. By the 20th of April they
+had advanced only to the tropic, 350 miles. From day to day the sick
+among the negroes were dropping off. A large shark followed the ship,
+which they conceived might have gorged some of the corpses. He was
+caught, but the stomach was empty. When brought on the deck, he
+exhibited the usual and remarkable tenacity of life. Though his tail
+was chopped, and even his entrails taken out, in neither of which
+operations it exhibited any sign of sensation, yet no sooner was a
+bucket of salt water poured on it to wash the deck, than it began to
+flounder about and bite on all sides.
+
+Symptoms of fever now began to appear on board, and the Portuguese
+cook died.
+
+_April 29_.--A storm, the lightning intolerably vivid, flash
+succeeding flash with scarcely a sensible intermission; blue, red, and
+of a still more dazzling white, which made the eye shrink, lighting up
+every object on deck as clearly as at mid-day. All the winds of heaven
+seemed let loose, as it blew alternately from every point of the
+compass. The screams of distress from the sick and weak in the hold,
+were heard through the roar of the tempest. From the rolling and
+creaking, one might fancy every thing going asunder. The woman's shed
+on deck had been washed down, and the planks which formed its roof
+falling in a heap, a woman was found dead under the ruin.
+
+_May 1_.--In this hemisphere, marking the approach of the cold
+weather, the naked negroes began to shiver, and their teeth to
+chatter.
+
+_May 3_.--Another storm, with severe cold. Seven negroes were found
+dead this morning. The wretched beings had begun now to steal water
+and brandy from the hold. "None can tell," says the writer, "save he
+who has tried, the pangs of thirst which may excite them in that
+heated hold, many of them fevered by mortal disease. Their daily
+allowance of water is about a half pint in the morning, and the same
+quantity in the evening." This passage now became all storms. A heavy
+squall came on _May 8_, which continued next day a strong gale. The
+first object which met the eye in the morning, was three negroes dead
+on the deck.
+
+_May 11_.--Another storm, heavier than any of the preceding ones.
+Towards evening the report of the helmsman was the gratifying one,
+that the heart of the gale was broke; yet a yellow haze overspread the
+setting sun, and it continued to blow as wildly as ever. Squalls
+rapidly succeeding each other mingled sea and air in one sheet of
+spray, blinding the eyes of the helmsman; waves towering high above
+us, tossing up the foam from their crests towards the sky, threatened
+to engulf the vessel at every moment. When the squalls, breaking
+heavily on the vessel, caused her to heel over, and the negroes to
+tumble one against each other in the hold, the shrieks of the
+sufferers through the darkness of the night, rising above the noise of
+the winds and waves, seemed of all horrors in this unhappy vessel the
+saddest. Dysentery now attacked the crew, and the boatswain's mate
+died. We pass over the melancholy details of this miserable voyage, in
+which disgusts and distresses of every kind seemed to threaten all on
+board with death, every day bringing its mortality. At last on Sunday,
+May 28th, the welcome sight of Cape Agulhas cheered them at the
+distance of ten miles. The weather was now fine, but the mortality
+continued, the fatal cases averaging four a-day. On the 1st of June
+eight were found dead in the morning; and, when the morning mist had
+cleared away, they found themselves within three miles of Simon's Bay.
+As soon as the Progresso anchored, the superintendent of the naval
+hospital came on board, and the writer descended with him for the last
+time to the slave hold. Accustomed as he had been to scenes of
+suffering, he was unable to endure a sight, surpassing all he could
+have conceived, he said, of human misery, and made a hasty retreat.
+The numbers who had died within the fifty days were 163. Even this was
+not all; for, on returning to the vessel next day, six corpses were
+added to the eight of the preceding day, and the fourteen were piled
+on deck for interment on the shore. A hundred of the healthiest
+negroes were landed at the pier to proceed in waggons to Cape Town;
+but though rescued from a state of extreme misery, the change seemed
+to excite anxiety and apprehension. Each of the men had received on
+landing a new warm jacket and trousers, and the women had each a new
+white blanket in addition to an under dress, and they were placed
+snugly in waggons; yet their countenances resembled those of condemned
+victims. Of the whole of the original cargo, not far short of one half
+had died. To what causes this horrible mortality must be imputed, it
+is not our purpose to decide; but that it did not arise from the
+original tendency of the negroes to sickness seems evident--the fact
+being, that of the fifty who were taken on board the frigate, but one
+had died at sea and one on shore. Within a few days the liberated
+negroes had acquired a more cheerful look, their first conception
+having been that they were to be devoured by the people of the
+country, and they were reluctant to eat, fearing that it was intended
+to fatten them for the purpose. However, the negroes in the colonies
+soon freed them from this apprehension.
+
+We shall be rejoiced if the publicity given to this little but
+intelligent pamphlet by our means, may assist in drawing the attention
+of the influential classes to the subject. We fully believe that, if
+we were to look for the deepest misery that was ever inflicted in this
+world, and the greatest mass of it, we should find it in the
+slave-trade. It is the misery, not as in civilized life, of scattered
+individuals, but of multitudes, and a misery comprehending every
+other; sudden separation from every tie of the human heart, parent,
+child, spouse, and country; the misery of bodily affliction, disease,
+famine, storms, shipwreck, and ultimately slavery, with all its
+wretchedness of toil and tyranny for life. We certainly do not think
+it our duty to go to war for the object of teaching humanity to other
+nations. We must no attempt to heal the calamity of the African by the
+greatest of all calamities and crimes--an unnecessary war. But England
+has only to persevere sincerely and steadily, however calmly, and she
+will, by the blessing of that supreme Disposer of the ways of men, who
+desires the happiness of all his creatures, succeed in the extinction
+of a traffic which has brought a curse, and brings it at this hour,
+and will bring it deeper still, upon every nation which insults the
+laws of humanity and the dictates of religion, by dealing in the flesh
+and blood of man.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.[3]--THE ARABS OF CORDOVA.
+
+    [3] The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. By AHMED
+    IBN MOHAMMED AL-MAKKARI of Telemsan. Translated and
+    illustrated with Critical Notes by Pascual de Gayangos, late
+    Professor of Arabic in the Athenæum of Madrid.--Printed for
+    the Oriental Translation Fund. 2 vols. 4to. 1840-43.
+
+    "The second day was that when Martel broke
+    The Mussulmen, delivering France opprest,
+    And in one mighty conflict, from the yoke
+    Of unbelieving Mecca saved the West."
+                                    SOUTHEY.
+
+
+The Arab domination in Spain is the grand romance of European history.
+The splendid but mysterious fabric of Asiatic power and science is
+seen for age after age, like the fairy castle of St John, exalted far
+above the rugged plain of Frank semi-barbarism--till the spell is at
+last broken by the iron prowess of Christian chivalry; and the
+glittering edifice vanishes from the land as though it had never been,
+leaving, like the fabled structure of the poet, only a wreath of
+laurel to bind the brows of the victor. Yet though replete with
+gorgeous materials both for history and fiction, and stored not only
+with the recondite lore of Asia and Egypt, but with the borrowed
+treasures of ancient Greece, (long known to Christendom only by
+versions through an Arabic medium,) the language and literature of
+this marvellous people, and even their history, except so far as it
+related to their never-ceasing warfare with their Christian foes,
+remained, up to the middle of the last century, a sealed book to their
+Spanish successors. Coming into possession, like the Israelites of
+old, "of a land for which they did not labour, of cities which they
+built not, of vineyards and olive-yards which they planted not," the
+Spaniards not merely contemned, but persecuted with the fiercest
+bigotry, all that was left in the peninsula of the genius and learning
+of their predecessors. Eighty thousand volumes were publicly burned in
+one fatal _auto-da-fé_ at Granada by order of Cardinal Ximenes, in
+whom the literature of his own language yet found a munificent patron;
+and so meritorious, did the deed appear in the eyes of his
+contemporaries, that the number has been magnified to an incredible
+amount by his biographers, in their zeal for the renown of their hero!
+So complete was the destruction or deportation[4] of the seventy
+public libraries, which, a century and a half before the subjugation
+of the Moors, were open in different cities of Spain, that the
+valuable collection now in the Escurial owes its origin to the
+accidental capture, early in the seventeenth century, of three ships
+laden with books belonging to Muley Zidan, emperor of Morocco--and
+even of this casual prize so little was the value appreciated, that it
+was not till more than a hundred years later, and after three-fourths
+of the books had been consumed by fire in 1671, that the learned and
+diligent Casiri was commissioned to make a catalogue of the remainder.
+The result was the well-known _Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana
+Escurialensis_, which appeared in 1760-70; and which, in the words of
+the present learned translator, "though hasty and superficial, and
+containing frequent unaccountable blunders, must, with all its
+imperfections, ever be valuable as affording palpable proof of the
+literary cultivation of the Spanish Arabs, and as containing the first
+glimpses of historical truth." Up to this time the only authority on
+Spanish history purporting to be drawn from Mohammedan sources, was
+the work of a Morisco named Miguel de Luna, written by command of the
+Inquisition; which was first printed at Granada in 1592, and has
+passed through many editions. Its value may be estimated from its
+placing the Mohammedan conquest of Spain in the time of Yakub
+Al-mansor, the actual date of whose reign was from A.D. 1184 to 1199;
+insomuch that Señor de Gayangos suggests, as a possible explanation of
+its glaring inaccuracies, that it was the writer's intention to hoax
+his employers. Casiri had, however, opened the door for further
+researches; and he was followed in the same path by Don Faustino de
+Borbon, whose works, valuable rather from the erudition which they
+display than from their judgment or critical acumen, have now become
+extremely scarce--and next by Don Antonio José Condé, one of the most
+zealous and laborious, if not the most accurate, of Spanish
+orientalists. His "History of the Domination of the Arabs and Moors in
+Spain," has been generally regarded as of high authority, and is in
+truth the first work on the subject drawn wholly from Arab sources;
+but it receives summary condemnation from Señor de Gayangos, for "the
+uncouth arrangement of the materials, the entire want of critical or
+explanatory notes, the unaccountable neglect to cite authorities, the
+numerous repetitions, blunders, and contradictions." These charges are
+certainly not without foundation; but they are in some measure
+accounted for by the trouble and penury in which the author's last
+years were spent, and the unfinished state in which the work was left
+at his death in 1820.
+
+    [4] The Almoravide and Almohade princes, who ruled both in
+    Spain and Africa, often inserted a clause in their treaties
+    with the Christians for the restoration of the libraries
+    captured in the towns taken from the Moslems; and Ibn Khaldun
+    mentions, that Yakob Al-mansor destined a college at Fez for
+    the reception of the books thus recovered.
+
+An authentic and comprehensive view of the Arab period, as described
+by their own writers, was therefore still a desideratum in European
+literature, which the publication before us may be considered as the
+first step towards supplying. The work of Al-Makkari, which has been
+taken as a text-book, is not so much an original history as a
+collection of extracts, sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed
+in full, from more ancient historians; and frequently giving two or
+three versions of the same event from different authorities--so that,
+though it can claim but little merit as a composition, it is of
+extreme value as a repository of fragments of authors in many cases
+now lost; and further, as the only "uninterrupted narrative of the
+conquests, wars, and settlements of the Spanish Moslems, from their
+first invasion of the Peninsula to their final expulsion." In the
+arrangement of his materials, the translator has departed
+considerably, and with advantage, from the original; giving the
+historical books in the form of a continuous narrative, and omitting
+several sections relating to matters of little interest--while the
+deficiencies and omissions of the author are supplied by an appendix,
+containing, in addition to a valuable body of original notes, copious
+extracts from numerous unpublished Arabic MSS. relating to Spain,
+which afford ample proof of the extent and diligence of his researches
+among the Oriental treasures of Paris and London. To those in the
+Escurial, however, he was denied access during his labours--an almost
+incredible measure of illiberality, which, if he be correct in
+ascribing it to his known intention of publishing in England, "ill
+suits a country" (as he justly remarks in the preface) "which has
+lately seen its archives and monastic libraries reduced to cinders,
+and scattered or sold in foreign markets, without the least struggle
+to rescue or secure them."
+
+Ahmed Al-Makkari, the author or compiler of the present work, derived
+his surname from a village near Telemsan called Makkarah, where his
+family had been established since the conquest of Africa by the Arabs.
+He was born at Telemsan some time in the latter half of the sixteenth
+century, and educated by his uncle, who held the office of Mufti in
+that city; but having quitted his native country in 1618 on a
+pilgrimage to Mekka, he married and settled in Cairo. During a visit
+to Damascus in 1628, he was received with high distinction by Ahmed
+Ibn Shahin Effendi, the director of the college of Jakmak in that
+city, and a distinguished patron of literature; at whose suggestion
+(he tells us) he undertook this work. His original purpose had been
+only to write the life of Abu Abdullah Lisanuddin, a celebrated
+historian and minister in Granada, better known to Oriental scholars
+as Ibnu'l-Khattib; but having completed this, the thought struck him
+of adding, as a second part, an historical account of the Moslems of
+Spain. He had formerly written an extensive and elaborate work on this
+subject, composed (to use his own words) "in such an elevated and
+pleasing style, that had it been publicly delivered by the common
+crier, it would have made even the stones deaf:--but, alas! the whole
+of this we had left in Maghreb (Morocco) with the rest of our
+library.... However, we have done our best to make the present work as
+useful and complete as possible." It was probably the last literary
+undertaking of his life; since he was on the point of quitting Cairo
+to fix his residence in Damascus, when he died of a fever in the
+second Jomada of A.H. 1041, (Jan. 1632,) leaving a high reputation as
+a traditionist and doctor of the Moslem law.
+
+The introductory chapter gives a sketch of the various nations which
+inhabited _Andalus_ or Spain before the Arab conquest, prefaced by
+extracts from numerous writers eulogistic of a country "whose
+excellences" (as Al-Makkari himself declares) "are such and so many
+that they cannot easily be contained in a book ... so that one of
+their wise men, who knew that the country had been called the bird's
+tail, owing to the supposed resemblance of the earth to a bird with
+extended wings, remarked that that bird was the peacock, the principal
+beauty of which was in the tail." These panegyrics are not in all
+cases exactly consistent; for while the famous geographer, Obeydullah
+Al-Bekri, "compares his native country to Syria for purity of air and
+water, to China for mines and precious stones, &c. &c., and to
+Al-Ahwaz (a district in Persia) _for the magnitude of its
+snakes_"--the Sheikh Ahmed Al-Razi (better known as the historian
+Razis) praises its comparative freedom from wild beasts and reptiles.
+The name _Andalus_ is derived by some authors from a great grandson of
+Noah so named, who settled there soon after the deluge; but Al-Makkari
+rather inclines, with Ibn Khaldun and other writers, to deduce it from
+the _Andalosh,_ (Vandals,) "a tribe of barbarians," who appear to be
+considered as the earliest inhabitants; but who, having incurred the
+divine wrath by their wickedness and idolatry, were all cut off by a
+terrible drought, which left the land for a hundred years an
+uninhabited desert. A colony then arrived from Africa, under a chief
+named Batrikus, eleven generations of whose descendants reigned for
+one hundred and fifty-seven years; after which they were all
+annihilated by the "barbarians of Rome, who invaded and conquered the
+country; and it was after their king Ishban, son of Titus, that
+Andalus was called Ishbaniah," (Hispania.) As Ishban is just after
+said to have "plundered and demolished Ilia, which is the same as
+Al-Kods the illustrious," (Jerusalem,) it is obvious that the name
+must be a corruption of Vespasian, who is thus made the son instead of
+the father of Titus. We are told that authors differ whether it was on
+this occasion, or at the former capture of Jerusalem by Bokht-Nasser,
+(Nebuchadnezzar,) at which a king of Spain named Berian was also
+present, that the table constructed by the genii for Solomon, and
+which Tarik afterwards found at Toledo, was transported to Spain--and
+Al-Makkari professes himself, as well he may, unable to reconcile the
+different accounts. Fifty-five kings descended from Ishban, whose race
+was dispossessed ("about the time of the Messiah, on whom be peace!")
+by a people called Bishtilikat, (Visigoths?) under a king called
+Talubush, (Ataulphus?) whom Al-Makkari holds to have been the same
+people as the "barbarians of Rome," though "there are not wanting
+authors who make the Goths and the Bishtilikat only one nation." After
+holding possession during the reigns of twenty-seven monarchs, they
+were in turn subdued by the Goths, whose royal residence was
+"Toleyalah, (Toledo,) though Isbiliah (Seville) continued to be the
+abode of the sciences." The Gothic kings are said to have been
+thirty-six;--but the only one particularized by name is
+"Khoshandinus, (Constantine,) who not only embraced Christianity
+himself, but called on his subjects to do the same, and is held by the
+Christians as the greatest king they ever had.... Several kings of his
+posterity reigned after him, till Andalus was finally subdued by the
+Arabs, by whose means God was pleased to make manifest the superiority
+of Islam over every other religion."
+
+With the Arab, conquest the authentic history commences; and the
+accounts given from the Moslem writers of this memorable event, which
+first gave the followers of the Prophet a footing in Europe, differ in
+no material point from the eloquent narrative of Gibbon. Al-Makkari,
+however, does not fail to inform us, that predictions had been rife
+from long past ages, which foretold the invasion and conquest of the
+country by a fierce people from Africa; and potent were the spells and
+talismans constructed to ward off the danger, "by the _Greek_ kings
+who reigned in old times." Several of these are described with due
+solemnity; and among them we find the tale of the visit paid by
+Roderic[5] to the magic tower at Toledo, which has been rendered
+familiar by the pages of Scott and Southey. We shall not here
+recapitulate the well-known incidents of the wrongs and revenge of
+Count Yllan, or Julian, the first landing of Tarif at Tarifa, the
+second expedition sent by Musa under Tarik Ibn Zeyad, and the death or
+disappearance of the Gothic king on the fatal day of Guadalete.[6] So
+complete was the discomfiture of the Christians, that the kingdom
+fell, without a second blow, before the victors of a single field; and
+was overrun with such rapidity, that from the inability of the
+conquerors to garrison the cities which surrendered, they were
+entrusted for the time to the guard of the Jews!--a singular
+circumstance, which, when coupled with the statement that many of the
+Berbers (of whom the invading army was almost wholly composed) were
+recent converts from Judaism,[7] would apparently imply that the
+conquest was facilitated by a previous correspondence. The subjugation
+of the country was completed by the arrival of Musa himself, who
+reduced Seville and the other towns which still held out, and is even
+said to have crossed the Pyrenees and sacked Narbonne;[8] but this is
+not mentioned by any Christian writer, and is referred by the
+translator to his invasion of Catalonia, which the Arabs considered as
+part of "the land of the Franks." After the first fury of conquest had
+subsided, the Christians who remained in their homes were permitted to
+live unmolested, on payment of the capitation-tax; but peculiar
+privileges were accorded to the Jews, and the hold of the Moslems on
+the country was strengthened by the vast influx of settlers, not only
+from Africa, but from Syria and Arabia, who were attracted by the
+reports of the riches and fertility of the new province. Nearly all
+the tribes of Arabia are enumerated by Al-Makkari as represented in
+Spain; and the feuds of the two great divisions, the Beni-Modhar[9] or
+race of Adnan, and the Beni-Kahttan or Arabs of Yemen, gave rise to
+most of the civil wars which subsequently desolated Andalus.
+
+    [5] He is called by the Arabic writers Ludherik--a name
+    afterwards applied as a general designation to the kings of
+    Castile.
+
+    [6] The translator adduces strong grounds for believing that
+    the battle was fought, not as usually held, in the plain of
+    Xeres, on the south bank of the Guadalete, but "nearer the
+    sea-shore, and not far from the town of Medina-Sidonia."
+
+    [7] This is not mentioned by the authors from whom Al-Makkari
+    has drawn his materials, but is stated by Professor de
+    Gayangos on the authority of Ibn Khaldun.
+
+    [8] A story is here told of Musa's reaching some colossal
+    ruins, and a monument inscribed with Arabic characters
+    pointing out that place as the term of his conquests--a legend
+    which perhaps gave the hint for one of the tales in the
+    Thousand and One Nights, in which he is sent on an expedition
+    to the city of Brass on the shores of the Western Ocean.--See
+    Lane's translation, chap. 21.
+
+    [9] Condé, and the writers who have followed him, constantly
+    speak of the Beni-Modhar as Egyptian--an error owing to the
+    neglect or omission of the point which in Arabic orthography
+    distinguishes _Modhar_ from _Missr_, (Egypt.)
+
+The spoil of the vanquished kingdom was immense--the accumulation of
+long years of luxury and freedom from foreign invasion in a country
+which, both from the fertility of the soil and the abundance of the
+precious metals, was then probably the richest in Europe. Whatever
+degree of credit we may attach to the famous table of Solomon, "said
+by some to be of pure gold, and by others green emerald," and the gems
+and ornaments of which are described with full Oriental luxuriance,
+every account referring to the booty acquired in the principal cities,
+gives ample evidence of the riches and splendour of the Visigoths.
+"The plunder found at Toledo[10] was beyond calculation. It was common
+for the lowest men in the army to find magnificent gold chains, and
+long strings of pearls and rubies. Among other precious objects were
+found 170 diadems of the purest red gold, set with every sort of
+precious stone; several measures full of emeralds, rubies, and other
+gems; and an immense number of gold and silver vases. Such was the
+eagerness for plunder, and the ignorance of some, especially the
+Berbers, that when two or more of this nation fell upon an article
+which they could not conveniently divide, they would cut it in pieces,
+whatever the material might be, and share it among them." Some of the
+victorious army seized some ships in the eastern ports, and set sail
+for their homes with their plunder; but they were speedily overtaken
+by a tremendous storm, and all perished in the waves--a manifest
+token, we are given to understand, of the Divine vengeance for the
+abandonment of the _holy_ warfare under the banners of Islam.
+
+    [10] Burkhardt (Travels in Arabia, i. 303) says, that all the
+    golden ornaments which the Khalif Walid gave to the mosque at
+    Mekka, "were sent from Toledo in Spain, and carried upon mules
+    through Africa and Arabia."
+
+Musa was on his march into Galicia to crush the last embers of
+national resistance, when his progress was checked by a peremptory
+summons from the Khalif, to answer at Damascus the charges forwarded
+against him by Tarik, whom he had unjustly disgraced and punished.
+Being convicted of falsehood, on the production by Tarik of the
+missing foot of the table of Solomon, the merit of finding which had
+been claimed by Musa, he was tortured and deprived of his riches; and
+the head of his gallant son Abdulaziz, whom he had left in command in
+Spain, was shown to him in public by the Khalif Soliman, the successor
+of Walid, with the cruel demand if he knew whose it was. "I do," was
+the father's reply: "it is the head of one who fasted and prayed; may
+the curse of Allah fall on it if he who slew him is a better man than
+he!" But though Musa was thus arrested in the last stage of his
+conquering career, so complete was the prostration of the Christians,
+that the viceroys who succeeded Abdulaziz, overlooking or disregarding
+this yet unsubdued corner of Spain, at once poured their forces across
+the Pyrenees, seeking new fields of conquest and glory in the
+countries of the Franks. But the antagonists whom they here
+encountered, unlike the luxurious Goths of Spain, still preserved the
+barbarian valour which they had brought from their German forests. And
+As-Samh, (the Zama of the Christian writers,) the first Saracen
+general who obtained a footing in France, "fell a martyr to the
+faith," with nearly his whole army, in a battle with Eudo, Duke of
+Aquitaine, before Toulouse, May 10, A.D. 721. But the fiery zeal of
+the Moslems was only stimulated by this reverse. In the course of the
+ten following years, their dominion was established as far as the
+Rhone and Garonne; till, in 732, the torrent of invasion, headed by
+the _Wali_ Abdurrahman, burst into the heart of the country; and the
+battle, decisive of the destinies of France, and perhaps of Europe,
+was fought between Tours and Poitiers, in October of that year,
+(Ramadhan, A.H. 114.) Few details are given by the Arab writers of the
+seven days' conflict, in which the ranks of the Moslems were shattered
+by the iron arm of Charles Martel; "and the army of Abdurrahman was
+cut to pieces at a spot called _Balatt-ush-Shohadá_, (the Pavement of
+the Martyrs,) he himself being in the number of the slain." Some
+confusion here appears, as the same epithet had been applied to the
+former battle near Toulouse; but this "disastrous day" of Tours
+virtually extinguished the schemes of Arab conquest in France, though
+it was not till many years later that they were completely dislodged
+from Narbonne, and their other acquisitions between the Garrone and
+the Pyrenees.
+
+Meanwhile the Christian remnant, left unmolested in the Asturian and
+Galician mountains, gradually recovered courage: and in 717-18, "a
+despicable barbarian," (as he is termed by Ibn Hayyan, a writer often
+cited by Al-Makkari,) "named Belay, (Pelayo or Pelagius,) rose in
+Galicia; and from that moment the Christians began to resist the
+Moslems, and to defend their wives and daughters; for till then they
+had not shown the least inclination to do so." "Would to God," piously
+subjoins Al-Makkari, "that the Moslems had then extinguished at once
+the sparkles of a fire destined to consume their whole dominion in
+those parts! But they said--'What are thirty barbarians, perched on a
+rock? they must inevitably die!'" The spark, which contained the germ
+of the future independence of Spain, was thus suffered to remain and
+spread, while the swords of the Moslems were occupied in France; and
+its growth was further favoured by the anarchy and civil dissensions
+which broke out among the conquerors. While the leaders of the
+different Arab factions contested, sword in hand, the viceroyalty of
+Spain, the Berbers (whose conversion to Islam was apparently yet but
+imperfect) rose in furious revolt both in Spain and Africa, and were
+only overpowered by a fresh army sent by the Khalif Hisham from Syria.
+But the arrival of these reinforcements added new fuel to the old
+feuds of the Beni-Modhar, and the Yemenis or Beni-Kahttan; and a
+desperate civil war raged till 746, when the Khalif's lieutenant, the
+Emir Abu'l-Khattar, who supported the Yemenis, was killed in a pitched
+battle fought near Cordova. The leader of the victorious tribe, Yusuf
+Al-Fehri,[11] now assumed supreme power, which he exercised nearly ten
+years as an independent ruler, without reference to the court of
+Damascus. The state of affairs in the East, indeed, left little
+leisure to the Umeyyan khalifs to attend to the regulation of a remote
+province. Their throne was already tottering before the arms and
+intrigues of the Abbasides, whose black banners, under the guidance of
+the formidable Abu-Moslem, were even now bearing down from Khorassan
+upon Syria. The unpopular cause of the Beni-Umeyyah, who were detested
+for the murder of the grandsons of the Prophet under the second of
+their line, was lost in a single battle; and the death of Merwan, the
+last khalif of the race, was followed by the unsparing proscription of
+the whole family. "Every where they were seized and put to death
+without mercy; and few escaped the search made by the emissaries of
+As-Seffah, (_the bloodshedder_, the surname of the first Abbaside
+khalif,) in every province of the empire."
+
+    [11] The tribe of Fehr hold a conspicuous place in the Spanish
+    annals, and one of them was the leader of the last attempt to
+    shake off the yoke of Castile, after the capture of Granada.
+
+Among the few survivors of the general doom, was a youth named
+Abdurrahman Ibn Muawiyah, a grandson of the Khalif Hisham. In his
+infancy his granduncle Moslemah, the leader of the first Saracen host
+sent against Constantinople, had indicated him, from certain marks, as
+the destined restorer of the fallen fortunes of his race; and he was
+preserved, by a timely warning from a client of his house, from the
+fatal banquet, in which ninety of the Beni-Umeyyah were treacherously
+massacred. Yet so hot was the pursuit, that his younger brother was
+taken and slain before his eyes, while swimming the Euphrates with him
+in their flight. But Abdurrahman, after numberless perils and
+adventures, at length reached Africa, which was ruled by the _wali_
+or viceroy Abdurrahman Ibn Habib, the father of Yusuf Al-Fehri, who
+had been a personal retainer of his family. But he soon found that he
+had erred in trusting to the faith of Ibn Habib; and, after narrowly
+escaping the search made for him by the emissaries of the governor,
+lay concealed for several years, a fugitive and outlaw, among the
+tribes of Northern Africa. In this extremity, he at length cast his
+eyes on Spain, where the Abbasides had never been recognized, and
+where his own clansmen of the Koreysh, with their _maulis_, (freedmen
+or clients,) were numerous and powerful. The overtures of the royal
+adventurer were eagerly listened to by the Yemenis, who burned to
+revenge their late defeat on the Beni-Modhar; and Abdurrahman, landing
+at Al-muñecar in the autumn of 755, found himself instantly at the
+head of 700 horse, and was speedily joined by the chieftain of the
+Yemenis, who admitted him into Seville. During the march the want of a
+banner was remarked, "and a long spear was produced, on the point of
+which a turban was to be placed; but as it would have been necessary
+to incline the head of the spear, which was supposed to be of
+extremely bad omen, it was held erect between two olive trees, and a
+man, ascending one of them, was enabled to fasten the turban to the
+spear without lowering it.... With this same banner did Abdurrahman,
+and his son Hisham, vanquish their enemies whenever they met them; and
+in such veneration was it held, that whenever the turban by long use
+decayed, it was not removed, but a new one placed over it. In this
+manner it was preserved till the days of Abdurrahman II.; some say
+till the days of his son Mohammed, when the turban on the spear being
+decayed, the vizirs of that monarch, seeing nothing under it but a few
+rags twisted round the spear, gave orders for their removal, and the
+whole was thrown away.... 'From that time,' remarks the judicious
+historian Ibn Hayyan, 'the empire of the Beni-Umeyyah began visibly to
+decline.'"
+
+Under the auspices of this novel _oriflamme_ the Umeyyan prince and
+his followers advanced upon Cordova, whither Yusuf Al-Fehri, who had
+been engaged in suppressing an insurrection in the _Thagher_,
+(Aragon,) had hastened to oppose them at the head of the Beni-Modhar.
+Exchanging for a mule the fiery courser which the jealous whispers of
+his adherents had remarked as designed to secure his escape in case of
+defeat, Abdurrahman led his troops to the attack; and his victory
+established on the throne of Spain a new dynasty of the Beni-Umeyyah,
+"who thus regained in the west the supremacy which they had lost in
+the east." Those of the fallen family who had escaped the general
+massacre, flocked to the court of their fortunate kinsman, "to all of
+whom he gave pensions, commands, and governments, by which means his
+empire was strengthened;"--and the robes and turbans of the monarch
+and the princes were always white, the colour assumed by the house of
+Umeyyah, in opposition to the black livery of their rivals. Though
+Abdurrahman never assumed the title of commander of the faithful, he
+suppressed the _khotbah_ or public prayers in the name of the
+Abbasides; and when Al-Ala, the _wali_ of Africa, invaded Spain in
+order to re-establish the supremacy of the eastern khalif, the head of
+his unsuccessful general, thrown before the tent of Al-mansor at
+Mekka, conveyed to him the first tidings of the destruction of the
+armament by the "hawk of the Koreysh," as he was wont to term
+Abdurrahman. In the elation of triumph from this success, he is even
+said to have contemplated marching through Africa to attack Al-mansor
+in the east; but this design was frustrated by the continual
+rebellions of the Arab tribes, whom all his address and prudence was
+unable to keep in order; and "while the Moslems were revolting against
+their sovereign, the Christians of Galicia gathered strength, took
+possession of the towns and fortresses on the frontier, and expelled
+their inhabitants." We find him at length obliged, in order to
+maintain his authority, to have recourse to the system, which in the
+next century became universal in the east, of entrusting the defence
+of his throne and person, not to the native levies of his kingdom, but
+to a standing army of purchased slaves or _Mamlukes_. "He began to
+cease all communication with the chiefs of the Arabian tribes, whom he
+found animated with a strong hatred against him, and to surround
+himself with slaves and people entirely devoted to him; for which end
+he engaged followers and took clients from every province of his
+empire, and sent over to Africa to enlist Berbers. 'Thus,' says Ibn
+Hayyan, 'Abdurrahman collected an army of slaves and Berbers,
+amounting to upwards of 40,000 men, by means of whom he always
+remained victorious, in every contest with the Arabian tribes of
+Andalus.'"
+
+The sciences and fine arts, which had been almost banished from Spain
+since the conquest, returned in the train of the new dynasty; and
+literature was encouraged by the example of Abdurrahman, who was
+himself a poet of no mean merit. His affectionate remembrance of his
+Syrian home, led him to introduce into his new kingdom the flowers and
+fruits of the east;--and the palm-tree, which was the parent of all
+those of its kind in Spain, and to which he addressed the well-known
+lines, lamenting their common fate as exiles from their fatherland,
+was planted by himself in the gardens of the Rissáfah, a country
+palace built on the model of one near Damascus, in which the first
+years of his life had been spent. In architectural magnificence he
+rivaled or surpassed the former princes of his race, the monuments of
+whose grandeur still exist in the mosque of the Beni-Umeyyah at
+Damascus, and other edifices adorning the cities of Syria. The palaces
+and aqueducts which he constructed in Cordova, testified his zeal for
+the splendour, as well as his care for the salubrity, of his
+capital;--and after expending the sum of 80,000 golden _dinars_ (the
+produce of the royal fifth of all spoil taken in war) in the erection
+of the stately mosque which bears his name, he bequeathed the
+completion of the structure, at his death, A.D. 788, to his younger
+son Hisham, whom he nominated as his successor, to the exclusion of
+the elder brother Soliman. Al-Makkari devotes an entire chapter to the
+wonders of this celebrated temple, which was finished A.D. 794, nine
+years after its commencement, and received additions from almost every
+successive sovereign of the house of Umeyyah. In its present state, as
+the cathedral of Cordova, it still covers more ground than any church
+in Christendom; but the inner roof, with its elaborate carving, the
+_mihrab_, or shrine, of minute inlaid work of ivory, gems, and
+precious woods, and containing a copy of the Koran which had belonged
+to the Khalif Othman--the embossed plates of gold and silver which
+encrusted the doors, and the apples of the same metals which
+surmounted the dome--have long since disappeared; and the thousand
+(or, as some say, thirteen hundred) columns of polished marble which
+it once boasted, have been grievously reduced in number, to make room
+for the shrines and chapels of Christian saints. The unequal length
+and proportions of those which remain, their irregular grouping, and
+the want of height in the roof which they support, indicate a far
+lower grade of architectural taste than that which we find in the
+aerial palaces of Granada; but all the Arabic writers who have
+described it, concur in considering it one of the wonders of the
+world; and it ranked, in the estimation of the Spanish Moslems, as
+inferior in point of sanctity to none but the Kaaba, and the mosque of
+Omar at Jerusalem.
+
+The mood of the Beni-Umeyyah, who appear in their eastern reign only
+as gloomy and execrated tyrants, had been chastened by their
+misfortunes; and the virtues of Abdurrahman _Ad-dakhel_ (_the enterer
+or conqueror_, as he is generally termed by historians) were emulated
+by his descendants. As an illustration of the character of his son
+Hisham, it is related by Al-Makkari, that on hearing that the people
+of Cordova said, that his only motive in restoring the great bridge
+over the Guadalquivir was to pass over it himself when he went out
+hunting, he bound himself by a solemn vow never to cross it again as
+long as he lived; but the reign of this beneficent prince lasted only
+eight years. His immediate successors, Al-hakem I., and Abdurrahman
+II., were almost constantly engaged in warfare, either against their
+own rebellious relatives and revolted subjects,[12] or against the
+Christians of Galicia, who, by the middle of the ninth century, had
+advanced their frontier to the Douro and repeatedly repulsed the
+armies sent against them from Cordova; but we find no mention in the
+writers cited by Al-Makkari, either of the annual tribute of a hundred
+virgins, popularly said to have been exacted by the Moslems, or of the
+great victory in 846, by which King Ramiro redeemed his country from
+this degrading badge of vassalage.[13] So widely extended was the
+martial renown of the Umeyyan sovereigns, that in 839 a suppliant
+embassy was received by Abdurrahman II. from the Greek Emperor
+_Tufilus_, (Theophilus,) then hard pressed by the arms of the Abbaside
+khalif Al-mutassem, to solicit his aid against their common enemy;
+and, though Abdurrahman declined to embark in this distant and
+hazardous enterprise, a friendly intercourse long continued to be kept
+up between the courts of Cordova and Constantinople. The military
+establishment was fully organized, and placed on a formidable footing.
+Besides the troops quartered in the provinces and receiving regular
+pay, the _haras_ or royal guard of Mamlukes, whose commander was one
+of the principal officers of the court, was augmented to 5000 horse
+and 1000 foot, all Christians or foreigners by birth, who occupied
+barracks close to the royal palace, and constantly mounted guard at
+the gates. The coast was also defended by a powerful fleet of armed
+vessels, of which each of the seaports fitted out its proportion,
+against the hostile attacks of the Abbaside lieutenauts of Africa, and
+the predatory descents of the _Majus_[14] or Northmen; who, after
+laying waste with fire and sword the French and English coasts, had
+extended their ravages into the southern seas even to the Straits of
+Gibraltar. Lisbon and Seville were sacked by them in 844; and their
+piratical fleets continued for many years to carry pillage and
+bloodshed along the shores of the Peninsula.
+
+    [12] It was by a body of exiles under Abu Hafss Omar, the
+    Apochapsus of the Greeks, (incorrectly called Abu _Caab_ by
+    Gibbon,) driven from Cordova after one of these insurrections,
+    that Crete was conquered in 823.
+
+    [13] In this battle, according to the veracious Spanish
+    chroniclers, Santiago first appeared on his white horse in the
+    mêlée, fighting for the Christians.--See the "Maiden Tribute,"
+    in Lockhart's _Spanish Ballads_.
+
+    [14] _Majus_--Magians or fire worshippers, is the term
+    invariably applied to these fierce Pagans by the Arabic
+    historians, apparently by a negative induction from their
+    being neither Moslems, Jews, nor Christians.
+
+The simplicity which the first Abdurrahman had uniformly preserved in
+his dress and habits of life, was soon exchanged by his successors for
+royal magnificence, rivaling that of the Abbaside court at Bagdad. It
+was Abdurrahman II. who, in a love quarrel with a beautiful inmate of
+his harem, caused the door of her chamber to be blocked up with bags
+of silver coin, to be removed on her relenting--"and she threw herself
+on her knees and kissed his feet; but," naïvely adds the Arab
+historian, "the money she kept, and no portion of it ever returned to
+the treasury." The same prince testified his esteem for the fine arts,
+by riding forth in state from his capital, to welcome the arrival of
+Zaryab, a far-famed musician, whom the jealousy of a rival had driven
+from Bagdad, and who founded in Spain a famous school of music; and in
+his convivial habits, and the freedom which he allowed to the
+companions of his festive hours, his character accords with that
+assigned in the _Thousand and One Nights_, though not in the page of
+history, to Haroon-Al-Rasheed. He died in 852, leaving the crown to
+his son Mohammed, whose reign, as well as those of his two sons
+Almundhir and Abdullah, who filled the throne in succession, is but
+briefly noticed by Al-Makkari, though Señor de Gayangos has supplied
+some valuable additional matter in his notes. The never-ceasing
+contest with the Christians was waged year by year; and the Princes
+of Oviedo, though often defeated in the plain and driven back into
+their mountains, when the forces of Andalus were gathered against
+them; yet surely, though slowly, gained ground against the provincial
+_walis_ or viceroys. At the death of "Ordhun Ibn Adefunsh," (Ordoño
+I.) in 866, their territory extended from the Atlantic and the Bay of
+Biscay to Salamanca; and the Moslem power was diverted by the rising
+strength of Navarre, where the Basques had shaken off the divided
+allegiance paid alternately to the court of Cordova and the
+Carlovingian rulers of France, and conferred on Garcia-Ramirez, in
+857, an independent regal title. But these distant hostilities, as
+yet, little affected the tranquillity of the seat of government, which
+was more nearly interested in the frequent revolts of the provinces
+under its rule,[15] and particularly by the rebellion of the
+_Muwallads_, (or descendants of Christian converts to Islam;) which,
+though the information extant respecting it is somewhat scanty, would
+appear to have been little less than a struggle between the two races
+for the dominion of Spain. One of the Muwallad chiefs, named Omar Ibn
+Hafssun,[16] maintained for years a sort of semi-independence in the
+Alpuxarras. Al-mundhir fell in a skirmish against him in 888, only two
+years after his accession; and the insurrection, after continuing
+through the whole reign of Abdullah, was only finally suppressed under
+Abdurrahman III.
+
+    [15] No fewer than twenty-seven insurgent leaders, in the
+    reign of Abdullah alone, are enumerated in the translator's
+    notes from Ibn Hayyan.
+
+    [16] The epithet of _kelb_, "dog," frequently applied to this
+    leader, has led Condé into the strange error of creating for
+    him a son, whom he calls _Kalib_ Ibun Hafssun. The term
+    _Muwallad_ is said to be the origin of _mulatto_.
+
+The system of government under these princes, appears to have remained
+in nearly the same form as it had been fixed by Abdurrahman I. The
+monarch nominated, during his lifetime, one of his sons as his
+successor; and the _wali-al-ahd_, or crown-prince, thus selected,
+received the oaths of allegiance of the dignitaries of the state, and
+was admitted to a share in the administration--a wise regulation,
+which prevented the recurrence of the civil wars arising from the
+ambition of princes of the blood, which had distracted the reigns of
+Al-hakem I. and Abdurrahman II. The council of the sovereign was
+composed of the _vizirs_ or ministers of the different departments,
+the _katibs_ or secretaries, and the chiefs of the law; the _walis_ of
+the six great provinces into which Abdurrahman I. divided his
+empire,[17] as well as the municipal chiefs of the principal cities
+were also summoned on emergencies:--while the prime minister, or
+highest officer of the state, in whom, as in the Turkish
+_Vizir-Azem_,[18] the supreme direction of both civil and military
+affairs was vested, was designated the _Hajib_ or chamberlain. Of the
+four orthodox[19] sects of the Soonis, the one which predominated in
+Spain, as it does to the present day in Barbary and Africa, was that
+of Malik Ibn Ans, whose doctrines were introduced in the reign of
+Al-hakem I., by doctors who had received instruction from the lips of
+the Imam Malik himself at Mekka; and was formally established by that
+prince throughout his dominions. The judicial offices were filled, as
+in other Moslem countries, by Kadis, whose decisions were regulated by
+the precepts of the Koran: but we find no mention (even before the
+assumption of the titles of Imam and Khalif by Abdurrahman III.) of
+any supreme ecclesiastical chief like the Sheikh-al-Islam or Mufti of
+the Ottomans;--though there were chief justices analogous to the
+Turkish Kadileskers, who bore the title of _Kadi-'l-jamah_.
+
+    [17] We do not find this division mentioned by the authors
+    cited by Al-Makkari; but it is stated by Condé, and appears to
+    have prevailed as long as the kingdom retained its unity. The
+    six provincial capitals were Saragossa, Toledo, Merida,
+    Valencia, Murcia, and Granada. Shortly before the arrival of
+    Abdurrahman, Yusuf Al-Fehri had organized _five_ great
+    governments, one of which comprised Narbonne and the
+    Trans-Pyrenean conquests.
+
+    [18] Under the Arab dynasties of the east, the _vizir_ was
+    exclusively an officer _of the pen_: and Makrizi expressly
+    mentions that Bedr-al-Jemali, who became vizir to the Fatimite
+    khalif Al-Mostanssor in 1074, was the first in whom _the sword
+    and the pen_ were united.
+
+    [19] See Sale's Koran. Preliminary Discourse. Sect. 8.
+
+The royal revenue was derived from a variety of sources. The principal
+were, a land-tax amounting to one-tenth of the produce of the soil and
+the mines, the capitation-tax paid by the Jews and Christians, and the
+fifth of the spoil taken from the enemy--an enormously productive item
+in a time of constant warfare--besides a duty of two and a half per
+cent on all exports and imports. These were the legitimate dues of the
+crown, sanctioned by the Koran; but the splendid court maintained by
+the later sovereigns of Cordova, their lavish expenditure in building,
+and their large military and naval establishments, often compelled
+them to have recourse to irregular methods of raising money, by forced
+loans and by duties laid on different articles of food, in direct
+violation of the Moslem law. The amount raised by all these means
+varied greatly at different periods. Under Abdurrahman II., the whole
+direct revenue is said not to have exceeded 1,000,000 of gold
+_din[=a]rs_:--but the royal fifths, and other extraordinary sources of
+income, appear not to have been included in this estimate:--and a
+century later, under the third and greatest prince of that name, we
+are told, on the authority of the biographer Ibn Khallekan, that "the
+revenues of Andalus amounted to 5,480,000 gold _din[=a]rs_, collected
+from taxes," (it is elsewhere said from the _land_-tax:) besides
+765,000 derived from markets--exclusive also of the royal fifth of the
+spoil, and the capitation-tax levied on Christians and Jews living in
+the Moslem dominions, the amount of which is said to have equaled all
+the rest. An annual sum of equal amount, reckoning the _din[=a]r_ at
+ten shillings, had never in the history of the world been raised in a
+territory of the same extent, and probably equaled the united incomes
+of all the Christian princes in Europe--if we except the revenue of
+the Greek Emperor, it certainly far exceeded them. "Of this vast
+income," Ibn Khallekan continues, "one-third was appropriated to the
+payment of the army, another third was deposited in the royal coffers
+to cover the expenses of the household, and the remainder was spent
+yearly in the construction of Az-zahra and such other buildings as
+were erected under his reign." This tripartite allotment of the
+revenue is alluded to under several reigns: the expenses of
+administration and the salaries of the civil functionaries were
+included under the second head; and the third portion was, in ordinary
+case, reserved "to repel invasions and meet emergencies."
+
+The prince under whom the vast revenue thus stated is said to have
+been collected, ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather
+Abdullah, in the 300th year of the Hejra, and the 912th of the
+Christian era:--and his reign, of more than fifty lunar years, saw the
+power and splendour of the Umeyyan dynasty attain its zenith. For some
+years after his accession, he headed his armies in person against the
+Christians and the partizans of Ibn Hafssun, who still continued in
+arms: but the severe defeat which he received in 939 at Simaneas, near
+Zamora, (called by Moslem writers the battle of Al-handik,) from
+Ramiro II. of Leon, disgusted him with active warfare; and he deputed
+the command of his armies to his generals and the princes of the
+blood, who, in annual campaigns, so effectually kept the Christians
+within their limits, that little territorial acquisition was made by
+them during his reign; while the voluntary adhesion of the Berber
+tribes, after the overthrow of the Edrisite dynasty in 941 by the arms
+of the Fatimite khalifs, gave him almost unresisted possession of
+great part of Fez and Morocco. The defeat of Al-handik, and the
+treason and execution in 950, of his elder son Abdullah, (whom
+disappointment at being postponed to his younger brother in the
+succession, had led to conspire against his father's life,) were
+almost the only clouds which dimmed the continual sunshine of his
+prosperity--and his grandeur was enhanced in the eyes of his subjects,
+by the assumption of the highest prerogatives of Islam. Hitherto the
+princes of his line had contented themselves with the style of _Amirs
+of the Moslems,_ and _Beni-Kholaifah_ or "sons of the Khalifs;" but in
+929, "seeing the state of weakness and degradation to which the
+khalifate of the Beni-Abbas at Bagdad had been reduced," he no longer
+hesitated to adopt the titles of Imam and Khalif, with the appellation
+of An-nasir Ledinillah, (defender of the religion of God,) under which
+he is generally mentioned by historians.
+
+The writers from whom Al-Makkari has drawn his materials, exhaust
+their powers of language in panegyrics on the unrivaled magnificence
+of the court of Abdurrahman; which was thronged both by men of letters
+whom the distracted state of the East had driven thither for refuge,
+and by ambassadors, not only from the princes of Islam, but from "Hoto
+the king of the Alaman," (Otho the Great of Germany,) the king of
+France, and numerous other Christian potentates. The reception of
+these missions was usually signalized by a gorgeous display of the
+pomp of the court--and the ceremonial on the arrival in 949 of the
+envoys of Constantine VII. of Constantinople, is described at length
+from Ibn Hayyan. "The vaulted hall in his palace of Az-zahra, which he
+had fixed upon as the place where he would receive their credentials,
+was beautifully decorated, and a throne glittering with gold and
+sparkling with gems raised in the midst. To the right of the throne
+stood five of the khalif's sons, to the left three others, one being
+absent from illness. Next to them were the vizirs, each at his post on
+the right or left of the throne. Then came the hajibs or chamberlains,
+the sons of the vizirs, the freed slaves of the khalif, and the wakils
+or officers of his household. The court of the palace had been strewn
+with the richest carpets; and silken awnings of the most gorgeous
+description had every where been thrown over the doors and arches.
+Presently the ambassadors entered the hall, and were struck with awe
+at the magnificence displayed, and the power of the Sultan before whom
+they stood. They advanced a few steps, and presented the letter of
+their master, Constantine son of Leo, Lord of Constantinah the Great,
+(Constantinople.) It was written on sky-blue paper, and the characters
+were of gold. Within the letter was an enclosure, the ground of which
+was also sky-blue like the first, but the characters were of silver:
+it was likewise written in Greek, and contained a list of the presents
+which the Lord of Constantinah sent to the Khalif. On the letter was a
+seal of gold of the weight of four mithkals, on one side of which was
+a likeness of the Messiah, and on the other those of the King
+Constantine and his son. The letter was enclosed in a bag of silver
+cloth, over which was a case of gold, with a portrait of King
+Constantine admirably executed on stained glass. All this was enclosed
+in a case covered with cloth of silk and gold tissue. On the first
+line of the _Inwan_ or introduction was written, 'Constantine and
+Romanin, (Romanus,) believers in the Messiah, kings of the Greeks;'
+and in the next, 'To the great and exalted in dignity and power, as he
+most deserves, the noble in descent, Abdurrahman the khalif, who rules
+over the Arabs of Andalus: may God preserve his life!'" The conclusion
+of this splendid ceremony was, however, less imposing than the
+commencement; for a learned _Faquih_, who had been appointed to
+harangue the envoys in a set speech, was so overawed by the grandeur
+around him, that "his tongue clove to his mouth, he could not
+aticulate a single word, and fell senseless to the ground" Nor did his
+successor, "who was reputed to be a prince in rhetoric, and an ocean
+of language," fare much better; for though he began fluently, "all of
+a sudden he stopped for want of a word which did not occur to him, and
+thus put an end to his peroration." In this awkward dilemma, the
+reputation of the Andalusian rhetoricians was saved by Mundhir Ibn
+Said, who not only poured forth a torrent of impromptu eloquence, but
+delivered a long ex-tempore poem, "which to this day stands
+unequalled; and Abdurrahman was so pleased, that he appointed him
+preacher and Imam to the great mosque; and some time after, the office
+of Kadi-'l-jamah, or supreme judge, being vacant, he named him to that
+high post, and made him besides reader of the Khoran to the mosque of
+Az-zahra."
+
+The palace of Az-zahra, where the eyes of the Greeks were dazzled by
+this costly pageant, is one of the familiar names of the romance of
+Spanish history:--it is known to all the world how Abdurrahman, to
+gratify the capricious fancy of a beautiful and beloved mistress,
+expended millions, and tasked the labour of thousands, in erecting on
+the plain beyond Cordova a fairy palace and city which might bear her
+name and be her own. And like a fairy fabric did Az-zahra vanish; for
+so utterly was it destroyed, during the wars and civil tumults
+attending the fall of the race which raised it, that at the present
+day not a stone can be found, not a vestige even of the foundations
+traced, to show where it once stood; and all that we know of this
+"wondrous freak of magnificence" is drawn from the glowing accounts of
+contemporary writers, who saw it during the brief period of its glory.
+It is principally from Ibn Hayyan that Al-Makkari has copied the
+details of this marvellous structure, with its "15,000 doors, counting
+each flap or fold as one," all covered either with plates of iron, or
+sheets of polished brass; and its 4000 columns, great and small, 140
+of which were presented by the Emperor of Constantinople, and 1013,
+mostly of green and rose-coloured marble, were brought from various
+parts of Africa. Among the principal ornaments were two fountains
+brought from Constantinople, "the larger of gilt bronze, beautifully
+carved with basso-relieve representing human figures,"--the smaller
+surrounded by twelve figures, made of red gold in the arsenal of
+Cordova: they were all ornamented with jewels, and the water poured
+out of their mouths. The famous fountain of quicksilver, which could
+be set in motion at pleasure, was placed in the _Kasr-al-Kholaifa_, or
+hall of the khalifs, "the roof and walls of which were of gold, and
+solid but transparent blocks of marble of various colours: on each
+side were eight doors fixed on arches of ivory and ebony, ornamented
+with gold and precious stones, and resting on pillars of variegated
+marble and transparent crystal:--and in the centre was fixed the
+unique pearl presented to An-nassir by the Greek Emperor." The mosque
+and baths attached to the palace were on a corresponding scale of
+magnificence: and the number of inmates, male and female, is said to
+have been not less than 20,000. The expenses of the establishment must
+have consumed the revenues of a kingdom, if we are to believe the
+statement, that 12,000 loaves of bread were daily allowed to feed the
+fish in the ponds! "But all this and more is recorded by orators and
+poets who have exhausted the mines of eloquence in the description,"
+--says Al-Makkari, who, after enlarging upon "the running streams, the
+luxuriant gardens, the stately buildings for the accommodation of the
+guards and high functionaries--the throngs of soldiers, pages,
+eunuchs, and slaves, attired in robes of silk and brocade, moving to
+and fro through its broad streets--and the crowds of judges, katibs,
+theologians, and poets, walking with becoming gravity through the
+spacious halls and ample courts of the palace,"--concludes with a
+burst of pious enthusiasm. "Praise be to God who allowed those
+contemptible creatures (mankind) to build such palaces, and to inhabit
+them as a recompense in this world, that the faithful might be
+stimulated to the path of virtue, by reflecting that the pleasures
+enjoyed by their owners were still very far from giving even a remote
+idea of those reserved for the true believers in paradise!"
+
+"Abdurrahman," as Al-Makkari sums up his character, "has been
+described as the mildest and most enlightened of sovereigns. His
+meekness, generosity, and love of justice, became proverbial: none of
+his ancestors surpased him in courage, zeal for religion, and other
+virtues which constitute an able and beloved monarch. He was fond of
+science, and the patron of the learned, with whom he loved to
+converse.... We should never finish, were we to transcribe the
+innumerable anecdotes respecting him which are scattered like loose
+pearls over the writings of the Andalusian poets and historians,"--but
+as the "pearls" selected possess but little novelty in the
+illustration of the kingly virtues which they commemorate, we prefer
+to quote once more the oft-repeated legacy to posterity, in which this
+"Soliman of the West," as he was called by his contemporaries,
+confessed that, like his eastern prototype, he had found all his
+grandeur "but vanity and vexation of spirit."--"After his death a
+paper was found in his on handwriting, in which were noted those days
+he had spent in happiness and without any cause of sorrow, and they
+were found to amount to fourteen. O, man of understanding! consider
+and observe the small portion of happiness the world affords, even in
+the most enviable position! The khalif An-nasir, whose prosperity in
+mundane affairs became proverbial, had only fourteen days of
+undisturbed enjoyment during a reign of fifty years, seven months, and
+three days. Praise be given to him, the Lord of eternal glory and
+everlasting empire! There is no God but he!"
+
+In the fulness of years and glory, Abdurrahman died of a paralytic
+stroke at Az-zahra, on the second or third of Ramadhan, A.H. 350,
+(Oct. 961,) and was succeeded, according to his previous nomination,
+by his son Al-hakem II., who assumed on this occasion the title of
+Al-mustanser-billah, (one who implores God's assistance.) This prince
+has been characterized, by one of the ablest of recent historians,[20]
+as "one of those rare beings, who have employed the awful engine of
+despotism in promoting the happiness and intelligence of his species;"
+and who rivaled, "in his elegant tastes, appetite for knowledge, and
+munificent patronage, the best of the Medici:"--nor is this high
+praise undeserved. Though he more than once headed his armies in
+person, with success, against the Christians and Northmen, and
+maintained on public occasions the state and magnificence which had
+been introduced by his father, the toils of war and the pomp of
+royalty were alike alien to his inclinations, which had been directed
+from his earliest years to pursuits of literature and science. The
+library which he amassed is said by some writers to have amounted to
+the almost incredible number of 400,000 volumes: and such was his
+ardour in the collection of books, that even in Persia and other
+remote regions, the munificence which he exercised through agents
+employed for the purpose, secured him copies of forthcoming works even
+before their appearance in their own country. "He made Andalus a great
+market for the literary productions of every clime ... so that rich
+men in Cordova, however illiterate they might be, rewarded writers and
+poets with the greatest munificence, and spared neither trouble nor
+expense in forming libraries." Nor were these treasures of literature
+idly accumulated, at least by Al-hakem himself; for so vast and
+various was his reading, that there was scarcely one of his books (as
+we are assured by the historian Ibn'ul-Abbar) which was not enriched
+with remarks and annotations from his pen. "In the knowledge
+especially of history, biography, and genealogy, he was surpassed by
+no living author of his days: and he wrote a voluminous history of
+Andalus, in which was displayed such sound criticism, that whatever he
+related, as borrowed from more ancient sources, might be implicitly
+relied upon."
+
+    [20] Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, i. 351.
+
+The reign of Al-hakem was the Augustan age of Andalusian literature;
+and besides the numerous learned men whom the fame of his father's and
+his own liberality, with the security of their rule, had attracted to
+Spain from other regions of Islam, we find in the pages of Al-Makkari
+an extensive list of native authors, principally in the departments of
+poetry, history, and philology, who are said to be "a few only of the
+most eminent who flourished during this reign"--but none of their
+names, however noted in their own day, are known in modern Europe.
+Nor was the gentler sex, as is usually the case in the lands of Islam,
+excluded from the general taste for letters; and one of our author's
+chapters is almost entirely filled with a catalogue of the poetesses
+who adorned Andalus at this and other periods of its history. One of
+these, Mariam or Mary, the daughter of Abu-Yakub Al-ansari, who rose
+into celebrity in the latter years of Al-hakem, appears to have been
+one of the earliest _bas-bleus_ on record. Independent of her poetical
+talents, she gave lectures at her residence at Seville "in rhetoric
+and literature; which, united to her piety, virtue, and amiable
+disposition, gained her the affection of her sex, and procured her
+many pupils: she lived to old age, and died after the 400th year of
+the Hejra," (A.D. 1010.) The favourite study of the Moslems, the
+divinity and law of the Koran, was cultivated with especial zeal under
+a monarch who was himself a rigid observer of its ordinances; and
+various anecdotes are related by Al-Makkari of the extraordinary
+deference paid by Al-hakem to the eminent theologians who frequented
+his court. The Khalif himself "attended public worship every Friday,
+and distributed alms to the poor; he laid out large sums in the
+construction of mosques, hospitals, and colleges for youth;[21] and
+being himself very strict in the observance of his religious duties,
+he enforced the precepts of the _Sunnah_ (tradition) throughout his
+dominions." With this view, severe edicts were directed against the
+use of wine, which had become prevalent among the Andalusian Moslems;
+and Al-hakem was with difficulty restrained, by representations of the
+ruin which would be thus brought on the cultivators, from ordering the
+destruction of all the vines in his dominions. But the reign of this
+excellent and enlightened prince lasted only fifteen years; and at his
+death, (Sept. 976,) which was caused by the same malady that had
+proved fatal to his father, the glory of the house of Umeyyah expired.
+
+    [21] Eighty free schools are said by other authorities to have
+    existed or been founded during this reign in Cordova; the
+    number of dwelling-houses in which at the same time, great and
+    small, is stated at 200,000.
+
+The evils of a minority had never yet been experienced in the
+succession of the Umeyyan princes, all of whom had ascended the throne
+at a mature age, and with some experience of administration from their
+previous recognition as heir. But Hisham II., (surnamed
+Al-muyyed-billah, the assisted by God,) the only son of Al-hakem, was
+but nine years old at the time of his father's decease; and for some
+time the government was directed in his name by the Hajib, Jafar
+Al-Mushafi; but the influence of the queen-mother erelong succeeded in
+displacing this faithful minister, in favour of Mohammed Ibn Abu Amir,
+who then held the post of _sahib-ush-shortah_, or captain of the
+guard. This remarkable personage (better known in history by his
+surname of Al-mansur) was the son of a religious devotee, and his
+condition in early life was so humble, that he supported himself as a
+public letter-writer in the streets of Cordova; but an accident having
+introduced him into the palace, he so skilfully wound his way among
+the intigues of the court, as to attain the highest place next the
+throne. But even this dignity was far from satisfying his ambition.
+Under various pretexts he destroyed or drove into exile, within a few
+years, all the princes of the blood, and others whose influence or
+station might have endangered the success of his projects, and
+concentrated in his own hands all the powers of the state; while the
+khalif, secluded from public view within his palace, was as completely
+a puppet in the hands of his all-powerful minister, as the khalifs of
+Bagdad at the same period in those of the _Emirs-al-Omrah_. Secure of
+the support of the soldiery, whose affections he had gained by his
+liberality, Al-mansur so little affected to disguise his assumption of
+supremacy, that he ordered his own name to be struck on the coin, and
+repeated in the public prayers, along with that of Hisham, thus
+arrogating to himself a share in the two most inalienable prerogatives
+of sovereignty. His robes were made of a peculiar fashion and stuff
+appropriated to royalty; he received embassies seated on the throne,
+and declared peace and war in his own name. To such utter helplessness
+was the khalif reduced,[22] that he was unable even to oppose the
+removal of the royal treasure fiom Cordova to a fortified palace which
+Al-mansur had built for his residence, not far from Az-zahra, and had
+named, as if in mockery, Az-zahirah;--and the Hajib was at one time
+obliged to quiet the murmurs of the populace, who doubted whether
+their sovereign was still in existence, by leading him in procession
+through the streets of the capital; "and the eyes of the people
+feasted on what had been so long concealed from them."
+
+    [22] Some historians even speak of this period as the "dynasty
+    of the Amirites," from Al-mansur's father, Abn Amir.
+
+But this daring usurpation was in part redeemed by qualities in the
+usurper worthy of a king. Though the bigotry of Al-masur led him to
+order the destruction of those volumes in the library of Al-hakem
+which treated of philosophy and the abstruse sciences, on the ground
+that such studies tended to irreligion, he was yet liberal to the
+learned men who visited his court at Az-zahirah, where he resided in
+royal splendour during the intervals of his campaigns; and he endeared
+hinself to the people, by his generosity, his rigid justice, and the
+strict control which he enforced over his subordinate officers. But it
+was on his fervent zeal for the cause of Islam, and his martial
+exploits against the Christians, (whence his surname of _Al-mansur_,
+or _the Victorious_, was derived,) that his fame and popularity
+chiefly rested. The martial spirit of the Spanish Moslems appears,
+from various anecdotes related by Al-Makkari, to have suffered great
+deterioration from the progress of luxury and decay of discipline; but
+the armies led by Al-mansur were mainly recruited from the fiery
+tribes of Barbary, and strengthened by numerous Christian slaves or
+Mamlukes, trained to serve their captors in arms against their own
+countrymen. With forces thus constituted, did Al-mansur, in whom once
+more shone forth the spirit of the Arab conquerors of past times,
+invade the Christian territories in each spring and autumn for
+twenty-six successive years, carrying the Moslem arms in triumph even
+to the shores of the "Green Sea," (Atlantic Ocean,) and into regions
+which Tarik and Musa had never reached. Astorga and Leon, in spite of
+the efforts of Bermudo II. to save his capital, were taken and razed
+to the ground in 983. Barcelona only escaped the same fate in the
+following year by submission and tribute; but the crowning glory of
+Al-mansur's achievements in the _al-jahid_ or holy war, was the
+capture, in 997, Santiago, the shrine and sepulchre of the patron
+saint of Spain. "No Moslem general had ever penetrated as far as that
+city, which is in an inaccessible position in the most remote part of
+Galicia, and is a sanctuary regarded by the Christians with veneration
+equal to that which the Moslems entertain for the Kaaba,"--but
+Al-mansur, supplied with provisions from a fleet which accompanied his
+march along the coast of Portugal, forced his way through the Galician
+defiles, and occupied the holy city without opposition--all the
+inhabitants having fled, according to Ibn Hayyan, with the exception
+of an old monk who tended the tomb. The city and cathedral were
+leveled with the ground; the shrine alone was left untouched in the
+midst of the ruins, from the belief of the Moslems that St James was
+the brother of the Messiah--and the church-bells were conveyed on the
+shoulders of the captives to Cordova, where they were suspended as
+lamps in the great mosque, to commemorate the triumph of Islam in the
+principal seat of Christian worship and pilgrimage.
+
+Such was the depression produced among the Christians by these
+repeated disasters, that, if we may believe Al-Makkari, "one of
+Al-mansur's soldiers having left his banner fixed in the earth on a
+mountain before a Christian town, the garrison dared not come out for
+several days after the retreat of the Moslem army, not knowing what
+troops might be behind it." The pressing sense of common danger, at
+length extinguished ("for the first time perhaps," as Conde remarks)
+the feuds of the Christian princes; and in the spring of 1002 the
+united forces of the Count of Castile, Sancho the Great of Navarre,
+and the King of Leon, confronted the Moslem host at Kalat-an-nosor,[23]
+(the Castle of the Eagles,) on the frontiers of Old Castile. The
+mighty conflict which ensued is very briefly dismissed by
+Al-Makkari--"Al-mansur attacked and defeated them with great
+loss"--but a far different account is given by the Christian
+chroniclers, who represent the Moslems as only saved from a total
+overthrow by the approach of night. It seems, in truth, to have been
+nearly a drawn battle, with immense carnage on both sides; but the
+advantage was decidedly with the Christians, who retained possession
+of the field; while Al-mansur, weakened by the loss of great numbers
+of his best men and officers, abandoned his camp, and retreated the
+next day across the Douro. In all his fifty-two campaigns he is said
+never before to have been defeated; and the chagrin occasioned by this
+severe reverse, joined to a malady under which he was previously
+suffering, ended his life shortly after[24] at Medinah-Selim,
+(Medinaceli.) He was buried by his sons in the same place; the dust
+which had adhered to his garments in his campaigns against the
+Christians, and which had been carefully preserved for the purpose,
+being placed in the tomb with the corpse--a practice not unusual at
+the funeral of a celebrated warrior. "This enlightened and
+never-vanquished Hajib"--says Al-Makkali, with whom Al-mansur is a
+favourite hero--"used continually to ask God to permit him to die in
+his service and in war against the infidels, and thus his desire was
+granted;... and after his death, the Mohammedan empire in Andalus
+began to show visible signs of decay."
+
+    [23] The precise locality of this famous battle is not very
+    clearly ascertained; but Condé places it betveen Soria and
+    Medinaceli.
+
+    [24] The battle is placed by the Christian writers in 998; but
+    the death of Al-mansur, which both Christians and Moslems
+    agree in stating to have taken place within a very short time,
+    is said by the latter to have been A.M. 392, A.D. 1002.
+
+Al-mansur had a worthy successor in his son Abdul-malek, who at once
+received the appointment of Hajib from the passive Khalif:--but on his
+death in 1008, the post was assumed by his brother Abdurrahman,
+popularly known as Shanjul, a Berber word signifying _madman_--a
+surname which he had earned by his habits of low vice and
+intemperance. Scarcely had he entered upon office, when, not contented
+with exercising sovereign authority, like his father and brother,
+under an appearance of delegation from the Khalif, he persuaded or
+compelled the feeble Hisham, who had no male issue, to appoint him
+_Wali-al-ahd,_ or heir-presumptive--the deed of nomination is given at
+length by Al-Makkari, and is a curious specimen of a state-paper. But
+this transfer was viewed with deep indignation by the people of
+Cordova, who were warmly attached to the line of their ancient
+princes; and their discontent being fomented by the members of the
+Umeyyan family, they rose in furious revolt during the absence of the
+Hajib on the Galician frontiers, deposed Hisham, and raised to the
+throne Mohammed-Al-muhdi, a great-grandson of Abdurrahman III.
+Abdurrahman, returning in haste to quell the insurrection, found
+himself deserted by his army, and was put to death with most of his
+family and principal adherents; and the power of the Amirites vanished
+in a day like the remembrance of dream. But the sceptre which had thus
+been struck from their grasp, found no other hand strong enough to
+seize it; and from the first deposition of Hisham II. in 1009, to the
+final dissolution of the monarchy on the abdication of Hisham III. in
+1031, the whole of Moslem Spain presented a frightful scene of
+anarchy and civil war. Besides the imbecile Hisham, who was at least
+once released and restored to the throne, and was personated by more
+than one pretender, the royal title was assumed, within twenty years
+by not fewer than six princes of the house of Umeyyah, and by three of
+a rival race--a branch of the Edrisites called Beni-Hammud, who
+endeavoured in the general confusion to assert their claims as
+descendants of the Khalif Ali. The aid of the Christians was called in
+by more than one faction; and Cordova was stormed and sacked after a
+long siege in 1013, by the African troops who followed the standard of
+Soliman Ab-muhdi, one of the Umeyyan competitors. The palaces of
+Az-zahra and Az-zahirah were utterly destroyed; the remains of Hakem's
+library, with the treasures amassed by former sovereigns, were either
+plundered or dispersed; nor did the ancient capital of Audalus, no
+more the seat of the Khalifate, ever recover its former grandeur. The
+provincial _walis_, many of whom owed their appointments to the Hajibs
+of the house of Amir, and were disaffected to the Beni-Umeyyah, every
+where threw off their allegiance and assumed independence, till only
+the districts in its immediate vicinity remained attached to Cordova,
+which was still considered the seat of the Mohammedan empire. The last
+Umeyyan prince who ruled there was a grandson of the great
+Abdurrahman, named Hisham Al-Mutadd; whom the inhabitants, after
+expelling the troops of the Beni-Hammud in 1027, invited to ascend the
+throne of his ancestors. "He was a mild and enlightened prince and
+possessed many brilliant qualities; but notwithstanding this, the
+volatile and degenerate citizens of Cordova grew discontented with
+him, and he was deposed by the army in 422, (A.D. 1031.) He left the
+capital and retired to Lerida, where he died in 428, (A.D. 1036.) He
+was the last member of that illustrious dynasty which had ruled over
+Andalus and a great portion of Africa for two hundred and eighty-four
+years, counting from the accession of Abdurrahman I., surnamed
+Ab-dakhel, in 138, (A.D. 756.) There is no God but God! He is the
+Almighty!"
+
+The fall of the Umeyyan khalifate closes the first of the two
+brilliant periods which illustrate the Arab history of Spain. The
+uninterrupted hereditary succession for ten generations, and the long
+average duration of the reign of each monarch, from the arrival in
+Spain of Abdurrahman I. in 756, to the death or disappearance of
+Hisham II. in 1009, are without a parallel it any other Moslem
+dynasty, with the single exception of the Ottoman line; and though, on
+pursuing the comparison, the Umeyyan princes cannot vie with the
+last-named race in extent of conquest and splendour of martial
+achievement, they far surpass not only the Ottomans, but almost every
+sovereign family in the annals of Islam, in the cultivation of kingly
+virtues and arts of peace, and the refinement and love of literature,
+which they introduced and fostered in their dominions. During the
+greater part of their rule, the court of Cordova was the most polished
+and enlightened in Europe removed equally from the martial rudeness of
+those of the Frank monarchs, and the punctilious attention to forms
+and jealous etiquette, within which the Grcek emperors studiously
+intrenched themselves. The useful arts, and in particular the science
+of agriculture, necessary for the support of a dense population, were
+cultivated to an extent of which no other country afforded an example;
+and the commerce which filled the ports of Spain, from all parts of
+Europe and the East, was the natural result of the industry of her
+people. In how great a degree the personal character of the Umeyyan
+sovereigns contributed to this state of political and social
+prosperity, is best proved by the rapid disruption and fall of the
+monarchy, when it passed into the feeble hands of Hisham II., and by
+the history of the two following centuries of anarchy, civil war, and
+foreign domination. But the sun of Andalusian glory, which had
+attained its meridian splendour under the Khalifs of Cordova, once
+more emerged before the close of its course from the clouds and
+darkness which surrounded it;--and its setting rays shone, with
+concentrated lustre, over the kingdom of GRANADA.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.
+
+A FRAGMENT FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.
+
+
+"A capital place this for our bivouac!" cried I, swinging myself off
+my mule, and stretching my arms and legs, which were stiffened by a
+long ride.
+
+It _was_ a fairish place, to all appearances--a snug ravine, well
+shaded by mahogany-trees, the ground covered with the luxuriant
+vegetation of that tropical region, a little stream bubbling and
+leaping and dashing down one of the high rocks that flanked the
+hollow, and rippling away through the tall fern towards the rear of
+the spot where we had halted, at the distance of a hundred yards from
+which the ground was low and shelving.
+
+"A capital place this for our bivouac!"
+
+My companion nodded. As to our lazy Mexican _arrieros_ and servants,
+they said nothing, but began making arrangements for passing the
+night. Curse the fellows! If they had seen us preparing to lie down in
+a swamp, cheek by jowl with an alligator, I believe they would not
+have offered a word of remonstrance. Those Mexican half-breeds, half
+Indian half Spaniard, with sometimes a dash of the Negro, are
+themselves so little pervious to the dangers and evils of their soil
+and climate, that they never seem to remember that Yankee flesh and
+blood may be rather more susceptible; that niguas[25] and musquittoes,
+and _vomito prieto_, as they call their infernal fever, are no trifles
+to encounter; without mentioning the snakes, and scorpions, and
+alligators, and other creatures of the kind, which infest their
+strange, wild, unnatural, and yet beautiful country.
+
+    [25] The nigua is a small but very dangerous insect which
+    fixes itself in the feet, bores holes in the skin, and lays
+    its eggs there. These, if not extracted, (which extraction by
+    the by is a most painful operation) cause first an intolerable
+    itching, and subsequently sores and ulcers of a sufficiently
+    serious nature to entail the loss of the feet.
+
+I had come to Mexico in company with Jonathan Rowley, a youth of
+Virginian raising, six and twenty years of age, six feet two in his
+stockings, with the limbs of a Hercules and shoulders like the side of
+a house. It was towards the close of 1824; and the recent emancipation
+of Mexico from the Spanish yoke, and its self-formation into a
+republic, had given it a new and strong interest to us Americans. We
+had been told much, too, of the beauty of the country--but in this we
+were at first rather disappointed; and we reached the capital without
+having seen any thing, except some parts of the province of Vera Cruz,
+that could justify the extravagant encomiums we had heard bestowed in
+the States upon the splendid scenery of Mexico. We had not, however,
+to go far southward from the chief city, before the character of the
+country altered, and became such as to satisfy our most sanguine
+expectations. Forests of palms, of oranges, citrons, and bananas,
+filled the valleys: the marshes and low grounds were crowded with
+mahogany-trees, and with immense fern plants, in height equal to
+trees. All nature was on a gigantic scale--the mountains of an
+enormous height, the face of the country seamed and split by
+_barrancas_ or ravines, hundreds, ay, thousands of feet deep, and
+filled with the most abundant and varied vegetation. The sky, too, was
+of the deep glowing blue of the tropics, the sort of blue which seems
+varnished or clouded with gold. But this ardent climate and teeming
+soil are not without their disadvantages. Vermin and reptiles of all
+kinds, and the deadly fever of these latitudes, render the low lands
+uninhabitable for eight months out of the twelve. At the same time
+there are large districts which are comparatively free from these
+plagues--perfect gardens of Eden, of such extreme beauty that the mere
+act of living and breathing amongst their enchanting scenes, becomes a
+positive and real enjoyment. The heart seems to leap with delight, and
+the soul to be elevated, by the contemplation of those regions of
+fairy-like magnificence.
+
+The most celebrated among these favoured provinces is the valley of
+Oaxaca, in which two mountainous districts, the Mistecca and
+Tzapoteca, bear off the palm of beauty. It was through this immense
+valley, nearly three hundred leagues in length, and surrounded by the
+highest mountains in Mexico, that we were now journeying. The kind
+attention of our chargé-d'affaires at the Mexican capital, had
+procured us every possible facility in travelling through a country,
+of which the soil was at that time rarely trodden by any but native
+feet. We had numerous letters to the alcaldes and authorities of the
+towns and villages which are sparingly sprinkled over the southern
+provinces of Mexico; we were to have escorts when necessary; every
+assistance, protection, and facility, were to be afforded us. But as
+neither the authorities nor his excellency, Uncle Sam's envoy, could
+make inns and houses where none existed, it followed that we were
+often obliged to sleep _à la belle étoile_, with the sky for a
+covering. And a right splendid roof it was to our bedchamber, that
+tropical sky, with its constellations, all new to us northerns, and
+every star magnified by the effect of the atmosphere to an incredible
+size. Mars and Saturn, Venus and Jupiter, had all disappeared; the
+great and little Bear were still to be seen; in the far distance the
+ship Argo and the glowing Centaur; and, beautiful above all, the
+glorious sign of Christianity the colossal Southern Cross, in all its
+brightness and sublimity, glittering in silvery magnificence out of
+its setting of dark blue crystal.
+
+We were travelling with a state and a degree of luxury that would have
+excited the contempt of our backwoodsmen; but in a strange country we
+thought it best to do as the natives did; and accordingly, instead of
+mounting our horses and setting forth alone, with our rifles slung
+over our shoulders, and a few handfuls of parched corn and dried flesh
+in our hunting pouches, we journeyed Mexican fashion, with a whole
+string of mules, a _topith_ or guide, a couple of _arrieros_ or
+muleteers, a cook, and one or two other attendants. While the latter
+were slinging our hammocks to the lowermost branches of a tree--for in
+that part of Mexico it is not very safe to sleep upon the ground, on
+account of the snakes and vermin--our _cocinero_ lit a fire against
+the rock, and in a very few minutes an iguana which we had shot that
+day was spitted and roasting before it. It looked strange to see this
+hideous creature, in shape between a lizard and a dragon, twisting and
+turning in the light of the fire; and its disgusting appearance might
+have taken away some people's appetites; but we knew by experience
+that there is no better eating than a roasted iguana. We made a hearty
+meal off this one, concluding it with a pull at the rum flask, and
+then clambered into our hammocks; the Mexicans stretched themselves on
+the ground with their heads upon the saddles of the mules, and both
+masters and men were soon asleep.
+
+It was somewhere about midnight when I was awakened by an
+indescribable sensation of oppression from the surrounding atmosphere.
+The air seemed to be no longer air, but some poisonous exhalation that
+had suddenly arisen and enveloped us. From the rear of the ravine in
+which we lay, billows of dark mephitic mist were rolling forward,
+surrounding us with their baleful influence. It was the _vomito
+prieto_, the fever itself, embodied in the shape of a fog. At the same
+moment, and while I was gasping for breath, a sort of cloud seemed to
+settle upon me, and a thousand stings, like redhot needles, were run
+into my hands, face, neck--into every part of my limbs and body that
+was not triply guarded by clothing. I instinctively stretched forth my
+hands and closed them, clutching by the action hundreds of enormous
+musquittoes, whose droning, singing noise how almost deafened me. The
+air was literally filled by a dense swarm of these insects; and the
+agony caused by their repeated and venomous stings was indescribable.
+It was a perfect plague of Egypt.
+
+Rowley, whose hammock was slung some ten yards from mine, soon gave
+tongue: I heard him kicking and plunging, spluttering and swearing,
+with a vigour and energy that would have been ludicrous under any
+other circumstances; but matters were just then too serious for a
+laugh. With the torture, for such it was, of the musquitto bites, and
+the effect of the insidious and poisonous vapours that were each
+moment thickening around me, I was already in a high state of fever,
+alternately glowing with heat and shivering with cold, my tongue
+parched, my eyelids throbbing, my brain seemingly on fire.
+
+There was a heavy thump upon the ground. It was Rowley jumping out of
+his hammock. "Damnation" roared he, "Where are we? On the earth, or
+under the earth?--We must be--we are--in their Mexican purgatory. We
+are, or there's no snakes in Virginny. Hallo, arrieros! Pablo!
+Matteo!"
+
+At that moment a scream--but a scream of such terror and anguish as I
+never heard before or since--a scream as of women in their hour of
+agony and extreme peril, sounded within a few paces of us. I sprang
+out of my hammock; and as I did so, two white and graceful female
+figures darted or rather flew by me, shrieking--and oh! in what
+heart-rending tones--for "_Socorro! Socorro! Por Dios_! Help! Help!"
+Close upon the heels of the fugitives, bounding and leaping along with
+enormous strides and springs, came three or four dark objects which
+resembled nothing earthly. The human form they certainly possessed;
+but so hideous and horrible, so unnatural and spectre-like was their
+aspect, that their sudden encounter in that gloomy ravine, and in the
+almost darkness that surrounded us, might well have shaken the
+strongest nerves. We stood for a second, Rowley and myself, paralysed
+with astonishment at these strange appearances; but another piercing
+scream restored to us our presence of mind. One of the women had
+either tripped or fallen from fatigue, and she lay a white heap, upon
+the ground. The drapery of the other was in the clutch of one of the
+spectres, or devils, or whatever they were, when Rowley, with a cry of
+horror, rushed forward and struck a furious blow at the monster with
+his _machetto_. At the same time, and almost without knowing how, I
+found myself engaged with another of the creatures. But the contest
+was no equal one. In vain did we stab and strike with our machettos;
+our antagonists were covered and defended with a hard bristly hide,
+which our knives, although keen and pointed, had great difficulty in
+penetrating; and on the other hand we found ourselves clutched in long
+sinewy arms, terminating in hands and fingers, of which the nails were
+as sharp and strong as an eagle's talons. I felt these horrible claws
+strike into my shoulders as the creature seized me, and, drawing me
+towards him, pressed me as in the hug of a bear; while his hideous
+half man half brute visage was grinning and snarling at me, and his
+long keen white teeth were snapping and gnashing within six inches of
+my face.
+
+"God of heaven! This is horrible! Rowley! Help me!"
+
+But Rowley, in spite of his gigantic strength, was powerless as an
+infant in the grasp of these terrible opponents. He was within a few
+paces of me, struggling with two of them, and making superhuman
+efforts to regain possession of his knife, which had dropped or been
+wrenched from his hand. And all this time, where were our arrieros?
+Were they attacked likewise? Why didn't they come and help us? All
+this time!--pshaw! it was no time: it all passed in the space of a few
+seconds, in the circumference of a few yards, and in the feeble
+glimmering light of the stars, and of the smouldering embers of our
+fire, which was at some distance from us.
+
+"Ha! That has told!" A stab, dealt with all the energy of despair, had
+entered my antagonist's side. But I was like to pay dearly for it.
+Uttering a deafening yell of pain and fury, the monster clasped me
+closer to his foul and loathsome body; his sharp claws, dug deeper
+into my back, seemed to tear up my flesh: the agony was
+insupportable--my eyes began to swim, and my senses to leave me. Just
+then--Crack! crack! Two--four--a dozen musket and pistol shots,
+followed by such a chorus of yellings and howlings and unearthly
+laughter! The creature that held me seemed startled--relaxed his grasp
+slightly. At that moment a dark arm was passed before my face, there
+was a blinding flash, a yell, and I fell to the ground released from
+the clutch of my opponent. I remember nothing more. Overcome by pain,
+fatigue, terror, and the noxious vapors of that vile ravine, my senses
+abandoned me, and I swooned away.
+
+When consciousness returned, I found myself lying upon some blankets,
+under a sort of arbour of foliage and flowers. It was broad day; the
+sun shone brightly, the blossoms smelled sweet, the gay-plumaged
+hummingbirds were darting and shooting about in the sunbeams like so
+many animated fragments of a prism. A Mexican Indian, standing beside
+my couch, and whose face was unknown to me, held out a cocoa-nutshell
+containing some liquid, which I eagerly seized, and drank off the
+contents. The draught (it was a mixture of citron juice and water)
+revived me greatly; and raising myself on my elbow, although with much
+pain and difficulty, I looked around, and beheld a scene of bustle and
+life which to me was quite unintelligible. Upon the shelving hillside
+on which I was lying, a sort of encampment was established. A number
+of mules and horses were wandering about at liberty, or fastened to
+trees and bushes, and eating the forage that had been collected and
+laid before them. Some were provided with handsome and commodious
+saddles, while others had pack-saddles, intended apparently for the
+conveyance of numerous sacks, cases, and wallets, that were scattered
+about on the ground. Several muskets and rifles were leaning here and
+there against the trees; and a dozen or fifteen men were occupied in
+various ways--some filling up saddle-bags or fastening luggage on the
+mules, others lying on the ground smoking, one party surrounding a
+fire at which cooking was going on. At a short distance from my bed
+was another similarly composed couch, occupied by a man muffled up in
+blankets, and having his back turned towards me, so that I was unable
+to obtain a view of his features.
+
+"What is all this? Where am I? Where is Rowley--our guide--where are
+they all?"
+
+"_Non entiendo_," answered my brown-visaged Ganymede, shaking his
+head, and with a good-humoured smile.
+
+"_Adonde estamos?_"
+
+"_In el valle de Chihuatan, in el gran valle de Oaxaca y Guatimala;
+diez leguas de Tarifa_. In the valley of Chihuatan; ten leagues from
+Tarifa."
+
+The figure lying on the bed near me now made a movement, and turned
+round. What could it be? Its face was like a lump of raw flesh
+streaked and stained with blood. No features were distinguishable.
+
+"Who are you? What are you?" cried I.
+
+"Rowley," it answered: "Rowley I was, at least, if those devils
+haven't changed me."
+
+"Then changed you they have," cried I, with a wild laugh. "Good God!
+have they scalped him alive, or what? That is not Rowley."
+
+The Mexican, who had gone to give some drink to the creature claiming
+to be Rowley, now opened a valise that lay on the ground a short
+distance off, and took out a small looking-glass, which he brought and
+held before my face. It was then only that I began to call to mind all
+that had occurred, and understood how it was that the mask of human
+flesh lying near me might indeed be Rowley. He was, if any thing, less
+altered than myself. My eyes were almost closed; my lips, nose, and
+whole face swollen to an immense size, and perfectly unrecognisable. I
+involuntarily recoiled in dismay and disgust at my own appearance. The
+horrible night passed in the ravine, the foul and suffocating vapours,
+the furious attack of the musquittoes--the bites of which, and the
+consequent fever and inflammation, had thus disfigured us--all
+recurred to our memory. But the women, the fight with the
+monsters--beasts--Indians--whatever they were, that was still
+incomprehensible. It was no dream: my back and shoulders were still
+smarting from the wounds that had been inflicted on them by the claws
+of those creatures, and I now felt that various parts of my limbs and
+body were swathed in wet bandages. I was mustering my Spanish to ask
+the Mexican who still stood by me for an explanation of all this, when
+I suddenly became aware of a great bustle in the encampment, and saw
+every body crowding to meet a number of persons who just then emerged
+from the high fern, and amongst whom I recognized our arrieros and
+servants. The new-comers were grouped around something which they
+seemed to be dragging along the ground; several women--for the most
+part young and graceful creatures, their slender supple forms muffled
+in the flowing picturesque _reboxos_ and _frazadas_--preceded the
+party, looking back occasionally with an expression of mingled horror
+and triumph; all with rosaries in their hands, the beads of which ran
+rapidly through their fingers, while they occasionally kissed the
+cross, or made the sign on their breasts or in the air.
+
+"_Un Zambo muerto! Un Zambo Muerto!_" shouted they as they drew near.
+
+"_Han matado un Zambo!_ They have killed a Zambo!" repeated my
+attendant in a tone of exultation.
+
+The party came close up to where Rowley and I were lying; the women
+stood aside, jumping and laughing, and crossing themselves, and crying
+out "_Un Zambo! Un Zambo Muerto!_" the group opened, and we saw, lying
+dead upon the ground, one of our horrible antagonists of the preceding
+night.
+
+"Good God, what is that?" cried Rowley and I, with one breath. "_Un
+demonio!_ a devil!"
+
+"_Perdonen vos, Senores--Un Zambo mono--muy terribles los Zambos._
+Terrible monkeys these Zambos."
+
+"Monkeys!" cried I.
+
+"Monkeys!" repeated poor Rowley, raising himself up into a sitting
+posture by the help of his hands. "Monkeys--apes--by Jove! We've been
+fighting with monkeys, and it's they who have mauled us in this way.
+Well, Jonathan Rowley, think of your coming from old Virginny to
+Mexico to be whipped by a monkey. It's gone goose with _your_
+character. You can never show your face in the States again. Whipped
+by an ape!--an ape, with a tail and a hairy--O Lord! Whipped by a
+monkey!"
+
+And the ludicrousness of the notion overcoming his mortification, and
+the pain of his wounds and bites, he sank back upon the bed of
+blankets and banana leaves, laughing as well as his swollen face and
+sausage-looking lips would allow him.
+
+It was as much as I could do to persuade myself, that the carcass
+lying before me had never been inhabited by a human soul. It was
+humiliating to behold the close affinity between this huge ape and our
+own species. Had it not been for the tail, I could have fancied I saw
+the dead body of some prairie hunter dressed in skins. It was exactly
+like a powerful, well-grown man; and even the expression of the face
+had more of bad human passions than of animal instinct. The feet and
+thighs were those of a muscular man: the legs rather too curved and
+calfless, though I have seen Negroes who had scarcely better ones; the
+tendons of the hands stood out like whipcords; the nails were as long
+as a tiger's claws. No wonder that we had been overmatched in our
+struggle with the brutes. No man could have withstood them. The arms
+of this one were like packets of cordage, all muscle, nerve, and
+sinew; and the hands were clasped together with such force, that the
+efforts of eight or ten Mexicans and Indians were insufficient to
+disunite them.
+
+Whatever remained to be cleared up in our night's adventures was now
+soon explained. Our guide, through ignorance or thoughtlessness, had
+allowed us to take up our bivouac within a very unsafe distance of one
+of the most pestiferous swamps in the whole province. Shortly after we
+had fallen asleep, a party of Mexican travellers had arrived, and
+established themselves within a few hundred yards of us, but on a
+rising ground, where they avoided the mephitic vapours and the
+musquittoes which had so tortured Rowley and myself. In the night two
+of the women, having ventured a short distance from the encampment,
+were surprised by the zambos, or huge man-apes, common in some parts
+of Southern Mexico; and finding themselves cut off from their
+friends, had fled they knew not whither, fortunately for them taking
+the direction of our bivouac. Their screams, our shouts, and the
+yellings and diabolical laughter of the zambos, had brought the
+Mexicans to our assistance. The monkeys showed no fight after the
+first volley; several of then must have been wounded, but only the one
+now lying before us had remained upon the field.
+
+The Mexicans we had fallen amongst were on the Tzapoteca, principally
+cochineal gatherers, and kinder-hearted people there could not well
+be. They seemed to think they never could do enough for us; the women
+especially, and more particularly the two whom we had endeavoured to
+rescue from the power of the apes. These latter certainly had cause to
+be grateful. It made us shudder to think of their fate had they not
+met with us. It was the delay caused by our attacking the brutes that
+had given the Mexicans time to come up.
+
+Every attention was shown to us. We were fanned with palm leaves,
+refreshed with cooling drinks, our wounds carefully dressed and
+bandaged, our heated, irritated, musquitto-bitten limbs and faces
+washed with balsam and the juice of herbs: more tender and careful
+nurses it would be impossible to find. We soon began to feel better,
+and were able to sit up and look about us; carefully avoiding,
+however, to look at each other, for we could not get reconciled to the
+horrible appearance of our swollen, bloody, and disgusting features.
+From our position on the rising ground, we had a full view over the
+frightful swamp at the entrance of which all our misfortunes had
+happened. There it lay, steaming like a great kettle; endless mists
+rising from it, out of which appeared here and there the crown of some
+mighty tree towering above the banks of vapour. To the left, cliffs
+and crags were to be seen which had the appearance of being baseless,
+and of swimming on the top of the mist. The vultures and carrion-birds
+circled screaming above the huge caldron, or perched on the tops of
+the tall palms, which looked like enormous umbrellas, or like the
+roofs of Chinese summer-houses. Out of the swamp itself proceeded the
+yellings, snarlings, and growlings of the alligators, bull-frogs, and
+myriads of unclean beasts that it harboured.
+
+The air was unusually sultry and oppressive: from time to time the
+rolling of distant thunder was audible. We could hear the Mexicans
+consulting amongst themselves as to the propriety of continuing their
+journey, to which our suffering state seemed to be the chief obstacle.
+From what we could collect of their discourse, they were unwilling to
+leave us in this dangerous district, and in our helpless condition,
+with a guide and attendants who were either untrustworthy or totally
+incompetent to lead us aright. Yet there seemed to be some pressing
+necessity for continuing the march; and presently some of the older
+Mexicans, who appeared to have the direction of the caravan, came up
+to us and enquired how we felt, and if we thought we were able to
+travel; adding, that from the signs on the earth and in the air, they
+feared a storm, and that the nearest habitation or shelter was at many
+leagues' distance. Thanks to the remedies that had been applied, our
+sufferings were much diminished. We felt weak and hungry, and telling
+the Mexicans we should be ready to proceed in half an hour, we desired
+our servants to get us something to eat. But our new friends
+forestalled them, and brought us a large piece of iguana, with roasted
+bananas, and cocoa-nutshell cups full of coffee, to all of which
+Rowley and I applied ourselves with much gusto. Meanwhile our
+muleteers and the Tzapotecans were busy packing their beasts and
+making ready for the start.
+
+We had not eaten a dozen mouthfuls when we say a man running down the
+hill with a branch in each hand. As soon as he appeared, a number of
+the Mexicans left their occupations and hurried to meet him.
+
+"_Siete horas!_" shouted the man. "Seven hours, and no more!"
+
+"No more than seven hours!" echoed the Tzapotecans, in tones of the
+wildest terror and alarm. "_La Santissima nos guarde!_ It will take
+more than ten to reach the village."
+
+"What's all that about?" said I with my mouth full, to Rowley.
+
+"Don't know--some of their Indian tricks, I suppose."
+
+"_Que es esto_?" asked I carelessly. "What's the matter?"
+
+"_Que es esto_!" repeated an old Tzapotecan, with long grey hair
+curling from under his _sombrero_, and a withered but finely marked
+countenance. "_Las aguas! El ouracan!_ In seven hours the deluge and
+the hurricane!"
+
+"_Vamos, por la Santissima!_ For the blessed Virgin's sake let us be
+gone!" cried a dozen of the Mexicans, pushing two green boughs into
+our very faces.
+
+"What are those branches?"
+
+"From the tempest-tree--the prophet of the storm," was the reply.
+
+And Tzapotecans and women, arrieros and servants, ran about in the
+utmost terror and confusion, with cries of "_Vamos, paso redoblado_!
+Off with us, or we are all lost, man and beast," and saddling,
+packing, and scrambling on their mules. And before Rowley and I knew
+where we were, they tore us away from our iguana and coffee, and
+hoisted and pushed us into our saddles. Such a scene of bustle and
+desperate hurry I never beheld. The place where the encampment had
+been was alive with men and women, horses and mules, shouting,
+shrieking and talking, neighing and kicking; but with all the
+confusion there was little time lost, and in less than three minutes
+from the first alarm being given, we were scampering away over stock
+and stone, in a long, wild, irregular sort of train.
+
+The rapidity and excitement of our ride seemed to have the effect of
+calming our various sufferings, or of making us forget them; and we
+soon thought no more of the fever, or of stings or musquitto bites. It
+was a ride for life or death, and our horses stepped out as if they
+knew how much depended on their exertions.
+
+In the hurry and confusion we had been mounted on horses instead of
+our our own mules; and splendid animals they were. I doubt if our
+Virginians could beat them, and that is saying a great deal. There was
+no effort or straining in their movements; it seemed mere play to them
+to surmount the numerous difficulties we encountered on our road. Over
+mountain and valley, swamp and barranca, always the same steady
+surefootedness--crawling like cats over the soft places, gliding like
+snakes up the steep rocky ascents, and stretching out with prodigious
+energy when the ground was favourable; yet with such easy action that
+we scarcely felt the motion. We should have sat in the roomy Spanish
+saddles as comfortably as in arm-chairs, had it not been for the
+numerous obstacles in our path, which was strewed with fallen trees
+and masses of rock. We were obliged to be perpetually stooping and
+bowing our heads to avoid the creeping plants that swung and twined
+and twisted across the track, intermingled often with huge thorns as
+long as a man's arm. These latter stuck out from the trees on which
+they grew like so many brown bayonets; and a man who had run up
+against one of them, would have been transfixed by it as surely as
+though it had been of steel. We pushed on, however, in Indian file,
+following the two guides, who kept at the head of the party, and
+making our way through places where a wild-cat would have difficulty
+in passing; through thickets of mangroves, mimosas, and tall fern, and
+cactuses with their thorny leaves full twenty feet long; the path
+turning and winding all the while. Now and then a momentary
+improvement in the nature of the ground enabled us to catch a glimpse
+of the whole column of march. We were struck by its picturesque
+appearance, the guides in front acting as pioneers, and looking out on
+all sides as cautiously and anxiously as though they had been soldiers
+expecting an ambuscade; the graceful forms of the women bowing and
+bending over their horses' manes, and often leaving fragments of their
+mantillas and rebozas on the branches and thorns of the labyrinth
+through which we were struggling. But it was no time to indulge in
+contemplation of the picturesque, and of this we were constantly made
+aware by the anxious vociferations of the Mexicans. "_Vamos! Por Dios,
+vamos!_" cried they, if the slightest symptom of flagging became
+visible in the movements of any one of the party; and at the words,
+our horses, as though gifted with understanding, pushed forward with
+renewed vigour and alacrity.
+
+On we went--up hill and down, in the depths of the valley and over the
+soft fetid swamp. That valley of Oaxaca has just as much right to be
+called a valley as our Alleghanies would have to be called bottoms. In
+the States we should call it a chain of mountains. Out of it rise at
+every step hills a good two thousand feet above the level of the
+valley, and four or five thousand above that of the sea; but these are
+lost sight of, and become flat ground by the force of comparison; that
+is, when compared with the gigantic mountains that surround the valley
+on all sides like a frame. And what a splendid frame they do compose,
+those colossal mountains, in their rich variety of form and colouring!
+here shining out like molten gold, there changing to a dark bronze;
+covered lower down with various shades of green, and with the crimson
+and purple, and violet and bright yellow, and azure and dazzling
+white, of the millions of paulinias and convolvoluses and other
+flowering plants, from amongst which rise the stately palm-trees, full
+a hundred feet high, their majestic green turbans towering like
+sultans' heads above the luxuriance of the surrounding flower and
+vegetable world. Then the mahogany-trees, the chicozapotes, and again
+in the barrancas the candelabra-like cactuses, and higher up the
+knotted and majestic live oak. An incessant change of plants, trees,
+and climate. We had been five hours in the saddle, and had already
+changed our climate three times; passed from the temperate zone, the
+_tierra templada_, into the torrid heat of the _tierra muy caliente_.
+It was in the latter temperature that we found ourselves at the
+expiration of the above-named time, dripping with perspiration,
+roasting and stewing in the heat. We were surrounded by a new world of
+plants and animals. The borax and mangroves and fern were here as
+lofty as forest-trees, whilst the trees themselves shot up like church
+steeples. In the thickets around us were numbers of black tigers--we
+saw dozens of those cowardly sneaking beasts--iguanas full three feet
+long, squirrels double the size of any we had ever seen, and panthers,
+and wild pigs, and jackals, and apes and monkeys of every tribe and
+description, who threatened and grinned and chattered at us from the
+branches of the trees. But what is that yonder to the right, that
+stands out so white against the dark blue sky and the bronze-coloured
+rocks? A town--Quidricovi, d'ye call it?
+
+We had now ridden a good five or six leagues, and begun to think we
+had escaped the _aguas_ or deluge, of which the prospect had so
+terrified our friends the Tzapotecans. Rowley calculated, as he went
+puffing and grumbling along, that it wouldn't do any harm to let our
+beasts draw breath for a minute or two. The scrambling and constant
+change of pace rendered necessary by the nature of the road, or rather
+track, that we followed, was certainly dreadfully fatiguing both to
+man and beast. As for conversation it was out of the question. We had
+plenty to do to avoid getting our necks broken, or our teeth knocked
+out, as we struggled along, up and down barrancas, through marshes and
+thickets, over rocks and fallen trees, and through mimosas and bushes
+laced and twined together with thorns and creeping plants--all of
+which would have been beautiful in a picture, but was most infernally
+unpoetical in reality.
+
+"_Vamos! Por la Santissima Madre, vamos!_" yelled our guides, and the
+cry was taken up by the Mexicans, in a shrill wild tone that jarred
+strangely upon our ears, and made the horses start and strain forward.
+Hurra! on we go, through thorns and bushes, which scratch and flog us,
+and tear our clothes to rags. We shall be naked if this lasts long. It
+is a regular race. In front the two guides, stooping, nodding, bowing,
+crouching down, first to one side, then to the other, like a couple of
+mandarins or Indian idols--behind them a Tzapotecan in his picturesque
+capa, then the women, then more Tzapotecans. There is little thought
+about precedence or ceremony; and Rowley and I, having been in the
+least hurry to start, find ourselves bringing up the rear of the whole
+column.
+
+"_Vamos! Por la Santissima! Las aguas, las aguas!_" is again yelled by
+twenty voices. Hang the fools! Can't they be quiet with their eternal
+_vamos_? We can have barely two leagues more to go to reach the
+_rancho_, or village, they were talking of, and appearances are not as
+yet very alarming. It is getting rather thick to be sure; but that's
+nothing, only the exhalations from the swamp, for we are again
+approaching one of those cursed swamps, and can hear the music of the
+alligators and bullfrogs. There they are, the beauties; a couple of
+them are taking a peep at us, sticking their elegant heads and long
+delicate snouts out of the slime and mud. The neighbourhood is none of
+the best; but luckily the path is firm and good, carefully made,
+evidently by Indian hands. None but Indians could live and labour and
+travel habitually, in such a pestilential atmosphere. Thank God! we
+are out of it at last. Again on firm forest ground, amidst the
+magnificent monotony of the eternal palms and mahogany-trees. But--see
+there!
+
+A new and surpassingly beautiful landscape burst suddenly upon our
+view, seeming to dance in the transparent atmosphere. On either side
+mountains, those on the left in deep shadow, those on the right
+standing forth like colossal figures of light, in a beauty and
+splendour that seemed really supernatural, every tree, every branch
+shining in its own vivid and glorious colouring. There lay the valley
+in its tropical luxuriance and beauty, one sheet of bloom and blossom
+up to the topmost crown of the palm-trees, that shot up, some of them,
+a hundred and fifty and a hundred and eighty feet high. Thousands and
+millions of convolvoluses, paulinias, bignonias, dendrobiums, climbing
+from the fern to the tree trunks, from the trunks to the branches and
+summits of the trees, and thence again falling gracefully down, and
+catching and clinging to the mangroves and blocks of granite. It burst
+upon us like a scene of enchantment, as we emerged from the darkness
+of the forest into the dazzling light and colouring of that glorious
+valley.
+
+"_Misericordia, misericordia! Audi nos peccadores! Misericordia, las
+aquas!_" suddenly screamed and exclaimed the Mexicans in various
+intonations of terror and despair. We looked around us. What can be
+the matter? We see nothing. Nothing, except that from just behind
+those two mountains, which project like mighty promontories into the
+valley, a cloud is beginning to rise. "What is it? What is wrong?" A
+dozen voices answered us--
+
+"_Por la Santa Virgen_, for the holy Virgin's sake, on, on! _No hay
+tiempo para hablar_. We have still two leagues to go, and in one hour
+comes the flood."
+
+And they recommenced their howling, yelling chorus of "_Misericordia!
+Audi nos peccadores!_" and "_Santissima Virgen_, and _Todos santos y
+angeles!_"
+
+"Are the fellows mad?" shouted Rowley, "What if the water does come?
+It won't swallow you. A ducking more or less is no such great matter.
+You are not made of sugar or salt. Many's the drenching I've had in
+the States, and none the worse for it. Yet our rains are no child's
+play neither."
+
+On looking round us, however, we were involuntarily struck with the
+sudden change in the appearance of the heavens. The usual golden black
+blue colour of the sky was gone, and had been replaced by a dull
+gloomy grey. The quality of the air appeared also to have changed; it
+was neither very warm nor very cold, but it had lost its lightness and
+elasticity, and seemed to oppress and weigh us down. Presently we saw
+the dark cloud rise gradually from behind the hills, completely
+clearing their summits, and then sweeping along until it hung over the
+valley, in form and appearance like some monstrous night-moth, resting
+the tips of its enormous wings on the mountains on either side. To our
+right we still saw the roofs and walls of Quidricovi, apparently at a
+very short distance.
+
+"Why not go to Quidricovi?" shouted I to the guides, "we cannot be far
+off."
+
+"More than five leagues," answered the men, shaking their heads and
+looking up anxiously at the huge moth, which was still creeping and
+crawling on, each moment darker and more threatening. It was like
+some frightful monster, or the fabled Kraken, working itself along by
+its claws, which were struck deep into the mountain-wall on either
+side of its line of progress, and casting its hideous shadow over hill
+and dale, forest and valley, clothing them in gloom and darkness. To
+our right hand and behind us, the mountains were still of a glowing
+golden red, lighted up by the sun, but to the left and in our front
+all was black and dark. With the same glance we beheld the deepest
+gloom and the brightest day, meeting each other but not mingling. It
+was a strange and ominous sight.
+
+Ominous enough; and the brute creation seem to feel it so as well as
+ourselves. The chattering parrots, the hopping, gibbering, quarrelsome
+apes, all the birds and beasts, scream and cry and flutter and spring
+about, as though seeking a refuge from some impending danger. Even our
+horses begin to tremble and groan--refuse to go on, start and snort.
+The whole animal world is in commotion, as if seized with an
+overwhelming panic. The forest is teeming with inhabitants. Whence
+come they, all these living things? On every side is heard the howling
+and snarling of beasts, the frightened cries and chirpings of birds.
+The vultures and turkey-buzzards, that a few minutes before were
+circling high in the air, are now screaming amidst the branches of the
+mahogany-trees; every creature that has life is running, scampering,
+flying--apes and tigers, birds and creeping things.
+
+"_Vamos, por la Santissima!_ On! or we are all lost."
+
+And we ride, we rush along--neither masses of rock, nor fallen trees,
+nor thorns and brambles, check our wild career. Over every thing we
+go, leaping, scrambling, plunging, riding like desperate men, flying
+from a danger of which the nature is not clearly defined, but which we
+feel to be great and imminent. It is a frightful terror-striking foe,
+that huge night-moth, which comes ever nearer, growing each moment
+bigger and blacker. Looking behind us, we catch one last glimpse of
+the red and bloodshot sun, which the next instant disappears behind
+the edge of the mighty cloud.
+
+Still we push on. Hosts of tigers, and monkeys both large and small,
+and squirrels and jackals, come close up to us as if seeking shelter,
+and then finding none, retreat howling into the forest. There is not a
+breath of air stirring, yet all nature--plants and trees, men and
+beasts--seem to quiver and tremble with apprehension. Our horses pant
+and groan as they bound along with dilated nostrils and glaring eyes,
+trembling in every limb, sweating at every pore, half wild with
+terror; giving springs and leaps that more resemble those of a hunted
+tiger than of a horse.
+
+The prayer and exclamations of the terrified Mexicans, continued
+without intermission, whispered and shrieked and groaned in every
+variety of intonation. The earthy hue of intense terror was upon every
+countenance. For some moments a death-like stillness, an unnatural
+calm, reigned around us: it was as though the elements were holding in
+their breath, and collecting their energies for some mighty outbreak.
+Then came a low indistinct moaning sound, that seemed to issue from
+the bowels of the earth. The warning was significant.
+
+"Halt! stop" shouted we to the guides. "Stop! and let us seek shelter
+from the storm."
+
+"On! for God's sake, on! or we are lost," was the reply.
+
+Thank Heaven! the path is getting wider--we come to a descent--they
+are leading us out of the forest. If the storm had come on while we
+were among the trees, we might be crushed to death by the falling
+branches. We are close to a barranca.
+
+"_Alerto! Alerto!_" shrieked the Mexicans. "_Madre de Dios! Dios!
+Dios!"_
+
+And well might they call to God for help in that awful moment. The
+gigantic night-moth gaped and shot forth tongues of fire--a ghastly
+white flame, that contrasted strangely and horribly with the dense
+black cloud from which it issued. There was a peal of thunder that
+seemed to shake the earth, then a pause during which nothing was heard
+but the panting of our horses as they dashed across the barranca, and
+began straining up the steep side of a knoll or hillock. The cloud
+again opened: for a second every thing was lighted up. Another thunder
+clap, and then, as though the gates of its prison had been suddenly
+burst open, the tempest came forth in its might and fury, breaking,
+crushing, and sweeping away all that opposed it. The trees of the
+forest staggered and tottered for a moment, as if making an effort to
+bear up against the storm; but it was in vain: the next instant, with
+a report like that of ten thousand cannon, whole acres of mighty trees
+were snapped off, their branches shivered, their roots torn up; it was
+no longer a forest but a chaos; an ocean of boughs and tree-trunks,
+that were tossed about like the waves of the sea, or thrown into the
+air like straws. The atmosphere was darkened with dust, and leaves,
+and branches.
+
+"God be merciful to us! Rowley! where are ye?--No answer. What is
+become of them all?"
+
+A second blast more furious than the first. Can the mountains resist
+it? will they stand? By the Almighty! they do not. The earth trembles;
+the hillock, on the leeside of which we are, rocks and shakes; and the
+air grows thick and suffocating--full of dust and saltpetre and
+sulphur. We are like to choke. All around is dark as night. We can see
+nothing, hear nothing but the howling of the hurricane, and the
+thunder and rattle of falling trees and shivered branches.
+
+Suddenly the hurricane ceases, and all is hushed; but so suddenly that
+the charge is startling and unnatural. No sound is audible save the
+creaking and moaning of the trees with which the ground is cumbered.
+It is like a sudden pause in a battle, when the roar of the cannon and
+clang of charging squadrons cease, and nought is heard but the
+groaning of the wounded, the agonized sobs and gasps of the dying.
+
+The report of a pistol is heard; then another, a third, hundreds,
+thousands of them. It is the flood, _las aguas_; the shots are drops
+of rain; but such drops! each as big as a hen's egg. They strike with
+the force of enormous hailstones--stunning and blinding us. The next
+moment there is no distinction of drops, the windows of heaven are
+opened; it is no longer rain nor flood, but a sea, a cataract, a
+Niagara. The hillock on which I am standing, undermined by the waters,
+gives way and crumbles under me; in ten seconds' time I find myself in
+the barranca, which is converted into a river, off my horse, which is
+gone I know not whither. The only person I see near me is Rowley, also
+dismounted and struggling against the stream, which is already up to
+our waists, and sweeps along with it huge branches and entire trees,
+that threaten each moment to carry us away with them, or to crush us
+against the rocks. We avoid these dangers, God knows how, make violent
+efforts to stem the torrent and gain the side of the barranca;
+although, even should we succeed, it is so steep that we can scarcely
+hope to climb it without assistance. And whence is that assistance to
+come? Of the Mexicans we see or hear nothing. They are doubtless all
+drowned or dashed to pieces. They were higher up on the hillock than
+we were, must consequently have been swept down with more force, and
+were probably carried away by the torrent. Nor can we hope for a
+better fate. Wearied by our ride, weakened by the fever and sufferings
+of the preceding night, we are in no condition to strive much longer
+with the furious elements. For one step that we gain, we lose two. The
+waters rise; already they are nearly up to our armpits. It is in vain
+to resist any longer. Our fate is sealed.
+
+"Rowley, all is over--let us die like men. God have mercy on our
+souls!"
+
+Rowley was a few paces higher up the barranca. He made me no answer,
+but looked at me with a calm, cold, and yet somewhat regretful smile
+upon his countenance. Then all at once he ceased the efforts he was
+making to resist the stream and gain the bank, folded his arms on his
+breast and gave a look up and around him as though to bid farewell to
+the world he was about to leave. The current was sweeping him rapidly
+down towards me, when suddenly a wild hurra burst from his lips, and
+he recommenced his struggles against the waters, striving violently to
+retain a footing on the slippery, uneven bed of the stream.
+
+"_Tenga! Tenga!_" screamed a dozen voices, that seemed to proceed from
+spirits of the air; and at the same moment something whistled about my
+ears and struck me a smart blow across the face. With the instinct of
+a drowning man, I clutched the _lasso_ that had been thrown to me.
+Rowley was at my elbow and seized it also. It was immediately drawn
+tight, and by its aid we gained the bank, and began ascending the side
+of the barranca, composed of rugged, declivitous rocks, affording but
+scanty foot-hold. God grant the lasso may prove tough! The strain on
+it is fearful. Rowley is a good fifteen stone, and I am no feather;
+and in some parts of our perilous ascent the rocks are almost as
+perpendicular and smooth as a wall of masonry, and we are obliged to
+cling with our whole weight to the lasso, which seems to stretch, and
+crack, and grow visibly thinner. Nothing but a strip of twisted
+cow-hide between us and a frightful agonizing death on the sharp rocks
+and in the foaming waters below. But the lasso holds good, and now the
+chief peril is past: we get some sort of footing--a point of rock, or
+a tree-root to clutch at. Another strain up this rugged slope of
+granite, another pull at the lasso; a leap, a last violent effort,
+and--_Viva_!--we are seized under the arms, dragged up, held upon our
+feet for a moment, and then--we sink exhausted to the ground in the
+midst of the Tzapotecans, mules, arrieros, guides, and women, who are
+sheltered from the storm in a sort of natural cavern. At the moment at
+which the hillock had given way under Rowley and myself, who were a
+short distance in rear of the party, the Mexicans had succeeded in
+attaining firm footing on a broad rocky ledge, a shelf of the
+precipice that flanked the barranca. Upon this ledge, which gradually
+widened into a platform, they found themselves in safety under some
+projecting crags that sheltered them completely from the tempest.
+Thence they looked down upon the barranca, where they descried Rowley
+and myself struggling for our lives in the roaring torrent; and
+thence, by knotting several lassos together, they were able to give us
+the opportune aid which had rescued us from our desperate situation.
+But whether this aid had come soon enough to save our lives was still
+a question, or at least for some time appeared to be so. The life
+seemed driven out of our bodies by all we had gone through: we were
+unable to move a finger, and lay helpless and motionless, with only a
+glimmering indistinct perception, not amounting to consciousness, of
+what was going on around us. Fatigue, the fever, the immersion in cold
+water when reeking with perspiration, the sufferings of all kinds we
+had endured in the course of the last twenty hours, had completely
+exhausted and broken us down.
+
+The storm did not last long in its violence, but swept onwards,
+leaving a broad track of desolation behind it. The Mexicans
+recommenced their journey, with the exception of four or five who
+remained with us and our arrieros and servants. The village to which
+we were proceeding was not above a league off; but even that short
+distance Rowley and myself were in no condition to accomplish. The
+kind-hearted Tzapotecans made us swallow cordials, stripped off our
+drenched and tattered garments, and wrapped us in an abundance of
+blankets. We fell into a deep sleep, which lasted all that evening and
+the greater part of the night, and so much refreshed us that about an
+hour before daybreak we were able to resume our march--at a slow pace,
+it is true, and suffering grievously in every part of our bruised and
+wounded limbs and bodies, at each jolt or rough motion of the mules on
+which we were clinging, rather than sitting.
+
+Our path lay over hill and dale, perpetually rising and falling. We
+soon got out of the district or zone that had been swept by the
+preceding day's hurricane, and after nearly an hour's ride, we paused
+on the crest of a steep descent, at the foot of which, as our guides
+informed us, lay the land of promise, the long looked-for _rancho_.
+While the muleteers were seeing to the girths of their beasts, and
+giving the due equilibrium to the baggage, before commencing the
+downward march, Rowley and I sat upon our mules, wrapped in large
+Mexican _capas_, gazing at the morning-star as it sank down and grew
+gradually paler and fainter. Suddenly the eastern sky began to
+brighten, and a brilliant beam appeared in the west, a point of light
+no bigger than a star--but yet not a star; it was of a far rosier hue.
+The next moment a second sparkling spot appeared, near to the first,
+which now swelled out into a sort of fiery tongue, that seemed to lick
+round the silvery summit of the snow-clad mountain. As we gazed,
+five--ten--twenty hill tops were tinged with the same rose-coloured
+glow; in another moment they became like fiery banners spread out
+against the heavens, while sparkling tongues and rays of golden light
+flashed and flamed round them, springing like meteors from one
+mountain summit to another, lighting them up like a succession of
+beacons. Scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the distant pinnacles
+of the mountains had appeared to us as huge phantom-like figures of a
+silvery white, dimly marked out upon a dark star-spangled ground; now
+the whole immense chain blazed like volcanoes covered with glowing
+lava, rising out of the darkness that still lingered on their flanks
+and bases, visible and wonderful witnesses to the omnipotence of _him_
+who said, "Let there be light, and there was light."
+
+Above, all was broad day, flaming sunlight; below, all black night.
+Here and there streams of light burst through clefts and openings in
+the mountains, and then ensued an extraordinary kind of conflict. The
+shades of darkness seemed to live and move, to struggle against the
+bright beams that fell amongst them and broke their masses, forcing
+them down the wooded heights, tearing them asunder and dispersing them
+like tissues of cobwebs; so that successively, and as if by a stroke
+of enchantment, there appeared, first the deep indigo blue of the
+tamarinds and chicozapotes, then the bright green of the sugar-canes,
+lower down the darker green of the nopal-trees, lower still the white
+and green and gold and bright yellow of the orange and citron groves,
+and lowest of all, the stately fan-palms, and date-palms, and bananas;
+all glittering with millions of dewdrops, that covered them like a
+ganze veil embroidered with diamonds and rubies. And still in the very
+next valley all was utter darkness.
+
+We sat silent and motionless, gazing at this scene of enchantment.
+
+Presently the sun rose higher, and a flood of light illumined the
+whole valley, which lay some few hundred feet below us--a perfect
+garden, such as no northern imagination could picture forth; a garden
+of sugar-canes, cotton, and nopal-trees, intermixed with thickets of
+pomegranate and strawberry-trees, and groves of orange, fig, and
+lemon, giants of their kind, shooting up to a far greater height than
+the oak attains in the States--every tree a perfect hothouse, a
+pyramid of flowers, covered with bloom and blossom to its topmost
+spray. All was light, and freshness, and beauty; every object seemed
+to dance and rejoice in the clear elastic golden atmosphere. It was an
+earthly paradise, fresh from the hand of its Creator, and at first we
+could discover no sign of man or his works. Presently, however, we
+discerned the village lying almost at our feet, the small stone houses
+overgrown with flowers and embedded in trees; so that scarcely a
+square foot of roof or wall was to be seen. Even the church was
+concealed in a garland of orange-trees, and had lianas and
+star-flowered creepers climbing over and dangling on it, up as high as
+the slender cross that surmounted its square white tower. As we gazed,
+the first sign of life appeared in the village. A puff of blue smoke
+rose curling and spiral from a chimney, and the matin bell rang out
+its summons to prayer. Our Mexicans fell on their knees and crossed
+themselves, repeating their Ave-marias. We involuntarily took off our
+hats, and whispered a thanksgiving to the God who had been with us in
+the hour of peril, and was now so visible to us in his works.
+
+The Mexicans rose from their knees.
+
+"_Vamos! Senores,_" said one of them, laying his hand on the bridle of
+my mule. "To the _rancho_, to breakfast."
+
+We rode slowly down into the valley.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE BRITISH FLEET[26].
+
+    [26] Memoirs of Admiral Earl St Vincent. By T.S. TUCKER. 2 vols.
+
+
+Were the question proposed to us, What is the most extraordinary,
+complete, and effective instance of skill, contrivance, science, and
+power, ever combined by man? we should unhesitatingly answer, an
+English line-of-battle ship. Take the model of a 120 gun ship--large
+as it may be for a floating body, its space is not great. For example,
+it is not half the ordinary size of a nobleman's mansion; yet that
+ship carries a thousand men with convenience, and lodges them day and
+night, with sufficient room for the necessary distinctions of
+obedience and command--has separate apartments for the admiral and the
+captain, for the different ranks of officers, and even for the
+different ranks of seamen--separate portions below decks for the
+sleeping of the crew, the dining of the officers, and the receptacle
+for the sick and wounded. Those thousand men are to be fed three times
+a-day, and provisions for four months are to be stowed. One hundred
+and twenty cannon, some of them of the heaviest metal, are to be
+carried; and room is to be found for all the weight of shot and
+quantities of powder, with other missiles, rockets, and signal fires,
+necessary for service. Besides this, room is to be provided for the
+stowage of fresh rigging, sails, ropes, cables, and yards, to replace
+those lost by accident, battle, or wear and tear. Besides this, too,
+there is to be a provision for the hospital. So far for the mere
+necessaries of the ship. Then we are to regard the science; for
+nothing can be more essential than the skill and the instruments of
+the navigator, as nothing can be more fatal than a scientific error, a
+false calculation, or a remission of vigilance. We shall do no more
+than allude to the habits of command essential to keep a thousand of
+these rough and daring spirits in order, and that, too, an order of
+the most implicit, steady, and active kind; nor to their knowledge of
+tactics, and conduct in battle. The true definition of the
+line-of-battle ship being, a floating regiment of artillery in a
+barrack, which, at the beat of a drum, may be turned into a field of
+battle, or, at the command of government, may be sent flying on the
+wings of the wind round the world. We think that we have thus
+established our proposition. If not, let any thing else be shown which
+exhibits the same quantity of power _packed_ within the same space;
+and that power, too, increasing daily by new contrivances of stowage
+and building, by new models of guns, and new inventions in machinery.
+England is at this moment building two hundred steam-ships, with guns
+of a calibre to which all the past were trifling, with room for a
+regiment of land troops besides their crews, and with the known power
+of defying wind and wave, and throwing an army in full equipment for
+the field, within a few days, on any coast of Europe.
+
+It is remarkable that the use of the navy, as a great branch of the
+military power of England, had been scarcely contemplated until the
+last century. Though the sea-coast of England, the largest of any
+European state, and the national habits of an insular country, might
+have pointed out this direction for the national energies from the
+earliest period, yet England was a kingdom for five hundred years
+before she seems to have thought of the use of ships as an instrument
+of public power. In the long war with France during the fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries, the ships were almost wholly mercantile; and,
+when employed in wars, were chiefly employed as transports to throw
+our troops on the French soil. It was the reign of Elizabeth, that
+true birth of the progress of England, that first developed the powers
+of an armed navy. The Spanish invasion forced the country to meet the
+Armada by means like its own; and the triumph, though won by a higher
+agency, and due to the winds and waves, or rather to the Supreme
+Providence which watched over the land of Protestantism, awoke the
+nation to the true faculty of defence; and from that period alone
+could the burden of the fine national song be realized, and Britain
+was to "rule the main." The expeditions against the Spanish West
+Indies, and the new ardour of discovery in regions where brilliant
+fable lent its aid to rational curiosity, carried on the process of
+naval power. The war against Holland, under Charles II., though
+disastrous and impolitic, showed at least that the fleet of England
+was the true arm of its strength; and the humiliation of the only
+rival of her commerce at once taught her where the sinews of war lay,
+and by what means the foundations of naval empire were to be laid. But
+it was not until the close of the last century that the truth came
+before the nation in its full form. The American war--a war of
+skirmishes--had its direct effect, perhaps its providential purpose,
+in compelling England to prepare for the tremendous collision which
+was so soon to follow, and which was to be the final security of the
+Continent itself. It was then, for the first time, that the nation was
+driven to the use of a navy on a great scale. The war, lying on the
+western shore of an ocean, made the use of naval armaments necessary
+to every operation. The treacherous hostility of the French cabinet,
+and the unfortunate subserviency of Spain to that treachery, made
+corresponding energy on the part of England a matter of public demand;
+and when France and Spain sent out fleets of a magnitude till then
+unknown, England was urged to follow their example. The defeats of the
+combined navies excited the nation to still more vigorous efforts; and
+the war closed with so full a demonstration of the matchless
+importance of a great navy to England, that the public feeling was
+fixed on giving it the largest contribution of the national
+confidence.
+
+The time was at hand when the trial was to involve every interest of
+England and mankind. The first grand struggle of revolutionary France
+with England was to be on the seas; and the generation of naval
+officers who had been reared in the American war, then rising into
+vigour, trained by its experience, and stimulated by its example,
+gallantly maintained the honour of their country. A succession of
+sanguinary battles followed, each on the largest scale, and each
+closing in British victory; until the republic, in despair, abandoned
+the fatal element, and tied her fortunes in the easier conflicts of
+the land. The accession of Napoleon renewed the struggle for naval
+supremacy, until one vast blow extinguished his hopes and his navy at
+Trafalgar. Peace now exists, and long may it exist! but France is
+rapidly renewing her navy, taking every opportunity of exercising its
+strength, and especially patronising the policy of founding those
+colonies which it idly imagines to be the source of British opulence.
+But whether the wisdom of Louis Philippe limits the protection of
+French trade to the benefits which commerce may confer on his vast
+kingdom, or looks forward to the support which a mercantile navy may
+give to a warlike one, we must not sleep on our posts. The life of any
+individual is brief on a national scale; and his successor, whether
+regent or republican, may be as hot-headed, rash, and ambitious, as
+this great monarch has shown himself rational, prudent, and peaceful.
+We must prepare for all chances; and our true preparation must be, a
+fleet that may defy all.
+
+It is a remarkable instance of the slowness with which science
+advances, that almost the whole scientific portion of seamanship has
+grown up since the middle of the seventeenth century, though America
+had been reached in 1492, and India in 1496; and thus the world had
+been nearly rounded before what would now be regarded as the ordinary
+knowledge of a navigator had been acquired. England has the honour of
+making the first advances. It was an Englishman, Norwood, who made the
+first measurement of a degree between London and York, and fixed it at
+122,399 English yards. The attention of the world thus once awakened,
+Huygens and Cassini applied themselves to ascertain the figure of the
+earth. The first experiments of the French _savans_ were in
+contradiction to Newton's theory of the flattening of the poles; but
+the controversy was the means of exciting new interest. The eyes of
+the scientific world were turned more intently on the subject. New
+experiments were made, which corrected the old; and finally, on the
+measurement of the arc in Peru, and in the north, truth and Newton
+triumphed, and the equatorial diameter was found to exceed the polar
+by a two hundred and fourth part of the whole. This was perhaps the
+finest problem ever solved by science; the most perplexing in its
+early state--exhibiting for a while the strongest contradiction of
+experiment and theory, occupying in a greater degree the attention of
+philosophers than any before or since, and finally established with a
+certainty which every subsequent observation has only tended to
+confirm. And this triumph belonged to an Englishman.
+
+The investigation by measurements has since been largely adopted. In
+1787, joint commissions were issued by England and France to connect
+the Greenwich and Parisian observations. Arcs of the meridian have
+since been measured across the whole breadth of France and Spain, and
+also near the Arctic circle, and in the Indian peninsula.
+
+In navigation, the grand point for the sailor is to ascertain his
+latitude and longitude; in other words, to know where he is. The
+discovery of the latitude is easily effected by the quadrant, but the
+longitude is the difficulty. Any means which ascertained the hour at
+Greenwich, at the instant of making a celestial observation in any
+other part, would answer the difficulty; for the difference in
+quarters of an hour would give the difference of the degrees. But
+clocks could not be used on shipboard, and the best watches failed to
+keep the time. In the reign of Anne, Parliament offered a reward of L.
+5000, perhaps not far from the value of twice the sum in the present
+day, for a watch within a certain degree of accuracy. Harrison, a
+watchmaker, sent in a watch which came within the limits, losing but
+two minutes in a voyage to the West Indies; yet even this was an error
+of thirty miles.
+
+But, though chronometers have since been considerably improved, there
+are difficulties in their preservation in good order which have made
+it expedient to apply to other means; and the lunar tables of Mayer of
+Gottingen, formed in 1755, and subsequently improved by Dr Maskelyne
+and others, have brought the error within seven miles and a half.
+
+Improvements of a very important order have also taken place in the
+mariner's compass; the variation of the needle has been reduced to
+rules, and some anomalies arising from the metallic attraction of the
+ship itself, have been corrected by Professor Barlow's experiments.
+The use of the marine barometer and thermometer have also largely
+assisted to give notice of tempests; and some ingenious theories have
+been lately formed, which, promising to give a knowledge of the origin
+and nature of tempests, are obviously not unlikely to assist the
+navigator in stemming their violence, or escaping them altogether.
+
+The construction of ships for both the merchant and the public service
+has undergone striking improvements within this century. Round sterns,
+for the defence of a vessel engaged with several opponents at once;
+compartments in the hold, for security against leaks; iron tanks for
+water, containing twice the quantity, and keeping it free from the
+impurities of casks; a better general stowage; provisions prepared so
+as to remain almost fresh during an East Indian voyage; every means of
+preserving health, suggested by science, and succeeding to the most
+remarkable degree; a more intelligent system of shipbuilding, and a
+constant series of experiments on the shape, stowage, and sailing of
+ships, are among the beneficial changes of later times. But the one
+great change--steam--will probably swallow up all the rest, and form a
+new era in shipbuilding, in navigation, in the power and nature of a
+navy, and in the comfort, safety, and protection of the crews in
+actual engagement. The use of steam is still so palpably in its
+infancy, yet that infancy is so gigantic, that it is equally difficult
+to say what it may yet become, and to limit its progress. It will have
+the one obvious advantage to mankind in general, of making the
+question of war turn more than ever on the financial and mechanical
+resources of a people; and thus increasing the necessity for
+commercial opulence and intellectual exertion. It may expose nations
+more to each other's attacks; but it will render hostility more
+dreaded, because more dangerous. On the whole, like the use of
+gunpowder, which made a Tartar war impossible, and which rapidly
+tended to civilize Europe, steam appears to be intended as a further
+step in the same high process, in which force is to be put down by
+intelligence, and success, even in war, is to depend on the industry
+of peace; thus, in fact, providing a perpetual restriction on the
+belligerent propensities of nations, and urging the uncivilized, by
+necessity, to own the superiority, and follow the example of the
+civilized, by knowledge, habit, and principle.
+
+It is not to be forgotten, even in this general and brief view of the
+values of the British fleet, that it has, within these few years,
+assumed a new character as an instrument of war. The Syrian campaign,
+the shortest, and, beyond all comparison, the most brilliant on
+record, if we are to estimate military distinction, not only by the
+gallantry of the conflict, but by the results of the victory--this
+campaign, which at once finished the war in Syria, gave peace to
+Turkey, reduced Egypt to obedience, rescued the sultan from Russian
+influence, and Egypt from French; or rather rescued all Europe from
+the collision of England, France, and Russia; and even, by the
+evidence of our naval capabilities, taught American faction the wisdom
+of avoiding hostilities--this grand operation was effected by a small
+portion of the British navy, well commanded, directed to the right
+point, and acting with national energy. The three hours' cannonade of
+Acre, the most effective achievement in the annals of war, exhibited a
+new use of a ship's broadside; for, though ships' guns had often
+battered forts before, it was the first instance of a _fleet_ employed
+in attack, and fully overpowering all opposition. The attack on
+Algiers was the only exploit of a similar kind; but its success was
+limited, and the result was so far disastrous, that it at once fixed
+the eye of France on the invasion of Algiers, and disabled and
+disheartened the native government from vigorous resistance. The
+victory of the fleet at Acre will also have the effect of changing the
+whole system of defence in fortresses and cities exposed to the sea.
+
+But a still further advance in the employment of fleets as an
+instrument of hostilities, has since occurred in the Chinese
+war--their simultaneous operation with troops. In former assaults of
+fortresses, the troops and ships attacked the same line of defence,
+and the consequence was the waste of force. From the moment when the
+troops approached the land, the fire of the ships necessarily ceased,
+and the fleet then remained spectators of the assault. But in this
+war, while the troops attacked on the land side, the fleet ran up to
+the sea batteries, and both attacks went on together--of course
+dividing the attention of the enemy, thus having a double chance of
+success, and employing both arms of the service in full energy. This
+masterly combination the Duke of Wellington, the highest military
+authority in Europe, pronounced to be a new principle in war; and even
+this is, perhaps, only the beginning of a system of combination which
+will lead to new victories, if war should ever unhappily return.
+
+We now revert to the history of a naval hero.
+
+John Jervis, the second son of Swynfen Jervis, Esq., was born on the
+20th of January 1735. He was descended, on both the paternal and
+maternal side, from families which had figured in the olden times of
+England. The family of Jervis possessed estates in Staffordshire as
+far back as the reign of Edward III. The family of Swynfen was also
+long established in Worcestershire. John Swynfen was a public
+character during the troubled times of Charles I. and Cromwell, and
+until a late period in the reign of Charles II. He had been originally
+a strong Parliamentarian; but, thinking that the party went too far,
+he was turned out of parliament for tardiness by the Protector. But
+his original politics adhered to him still; for, even after the
+restoration, he was joined with Hampden, the grandson of the
+celebrated patriot, in drawing up the Bill of Exclusion. Among his
+ancestors by the mother's side was Sir John Turton, a judge in the
+Court of King's Bench, married to a daughter of the brave Colonel
+Samuel Moore, who made the memorable defence of Hopton Castle in the
+Civil War.
+
+But no man less regarded ancestry than the subject of the present
+pages, who, in writing with reference to his pedigree, observed, in
+his usual frank and straightforward language--"They were all highly
+respectable; but, _et genus et proavos_, nearly all the Latin I now
+recollect, always struck my ear as the sound maxim for officers and
+statesmen."
+
+His first school was at Burton-upon-Trent, where a slight incident
+seemed to designate his future politics and fortitude. In 1745, when
+the Pretender marched into the heart of the kingdom, without being
+joined by his friends or opposed by his enemies, as Gibbon
+antithetically observed, all the boys at the school, excepting young
+Jervis and Dick Meux, (afterwards the eminent brewer,) wore plaid
+ribands sent to them from home, and they pelted their two
+constitutional playmates, calling them Whigs.
+
+His father designed young Jervis for the law; but, in 1747, removing
+to Greenwich on being appointed Counsel to the Admiralty and Auditor
+to the Hospital, naval sights were too near not to prove a strong
+temptation to the mind of an animated and vigorous boy. His parents
+were still strongly for the adoption of his father's profession; but
+there was another authority on the subject, the family coachman, one
+Pinkhorne, who, saying that it was a shame to go into a profession
+where all were rogues, determined the future hero; and, before the
+year was over, he ran away, to commence life as a sailor. He was
+reclaimed, however, by his family, and was regularly entered in the
+navy, in January 1748, on board the Gloucester, fifty guns, Commodore
+Townshend--twenty pounds being all that was given to him by his father
+for his equipment. The Gloucester sailed for the West Indies; and
+thus, at the age of thirteen, young Jervis began the world. It appears
+that the rigid economy of his father, combined with the singular good
+sense of this mere child, urged him to every means of acquiring the
+knowledge of his profession. The monotonous life of a guard-ship
+already seemed to him a waste of time, while the expenses on shore
+must have been ruinous to his slender finances. He therefore
+volunteered into whatever ship was going to sea. He thus writes to his
+sister from on board the Sphinx, 1753:--"There are many entertainments
+and public assemblies here, but they are rather above my sphere, many
+inconveniences and expenses attending them; so that my chief employ,
+when from my duty, is reading, studying navigation, and perusing my
+own letters, of which I have almost enough to make an octavo volume."
+
+At length, however, his twenty pounds were exhausted; and, at the end
+of three years, he drew for twenty pounds more. It is vexatious to say
+that his bill was dishonoured; and he never received another shilling
+from any one. It is scarcely possible to conceive that so harsh a
+measure could have been the result of intention; but it subjected this
+extraordinary boy to the severest privations. To take up the
+dishonoured bill, he was obliged to effect his discharge from one ship
+into another, so as to obtain his pay tickets, which he sold at forty
+per cent discount. His remaining six years on the station were spent
+in the exercise of a severe economy, and the endurance even of severe
+suffering. He was compelled to sell all his bedding, and sleep on the
+bare deck. He had no other resource than, generally, to make and mend,
+and always to wash, his own clothes. He never afforded himself any
+fresh meat; and even the fruit and vegetables, which are so necessary
+and so cheap, he could obtain only by barter from the negroes, for the
+small share of provisions which he could subduct from his own
+allowance. True as all this doubtless is, it reflects more severely on
+the captain and officers of his own ship, than even upon his parents.
+The latter, on the other side of the Atlantic, might have no knowledge
+of his difficulties; but that those who saw his sufferings from day to
+day could have allowed them to continue, argues a degree of negligence
+and inhumanity, of which we hope that no present instance occurs in
+our navy, and which at any period would appear incomprehensible. In
+1754, young Jervis returned to England, and passed his examination for
+lieutenant with great credit.
+
+The commencement of the war with France was, like the commencement of
+English wars in general, disastrous. We seldom make due preparation.
+Fleets inferior to the enemy in equipment and number, are sent out on
+the emergency; detachments of troops are sent where armies should have
+gone; and thus victory itself is without effect. Thus for a year or
+two we continue blundering if not beaten, and angry with our generals
+and admirals for failing to do impossibilities. At last the nation
+becomes fairly roused; the success of the enemy makes exertion
+necessary; their insolence inflames the popular indignation; a great
+effort is made; a triumph is obtained, and a peace follows, which
+might have been accomplished half a dozen years before, at a tenth
+part of the expense in blood and treasure which it cost to consummate
+the war. Our troops under Braddock, a brave fool, were beaten by the
+French and Indians in America. Our Mediterranean fleet was baffled
+under the unfortunate command of Byng. Minorca was taken before our
+eyes, and the naval and military stars of England seem to have gone
+down together. Yet this era of national dishonour and public disgust
+was followed by the three years of Chatham's administration, a period
+of triumph that equaled the campaigns of Marlborough at the
+commencement of the century, and was scarcely eclipsed even by the
+splendours that followed its close.
+
+The skill and talent of young Jervis had already given him distinction
+among the rising officers of the feet. He had become a favourite with
+Admiral Saunders, was taken with him from ship to ship; and when the
+admiral was recalled from the Mediterranean to take the command of the
+naval force destined to co-operate in the attack on Quebec, by the
+heroic and lamented General Wolfe, young Jervis was selected to be
+first lieutenant of the Prince, which bore the admiral's flag. On the
+passage out, the general and his aide-de-camp, Captain, afterwards the
+well-known Colonel Barré, were guests on board the Prince, and of
+course Jervis had the advantage of their intelligent society. In
+February 1759, the fleet sailed from England, and in June proceeded
+from Louisburg to the St Lawrence. Lieutenant Jervis was now appointed
+to the command of the Porcupine sloop; and on the general requesting a
+naval force to escort his transports past Quebec, the Porcupine was
+ordered by the admiral to lead. The service was one of extreme
+difficulty; for the attempt to sound the channel the day before had
+failed, though it was made by the master of the fleet, Cook,
+afterwards the celebrated navigator. The winds suddenly falling calm,
+prevented the Porcupine from reaching her station. A heavy fire was
+instantly opened upon her from every gun that could be brought to
+bear, and the army were in terror of her being destroyed, for the
+general was on board. But Jervis's skill was equal to his gallantry;
+he hoisted out his boats, cheered his men through the fire, and
+brought his ship to her station.
+
+A little incident occurred on the night before the memorable
+engagement, which even at this distance of time is of painful
+interest, but which shows the confidence reposed in the young naval
+officer by the hero of Quebec. After the orders for the assault next
+day were given, Wolfe requested a private interview with him; and
+saying that he had the strongest presentiment of falling on the field,
+yet that he should fall in victory, he took from his bosom the
+miniature of a young lady to whom he was attached, gave it to Jervis,
+desiring that, if the foreboding came to pass, he should return it to
+her on his arrival in England. Wolfe's gallant fate and brilliant
+victory are known: the picture was delivered to Miss Lowther.
+
+After the capture of Quebec, Jervis was dispatched to England; and was
+appointed to the Scorpion, to carry out important despatches to
+General Amherst. On this occasion, he gave an instance of that
+remarkable promptitude which characterised him throughout his whole
+career. The Scorpion was in such a crazy state that she had nearly
+foundered between Spithead and Plymouth. On reaching the latter port,
+and representing at once the condition of the vessel and the
+importance of the despatches, the port-admiral instantly ordered him
+to proceed to sea in the Albany, a sloop in the Sound. But the Albany
+had been a long time in commission; her people claimed arrears of pay;
+and by no means relishing a voyage across the Atlantic in such
+weather, they absolutely refused to heave the anchor. Their young
+commander first tried remonstrance, but in vain; he then took a more
+effectual means--he ordered his boat's crew, whom he had brought from
+the Scorpion, to take their hatchets and cut the cables, and then go
+aloft to loosen the foresail. Perceiving the kind of man with whom
+they had to do, the crew submitted, and the Albany instantly proceeded
+to sea: the ringleaders were punished; and the service was performed.
+The Albany made New York in twenty-four days.
+
+In October 1761, Commander Jervis was made Post, into the Gosport of
+60 guns. Among his midshipmen was the afterwards Admiral Lord Keith.
+In 1762, peace was made. The Gosport was paid off next year, and
+Captain Jervis did not serve again until 1769, when he commanded the
+Alarm of 32 guns for the next three years.
+
+A striking incident occurred during the cruise of this vessel in the
+Mediterranean, exhibiting not only the spirit of her captain, but the
+historic recollections by which that spirit was sustained. One Sunday
+afternoon, the day after her arrival at Genoa, two Turkish slaves, in
+enjoyment of the holiday's rest from labour, sauntered from their
+galley near the mole. Seeing the Alarm's boat, they jumped into her,
+wrapped themselves in the British colours, and exclaimed, "We are
+free!" The Genoese officer on duty, however, ordered them to be
+dragged out, which was done, though one of them tore away in his
+struggle a piece of the boat's pendant. On the circumstance reaching
+the captain's ears he was indignant, and demanded instant reparation.
+To use his own language:--"I required," said he, "of the Doge and
+Senate, that both the slaves should be brought on board, with the part
+of the torn pendant which the slave carried off with him; the officer
+of the guard punished; and an apology made on the quarterdeck of the
+Alarm, under the king's colours, for the outrage offered to the
+British nation."
+
+On the following Tuesday this was complied with in all the
+particulars; but, unhappily, the government at home did not exhibit
+the spirit of their gallant officer abroad; and in a letter which he
+addressed to his brother he says:--"_I had an opportunity of carrying
+the British flag, in relation to two Turkish slaves, as high as Blake
+had ever done_, for which I am publicly censured; though I hope we
+have too much virtue left, for me not to be justified in private."
+
+The result, however, of this transaction was, that for many years
+afterwards, in the Barbary states, if a slave could but touch the
+British colours, which all our men-of-war's boats carry in foreign
+ports, he could of right demand his release. This, however, was
+counteracted as far as possible by the renewed vigilance of the Moors,
+who kept all their slaves out of sight while a British flag flew in
+the harbour. The allusion to the famous Blake shows with what studies
+the young officer fed his mind, and in how high a spirit he was
+prepared to adopt them.
+
+Another instance of his skill and intrepidity soon followed. In March
+1770, the frigate, after a tempestuous cruise, came to anchor at
+Marseilles. An equinoctial gale came on, and after two days of
+desperate exertion, and throwing many of the guns overboard, the
+frigate was driven from her anchors, stranded on a reef of rocks, and
+the crew in such peril that they were saved only by the most
+extraordinary exertions, and the assistance of the people on shore.
+The port officer, M. de Peltier, exhibited great kindness and
+activity, and the ship was rapidly repaired, but with such an exact
+economy, that its complete refit, with the expense of the crew for
+three months, amounted only to £1415.
+
+The first act of this excellent son was to write to his father:--"Do
+not be alarmed, my dear sir, at the newspaper accounts which you will
+hear of the Alarm. The interposition of Divine Providence has
+miraculously preserved her. The same Providence will, I hope, give
+long life to my dear father, mother, and brother."
+
+In July he wrote to his sister from Mahon, after the repairs of the
+vessel:--"The Alarm is the completest thing I ever saw on the water,
+insomuch that I forgot she was the other day, in the opinion of most
+beholders, her own officers and crew not excepted, a miserable sunken
+wreck. Such is the reward of perseverance. Happily for my reputation,
+my health at that period happened to be equal to the task, or I had
+been lost for ever, instead of receiving continual marks of public and
+private approbation of my conduct; but this is _entre nous_. I never
+speak or write on the subject except to those I most love. You will
+easily believe Barrington to be one; his goodness to me is romantic."
+
+It is gratifying to state, that the English Admiralty, on the young
+captain's warm representation of the French superintendent, M. de
+Peltier's hospitality and kindness, sent a handsome piece of plate in
+public acknowledgment to that officer; and, as if to make the
+compliment perfect in all its parts, as it arrived before the frigate
+had left the station, the captain had the indulgence of presenting it
+in person; thus making, as his letter to his father mentioned, "the
+family of Pleville de Peltier happy beyond description."
+
+The frigate was soon after paid off, and as there was no probability
+of his being speedily employed, he applied himself to gain every
+species of knowledge connected with his profession. We strongly doubt
+whether the example of this rising officer is not even more important
+when we regard him in peace than in the activity and daring of war.
+There is no want of courage and conduct in the British fleet; but life
+on shore offers too many temptations to indolence, to be always turned
+to the use of which it is capable. Captain Jervis, on the contrary,
+appears always to have regarded life on shore preparatory to life
+afloat, and to be constantly employed in laying up knowledge for those
+emergencies which so often occur in the bold and perilous life of the
+sailor. There is often something like a predictive spirit in the early
+career of great men, which urges them to make provision for greatness;
+and remote as is the condition of a captain of a smart frigate from
+the commander of fleets, yet the captain of the Alarm, though the
+least ostentatious of men, seems always to have had a glance towards
+the highest duties of the British admiral. "Time," says Franklin, "is
+the stuff that life is made of;" and as France is the antagonist with
+which the power of England naturally expects to struggle, his first
+object was to acquire all possible knowledge of the naval means of
+France. The primary step was to acquire a knowledge of the language.
+Accordingly, he went to France, and placed himself in a _pension_.
+There he applied himself so closely to the study of the language, that
+his health became out of order, and his family requested him to
+return. But this he declined, and in his answer said that he had
+adopted this pursuit on the best view a military man in his situation
+could form. "For it will always," said he, "be useful to have a
+general idea of this prevalent language, and a knowledge of the
+country with which we have so long contended, and which must ever be
+our rival in arms and commerce."
+
+Having accomplished his object of acquiring sufficient fluency in
+speaking French, his next excursion was to St Petersburg. He and
+Captain Barrington went in a merchant vessel, and reached Cronstadt.
+While at sea, Captain Jervis kept a regular log. During the voyage,
+all the headlands are described, all the soundings noted, and every
+opportunity to test and correct the charts adopted. As an example, he
+remarks on the castle of Cronenburg, which guards the entrance into
+the Sound, that it may be overlooked by a line-of-battle ship, which
+may anchor in good ground as near the beach as she pleases. He remarks
+the two channels leading to Copenhagen, puts all the lighthouses down
+on his own chart, and lays down all the approaches to St Petersburg
+accurately; "because," said he, "I find all the charts are incorrect,
+and it may be useful." And he actually did find it useful; for when he
+was at the head of the Admiralty, this knowledge enabled him, while
+his colleagues hesitated, to give his orders confidently to Sir
+Charles Pole, in command of the Baltic fleet. His sojourn at St
+Petersburg was but brief; but it was at a time of remarkable
+excitement. The Empress Catharine was at the height of her splendour,
+a legislator and a conqueror, and surrounded by a court exhibiting all
+the daring and dashing characters of her vast empire. His description
+of this celebrated woman's character on one public occasion, shows the
+exactness with which he observed every thing:--"When she entered the
+cathedral, Catharine mingled her salutations to the saints and the
+people, showing at once her compliance with religious ceremonials, and
+her attentions to her servants and the foreign ambassadors. But she
+showed no devotion, in which she was not singular, old people and
+Cossack officers excepted. During the sermon she took occasion to
+smile and nod to those whom she meant to gratify; and surely no
+sovereign ever possessed the power of pleasing all within her eye to
+the degree she did. She was dressed in the Guards' uniform, which was
+a scarlet pelisse, and a green silk robe lapelled from top to bottom.
+Her hair was combed neatly, and boxed _en militaire_, with a small
+cap, and an ornament of diamonds in front; a blue riband, and the
+order of St Andrew on her right shoulder."
+
+He speaks of the empress excelling in that inclination of the body
+which the Russian ladies substitute for the curtsy, and which he
+justly regards as very becoming, the empress adding dignity and grace.
+He describes Orloff as an herculean figure, finely proportioned, with
+a cheerful eye, and, for a Russian, a good complexion: Potemkin as
+having stature and shoulders, but being ill limbed and of a most
+forbidding countenance. His examination of the Russian dockyards,
+naval armament, and general style of shipbuilding, was most exact; and
+he records in his notes his having seen, in the naval arsenals of
+Norway, sheds to cover ships on the stocks--an important arrangement,
+which was afterwards claimed as an invention at home.
+
+After inspecting the harbours of Sweden and Norway, the travellers
+returned by Holland, where they made similar investigations. In the
+following year they renewed their tour of inspection, and traversed
+the western parts of France. And this active pursuit of knowledge was
+carried on without any pecuniary assistance beyond his half-pay. He
+had hitherto made no prize-money. "To be sure," he said in after days,
+"we sometimes did fare rather roughly; but what signifies that now? my
+object was attained."
+
+His character was now high, but it is to be presumed that he had some
+powerful interest; for on his return he was appointed to two
+line-of-battle ships in succession, the Kent, 74, and the Foudroyant,
+84, a French prize, and reckoned the finest two-decker in the navy.
+
+From this period a new scene opened before him, and his career became
+a part of the naval history of England. In 1778 he joined the Channel
+fleet, and his ship was placed by the celebrated Keppel as one of his
+seconds in the order of battle, and immediately astern of the
+admiral's ship, the Victory, on the 27th of July, in the drawn battle
+off Ushant with the French fleet commanded by D'Orvilliers. The people
+of England are not content with drawn battles, and the result of this
+action produced a general uproar. Keppel threw the blame on the
+tardiness of Sir Hugh Palliser, the second in command. Palliser
+retorted, and the result was a court-martial on the commander of the
+fleet; which, however, ended in a triumphant acquittal. It was not
+generally known that Keppel's defence, which was admired as a model of
+intelligence, and even of eloquence, was drawn up by Captain Jervis.
+The transaction, though so long passed away, is not yet beyond
+discussion; and there is still some interest in knowing the opinion of
+so powerful a mind on the general subject. It was thus given in a
+private letter to his friend Jackson:--"I do not agree that we were
+outwitted. The French, I am convinced, never would have fought us if
+they had not been surprised into it by a sudden flow of wind; and when
+they formed their inimitable line after our brush, it was merely to
+cover their intention of flight."
+
+He then gives one of those comprehensive maxims which already show
+the experienced "admiral:"--"I have often told you that two fleets of
+equal force can never produce decisive events, unless they are equally
+determined to fight it out, or the commander-in-chief of one of them
+misconducts his line." We have then an instance of that manly feeling
+which is one of the truest characteristics of greatness, and yet which
+has been deficient in some very remarkable men.
+
+"I perceive," says he, "it is the fashion of people to puff
+themselves. For my part, I forbade my officers to write by the frigate
+that carried the despatches. I did not write a syllable myself, except
+touching my health; nor shall I, but to state the intrepidity of the
+officers and people under my command, (through the most infernal fire
+I ever saw or heard,) to Lord Sandwich," (first lord of the
+Admiralty.) But one cannot feel the merit of this self-denial without
+a glance at his actual hazards and services during the battle.
+
+"In justice to the Foudroyant," he thus ends his letter, "I must
+observe to you, that though she received the fire of seventeen sail,
+and had the Bretagne, Ville de Paris, and a seventy-four on her at the
+same time, and appeared more disabled in her masts and rigging than
+any other ship, she was the first in the line of battle, and truly
+fitter for business, in essentials, (because her people were cool,)
+than when she began. _Keep this to yourself_, unless you hear too much
+said in praise of others.
+
+"J.J."
+
+The national wrath was poured on Sir Hugh Palliser, Keppel's second in
+command, whose tardiness in obeying signals was charged as the cause
+of the French escape; so strong had already become the national
+assurance that a British fleet could go forth only to victory. But the
+succession of courts-martial cleared up nothing except the characters
+of the two admirals. Palliser was enabled to show that his ship had
+suffered so much from the enemy's fire as to be at least (plausibly)
+unfit for close action, and the whole dispute on land closed, like the
+naval conflict, in a drawn battle. Jervis was the chief witness for
+Keppel, as serving next his ship; and his testimony was of the highest
+order to the gallantry, skill, and perseverance of the admiral. But
+Palliser was acknowledged to be brave; and it is evident from Jervis's
+personal opinion, that when it was once the object of the enemy's
+commander to get away, it was next to impossible to have prevented his
+escape.
+
+But these were trying times for the British navy: it was scarcely
+acquainted with its own strength; the nation, disgusted with the
+nature of the American war, refused its sympathy; without that
+sympathy ministers could do nothing effectual, and never can do any
+thing effectual. The character of the cabinet was feebleness, the
+spirit of the metropolis was faction; the king, though one of the best
+of men, was singularly unpopular; and the war became a system of
+feeble defence against arrogant and increasing hostilities. France,
+powerful as she was, became more powerful by the national
+exultation--the frenzied rejoicing in the success of American
+revolt--and the revived hope of European supremacy in a nation which
+had been broken down since the days of Marlborough; a crush which had
+been felt in every sinew of France for a hundred angry years. Spain,
+always strong, but unable to use her strength, had now given it in to
+the training of discipline; and the combined fleets presented a
+display of force, which, in the haughty language of the Tuileries, was
+formed to sweep the seas.
+
+The threat was put in rapid and unexpected execution. The combined
+fleet moved up the Channel; and to the surprise, the sorrow, and the
+indignation of England, the British fleet, under Sir Charles Hardy,
+was seen making, what could only be called "a dignified retreat." The
+Foudroyant, on that melancholy occasion, had been astern of the
+Victory, the admiral's ship. If Jervis had been admiral, he would have
+tried the fate of battle--and he would have done right. No result of a
+battle could have been so painful to the national feelings, or so
+injurious in its effects on the feelings of Europe, as that retreat.
+If the whole British fleet on that occasion had perished, its
+gallantry would have only raised a new spirit of worth and power in
+the nation; and England has resources that, when once fully called
+into exertion, are absolutely unconquerable. But that was a dishonour;
+and even now we can echo the feelings of the brave and high-minded
+young officer, who was condemned to share in the disgrace. He writes
+to his sister, as if to relieve the fulness of his heart at the
+moment--"I am in the most humbled state of mind I ever experienced,
+from the retreat we have made before the combined fleets all
+_yesterday_ and _this morning_." The Admiralty ultimately gave the
+retreating admiral an official certificate of good behaviour, "their
+high approbation of Sir Charles Hardy's wise and prudent conduct;" but
+"gallant and bold conduct" would have been a better testimonial. The
+truth seems to be, that the Admiralty, blamable themselves in sending
+him to sea with an inadequate force, and scarcely expecting to escape
+if they had suffered him to lie under the charge, were glad to avail
+themselves of his personal character as a man of known bravery; and
+thus quash a process which must finally have brought them before the
+tribunal. But let naval officers remember, that the officer who fights
+is the officer of the nation. Nelson's maxim is unanswerable--"The
+captain cannot be mistaken who lays his ship alongside the enemy."
+
+This, too, was a period of cabinet revolutions. No favouritism can
+sustain a ministry which has become disgustful to the nation. Lord
+North, though ingenious, dexterous, and long enough in possession of
+power to have filled all its offices with his dependents, was driven
+from the premiership with such a storm of national contempt, that he
+could scarcely be sheltered by the curtains of the throne. Lord
+Rockingham, a dull minister, was transformed into a brilliant one by
+his contrast with the national weariness of Lord North; and it fell to
+the lot of Captain Jervis to give the country the first omen of
+returning victory. France had already combined Holland in her
+alliance, and the French minister, already made insolent by his
+triumph in the Channel, had determined on a blow in a quarter where
+English interests were most vulnerable, and where the assault was
+least expected. A squadron of French line-of-battle ships, convoying a
+fleet of transports, were prepared for an expedition to the East
+Indies.
+
+The preparations for the combined movement were on an immense scale.
+The fleets of France, Spain, and Holland were again to sweep the
+Channel; and while the attention of the British fleets was thus
+engrossed, the Eastern expedition was to sail from Brest. The
+Admiralty, in order to counteract, or at least delay, this formidable
+movement, immediately dispatched Admiral Barrington, with twelve sail
+of the line, to cruise in the bay of Biscay. On the 18th of April the
+French expedition sailed, and on the 20th, when Admiral Barrington had
+reached a few leagues beyond Ushant, the Artois frigate signaled a
+hostile fleet, but could not discover their flag or numbers. The
+signal being made for a general chase, the Foudroyant, Jervis's ship,
+soon left the rest of the fleet behind; and before night she had so
+much gained upon the enemy as to ascertain that they were six French
+ships of war, with eighteen sail of convoy. The whole of the British
+fleet, being several leagues astern, was now lost sight of, and did
+not come up till the following day. In the mean time Jervis was left
+alone. At ten at night, the French ships of war separating, Jervis,
+selecting the largest for pursuit, prepared to attack: at twelve, he
+had approached near enough to see that the chase was a ship of the
+line. The Foudroyant's superior manoeuvring enabled her to commence
+the engagement by a raking fire. Its effect was so powerful, that the
+enemy was thrown into extreme disorder, and was carried by boarding,
+after an action of only three quarters of an hour. The prize was the
+Pégase, seventy-four. The loss of life on board the enemy was great;
+but by an extraordinary piece of good fortune, on board the Foudroyant
+not a man was killed, Captain Jervis and five seamen being the only
+wounded.
+
+To the gallantry which produced this striking success, the young
+officer added extreme delicacy with respect to his prisoners. He would
+not allow the first boat to be sent on board the prize, until he had
+given written orders for the particular preservation of every thing
+in the shape of property belonging to the French officers, adding at
+the bottom of his memorandum,--"For though I have the highest opinion
+of my officers, we must not be suspected of designs to plunder."
+
+The result of the action was, that sixteen transports out of twenty
+were taken, according to the letter of young Ricketts, the captain's
+nephew. It must be owned, that brave as the French are, their admiral
+made but a bad figure in this business: why the sight of one vessel
+should have been sufficient to disperse a fleet of six men-of-war, and
+of course ruin an expedition which must thus be left without convoy,
+is not easily to be accounted for; or why, when the admiral saw that
+his pursuer was but a single ship, he should not have turned upon him
+and crushed him, it is equally difficult to say. It only shows that
+his court wanted common sense as much as he wanted discretion. The
+expedition was destroyed, and the Foudroyant had the whole honour of
+the victory.
+
+An action between single ships of this force is rare at any period,
+and nothing could be nearer a match in point of equipment then the two
+ships. The Foudroyant had the larger tonnage, and carried three more
+guns on her broadside; but the Pégase threw a greater weight of shot,
+had a more numerous crew, and a large proportion of soldiers on board.
+The English ship, however, had the incomparable advantage of a crew
+which had sailed together for six years, and been disciplined by such
+an officer as Jervis.
+
+The ministry and the king were equally rejoiced at this return of the
+naval distinctions of the country, and the immediate consequence was,
+the conferring of a baronetcy and the order of the Bath upon the
+gallant officer. Congratulations of all kinds were poured upon him by
+the ministry, his admiral, and his brother officers. The admiral
+writes, in speaking of the squadron's cruise, "but the Pégase is every
+thing, and does the highest honour to Jervis."
+
+Another instance of his decision, and, as in all probability will be
+thought, of the clearness of his judgment, was shortly after given in
+the memorable relief of Gibraltar. As it was likely that the combined
+fleets of France and Spain would oppose the passage of the British,
+Lord Howe, at an early period, called the flag-officers and captains
+on board the Victory, and proposed to them the question--Whether,
+considering the superiority of the enemy's numbers, it might not be
+advisable to fight the battle at night, when British discipline might
+counterbalance the numerical superiority? All the officers junior to
+Jervis gave their opinion for the night attack, but he dissented.
+"Expressing his regret that he must offer an opinion, not only
+contrary to that of his brother officers, but also, as he feared, to
+that of his commander-in-chief, he was convinced that battle in the
+day would be greatly preferable. In the first place, because it would
+give an opportunity for the display of his lordship's tactics, and
+afford the means of taking prompt advantage of any mistake of the
+enemy, change of the wind, or any other favourable circumstance; while
+in the mêlée of a battle at night, there must always be greater risk
+of separation, and of ships receiving the fire of their friends as
+well as their foes." It is obvious to every comprehension, that a
+night action must preclude all manoeuvring, and prevent the greater
+skill of the tactician from having any advantage over the blunderer
+who turns his ships into mere batteries. The only officer who
+coincided with Jervis was Admiral Barrington, who gave as an
+additional and a just argument for the attack by day, that it would
+give an opportunity of ascertaining the conduct of the respective
+captains in action. On those opinions Lord Howe made no comment; but
+it is presumed that he ultimately agreed with them, from his conduct
+in the celebrated action of the 1st of June 1794, when he had the
+enemy's fleet directly to leeward of him from the night before.
+
+In the relief of Gibraltar, the Foudroyant had the honour to be the
+ship which was dispatched from the fleet to escort the victuallers
+into the harbour, which was accomplished amid the acclamations of the
+garrison. It had been expected that Lord Howe would have attacked the
+combined fleets, and the nation of course looked forward to a victory;
+but they were disappointed. The fact is, that Lord Howe, though a
+brave man, and what is generally regarded as a good officer, was of a
+different class of mind from the Jervises and Nelsons. He did his
+duty, but he did no more. The men who were yet to give a character to
+the navy did more than their duty, suffered no opportunity of
+distinction to escape them, relied on the invincibility of British
+prowess when it was boldly directed, and by that reliance rendered it
+invincible.
+
+There was a kindness and generosity of nature in this future
+"thunderbolt of war," which shows how compatible the gentler feelings
+are with the gallant daring, and comprehensive talent of the great
+commander. Having happened to receive the Duc de Chabelais on board
+his ship when at Cadiz, the politeness of his reception caused the
+Sardinian prince to exhibit his gratitude in some handsome presents to
+the officers. One of Jervis's letters mentions, that the prince had
+given to each of the lieutenants a handsome gold box; to the
+lieutenant of marines and five of the midshipmen gold watches; and to
+the other officers and ship's company, a princely sum of money.
+
+"I pride myself," he adds, "exceedingly in the presents being so
+diffused; on all former occasions they have centred in the captain."
+In another letter he says,--"I was twenty-four hours in the bay of
+Marseilles about a fortnight ago, just time to receive the warm
+embraces of a man to whose bravery and friendship I had some months
+before been indebted for my reputation, the preservation of the people
+under my command, and of the Alarm. You would have felt infinite
+pleasure at the scene of our interview." In a letter to the
+under-secretary of the Admiralty, he says,--"My dear Jackson, you must
+allow me to interest your humanity in favour of poor Spicer, who,
+overwhelmed with dropsy, asthma, and a large family, and with nothing
+but his pay to support him under those afflictions, is appointed to
+the ---- under a mean man, and very likely to go to the East Indies.
+The letter which he writes to the Board, desiring to be excused from
+his appointment, is dictated by me."
+
+He then mentions a contingency, "in which case I shall write for
+Spicer to be first lieutenant of the Foudroyant, with intention to
+nurse him, and keep him clear of all expense." Shortly after the
+Foudroyant was paid off, Sir John Jervis was united to a lady to whom
+he had long been attached, the daughter of Sir Thomas Parker, Chief
+Baron of the Exchequer. Every man in England, as he rises into
+distinction, necessarily becomes a politician. It was the misfortune
+of Sir John Jervis, and it was his only misfortune, that he was a
+politician before he had risen into distinction. Having had the ill
+luck to profess himself a Whig, at a period when he could scarcely
+have known the nature of the connexion, he unhappily adhered to it
+long after Whiggism had ceased to possess either public utility or
+national respect. But his Whiggism was unconscious Toryism after all:
+it was what even his biographer is forced to call it, Whig Royalism,
+or pretty nearly what Blake's Republicanism was--a determination to
+raise his country to the highest eminence to which his talents and
+bravery could contribute, without regarding by whom the government was
+administered. At the general election of 1784, he sat for Yarmouth.
+
+In 1787, Sir John Jervis was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. At
+the general election in 1790, he was returned for Wycombe, and shared
+in parliament the successive defeats of his party; until, in 1793, he
+was called to a nobler field, in which, unembarrassed by party, and
+undegraded by Whiggism, his talents took their natural direction in
+the cause of his country. It is now scarcely necessary to remark upon
+the narrow system of enterprise with which England began the great
+revolutionary war; nor can it now be doubted that, if the energies of
+the country had been directed to meet the enemy in Europe, measureless
+misfortunes might have been averted. If the succession of fleets and
+armies which were wasted upon the conquest of the French West Indies,
+had been employed in the protection of the feebler European states,
+there can be no question that the progress of the French armies would
+have been signally retarded, if invasion had not been thrown back
+over the French frontier. For instance, it would have been utterly
+impossible for Napoleon, in 1796, to have marched triumphantly
+throughout Italy with the British fleet covering the coast, commanding
+all the harbours, and ready to throw in troops in aid of the
+insurrections in his rear.
+
+But it was the policy of the time to pacify the merchants, whose
+bugbear was a negro insurrection in the West Indies; and whether the
+genius or the fears of Pitt gave way to the impression, the
+consequence was equally lamentable--the mighty power of England was
+wasted on the capture of sugar islands, which we did not want, which
+we could not cultivate, and which cost the lives, by disease and
+climate, of ten times the number of gallant men who might have saved
+Europe. At the close of 1793, a grand expedition against the French
+Caribbee islands was resolved upon by the British cabinet; and it is a
+remarkable instance of both the reputation of Sir John Jervis and the
+impartiality of the great minister, that a Whig member of parliament
+should have been chosen to command the naval part of the expedition.
+
+The expedition consisted of twenty-two ships of war and six thousand
+troops, the troops divided into three brigades, of which one was
+commanded by the late Duke of Kent. Sir John Jervis hoisted his flag
+as vice-admiral of the blue on the 3d of October.
+
+A ludicrous circumstance occurred in the instance of a favourite
+officer, Mr Bayntun, who had applied for permission to join Sir John.
+Bayntun received in answer the following decisive note: "Sir, your
+having thought fit to take to yourself a wife, you are to look for no
+further attention from your humble servant, J. JERVIS." It happened
+that Bayntun was a bachelor, and he instantly wrote an exculpatory
+letter, denying that he had been guilty of so formidable a charge. The
+mistake arose from a misdirection in two notes which the admiral had
+written on the same subject. He had left them to Lady Jervis to
+direct, and she had addressed them to the wrong persons. The
+consequence, however, was, that Bayntun received the appointment, and
+the married man the refusal. This inveteracy against married officers
+seems strange in one who had committed the same crime himself; yet he
+constantly persisted in calling officers who married moon-struck, and
+appears at all times to have regarded matrimony in the service as
+little short of personal ruin.
+
+On the passage out, a curious circumstance occurred to the Zebra
+frigate, under command of the gallant Robert Faulknor. The Zebra,
+which had been separated from the rest of the squadron, saw one
+evening a ship on the horizon. All sail was made in chase, and the
+ship was discovered to be a twenty-eight gun frigate. All contrivances
+were adopted to induce her to show her colours, but without success.
+At length Faulknor, impatient of delay, and disregarding the disparity
+of force, closed upon her, and jumped on board at the head of his men.
+To his astonishment he found that she was a Dutch frigate, quietly
+pursuing her way; and as Holland was at peace with England, equally
+unexpecting and unprepared for an attack. This instance of apathy
+night have procured her a broadside; but luckily the affair finished
+with the shaking of hands.
+
+On the 5th of February the expedition reached Martinique. On the 18th
+of March Fort Lewis was stormed, General Rochambeau capitulated, and
+Martinique was taken, St Lucie followed, the Saintes next fell, and
+the final conquest was Guadaloupe. Thus in three months the capture of
+the French islands was complete.
+
+But an enemy more formidable than the sword was now to be encountered.
+The yellow fever began its ravages. The troops perished in such
+numbers, that the regiments were reduced to skeletons; and just at the
+moment when the disease was at its height, Victor Hughes was
+dispatched from France with an expedition. The islands fell one by one
+into his hands, and the campaign was utterly thrown away.
+
+The romantic portion of the European campaigns now began. The French
+Directory, unpopular at home, wearied by the sanguinary successes of
+the Vendéan insurrection, and baffled in their invasion of Germany,
+were in a condition of the greatest perplexity, when a new wonder of
+war taught France again to conquer. Napoleon Bonaparte, since so
+memorable, but then known only as commanding a company of artillery at
+Toulon, and repelling the armed mob in Paris, was appointed to command
+the army on the Italian frontier. Even now, with all our knowledge of
+his genius, and the splendid experience of his successes, his sudden
+elevation, his daring offer of command, his plan of the Italian
+campaign, and his almost instantaneous victories, are legitimate
+matter of astonishment. In him we have the instance of a young man of
+twenty-six, who had never seen a campaign, who had never commanded a
+brigade, nor even a regiment, undertaking the command of an army,
+proposing the invasion of a country of eighteen millions, garrisoned
+by the army of one of the greatest military powers of Europe, which
+had nearly 300,000 soldiers in the field, and which was in the most
+intimate alliance with all the sovereigns of Italy. Yet, extravagant
+as all those conceptions seem, and improbable as those results
+certainly were, two campaigns saw every project realized--Italy
+conquered, the Tyrol, the great southern barrier of Austria,
+overpassed, and peace signed within a hundred miles of Vienna. The
+invasion of Italy first awoke the British ministry to the true
+direction of the vast naval powers of England. To save Italy if
+possible, was the primary object; the next was to prevent the
+superiority of the French fleet in the Mediterranean. A powerful fleet
+had been prepared in Toulon, for the purpose of aiding the French army
+in its invasion, and finally taking possession of all the ports and
+islands, until it should have realized the project of Louis XIV., of
+turning the Mediterranean into a French lake. It was determined to
+keep up a powerful British fleet to oppose this project, and Sir John
+Jervis was appointed to the command. Nothing could be a higher
+testimony to the opinion entertained of his talents, as his connexion
+with the Whigs was undisguised. But Pitt's feeling for the public
+service overcame all personal predilections, and this great officer
+was sent to take the command of the most extensive and important
+station to which a British admiral could be appointed. Lord Hood had
+previously declined it, on the singular plea of inadequacy of force;
+and Sir Charles Hotham having solicited his recall in consequence of
+declining health, the gallant Jervis was sent forth to establish the
+renown of his country and his own.
+
+The fleet was a noble command. It consisted on the whole of about
+twenty-five sail of the line, two of them of a hundred guns, and five
+of ninety-eight; thirty-six frigates, and fifteen or sixteen sloops
+and other armed vessels.
+
+Among the officers of the fleet were almost all the names which
+subsequently obtained distinction in the great naval victories--
+Troubridge, Hallowell, Hood, Collingwood, &c., and first of the first,
+that star of the British seaman, Nelson. It is remarkable, and only a
+just tribute to the new admiral, that he, almost from his earliest
+intercourse with those gallant men, marked their merits, although
+hitherto they had found no opportunities of acquiring distinction--all
+were to come. Nelson, in writing to his wife, speaking of the
+admiral's notice of him, says, "Sir John Jervis was a perfect stranger
+to me, therefore I feel the more flattered." The admiral, in writing
+to the secretary of the Admiralty, says--"I am afraid of being thought
+a puffer, like many of my brethren, or I should before have dealt out
+to the Board the merits of Captain Troubridge, which are very
+uncommon."
+
+The French fleet, of fifteen sail of the line, lay in Toulon, ready to
+convoy an army to plunge upon the Roman states. Sir John Jervis
+instantly proceeded to block up Toulon, keeping what is called the
+in-shore squadron looking into the harbour's mouth, while the main
+body cruised outside. The admiral at once employed Nelson on the
+brilliant service for which he was fitted, and sent him with a flying
+squadron of a ship of the line, three frigates, and two sloops, to
+scour the coast of Italy. The duties of the Mediterranean fleet,
+powerful as the armament was, were immense. Independently of the
+blockade of Toulon, and the necessity of continually watching the
+enemy's fleet, which might be brought out by the same wind which blew
+off the British, the admiral had the responsibility of protecting the
+Mediterranean convoys, of sustaining the British interests in the
+neutral courts, of assisting the allies on shore, of overawing the
+Barbary powers, which were then peculiarly restless and insolent, and
+of upholding the general supremacy of England, from Smyrna to
+Gibraltar.
+
+The French campaign opened on the 9th of April 1797, and the Austrians
+were beaten on the following day at Montenotte, and in a campaign of a
+month Bonaparte reached Milan. The success of the enemy increased to
+an extraordinary degree the difficulties of the British admiral. The
+repairs of the fleet, the provisioning, and every other circumstance
+connected with the land, lay under increased impediments; but they
+were all gradually overcome by the vigilance and intelligence of the
+admiral.
+
+A curious and characteristic circumstance occurred, soon after his
+taking the command. Nelson had captured a vessel carrying 152 Austrian
+grenadiers, who had been made prisoners by the French, and actually
+sold by their captors to the Spaniards, for the purpose of enlisting
+them in the Spanish army. His letter to Jackson, the secretary of
+legation at Turin, on this subject, spiritedly expresses his
+feelings:--
+
+    "SIR,--From a Swiss dealer in human flesh, the demand made
+    upon me to deliver up 152 Austrian grenadiers, serving on
+    board his Majesty's fleet under my command, is natural enough,
+    but that a Spaniard, who is a noble creature, should join in
+    such a demand, I must confess astonishes me; and I can only
+    account for it by the Chevalier Caamano being ignorant that
+    the persons in question were made prisoners of war in the last
+    war with General Beaulieu, and are not deserters, and that
+    they were most basely sold by the French commissaries to the
+    vile crimps who recruit for the foreign regiments in the
+    service of Spain. It is high time a stop should be put to this
+    abominable traffic, a million times more disgraceful than the
+    African slave-trade."
+
+But other dangers now menaced the British supremacy in the
+Mediterranean. The victories of Bonaparte had terrified all the
+Italian states into neutrality or absolute submission; and the success
+of the Directory, and perhaps their bribes, influenced the miserably
+corrupt and feeble Spanish ministry, to make common cause with the
+conquering republic. Spain at last became openly hostile. This was a
+tremendous increase of hazards, because Spain had fifty-seven sail of
+the line, and a crowd of frigates. The difficulty of blockading Toulon
+was now increased by the failure of provisions. On the night of the 2d
+of November, the admiral sent for the master of the Victory, and told
+him that he now had not the least hope of being reinforced, and had
+made up his mind to push down to Gibraltar with all possible dispatch.
+
+The passage became a stormy one, and it was with considerable
+difficulty that the fleet reached Gibraltar. Some of the transports
+were lost, a ship of the line went down, and several of the fleet were
+disabled.
+
+The result of the French successes and the Austrian misfortunes, was
+an order for the fleet to leave the Mediterranean, and take up its
+station at the Tagus. The vivid spirit of Nelson was especially
+indignant at this change of scene. In one of his letters he says--"We
+are preparing to leave the Mediterranean, a measure which I cannot
+approve. They at home do not know what this fleet is capable of
+performing--any thing, and every thing. Of all the fleets I ever saw,
+I never saw one, in point of officers and men, equal to Sir John
+Jervis's, who is a commander able to lead them to glory." The
+admiral's merits were recognized by the government in a still more
+permanent manner; for, by a despatch from the Admiralty in February
+1797, it was announced that the king had raised him to the dignity of
+the peerage.
+
+The prospect now darkened round every quarter of the horizon. The
+power of Austria had given way; Spain and Holland were combined
+against our naval supremacy; Italy was lost; a French expedition
+threatened Ireland; there was a strong probability of the invasion of
+Portugal; and the junction of the French and Spanish fleets might
+endanger not merely the Tagus fleet, but expose the Channel fleet to
+an encounter with numbers so superior, as to leave the British shores
+open to invasion. The domestic difficulties, too, had their share.
+The necessity of suspending cash payments at the Bank had, if not
+thrown a damp upon the nation, at least given so formidable a ground
+for the fallacies and bitterness of the Opposition, as deeply to
+embarrass even the fortitude of the great minister. We can now see how
+slightly all these hazards eventually affected the real power of
+England; and we now feel how fully adequate the strength of this
+extraordinary and inexhaustible country was to resist all obstacles
+and turn the trial into triumph. But faction was busy, party predicted
+ruin, public men used every art to dispirit the nation and inflame the
+populace; and the result was, a state of public anxiety of which no
+former war had given the example.
+
+It is incontestable that the list of the British navy at this period
+of the war exhibited some of the noblest specimens of English
+character--brave, intelligent, and indefatigable men, ready for any
+service, and equal for all; with all the intrepidity of heroes,
+possessing the highest science of their profession, and exhibiting at
+once that lion-heartedness, and that knowledge, which gave the British
+navy the command of the ocean. And yet, if we were to assign the
+highest place where all were high, we should probably assign it to
+Lord St Vincent as an admiral. Nelson certainly, as an executive
+officer, defies all competition; his three battles, Copenhagen,
+Aboukir, and Trafalgar, each of them a title to eminent distinction,
+place him as a conqueror at the head of all. But an admiral has other
+duties than those of the line of battle; and for a great naval
+administrator, first disciplining a fleet, then supplying it with all
+the means of victory, and finally leading it to victory--Lord St
+Vincent was perhaps the most complete example on record of all the
+combined qualities that make the British admiral. His profound
+tactics, his stern but salutary exactness of command, his incomparable
+judgment, and his cool and unhesitating intrepidity, form one of the
+very noblest models of high command. All those qualities were now to
+be called into full exertion.
+
+The continental campaign had left Europe at the mercy of France.
+England was now the only enemy, and she was to be assailed, in the
+first instance, by a naval war. To prevent the junction of the Spanish
+and French fleets, the Tagus was the station fixed upon by Lord St
+Vincent. Ill luck seemed to frown upon the fleet. The Bombay Castle, a
+seventy-four, was lost going in; the St George, a ninety, grounded in
+coming out, and was obliged to be docked; still the admiral determined
+to keep the sea, though his fleet was reduced to eight sail of the
+line. The day before he left the Tagus, information was received that
+the enemy's fleets had both left the Mediterranean. The French had
+gone to Brest, the Spanish first to Toulon, then to Carthagena, and
+was now proceeding to join the French at Brest. A reinforcement of six
+sail of the line now fortunately joined the fleet off the Tagus; but
+at the same time information was received that the Spanish fleet of
+twenty-seven sail of the line, with fourteen frigates, had passed
+Cadiz, and could not be far distant. To prevent the junction of this
+immense force with the powerful fleet already prepared for a start in
+Brest, was of the utmost national importance; for, combined, they must
+sweep the Channel. The admiral instantly formed his plan, and sailed
+for Cape St Vincent.
+
+The details of the magnificent encounter which followed, are among the
+best portions of the volumes. They are strikingly given, and will
+attract the notice, as they might form the model, of the future
+historian of this glorious period of our annals. We can now give only
+an outline.
+
+On the announcement of the Spanish advance, the first object was to
+gain exact intelligence, and ships were stationed in all quarters on
+the look-out. But on the 13th Captain Foote, in the Niger frigate,
+joined, with the intelligence that he had kept sight of the enemy for
+three days. The admiral was now to have a new reinforcement, not in
+ships but in heroes; the Minerva frigate, bearing Nelson's broad
+pendant, from the Mediterranean, arrived, and Nelson shifted his
+pendant into the Captain. The Lively frigate, with Lord Garlies, also
+arrived from Corsica. The signal was made, "To keep close order, and
+prepare for battle." On that day, Lord Garlies, Sir Gilbert Elliot,
+and Captain Hallowell, with some other officers, dined on board the
+Victory. At breaking up, the toast was drunk, "Victory over the Dons,
+in the battle from which they cannot escape to-morrow!"
+
+The "gentlemen of England who live at home at ease," can probably have
+but little conception of the price which men in high command pay for
+glory. No language can describe the anxieties which have often
+exercised the minds of those bold and prominent characters, of whom we
+now know little but of their laurels. The solemn responsibilities of
+their condition, the consciousness that a false step might be ruin,
+the feeling that the eye of their country was fixed upon them, the
+hope of renown, the dread of tarnishing all their past distinctions,
+must pass powerfully and painfully through the mind of men fitted for
+the struggles by which greatness is to be alone achieved.
+
+"It is believed that Sir John Jervis did not go to bed that night, but
+sat up writing. It is certain that he executed his will." In the
+course of the first and second watches, the enemy's signal-guns were
+distinctly heard; and, as he noticed them sounding more and more
+audibly, Sir John made more earnest enquiries as to the compact order
+and situation of his own ships, as well as they could be made out in
+the darkness. Long before break of day, he walked the deck in more
+than even his usual silence. When the grey of the morning of the 14th
+enabled him to discern his fleet, his first remarks were high
+approbation of his captains, for "their admirably close order, and
+that he wished they were now well up with the enemy; for," added he
+thoughtfully, "a victory is very essential to England at this moment."
+
+Now came on the day of decision. The morning was foggy; but as the
+mist cleared up, the Lively, and then the Niger, signaled "a strange
+fleet." The Bonne Citoyenne was next ordered to reconnoitre. Soon
+after, the Culloden's guns announced the enemy. At twenty minutes past
+ten the signal was made to six of the ships--"to chase." Sir John
+still walked the quarterdeck, and, as the enemy's numbers were
+counted, they were duly reported to him by the captain of the fleet.
+
+"There are eight sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty-five sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty-seven sail of the line, Sir John." This was
+accompanied by some remark on the great disparity of the two forces.
+Sir John's gallant answer now was:--
+
+"Enough, sir--no more of that: the die is cast, and if there are fifty
+sail, I will go through them."
+
+At forty minutes past ten the signal was made to form line of battle
+ahead and astern of the Victory, and to steer S.S.W. The fog was now
+cleared off, and the British fleet were seen admirably formed in the
+closest order; while the Spaniards were stretching in two straggling
+bodies across the horizon, leaving an open space between. The
+opportunity of dividing their fleet struck the admiral at once, and at
+half-past eleven the signal was made to pass through the enemy's line,
+and engage them to leeward. At twelve o'clock, as the Culloden was
+reaching close up to the enemy, the British fleet hoisted their
+colours, and the Culloden opened her fire. An extraordinary incident,
+even in those colossal battles, occurred to this fine ship. The course
+of the Culloden brought her directly on board one of the enemy's
+three-deckers. The first lieutenant, Griffiths, reported to her
+captain, Troubridge, that a collision was inevitable. "Can't help it,
+Griffiths--let the weakest fend off," was the hero's reply. The
+Culloden, still pushing on, fired two of her double-shotted broadsides
+into the Spaniard with such tremendous effect, that the three-decker
+went about, and the guns of her other side not being even cast loose,
+she did not fire a single shot, while the Culloden passed triumphantly
+through. Scarcely had she broken the enemy's line, than the
+commander-in-chief signaled the order to tack in succession.
+Troubridge's manoeuvre was so dashingly performed, that the admiral
+could not restrain his delight and admiration.
+
+"Look, Jackson," he rapturously exclaimed, "look at Troubridge there!
+He tacks his ship to battle as if the eyes of all England were upon
+him; and would to God they were, for then they would see him to be
+what I know him."
+
+The leeward division of the enemy, perceiving the fatal consequences
+of their disunited order of sailing, now endeavoured to retrieve the
+day, and to break through the British line. A vice-admiral, in a
+three-decker, led them, and was reaching up to the Victory just as she
+had come up to tack in her station. The vice-admiral stood on with
+great apparent determination till within pistol-shot, but there he
+stopped; and when the Victory could bring her guns to bear upon him,
+she thundered in two of her broadsides, sweeping the Spaniard's decks,
+and so terrified him, that when his sails filled, he ran clear out of
+the battle altogether. The Victory then tacked into her station, and
+the conflict raged with desperate fury. At this period of the battle,
+the Spanish commander-in-chief bore up with nine sail of the line to
+run round the British, and rejoin his leeward division. This was a
+formidable manoeuvre; but no sooner was it commenced, than his eye
+caught it "whose greatest wish it ever was to be the first to find,
+and foremost to fight, his enemy." Nelson, instead of waiting till his
+turn to tack should bring him into action, took it upon himself to
+depart from the prescribed mode of attack, and ordered his ship to be
+immediately wore. This masterly manoeuvre was completely successful,
+at once arresting the Spanish commander-in-chief, and carrying Nelson
+and Collingwood into the van and brunt of the battle. He now attacked
+the four-decker, the Santissima Trinidada, also engaged by the
+Culloden. The Captain's fore-topmast being now shot away, Nelson put
+his helm down, and let her come to the wind, that he might board the
+San Nicolas; Captain, afterwards Sir Edward Berry, then a passenger
+with Nelson, jumping into her mizen-chains, was the first in the
+enemy's ship; Nelson leading his boarders, and a party of the 69th
+regiment, immediately followed, and the colours were hauled down.
+While he was on the deck of the San Nicolas, the San Josef, disabled,
+fell on board. Nelson instantly seized the opportunity of boarding her
+from his prize; followed by Captain Berry, and Lieutenant Pierson of
+the 69th, he led the boarders, and jumped into the San Josef's
+main-chains. He was then informed that the ship had surrendered. Four
+line-of-battle ships had now been taken, and the Santissima Trinidada
+had also struck; but she subsequently made her escape, for now the
+Spanish leeward division, fourteen sail, having re-formed their line,
+bore down to support their commander-in-chief: to receive them, Sir
+John Jervis was obliged to form a line of battle on the starboard
+tack--the enemy immediately retired. Thus, at five in the evening,
+concluded the most brilliant battle that had ever till then been
+fought at sea.
+
+Captain Calder was immediately sent off with the despatch, and arrived
+in London on the 3d of March. A battle gained over such a numerical
+superiority, for it was much more than two to one, when we take into
+our estimate the immense size of the enemy's ships, and their weight
+of metal, there being one four-decker of 130 guns, and six
+three-deckers of 112, of which two were taken; and further, the more
+interesting circumstance, that this great victory was gained on our
+part with only the loss of 73 killed and 227 wounded, the public
+feeling of exultation was unbounded; and when the minister on that
+very evening proposed that the vote of thanks should be taken on the
+following Monday, the House would hear of no delay, but insisted on
+recording its gratitude at the moment. The House of Peers gave a
+similar vote on the 8th; and the Commons and the Crown immediately
+proposed to settle upon the admiral a pension of three thousand
+a-year. A member of the House of Commons, on moving for an address to
+the Crown to confer some signal mark of favour on the admiral, was
+instantly replied to by the sonorous eloquence of the minister--"Can
+it be supposed," said he, "that the Crown can require to be prompted
+to pay the just tribute of approbation and honour to those who have
+eminently distinguished themselves by public services? On the part of
+his Majesty's ministers, I can safely affirm, that before the last
+splendid instance of the conduct of the gallant admiral, we have not
+been remiss in watching the uniform tenor of his professional career.
+We have witnessed the whole of his proceedings--such instances of
+perseverance, of diligence, and of exertion in the public service, as,
+though less brilliant and dazzling than the last exploit, are only
+less meritorious as they are put in competition with a single day,
+which has produced such incalculable benefit to the British empire."
+
+The result was an earldom. The first lord of the Admiralty, Lord
+Spencer, having already written to Sir John the royal pleasure to
+promote him to a peerage, and the letter not having reached him
+previously to the battle, he thus had notice of the two steps in the
+peerage nearly at once.
+
+Popular honours now flowed in upon him: London voted its freedom in a
+gold box, with swords to the admirals of the fleet and Nelson;
+vice-admirals Parker and Thompson were created baronets; Nelson
+received the red riband; the chief cities and towns of England and
+Ireland sent their freedoms and presents; and the king gave all the
+admirals and captains a gold medal.
+
+We must now be brief in our observations on the services of this most
+distinguished person. We have next a narrative of the suppression of
+the memorable mutiny of 1798, whose purpose it was to have suffered
+the enemy's fleet to leave their harbours, to revolutionize the
+Mediterranean fleet, and, after putting the admirals and captains to
+death, proceed to every folly and frenzy that could be committed by
+men conscious of power, and equally conscious that forgiveness was
+impossible. The fleet under Lord St Vincent was on the point of
+corruption, when it was restored to discipline by the singular
+firmness of the admiral, who, by exhibiting his determination to
+punish all insubordination, extinguished this most alarming
+disaffection, and saved the naval name of the country.
+
+On the resignation of Mr Pitt in 1801, and the appointment of Mr
+Addington as first lord of the treasury, a letter was written from the
+new minister to Lord St Vincent, offering him the appointment of first
+lord of the Admiralty. Having obtained an interview with the king, and
+explained the general tone of his political feelings, the king told
+him he very much wished to see him at the Admiralty, and to place the
+navy entirely in his hands. This was perhaps the only appointment of
+that singularly feeble administration which met with universal
+approval. There could be no question of the intelligence, high
+principle, or public services of the great admiral. Mr Addington came
+into power under circumstances which would have tried the talents of a
+man of first-rate ability. The war had exhausted the patience, though
+not the power, of the nation. All our allies had failed. The severity
+of the taxes was doubly felt, when the war had necessarily turned into
+a blockade on the Continent. We had thus all the exhaustion of
+hostilities without the excitement of triumph; and, to increase public
+anxieties, the failure of the harvest threatened a comparative famine.
+Wheat, which on an average of the preceding ten years had been 54s. a
+quarter, was now at 110s., then rose to 139s., and even reached as
+high as 180s. At one period the quartern loaf had risen to 1s. 10-1/2d.
+The popular cry now arose for peace. France, which with all her
+victories had been taught the precariousness of war, by the loss of
+Egypt and the capture of her army, was now also eager for peace.
+England had but two allies, Portugal and Turkey. At length the peace
+was made, and Lord St Vincent's attention was then drawn to an object
+which he had long in view, the reformation of the dockyards. This was
+indeed the Augean stable, and unexampled clamour arose from the
+multitude who had indolently fattened for years on the easy plunder of
+the public stores. However, the reform went on: perquisites were
+abolished, privileges taken away; and, rough as the operation was,
+nothing could be more salutary than its effect. The acuteness of the
+gallant old man at the head of the Admiralty could not be evaded, his
+vigour could not be defied, and his public spirit gave him an
+influence with the country, which enabled him to outlive faction and
+put down calumny. Yet this was evidently the most painful, and, to a
+certain extent, the most unsuccessful portion of his long career.
+Nominally a Whig, but practically a Tory--for his loyalty was
+unimpeachable and his honour without a stain--Lord St Vincent found
+himself in the condition of a man who presses reform on those with
+whom hitherto it has been only a watchword, and expects faction to act
+up to its professions.
+
+The Addington treaty was soon discovered to be nothing more than a
+truce. Napoleon lived only in war; hostilities were essential to the
+government which he had formed for France; and his theory of
+government, false as it was, and his passion for excitement, whatever
+might be its price, made even the two years of peace so irksome to
+him, that he actually adopted a gross and foolish insult to the
+British ambassador as the means of compelling us to renew the
+conflict. The first result was, the return of Pitt to power; the next,
+the total ruin of the French navy at Trafalgar; the next, the bloody
+and ruinous war with Russia, expressly for the ruin of England through
+the ruin of her commerce; and finally the crash of Waterloo, which
+extinguished his diadem and his dominion together--a series of events,
+occurring within little more than ten years, of a more stupendous
+order than had hitherto affected the fate of any individual, or
+influenced the destinies of an European kingdom.
+
+With the ministry of Mr Addington, Lord St Vincent retired from public
+life. He was now old, and the hardships of long service had partially
+exhausted his original vigour of frame. He retired to his seat,
+Rochetts in Essex, and there led the delightful life of a man who had
+gained opulence and distinction by pre-eminent services, and whose old
+age was surrounded by love, honour, and troops of friends. He appeared
+from time to time in the House of Lords, where, however, he spoke but
+seldom, but where he always spoke with dignity and effect.
+
+In the month of March 1823, Lord St Vincent was seized with a general
+feeling of infirmity which portended his speedy dissolution. He had a
+violent and convulsive cough; yet his intellects were strongly turned
+upon public events, and he expressed an anxiety to know all that could
+be known of events in France, which was then disturbed; of the Spanish
+revolution, which then threatened to involve Europe; and even of the
+affairs of Greece. In the course of the evening of the 13th, while his
+physician and family were round him, his strength suddenly gave way,
+and at half past eight he died, at the age of eighty-eight, and was
+buried at Stone in Staffordshire. He was succeeded in the peerage by
+his nephew, who, however, inherits only the viscounty.
+
+In our general notice of Lord St Vincent's career, we have adverted as
+little as possible to the opinions which his biographer had introduced
+from his own view of public affairs. We have no wish to make a peevish
+return to the writer of a work which has given us both information and
+pleasure. But it is necessary to caution Mr Tucker against giving
+trite and trifling opinions on subjects of which he evidently knows so
+little as of the Romish question, or the state of Ireland. Nothing is
+easier than to be at once solemn and superficial on such topics; and
+when a writer of this order flings his epithets of "bigoted, harsh,
+and impolitic," and the other stock phrases of party organs, he only
+enfeebles our respect for his authority in the immediate matters of
+his work, and rather lowers our respect for his faculties in all. The
+question of Popery in Ireland, is not a question of religion but of
+faction. Religious controversy on Romish doctrines has long ceased to
+exist. Romanism has no grounds on which a controversy can be
+sustained. It cannot appeal to the Scriptures, which it shuts up; and
+it will no longer be suffered to appeal to its mere childish pretence
+of infallibility. Its only ground in Ireland is party; and the present
+unhappy condition to which it has reduced Ireland, exhibits the
+natural consequences of indulgence to Popery, and the only means by
+which its spirit can be rendered consistent with the order of society.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART X.
+
+
+    "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+    Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+    Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+    Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+    And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+    Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+    Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+                                       SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+On reaching the prison, I gave up all for lost; sullenly resigned
+myself to what now seemed the will of fate; and without a word, except
+in answer to the interrogatory of my name and country, followed the
+two horrid-looking ruffians who performed the office of turnkeys. St
+Lazare had been a monastery, and its massiveness, grimness, and
+confusion of buildings, with its extreme silence at that late hour,
+gave me the strongest impression of a huge catacomb above ground. The
+door of a cell was opened for me after traversing a long succession of
+cloisters; and on a little wooden trestle, and wrapt in my cloak, I
+attempted to sleep. But if sleep has not much to boast of in Paris at
+any time, what was it then? I had scarcely closed my eyes when I was
+roused by a rapid succession of musket-shots, fired at the opposite
+side of the cloister, the light of torches flashing through the long
+avenues, and the shouts of men and women in wrath, terror, and agony.
+I threw myself off my uneasy bed, and climbing up by my prison bars,
+endeavoured to ascertain the cause of the mêlée. But the imperfect
+light served little more than to show a general mustering of the
+national guard in the court, and a huge and heavy building, into which
+they were discharging random shots whenever a head appeared at its
+casements. A loud huzza followed whenever one of those shots appeared
+to take effect, and a laugh equally loud ran through the ranks when
+the bullet wasted its effect on the massive mullions or stained glass
+of the windows. A tall figure on horseback, whom I afterwards learned
+to be Henriot, the commandant of the national guard, galloped up and
+down the court with the air of a general-in-chief manoeuvring an army.
+I think that he actually had provided himself with a truncheon to meet
+all the emergencies of supreme command. While this sanguinary, and yet
+mocking representation of warfare was going on, M. le Commandant was
+in full eloquence and prodigious gesticulation. "A la gloire, mes
+enfans!" was his constant cry. "Fight, _mes braves!_ the honour of
+France demands it: the eyes of Europe--of the world--are turned upon
+you. _Vive la Republique!_" And all this accompanied with waving his
+hat, and spurring his horse into foam and fury. But fortune is a jade
+after all; and the hero of the tricolored scarf was destined to have
+his laurels a little shorn, even on this narrow field. While his
+charger was caracoling over the cloisters, and his veterans from the
+cellars and counters of Paris were popping off their muskets at the
+unfortunates who started up against the old casement, I heard a sudden
+rush and run; a low postern of the cloister had been flung back, and
+the prisoners within the building had made a sally on their
+tormentors. A massacre at the Bicêtre, in which six thousand had
+perished, had warned these unhappy people that neither the prison
+wall, nor night, was to be security against the rage of the
+bloodhounds with whom murder seemed to have grown into a pastime; and
+after having seen several of their number shot down within their
+dungeon, they determined to attack them, and, if they must die, at
+least die in manly defence. Their rush was perfectly successful; it
+had the effect of a complete surprise; and though their only weapons
+were fragments of their firewood--for all fire-arms and knives had
+been taken from them immediately on their entrance into the
+prison--they routed the heroes of the guard at the first charge. Even
+the gallant commander himself only shared the chance of his
+"camarades:" a flourish or two of his sabre, and an adjuration of
+"liberty," had no other effect than to insure a heavier shower of
+blows, and I had the gratification of seeing the braggadocio go down
+from his saddle in the midst of a group, who certainly had no
+veneration for the majesty of the truncheon. The victory was achieved;
+but, like many another victory, it produced no results: the gates of
+the St Lazare were too strongly guarded to be forced by an unarmed
+crowd, and I saw the prisoners successively and gloomily return to the
+only roof, melancholy as that was, which now could shelter them.
+
+The morning brought my case before the authorities of this den. Half a
+dozen coarse and filthy uniformed men, and some of them evidently
+sufferers in the tumult of the night, for their heads were bound up
+and their arms bandaged--a matter which, if it did not improve their
+appearance, gave me every reason to expect increased brutishness in
+their tempers--formed the tribunal. The hall in which they had
+established their court had once been the kitchen of the convent; and,
+though all signs of hospitality had vanished, its rude and wild
+construction, its stone floor and vaulted roof, and even its yawning
+and dark recesses for the different operations which, in other days,
+had made it a scene of busy cheerfulness, now gave it a look of
+dreariness in the extreme. I could have easily imagined it to be a
+chamber of the Inquisition. But men in my circumstances have not much
+time for the work of fancy; and I was instantly called on for my name,
+and business in France. I had heard enough of popular justice to
+believe, that I had now arrived within sight of the last struggle, and
+I resolved to give these ruffians no triumph over the Englishman.
+
+"Citizen, who are you?" Was the first interrogatory.
+
+"I am no citizen, no Frenchman, and no republican," was my answer. My
+judges stared at each other.
+
+"You are a prisoner. How came you here?"
+
+"You are judges; how came you there?"
+
+"You are charged with crimes against the Republic."
+
+"In my country no man is expected to criminate himself."
+
+"But you are a traitor: can you deny that?"
+
+"I am no traitor to my king; can you say as much for yourselves?" They
+now began to cast furious glances at me.
+
+"You are insolent: what brought you into the territory of France?"
+
+"The same thing which placed you on that bench--force."
+
+"Are you mad?"
+
+"No--are you?"
+
+"Do you not know that we can send you to the"--
+
+"If you do, I shall only go before _you_."
+
+This put an end to my interrogatory at once. I had accidentally
+touched upon the nerve which quivered in every bosom of these fellows.
+There was a singular presentiment among even the boldest of the
+Revolutionists, that the new order of things would not last, and that,
+when the change came, it would be a bloody one. Life had become
+sufficiently precarious already among the possessors of power; and the
+least intimation of death was actually formidable to a race of
+villains whose hands were hourly imbued in slaughter. I had been
+hitherto placed in scarcely more than surveillance. An order for my
+confinement as a "Brigand Anglais," was made out by the indignant
+"commission," and I was transferred from my narrow and lonely cell
+into the huge crowded building in the opposite cloister, which had
+been the scene of the attack on the previous night. I could, with
+Cato, "smile on the drawn dagger and defy its point." I walked out
+with the air of a Cato.
+
+This change, intended for my infinite degradation until the guillotine
+should have dispatched its business in arrear, I found much to my
+advantage. The man who expects nothing, cannot be hurt by
+disappointment; and when I was conducted from my solitary cell into
+the midst of four or five hundred prisoners, I felt the human feelings
+kindle in me, which had been chilled between my four stone walls.
+
+The prisoners with whom I was now to take my chance, were of all
+ranks, professions, and degrees of crime. The true crime in the eyes
+of the republic being, to be rich. Yet there the culprit had some hope
+of being suffered to live, at least while daily examinations, with the
+hourly perspective of the axe, could make him contribute to the purses
+of the tribunal. Those who happened to be poor, were found guilty of
+_incivisme_ at once, and were daily drafted off to the Place de Grève,
+from which they never returned. But some of the prisoners were from La
+Vendée, peasants mixed with nobles; who, though no formal shape of
+resistance to the republic was yet declared, had exhibited enough of
+that gallant contempt of the new tyranny, which afterwards
+immortalized the name, to render them obnoxious to the ruffians at its
+head. It was this sturdy portion which had made the dash on the night
+of the riot, and their daring had the effect, at least, of saving
+their fellow-prisoners in future from being made marks, to teach the
+national guard the art of shooting. Even their sentries kept a
+respectful distance; and M. Henriot, wisely mindful of his
+flagellation, flourished his staff of command no more within our
+cloister. We were, in fact, left almost wholly to ourselves. Yet, if a
+philosopher desired to take a lesson in human nature, this was the
+spot of earth for the study. We had it in every shape and shade. We
+had it in the wits and blockheads, the courtiers and the clowns, the
+opulent and the ruined, the brave and the pusillanimous--and all under
+the strangest pressure of those feelings which rouse the nature of man
+to its most undisguised display. Death was before every eye. Where was
+the use of wearing a mask, when the wearer was so soon to part with
+his head? Pretence gradually vanished, and a general spirit of
+boldness, frankness, and something, if not exactly of dignity, at
+least of manliness, superseded the customary cringing of society under
+a despotism. In all but the name, we were better republicans than the
+tribe who shouted in the streets, or robbed in the tribunals.
+
+I made the remark one day to the Marquis de Cassini, a philosopher and
+pupil of the great Buffon. "The reason is," said he, "that men differ
+chiefly by circumstances, as they differ chiefly by their clothes.
+Throw off their dress, whether embroidery or rags, and you will find
+the same number of ribs in them all."
+
+"But my chief surprise is, to find in this prison more mutual
+kindness, and, in every sense, more generosity of sentiment, than one
+generally expects to meet in the world."
+
+"Helvetius would tell you that all this was self-interest," was my
+pale-visaged and contemplative friend's reply. "But I always regarded
+M. Helvetius in the light of a well-trained baboon, who thought, when
+men stared at his tricks, they were admiring his talents. The truth
+is, that self-interest is the mere creature of society, and is the
+most active in the basest society. It is the combined cowardice and
+cruelty of men struggling for existence; the savageness of the forest,
+where men cannot gather acorns enough to share with their fellows; the
+effort for life, where there is but one plank in a storm, and where,
+if you are to cling at all, it must be by drowning the weaker party.
+But here," and he cast his eyes calmly round the crowd, "as there is
+not the slightest possibility that any one of us will escape, we have
+the better opportunity of showing our original _bienséance_. All the
+struggling on earth will not save us from the guillotine; and
+therefore we resolve to accommodate each other for the rest of our
+journey."
+
+I agreed with him on the philosophy of the case, and in return he
+introduced me to some of the Vendéan nobles, who had hitherto
+exhibited their general scorn of Parisian contact by confining
+themselves to the circle of their followers. I was received with the
+distinction due to my introducer, and was invited to join their supper
+that night. The prison had once been the chapel of the convent; and
+though the desecration had taken place a hundred years before, and the
+revolutionary spoil had spared but little of the remaining ornaments,
+the original massiveness of the building, and the nobleness of the
+architecture, had withstood the assaults of both time and plunder. The
+roofs of the aisles could not be reached except by flame, and the
+monuments of the ancient priors and prelates, when they had once been
+stripped of their crosses, were too solid for the passing fury of the
+mob. And thus, in the midst of emblems of mortality, and the
+recollections of old solemnity, were set some hundreds of people, who
+knew as little of each other as if they had met in a caravansery, and
+who, perhaps, expected to part as soon. The scene was curious, but by
+no means uncheerful. The national spirit is inextinguishable; and,
+however my countrymen may bear up against the extremes of ill-fortune,
+no man meets its beginnings with so easy an air as the man of France.
+Our supper was laid out in one of the side chapels; and, coarse and
+scanty as it was, I seldom recollect an evening which I passed with a
+lighter sense of the burden of a prisoner's time. I found the Vendéan
+nobles a manlier race than their more courtly countrymen. Yet they had
+courtliness of their own; but it was more the manner of our own
+country gentlemen of the last century, than the polish of Versailles.
+Their habits of living on their domains, of country sports, of
+intercourse with their peasantry, and of the general simplicity of
+country life, had drawn a strong line of distinction between them and
+the dukes and marquises of the royal saloons. Like all Frenchmen of
+the day, they conversed largely upon the politics of France; but there
+was a striking reserve in their style. The existing royal family were
+but little mentioned, or mentioned only with a certain kind of sacred
+respect. Their misfortunes prohibited the slightest severity of
+language. Yet still it was not difficult to see, that those
+straightforward and honest lords of the soil, who were yet to prove
+themselves the true chevaliers of France, could feel as acutely, and
+express as strongly, the injuries inflicted by the absurdities and
+vices of the successive administrations of their reign, as if they had
+figured in the clubs of the capital. But the profligacies of the
+preceding monarch, and the tribe of fools and knaves whom those
+profligacies as naturally gathered round him as the plague propagates
+its own contagion, met with no mercy. And, though they were spoken of
+with the gravity which became the character and rank of the speakers,
+they were denounced with a sternness which seemed beyond the morals or
+the mind of their country. Louis XV., Du Barri, and the whole long
+succession of corrupting and corrupted cabinets, which had at length
+rendered the monarchy odious, were denounced in terms worthy of
+gallant men; who, though resolved to sink or swim with the throne,
+experienced all the bitterness of generous indignation at the crimes
+which had raised the storm.
+
+We had our songs too, and some of them were as contemptuous as ever
+came from the pen of Parisian satire. Among my recollections of the
+night was one of those songs, of which the _refrain_ was--
+
+    "Le Bien-Aimé--_de l'Almanac_."
+
+A burlesque on the title--Le Bien-Aimé, &c., which the court calendar,
+and the court calendar _alone_, had annually given to the late king. I
+can offer only a paraphrase.
+
+     "Louis Quinze, our burning shame,
+      Hear our song, 'old well-beloved,'
+    What if courts and camps are tame,
+      Pension'd beggars laced and gloved,
+    France's love grows rather slack,
+    Idol of--the Almanac.
+
+     "Let your flatterers hang or drown,
+      We are of another school,
+    Truth no more shall be put down,
+      We can call a fool a fool,
+    Fearless of Bastile or rack,
+    Titus of--the Almanac.
+
+     "Louis, trample on your serfs,
+      We'll be trampled on no more,
+    Revel in your _parc aux cerfs_,[27]
+      Eat and drink--'twill soon be o'er.
+    France will steer another tack,
+    Solon of--the Almanac!
+
+     "Hear your praises from your pages,
+      Hear them from your liveried lords,
+    Let your valets earn their wages,
+      Liars, living on their words;
+    We'll soon give them nuts to crack,
+    Cæsar of--the Almanac!
+
+     "When a dotard fills the throne,
+      Fit for nothing but a nurse,
+    When a nation's general groan,
+      Yields to nothing but its curse;
+    What are armies at thy back,
+    Henri of--the Almanac?
+
+     "When the truth is bought and sold,
+      When the wrongs of man are spurn'd,
+    Then the crown's last knell is toll'd,
+      Then, old Time, thy glass has turn'd,
+    And comes flying from thy pack
+    To nations a _new_ Almanac!
+
+     "Mistress, minister, Bourbon,
+      Rule by bayonets, bribes, and spies,
+    Charlatans in church and throne,
+      France is opening all her eyes--
+    Down go minion, king, and quack,
+    We'll have _our_ new Almanac!"
+
+    [27] A scene of peculiar infamy near Paris.
+
+When I returned to the place where my mattress was flung, the crowd
+had already sunk to rest, and there was a general silence throughout
+the building. The few lights which our jailers supplied to us, had
+become fewer; and, except for the heavy sound of the doubled sentries'
+tread outside, I might have imagined myself in a vast cemetery. The
+agitation of the day, followed by the somewhat unsuitable gayety of
+the evening, had thrown me into such a state of mental and bodily
+fatigue, that I had scarcely laid my side on my bed, untempting as it
+was, when I dropped into a heavy slumber. The ingenuity of our
+tormentors, however, prohibited our knowing any thing in the shape of
+indulgence; and in realisation of the dramatist's renowned _mot_,
+"traitors never sleep," the prison door was suddenly flung open--a
+drum rattled through the aisle--the whole body of the prisoners were
+ordered to stand forth and answer to their names; this ceremony
+concluding with the march of the whole night-guard into the chapel,
+and their being ordered to load with ball-cartridge, to give us the
+sufficient knowledge of what any attempt to escape would bring upon us
+in future. This refinement in cruelty we owed to the _escapade_ of the
+night before.
+
+At length, after a variety of insulting queries, even this scene was
+over. The guard marched out, the roll of their drum passed away among
+the cloisters; we went shivering to our beds--threw ourselves down
+dressed as we were, and tried to forget France and our jailers.
+
+But a French night in those times was like no other, and I had yet to
+witness a scene such as I believe could not have existed in any other
+country of the globe.
+
+After some period of feverish sleep I was awakened by a strange
+murmur, which, mixing with my dreams, had given me the comfortless
+idea of hearing the roar of the multitude at some of the horrid
+displays of the guillotine; and as I half opened my unwilling eyes,
+still heavy with sleep, I saw a long procession of figures, in flowing
+mantles and draperies, moving down the huge hall. A semicircle of beds
+filled the extremity of the chapel, which had been vacated by a draft
+of unfortunate beings, carried off during the day to that dreadful
+tribunal, whose sole employment seemed to be the supply of the axe,
+and from which no one was ever expected to return. While my eyes, with
+a strange and almost superstitious anxiety--such is the influence of
+time and place--followed this extraordinary train, I saw it take
+possession of the range of beds; each new possessor sitting wrapt in
+his pale vesture, and perfectly motionless. I can scarcely describe
+the singular sensations with which I continued to gaze on the
+spectacle. My eyes sometimes closed, and I almost conceived that the
+whole was a dream; but the forms were too distinct for this
+conjecture, and the question with me now became, "are they flesh and
+blood?" I had not sunk so far into reverie as to imagine that they
+were the actual spectres of the unhappy tenants of those beds on the
+night before, all of whom were now, doubtless, in the grave; but the
+silence, the distance, the dimness perplexed me, and I left the
+question to be settled by the event. At a gesture from the central
+figure they all stood up--and a man loaded with fetters was brought
+forward in front of their line. I now found that a trial was going on:
+the group were the judges, the man was the presumed criminal; there
+was an accuser, there was an advocate--in short, all the general
+process of a trial was passing before my view. Curiosity would
+naturally have made me spring from my bed and approach this
+extraordinary spectacle; but I am not ashamed now to acknowledge, that
+I felt a nervelessness and inability to speak or move, which for the
+time wholly awed me. All that I could discover was, that the accused
+was charged with _incivisme_, and that, defying the court and
+disdaining the charge, he was pronounced guilty--the whole circle,
+standing up as the sentence was pronounced, and with a solemn waving
+of their arms and murmur of their voices, assenting to the act of the
+judge. The victim was then seized on, swept away into the darkness,
+and after a brief pause I heard a shriek and a crash; the sentence had
+been fulfilled--all was over. The court now covered their heads with
+their mantles, as if in sorrow for this formidable necessity.
+
+But how shall I speak of the closing scene? However it surprised and
+absorbed me in that moment of nervous excitement, I can allude to it
+now only as characteristic of a time when every mind in France was
+half lunatic. I saw a figure enveloped in star-coloured light emerge
+from the darkness, slowly ascend, in a vesture floating round it like
+the robes which Raphael or Guido gives to the beings of another
+sphere, and, accompanied by a burst of harmony as it rose, ascend to
+the roof, where it suddenly disappeared. All was instantly the silence
+and the darkness of the grave.
+
+Daylight brought back my senses, and I was convinced that the
+pantomimic spirit of the people, however unaccountably it might
+disregard proprieties, had been busy with the scene. I should now
+certainly have abandoned the supernatural portion of the conjecture
+altogether; but on mentioning it to Cassini, he let me into the
+solution at once.
+
+"Have you never observed," said he, "the passion of all people for
+walking on the edge of a precipice, climbing a church tower, looking
+down from a battlement, or doing any one thing which gives them the
+nearest possible chance of breaking their necks?--then you can
+comprehend the performance of last night. There we are, like fowls in
+a coop: every day sees some of us taken out; and the amusement of the
+remaining fowls is to imagine how the heads of the others were taken
+from their bodies." The prisoners were practising a trial.
+
+I gave an involuntary look of surprise at this species of amusement,
+and remarked something on the violation of common feeling--to say
+nothing of the almost profaneness which it involved.
+
+"As to the feeling," said Cassini, with that shrug which no shoulders
+but those of a Frenchman can ever give, "it is a matter of taste; and
+perhaps we have no right to dictate in such matters to persons who
+would think a week a long lease of life, and who, instead of seven
+days, may not have so many hours. As to the profanation, if your
+English scruples made you sensitive on such points, I can assure you
+that you might have seen some things much more calculated to excite
+your sensibilities. The display last night was simply the trial of a
+royalist; and as we are all more or less angry with republicanism at
+this moment, and with some small reason too, the royalist, though he
+was condemned, as every body now is, was suffered to have his
+apotheosis. But _I_ have seen exhibitions in which the republican was
+the criminal, and the scene that followed was really startling even to
+my rather callous conceptions. Sometimes we even had one of the
+colossal ruffians who are now lording it over France. I have seen St
+Just, Couthon, Caier, Danton, nay Robespierre himself; arraigned
+before our midnight tribunal; for this amusement is the only one which
+we can enjoy without fear of interruption from our jailers. Thus we
+enjoy it with the greater gusto, and revenge ourselves for the
+tribulations of the day by trying our tormentors at night."
+
+"I am satisfied with the reason, although I am not yet quite
+reconciled to the performance. Who were the actors?"
+
+"You are now nearer the truth than you suspected. We have men of every
+trade here, and, among the rest, we have actors enough to stock the
+_Comédie Française_. If you remain long enough among us, you will see
+some of the best farces of the best time played uncommonly well by our
+fellow _détenus_. But in the interim--for our stage is permitted by
+the municipality to open in the St Lazare only four times a month--a
+piece of cruelty which we all regard as intolerable--our actors
+refresh their faculties with all kinds of displays. You acknowledge
+that the scene last night was well got up; and if you should see the
+trial of some of our 'Grands Democrats,' be assured that your
+admiration will not be attracted by showy vesture, blue lights, or the
+harmonies of the old asthmatic organ in yonder gallery; our pattern
+will be taken from the last scene of 'Il Don Giovanni.' You will have
+no pasteboard figure suspended from the roof, and wafted upward in
+starlight or moonlight. But if you wish to see the exhibition, I am
+concerned to tell you that you must wait, for to-night all our
+_artistes_ are busy. In what, do you conceive?"
+
+I professed my inability to fathom "the infinite resources of the
+native mind, where amusement was the question."
+
+"Well then--not to keep you in suspense--we are to have a masquerade."
+
+The fact was even so. France having grown tired of all things that had
+been, grew tired of weeks, and Decades were the law of the land. The
+year was divided into packs of ten days each, and she began the great
+game of time by shuffling and cutting her cards anew. The change was
+not marked by any peculiar good fortune; for it was laughed at, as
+every thing in France was except an order for deportation to the
+colonies, or a march to the scaffold. The populace, fully admitting
+the right of government to deal with kings and priests as it pleased,
+regarded the interference with their pleasures as a breach of compact;
+and the result was, that the populace had their Dimanche as well as
+their Decadi, and that the grand experiment for wiping out the Sunday,
+issued in giving them two holidays instead of one.
+
+It was still early in the day when some bustle in the porch of the
+prison turned all eyes towards it, and a new detachment of prisoners
+was brought in. I shall say nothing of the scenes of wretchedness
+which followed; the wild terrors of women on finding themselves in
+this melancholy place, which looked, and was, scarcely more than a
+vestibule to the tomb; the deep distress of parents, with their
+children clinging round them, and the general despair--a despair which
+was but too well founded. Yet the tumult of their settling and
+distribution among the various quarters of the chapel had scarcely
+subsided when another scene was at hand. The commissary of the
+district came in, with a list of the prisoners who were summoned
+before the tribunal. Our prison population was like the waters of a
+bath, as one stream flowed in another flowed out; the level was
+constantly sustained. With an instinctive pang I heard my name
+pronounced among those unhappy objects of sanguinary rule. Cassini
+approached me with a smile, which he evidently put on to conceal his
+emotion.
+
+"This is quick work, M. Marston," said he, taking my hand. "As the
+ruffian in the school fable says, 'Hodie tibi, cras nihi'--twelve
+hours will probably make all the difference between us."
+
+I took off the little locket coutaining my last remembrance of
+Clotilde, and put it into his hands, requesting him, if he survived,
+to transmit it to his incomparable countrywoman, with an assurance
+that I remembered her in an hour when all else was forgotten.
+
+"I shall perform the part of your legatee," said he, "till to-morrow;
+then I will find some other depositary. Here you must know that
+heirship is rapid, and that the will is executed before the ink is
+dry." He turned away to hide a tear. "I have not known you long, sir,"
+said he; "but in this place we must be expeditious in every thing. You
+are too young to die. If you are sacrificed, I am convinced that you
+will die like a gentleman and a man of honour. And yet I have some
+feeling, some presentiment, nay almost a consciousness, that you will
+not be cut off, at least until you are as weary of the world as I am."
+
+I endeavoured to put on a face of resignation, if not of cheerfulness,
+and said, "That though my country might revenge my death, my being
+engaged in its service would only make my condemnation inevitable. But
+I was prepared."
+
+"At all events, my young friend," said he, "if you escape from this
+pandemonium of France, take this paper, and vindicate the memory of
+Cassini."
+
+He gave me a memoir, which I could not help receiving with a smile,
+from the brevity of the period during which the trust was likely to
+hold. The gendarme now came up to demand my attendance. I shook hands
+with the marquis, who at that moment was certainly no philosopher, and
+followed the train.
+
+We were about fifty in number; and after being placed in open
+artillery waggons, the procession moved rapidly through the suburb,
+until we reached one of those dilapidated and hideous-looking
+buildings which were then to be found startling the stranger's eye
+with the recollections of the St Bartholomew and the Fronde.
+
+A crowd, assembled round the door of one of these melancholy shades,
+and the bayonets of a company of the national guard glittering above
+their heads, at length indicated the place of our destination. The
+crowd shouted, and called us "aristocrats, thirsting for the blood of
+the good citizens." The line of the guard opened, and we were rapidly
+passed through several halls, the very dwelling of decay, until we
+reached a large court, where the prisoners remained while the judges
+were occupied in deciding on the fate of the train which the morning
+had already provided. I say nothing of the insults which were
+intended, if not to add new bitterness to death, to indulge the
+wretched men and women who could find an existence in attending on the
+offices of the tribunal, with opportunities of triumphing over those
+born to better things. While we remained in the court exposed to the
+weather, which was now cold and gusty, shouts were heard at intervals,
+which, as the turnkeys informed us, arose from the spectators of the
+executions--death, in these fearful days, immediately following
+sentence. Yet, to the last the ludicrous often mingled with the
+melancholy. While I was taking my place in the file according to the
+order of our summons, and was next in rotation for trial, a smart and
+overdressed young man stepped out of his place in the rank, and
+drawing from his bosom a pamphlet in manuscript, presented it to me,
+with the special entreaty that, "in case I survived, I should take
+care of its propagation throughout Europe." My answer naturally was,
+"That my fate was fully as precarious as that of the rest, and that
+thus I had no hope of being able to give his pamphlet to mankind."
+
+"_Mais_, monsieur," that phrase which means so many inexpressible
+things--"But, sir, you must observe, that by putting my pamphlet into
+your charge, it has a double chance. You may read it as a part of your
+defence; it is a treatise on the government of France, which settles
+all the disputed questions, reconciles republicanism with monarchy,
+and shows how a revolution may be made to purify all things without
+overthrowing any. Thus my sentiments will become public at once, the
+world will be enlightened, and, though _you_ may perish, France will
+be saved."
+
+Nothing could be more convincing; yet I continued stubborn. He
+persisted. I suggested the "possibility of my not being suffered to
+make any defence whatever, but of being swept away at once; in this
+case endangering the total loss of his conceptions to the world;" but
+I had to deal with a man of resources.
+
+"No," said the author and philanthropist; "for that event I have
+provided. I have a second copy folded on my breast, which I shall read
+when I am called on for trial. Then those immortal truths shall not be
+left to accident; I shall have two chances for celebrity; the labour
+of my life shall be known; nor shall the name of Jean Jacques
+Pelletier go to the tomb without the renown due to a philosopher."
+
+But further deprecation on my part was cut short by the appearance of
+two of the guard, by whom I was marched to the presence of the
+tribunal. The day had now waned, and two or three lamps showed my
+weary eye the judges, whose decision was to make the difference to me
+between life and death, within the next half hour. Their appearance
+was the reverse of one likely to reconcile the unfortunate to the
+severity of the law. They were seven or eight sitting on a raised
+platform, with a long table in their front, covered with papers, with
+what seemed to be the property taken from the condemned at the
+moment--watches, purses, and trinkets; and among those piles, very
+visibly the fragments of a dinner--plates and soups, with several
+bottles of cognac and wine. Justice was so indefatigable in France,
+that its ministers were forced to mingle all the functions of public
+and private life together; and to be intoxicated in the act of passing
+sentence of death was no uncommon event.
+
+The judges of those sectional tribunals were generally ruffians of the
+lowest description, who, having made themselves notorious by violence
+and Jacobinism, had driven away the usual magistracy, and, under the
+pretext of administering justice, were actually driving a gainful
+trade in robbery of every kind. The old costume of the courts of law
+was of course abjured; and the new civic costume, which was obviously
+constructed on the principle of leaving the lands free for butchery,
+and preserving the garments free from any chance of being disfigured
+by the blood of the victim--for they were the perfection of savage
+squalidness--was displayed _à la rigueur_ on the bench. A short coat
+without sleeves, the shirt sleeves tucked up as for instant execution,
+the neck open, no collar, fierce mustaches, a head of clotted hair,
+sometimes a red nightcap stuck on one side, and sometimes a red
+handkerchief tied round it as a temporary "bonnet de nuit"--for the
+judges frequently, in drunkenness or fatigue, threw themselves on the
+bench or the floor, and slept--exhibited the regenerated aspect of
+Themis in the capital of the polished world.
+
+My name was now called. I shall not say with what a throb of heart I
+heard it. But at the moment when I was stepping forward, I felt my
+skirt pulled by one of the guard behind me. I looked, and recognized
+through all his beard, and the hair that in profusion covered his
+physiognomy, my police friend, who seemed to possess the faculty of
+being every where--a matter, however, rendered easier to him by his
+being in the employ of the government--and who simply whispered the
+words--"Be firm, and acknowledge nothing." Slight as the hint was, it
+had come in good time; for I had grown desperate from the sight of the
+perpetual casualties round me, and, like Cassini's idea of the man
+walking on the edge of the precipice, had felt some inclination to
+jump off, and take my chance. But now contempt and defiance took the
+place of despair; and instead of openly declaring my purposes and
+performances, my mind was made up to leave them to find out what they
+could.
+
+On my being marched up to the foot of the platform between two
+frightful-looking ruffians, whose coats and trousers seemed to have
+been dyed in gore, to show that they were worthy of the murders of
+September, and who, to make "assurance doubly sure," wore on their
+sword-belts the word "September," painted in broad characters, I
+remained for a while unquestioned, until they turned over a pile of
+names which they had flung on the table before them. At last their
+perplexity was relieved by one of the clerks, who pronounced my name.
+I was then interrogated in nearly the same style as before the
+committee of my first captors. I gave them short answers.
+
+"Who are you?" asked the principal distributor of rabble justice. The
+others stooped forward, pens in hand, to record my conviction.
+
+My answer was--
+
+"I am a man." (Murmurs on the platform.)
+
+"Whence come you?"
+
+"From your prison."
+
+"You are not a Frenchman?"
+
+"No, thank Heaven!" (Murmurs again.)
+
+"Beware, sir, of insolence to the tribunal. We can send you instantly
+to punishment."
+
+"I know it. Why then try me at all?"
+
+"Because, prisoner, we desire to hear the truth first."
+
+"First or last, can you bear to hear it?" (Angry looks, but more
+attention.)
+
+"We have no time to waste--the business of the Republic must be done.
+Are you a citizen?"
+
+"I am; a citizen of the world."
+
+"You must not equivocate with justice. Where did you live before you
+were arrested?"
+
+"On the globe." (A half-suppressed laugh among the crowd in the back
+ground.)
+
+"What profession?"
+
+"None."
+
+"On what then do you live, have lived, or expect to live?"
+
+"To-day on nothing, for your guards have given me nothing. Yesterday,
+I lived on what I could get. To-morrow, it depends on circumstances
+whether I shall want any thing." (A low murmur of applause among the
+bystanders, who now gathered closer to the front.)
+
+"Prisoner," said the chief, swilling a glass of cognac to strengthen
+the solemnity of his jurisprudence, "the Republic must not be trifled
+with. You are arraigned of _incivisme_. Of what country are you a
+subject?"
+
+"Of France, while I remain on her territory."
+
+"Have you fought for France?"
+
+"I have; for her laws, her liberty, her property, and her honour."
+(Bravo! from the crowd.)
+
+"Yet you are not a Republican?"
+
+"No; no more than you are."
+
+This produced confusion on the bench. The hit was contemptuously
+accidental; but it was a home-thrust at the chief, who had former been
+a domestic in the Tuileries, and was still strongly suspected of being
+a spy of the Bourbons. The crowd who knew his story, who are always
+delighted with a blow at power, burst into a general roar. But a
+little spruce fellow on the bench, who had already exhibited a desire
+to take his share in the interrogatory, now thrust his head over the
+table, and said in his most searching tone--
+
+"To come to the point--Prisoner, how do you live? What are your means?
+All honest men must have visible means. That is _my_ question." (All
+eyes were now turned on me.)
+
+I was now growing angry; and, pointing to the pile of purses and
+watches on the table--
+
+"No man," said I, "needs ask what are your visible means, when they
+see that pile before you. Yet I doubt if that proves you to be an
+honest man. That is _my_ answer."
+
+The little inquisitor looked furious, and glanced towards the chief
+for protection; but his intrusion had provoked wrath in that quarter,
+and his glance was returned with a rigid smile.
+
+"Prisoner," said the head of the tribunal, "though the question was
+put improperly, it was itself a proper one. How do you live?"
+
+"By my abilities."
+
+"That is a very doubtful support in those times."
+
+"I do not recommend you, or any of those around you, to make the
+experiment," was my indignant answer.
+
+The bystanders gave a general laugh, in which even the guard joined.
+To get the laugh against one, is the most unpardonable of all injuries
+in France, and this answer roused up the whole tribunal. They scarcely
+gave themselves the trouble of a moment's consultation. A few nods and
+whispers settled the whole affair; and the chief, standing up and
+drawing his sabre from its sheath--then the significant custom of
+those places of butchery, pronounced the fatal words, "Guilty of
+_incivisme_. Let the criminal be conducted _à la Force_," the
+well-known phrase for immediate execution.
+
+The door was opened from which none ever came back. Two torches were
+seen glaring down the passage, and I was seized by the grim escort who
+were to lead me to the axe.
+
+The affectation of cowardice is as childish as the affectation of
+courage; but I felt a sensation at that moment which took me by
+surprise. I had been perfectly assured of my sentence from the first
+glance at the judges. If ever there was a spot on earth which deserved
+Dante's motto of Erebus--
+
+    "Voi qui entrate, lasciate agui speranza"--
+
+it was the revolutionary tribunal. Despair was written all over it in
+characters impossible to be mistaken. I had fixed my resolution to go
+through the whole scene, if not with heroism, at least with that
+decent firmness which becomes a man; yet the sound of the words which
+consigned me to the scaffold struck me with a general chill. Momentary
+as the period was, the question passed through my mind, are those
+paralysed limbs the same which bore me so well through the hazards of
+the campaign? Why am I to feel the fluttering of heart now, more than
+when I was facing sabres and cannon-shot? Why am I thus frigid and
+feeble, when I so lately fought and marched, and defied alike fatigue
+and wounds? But I felt in this chamber of death an inconceivable
+exhaustion, which had never approached me in the havoc of the field.
+My feet refused to move, my lips to breathe; all objects swam round,
+and sick to death and fainting, I thrust out my hand to save me from
+falling, and thus gave the last triumph to my murderers.
+
+At this decisive moment I found my hand caught by a powerful grasp,
+and a strong voice exclaiming, "Messieurs, I demand the delay of this
+sentence. The criminal before you is of higher importance to the state
+than the wretches whom justice daily compels you to sacrifice. His
+crime is of a deeper dye. I exhibit the mandate of the Government to
+arrest the act of the tribunal, and order him to be reserved until he
+reveals the whole of the frightful plots which endanger the Republic."
+
+He then advanced to the platform; and, taking a paper from his bosom,
+displayed to the court and the crowd the order for my being remanded
+to prison, signed by the triumvirate, whose word was law in France.
+Some confusion followed on the bench, and some bustle among the
+spectators; but the document was undeniable, and my sentence was
+suspended. I am not sure that the people within much regretted the
+delay, however those who had been lingering outside might feel
+themselves ill-used by a pause in the executions, which had now become
+a popular amusement; for the crowd instantly pushed forward to witness
+another trial of sarcasm between me and my judges; but this the new
+authority sternly forbade.
+
+"The prisoner," said he, in a dictatorial tone, "is now in my charge.
+He is a prisoner of state--an Englishman--an agent of the monster
+Pitt"--(he paused, and was answered with a general shudder;) "and,
+above all, has actually been in arms with the fiend Brunswick, (a
+general groan,) and with those worse than fiends, those parricides,
+those emigrant nobles, who have come to burn our harvests, slay our
+wives and children, and destroy the proudest monument of human wisdom,
+the grandest triumph of human success, and the most illustrious
+monument of the age of regeneration--the Republic of France." Loud
+acclamations followed this popular rhetoric; and the panegyrist,
+firmly grasping me by the arm, walked with me rapidly out of court.
+All made way for him, and, before another word could be uttered by the
+astounded bench, we were in one of the covered carriages reserved for
+prisoners of the higher rank, and on our way, at full gallop, through
+the intricate streets of Paris.
+
+All this was done with such hurried action, that I had scarcely time
+to know what my own emotions were; but the relief from immediate
+death, or rather from those depressing and overwhelming sensations
+which perhaps make its worst bitterness, was something, and hope
+dawned in me once more. Still, it was wholly in vain that I attempted
+to make my man of mystery utter a word. Nothing could extort a
+syllable from him, and he was evidently unwilling that I should even
+see his face, imperfect as the chance was among the few lamps which
+Paris then exhibited to enlighten the dismal darkness of her
+thoroughfares. Yet the idea that my rescue was not without a purpose
+predominated; and I was beginning even to imagine that I already felt
+the fresh air of the fields, and that our journey would terminate
+outside the walls of Paris, when the carriage came to a full stop,
+and, by the light of a torch streaming on the wind in front, I saw the
+gate of the St Lazare. All was now over--resistance or escape was
+equally beyond me. The carriage was surrounded by the guard, who
+ordered me to descend; their officer received the rescript for my safe
+custody, and I had nothing before me but the dungeon. But at the
+moment when my foot was on the step of the vehicle, my companion
+stooped forward, and uttered in my ear, with a pressure of my hand,
+the word "Mordecai." I was hurried onward, and the carriage drove
+away.
+
+My surprise was excessive. This talismanic word changes the current
+of my thoughts at once. It had so often and so powerfully operated in
+my favour, that I could scarcely doubt its effect once more; yet
+before me were the stern realities of confinement. What spell was
+equal to those stonewalls, what dexterity of man or friendship, or
+even the stronger love of woman, could make my dungeon free, or my
+chains vanish into "thin air?" Still there had been a interposition,
+and to that interposition, whether for future good or ill, it
+certainly was due that I was not already mounting the scaffold, or
+flung, headless trunk, into the miserable and nameless grave.
+
+As I passed again through the cloisters, my ears were caught with the
+sound of music and dancing. The contrast was sufficiently strong to
+the scene from which I had just returned; yet this was the land of
+contrasts. To my look of surprise, the turnkey who attended me
+answered "Perhaps you have forgotten that this is Decadi, and on this
+night we always have our masquerade. If you have not got a dress, I
+shall supply you; my wife is a _fripier_ in the Antoine; she supplies
+all the civic fêtes with costumes, and you may have any dress you
+like, from a grand signor with his turban, down to a _colporteur_ with
+his pack, or a watchman with his nightcap."
+
+My mind was still too unsettled to enjoy masquerading, notwithstanding
+the temptation of the turnkey's wardrobe; and I felt all that absence
+of accommodation to circumstances, that want of plasticity, that
+failure of grasping at every hair's-breadth of enjoyment, which is
+declared by foreigners to form the prodigious deficiency of John Bull.
+If I could have taken refuge, for that night at least, in the saddest
+cell of the old convent, or in the deepest dungeon of the new prison,
+I should have gone to either with indulgence. I longed to lay down my
+aching brains upon my pillow, and forget the fever of the time. But
+prisoners have no choice; and the turnkey, after repeating his
+recommendations that I should not commit an act of such profound
+offence as to appear in the assembly without a domino, if I should
+take nothing else from the store of the most popular _marchande_ in
+Paris, the wife of his bosom, at last, with a shake of his head and a
+bending of his heavy brows at my want of taste, unlocked the gate, and
+thrust me into the midst of my old quarters, the chapel.
+
+There a new scene indeed awaited me. The place which I had left filled
+with trembling clusters of people, whole families clinging to each
+other in terror, loud or mute, but all in the deepest dread of their
+next summons, I found in a state of the most extravagant
+festivity--the chapel lighted up from floor to root--bouquets planted
+wherever it was possible to fix an artificial flower--gaudy wreaths
+depending from the galleries--and all the genius of this country of
+extremes lavished on attempts at decoration. Rude as the materials
+were, they produced at first sight a remarkably striking effect. More
+striking still was the spectacle of the whole multitude in every
+grotesque dress of the world, dancing away as if life was but one
+festival.
+
+As I stood aloof for a while, wholly dazzled by the glare, the
+movement, and the multitude, I was recognised by some of my "old"
+acquaintance--the acquaintance of twenty-four hours--but here time,
+like every thing else, had changed its meaning, and a new influx had
+recruited the hall. Cassini and some others came forward and welcomed
+me, like one who had returned from the tomb--the news of the day was
+given and exchanged--a bottle of champagne was prescribed as the true
+medicine for my lowness of pulse--and I gradually gave myself up to
+the spirit of the hour.
+
+As I wandered through the crowd, a mask dressed as a sylph bent its
+head over my shoulder, and I heard the words, "Why are you not in a
+domino?" I made some careless answer. "Go and get one immediately,"
+was the reply. "Take this card, fasten it on your robe, and meet me
+here again." The mask put a card marked with a large rose into my
+hand, and was gone waltzing away among the crowd. I still lingered,
+leaning against one of the pillars of the aisle. The mask again
+approached me. "Monsieur Anglais," was the whisper, "you do not know
+your friends. Go and furnish yourself with a domino. It is essential
+to your safety." "Who are my friends, and why do you give me this
+advice?" was my enquiry. The mask lightly tripped round me, laid its
+ungloved hand on mine, as if in the mere sport of the dance; and I saw
+that it was the hand of a female from its whiteness and delicacy. I
+was now more perplexed than ever. As the form floated round me with
+the lightness of a zephyr, it whispered the word "Mordecai," and flew
+off into an eddy of the moving multitude. I now obeyed the command;
+went to the little shrine where the turnkey's wife had opened her
+_friperie_, and equipped myself with the dress appointed; and, with
+the card fixed upon my bosom, returned to take my station beside the
+pillar. But no sylph came again; no form rivaled the zephyr before me.
+I listened for that soft, low voice; but listened in vain. Yet what
+was all this but the common sport of a masquerade?
+
+However, an object soon drew the general attention so strongly, as to
+put an end to private curiosity for the time. This was a mask in the
+uniform of a national guard, but so outrageously fine that his
+_entrée_ excited an universal burst of laughter. But when, after a few
+displays of what was apparently all but intoxication, he began a
+detail of his own exploits, it was evident that the whole was a daring
+caricature; and as nothing could be less popular among us than the
+heroes of the shops, the Colonels Calicot, and Mustaches _au
+comptoir_, all his burlesque told incomparably. The old officers among
+us, the Vendéans, and all the ladies--for the sex are aristocrats
+under every government and in every region of the globe--were
+especially delighted. "Alexandre Jules Cæsar," colonel of the "brave
+battalion of the Marais," was evidently worth a dozen field-marshals
+in his own opinion; and his contempt for Vendôme, Marlborough, and
+Frederick le Grand, was only less piquant than the perfect imitation
+and keen burlesque of Santerre, Henriot, and our municipal warriors.
+At length when his plaudits and popularity were at their height, he
+proposed a general toast to the "young heroism," of the capital, and
+prefaced it by a song, in great repute in the old French service.
+
+    "AVANCEZ, BRAVE GUERRIERS."
+
+    "Shoulder arms--brave regiment!
+      Hark, the bugle sounds 'advance.'
+    Pile the baggage--strike the tent;
+      France demands you--fight for France.
+    If the hero gets a ball,
+    His accounts are closed--that's all!
+
+    "Who'd stay wasting time at home,
+      Made for women to despise;
+    When, where'er we choose to roam,
+      All the world before us lies,
+    Following our bugle's call,
+    Life one holiday--that's all!
+
+    "When the soldier's coin is spent,
+      He has but to fight for more;
+    He pays neither tax nor rent,
+      He's but where he was before.
+    If he conquer, if he fall--
+    _Fortune de la guerre_--that's all!
+
+    "Let the pedant waste his oil,
+      With the soldier all is sport;
+    Let your blockheads make a coil
+      In the cloister or the court;
+    Let them fatten in their stall,
+    We can fatten too--that's all!
+
+    "What care we for fortune's frown,
+      All that comes is for the best;
+    What's the noble's bed of down
+      To the soldier's evening rest
+    On the heath or in the hall,
+    All alike to him--that's all!
+
+    "When the morn is on the sky,
+      Hark the gay _reveillé_ rings!
+    Glory lights the soldier's eye,
+      To the gory breach he springs,
+    Plants his colours on the wall
+    Wins and wears the _croix_--that's all!"
+
+The dashing style in which this hereditary song of the French camp was
+given by "Colonel Alexandre Jules Cæsar" of the "brave battalion of
+the Marais," his capitally awkward imitation of the soldier of the old
+_régime_, and his superb affectation of military nonchalance, were so
+admirable, that his song excited actual raptures of applause. His
+performance was encored, and he was surrounded by a group of nymphs
+and graces, among whom his towering figure looked like a grenadier of
+Brobdignag in the circle of a Liliputian light company. He carried on
+the farce for a while with great adroitness and animation; but at
+length he put the circle of tinsel and tiffany aside, and rushing up
+to me, insisted on making me a recruit for the "brave battalion of the
+Marais." But I had no desire to play a part in this pantomime, and
+tried to disengage myself. One word again made me a captive: that word
+was now "Lafontaine;" and at the same moment I saw the sylph bounding
+to my side. What was I to think of this extraordinary combination? All
+was as strange as a midsummer night's dream. The "colonel," as if
+fatigued, leaned against the pillar, and slightly removing his mask, I
+saw, with sudden rejoicing, the features of that gallant young friend,
+whom I had almost despaired of ever seeing again. "Wait in this spot
+until I return," was all that I heard, before he and the sylph had
+waltzed away far down the hall.
+
+I waited for some time in growing anxiety; but the pleasantry of the
+night went on as vividly as ever, and some clever _tableaux vivants_
+had varied the quadrilles. While the dancers gave way to a
+well-performed picture of Hector and Andromache from the _Iliad_, and
+the hero was in the act of taking the plumed helmet from his brow,
+with a grace which enchanted our whole female population, an old
+Savoyard and his daughter came up, one playing the little hand-organ
+of their country, and the other dancing to her tamborine. This was
+pretty, but my impatience was ill disposed to look or listen; when I
+was awakened by a laugh, and the old man's mask being again half
+turned aside, I again saw my friend: the man moved slowly through the
+crowd, and I followed. We gradually twined our way through the
+labyrinth of pillars, leaving the festivity further and further
+behind, until he came to a low door, at which the Savoyard tapped, and
+a watchword being given, the cell was opened. There our robes and
+masks were laid aside; we found peasant dresses, for which we
+exchanged them; and following a muffled figure who carried a lantern,
+we began our movements again through the recesses of the endless
+building. At length we came to a stop, and our guide lifting up a
+ponderous stone which covered the entrance to a deep and dark
+staircase, we began to descend. I now for the first time heard the
+cheerful voice of Lafontaine at my side. "I doubt," said he, "whether
+a hundred years ago any one of us would have ventured on a night march
+of this kind; for, be it known to you, that we are now in the vaults
+of the convent, and shall have to go through a whole regiment of monks
+and abbots in full parade." I observed that, "if we were to meet them
+at all, they would be less likely to impede our progress dead than
+alive;" but I still advised Lafontaine to allude as little as he could
+to the subject, lest it might have the effect of alarming our fair
+companion. "There is no fear of that," said he, "for little Julie is
+in love with M. le Comte, our gallant guide; and a girl of eighteen
+desperately in love, is afraid of nothing. You Englishmen are not
+remarkable for superstition; and as for me and my compatriots, we have
+lost our reverence for monks in any shape since the taking of the
+Bastile."
+
+We now went on drearily and wearily through a range of catacombs,
+stopping from time to time to ascertain whether we were pursued; and
+occasionally not a little startled by the sudden burst of sound that
+came from the revelry above, through the ventilators of these enormous
+vaults. But the Count had well prepared his measures, had evidently
+traced his way before, and led us on without hinderance, until we
+approached a species of sallyport, which, once opened, would have let
+us out into the suburb. Here misfortune first met us; none of the keys
+which the Count had brought with him would fit the lock. It was now
+concluded by our alarmed party, either that the design of escape had
+been discovered, or that the lock had been changed since the day
+before. Here was an insurmountable difficulty. To break down the gate,
+or break through it, was palpably impossible, for it was strongly
+plated with iron, and would have resisted every thing but a
+six-pounder. What was to be done? To remain where we were was
+starvation and death; to return, would be heart-breaking; yet escape
+was clearly out of the question. The Count was furious, as he tried in
+vain to shake the solid obstacle; Lafontaine was in despair. I,
+rather more quietly, took it for granted that the guillotine would
+settle all our troubles in the course of the next day; and the pretty
+Julie, in a deluge of tears, charging herself with having undone us
+all, hung upon the neck of her cavalier, and pledged herself, by all
+the hopes and fears of passion, to die along with him. While the
+lovers were exchanging their last vows, Lafontaine, in all the
+vexation of his soul, was explaining to me the matchless excellence of
+the plot, which had been thus defeated in the very moment of promised
+success.
+
+"You perhaps remember," said he, "the letter which the father of
+Mariamne, that dearest girl whom I shall now never see again in this
+world, gave you for one of his nation in Paris. On the night when I
+last saw you, I had found it lying on your table; and in the confusion
+of the moment, when I thought you killed, and rushed into the street
+to gain some tidings of you, I took charge of the letter, to assist me
+in the enquiry. Unlucky as usual, I fell into the hands of a rabble
+returning from the plunder of the palace, was fired on, was wounded,
+and carried to the St Lazare. The governor was a man of honour and a
+royalist, and he took care of me during a dangerous illness and a slow
+recovery. But to give me liberty was out of his power. I had lost
+sight of the world so long, that the world lost sight of me, and I
+remained, forgetting and forgotten; until, within these two days--when
+I received a note from the head of the family to whom your letter was
+directed, informing me that you had been arrested and sent to the very
+prison in which I was--my recollection of the world suddenly revived,
+and I determined to save you if possible. I had grown familiar with
+the proceedings of that tribunal of demons, the Revolutionary
+committee; and as I had no doubt of your condemnation, through the
+mere love of bloodshed, I concerted with my Jewish friend the plan of
+having you claimed as a British agent, who had the means of making
+important disclosures to the government. If this succeeded, your life
+was saved for the day, and your escape was prepared for the night.
+This weeping girl is the daughter of the late governor, who has
+engaged in our plot to save the life of her affianced husband; and
+now, within an hour of daylight, when escape will be impossible, all
+our plans are thrown away--we are brought to a dead stand by the want
+of one miserable key, and shall have nothing more to do than to make
+up our minds to die with what composure we can."
+
+Having finished his story, the narrator wrapt up his head in his
+cloak, and laid himself down like one determined never to rise again.
+The Count and his Julie were so engaged in recapitulating their
+sorrows, sitting side by side on a tombstone, like a pair of
+monumental figures, that they had neither ear nor eye for any thing
+else; but my English nature was made of sterner stuff, and thinking
+that at the last I could but die, I took the lantern and set sturdily
+to work to examine the gate. It was soon evident that it could be
+neither undermined nor broken down by any strength of ours; but it was
+also evident that the lock was the old one which had closed it perhaps
+for the last century, and that the right key was the only thing
+wanting. Leaving Lafontaine in his despair lying at the foot of the
+monument, on which the lovers sat murmuring like a pair of turtle
+doves, I determined to make a thorough search for the missing key, and
+made my way back through all the windings of the catacomb, tracing the
+ground step by step. Still no key was to be found. At last I reached
+the cell where we had changed our dresses, and examined table, floor,
+and chair. Still nothing was to be found; but, unluckily, the light of
+the lantern glancing through the loop-hole of the cell, caught the eye
+of the sentinel on the outside, and he challenged. The sound made me
+start; and I took up one of the robes to cover the light. Something
+hard struck my hand. It was in the gown of the Savoyard's daughter. I
+felt its pockets, and, to my infinite astonishment and delight,
+produced the key. The pretty Julie, who had procured it, had forgotten
+every thing in the rapture of meeting her lover, and had left it
+behind her when she threw off her masquerading costume.
+
+I now hastened back with the rapid step becoming the bearer of good
+tidings, and revived the group of despair. The key was applied to the
+lock, but it refused to move, and we had another pang of
+disappointment. Lafontaine uttered a groan, and Julie poured another
+gush of tears upon her companion's shoulder. I made the experiment
+again; the rust of the lock was now found to have been our only
+hinderance; and with a strong turn the bolt flew back, and the door
+was open.
+
+We had all been so much exhausted by agitation, and the dreary
+traverse of the catacomb, that the first gush of fresh air conveyed a
+sensation almost of new life. The passage had probably been formed in
+the period when every large building in Paris was a species of
+fortress; and we had still a portcullis to pass. When we first pushed
+against it, we felt another momentary pang; but age had made it an
+unfaithful guardian, and a few stout attacks on its decayed bars gave
+us free way. We were now under the open sky; but, to our
+consternation, a new and still more formidable difficulty presented
+itself. The moat was still to be passed. To attempt the drawbridge was
+hopeless; for we could hear the sentinel pacing up and down its
+creaking planks. The moment was critical; for a streak of grey light
+in the far east showed that the day was at hand. After resolving all
+imaginable plans, and abandoning them all as fruitless; determining,
+at all events, never to return, and yet without the slightest prospect
+of escape, except in the bottom of that sullen pool which lay at our
+feet--the thought occurred to me, that in my return through the vault
+I had stumbled over the planks which covered a vault lately dug for a
+prisoner. Communicating my idea to Lafontaine, we returned to the
+spot, loaded ourselves with the planks, and fortunately found them of
+the length that would reach across the narrowest part of the fosse.
+Our little bridge was made without delay, and Lafontaine led the way,
+followed by the count and Julie, I waiting to see them safe across,
+before I added my weight to the frail structure. But I was not yet
+fated to escape. The sentinel, whose vigilance I had startled by my
+lantern in the cell, had given the alarm; and, as I was setting my
+foot on the plank, a discharge of fire-arms came from the battlement
+above. I felt that I was struck, and a stunning sensation seized me. I
+made an attempt to spring forward, but suddenly found myself unable to
+move. The patrol from the drawbridge now surrounded me, and in this
+helpless state, bleeding, and as I thought dying, I was hurried back
+into the St Lazare.
+
+After a fortnight's suffering in the hospital of the prison, which
+alone probably saved me from the guillotine, then almost the natural
+death of all the suspected, I was enabled to get on my feet again. I
+found the prison as full as ever, but nearly all its inmates had been
+changed except the Vendéans, whom the crooked policy of the time kept
+alive, partly to avoid raising the whole province in revolt, partly as
+hostages for their countrymen.
+
+On my recovery, I had expected to be put down once more in the list
+for trial; but it reached even the prison, that the government were in
+a state of alarm for themselves, which prevented them from indulging
+their friends in the streets with the national amusement. The chance
+of mounting the scaffold themselves had put the guillotine out of
+fashion; and two or three minor attempts at the seizure of the Jacobin
+sceptre by the partisans of the Girondists and Cordeliers, had been
+put down with such difficulty, that even the Jacobin Club had begun to
+protest against bloodshed, through the prospect of a speedy
+retaliation. Thus we were suffered to linger on. But, "disguise
+thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, thou art a bitter draught," and
+the suspense was heart-sickening. At length, however, a bustle outside
+the walls, the firing of alarm guns, and the hurrying of the national
+guard through the streets, told us that some new measure of atrocity
+was at hand, and we too soon learned the cause.
+
+The army under Dumourier had been attacked by the Austrians under
+Clairfait, and had been defeated with heavy loss; despatches had been
+received from their favourite general, in all the rage of failure,
+declaring that the sole cause of the disaster was information
+conveyed from the capital to the Austrian headquarters, and demanding
+a strict enquiry into the intrigues which had thus tarnished the
+colours of the Republic. No intelligence could have been more
+formidable to a government, which lived from day to day on the breath
+of popularity; and, to turn the wrath of the rabble from themselves,
+an order was given to examine the prisons, and send the delinquents to
+immediate execution. It may be easily believed that the briefest
+enquiry was enough for vengeance, and the prisoners of St Lazare were
+the first to furnish the spectacle. A train of carts rattled over the
+pavement of our cloisters, and we were ordered to mount them without
+delay. The guard was so strong as to preclude all hope of resistance;
+and with all the pomp of a military pageant, drums beating, trumpets
+sounding, and bands playing _Ça Ira_ and the _Marseillaise_, we left
+our dreary dwelling, which habit had now almost turned into a home,
+and moved through the principal streets of the capital, for the
+express purposes of popular display, in the centre of a large body of
+horse and foot, and an incalculable multitude of spectators, until in
+the distance we saw the instrument of death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE CHILD'S WARNING.
+
+
+    There's blood upon the lady's cheek,
+      There's brightness in her eye:
+    Who says the sentence is gone forth
+      That that fair thing must die?
+
+    Must die before the flowering lime,
+      Out yonder, sheds its leaf--
+    Can this thing be, O human flower!
+      Thy blossoming so brief?
+
+    Nay, nay, 'tis but a passing cloud,
+      Thou didst but droop awhile;
+    There's life, long years, and love and joy,
+      Whole ages, in that smile--
+
+    In the gay call that to thy knee
+      Brings quick that loving child,
+    Who looks up in those laughing eyes
+      With his large eyes so mild.
+
+    Yet, thou art doom'd--art dying; all
+      The coming hour foresee,
+    But, in love's cowardice, withhold
+      The warning word from thee.
+
+    God keep thee and be merciful!
+      His strength is with the weak;
+    Through babes and sucklings, the Most High
+      Hath oft vouchsafed to speak--
+
+    And speaketh now--"Oh, mother dear!"
+      Murmurs the little child;
+    And there is trouble in its eyes,
+      Those large blue eyes so mild--
+
+    "Oh, mother dear! they say that soon,
+      When here I seek for thee,
+    I shall not find thee--nor out there,
+      Under the old oak-tree;
+
+    "Nor up stairs in the nursery,
+      Nor any where, they say.
+    Where wilt thou go to, mother dear?
+      Oh, do not go away!"
+
+    Then was long silence--a deep hush--
+      And then the child's low sob.
+    _Her_ quivering eyelids close--one hand
+      Keeps down the heart's quick throb.
+
+    And the lips move, though sound is none,
+      That inward voice is prayer.
+    And hark! "Thy will, O Lord, be done!"
+      And tears are trickling there,
+
+    Down that pale cheek, on that young head--
+      And round her neck he clings;
+    And child and mother murmur out
+      Unutterable things.
+
+    _He_ half unconscious--_she_ deep-struck
+      With sudden, solemn truth,
+    That number'd are her days on earth,
+      Her shroud prepared in youth--
+
+    That all in life her heart holds dear,
+      God calls her to resign.
+    She hears--feels--trembles--but looks up,
+      And sighs, "Thy will be mine!"
+
+                                           C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE TWO PATRONS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+The front door of a large house in Harley Street stood hospitably
+open, and leaning against the plaster pillars (which were of a very
+miscellaneous architecture) were two individuals, who appeared as if
+they had been set there expressly to invite the passengers to walk in.
+Beyond the red door that intersected the passage, was seen the
+coloured-glass entrance to a conservatory on the first landing of the
+drawing-room stairs; and a multitude of statues lined each side of the
+lobby, like soldiers at a procession, but which the inventive skill of
+the proprietor had converted to nearly as much use as ornament; for a
+plaster Apollo, in addition to watching the "arrow's deathful flight,"
+had been appointed custodier of a Taglioni and a Mackintosh, which he
+wore with easy negligence over his head--a distracted Niobe, in the
+same manner, had undertaken the charge of a grey silk hat and a green
+umbrella. The Gladiator wore a lady's bonnet; the Farnese Hercules
+looked like an old-fashioned watchman, and sported a dreadnought coat.
+A glaring red paper gave a rich appearance to the hall; the stair
+carpet also added its contribution to the rubicundity of the scene,
+which was brought to a _ne plus ultra_ by the nether habiliments of
+the two gentlemen who, as already stated, did the honours of the door.
+
+A more pleasing sight than two footmen refreshing themselves on the
+top of the front stairs with a view of the opposite houses, and
+gratifying the anxious public at the same time with a view of
+themselves, it is difficult to imagine. They always look so diffident
+and respectful, that involuntarily our interest in them becomes almost
+too lively for words. We think with disdain on miserable soldiers and
+hungry mechanics, and half-starved paupers and whole-starved
+labourers; and turn, with feelings of a very different kind, to the
+contemplation of virtue rewarded, and modesty well fed, in the persons
+of the two meditative gentlemen whose appearance at the front door in
+Harley Street has given rise to these reflections. The elder of them,
+who kept the post of honour on the right hand side, just opposite the
+bell-handle, and whose superiority over the other was marked by much
+larger legs, a more prominent blue waistcoat, and a slight covering of
+powder over his auburn locks, looked for some time at his companion,
+while an expression of ill-disguised contempt turned up to still more
+dignified altitude the point of his nose. At last, as if by an effort,
+he broke forth in speech.
+
+"Snipe," he said--and seeing that Mr Snipe's ears were open, he
+continued--"I can't tell how it is, but I saw, when first I came, you
+had never been in a reg'lar fambly--never."
+
+"We was always more reg'larer at Miss Hendy's nor here--bed every
+night at ten o'clock, and up in the morning at five."
+
+"You'll never get up to cribbage--you're so confounded slow," replied
+the senior; "you'll have to stick to dominoes, which is only fit for
+babbies. Did ye think I meant Miss Hendy's, or low people of that
+kind, when I spoke of a reg'lar fambly?--I meant that you had never
+seen life. Did you ever change plates for a marquis, Snipe?"
+
+"Never heared of one. Is he in a great way of business?"
+
+"A marquis is a reg'lar nob, you know; and gives reg'lar good wages
+when you gets 'em paid. A man can't be a gentleman as lives with
+vulgar people--old Pitskiver is a genuine snob."
+
+"He's a rich gentleman," returned Mr Snipe.
+
+"But he's low--uncommon low"--said the other--"reg'lar boiled mutton
+and turnips."
+
+"And a wery good dish too," observed Mr Snipe, whose intellect, being
+strictly limited to dominoes, was not quite equal to the metaphorical.
+
+"By mutton and turnips, I means--he may be rich; but he ain't genteel,
+Snipe. Look at our Sophiar's shoulders."
+
+Mr Snipe looked up towards his senior with a puzzled expression, as if
+he waited for information--"What has Miss Sophiar's shoulders to do
+with boiled mutton and turnips?"
+
+"Nothing won't do but to be at it from the very beginning," said the
+superior, with a toss of his powdered head; "fight after it as much as
+ever they like, wear the best of gownds, and go to the fustest of
+boarding-schools--though they plays ever so well on the piando, and
+talks Italian like a reg'lar Frenchman--nothing won't do--_there's_
+the boiled mutton and turnips--shocking wulgarity! Look again, I say,
+at our Sophiar's shoulders, and see how her head's set on. Spinks's
+Charlotte is a very different affair--and there she is at the winder
+over the way. That's quite the roast fowl and blamange," he continued,
+looking at a very beautiful girl who appeared at the window of one of
+the opposite houses--"a pretty blowen as ever I see, and uncommon fond
+of Spinks."
+
+"I see nothing like a fowl about the young lady," replied the prosaic
+Mr Snipe; "and Spinks is a horrid liar."
+
+"But can't you judge for yourself, Snipe? That girl opposite found two
+footmen and a butler all waiting to receive her, with a French
+governess and a lady's maid, the moment she got out of the cradle; and
+I say again she's nothing but roast fowl and blamange, or perhaps a
+breast slice of pheasant, for she's uncommon genteel. How different
+from our boiled veals, and parsley and butters! I shall give warning
+if we don't change soon."
+
+"She's a beautiful young lady," said Mr Snipe; "but I thinks not half
+so plump and jolly as our Miss Emily or Sophia."
+
+"Plump! do you think you've got a sporting license, and are on the
+look-out for a partridge? No; I tell you all the Pitskivers is low,
+and old Pits is the worst of the lot."
+
+"I used always to hear him called a great man at Miss Hendy's,"
+replied Snipe; "no end of money, and a reg'lar tip-topper. I really
+expected to see the queen very often drop in to supper."
+
+"And meet all the tag-rag we have here! What would the queen care for
+all them portrait-painters, and poets, and engineers, and writing
+vagabonds, as old Pits is eternally feeding? The queen knows a mighty
+sight better, and wouldn't ax any body to her table as had done
+nothing but write books or paint picters. No; old Pits is the boy for
+patronizing them there fellers; but mark ye, Snipe, he takes the wrong
+chaps. If a man is to demean himself by axing a riff-raff of authors
+to his house, let it be the big 'uns; I should not care to give a bit
+of dinner to Dickens or Bulwer myself."
+
+With this condescending confession of his interest in literature, the
+gentleman in the shining garments looked down the street, as if he
+expected some public approval of his praiseworthy sentiments.
+
+Being disappointed in this natural expectation, he resolved to revenge
+himself by severe observations on the passers-by; but the severity was
+partly lost on the slow-minded Mr Snipe--being clothed in the peculiar
+phraseology of his senior, in which it appeared that some particular
+dish was placed as the representative of the individual attacked. Not
+that Mr Daggles--for such was the philosophical footman's name--saw
+any resemblance between his master, Mr Pitskiver, and a dish of boiled
+mutton and turnips, or between the beautiful young lady opposite and
+the breast of a pheasant; but that, to his finely constituted mind,
+those dishes shadowed forth the relative degrees in aristocracy which
+Mr Pitskiver and the young lady occupied. He had probably established
+some one super-eminent article of food as a high "ideal" to which to
+refer all other kinds of edibles--perhaps an ortolan pie; and the
+further removed from this imaginary point of perfection any dish
+appeared, the more vulgar and commonplace it became; and taking it for
+granted, that as far as human gradations are concerned, the loftiest
+aristocracy corresponded with the ortolan pie, it is evident that Mr
+Daggles's mode of assigning rank and precedence was founded on
+strictly philosophical principles; as much so, perhaps, as the labours
+of Debrett.
+
+"Now, look at this old covey--twig his shorts and long gaiters: he's
+some old Suffolk squire, has grown too fat for harriers, and goes out
+with the greyhounds twice a-week--a truly respectable member of
+society"--continued Mr Daggles with a sneer, when the subject of his
+lecture had passed on--"reg'lar boiled beef and greens."
+
+"He ain't so fat as our Mr Pitskiver," replied Snipe; "I thinks I
+never see no gentleman with so broad a back; except p'raps a prize
+ox."
+
+"You should get a set of harrows to clean his Chesterfield with,
+instead of a brush--it's more like a field than a coat," said Daggles.
+"But look here--here comes a ticket!"
+
+The ticket alluded to was a well-made young man, with a very healthy
+complexion, long glossy black curls hanging down his cheek, a
+remarkably long-backed surtout, and a small silk hat resting on the
+very top of his umbrageous head. As he drew near, he slackened his
+pace--passed the house slowly, looking up to the drawing-room window,
+evidently in hopes of seeing some object more attractive than the vast
+hydrangia which rose majestically out of a large flowerpot, and
+darkened all the lower panes. Before he had proceeded ten yards, and
+just when Mr Daggles had fixed in his own mind on the particular
+effort of culinary skill suggested by his appearance, the ticket
+turned quickly round and darted up the steps. Snipe stepped forward in
+some alarm.
+
+"Your master's not at home," said the Ticket; "but the ladies"--
+
+"Is all out in the featon, sir."
+
+"Will you be good enough--I see I may trust you--to give this note to
+Miss Sophia? I shall take an opportunity of showing my gratitude very
+soon. Will you give it?"
+
+"Yes, sir, in course."
+
+"Secretly? And, be assured, I shall not forget you." So saying, the
+Ticket walked hurriedly away, and Snipe stood with the note still in
+his hand, and looked dubiously at his companion.
+
+Mr Daggle's eyes were fixed on the retreating figure of the Ticket;
+and, after a careful observation of every part of his dress, from the
+silk hat to the Wellingtons, he shook his head in a desponding manner,
+and merely said--"Tripe!"
+
+"What's to be done with this here letter?" enquired Snipe.
+
+"Open and read it of course. By dad! I don't think you _are_ up to
+dominoes; you must go back to skittles. He's evidently enclosed the
+sovereign in the note; for he never could have been fool enough to
+think that two gentlemen like us are to give tick for such a sum to a
+stranger."
+
+"What sum?" enquired Snipe.
+
+"Why, the sovereign he was to pay for delivering the letter. If you
+don't like to read it yourself, give it to the old snob--Pitskiver
+will give you a tip."
+
+"But the gentleman said he would show his gratitude"--
+
+"He should have showed his tin fust. There ain't no use of denying it,
+Snipe; this is a wery low establishment, and I shall cut it as soon as
+I can. What right has a dowdy like our Sophia to be getting billydoos
+from fellers as ought to be ashamed of theirselves for getting off
+their three-legged stools at this time of the day? Give the note to
+old Pits--and here, I think, he is."
+
+Mr Pitskiver--or old Pits, as he was irreverently called by his
+domestic--came rapidly up the street. He was a little man, between
+fifty and sixty years of age, with an exceedingly stout body and very
+thin legs. He was very red in the face, and very short in the neck. A
+bright blue coat, lively-coloured waistcoat, and light-green silk
+handkerchief fastened with two sparkling pins, united to each other by
+a gold chain, check trowsers, and polished French leather boots,
+composed his attire. He wore an eyeglass though he was not
+short-sighted, and a beautifully inlaid riding-whip though he never
+rode. His white muslin pocket-handkerchief hung very prominently out
+of the breast pocket of his coat, and his hat was set a little on one
+side of his head, and rested with a coquettish air on the top of the
+left whisker. What with his prodigious width, and the flourishing of
+his whip, and the imposing dignity of his appearance altogether, he
+seemed to fill the street. Several humble pedestrians stepped off the
+pavement on to the dirty causeway to give him room. Daggles drew up,
+Snipe slunk back to hold the door, and Mr Pitskiver retired from the
+eyes of men, and entered his own hall, followed by his retainers.
+
+"If you please, sir," said Snipe, "I have a letter for Miss Sophiar."
+
+"Then don't you think you had better give it her?" replied Mr
+Pitskiver.
+
+"A gentleman, sir, gave it to me."
+
+"I'll give it you, too," said the master of the mansion, shaking the
+whip over the astonished Snipe. "What are you bothering me with the
+ladies' notes for? Any thing for me, Daggles?"
+
+"A few parcels, sir--books, and a couple of pictures."
+
+"No statue? My friend Bristles has deceived me. It was to have been
+finished to-day. If he gives the first view to the Whalleys, I'll
+never speak to him again. Nothing else? Then have the phaeton at the
+door at half past five. I dine at Miss Hendy's, at Hammersmith."
+
+While Mr Pitskiver stepped up stairs, Snipe was going over in his own
+mind the different grammatical meanings of the words, "I'll give it
+you." And concluding at last that, in the mouth of his master, it
+meant nothing but a horsewhipping, he resolved, with the magnanimity
+of many other virtuous characters who find treachery unproductive, to
+be true to Miss Sophia, and give her the mysterious note with the
+greatest possible secrecy.
+
+"Now, donkey," said Daggles, aiding his benevolent advice with a kick
+that made it nearly superfluous, "get down them kitchen stairs and
+learn pitch-and-toss, for you haven't brains enough for any thing
+else--and recollect, you owes me a sovereign; half from master for
+telling, and half from the long-backed Ticket for keeping mum. You can
+keep the other to yourself; for the job was well worth a sovereign
+a-piece."
+
+A knock at the door interrupted the colloquy, and Snipe once more
+emerged from the lower regions, and admitted the two fair daughters of
+his master.
+
+They were stout, bustling, rosy-cheeked girls, two or three and twenty
+years of age, superbly dressed in flashy silks, and bedizened with
+ribands like a triumphal arch.
+
+"Miss," said Snipe, "I've got a summut for you." And he looked as
+knowing as it was possible for a student of pitch-and-toss to do.
+
+"For me? What is it? Make haste, Thomas."
+
+"A gentleman has been here, and left you this," replied the Mercury,
+holding out the note. "He said something about giving me a guinea; but
+I wasn't to let any body see."
+
+"It is his hand--I know it!" cried Miss Sophia, and hurried up stairs
+to her own room.
+
+"You donkey!" growled Mr Daggles, who had overheard Snipe's
+proceedings; "you've done me out of another ten shillings. Blowed if I
+don't put you under the pump! She would have given you a guinea for
+the letter by way of postage. But it all comes of living with red
+herrings and gooses' eggs." And so saying Mr Daggles resumed his usual
+seat in the dining-room, and went on with the perusal of the _Morning
+Post_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Mr Pitskiver's origin, like that of early Greece, is lost in the
+depths of antiquity. Through an infinite variety of posts and offices,
+he had risen to his present position, and was perhaps the most
+multifariously occupied gentleman in her majesty's dominions. He was
+chairman of three companies, steward of six societies, general agent,
+and had lately reached the crowning eminence of his hopes by being
+appointed trustee of unaudited accounts. In the midst of all these
+labours, he had gone on increasing in breadth and honour till his name
+was a symbol of every thing respectable and well to do in the world.
+With each new office his ambition rose, and a list of his residences
+would be a perfect index to the state of his fortunes. We can trace
+him from Stepney to Whitechapel; from Whitechapel to Finsbury square;
+from Finsbury square to Hammersmith; and finally, the last office
+(which, by the by, was without a salary) had raised him, three months
+before our account of him begins, to the centre of Harley Street. With
+his fortune and ambition, we must do him the justice to say, his
+liberality equally increased. He was a patron, and, would have
+travelled fifty miles to entertain a poet at his table; he had
+music-masters (without any other pupils) who were Mozarts and Handels
+for his daughters--Turners and Landseers (whose names were yet
+unknown) to teach them drawing--for, by a remarkable property
+possessed by him, in common with a great majority of mankind, every
+thing gained a new value when it came into contact with himself. He
+bought sets of china because they were _artistic_; changed his silver
+plate for a more _picturesque_ pattern; employed Stultz for his
+clothes, and, above all, Bell and Rannie for his wines. His cook was
+superb; and, thanks to the above-named Bell and Rannie, there were
+fewer headachs in the morning after a Mæcenatian dinner at
+Pitskiver's, than could have been expected by Father Matthew himself.
+With these two exceptions--wine and clothes--his patronage was more
+indiscriminate than judicious. In fact, he patronized for the sake of
+patronizing; and as he was always in search of a new miracle, it is no
+wonder that he was sometimes disappointed--that his Landseers
+sometimes turned out to have no eyes, and his musicians more fitted to
+play the Handel to a pump than an organ. But Pitskiver never lost
+heart. If he failed in one he was sure to succeed in another; he saw
+his name occasionally in the newspaper, by giving an invitation to one
+of the literary gentlemen who enliven the public with accounts of
+fearful accidents and desperate offences; had his picture at the
+Exhibition in the character of the "Portrait of a gentleman," and his
+bust in the same place as the semblance of the honorary Secretary to
+the Poor Man's Pension and Perpetual Annuity Institution. He was a
+widower, and looked dreadful things at all the widows of his
+acquaintance. And it was thought that, if he succeeded in marrying off
+his girls, he should himself become once more a candidate for the holy
+estate; and by this wise manoeuvre--for, in fact, he made no secret of
+his intention--he enlisted in his daughters' behalf all the elderly
+ladies who thought they had any claims on the attentions of that
+charming creature Mr Pitskiver. There were certainly no young ladies I
+have ever heard of, so well supplied with assistants in the great art
+of catching husbands as the two plump damsels whom we have already
+seen enter the house in Harley Street, and one of whom we have
+perceived placed in possession of the mysterious letter by the
+skittle-minded Mr Snipe.
+
+Miss Sophia Pitskiver, according to all ordinary ideas of romance and
+true love, had no right whatever to indulge in such luxuries, being
+more adapted to make pies than enter into the beauty of sonnets to the
+moon. She was short, stout--shall we be pardoned for saying the
+hateful word?--she was dumpy, but a perfect picture of rosy health and
+hilarious good-nature. And yet, if she had been half a foot taller,
+and half a yard thinner, and infinitely paler, she could not have been
+one jot more sentimental. She cultivated sentiment, because it was so
+pleasant, and her father approved of it because it was genteel. Her
+enthusiasm was tremendous. Her ideas were all crackers, and exploded
+at the slightest touch. She had a taste for every thing--poetry,
+history, fine arts in general, philosophy, glory, puseyism, and,
+perhaps more than all, for a certain tall young man, with an
+interesting complexion, whom we have introduced to the courteous
+reader by the name of the long-backed Ticket. It was this gentleman's
+note she was now about to read. Sundry palpitations about the robust
+regions of the heart might, to common eyes, have appeared to arise
+from her speed in running up stairs. But she knew better. She took but
+one look of the cheval glass, and broke the seal.
+
+"Stanzas!" she said; and, taking one other glance at the mirror, she
+exclaimed to the agitated young lady represented there, "only think!"
+and devoured the following lines:--
+
+    "There is a tear that will not fall
+      To cool the burning heart and brain;
+    Oh, I would give my life, my all,
+      To feel once more that blessed rain!
+
+    "There is a grief--I feel, in sooth,
+      It rends my soul, it quells my tongue;
+    It dims the sunshine of my youth,
+      But, oh, it will not dim it long!
+
+    "There is a place where life is o'er,
+      And sorrow's blasts innocuous rave;
+    A place where sadness comes no more.
+      Know'st thou the place? It is the grave.
+
+    "Yes, if within that gentle breast
+      Mild pity ever held her sway,
+    Thou'lt weep for one who finds no rest--
+      The reason he can never say.
+
+"P.S.--Miss Hendy is an angel upon earth. My friend Mr Bristles, of
+the _Universal Surveyor_, one of the most distinguished literary men
+of the age, has got me an invitation to go to her house to-night, to
+read the first act of my tragedy. Shall I have the happiness of seeing
+thee? Would to my stars my fate were so fortunate! I enclose you the
+above lines, which Bristles says are better than any of Lord Byron's,
+and will publish next week in the _Universal_. Mayest thou like them,
+sweetest, for they are dedicated to thee, Thine ever--ALMANSOR." What
+she might have done beyond reading the lines and letter six times
+over, and crying "beautiful, beautiful!" as fast as she could, it is
+impossible to say, for at that moment she was called by her venerable
+sire. She crumpled the note up after the manner of all other heroines,
+and hid it in her bosom; and hurried to the drawing-room, where she
+found her father in full dress, pulling on a pair of new kid gloves.
+
+"Well, Soph, I'm off for Miss Hendy's--don't give me any nonsense now
+about her being low, and all that sort of thing; she don't move in the
+same circle of society, certainly, as we do, but she has always
+distinguished people about her."
+
+"Oh, papa!" interrupted the young lady. "I don't object to Miss Hendy
+in the least. I love her of all things, and would give worlds to be
+going with you!"
+
+"That's right! You've heard of the new poet then? Tremendous they say;
+equal to Shakspeare--quite a great man."
+
+"Indeed! Oh, how I long to see him!"
+
+"Well, perhaps you may one of these days. Bristles--my friend Bristles
+of the _Universal_-says he's a perfect--what do they call that pretty
+street in Southampton?--Paragon--a perfect paragon, Bristles says:
+I'll ask him to dinner some day."
+
+"What day?--Oh, let it be soon, dear papa!"
+
+"There's a dear delightful enthusiastic girl! We ought to encourage
+people of genius. Curious we never heard of him before, for he was our
+neighbour, I hear, in Finsbury; but poor, I suppose, and did not mix
+with our set even then."
+
+Mr Pitskiver looked at the opposite side of the street while he spoke,
+as if to assure himself that he was in a still higher altitude above
+the poet now than some few years before. But, as if feeling called on
+to show his increased superiority by greater condescension, he said,
+as he walked out of the room, "I shall certainly have him to dinner,
+and Bristles, and some more men of talent to meet him--
+
+    'The feast of reason, and the flow of soul!'"
+
+the only quotation, by the way, in which Mr Pitskiver was ever known
+to indulge.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Miss Hendy had formerly kept a school, and her portrait would have
+done very well for a frontispiece to Mrs Trimmer. She was what is
+called prim in her manner, and as delicate as an American. She always
+called the legs of a table its props--for the word legs was highly
+unfeminine. She admired talent, and gave it vast quantities of tea and
+toast. Her drawing-room was a temple of the Muses, and only open to
+those who were bountifully endowed with the gifts of nature or of
+fortune; for she considered it a great part of her duty to act as a
+kind of link between Plutus and Minerva. In the effort to discover
+objects worthy of her recommendation, she was mainly aided by the
+celebrated Mr Bristles. Every month whole troops of Herschels and
+Wordsworths, and Humes and Gibbons, were presented to her by the great
+critic; and with a devout faith in all he told her, she listened
+enraptured to the praises of those astonishing geniuses, till she had
+begun to enter into Mr Bristles's own feelings of contempt for every
+body except the favoured few. And to-night was the grand debut of a
+more remarkable phenomenon than any of the others. A youth of
+twenty-three, tall, modest, intellectual, and long-haired--in short,
+the "Ticket"--was to read the opening of a tragedy; and sculptors,
+painters, mechanicians, and city Croesuses, were invited to be present
+at the display. Among these last shone our friend Mr Pitskiver,
+radiant in white waistcoat and gold chains, two rings on each finger,
+and a cameo the size of a cheese-cake on his neckcloth. The other
+critic, in right of his account at the bank, was a tall silent
+gentleman, a wood-merchant from the Boro', who nodded his head in an
+oracular manner when any thing was said above his comprehension; and
+who was a patron of rising talent, on the same enlightened principles
+as his friend Mr Pitskiver. Mr Whalley also showed his patronage in
+the same economical manner as the other, and expected immortality at
+the expense of a few roasts of beef and bottles of new wine.
+
+Mr Bristles was also of the dinner party--an arrangement made by the
+provident Miss Hendy, that the two _millionaires_ might receive a
+little preliminary information on the merits of the rest of the
+company, who were only invited to tea. Four maiden ladies (who had
+pulled on blue stockings in order to hide the increasing thickness of
+their ankles, and considered Miss Hendy the legitimate successor of
+Madame de Staël, and Mr Pitskiver in Harley Street the beau-ideal of
+love in a cottage) relieved the monotony of a gentleman party by as
+profuse a display of female charms as low gowns and short sleeves
+would allow. And about six o'clock there was a highly interesting and
+superior party of eight, to whom Miss Hendy administered cod's-head
+and shoulders, aphorisms and oyster sauce, in almost equal proportion;
+while Mr Pitskiver, like a "sweet seducer, blandly smiling," made
+polite enquiries whether he should not relieve her of the
+trouble.--"Oh no!--it degrades woman from the lofty sphere of equal
+usefulness with the rougher sex. Why shouldn't a lady help fish?--Why
+should she confess her inferiority? The post assigned to her by
+nature--though usurped by man--is to elevate by her example, to
+enlighten by her precepts, and to add to the great aggregate of human
+felicity by a manifestation of all the virtues;" saying this, she
+inserted her knife with astonishing dexterity just under the
+gills--and looked round for approbation.
+
+Mr Pitskiver had recourse to his usual expedient, and said something
+about the feast of reason; Mr Whalley shook his head in a way that
+would have made his fortune in a grocer's window in the character of
+Howqua; and Mr Bristles prepared himself to reply--while the four
+literary maidens turned their eyes on Aristarchus in expectation of
+hearing something fine. "I decidedly am of opinion," said that great
+man, "that woman's sphere is greatly misunderstood, and that you
+maintain the dignity of your glorious sex by carving the fish.--Yet on
+being further interrogated, I should be inclined to proceed with my
+statement, and assert that you deprive us of pleasure, in debarring us
+from giving you our assistance."
+
+"Then, why don't you help us with our samplers? why don't you aid us
+in our knitting? why don't you assist us in hemming garments?"--exclaimed
+Miss Hendy, digging her spoon into the oyster-boat.
+
+"This is what I call the feast and flow," said Mr Pitskiver; while Mr
+Whalley nearly shook his head off his shoulders on to the table-cloth.
+The young ladies looked slyly at Mr Pitskiver, and laughed.
+
+"It would be rather undignified," said Mr Bristles, "to see the Lord
+Chancellor darning a stocking."
+
+"Dignity! the very thing I complain of. Why more undignified in a Lord
+Chancellor, or a Bishop, than in his wife? Oh, will the time never
+come when society will be so regenerated, that man will know his own
+position, and woman--noble, elevating, surprising woman--will assume
+the rank to which her powers and virtues entitle her!"
+
+Mr Bristles was very hungry, and at that moment received his
+plate.--"Really, Miss Hendy," he said, with his mouth prodigiously
+distended with codfish--"there's no arguing against such eloquence. I
+must give in." But Miss Hendy, who had probably lunched, determined to
+accept no surrender.--"No," she cried--"you shall _not_ give in, till
+I have overwhelmed you with reasons for your submission. A great move
+is in progress--woman's rights and duties are becoming every day more
+widely appreciated. The old-fashioned scale must be re-adjusted, and
+woman--noble, elevating, surprising woman--ascend to the loftiest
+eminence, and sit superior on the topmost branch of the social tree."
+
+Mr Whalley, whose professional ear was caught by the last word, broke
+through his usual rule of only nodding his remarks, and ventured to
+say--"Uncommon bad climbers, for the most part in general, is women.
+Their clothes isn't adapted for it.--I minds once I see a woman climb
+a pole after a leg of mutting."
+
+If looks could have killed Mr Whalley, Mr Pitskiver's eyes would
+certainly have been tried for murder; but that matter-of-fact
+individual was impervious to the most impassioned glances. Miss Hendy
+sank her face in horror over her plate, and celestial rosy red
+overspread her countenance; while a look of the most extraordinary
+nature rewarded Mr Pitskiver for all his efforts in her behalf. A
+look!--it went quite through his waistcoat, and if it had gone
+straight on, must have reached his heart. Mr Pitskiver was amazed at
+the expression of the look; for he little knew that his labours under
+the table, in attempting to check Mr Whalley's oratory by pressing his
+toes, had unfortunately been bestowed on the delicate foot of his
+hostess; and what less could she do than respond to the gentle
+courtesy by a glance of gratitude for what she considered a movement
+of sympathy and condolence under the atrocious reminiscences of the
+wood-merchant? Mr Whalley, however, was struck with the mournful
+silence that followed his observation.
+
+"That was a thing as happing'd on a pole," he said. "In cooss it would
+be wery different on a tree--because of the branches, as I think you
+was a-saying, Miss Hendy?"
+
+Mr Pitskiver grew desperate. "Bristles," he cried, "any thing new in
+sculpture? By the by, you haven't sent me Stickleback's jack-ass as
+you promised. Is it a fine work?"
+
+"I have no hesitation," replied the critic, "with a perfect
+recollection of Canova's Venus, and even Moggs's Pandean Piper, which
+I reviewed in last number of the _Universal_, in declaring that
+Stickleback's work (it is a female, not a jack-ass) is the noblest
+effort of the English chisel; there is life about it--a power--a
+feeling--a sentiment--it is overwhelming! I shall express these ideas
+in print. Stickleback's fame is secured by a stupendous ass, at once
+so simple and so grand."
+
+"A female, I think you said?" enquired Miss Hendy.
+
+"A jeanie--miraculously soft, yet full of graceful dignity," replied
+Bristles bowing to the enquirer, as if the description applied to her.
+
+"I honour the sculptor for breaking through the prejudices of sex in
+this splendid instance!" exclaimed the lady. "The feminine star is in
+the ascendant. How much more illustrious the triumph! How greater the
+difficulty to express in visible types, the soft, subduing, humanizing
+graces of the female disposition, than to imprint the coarse outline
+of masculine strength! How rough the contour of an Irish hodman to the
+sweet flexibilities of the Venus of Canova!"
+
+"Canova was by no means equal to Stickleback," said Mr Bristles
+magisterially. "I have devoted much time to the study of the fine
+arts--I have seen many statues--I have frequently been in sculptors'
+studios; I prefer Stickleback to Canova."
+
+"I honour his moral elevation," observed Miss Hendy, "in stamping on
+eternal marble the femininity of the subject of his chisel."
+
+"I must really have the first view," whispered Mr Pitskiver. "Can't
+you remind him, Bristles? Don't send it to Whalley on my account."
+
+But Mr Whalley, who was a rival Mæcenas, put in a word for himself,
+"Mr Bristles," he said, "this must be a uncomming statty of a she-ass.
+I oncet was recommended to drink a she-ass's milk myself, and liked it
+uncomming. I must have the private sight you promised; and, if you'll
+fix a day, I vill ask you and the artist to dine."
+
+"Certainly, my dear sir--but Mr Pitskiver and Stickleback, they are
+friends, you know, Mr Whalley, and perhaps Mr P.'s interest may be
+useful in getting the great artist an order to ornament some of the
+new buildings. I have some thoughts of recommending him to offer the
+very statue we talk of for the front of the Mansion-house. A hint on
+the subject has already appeared in the _Universal_."
+
+"Miss Hendy," said Mr Pitskiver for the tenth time, "this is the
+regular feast and flow; and nothing pleases me so much in my good
+friend Bristles as his candid praise of other men's talents. You
+seldom find clever people allowing each other's merits."
+
+"Or stupid ones either"--replied Mr Bristles before the lady had time
+to answer; "the fact is, we are much improved since former days. Our
+great men don't quarrel as they used to do--conscious of one's own
+dignity, why refuse a just appreciation of others? Stickleback has
+often told me, that Chantrey was not altogether without merit--I
+myself pronounce Macauley far from stupid; and my intellectual friend,
+young Sidsby, who will read us the first act of his tragedy to-night,
+allows a very respectable degree of dramatic power to Lord Byron.
+Surely this is a far better state of things than the perpetual
+carpings of Popes and Addisons, Smiths and Johnsons, Foxes and Pitts."
+
+"And all owing to the rising influence of the female sex," interposed
+Miss Hendy. "But woman has not yet received her full development. The
+time will come when her influence is universal; when, softened,
+subdued, purified, and elevated, the animal now called Man will be
+unknown. You will be all women--can the world look for higher
+destiny?"
+
+"In cooss," observed Mr Whalley--"if we are all turned into woming,
+the world will come to a end. For 'spose a case;--'spose it had been
+my sister as married Mrs Whalley instead of me--it's probable there
+wouldn't have been no great fambly; wich in cooss, if there was no
+poppleation"--
+
+But what the fearful result of this supposed case would have been, has
+never been discovered; for Miss Hendy, making a signal to the four
+representatives of the female sex started out of the room as if she
+had heard Mr Whalley had the plague, and left the gentlemen to
+themselves.
+
+"De Staël was no match for that wonderful woman," said Mr Bristles,
+resuming his chair. "I don't believe so noble an intellect was ever
+enshrined in so beautiful a form before."
+
+"Do you think her pretty?" enquired Mr Pitskiver.
+
+"Pretty? no, sir--beautiful! Here is the finest sort of
+loveliness--the light blazing from within, that years cannot
+extinguish. I consider Miss Hendy the finest woman in England; and
+decidedly the most intellectual."
+
+The fact of Miss Hendy's beauty had never struck Mr Pitskiver before.
+But he knew that Bristles was a judge, and took it at once for
+granted. The finest woman in England had looked in a most marvellous
+manner into his face, and the small incident of the foot under the
+table was not forgotten.
+
+Mr Pitskiver was inspired by the subject of his contemplations, and
+proposed her health in a strain of eloquence which produced a
+wonderful amount of head-shaking from Mr Whalley, and frequent
+exclamations of "Demosthenes," "Cicero," "Burke all over!" from the
+more enraptured Mr Bristles.
+
+"I'm horrible afear'd," observed the elder gentleman putting down his
+empty glass, "as my son Bill Whalley is a reg'lar fool."
+
+"Oh, pardon me!" exclaimed Bristles--"I haven't the, honour of his
+intimacy, but--" "Only think the liberties he allows himself in
+regard to this here intellectual lady, Miss Hendy. He never hears her
+name without a putting of his thumb on the top of his nose, and a
+shaking of his fingers in my face, and a crying out for a friend of
+his'n of the name of Walker. Its uncomming provoking--and sich a
+steady good business hand there ain't in the Boro'. I can't fadom it."
+
+"Some people have positively no souls," chimed in Mr Pitskiver,
+looking complacently down his beautiful waistcoat, as if he felt that
+souls were in some sort of proportion to the tenements they inhabited,
+and that his was of gigantic size; "but I did not think that your son
+William was so totally void of ideas. I shall talk to him next
+Sunday's dinner."
+
+"If you talks to him about Memel and Dantzic, you'll find there ain't
+such a judge of timber in London," said the father, who was evidently
+proud of his son's mercantile qualifications; "but with regard to this
+here pottery, and scupshire, and other things as I myself delights in,
+he don't care nothin about 'em. He wouldn't give twopence to see
+Stickleback's statty."
+
+"Then he had better not have the honour," said Pitskiver. "Bristles,
+you'll send it to Harley Street. First view is every thing."
+
+"Really, gentlemen, you are both such exquisite judges of the arts,
+and such discriminating patrons of artists, that I find it difficult
+to determine between you. Shall we let Stickleback settle the point
+himself?"
+
+Both the Mæcenases consented, each at the same time making resolutions
+in his own mind to make the unhappy artist suffer, if by any chance
+his rival should get the preference. After another glass or two of the
+dark-coloured liquid which wore the label of port, and which Bristles
+maintained was the richest wine he had ever tasted, as it was
+furnished by a particular friend of his, who, in addition to being a
+wine merchant, was one of the most talented men in Europe, and a
+regular contributor to the _Universal_ under the signature
+"Squirk,"--after another glass or two of this bepraised beverage,
+which, at the same time, did not seem altogether to suit the taste of
+the two patrons of the arts and sciences, the gentlemen adjourned to
+the drawing-room, from which music had been sounding for a
+considerable time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+On entering the room they were nearly made fitting inmates of the deaf
+and dumb institution, by the most portentous sounds that ever
+endangered a human ear. A large party was assembled, ranged solemnly
+on chairs and sofas all round the wall, every eye turned with intense
+interest to the upper end of the apartment, where stood a tall stout
+man, blowing with incredible effect into a twisted horn, which, to all
+outward appearance, had not long ceased to ornament the forehead of a
+Highland bull. A common horn it was--and the skill of the
+strong-winded performer consisted in extracting a succession of roars
+and bellowings from its upper end, which would have done honour to the
+vocal powers of its late possessor. A tune it certainly was, for
+immense outbreaks of sound came at regular intervals, and the
+performer kept thumping his foot on the floor as if he were keeping
+time; but as the intermediate notes were of such a very soft nature as
+to be altogether inaudible, the company were left to fill up the
+blanks at their own discretion; and Mr Pitskiver, who was somewhat
+warlike, perceived at once it was Rule Britannia, while Mr Whalley
+shook his head in a state of profound loyalty, and thought it was God
+save the Queen. When the ingenious musician withdrew the bull's horn
+from his mouth, and paused after his labours in a state of extreme
+calefaction, murmurs of applause ran all round the room.
+
+"Mr Slingo," said Mr Bristles, "Mr Slingo, you have immortalized
+yourself, by evoking the soul of Handel from so common an instrument
+as an ox's horn. I have studied music as a science--I have reviewed an
+opera--and once met Sir Henry Bishop at the Chinese exhibition; and I
+will make bold to say, that more genius was never shown by Rossini or
+Cherubini, than you have displayed on this stupendous and interesting
+occasion. Allow me, Mr Slingo, to shake your hand."
+
+Mr Bristles gave a warm squeeze to the delighted musician's enormous
+fingers--and all the company were enchanted with the liberality and
+condescension of the celebrated author, and the humility and gratitude
+of the musical phenomenon, who could not find words to express his
+gratification. Miss Hendy was also profuse in her praises. "Pray, Mr
+Slingo," she said taking the horn, and examining it very closely, "do
+you know what animal we are indebted to for this delicious
+instrument?"
+
+"I took it from the head of a brown cow."
+
+"A cow!--ha!"--exclaimed the lady--"but I could have told you so
+before. There is a sweetness, a softness, and femininization of tone,
+in the slower passages, that it struck me at once could only proceed
+from the milder sex. We shall not have to wait long for the answer to
+a question which has stirred the heart of mankind to its
+foundations--can Women etherealize society? I say she can--I say she
+will--I say she shall!"
+
+Miss Hendy said this with considerable vehemence, and darted a look of
+the same extraordinary nature as had puzzled Mr Pitskiver at dinner,
+full in the face of that enraptured gentleman.
+
+"Oh, 'pon my soul, she's a very fine woman!" he said almost audibly;
+and again the commendations of Mr Bristles recurred to his
+thoughts--"and has such a fund of eloquence. I wish to heaven somebody
+would take a fancy to my girls! I will ask a lot of young men to
+dinner."
+
+In the midst of these cogitations he drew near Miss Hendy--and if you
+were to judge by the number of elbows which young ladies, in all parts
+of the room, nudged into other young ladies' sides, and the strange
+smiles and winks that were exchanged by the more distant members of
+the society--you might easily perceive that there was something very
+impressive in the manner of his address. He bowed at every word, while
+the gold chains across his waistcoat glistened and jingled at every
+motion. Miss Hendy's head also was bent till the white spangles on her
+turban seemed affected with St Vitus's dance; and their voices
+gradually sank lower and lower, till they descended at last to an
+actual whisper. There were seven female hearts in that assemblage
+bursting with spite, and one with triumph. Mr Pitskiver had never been
+known to whisper it any body's ear before.
+
+In the mean time Mr Bristles, as literary master of the ceremonies,
+had made a call on Mr Sidsby to proceed with his reading of the first
+act of his play. A tall young gentleman, very good-looking, and very
+shy, was with difficulty persuaded to seat himself in the middle of
+the room; and with trembling hands he drew from his pocket a roll of
+manuscript, though, to judge from his manner, he did not seem quite
+master of his subject.
+
+"Modesty, always the accompaniment of true genius," observed Mr
+Bristles, apologetically to the expectant audience. "Go on, my good
+sir; you will gain courage as you proceed."
+
+All was then silent. Mr Pitskiver at Miss Hendy's side, near the door;
+Mr Whalley straining his long neck to catch the faintest echo of their
+conversation; the others casting from time to time enquiring glances
+towards the illustrious pair; but all endeavouring to appear intensely
+interested in the drama. Mr Sidsby began:--
+
+It was a play of the passions. A black lady fell in love with a white
+general. Her language was fit for a dragon. She breathed nothing but
+fire. It seemed, by a strange coincidence of ideas between Sidsby and
+Shakspeare, to bear no small resemblance to Othello, with the
+distinction already stated of the colour of the Desdemona. But
+breathless attention rewarded the reader's toil; and though he
+occasionally missed a word, in which he was always set right by Mr
+Bristles, and did not enter very warmly into the more vigorous parts
+of the declamation, his efforts were received with overwhelming
+approbation, and Bristles as usual led the chorus of admiration.
+
+"A wonderful play! an astonishing effort! Certainly up to the finest
+things in Otway, if not of Shakspeare himself--a power, a life, an
+impetus. I have never met with such a magnificent opening act."
+
+"I wish you would bring him to taste my mutting, Mr Bristles," said Mr
+Whalley; "as he's a poet he most likely don't touch butcher meat every
+day, and a good tuck-out of a Sunday won't do him no harm. But I say,
+Mr Bristles, I must railly make a point of seeing Stickleback's donkey
+first. Say you'll do it--there's a good fellow."
+
+Mr Pitskiver also extended his hospitable invitation to the successful
+dramatist; and urged no less warmly his right to the first inspection
+of the masterpiece of the modern chisel.
+
+"I have had a very particular conversation with Miss Hendy," he said,
+laying his hand confidentially on the great critic's shoulder.
+
+"An extraordinary woman!" chimed in Bristles, "the glory of the
+present times."
+
+"I must have an additional treasure to boast of in my house," resumed
+Mr Pitskiver, whose heart seemed more than ever set on cutting out Mr
+Whalley in priority of inspection of the unequaled statue. "You'll
+help me, I know--I may depend on you, Mr Bristles."
+
+"You may indeed, sir--a house such as yours needed only such an
+addition to make it perfect."
+
+"You'll procure me the pride, the gratification--you'll manage it for
+me."
+
+"I will indeed," said Mr Bristles, seizing the offered hand of the
+overjoyed Pitskiver; "since your happiness depends on it, you may
+trust to me for every exertion."
+
+"And you'll plead my cause--you'll speak in the proper quarter?"
+
+"Certainly, you may consider it all arranged."
+
+"But secretly, quietly, no blabbing--these matters are always best
+done without noise. I would even keep it from my daughters' knowledge,
+till we are quite prepared to reveal it in all its charms."
+
+"It is indeed a masterpiece--a chef-d'oeuvre--beauty and expression
+unequaled."
+
+"I flatter myself I am a bit of a judge; and when I have had it in my
+possession for a short time, I will let you know the result."
+
+The party were now about to break up.
+
+"Them's uncomming pleasant little meetings, arn't them?" said Mr
+Whalley to one of the middle-aged spinsters who had been present at
+dinner; "and I thinks this one is like to have a very favourable
+conclusion."
+
+"Miss Hendy?" enquired the spinster in breathless anticipation.
+
+"Jist so," responded the other--"there can't be no mystery no longer,
+and they'll be off for France in a few days."
+
+"For France?--gracious! how do you know?"
+
+"I hear'd Mr Bristles, which is their confidant, say something about a
+chay and Dover. In cooss they will go that way to Boulogne."
+
+Oh, Mæcenas! is there no difference between the chef-d'oeuvre of the
+great Stickleback, and the town of Dover and a post-chaise.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+In a week after these events, six or seven gentlemen were gathered
+round a table in a room very near the skylight in the Minerva
+chambers. Our former acquaintance, Mr Bristles, whose name shone in
+white paint above the entrance door, was evidently strongly impressed
+with the dignity of his position; and as in the pauses of conversation
+he placed the pen he was using transversely in his mouth, and turned
+over the pages of various books on the table before him, it will be
+seen that he presided not at a feast of substantial meat and drink,
+but at one of those regular "feasts and flows" which the great Mr
+Pitskiver was in the habit of alluding to, in describing the
+intellectual treats of which he was so prodigious a glutton.
+
+"What success, Sidsby?" enquired Bristles with a vast appearance of
+interest.
+
+"None at all," replied the successful dramatist, or, in other words,
+the long-backed Ticket to whom we were introduced at the commencement
+of the story. "I have no invitation to dinner yet, and Sophy thinks he
+has forgotten me."
+
+"That's odd--very odd," mused Mr Bristles, "for I don't know that I
+ever praised any one half so highly before, not even Stickleback; and
+the first act was really superb. It took me a whole week to write it."
+
+"But I did not understand some parts of it, and I am afraid I spoiled
+it in the reading. But Sophy was enchanted with the poem you made me
+copy."
+
+"A sensible girl; but how to get at the father is the thing. I have
+mentioned a few of the perfections of our friend Miss Hendy to him in
+a way that I think will stick. If we could get _her_ good word."
+
+"Oh, she's very good!" replied Sidsby, "she says I'm far above Lord
+Byron and Thomas Moore."
+
+"Why not? haven't I told you to say, wherever you go, that she is
+above Corinne?"
+
+"Ah," said Sidsby, "but what's the use of all this to me? I am a
+wine-merchant, not a poet; my uncle will soon take me into
+partnership, and when they find out that I know no more about
+literature than a pig, what an impostor they'll think me!"
+
+"Not more of an impostor than half the other literary men of the day,
+who have got praised into fame as you have, by judicious and
+disinterested friends. No: you must still go on. I shall have the
+second act ready for you next week, and you can make it six dozen of
+sherry instead of three. You must please the girl first, and get at
+the father afterwards. She's of a decidedly intellectual turn, and has
+four thousand pounds in her own right."
+
+"I don't believe she is more intellectual than myself; but that silly
+old noodle, her father"--
+
+"Stop!" exclaimed Bristles in great agitation, "this is against all
+rule. Mr Pitskiver is our friend--a man of the profoundest judgment
+and most capacious understanding. I doubt whether a greater judge of
+merit ever existed than Mr Pitskiver."
+
+"Hear, hear!" resounded in various degrees of intensity all round the
+table.
+
+"Well, all I can say is this--that if I don't get on by shamming
+cleverness, I'll try what open honesty will do, and follow Bill
+Whalley's advice."
+
+"Bill Whalley! who is he?" asked Bristles with a sneer.
+
+"Son of the old Tom Noddy you make such a precious fool of."
+
+"Mr Whalley of the Boro' is _our_ friend, Mr Sidsby--a man of the
+profoundest judgment and most capacious understanding. I doubt whether
+a greater judge of merit ever existed than Mr Whalley of the Boro'."
+
+"Hear hear!" again resounded; and Mr Sidsby, shaking his head, said no
+more, but looked as sulky as his naturally good-tempered features
+would let him.
+
+"And now, Stickleback," said Mr Bristles--"I am happy to tell you your
+fortune is made; your fame will rise higher and higher."
+
+A little dark-complexioned man with very large mouth and very flat
+nose, looked a little disdainful at this speech, which to any one else
+would have sounded like a compliment.
+
+"I always knew that merit such as I felt I possessed, would force its
+way, in spite of envy and detraction," he said.
+
+"We have an uphill fight of it, I assure you," rejoined Mr Bristles;
+"but by dint of throwing it on pretty thick, we are in hopes some of
+it will stick."
+
+"Now, Mr Bristles," resumed the artist, "I don't at all like the style
+you talk in to me. You always speak as if my reputation had been made
+by your praises. Now, talents such as mine"--
+
+"Are very high, my good sir; no one who reads the _Universal_ doubts
+that fact for a moment."
+
+"Talents, I say, such as mine," pursued Mr Stickleback, "were sure to
+raise me to the highest honours; and it is too bad for you to claim
+all the merit of my success."
+
+"Not I; but all our friends here," said Bristles. "For two years we
+have done nothing but praise you wherever we went. Haven't we sneered
+at Bailey, and laughed at the ancient statues? Who wrote the epigram
+on Thorwaldsen--was it not our friend now present, Mr Banks? a
+gentleman, I must say, perfectly unequaled in the radiance of his wit
+and the delicious pungency of his satire. Without us, what would you
+have been?"
+
+"Exactly what I am. The only sculptor worth a sixpence since the fine
+arts were invented," replied the self-satisfied Mr Stickleback.
+
+"No," said Mr Bristles; "since you force us to tell you what we have
+done for you, I will mention it. We have persuaded all our friends, we
+have even persuaded yourself, that you have some knowledge of
+sculpture; whereas every one who follows his own judgment, and is not
+led astray by our puffs, must see that you could not carve an old
+woman's face out of a radish; that you are fit for nothing with the
+chisel but to smooth gravestones, and cut crying cherubs over a
+churchyard door; that your donkey"--
+
+"Well, what of my donkey, as you call it?" cried the enraged sculptor,
+"I have heard you praise it a thousand times."
+
+"Of course you have; but do you think I meant it?"
+
+"As much as I meant what I said, when I praised some of your
+ridiculous rubbish in the _Universal_."
+
+"Oh, indeed! Then you think my writings ridiculous rubbish?"
+
+"Yes--I do--very ridiculous rubbish."
+
+"Then let me tell you, Mr Stickleback, you are about as good a critic
+as a sculptor. My writings, sir, are universally appreciated. To find
+fault with _them_ shows you are unfit for our acquaintance; and with
+regard to Mr Pitskiver's recommendation to the city building
+committee, and your donkey to adorn the pediment of the
+Mansion-house--you have of course given up all hopes of any interest
+_I_ may possess."
+
+"Gentlemen," said a young man with small piercing eyes and a rather
+dirty complexion, with long hair rolling over the collar of his
+coat--"are you not a little premature in shivering the friendship by a
+blow of temper which had been consolidated by several years of mutual
+reciprocity?"
+
+"Silence, Snooksby!--I have been insulted. I was ever a foe to
+ingratitude, and grievous shall the expiation be," replied Bristles.
+
+"I now address myself to you, sir," continued Snooksby, turning to the
+wrathful sculptor, whose wrath, however, had begun to evaporate in
+reflecting on the diminished chance of the promotion so repeatedly
+promised by Mr Bristles for his donkey; "and I feel on this momintous
+occasion, that it is my impiritive duty to endeavour to reinimite the
+expiring imbers of amity, and re-knit the relaxed cords of unanimity.
+Mr Stickleback, you were wrong--decidedly, powerfully, undeniably
+wrong--in denominiting the splindid lucibritions of our illustrious
+friend by the name of ridiculous rubbish. Apoligise, apoligise,
+apoligise; and I know too well the glowing sympithies of that
+philinthripic heart to doubt for a moment that its vibrations will
+instantly beat in unisin with yours."
+
+"I never meant to call his writings rubbish," said the subdued
+sculptor. "I know he's the greatest writer in England."
+
+"And you, my dear Stickleback, the greatest sculptor the world has
+ever seen!" exclaimed the easily propitiated critic. "Why will you
+doubt my respect, my admiration of your surpassing talent? Let us
+understand each other better--we shall both be ever indebted to the
+eloquent Mr Snooksby--(may he soon get on the vestry, the object of
+his inadequate ambition;) for a speech more refulgent in simple
+pathos, varied metaphor, and conclusive reasoning, it has not been my
+good fortune to hear. When our other friends leave me, Stickleback, I
+hope you will stay for half an hour. I have a most important secret to
+confide to you, and a favour to ask."
+
+The hint seemed to be sufficient. The rest of the party soon retired;
+and Bristles and Stickleback began their confidential conclave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+But another confidential conclave, of rather a more interesting nature
+to the parties concerned, took place three days after these
+occurrences in the shady walk in St James's Park. Under the trees
+sauntered four people--equally divided--a lady and a gentleman; the
+ladies brilliantly dressed, stout, and handsome--the gentlemen also in
+the most fashionable costume: one tall and thin, the long-backed
+Ticket; and the other short and amazingly comfortable-looking, Mr
+William Whalley--for shortness called Bill. Whether, while he admired
+the trunks of the old elms, he calculated what would be their value in
+deals, this narrative disdains to mention; but it feels by no means
+bound to retain the same cautious reserve with regard to his
+sentiments while he gazed into the eyes of Emily Pitskiver. He thought
+them beautiful eyes; and if they had been turned upon you with the
+same loving, trusting expression, ten to one you would have thought
+them beautiful too. The other pair seemed equally happy.
+
+"So you don't like me the worse," said Mr Sidsby, "now that you know I
+am not a poet?"
+
+"I don't know how it is, but I don't think I care for poetry now at
+all," replied the lady. "In fact, I suppose my passion for it was
+never real, and I only fancied I was enchanted with it from hearing
+papa and Mr Bristles perpetually raving about strength and genius. Is
+Miss Hendy a really clever woman?"
+
+"A genuine humbug, I should say--gooseberry champagne at two shillings
+a bottle," was the somewhat professional verdict on Miss Hendy's
+claims.
+
+"Oh! you shouldn't talk that way of Miss Hendy--who knows but she may
+be my mamma soon?"
+
+"He can never be such a confounded jackass!" said Mr Sidsby, without
+giving a local habitation or a name to the personal pronoun _he_.
+
+"He loses his daughters, I can tell him," said Miss Sophy with a toss
+of her head, that set all the flowers on the top of her bonnet
+shaking--"Emily and I are quite resolved on that."
+
+"But what can you do?" enquired the gentleman, who did not appear to
+be very nearly akin to Oedipus.
+
+"Do? Why, don't we get possession of mamma's fortune if he marries;
+and can't we--oh, you've squeezed my ring into my finger!"
+
+"My dear Sophy, I was only trying to show you how much I admired your
+spirit. I hope he'll marry Miss Hendy with all my heart."
+
+When a conversation has got to this point, a chronicle of any
+pretensions to respectability will maintain a rigid silence; and we
+will therefore only observe, that by the time Mr William Whalley and
+Emily had come to Marlborough House, their conversation had arrived at
+a point where discretion becomes as indispensably a chronicler's duty
+as in the case of the other couple.
+
+"We must get home," said Sophy.
+
+"Why should you go yet? There is no chance of your father being back
+from the city for hours to come."
+
+"Oh! but we must get home. We have been out a long time." And so
+saying, she led the way up the steps by the Duke of York's column,
+followed by her sister and her swain--and attended at a respectful
+distance by a tall gentleman with an immense gold-headed
+walking-stick, displaying nether integuments of the brightest red, and
+white silk stockings of unexampled purity. The reader, if he had heard
+the various whispered allusions to different dishes, such as "sheep's
+head," "calf's foot jelly," "rhubarb tart," and "toasted cheese,"
+would have been at no loss to recognise the indignant Daggles, whose
+culinary vocabulary it seemed impossible to exhaust. He followed,
+watching every motion of the happy couples. "Well, if this ain't too
+bad!--I've a great mind to tell old Pits how them disgusting
+saussingers runs after his mince-pies--meets 'em in the Park;
+gallivants with them under the trees as if they was ortolans and
+beccaficas; bills and coos with 'em as if they was real turtles and
+punch _à la Romaine_. How the old cucumber would flare up! Up Regent
+Street, along Oxford Street, through the square, up to our own door.
+Well, blowed if that ain't a good one! Into the very house they goes;
+up stairs to the drawing-room. O Lord! that there should be such
+impudence in beefsteaks and ingans! They couldn't be more audacious if
+they was Perigord pies."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Half an hour passed--an hour--and yet the conversation was flowing on
+as briskly as ever. Mr Bill Whalley had explained the exact difference
+between Norway and Canada timber, greatly to Miss Emily's
+satisfaction; and Miss Sophia had again and again expressed her
+determination to leave the house the moment Miss Hendy entered it; and
+both the young ladies had related the energetic language in which they
+had expressed this resolution to their father, and threatened him with
+immediate desertion if he didn't cut that horrid old schoolmistress at
+once. The same speeches about happiness and simple cottages, with
+peace and contentment, had been made a dozen time over by all parties,
+when the great clock in the hall--a Dutch pendule, inserted in a
+statue of Time--struck three o'clock, and at the same moment a loud
+rap was heard at the front door.
+
+"Who can it be?" exclaimed Miss Sophia. "It isn't papa's knock;"--and
+hiding her face in the thick hydrangia which filled the drawing-room
+window, she gazed down to catch a glimpse of the entrance steps. She
+only saw the top of a large wooden case, and the white hat of a
+gentleman who rested his hand on the burden, and was giving directions
+to the bearers to be very careful how they carried it up stairs.
+
+Mr Whalley started up, as did Mr Sidsby, in no small alarm. "I
+wouldn't be found here for half-a-crown," said the former gentleman:
+"old father would shake his head into a reg'lar palsy if he knew I was
+philandering here, when the Riga brig is unloading at the wharf."
+
+"Let us go into the back drawing-room," suggested one of the young
+ladies, "and you can get out quite easily when the parcel, whatever it
+is, is delivered." They accordingly retired to the back drawing-room,
+and in a few minutes had the satisfaction of hearing heavy steps on
+the stairs, and the voice of the redoubtable Mr Bristles saying,
+"Gently, gently,--I have no hesitation in stating, that you were never
+entrusted with so valuable a burden before. Deposit it with gentleness
+on the large table in the middle; and, you may now boast, that your
+hands have borne the noblest specimen of grace and genius that modern
+ages have produced."
+
+"It's that everlasting donkey papa is always talking about!" whispered
+Sophia.
+
+"If it's Stickleback's statue," said Mr William Whalley, "the little
+vagabond promised the first sight of it to old father. He'll be in a
+precious stew when he finds his rival has been beforehand!"
+
+The porters now apparently retired, and the youthful prisoners in the
+back drawing-room tried to effect their escape by the door which
+opened on the stairs; but, alas! it was locked on the outside, and it
+was evident, from the soliloquy of Mr Bristles, that their retreat was
+cut off through the front room. A knock--the well-known rat, tat, tat,
+of the owner of the mansion--now completed their perplexity; and, in a
+moment more, they heard the steps of several persons rushing up
+stairs.
+
+"Mr Pitskiver!" exclaimed Bristles in intense agitation, "you have
+surely forgotten our agreement--Snooksby! Butters! Banks! Why, I am
+quite overpowered with the surprise! It was to have been alone,
+without witnesses; or at most, in my presence. But so public!"
+
+"Never mind, my dear Bristles. Why should I conceal my triumph--my
+happiness--the boast and gratification of my future days? Let us open
+the casket that enshrines such unequaled merits."
+
+"If you really wish for no further secresy," replied Mr Bristles.
+
+"Certainly! Don't I know that that case contains a masterpiece, softly
+sweet and beautifully feminine, as a talented friend of ours would
+say?"
+
+"An exquisite woman, indeed!" said Bristles; "and a truly talented
+friend. The case, as you justly observe," proceeded the critic, while
+he untied the cords, "contains the most glorious manifestation of the
+softening influences of sex."
+
+"It's a pity she's an ass," suggested Mr Pitskiver. "I can't help
+thinking that that's a drawback."
+
+"What?--what is a drawback, my dear sir?"
+
+"That femininity, as Miss Hendy calls it, should be brought so
+prominently forward in the person of an ass."
+
+"An ass?--I don't understand! Are you serious?"
+
+"Serious! to be sure, my dear Bristles. In spite of all efforts to
+assume an intellectual expression, the donkey, depend upon it,
+preponderates--the long visage, the dull eyes, the crooked legs--it is
+impossible to perceive any grace in such a wretched animal. I can't
+help thinking that if it had been a young girl you had brought
+me--say, a sleeping nymph--full of youth and beauty, 'twould have been
+a vast improvement on the scraggy jeanie contained in this box. But
+clear away, Bristles, we are all impatience."
+
+"My dear sir--Mr Pitskiver--unaccustomed as I am, his I can truly say
+is the most uncomfortable moment of my life."
+
+"Why, what's the matter with you, Bristles, can't you untie the
+string?"--"Here," continued Mr Pitskiver, "give me the cord," and so
+saying he untwisted it in a moment--down fell the side of the case,
+and to the astonished eyes of the assembled critics, and also of the
+party in the back drawing-room, revealed, not the masterpiece of the
+immortal Stickleback, but a female figure enveloped in a grey silk
+cloak, and covering its face with a white muslin handkerchief.
+
+"Why, what the mischief is all this?" exclaimed the bewildered Mr
+Pitskiver; "this isn't the jeanie-ass you promised me a sight of. Who
+the deuce is this?"
+
+The handkerchief was majestically removed, and the sharp eyes of Miss
+Hendy fixed in unspeakable disdain on the assembled party.
+
+"'Tis I, base man! Are all your protestations of admiration come to
+this? Who shall doubt hereafter that it is the task of noble, gentle,
+self-denying woman to elevate society?"
+
+A smothered but very audible laugh proceeding from the back
+drawing-room, interrupted the further eloquence of the regenerator of
+mankind; and, finding concealment useless, the two young ladies threw
+open the door, and advanced with their attendant lovers to the table.
+The female philosopher, with the assistance of Mr Bristles, descended
+from her lofty pedestal, and looked unutterable basilisks at the
+open-mouthed Mæcenas, who turned his eyes from the wooden box to Miss
+Hendy, and from Miss Hendy to the wooden box, without trusting himself
+with a word of either explanation or enquiry.
+
+"We told you of our intentions, papa," said Miss Sophia, "if you
+brought that old lady to your house."
+
+"I didn't bring her; I give you my honour 'twas that scoundrel
+Bristles," whispered the dismayed Pitskiver.
+
+"You told me sir," exclaimed Bristles, "that you would be for ever
+indebted to me if I brought this lady to your mansion--that she was
+the perfection of grace and innocence. By a friendly arrangement with
+Mr Stickleback, the greatest sculptor of ancient or modern times, I
+managed to secure to this illustrious woman an admission to your
+house, which, I understood, she could not openly obtain through the
+opposition of your daughters. I considered that you knew of the
+arrangement, sir; and I know that, with a soft and feminine
+trustfulness, this most gentle and intellectual ornament of her sex
+and species consented to meet the wish you had so ardently expressed."
+
+"I never had a wish of the kind," cried Mr Pitskiver; "and I believe
+you talking fellows and chattering women are all in a plot to make me
+ridiculous. I won't stand it any longer."
+
+"Stand what?" enquired Mr Bristles, knitting his brows.
+
+"Your nonsensical praises of each other--your boastings of
+Sticklebacks, and Snooksbys, and Bankses; a set of mere humbugs and
+blockheads! And even this foolish woman, with her femininities and
+re-invigorating society, I believe to be a regular quack. By dad! one
+would think there had never been a woman in the world before."
+
+"Your observations are uncalled for"--
+
+"By no manner of means," continued the senior, waxing bolder from the
+sound of his own voice. "I believe you're in a conspiracy to puff each
+other into reputation; and, if possible, get hold of some silly
+fellow's daughters. But no painting, chiseling, writing, or
+sonneteering blackguard, shall ever catch a girl of mine. What the
+deuce brings _you_ here, sir?" he added, fiercely turning to Mr
+Sidsby. "You're the impostor that read the first act of a play"--
+
+"I read it, sir," said the youth, "but didn't write a word of it, I
+assure you. Bristles is the author, and I gave him six dozen of
+sherry."
+
+"No indeed, papa; he never wrote a line in his life," said Sophia.
+
+"Then he may have you if he likes."
+
+"Nor I, except in the ledger," modestly observed Mr Bill Whalley.
+
+"Then take Emily with all my heart. Here, Daggles," he continue,
+ringing the bell, "open the street-door, and show these parties out!"
+
+Amidst muttered threats, fierce looks, and lips contorted into all
+modes and expression of indignation, the guests speedily disappeared.
+And while Mr Pitskiver, still panting from his exertions, related to
+his daughters and their enchanted partners his grounds for anger at
+the attempt to impose Miss Hendy on him instead of a statue, Mr
+Daggles shut the front door in great exultation as the last of the
+intruders vanished, and said--
+
+"Snipe, old Pits may do after all. He ain't a bad round of beef; and I
+almost like our two mutton-chops, since they have freed the house from
+such shocking sour-crouts and watery taties as I have just flinged
+into the street."
+
+But it was impossible to convert the great Mr Bristles to the belief
+into which his quondam follower, Mr Pitskiver, had fallen as to the
+qualities of Miss Hendy. That literary gentleman had too just a
+perception of the virtues of the modern Corinne, and of a comfortable
+house at Hammersmith, with an income of seven hundred a-year, to allow
+them to waste their sweetness on some indecent clown, unqualified by
+genius and education to appreciate them. The result of this resolution
+was seen in a very few days after the interesting scene in Harley
+Street; and the following announcement in the newspapers will put our
+readers in as full a state of knowledge as we can boast of being in
+ourselves:--
+
+"Woman's value Vindicated as the teacher and example of Man, by Mrs
+Bristles, late Miss Hendy, Hammersmith."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IRELAND.
+
+
+An interdict has rested, through four months, on the discussion of
+Irish affairs--an interdict self-imposed by the English press, in a
+spirit of honourable (almost of superstitious) jealousy on behalf of
+public justice; jealousy for the law, that it should not be biased by
+irresponsible statements--jealousy for the accused, that they should
+not be prejudiced by extra-judicial charges. At length the interdict
+is raised, and we are all free once more to discuss the great
+interests so long sealed up and sequestered by the tribunals of
+Dublin. Could it have been foreseen or fancied, pending this
+sequestration, that before it should be removed by the delivery of the
+verdict, nay, two months before the trial should have closed in a
+technical sense, by the delivery of the sentence, the original
+interest (profound as it was) would be obliterated, effaced,
+practically superseded, by a new phasis of the same unparalleled
+movement? Yet this has happened. A debate, which (like a series of
+natural echoes) has awakened and revived all the political
+transactions of last year in Ireland, should naturally have preserved
+the same relation to those transactions that any other shadow or
+reflection bears to the substance. And so it would: but unhappily with
+these rehearsals of the past, have mingled tumultuous menaces of a new
+plot. And these menaces, in the very act of uttering themselves,
+advertise for accomplices, and openly organize themselves as the
+principle of a new faction for refusing tranquillity once more to
+Ireland. Once more an opportunity is to be stifled for obtaining rest
+to that afflicted land.
+
+This "monster" debate, therefore, presents us in equal proportions
+with grounds of disgust and terror--a disgust which forces us often to
+forget the new form of terror--a terror (from a new conspiracy) which
+forces us to forget even the late conspiracy of Repeal, and that
+glorious catastrophe which has trampled it under foot for ever.
+
+It is painful to the understanding--this iteration of statements a
+thousand times refuted; it is painful to the heart--this eternal
+neglect (in exchange for a _hear, hear_) of what the speaker knows to
+be mere necessities of a poor distracted land: this folly privileged
+by courtesy, this treason privileged by the place. If indeed of every
+idle word--meaning not trivial word, but word consciously false--men
+shall hereafter give account, Heavens! what an arrear, in the single
+case of Ireland, will by this time have gathered against the House of
+Commons! Perfectly appalled we are when we look into the formless
+chaos of that nine nights' debate! Beginning with a motion which he
+who made it did not wish[28] to succeed--ending with a vote by which
+one-half of the parties to that vote meant the flattest contradiction
+of all that was contemplated by the rest. On this quarter, a section
+raging in the highest against the Protestant church--on that quarter,
+a section (in terror of their constituents) vowing aid to this church,
+and yet allying themselves with men pledged to her destruction.
+_Here_, men rampant against the Minister as having strained the laws,
+in what regarded Ireland, for the sake of a vigour altogether
+unnecessary; _there_, men threatening impeachment--as for a lenity in
+the same case altogether intolerable! To the right, "how durst you
+diminish the army in Ireland, leaving that country, up to March 1843,
+with a force lower by 2400 rank and file shall the lowest that the
+Whigs had maintained?" To the left, "how durst you govern Ireland by
+martial strength?" Question from the Minister--"Will you of the
+Opposition place popish bishops in the House of Lords?" Answer from a
+premature sponsor of Lord John's--"We will." Answer from Lord John--"I
+will not." _Question retrospective_ from the Conservatives--"What is
+it, not being already done, that we could have done for Ireland?"
+_Answer_ from the Liberals--"Oh, a thousand things!" _Question
+prospective_ from the Conservatives--"What is it, then, in particular,
+that you, in our places, would do for Ireland? Name it." _Answer_ from
+the Liberals--"Oh, nothing in particular!" Sir R. Peel ought to have
+done for Ireland whole worlds of new things. But the Liberals, with
+the very same power to _do_ heretofore, and to _propose_ now, neither
+did then, nor can propose at present. And why? partly because the
+privilege of acting for Ireland, so fruitful in reproaches, is barren
+in practice: the one thing that remained to be done,--viz. the putting
+down agitators--_has_ been done; and partly because the privilege of
+proposing for Ireland is dangerous: first, as pledging themselves
+hereafter; second, because to specify, though it were in so trivial a
+matter as the making pounds into guineas for Maynooth, is but to put
+on record, and to publish their own party incapacity to agree upon any
+one of the merest trifles imaginable. Anarchy of anarchies, very mob
+of very mobs, whose internal strife is greater than your common enmity
+_ab extra_--what shall we believe? Which is your true doctrine? Where
+do you fasten your real charge? Amongst conflicting arguments, which
+is it that you adopt? Amongst self-destroying purposes, for which is
+it that you make your election?
+
+    [28] The reader may suppose that Lord John Russell had no
+    motive for wishing his motion to fail, because (as he was
+    truly admonished by Sir Robert Peel) that motion pledged him
+    to nothing, and was "an exercise in political fluxions on the
+    problem of combining the _maximum_ of damage to his opponents
+    with the _minimum_ of prospective engagement to himself."
+    True: but for all that Lord John would have cursed the hour in
+    which he resolved on such a motion, had it succeeded. What
+    would have followed? Ministers would have gone out: Sir Robert
+    Peel has repeatedly said they would in the event of parliament
+    condemning their Irish policy. This would bring in Lord John,
+    and _then_ would be revealed the distraction of his party, the
+    chicanery of his late motion, and the mere incapacity of
+    moving at all upon Irish questions, either to the right or to
+    the left, for _any_ government which at this moment the
+    Whig-radicals could form. Doubtless, Lord John cherishes hopes
+    of future power; but not at present. "Wait a little," is his
+    secret caution to friends: let us see Ireland settled; let the
+    turn be taken; let the policy of Sir Robert Peel (at length
+    able to operate through the last assertion of the law) have
+    once taken root; and then, having the benefit of measures
+    which past declarations would not permit him personally to
+    initiate, nor his party even to propose, Lord John might
+    return to power securely--saying of the Peel policy, "Fieri
+    non debuit, _factum_ valet."
+
+It might seem almost unnecessary to answer those who thus answer
+themselves, or to expose the ruinous architecture of politicians, who
+thus with mutual hands tear down their own walls as they advance, were
+it not for the other aspect of the debate. But the times are agitated;
+the crisis of Ireland is upon us; now, or not at all, there is an
+opening for a new dawn to arise upon the distracted land; and when a
+public necessity calls for a contradiction of the enemy, it is a
+providential bounty that we are able to plead his _self_-contradiction.
+In the hurry of the public mind, there is always a danger that many
+great advantages for the truth should be overlooked: even things seen
+steadily, yet seen but once and amongst alien objects, are seen to
+little purpose. Lowered also in their apparent value by the prejudice,
+that what passes in parliament is but the harmless skirmishing of
+partisanship, dazzling the eye, but innocuous as the aurora borealis,
+demonstrations only too certain of coming evils receive but little
+attention in their earlier stages. Yet undoubtedly, if the laws
+applicable to conspiracy can in any way be evaded, we may see by the
+extensive cabal now organizing itself in England for aiding the Irish
+conspiracy to overthrow the Irish Protestant church, that we have but
+exchanged one form of agitation for a worse. Worse in what respect?
+Not as measured simply by the ruin it would cause--between ruin and
+ruin, there is little reason for choice; but worse, as having all the
+old supporters that Repeal ever counted, and many others beside.
+Especially with Repeal agitation recommending itself to the Irish
+priesthood, and to those whom the priesthood can put in motion, it
+will recommend itself also and separately to vast multitudes amongst
+ourselves. It is worse also--not because in the event more ruinous,
+but because in its means less desperate. All the factious in politics
+and the schismatic in religion--all those who, caring little or
+nothing about religion as a _spiritual_ interest, seek to overthrow
+the present Ministers--all those who (caring little or nothing about
+politics as a trading interest) seek to overthrow the Church of
+England--all, again, who are distressed in point of patriotism, as in
+Ireland many are, hoping to establish a foreign influence upon any
+prosperous body of native prejudice against British influence, are now
+throwing themselves, as by a forlorn hope, into this rearmost of their
+batteries, (but also the strongest)--a deadly and combined struggle to
+pull down the Irish Protestant establishment. And why? because nothing
+else is left to them as a hopeful subject of conspiracy, now that the
+Repeal conspiracy is crushed; and because in its own nature an assault
+upon Protestantism has always been a promising speculation--sure to
+draw support from England, whilst Repeal drew none; and because such
+an assault strikes at the citadel of our strength. For the established
+church of Ireland is the one main lever by which Great Britain carries
+out the machinery of her power over the Irish people. The Protestant
+church is by analogy the umbilical cord through which England connects
+herself _materially_ with Ireland; through _that_ she propagates her
+milder influence; _that_ gone, the rest would offer only coercive
+influence. Without going diffusively into such a point, two vast
+advantages to the civil administration, from the predominance of a
+Protestant church in Ireland, meet us at the threshold: 1st, that it
+moulds by the gentlest of all possible agencies the _recusant_ part of
+this Irish nation into a growing conformity with the two other limbs
+of the empire. The Irish population is usually assumed at about one
+fourth part of the total imperial population. Now, the gradual
+absorption of so large a section amongst our resources into the
+temper, sympathies, and moral habits of the rest, is an object to be
+kept in view by every successive government, let their politics
+otherwise be what they may; and therefore to be kept in view by all
+Irish institutions. In Canada everybody is _now_ aware how much this
+country has been wanting to herself, (that is, wanting to the united
+interests equally of England and Canada,) in not having operated from
+the first upon the political dispositions of the old French population
+by the powerful machinery of her own language, and in some cases of
+her institutions. Her neglect in this instance she now feels to have
+been at her own cost, and therefore politically to have been her
+crime. Granting to her population a certain degree of education, and
+of familiarity with the English language, certain civic privileges,
+(as those of voting at political elections, of holding offices,
+profitable or honorary, &c.,) under such reasonable latitude as to
+time as might have made the transition easy, England would have
+prevented the late wicked insurrection in Canada, and gradually have
+obliterated the external monuments of French remembrances, which have
+served only to nurse a senseless (because a hopeless) enmity. Now, in
+Ireland, the Protestant predominance has long since trained and
+moulded the channels through which flows the ordinary ambition of her
+national aristocracy. The Popery of Ireland settles and roots itself
+chiefly in the peasantry of three provinces. The bias of the gentry,
+and of the aspiring in all ranks, is towards Protestantism. Activity
+of mind and honourable ambition in every land, where the two forms of
+Christianity are politically in equilibrium, move in that same line of
+direction. Undoubtedly the Emancipation bill of 1829 was calculated,
+or might have seemed calculated, to disturb this old order of
+tendencies. But against that disturbance, and in defiance of the
+unexampled liberality shown to Papists upon _every_ mode of national
+competition, there is still in action (_and judging by the condition
+of the Irish bar, in undiminished action_) the old spontaneous
+tendency of Protestantism to 'go ahead;' the fact being that the
+original independency and freedom of the Protestant principle not only
+create this tendency, but also meet and favour it wherever nature has
+already created it, so as to operate in the way of a perpetual bounty
+upon Protestant leanings. Here, therefore, is _one_ of the great
+advantages to every English government from upholding and fostering,
+in all modes left open by the Emancipation bill, the Protestant
+principle--viz. as a principle which is the pledge of a continual
+tendency to union; since, as no prejudice can flatter itself with
+seeing the twenty-one millions of our Protestant population pass over
+to Popery, it remains that we encourage a tendency in the adverse
+direction, long since established and annually increasing amongst the
+six and a half Irish Papists. Thus only can our total population be
+fused; and without that fusion, it will scarcely be hoped that we can
+enjoy the whole unmutilated use of our own latent power.
+
+Towards such a purpose therefore, _as tending to union_ by its
+political effects, the Protestant predominancy is useful; and
+secondly, were it no otherwise useful, it is so to every possible
+administration by means of its patronage. This function of a
+government--which, being withdrawn, no government could have the means
+of sustaining itself for a year--connects the collateral channels of
+Irish honours and remunerations with the great national current of
+similar distributions at home. We see that the Scottish establishment,
+although differing essentially by church government, yet on the ground
+that doctrinally it is almost in alliance with the Church of England,
+has not (except by a transient caprice) refused to the crown a portion
+of its patronage. On the other hand, if the Roman Catholic church were
+installed as the ruling church, every avenue and access for the
+government to the administration of national resources so great, would
+be closed at once. These evils from the overthrow of the Protestant
+church, we mention _in limine_, not as the greatest--they are the
+least; or, at any rate, they are so with reference to the highest
+interests--but for their immediate results upon the purposes common to
+all governments; and _there_ they would be fatal, for any Roman
+Catholic church, where it happens also (like the Irish) to be a Papal
+church, neither will nor _can_ confide privileges of this nature to
+the state. A Papal church, not modified (as the Gallican church) by
+_original_ limitations of the Papal authority, not modified (as even
+the bigoted churches of Portugal and Austria) by modern _conventional_
+limitations of that alien authority, gloomily refuses and must refuse,
+to accept any thing from the state, for the simple reason that she is
+incapacitated for giving any thing. Wisely, according to the wisdom of
+this world, she cuts away from below the footing of the state all
+ground on which a pretence could ever be advanced for interfering with
+herself. Consequently, whosoever, and by whatsoever organs, would
+suffer from the overthrow of the Irish church as now established by
+law, the administration of the land would feel the effects from such a
+change, first and instantly. Let us not mistake the case. Mr O'Connell
+did not seriously aim at Repeal--_that_ he knew too well to be an
+enterprise which could not surmount its earliest stages without coming
+into collision with the armed forces of the land; and no man will ever
+believe that he dreamed of prevailing _there_. What was it, then, that
+he _did_ aim at? It was the establishment in supremacy of the Papal
+church. His meaning was, in case he had been left quietly to build up
+his aspiring purpose so high as seriously to alarm the government,
+then suddenly to halt, to propose by way of compromise some step in
+advance for his own church. Suppose that some arrangement which should
+have the effect of placing that church on a footing of equality, as a
+privileged (not as an endowed) church, with the present establishment;
+this gained, he might have safely left the church herself
+thenceforwards, from such a position of advantage, to fight her way
+onwards, to the utter destruction of her rival.
+
+Thus it was that the conspirators hoped to terrify the minister into
+secret negotiation and compromise. But that hope failed. The minister
+was firm. He watched and waited his opportunity; he kept his eye
+settled upon them, to profit by the first opening which their folly
+should offer to the dreadful artillery of law. At last, said the
+minister, we will put to proof this vaunt of yours. We dare not bring
+you to trial, is your boast. Now, we will see that settled; and, at
+the same time, we will try whether we cannot put you down for ever.
+That trial was made, and with what perfection of success the reader
+knows; for let us remind him, that the perfection we speak of lay as
+much in the manner of the trial as in its result--in the sanctities of
+abstinence, in the holy forbearance to use any one of many decent
+advantages, in the reverence for the sublime equities of law. Oh,
+mightiest of spectacles which human grandeur can unfold to the gaze of
+less civilized nations, when the ermine of the judge and the
+judgment-seat, belted by no swords, bristling with no bayonets--when
+the shadowy power of conscience, citing, as it were, into the
+immediate presence of God twelve upright men, accomplishing for great
+kingdoms, by one day's memorable verdict, that solemn revolution which
+elsewhere would have caused torrents of blood to flow, and would
+perhaps have unsealed the tears of generations. Since the trial of the
+seven bishops[29]--which inaugurated for England the certainty that
+for _her_ the "bloody writing" was torn which would have consigned her
+children to the mercies of despotism--there has been no such crisis,
+no such agitation, no such almighty triumph. Here was the _second_
+chapter of the history; and lastly, that the nine nights' debate
+attached itself as the _third_, is evident from its real purpose,
+which may be expressed strictly in this problem: Given, as a fact
+beyond all doubt, that O'Connell's Repeal conspiracy is for ever
+shattered; let it now be proposed, as a thing worthy of the combined
+parties in opposition, to find out some vicarious or supplementary
+matter for sedition. A new agitation must be found, gentlemen--a new
+grievance must be had, or Ireland is tranquillized, and we are lost.
+Was there ever a case illustrating so strongly the maxim, that no man
+can be effectually ruined except by himself? Here is Lord John
+Russell, taxed a thousand times with having not merely used Mr
+O'Connell as an ally, but actually as having lent himself to Mr
+O'Connell as an instrument. Is that true? A wise man, kind-hearted,
+and liberal in the construction of motives, will have found himself
+hitherto unwilling to suppose a thing so full of disgrace; he will
+have fancied arguments for scepticism. But just at this moment of
+critical suspense, forth steps Lord John himself, and by his own act
+dissipates all doubts, frankly subscribing the whole charge against
+himself; for his own motion reveals and publishes his wrath against
+the ministers for having extinguished the only man, viz. a piratical
+conspirator, by whose private license there was any safety for
+navigating the sea of Irish politics. The exact relation in which Lord
+John had hitherto stood to Mr O'Connell, was that of a land-owner
+paying black-mail to the cateran who guaranteed his flocks from
+molestation: how naturally must the grazier turn with fury on the man
+who, by suppressing his guardian, has made it hopeless for the future
+to gain private ease by trafficking in public wrongs! The real
+grievance was, the lopping Dagon of all power to stand erect, and thus
+laying the Whig-radical under the necessity of "walking in the light
+of the constitution" without aid from Irish crutches. The real _onus_
+imposed on Lord John's party is, where to look for, and how to suborn,
+some new idol and some fresh idolatry. Still to dispense with the laws
+in Ireland in the event of their own return to power, still to banish
+tranquillity from Ireland in the event of Sir Robert's power
+continuing, required that some new conspiracy should be cited to the
+public service, possibly (after the 15th of April) some new
+conspirator. The new seditious movement could not be doubtful: by many
+degrees of preference, the war upon the Irish church had the "call."
+This is to be the war now pursued, and with advantages (as we have
+already said) never possessed by the Repeal cause. The chief advantage
+of _that_ lay in the utter darkness to the Irish peasantry of the word
+"Repeal." What it meant no wizard could guess; and merely as a subject
+to allure by uncertain hopes, on the old maxim of "omne ignotum pro
+magnifico," the choice of that word had considerable merit. But the
+cause of Popery has another kind of merit, and (again we remind the
+reader) reposes upon another kind of support. In that cause the Irish
+peasantry will be unaffectedly and spontaneously zealous; in that
+cause there will be a confluence from many quarters of English aid.
+Far other phenomena will now come forward. Meetings, even of the kind
+convened by Mr O'Connell, are not, we must remember, found to be
+unlawful by the issue of the late trials. Had certain melodramatic
+features been as cautiously banished from Mr O'Connell's parades as
+latterly they were affectedly sought, it is certain that, to this
+hour, he and his pretended myriads would have been untouched by the
+petrific mace of the policeman. Lay aside this theatrical costuming of
+cavalry, of military step, &c., and it will be found that these
+meetings were lawful. Most certainly a meeting for the purpose of
+petitioning is not, and (unless by its own folly) never can be, found
+unlawful.
+
+    [29] The trial of the seven bishops for declining to obey the
+    king's order in council against what, in conscience, they
+    believed to be the law of the land, is the more strictly a
+    parallel case, because, as in Ireland, the whole Popish part
+    of the population--in effect, therefore, the whole physical
+    strength of the land--_seemed_ to have arrayed itself on the
+    side of the conspiracy; so in England, the only armed force,
+    and that close to London, was supposed to have been bought
+    over by the systematic indulgence of the king. Himself and the
+    queen (Mary of Modena) had courted them through the summer.
+    But all was fruitless against the overwhelming sympathy of the
+    troops with an universal popular feeling. Bishop Burnet
+    mentions that this army (about 10,000 men, and then encamped
+    beyond Hounslow) broke into tremendous cheers at the moment
+    when the news of the acquittal reached them. Whilst lauding
+    their Creator his majesty was present. But a far more
+    picturesque account of the case is given by an ancestor of the
+    present Lord Lonsdale's, whose memoirs (still in MS.) are
+    alluded to in one of his Ecclesiastic Sonnets by Mr
+    Wordsworth, our present illustrious laureate. One trait is of
+    a nature so fine, and so inevitable under similar
+    circumstances of interest, that, but for the intervention of
+    the sea, we should certainly have witnessed its repetition on
+    the termination of the Dublin trials. Lord Lowther (such was
+    the title at that time) mentions that, as the bishops came
+    down the Thames in their boat after their acquittal, a
+    perpetual series of men, linked knee to knee, knelt down along
+    the shore. The blessing given, up rose a continuous thunder of
+    huzzas; and these, by a kind of natural telegraph, ran along
+    the streets and the river, through Brentford, and so on to
+    Hounslow. According to the illustration of Lord L., this voice
+    of a nation rolled like a _feu-de-joie_, or running fire, the
+    whole ten miles from London to Hounslow, within a few minutes;
+    or, like a train of gunpowder laid from London to the camp,
+    this irresistible sentiment finally involved in its torrent
+    evenits professional and hired enemies. Cæsar mentions that
+    such a transmission, telegraphically propagated from mouth to
+    mouth, of a Roman victory, reached himself, at a distance of
+    160 miles, within about four hours.
+
+But may not this new conspiracy, which is now mustering and organizing
+itself, be put down summarily by force? We may judge of _that_ by what
+has happened to the old conspiracy. Put down by martial violence, or
+by the police, Repeal would have retired for the moment only to come
+forward and reconstruct itself in successive shapes of mischief not
+provided for by law, or not shaped to meet the grasp of an executive
+so limited as, in these days, any English executive must find itself.
+On the other hand, once brought under the cognizance of law, it has
+been crushed in its fraudulent form, and compelled to transmigrate at
+once into that sincere, substantial, and final form, towards which it
+was always tending. Whatever of extra peril is connected with a
+movement so much more intelligible than Repeal, and so much more in
+alliance with the natural prepossessions of the Irish mind--better it
+is, after all, that this peril should be forced to show itself in open
+daylight, than that it should be lurking in ambush or mining
+underground; ready for a burst when other mischief might be abroad, or
+evading the clue of our public guardians. Besides that, Repeal also
+had its own peculiar terrors, notwithstanding that it did not grow up
+originally upon any stock of popular wishes, but had been an
+artificial growth propagated by an artificial inoculation. That flame
+also could burn fiercely when fanned by incendiaries, although it did
+not supply its own combustibles. And, think as we may of the two
+evils, valued as mischief against mischief, Repeal against
+Anti-protestantism, certain it is, that one most important advantage
+has accrued to Government from the change. Fighting against Repeal,
+they had to rely upon one sole resource of doubtful issue; for, after
+all, the law stood on the interpretation of a jury, and therefore too
+much on the soundness of individual minds; whereas in meeting the
+assaults of Anti-protestantism, backed as it is by six millions of
+combatants, ministers will find themselves reposing on the whole
+strength of two nations, and of that section, even amongst the Irish,
+which is socially the strongest. An old enemy is thus replaced by a
+new one many hundred-fold more naturally malignant; true, but
+immediately the new one will call forth a natural antagonism many
+thousand-fold more determined. Such is the result; and, though
+alarming in itself, for ministers it remains an advantage and a
+trophy. How was this result accomplished? By a Fabian policy of
+watching, waiting, warding, and assaulting at the right moment. Three
+times within the last twelve months have the Government been thrown
+upon their energies of attack and defence; three times have they been
+summoned to the most trying exercise of skill--vigilantly to parry,
+and seasonably to strike: _first_, when their duty was to watch and to
+arrest agitation; _secondly_, when their duty was, by process of law,
+to crush agitation; _thirdly_, when their duty was to explain and
+justify before Parliament whatsoever they had done through the two
+former stages. Now, then, let us rapidly pursue the steps of our
+ministers through each severally of these three stages; and by
+seasonable _resumé_ or recapitulation, however brief, let us claim the
+public praise for what merits praise, and apply our vindication to
+what has been most misrepresented. The first charge preferred against
+the Government was, that it did not instantly attack the Repealers on
+their earliest appearance. We must all recollect this charge, and the
+bitterness with which it was urged during the whole of last summer;
+for, in fact, the difference of opinion upon this question led to a
+schism even amongst the Conservative party and press. The majority,
+headed by the leading morning paper, have treated it to this day as a
+ground of suspicion against Government, or at least as an impeachment
+of their courage, that they should have lingered or hesitated upon the
+proper policy. Our Journal was amongst the few which, after
+considerable reflection and perhaps doubt, defended the course
+adopted; and specifically upon the following suggestion, _inter alia_,
+viz. that Peel and the Wellesley were assuredly at that moment
+watching Mr O'Connell, not at all, therefore, hesitating as to the
+general character of the policy to be observed, but only waiting for
+the best mode (best in effect, best in popularity) of enforcing that
+policy. And we may remind our readers, that on that occasion we
+applied to the situation of the two parties, as they stood watching
+and watched, the passage from Wordsworth--
+
+    "The vacillating bondsman of the Pope
+    Shrinks from the verdict of that steadfast eye."
+
+There was no great merit in being right; but it is proper to remind
+our readers that we _were_ right. And there is considerable merit,
+more merit than appears, in not having been wrong; for in that we
+should have followed not only a vast leading majority amongst public
+authorities, but we should have followed an instinct of impassioned
+justice, which cannot endure to witness the triumph, though known to
+be but fugitive, of insolence and hyperbolical audacity. Not as
+partisans, which was proved by the caution of our manner, but after
+some deliberation, we expressed our conviction that Government was not
+slumbering, but surveying its ground, taking up its position, and
+trying the range of its artillery, in order to strike surely, to
+strike once, but so that no second blow should be needed. All this
+has been done; so far our predictions have been realized; and to that
+extent the Government has vindicated itself. But still it may be
+asked, to _what_ extent? Doubtless the thing has been done, and done
+completely. Yet _that_ will not necessarily excuse the Government. To
+be well done is, in many cases, all that we require; but in questions
+of civil policy often there is even more importance that it should be
+_soon_ done, done maturely, (that is, seasonably done with a view to
+certain evils growing up concurrently with the evil,) done even
+prematurely with respect to immediate bad consequences open to instant
+arrest. At this moment amongst the parliamentary opponents of
+ministers, though some are taxing them with unconstitutional
+harshness, (or at least with that _summum jus_ which the Roman proverb
+denounces as _summa injuria_,) in having ever interfered at all with
+Mr O'Connell, others of the same faction are roundly imputing to them
+a system of decoy, a "laying of traps," (that was the word,) in
+waiting so patiently for the ripening of the Repeal frenzy. Upon the
+same principle, a criminal may have a right to complain that her
+Majesty, when extending mercy to a first crime, or a crime palliated
+by its circumstances, and that a merciful prosecutor who intercedes
+effectually on his behalf with the court, have both been laying a trap
+for his future conduct; since, assuredly, there is one motive the less
+to a base nature for abstaining from evil in the mitigated
+consequences which the evil drew after it. On the same principle the
+Repealers, having found Sir R. Peel so anxious, in the first stages of
+their career, to spare them altogether, were seduced into thinking
+that surely he never would strike so hard when at length he had made
+ready to strike. Still, with submission, we think that to found false
+expectations upon a spirit of lenity, and upon that mistake to found
+an abuse of goodness that was really sincere, was not the fault of Sir
+R. Peel, but of the Repealers. Any man's goodness becomes a trap to
+him who is capable of making it such; since the most noble
+forbearance, misinterpreted as fear, will probably enough operate as a
+snare for such a person by tempting him into excesses calculated to
+rouse that courage with which all genuine forbearance is associated.
+If the early moderation of Government did really entrap any man, that
+man has himself, and his own meanness of heart, to thank for his
+delusion. But were it otherwise, and the Government became properly
+responsible for any possible misinterpretation of their own
+lenity--even in that case, it will remain to be enquired whether
+Government _could_ have acted otherwise than it did. For else, though
+Government could owe little enough to the conspirator; yet with
+respect to the ill-educated and misled labouring man, whose honest
+sensibilities were so grievously played upon by traitors, we do
+ourselves conceive that Government had a clamorous duty. If such men
+by thousands believed that the cause of Repeal was patriotic, that we
+consider a delusion not of a kind or a class to challenge exposure
+from Government; they have neither such functions assigned to them,
+nor could they assume any office of teaching without suspicion. But
+when the credulity of the poor was shown also in anticipating impunity
+for the leader of Repeal, and upon the ground that ministers feared
+him, when for this belief there was really much plausible sanction in
+the behaviour of the Whig ministers--too plainly it became a marked
+duty of Sir Robert Peel to warn them how matters stood; to let them
+know that sedition tended to dangerous results, and that _his_
+Government was bound by no secret understanding, with sedition for
+averting its natural penalties. So much, we all agree, was due from
+the present Government to the poorer classes; and exactly because
+former governments had practically taken another view of sedition. If,
+therefore, Sir R. Peel had left unpaid this great debt, he failed
+grievously in the duties of his high office; but we are of opinion
+that he did _not_. We have an obscure remembrance that the Queen's
+speech uttered a voice on this point--a solemn, a monitory, a parental
+voice. We seem to recollect also, that in his own parliamentary place
+he warned the deluded followers of Repeal--that they were engaged in a
+chase that must be fruitless, and might easily become criminal. What
+was open to him, therefore, Sir Robert did. He applied motives, such
+as there were within his power, to lure men away from this seditious
+service. The "traps" he laid were all in that direction. If more is
+required of him by people arguing the case at present, it remains to
+ask whether more was at that time in his power.
+
+The present administration came into power in September 1841. Why the
+Repealers did not go to work instantly, is more than we can explain;
+but so it was. In March of 1843, and not sooner, Mr O'Connell opened a
+new shop of mercenary agitation, and probably for the last time that
+he will ever do so. The _surveillance_ of Government, it now appears,
+commenced almost simultaneously; why not the reaction of Government?
+Upon that it is worth spending a few words. It is now made known to
+the public, that from the very first Sir R. Peel had taken such
+measures of precaution as were really open to him. In communicating,
+officially with any district whatsoever, in any one of the three
+kingdoms, the proper channel through which the directions travel is
+the lord-lieutenant of the particular county in which the district
+lies. He is the direct representative of the sovereign--he stands at
+the head of the county magistrates, and is officially the organ
+between the executive and his own rural province. To this officer in
+every county, Sir R. Peel addressed a letter of instructions; and the
+principle on which these instructions turned was--that for the present
+he was to exercise a jealous neutrality; not interfering without
+further directions in ordinary cases, that is, where simply Repeal was
+advocated, or individuals were abused; but that, on the first
+_suggestion_ of local outrages, the first _incitement_ to mischief,
+arrests and other precautionary measures were to take place. Not much
+more than twenty years are gone by, since magistrates moved on
+principles so wholly different, that now, and to the youthful of this
+generation, they would seem monstrous. In those days, let any man be
+found to swear that he apprehended danger to his property, or violence
+to his person, from the assembling of a mob in a place assigned, and
+the magistrate would have held it his duty to disperse or prevent that
+meeting. But now _on a changé tout cela_; and as easily might a
+magistrate of this day commit Fanny Elssler as a vagabond. Yet even in
+these days we have heard it mooted--
+
+1. On the mere ground of _numerical amount_, and as for that reason
+alone an uncontrollable mass, might not such a meeting have been
+liable to dispersion? _Answer_--this allegation of monstrous numbers
+was uniformly a falsehood; and a falsehood gross and childish. Was it
+for the dignity of Government to assume, as grounds of action, fables
+so absurd as these? _Not_ to have assumed them, will never be made an
+argument of blame against the Executive; and, indeed, it was not
+possible to do so, since Government had employed qualified persons to
+estimate the numbers, and in some instances to measure the ground. The
+only real charge against Government, in connexion with these fables,
+is (and we grieve to say it) that of having echoed them, in an
+ambiguous way, at one point of the trials; not exactly assuming them
+for true, and resting any other truth upon their credit, but repeating
+them as parts _inter alia_ of current popular hearsay. Now this,
+though probably the act of some subordinate officer, does a double
+indignity to Government; it is discreditable to the understanding, if
+such palpable nursery tales are adopted for any purpose; and openly to
+adulterate with falsehood, even in those cases where the falsehood is
+not associated with folly, still more deeply wounds the character of
+an honourable government. But, besides, had the numerical estimates
+stood upon any footing of truth, mere numbers could not have been
+pleaded as an argument for reasonable alarm. The false estimate was
+not pleaded by the Repealers until _after_ the meetings, and as an
+inference from facts. But the use of the argument was _before_ the
+meeting, and to prevent the meeting. And if the experience of past
+meetings were urged as an argument for presuming that the coming one
+would be not less numerous, concurrently would be urged this same
+experience as a demonstration that no danger was to be apprehended.
+Dangerous the meetings certainly were in another sense; but, in the
+police sense, so little dangerous, that each successive meeting
+squared, cubed, &c., in geometrical progression the guarantee in point
+of safety for all meetings that were to follow.
+
+2. On the ground of _sedition_, and disaffection to the Government,
+might not these assemblages have been lawfully dispersed or prevented?
+Unfortunately, not under our modern atmosphere of political
+liberality. In time of war, when it may again become necessary, for
+the very salvation of the land, to suspend the _habeas corpus_ act,
+sedition would revive into a new meaning. But, at all times, sedition
+is of too unlimited a nature to form the basis of an affidavit sworn
+before a police magistrate; and it is an idea which very much
+sympathizes with the _general_ principles of political rights. When
+these are unusually licentious, sedition is interpreted liberally and
+laxly. Where danger tightens the restraints upon popular liberty, the
+idea of sedition is more narrowly defined. Sedition, besides, very
+much depends upon overt acts as expounding it. And to take any
+controversial ground for the basis of restraint upon personal liberty,
+would probably end in disappointment. At the same time, we must make
+one remark. Some months ago, in considering what offence was committed
+by the public avowal of the Repeal doctrine, we contended, that it
+amounted constructively to treason; and on the following argument--Why
+had any body supposed it lawful to entertain or to propagate such a
+doctrine? Simply, on the reflexion that, up to the summer of 1800,
+there _was_ no union with Ireland: since August of that 1800, this
+great change had been made. And by what? By an act of Parliament. But
+could there be any harm in seeking the repeal of a parliamentary act?
+Is not _that_ done in every session of the two Houses? And as to the
+more or less importance of an act, _that_ is a matter of opinion. But
+we contended, that the sanctity of an act is to be deduced from the
+sanctity of the subjects for which it legislates. And in proof of
+this, we alleged the _Act of Settlement_. Were it so, that simply the
+term _Act of Parliament_ implied a license universally for undoing and
+canceling it, then how came the Act of Settlement to enjoy so peculiar
+a consecration? We take upon us to say--that, in any year since the
+Revolution of 1688-9, to have called a meeting for the purpose of
+framing a petition against this act, would have been treason. Might
+not Parliament itself entertain a motion for repealing it, or for
+modifying it? Certainly; for we have no laws resembling those Athenian
+laws, which made it capitally punishable to propose their repeal. And
+secondly,--no body external to the two Houses, however venerable, can
+have power to take cognizance of words uttered in either of those
+Houses. Every Parliament, of necessity, must be invested with a
+discretionary power over every arrangement made by their predecessors.
+Each several Parliament must have the same power to _undo_, which
+former Parliaments had to _do_. The two Houses have the keys of St
+Peter--to unloose in the nineteenth century whatever the earliest
+Parliament in the twelfth century could bind. But this privilege is
+proper and exclusive to the two Houses acting in conjunction. Outside
+their walls, no man has power to do more than to propose as a
+petitioner some lawful change. But how could that be a lawful change
+which must begin by proposing to shift the allegiance into some other
+channel than that in which it now flows? The line of succession, as
+limited in the act, is composed of persons all interested. As against
+_them_, merely contingent and reversionary heirs, no treason could
+exist. But we have supposed the attempt to be against the individual
+family then occupying the throne. And it is clear that no pretence,
+drawn from the repealable nature of an English law, can avail to make
+it less, or other than treason, for a person outside of Parliament to
+propose the repeal of _this_ act as to any point affecting the
+existing royal family, or at least, so many of that family as are
+privileged persons known to the constitution. Now, then, this remark
+instantly points to two classes of acts; one upon which to all men is
+open the right of calling for Repeal; another upon which no such
+right is open. But if this be so, then to urge the legality of calling
+for a Repeal of the Union, on the ground that this union rests only
+upon an act of Parliament, is absurd; because that leaves it still
+doubtful whether this act falls under the one class or the other.
+
+Why do we mention this? Because we think it exceedingly important that
+the attention of parliament should be called to the subject, and to
+the necessity of holding certain points in our constitution as
+absolutely sacred. If a man or party should go about proclaiming the
+unlawfulness, in a religious sense, of _property_, and agitating for
+that doctrine amongst the lower classes by appropriate arguments--it
+would soon be found necessary to check them, and the sanctity of
+property would soon be felt to merit civil support. Possibly it will
+be replied--"Supposing the revolutionary doctrines followed by overt
+acts, then the true redress is by attacking these acts." Yet every
+body feels that, if the doctrine and the acts continued to propagate
+themselves, very soon both would be punished. In the case where
+missionaries incited negro slaves to outrages on property, or were
+said to do so, nobody proposed to punish only the overt outrages. So,
+again, in the event of those doctrines being revived which denounced
+all differences of rank, and the official distinctions of civil
+government, it would be too late to punish the results after the bonds
+of society were generally relaxed. Ministers are placed in a very
+false position, continually taxing a man with proposing the repeal of
+a law as if _that_ were an admitted crime, and yet also pronouncing
+the proposed repeal of any law to be a privilege of every citizen.
+They will soon find it necessary to make their election for one or
+other of these incompatible views.
+
+Meantime, in direct opposition to this uncertainty of the ministers,
+the Irish Attorney-General has drawn the same argument from the Act of
+Settlement which we have drawn. In February 1844, the Irish
+Attorney-General pronounced his views; _Blackwood's Magazine_ in
+August or September 1843. A fact which we mention--not as imputing to
+that learned gentleman any obligation to ourselves; for, on the
+contrary, it strengthens the opinion to have been _independently_
+adopted by different minds, but in order to acquit ourselves from the
+natural suspicion of having, in a legal question, derived our own
+views from a high legal authority.
+
+3. Might not the Repeal Association have been arrested and prosecuted
+at first, viz. in March 1843, as six months afterwards they were, on a
+charge of conspiracy? That was a happy thought, by whomsoever
+suggested; and strange that an idea, so often applied to minor
+offences as well as to political offences, should not at once have
+been seen to press with crushing effect upon these disturbers of the
+public peace. Since the great change in the combination laws, this
+doctrine of conspiracy is the only means by which masters retain any
+power at all. Wheresoever there are reciprocal rights, for one of the
+two antagonist interests to combine in defence of their own,
+presupposes in very many cases an unfair disturbance of the legal
+equilibrium. Society, as being an inert body in relation to any
+separate interests of its own, and chiefly from the obscurity of these
+interests, cannot be supposed to combine; and therefore cannot combine
+even to prevent combinations. Government is the perpetual guardian and
+organ of society in relation to its interests. Government, therefore,
+prosecutes. This, however, left the original question as to the Repeal
+of the Irish Union act, whether a lawful attempt or not lawful,
+untouched. And necessary it was to do so. Had the prosecutor even been
+satisfied on that point, no jury would have regarded it as other than
+a delicate question in the casuistry of political metaphysics. But the
+offence of combining, by means of tumultuous meetings, and by means of
+connecting with this obscure question rancorous nationalities or
+personalities, so as to make _that_ a matter of agitating interest to
+poor men, which else they would have regarded as a pure scholastic
+abstraction--this was a crime well understood by the jury; and thence
+flowed the verdict. But could not the same verdict have been obtained
+in the month of March? Certainly not. For the act of _conspiracy_ must
+prove itself by collusion between speeches and speeches, between
+speeches and newspapers, between reporters and newspapers, between
+newspaper and newspaper. But in the infancy of such a concern, these
+links of concert and mutual reverberation are few, hard to collect,
+and unless carelessly diffused, (as in the palmy days of the Repeal
+Association they were,) difficult to prove.
+
+In short, no indictment could have availed that was not founded on the
+offence of conspiracy; and _that_ would not have been available with
+certainty much before the autumn, when in fact the conspirators were
+held to bail. To have failed would have been ruinous. We have seen how
+hardly the furious Opposition have submitted to the Government
+measure, under its present principle of simple confidence in the law
+as it is: had new laws, or suspension of old ones, been found
+requisite--the desperate resistance of the Liberals would have reacted
+contagiously on the excitement in Ireland, so as to cause more
+mischief in a secondary way, than any measure of restraint upon the
+Repealers could have healed directly.
+
+It is certain, meantime, that Sir R. Peel did not wish to provoke a
+struggle with the Repealers. Feeling, probably, considerable doubts
+upon the issue of any trial, moving upon whatsoever principle--because
+in any case the composition of the jury must depend a good deal upon
+chance, and one recusant juror, or one juror falling ill at a critical
+moment, might have reduced the whole process to a nihility--Sir
+Robert, like any moderate man, hoped that his warnings might meet with
+attention. They did not. So far from _that_, the Repealers kindled
+into more frenzy through their own violence, irritated no doubt by
+public sympathy with their worst counsels in America and elsewhere. At
+length the case indicated in the minister's instructions to the
+lords-lieutenant of counties, the _casus fæderis_, actually occurred.
+One meeting was fixed ostentatiously on the anniversary of the
+rebellion in 1798; and against the intended meeting at Clontarf, large
+displays of cavalry and of military discipline were publicly
+advertised. These things were decisive: the viceroy returned suddenly
+to Ireland: the Privy Council of Ireland assembled: a proclamation
+issued from government: the conspirators were arrested: and in the
+regular course the trials came on.
+
+Such is our account of the first stage in this great political
+transaction; and this first stage it is which most concerns the
+reputation of Government. For though the merit of the trials, or
+second stage, must also belong to Government, so far as regards the
+resolution to adopt this course, and the general principle of their
+movement; yet in the particular conduct of their parts, these trials
+naturally devolved upon the law-officers. In the admirable balance of
+firmness and forbearance it is hardly possible to imagine the minister
+exceeded. And here, where chiefly he stood between a double fire of
+attacks, irreconcilable in themselves, and proceeding not less on
+friends than foes, it is now found by official exposures that Sir
+Robert's conduct is not open to a trivial demur. He made his
+preparations for vindicating the laws in such a spirit of energy, as
+though he had resolved upon allowing no escape for the enemy; he
+opened a _locus penitentiæ_, noiseless and indulgent to the feelings
+of the offenders, with so constant an overture of placability as if he
+had resolved upon letting them _all_ escape. The kindness of the
+manner was as perfect as the brilliancy of the success.
+
+Next, as regards the trials, there is so very much diffused through
+the speeches or the incidents of what is noticeable on one ground or
+other--that we shall confine ourselves to those points which are
+chiefly concerned in the one great factious (let us add fraudulent)
+attempt within the House of Commons to disparage the justice of the
+trial. In all history, we remember nothing that ever issued from a
+baffled and mortified party more audacious than this. As, on the other
+hand, in all history we remember nothing more anxiously or sublimely
+conscientious than the whole conduct of the trial. More conspicuously
+are these qualities displayed, as it was inevitable they should, in
+the verdict. Never yet has there been a document of this nature more
+elaborate and fervent in the energy of its distinctions, than this
+most memorable verdict; and the immortal twelve will send down their
+names to posterity as the roll-call of those upright citizens, who, in
+defiance of menaces, purchased peace to their afflicted country at the
+price of peril to themselves. With partisans, of course, all this goes
+for nothing; and no cry was more steadily raised in the House of
+Commons than the revolting falsehood--that the conspirators had not
+obtained a fair trial. Upon the three pretences by which this
+monstrous allegation endeavoured to sustain itself, we will say a
+word. Two quarrels have been raised with incidents occurring at
+separate stages in the striking of the jury. What happened first of
+all was supposed to be a mere casual effect of hurry. Good reason
+there has since appeared, to suspect in this affair no such excusable
+accident, but a very fraudulent result of a plan for vitiating the
+whole proceedings. Such things are likely enough to be attempted by
+obscure partisans. But at all events any trick that may have been
+practised, is traced decisively to the party of the defendants. But
+the whole effect of the trick, if such it were, was to diminish the
+original fund from which the names of the second list were to be
+drawn, by about one twenty-ninth part. But this inconsiderable loss
+was as likely to serve the defendants as not; for the object, as we
+have said, was--simply by vitiating the proceeding to protract the
+trial, and thus to benefit by a larger range of favourable accidents.
+But why not cure this irregularity, however caused, by the means open
+to the court? Simply for these reasons, explained by the
+Attorney-General:--1st, that such a proceeding would operate
+injuriously upon many other trials; and 2d, as to this particular
+trial, that it would delay it until the year 1845. The next incident
+is still more illustrative of the determination, taken beforehand, to
+quarrel with the arrangements, on whatever principle conducted. When
+the list of persons eligible as jurors has been reduced by the
+unobjectionable process of balloting to forty-eight, from that amount
+they are further reduced by ultimate challenges; and the necessity
+resting upon each party to make these challenges is not discretional,
+but peremptory. It happened that the officer who challenged on behalf
+of the crown, struck off about ten Roman Catholics. The public are
+weary of hearing it explained--that these names were not challenged
+_as_ Catholics, but as Repealers. Some persons have gone so far as to
+maintain--that even Repealers ought not to have been challenged. This,
+however, has been found rather too strong a doctrine for the House of
+Commons--to have asked for a verdict of guilty from men glorying in
+the very name which expresses the offence. Did any man ever suggest a
+special jury of smugglers in a suit of our lady the Queen, for the
+offence of "running" goods? Yet certainly they are well qualified as
+respects professional knowledge of the case. We on our part maintain,
+that not merely Repealers were inadmissible on the Dublin jury, but
+generally Roman Catholics; and we say this without disrespect to that
+body, as will appear from what follows. It will often happen that men
+are challenged as labouring under prejudices which disqualify them for
+an impartial discharge of a juror's duty. But these prejudices may be
+of two kinds. First, they may be the natural product of a certain
+birth, education, and connexion; and these are cases in which it will
+almost be a _duty_ for one so biased to have contracted something of a
+permanent inability to judge fairly under circumstances which interest
+his prejudices. But secondly, there are other prejudices, as, for
+instance, of passions, of blind anger, or of selfish interest. Such
+cases of prejudice are less honourable; and yet no man scruples to
+tell another, under circumstances of this nature, that he cannot place
+confidence in his impartiality. No offence is either meant or taken. A
+trial is transferred from Radnorshire to Warwickshire in order to
+secure justice: yet Radnorshire is not offended. And every day a
+witness is told to stand down, when he is acknowledged to have the
+slightest pecuniary interest in the case, without feeling himself
+insulted. Yet the insinuation is a most gross one--that, because he
+might be ten guineas richer or poorer by the event of the trial, he is
+not capable of giving a fair testimony. This would be humiliating,
+were it not seen that keen interests compel men to speak bluntly and
+plainly: men cannot sacrifice their prospects of justice to ceremony
+and form. Now, when a Roman Catholic is challenged as a juryman, it is
+under the first and comparatively inoffensive mode of imputation. It
+is not said--you are under a cloud of passion, or under a bias of
+gross self-interest. But simply--you have certain religious opinions:
+no imputation is made on your integrity. On the contrary, it is
+honourable to you that you should be alive to the interests of your
+class. Some think, and so may you, that separation from England would
+elevate the Catholics; since, in such a case, undoubtedly your
+religion would become predominant in Ireland. It is but natural,
+therefore, that you should lean to the cause of those who favour
+yours. In setting aside a Catholic as a juryman on the trial of
+Repealers, this is the imputation made upon him. Now, what is there in
+that to wound any man's feelings? Lastly, it is alleged that the
+presiding judge summed up in terms unfavourable to the Repealers. Of
+course he did; and, as an upright judge, how could he have done
+otherwise? Let us for one moment consider this point also. It is often
+said that the judge is counsel for the prisoner. But this is a gross
+misconception. The judge, properly speaking, is counsel for the law,
+and for every thing which can effect the right understanding of the
+evidence. Consequently he sometimes appears to be advocating the
+prisoner's cause, merely because the point which he is clearing up
+happens to make for the prisoner. But equally he would have appeared
+to be against the prisoner, if he found it necessary to dissipate
+perplexities that would have benefited the prisoner. His business is
+with no personal interest, but generally with the interest of truth
+and equity--whichever way those may point. Upon this principle, in
+summing up, it is the judge's duty to appraise the entire evidence;
+and if any argument lurks obscurely in the evidence, he must strip it
+of its obscurity, and bring it forward with fuller advantage. That may
+happen to favour the prisoner, or it may weigh against him. But the
+judge cannot have any regard to these consequences. His concern is
+simply with the pressure and incidence of the testimony. If,
+therefore, a prisoner has brought forward witnesses who were able to
+depose any thing in his favour, be assured that the judge will not
+overlook that deposition. But, if no such deposition were made, is it
+meant that the judge is to invent it? The whole notion has grown out
+of the original conceit--that a defendant in relation to the judge is
+in the relation of a client to an advocate. But this is no otherwise
+true than as it is true of every party and interest connected with the
+case. All these alike the judge is to uphold in their true equitable
+position and rights. In summing up, the judge used such facts as had
+been furnished to him. All these happened to be against the Repealers;
+and therefore the judge appeared to be against then. But the same
+impression would have resulted, if he had simply read his notes of the
+evidence.
+
+Such are the desperate attempts to fasten charges of unfairness on
+this fairest of all recorded trials. And with an interest so keen in
+promoting the belief of some unfairness, was there ever yet a trial
+that could have satisfied the losing party? Losers have a proverbial
+privilege for being out of temper. But in this case more is sought
+than the mere gratification of wrath. Fresh hopes spring up in every
+stage of this protracted contest, and they are all equally groundless.
+First, Mr O'Connell was not to be arrested: it was impossible and
+absurd to suppose it. Next, _being_ arrested, he was not to be tried.
+We must all remember the many assurances in Dublin papers--that all
+was done to save appearances, but that no trial would take place.
+Then, when it was past denial that the trial had really begun, it was
+to break down on grounds past numbering. Finally, the jury would
+never dare to record a verdict of guilty. This, however, being
+actually done, then was Mr O'Connell to bring writs of error; he was
+to "take the sense" of the whole Irish bench; and, having taken all
+that, he was to take the sense of the Lords. And after all these
+things were accomplished, finally (as we then understood it) he was to
+take himself off in the direction pointed out by the judges. But we
+find that he has not yet reconciled himself to _that_. Intimations
+come out at intervals that the judges will never dare to pass any but
+a nominal sentence upon him. We conclude that all these endless
+conflicts with the legal necessities of his case are the mere
+gasconades of Irish newspapers, addressing themselves to provincial
+readers. Were there reason to suppose them authorized by the
+Repealers, there would be still higher argument for what we are going
+to say. But under any circumstances, we agree with the opinion
+expressed dispassionately and seasonably by the _Times_
+newspaper--that judgment must be executed in this case. We agree with
+that journal--that the nation requires it as a homage rendered
+necessary to the violated majesty of law. Nobody wishes that, at Mr
+O'Connell's age, any _severe_ punishment should be inflicted. Nobody
+will misunderstand, in such a case, the mitigation of the sentence.
+The very absence of all claim to mitigation, makes it impossible to
+mistake the motive to lenity in _his_ case. But judgment must be done
+on Cawdor. Two aggravations, and heavy ones, of the offence have
+occurred even since the trial. One is the tone of defiance still
+maintained by newspapers under his control. Already, with one voice,
+they are ready to assure the country, in case of the sentence being
+incommensurate to the case, that Government wished to be severe, but
+had not courage for the effort; and that Government dares not enforce
+the sentence. The other aggravation lies in this--that he, a convicted
+conspirator, has presumed to take his seat amongst the senators of the
+land--"Venit in senatum, fit particeps consilii." Yet Catiline, here
+denounced to the public rage, _was_ not a _convicted_ conspirator; and
+even his conspiracy rests very much on the word of an enemy. It is
+true that, in some formal sense, a man's conviction is not complete in
+our law until sentence has been pronounced. But this makes no real
+difference as to the scandalous affront which Mr O'Connell has thus
+put upon the laws of the land. And in that view it is, viz. as an
+atonement for the many outrages offered to the laws, that the nation
+waits for the consummation of this public example.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work_
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844, by Various
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
+          content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" />
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+    <title>Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Volume 55. Issue 342. April, 1844.</title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844, 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: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: October 5, 2004 [EBook #13633]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jon Ingram, Victoria Woosley, the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team, and The Internet Library of Early Journals
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1>
+
+    <h1>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1>
+    <hr />
+    <br />
+
+    <h2>No. CCCXLII. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;APRIL, 1844.
+    &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;VOL. LV.</h2>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <br />
+    <br />
+
+    <table summary="TOC"
+           align="center">
+        <tr>
+            <th>TABLE OF CONTENTS</th>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.&mdash;A TALE OF VENICE AND
+            THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.&mdash;PART II.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#pirates">401</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE SLAVE-TRADE.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#slave">425</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.&mdash;THE ARABS OF
+            CORDOVA.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#arabs">431</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.&mdash;A FRAGMENT
+            FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#mexico">449</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE BRITISH FLEET.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#fleet">462</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.&mdash;PART
+            X.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#marston">483</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE CHILD'S WARNING.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#warning">499</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>THE TWO PATRONS.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#patrons">500</a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td>IRELAND.</td>
+
+            <td><a href="#ireland">518</a></td>
+        </tr>
+    </table><br />
+    <br />
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <a name="pirates"
+          id="pirates"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.</h2>
+
+    <h2>A TALE OF VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.</h2>
+
+    <h3>PART II.</h3>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER I.&mdash;THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE.</h3>
+
+    <p>The time occupied by the events detailed in the three
+    preceding chapters, had been passed by Antonio in a state of
+    self-exile from his master's studio. Conscious of having
+    disobeyed the earnest injunctions of Contarini, the weakness of
+    his character withheld him alike from confessing his fault, and
+    from encountering the penetrating gaze of the old painter.
+    Neglecting thus his usual occupation, he passed his days in his
+    gondola, wandering about the canals in the hope of again
+    meeting with the mysterious being who had made such an
+    impression on his excitable fancy. Hitherto all his researches
+    had been fruitless; but although day after day passed without
+    his finding the smallest trace of her he sought, his repeated
+    disappointments seemed only to increase the obstinacy with
+    which he continued the search.</p>
+
+    <p>The incognita not only engrossed all his waking thoughts,
+    but she still haunted him in his dreams. Scarcely a night
+    passed that her wrinkled countenance did not hover round his
+    pillow, now partially shrouded by the ample veil, then again
+    fully exposed and apparently exulting in its unearthly
+    ugliness; or else peering at him from behind the drapery that
+    covered the walls of his apartment. In vain did he attempt to
+    address the vision, or to follow it as it gradually receded and
+    finally melted away into distance.</p>
+
+    <p>It was from a dream of this description that he was one
+    morning awakened by his faithful gondolier Jacopo. The sun was
+    shining brightly through his chamber windows, and he heard an
+    unusual degree of noise and bustle upon the canal without.</p>
+
+    <p>"Up, Signor mio!" cried the gondolier joyously, and with a
+    mixture of respect and affectionate familiarity in his tone and
+    manner. "Up, Signor Antonio! You were not wont to oversleep
+    yourself on the day of the Bridge Fight. All Venice is
+    hastening thither. Quick, quick! or we shall never be able to
+    make our way through the press of gondolas."</p>
+
+    <p>The words of the gondolier reminded Antonio that this was
+    the day appointed for the celebration of a festival, which for
+    weeks past had been looked forward to with the greatest
+    impatience and interest, by Venetians of all ranks, ages, and
+    sexes; a festival which he himself was in the habit of
+    regularly attending, though on this occasion his preoccupied
+    thoughts and feelings had made him utterly unconscious that it
+    was so near at hand.</p>
+
+    <p>Although the ancient and bitter hatred of the Guelphs and
+    Ghibellines had died away, and the factions which divided
+    northern Italy had sunk into insignificance, nearly a century
+    before this period, the memory of their feuds was still kept up
+    by their great grandchildren, and Venice was still severed
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page402"
+       id="page402"></a>[pg 402]</span> into two parties or
+       communities, separated from each other by the grand canal.
+       Those who dwelt on the western or land side of this boundary
+       were styled the Nicolotti, after the parish of San Nicolo;
+       while those on the eastern or sea side took the appellation
+       of Castellani, from the district of Castello. Not only the
+       inhabitants of the city itself, but those of the suburbs and
+       neighbouring country, were included in these two
+       denominations; the people from Mestre and the continent
+       ranging themselves under the banners of the Nicolotti, while
+       those from the islands were strenuous Castellani.</p>
+
+    <p>The frequent and sanguinary conflicts of the Guelphs and
+    Ghibellines were now replaced and commemorated by a popular
+    festival, occurring sometimes once, sometimes oftener in the
+    year; usually in the autumn or spring. "In order that," says an
+    old chronicler of the time, "the heat being less great at those
+    seasons, the blood of the combatants should not become too
+    heated and the fight too dangerous." "Also on cloudy days,"
+    says the same authority, "that the spectators might not be
+    molested by the sun; and on Sundays or Saints' days, that the
+    people thereby might not be hindered from their occupations."
+    On these occasions one of the numerous bridges was selected as
+    the scene of the mock combat that constituted the chief
+    amusement of the day. The quays afforded good standing-room to
+    the spectators; and here, under the inspection of &aelig;diles
+    appointed by the people, the two parties met, and disputed for
+    supremacy in a battle, in which, however, no more dangerous
+    weapons than fists were allowed to be brought into play.</p>
+
+    <p>It was not the populace alone that divided itself into these
+    two factions. Accordingly as the palaces of the nobles stood on
+    the one or the other side of the canal, were their owners
+    Castellani or Nicolotti, although their partizanship existed
+    but in jest, and only showed itself in the form of
+    encouragement to their respective parties; whereas with the
+    lower orders the strife, begun in good-humour, not unfrequently
+    turned to bitter earnest, and had dangerous and even fatal
+    results. In the wish, however, to keep up a warlike spirit in
+    the people, and perhaps still more with a view to make them
+    forget, in a temporary and boundless license, the strict
+    subjection in which they were habitually held, the senate was
+    induced to permit the continuance of a diversion, which from
+    the local arrangements of Venice, the narrowness of the streets
+    and bridges, and the depth of the larger canals, was
+    unavoidably dangerous, and almost invariably attended with loss
+    of life.</p>
+
+    <p>Hastily dressing himself, Antonio hurried into his gondola
+    in order to proceed to the bridge of San Barnaba, opposite to
+    the church of the same name and to the Foscarini palace, that
+    being the spot appointed for the combat. The canal of the
+    Giudecca was one black mass of gondolas, which rendered even a
+    casual glimpse of the water scarcely obtainable; and it was
+    amidst the cries of the gondoliers and the noise of boats
+    knocking against each other, that the young painter passed the
+    Dogana and reached the grand canal. There the crowd became so
+    dense, that Jacopo, seeing the impossibility of passing, turned
+    aside in time, and making a circuit, entered the Rio de San
+    Trovaso, whence, through innumerable narrow canals, he
+    succeeded in reaching the scene of the approaching
+    conflict.</p>
+
+    <p>The combatants were attending mass, and had not yet made
+    their appearance. Wonderfully great, however, was the concourse
+    of spectators already assembled. Since sunrise they had been
+    thronging thither from all sides, eager to secure places which
+    might afford them a good view of the fight. Every roof, gable,
+    and chimney had its occupants; not a projection however small,
+    not a wall however lofty and perilous, but was covered with
+    people, for the most part provided with baskets of provisions,
+    and evidently determined to sit or stand out the whole of the
+    spectacle. In the anxiety to obtain good places, the most
+    extraordinary risks were run, and feats of activity displayed.
+    Here might be seen individuals clambering up perpendicular
+    buildings, by the aid of ledges and projections which appeared
+    far too narrow to afford either grasp or foot-hold; further on,
+    some herculean gondolier or peasant served as base to a sort of
+    human column, composed of five or six men, who, scrambling over
+    each other's <span class="pagenum"><a name="page403"
+       id="page403"></a>[pg 403]</span> shoulders, attained in this
+       manner some seemingly inaccessible position. The seafaring
+       habits of the Venetian populace, who were accustomed from
+       boyhood to climb the masts and rigging of vessels, now stood
+       them in good stead; and notwithstanding all the noise,
+       confusion, and apparent peril, it was very rarely that an
+       accident occurred.</p>
+
+    <p>Under the red awnings covering the balconies and flat roofs
+    of the palaces, were seated groups of ladies, whose rich
+    dresses, glittering with the costliest jewels and embroideries,
+    appeared the more magnificent from being contrasted with the
+    black attire of the grave patricians who accompanied them. But
+    perhaps the most striking feature of this striking scene was to
+    be found in the custom of masking, then almost universal in
+    Venice, and the origin of which may be traced in great part to
+    dread of the Inquisition, and of its prying enquiries into the
+    actions and affairs of individuals. Amidst the sea of faces
+    that thronged roofs, windows, balconies, streets, and quays,
+    the minority only were uncovered, and the immense collection of
+    masks, of every form and colour, had something in it peculiarly
+    fantastic and unnatural, conveying an impression that the
+    wearers mimicked human nature rather than belonged to it.</p>
+
+    <p>Venice, whose trade and mercantile importance were at this
+    period greatly on the decline, saw nevertheless, on occasions
+    like the present, strangers from the most opposite nations of
+    Europe, and even Asia, mingling peaceably on her canals. Here
+    were Turks in their bright red caftans and turbans; there
+    Armenians in long black robes; and Jews, whose habitually
+    greedy and crafty countenances had for the nonce assumed an
+    expression of eager curiosity and expectation. The mercantile
+    spirit of the Venetians prevented them from extending to
+    individuals the quarrels of states; and although the republic
+    was then at war with Spain, more than one superb hidalgo might
+    be seen, wrapped in his national gravity as in a mantle, and
+    affecting a total disregard of the blunt or hostile
+    observations made within his hearing by sailors of the Venetian
+    navy, or by individuals smarting under the loss of ships and
+    cargoes captured by Spanish galleys.</p>
+
+    <p>Scattered here and there amongst the crowd, Antonio's
+    searching eye soon remarked a number of men, to whom,
+    accustomed as he was to analyse the heterogeneous composition
+    of a Venetian mob, he was yet at a loss to assign any distinct
+    class or country. Their sunburnt and strongly marked features
+    were partially hidden by the folds of ample cloaks, in which
+    they kept themselves closely muffled; and it appeared to
+    Antonio, that in their selection of places they were more
+    anxious to escape observation than to obtain a good view of the
+    approaching fight. In the dark patches of shadow thrown by the
+    overhanging balconies, in the recesses of deep and gloomy
+    portals, or peering out from the entrance of some narrow and
+    tortuous alley, these men were grouped, silent, scowling, and
+    alone, and apparently known to none of the surrounding crowd.
+    But suspicious as were the appearance and deportment of the
+    persons in question, Antonio's thoughts were too much engrossed
+    by another and far more interesting subject, to accord them
+    much attention. He nourished the hope of discovering amongst
+    the multitude assembled around him, the mysterious being who
+    had taken so strong a hold on his imagination. Vainly, however,
+    did he scan every balcony and window and strain his eyes to
+    distinguish the faces of the more distant of the assembled
+    dames. More than once the flutter of a white robe, or a
+    momentarily fancied resemblance of figure, made his heart beat
+    high with expectation, until a second glance destroyed his
+    hopes; and the turning of a head or drawing aside of a veil
+    disclosed the blooming features of some youthful beauty, to
+    which, in his then state of mind, the wrinkled and unearthly
+    visage of the incognita would have been infinitely
+    preferable.</p>
+
+    <p>While the young painter was thus fluctuating between hope
+    and disappointment, several lads with naked arms, or but
+    slightly encumbered with clothing, were giving the spectators a
+    foretaste of the approaching conflict; and, encouraged by the
+    applause which was liberally vouchsafed them, making violent
+    efforts to drive one another off the bridge. At times the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page404"
+       id="page404"></a>[pg 404]</span> spirit of partizanship
+       would induce some of the bystanders to come to the aid of
+       those who seemed likely to be defeated&mdash;an interference
+       that was repressed by the &aelig;diles stationed at either
+       end of the bridge, who did their utmost to enforce the laws
+       of this popular tournament. Notwithstanding their efforts,
+       however, the <i>mostra</i> or duello between two persons, by
+       which the combat should begin, was often converted into the
+       <i>frotta</i> or m&ecirc;l&eacute;e, in which all pressed
+       forward without order. The first advantage was held to
+       be&mdash;for one of the combatants to draw blood, if it were
+       only a single drop, from the nose or mouth of his opponent.
+       Loud applause rewarded the skill and vigour of him who
+       succeeded in throwing his adversary into the canal; but the
+       clamour became deafening when a champion was found who
+       maintained his station in the centre of the bridge, without
+       any of the opposite party venturing to attack him. This feat
+       won the highest honour that could be obtained; and he who
+       achieved it retired from his post amid the waving of scarfs
+       and handkerchiefs, and the enthusiastic cheers of the
+       gratified spectators.</p>
+
+    <p>At length the bell of the Campanile announced that mass was
+    over, and presently, out of two opposite streets that had been
+    purposely kept clear, the combatants emerged, pressing forward
+    in eager haste towards the bridge; their arms naked to the
+    shoulders, their breasts protected by leathern doublets, and
+    their heads by closely fitting caps&mdash;their dress
+    altogether as light as possible, and well adapted to the
+    struggle in which they were about to engage. The loud hum of
+    the multitude was hushed on their appearance, and the deepest
+    silence reigned while the &aelig;diles marshaled them to their
+    respective places, on which they planted themselves in
+    threatening attitudes, their broad and muscular chests
+    expanded, their fists clenched, their feet seeming to grasp the
+    ground on which they stood.</p>
+
+    <p>A loud flourish of trumpets gave the signal of the onset,
+    and with inconceivable impetuosity the two parties threw
+    themselves on each other. In spite, however, of the fury and
+    violence of the shock, neither side yielded an inch of ground.
+    The bridge was completely filled with men from end to end, and
+    from side to side; there was no parapet or barrier of any kind
+    to prevent the combatants from pushing one another into the
+    canal; yet so equally balanced was the strength of the two
+    parties, that after nearly half an hour's struggle very few men
+    had been thrown from the bridge, and not the smallest advantage
+    had been obtained either by Castellani or Nicolotti. Those in
+    the rear, who had as yet done nothing but push the others
+    forward, now came to the front, and the combat was renewed with
+    fresh vigour, but for a long time without any result. Again and
+    again were the combatants changed; but it was past noon before
+    Antonio, whose thoughts had been gradually diverted from the
+    incognita by the struggle that was going on, perceived symptoms
+    of weariness amongst those indefatigable athletes. Here and
+    there a knee was seen to bend, or a muscular form to sink,
+    under some well-directed blow, or before a sudden rush of the
+    opposite party. First one, then another of the combatants was
+    hurled from the bridge into the canal, an immersion that,
+    dripping with perspiration as they were, not unfrequently
+    caused death or severe illness. Nevertheless the fury of the
+    fight seemed rather to increase than diminish. So long as only
+    a man here and there fell into the water, they were dragged out
+    by their friends; and the spectators even seemed to feel pity
+    and sympathy for the unfortunates, as they saw them carried
+    along, some covered with blood, others paralysed by the sudden
+    cold, with faces pale as death and limbs stiff and rigid. But
+    as the fury and violence of the combatants augmented, the
+    bystanders forgot every other feeling in the excitement of the
+    fight, about the result of which they seemed as anxious as
+    those who were actively engaged in it. Even women might be seen
+    encouraging those who were driven back, and urging them once
+    more to the charge; applauding and cheering them on when they
+    advanced, and assailing those who hung back with vehement
+    reproaches. The uproar and shouting, shrieks and yells,
+    exceeded any thing that could be imagined. The partizans had
+    got completely mixed together; and, instead of the struggle
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page405"
+       id="page405"></a>[pg 405]</span> being confined to the
+       foremost ranks of the contending parties, the whole bridge
+       was now one coil of raging combatants. Men fell into the
+       canal by scores, but no one thought of rendering them any
+       assistance. Their places were immediately filled up, and the
+       fight lost none of its fury from their absence.</p>
+
+    <p>Evening was now approaching, and the combat was more violent
+    than it had yet been, or than it had for years been known to
+    be, when Antonio saw the cloaked and mysterious individuals who
+    had already attracted his attention, emerge from their
+    lurking-places, and disappear in different directions.
+    Presently he thought he observed some of them on the bridge
+    mingling with the combatants, whose blind rage prevented them
+    from noticing the intrusion. Wherever they passed, there did
+    the fight augment in obstinacy and fury. Suddenly there was a
+    violent rush upon the bridge, a frightful outcry, and a clash
+    of steel. At the same moment the blades of several swords and
+    daggers were seen crossed and glittering upon the bridge,
+    without its being possible for any one to divine whence the
+    weapons came. The spectators, seized with a panic fear, fled in
+    every direction, and sprang in crowds from the quays to seek
+    shelter under the awnings of the gondolas covering the canal.
+    In vain did the gondoliers resist the intrusion of the
+    fugitives: all considerations of rank and property were lost
+    sight of in the terror of the moment, and some of the boats
+    sank under the weight of the multitudes that poured into them.
+    In their haste to get away, the gondolas impeded each other,
+    and became wedged together in the canal; and amidst the screams
+    of the ladies and angry exclamations of the men, the gondoliers
+    laid down their oars and began to dispute the precedence with
+    blows. Meanwhile the people on the roofs of the houses,
+    believing themselves in safety, espoused different sides, and
+    threw stones and bricks at each other, and at those standing
+    below. In an incredibly short time houses were entirely
+    unroofed, and a perfect storm of tiles rained upon the quays
+    and streets. Those who had first fled, when they attained what
+    appeared a safe distance, halted to look on, and thus prevented
+    others from getting away. Antonio was amongst the number whose
+    escape was thus impeded. His gondolier lay at the bottom of the
+    boat, stunned by a blow from a stone; he himself was bruised
+    and wounded by the missiles that fell in all directions.</p>
+
+    <p>The tumult was at its height when suddenly a sound was heard
+    that had a truly magical effect upon the rioters, for such they
+    might now be termed. The alarm-bell of St Mark's rang out its
+    awful peal. In an instant the yells of defiance were hushed;
+    the arm that was already drawn back to deal a blow fell
+    harmless by its owner's side, the storm of missiles ceased, the
+    contending factions parted, and left the combat undecided. The
+    habit of obedience and the intimation of some danger to the
+    city, stilled in an instant the rage of party feeling, and
+    combatants and spectators alike hurried away in the direction
+    of St Mark's place, the usual point of rendezvous on such
+    occasions.</p>
+
+    <p>Jacopo had now recovered his senses, and Antonio's gondola
+    was one of the first which reached the square in front of the
+    cathedral. Thence the young painter at once discovered the
+    cause of the alarm. Smoke and flame were issuing from some
+    buildings on the opposite island of San Giorgio Maggiore, where
+    the greater part of the merchants' warehouses were situated.
+    Thither the crowd of gondolas now steered, and Antonio found
+    himself carried along with the stream. But although the fire
+    was already beginning to subside before the prompt measures
+    taken to subdue it, the alarm-bell kept clanging on; and
+    Antonio soon perceived that there must be some other point of
+    danger to which it was intended to turn the attention of the
+    people. Gazing about for some indication of its source, he saw
+    several gondolas hurrying towards the grand canal, on which
+    most of the palaces of the nobles were situated, and he ordered
+    Jacopo to steer in the same direction.</p>
+
+    <p>On reaching the palazzo of the Malipieri family, a strange
+    scene presented itself to him. The open space between the side
+    of the palace and the adjacent church of San Samuele, was
+    crowded with men engaged in a furious and sanguinary conflict.
+    At one of the windows of the palace, a
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page406"
+       id="page406"></a>[pg 406]</span> tall man in a flowing white
+       robe, with a naked sabre in one hand and a musquetoon in the
+       other, which, from the smoke still issuing from its muzzle,
+       had apparently just been discharged, stood defending himself
+       desperately against a band of fierce and bearded ruffians,
+       who swarmed up a rope ladder fixed below the window. The
+       person making so gallant a defence was the Senator
+       Malipiero; the assailants were Uzcoques from the fortress of
+       Segna.</p>
+
+    <p>The arrival of the Proveditore Marcello at Gradiska, and his
+    subsequent recognition of his jewels at the ball, having
+    destroyed Strasolda's hopes of obtaining her father's
+    liberation through the intervention of the archducal
+    counsellors, the high-spirited maiden resolved to execute a
+    plan she had herself devised, and which, although in the
+    highest degree rash and hazardous, might still succeed if
+    favoured by circumstances and conducted with skill and
+    decision. This was to seize upon the person of a Venetian of
+    note, in order to exchange him for the Uzcoques then
+    languishing in the dungeons of the republic.</p>
+
+    <p>The Venetians were not yet aware that the much-dreaded
+    woivode Dansowich was among their prisoners. The time chosen by
+    the Uzcoques for their expeditions and surprises was usually
+    the night; and this, added to the custom of mask-wearing, was
+    the cause that the features of Dansowich were unknown to his
+    captors. Nevertheless the striking countenance and lofty
+    bearing of the chieftain, and of one or two of those who were
+    taken prisoners with him, raised suspicions that they were
+    persons of mark&mdash;suspicions which were not dissipated by
+    their reiterated denial of being any thing more than common
+    Uzcoques. It was this doubt which saved their lives; for their
+    captors, instead of hanging them at once at the yard-arm of the
+    galleys, which was the usual manner of disposing of Segnarese
+    prisoners, took them to Venice, and placed them at the disposal
+    of the senate. All subsequent threats and promises proved
+    ineffectual to extort from the pirates an acknowledgment of
+    superior rank; and the Venetian authorities would perhaps have
+    ended in believing the account they gave of themselves, had not
+    the urgent applications made by the Austrian Envoy and the
+    Capitano of Fiume, for the release of the Uzcoques, given their
+    suspicions new strength. The object of the Venetians was, if
+    they could ascertain that there was a chief among the
+    prisoners, to obtain from him, by torture or otherwise,
+    confessions which might enable them to prove to the Archduke
+    the encouragement afforded by his counsellors to the piracies
+    of the Segnarese. They accordingly delayed, by every possible
+    pretext, giving an answer to the archducal ambassador, doing
+    their utmost meanwhile to find out the real quality of the
+    prisoners. This, Strasolda was most anxious that they should
+    not discover; and her anxiety was scarcely less to prevent the
+    captivity of their leader from becoming known among the pirates
+    themselves. His daughter's entreaties, and his own better
+    nature, had frequently caused Dansowich to check his followers
+    in the atrocities they were too apt to commit. In consequence
+    of this interference, Strasolda suspected her father to be more
+    feared than liked by Jurissa Caiduch and some others of the
+    inferior woivodes or officers; and she apprehended that, if she
+    confided her plan to them, they would be more likely to thwart
+    than to aid her in it. The crews of the two boats which had
+    been engaged in the skirmish with the Venetian galleys when
+    Dansowich was captured, and the men composing the garrison of
+    the castle on the evening of that fatal occurrence, were
+    therefore all whose assistance she could reckon upon. Some of
+    those were her relatives, and the others tried and trusty
+    adherents. They alone knew of their leader's captivity, his
+    absence having been accounted for to the mass of Uzcoques
+    dwelling in the town of Segna, by a pretended journey to
+    Gradiska; and being too few in number to attack a Venetian
+    galley, the sole plan that seemed to offer a chance of success
+    to this handful of faithful followers, was the hazardous one
+    devised by Strasolda. Of this, they did not hesitate to attempt
+    the execution.</p>
+
+    <p>With the utmost cunning and audacity did the Uzcoques enter
+    Venice on the day appointed for the Battle of the Bridge,
+    singly, and by twos and threes, variously disguised, and
+    mingled with the country people and inhabitants
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page407"
+       id="page407"></a>[pg 407]</span> of the islands who were
+       hastening to the festival. Watching their opportunity when
+       the fight was at the fiercest, one party mixed with the
+       combatants, exciting and urging them on, and doing all in
+       their power to increase the confusion; others set fire to
+       the warehouses on the island of San Giorgio, in order to
+       draw the public attention in that direction; while the third
+       and most numerous division, favoured by the deepening
+       twilight and the deserted state of that part of the city,
+       succeeded in fixing a rope ladder to the window of the
+       Malipieri palace, the chief of which noble house was, as
+       they had previously ascertained, lying sick in bed in a
+       side-chamber, attended only by a few domestics.</p>
+
+    <p>But there were two things which Strasolda and the Uzcoques
+    had forgotten to include in their calculations. These were,
+    first, the slavish obedience of the Venetian populace to the
+    call of their superiors&mdash;an obedience to which they were
+    accustomed to sacrifice every feeling and passion; secondly,
+    the Argus eyes and omnipresent vigilance of the Secret
+    Tribunal. Scarcely was the ladder applied, when the first gush
+    of flame from the warehouses brought a deafening peal from the
+    alarm-bell; and at the same moment, the masked and armed
+    familiars of the Venetian police, rising as it seemed out of
+    the very earth, surrounded the ladder, and a fierce conflict
+    began. Even the watchfulness and precautions of the
+    Inquisition, however, were to a certain extent overmatched by
+    Uzcoque cunning and foresight. Had it not been necessary to
+    ring the alarm bell on account of the fire, the police, who
+    were far the most numerous, and who each moment received an
+    accession to their numbers, could scarcely have failed to
+    capture some of their opponents, and thus have ascertained to a
+    certainty what the promoters and the object of this audacious
+    attempt really were. But before they could accomplish this, the
+    small piazza where the conflict was going on was thronged with
+    the populace, half intoxicated with the excitement of the
+    scarcely less serious fight they had been witnessing and
+    sharing in. In the crush and confusion that ensued, familiars
+    and Uzcoques were separated; and the latter, mingling with the
+    crowd, and no longer distinguishable from the cloaked and
+    masked figures that surrounded them, easily succeeded in
+    effecting their escape.</p>
+
+    <p>When Antonio, who was pushed hither and thither by the mob,
+    was able to extricate himself sufficiently to get another view
+    of the window, the invalid nobleman, delivered from his
+    assailants, had retired into his apartment, while the ladder,
+    now deserted by the Uzcoques, had been cut and thrown down.
+    Desirous of escaping from this scene of confusion, the young
+    painter was making his way towards the quay, close to which his
+    gondola was waiting, when his heart suddenly leaped within him
+    at the sight of a muffled figure that passed near him, and in
+    which he thought he recognized the mysterious old woman who had
+    of late occupied so much of his thoughts. She was followed by a
+    number of the rabble, who pressed upon her with oaths and
+    curses, asserting that she was one of the party which had
+    attacked the palace of the Malipieri.</p>
+
+    <p>"I saw her holding the ladder," exclaimed one fellow.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, she was climbing up it herself," cried a second.</p>
+
+    <p>"Strike the foul witch dead!" shouted a score of voices.</p>
+
+    <p>The old woman's life was in the greatest peril, when a
+    strange and unaccountable, but at the same time irresistible
+    impulse, moved Antonio to go to her rescue. He was forcing his
+    way through the crowd with this intention, when the object of
+    the popular fury turned her head towards him. Her veil was for
+    a moment partially drawn aside, affording a glimpse of her
+    features in profile; and Antonio, still the slave of his
+    diseased imagination, fancied that her yellow shriveled
+    features had been metamorphosed into a countenance of regular
+    beauty; such a countenance, in short, as befitted the graceful
+    and symmetrical form to which it belonged. Confused and
+    bewildered, the naturally weak and undecided youth stood
+    deliberating and uncertain whether he should attempt the
+    rescue, which would have been by no means difficult to
+    accomplish by the display of a little boldness and promptitude.
+    Whilst he was thus hesitating, there suddenly broke
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page408"
+       id="page408"></a>[pg 408]</span> through the crowd a young
+       man, attired like himself in a black dress, and holding a
+       naked rapier in his hand. The new comer had probably lost
+       his mask in the tumult and confusion, for his features were
+       uncovered, and Antonio saw, to his inexpressible
+       consternation and astonishment, that they were the exact
+       counterpart of his own. Before he could recover from this
+       new shock, the stranger, by the aid of his fierce and
+       determined demeanour, and the rapid play of his weapon, had
+       made his way to the mysterious old woman, whose back was
+       turned towards him, and seizing her round the waist he again
+       forced a passage through the throng to the nearest gondola,
+       which happened to be that of the young painter. The crowd
+       pressed after him, and Antonio was hurried along with it to
+       the edge of the quay. But at the very moment that, to avoid
+       being pushed into the water by the throng, he sprang into
+       one end of his gondola, he saw the stranger, who had just
+       entered it at the other, gaze with a look of disgust and
+       dismay on the features of her he had rescued, and then with
+       a cry of horror, leap into another boat, which immediately
+       rowed rapidly away. At the same instant Jacopo, by a strong
+       sweep of the oar, spun the gondola round, and shot into a
+       narrow canal which soon led them out of sight and sound of
+       the scene of confusion they had just left.</p>
+
+    <p>These various events had succeeded each other so rapidly,
+    that Antonio could hardly credit his senses when he found
+    himself in this strange manner the deliverer of the mysterious
+    being who now sat under the awning of his gondola, her
+    frightful countenance, unveiled in the struggle and no longer
+    seen through the beautifying prism of the young artist's
+    imagination, again displaying the yellow and wrinkled skin, and
+    the deep-set glittering eyes, which now seemed fixed upon him
+    with an expression of love and gratitude that froze his blood.
+    With a shuddering sensation he retreated to the stern of the
+    boat, where Jacopo stood pale and trembling, crossing himself
+    without a moment's intermission.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you mad, Signore," whispered the gondolier, "to risk
+    your life in behalf of such a frightful witch? Never did I see
+    you so ready with your rapier, flashing it in people's eyes as
+    though it had been one of your painting brushes."</p>
+
+    <p>"By Heaven, Jacopo," answered Antonio, "that was not
+    I"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The saints protect us!" interrupted the gondolier. "You are
+    assuredly bewitched, or have lost your senses, Signore. To
+    think of your thus denying your own noble daring! Do, for the
+    blessed virgin's sake, let us jump out upon the next
+    landing-place, and leave the gondola to the sorceress who has
+    bewitched you. Holy mother! she is coming this way!"</p>
+
+    <p>A prey to the strangest and most contradictory emotions,
+    Antonio hastily advanced to meet the mysterious being, whom he
+    could not help regarding with superstitious awe, though he at
+    the same time felt himself drawn towards her by a fascination,
+    against which he found it was in vain to contend. The features
+    of the unknown were again shrouded carefully in her veil, but
+    her black and brilliant eyes glittered through it like nebulous
+    stars.</p>
+
+    <p>"To the house of the Capitano of Fiume," whispered she to
+    Antonio, and then retreated, as if anxious to avoid further
+    conversation, into the interior of the gondola.</p>
+
+    <p>In the district of Castello, through which Antonio and his
+    strange companion were now passing, the canals and quays were
+    deserted, and not a sound was heard except the distant hum of
+    the multitude assembled in the quarter of St Mark's. Without
+    exciting suspicion or attracting observation, they reached the
+    Rialto and the grand canal, and the gondola stopped at a
+    landing-place opposite the church of San Moyses.</p>
+
+    <p>As the young painter assisted his mysterious charge out of
+    the boat, a gentle pressure from the warm soft hand which for a
+    moment rested upon his, quickened every pulse in his frame; and
+    long after the enigmatical being had disappeared behind the
+    angle of a palace, he stood gazing, like one entranced, at the
+    spot where he had last seen her imposing and graceful figure.
+    The approach of Jacopo, still crossing himself, and calling
+    upon all the saints for protection against the snares of the
+    evil one, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page409"
+       id="page409"></a>[pg 409]</span> roused the perplexed youth
+       from his reverie; and, stepping into the gondola, he was
+       soon gliding rapidly over the canals in the direction of his
+       father's palace.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+    <h3>THE PICTURE.</h3>
+
+    <p>The gondola of the young painter, gliding rapidly and
+    silently over the still waters of the canals, was passing a
+    turn leading to the Giudecca, when it suddenly occurred to
+    Antonio that he would seek his old master, and, after
+    confessing his disobedience, relate to him the events of the
+    day, and make him the confidant of his troubles and
+    perplexities. A word to Jacopo changed the direction of the
+    gondola, and they entered the grand canal, on which Contarini's
+    dwelling was situated.</p>
+
+    <p>The brief twilight of Italy had passed, and it was now
+    completely night, dark and starless, which made more startling
+    the sudden appearance of several blazing torches, borne by
+    masked and hooded figures attired in black, who struck loud and
+    repeated blows on the gates of the Palazzo Contarini.</p>
+
+    <p>"Antonio Marcello! We seek Antonio Marcello!" exclaimed a
+    deep and hollow voice.</p>
+
+    <p>It would be necessary to be a Venetian, and to have lived in
+    those days, fully to comprehend the feeling of horror which
+    caused Antonio's blood to run cold, and the sweat to stand in
+    beads upon his forehead, when he heard his name uttered by the
+    familiars of the state Inquisition. Frightful dungeons, masked
+    judges, halls hung with black, the block and the gleaming axe,
+    the rack and its blood-stained attendants, the whole grim
+    paraphernalia of the Secret Tribunal, passed like the scenes of
+    a phantasmagoria before the mental vision of the young painter.
+    He at once conjectured the cause for which they were seeking
+    him. He had doubtless been taken for the youth who, by his
+    energy and promptitude, had rescued the mysterious old woman
+    from the mob, and who bore so striking and unaccountable
+    resemblance to himself; and it must be on suspicion of his
+    being connected with the attack on the Malipieri palace, that
+    the ministers of justice were hunting him out. Nor did he see
+    how he should he able to convince his judges of his innocence.
+    The tale he had to tell, although the truth, was still too
+    marvellous and improbable to obtain credence, and would be more
+    likely to draw upon him severe punishment, or perhaps the
+    torture, with the view of inducing him to confess its
+    falsehood. Bewildered by his terror, Antonio sat trembling, and
+    utterly incapable of deciding as to the course he should adopt,
+    when the trusty gondolier again came to his rescue.</p>
+
+    <p>"Cospetto! Signor!" he exclaimed, "have you lost your
+    senses, that you run thus into the very jaws of those devil's
+    messengers? To one like myself flight would certainly avail
+    little; but, with a Proveditore for your father, you may
+    arrange matters if you only take time before you become their
+    prisoner. Quick, then, to the palazzo! Don't you see old
+    Contarini's head stuck out of his window? He is telling them
+    you are not there. They have doubtless been to your father's
+    palace, and will not be likely to return thither at
+    present."</p>
+
+    <p>While the faithful fellow's tongue was thus wagging, his
+    arms were not idle. Intimately acquainted, as became his
+    calling, with the numerous windings and intricacies of the
+    Venetian canals, he threaded them with unhesitating confidence;
+    and, favoured by the darkness of the night, succeeded in
+    getting Antonio unobserved through a back entrance of his
+    father's palace.</p>
+
+    <p>The first impulse of the terrified youth on finding himself
+    thus in at least temporary security, was to destroy the picture
+    of the mysterious old woman, which, if found by the agents of
+    the Inquisition, might bear false but fatal witness against
+    him. With pallid cheek, and still trembling with alarm, he was
+    hurrying to his chamber to execute his intention, when he
+    encountered his father, who advanced to meet him, and, grasping
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page410"
+       id="page410"></a>[pg 410]</span> his arm, fixed upon him for
+       some moments his stern and searching gaze.</p>
+
+    <p>"The picture, father!" exclaimed the terror-stricken
+    Antonio. "For the love of Heaven, stay me not! Let me destroy
+    that fatal picture!"</p>
+
+    <p>Regardless of his son's agitation and terror, the
+    Proveditore half led, half forced him to a seat in a part of
+    the room, when the red blaze from the larch logs that were
+    crackling on the hearth, lit up the young man's features.</p>
+
+    <p>"What means this, Antonio?" he said; "what has befallen
+    during my absence at Gradiska? The familiars of the Inquisition
+    have been seeking you here&mdash;you, the last person whose
+    name I should expect to hear in such mouths. Alarm me it did
+    not; for well I know that you are too scant of energy and
+    settled purpose to be mixed up in conspiracies against the
+    state."</p>
+
+    <p>Antonio was still too much preoccupied by his terror to
+    understand, or at any rate to heed, the severity of his
+    father's remark. Collecting his scattered thoughts, he
+    proceeded to narrate all that had occurred to him, not only on
+    that day, but since his first meeting with the incognita near
+    the church of San Moyses, on the very same spot whither he had
+    conveyed her in his gondola but a short hour ago.</p>
+
+    <p>"Let me destroy the painting, father!" he concluded; "it may
+    be found, and used as testimony against me."</p>
+
+    <p>The Proveditore had listened with a smile, that was at once
+    contemptuous and sorrowful, to his son's narrative, and to the
+    confession of his weakness and disobedience to the injunctions
+    of his aged teacher. When he had finished speaking, there was a
+    minute's silence, broken at last by the elder Marcello.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have long been convinced," he said, "that Contarini would
+    never succeed in making of you a painter fit to rank with those
+    old and illustrious masters of whom Venice is so justly proud.
+    But I had not thought so poorly of you, Antonio, as to believe
+    that you would want courage to defend an object, for the
+    attainment of which you scrupled not to disobey your venerable
+    instructor. What the kind entreaties and remonstrances of
+    Contarini could not induce you to abandon, you are ready to
+    annihilate on the very first symptom of danger. Oh, Venice!"
+    exclaimed the Proveditore, his fine countenance assuming an
+    expression of extreme bitterness, as he gazed mournfully at the
+    portraits of his ancestors, including more than one Doge, which
+    were suspended round the walls of the apartment&mdash;"Venice!
+    thou art indeed degenerate, when peril so remote can blanch the
+    cheek of thy patrician youth."</p>
+
+    <p>He strode twice up and down the hall, then returning to his
+    son, bade him fetch the picture which he was so desirous of
+    destroying. Antonio, downcast and abashed by these reproaches,
+    which, however, were insufficient to awaken nobler aspirations
+    in his weak and irresolute nature, hurried to his chamber, and
+    presently returned with a roll of canvass in his hand, which he
+    unfolded and spread before the Proveditore&mdash;then, dreading
+    to encounter his father's ridicule, he shrunk back out of the
+    firelight. But the effect produced upon Marcello by the
+    portrait of the old woman, was very different from that
+    anticipated by his son. Scarcely had he cast his eyes upon the
+    unearthly visage, when he started back with an exclamation of
+    horror and astonishment.</p>
+
+    <p>"By all the saints, Antonio," cried he in an altered voice,
+    "that is a fearful portrait! Alas, poor wretch! thou art long
+    since in thy grave," continued he, addressing the picture, and
+    with looks and tones strangely at variance with his usually
+    stern and imperturbable deportment. "The worms have preyed on
+    thee, and thou art as dust and ashes. Why, then, dost thou rise
+    from the dead to fright me with that ghastly visage?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Is the face known to you, father?" the astonished Antonio
+    ventured to exclaim.</p>
+
+    <p>"Known to me! Ay, too well! That wrinkled skin, that
+    unearthly complexion, those deep-set eyes glowing like burning
+    coals. Just so did she glare upon me as she swung from the
+    tree, the blood driven into her features by the agonizing
+    pressure of the halter. 'Tis the very look that has haunted me
+    for years, and caused me many bitter moments of remorse;
+    though, God knows, the deed was lawful and justifiable, done in
+    the execution <span class="pagenum"><a name="page411"
+       id="page411"></a>[pg 411]</span> of my duty to the republic.
+       And yet she lives," he continued musingly. "How could she
+       have been saved? True, she had not been hanging long when we
+       left the place. Some of her people, doubtless, were
+       concealed hard by, and cut her down ere life had entirely
+       fled. But, ha! 'tis a clue this to the perpetrators of
+       to-day's outrage, for she was with them. Uzcoques, then they
+       must have been! Said you not, Antonio, that she came from
+       the house of the Capitano when first you saw her, and that
+       to-day you left her there?"</p>
+
+    <p>"At her own special desire, father," replied Antonio.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then is the chain of evidence almost complete," continued
+    the Proveditore. "It must have been herself. And now&mdash;this
+    attack on the Malipieri palace. What was its object? A
+    hostage?&mdash;Ay, I see it all, and our prisoner is none other
+    than Dansowich himself. But we must have proof of that from his
+    own confession; and this portrait may help to extort it."</p>
+
+    <p>Whilst uttering these broken sentences, which were totally
+    incomprehensible to the bewildered Antonio, the Proveditore had
+    donned his mantle, and placed his plumed cap upon his head.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, Antonio," said he, "we will not destroy this picture,
+    hideous though it be. It may prove the means of rendering
+    weighty service to the republic."</p>
+
+    <p>And with these words, inexplicable to his son, the
+    Proveditore left the apartment; and, taking with him the
+    mysterious portrait, hastened to the prison were the Uzcoque
+    leader was immured.</p>
+
+    <p>The pirate chief was a man of large and athletic frame, of
+    strong feelings, and great intellectual capabilities. His brow
+    was large, open, and commanding; his countenance, bronzed with
+    long exposure to the elements, and scarred with wounds, was
+    repulsive, but by no means ignoble; his hair and beard had long
+    been silvered over by time and calamity; but his vast bodily
+    strength was unimpaired, and when roused into furious
+    resentment, his manly chest emitted a volume of sound that awed
+    every listener. Upon a larger stage, and under circumstances
+    more favourable to the fair development of his natural powers
+    and dispositions, the pirate Dansowich would have become one of
+    the most distinguished and admirable men of his time. Placed by
+    the accident of birth upon the frontiers of Christian Europe,
+    and cherishing from early youth a belief that the highest
+    interests of the human race were involved in the struggle
+    between the Crescent and the Cross, he had embraced the
+    glorious cause with that enthusiastic and fiery zeal which
+    raises men into heroes and martyrs. Too soon, however, were
+    these lofty aspirations checked and blighted by the
+    anti-Christian policy of trading Venice, the bad faith of
+    Austria towards the Uzcoque race, and the extortions of her
+    counsellors. Cursing in the bitterness of his heart, not only
+    Turks, Austrians, and Venetians, but all mankind, he no longer
+    opposed the piratical tendencies of his neglected people, and
+    eventually headed many of their marauding expeditions.</p>
+
+    <p>It was nearly midnight when Dansowich was awakened from a
+    deep but troubled slumber by a grating noise at the door of his
+    dungeon. Anxiety of mind, and still more, the effect of
+    confinement in an impure and stifling atmosphere, upon one
+    accustomed to the breezes of the Adriatic and the free air of
+    the mountains, had impaired his health, and his sleep was
+    broken by harassing and painful dreams. In that from which he
+    now awoke, with the sweat of anguish on his brow, he had
+    fancied himself before the tribunal of the Inquisition. The
+    rack was shown to him, and they bade him choose between
+    confession and torture. He then thought he heard his name
+    repeated several times in tones deep and sepulchral. Starting
+    up in alarm, he saw the door of his prison open, and give
+    admittance to a man muffled in a black cloak, who walked up to
+    the foot of his bed of damp straw, and threw the rays of a dark
+    lantern full into his dazzled eyes.</p>
+
+    <p>The traces of recent and strong emotion, visible at that
+    moment on the pirate's countenance, did not escape the
+    Proveditore, who attributed them, and rightly, to an artifice
+    he had practised. Previously to entering
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page412"
+       id="page412"></a>[pg 412]</span> the dungeon, he had caused
+       the name of Nicolo Dansowich to be repeated several times in
+       a deep hollow voice. Aware of the superstitious credulity of
+       the Uzcoques, the wily Venetian had devised this stratagem
+       as one likely to produce a startling effect upon the
+       prisoner, and to forward the end he proposed to obtain by
+       his visit. He now seated himself upon a wooden bench, the
+       only piece of furniture in the dungeon, and addressed the
+       captive in a mild and conciliating tone.</p>
+
+    <p>"You should keep better watch over your dreams," said he,
+    "if you wish our tribunals to remain in ignorance of your
+    secrets."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dreams!" repeated the Uzcoque, somewhat startled by the
+    ominous coincidence between Marcello's words and the visions
+    that had broken his slumber.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, friend, your dreams! The jailers are watchful, and
+    little passes in these prisons without coming to their
+    knowledge. More than once have they heard you revealing in your
+    sleep that which, during your waking hours, you so strenuously
+    deny.&mdash;'Enough! Enough!' you cried. 'I will confess all. I
+    am Nicolo Dansowich.'"</p>
+
+    <p>While Marcello was speaking, the old Uzcoque had had time to
+    collect his thoughts, and call to mind the numerous snares and
+    devices by which the Venetian tribunals obtained confessions
+    from their prisoners. With an intuitive keenness of perception,
+    he in a moment saw through the Proveditore's stratagem, and
+    resolved to defeat it. A contemptuous smile played over his
+    features, and, shaking his head incredulously, he answered the
+    Venetian&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The watchful jailers you speak of have doubtless been
+    cheering their vigils with the wine flask," said he. "Their
+    draughts must have been deep, to make them hear that which was
+    never spoken."</p>
+
+    <p>"Subterfuge will avail you nothing," replied Marcello. "Your
+    sleeping confessions, although you may now wish to retract
+    them, are yet sufficient grounds for the tribunal to go upon,
+    and the most excruciating tortures will be used, if needful, to
+    procure their waking confirmation. Reflect, Dansowich,"
+    continued the Proveditore in a persuasive and gentle tone, "on
+    the position in which you now find yourself. Your life is
+    forfeited; and, if you persist in your denials, you will never
+    leave this dungeon but for the rack or scaffold. On the other
+    hand, the senate respects you as a brave and honourable,
+    although misguided man, and would gladly see you turn from the
+    error of your ways. Now is the time to ensure yourself a
+    tranquil and respected old age. Hearken to the proposals I am
+    empowered to make you. The Signoria offers you life, freedom,
+    and a captainship in the island of Candia, on the sole
+    condition, on your part, of disclosing the intrigues and
+    perfidy of the council at Gradiska, and furnishing us, as you
+    are assuredly able to do, with documents by which we may prove
+    to the Archduke the treachery of his ministers. Again, I
+    say&mdash;Reflect! or rather hesitate not, but decide at once
+    between a prosperous and honourable life, and a death of
+    degradation and anguish."</p>
+
+    <p>Neither the threats nor the temptations held out by the
+    Proveditore seemed to have the smallest effect upon the
+    Uzcoque.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are mistaken," replied he calmly. "I am not Dansowich,
+    nor have I any knowledge of the intrigues at Gradiska. I could
+    not therefore, if I wished it, buy my life by the treachery
+    demanded of me; and if the woivodes of Segna think as I do,
+    they will let themselves be hewn in pieces before they do the
+    bidding of your senators, or concede aught to the wishes of
+    false and crafty Venice."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are a brave man, Dansowich!" resumed the Proveditore,
+    who saw the necessity of changing his tactics. "You care little
+    for the dangers and sufferings of this world. But
+    yet&mdash;pause and reflect. Your hair is silvered by time, and
+    even should you escape your present peril, you will still, ere
+    many years are past, have to render an account to a higher
+    tribunal than ours. By an upright course you might atone for
+    the crimes of your youth and manhood, and become the chosen
+    instrument of Heaven to deliver your fellow-Christians from a
+    cruel scourge and sore infliction."</p>
+
+    <p>"And who has brought the scourge upon you?" demanded the old
+    man in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page413"
+       id="page413"></a>[pg 413]</span> a raised voice, measuring
+       the Proveditore with a stern and contemptuous look. "Is it
+       our fault that, whilst we were striving to keep the Turk
+       from the door of Christendom, you sought every means of
+       thwarting our efforts by forming treaties with the infidel?
+       You do well to remind me that my head is grey. I was still a
+       youth when the name of Uzcoque was a title of honour as it
+       is now a term of reproach&mdash;when my people were looked
+       upon as heroes, by whose valour the Cross was exalted, and
+       the Crescent bowed down to the dust. Those were the days
+       when, on the ruins of Spalatro, we swore to live like
+       eagles, amidst barren cliffs and naked rocks, the better to
+       harass the heathen&mdash;the days when the power of the
+       Moslem quailed and fled before us. And had not your sordid
+       Venetian traders stepped in, courting the infidel for love
+       of gain, the Cross would still be worshipped on all the
+       shores of the Adriatic, and the Uzcoques would still combat
+       for honour and victory instead of revenge and plunder. But
+       your hand has ever been against us. Your long galleys were
+       ever ready to sink our barks or blockade our coast; and the
+       fate of robbers and murderers awaited our people if they had
+       the mishap to fall into your hands. You reduced us at last
+       to despair. Each valiant deed performed against the Turk was
+       recompensed by you with new persecutions, till at last you
+       converted into deadly enemies those who would willingly have
+       been your friends and fast allies. Thank yourselves, then,
+       for the foe you have raised up. Your own cowardice and greed
+       have engendered the hydra which now preys upon your heart's
+       blood."</p>
+
+    <p>The Proveditore remarked with satisfaction, not unmingled
+    with surprise, that the old pirate, who had hitherto replied to
+    all interrogatories with a degree of cold reserve and cunning
+    which had baffled his examiners, was becoming visibly excited,
+    and losing his power of self-control. This was favourable to
+    the meditated stratagem of the Venetian, who now, in pursuance
+    of the scheme he had combined, gave the conversation another
+    direction.</p>
+
+    <p>"I an willing to acknowledge," said he, "that the republic
+    has at times dealt somewhat hardly with your people. But which
+    is in fact the worst foe, he who openly attacks you, or he who
+    makes you his tool to sow discord amongst Christians, and to
+    excite the Turks against Venice, while under pretence of
+    protection he squeezes from you the booty obtained at the price
+    of your blood?"</p>
+
+    <p>"And who does that?" demanded the Uzcoque.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who! Need you ask the question? What do you give for the
+    shelter you receive from Austria? At what price do you inhabit
+    the town and castle of Segna?"</p>
+
+    <p>"At none that I am aware of," replied Dansowich fiercely.
+    "We dwell there, in virtue of our compact with the Emperor, as
+    soldiers of the Archduke, bound to defend the post confided to
+    us against the aggressions of the infidel. As soldiers we have
+    our pay, as mariners we have our lawful booty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pay and booty!" repeated the Proveditore scornfully.
+    "Whence comes, then, your manifest misery and poverty? Whence
+    comes it that you turn robbers, if in the pay of Austria? No,
+    Dansowich, you will not deceive us by such flimsy pretexts!
+    Your gains, lawful and unlawful, are wrested from you by the
+    archducal counsellors, in whose hands you are mere puppets.
+    'Twas they who prompted you to tell the Turks that you were in
+    league with Venice; that the republic encouraged your misdeeds,
+    and shared the profits of your aggressions on the subjects of
+    the Porte. They it was who caused the documents to be prepared,
+    with forged seals and signatures of the illustrious Signoria,
+    which were to serve as proofs of your lying assertions. Deny
+    this, if you can."</p>
+
+    <p>The beard and mustache of the old Uzcoque appeared to curl
+    and bristle with fury at the insulting imputations of the
+    Proveditore. For a moment he seemed about to fly at his
+    interlocutor; his fingers clutched and tore the straw upon
+    which he was sitting; and his fetters clanked as his whole
+    frame shook with rage. After a brief pause, and by a strong
+    effort, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page414"
+       id="page414"></a>[pg 414]</span> he restrained himself, and
+       replied calmly to the taunting accusation of the
+       Venetian.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why go so far," said he, "to seek for motives that may be
+    found nearer home? You seem to have forgotten how many times
+    the Archduke has compelled us to make restitution of booty
+    wrested from Venetian subjects. You forget, too, that it was in
+    consequence of your complaints he sent to the cruel Rabbata to
+    control us&mdash;Rabbata whom we slew in our wrath, for we are
+    freemen and brook no tyranny. If we are poor individually, it
+    is because we yield up our booty into the hands of our
+    woivodes, to be used for the common good of seven hundred
+    families. No, Signor! if the republic has to complain of us,
+    let her remember the provocations received at her hands, the
+    persecutions which converted a band of heroes into a pirate
+    horde, and which changed our holy zeal against the enemies of
+    the Cross into remorseless hatred of all mankind. As to the
+    forged seals and signatures you talk of, and the deceptions
+    practised on the Turks, if such there were, they were the
+    self-willed act of our woivodes, and in no way instigated by
+    Austria."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thou liest, Dansowich!" said the Proveditore sternly. "Did
+    you not proclaim and swear in the public market-place of the
+    Austrian town of Segna, that you were the friends and allies of
+    Venice? This you would never have dared to do, but with the
+    approval and connivance of the archducal government."</p>
+
+    <p>The eyes of the pirate sparkled with a strange and
+    significant gleam as the Proveditore recalled the circumstance
+    to his recollection.</p>
+
+    <p>"Know ye not," said he with a grim smile, "whom ye have to
+    thank for that good office? 'Twas Dansowich himself, who
+    thereby but half fulfilled his vow of vengeance against the
+    republic. And when did it occur?" he continued with rising
+    fury. "Was it not shortly after the day in which that heartless
+    villain, the Proveditore Marcello, captured the woivode's wife,
+    and hung her, unoffending and defenceless, unshriven and
+    unabsolved, upon a tree on the Dalmatian shore?"</p>
+
+    <p>The Uzcoque paused, overcome by the bitter memories he was
+    calling up, and by the fury and hatred they revived in his
+    breast. His eyes were bloodshot, and the foam stood upon his
+    lips as he concluded. The Proveditore smiled. The favourable
+    moment he had been waiting had arrived, the moment when he
+    doubted not that Dansowich would betray himself. Taking
+    Antonio's drawing from under his cloak, he suddenly unrolled
+    and held it before the Uzcoque, in such a manner that the light
+    of the lantern fell full upon the ghastly countenance of the
+    old woman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Behold!" said he. "Does that resemble her you speak
+    of?"</p>
+
+    <p>The object of the Proveditore was gained, but he had not
+    well calculated all the consequences of his stratagem.</p>
+
+    <p>"Fiend of hell!" shouted Dansowich in a voice of thunder,
+    while a sudden light seemed to burst upon him. "'Tis thou who
+    are her murderer!" And bounding forward with a violence that at
+    once freed him from his fetters, which fell clattering on the
+    dungeon floor, he clutched the senator by the throat, and
+    hurled him to the ground before the astonished Venetian had
+    time to make the slightest resistance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Art thou still in being?" he muttered, while his teeth
+    gnashed and ground together. "I thought thee long since dead.
+    But, no! 'twas written thou shouldst die by my hand. Be it done
+    to thee as thou didst to the wife of my bosom," continued he,
+    while kneeling on the breast of the Proveditore, and
+    compressing his throat in an iron gripe that threatened to
+    prove as efficacious and nearly as speedy in its operation as
+    the bow-string of the Turk. In vain did Marcello struggle
+    violently to free himself from the crushing pressure of the
+    pirate's fingers. Although a very powerful man, and in the full
+    vigour of his strength, the disadvantage at which he had been
+    taken prevented his being a match for the old Uzcoque, whose
+    sinews were braced by a long life of hardship. Fortunately,
+    however, for the Venetian, the furious shout of Dansowich had
+    been overheard <span class="pagenum"><a name="page415"
+       id="page415"></a>[pg 415]</span> by the guards and jailers,
+       who now rushed into the dungeon, and rescued the half
+       strangled Proveditore from the grasp of his fierce
+       antagonist.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do him no hurt!" exclaimed Marcello, so soon as he was able
+    to speak, seeing that the guards were disposed to handle the
+    Uzcoque somewhat roughly; "the secret I have won is well worth
+    the risk. The prisoner is Dansowich, woivode of Segna."</p>
+
+    <p>The fetters which the pirate had snapped with such facility,
+    were, upon examination, found to be filed more than half
+    through. The instrument by which this had been effected was
+    sought for and discovered, and the prisoner, having been doubly
+    manacled, was again left to the solitude of his cell. After
+    directing all imaginable vigilance to be used for the safe
+    custody of so important a captive, the Proveditore re-entered
+    his gondola and was conveyed back to his palace.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+    <h3>THE PIRATES.</h3>
+
+    <p>The desperate attempt on the life of the Proveditore, and
+    the evidence given by him as to the identity of the prisoner,
+    had the result that may be supposed, and the old Uzcoque was
+    put to the torture. But the ingenuity of Venetian tormentors
+    was vainly exhausted upon him; the most unheard of sufferings
+    failed to extort a syllable of confession from his lips. At
+    last, despairing of obtaining the desired information by these
+    means, the senate commissioned Marcello, as one well acquainted
+    with the localities, to make a descent on the Dalmatian coast,
+    and profiting by the consternation of the Uzcoqes at the loss
+    of their leader, to endeavour to surprise a small fort situated
+    at some distance from Segna, and which was the abode of
+    Dansowich. In the absence of the old pirate it would probably
+    be carelessly guarded and easily surprised; and it was hoped
+    that documents would be found there, proving that which the
+    Venetians were so anxious to establish. Another object of the
+    expedition was to capture, if possible, the mysterious female
+    who had been lately seen more than once in Venice, and who had
+    taken so prominent a part in the attack on the palace of the
+    Malipieri.</p>
+
+    <p>Accompanied by his son, whom for various reasons he had
+    resolved to take with him, Marcello went on board an armed
+    galley, and with a favouring breeze steered for the Dalmatian
+    coast. He had little doubt of accomplishing the object of his
+    expedition with ease and safety; for a Venetian Fleet was
+    already blockading the channel of Segna, and the archducal city
+    of Fiume, where several of the Uzcoque barks were undergoing
+    repairs. The blockade had been instituted in consequence of the
+    outrageous piracies committed by the Uzcoques during the Easter
+    festival, and was a measure frequently adopted by the republic;
+    which, although carefully avoiding a war, neglected no other
+    means of enforcing their applications to the court at Gradiska
+    for an energetic interference in the proceedings of the
+    pirates. The inconvenience and interruption to the trade of
+    Fiume occasioned by these blockades, usually induced the
+    archducal government to institute a pretended investigation
+    into the conduct of the Uzcoques, or at least to promise the
+    Venetians some reparation&mdash;a mockery of satisfaction with
+    which the latter, in their then state of decline and weakness,
+    were fain to content themselves. Reckoning upon the terror
+    inspired by the presence of the squadron now employed in the
+    blockade, as well as upon its support, should he require it,
+    the Proveditore made sure of success. He was doomed, however,
+    to be cruelly disappointed in his sanguine anticipations.</p>
+
+    <p>When the attempt to get possession of the person of a
+    Venetian nobleman had failed, Strasolda found it impossible to
+    keep her father's captivity any longer a secret, and was
+    compelled to appeal to the whole of the Uzcoques to assist her
+    in his deliverance. Information of the woivode's recognition,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page416"
+       id="page416"></a>[pg 416]</span> and of the tortures he had
+       suffered, soon reached the ears of the pirates, who were not
+       slow to perceive that the safety, and even the existence of
+       their tribe, were now at stake. Although well acquainted
+       with the inflexible character of Dansowich, they trembled
+       lest the agonies he was made to suffer should force from him
+       a confession, which would enable the Venetians to convince
+       the archduke of the criminal collusion between his
+       counsellors and the Uzcoques. This would be the signal for
+       the withdrawal of the archducal protection from the pirates,
+       who then, exposed to the vengeance of all whom they had
+       plundered, must inevitably succumb in the unequal conflict
+       that would ensue.</p>
+
+    <p>The imminence of the peril inspired the Uzcoques with
+    unwonted courage and energy. Jurissa Caiduch himself,
+    forgetting any cause of dislike he might have to Dansowich,
+    joined heart and hand in the plans formed by the pirates for
+    the deliverance of their leader. Every man in Segna, whether
+    young or old, all who could wield a cimeter or clutch a knife,
+    hastily armed themselves, and crowded into the fleet of long
+    light skiffs in which they were wont to make their predatory
+    excursions. Then breaking furiously through the line of
+    Venetian ships, stationed between Veglia and the mainland, and
+    which were totally unprepared for this sudden and daring
+    man&oelig;uvre, they disappeared amidst the shoals and in the
+    small creeks and inlets of the Dalmatian islands belonging to
+    the republic, where the ponderous Venetian galleys would vainly
+    attempt to follow them. Their object was the same which they
+    had already attempted to carry out in Venice on the day of the
+    Bridge Fight; namely, to seize upon some Venetian magistrate or
+    person of importance whom they might exchange for Dansowich.
+    Under the guidance of Jurissa Caiduch they waylaid and boarded
+    every vessel that passed up or down the Adriatic, especially
+    those coming from the Ionian islands, in hope of meeting with a
+    Venetian of rank. Nor did they pursue their researches upon the
+    water alone. Not a night passed that one or other of the
+    islands was not lighted up by the blaze of villages, hamlets,
+    and villas. In the absence of Dansowich, there was no restraint
+    upon their fury; and urged on by the bloodthirsty Jurissa, the
+    cruelties they committed were unprecedented even in their
+    sanguinary annals. Nor were they without hope that the
+    barbarities they were perpetrating might induce the Venetians
+    to restore their leader to liberty, in order that he might, as
+    was well known to be his wont, check the excesses of his
+    followers.</p>
+
+    <p>The outbreak of the pirates had been so sudden and
+    unexpected, that the Proveditore, who sailed from Venice on the
+    same day on which it occurred, had received no intelligence of
+    it, and, unconscious of his peril, steered straight for the
+    islands. One circumstance alone appeared strange to him, which
+    was, that during the last part of his voyage he did not meet a
+    single vessel, although the quarter of the Adriatic through
+    which he was passing was usually crowded with shipping. But he
+    was far from attributing this extraordinary change to its real
+    cause.</p>
+
+    <p>It was afternoon when Marcello's galley cane in sight of the
+    white cliffs of Cherso, and shortly afterwards entered the
+    channel, running between that island and Veglia. The masses of
+    dark clouds in the western horizon were becoming momentarily
+    more threatening, and various signs of an approaching storm
+    made the captain of the galley especially anxious to get,
+    before nightfall, into the nearest harbour, which was that of
+    Pesca, at the southern extremity of the island of Veglia. All
+    sail was made upon the galley, and they were running rapidly
+    down the channel, when a red light suddenly flashed over the
+    waves in the quarter of the horizon they were approaching, and
+    was reflected back upon the sky, now darkened with clouds and
+    by the approach of night. Attracted by this unusual appearance,
+    Antonio hurried to the high quarterdeck of the galley; and
+    scarcely had he ascended it, when the fiery glow fell in a
+    flood of rosy light upon the distant chalk cliffs. Entranced by
+    the picturesque beauty of the scene, the young painter forgot
+    to enquire the cause of this singular illumination,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page417"
+       id="page417"></a>[pg 417]</span> when suddenly his attention
+       was caught by a shout from the man at the helm.</p>
+
+    <p>"By Heavens, 'tis a fire!" ejaculated the sailor, who had
+    been watching the unusual appearance. "All Pesca must be in
+    flames."</p>
+
+    <p>He had scarcely uttered the words when the galley rounded a
+    projecting point of land, and the correctness of the seaman's
+    conjecture was apparent. A thick cloud of smoke hung like a
+    pall over the unfortunate town of Pesca. Tongues of flame
+    darted upwards from the dense black vapour, lighting up sea and
+    land to an immense distance.</p>
+
+    <p>Scarcely had Antonio's startled glance been able to take in
+    this imposing spectacle, when the storm, which had long been
+    impending, burst forth with tremendous violence; the wind
+    howled furiously amongst the rigging, and the galley was tossed
+    like a nutshell from crest to crest of the foaming waves; each
+    moment bringing it into more dangerous proximity to the rocky
+    shoals of that iron-bound shore. The light from the burning
+    town showed the Venetians all the dangers of their situation;
+    and their peril was the more imminent because the signal
+    usually made for boats to tow large vessels through the rocks
+    and breakers, was at such a moment not likely to be observed or
+    attended to by the people of Pesca. Nevertheless the signal was
+    hoisted; but instead of bringing the assistance so much needed
+    by the Venetians, it drew upon them an enemy far more
+    formidable than the elements with which they were already
+    contending. Boats were soon seen approaching the galley; but as
+    they drew near it was evident they were not manned by the
+    peaceful fishermen, who usually came out to render assistance
+    to vessels. They were crowded with wild, fierce-looking
+    figures, who, on arriving within a short distance of the ship,
+    set up a savage yell of defiance, and sent a deadly volley of
+    musket-balls amongst the astounded Venetians. Before the latter
+    had recovered from their astonishment, the light skiffs of the
+    Uzcoques were within a few yards of the galley. Another fatally
+    effective volley of musketry; and then, throwing down their
+    fire-arms, the pirates grasped their sabres and made violent
+    efforts to board. But each time that they succeeded in closing,
+    the plunging of the ponderous galley into the trough of the
+    sea, or the rising of some huge wave, severed them from their
+    prey, and prevented them from setting foot on the decks of the
+    Venetian vessel. This delay was made the most of by the
+    officers of the latter, in making arrangements for defence. The
+    Proveditore himself, a man of tried and chivalrous courage, and
+    great experience both in land and sea warfare, lent his
+    personal aid to the preparations, and in a few pithy and
+    emphatic words strove to encourage the crew to a gallant
+    resistance. But the soldiers and mariners who manned the galley
+    had already sustained a heavy loss by the fire of the Uzcoques,
+    and were moreover alarmed by their near approach to that
+    perilous shore, as well as disheartened by the prospect of a
+    contest with greatly superior numbers. Although some few took
+    to their arms and occupied the posts assigned them by their
+    officers, the majority seemed more disposed to tell beads and
+    mutter prayers, than to display the energy and decision which
+    alone could rescue them from the double peril by which they
+    were menaced. The pirates, meanwhile, were constantly foiled in
+    their attempts to board by the fury of the elements, till at
+    last, becoming maddened by repeated disappointments, they threw
+    off their upper garments, and fixing their long knives firmly
+    between their teeth, dashed in crowds into the water. Familiar
+    with that element from childhood, they skimmed over its surface
+    with the lightness and rapidity of sea-mews, and swarmed up the
+    sides of the galley. A vigorous defence might yet have saved
+    the vessel; but the heroic days of Venice were long
+    past&mdash;the race of men who had so long maintained the
+    supremacy of the republic in all the Italian seas, was now
+    extinct. After a feeble and irresolute resistance, the
+    Venetians threw down their arms and begged for quarter; while
+    the Proveditore, disgusted at the cowardice of his countrymen,
+    indignantly broke his sword, and retreating to the quarterdeck,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page418"
+       id="page418"></a>[pg 418]</span> there seated himself beside
+       his son, and calmly awaited his fate.</p>
+
+    <p>Foremost among the assailants was Jurissa Caiduch, who
+    sprang upon the deck of the galley, foaming with rage, and
+    slaughtering all he met on his passage. The blazing town
+    lighted up the scene, and showed him and his followers where to
+    strike. In vain did the unfortunate crew implore quarter. None
+    was given, and the decks of the ship soon streamed with blood,
+    while each moment the cries of the victims became fewer and
+    fainter.</p>
+
+    <p>Totally forgetting in his blind fury the object of the
+    expedition, Jurissa stayed not his hand in quest of hostages,
+    but rushed with uplifted knife on Marcello and his son. The
+    latter shrieked for mercy; while the Proveditore, unmoved by
+    the imminence of the peril, preserved his dignity of mien, and
+    fixed his deep stern gaze upon the pirate. Jurissa paused for
+    an instant, staggered by the look, and awed by the commanding
+    aspect, of the Venetian. Soon, however, as though indignant at
+    his own momentary hesitation, he rushed forward with a furious
+    shout and uplifted blade. The knife was descending, the next
+    instant it would have entered the heart of Marcello; when an
+    Uzcoque, recognizing by the light of the conflagration the
+    patrician garb of the Proveditore, uttered a cry of surprise,
+    and seized the arm of his bloodthirsty leader.</p>
+
+    <p>"Caiduch!" exclaimed the pirate, "would you again blast our
+    purpose? This man is a Venetian noble. His life may buy that of
+    Dansowich."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is the Proveditore Marcello!" cried Antonio, eager to
+    profit by the momentary respite.</p>
+
+    <p>The words of the young painter passed from mouth to mouth,
+    and in a few seconds the whole of the Uzcoques were acquainted
+    with the important capture that had been made. For a moment
+    astonishment kept them tongue-tied, and then a wild shout of
+    exultation conveyed to their companions on shore the
+    intelligence of some joyful event.</p>
+
+    <p>Ropes were now thrown out to the pirate skiffs, the galley
+    was safely towed into the harbour, and the Proveditore, his
+    son, and the few Venetian sailors who had escaped the general
+    slaughter, were conducted to the burning town, amidst the jeers
+    and ill-treatment of their captors. Exposed to great danger
+    from the falling roofs and timbers of the blazing houses, they
+    were led through the streets of Pesca, and on their way had
+    ample opportunity of witnessing the incredible cruelties
+    exercised by the pirates upon the inhabitants of that ill-fated
+    town. What made these cruelties appear still more horrible, was
+    the part taken in them by the Uzcoque women, who, as was the
+    case at that period with most of the Sclavonian races, were all
+    trained to the use of arms,<a id="fn_1_tag1"
+       name="fn_1_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_1_1"><sup>1</sup></a> and
+       who on this occasion swelled the ranks of the freebooters.
+       Their ferocity exceeded, if possible, that of the men.
+       Neither age, sex, nor station afforded any protection
+       against these furies, who perpetrated barbarities the
+       details of which would exceed belief.</p>
+
+    <p>The violence of the flames rendering it impossible to remain
+    in the town, the Uzcoques betook themselves to the castle of a
+    nobleman, situated on a rising ground a short distance from
+    Pesca. On first landing, the pirates had broken into this
+    castle and made it their headquarters. After pillaging every
+    thing of value, they had gratified their savage love of
+    destruction by breaking and destroying what they could not well
+    carry away. In the court-yard were collected piles of
+    furniture, pictures of price, and fragments of rich tapestry,
+    rent by those ruthless spoilers from the walls of the
+    apartments. With this costly fuel had the Uzcoques lit fires,
+    at which quarters of oxen and whole sheep were now
+    roasting.</p>
+
+    <p>A shout of triumph burst forth when the news of the
+    Proveditore's capture was announced to the pirates
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page419"
+       id="page419"></a>[pg 419]</span> who had remained at the
+       castle, and they crowded round the unfortunate prisoners,
+       overwhelming them with threats and curses. Something like
+       silence being at length obtained, Jurissa commanded instant
+       preparations to be made for the banquet appointed to
+       celebrate the success of their expedition. Tables were
+       arranged in a spacious hall of the castle, and upon them
+       soon smoked the huge joints of meat that had been roasting
+       at the fires, placed on the bare boards without dish or
+       plate. Casks of wine that had been rescued from the flames
+       of the town, or extracted from the castle cellars, were
+       broached, or the heads knocked in, and the contents poured
+       into jugs and flagons of every shape and size. Although the
+       light of the conflagration, glaring red through the tall
+       Gothic windows, lit up the hall and rendered any further
+       illumination unnecessary, a number of torches had been fixed
+       round the apartment, the resinous smoke of which floated in
+       clouds over the heads of the revelers. Seating themselves
+       upon benches, chairs, and empty casks, the Uzcoques
+       commenced a ravenous attack upon the coarse but abundant
+       viands set before them.</p>
+
+    <p>The scene was a strange one. The brutal demeanour of the
+    men, their bearded and savage aspect; the disheveled
+    bloodstained women, mingling their shrill voices with the
+    hoarse tones of their male companions; the disordered but often
+    picturesque garb and various weapons of the pirates; the whole
+    seen by the light of the burning houses&mdash;more resembled an
+    orgie of demons than an assemblage of human beings; and even
+    the cool and resolute Proveditore felt himself shudder and turn
+    pale as he contemplated this carnival of horrors, celebrated by
+    wretches on whose hands the blood of their fellow-men was as
+    yet hardly dry. Antonio sat supporting himself against the
+    table, seeming scarcely conscious of what passed around him.
+    Both father and son had been compelled to take their places at
+    the board, amidst the jeers and insults of the Uzcoques.</p>
+
+    <p>The revel was at its height, when Jurissa suddenly started
+    from his seat, and struck the table violently with his
+    drinking-cup.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold, Uzcoques!" he exclaimed; "we have forgotten the
+    crowning ornament of our banquet."</p>
+
+    <p>He whispered something to an Uzcoque seated beside him, who
+    left the room. While the pirates were still asking one another
+    the meaning of Jurissa's words, the man returned, bearing
+    before him a trencher covered with a cloth, which he placed at
+    the upper end of the table.</p>
+
+    <p>"Behold the last and best dish we can offer to our noble
+    guests!" said Jurissa; "'twill suit, I doubt not, their dainty
+    palates." And, tearing off the cloth, he exposed to view the
+    grizzly and distorted features of a human head.</p>
+
+    <p>The shout of savage exultation that burst from the pirates
+    at this ghastly spectacle, drowned the groan of rage and grief
+    uttered by the Proveditore, as he recognised in the pale and
+    rigid countenance the well-known features of his friend
+    Christophoro Veniero. That unfortunate nobleman, on his return
+    from a voyage to the Levant, had fallen into the hands of
+    Jurissa, who, before he was aware of the rank of his prisoner,
+    had barbarously slain him. This had occurred not many hours
+    before the capture of Marcello; and it was to the murder of
+    Veniero that the Uzcoque made allusion, when he seized
+    Jurissa's arm at the moment he was about to stab the
+    Proveditore.</p>
+
+    <p>One of the pirates, a man of gigantic stature and hideous
+    aspect, now rose from his seat, staggering with drunkenness,
+    and forcing open the jaws of the dead, placed a piece of meat
+    between the teeth. The wildest laughter and applause greeted
+    this frightful pantomime, which made the blood of the
+    Proveditore run cold.</p>
+
+    <p>"Infernal and bloody villains!" shouted he, unable to
+    restrain his indignation, and starting to his feet as he spoke.
+    There was a momentary pause, during which the pirates gazed at
+    the noble Venetian, seemingly struck dumb with surprise at his
+    temerity. Then, however, a dozen sinewy arms were extended to
+    seize him, and a dozen daggers menaced his life. Dignified and
+    immovable, the high-souled senator offered no resistance, but
+    inwardly ejaculating a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page420"
+       id="page420"></a>[pg 420]</span> short prayer, awaited the
+       death-stroke. It came not, however. Although some of the
+       Uzcoques, in their fury and intoxication, would have
+       immolated their valuable hostage, others, who had drunk less
+       deeply, protested against the madness of such an act, and
+       rushed forward to protect him. Their interference was
+       resented, and a violent quarrel ensued. Knives were drawn,
+       benches overturned, chairs broken up and converted into
+       weapons; on all sides bare steel was flashing, deep oaths
+       resounding, and missiles of various kinds flying across the
+       tables. It would be impossible to say how long this scene of
+       drunken violence would have lasted, or how long the
+       Proveditore and his son would have remained unscathed amidst
+       the storm, had not the advent of a fresh actor upon the
+       scene stilled the tumult in a manner so sudden as to appear
+       almost miraculous.</p>
+
+    <p>The new comer was no other than the ghastly old woman who
+    has been seen to play such an important part in this history,
+    and who now entered the banqueting hall with hasty step and
+    impatient gesture.</p>
+
+    <p>"Uzcoques!" she exclaimed in a shrill, clear, and emphatic
+    voice, that rose above the clamour of the brawl; "Uzcoques!
+    what means this savage uproar? Are you not yet sated with
+    rapine and slaughter, that you thus fall upon and tear each
+    other? Are ye men, or wolves and tigers? Is this the way to
+    obtain your leader's deliverance; and will the news of this
+    day's havoc, think you, better the position of Dansowich?"</p>
+
+    <p>The pirates hung their heads in silent confusion at this
+    reproof. None dared to reply; Jurissa alone grumbled something
+    inaudible.</p>
+
+    <p>"Follow me!" continued the singular woman whose words had so
+    extraordinary an effect on this brutal band. "Follow, every
+    man! and stop as far as may be, the ruin you have begun."</p>
+
+    <p>Obedient to her voice the Uzcoques left the hall, some of
+    them sullenly and slowly enough, but none venturing to dispute
+    the injunction laid upon them. The old woman waited till the
+    scene of tumult and revel was abandoned by all but Marcello and
+    his son, and then hurrying after the pirates, led the way to
+    the burning town. In a few minutes the two Venetians beheld,
+    from the castle windows, the dark forms of the freebooters
+    moving about in the firelight, as they busied themselves to
+    extinguish the conflagration. Here and there the white robe of
+    the mysterious old woman was discernible as she flitted from
+    one group to another, directing their efforts, and urging them
+    to greater exertions.</p>
+
+    <p>"Strange!" said the Proveditore musingly, "that so hideous
+    and repulsive an old creature should exercise such commanding
+    influence over these bandits."</p>
+
+    <p>He looked round to his son as he spoke; but Antonio, worn
+    out by the fatigues and agitation of the day, had stretched
+    himself upon a bench and was already in a deep sleep. The
+    Proveditore gazed at him for a brief space, with an expression
+    of mingled pity, regret, and paternal affection upon his
+    countenance.</p>
+
+    <p>"As weak of body as infirm of purpose," he murmured. "Alas!
+    that a name derived from old Roman ancestors should be borne by
+    one so little qualified to do it honour! Had it pleased Heaven
+    to preserve to me the child stolen in his infancy by the
+    Moslem, how different would have been my position! That
+    masculine and noble boy, so full of life and promise, would
+    have proved a prop to my old age, and an ornament to his
+    country. But now, alas!"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>He continued for a while to indulge in vain regrets that the
+    course of events had not been otherwise; then turning to the
+    window, he watched the efforts made by the pirates to
+    extinguish the flames, until a dense cloud of smoke that
+    overhung the town was the only sign remaining of the
+    conflagration.</p>
+
+    <p>For some time the Proveditore paced up and down the hall in
+    anxious thought upon his critical position, and the strange
+    circumstances that had led to it. In vain did he endeavour to
+    reconcile, with what now seemed more than ever inexplicable,
+    the vindictive rage of Dansowich in the dungeon, and the
+    evidence before him that the pirate's wife was still in
+    existence. It was a riddle which he was unable to solve; and at
+    last, despairing of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page421"
+       id="page421"></a>[pg 421]</span> success, he abandoned the
+       attempt, and sought in slumber a temporary oblivion of the
+       perils that surrounded him.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+    <h3>THE RECOGNITION.</h3>
+
+    <p>Upon a divan in the splendid armoury of the pacha's palace
+    at Bosnia-Serai, the young Turk Ibrahim was seated in deep
+    thought, the day after his return home. On the walls around him
+    were displayed weapons and military accoutrements of every
+    kind. Damascus sabres richly inlaid, and many with jeweled
+    hilts, embroidered banners, golden stirrups, casques of
+    embossed silver, burnished armour and coats-of-mail, were
+    arranged in picturesque and fanciful devices. As the young
+    Moslem gazed around him, and beheld these trophies of victories
+    won by Turkish viziers and pachas in their wars against Austria
+    and Venice, his martial and fearless spirit rose high, and he
+    reproached himself with weakness and pusillanimity for having
+    abandoned the pursuit of her he loved. Bitterly did he now
+    regret his precipitation in leaving Venice the morning after
+    the Battle of the Bridge, and while under the influence of the
+    shock he had received, in beholding the hideous features of an
+    old woman where he had expected to find the blooming
+    countenance of Strasolda. His love for the Uzcoque maiden, as
+    he had seen her when his captive, and again in the cavern on
+    the coast by Segna, returned in full force. He was already
+    planning a journey to Venice, when he was interrupted in his
+    meditations by the noise of a horse's hoofs dashing full speed
+    into the court of the palace. In another minute an attendant
+    summoned him to the presence of the pacha, and there he heard
+    the news just received, of the wild outbreak of the Uzcoques.
+    The Martellossi and other troops were ordered to proceed
+    immediately to the frontier, in order to protect Turkish
+    Dalmatia from the pirates; and Ibrahim, at his urgent request,
+    was appointed to a command in the expedition.</p>
+
+    <p>With joyful alacrity did the young Turk arm and hurry to
+    horse; and then, putting himself at the head of a troop of
+    light cavalry, sped onwards in the direction of the country
+    where he hoped to gain tidings of Strasolda. Having received
+    strict orders to content himself with protecting the Turkish
+    frontier, and above all not to infringe on Archducal territory,
+    Ibrahim, on arriving at the boundary of the pachalic, left his
+    troop in charge of the second in command, and with a handful of
+    men entered Venetian Dalmatia, with the intention of obtaining
+    information concerning the Uzcoques, and more especially
+    concerning her he loved. He was assisted in his enquiries by
+    the good understanding existing between Venice and the Porte;
+    and he soon learned that, after the burning of Pesca, the
+    pirates had suddenly ceased their excesses and returned to
+    Segna, taking the Proveditore with them. They had not gone,
+    however, either to the castle or the town; but fearful lest the
+    Archduke should interfere, and make them give up their
+    illustrious prisoners, had betaken themselves to the mountains,
+    in the numerous caverns and lurking-places of which they were
+    able to conceal their captives. From every mouth did the eager
+    enquirer hear praises of the female who accompanied the
+    Uzcoques. None spoke of her but in terms of love and gratitude.
+    As regarded her appearance accounts were at variance, some
+    representing her as young and beautiful, while others
+    compassionated her frightful ugliness; and, more than ever
+    perplexed by this conflicting testimony, Ibrahim pursued his
+    march and his enquiries, still hoping by perseverance to arrive
+    at a solution of the enigma.</p>
+
+    <p>While the young Turk was thus employed, the Proveditore and
+    his son were conveyed by their captors from one place of
+    security to another, passing one night in the depths of some
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page422"
+       id="page422"></a>[pg 422]</span> ravine, the next amongst
+       the crags and clefts of the mountains, but always moving
+       about in the daytime, and never sleeping twice in the same
+       place. Since the evening of the revel at Pesca they had not
+       again beheld the mysterious old woman, although they had
+       more than once heard her clear and silvery voice near the
+       place allotted to them for confinement and repose. In
+       certain attentions and comforts, intended as alleviations of
+       their unpleasant position, female care and thought were also
+       visible; but all their efforts were vain to obtain a sight
+       of the friendly being who thus hovered around them.</p>
+
+    <p>It was on a beautiful evening some fourteen days after their
+    capture, that the Proveditore and his son lay upon the bank of
+    the only river that waters the rocky vicinity of Segna, wearied
+    by a long and rapid march. There was an unusual degree of
+    bustle observable amongst the Uzcoques, and numerous messengers
+    had been passing to and from the castle of Segna, which was at
+    no great distance from the spot where they had now halted. From
+    the various indications of some extraordinary occurrence, the
+    two Venetians began to hope that the crisis of their fate was
+    approaching, and that they should at last know in what manner
+    their captors meant to dispose of them. Nor were they wrong in
+    their expectations. Suddenly the mysterious old woman stood
+    before them, her partially veiled features bearing their wonted
+    hideous aspect, and her eyes, usually so brilliant, dimmed with
+    tears.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are free," said she in an agitated voice to the
+    Proveditore and his son. "Our people will escort you to Fiume
+    in all safety, and there you will find galleys of the republic
+    to convey you back to Venice."</p>
+
+    <p>At the sight of the old woman's unearthly countenance,
+    Antonio covered his face with his hands; the Proveditore rose
+    from the ground deeply moved.</p>
+
+    <p>"Singular being!" he exclaimed, "by this mildness and mercy
+    you punish me more effectually than by the bloodiest revenge
+    you could have taken for my cruel treatment of you."</p>
+
+    <p>"You owe me no thanks," was the reply; "thank rather the
+    holy Virgin, who sent the youth beside you to be your guardian
+    angel, and who delivered you into the hands of the Uzcoques at
+    a time when they had need of a hostage. Surely it was by the
+    special intervention of Heaven that the murderer of the wife
+    was sent to serve as ransom for the captive husband. But the
+    atonement has come too late, the noble Dansowich was basely
+    ensnared into an act of violence, and his life paid the forfeit
+    of his wrath&mdash;he died upon the rack. And now the wily
+    counsellors at Gradiska compel us to release you."</p>
+
+    <p>She paused, interrupted by a flood of tears. After a short
+    silence, broken only by her sobs, she became more composed, and
+    the Proveditore again addressed her.</p>
+
+    <p>"But what," said he, "could have driven Dansowich to an act
+    of violence, which he must have known would entail a severe
+    punishment? Surely his wife's safety and the lapse of years
+    might have enabled him to forgive, if not to forget, the
+    unsuccessful attempt upon her life."</p>
+
+    <p>"His wife's safety!" exclaimed the old woman. "Have the
+    trials and fatigues of the last few days turned your brain?
+    Alas! too surely was the rope fixed round her neck; and had you
+    not carried off her remains how could you have possessed her
+    portrait, and by the devilish stratagem of showing it to the
+    bereaved husband, have driven him to the act which cost him his
+    life?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven! what hideous jest is this?" exclaimed
+    Marcello. "Do I not see you living and standing before me; and
+    think you I could ever forget your features, or the look you
+    gave me when hanging from the tree? You were cut down and saved
+    after our departure; and but a few weeks have elapsed since my
+    son painted your likeness, after conveying you across the canal
+    in his gondola."</p>
+
+    <p>The old woman stood for a few moments as though petrified by
+    what she had just heard. At last she passed her hand slowly
+    across her face, as if to convince herself of her identity.</p>
+
+    <p>"And she you murdered resembled <i>me</i>?" she exclaimed in
+    a trembling voice. "It was of <i>me</i> that the portrait was
+    taken, and by <i>him</i>!" she continued, pointing to Antonio
+    with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page423"
+       id="page423"></a>[pg 423]</span> a gesture of horror and
+       contempt. "<i>My</i> picture was it, that was held before
+       Dansowich, and by <i>you</i>, the murderer of his wife? Holy
+       Virgin!" she exclaimed, as the truth seemed to flash upon
+       her, "how has my faith in thee misled me! I beheld in this
+       youth one sent by Heaven to aid me; but now I see that he
+       was prompted by the powers of darkness to steal my portrait,
+       and thus become the instrument of destruction to the best
+       and noblest of our race."</p>
+
+    <p>"Forgive and spare us!" exclaimed Antonio,
+    conscience-stricken as he remembered the admonitions of
+    Contarini. "'Tis true, I was the instrument, but most
+    unwittingly. How could I know so sad an end would follow?"</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis not my wont to seek revenge," replied the old woman;
+    "nor do I forget that you saved my life from the fury of the
+    Venetians."</p>
+
+    <p>Antonio essayed to speak, but had not courage to correct the
+    error into which she had been led by his strong resemblance to
+    the gallant stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"But," she continued, "'tis time you should have full proof
+    that the features you painted were not those of the wife of
+    Dansowich."</p>
+
+    <p>With these words she threw back her veil, unfastened some
+    small hooks concealed in her abundant tresses, and took off a
+    mask of thin and untanned lambskin, wrinkled and stained with
+    yellow and purple streaks by exposure to sun and storm. This
+    mask, closely fitted to features regular and prominent, and
+    strongly resembling those of her unfortunate mother, whose
+    large, dark, and very brilliant eyes she had also inherited,
+    will explain the misconception of the Proveditore as well as
+    that of Dansowich, who had never seen his daughter in a
+    disguise worn only at Venice or other places of peril, and
+    while away from her father and his protection.</p>
+
+    <p>While the beautiful but still tearful Uzcoque maid stood
+    thus revealed before the astonished senator, and his enraptured
+    and speechless son, the approaching footfall of a horse at full
+    speed was heard, and in an instant there darted round the angle
+    of a cliff the martial figure of a Turk, mounted upon a large
+    and powerful steed, of that noble race bred in the deserts
+    eastward of the Caspian. The tall and graceful person of the
+    stranger was attired in a close riding-dress of scarlet cloth,
+    from the open breast of which gleamed a light coat-of-mail. A
+    twisted turban bound with chains of glittering steel defended
+    and adorned his head. A crooked cimeter suspended from his belt
+    was his only weapon. His countenance bore a striking
+    resemblance to that of Antonio, and had the same sweet and
+    graceful expression about the mouth and chin; but the more
+    ample and commanding forehead, the well opened flashing eyes,
+    the more prominent and masculine nose, the clear, rich, olive
+    complexion and soldierly bearing, proclaimed him to be of a
+    widely different and higher nature. Riding close up to the side
+    of Strasolda, he reined in his steed with a force and
+    suddenness that threw him on his haunches; but speedily
+    recovering his balance, the noble animal stood pawing the earth
+    and lashing his sides with his long tail, like some untamed and
+    kingly creature of the desert; his veins starting out in sharp
+    relief, his broad chest and beautiful limbs spotted with foam,
+    and his long mane, that would have swept the ground, streaming
+    like a banner in the sea-breeze.</p>
+
+    <p>For a moment the startled Strasolda gazed alternately, and
+    in wild and mute amazement, at Antonio and the stranger; but
+    all doubt and hesitation were dispersed in an instant by the
+    well-remembered and impassioned tones, the martial bearing and
+    Moslem garb of Ibrahim, whose captive she had been before she
+    saw him in the cavern.</p>
+
+    <p>Leaping from his saddle and circling her slender waist with
+    his arm, he addressed her in those accents of truth and passion
+    which go at once to the heart&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Heroic daughter of Dansowich! thou art the bright star of
+    my destiny, the light of my soul! Thou must be mine! Come,
+    then, to my heart and home! Gladden with thy love the life of
+    Ibrahim, and he will give thee truth unfailing and love without
+    end."</p>
+
+    <p>Strasolda did not long hesitate. Already prepossessed in
+    favour of the young and noble-minded Moslem; her
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page424"
+       id="page424"></a>[pg 424]</span> allegiance to the Christian
+       powers and faith weakened by the treachery of Austria; her
+       people degraded into robbers; a soldier's daughter, and
+       keenly alive to the splendours of martial gallantry and
+       glory; an orphan, too, and desolate&mdash;can it be wondered
+       at if she surrendered, at once and for ever, to this
+       generous and impassioned lover all the sympathies of her
+       affectionate nature? She spoke not; but, as she leaned
+       half-fainting on his arm, her eloquent looks said that which
+       made Ibrahim's pulses thrill with grateful rapture. Pressing
+       her fondly to his bosom, he placed her on the back of his
+       faithful steed, and vaulted into the saddle. Snorting as the
+       vapour flew from his red nostrils, and neighing with mad
+       delight, the impatient animal threw out his iron hoofs into
+       the air, flew round the angle of the cliff, and joined
+       erelong a dozen mounted spearmen. Then, bending their
+       headlong course towards the far east, in a few seconds all
+       had disappeared.</p>
+
+    <p>During this scene, which passed almost with the speed of
+    thought, the Proveditore, who was seated on a ledge of the
+    cliff, had gazed anxiously and wildly at the youthful stranger.
+    He knew him in an instant, and would have singled him out
+    amidst thousands; but was so overwhelmed by a rushing tide of
+    strong and heartrending emotions, that he could neither rise
+    nor speak, and remained, long after the Turk had disappeared,
+    with out-stretched arms and straining eye-balls.</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed the bewildered Antonio, half
+    suspecting the truth, "who was that daring youth?"</p>
+
+    <p>After a pause, and in tones broken and inarticulate, his
+    father answered&mdash;"Thy twin brother, Antonio! When a child
+    he was stolen from me by some Turks in Candia; and those who
+    stole have given him their own daring and heroic nature, for
+    they are great and rising, while Venice and her sons are
+    falling and degenerate. Oh Ercole! my dear and long-lost
+    son&mdash;seen but a moment and then lost for ever!" ejaculated
+    the bereaved father, as, refusing all comfort, he folded his
+    cloak over his face and wept bitterly.</p>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <p>NOTE.&mdash;Shortly after these events, Venice, urged at
+    last beyond all endurance, took up arms against Austria on
+    account of the protection afforded by the latter power to the
+    Uzcoques. The pirate vessels were burned, Segna besieged and
+    taken, the Uzcoques slain or dispersed. The quarrel between
+    Austria and the republic was put an end to by the mediation of
+    Spain shortly before the breaking out of the Thirty Years'
+    War.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ces mis&eacute;rables," says a distinguished French writer,
+    speaking of the Uzcoques, "f&ucirc;rent bien plus criminels par
+    la faute des puissances, que par l'instinct de leur propre
+    nature. Les V&eacute;n&eacute;tiens les aigrirent;
+    l'&eacute;glise Romaine pr&eacute;f&eacute;ra de les
+    pers&eacute;cuter au devoir de les &eacute;claircir; la maison
+    d'Autriche en fit les instruments de sa politique, et quand le
+    philosophe examine leur histoire il ne voit pas que les
+    Uscoques soient les seuls criminels."</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_1_1"
+                    name="fn_1_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_1_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The reader of German literature will call to mind the
+        anecdote, in Jean Paul's <i>Levana</i>, of a Moldavian
+        woman who in one day slew seven men with her own hand, and
+        the same evening was delivered of a child.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page425"
+       id="page425"></a>[pg 425]</span> <a name="slave"
+          id="slave"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE SLAVE-TRADE.<a id="fn_2_tag1"
+       name="fn_2_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_2_1"><sup>1</sup></a></h2>
+
+    <p>The extraordinary change which took place in the public mind
+    in the beginning of the century on the subject of the
+    slave-trade, unquestionably justified the determination of
+    Government to abolish a traffic contradictory to every
+    principle of Christianity. It had taken twenty years to obtain
+    this victory of justice. But we must exonerate the mind of
+    England from the charge of abetting this guilty traffic in
+    human misery. The nation had been almost wholly ignorant of its
+    nature. Of course, that Africans were shipped for the West
+    Indies was known; that, as slaves, they were liable to the
+    severities of labour, or the temper of masters, was also known;
+    but in a country like England, where every man is occupied with
+    the concerns of public or private life, and where the struggle
+    for competence, if not for existence, is often of the most
+    trying order, great evils may occur in the distant dependencies
+    of the crown without receiving general notice from the nation.
+    It seems to have been one of the singular results of the war
+    with America, that the calamities of the slave-trade should
+    have been originally brought to the knowledge of the people.
+    The loss of our colonies on the mainland, naturally directed
+    public attention to the increased importance of the West Indian
+    colonies. A large proportion of our supplies for the war had
+    been drawn from those islands; they had become the station of
+    powerful fleets during the latter portion of the war; large
+    garrisons were placed in them; the intercourse became enlarged
+    from a merely commercial connexion with our ports, to a
+    governmental connection with the empire; and the whole
+    machinery of the West Indian social system was brought before
+    the eye of England.</p>
+
+    <p>The result was the exposure of the cruelties which slavery
+    entails, and the growing resolution to clear the country of the
+    stigma, and the benevolent desire to relieve a race of beings,
+    who, however differing in colour and clime from ourselves, were
+    sons of the same common blood, and objects of the same Divine
+    mercy. The exertions of Wilberforce, and the intelligent and
+    benevolent men whom he associated with himself in this great
+    cause, were at last successful; and he gained for the British
+    the noblest triumph ever gained for a nation over its own
+    habits, its selfishness, its pride, and its popular
+    opinion.</p>
+
+    <p>But the manner in which this great redemption of national
+    character was effected, did less honour to the wisdom of the
+    cabinet than to the benevolence of the people. Fox, probably
+    sincere, but certainly headlong, rushed into emancipation as he
+    had rushed into every measure that bore the name of popularity.
+    Impatient of the delay which might take the honour of this
+    crowning act out of the hands of his party&mdash;and
+    unquestionably, in any shape, it was an honour to any
+    party&mdash;he hurried it forward without securing the concert,
+    or compelling the acquiescence, of any one of the European
+    kingdoms engaged in the slave-trade. It is true that England
+    was then at war with them all; but there was thus only the
+    stronger opportunity of pronouncing the national resolve, never
+    to tolerate the commerce in slaves, and never to receive any
+    country into our protection by which that most infamous of all
+    trades was tolerated. The opportunity was amply given for
+    establishing the principle, in the necessity which every
+    kingdom in succession felt for the aid of England, and the
+    abolition ought to have been the first article of the treaty.
+    But the occasion was thrown away.</p>
+
+    <p>The parliamentary regulations, which had largely provided
+    for the comfort of the slaves on the passage from Africa, and
+    their protection in the British colonies, could not be extended
+    to the new and tremendous traffic which was engaged in by all
+    the commercial states of Europe and
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page426"
+       id="page426"></a>[pg 426]</span> the West. The closing of
+       the British mart of slavery flooded the African shore with
+       desperate dealers in the flesh and blood of man; whose only
+       object was profit, and who regarded the miseries of the
+       African only as they affected his sale. The ships which, by
+       the British regulations, had been suffered to carry only a
+       number limited to their accommodation, were now crowded with
+       wretches, stowed in spaces that scarcely allowed them to
+       breathe. The cheapness of the living cargo, produced by the
+       withdrawal of the British from the slave coast, excited the
+       activity, almost the fury, of the trade; and probably
+       100,000 miserable beings were thus annually dragged from
+       their own country, to undergo the labour of brutes, and die
+       the death of brutes in the Western World.</p>
+
+    <p>Another source of evil was added to the original crime. The
+    colonial possessions of Spain had been broken up into
+    republics, and those were all slave-dealers. The great colony
+    of Portugal, Brazil, had rushed into this frightful commerce
+    with the feverish avidity of avarice set free from all its old
+    restrictions. North America, coquetting with philanthropy, and
+    nominally abjuring the principle of slavery, suffered herself
+    to undergo the corruption of the practice for the temptation of
+    the lucre, and the Atlantic was covered with slave-ships.</p>
+
+    <p>But rash, ill considered, and unfortunate as was the
+    precipitate measure of Fox, we shall never but rejoice at the
+    abolition of the slave-trade by our country. If England had
+    stood alone for ever in that abolition, it would be a national
+    glory. To have cast that commerce from her at all apparent
+    loss, was the noblest of national gains; and it may be only
+    when higher knowledge shall be given to man, of the causes
+    which have protected the empire through the struggles of war
+    and the trials of peace, that we may know the full virtue of
+    that most national and magnanimous achievement of charity to
+    man.</p>
+
+    <p>It is only in the spirit of this principle that the
+    legislature has followed up those early exertions, by the
+    purchase of the final freedom of the slave, by the astonishing
+    donative of twenty millions sterling, the largest sum ever
+    given for the purposes of humanity. It is only in the same
+    spirit that our cabinet continues to press upon the commercial
+    states the right of search, a right which we solicit on the
+    simple ground of humanity; and which, though it cannot be our
+    duty to enforce at the hazard of hostility, must never be
+    abandoned where we can succeed by the representations of
+    reason, justice, and religion.</p>
+
+    <p>The curious and succinct narrative to which we now advert,
+    gives the experience of a short voyage on board of one of those
+    slave ships. And the miseries witnessed by its writer, whose
+    detail seems as accurate as it is simple, more than justify the
+    zeal of our foreign secretary in labouring to effect the total
+    extinction of this death-dealing trade.</p>
+
+    <p>H.M.S. the Cleopatra, of twenty-six guns, commanded by
+    Captain Wyvill, arriving at Rio Janeiro in September 1842, the
+    reverend writer took the opportunity of being transferred from
+    the Malabar, as chaplain. In the beginning of September the
+    Cleopatra left the Mauritius, to proceed to the Mozambique
+    Channel, off Madagascar, her appointed station, to watch the
+    slave-traders. After various cruises along the coast, and as
+    far as Algoa Bay, they at last captured a slaver.</p>
+
+    <p><i>April 12.</i>&mdash;At daybreak the look-out at the
+    topmast-head perceived a vessel on the lee quarter, at such a
+    distance as to be scarcely visible; but her locality being
+    pronounced "very suspicious," the order was given to bear up
+    for her. The breeze falling, the boats were ordered out, and in
+    a few minutes the barge and the first gig were pulling away in
+    the direction of the stranger. So variable, however, is the
+    weather at this season, that before the boats had rowed a mile
+    from the ship, a thick haze surrounded the ship, and the chase
+    was lost sight of. The rain fell in torrents, and the ship was
+    going seven knots through the water. On the clearing up of the
+    fog, the chase was again visible. The sun broke forth, and the
+    rakish-looking brigantine appeared to have carried on all sail
+    during the squall. They could see, under her sails, the low
+    black hull pitching up and down; and, approaching within range,
+    one of the forecastle guns was cleared away for a bow-chaser.
+    The <span class="pagenum"><a name="page427"
+       id="page427"></a>[pg 427]</span> British ensign had been for
+       some time flying at the peak. It was at length answered by
+       the green and yellow Brazilian flag. At length, after a
+       variety of dexterous man&oelig;uvres to escape, and from
+       fifteen to twenty shots fired after her, she shortened sail
+       and lay to. Dark naked forms passing across the deck,
+       removed any remaining doubt as to her character, and showed
+       that she had her slave cargo on board. An officer was sent
+       to take possession, and the British ensign displaced the
+       Brazilian. The scene on board was a sufficiently strange
+       one; the deck was crowded with negroes to the number of 450,
+       in almost riotous confusion, having risen but a little while
+       before against the crew. The meagre, famished-looking
+       throng, having broken through all control, had seized every
+       thing for which they had a fancy in the vessel; some with
+       handfuls of the powdered roots of the cassava, others with
+       large pieces of pork and beef, having broken open the casks,
+       and others with fowls, which they had torn from the coops.
+       Many were busily dipping rags, fastened with bits of string,
+       into the water-casks to act as sponges, and had got at the
+       contents of a cask of Brazilian rum, which they greatly
+       enjoyed. However, they exhibited the wildest joy, mingled
+       with the clank of the iron, as they were knocking off their
+       fetters on every side. From the moment the first ball had
+       been fired, they had been actively employed in thus freeing
+       themselves. The crew found but thirty thus shackled in
+       pairs, but many more pairs of shackles were found below.
+       There could not be a moment's doubt as to the light in which
+       they viewed their captors, now become their liberators. They
+       rushed towards them in crowds, and rubbed their feet and
+       hands caressingly, even rolling themselves on the deck
+       before them; and, when they saw the crew of the vessel
+       rather unceremoniously sent over the side into the boat
+       which was to take them prisoners to the frigate, they set up
+       a long universal shout of triumph and delight. The actual
+       number of the negroes now on board, amounted to 447. Of
+       those 180 were men, few, however, exceeding twenty years of
+       age; 45 women; 213 boys. The name of the prize was the
+       Progresso, last from Brazil, and bound to Rio Janeiro. The
+       crew were seventeen; three Spaniards, and the rest
+       Brazilians. The vessel was of about 140 tons; the length of
+       the slave-deck, 37 feet; its mean breadth, 21&frac12; feet;
+       its height, 3&frac12; feet&mdash;a horrible space to contain
+       between four and five hundred human beings. How they could
+       even breathe is scarcely conceivable. The captain and one of
+       the crew were said to have been drowned in the surf at the
+       embarkation of the negroes. Two Spaniards, and a Portuguese
+       cook, were sent back into the prize.</p>
+
+    <p>As the writer understood Spanish, and as some one was
+    wanting to interpret between the English crew and those
+    managers of the negroes, he proposed to go on board with them
+    to their place of destination, the Cape of Good Hope. The
+    English crew were a lieutenant, three petty officers, and nine
+    seamen. It had been the captain's first intention to take a
+    hundred of the negroes on board the frigate, which would
+    probably have prevented the fearful calamities that followed;
+    but an unfortunate impression prevailed, that some of them were
+    infected with the small-pox. In the same evening the Progresso
+    set sail. For the first few hours all went on well&mdash;the
+    breeze was light, the weather warm, and the negroes were
+    sleeping on the deck; their slender supple limbs entwined in a
+    surprisingly small compass, resembling in the moonlight
+    confused piles of arms and legs, rather than distinct human
+    forms. But about an hour after midnight, the sky began to
+    gather clouds, a haze overspread the horizon to windward, and a
+    squall approached. The hands, having to shorten sail, suddenly
+    found the negroes in the way, and the order was given to send
+    them all below.</p>
+
+    <p>There seems to have been some dreadful mismanagement to
+    cause the horrid scene that followed. Why <i>all</i> the
+    negroes should have been driven down together; or why, when the
+    vessel was put to rights, they should not have been allowed to
+    return to the deck; or why, when driven down, the hatches
+    should have been forced upon them&mdash;are matters which we
+    cannot comprehend; but nothing could be more unfortunate than
+    the consequence of those rash measures. We
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page428"
+       id="page428"></a>[pg 428]</span> state the event in the
+       words of the narrative:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"The night being intensely hot and close, 400 wretched
+        beings crammed into a hold twelve yards in length, seven in
+        breadth, and only three and a half feet in height, speedily
+        began to make an effort to re-issue to the open air; being
+        thrust back, and striving the more to get out, the <i>after
+        hatch</i> was forced down upon them. Over the other
+        hatchway, in the fore part of the vessel, a wooden grating
+        was fastened. A scene of agony followed those most
+        unfortunate measures, unequaled by any thing that we have
+        heard of since the Black Hole of Calcutta. To this <i>sole
+        inlet</i> for the air, the suffocating heat of the hold,
+        and perhaps panic from the strangeness of their situation,
+        made them press. They crowded to the grating, and, clinging
+        to it for air, completely barred its entrance. They strove
+        to force their way through apertures in length fourteen
+        inches, and barely six inches in breadth, and in some
+        instances succeeded. The cries, the heat, I may say without
+        exaggeration, 'the smoke of their torment,' which ascended,
+        can be compared to nothing earthly. One of the Spaniards
+        gave warning that the consequence would be many
+        deaths&mdash;<i>manana habra muchos muertos</i>."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>If this statement with its consequences be true, we cannot
+    conceive how the conduct of those persons by whom it was
+    brought about can be passed over without enquiry. There seems
+    to have been nothing in the shape of <i>necessity</i> for its
+    palliation. There was no storm, the vessel was in no danger of
+    foundering unless the hatches were fastened down. That the
+    negroes might have lumbered the deck for the first few minutes
+    of preparing to meet the squall is probable; but why, when they
+    were palpably suffocating, they should still have been kept
+    down, is one of the most unaccountable circumstances we ever
+    remember. We must hope that while we are nationally incurring
+    an enormous expenditure to extinguish this most guilty and
+    detestable traffic, such scenes will be guarded against for
+    ever, by the strictest orders to the captors of the
+    slave-traders. It would have been infinitely better for the
+    wretched cargo if they had been carried to their original
+    destination, and sent to toil in the fields of Brazil.</p>
+
+    <p>The Spaniard's prediction was true. Next morning no less
+    than fifty-four crushed and mangled corpses were lifted up from
+    the slave deck, and thrown overboard. We shall avoid disgusting
+    our readers with mentioning the state in which their struggles
+    had left those trampled and strangled beings. On the survivors
+    being released from their torrid dungeon, they drank their
+    allowance of water, somewhat more than half a pint to each,
+    with inconceivable eagerness. A heavy shower having freshened
+    the air, in the evening most of the negroes went below of their
+    own accord, the hatchways having been left open to allow them
+    air. But a short time, however, had elapsed, when they began
+    tumultuously to reascend; and some of the persons on deck,
+    fearful of their crowding it too much, repelled them, and they
+    were trampled back, screaming and writhing in a confused mass.
+    The hatch was about to be forced down upon them; and had not
+    the lieutenant in charge left positive orders to the contrary,
+    the catastrophe of last night would have been re-enacted. On
+    explaining to the Spaniard that it was desired he should
+    dispose those who came on deck in proper places, he set himself
+    to the task with great alacrity; and he showed with much
+    satisfaction how soon and how quietly they might be arranged
+    out of the way of the ropes, covered with long rugs provided
+    for the purpose. "To-morrow," said he, "there will be no
+    deaths, except perhaps among some of those who are sick
+    already." On the next day there was but one dead, but three
+    were reported dying from the sufferings of the first night.
+    They now saw the Cleopatra once more, and the alarm of
+    small-pox having been found groundless, the captain took on
+    board fifty of the boys.</p>
+
+    <p>To our surprise, the provisions on board the slaver were
+    ample for the negroes, consisting of Monte Video dried beef,
+    small beans, rice, and cassava flour. The cabin stores were
+    profuse; lockers filled with ale and porter, barrels of wine,
+    liqueurs of various sorts, cases of English pickles, raisins,
+    &amp;c. &amp;c.; and its list of medicines amounted to almost
+    the whole <span class="pagenum"><a name="page429"
+       id="page429"></a>[pg 429]</span> <i>Materia Medica</i>. On
+       questioning the Spaniards as to the probability of
+       extinguishing the slave-trade, their reply was, that though
+       in the creeks of Brazil it might be difficult, yet it had
+       grown a desperate adventure. Four vessels had been already
+       taken on the east coast of Africa this year; but the venture
+       is so lucrative, that the profits of a fifth which escaped,
+       would probably more than compensate the loss of the
+       four.</p>
+
+    <p>On the east coast negroes are paid for in money or coarse
+    cottons, at the rate of eighteen dollars for men, and twelve
+    for boys. At Rio Janeiro their value may be estimated at
+    &pound;52 for men, &pound;41, 10s. for women, and &pound;31 for
+    boys. Thus, on a cargo of 500, at the mean price the profit
+    will exceed &pound;19,000&mdash;</p>
+
+    <table align="center"
+           summary="Slave profit"
+           cellpadding="5">
+        <colgroup>
+            <col span="2"
+                 align="left" />
+            <col align="right" />
+        </colgroup>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td>Cost price of 500, average fifteen dollars, or
+            &pound;3 5s. each</td>
+
+            <td>&pound;1,625</td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td></td>
+
+            <td>Selling price at Rio Janeiro, average &pound;41
+            10s.,</td>
+
+            <td>&pound;20,730</td>
+        </tr>
+    </table>
+
+    <p>While these enormous profits continue, it must be a matter
+    of extreme difficulty to suppress the trade, especially while
+    the principals, captains, and crews, have perfect impunity. At
+    present, all that they suffer is the loss of their cargo. But
+    if enactments were made, by which heavy fines and imprisonment
+    were to be inflicted on the merchants to whom the expedition
+    could be traced, and corporal punishment and transportation for
+    life for the crews, and for the captains service as common
+    sailors on board our frigates, we should soon find the ardour
+    for the traffic diminished.</p>
+
+    <p>The voyage was slow from the frequent calms. By the 20th of
+    April they had advanced only to the tropic, 350 miles. From day
+    to day the sick among the negroes were dropping off. A large
+    shark followed the ship, which they conceived might have gorged
+    some of the corpses. He was caught, but the stomach was empty.
+    When brought on the deck, he exhibited the usual and remarkable
+    tenacity of life. Though his tail was chopped, and even his
+    entrails taken out, in neither of which operations it exhibited
+    any sign of sensation, yet no sooner was a bucket of salt water
+    poured on it to wash the deck, than it began to flounder about
+    and bite on all sides.</p>
+
+    <p>Symptoms of fever now began to appear on board, and the
+    Portuguese cook died.</p>
+
+    <p><i>April 29</i>.&mdash;A storm, the lightning intolerably
+    vivid, flash succeeding flash with scarcely a sensible
+    intermission; blue, red, and of a still more dazzling white,
+    which made the eye shrink, lighting up every object on deck as
+    clearly as at mid-day. All the winds of heaven seemed let
+    loose, as it blew alternately from every point of the compass.
+    The screams of distress from the sick and weak in the hold,
+    were heard through the roar of the tempest. From the rolling
+    and creaking, one might fancy every thing going asunder. The
+    woman's shed on deck had been washed down, and the planks which
+    formed its roof falling in a heap, a woman was found dead under
+    the ruin.</p>
+
+    <p><i>May 1</i>.&mdash;In this hemisphere, marking the approach
+    of the cold weather, the naked negroes began to shiver, and
+    their teeth to chatter.</p>
+
+    <p><i>May 3</i>.&mdash;Another storm, with severe cold. Seven
+    negroes were found dead this morning. The wretched beings had
+    begun now to steal water and brandy from the hold. "None can
+    tell," says the writer, "save he who has tried, the pangs of
+    thirst which may excite them in that heated hold, many of them
+    fevered by mortal disease. Their daily allowance of water is
+    about a half pint in the morning, and the same quantity in the
+    evening." This passage now became all storms. A heavy squall
+    came on <i>May 8</i>, which continued next day a strong gale.
+    The first object which met the eye in the morning, was three
+    negroes dead on the deck.</p>
+
+    <p><i>May 11</i>.&mdash;Another storm, heavier than any of the
+    preceding ones. Towards evening the report of the helmsman was
+    the gratifying one, that the heart of the gale was broke; yet a
+    yellow haze overspread the setting sun, and it continued to
+    blow as wildly as ever. Squalls rapidly succeeding each other
+    mingled sea and air in one sheet of spray, blinding the eyes of
+    the helmsman; waves towering high above us, tossing up the foam
+    from their crests towards the sky, threatened to engulf the
+    vessel at every moment. When the squalls,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page430"
+       id="page430"></a>[pg 430]</span> breaking heavily on the
+       vessel, caused her to heel over, and the negroes to tumble
+       one against each other in the hold, the shrieks of the
+       sufferers through the darkness of the night, rising above
+       the noise of the winds and waves, seemed of all horrors in
+       this unhappy vessel the saddest. Dysentery now attacked the
+       crew, and the boatswain's mate died. We pass over the
+       melancholy details of this miserable voyage, in which
+       disgusts and distresses of every kind seemed to threaten all
+       on board with death, every day bringing its mortality. At
+       last on Sunday, May 28th, the welcome sight of Cape Agulhas
+       cheered them at the distance of ten miles. The weather was
+       now fine, but the mortality continued, the fatal cases
+       averaging four a-day. On the 1st of June eight were found
+       dead in the morning; and, when the morning mist had cleared
+       away, they found themselves within three miles of Simon's
+       Bay. As soon as the Progresso anchored, the superintendent
+       of the naval hospital came on board, and the writer
+       descended with him for the last time to the slave hold.
+       Accustomed as he had been to scenes of suffering, he was
+       unable to endure a sight, surpassing all he could have
+       conceived, he said, of human misery, and made a hasty
+       retreat. The numbers who had died within the fifty days were
+       163. Even this was not all; for, on returning to the vessel
+       next day, six corpses were added to the eight of the
+       preceding day, and the fourteen were piled on deck for
+       interment on the shore. A hundred of the healthiest negroes
+       were landed at the pier to proceed in waggons to Cape Town;
+       but though rescued from a state of extreme misery, the
+       change seemed to excite anxiety and apprehension. Each of
+       the men had received on landing a new warm jacket and
+       trousers, and the women had each a new white blanket in
+       addition to an under dress, and they were placed snugly in
+       waggons; yet their countenances resembled those of condemned
+       victims. Of the whole of the original cargo, not far short
+       of one half had died. To what causes this horrible mortality
+       must be imputed, it is not our purpose to decide; but that
+       it did not arise from the original tendency of the negroes
+       to sickness seems evident&mdash;the fact being, that of the
+       fifty who were taken on board the frigate, but one had died
+       at sea and one on shore. Within a few days the liberated
+       negroes had acquired a more cheerful look, their first
+       conception having been that they were to be devoured by the
+       people of the country, and they were reluctant to eat,
+       fearing that it was intended to fatten them for the purpose.
+       However, the negroes in the colonies soon freed them from
+       this apprehension.</p>
+
+    <p>We shall be rejoiced if the publicity given to this little
+    but intelligent pamphlet by our means, may assist in drawing
+    the attention of the influential classes to the subject. We
+    fully believe that, if we were to look for the deepest misery
+    that was ever inflicted in this world, and the greatest mass of
+    it, we should find it in the slave-trade. It is the misery, not
+    as in civilized life, of scattered individuals, but of
+    multitudes, and a misery comprehending every other; sudden
+    separation from every tie of the human heart, parent, child,
+    spouse, and country; the misery of bodily affliction, disease,
+    famine, storms, shipwreck, and ultimately slavery, with all its
+    wretchedness of toil and tyranny for life. We certainly do not
+    think it our duty to go to war for the object of teaching
+    humanity to other nations. We must not attempt to heal the
+    calamity of the African by the greatest of all calamities and
+    crimes&mdash;an unnecessary war. But England has only to
+    persevere sincerely and steadily, however calmly, and she will,
+    by the blessing of that supreme Disposer of the ways of men,
+    who desires the happiness of all his creatures, succeed in the
+    extinction of a traffic which has brought a curse, and brings
+    it at this hour, and will bring it deeper still, upon every
+    nation which insults the laws of humanity and the dictates of
+    religion, by dealing in the flesh and blood of man.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_2_1"
+                    name="fn_2_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_2_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Fifty Days on board a Slave vessel, in 1843. By the Rev.
+        PASCOE GRENFELL HILL, Chaplain of H.M.S. Cleopatra.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page431"
+       id="page431"></a>[pg 431]</span> <a name="arabs"
+          id="arabs"></a>
+
+    <h2>MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.<a id="fn_3_tag1"
+       name="fn_3_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_3_1"><sup>1</sup></a></h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ARABS OF CORDOVA.</h3>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"The second day was that when Martel broke</p>
+
+            <p>The Mussulmen, delivering France opprest,</p>
+
+            <p>And in one mighty conflict, from the yoke</p>
+
+            <p>Of unbelieving Mecca saved the West."</p>
+
+            <p style="margin-left: 50%">SOUTHEY.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The Arab domination in Spain is the grand romance of
+    European history. The splendid but mysterious fabric of Asiatic
+    power and science is seen for age after age, like the fairy
+    castle of St John, exalted far above the rugged plain of Frank
+    semi-barbarism&mdash;till the spell is at last broken by the
+    iron prowess of Christian chivalry; and the glittering edifice
+    vanishes from the land as though it had never been, leaving,
+    like the fabled structure of the poet, only a wreath of laurel
+    to bind the brows of the victor. Yet though replete with
+    gorgeous materials both for history and fiction, and stored not
+    only with the recondite lore of Asia and Egypt, but with the
+    borrowed treasures of ancient Greece, (long known to
+    Christendom only by versions through an Arabic medium,) the
+    language and literature of this marvellous people, and even
+    their history, except so far as it related to their
+    never-ceasing warfare with their Christian foes, remained, up
+    to the middle of the last century, a sealed book to their
+    Spanish successors. Coming into possession, like the Israelites
+    of old, "of a land for which they did not labour, of cities
+    which they built not, of vineyards and olive-yards which they
+    planted not," the Spaniards not merely contemned, but
+    persecuted with the fiercest bigotry, all that was left in the
+    peninsula of the genius and learning of their predecessors.
+    Eighty thousand volumes were publicly burned in one fatal
+    <i>auto-da-f&eacute;</i> at Granada by order of Cardinal
+    Ximenes, in whom the literature of his own language yet found a
+    munificent patron; and so meritorious, did the deed appear in
+    the eyes of his contemporaries, that the number has been
+    magnified to an incredible amount by his biographers, in their
+    zeal for the renown of their hero! So complete was the
+    destruction or deportation<a id="fn_3_tag2"
+       name="fn_3_tag2"></a><a href="#fn_3_2"><sup>2</sup></a> of
+       the seventy public libraries, which, a century and a half
+       before the subjugation of the Moors, were open in different
+       cities of Spain, that the valuable collection now in the
+       Escurial owes its origin to the accidental capture, early in
+       the seventeenth century, of three ships laden with books
+       belonging to Muley Zidan, emperor of Morocco&mdash;and even
+       of this casual prize so little was the value appreciated,
+       that it was not till more than a hundred years later, and
+       after three-fourths of the books had been consumed by fire
+       in 1671, that the learned and diligent Casiri was
+       commissioned to make a catalogue of the remainder. The
+       result was the well-known <i>Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana
+       Escurialensis</i>, which appeared in 1760-70; and which, in
+       the words of the present learned translator, "though hasty
+       and superficial, and containing frequent unaccountable
+       blunders, must, with all its imperfections, ever be valuable
+       as affording palpable proof of the literary cultivation of
+       the Spanish Arabs, and as containing the first glimpses of
+       historical truth." Up to
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page432"
+       id="page432"></a>[pg 432]</span> this time the only
+       authority on Spanish history purporting to be drawn from
+       Mohammedan sources, was the work of a Morisco named Miguel
+       de Luna, written by command of the Inquisition; which was
+       first printed at Granada in 1592, and has passed through
+       many editions. Its value may be estimated from its placing
+       the Mohammedan conquest of Spain in the time of Yakub
+       Al-mansor, the actual date of whose reign was from A.D. 1184
+       to 1199; insomuch that Se&ntilde;or de Gayangos suggests, as
+       a possible explanation of its glaring inaccuracies, that it
+       was the writer's intention to hoax his employers. Casiri
+       had, however, opened the door for further researches; and he
+       was followed in the same path by Don Faustino de Borbon,
+       whose works, valuable rather from the erudition which they
+       display than from their judgment or critical acumen, have
+       now become extremely scarce&mdash;and next by Don Antonio
+       Jos&eacute; Cond&eacute;, one of the most zealous and
+       laborious, if not the most accurate, of Spanish
+       orientalists. His "History of the Domination of the Arabs
+       and Moors in Spain," has been generally regarded as of high
+       authority, and is in truth the first work on the subject
+       drawn wholly from Arab sources; but it receives summary
+       condemnation from Se&ntilde;or de Gayangos, for "the uncouth
+       arrangement of the materials, the entire want of critical or
+       explanatory notes, the unaccountable neglect to cite
+       authorities, the numerous repetitions, blunders, and
+       contradictions." These charges are certainly not without
+       foundation; but they are in some measure accounted for by
+       the trouble and penury in which the author's last years were
+       spent, and the unfinished state in which the work was left
+       at his death in 1820.</p>
+
+    <p>An authentic and comprehensive view of the Arab period, as
+    described by their own writers, was therefore still a
+    desideratum in European literature, which the publication
+    before us may be considered as the first step towards
+    supplying. The work of Al-Makkari, which has been taken as a
+    text-book, is not so much an original history as a collection
+    of extracts, sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed in
+    full, from more ancient historians; and frequently giving two
+    or three versions of the same event from different
+    authorities&mdash;so that, though it can claim but little merit
+    as a composition, it is of extreme value as a repository of
+    fragments of authors in many cases now lost; and further, as
+    the only "uninterrupted narrative of the conquests, wars, and
+    settlements of the Spanish Moslems, from their first invasion
+    of the Peninsula to their final expulsion." In the arrangement
+    of his materials, the translator has departed considerably, and
+    with advantage, from the original; giving the historical books
+    in the form of a continuous narrative, and omitting several
+    sections relating to matters of little interest&mdash;while the
+    deficiencies and omissions of the author are supplied by an
+    appendix, containing, in addition to a valuable body of
+    original notes, copious extracts from numerous unpublished
+    Arabic MSS. relating to Spain, which afford ample proof of the
+    extent and diligence of his researches among the Oriental
+    treasures of Paris and London. To those in the Escurial,
+    however, he was denied access during his labours&mdash;an
+    almost incredible measure of illiberality, which, if he be
+    correct in ascribing it to his known intention of publishing in
+    England, "ill suits a country" (as he justly remarks in the
+    preface) "which has lately seen its archives and monastic
+    libraries reduced to cinders, and scattered or sold in foreign
+    markets, without the least struggle to rescue or secure
+    them."</p>
+
+    <p>Ahmed Al-Makkari, the author or compiler of the present
+    work, derived his surname from a village near Telemsan called
+    Makkarah, where his family had been established since the
+    conquest of Africa by the Arabs. He was born at Telemsan some
+    time in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and educated
+    by his uncle, who held the office of Mufti in that city; but
+    having quitted his native country in 1618 on a pilgrimage to
+    Mekka, he married and settled in Cairo. During a visit to
+    Damascus in 1628, he was received with high distinction by
+    Ahmed Ibn Shahin Effendi, the director of the college of Jakmak
+    in that city, and a distinguished patron of literature; at
+    whose suggestion (he tells us) he undertook this work.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page433"
+       id="page433"></a>[pg 433]</span> His original purpose had
+       been only to write the life of Abu Abdullah Lisanuddin, a
+       celebrated historian and minister in Granada, better known
+       to Oriental scholars as Ibnu'l-Khattib; but having completed
+       this, the thought struck him of adding, as a second part, an
+       historical account of the Moslems of Spain. He had formerly
+       written an extensive and elaborate work on this subject,
+       composed (to use his own words) "in such an elevated and
+       pleasing style, that had it been publicly delivered by the
+       common crier, it would have made even the stones
+       deaf:&mdash;but, alas! the whole of this we had left in
+       Maghreb (Morocco) with the rest of our library.... However,
+       we have done our best to make the present work as useful and
+       complete as possible." It was probably the last literary
+       undertaking of his life; since he was on the point of
+       quitting Cairo to fix his residence in Damascus, when he
+       died of a fever in the second Jomada of A.H. 1041, (Jan.
+       1632,) leaving a high reputation as a traditionist and
+       doctor of the Moslem law.</p>
+
+    <p>The introductory chapter gives a sketch of the various
+    nations which inhabited <i>Andalus</i> or Spain before the Arab
+    conquest, prefaced by extracts from numerous writers eulogistic
+    of a country "whose excellences" (as Al-Makkari himself
+    declares) "are such and so many that they cannot easily be
+    contained in a book ... so that one of their wise men, who knew
+    that the country had been called the bird's tail, owing to the
+    supposed resemblance of the earth to a bird with extended
+    wings, remarked that that bird was the peacock, the principal
+    beauty of which was in the tail." These panegyrics are not in
+    all cases exactly consistent; for while the famous geographer,
+    Obeydullah Al-Bekri, "compares his native country to Syria for
+    purity of air and water, to China for mines and precious
+    stones, &amp;c. &amp;c., and to Al-Ahwaz (a district in Persia)
+    <i>for the magnitude of its snakes</i>"&mdash;the Sheikh Ahmed
+    Al-Razi (better known as the historian Razis) praises its
+    comparative freedom from wild beasts and reptiles. The name
+    <i>Andalus</i> is derived by some authors from a great grandson
+    of Noah so named, who settled there soon after the deluge; but
+    Al-Makkari rather inclines, with Ibn Khaldun and other writers,
+    to deduce it from the <i>Andalosh,</i> (Vandals,) "a tribe of
+    barbarians," who appear to be considered as the earliest
+    inhabitants; but who, having incurred the divine wrath by their
+    wickedness and idolatry, were all cut off by a terrible
+    drought, which left the land for a hundred years an uninhabited
+    desert. A colony then arrived from Africa, under a chief named
+    Batrikus, eleven generations of whose descendants reigned for
+    one hundred and fifty-seven years; after which they were all
+    annihilated by the "barbarians of Rome, who invaded and
+    conquered the country; and it was after their king Ishban, son
+    of Titus, that Andalus was called Ishbaniah," (Hispania.) As
+    Ishban is just after said to have "plundered and demolished
+    Ilia, which is the same as Al-Kods the illustrious,"
+    (Jerusalem,) it is obvious that the name must be a corruption
+    of Vespasian, who is thus made the son instead of the father of
+    Titus. We are told that authors differ whether it was on this
+    occasion, or at the former capture of Jerusalem by
+    Bokht-Nasser, (Nebuchadnezzar,) at which a king of Spain named
+    Berian was also present, that the table constructed by the
+    genii for Solomon, and which Tarik afterwards found at Toledo,
+    was transported to Spain&mdash;and Al-Makkari professes
+    himself, as well he may, unable to reconcile the different
+    accounts. Fifty-five kings descended from Ishban, whose race
+    was dispossessed ("about the time of the Messiah, on whom be
+    peace!") by a people called Bishtilikat, (Visigoths?) under a
+    king called Talubush, (Ataulphus?) whom Al-Makkari holds to
+    have been the same people as the "barbarians of Rome," though
+    "there are not wanting authors who make the Goths and the
+    Bishtilikat only one nation." After holding possession during
+    the reigns of twenty-seven monarchs, they were in turn subdued
+    by the Goths, whose royal residence was "Toleyalah, (Toledo,)
+    though Isbiliah (Seville) continued to be the abode of the
+    sciences." The Gothic kings are said to have been
+    thirty-six;&mdash;but the only one particularized by name is
+    "Khoshandinus, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page434"
+       id="page434"></a>[pg 434]</span> (Constantine,) who not only
+       embraced Christianity himself, but called on his subjects to
+       do the same, and is held by the Christians as the greatest
+       king they ever had.... Several kings of his posterity
+       reigned after him, till Andalus was finally subdued by the
+       Arabs, by whose means God was pleased to make manifest the
+       superiority of Islam over every other religion."</p>
+
+    <p>With the Arab, conquest the authentic history commences; and
+    the accounts given from the Moslem writers of this memorable
+    event, which first gave the followers of the Prophet a footing
+    in Europe, differ in no material point from the eloquent
+    narrative of Gibbon. Al-Makkari, however, does not fail to
+    inform us, that predictions had been rife from long past ages,
+    which foretold the invasion and conquest of the country by a
+    fierce people from Africa; and potent were the spells and
+    talismans constructed to ward off the danger, "by the
+    <i>Greek</i> kings who reigned in old times." Several of these
+    are described with due solemnity; and among them we find the
+    tale of the visit paid by Roderic<a id="fn_3_tag3"
+       name="fn_3_tag3"></a><a href="#fn_3_3"><sup>3</sup></a> to
+       the magic tower at Toledo, which has been rendered familiar
+       by the pages of Scott and Southey. We shall not here
+       recapitulate the well-known incidents of the wrongs and
+       revenge of Count Yllan, or Julian, the first landing of
+       Tarif at Tarifa, the second expedition sent by Musa under
+       Tarik Ibn Zeyad, and the death or disappearance of the
+       Gothic king on the fatal day of Guadalete.<a id="fn_3_tag4"
+       name="fn_3_tag4"></a><a href="#fn_3_4"><sup>4</sup></a> So
+       complete was the discomfiture of the Christians, that the
+       kingdom fell, without a second blow, before the victors of a
+       single field; and was overrun with such rapidity, that from
+       the inability of the conquerors to garrison the cities which
+       surrendered, they were entrusted for the time to the guard
+       of the Jews!&mdash;a singular circumstance, which, when
+       coupled with the statement that many of the Berbers (of whom
+       the invading army was almost wholly composed) were recent
+       converts from Judaism,<a id="fn_3_tag5"
+       name="fn_3_tag5"></a><a href="#fn_3_5"><sup>5</sup></a>
+       would apparently imply that the conquest was facilitated by
+       a previous correspondence. The subjugation of the country
+       was completed by the arrival of Musa himself, who reduced
+       Seville and the other towns which still held out, and is
+       even said to have crossed the Pyrenees and sacked
+       Narbonne;<a id="fn_3_tag6"
+       name="fn_3_tag6"></a><a href="#fn_3_6"><sup>6</sup></a> but
+       this is not mentioned by any Christian writer, and is
+       referred by the translator to his invasion of Catalonia,
+       which the Arabs considered as part of "the land of the
+       Franks." After the first fury of conquest had subsided, the
+       Christians who remained in their homes were permitted to
+       live unmolested, on payment of the capitation-tax; but
+       peculiar privileges were accorded to the Jews, and the hold
+       of the Moslems on the country was strengthened by the vast
+       influx of settlers, not only from Africa, but from Syria and
+       Arabia, who were attracted by the reports of the riches and
+       fertility of the new province. Nearly all the tribes of
+       Arabia are enumerated by Al-Makkari as represented in Spain;
+       and the feuds of the two great divisions, the
+       Beni-Modhar<a id="fn_3_tag7"
+       name="fn_3_tag7"></a><a href="#fn_3_7"><sup>7</sup></a> or
+       race of Adnan, and the Beni-Kahttan or Arabs of Yemen, gave
+       rise to most of the civil wars which subsequently desolated
+       Andalus.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page435"
+       id="page435"></a>[pg 435]</span>
+
+    <p>The spoil of the vanquished kingdom was immense&mdash;the
+    accumulation of long years of luxury and freedom from foreign
+    invasion in a country which, both from the fertility of the
+    soil and the abundance of the precious metals, was then
+    probably the richest in Europe. Whatever degree of credit we
+    may attach to the famous table of Solomon, "said by some to be
+    of pure gold, and by others green emerald," and the gems and
+    ornaments of which are described with full Oriental luxuriance,
+    every account referring to the booty acquired in the principal
+    cities, gives ample evidence of the riches and splendour of the
+    Visigoths. "The plunder found at Toledo<a id="fn_3_tag8"
+       name="fn_3_tag8"></a><a href="#fn_3_8"><sup>8</sup></a> was
+       beyond calculation. It was common for the lowest men in the
+       army to find magnificent gold chains, and long strings of
+       pearls and rubies. Among other precious objects were found
+       170 diadems of the purest red gold, set with every sort of
+       precious stone; several measures full of emeralds, rubies,
+       and other gems; and an immense number of gold and silver
+       vases. Such was the eagerness for plunder, and the ignorance
+       of some, especially the Berbers, that when two or more of
+       this nation fell upon an article which they could not
+       conveniently divide, they would cut it in pieces, whatever
+       the material might be, and share it among them." Some of the
+       victorious army seized some ships in the eastern ports, and
+       set sail for their homes with their plunder; but they were
+       speedily overtaken by a tremendous storm, and all perished
+       in the waves&mdash;a manifest token, we are given to
+       understand, of the Divine vengeance for the abandonment of
+       the <i>holy</i> warfare under the banners of Islam.</p>
+
+    <p>Musa was on his march into Galicia to crush the last embers
+    of national resistance, when his progress was checked by a
+    peremptory summons from the Khalif, to answer at Damascus the
+    charges forwarded against him by Tarik, whom he had unjustly
+    disgraced and punished. Being convicted of falsehood, on the
+    production by Tarik of the missing foot of the table of
+    Solomon, the merit of finding which had been claimed by Musa,
+    he was tortured and deprived of his riches; and the head of his
+    gallant son Abdulaziz, whom he had left in command in Spain,
+    was shown to him in public by the Khalif Soliman, the successor
+    of Walid, with the cruel demand if he knew whose it was. "I
+    do," was the father's reply: "it is the head of one who fasted
+    and prayed; may the curse of Allah fall on it if he who slew
+    him is a better man than he!" But though Musa was thus arrested
+    in the last stage of his conquering career, so complete was the
+    prostration of the Christians, that the viceroys who succeeded
+    Abdulaziz, overlooking or disregarding this yet unsubdued
+    corner of Spain, at once poured their forces across the
+    Pyrenees, seeking new fields of conquest and glory in the
+    countries of the Franks. But the antagonists whom they here
+    encountered, unlike the luxurious Goths of Spain, still
+    preserved the barbarian valour which they had brought from
+    their German forests. And As-Samh, (the Zama of the Christian
+    writers,) the first Saracen general who obtained a footing in
+    France, "fell a martyr to the faith," with nearly his whole
+    army, in a battle with Eudo, Duke of Aquitaine, before
+    Toulouse, May 10, A.D. 721. But the fiery zeal of the Moslems
+    was only stimulated by this reverse. In the course of the ten
+    following years, their dominion was established as far as the
+    Rhone and Garonne; till, in 732, the torrent of invasion,
+    headed by the <i>Wali</i> Abdurrahman, burst into the heart of
+    the country; and the battle, decisive of the destinies of
+    France, and perhaps of Europe, was fought between Tours and
+    Poitiers, in October of that year, (Ramadhan, A.H. 114.) Few
+    details are given by the Arab writers of the seven days'
+    conflict, in which the ranks of the Moslems were shattered by
+    the iron arm of Charles Martel;
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page436"
+       id="page436"></a>[pg 436]</span> "and the army of
+       Abdurrahman was cut to pieces at a spot called
+       <i>Balatt-ush-Shohad&aacute;</i>, (the Pavement of the
+       Martyrs,) he himself being in the number of the slain." Some
+       confusion here appears, as the same epithet had been applied
+       to the former battle near Toulouse; but this "disastrous
+       day" of Tours virtually extinguished the schemes of Arab
+       conquest in France, though it was not till many years later
+       that they were completely dislodged from Narbonne, and their
+       other acquisitions between the Garrone and the Pyrenees.</p>
+
+    <p>Meanwhile the Christian remnant, left unmolested in the
+    Asturian and Galician mountains, gradually recovered courage:
+    and in 717-18, "a despicable barbarian," (as he is termed by
+    Ibn Hayyan, a writer often cited by Al-Makkari,) "named Belay,
+    (Pelayo or Pelagius,) rose in Galicia; and from that moment the
+    Christians began to resist the Moslems, and to defend their
+    wives and daughters; for till then they had not shown the least
+    inclination to do so." "Would to God," piously subjoins
+    Al-Makkari, "that the Moslems had then extinguished at once the
+    sparkles of a fire destined to consume their whole dominion in
+    those parts! But they said&mdash;'What are thirty barbarians,
+    perched on a rock? they must inevitably die!'" The spark, which
+    contained the germ of the future independence of Spain, was
+    thus suffered to remain and spread, while the swords of the
+    Moslems were occupied in France; and its growth was further
+    favoured by the anarchy and civil dissensions which broke out
+    among the conquerors. While the leaders of the different Arab
+    factions contested, sword in hand, the viceroyalty of Spain,
+    the Berbers (whose conversion to Islam was apparently yet but
+    imperfect) rose in furious revolt both in Spain and Africa, and
+    were only overpowered by a fresh army sent by the Khalif Hisham
+    from Syria. But the arrival of these reinforcements added new
+    fuel to the old feuds of the Beni-Modhar, and the Yemenis or
+    Beni-Kahttan; and a desperate civil war raged till 746, when
+    the Khalif's lieutenant, the Emir Abu'l-Khattar, who supported
+    the Yemenis, was killed in a pitched battle fought near
+    Cordova. The leader of the victorious tribe, Yusuf
+    Al-Fehri,<a id="fn_3_tag9"
+       name="fn_3_tag9"></a><a href="#fn_3_9"><sup>9</sup></a> now
+       assumed supreme power, which he exercised nearly ten years
+       as an independent ruler, without reference to the court of
+       Damascus. The state of affairs in the East, indeed, left
+       little leisure to the Umeyyan khalifs to attend to the
+       regulation of a remote province. Their throne was already
+       tottering before the arms and intrigues of the Abbasides,
+       whose black banners, under the guidance of the formidable
+       Abu-Moslem, were even now bearing down from Khorassan upon
+       Syria. The unpopular cause of the Beni-Umeyyah, who were
+       detested for the murder of the grandsons of the Prophet
+       under the second of their line, was lost in a single battle;
+       and the death of Merwan, the last khalif of the race, was
+       followed by the unsparing proscription of the whole family.
+       "Every where they were seized and put to death without
+       mercy; and few escaped the search made by the emissaries of
+       As-Seffah, (<i>the bloodshedder</i>, the surname of the
+       first Abbaside khalif,) in every province of the
+       empire."</p>
+
+    <p>Among the few survivors of the general doom, was a youth
+    named Abdurrahman Ibn Muawiyah, a grandson of the Khalif
+    Hisham. In his infancy his granduncle Moslemah, the leader of
+    the first Saracen host sent against Constantinople, had
+    indicated him, from certain marks, as the destined restorer of
+    the fallen fortunes of his race; and he was preserved, by a
+    timely warning from a client of his house, from the fatal
+    banquet, in which ninety of the Beni-Umeyyah were treacherously
+    massacred. Yet so hot was the pursuit, that his younger brother
+    was taken and slain before his eyes, while swimming the
+    Euphrates with him in their flight. But Abdurrahman, after
+    numberless perils and adventures, at
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page437"
+       id="page437"></a>[pg 437]</span> length reached Africa,
+       which was ruled by the <i>wali</i> or viceroy Abdurrahman
+       Ibn Habib, the father of Yusuf Al-Fehri, who had been a
+       personal retainer of his family. But he soon found that he
+       had erred in trusting to the faith of Ibn Habib; and, after
+       narrowly escaping the search made for him by the emissaries
+       of the governor, lay concealed for several years, a fugitive
+       and outlaw, among the tribes of Northern Africa. In this
+       extremity, he at length cast his eyes on Spain, where the
+       Abbasides had never been recognized, and where his own
+       clansmen of the Koreysh, with their <i>maulis</i>, (freedmen
+       or clients,) were numerous and powerful. The overtures of
+       the royal adventurer were eagerly listened to by the
+       Yemenis, who burned to revenge their late defeat on the
+       Beni-Modhar; and Abdurrahman, landing at Al-mu&ntilde;ecar
+       in the autumn of 755, found himself instantly at the head of
+       700 horse, and was speedily joined by the chieftain of the
+       Yemenis, who admitted him into Seville. During the march the
+       want of a banner was remarked, "and a long spear was
+       produced, on the point of which a turban was to be placed;
+       but as it would have been necessary to incline the head of
+       the spear, which was supposed to be of extremely bad omen,
+       it was held erect between two olive trees, and a man,
+       ascending one of them, was enabled to fasten the turban to
+       the spear without lowering it.... With this same banner did
+       Abdurrahman, and his son Hisham, vanquish their enemies
+       whenever they met them; and in such veneration was it held,
+       that whenever the turban by long use decayed, it was not
+       removed, but a new one placed over it. In this manner it was
+       preserved till the days of Abdurrahman II.; some say till
+       the days of his son Mohammed, when the turban on the spear
+       being decayed, the vizirs of that monarch, seeing nothing
+       under it but a few rags twisted round the spear, gave orders
+       for their removal, and the whole was thrown away.... 'From
+       that time,' remarks the judicious historian Ibn Hayyan, 'the
+       empire of the Beni-Umeyyah began visibly to decline.'"</p>
+
+    <p>Under the auspices of this novel <i>oriflamme</i> the
+    Umeyyan prince and his followers advanced upon Cordova, whither
+    Yusuf Al-Fehri, who had been engaged in suppressing an
+    insurrection in the <i>Thagher</i>, (Aragon,) had hastened to
+    oppose them at the head of the Beni-Modhar. Exchanging for a
+    mule the fiery courser which the jealous whispers of his
+    adherents had remarked as designed to secure his escape in case
+    of defeat, Abdurrahman led his troops to the attack; and his
+    victory established on the throne of Spain a new dynasty of the
+    Beni-Umeyyah, "who thus regained in the west the supremacy
+    which they had lost in the east." Those of the fallen family
+    who had escaped the general massacre, flocked to the court of
+    their fortunate kinsman, "to all of whom he gave pensions,
+    commands, and governments, by which means his empire was
+    strengthened;"&mdash;and the robes and turbans of the monarch
+    and the princes were always white, the colour assumed by the
+    house of Umeyyah, in opposition to the black livery of their
+    rivals. Though Abdurrahman never assumed the title of commander
+    of the faithful, he suppressed the <i>khotbah</i> or public
+    prayers in the name of the Abbasides; and when Al-Ala, the
+    <i>wali</i> of Africa, invaded Spain in order to re-establish
+    the supremacy of the eastern khalif, the head of his
+    unsuccessful general, thrown before the tent of Al-mansor at
+    Mekka, conveyed to him the first tidings of the destruction of
+    the armament by the "hawk of the Koreysh," as he was wont to
+    term Abdurrahman. In the elation of triumph from this success,
+    he is even said to have contemplated marching through Africa to
+    attack Al-mansor in the east; but this design was frustrated by
+    the continual rebellions of the Arab tribes, whom all his
+    address and prudence was unable to keep in order; and "while
+    the Moslems were revolting against their sovereign, the
+    Christians of Galicia gathered strength, took possession of the
+    towns and fortresses on the frontier, and expelled their
+    inhabitants." We find him at length obliged, in order to
+    maintain his authority, to have recourse to the system, which
+    in the next century became universal in the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page438"
+       id="page438"></a>[pg 438]</span> east, of entrusting the
+       defence of his throne and person, not to the native levies
+       of his kingdom, but to a standing army of purchased slaves
+       or <i>Mamlukes</i>. "He began to cease all communication
+       with the chiefs of the Arabian tribes, whom he found
+       animated with a strong hatred against him, and to surround
+       himself with slaves and people entirely devoted to him; for
+       which end he engaged followers and took clients from every
+       province of his empire, and sent over to Africa to enlist
+       Berbers. 'Thus,' says Ibn Hayyan, 'Abdurrahman collected an
+       army of slaves and Berbers, amounting to upwards of 40,000
+       men, by means of whom he always remained victorious, in
+       every contest with the Arabian tribes of Andalus.'"</p>
+
+    <p>The sciences and fine arts, which had been almost banished
+    from Spain since the conquest, returned in the train of the new
+    dynasty; and literature was encouraged by the example of
+    Abdurrahman, who was himself a poet of no mean merit. His
+    affectionate remembrance of his Syrian home, led him to
+    introduce into his new kingdom the flowers and fruits of the
+    east;&mdash;and the palm-tree, which was the parent of all
+    those of its kind in Spain, and to which he addressed the
+    well-known lines, lamenting their common fate as exiles from
+    their fatherland, was planted by himself in the gardens of the
+    Riss&aacute;fah, a country palace built on the model of one
+    near Damascus, in which the first years of his life had been
+    spent. In architectural magnificence he rivaled or surpassed
+    the former princes of his race, the monuments of whose grandeur
+    still exist in the mosque of the Beni-Umeyyah at Damascus, and
+    other edifices adorning the cities of Syria. The palaces and
+    aqueducts which he constructed in Cordova, testified his zeal
+    for the splendour, as well as his care for the salubrity, of
+    his capital;&mdash;and after expending the sum of 80,000 golden
+    <i>dinars</i> (the produce of the royal fifth of all spoil
+    taken in war) in the erection of the stately mosque which bears
+    his name, he bequeathed the completion of the structure, at his
+    death, A.D. 788, to his younger son Hisham, whom he nominated
+    as his successor, to the exclusion of the elder brother
+    Soliman. Al-Makkari devotes an entire chapter to the wonders of
+    this celebrated temple, which was finished A.D. 794, nine years
+    after its commencement, and received additions from almost
+    every successive sovereign of the house of Umeyyah. In its
+    present state, as the cathedral of Cordova, it still covers
+    more ground than any church in Christendom; but the inner roof,
+    with its elaborate carving, the <i>mihrab</i>, or shrine, of
+    minute inlaid work of ivory, gems, and precious woods, and
+    containing a copy of the Koran which had belonged to the Khalif
+    Othman&mdash;the embossed plates of gold and silver which
+    encrusted the doors, and the apples of the same metals which
+    surmounted the dome&mdash;have long since disappeared; and the
+    thousand (or, as some say, thirteen hundred) columns of
+    polished marble which it once boasted, have been grievously
+    reduced in number, to make room for the shrines and chapels of
+    Christian saints. The unequal length and proportions of those
+    which remain, their irregular grouping, and the want of height
+    in the roof which they support, indicate a far lower grade of
+    architectural taste than that which we find in the aerial
+    palaces of Granada; but all the Arabic writers who have
+    described it, concur in considering it one of the wonders of
+    the world; and it ranked, in the estimation of the Spanish
+    Moslems, as inferior in point of sanctity to none but the
+    Kaaba, and the mosque of Omar at Jerusalem.</p>
+
+    <p>The mood of the Beni-Umeyyah, who appear in their eastern
+    reign only as gloomy and execrated tyrants, had been chastened
+    by their misfortunes; and the virtues of Abdurrahman
+    <i>Ad-dakhel</i> (<i>the enterer or conqueror</i>, as he is
+    generally termed by historians) were emulated by his
+    descendants. As an illustration of the character of his son
+    Hisham, it is related by Al-Makkari, that on hearing that the
+    people of Cordova said, that his only motive in restoring the
+    great bridge over the Guadalquivir was to pass over it himself
+    when he went out hunting, he bound himself by a solemn vow
+    never to cross it again as long as he lived; but the reign of
+    this beneficent prince lasted only eight years. His
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page439"
+       id="page439"></a>[pg 439]</span> immediate successors,
+       Al-hakem I., and Abdurrahman II., were almost constantly
+       engaged in warfare, either against their own rebellious
+       relatives and revolted subjects,<a id="fn_3_tag10"
+       name="fn_3_tag10"></a><a href="#fn_3_10"><sup>10</sup></a>
+       or against the Christians of Galicia, who, by the middle of
+       the ninth century, had advanced their frontier to the Douro
+       and repeatedly repulsed the armies sent against them from
+       Cordova; but we find no mention in the writers cited by
+       Al-Makkari, either of the annual tribute of a hundred
+       virgins, popularly said to have been exacted by the Moslems,
+       or of the great victory in 846, by which King Ramiro
+       redeemed his country from this degrading badge of
+       vassalage.<a id="fn_3_tag11"
+       name="fn_3_tag11"></a><a href="#fn_3_11"><sup>11</sup></a>
+       So widely extended was the martial renown of the Umeyyan
+       sovereigns, that in 839 a suppliant embassy was received by
+       Abdurrahman II. from the Greek Emperor <i>Tufilus</i>,
+       (Theophilus,) then hard pressed by the arms of the Abbaside
+       khalif Al-mutassem, to solicit his aid against their common
+       enemy; and, though Abdurrahman declined to embark in this
+       distant and hazardous enterprise, a friendly intercourse
+       long continued to be kept up between the courts of Cordova
+       and Constantinople. The military establishment was fully
+       organized, and placed on a formidable footing. Besides the
+       troops quartered in the provinces and receiving regular pay,
+       the <i>haras</i> or royal guard of Mamlukes, whose commander
+       was one of the principal officers of the court, was
+       augmented to 5000 horse and 1000 foot, all Christians or
+       foreigners by birth, who occupied barracks close to the
+       royal palace, and constantly mounted guard at the gates. The
+       coast was also defended by a powerful fleet of armed
+       vessels, of which each of the seaports fitted out its
+       proportion, against the hostile attacks of the Abbaside
+       lieutenauts of Africa, and the predatory descents of the
+       <i>Majus</i><a id="fn_3_tag12"
+       name="fn_3_tag12"></a><a href="#fn_3_12"><sup>12</sup></a>
+       or Northmen; who, after laying waste with fire and sword the
+       French and English coasts, had extended their ravages into
+       the southern seas even to the Straits of Gibraltar. Lisbon
+       and Seville were sacked by them in 844; and their piratical
+       fleets continued for many years to carry pillage and
+       bloodshed along the shores of the Peninsula.</p>
+
+    <p>The simplicity which the first Abdurrahman had uniformly
+    preserved in his dress and habits of life, was soon exchanged
+    by his successors for royal magnificence, rivaling that of the
+    Abbaside court at Bagdad. It was Abdurrahman II. who, in a love
+    quarrel with a beautiful inmate of his harem, caused the door
+    of her chamber to be blocked up with bags of silver coin, to be
+    removed on her relenting&mdash;"and she threw herself on her
+    knees and kissed his feet; but," na&iuml;vely adds the Arab
+    historian, "the money she kept, and no portion of it ever
+    returned to the treasury." The same prince testified his esteem
+    for the fine arts, by riding forth in state from his capital,
+    to welcome the arrival of Zaryab, a far-famed musician, whom
+    the jealousy of a rival had driven from Bagdad, and who founded
+    in Spain a famous school of music; and in his convivial habits,
+    and the freedom which he allowed to the companions of his
+    festive hours, his character accords with that assigned in the
+    <i>Thousand and One Nights</i>, though not in the page of
+    history, to Haroon-Al-Rasheed. He died in 852, leaving the
+    crown to his son Mohammed, whose reign, as well as those of his
+    two sons Almundhir and Abdullah, who filled the throne in
+    succession, is but briefly noticed by Al-Makkari, though
+    Se&ntilde;or de Gayangos has supplied some valuable additional
+    matter in his notes. The never-ceasing contest
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page440"
+       id="page440"></a>[pg 440]</span> with the Christians was
+       waged year by year; and the Princes of Oviedo, though often
+       defeated in the plain and driven back into their mountains,
+       when the forces of Andalus were gathered against them; yet
+       surely, though slowly, gained ground against the provincial
+       <i>walis</i> or viceroys. At the death of "Ordhun Ibn
+       Adefunsh," (Ordo&ntilde;o I.) in 866, their territory
+       extended from the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay to
+       Salamanca; and the Moslem power was diverted by the rising
+       strength of Navarre, where the Basques had shaken off the
+       divided allegiance paid alternately to the court of Cordova
+       and the Carlovingian rulers of France, and conferred on
+       Garcia-Ramirez, in 857, an independent regal title. But
+       these distant hostilities, as yet, little affected the
+       tranquillity of the seat of government, which was more
+       nearly interested in the frequent revolts of the provinces
+       under its rule,<a id="fn_3_tag13"
+       name="fn_3_tag13"></a><a href="#fn_3_13"><sup>13</sup></a>
+       and particularly by the rebellion of the <i>Muwallads</i>,
+       (or descendants of Christian converts to Islam;) which,
+       though the information extant respecting it is somewhat
+       scanty, would appear to have been little less than a
+       struggle between the two races for the dominion of Spain.
+       One of the Muwallad chiefs, named Omar Ibn
+       Hafssun,<a id="fn_3_tag14"
+       name="fn_3_tag14"></a><a href="#fn_3_14"><sup>14</sup></a>
+       maintained for years a sort of semi-independence in the
+       Alpuxarras. Al-mundhir fell in a skirmish against him in
+       888, only two years after his accession; and the
+       insurrection, after continuing through the whole reign of
+       Abdullah, was only finally suppressed under Abdurrahman
+       III.</p>
+
+    <p>The system of government under these princes, appears to
+    have remained in nearly the same form as it had been fixed by
+    Abdurrahman I. The monarch nominated, during his lifetime, one
+    of his sons as his successor; and the <i>wali-al-ahd</i>, or
+    crown-prince, thus selected, received the oaths of allegiance
+    of the dignitaries of the state, and was admitted to a share in
+    the administration&mdash;a wise regulation, which prevented the
+    recurrence of the civil wars arising from the ambition of
+    princes of the blood, which had distracted the reigns of
+    Al-hakem I. and Abdurrahman II. The council of the sovereign
+    was composed of the <i>vizirs</i> or ministers of the different
+    departments, the <i>katibs</i> or secretaries, and the chiefs
+    of the law; the <i>walis</i> of the six great provinces into
+    which Abdurrahman I. divided his empire,<a id="fn_3_tag15"
+       name="fn_3_tag15"></a><a href="#fn_3_15"><sup>15</sup></a>
+       as well as the municipal chiefs of the principal cities were
+       also summoned on emergencies:&mdash;while the prime
+       minister, or highest officer of the state, in whom, as in
+       the Turkish <i>Vizir-Azem</i>,<a id="fn_3_tag16"
+       name="fn_3_tag16"></a><a href="#fn_3_16"><sup>16</sup></a>
+       the supreme direction of both civil and military affairs was
+       vested, was designated the <i>Hajib</i> or chamberlain. Of
+       the four orthodox<a id="fn_3_tag17"
+       name="fn_3_tag17"></a><a href="#fn_3_17"><sup>17</sup></a>
+       sects of the Soonis, the one which predominated in Spain, as
+       it does to the present day in Barbary and Africa, was that
+       of Malik Ibn Ans, whose doctrines were introduced in the
+       reign of Al-hakem I., by doctors who had received
+       instruction from the lips of the Imam Malik himself at
+       Mekka; and was formally established by that prince
+       throughout his dominions. The judicial offices were filled,
+       as in other Moslem countries, by Kadis, whose decisions were
+       regulated by the precepts of the Koran: but we find no
+       mention (even before the assumption of the titles of Imam
+       and Khalif by Abdurrahman III.) of any supreme
+       ecclesiastical chief like the Sheikh-al-Islam or Mufti of
+       the Ottomans;&mdash;though there were chief justices
+       analogous to the Turkish Kadileskers, who bore the title of
+       <i>Kadi-'l-jamah</i>.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page441"
+       id="page441"></a>[pg 441]</span>
+
+    <p>The royal revenue was derived from a variety of sources. The
+    principal were, a land-tax amounting to one-tenth of the
+    produce of the soil and the mines, the capitation-tax paid by
+    the Jews and Christians, and the fifth of the spoil taken from
+    the enemy&mdash;an enormously productive item in a time of
+    constant warfare&mdash;besides a duty of two and a half per
+    cent on all exports and imports. These were the legitimate dues
+    of the crown, sanctioned by the Koran; but the splendid court
+    maintained by the later sovereigns of Cordova, their lavish
+    expenditure in building, and their large military and naval
+    establishments, often compelled them to have recourse to
+    irregular methods of raising money, by forced loans and by
+    duties laid on different articles of food, in direct violation
+    of the Moslem law. The amount raised by all these means varied
+    greatly at different periods. Under Abdurrahman II., the whole
+    direct revenue is said not to have exceeded 1,000,000 of gold
+    <i>din&#257;rs</i>:&mdash;but the royal fifths, and other
+    extraordinary sources of income, appear not to have been
+    included in this estimate:&mdash;and a century later, under the
+    third and greatest prince of that name, we are told, on the
+    authority of the biographer Ibn Khallekan, that "the revenues
+    of Andalus amounted to 5,480,000 gold <i>din&#257;rs</i>,
+    collected from taxes," (it is elsewhere said from the
+    <i>land</i>-tax:) besides 765,000 derived from
+    markets&mdash;exclusive also of the royal fifth of the spoil,
+    and the capitation-tax levied on Christians and Jews living in
+    the Moslem dominions, the amount of which is said to have
+    equaled all the rest. An annual sum of equal amount, reckoning
+    the <i>din&#257;r</i> at ten shillings, had never in the
+    history of the world been raised in a territory of the same
+    extent, and probably equaled the united incomes of all the
+    Christian princes in Europe&mdash;if we except the revenue of
+    the Greek Emperor, it certainly far exceeded them. "Of this
+    vast income," Ibn Khallekan continues, "one-third was
+    appropriated to the payment of the army, another third was
+    deposited in the royal coffers to cover the expenses of the
+    household, and the remainder was spent yearly in the
+    construction of Az-zahra and such other buildings as were
+    erected under his reign." This tripartite allotment of the
+    revenue is alluded to under several reigns: the expenses of
+    administration and the salaries of the civil functionaries were
+    included under the second head; and the third portion was, in
+    ordinary case, reserved "to repel invasions and meet
+    emergencies."</p>
+
+    <p>The prince under whom the vast revenue thus stated is said
+    to have been collected, ascended the throne on the death of his
+    grandfather Abdullah, in the 300th year of the Hejra, and the
+    912th of the Christian era:&mdash;and his reign, of more than
+    fifty lunar years, saw the power and splendour of the Umeyyan
+    dynasty attain its zenith. For some years after his accession,
+    he headed his armies in person against the Christians and the
+    partizans of Ibn Hafssun, who still continued in arms: but the
+    severe defeat which he received in 939 at Simaneas, near
+    Zamora, (called by Moslem writers the battle of Al-handik,)
+    from Ramiro II. of Leon, disgusted him with active warfare; and
+    he deputed the command of his armies to his generals and the
+    princes of the blood, who, in annual campaigns, so effectually
+    kept the Christians within their limits, that little
+    territorial acquisition was made by them during his reign;
+    while the voluntary adhesion of the Berber tribes, after the
+    overthrow of the Edrisite dynasty in 941 by the arms of the
+    Fatimite khalifs, gave him almost unresisted possession of
+    great part of Fez and Morocco. The defeat of Al-handik, and the
+    treason and execution in 950, of his elder son Abdullah, (whom
+    disappointment at being postponed to his younger brother in the
+    succession, had led to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page442"
+       id="page442"></a>[pg 442]</span> conspire against his
+       father's life,) were almost the only clouds which dimmed the
+       continual sunshine of his prosperity&mdash;and his grandeur
+       was enhanced in the eyes of his subjects, by the assumption
+       of the highest prerogatives of Islam. Hitherto the princes
+       of his line had contented themselves with the style of
+       <i>Amirs of the Moslems,</i> and <i>Beni-Kholaifah</i> or
+       "sons of the Khalifs;" but in 929, "seeing the state of
+       weakness and degradation to which the khalifate of the
+       Beni-Abbas at Bagdad had been reduced," he no longer
+       hesitated to adopt the titles of Imam and Khalif, with the
+       appellation of An-nasir Ledinillah, (defender of the
+       religion of God,) under which he is generally mentioned by
+       historians.</p>
+
+    <p>The writers from whom Al-Makkari has drawn his materials,
+    exhaust their powers of language in panegyrics on the unrivaled
+    magnificence of the court of Abdurrahman; which was thronged
+    both by men of letters whom the distracted state of the East
+    had driven thither for refuge, and by ambassadors, not only
+    from the princes of Islam, but from "Hoto the king of the
+    Alaman," (Otho the Great of Germany,) the king of France, and
+    numerous other Christian potentates. The reception of these
+    missions was usually signalized by a gorgeous display of the
+    pomp of the court&mdash;and the ceremonial on the arrival in
+    949 of the envoys of Constantine VII. of Constantinople, is
+    described at length from Ibn Hayyan. "The vaulted hall in his
+    palace of Az-zahra, which he had fixed upon as the place where
+    he would receive their credentials, was beautifully decorated,
+    and a throne glittering with gold and sparkling with gems
+    raised in the midst. To the right of the throne stood five of
+    the khalif's sons, to the left three others, one being absent
+    from illness. Next to them were the vizirs, each at his post on
+    the right or left of the throne. Then came the hajibs or
+    chamberlains, the sons of the vizirs, the freed slaves of the
+    khalif, and the wakils or officers of his household. The court
+    of the palace had been strewn with the richest carpets; and
+    silken awnings of the most gorgeous description had every where
+    been thrown over the doors and arches. Presently the
+    ambassadors entered the hall, and were struck with awe at the
+    magnificence displayed, and the power of the Sultan before whom
+    they stood. They advanced a few steps, and presented the letter
+    of their master, Constantine son of Leo, Lord of Constantinah
+    the Great, (Constantinople.) It was written on sky-blue paper,
+    and the characters were of gold. Within the letter was an
+    enclosure, the ground of which was also sky-blue like the
+    first, but the characters were of silver: it was likewise
+    written in Greek, and contained a list of the presents which
+    the Lord of Constantinah sent to the Khalif. On the letter was
+    a seal of gold of the weight of four mithkals, on one side of
+    which was a likeness of the Messiah, and on the other those of
+    the King Constantine and his son. The letter was enclosed in a
+    bag of silver cloth, over which was a case of gold, with a
+    portrait of King Constantine admirably executed on stained
+    glass. All this was enclosed in a case covered with cloth of
+    silk and gold tissue. On the first line of the <i>Inwan</i> or
+    introduction was written, 'Constantine and Romanin, (Romanus,)
+    believers in the Messiah, kings of the Greeks;' and in the
+    next, 'To the great and exalted in dignity and power, as he
+    most deserves, the noble in descent, Abdurrahman the khalif,
+    who rules over the Arabs of Andalus: may God preserve his
+    life!'" The conclusion of this splendid ceremony was, however,
+    less imposing than the commencement; for a learned
+    <i>Faquih</i>, who had been appointed to harangue the envoys in
+    a set speech, was so overawed by the grandeur around him, that
+    "his tongue clove to his mouth, he could not aticulate a single
+    word, and fell senseless to the ground" Nor did his successor,
+    "who was reputed to be a prince in rhetoric, and an ocean of
+    language," fare much better; for though he began fluently, "all
+    of a sudden he stopped for want of a word which did not occur
+    to him, and thus put an end to his peroration." In this awkward
+    dilemma, the reputation of the Andalusian rhetoricians was
+    saved by Mundhir Ibn Said, who not only poured forth a torrent
+    of impromptu eloquence, but delivered a long ex-tempore
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page443"
+       id="page443"></a>[pg 443]</span> poem, "which to this day
+       stands unequalled; and Abdurrahman was so pleased, that he
+       appointed him preacher and Imam to the great mosque; and
+       some time after, the office of Kadi-'l-jamah, or supreme
+       judge, being vacant, he named him to that high post, and
+       made him besides reader of the Khoran to the mosque of
+       Az-zahra."</p>
+
+    <p>The palace of Az-zahra, where the eyes of the Greeks were
+    dazzled by this costly pageant, is one of the familiar names of
+    the romance of Spanish history:&mdash;it is known to all the
+    world how Abdurrahman, to gratify the capricious fancy of a
+    beautiful and beloved mistress, expended millions, and tasked
+    the labour of thousands, in erecting on the plain beyond
+    Cordova a fairy palace and city which might bear her name and
+    be her own. And like a fairy fabric did Az-zahra vanish; for so
+    utterly was it destroyed, during the wars and civil tumults
+    attending the fall of the race which raised it, that at the
+    present day not a stone can be found, not a vestige even of the
+    foundations traced, to show where it once stood; and all that
+    we know of this "wondrous freak of magnificence" is drawn from
+    the glowing accounts of contemporary writers, who saw it during
+    the brief period of its glory. It is principally from Ibn
+    Hayyan that Al-Makkari has copied the details of this
+    marvellous structure, with its "15,000 doors, counting each
+    flap or fold as one," all covered either with plates of iron,
+    or sheets of polished brass; and its 4000 columns, great and
+    small, 140 of which were presented by the Emperor of
+    Constantinople, and 1013, mostly of green and rose-coloured
+    marble, were brought from various parts of Africa. Among the
+    principal ornaments were two fountains brought from
+    Constantinople, "the larger of gilt bronze, beautifully carved
+    with basso-relieve representing human figures,"&mdash;the
+    smaller surrounded by twelve figures, made of red gold in the
+    arsenal of Cordova: they were all ornamented with jewels, and
+    the water poured out of their mouths. The famous fountain of
+    quicksilver, which could be set in motion at pleasure, was
+    placed in the <i>Kasr-al-Kholaifa</i>, or hall of the khalifs,
+    "the roof and walls of which were of gold, and solid but
+    transparent blocks of marble of various colours: on each side
+    were eight doors fixed on arches of ivory and ebony, ornamented
+    with gold and precious stones, and resting on pillars of
+    variegated marble and transparent crystal:&mdash;and in the
+    centre was fixed the unique pearl presented to An-nassir by the
+    Greek Emperor." The mosque and baths attached to the palace
+    were on a corresponding scale of magnificence: and the number
+    of inmates, male and female, is said to have been not less than
+    20,000. The expenses of the establishment must have consumed
+    the revenues of a kingdom, if we are to believe the statement,
+    that 12,000 loaves of bread were daily allowed to feed the fish
+    in the ponds! "But all this and more is recorded by orators and
+    poets who have exhausted the mines of eloquence in the
+    description,"&mdash;says Al-Makkari, who, after enlarging upon
+    "the running streams, the luxuriant gardens, the stately
+    buildings for the accommodation of the guards and high
+    functionaries&mdash;the throngs of soldiers, pages, eunuchs,
+    and slaves, attired in robes of silk and brocade, moving to and
+    fro through its broad streets&mdash;and the crowds of judges,
+    katibs, theologians, and poets, walking with becoming gravity
+    through the spacious halls and ample courts of the
+    palace,"&mdash;concludes with a burst of pious enthusiasm.
+    "Praise be to God who allowed those contemptible creatures
+    (mankind) to build such palaces, and to inhabit them as a
+    recompense in this world, that the faithful might be stimulated
+    to the path of virtue, by reflecting that the pleasures enjoyed
+    by their owners were still very far from giving even a remote
+    idea of those reserved for the true believers in paradise!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Abdurrahman," as Al-Makkari sums up his character, "has
+    been described as the mildest and most enlightened of
+    sovereigns. His meekness, generosity, and love of justice,
+    became proverbial: none of his ancestors surpased him in
+    courage, zeal for religion, and other virtues which constitute
+    an able and beloved monarch. He was fond of science, and the
+    patron of the learned, with whom he
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page444"
+       id="page444"></a>[pg 444]</span> loved to converse.... We
+       should never finish, were we to transcribe the innumerable
+       anecdotes respecting him which are scattered like loose
+       pearls over the writings of the Andalusian poets and
+       historians,"&mdash;but as the "pearls" selected possess but
+       little novelty in the illustration of the kingly virtues
+       which they commemorate, we prefer to quote once more the
+       oft-repeated legacy to posterity, in which this "Soliman of
+       the West," as he was called by his contemporaries, confessed
+       that, like his eastern prototype, he had found all his
+       grandeur "but vanity and vexation of spirit."&mdash;"After
+       his death a paper was found in his on handwriting, in which
+       were noted those days he had spent in happiness and without
+       any cause of sorrow, and they were found to amount to
+       fourteen. O, man of understanding! consider and observe the
+       small portion of happiness the world affords, even in the
+       most enviable position! The khalif An-nasir, whose
+       prosperity in mundane affairs became proverbial, had only
+       fourteen days of undisturbed enjoyment during a reign of
+       fifty years, seven months, and three days. Praise be given
+       to him, the Lord of eternal glory and everlasting empire!
+       There is no God but he!"</p>
+
+    <p>In the fulness of years and glory, Abdurrahman died of a
+    paralytic stroke at Az-zahra, on the second or third of
+    Ramadhan, A.H. 350, (Oct. 961,) and was succeeded, according to
+    his previous nomination, by his son Al-hakem II., who assumed
+    on this occasion the title of Al-mustanser-billah, (one who
+    implores God's assistance.) This prince has been characterized,
+    by one of the ablest of recent historians,<a id="fn_3_tag18"
+       name="fn_3_tag18"></a><a href="#fn_3_18"><sup>18</sup></a>
+       as "one of those rare beings, who have employed the awful
+       engine of despotism in promoting the happiness and
+       intelligence of his species;" and who rivaled, "in his
+       elegant tastes, appetite for knowledge, and munificent
+       patronage, the best of the Medici:"&mdash;nor is this high
+       praise undeserved. Though he more than once headed his
+       armies in person, with success, against the Christians and
+       Northmen, and maintained on public occasions the state and
+       magnificence which had been introduced by his father, the
+       toils of war and the pomp of royalty were alike alien to his
+       inclinations, which had been directed from his earliest
+       years to pursuits of literature and science. The library
+       which he amassed is said by some writers to have amounted to
+       the almost incredible number of 400,000 volumes: and such
+       was his ardour in the collection of books, that even in
+       Persia and other remote regions, the munificence which he
+       exercised through agents employed for the purpose, secured
+       him copies of forthcoming works even before their appearance
+       in their own country. "He made Andalus a great market for
+       the literary productions of every clime ... so that rich men
+       in Cordova, however illiterate they might be, rewarded
+       writers and poets with the greatest munificence, and spared
+       neither trouble nor expense in forming libraries." Nor were
+       these treasures of literature idly accumulated, at least by
+       Al-hakem himself; for so vast and various was his reading,
+       that there was scarcely one of his books (as we are assured
+       by the historian Ibn'ul-Abbar) which was not enriched with
+       remarks and annotations from his pen. "In the knowledge
+       especially of history, biography, and genealogy, he was
+       surpassed by no living author of his days: and he wrote a
+       voluminous history of Andalus, in which was displayed such
+       sound criticism, that whatever he related, as borrowed from
+       more ancient sources, might be implicitly relied upon."</p>
+
+    <p>The reign of Al-hakem was the Augustan age of Andalusian
+    literature; and besides the numerous learned men whom the fame
+    of his father's and his own liberality, with the security of
+    their rule, had attracted to Spain from other regions of Islam,
+    we find in the pages of Al-Makkari an extensive list of native
+    authors, principally in the departments of poetry, history, and
+    philology, who are said to be "a few only of the most eminent
+    who flourished during this reign"&mdash;but none of their
+    names, however noted in their own day, are known in
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page445"
+       id="page445"></a>[pg 445]</span> modern Europe. Nor was the
+       gentler sex, as is usually the case in the lands of Islam,
+       excluded from the general taste for letters; and one of our
+       author's chapters is almost entirely filled with a catalogue
+       of the poetesses who adorned Andalus at this and other
+       periods of its history. One of these, Mariam or Mary, the
+       daughter of Abu-Yakub Al-ansari, who rose into celebrity in
+       the latter years of Al-hakem, appears to have been one of
+       the earliest <i>bas-bleus</i> on record. Independent of her
+       poetical talents, she gave lectures at her residence at
+       Seville "in rhetoric and literature; which, united to her
+       piety, virtue, and amiable disposition, gained her the
+       affection of her sex, and procured her many pupils: she
+       lived to old age, and died after the 400th year of the
+       Hejra," (A.D. 1010.) The favourite study of the Moslems, the
+       divinity and law of the Koran, was cultivated with especial
+       zeal under a monarch who was himself a rigid observer of its
+       ordinances; and various anecdotes are related by Al-Makkari
+       of the extraordinary deference paid by Al-hakem to the
+       eminent theologians who frequented his court. The Khalif
+       himself "attended public worship every Friday, and
+       distributed alms to the poor; he laid out large sums in the
+       construction of mosques, hospitals, and colleges for
+       youth;<a id="fn_3_tag19"
+       name="fn_3_tag19"></a><a href="#fn_3_19"><sup>19</sup></a>
+       and being himself very strict in the observance of his
+       religious duties, he enforced the precepts of the
+       <i>Sunnah</i> (tradition) throughout his dominions." With
+       this view, severe edicts were directed against the use of
+       wine, which had become prevalent among the Andalusian
+       Moslems; and Al-hakem was with difficulty restrained, by
+       representations of the ruin which would be thus brought on
+       the cultivators, from ordering the destruction of all the
+       vines in his dominions. But the reign of this excellent and
+       enlightened prince lasted only fifteen years; and at his
+       death, (Sept. 976,) which was caused by the same malady that
+       had proved fatal to his father, the glory of the house of
+       Umeyyah expired.</p>
+
+    <p>The evils of a minority had never yet been experienced in
+    the succession of the Umeyyan princes, all of whom had ascended
+    the throne at a mature age, and with some experience of
+    administration from their previous recognition as heir. But
+    Hisham II., (surnamed Al-muyyed-billah, the assisted by God,)
+    the only son of Al-hakem, was but nine years old at the time of
+    his father's decease; and for some time the government was
+    directed in his name by the Hajib, Jafar Al-Mushafi; but the
+    influence of the queen-mother erelong succeeded in displacing
+    this faithful minister, in favour of Mohammed Ibn Abu Amir, who
+    then held the post of <i>sahib-ush-shortah</i>, or captain of
+    the guard. This remarkable personage (better known in history
+    by his surname of Al-mansur) was the son of a religious
+    devotee, and his condition in early life was so humble, that he
+    supported himself as a public letter-writer in the streets of
+    Cordova; but an accident having introduced him into the palace,
+    he so skilfully wound his way among the intigues of the court,
+    as to attain the highest place next the throne. But even this
+    dignity was far from satisfying his ambition. Under various
+    pretexts he destroyed or drove into exile, within a few years,
+    all the princes of the blood, and others whose influence or
+    station might have endangered the success of his projects, and
+    concentrated in his own hands all the powers of the state;
+    while the khalif, secluded from public view within his palace,
+    was as completely a puppet in the hands of his all-powerful
+    minister, as the khalifs of Bagdad at the same period in those
+    of the <i>Emirs-al-Omrah</i>. Secure of the support of the
+    soldiery, whose affections he had gained by his liberality,
+    Al-mansur so little affected to disguise his assumption of
+    supremacy, that he ordered his own name to be struck on the
+    coin, and repeated in the public prayers, along with that of
+    Hisham, thus arrogating to himself a share in the two most
+    inalienable prerogatives of sovereignty.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page446"
+       id="page446"></a>[pg 446]</span> His robes were made of a
+       peculiar fashion and stuff appropriated to royalty; he
+       received embassies seated on the throne, and declared peace
+       and war in his own name. To such utter helplessness was the
+       khalif reduced,<a id="fn_3_tag20"
+       name="fn_3_tag20"></a><a href="#fn_3_20"><sup>20</sup></a>
+       that he was unable even to oppose the removal of the royal
+       treasure fiom Cordova to a fortified palace which Al-mansur
+       had built for his residence, not far from Az-zahra, and had
+       named, as if in mockery, Az-zahirah;&mdash;and the Hajib was
+       at one time obliged to quiet the murmurs of the populace,
+       who doubted whether their sovereign was still in existence,
+       by leading him in procession through the streets of the
+       capital; "and the eyes of the people feasted on what had
+       been so long concealed from them."</p>
+
+    <p>But this daring usurpation was in part redeemed by qualities
+    in the usurper worthy of a king. Though the bigotry of Al-masur
+    led him to order the destruction of those volumes in the
+    library of Al-hakem which treated of philosophy and the
+    abstruse sciences, on the ground that such studies tended to
+    irreligion, he was yet liberal to the learned men who visited
+    his court at Az-zahirah, where he resided in royal splendour
+    during the intervals of his campaigns; and he endeared hinself
+    to the people, by his generosity, his rigid justice, and the
+    strict control which he enforced over his subordinate officers.
+    But it was on his fervent zeal for the cause of Islam, and his
+    martial exploits against the Christians, (whence his surname of
+    <i>Al-mansur</i>, or <i>the Victorious</i>, was derived,) that
+    his fame and popularity chiefly rested. The martial spirit of
+    the Spanish Moslems appears, from various anecdotes related by
+    Al-Makkari, to have suffered great deterioration from the
+    progress of luxury and decay of discipline; but the armies led
+    by Al-mansur were mainly recruited from the fiery tribes of
+    Barbary, and strengthened by numerous Christian slaves or
+    Mamlukes, trained to serve their captors in arms against their
+    own countrymen. With forces thus constituted, did Al-mansur, in
+    whom once more shone forth the spirit of the Arab conquerors of
+    past times, invade the Christian territories in each spring and
+    autumn for twenty-six successive years, carrying the Moslem
+    arms in triumph even to the shores of the "Green Sea,"
+    (Atlantic Ocean,) and into regions which Tarik and Musa had
+    never reached. Astorga and Leon, in spite of the efforts of
+    Bermudo II. to save his capital, were taken and razed to the
+    ground in 983. Barcelona only escaped the same fate in the
+    following year by submission and tribute; but the crowning
+    glory of Al-mansur's achievements in the <i>al-jahid</i> or
+    holy war, was the capture, in 997, Santiago, the shrine and
+    sepulchre of the patron saint of Spain. "No Moslem general had
+    ever penetrated as far as that city, which is in an
+    inaccessible position in the most remote part of Galicia, and
+    is a sanctuary regarded by the Christians with veneration equal
+    to that which the Moslems entertain for the Kaaba,"&mdash;but
+    Al-mansur, supplied with provisions from a fleet which
+    accompanied his march along the coast of Portugal, forced his
+    way through the Galician defiles, and occupied the holy city
+    without opposition&mdash;all the inhabitants having fled,
+    according to Ibn Hayyan, with the exception of an old monk who
+    tended the tomb. The city and cathedral were leveled with the
+    ground; the shrine alone was left untouched in the midst of the
+    ruins, from the belief of the Moslems that St James was the
+    brother of the Messiah&mdash;and the church-bells were conveyed
+    on the shoulders of the captives to Cordova, where they were
+    suspended as lamps in the great mosque, to commemorate the
+    triumph of Islam in the principal seat of Christian worship and
+    pilgrimage.</p>
+
+    <p>Such was the depression produced among the Christians by
+    these repeated disasters, that, if we may believe Al-Makkari,
+    "one of Al-mansur's soldiers having left his banner fixed in
+    the earth on a mountain before a Christian town, the garrison
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page447"
+       id="page447"></a>[pg 447]</span> dared not come out for
+       several days after the retreat of the Moslem army, not
+       knowing what troops might be behind it." The pressing sense
+       of common danger, at length extinguished ("for the first
+       time perhaps," as Conde remarks) the feuds of the Christian
+       princes; and in the spring of 1002 the united forces of the
+       Count of Castile, Sancho the Great of Navarre, and the King
+       of Leon, confronted the Moslem host at
+       Kalat-an-nosor,<a id="fn_3_tag21"
+       name="fn_3_tag21"></a><a href="#fn_3_21"><sup>21</sup></a>
+       (the Castle of the Eagles,) on the frontiers of Old Castile.
+       The mighty conflict which ensued is very briefly dismissed
+       by Al-Makkari&mdash;"Al-mansur attacked and defeated them
+       with great loss"&mdash;but a far different account is given
+       by the Christian chroniclers, who represent the Moslems as
+       only saved from a total overthrow by the approach of night.
+       It seems, in truth, to have been nearly a drawn battle, with
+       immense carnage on both sides; but the advantage was
+       decidedly with the Christians, who retained possession of
+       the field; while Al-mansur, weakened by the loss of great
+       numbers of his best men and officers, abandoned his camp,
+       and retreated the next day across the Douro. In all his
+       fifty-two campaigns he is said never before to have been
+       defeated; and the chagrin occasioned by this severe reverse,
+       joined to a malady under which he was previously suffering,
+       ended his life shortly after<a id="fn_3_tag22"
+       name="fn_3_tag22"></a><a href="#fn_3_22"><sup>22</sup></a>
+       at Medinah-Selim, (Medinaceli.) He was buried by his sons in
+       the same place; the dust which had adhered to his garments
+       in his campaigns against the Christians, and which had been
+       carefully preserved for the purpose, being placed in the
+       tomb with the corpse&mdash;a practice not unusual at the
+       funeral of a celebrated warrior. "This enlightened and
+       never-vanquished Hajib"&mdash;says Al-Makkali, with whom
+       Al-mansur is a favourite hero&mdash;"used continually to ask
+       God to permit him to die in his service and in war against
+       the infidels, and thus his desire was granted;... and after
+       his death, the Mohammedan empire in Andalus began to show
+       visible signs of decay."</p>
+
+    <p>Al-mansur had a worthy successor in his son Abdul-malek, who
+    at once received the appointment of Hajib from the passive
+    Khalif:&mdash;but on his death in 1008, the post was assumed by
+    his brother Abdurrahman, popularly known as Shanjul, a Berber
+    word signifying <i>madman</i>&mdash;a surname which he had
+    earned by his habits of low vice and intemperance. Scarcely had
+    he entered upon office, when, not contented with exercising
+    sovereign authority, like his father and brother, under an
+    appearance of delegation from the Khalif, he persuaded or
+    compelled the feeble Hisham, who had no male issue, to appoint
+    him <i>Wali-al-ahd,</i> or heir-presumptive&mdash;the deed of
+    nomination is given at length by Al-Makkari, and is a curious
+    specimen of a state-paper. But this transfer was viewed with
+    deep indignation by the people of Cordova, who were warmly
+    attached to the line of their ancient princes; and their
+    discontent being fomented by the members of the Umeyyan family,
+    they rose in furious revolt during the absence of the Hajib on
+    the Galician frontiers, deposed Hisham, and raised to the
+    throne Mohammed-Al-muhdi, a great-grandson of Abdurrahman III.
+    Abdurrahman, returning in haste to quell the insurrection,
+    found himself deserted by his army, and was put to death with
+    most of his family and principal adherents; and the power of
+    the Amirites vanished in a day like the remembrance of dream.
+    But the sceptre which had thus been struck from their grasp,
+    found no other hand strong enough to seize it; and from the
+    first deposition of Hisham II. in 1009, to the final
+    dissolution of the monarchy on the abdication of Hisham III. in
+    1031, the whole of Moslem Spain presented a frightful scene of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page448"
+       id="page448"></a>[pg 448]</span> anarchy and civil war.
+       Besides the imbecile Hisham, who was at least once released
+       and restored to the throne, and was personated by more than
+       one pretender, the royal title was assumed, within twenty
+       years by not fewer than six princes of the house of Umeyyah,
+       and by three of a rival race&mdash;a branch of the Edrisites
+       called Beni-Hammud, who endeavoured in the general confusion
+       to assert their claims as descendants of the Khalif Ali. The
+       aid of the Christians was called in by more than one
+       faction; and Cordova was stormed and sacked after a long
+       siege in 1013, by the African troops who followed the
+       standard of Soliman Ab-muhdi, one of the Umeyyan
+       competitors. The palaces of Az-zahra and Az-zahirah were
+       utterly destroyed; the remains of Hakem's library, with the
+       treasures amassed by former sovereigns, were either
+       plundered or dispersed; nor did the ancient capital of
+       Audalus, no more the seat of the Khalifate, ever recover its
+       former grandeur. The provincial <i>walis</i>, many of whom
+       owed their appointments to the Hajibs of the house of Amir,
+       and were disaffected to the Beni-Umeyyah, every where threw
+       off their allegiance and assumed independence, till only the
+       districts in its immediate vicinity remained attached to
+       Cordova, which was still considered the seat of the
+       Mohammedan empire. The last Umeyyan prince who ruled there
+       was a grandson of the great Abdurrahman, named Hisham
+       Al-Mutadd; whom the inhabitants, after expelling the troops
+       of the Beni-Hammud in 1027, invited to ascend the throne of
+       his ancestors. "He was a mild and enlightened prince and
+       possessed many brilliant qualities; but notwithstanding
+       this, the volatile and degenerate citizens of Cordova grew
+       discontented with him, and he was deposed by the army in
+       422, (A.D. 1031.) He left the capital and retired to Lerida,
+       where he died in 428, (A.D. 1036.) He was the last member of
+       that illustrious dynasty which had ruled over Andalus and a
+       great portion of Africa for two hundred and eighty-four
+       years, counting from the accession of Abdurrahman I.,
+       surnamed Ab-dakhel, in 138, (A.D. 756.) There is no God but
+       God! He is the Almighty!"</p>
+
+    <p>The fall of the Umeyyan khalifate closes the first of the
+    two brilliant periods which illustrate the Arab history of
+    Spain. The uninterrupted hereditary succession for ten
+    generations, and the long average duration of the reign of each
+    monarch, from the arrival in Spain of Abdurrahman I. in 756, to
+    the death or disappearance of Hisham II. in 1009, are without a
+    parallel it any other Moslem dynasty, with the single exception
+    of the Ottoman line; and though, on pursuing the comparison,
+    the Umeyyan princes cannot vie with the last-named race in
+    extent of conquest and splendour of martial achievement, they
+    far surpass not only the Ottomans, but almost every sovereign
+    family in the annals of Islam, in the cultivation of kingly
+    virtues and arts of peace, and the refinement and love of
+    literature, which they introduced and fostered in their
+    dominions. During the greater part of their rule, the court of
+    Cordova was the most polished and enlightened in Europe removed
+    equally from the martial rudeness of those of the Frank
+    monarchs, and the punctilious attention to forms and jealous
+    etiquette, within which the Grcek emperors studiously
+    intrenched themselves. The useful arts, and in particular the
+    science of agriculture, necessary for the support of a dense
+    population, were cultivated to an extent of which no other
+    country afforded an example; and the commerce which filled the
+    ports of Spain, from all parts of Europe and the East, was the
+    natural result of the industry of her people. In how great a
+    degree the personal character of the Umeyyan sovereigns
+    contributed to this state of political and social prosperity,
+    is best proved by the rapid disruption and fall of the
+    monarchy, when it passed into the feeble hands of Hisham II.,
+    and by the history of the two following centuries of anarchy,
+    civil war, and foreign domination. But the sun of Andalusian
+    glory, which had attained its meridian splendour under the
+    Khalifs of Cordova, once more emerged before the close of its
+    course from the clouds and darkness which surrounded
+    it;&mdash;and its setting rays shone, with concentrated lustre,
+    over the kingdom of GRANADA.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_1"
+                    name="fn_3_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. By
+        AHMED IBN MOHAMMED AL-MAKKARI of Telemsan. Translated and
+        illustrated with Critical Notes by Pascual de Gayangos,
+        late Professor of Arabic in the Athen&aelig;um of
+        Madrid.&mdash;Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund. 2
+        vols. 4to. 1840-43.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_2"
+                    name="fn_3_2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag2">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The Almoravide and Almohade princes, who ruled both in
+        Spain and Africa, often inserted a clause in their treaties
+        with the Christians for the restoration of the libraries
+        captured in the towns taken from the Moslems; and Ibn
+        Khaldun mentions, that Yakob Al-mansor destined a college
+        at Fez for the reception of the books thus recovered.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_3"
+                    name="fn_3_3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag3">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>He is called by the Arabic writers Ludherik&mdash;a name
+        afterwards applied as a general designation to the kings of
+        Castile.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_4"
+                    name="fn_3_4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag4">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The translator adduces strong grounds for believing that
+        the battle was fought, not as usually held, in the plain of
+        Xeres, on the south bank of the Guadalete, but "nearer the
+        sea-shore, and not far from the town of
+        Medina-Sidonia."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_5"
+                    name="fn_3_5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag5">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>This is not mentioned by the authors from whom
+        Al-Makkari has drawn his materials, but is stated by
+        Professor de Gayangos on the authority of Ibn Khaldun.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_6"
+                    name="fn_3_6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag6">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>A story is here told of Musa's reaching some colossal
+        ruins, and a monument inscribed with Arabic characters
+        pointing out that place as the term of his
+        conquests&mdash;a legend which perhaps gave the hint for
+        one of the tales in the Thousand and One Nights, in which
+        he is sent on an expedition to the city of Brass on the
+        shores of the Western Ocean.&mdash;See Lane's translation,
+        chap. 21.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_7"
+                    name="fn_3_7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag7">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Cond&eacute;, and the writers who have followed him,
+        constantly speak of the Beni-Modhar as Egyptian&mdash;an
+        error owing to the neglect or omission of the point which
+        in Arabic orthography distinguishes <i>Modhar</i> from
+        <i>Missr</i>, (Egypt.)</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_8"
+                    name="fn_3_8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag8">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Burkhardt (Travels in Arabia, i. 303) says, that all the
+        golden ornaments which the Khalif Walid gave to the mosque
+        at Mekka, "were sent from Toledo in Spain, and carried upon
+        mules through Africa and Arabia."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_9"
+                    name="fn_3_9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag9">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The tribe of Fehr hold a conspicuous place in the
+        Spanish annals, and one of them was the leader of the last
+        attempt to shake off the yoke of Castile, after the capture
+        of Granada.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_10"
+                    name="fn_3_10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag10">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>It was by a body of exiles under Abu Hafss Omar, the
+        Apochapsus of the Greeks, (incorrectly called Abu
+        <i>Caab</i> by Gibbon,) driven from Cordova after one of
+        these insurrections, that Crete was conquered in 823.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_11"
+                    name="fn_3_11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag11">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>In this battle, according to the veracious Spanish
+        chroniclers, Santiago first appeared on his white horse in
+        the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e, fighting for the
+        Christians.&mdash;See the "Maiden Tribute," in Lockhart's
+        <i>Spanish Ballads</i>.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_12"
+                    name="fn_3_12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag12">(return)</a>
+
+        <p><i>Majus</i>&mdash;Magians or fire worshippers, is the
+        term invariably applied to these fierce Pagans by the
+        Arabic historians, apparently by a negative induction from
+        their being neither Moslems, Jews, nor Christians.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_13"
+                    name="fn_3_13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag13">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>No fewer than twenty-seven insurgent leaders, in the
+        reign of Abdullah alone, are enumerated in the translator's
+        notes from Ibn Hayyan.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_14"
+                    name="fn_3_14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag14">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The epithet of <i>kelb</i>, "dog," frequently applied to
+        this leader, has led Cond&eacute; into the strange error of
+        creating for him a son, whom he calls <i>Kalib</i> Ibun
+        Hafssun. The term <i>Muwallad</i> is said to be the origin
+        of <i>mulatto</i>.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_15"
+                    name="fn_3_15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag15">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>We do not find this division mentioned by the authors
+        cited by Al-Makkari; but it is stated by Cond&eacute;, and
+        appears to have prevailed as long as the kingdom retained
+        its unity. The six provincial capitals were Saragossa,
+        Toledo, Merida, Valencia, Murcia, and Granada. Shortly
+        before the arrival of Abdurrahman, Yusuf Al-Fehri had
+        organized <i>five</i> great governments, one of which
+        comprised Narbonne and the Trans-Pyrenean conquests.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_16"
+                    name="fn_3_16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag16">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Under the Arab dynasties of the east, the <i>vizir</i>
+        was exclusively an officer <i>of the pen</i>: and Makrizi
+        expressly mentions that Bedr-al-Jemali, who became vizir to
+        the Fatimite khalif Al-Mostanssor in 1074, was the first in
+        whom <i>the sword and the pen</i> were united.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_17"
+                    name="fn_3_17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag17">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>See Sale's Koran. Preliminary Discourse. Sect. 8.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_18"
+                    name="fn_3_18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag18">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, i. 351.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_19"
+                    name="fn_3_19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag19">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Eighty free schools are said by other authorities to
+        have existed or been founded during this reign in Cordova;
+        the number of dwelling-houses in which at the same time,
+        great and small, is stated at 200,000.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_20"
+                    name="fn_3_20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag20">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Some historians even speak of this period as the
+        "dynasty of the Amirites," from Al-mansur's father, Abn
+        Amir.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_21"
+                    name="fn_3_21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag21">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The precise locality of this famous battle is not very
+        clearly ascertained; but Cond&eacute; places it betveen
+        Soria and Medinaceli.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_3_22"
+                    name="fn_3_22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_3_tag22">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The battle is placed by the Christian writers in 998;
+        but the death of Al-mansur, which both Christians and
+        Moslems agree in stating to have taken place within a very
+        short time, is said by the latter to have been A.M. 392,
+        A.D. 1002.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page449"
+       id="page449"></a>[pg 449]</span> <a name="mexico"
+          id="mexico"></a>
+
+    <h2>TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.</h2>
+
+    <h3>A FRAGMENT FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.</h3>
+
+    <p>"A capital place this for our bivouac!" cried I, swinging
+    myself off my mule, and stretching my arms and legs, which were
+    stiffened by a long ride.</p>
+
+    <p>It <i>was</i> a fairish place, to all appearances&mdash;a
+    snug ravine, well shaded by mahogany-trees, the ground covered
+    with the luxuriant vegetation of that tropical region, a little
+    stream bubbling and leaping and dashing down one of the high
+    rocks that flanked the hollow, and rippling away through the
+    tall fern towards the rear of the spot where we had halted, at
+    the distance of a hundred yards from which the ground was low
+    and shelving.</p>
+
+    <p>"A capital place this for our bivouac!"</p>
+
+    <p>My companion nodded. As to our lazy Mexican <i>arrieros</i>
+    and servants, they said nothing, but began making arrangements
+    for passing the night. Curse the fellows! If they had seen us
+    preparing to lie down in a swamp, cheek by jowl with an
+    alligator, I believe they would not have offered a word of
+    remonstrance. Those Mexican half-breeds, half Indian half
+    Spaniard, with sometimes a dash of the Negro, are themselves so
+    little pervious to the dangers and evils of their soil and
+    climate, that they never seem to remember that Yankee flesh and
+    blood may be rather more susceptible; that
+    niguas<a id="fn_4_tag1"
+       name="fn_4_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_4_1"><sup>1</sup></a> and
+       musquittoes, and <i>vomito prieto</i>, as they call their
+       infernal fever, are no trifles to encounter; without
+       mentioning the snakes, and scorpions, and alligators, and
+       other creatures of the kind, which infest their strange,
+       wild, unnatural, and yet beautiful country.</p>
+
+    <p>I had come to Mexico in company with Jonathan Rowley, a
+    youth of Virginian raising, six and twenty years of age, six
+    feet two in his stockings, with the limbs of a Hercules and
+    shoulders like the side of a house. It was towards the close of
+    1824; and the recent emancipation of Mexico from the Spanish
+    yoke, and its self-formation into a republic, had given it a
+    new and strong interest to us Americans. We had been told much,
+    too, of the beauty of the country&mdash;but in this we were at
+    first rather disappointed; and we reached the capital without
+    having seen any thing, except some parts of the province of
+    Vera Cruz, that could justify the extravagant encomiums we had
+    heard bestowed in the States upon the splendid scenery of
+    Mexico. We had not, however, to go far southward from the chief
+    city, before the character of the country altered, and became
+    such as to satisfy our most sanguine expectations. Forests of
+    palms, of oranges, citrons, and bananas, filled the valleys:
+    the marshes and low grounds were crowded with mahogany-trees,
+    and with immense fern plants, in height equal to trees. All
+    nature was on a gigantic scale&mdash;the mountains of an
+    enormous height, the face of the country seamed and split by
+    <i>barrancas</i> or ravines, hundreds, ay, thousands of feet
+    deep, and filled with the most abundant and varied vegetation.
+    The sky, too, was of the deep glowing blue of the tropics, the
+    sort of blue which seems varnished or clouded with gold. But
+    this ardent climate and teeming soil are not without their
+    disadvantages. Vermin and reptiles of all kinds, and the deadly
+    fever of these latitudes, render the low lands uninhabitable
+    for eight months out of the twelve. At the same time there are
+    large districts which are comparatively free
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page450"
+       id="page450"></a>[pg 450]</span> from these
+       plagues&mdash;perfect gardens of Eden, of such extreme
+       beauty that the mere act of living and breathing amongst
+       their enchanting scenes, becomes a positive and real
+       enjoyment. The heart seems to leap with delight, and the
+       soul to be elevated, by the contemplation of those regions
+       of fairy-like magnificence.</p>
+
+    <p>The most celebrated among these favoured provinces is the
+    valley of Oaxaca, in which two mountainous districts, the
+    Mistecca and Tzapoteca, bear off the palm of beauty. It was
+    through this immense valley, nearly three hundred leagues in
+    length, and surrounded by the highest mountains in Mexico, that
+    we were now journeying. The kind attention of our
+    charg&eacute;-d'affaires at the Mexican capital, had procured
+    us every possible facility in travelling through a country, of
+    which the soil was at that time rarely trodden by any but
+    native feet. We had numerous letters to the alcaldes and
+    authorities of the towns and villages which are sparingly
+    sprinkled over the southern provinces of Mexico; we were to
+    have escorts when necessary; every assistance, protection, and
+    facility, were to be afforded us. But as neither the
+    authorities nor his excellency, Uncle Sam's envoy, could make
+    inns and houses where none existed, it followed that we were
+    often obliged to sleep <i>&agrave; la belle &eacute;toile</i>,
+    with the sky for a covering. And a right splendid roof it was
+    to our bedchamber, that tropical sky, with its constellations,
+    all new to us northerns, and every star magnified by the effect
+    of the atmosphere to an incredible size. Mars and Saturn, Venus
+    and Jupiter, had all disappeared; the great and little Bear
+    were still to be seen; in the far distance the ship Argo and
+    the glowing Centaur; and, beautiful above all, the glorious
+    sign of Christianity the colossal Southern Cross, in all its
+    brightness and sublimity, glittering in silvery magnificence
+    out of its setting of dark blue crystal.</p>
+
+    <p>We were travelling with a state and a degree of luxury that
+    would have excited the contempt of our backwoodsmen; but in a
+    strange country we thought it best to do as the natives did;
+    and accordingly, instead of mounting our horses and setting
+    forth alone, with our rifles slung over our shoulders, and a
+    few handfuls of parched corn and dried flesh in our hunting
+    pouches, we journeyed Mexican fashion, with a whole string of
+    mules, a <i>topith</i> or guide, a couple of <i>arrieros</i> or
+    muleteers, a cook, and one or two other attendants. While the
+    latter were slinging our hammocks to the lowermost branches of
+    a tree&mdash;for in that part of Mexico it is not very safe to
+    sleep upon the ground, on account of the snakes and
+    vermin&mdash;our <i>cocinero</i> lit a fire against the rock,
+    and in a very few minutes an iguana which we had shot that day
+    was spitted and roasting before it. It looked strange to see
+    this hideous creature, in shape between a lizard and a dragon,
+    twisting and turning in the light of the fire; and its
+    disgusting appearance might have taken away some people's
+    appetites; but we knew by experience that there is no better
+    eating than a roasted iguana. We made a hearty meal off this
+    one, concluding it with a pull at the rum flask, and then
+    clambered into our hammocks; the Mexicans stretched themselves
+    on the ground with their heads upon the saddles of the mules,
+    and both masters and men were soon asleep.</p>
+
+    <p>It was somewhere about midnight when I was awakened by an
+    indescribable sensation of oppression from the surrounding
+    atmosphere. The air seemed to be no longer air, but some
+    poisonous exhalation that had suddenly arisen and enveloped us.
+    From the rear of the ravine in which we lay, billows of dark
+    mephitic mist were rolling forward, surrounding us with their
+    baleful influence. It was the <i>vomito prieto</i>, the fever
+    itself, embodied in the shape of a fog. At the same moment, and
+    while I was gasping for breath, a sort of cloud seemed to
+    settle upon me, and a thousand stings, like redhot needles,
+    were run into my hands, face, neck&mdash;into every part of my
+    limbs and body that was not triply guarded by clothing. I
+    instinctively stretched forth my hands and closed them,
+    clutching by the action hundreds of enormous musquittoes, whose
+    droning, singing noise how almost deafened me. The air was
+    literally filled by a dense swarm of these insects; and the
+    agony caused <span class="pagenum"><a name="page451"
+       id="page451"></a>[pg 451]</span> by their repeated and
+       venomous stings was indescribable. It was a perfect plague
+       of Egypt.</p>
+
+    <p>Rowley, whose hammock was slung some ten yards from mine,
+    soon gave tongue: I heard him kicking and plunging, spluttering
+    and swearing, with a vigour and energy that would have been
+    ludicrous under any other circumstances; but matters were just
+    then too serious for a laugh. With the torture, for such it
+    was, of the musquitto bites, and the effect of the insidious
+    and poisonous vapours that were each moment thickening around
+    me, I was already in a high state of fever, alternately glowing
+    with heat and shivering with cold, my tongue parched, my
+    eyelids throbbing, my brain seemingly on fire.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a heavy thump upon the ground. It was Rowley
+    jumping out of his hammock. "Damnation" roared he, "Where are
+    we? On the earth, or under the earth?&mdash;We must be&mdash;we
+    are&mdash;in their Mexican purgatory. We are, or there's no
+    snakes in Virginny. Hallo, arrieros! Pablo! Matteo!"</p>
+
+    <p>At that moment a scream&mdash;but a scream of such terror
+    and anguish as I never heard before or since&mdash;a scream as
+    of women in their hour of agony and extreme peril, sounded
+    within a few paces of us. I sprang out of my hammock; and as I
+    did so, two white and graceful female figures darted or rather
+    flew by me, shrieking&mdash;and oh! in what heart-rending
+    tones&mdash;for "<i>Socorro! Socorro! Por Dios</i>! Help!
+    Help!" Close upon the heels of the fugitives, bounding and
+    leaping along with enormous strides and springs, came three or
+    four dark objects which resembled nothing earthly. The human
+    form they certainly possessed; but so hideous and horrible, so
+    unnatural and spectre-like was their aspect, that their sudden
+    encounter in that gloomy ravine, and in the almost darkness
+    that surrounded us, might well have shaken the strongest
+    nerves. We stood for a second, Rowley and myself, paralysed
+    with astonishment at these strange appearances; but another
+    piercing scream restored to us our presence of mind. One of the
+    women had either tripped or fallen from fatigue, and she lay a
+    white heap, upon the ground. The drapery of the other was in
+    the clutch of one of the spectres, or devils, or whatever they
+    were, when Rowley, with a cry of horror, rushed forward and
+    struck a furious blow at the monster with his <i>machetto</i>.
+    At the same time, and almost without knowing how, I found
+    myself engaged with another of the creatures. But the contest
+    was no equal one. In vain did we stab and strike with our
+    machettos; our antagonists were covered and defended with a
+    hard bristly hide, which our knives, although keen and pointed,
+    had great difficulty in penetrating; and on the other hand we
+    found ourselves clutched in long sinewy arms, terminating in
+    hands and fingers, of which the nails were as sharp and strong
+    as an eagle's talons. I felt these horrible claws strike into
+    my shoulders as the creature seized me, and, drawing me towards
+    him, pressed me as in the hug of a bear; while his hideous half
+    man half brute visage was grinning and snarling at me, and his
+    long keen white teeth were snapping and gnashing within six
+    inches of my face.</p>
+
+    <p>"God of heaven! This is horrible! Rowley! Help me!"</p>
+
+    <p>But Rowley, in spite of his gigantic strength, was powerless
+    as an infant in the grasp of these terrible opponents. He was
+    within a few paces of me, struggling with two of them, and
+    making superhuman efforts to regain possession of his knife,
+    which had dropped or been wrenched from his hand. And all this
+    time, where were our arrieros? Were they attacked likewise? Why
+    didn't they come and help us? All this time!&mdash;pshaw! it
+    was no time: it all passed in the space of a few seconds, in
+    the circumference of a few yards, and in the feeble glimmering
+    light of the stars, and of the smouldering embers of our fire,
+    which was at some distance from us.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha! That has told!" A stab, dealt with all the energy of
+    despair, had entered my antagonist's side. But I was like to
+    pay dearly for it. Uttering a deafening yell of pain and fury,
+    the monster clasped me closer to his foul and loathsome body;
+    his sharp claws, dug deeper into my back, seemed to tear up my
+    flesh: the agony was <span class="pagenum"><a name="page452"
+       id="page452"></a>[pg 452]</span> insupportable&mdash;my eyes
+       began to swim, and my senses to leave me. Just
+       then&mdash;Crack! crack! Two&mdash;four&mdash;a dozen musket
+       and pistol shots, followed by such a chorus of yellings and
+       howlings and unearthly laughter! The creature that held me
+       seemed startled&mdash;relaxed his grasp slightly. At that
+       moment a dark arm was passed before my face, there was a
+       blinding flash, a yell, and I fell to the ground released
+       from the clutch of my opponent. I remember nothing more.
+       Overcome by pain, fatigue, terror, and the noxious vapors of
+       that vile ravine, my senses abandoned me, and I swooned
+       away.</p>
+
+    <p>When consciousness returned, I found myself lying upon some
+    blankets, under a sort of arbour of foliage and flowers. It was
+    broad day; the sun shone brightly, the blossoms smelled sweet,
+    the gay-plumaged hummingbirds were darting and shooting about
+    in the sunbeams like so many animated fragments of a prism. A
+    Mexican Indian, standing beside my couch, and whose face was
+    unknown to me, held out a cocoa-nutshell containing some
+    liquid, which I eagerly seized, and drank off the contents. The
+    draught (it was a mixture of citron juice and water) revived me
+    greatly; and raising myself on my elbow, although with much
+    pain and difficulty, I looked around, and beheld a scene of
+    bustle and life which to me was quite unintelligible. Upon the
+    shelving hillside on which I was lying, a sort of encampment
+    was established. A number of mules and horses were wandering
+    about at liberty, or fastened to trees and bushes, and eating
+    the forage that had been collected and laid before them. Some
+    were provided with handsome and commodious saddles, while
+    others had pack-saddles, intended apparently for the conveyance
+    of numerous sacks, cases, and wallets, that were scattered
+    about on the ground. Several muskets and rifles were leaning
+    here and there against the trees; and a dozen or fifteen men
+    were occupied in various ways&mdash;some filling up saddle-bags
+    or fastening luggage on the mules, others lying on the ground
+    smoking, one party surrounding a fire at which cooking was
+    going on. At a short distance from my bed was another similarly
+    composed couch, occupied by a man muffled up in blankets, and
+    having his back turned towards me, so that I was unable to
+    obtain a view of his features.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is all this? Where am I? Where is Rowley&mdash;our
+    guide&mdash;where are they all?"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Non entiendo</i>," answered my brown-visaged Ganymede,
+    shaking his head, and with a good-humoured smile.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Adonde estamos?</i>"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>In el valle de Chihuatan, in el gran valle de Oaxaca y
+    Guatimala; diez leguas de Tarifa</i>. In the valley of
+    Chihuatan; ten leagues from Tarifa."</p>
+
+    <p>The figure lying on the bed near me now made a movement, and
+    turned round. What could it be? Its face was like a lump of raw
+    flesh streaked and stained with blood. No features were
+    distinguishable.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who are you? What are you?" cried I.</p>
+
+    <p>"Rowley," it answered: "Rowley I was, at least, if those
+    devils haven't changed me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then changed you they have," cried I, with a wild laugh.
+    "Good God! have they scalped him alive, or what? That is not
+    Rowley."</p>
+
+    <p>The Mexican, who had gone to give some drink to the creature
+    claiming to be Rowley, now opened a valise that lay on the
+    ground a short distance off, and took out a small
+    looking-glass, which he brought and held before my face. It was
+    then only that I began to call to mind all that had occurred,
+    and understood how it was that the mask of human flesh lying
+    near me might indeed be Rowley. He was, if any thing, less
+    altered than myself. My eyes were almost closed; my lips, nose,
+    and whole face swollen to an immense size, and perfectly
+    unrecognisable. I involuntarily recoiled in dismay and disgust
+    at my own appearance. The horrible night passed in the ravine,
+    the foul and suffocating vapours, the furious attack of the
+    musquittoes&mdash;the bites of which, and the consequent fever
+    and inflammation, had thus disfigured us&mdash;all recurred to
+    our memory. But the women, the fight with the
+    monsters&mdash;beasts&mdash;Indians&mdash;whatever they were,
+    that was still incomprehensible. It was no dream: my back and
+    shoulders were still smarting from the wounds that had been
+    inflicted on them by the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page453"
+       id="page453"></a>[pg 453]</span> claws of those creatures,
+       and I now felt that various parts of my limbs and body were
+       swathed in wet bandages. I was mustering my Spanish to ask
+       the Mexican who still stood by me for an explanation of all
+       this, when I suddenly became aware of a great bustle in the
+       encampment, and saw every body crowding to meet a number of
+       persons who just then emerged from the high fern, and
+       amongst whom I recognized our arrieros and servants. The
+       new-comers were grouped around something which they seemed
+       to be dragging along the ground; several women&mdash;for the
+       most part young and graceful creatures, their slender supple
+       forms muffled in the flowing picturesque <i>reboxos</i> and
+       <i>frazadas</i>&mdash;preceded the party, looking back
+       occasionally with an expression of mingled horror and
+       triumph; all with rosaries in their hands, the beads of
+       which ran rapidly through their fingers, while they
+       occasionally kissed the cross, or made the sign on their
+       breasts or in the air.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Un Zambo muerto! Un Zambo Muerto!</i>" shouted they as
+    they drew near.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Han matado un Zambo!</i> They have killed a Zambo!"
+    repeated my attendant in a tone of exultation.</p>
+
+    <p>The party came close up to where Rowley and I were lying;
+    the women stood aside, jumping and laughing, and crossing
+    themselves, and crying out "<i>Un Zambo! Un Zambo Muerto!</i>"
+    the group opened, and we saw, lying dead upon the ground, one
+    of our horrible antagonists of the preceding night.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God, what is that?" cried Rowley and I, with one
+    breath. "<i>Un demonio!</i> a devil!"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Perdonen vos, Senores&mdash;Un Zambo mono&mdash;muy
+    terribles los Zambos.</i> Terrible monkeys these Zambos."</p>
+
+    <p>"Monkeys!" cried I.</p>
+
+    <p>"Monkeys!" repeated poor Rowley, raising himself up into a
+    sitting posture by the help of his hands.
+    "Monkeys&mdash;apes&mdash;by Jove! We've been fighting with
+    monkeys, and it's they who have mauled us in this way. Well,
+    Jonathan Rowley, think of your coming from old Virginny to
+    Mexico to be whipped by a monkey. It's gone goose with
+    <i>your</i> character. You can never show your face in the
+    States again. Whipped by an ape!&mdash;an ape, with a tail and
+    a hairy&mdash;O Lord! Whipped by a monkey!"</p>
+
+    <p>And the ludicrousness of the notion overcoming his
+    mortification, and the pain of his wounds and bites, he sank
+    back upon the bed of blankets and banana leaves, laughing as
+    well as his swollen face and sausage-looking lips would allow
+    him.</p>
+
+    <p>It was as much as I could do to persuade myself, that the
+    carcass lying before me had never been inhabited by a human
+    soul. It was humiliating to behold the close affinity between
+    this huge ape and our own species. Had it not been for the
+    tail, I could have fancied I saw the dead body of some prairie
+    hunter dressed in skins. It was exactly like a powerful,
+    well-grown man; and even the expression of the face had more of
+    bad human passions than of animal instinct. The feet and thighs
+    were those of a muscular man: the legs rather too curved and
+    calfless, though I have seen Negroes who had scarcely better
+    ones; the tendons of the hands stood out like whipcords; the
+    nails were as long as a tiger's claws. No wonder that we had
+    been overmatched in our struggle with the brutes. No man could
+    have withstood them. The arms of this one were like packets of
+    cordage, all muscle, nerve, and sinew; and the hands were
+    clasped together with such force, that the efforts of eight or
+    ten Mexicans and Indians were insufficient to disunite
+    them.</p>
+
+    <p>Whatever remained to be cleared up in our night's adventures
+    was now soon explained. Our guide, through ignorance or
+    thoughtlessness, had allowed us to take up our bivouac within a
+    very unsafe distance of one of the most pestiferous swamps in
+    the whole province. Shortly after we had fallen asleep, a party
+    of Mexican travellers had arrived, and established themselves
+    within a few hundred yards of us, but on a rising ground, where
+    they avoided the mephitic vapours and the musquittoes which had
+    so tortured Rowley and myself. In the night two of the women,
+    having ventured a short distance from the encampment, were
+    surprised by the zambos, or huge man-apes, common in some parts
+    of Southern <span class="pagenum"><a name="page454"
+       id="page454"></a>[pg 454]</span> Mexico; and finding
+       themselves cut off from their friends, had fled they knew
+       not whither, fortunately for them taking the direction of
+       our bivouac. Their screams, our shouts, and the yellings and
+       diabolical laughter of the zambos, had brought the Mexicans
+       to our assistance. The monkeys showed no fight after the
+       first volley; several of then must have been wounded, but
+       only the one now lying before us had remained upon the
+       field.</p>
+
+    <p>The Mexicans we had fallen amongst were on the Tzapoteca,
+    principally cochineal gatherers, and kinder-hearted people
+    there could not well be. They seemed to think they never could
+    do enough for us; the women especially, and more particularly
+    the two whom we had endeavoured to rescue from the power of the
+    apes. These latter certainly had cause to be grateful. It made
+    us shudder to think of their fate had they not met with us. It
+    was the delay caused by our attacking the brutes that had given
+    the Mexicans time to come up.</p>
+
+    <p>Every attention was shown to us. We were fanned with palm
+    leaves, refreshed with cooling drinks, our wounds carefully
+    dressed and bandaged, our heated, irritated, musquitto-bitten
+    limbs and faces washed with balsam and the juice of herbs: more
+    tender and careful nurses it would be impossible to find. We
+    soon began to feel better, and were able to sit up and look
+    about us; carefully avoiding, however, to look at each other,
+    for we could not get reconciled to the horrible appearance of
+    our swollen, bloody, and disgusting features. From our position
+    on the rising ground, we had a full view over the frightful
+    swamp at the entrance of which all our misfortunes had
+    happened. There it lay, steaming like a great kettle; endless
+    mists rising from it, out of which appeared here and there the
+    crown of some mighty tree towering above the banks of vapour.
+    To the left, cliffs and crags were to be seen which had the
+    appearance of being baseless, and of swimming on the top of the
+    mist. The vultures and carrion-birds circled screaming above
+    the huge caldron, or perched on the tops of the tall palms,
+    which looked like enormous umbrellas, or like the roofs of
+    Chinese summer-houses. Out of the swamp itself proceeded the
+    yellings, snarlings, and growlings of the alligators,
+    bull-frogs, and myriads of unclean beasts that it
+    harboured.</p>
+
+    <p>The air was unusually sultry and oppressive: from time to
+    time the rolling of distant thunder was audible. We could hear
+    the Mexicans consulting amongst themselves as to the propriety
+    of continuing their journey, to which our suffering state
+    seemed to be the chief obstacle. From what we could collect of
+    their discourse, they were unwilling to leave us in this
+    dangerous district, and in our helpless condition, with a guide
+    and attendants who were either untrustworthy or totally
+    incompetent to lead us aright. Yet there seemed to be some
+    pressing necessity for continuing the march; and presently some
+    of the older Mexicans, who appeared to have the direction of
+    the caravan, came up to us and enquired how we felt, and if we
+    thought we were able to travel; adding, that from the signs on
+    the earth and in the air, they feared a storm, and that the
+    nearest habitation or shelter was at many leagues' distance.
+    Thanks to the remedies that had been applied, our sufferings
+    were much diminished. We felt weak and hungry, and telling the
+    Mexicans we should be ready to proceed in half an hour, we
+    desired our servants to get us something to eat. But our new
+    friends forestalled them, and brought us a large piece of
+    iguana, with roasted bananas, and cocoa-nutshell cups full of
+    coffee, to all of which Rowley and I applied ourselves with
+    much gusto. Meanwhile our muleteers and the Tzapotecans were
+    busy packing their beasts and making ready for the start.</p>
+
+    <p>We had not eaten a dozen mouthfuls when we say a man running
+    down the hill with a branch in each hand. As soon as he
+    appeared, a number of the Mexicans left their occupations and
+    hurried to meet him.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Siete horas!</i>" shouted the man. "Seven hours, and no
+    more!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No more than seven hours!" echoed the Tzapotecans, in tones
+    of the wildest terror and alarm. "<i>La Santissima nos
+    guarde!</i> It will take more than ten to reach the
+    village."</p>
+
+    <p>"What's all that about?" said I with my mouth full, to
+    Rowley.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page455"
+       id="page455"></a>[pg 455]</span>
+
+    <p>"Don't know&mdash;some of their Indian tricks, I
+    suppose."</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Que es esto</i>?" asked I carelessly. "What's the
+    matter?"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Que es esto</i>!" repeated an old Tzapotecan, with long
+    grey hair curling from under his <i>sombrero</i>, and a
+    withered but finely marked countenance. "<i>Las aguas! El
+    ouracan!</i> In seven hours the deluge and the hurricane!"</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos, por la Santissima!</i> For the blessed Virgin's
+    sake let us be gone!" cried a dozen of the Mexicans, pushing
+    two green boughs into our very faces.</p>
+
+    <p>"What are those branches?"</p>
+
+    <p>"From the tempest-tree&mdash;the prophet of the storm," was
+    the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>And Tzapotecans and women, arrieros and servants, ran about
+    in the utmost terror and confusion, with cries of "<i>Vamos,
+    paso redoblado</i>! Off with us, or we are all lost, man and
+    beast," and saddling, packing, and scrambling on their mules.
+    And before Rowley and I knew where we were, they tore us away
+    from our iguana and coffee, and hoisted and pushed us into our
+    saddles. Such a scene of bustle and desperate hurry I never
+    beheld. The place where the encampment had been was alive with
+    men and women, horses and mules, shouting, shrieking and
+    talking, neighing and kicking; but with all the confusion there
+    was little time lost, and in less than three minutes from the
+    first alarm being given, we were scampering away over stock and
+    stone, in a long, wild, irregular sort of train.</p>
+
+    <p>The rapidity and excitement of our ride seemed to have the
+    effect of calming our various sufferings, or of making us
+    forget them; and we soon thought no more of the fever, or of
+    stings or musquitto bites. It was a ride for life or death, and
+    our horses stepped out as if they knew how much depended on
+    their exertions.</p>
+
+    <p>In the hurry and confusion we had been mounted on horses
+    instead of our our own mules; and splendid animals they were. I
+    doubt if our Virginians could beat them, and that is saying a
+    great deal. There was no effort or straining in their
+    movements; it seemed mere play to them to surmount the numerous
+    difficulties we encountered on our road. Over mountain and
+    valley, swamp and barranca, always the same steady
+    surefootedness&mdash;crawling like cats over the soft places,
+    gliding like snakes up the steep rocky ascents, and stretching
+    out with prodigious energy when the ground was favourable; yet
+    with such easy action that we scarcely felt the motion. We
+    should have sat in the roomy Spanish saddles as comfortably as
+    in arm-chairs, had it not been for the numerous obstacles in
+    our path, which was strewed with fallen trees and masses of
+    rock. We were obliged to be perpetually stooping and bowing our
+    heads to avoid the creeping plants that swung and twined and
+    twisted across the track, intermingled often with huge thorns
+    as long as a man's arm. These latter stuck out from the trees
+    on which they grew like so many brown bayonets; and a man who
+    had run up against one of them, would have been transfixed by
+    it as surely as though it had been of steel. We pushed on,
+    however, in Indian file, following the two guides, who kept at
+    the head of the party, and making our way through places where
+    a wild-cat would have difficulty in passing; through thickets
+    of mangroves, mimosas, and tall fern, and cactuses with their
+    thorny leaves full twenty feet long; the path turning and
+    winding all the while. Now and then a momentary improvement in
+    the nature of the ground enabled us to catch a glimpse of the
+    whole column of march. We were struck by its picturesque
+    appearance, the guides in front acting as pioneers, and looking
+    out on all sides as cautiously and anxiously as though they had
+    been soldiers expecting an ambuscade; the graceful forms of the
+    women bowing and bending over their horses' manes, and often
+    leaving fragments of their mantillas and rebozas on the
+    branches and thorns of the labyrinth through which we were
+    struggling. But it was no time to indulge in contemplation of
+    the picturesque, and of this we were constantly made aware by
+    the anxious vociferations of the Mexicans. "<i>Vamos! Por Dios,
+    vamos!</i>" cried they, if the slightest symptom of flagging
+    became visible in the movements of any one of the party; and at
+    the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page456"
+       id="page456"></a>[pg 456]</span> words, our horses, as
+       though gifted with understanding, pushed forward with
+       renewed vigour and alacrity.</p>
+
+    <p>On we went&mdash;up hill and down, in the depths of the
+    valley and over the soft fetid swamp. That valley of Oaxaca has
+    just as much right to be called a valley as our Alleghanies
+    would have to be called bottoms. In the States we should call
+    it a chain of mountains. Out of it rise at every step hills a
+    good two thousand feet above the level of the valley, and four
+    or five thousand above that of the sea; but these are lost
+    sight of, and become flat ground by the force of comparison;
+    that is, when compared with the gigantic mountains that
+    surround the valley on all sides like a frame. And what a
+    splendid frame they do compose, those colossal mountains, in
+    their rich variety of form and colouring! here shining out like
+    molten gold, there changing to a dark bronze; covered lower
+    down with various shades of green, and with the crimson and
+    purple, and violet and bright yellow, and azure and dazzling
+    white, of the millions of paulinias and convolvoluses and other
+    flowering plants, from amongst which rise the stately
+    palm-trees, full a hundred feet high, their majestic green
+    turbans towering like sultans' heads above the luxuriance of
+    the surrounding flower and vegetable world. Then the
+    mahogany-trees, the chicozapotes, and again in the barrancas
+    the candelabra-like cactuses, and higher up the knotted and
+    majestic live oak. An incessant change of plants, trees, and
+    climate. We had been five hours in the saddle, and had already
+    changed our climate three times; passed from the temperate
+    zone, the <i>tierra templada</i>, into the torrid heat of the
+    <i>tierra muy caliente</i>. It was in the latter temperature
+    that we found ourselves at the expiration of the above-named
+    time, dripping with perspiration, roasting and stewing in the
+    heat. We were surrounded by a new world of plants and animals.
+    The borax and mangroves and fern were here as lofty as
+    forest-trees, whilst the trees themselves shot up like church
+    steeples. In the thickets around us were numbers of black
+    tigers&mdash;we saw dozens of those cowardly sneaking
+    beasts&mdash;iguanas full three feet long, squirrels double the
+    size of any we had ever seen, and panthers, and wild pigs, and
+    jackals, and apes and monkeys of every tribe and description,
+    who threatened and grinned and chattered at us from the
+    branches of the trees. But what is that yonder to the right,
+    that stands out so white against the dark blue sky and the
+    bronze-coloured rocks? A town&mdash;Quidricovi, d'ye call
+    it?</p>
+
+    <p>We had now ridden a good five or six leagues, and begun to
+    think we had escaped the <i>aguas</i> or deluge, of which the
+    prospect had so terrified our friends the Tzapotecans. Rowley
+    calculated, as he went puffing and grumbling along, that it
+    wouldn't do any harm to let our beasts draw breath for a minute
+    or two. The scrambling and constant change of pace rendered
+    necessary by the nature of the road, or rather track, that we
+    followed, was certainly dreadfully fatiguing both to man and
+    beast. As for conversation it was out of the question. We had
+    plenty to do to avoid getting our necks broken, or our teeth
+    knocked out, as we struggled along, up and down barrancas,
+    through marshes and thickets, over rocks and fallen trees, and
+    through mimosas and bushes laced and twined together with
+    thorns and creeping plants&mdash;all of which would have been
+    beautiful in a picture, but was most infernally unpoetical in
+    reality.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos! Por la Santissima Madre, vamos!</i>" yelled our
+    guides, and the cry was taken up by the Mexicans, in a shrill
+    wild tone that jarred strangely upon our ears, and made the
+    horses start and strain forward. Hurra! on we go, through
+    thorns and bushes, which scratch and flog us, and tear our
+    clothes to rags. We shall be naked if this lasts long. It is a
+    regular race. In front the two guides, stooping, nodding,
+    bowing, crouching down, first to one side, then to the other,
+    like a couple of mandarins or Indian idols&mdash;behind them a
+    Tzapotecan in his picturesque capa, then the women, then more
+    Tzapotecans. There is little thought about precedence or
+    ceremony; and Rowley and I, having been in the least hurry to
+    start, find ourselves bringing up the rear of the whole
+    column.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page457"
+       id="page457"></a>[pg 457]</span>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos! Por la Santissima! Las aguas, las aguas!</i>" is
+    again yelled by twenty voices. Hang the fools! Can't they be
+    quiet with their eternal <i>vamos</i>? We can have barely two
+    leagues more to go to reach the <i>rancho</i>, or village, they
+    were talking of, and appearances are not as yet very alarming.
+    It is getting rather thick to be sure; but that's nothing, only
+    the exhalations from the swamp, for we are again approaching
+    one of those cursed swamps, and can hear the music of the
+    alligators and bullfrogs. There they are, the beauties; a
+    couple of them are taking a peep at us, sticking their elegant
+    heads and long delicate snouts out of the slime and mud. The
+    neighbourhood is none of the best; but luckily the path is firm
+    and good, carefully made, evidently by Indian hands. None but
+    Indians could live and labour and travel habitually, in such a
+    pestilential atmosphere. Thank God! we are out of it at last.
+    Again on firm forest ground, amidst the magnificent monotony of
+    the eternal palms and mahogany-trees. But&mdash;see there!</p>
+
+    <p>A new and surpassingly beautiful landscape burst suddenly
+    upon our view, seeming to dance in the transparent atmosphere.
+    On either side mountains, those on the left in deep shadow,
+    those on the right standing forth like colossal figures of
+    light, in a beauty and splendour that seemed really
+    supernatural, every tree, every branch shining in its own vivid
+    and glorious colouring. There lay the valley in its tropical
+    luxuriance and beauty, one sheet of bloom and blossom up to the
+    topmost crown of the palm-trees, that shot up, some of them, a
+    hundred and fifty and a hundred and eighty feet high. Thousands
+    and millions of convolvoluses, paulinias, bignonias,
+    dendrobiums, climbing from the fern to the tree trunks, from
+    the trunks to the branches and summits of the trees, and thence
+    again falling gracefully down, and catching and clinging to the
+    mangroves and blocks of granite. It burst upon us like a scene
+    of enchantment, as we emerged from the darkness of the forest
+    into the dazzling light and colouring of that glorious
+    valley.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Misericordia, misericordia! Audi nos peccadores!
+    Misericordia, las aquas!</i>" suddenly screamed and exclaimed
+    the Mexicans in various intonations of terror and despair. We
+    looked around us. What can be the matter? We see nothing.
+    Nothing, except that from just behind those two mountains,
+    which project like mighty promontories into the valley, a cloud
+    is beginning to rise. "What is it? What is wrong?" A dozen
+    voices answered us&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Por la Santa Virgen</i>, for the holy Virgin's sake, on,
+    on! <i>No hay tiempo para hablar</i>. We have still two leagues
+    to go, and in one hour comes the flood."</p>
+
+    <p>And they recommenced their howling, yelling chorus of
+    "<i>Misericordia! Audi nos peccadores!</i>" and "<i>Santissima
+    Virgen</i>, and <i>Todos santos y angeles!</i>"</p>
+
+    <p>"Are the fellows mad?" shouted Rowley, "What if the water
+    does come? It won't swallow you. A ducking more or less is no
+    such great matter. You are not made of sugar or salt. Many's
+    the drenching I've had in the States, and none the worse for
+    it. Yet our rains are no child's play neither."</p>
+
+    <p>On looking round us, however, we were involuntarily struck
+    with the sudden change in the appearance of the heavens. The
+    usual golden black blue colour of the sky was gone, and had
+    been replaced by a dull gloomy grey. The quality of the air
+    appeared also to have changed; it was neither very warm nor
+    very cold, but it had lost its lightness and elasticity, and
+    seemed to oppress and weigh us down. Presently we saw the dark
+    cloud rise gradually from behind the hills, completely clearing
+    their summits, and then sweeping along until it hung over the
+    valley, in form and appearance like some monstrous night-moth,
+    resting the tips of its enormous wings on the mountains on
+    either side. To our right we still saw the roofs and walls of
+    Quidricovi, apparently at a very short distance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not go to Quidricovi?" shouted I to the guides, "we
+    cannot be far off."</p>
+
+    <p>"More than five leagues," answered the men, shaking their
+    heads and looking up anxiously at the huge moth, which was
+    still creeping and crawling on, each moment darker and
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page458"
+       id="page458"></a>[pg 458]</span> more threatening. It was
+       like some frightful monster, or the fabled Kraken, working
+       itself along by its claws, which were struck deep into the
+       mountain-wall on either side of its line of progress, and
+       casting its hideous shadow over hill and dale, forest and
+       valley, clothing them in gloom and darkness. To our right
+       hand and behind us, the mountains were still of a glowing
+       golden red, lighted up by the sun, but to the left and in
+       our front all was black and dark. With the same glance we
+       beheld the deepest gloom and the brightest day, meeting each
+       other but not mingling. It was a strange and ominous
+       sight.</p>
+
+    <p>Ominous enough; and the brute creation seem to feel it so as
+    well as ourselves. The chattering parrots, the hopping,
+    gibbering, quarrelsome apes, all the birds and beasts, scream
+    and cry and flutter and spring about, as though seeking a
+    refuge from some impending danger. Even our horses begin to
+    tremble and groan&mdash;refuse to go on, start and snort. The
+    whole animal world is in commotion, as if seized with an
+    overwhelming panic. The forest is teeming with inhabitants.
+    Whence come they, all these living things? On every side is
+    heard the howling and snarling of beasts, the frightened cries
+    and chirpings of birds. The vultures and turkey-buzzards, that
+    a few minutes before were circling high in the air, are now
+    screaming amidst the branches of the mahogany-trees; every
+    creature that has life is running, scampering,
+    flying&mdash;apes and tigers, birds and creeping things.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos, por la Santissima!</i> On! or we are all
+    lost."</p>
+
+    <p>And we ride, we rush along&mdash;neither masses of rock, nor
+    fallen trees, nor thorns and brambles, check our wild career.
+    Over every thing we go, leaping, scrambling, plunging, riding
+    like desperate men, flying from a danger of which the nature is
+    not clearly defined, but which we feel to be great and
+    imminent. It is a frightful terror-striking foe, that huge
+    night-moth, which comes ever nearer, growing each moment bigger
+    and blacker. Looking behind us, we catch one last glimpse of
+    the red and bloodshot sun, which the next instant disappears
+    behind the edge of the mighty cloud.</p>
+
+    <p>Still we push on. Hosts of tigers, and monkeys both large
+    and small, and squirrels and jackals, come close up to us as if
+    seeking shelter, and then finding none, retreat howling into
+    the forest. There is not a breath of air stirring, yet all
+    nature&mdash;plants and trees, men and beasts&mdash;seem to
+    quiver and tremble with apprehension. Our horses pant and groan
+    as they bound along with dilated nostrils and glaring eyes,
+    trembling in every limb, sweating at every pore, half wild with
+    terror; giving springs and leaps that more resemble those of a
+    hunted tiger than of a horse.</p>
+
+    <p>The prayer and exclamations of the terrified Mexicans,
+    continued without intermission, whispered and shrieked and
+    groaned in every variety of intonation. The earthy hue of
+    intense terror was upon every countenance. For some moments a
+    death-like stillness, an unnatural calm, reigned around us: it
+    was as though the elements were holding in their breath, and
+    collecting their energies for some mighty outbreak. Then came a
+    low indistinct moaning sound, that seemed to issue from the
+    bowels of the earth. The warning was significant.</p>
+
+    <p>"Halt! stop" shouted we to the guides. "Stop! and let us
+    seek shelter from the storm."</p>
+
+    <p>"On! for God's sake, on! or we are lost," was the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>Thank Heaven! the path is getting wider&mdash;we come to a
+    descent&mdash;they are leading us out of the forest. If the
+    storm had come on while we were among the trees, we might be
+    crushed to death by the falling branches. We are close to a
+    barranca.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Alerto! Alerto!</i>" shrieked the Mexicans. "<i>Madre de
+    Dios! Dios! Dios!"</i></p>
+
+    <p>And well might they call to God for help in that awful
+    moment. The gigantic night-moth gaped and shot forth tongues of
+    fire&mdash;a ghastly white flame, that contrasted strangely and
+    horribly with the dense black cloud from which it issued. There
+    was a peal of thunder that seemed to shake the earth, then a
+    pause during which nothing was heard but the panting of our
+    horses as they dashed across the barranca, and began straining
+    up the steep side of a knoll or hillock. The
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page459"
+       id="page459"></a>[pg 459]</span> cloud again opened: for a
+       second every thing was lighted up. Another thunder clap, and
+       then, as though the gates of its prison had been suddenly
+       burst open, the tempest came forth in its might and fury,
+       breaking, crushing, and sweeping away all that opposed it.
+       The trees of the forest staggered and tottered for a moment,
+       as if making an effort to bear up against the storm; but it
+       was in vain: the next instant, with a report like that of
+       ten thousand cannon, whole acres of mighty trees were
+       snapped off, their branches shivered, their roots torn up;
+       it was no longer a forest but a chaos; an ocean of boughs
+       and tree-trunks, that were tossed about like the waves of
+       the sea, or thrown into the air like straws. The atmosphere
+       was darkened with dust, and leaves, and branches.</p>
+
+    <p>"God be merciful to us! Rowley! where are ye?&mdash;No
+    answer. What is become of them all?"</p>
+
+    <p>A second blast more furious than the first. Can the
+    mountains resist it? will they stand? By the Almighty! they do
+    not. The earth trembles; the hillock, on the leeside of which
+    we are, rocks and shakes; and the air grows thick and
+    suffocating&mdash;full of dust and saltpetre and sulphur. We
+    are like to choke. All around is dark as night. We can see
+    nothing, hear nothing but the howling of the hurricane, and the
+    thunder and rattle of falling trees and shivered branches.</p>
+
+    <p>Suddenly the hurricane ceases, and all is hushed; but so
+    suddenly that the charge is startling and unnatural. No sound
+    is audible save the creaking and moaning of the trees with
+    which the ground is cumbered. It is like a sudden pause in a
+    battle, when the roar of the cannon and clang of charging
+    squadrons cease, and nought is heard but the groaning of the
+    wounded, the agonized sobs and gasps of the dying.</p>
+
+    <p>The report of a pistol is heard; then another, a third,
+    hundreds, thousands of them. It is the flood, <i>las aguas</i>;
+    the shots are drops of rain; but such drops! each as big as a
+    hen's egg. They strike with the force of enormous
+    hailstones&mdash;stunning and blinding us. The next moment
+    there is no distinction of drops, the windows of heaven are
+    opened; it is no longer rain nor flood, but a sea, a cataract,
+    a Niagara. The hillock on which I am standing, undermined by
+    the waters, gives way and crumbles under me; in ten seconds'
+    time I find myself in the barranca, which is converted into a
+    river, off my horse, which is gone I know not whither. The only
+    person I see near me is Rowley, also dismounted and struggling
+    against the stream, which is already up to our waists, and
+    sweeps along with it huge branches and entire trees, that
+    threaten each moment to carry us away with them, or to crush us
+    against the rocks. We avoid these dangers, God knows how, make
+    violent efforts to stem the torrent and gain the side of the
+    barranca; although, even should we succeed, it is so steep that
+    we can scarcely hope to climb it without assistance. And whence
+    is that assistance to come? Of the Mexicans we see or hear
+    nothing. They are doubtless all drowned or dashed to pieces.
+    They were higher up on the hillock than we were, must
+    consequently have been swept down with more force, and were
+    probably carried away by the torrent. Nor can we hope for a
+    better fate. Wearied by our ride, weakened by the fever and
+    sufferings of the preceding night, we are in no condition to
+    strive much longer with the furious elements. For one step that
+    we gain, we lose two. The waters rise; already they are nearly
+    up to our armpits. It is in vain to resist any longer. Our fate
+    is sealed.</p>
+
+    <p>"Rowley, all is over&mdash;let us die like men. God have
+    mercy on our souls!"</p>
+
+    <p>Rowley was a few paces higher up the barranca. He made me no
+    answer, but looked at me with a calm, cold, and yet somewhat
+    regretful smile upon his countenance. Then all at once he
+    ceased the efforts he was making to resist the stream and gain
+    the bank, folded his arms on his breast and gave a look up and
+    around him as though to bid farewell to the world he was about
+    to leave. The current was sweeping him rapidly down towards me,
+    when suddenly a wild hurra burst from his lips, and he
+    recommenced his struggles against the waters, striving
+    violently to retain <span class="pagenum"><a name="page460"
+       id="page460"></a>[pg 460]</span> a footing on the slippery,
+       uneven bed of the stream.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Tenga! Tenga!</i>" screamed a dozen voices, that seemed
+    to proceed from spirits of the air; and at the same moment
+    something whistled about my ears and struck me a smart blow
+    across the face. With the instinct of a drowning man, I
+    clutched the <i>lasso</i> that had been thrown to me. Rowley
+    was at my elbow and seized it also. It was immediately drawn
+    tight, and by its aid we gained the bank, and began ascending
+    the side of the barranca, composed of rugged, declivitous
+    rocks, affording but scanty foot-hold. God grant the lasso may
+    prove tough! The strain on it is fearful. Rowley is a good
+    fifteen stone, and I am no feather; and in some parts of our
+    perilous ascent the rocks are almost as perpendicular and
+    smooth as a wall of masonry, and we are obliged to cling with
+    our whole weight to the lasso, which seems to stretch, and
+    crack, and grow visibly thinner. Nothing but a strip of twisted
+    cow-hide between us and a frightful agonizing death on the
+    sharp rocks and in the foaming waters below. But the lasso
+    holds good, and now the chief peril is past: we get some sort
+    of footing&mdash;a point of rock, or a tree-root to clutch at.
+    Another strain up this rugged slope of granite, another pull at
+    the lasso; a leap, a last violent effort,
+    and&mdash;<i>Viva</i>!&mdash;we are seized under the arms,
+    dragged up, held upon our feet for a moment, and then&mdash;we
+    sink exhausted to the ground in the midst of the Tzapotecans,
+    mules, arrieros, guides, and women, who are sheltered from the
+    storm in a sort of natural cavern. At the moment at which the
+    hillock had given way under Rowley and myself, who were a short
+    distance in rear of the party, the Mexicans had succeeded in
+    attaining firm footing on a broad rocky ledge, a shelf of the
+    precipice that flanked the barranca. Upon this ledge, which
+    gradually widened into a platform, they found themselves in
+    safety under some projecting crags that sheltered them
+    completely from the tempest. Thence they looked down upon the
+    barranca, where they descried Rowley and myself struggling for
+    our lives in the roaring torrent; and thence, by knotting
+    several lassos together, they were able to give us the
+    opportune aid which had rescued us from our desperate
+    situation. But whether this aid had come soon enough to save
+    our lives was still a question, or at least for some time
+    appeared to be so. The life seemed driven out of our bodies by
+    all we had gone through: we were unable to move a finger, and
+    lay helpless and motionless, with only a glimmering indistinct
+    perception, not amounting to consciousness, of what was going
+    on around us. Fatigue, the fever, the immersion in cold water
+    when reeking with perspiration, the sufferings of all kinds we
+    had endured in the course of the last twenty hours, had
+    completely exhausted and broken us down.</p>
+
+    <p>The storm did not last long in its violence, but swept
+    onwards, leaving a broad track of desolation behind it. The
+    Mexicans recommenced their journey, with the exception of four
+    or five who remained with us and our arrieros and servants. The
+    village to which we were proceeding was not above a league off;
+    but even that short distance Rowley and myself were in no
+    condition to accomplish. The kind-hearted Tzapotecans made us
+    swallow cordials, stripped off our drenched and tattered
+    garments, and wrapped us in an abundance of blankets. We fell
+    into a deep sleep, which lasted all that evening and the
+    greater part of the night, and so much refreshed us that about
+    an hour before daybreak we were able to resume our
+    march&mdash;at a slow pace, it is true, and suffering
+    grievously in every part of our bruised and wounded limbs and
+    bodies, at each jolt or rough motion of the mules on which we
+    were clinging, rather than sitting.</p>
+
+    <p>Our path lay over hill and dale, perpetually rising and
+    falling. We soon got out of the district or zone that had been
+    swept by the preceding day's hurricane, and after nearly an
+    hour's ride, we paused on the crest of a steep descent, at the
+    foot of which, as our guides informed us, lay the land of
+    promise, the long looked-for <i>rancho</i>. While the muleteers
+    were seeing to the girths of their beasts, and giving the due
+    equilibrium to the baggage, before commencing the downward
+    march, Rowley <span class="pagenum"><a name="page461"
+       id="page461"></a>[pg 461]</span> and I sat upon our mules,
+       wrapped in large Mexican <i>capas</i>, gazing at the
+       morning-star as it sank down and grew gradually paler and
+       fainter. Suddenly the eastern sky began to brighten, and a
+       brilliant beam appeared in the west, a point of light no
+       bigger than a star&mdash;but yet not a star; it was of a far
+       rosier hue. The next moment a second sparkling spot
+       appeared, near to the first, which now swelled out into a
+       sort of fiery tongue, that seemed to lick round the silvery
+       summit of the snow-clad mountain. As we gazed,
+       five&mdash;ten&mdash;twenty hill tops were tinged with the
+       same rose-coloured glow; in another moment they became like
+       fiery banners spread out against the heavens, while
+       sparkling tongues and rays of golden light flashed and
+       flamed round them, springing like meteors from one mountain
+       summit to another, lighting them up like a succession of
+       beacons. Scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the distant
+       pinnacles of the mountains had appeared to us as huge
+       phantom-like figures of a silvery white, dimly marked out
+       upon a dark star-spangled ground; now the whole immense
+       chain blazed like volcanoes covered with glowing lava,
+       rising out of the darkness that still lingered on their
+       flanks and bases, visible and wonderful witnesses to the
+       omnipotence of <i>him</i> who said, "Let there be light, and
+       there was light."</p>
+
+    <p>Above, all was broad day, flaming sunlight; below, all black
+    night. Here and there streams of light burst through clefts and
+    openings in the mountains, and then ensued an extraordinary
+    kind of conflict. The shades of darkness seemed to live and
+    move, to struggle against the bright beams that fell amongst
+    them and broke their masses, forcing them down the wooded
+    heights, tearing them asunder and dispersing them like tissues
+    of cobwebs; so that successively, and as if by a stroke of
+    enchantment, there appeared, first the deep indigo blue of the
+    tamarinds and chicozapotes, then the bright green of the
+    sugar-canes, lower down the darker green of the nopal-trees,
+    lower still the white and green and gold and bright yellow of
+    the orange and citron groves, and lowest of all, the stately
+    fan-palms, and date-palms, and bananas; all glittering with
+    millions of dewdrops, that covered them like a ganze veil
+    embroidered with diamonds and rubies. And still in the very
+    next valley all was utter darkness.</p>
+
+    <p>We sat silent and motionless, gazing at this scene of
+    enchantment.</p>
+
+    <p>Presently the sun rose higher, and a flood of light
+    illumined the whole valley, which lay some few hundred feet
+    below us&mdash;a perfect garden, such as no northern
+    imagination could picture forth; a garden of sugar-canes,
+    cotton, and nopal-trees, intermixed with thickets of
+    pomegranate and strawberry-trees, and groves of orange, fig,
+    and lemon, giants of their kind, shooting up to a far greater
+    height than the oak attains in the States&mdash;every tree a
+    perfect hothouse, a pyramid of flowers, covered with bloom and
+    blossom to its topmost spray. All was light, and freshness, and
+    beauty; every object seemed to dance and rejoice in the clear
+    elastic golden atmosphere. It was an earthly paradise, fresh
+    from the hand of its Creator, and at first we could discover no
+    sign of man or his works. Presently, however, we discerned the
+    village lying almost at our feet, the small stone houses
+    overgrown with flowers and embedded in trees; so that scarcely
+    a square foot of roof or wall was to be seen. Even the church
+    was concealed in a garland of orange-trees, and had lianas and
+    star-flowered creepers climbing over and dangling on it, up as
+    high as the slender cross that surmounted its square white
+    tower. As we gazed, the first sign of life appeared in the
+    village. A puff of blue smoke rose curling and spiral from a
+    chimney, and the matin bell rang out its summons to prayer. Our
+    Mexicans fell on their knees and crossed themselves, repeating
+    their Ave-marias. We involuntarily took off our hats, and
+    whispered a thanksgiving to the God who had been with us in the
+    hour of peril, and was now so visible to us in his works.</p>
+
+    <p>The Mexicans rose from their knees.</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Vamos! Senores,</i>" said one of them, laying his hand
+    on the bridle of my mule. "To the <i>rancho</i>, to
+    breakfast."</p>
+
+    <p>We rode slowly down into the valley.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_4_1"
+                    name="fn_4_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_4_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The nigua is a small but very dangerous insect which
+        fixes itself in the feet, bores holes in the skin, and lays
+        its eggs there. These, if not extracted, (which extraction
+        by the by is a most painful operation) cause first an
+        intolerable itching, and subsequently sores and ulcers of a
+        sufficiently serious nature to entail the loss of the
+        feet.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page462"
+       id="page462"></a>[pg 462]</span> <a name="fleet"
+          id="fleet"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE BRITISH FLEET.<a id="fn_5_tag1"
+       name="fn_5_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_5_1"><sup>1</sup></a></h2>
+
+    <p>Were the question proposed to us, What is the most
+    extraordinary, complete, and effective instance of skill,
+    contrivance, science, and power, ever combined by man? we
+    should unhesitatingly answer, an English line-of-battle ship.
+    Take the model of a 120 gun ship&mdash;large as it may be for a
+    floating body, its space is not great. For example, it is not
+    half the ordinary size of a nobleman's mansion; yet that ship
+    carries a thousand men with convenience, and lodges them day
+    and night, with sufficient room for the necessary distinctions
+    of obedience and command&mdash;has separate apartments for the
+    admiral and the captain, for the different ranks of officers,
+    and even for the different ranks of seamen&mdash;separate
+    portions below decks for the sleeping of the crew, the dining
+    of the officers, and the receptacle for the sick and wounded.
+    Those thousand men are to be fed three times a-day, and
+    provisions for four months are to be stowed. One hundred and
+    twenty cannon, some of them of the heaviest metal, are to be
+    carried; and room is to be found for all the weight of shot and
+    quantities of powder, with other missiles, rockets, and signal
+    fires, necessary for service. Besides this, room is to be
+    provided for the stowage of fresh rigging, sails, ropes,
+    cables, and yards, to replace those lost by accident, battle,
+    or wear and tear. Besides this, too, there is to be a provision
+    for the hospital. So far for the mere necessaries of the ship.
+    Then we are to regard the science; for nothing can be more
+    essential than the skill and the instruments of the navigator,
+    as nothing can be more fatal than a scientific error, a false
+    calculation, or a remission of vigilance. We shall do no more
+    than allude to the habits of command essential to keep a
+    thousand of these rough and daring spirits in order, and that,
+    too, an order of the most implicit, steady, and active kind;
+    nor to their knowledge of tactics, and conduct in battle. The
+    true definition of the line-of-battle ship being, a floating
+    regiment of artillery in a barrack, which, at the beat of a
+    drum, may be turned into a field of battle, or, at the command
+    of government, may be sent flying on the wings of the wind
+    round the world. We think that we have thus established our
+    proposition. If not, let any thing else be shown which exhibits
+    the same quantity of power <i>packed</i> within the same space;
+    and that power, too, increasing daily by new contrivances of
+    stowage and building, by new models of guns, and new inventions
+    in machinery. England is at this moment building two hundred
+    steam-ships, with guns of a calibre to which all the past were
+    trifling, with room for a regiment of land troops besides their
+    crews, and with the known power of defying wind and wave, and
+    throwing an army in full equipment for the field, within a few
+    days, on any coast of Europe.</p>
+
+    <p>It is remarkable that the use of the navy, as a great branch
+    of the military power of England, had been scarcely
+    contemplated until the last century. Though the sea-coast of
+    England, the largest of any European state, and the national
+    habits of an insular country, might have pointed out this
+    direction for the national energies from the earliest period,
+    yet England was a kingdom for five hundred years before she
+    seems to have thought of the use of ships as an instrument of
+    public power. In the long war with France during the fourteenth
+    and fifteenth centuries, the ships were almost wholly
+    mercantile; and, when employed in wars, were chiefly employed
+    as transports to throw our troops on the French soil. It was
+    the reign of Elizabeth, that true birth of the progress of
+    England, that first developed the powers of an armed navy. The
+    Spanish invasion forced the country to meet the Armada by means
+    like its own; and the triumph, though won by a higher agency,
+    and due to the winds and waves, or rather to the Supreme
+    Providence which watched over the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page463"
+       id="page463"></a>[pg 463]</span> land of Protestantism,
+       awoke the nation to the true faculty of defence; and from
+       that period alone could the burden of the fine national song
+       be realized, and Britain was to "rule the main." The
+       expeditions against the Spanish West Indies, and the new
+       ardour of discovery in regions where brilliant fable lent
+       its aid to rational curiosity, carried on the process of
+       naval power. The war against Holland, under Charles II.,
+       though disastrous and impolitic, showed at least that the
+       fleet of England was the true arm of its strength; and the
+       humiliation of the only rival of her commerce at once taught
+       her where the sinews of war lay, and by what means the
+       foundations of naval empire were to be laid. But it was not
+       until the close of the last century that the truth came
+       before the nation in its full form. The American war&mdash;a
+       war of skirmishes&mdash;had its direct effect, perhaps its
+       providential purpose, in compelling England to prepare for
+       the tremendous collision which was so soon to follow, and
+       which was to be the final security of the Continent itself.
+       It was then, for the first time, that the nation was driven
+       to the use of a navy on a great scale. The war, lying on the
+       western shore of an ocean, made the use of naval armaments
+       necessary to every operation. The treacherous hostility of
+       the French cabinet, and the unfortunate subserviency of
+       Spain to that treachery, made corresponding energy on the
+       part of England a matter of public demand; and when France
+       and Spain sent out fleets of a magnitude till then unknown,
+       England was urged to follow their example. The defeats of
+       the combined navies excited the nation to still more
+       vigorous efforts; and the war closed with so full a
+       demonstration of the matchless importance of a great navy to
+       England, that the public feeling was fixed on giving it the
+       largest contribution of the national confidence.</p>
+
+    <p>The time was at hand when the trial was to involve every
+    interest of England and mankind. The first grand struggle of
+    revolutionary France with England was to be on the seas; and
+    the generation of naval officers who had been reared in the
+    American war, then rising into vigour, trained by its
+    experience, and stimulated by its example, gallantly maintained
+    the honour of their country. A succession of sanguinary battles
+    followed, each on the largest scale, and each closing in
+    British victory; until the republic, in despair, abandoned the
+    fatal element, and tied her fortunes in the easier conflicts of
+    the land. The accession of Napoleon renewed the struggle for
+    naval supremacy, until one vast blow extinguished his hopes and
+    his navy at Trafalgar. Peace now exists, and long may it exist!
+    but France is rapidly renewing her navy, taking every
+    opportunity of exercising its strength, and especially
+    patronising the policy of founding those colonies which it idly
+    imagines to be the source of British opulence. But whether the
+    wisdom of Louis Philippe limits the protection of French trade
+    to the benefits which commerce may confer on his vast kingdom,
+    or looks forward to the support which a mercantile navy may
+    give to a warlike one, we must not sleep on our posts. The life
+    of any individual is brief on a national scale; and his
+    successor, whether regent or republican, may be as hot-headed,
+    rash, and ambitious, as this great monarch has shown himself
+    rational, prudent, and peaceful. We must prepare for all
+    chances; and our true preparation must be, a fleet that may
+    defy all.</p>
+
+    <p>It is a remarkable instance of the slowness with which
+    science advances, that almost the whole scientific portion of
+    seamanship has grown up since the middle of the seventeenth
+    century, though America had been reached in 1492, and India in
+    1496; and thus the world had been nearly rounded before what
+    would now be regarded as the ordinary knowledge of a navigator
+    had been acquired. England has the honour of making the first
+    advances. It was an Englishman, Norwood, who made the first
+    measurement of a degree between London and York, and fixed it
+    at 122,399 English yards. The attention of the world thus once
+    awakened, Huygens and Cassini applied themselves to ascertain
+    the figure of the earth. The first experiments of the French
+    <i>savans</i> were in contradiction to Newton's theory of the
+    flattening of the poles; but the controversy was the means of
+    exciting new <span class="pagenum"><a name="page464"
+       id="page464"></a>[pg 464]</span> interest. The eyes of the
+       scientific world were turned more intently on the subject.
+       New experiments were made, which corrected the old; and
+       finally, on the measurement of the arc in Peru, and in the
+       north, truth and Newton triumphed, and the equatorial
+       diameter was found to exceed the polar by a two hundred and
+       fourth part of the whole. This was perhaps the finest
+       problem ever solved by science; the most perplexing in its
+       early state&mdash;exhibiting for a while the strongest
+       contradiction of experiment and theory, occupying in a
+       greater degree the attention of philosophers than any before
+       or since, and finally established with a certainty which
+       every subsequent observation has only tended to confirm. And
+       this triumph belonged to an Englishman.</p>
+
+    <p>The investigation by measurements has since been largely
+    adopted. In 1787, joint commissions were issued by England and
+    France to connect the Greenwich and Parisian observations. Arcs
+    of the meridian have since been measured across the whole
+    breadth of France and Spain, and also near the Arctic circle,
+    and in the Indian peninsula.</p>
+
+    <p>In navigation, the grand point for the sailor is to
+    ascertain his latitude and longitude; in other words, to know
+    where he is. The discovery of the latitude is easily effected
+    by the quadrant, but the longitude is the difficulty. Any means
+    which ascertained the hour at Greenwich, at the instant of
+    making a celestial observation in any other part, would answer
+    the difficulty; for the difference in quarters of an hour would
+    give the difference of the degrees. But clocks could not be
+    used on shipboard, and the best watches failed to keep the
+    time. In the reign of Anne, Parliament offered a reward of L.
+    5000, perhaps not far from the value of twice the sum in the
+    present day, for a watch within a certain degree of accuracy.
+    Harrison, a watchmaker, sent in a watch which came within the
+    limits, losing but two minutes in a voyage to the West Indies;
+    yet even this was an error of thirty miles.</p>
+
+    <p>But, though chronometers have since been considerably
+    improved, there are difficulties in their preservation in good
+    order which have made it expedient to apply to other means; and
+    the lunar tables of Mayer of Gottingen, formed in 1755, and
+    subsequently improved by Dr Maskelyne and others, have brought
+    the error within seven miles and a half.</p>
+
+    <p>Improvements of a very important order have also taken place
+    in the mariner's compass; the variation of the needle has been
+    reduced to rules, and some anomalies arising from the metallic
+    attraction of the ship itself, have been corrected by Professor
+    Barlow's experiments. The use of the marine barometer and
+    thermometer have also largely assisted to give notice of
+    tempests; and some ingenious theories have been lately formed,
+    which, promising to give a knowledge of the origin and nature
+    of tempests, are obviously not unlikely to assist the navigator
+    in stemming their violence, or escaping them altogether.</p>
+
+    <p>The construction of ships for both the merchant and the
+    public service has undergone striking improvements within this
+    century. Round sterns, for the defence of a vessel engaged with
+    several opponents at once; compartments in the hold, for
+    security against leaks; iron tanks for water, containing twice
+    the quantity, and keeping it free from the impurities of casks;
+    a better general stowage; provisions prepared so as to remain
+    almost fresh during an East Indian voyage; every means of
+    preserving health, suggested by science, and succeeding to the
+    most remarkable degree; a more intelligent system of
+    shipbuilding, and a constant series of experiments on the
+    shape, stowage, and sailing of ships, are among the beneficial
+    changes of later times. But the one great
+    change&mdash;steam&mdash;will probably swallow up all the rest,
+    and form a new era in shipbuilding, in navigation, in the power
+    and nature of a navy, and in the comfort, safety, and
+    protection of the crews in actual engagement. The use of steam
+    is still so palpably in its infancy, yet that infancy is so
+    gigantic, that it is equally difficult to say what it may yet
+    become, and to limit its progress. It will have the one obvious
+    advantage to mankind in general, of making the question of war
+    turn more than ever on the financial and mechanical resources
+    of a people; and thus increasing
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page465"
+       id="page465"></a>[pg 465]</span> the necessity for
+       commercial opulence and intellectual exertion. It may expose
+       nations more to each other's attacks; but it will render
+       hostility more dreaded, because more dangerous. On the
+       whole, like the use of gunpowder, which made a Tartar war
+       impossible, and which rapidly tended to civilize Europe,
+       steam appears to be intended as a further step in the same
+       high process, in which force is to be put down by
+       intelligence, and success, even in war, is to depend on the
+       industry of peace; thus, in fact, providing a perpetual
+       restriction on the belligerent propensities of nations, and
+       urging the uncivilized, by necessity, to own the
+       superiority, and follow the example of the civilized, by
+       knowledge, habit, and principle.</p>
+
+    <p>It is not to be forgotten, even in this general and brief
+    view of the values of the British fleet, that it has, within
+    these few years, assumed a new character as an instrument of
+    war. The Syrian campaign, the shortest, and, beyond all
+    comparison, the most brilliant on record, if we are to estimate
+    military distinction, not only by the gallantry of the
+    conflict, but by the results of the victory&mdash;this
+    campaign, which at once finished the war in Syria, gave peace
+    to Turkey, reduced Egypt to obedience, rescued the sultan from
+    Russian influence, and Egypt from French; or rather rescued all
+    Europe from the collision of England, France, and Russia; and
+    even, by the evidence of our naval capabilities, taught
+    American faction the wisdom of avoiding hostilities&mdash;this
+    grand operation was effected by a small portion of the British
+    navy, well commanded, directed to the right point, and acting
+    with national energy. The three hours' cannonade of Acre, the
+    most effective achievement in the annals of war, exhibited a
+    new use of a ship's broadside; for, though ships' guns had
+    often battered forts before, it was the first instance of a
+    <i>fleet</i> employed in attack, and fully overpowering all
+    opposition. The attack on Algiers was the only exploit of a
+    similar kind; but its success was limited, and the result was
+    so far disastrous, that it at once fixed the eye of France on
+    the invasion of Algiers, and disabled and disheartened the
+    native government from vigorous resistance. The victory of the
+    fleet at Acre will also have the effect of changing the whole
+    system of defence in fortresses and cities exposed to the
+    sea.</p>
+
+    <p>But a still further advance in the employment of fleets as
+    an instrument of hostilities, has since occurred in the Chinese
+    war&mdash;their simultaneous operation with troops. In former
+    assaults of fortresses, the troops and ships attacked the same
+    line of defence, and the consequence was the waste of force.
+    From the moment when the troops approached the land, the fire
+    of the ships necessarily ceased, and the fleet then remained
+    spectators of the assault. But in this war, while the troops
+    attacked on the land side, the fleet ran up to the sea
+    batteries, and both attacks went on together&mdash;of course
+    dividing the attention of the enemy, thus having a double
+    chance of success, and employing both arms of the service in
+    full energy. This masterly combination the Duke of Wellington,
+    the highest military authority in Europe, pronounced to be a
+    new principle in war; and even this is, perhaps, only the
+    beginning of a system of combination which will lead to new
+    victories, if war should ever unhappily return.</p>
+
+    <p>We now revert to the history of a naval hero.</p>
+
+    <p>John Jervis, the second son of Swynfen Jervis, Esq., was
+    born on the 20th of January 1735. He was descended, on both the
+    paternal and maternal side, from families which had figured in
+    the olden times of England. The family of Jervis possessed
+    estates in Staffordshire as far back as the reign of Edward
+    III. The family of Swynfen was also long established in
+    Worcestershire. John Swynfen was a public character during the
+    troubled times of Charles I. and Cromwell, and until a late
+    period in the reign of Charles II. He had been originally a
+    strong Parliamentarian; but, thinking that the party went too
+    far, he was turned out of parliament for tardiness by the
+    Protector. But his original politics adhered to him still; for,
+    even after the restoration, he was joined with Hampden, the
+    grandson of the celebrated patriot, in drawing up the Bill of
+    Exclusion. Among his ancestors by the mother's side was Sir
+    John Turton, a judge in the Court of King's
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page466"
+       id="page466"></a>[pg 466]</span> Bench, married to a
+       daughter of the brave Colonel Samuel Moore, who made the
+       memorable defence of Hopton Castle in the Civil War.</p>
+
+    <p>But no man less regarded ancestry than the subject of the
+    present pages, who, in writing with reference to his pedigree,
+    observed, in his usual frank and straightforward
+    language&mdash;"They were all highly respectable; but, <i>et
+    genus et proavos</i>, nearly all the Latin I now recollect,
+    always struck my ear as the sound maxim for officers and
+    statesmen."</p>
+
+    <p>His first school was at Burton-upon-Trent, where a slight
+    incident seemed to designate his future politics and fortitude.
+    In 1745, when the Pretender marched into the heart of the
+    kingdom, without being joined by his friends or opposed by his
+    enemies, as Gibbon antithetically observed, all the boys at the
+    school, excepting young Jervis and Dick Meux, (afterwards the
+    eminent brewer,) wore plaid ribands sent to them from home, and
+    they pelted their two constitutional playmates, calling them
+    Whigs.</p>
+
+    <p>His father designed young Jervis for the law; but, in 1747,
+    removing to Greenwich on being appointed Counsel to the
+    Admiralty and Auditor to the Hospital, naval sights were too
+    near not to prove a strong temptation to the mind of an
+    animated and vigorous boy. His parents were still strongly for
+    the adoption of his father's profession; but there was another
+    authority on the subject, the family coachman, one Pinkhorne,
+    who, saying that it was a shame to go into a profession where
+    all were rogues, determined the future hero; and, before the
+    year was over, he ran away, to commence life as a sailor. He
+    was reclaimed, however, by his family, and was regularly
+    entered in the navy, in January 1748, on board the Gloucester,
+    fifty guns, Commodore Townshend&mdash;twenty pounds being all
+    that was given to him by his father for his equipment. The
+    Gloucester sailed for the West Indies; and thus, at the age of
+    thirteen, young Jervis began the world. It appears that the
+    rigid economy of his father, combined with the singular good
+    sense of this mere child, urged him to every means of acquiring
+    the knowledge of his profession. The monotonous life of a
+    guard-ship already seemed to him a waste of time, while the
+    expenses on shore must have been ruinous to his slender
+    finances. He therefore volunteered into whatever ship was going
+    to sea. He thus writes to his sister from on board the Sphinx,
+    1753:&mdash;"There are many entertainments and public
+    assemblies here, but they are rather above my sphere, many
+    inconveniences and expenses attending them; so that my chief
+    employ, when from my duty, is reading, studying navigation, and
+    perusing my own letters, of which I have almost enough to make
+    an octavo volume."</p>
+
+    <p>At length, however, his twenty pounds were exhausted; and,
+    at the end of three years, he drew for twenty pounds more. It
+    is vexatious to say that his bill was dishonoured; and he never
+    received another shilling from any one. It is scarcely possible
+    to conceive that so harsh a measure could have been the result
+    of intention; but it subjected this extraordinary boy to the
+    severest privations. To take up the dishonoured bill, he was
+    obliged to effect his discharge from one ship into another, so
+    as to obtain his pay tickets, which he sold at forty per cent
+    discount. His remaining six years on the station were spent in
+    the exercise of a severe economy, and the endurance even of
+    severe suffering. He was compelled to sell all his bedding, and
+    sleep on the bare deck. He had no other resource than,
+    generally, to make and mend, and always to wash, his own
+    clothes. He never afforded himself any fresh meat; and even the
+    fruit and vegetables, which are so necessary and so cheap, he
+    could obtain only by barter from the negroes, for the small
+    share of provisions which he could subduct from his own
+    allowance. True as all this doubtless is, it reflects more
+    severely on the captain and officers of his own ship, than even
+    upon his parents. The latter, on the other side of the
+    Atlantic, might have no knowledge of his difficulties; but that
+    those who saw his sufferings from day to day could have allowed
+    them to continue, argues a degree of negligence and inhumanity,
+    of which we hope that no present instance occurs in our navy,
+    and which at any period would appear incomprehensible.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page467"
+       id="page467"></a>[pg 467]</span> In 1754, young Jervis
+       returned to England, and passed his examination for
+       lieutenant with great credit.</p>
+
+    <p>The commencement of the war with France was, like the
+    commencement of English wars in general, disastrous. We seldom
+    make due preparation. Fleets inferior to the enemy in equipment
+    and number, are sent out on the emergency; detachments of
+    troops are sent where armies should have gone; and thus victory
+    itself is without effect. Thus for a year or two we continue
+    blundering if not beaten, and angry with our generals and
+    admirals for failing to do impossibilities. At last the nation
+    becomes fairly roused; the success of the enemy makes exertion
+    necessary; their insolence inflames the popular indignation; a
+    great effort is made; a triumph is obtained, and a peace
+    follows, which might have been accomplished half a dozen years
+    before, at a tenth part of the expense in blood and treasure
+    which it cost to consummate the war. Our troops under Braddock,
+    a brave fool, were beaten by the French and Indians in America.
+    Our Mediterranean fleet was baffled under the unfortunate
+    command of Byng. Minorca was taken before our eyes, and the
+    naval and military stars of England seem to have gone down
+    together. Yet this era of national dishonour and public disgust
+    was followed by the three years of Chatham's administration, a
+    period of triumph that equaled the campaigns of Marlborough at
+    the commencement of the century, and was scarcely eclipsed even
+    by the splendours that followed its close.</p>
+
+    <p>The skill and talent of young Jervis had already given him
+    distinction among the rising officers of the feet. He had
+    become a favourite with Admiral Saunders, was taken with him
+    from ship to ship; and when the admiral was recalled from the
+    Mediterranean to take the command of the naval force destined
+    to co-operate in the attack on Quebec, by the heroic and
+    lamented General Wolfe, young Jervis was selected to be first
+    lieutenant of the Prince, which bore the admiral's flag. On the
+    passage out, the general and his aide-de-camp, Captain,
+    afterwards the well-known Colonel Barr&eacute;, were guests on
+    board the Prince, and of course Jervis had the advantage of
+    their intelligent society. In February 1759, the fleet sailed
+    from England, and in June proceeded from Louisburg to the St
+    Lawrence. Lieutenant Jervis was now appointed to the command of
+    the Porcupine sloop; and on the general requesting a naval
+    force to escort his transports past Quebec, the Porcupine was
+    ordered by the admiral to lead. The service was one of extreme
+    difficulty; for the attempt to sound the channel the day before
+    had failed, though it was made by the master of the fleet,
+    Cook, afterwards the celebrated navigator. The winds suddenly
+    falling calm, prevented the Porcupine from reaching her
+    station. A heavy fire was instantly opened upon her from every
+    gun that could be brought to bear, and the army were in terror
+    of her being destroyed, for the general was on board. But
+    Jervis's skill was equal to his gallantry; he hoisted out his
+    boats, cheered his men through the fire, and brought his ship
+    to her station.</p>
+
+    <p>A little incident occurred on the night before the memorable
+    engagement, which even at this distance of time is of painful
+    interest, but which shows the confidence reposed in the young
+    naval officer by the hero of Quebec. After the orders for the
+    assault next day were given, Wolfe requested a private
+    interview with him; and saying that he had the strongest
+    presentiment of falling on the field, yet that he should fall
+    in victory, he took from his bosom the miniature of a young
+    lady to whom he was attached, gave it to Jervis, desiring that,
+    if the foreboding came to pass, he should return it to her on
+    his arrival in England. Wolfe's gallant fate and brilliant
+    victory are known: the picture was delivered to Miss
+    Lowther.</p>
+
+    <p>After the capture of Quebec, Jervis was dispatched to
+    England; and was appointed to the Scorpion, to carry out
+    important despatches to General Amherst. On this occasion, he
+    gave an instance of that remarkable promptitude which
+    characterised him throughout his whole career. The Scorpion was
+    in such a crazy state that she had nearly foundered between
+    Spithead and Plymouth. On reaching
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page468"
+       id="page468"></a>[pg 468]</span> the latter port, and
+       representing at once the condition of the vessel and the
+       importance of the despatches, the port-admiral instantly
+       ordered him to proceed to sea in the Albany, a sloop in the
+       Sound. But the Albany had been a long time in commission;
+       her people claimed arrears of pay; and by no means relishing
+       a voyage across the Atlantic in such weather, they
+       absolutely refused to heave the anchor. Their young
+       commander first tried remonstrance, but in vain; he then
+       took a more effectual means&mdash;he ordered his boat's
+       crew, whom he had brought from the Scorpion, to take their
+       hatchets and cut the cables, and then go aloft to loosen the
+       foresail. Perceiving the kind of man with whom they had to
+       do, the crew submitted, and the Albany instantly proceeded
+       to sea: the ringleaders were punished; and the service was
+       performed. The Albany made New York in twenty-four days.</p>
+
+    <p>In October 1761, Commander Jervis was made Post, into the
+    Gosport of 60 guns. Among his midshipmen was the afterwards
+    Admiral Lord Keith. In 1762, peace was made. The Gosport was
+    paid off next year, and Captain Jervis did not serve again
+    until 1769, when he commanded the Alarm of 32 guns for the next
+    three years.</p>
+
+    <p>A striking incident occurred during the cruise of this
+    vessel in the Mediterranean, exhibiting not only the spirit of
+    her captain, but the historic recollections by which that
+    spirit was sustained. One Sunday afternoon, the day after her
+    arrival at Genoa, two Turkish slaves, in enjoyment of the
+    holiday's rest from labour, sauntered from their galley near
+    the mole. Seeing the Alarm's boat, they jumped into her,
+    wrapped themselves in the British colours, and exclaimed, "We
+    are free!" The Genoese officer on duty, however, ordered them
+    to be dragged out, which was done, though one of them tore away
+    in his struggle a piece of the boat's pendant. On the
+    circumstance reaching the captain's ears he was indignant, and
+    demanded instant reparation. To use his own language:&mdash;"I
+    required," said he, "of the Doge and Senate, that both the
+    slaves should be brought on board, with the part of the torn
+    pendant which the slave carried off with him; the officer of
+    the guard punished; and an apology made on the quarterdeck of
+    the Alarm, under the king's colours, for the outrage offered to
+    the British nation."</p>
+
+    <p>On the following Tuesday this was complied with in all the
+    particulars; but, unhappily, the government at home did not
+    exhibit the spirit of their gallant officer abroad; and in a
+    letter which he addressed to his brother he says:&mdash;"<i>I
+    had an opportunity of carrying the British flag, in relation to
+    two Turkish slaves, as high as Blake had ever done</i>, for
+    which I am publicly censured; though I hope we have too much
+    virtue left, for me not to be justified in private."</p>
+
+    <p>The result, however, of this transaction was, that for many
+    years afterwards, in the Barbary states, if a slave could but
+    touch the British colours, which all our men-of-war's boats
+    carry in foreign ports, he could of right demand his release.
+    This, however, was counteracted as far as possible by the
+    renewed vigilance of the Moors, who kept all their slaves out
+    of sight while a British flag flew in the harbour. The allusion
+    to the famous Blake shows with what studies the young officer
+    fed his mind, and in how high a spirit he was prepared to adopt
+    them.</p>
+
+    <p>Another instance of his skill and intrepidity soon followed.
+    In March 1770, the frigate, after a tempestuous cruise, came to
+    anchor at Marseilles. An equinoctial gale came on, and after
+    two days of desperate exertion, and throwing many of the guns
+    overboard, the frigate was driven from her anchors, stranded on
+    a reef of rocks, and the crew in such peril that they were
+    saved only by the most extraordinary exertions, and the
+    assistance of the people on shore. The port officer, M. de
+    Peltier, exhibited great kindness and activity, and the ship
+    was rapidly repaired, but with such an exact economy, that its
+    complete refit, with the expense of the crew for three months,
+    amounted only to &pound;1415.</p>
+
+    <p>The first act of this excellent son was to write to his
+    father:&mdash;"Do not be alarmed, my dear sir, at the newspaper
+    accounts which you will hear of the Alarm. The interposition
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page469"
+       id="page469"></a>[pg 469]</span> of Divine Providence has
+       miraculously preserved her. The same Providence will, I
+       hope, give long life to my dear father, mother, and
+       brother."</p>
+
+    <p>In July he wrote to his sister from Mahon, after the repairs
+    of the vessel:&mdash;"The Alarm is the completest thing I ever
+    saw on the water, insomuch that I forgot she was the other day,
+    in the opinion of most beholders, her own officers and crew not
+    excepted, a miserable sunken wreck. Such is the reward of
+    perseverance. Happily for my reputation, my health at that
+    period happened to be equal to the task, or I had been lost for
+    ever, instead of receiving continual marks of public and
+    private approbation of my conduct; but this is <i>entre
+    nous</i>. I never speak or write on the subject except to those
+    I most love. You will easily believe Barrington to be one; his
+    goodness to me is romantic."</p>
+
+    <p>It is gratifying to state, that the English Admiralty, on
+    the young captain's warm representation of the French
+    superintendent, M. de Peltier's hospitality and kindness, sent
+    a handsome piece of plate in public acknowledgment to that
+    officer; and, as if to make the compliment perfect in all its
+    parts, as it arrived before the frigate had left the station,
+    the captain had the indulgence of presenting it in person; thus
+    making, as his letter to his father mentioned, "the family of
+    Pleville de Peltier happy beyond description."</p>
+
+    <p>The frigate was soon after paid off, and as there was no
+    probability of his being speedily employed, he applied himself
+    to gain every species of knowledge connected with his
+    profession. We strongly doubt whether the example of this
+    rising officer is not even more important when we regard him in
+    peace than in the activity and daring of war. There is no want
+    of courage and conduct in the British fleet; but life on shore
+    offers too many temptations to indolence, to be always turned
+    to the use of which it is capable. Captain Jervis, on the
+    contrary, appears always to have regarded life on shore
+    preparatory to life afloat, and to be constantly employed in
+    laying up knowledge for those emergencies which so often occur
+    in the bold and perilous life of the sailor. There is often
+    something like a predictive spirit in the early career of great
+    men, which urges them to make provision for greatness; and
+    remote as is the condition of a captain of a smart frigate from
+    the commander of fleets, yet the captain of the Alarm, though
+    the least ostentatious of men, seems always to have had a
+    glance towards the highest duties of the British admiral.
+    "Time," says Franklin, "is the stuff that life is made of;" and
+    as France is the antagonist with which the power of England
+    naturally expects to struggle, his first object was to acquire
+    all possible knowledge of the naval means of France. The
+    primary step was to acquire a knowledge of the language.
+    Accordingly, he went to France, and placed himself in a
+    <i>pension</i>. There he applied himself so closely to the
+    study of the language, that his health became out of order, and
+    his family requested him to return. But this he declined, and
+    in his answer said that he had adopted this pursuit on the best
+    view a military man in his situation could form. "For it will
+    always," said he, "be useful to have a general idea of this
+    prevalent language, and a knowledge of the country with which
+    we have so long contended, and which must ever be our rival in
+    arms and commerce."</p>
+
+    <p>Having accomplished his object of acquiring sufficient
+    fluency in speaking French, his next excursion was to St
+    Petersburg. He and Captain Barrington went in a merchant
+    vessel, and reached Cronstadt. While at sea, Captain Jervis
+    kept a regular log. During the voyage, all the headlands are
+    described, all the soundings noted, and every opportunity to
+    test and correct the charts adopted. As an example, he remarks
+    on the castle of Cronenburg, which guards the entrance into the
+    Sound, that it may be overlooked by a line-of-battle ship,
+    which may anchor in good ground as near the beach as she
+    pleases. He remarks the two channels leading to Copenhagen,
+    puts all the lighthouses down on his own chart, and lays down
+    all the approaches to St Petersburg accurately; "because," said
+    he, "I find all the charts are incorrect, and it may be
+    useful." And he actually did find it useful; for when he was at
+    the head of the Admiralty, this knowledge enabled him, while
+    his colleagues <span class="pagenum"><a name="page470"
+       id="page470"></a>[pg 470]</span> hesitated, to give his
+       orders confidently to Sir Charles Pole, in command of the
+       Baltic fleet. His sojourn at St Petersburg was but brief;
+       but it was at a time of remarkable excitement. The Empress
+       Catharine was at the height of her splendour, a legislator
+       and a conqueror, and surrounded by a court exhibiting all
+       the daring and dashing characters of her vast empire. His
+       description of this celebrated woman's character on one
+       public occasion, shows the exactness with which he observed
+       every thing:&mdash;"When she entered the cathedral,
+       Catharine mingled her salutations to the saints and the
+       people, showing at once her compliance with religious
+       ceremonials, and her attentions to her servants and the
+       foreign ambassadors. But she showed no devotion, in which
+       she was not singular, old people and Cossack officers
+       excepted. During the sermon she took occasion to smile and
+       nod to those whom she meant to gratify; and surely no
+       sovereign ever possessed the power of pleasing all within
+       her eye to the degree she did. She was dressed in the
+       Guards' uniform, which was a scarlet pelisse, and a green
+       silk robe lapelled from top to bottom. Her hair was combed
+       neatly, and boxed <i>en militaire</i>, with a small cap, and
+       an ornament of diamonds in front; a blue riband, and the
+       order of St Andrew on her right shoulder."</p>
+
+    <p>He speaks of the empress excelling in that inclination of
+    the body which the Russian ladies substitute for the curtsy,
+    and which he justly regards as very becoming, the empress
+    adding dignity and grace. He describes Orloff as an herculean
+    figure, finely proportioned, with a cheerful eye, and, for a
+    Russian, a good complexion: Potemkin as having stature and
+    shoulders, but being ill limbed and of a most forbidding
+    countenance. His examination of the Russian dockyards, naval
+    armament, and general style of shipbuilding, was most exact;
+    and he records in his notes his having seen, in the naval
+    arsenals of Norway, sheds to cover ships on the stocks&mdash;an
+    important arrangement, which was afterwards claimed as an
+    invention at home.</p>
+
+    <p>After inspecting the harbours of Sweden and Norway, the
+    travellers returned by Holland, where they made similar
+    investigations. In the following year they renewed their tour
+    of inspection, and traversed the western parts of France. And
+    this active pursuit of knowledge was carried on without any
+    pecuniary assistance beyond his half-pay. He had hitherto made
+    no prize-money. "To be sure," he said in after days, "we
+    sometimes did fare rather roughly; but what signifies that now?
+    my object was attained."</p>
+
+    <p>His character was now high, but it is to be presumed that he
+    had some powerful interest; for on his return he was appointed
+    to two line-of-battle ships in succession, the Kent, 74, and
+    the Foudroyant, 84, a French prize, and reckoned the finest
+    two-decker in the navy.</p>
+
+    <p>From this period a new scene opened before him, and his
+    career became a part of the naval history of England. In 1778
+    he joined the Channel fleet, and his ship was placed by the
+    celebrated Keppel as one of his seconds in the order of battle,
+    and immediately astern of the admiral's ship, the Victory, on
+    the 27th of July, in the drawn battle off Ushant with the
+    French fleet commanded by D'Orvilliers. The people of England
+    are not content with drawn battles, and the result of this
+    action produced a general uproar. Keppel threw the blame on the
+    tardiness of Sir Hugh Palliser, the second in command. Palliser
+    retorted, and the result was a court-martial on the commander
+    of the fleet; which, however, ended in a triumphant acquittal.
+    It was not generally known that Keppel's defence, which was
+    admired as a model of intelligence, and even of eloquence, was
+    drawn up by Captain Jervis. The transaction, though so long
+    passed away, is not yet beyond discussion; and there is still
+    some interest in knowing the opinion of so powerful a mind on
+    the general subject. It was thus given in a private letter to
+    his friend Jackson:&mdash;"I do not agree that we were
+    outwitted. The French, I am convinced, never would have fought
+    us if they had not been surprised into it by a sudden flow of
+    wind; and when they formed their inimitable line after our
+    brush, it was merely to cover their intention of flight."</p>
+
+    <p>He then gives one of those comprehensive maxims which
+    already show <span class="pagenum"><a name="page471"
+       id="page471"></a>[pg 471]</span> the experienced
+       "admiral:"&mdash;"I have often told you that two fleets of
+       equal force can never produce decisive events, unless they
+       are equally determined to fight it out, or the
+       commander-in-chief of one of them misconducts his line." We
+       have then an instance of that manly feeling which is one of
+       the truest characteristics of greatness, and yet which has
+       been deficient in some very remarkable men.</p>
+
+    <p>"I perceive," says he, "it is the fashion of people to puff
+    themselves. For my part, I forbade my officers to write by the
+    frigate that carried the despatches. I did not write a syllable
+    myself, except touching my health; nor shall I, but to state
+    the intrepidity of the officers and people under my command,
+    (through the most infernal fire I ever saw or heard,) to Lord
+    Sandwich," (first lord of the Admiralty.) But one cannot feel
+    the merit of this self-denial without a glance at his actual
+    hazards and services during the battle.</p>
+
+    <p>"In justice to the Foudroyant," he thus ends his letter, "I
+    must observe to you, that though she received the fire of
+    seventeen sail, and had the Bretagne, Ville de Paris, and a
+    seventy-four on her at the same time, and appeared more
+    disabled in her masts and rigging than any other ship, she was
+    the first in the line of battle, and truly fitter for business,
+    in essentials, (because her people were cool,) than when she
+    began. <i>Keep this to yourself</i>, unless you hear too much
+    said in praise of others.</p>
+
+    <p style="text-align: right;">"J.J."</p>
+
+    <p>The national wrath was poured on Sir Hugh Palliser, Keppel's
+    second in command, whose tardiness in obeying signals was
+    charged as the cause of the French escape; so strong had
+    already become the national assurance that a British fleet
+    could go forth only to victory. But the succession of
+    courts-martial cleared up nothing except the characters of the
+    two admirals. Palliser was enabled to show that his ship had
+    suffered so much from the enemy's fire as to be at least
+    (plausibly) unfit for close action, and the whole dispute on
+    land closed, like the naval conflict, in a drawn battle. Jervis
+    was the chief witness for Keppel, as serving next his ship; and
+    his testimony was of the highest order to the gallantry, skill,
+    and perseverance of the admiral. But Palliser was acknowledged
+    to be brave; and it is evident from Jervis's personal opinion,
+    that when it was once the object of the enemy's commander to
+    get away, it was next to impossible to have prevented his
+    escape.</p>
+
+    <p>But these were trying times for the British navy: it was
+    scarcely acquainted with its own strength; the nation,
+    disgusted with the nature of the American war, refused its
+    sympathy; without that sympathy ministers could do nothing
+    effectual, and never can do any thing effectual. The character
+    of the cabinet was feebleness, the spirit of the metropolis was
+    faction; the king, though one of the best of men, was
+    singularly unpopular; and the war became a system of feeble
+    defence against arrogant and increasing hostilities. France,
+    powerful as she was, became more powerful by the national
+    exultation&mdash;the frenzied rejoicing in the success of
+    American revolt&mdash;and the revived hope of European
+    supremacy in a nation which had been broken down since the days
+    of Marlborough; a crush which had been felt in every sinew of
+    France for a hundred angry years. Spain, always strong, but
+    unable to use her strength, had now given it in to the training
+    of discipline; and the combined fleets presented a display of
+    force, which, in the haughty language of the Tuileries, was
+    formed to sweep the seas.</p>
+
+    <p>The threat was put in rapid and unexpected execution. The
+    combined fleet moved up the Channel; and to the surprise, the
+    sorrow, and the indignation of England, the British fleet,
+    under Sir Charles Hardy, was seen making, what could only be
+    called "a dignified retreat." The Foudroyant, on that
+    melancholy occasion, had been astern of the Victory, the
+    admiral's ship. If Jervis had been admiral, he would have tried
+    the fate of battle&mdash;and he would have done right. No
+    result of a battle could have been so painful to the national
+    feelings, or so injurious in its effects on the feelings of
+    Europe, as that retreat. If the whole British fleet on that
+    occasion had perished, its gallantry would have only raised a
+    new spirit of worth and power in the nation; and England has
+    resources that, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page472"
+       id="page472"></a>[pg 472]</span> when once fully called into
+       exertion, are absolutely unconquerable. But that was a
+       dishonour; and even now we can echo the feelings of the
+       brave and high-minded young officer, who was condemned to
+       share in the disgrace. He writes to his sister, as if to
+       relieve the fulness of his heart at the moment&mdash;"I am
+       in the most humbled state of mind I ever experienced, from
+       the retreat we have made before the combined fleets all
+       <i>yesterday</i> and <i>this morning</i>." The Admiralty
+       ultimately gave the retreating admiral an official
+       certificate of good behaviour, "their high approbation of
+       Sir Charles Hardy's wise and prudent conduct;" but "gallant
+       and bold conduct" would have been a better testimonial. The
+       truth seems to be, that the Admiralty, blamable themselves
+       in sending him to sea with an inadequate force, and scarcely
+       expecting to escape if they had suffered him to lie under
+       the charge, were glad to avail themselves of his personal
+       character as a man of known bravery; and thus quash a
+       process which must finally have brought them before the
+       tribunal. But let naval officers remember, that the officer
+       who fights is the officer of the nation. Nelson's maxim is
+       unanswerable&mdash;"The captain cannot be mistaken who lays
+       his ship alongside the enemy."</p>
+
+    <p>This, too, was a period of cabinet revolutions. No
+    favouritism can sustain a ministry which has become disgustful
+    to the nation. Lord North, though ingenious, dexterous, and
+    long enough in possession of power to have filled all its
+    offices with his dependents, was driven from the premiership
+    with such a storm of national contempt, that he could scarcely
+    be sheltered by the curtains of the throne. Lord Rockingham, a
+    dull minister, was transformed into a brilliant one by his
+    contrast with the national weariness of Lord North; and it fell
+    to the lot of Captain Jervis to give the country the first omen
+    of returning victory. France had already combined Holland in
+    her alliance, and the French minister, already made insolent by
+    his triumph in the Channel, had determined on a blow in a
+    quarter where English interests were most vulnerable, and where
+    the assault was least expected. A squadron of French
+    line-of-battle ships, convoying a fleet of transports, were
+    prepared for an expedition to the East Indies.</p>
+
+    <p>The preparations for the combined movement were on an
+    immense scale. The fleets of France, Spain, and Holland were
+    again to sweep the Channel; and while the attention of the
+    British fleets was thus engrossed, the Eastern expedition was
+    to sail from Brest. The Admiralty, in order to counteract, or
+    at least delay, this formidable movement, immediately
+    dispatched Admiral Barrington, with twelve sail of the line, to
+    cruise in the bay of Biscay. On the 18th of April the French
+    expedition sailed, and on the 20th, when Admiral Barrington had
+    reached a few leagues beyond Ushant, the Artois frigate
+    signaled a hostile fleet, but could not discover their flag or
+    numbers. The signal being made for a general chase, the
+    Foudroyant, Jervis's ship, soon left the rest of the fleet
+    behind; and before night she had so much gained upon the enemy
+    as to ascertain that they were six French ships of war, with
+    eighteen sail of convoy. The whole of the British fleet, being
+    several leagues astern, was now lost sight of, and did not come
+    up till the following day. In the mean time Jervis was left
+    alone. At ten at night, the French ships of war separating,
+    Jervis, selecting the largest for pursuit, prepared to attack:
+    at twelve, he had approached near enough to see that the chase
+    was a ship of the line. The Foudroyant's superior
+    man&oelig;uvring enabled her to commence the engagement by a
+    raking fire. Its effect was so powerful, that the enemy was
+    thrown into extreme disorder, and was carried by boarding,
+    after an action of only three quarters of an hour. The prize
+    was the P&eacute;gase, seventy-four. The loss of life on board
+    the enemy was great; but by an extraordinary piece of good
+    fortune, on board the Foudroyant not a man was killed, Captain
+    Jervis and five seamen being the only wounded.</p>
+
+    <p>To the gallantry which produced this striking success, the
+    young officer added extreme delicacy with respect to his
+    prisoners. He would not allow the first boat to be sent on
+    board the prize, until he had given written orders for the
+    particular preservation <span class="pagenum"><a name="page473"
+       id="page473"></a>[pg 473]</span> of every thing in the shape
+       of property belonging to the French officers, adding at the
+       bottom of his memorandum,&mdash;"For though I have the
+       highest opinion of my officers, we must not be suspected of
+       designs to plunder."</p>
+
+    <p>The result of the action was, that sixteen transports out of
+    twenty were taken, according to the letter of young Ricketts,
+    the captain's nephew. It must be owned, that brave as the
+    French are, their admiral made but a bad figure in this
+    business: why the sight of one vessel should have been
+    sufficient to disperse a fleet of six men-of-war, and of course
+    ruin an expedition which must thus be left without convoy, is
+    not easily to be accounted for; or why, when the admiral saw
+    that his pursuer was but a single ship, he should not have
+    turned upon him and crushed him, it is equally difficult to
+    say. It only shows that his court wanted common sense as much
+    as he wanted discretion. The expedition was destroyed, and the
+    Foudroyant had the whole honour of the victory.</p>
+
+    <p>An action between single ships of this force is rare at any
+    period, and nothing could be nearer a match in point of
+    equipment then the two ships. The Foudroyant had the larger
+    tonnage, and carried three more guns on her broadside; but the
+    P&eacute;gase threw a greater weight of shot, had a more
+    numerous crew, and a large proportion of soldiers on board. The
+    English ship, however, had the incomparable advantage of a crew
+    which had sailed together for six years, and been disciplined
+    by such an officer as Jervis.</p>
+
+    <p>The ministry and the king were equally rejoiced at this
+    return of the naval distinctions of the country, and the
+    immediate consequence was, the conferring of a baronetcy and
+    the order of the Bath upon the gallant officer. Congratulations
+    of all kinds were poured upon him by the ministry, his admiral,
+    and his brother officers. The admiral writes, in speaking of
+    the squadron's cruise, "but the P&eacute;gase is every thing,
+    and does the highest honour to Jervis."</p>
+
+    <p>Another instance of his decision, and, as in all probability
+    will be thought, of the clearness of his judgment, was shortly
+    after given in the memorable relief of Gibraltar. As it was
+    likely that the combined fleets of France and Spain would
+    oppose the passage of the British, Lord Howe, at an early
+    period, called the flag-officers and captains on board the
+    Victory, and proposed to them the question&mdash;Whether,
+    considering the superiority of the enemy's numbers, it might
+    not be advisable to fight the battle at night, when British
+    discipline might counterbalance the numerical superiority? All
+    the officers junior to Jervis gave their opinion for the night
+    attack, but he dissented. "Expressing his regret that he must
+    offer an opinion, not only contrary to that of his brother
+    officers, but also, as he feared, to that of his
+    commander-in-chief, he was convinced that battle in the day
+    would be greatly preferable. In the first place, because it
+    would give an opportunity for the display of his lordship's
+    tactics, and afford the means of taking prompt advantage of any
+    mistake of the enemy, change of the wind, or any other
+    favourable circumstance; while in the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e of a
+    battle at night, there must always be greater risk of
+    separation, and of ships receiving the fire of their friends as
+    well as their foes." It is obvious to every comprehension, that
+    a night action must preclude all man&oelig;uvring, and prevent
+    the greater skill of the tactician from having any advantage
+    over the blunderer who turns his ships into mere batteries. The
+    only officer who coincided with Jervis was Admiral Barrington,
+    who gave as an additional and a just argument for the attack by
+    day, that it would give an opportunity of ascertaining the
+    conduct of the respective captains in action. On those opinions
+    Lord Howe made no comment; but it is presumed that he
+    ultimately agreed with them, from his conduct in the celebrated
+    action of the 1st of June 1794, when he had the enemy's fleet
+    directly to leeward of him from the night before.</p>
+
+    <p>In the relief of Gibraltar, the Foudroyant had the honour to
+    be the ship which was dispatched from the fleet to escort the
+    victuallers into the harbour, which was accomplished amid the
+    acclamations of the garrison. It had been expected that Lord
+    Howe would have attacked the combined fleets, and the nation of
+    course looked forward to a victory; but they were disappointed.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page474"
+       id="page474"></a>[pg 474]</span> The fact is, that Lord
+       Howe, though a brave man, and what is generally regarded as
+       a good officer, was of a different class of mind from the
+       Jervises and Nelsons. He did his duty, but he did no more.
+       The men who were yet to give a character to the navy did
+       more than their duty, suffered no opportunity of distinction
+       to escape them, relied on the invincibility of British
+       prowess when it was boldly directed, and by that reliance
+       rendered it invincible.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a kindness and generosity of nature in this future
+    "thunderbolt of war," which shows how compatible the gentler
+    feelings are with the gallant daring, and comprehensive talent
+    of the great commander. Having happened to receive the Duc de
+    Chabelais on board his ship when at Cadiz, the politeness of
+    his reception caused the Sardinian prince to exhibit his
+    gratitude in some handsome presents to the officers. One of
+    Jervis's letters mentions, that the prince had given to each of
+    the lieutenants a handsome gold box; to the lieutenant of
+    marines and five of the midshipmen gold watches; and to the
+    other officers and ship's company, a princely sum of money.</p>
+
+    <p>"I pride myself," he adds, "exceedingly in the presents
+    being so diffused; on all former occasions they have centred in
+    the captain." In another letter he says,&mdash;"I was
+    twenty-four hours in the bay of Marseilles about a fortnight
+    ago, just time to receive the warm embraces of a man to whose
+    bravery and friendship I had some months before been indebted
+    for my reputation, the preservation of the people under my
+    command, and of the Alarm. You would have felt infinite
+    pleasure at the scene of our interview." In a letter to the
+    under-secretary of the Admiralty, he says,&mdash;"My dear
+    Jackson, you must allow me to interest your humanity in favour
+    of poor Spicer, who, overwhelmed with dropsy, asthma, and a
+    large family, and with nothing but his pay to support him under
+    those afflictions, is appointed to the &mdash;&mdash; under a
+    mean man, and very likely to go to the East Indies. The letter
+    which he writes to the Board, desiring to be excused from his
+    appointment, is dictated by me."</p>
+
+    <p>He then mentions a contingency, "in which case I shall write
+    for Spicer to be first lieutenant of the Foudroyant, with
+    intention to nurse him, and keep him clear of all expense."
+    Shortly after the Foudroyant was paid off, Sir John Jervis was
+    united to a lady to whom he had long been attached, the
+    daughter of Sir Thomas Parker, Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
+    Every man in England, as he rises into distinction, necessarily
+    becomes a politician. It was the misfortune of Sir John Jervis,
+    and it was his only misfortune, that he was a politician before
+    he had risen into distinction. Having had the ill luck to
+    profess himself a Whig, at a period when he could scarcely have
+    known the nature of the connexion, he unhappily adhered to it
+    long after Whiggism had ceased to possess either public utility
+    or national respect. But his Whiggism was unconscious Toryism
+    after all: it was what even his biographer is forced to call
+    it, Whig Royalism, or pretty nearly what Blake's Republicanism
+    was&mdash;a determination to raise his country to the highest
+    eminence to which his talents and bravery could contribute,
+    without regarding by whom the government was administered. At
+    the general election of 1784, he sat for Yarmouth.</p>
+
+    <p>In 1787, Sir John Jervis was promoted to the rank of
+    rear-admiral. At the general election in 1790, he was returned
+    for Wycombe, and shared in parliament the successive defeats of
+    his party; until, in 1793, he was called to a nobler field, in
+    which, unembarrassed by party, and undegraded by Whiggism, his
+    talents took their natural direction in the cause of his
+    country. It is now scarcely necessary to remark upon the narrow
+    system of enterprise with which England began the great
+    revolutionary war; nor can it now be doubted that, if the
+    energies of the country had been directed to meet the enemy in
+    Europe, measureless misfortunes might have been averted. If the
+    succession of fleets and armies which were wasted upon the
+    conquest of the French West Indies, had been employed in the
+    protection of the feebler European states, there can be no
+    question that the progress of the French armies would have been
+    signally retarded, if invasion had
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page475"
+       id="page475"></a>[pg 475]</span> not been thrown back over
+       the French frontier. For instance, it would have been
+       utterly impossible for Napoleon, in 1796, to have marched
+       triumphantly throughout Italy with the British fleet
+       covering the coast, commanding all the harbours, and ready
+       to throw in troops in aid of the insurrections in his
+       rear.</p>
+
+    <p>But it was the policy of the time to pacify the merchants,
+    whose bugbear was a negro insurrection in the West Indies; and
+    whether the genius or the fears of Pitt gave way to the
+    impression, the consequence was equally lamentable&mdash;the
+    mighty power of England was wasted on the capture of sugar
+    islands, which we did not want, which we could not cultivate,
+    and which cost the lives, by disease and climate, of ten times
+    the number of gallant men who might have saved Europe. At the
+    close of 1793, a grand expedition against the French Caribbee
+    islands was resolved upon by the British cabinet; and it is a
+    remarkable instance of both the reputation of Sir John Jervis
+    and the impartiality of the great minister, that a Whig member
+    of parliament should have been chosen to command the naval part
+    of the expedition.</p>
+
+    <p>The expedition consisted of twenty-two ships of war and six
+    thousand troops, the troops divided into three brigades, of
+    which one was commanded by the late Duke of Kent. Sir John
+    Jervis hoisted his flag as vice-admiral of the blue on the 3d
+    of October.</p>
+
+    <p>A ludicrous circumstance occurred in the instance of a
+    favourite officer, Mr Bayntun, who had applied for permission
+    to join Sir John. Bayntun received in answer the following
+    decisive note: "Sir, your having thought fit to take to
+    yourself a wife, you are to look for no further attention from
+    your humble servant, J. JERVIS." It happened that Bayntun was a
+    bachelor, and he instantly wrote an exculpatory letter, denying
+    that he had been guilty of so formidable a charge. The mistake
+    arose from a misdirection in two notes which the admiral had
+    written on the same subject. He had left them to Lady Jervis to
+    direct, and she had addressed them to the wrong persons. The
+    consequence, however, was, that Bayntun received the
+    appointment, and the married man the refusal. This inveteracy
+    against married officers seems strange in one who had committed
+    the same crime himself; yet he constantly persisted in calling
+    officers who married moon-struck, and appears at all times to
+    have regarded matrimony in the service as little short of
+    personal ruin.</p>
+
+    <p>On the passage out, a curious circumstance occurred to the
+    Zebra frigate, under command of the gallant Robert Faulknor.
+    The Zebra, which had been separated from the rest of the
+    squadron, saw one evening a ship on the horizon. All sail was
+    made in chase, and the ship was discovered to be a twenty-eight
+    gun frigate. All contrivances were adopted to induce her to
+    show her colours, but without success. At length Faulknor,
+    impatient of delay, and disregarding the disparity of force,
+    closed upon her, and jumped on board at the head of his men. To
+    his astonishment he found that she was a Dutch frigate, quietly
+    pursuing her way; and as Holland was at peace with England,
+    equally unexpecting and unprepared for an attack. This instance
+    of apathy night have procured her a broadside; but luckily the
+    affair finished with the shaking of hands.</p>
+
+    <p>On the 5th of February the expedition reached Martinique. On
+    the 18th of March Fort Lewis was stormed, General Rochambeau
+    capitulated, and Martinique was taken, St Lucie followed, the
+    Saintes next fell, and the final conquest was Guadaloupe. Thus
+    in three months the capture of the French islands was
+    complete.</p>
+
+    <p>But an enemy more formidable than the sword was now to be
+    encountered. The yellow fever began its ravages. The troops
+    perished in such numbers, that the regiments were reduced to
+    skeletons; and just at the moment when the disease was at its
+    height, Victor Hughes was dispatched from France with an
+    expedition. The islands fell one by one into his hands, and the
+    campaign was utterly thrown away.</p>
+
+    <p>The romantic portion of the European campaigns now began.
+    The French Directory, unpopular at home, wearied by the
+    sanguinary successes of the Vend&eacute;an insurrection, and
+    baffled in their invasion of Germany, were in a condition of
+    the greatest perplexity, when a new wonder of war taught France
+    again to conquer. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page476"
+       id="page476"></a>[pg 476]</span> Napoleon Bonaparte, since
+       so memorable, but then known only as commanding a company of
+       artillery at Toulon, and repelling the armed mob in Paris,
+       was appointed to command the army on the Italian frontier.
+       Even now, with all our knowledge of his genius, and the
+       splendid experience of his successes, his sudden elevation,
+       his daring offer of command, his plan of the Italian
+       campaign, and his almost instantaneous victories, are
+       legitimate matter of astonishment. In him we have the
+       instance of a young man of twenty-six, who had never seen a
+       campaign, who had never commanded a brigade, nor even a
+       regiment, undertaking the command of an army, proposing the
+       invasion of a country of eighteen millions, garrisoned by
+       the army of one of the greatest military powers of Europe,
+       which had nearly 300,000 soldiers in the field, and which
+       was in the most intimate alliance with all the sovereigns of
+       Italy. Yet, extravagant as all those conceptions seem, and
+       improbable as those results certainly were, two campaigns
+       saw every project realized&mdash;Italy conquered, the Tyrol,
+       the great southern barrier of Austria, overpassed, and peace
+       signed within a hundred miles of Vienna. The invasion of
+       Italy first awoke the British ministry to the true direction
+       of the vast naval powers of England. To save Italy if
+       possible, was the primary object; the next was to prevent
+       the superiority of the French fleet in the Mediterranean. A
+       powerful fleet had been prepared in Toulon, for the purpose
+       of aiding the French army in its invasion, and finally
+       taking possession of all the ports and islands, until it
+       should have realized the project of Louis XIV., of turning
+       the Mediterranean into a French lake. It was determined to
+       keep up a powerful British fleet to oppose this project, and
+       Sir John Jervis was appointed to the command. Nothing could
+       be a higher testimony to the opinion entertained of his
+       talents, as his connexion with the Whigs was undisguised.
+       But Pitt's feeling for the public service overcame all
+       personal predilections, and this great officer was sent to
+       take the command of the most extensive and important station
+       to which a British admiral could be appointed. Lord Hood had
+       previously declined it, on the singular plea of inadequacy
+       of force; and Sir Charles Hotham having solicited his recall
+       in consequence of declining health, the gallant Jervis was
+       sent forth to establish the renown of his country and his
+       own.</p>
+
+    <p>The fleet was a noble command. It consisted on the whole of
+    about twenty-five sail of the line, two of them of a hundred
+    guns, and five of ninety-eight; thirty-six frigates, and
+    fifteen or sixteen sloops and other armed vessels.</p>
+
+    <p>Among the officers of the fleet were almost all the names
+    which subsequently obtained distinction in the great naval
+    victories&mdash;Troubridge, Hallowell, Hood, Collingwood,
+    &amp;c., and first of the first, that star of the British
+    seaman, Nelson. It is remarkable, and only a just tribute to
+    the new admiral, that he, almost from his earliest intercourse
+    with those gallant men, marked their merits, although hitherto
+    they had found no opportunities of acquiring
+    distinction&mdash;all were to come. Nelson, in writing to his
+    wife, speaking of the admiral's notice of him, says, "Sir John
+    Jervis was a perfect stranger to me, therefore I feel the more
+    flattered." The admiral, in writing to the secretary of the
+    Admiralty, says&mdash;"I am afraid of being thought a puffer,
+    like many of my brethren, or I should before have dealt out to
+    the Board the merits of Captain Troubridge, which are very
+    uncommon."</p>
+
+    <p>The French fleet, of fifteen sail of the line, lay in
+    Toulon, ready to convoy an army to plunge upon the Roman
+    states. Sir John Jervis instantly proceeded to block up Toulon,
+    keeping what is called the in-shore squadron looking into the
+    harbour's mouth, while the main body cruised outside. The
+    admiral at once employed Nelson on the brilliant service for
+    which he was fitted, and sent him with a flying squadron of a
+    ship of the line, three frigates, and two sloops, to scour the
+    coast of Italy. The duties of the Mediterranean fleet, powerful
+    as the armament was, were immense. Independently of the
+    blockade of Toulon, and the necessity of continually watching
+    the enemy's fleet, which might be brought out by the same wind
+    which blew off the British, the admiral had the responsibility
+    of protecting the Mediterranean convoys, of sustaining the
+    British interests <span class="pagenum"><a name="page477"
+       id="page477"></a>[pg 477]</span> in the neutral courts, of
+       assisting the allies on shore, of overawing the Barbary
+       powers, which were then peculiarly restless and insolent,
+       and of upholding the general supremacy of England, from
+       Smyrna to Gibraltar.</p>
+
+    <p>The French campaign opened on the 9th of April 1797, and the
+    Austrians were beaten on the following day at Montenotte, and
+    in a campaign of a month Bonaparte reached Milan. The success
+    of the enemy increased to an extraordinary degree the
+    difficulties of the British admiral. The repairs of the fleet,
+    the provisioning, and every other circumstance connected with
+    the land, lay under increased impediments; but they were all
+    gradually overcome by the vigilance and intelligence of the
+    admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>A curious and characteristic circumstance occurred, soon
+    after his taking the command. Nelson had captured a vessel
+    carrying 152 Austrian grenadiers, who had been made prisoners
+    by the French, and actually sold by their captors to the
+    Spaniards, for the purpose of enlisting them in the Spanish
+    army. His letter to Jackson, the secretary of legation at
+    Turin, on this subject, spiritedly expresses his
+    feelings:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"SIR,&mdash;From a Swiss dealer in human flesh, the
+        demand made upon me to deliver up 152 Austrian grenadiers,
+        serving on board his Majesty's fleet under my command, is
+        natural enough, but that a Spaniard, who is a noble
+        creature, should join in such a demand, I must confess
+        astonishes me; and I can only account for it by the
+        Chevalier Caamano being ignorant that the persons in
+        question were made prisoners of war in the last war with
+        General Beaulieu, and are not deserters, and that they were
+        most basely sold by the French commissaries to the vile
+        crimps who recruit for the foreign regiments in the service
+        of Spain. It is high time a stop should be put to this
+        abominable traffic, a million times more disgraceful than
+        the African slave-trade."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>But other dangers now menaced the British supremacy in the
+    Mediterranean. The victories of Bonaparte had terrified all the
+    Italian states into neutrality or absolute submission; and the
+    success of the Directory, and perhaps their bribes, influenced
+    the miserably corrupt and feeble Spanish ministry, to make
+    common cause with the conquering republic. Spain at last became
+    openly hostile. This was a tremendous increase of hazards,
+    because Spain had fifty-seven sail of the line, and a crowd of
+    frigates. The difficulty of blockading Toulon was now increased
+    by the failure of provisions. On the night of the 2d of
+    November, the admiral sent for the master of the Victory, and
+    told him that he now had not the least hope of being
+    reinforced, and had made up his mind to push down to Gibraltar
+    with all possible dispatch.</p>
+
+    <p>The passage became a stormy one, and it was with
+    considerable difficulty that the fleet reached Gibraltar. Some
+    of the transports were lost, a ship of the line went down, and
+    several of the fleet were disabled.</p>
+
+    <p>The result of the French successes and the Austrian
+    misfortunes, was an order for the fleet to leave the
+    Mediterranean, and take up its station at the Tagus. The vivid
+    spirit of Nelson was especially indignant at this change of
+    scene. In one of his letters he says&mdash;"We are preparing to
+    leave the Mediterranean, a measure which I cannot approve. They
+    at home do not know what this fleet is capable of
+    performing&mdash;any thing, and every thing. Of all the fleets
+    I ever saw, I never saw one, in point of officers and men,
+    equal to Sir John Jervis's, who is a commander able to lead
+    them to glory." The admiral's merits were recognized by the
+    government in a still more permanent manner; for, by a despatch
+    from the Admiralty in February 1797, it was announced that the
+    king had raised him to the dignity of the peerage.</p>
+
+    <p>The prospect now darkened round every quarter of the
+    horizon. The power of Austria had given way; Spain and Holland
+    were combined against our naval supremacy; Italy was lost; a
+    French expedition threatened Ireland; there was a strong
+    probability of the invasion of Portugal; and the junction of
+    the French and Spanish fleets might endanger not merely the
+    Tagus fleet, but expose the Channel fleet to an encounter with
+    numbers so superior, as to leave the British shores open to
+    invasion. The domestic difficulties, too, had
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page478"
+       id="page478"></a>[pg 478]</span> their share. The necessity
+       of suspending cash payments at the Bank had, if not thrown a
+       damp upon the nation, at least given so formidable a ground
+       for the fallacies and bitterness of the Opposition, as
+       deeply to embarrass even the fortitude of the great
+       minister. We can now see how slightly all these hazards
+       eventually affected the real power of England; and we now
+       feel how fully adequate the strength of this extraordinary
+       and inexhaustible country was to resist all obstacles and
+       turn the trial into triumph. But faction was busy, party
+       predicted ruin, public men used every art to dispirit the
+       nation and inflame the populace; and the result was, a state
+       of public anxiety of which no former war had given the
+       example.</p>
+
+    <p>It is incontestable that the list of the British navy at
+    this period of the war exhibited some of the noblest specimens
+    of English character&mdash;brave, intelligent, and
+    indefatigable men, ready for any service, and equal for all;
+    with all the intrepidity of heroes, possessing the highest
+    science of their profession, and exhibiting at once that
+    lion-heartedness, and that knowledge, which gave the British
+    navy the command of the ocean. And yet, if we were to assign
+    the highest place where all were high, we should probably
+    assign it to Lord St Vincent as an admiral. Nelson certainly,
+    as an executive officer, defies all competition; his three
+    battles, Copenhagen, Aboukir, and Trafalgar, each of them a
+    title to eminent distinction, place him as a conqueror at the
+    head of all. But an admiral has other duties than those of the
+    line of battle; and for a great naval administrator, first
+    disciplining a fleet, then supplying it with all the means of
+    victory, and finally leading it to victory&mdash;Lord St
+    Vincent was perhaps the most complete example on record of all
+    the combined qualities that make the British admiral. His
+    profound tactics, his stern but salutary exactness of command,
+    his incomparable judgment, and his cool and unhesitating
+    intrepidity, form one of the very noblest models of high
+    command. All those qualities were now to be called into full
+    exertion.</p>
+
+    <p>The continental campaign had left Europe at the mercy of
+    France. England was now the only enemy, and she was to be
+    assailed, in the first instance, by a naval war. To prevent the
+    junction of the Spanish and French fleets, the Tagus was the
+    station fixed upon by Lord St Vincent. Ill luck seemed to frown
+    upon the fleet. The Bombay Castle, a seventy-four, was lost
+    going in; the St George, a ninety, grounded in coming out, and
+    was obliged to be docked; still the admiral determined to keep
+    the sea, though his fleet was reduced to eight sail of the
+    line. The day before he left the Tagus, information was
+    received that the enemy's fleets had both left the
+    Mediterranean. The French had gone to Brest, the Spanish first
+    to Toulon, then to Carthagena, and was now proceeding to join
+    the French at Brest. A reinforcement of six sail of the line
+    now fortunately joined the fleet off the Tagus; but at the same
+    time information was received that the Spanish fleet of
+    twenty-seven sail of the line, with fourteen frigates, had
+    passed Cadiz, and could not be far distant. To prevent the
+    junction of this immense force with the powerful fleet already
+    prepared for a start in Brest, was of the utmost national
+    importance; for, combined, they must sweep the Channel. The
+    admiral instantly formed his plan, and sailed for Cape St
+    Vincent.</p>
+
+    <p>The details of the magnificent encounter which followed, are
+    among the best portions of the volumes. They are strikingly
+    given, and will attract the notice, as they might form the
+    model, of the future historian of this glorious period of our
+    annals. We can now give only an outline.</p>
+
+    <p>On the announcement of the Spanish advance, the first object
+    was to gain exact intelligence, and ships were stationed in all
+    quarters on the look-out. But on the 13th Captain Foote, in the
+    Niger frigate, joined, with the intelligence that he had kept
+    sight of the enemy for three days. The admiral was now to have
+    a new reinforcement, not in ships but in heroes; the Minerva
+    frigate, bearing Nelson's broad pendant, from the
+    Mediterranean, arrived, and Nelson shifted his pendant into the
+    Captain. The Lively frigate, with Lord Garlies, also arrived
+    from Corsica. The signal was made, "To keep close order, and
+    prepare for battle." On that day,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page479"
+       id="page479"></a>[pg 479]</span> Lord Garlies, Sir Gilbert
+       Elliot, and Captain Hallowell, with some other officers,
+       dined on board the Victory. At breaking up, the toast was
+       drunk, "Victory over the Dons, in the battle from which they
+       cannot escape to-morrow!"</p>
+
+    <p>The "gentlemen of England who live at home at ease," can
+    probably have but little conception of the price which men in
+    high command pay for glory. No language can describe the
+    anxieties which have often exercised the minds of those bold
+    and prominent characters, of whom we now know little but of
+    their laurels. The solemn responsibilities of their condition,
+    the consciousness that a false step might be ruin, the feeling
+    that the eye of their country was fixed upon them, the hope of
+    renown, the dread of tarnishing all their past distinctions,
+    must pass powerfully and painfully through the mind of men
+    fitted for the struggles by which greatness is to be alone
+    achieved.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is believed that Sir John Jervis did not go to bed that
+    night, but sat up writing. It is certain that he executed his
+    will." In the course of the first and second watches, the
+    enemy's signal-guns were distinctly heard; and, as he noticed
+    them sounding more and more audibly, Sir John made more earnest
+    enquiries as to the compact order and situation of his own
+    ships, as well as they could be made out in the darkness. Long
+    before break of day, he walked the deck in more than even his
+    usual silence. When the grey of the morning of the 14th enabled
+    him to discern his fleet, his first remarks were high
+    approbation of his captains, for "their admirably close order,
+    and that he wished they were now well up with the enemy; for,"
+    added he thoughtfully, "a victory is very essential to England
+    at this moment."</p>
+
+    <p>Now came on the day of decision. The morning was foggy; but
+    as the mist cleared up, the Lively, and then the Niger,
+    signaled "a strange fleet." The Bonne Citoyenne was next
+    ordered to reconnoitre. Soon after, the Culloden's guns
+    announced the enemy. At twenty minutes past ten the signal was
+    made to six of the ships&mdash;"to chase." Sir John still
+    walked the quarterdeck, and, as the enemy's numbers were
+    counted, they were duly reported to him by the captain of the
+    fleet.</p>
+
+    <p>"There are eight sail of the line, Sir John."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are twenty sail of the line, Sir John."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are twenty-five sail of the line, Sir John."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are twenty-seven sail of the line, Sir John." This
+    was accompanied by some remark on the great disparity of the
+    two forces. Sir John's gallant answer now was:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Enough, sir&mdash;no more of that: the die is cast, and if
+    there are fifty sail, I will go through them."</p>
+
+    <p>At forty minutes past ten the signal was made to form line
+    of battle ahead and astern of the Victory, and to steer S.S.W.
+    The fog was now cleared off, and the British fleet were seen
+    admirably formed in the closest order; while the Spaniards were
+    stretching in two straggling bodies across the horizon, leaving
+    an open space between. The opportunity of dividing their fleet
+    struck the admiral at once, and at half-past eleven the signal
+    was made to pass through the enemy's line, and engage them to
+    leeward. At twelve o'clock, as the Culloden was reaching close
+    up to the enemy, the British fleet hoisted their colours, and
+    the Culloden opened her fire. An extraordinary incident, even
+    in those colossal battles, occurred to this fine ship. The
+    course of the Culloden brought her directly on board one of the
+    enemy's three-deckers. The first lieutenant, Griffiths,
+    reported to her captain, Troubridge, that a collision was
+    inevitable. "Can't help it, Griffiths&mdash;let the weakest
+    fend off," was the hero's reply. The Culloden, still pushing
+    on, fired two of her double-shotted broadsides into the
+    Spaniard with such tremendous effect, that the three-decker
+    went about, and the guns of her other side not being even cast
+    loose, she did not fire a single shot, while the Culloden
+    passed triumphantly through. Scarcely had she broken the
+    enemy's line, than the commander-in-chief signaled the order to
+    tack in succession. Troubridge's man&oelig;uvre was so
+    dashingly performed, that the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page480"
+       id="page480"></a>[pg 480]</span> admiral could not restrain
+       his delight and admiration.</p>
+
+    <p>"Look, Jackson," he rapturously exclaimed, "look at
+    Troubridge there! He tacks his ship to battle as if the eyes of
+    all England were upon him; and would to God they were, for then
+    they would see him to be what I know him."</p>
+
+    <p>The leeward division of the enemy, perceiving the fatal
+    consequences of their disunited order of sailing, now
+    endeavoured to retrieve the day, and to break through the
+    British line. A vice-admiral, in a three-decker, led them, and
+    was reaching up to the Victory just as she had come up to tack
+    in her station. The vice-admiral stood on with great apparent
+    determination till within pistol-shot, but there he stopped;
+    and when the Victory could bring her guns to bear upon him, she
+    thundered in two of her broadsides, sweeping the Spaniard's
+    decks, and so terrified him, that when his sails filled, he ran
+    clear out of the battle altogether. The Victory then tacked
+    into her station, and the conflict raged with desperate fury.
+    At this period of the battle, the Spanish commander-in-chief
+    bore up with nine sail of the line to run round the British,
+    and rejoin his leeward division. This was a formidable
+    man&oelig;uvre; but no sooner was it commenced, than his eye
+    caught it "whose greatest wish it ever was to be the first to
+    find, and foremost to fight, his enemy." Nelson, instead of
+    waiting till his turn to tack should bring him into action,
+    took it upon himself to depart from the prescribed mode of
+    attack, and ordered his ship to be immediately wore. This
+    masterly man&oelig;uvre was completely successful, at once
+    arresting the Spanish commander-in-chief, and carrying Nelson
+    and Collingwood into the van and brunt of the battle. He now
+    attacked the four-decker, the Santissima Trinidada, also
+    engaged by the Culloden. The Captain's fore-topmast being now
+    shot away, Nelson put his helm down, and let her come to the
+    wind, that he might board the San Nicolas; Captain, afterwards
+    Sir Edward Berry, then a passenger with Nelson, jumping into
+    her mizen-chains, was the first in the enemy's ship; Nelson
+    leading his boarders, and a party of the 69th regiment,
+    immediately followed, and the colours were hauled down. While
+    he was on the deck of the San Nicolas, the San Josef, disabled,
+    fell on board. Nelson instantly seized the opportunity of
+    boarding her from his prize; followed by Captain Berry, and
+    Lieutenant Pierson of the 69th, he led the boarders, and jumped
+    into the San Josef's main-chains. He was then informed that the
+    ship had surrendered. Four line-of-battle ships had now been
+    taken, and the Santissima Trinidada had also struck; but she
+    subsequently made her escape, for now the Spanish leeward
+    division, fourteen sail, having re-formed their line, bore down
+    to support their commander-in-chief: to receive them, Sir John
+    Jervis was obliged to form a line of battle on the starboard
+    tack&mdash;the enemy immediately retired. Thus, at five in the
+    evening, concluded the most brilliant battle that had ever till
+    then been fought at sea.</p>
+
+    <p>Captain Calder was immediately sent off with the despatch,
+    and arrived in London on the 3d of March. A battle gained over
+    such a numerical superiority, for it was much more than two to
+    one, when we take into our estimate the immense size of the
+    enemy's ships, and their weight of metal, there being one
+    four-decker of 130 guns, and six three-deckers of 112, of which
+    two were taken; and further, the more interesting circumstance,
+    that this great victory was gained on our part with only the
+    loss of 73 killed and 227 wounded, the public feeling of
+    exultation was unbounded; and when the minister on that very
+    evening proposed that the vote of thanks should be taken on the
+    following Monday, the House would hear of no delay, but
+    insisted on recording its gratitude at the moment. The House of
+    Peers gave a similar vote on the 8th; and the Commons and the
+    Crown immediately proposed to settle upon the admiral a pension
+    of three thousand a-year. A member of the House of Commons, on
+    moving for an address to the Crown to confer some signal mark
+    of favour on the admiral, was instantly replied to by the
+    sonorous eloquence of the minister&mdash;"Can it be supposed,"
+    said he, "that the Crown can require to be prompted to pay the
+    just tribute of approbation and honour to those who have
+    eminently <span class="pagenum"><a name="page481"
+       id="page481"></a>[pg 481]</span> distinguished themselves by
+       public services? On the part of his Majesty's ministers, I
+       can safely affirm, that before the last splendid instance of
+       the conduct of the gallant admiral, we have not been remiss
+       in watching the uniform tenor of his professional career. We
+       have witnessed the whole of his proceedings&mdash;such
+       instances of perseverance, of diligence, and of exertion in
+       the public service, as, though less brilliant and dazzling
+       than the last exploit, are only less meritorious as they are
+       put in competition with a single day, which has produced
+       such incalculable benefit to the British empire."</p>
+
+    <p>The result was an earldom. The first lord of the Admiralty,
+    Lord Spencer, having already written to Sir John the royal
+    pleasure to promote him to a peerage, and the letter not having
+    reached him previously to the battle, he thus had notice of the
+    two steps in the peerage nearly at once.</p>
+
+    <p>Popular honours now flowed in upon him: London voted its
+    freedom in a gold box, with swords to the admirals of the fleet
+    and Nelson; vice-admirals Parker and Thompson were created
+    baronets; Nelson received the red riband; the chief cities and
+    towns of England and Ireland sent their freedoms and presents;
+    and the king gave all the admirals and captains a gold
+    medal.</p>
+
+    <p>We must now be brief in our observations on the services of
+    this most distinguished person. We have next a narrative of the
+    suppression of the memorable mutiny of 1798, whose purpose it
+    was to have suffered the enemy's fleet to leave their harbours,
+    to revolutionize the Mediterranean fleet, and, after putting
+    the admirals and captains to death, proceed to every folly and
+    frenzy that could be committed by men conscious of power, and
+    equally conscious that forgiveness was impossible. The fleet
+    under Lord St Vincent was on the point of corruption, when it
+    was restored to discipline by the singular firmness of the
+    admiral, who, by exhibiting his determination to punish all
+    insubordination, extinguished this most alarming disaffection,
+    and saved the naval name of the country.</p>
+
+    <p>On the resignation of Mr Pitt in 1801, and the appointment
+    of Mr Addington as first lord of the treasury, a letter was
+    written from the new minister to Lord St Vincent, offering him
+    the appointment of first lord of the Admiralty. Having obtained
+    an interview with the king, and explained the general tone of
+    his political feelings, the king told him he very much wished
+    to see him at the Admiralty, and to place the navy entirely in
+    his hands. This was perhaps the only appointment of that
+    singularly feeble administration which met with universal
+    approval. There could be no question of the intelligence, high
+    principle, or public services of the great admiral. Mr
+    Addington came into power under circumstances which would have
+    tried the talents of a man of first-rate ability. The war had
+    exhausted the patience, though not the power, of the nation.
+    All our allies had failed. The severity of the taxes was doubly
+    felt, when the war had necessarily turned into a blockade on
+    the Continent. We had thus all the exhaustion of hostilities
+    without the excitement of triumph; and, to increase public
+    anxieties, the failure of the harvest threatened a comparative
+    famine. Wheat, which on an average of the preceding ten years
+    had been 54s. a quarter, was now at 110s., then rose to 139s.,
+    and even reached as high as 180s. At one period the quartern
+    loaf had risen to 1s. 10-1/2d. The popular cry now arose for
+    peace. France, which with all her victories had been taught the
+    precariousness of war, by the loss of Egypt and the capture of
+    her army, was now also eager for peace. England had but two
+    allies, Portugal and Turkey. At length the peace was made, and
+    Lord St Vincent's attention was then drawn to an object which
+    he had long in view, the reformation of the dockyards. This was
+    indeed the Augean stable, and unexampled clamour arose from the
+    multitude who had indolently fattened for years on the easy
+    plunder of the public stores. However, the reform went on:
+    perquisites were abolished, privileges taken away; and, rough
+    as the operation was, nothing could be more salutary than its
+    effect. The acuteness of the gallant old man at the head of the
+    Admiralty could not be evaded, his vigour could not be
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page482"
+       id="page482"></a>[pg 482]</span> defied, and his public
+       spirit gave him an influence with the country, which enabled
+       him to outlive faction and put down calumny. Yet this was
+       evidently the most painful, and, to a certain extent, the
+       most unsuccessful portion of his long career. Nominally a
+       Whig, but practically a Tory&mdash;for his loyalty was
+       unimpeachable and his honour without a stain&mdash;Lord St
+       Vincent found himself in the condition of a man who presses
+       reform on those with whom hitherto it has been only a
+       watchword, and expects faction to act up to its
+       professions.</p>
+
+    <p>The Addington treaty was soon discovered to be nothing more
+    than a truce. Napoleon lived only in war; hostilities were
+    essential to the government which he had formed for France; and
+    his theory of government, false as it was, and his passion for
+    excitement, whatever might be its price, made even the two
+    years of peace so irksome to him, that he actually adopted a
+    gross and foolish insult to the British ambassador as the means
+    of compelling us to renew the conflict. The first result was,
+    the return of Pitt to power; the next, the total ruin of the
+    French navy at Trafalgar; the next, the bloody and ruinous war
+    with Russia, expressly for the ruin of England through the ruin
+    of her commerce; and finally the crash of Waterloo, which
+    extinguished his diadem and his dominion together&mdash;a
+    series of events, occurring within little more than ten years,
+    of a more stupendous order than had hitherto affected the fate
+    of any individual, or influenced the destinies of an European
+    kingdom.</p>
+
+    <p>With the ministry of Mr Addington, Lord St Vincent retired
+    from public life. He was now old, and the hardships of long
+    service had partially exhausted his original vigour of frame.
+    He retired to his seat, Rochetts in Essex, and there led the
+    delightful life of a man who had gained opulence and
+    distinction by pre-eminent services, and whose old age was
+    surrounded by love, honour, and troops of friends. He appeared
+    from time to time in the House of Lords, where, however, he
+    spoke but seldom, but where he always spoke with dignity and
+    effect.</p>
+
+    <p>In the month of March 1823, Lord St Vincent was seized with
+    a general feeling of infirmity which portended his speedy
+    dissolution. He had a violent and convulsive cough; yet his
+    intellects were strongly turned upon public events, and he
+    expressed an anxiety to know all that could be known of events
+    in France, which was then disturbed; of the Spanish revolution,
+    which then threatened to involve Europe; and even of the
+    affairs of Greece. In the course of the evening of the 13th,
+    while his physician and family were round him, his strength
+    suddenly gave way, and at half past eight he died, at the age
+    of eighty-eight, and was buried at Stone in Staffordshire. He
+    was succeeded in the peerage by his nephew, who, however,
+    inherits only the viscounty.</p>
+
+    <p>In our general notice of Lord St Vincent's career, we have
+    adverted as little as possible to the opinions which his
+    biographer had introduced from his own view of public affairs.
+    We have no wish to make a peevish return to the writer of a
+    work which has given us both information and pleasure. But it
+    is necessary to caution Mr Tucker against giving trite and
+    trifling opinions on subjects of which he evidently knows so
+    little as of the Romish question, or the state of Ireland.
+    Nothing is easier than to be at once solemn and superficial on
+    such topics; and when a writer of this order flings his
+    epithets of "bigoted, harsh, and impolitic," and the other
+    stock phrases of party organs, he only enfeebles our respect
+    for his authority in the immediate matters of his work, and
+    rather lowers our respect for his faculties in all. The
+    question of Popery in Ireland, is not a question of religion
+    but of faction. Religious controversy on Romish doctrines has
+    long ceased to exist. Romanism has no grounds on which a
+    controversy can be sustained. It cannot appeal to the
+    Scriptures, which it shuts up; and it will no longer be
+    suffered to appeal to its mere childish pretence of
+    infallibility. Its only ground in Ireland is party; and the
+    present unhappy condition to which it has reduced Ireland,
+    exhibits the natural consequences of indulgence to Popery, and
+    the only means by which its spirit can be rendered consistent
+    with the order of society.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_5_1"
+                    name="fn_5_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_5_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Memoirs of Admiral Earl St Vincent. By T.S. TUCKER. 2
+        vols.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page483"
+       id="page483"></a>[pg 483]</span> <a name="marston"
+          id="marston"></a>
+
+    <h2>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</h2>
+
+    <h3>PART X.</h3>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?</p>
+
+            <p>Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,</p>
+
+            <p>Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?</p>
+
+            <p>Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,</p>
+
+            <p>And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?</p>
+
+            <p>Have I not in the pitched battle heard</p>
+
+            <p>Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets
+            clang?"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p style="margin-left: 50%;">SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>On reaching the prison, I gave up all for lost; sullenly
+    resigned myself to what now seemed the will of fate; and
+    without a word, except in answer to the interrogatory of my
+    name and country, followed the two horrid-looking ruffians who
+    performed the office of turnkeys. St Lazare had been a
+    monastery, and its massiveness, grimness, and confusion of
+    buildings, with its extreme silence at that late hour, gave me
+    the strongest impression of a huge catacomb above ground. The
+    door of a cell was opened for me after traversing a long
+    succession of cloisters; and on a little wooden trestle, and
+    wrapt in my cloak, I attempted to sleep. But if sleep has not
+    much to boast of in Paris at any time, what was it then? I had
+    scarcely closed my eyes when I was roused by a rapid succession
+    of musket-shots, fired at the opposite side of the cloister,
+    the light of torches flashing through the long avenues, and the
+    shouts of men and women in wrath, terror, and agony. I threw
+    myself off my uneasy bed, and climbing up by my prison bars,
+    endeavoured to ascertain the cause of the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e.
+    But the imperfect light served little more than to show a
+    general mustering of the national guard in the court, and a
+    huge and heavy building, into which they were discharging
+    random shots whenever a head appeared at its casements. A loud
+    huzza followed whenever one of those shots appeared to take
+    effect, and a laugh equally loud ran through the ranks when the
+    bullet wasted its effect on the massive mullions or stained
+    glass of the windows. A tall figure on horseback, whom I
+    afterwards learned to be Henriot, the commandant of the
+    national guard, galloped up and down the court with the air of
+    a general-in-chief man&oelig;uvring an army. I think that he
+    actually had provided himself with a truncheon to meet all the
+    emergencies of supreme command. While this sanguinary, and yet
+    mocking representation of warfare was going on, M. le
+    Commandant was in full eloquence and prodigious gesticulation.
+    "A la gloire, mes enfans!" was his constant cry. "Fight, <i>mes
+    braves!</i> the honour of France demands it: the eyes of
+    Europe&mdash;of the world&mdash;are turned upon you. <i>Vive la
+    Republique!</i>" And all this accompanied with waving his hat,
+    and spurring his horse into foam and fury. But fortune is a
+    jade after all; and the hero of the tricolored scarf was
+    destined to have his laurels a little shorn, even on this
+    narrow field. While his charger was caracoling over the
+    cloisters, and his veterans from the cellars and counters of
+    Paris were popping off their muskets at the unfortunates who
+    started up against the old casement, I heard a sudden rush and
+    run; a low postern of the cloister had been flung back, and the
+    prisoners within the building had made a sally on their
+    tormentors. A massacre at the Bic&ecirc;tre, in which six
+    thousand had perished, had warned these unhappy people that
+    neither the prison wall, nor night, was to be security against
+    the rage of the bloodhounds with whom murder seemed to have
+    grown into a pastime; and after having seen several of their
+    number shot down within their dungeon, they determined to
+    attack them, and, if they must die, at least die in manly
+    defence. Their rush was perfectly successful; it had the effect
+    of a complete surprise; and though their only weapons were
+    fragments of their firewood&mdash;for all fire-arms and knives
+    had been taken from them immediately
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page484"
+       id="page484"></a>[pg 484]</span> on their entrance into the
+       prison&mdash;they routed the heroes of the guard at the
+       first charge. Even the gallant commander himself only shared
+       the chance of his "camarades:" a flourish or two of his
+       sabre, and an adjuration of "liberty," had no other effect
+       than to insure a heavier shower of blows, and I had the
+       gratification of seeing the braggadocio go down from his
+       saddle in the midst of a group, who certainly had no
+       veneration for the majesty of the truncheon. The victory was
+       achieved; but, like many another victory, it produced no
+       results: the gates of the St Lazare were too strongly
+       guarded to be forced by an unarmed crowd, and I saw the
+       prisoners successively and gloomily return to the only roof,
+       melancholy as that was, which now could shelter them.</p>
+
+    <p>The morning brought my case before the authorities of this
+    den. Half a dozen coarse and filthy uniformed men, and some of
+    them evidently sufferers in the tumult of the night, for their
+    heads were bound up and their arms bandaged&mdash;a matter
+    which, if it did not improve their appearance, gave me every
+    reason to expect increased brutishness in their
+    tempers&mdash;formed the tribunal. The hall in which they had
+    established their court had once been the kitchen of the
+    convent; and, though all signs of hospitality had vanished, its
+    rude and wild construction, its stone floor and vaulted roof,
+    and even its yawning and dark recesses for the different
+    operations which, in other days, had made it a scene of busy
+    cheerfulness, now gave it a look of dreariness in the extreme.
+    I could have easily imagined it to be a chamber of the
+    Inquisition. But men in my circumstances have not much time for
+    the work of fancy; and I was instantly called on for my name,
+    and business in France. I had heard enough of popular justice
+    to believe, that I had now arrived within sight of the last
+    struggle, and I resolved to give these ruffians no triumph over
+    the Englishman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Citizen, who are you?" Was the first interrogatory.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am no citizen, no Frenchman, and no republican," was my
+    answer. My judges stared at each other.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are a prisoner. How came you here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are judges; how came you there?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are charged with crimes against the Republic."</p>
+
+    <p>"In my country no man is expected to criminate himself."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you are a traitor: can you deny that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am no traitor to my king; can you say as much for
+    yourselves?" They now began to cast furious glances at me.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are insolent: what brought you into the territory of
+    France?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The same thing which placed you on that
+    bench&mdash;force."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you mad?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;are you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you not know that we can send you to the"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"If you do, I shall only go before <i>you</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>This put an end to my interrogatory at once. I had
+    accidentally touched upon the nerve which quivered in every
+    bosom of these fellows. There was a singular presentiment among
+    even the boldest of the Revolutionists, that the new order of
+    things would not last, and that, when the change came, it would
+    be a bloody one. Life had become sufficiently precarious
+    already among the possessors of power; and the least intimation
+    of death was actually formidable to a race of villains whose
+    hands were hourly imbued in slaughter. I had been hitherto
+    placed in scarcely more than surveillance. An order for my
+    confinement as a "Brigand Anglais," was made out by the
+    indignant "commission," and I was transferred from my narrow
+    and lonely cell into the huge crowded building in the opposite
+    cloister, which had been the scene of the attack on the
+    previous night. I could, with Cato, "smile on the drawn dagger
+    and defy its point." I walked out with the air of a Cato.</p>
+
+    <p>This change, intended for my infinite degradation until the
+    guillotine should have dispatched its business in arrear, I
+    found much to my advantage. The man who expects nothing, cannot
+    be hurt by disappointment; and when I was conducted from my
+    solitary cell into the midst of four or five hundred prisoners,
+    I felt the human feelings kindle in me, which had been chilled
+    between my four stone walls.</p>
+
+    <p>The prisoners with whom I was
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page485"
+       id="page485"></a>[pg 485]</span> now to take my chance, were
+       of all ranks, professions, and degrees of crime. The true
+       crime in the eyes of the republic being, to be rich. Yet
+       there the culprit had some hope of being suffered to live,
+       at least while daily examinations, with the hourly
+       perspective of the axe, could make him contribute to the
+       purses of the tribunal. Those who happened to be poor, were
+       found guilty of <i>incivisme</i> at once, and were daily
+       drafted off to the Place de Gr&egrave;ve, from which they
+       never returned. But some of the prisoners were from La
+       Vend&eacute;e, peasants mixed with nobles; who, though no
+       formal shape of resistance to the republic was yet declared,
+       had exhibited enough of that gallant contempt of the new
+       tyranny, which afterwards immortalized the name, to render
+       them obnoxious to the ruffians at its head. It was this
+       sturdy portion which had made the dash on the night of the
+       riot, and their daring had the effect, at least, of saving
+       their fellow-prisoners in future from being made marks, to
+       teach the national guard the art of shooting. Even their
+       sentries kept a respectful distance; and M. Henriot, wisely
+       mindful of his flagellation, flourished his staff of command
+       no more within our cloister. We were, in fact, left almost
+       wholly to ourselves. Yet, if a philosopher desired to take a
+       lesson in human nature, this was the spot of earth for the
+       study. We had it in every shape and shade. We had it in the
+       wits and blockheads, the courtiers and the clowns, the
+       opulent and the ruined, the brave and the
+       pusillanimous&mdash;and all under the strangest pressure of
+       those feelings which rouse the nature of man to its most
+       undisguised display. Death was before every eye. Where was
+       the use of wearing a mask, when the wearer was so soon to
+       part with his head? Pretence gradually vanished, and a
+       general spirit of boldness, frankness, and something, if not
+       exactly of dignity, at least of manliness, superseded the
+       customary cringing of society under a despotism. In all but
+       the name, we were better republicans than the tribe who
+       shouted in the streets, or robbed in the tribunals.</p>
+
+    <p>I made the remark one day to the Marquis de Cassini, a
+    philosopher and pupil of the great Buffon. "The reason is,"
+    said he, "that men differ chiefly by circumstances, as they
+    differ chiefly by their clothes. Throw off their dress, whether
+    embroidery or rags, and you will find the same number of ribs
+    in them all."</p>
+
+    <p>"But my chief surprise is, to find in this prison more
+    mutual kindness, and, in every sense, more generosity of
+    sentiment, than one generally expects to meet in the
+    world."</p>
+
+    <p>"Helvetius would tell you that all this was self-interest,"
+    was my pale-visaged and contemplative friend's reply. "But I
+    always regarded M. Helvetius in the light of a well-trained
+    baboon, who thought, when men stared at his tricks, they were
+    admiring his talents. The truth is, that self-interest is the
+    mere creature of society, and is the most active in the basest
+    society. It is the combined cowardice and cruelty of men
+    struggling for existence; the savageness of the forest, where
+    men cannot gather acorns enough to share with their fellows;
+    the effort for life, where there is but one plank in a storm,
+    and where, if you are to cling at all, it must be by drowning
+    the weaker party. But here," and he cast his eyes calmly round
+    the crowd, "as there is not the slightest possibility that any
+    one of us will escape, we have the better opportunity of
+    showing our original <i>biens&eacute;ance</i>. All the
+    struggling on earth will not save us from the guillotine; and
+    therefore we resolve to accommodate each other for the rest of
+    our journey."</p>
+
+    <p>I agreed with him on the philosophy of the case, and in
+    return he introduced me to some of the Vend&eacute;an nobles,
+    who had hitherto exhibited their general scorn of Parisian
+    contact by confining themselves to the circle of their
+    followers. I was received with the distinction due to my
+    introducer, and was invited to join their supper that night.
+    The prison had once been the chapel of the convent; and though
+    the desecration had taken place a hundred years before, and the
+    revolutionary spoil had spared but little of the remaining
+    ornaments, the original massiveness of the building, and the
+    nobleness of the architecture, had withstood the assaults of
+    both time and plunder. The roofs of the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page486"
+       id="page486"></a>[pg 486]</span> aisles could not be reached
+       except by flame, and the monuments of the ancient priors and
+       prelates, when they had once been stripped of their crosses,
+       were too solid for the passing fury of the mob. And thus, in
+       the midst of emblems of mortality, and the recollections of
+       old solemnity, were set some hundreds of people, who knew as
+       little of each other as if they had met in a caravansery,
+       and who, perhaps, expected to part as soon. The scene was
+       curious, but by no means uncheerful. The national spirit is
+       inextinguishable; and, however my countrymen may bear up
+       against the extremes of ill-fortune, no man meets its
+       beginnings with so easy an air as the man of France. Our
+       supper was laid out in one of the side chapels; and, coarse
+       and scanty as it was, I seldom recollect an evening which I
+       passed with a lighter sense of the burden of a prisoner's
+       time. I found the Vend&eacute;an nobles a manlier race than
+       their more courtly countrymen. Yet they had courtliness of
+       their own; but it was more the manner of our own country
+       gentlemen of the last century, than the polish of
+       Versailles. Their habits of living on their domains, of
+       country sports, of intercourse with their peasantry, and of
+       the general simplicity of country life, had drawn a strong
+       line of distinction between them and the dukes and marquises
+       of the royal saloons. Like all Frenchmen of the day, they
+       conversed largely upon the politics of France; but there was
+       a striking reserve in their style. The existing royal family
+       were but little mentioned, or mentioned only with a certain
+       kind of sacred respect. Their misfortunes prohibited the
+       slightest severity of language. Yet still it was not
+       difficult to see, that those straightforward and honest
+       lords of the soil, who were yet to prove themselves the true
+       chevaliers of France, could feel as acutely, and express as
+       strongly, the injuries inflicted by the absurdities and
+       vices of the successive administrations of their reign, as
+       if they had figured in the clubs of the capital. But the
+       profligacies of the preceding monarch, and the tribe of
+       fools and knaves whom those profligacies as naturally
+       gathered round him as the plague propagates its own
+       contagion, met with no mercy. And, though they were spoken
+       of with the gravity which became the character and rank of
+       the speakers, they were denounced with a sternness which
+       seemed beyond the morals or the mind of their country. Louis
+       XV., Du Barri, and the whole long succession of corrupting
+       and corrupted cabinets, which had at length rendered the
+       monarchy odious, were denounced in terms worthy of gallant
+       men; who, though resolved to sink or swim with the throne,
+       experienced all the bitterness of generous indignation at
+       the crimes which had raised the storm.</p>
+
+    <p>We had our songs too, and some of them were as contemptuous
+    as ever came from the pen of Parisian satire. Among my
+    recollections of the night was one of those songs, of which the
+    <i>refrain</i> was&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Le Bien-Aim&eacute;&mdash;<i>de l'Almanac</i>."</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>A burlesque on the title&mdash;Le Bien-Aim&eacute;, &amp;c.,
+    which the court calendar, and the court calendar <i>alone</i>,
+    had annually given to the late king. I can offer only a
+    paraphrase.</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Louis Quinze, our burning shame,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hear our song, 'old well-beloved,'</p>
+
+            <p>What if courts and camps are tame,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Pension'd beggars laced and gloved,</p>
+
+            <p>France's love grows rather slack,</p>
+
+            <p>Idol of&mdash;the Almanac.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Let your flatterers hang or drown,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">We are of another school,</p>
+
+            <p>Truth no more shall be put down,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">We can call a fool a fool,</p>
+
+            <p>Fearless of Bastile or rack,</p>
+
+            <p>Titus of&mdash;the Almanac.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Louis, trample on your serfs,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">We'll be trampled on no more,</p>
+
+            <p>Revel in your <i>parc aux
+            cerfs</i>,<a id="fn_6_tag1"
+               name="fn_6_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_6_1"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Eat and drink&mdash;'twill soon be
+            o'er.</p>
+
+            <p>France will steer another tack,</p>
+
+            <p>Solon of&mdash;the Almanac!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Hear your praises from your pages,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hear them from your liveried lords,</p>
+
+            <p>Let your valets earn their wages,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Liars, living on their words;</p>
+
+            <p>We'll soon give them nuts to crack,</p>
+
+            <p>C&aelig;sar of&mdash;the Almanac!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page487"
+       id="page487"></a>[pg 487]</span>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"When a dotard fills the throne,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Fit for nothing but a nurse,</p>
+
+            <p>When a nation's general groan,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Yields to nothing but its curse;</p>
+
+            <p>What are armies at thy back,</p>
+
+            <p>Henri of&mdash;the Almanac?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"When the truth is bought and sold,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">When the wrongs of man are spurn'd,</p>
+
+            <p>Then the crown's last knell is toll'd,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Then, old Time, thy glass has turn'd,</p>
+
+            <p>And comes flying from thy pack</p>
+
+            <p>To nations a <i>new</i> Almanac!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Mistress, minister, Bourbon,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Rule by bayonets, bribes, and spies,</p>
+
+            <p>Charlatans in church and throne,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">France is opening all her eyes&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Down go minion, king, and quack,</p>
+
+            <p>We'll have <i>our</i> new Almanac!"</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>When I returned to the place where my mattress was flung,
+    the crowd had already sunk to rest, and there was a general
+    silence throughout the building. The few lights which our
+    jailers supplied to us, had become fewer; and, except for the
+    heavy sound of the doubled sentries' tread outside, I might
+    have imagined myself in a vast cemetery. The agitation of the
+    day, followed by the somewhat unsuitable gayety of the evening,
+    had thrown me into such a state of mental and bodily fatigue,
+    that I had scarcely laid my side on my bed, untempting as it
+    was, when I dropped into a heavy slumber. The ingenuity of our
+    tormentors, however, prohibited our knowing any thing in the
+    shape of indulgence; and in realisation of the dramatist's
+    renowned <i>mot</i>, "traitors never sleep," the prison door
+    was suddenly flung open&mdash;a drum rattled through the
+    aisle&mdash;the whole body of the prisoners were ordered to
+    stand forth and answer to their names; this ceremony concluding
+    with the march of the whole night-guard into the chapel, and
+    their being ordered to load with ball-cartridge, to give us the
+    sufficient knowledge of what any attempt to escape would bring
+    upon us in future. This refinement in cruelty we owed to the
+    <i>escapade</i> of the night before.</p>
+
+    <p>At length, after a variety of insulting queries, even this
+    scene was over. The guard marched out, the roll of their drum
+    passed away among the cloisters; we went shivering to our
+    beds&mdash;threw ourselves down dressed as we were, and tried
+    to forget France and our jailers.</p>
+
+    <p>But a French night in those times was like no other, and I
+    had yet to witness a scene such as I believe could not have
+    existed in any other country of the globe.</p>
+
+    <p>After some period of feverish sleep I was awakened by a
+    strange murmur, which, mixing with my dreams, had given me the
+    comfortless idea of hearing the roar of the multitude at some
+    of the horrid displays of the guillotine; and as I half opened
+    my unwilling eyes, still heavy with sleep, I saw a long
+    procession of figures, in flowing mantles and draperies, moving
+    down the huge hall. A semicircle of beds filled the extremity
+    of the chapel, which had been vacated by a draft of unfortunate
+    beings, carried off during the day to that dreadful tribunal,
+    whose sole employment seemed to be the supply of the axe, and
+    from which no one was ever expected to return. While my eyes,
+    with a strange and almost superstitious anxiety&mdash;such is
+    the influence of time and place&mdash;followed this
+    extraordinary train, I saw it take possession of the range of
+    beds; each new possessor sitting wrapt in his pale vesture, and
+    perfectly motionless. I can scarcely describe the singular
+    sensations with which I continued to gaze on the spectacle. My
+    eyes sometimes closed, and I almost conceived that the whole
+    was a dream; but the forms were too distinct for this
+    conjecture, and the question with me now became, "are they
+    flesh and blood?" I had not sunk so far into reverie as to
+    imagine that they were the actual spectres of the unhappy
+    tenants of those beds on the night before, all of whom were
+    now, doubtless, in the grave; but the silence, the distance,
+    the dimness perplexed me, and I left the question to be settled
+    by the event. At a gesture from the central figure they all
+    stood up&mdash;and a man loaded with fetters was brought
+    forward in front of their line. I now found that a trial was
+    going on: the group were the judges, the man was the presumed
+    criminal; there was an accuser, there was an advocate&mdash;in
+    short, all the general process of a trial was passing before my
+    view. Curiosity would naturally have made me spring from my bed
+    and approach this extraordinary spectacle; but I am not ashamed
+    now to acknowledge, that I felt a
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page488"
+       id="page488"></a>[pg 488]</span> nervelessness and inability
+       to speak or move, which for the time wholly awed me. All
+       that I could discover was, that the accused was charged with
+       <i>incivisme</i>, and that, defying the court and disdaining
+       the charge, he was pronounced guilty&mdash;the whole circle,
+       standing up as the sentence was pronounced, and with a
+       solemn waving of their arms and murmur of their voices,
+       assenting to the act of the judge. The victim was then
+       seized on, swept away into the darkness, and after a brief
+       pause I heard a shriek and a crash; the sentence had been
+       fulfilled&mdash;all was over. The court now covered their
+       heads with their mantles, as if in sorrow for this
+       formidable necessity.</p>
+
+    <p>But how shall I speak of the closing scene? However it
+    surprised and absorbed me in that moment of nervous excitement,
+    I can allude to it now only as characteristic of a time when
+    every mind in France was half lunatic. I saw a figure enveloped
+    in star-coloured light emerge from the darkness, slowly ascend,
+    in a vesture floating round it like the robes which Raphael or
+    Guido gives to the beings of another sphere, and, accompanied
+    by a burst of harmony as it rose, ascend to the roof, where it
+    suddenly disappeared. All was instantly the silence and the
+    darkness of the grave.</p>
+
+    <p>Daylight brought back my senses, and I was convinced that
+    the pantomimic spirit of the people, however unaccountably it
+    might disregard proprieties, had been busy with the scene. I
+    should now certainly have abandoned the supernatural portion of
+    the conjecture altogether; but on mentioning it to Cassini, he
+    let me into the solution at once.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you never observed," said he, "the passion of all
+    people for walking on the edge of a precipice, climbing a
+    church tower, looking down from a battlement, or doing any one
+    thing which gives them the nearest possible chance of breaking
+    their necks?&mdash;then you can comprehend the performance of
+    last night. There we are, like fowls in a coop: every day sees
+    some of us taken out; and the amusement of the remaining fowls
+    is to imagine how the heads of the others were taken from their
+    bodies." The prisoners were practising a trial.</p>
+
+    <p>I gave an involuntary look of surprise at this species of
+    amusement, and remarked something on the violation of common
+    feeling&mdash;to say nothing of the almost profaneness which it
+    involved.</p>
+
+    <p>"As to the feeling," said Cassini, with that shrug which no
+    shoulders but those of a Frenchman can ever give, "it is a
+    matter of taste; and perhaps we have no right to dictate in
+    such matters to persons who would think a week a long lease of
+    life, and who, instead of seven days, may not have so many
+    hours. As to the profanation, if your English scruples made you
+    sensitive on such points, I can assure you that you might have
+    seen some things much more calculated to excite your
+    sensibilities. The display last night was simply the trial of a
+    royalist; and as we are all more or less angry with
+    republicanism at this moment, and with some small reason too,
+    the royalist, though he was condemned, as every body now is,
+    was suffered to have his apotheosis. But <i>I</i> have seen
+    exhibitions in which the republican was the criminal, and the
+    scene that followed was really startling even to my rather
+    callous conceptions. Sometimes we even had one of the colossal
+    ruffians who are now lording it over France. I have seen St
+    Just, Couthon, Caier, Danton, nay Robespierre himself;
+    arraigned before our midnight tribunal; for this amusement is
+    the only one which we can enjoy without fear of interruption
+    from our jailers. Thus we enjoy it with the greater gusto, and
+    revenge ourselves for the tribulations of the day by trying our
+    tormentors at night."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am satisfied with the reason, although I am not yet quite
+    reconciled to the performance. Who were the actors?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are now nearer the truth than you suspected. We have
+    men of every trade here, and, among the rest, we have actors
+    enough to stock the <i>Com&eacute;die Fran&ccedil;aise</i>. If
+    you remain long enough among us, you will see some of the best
+    farces of the best time played uncommonly well by our fellow
+    <i>d&eacute;tenus</i>. But in the interim&mdash;for our stage
+    is permitted by the municipality to open in the St Lazare only
+    four times a month&mdash;a piece of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page489"
+       id="page489"></a>[pg 489]</span> cruelty which we all regard
+       as intolerable&mdash;our actors refresh their faculties with
+       all kinds of displays. You acknowledge that the scene last
+       night was well got up; and if you should see the trial of
+       some of our 'Grands Democrats,' be assured that your
+       admiration will not be attracted by showy vesture, blue
+       lights, or the harmonies of the old asthmatic organ in
+       yonder gallery; our pattern will be taken from the last
+       scene of 'Il Don Giovanni.' You will have no pasteboard
+       figure suspended from the roof, and wafted upward in
+       starlight or moonlight. But if you wish to see the
+       exhibition, I am concerned to tell you that you must wait,
+       for to-night all our <i>artistes</i> are busy. In what, do
+       you conceive?"</p>
+
+    <p>I professed my inability to fathom "the infinite resources
+    of the native mind, where amusement was the question."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well then&mdash;not to keep you in suspense&mdash;we are to
+    have a masquerade."</p>
+
+    <p>The fact was even so. France having grown tired of all
+    things that had been, grew tired of weeks, and Decades were the
+    law of the land. The year was divided into packs of ten days
+    each, and she began the great game of time by shuffling and
+    cutting her cards anew. The change was not marked by any
+    peculiar good fortune; for it was laughed at, as every thing in
+    France was except an order for deportation to the colonies, or
+    a march to the scaffold. The populace, fully admitting the
+    right of government to deal with kings and priests as it
+    pleased, regarded the interference with their pleasures as a
+    breach of compact; and the result was, that the populace had
+    their Dimanche as well as their Decadi, and that the grand
+    experiment for wiping out the Sunday, issued in giving them two
+    holidays instead of one.</p>
+
+    <p>It was still early in the day when some bustle in the porch
+    of the prison turned all eyes towards it, and a new detachment
+    of prisoners was brought in. I shall say nothing of the scenes
+    of wretchedness which followed; the wild terrors of women on
+    finding themselves in this melancholy place, which looked, and
+    was, scarcely more than a vestibule to the tomb; the deep
+    distress of parents, with their children clinging round them,
+    and the general despair&mdash;a despair which was but too well
+    founded. Yet the tumult of their settling and distribution
+    among the various quarters of the chapel had scarcely subsided
+    when another scene was at hand. The commissary of the district
+    came in, with a list of the prisoners who were summoned before
+    the tribunal. Our prison population was like the waters of a
+    bath, as one stream flowed in another flowed out; the level was
+    constantly sustained. With an instinctive pang I heard my name
+    pronounced among those unhappy objects of sanguinary rule.
+    Cassini approached me with a smile, which he evidently put on
+    to conceal his emotion.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is quick work, M. Marston," said he, taking my hand.
+    "As the ruffian in the school fable says, 'Hodie tibi, cras
+    nihi'&mdash;twelve hours will probably make all the difference
+    between us."</p>
+
+    <p>I took off the little locket coutaining my last remembrance
+    of Clotilde, and put it into his hands, requesting him, if he
+    survived, to transmit it to his incomparable countrywoman, with
+    an assurance that I remembered her in an hour when all else was
+    forgotten.</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall perform the part of your legatee," said he, "till
+    to-morrow; then I will find some other depositary. Here you
+    must know that heirship is rapid, and that the will is executed
+    before the ink is dry." He turned away to hide a tear. "I have
+    not known you long, sir," said he; "but in this place we must
+    be expeditious in every thing. You are too young to die. If you
+    are sacrificed, I am convinced that you will die like a
+    gentleman and a man of honour. And yet I have some feeling,
+    some presentiment, nay almost a consciousness, that you will
+    not be cut off, at least until you are as weary of the world as
+    I am."</p>
+
+    <p>I endeavoured to put on a face of resignation, if not of
+    cheerfulness, and said, "That though my country might revenge
+    my death, my being engaged in its service would only make my
+    condemnation inevitable. But I was prepared."</p>
+
+    <p>"At all events, my young friend,"
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page490"
+       id="page490"></a>[pg 490]</span> said he, "if you escape
+       from this pandemonium of France, take this paper, and
+       vindicate the memory of Cassini."</p>
+
+    <p>He gave me a memoir, which I could not help receiving with a
+    smile, from the brevity of the period during which the trust
+    was likely to hold. The gendarme now came up to demand my
+    attendance. I shook hands with the marquis, who at that moment
+    was certainly no philosopher, and followed the train.</p>
+
+    <p>We were about fifty in number; and after being placed in
+    open artillery waggons, the procession moved rapidly through
+    the suburb, until we reached one of those dilapidated and
+    hideous-looking buildings which were then to be found startling
+    the stranger's eye with the recollections of the St Bartholomew
+    and the Fronde.</p>
+
+    <p>A crowd, assembled round the door of one of these melancholy
+    shades, and the bayonets of a company of the national guard
+    glittering above their heads, at length indicated the place of
+    our destination. The crowd shouted, and called us "aristocrats,
+    thirsting for the blood of the good citizens." The line of the
+    guard opened, and we were rapidly passed through several halls,
+    the very dwelling of decay, until we reached a large court,
+    where the prisoners remained while the judges were occupied in
+    deciding on the fate of the train which the morning had already
+    provided. I say nothing of the insults which were intended, if
+    not to add new bitterness to death, to indulge the wretched men
+    and women who could find an existence in attending on the
+    offices of the tribunal, with opportunities of triumphing over
+    those born to better things. While we remained in the court
+    exposed to the weather, which was now cold and gusty, shouts
+    were heard at intervals, which, as the turnkeys informed us,
+    arose from the spectators of the executions&mdash;death, in
+    these fearful days, immediately following sentence. Yet, to the
+    last the ludicrous often mingled with the melancholy. While I
+    was taking my place in the file according to the order of our
+    summons, and was next in rotation for trial, a smart and
+    overdressed young man stepped out of his place in the rank, and
+    drawing from his bosom a pamphlet in manuscript, presented it
+    to me, with the special entreaty that, "in case I survived, I
+    should take care of its propagation throughout Europe." My
+    answer naturally was, "That my fate was fully as precarious as
+    that of the rest, and that thus I had no hope of being able to
+    give his pamphlet to mankind."</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>Mais</i>, monsieur," that phrase which means so many
+    inexpressible things&mdash;"But, sir, you must observe, that by
+    putting my pamphlet into your charge, it has a double chance.
+    You may read it as a part of your defence; it is a treatise on
+    the government of France, which settles all the disputed
+    questions, reconciles republicanism with monarchy, and shows
+    how a revolution may be made to purify all things without
+    overthrowing any. Thus my sentiments will become public at
+    once, the world will be enlightened, and, though <i>you</i> may
+    perish, France will be saved."</p>
+
+    <p>Nothing could be more convincing; yet I continued stubborn.
+    He persisted. I suggested the "possibility of my not being
+    suffered to make any defence whatever, but of being swept away
+    at once; in this case endangering the total loss of his
+    conceptions to the world;" but I had to deal with a man of
+    resources.</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said the author and philanthropist; "for that event I
+    have provided. I have a second copy folded on my breast, which
+    I shall read when I am called on for trial. Then those immortal
+    truths shall not be left to accident; I shall have two chances
+    for celebrity; the labour of my life shall be known; nor shall
+    the name of Jean Jacques Pelletier go to the tomb without the
+    renown due to a philosopher."</p>
+
+    <p>But further deprecation on my part was cut short by the
+    appearance of two of the guard, by whom I was marched to the
+    presence of the tribunal. The day had now waned, and two or
+    three lamps showed my weary eye the judges, whose decision was
+    to make the difference to me between life and death, within the
+    next half hour. Their appearance was the reverse of one likely
+    to reconcile the unfortunate to the severity of the law. They
+    were seven or eight sitting on a raised platform, with a long
+    table in their front, covered with papers, with
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page491"
+       id="page491"></a>[pg 491]</span> what seemed to be the
+       property taken from the condemned at the
+       moment&mdash;watches, purses, and trinkets; and among those
+       piles, very visibly the fragments of a dinner&mdash;plates
+       and soups, with several bottles of cognac and wine. Justice
+       was so indefatigable in France, that its ministers were
+       forced to mingle all the functions of public and private
+       life together; and to be intoxicated in the act of passing
+       sentence of death was no uncommon event.</p>
+
+    <p>The judges of those sectional tribunals were generally
+    ruffians of the lowest description, who, having made themselves
+    notorious by violence and Jacobinism, had driven away the usual
+    magistracy, and, under the pretext of administering justice,
+    were actually driving a gainful trade in robbery of every kind.
+    The old costume of the courts of law was of course abjured; and
+    the new civic costume, which was obviously constructed on the
+    principle of leaving the lands free for butchery, and
+    preserving the garments free from any chance of being
+    disfigured by the blood of the victim&mdash;for they were the
+    perfection of savage squalidness&mdash;was displayed
+    <i>&agrave; la rigueur</i> on the bench. A short coat without
+    sleeves, the shirt sleeves tucked up as for instant execution,
+    the neck open, no collar, fierce mustaches, a head of clotted
+    hair, sometimes a red nightcap stuck on one side, and sometimes
+    a red handkerchief tied round it as a temporary "bonnet de
+    nuit"&mdash;for the judges frequently, in drunkenness or
+    fatigue, threw themselves on the bench or the floor, and
+    slept&mdash;exhibited the regenerated aspect of Themis in the
+    capital of the polished world.</p>
+
+    <p>My name was now called. I shall not say with what a throb of
+    heart I heard it. But at the moment when I was stepping
+    forward, I felt my skirt pulled by one of the guard behind me.
+    I looked, and recognized through all his beard, and the hair
+    that in profusion covered his physiognomy, my police friend,
+    who seemed to possess the faculty of being every where&mdash;a
+    matter, however, rendered easier to him by his being in the
+    employ of the government&mdash;and who simply whispered the
+    words&mdash;"Be firm, and acknowledge nothing." Slight as the
+    hint was, it had come in good time; for I had grown desperate
+    from the sight of the perpetual casualties round me, and, like
+    Cassini's idea of the man walking on the edge of the precipice,
+    had felt some inclination to jump off, and take my chance. But
+    now contempt and defiance took the place of despair; and
+    instead of openly declaring my purposes and performances, my
+    mind was made up to leave them to find out what they could.</p>
+
+    <p>On my being marched up to the foot of the platform between
+    two frightful-looking ruffians, whose coats and trousers seemed
+    to have been dyed in gore, to show that they were worthy of the
+    murders of September, and who, to make "assurance doubly sure,"
+    wore on their sword-belts the word "September," painted in
+    broad characters, I remained for a while unquestioned, until
+    they turned over a pile of names which they had flung on the
+    table before them. At last their perplexity was relieved by one
+    of the clerks, who pronounced my name. I was then interrogated
+    in nearly the same style as before the committee of my first
+    captors. I gave them short answers.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who are you?" asked the principal distributor of rabble
+    justice. The others stooped forward, pens in hand, to record my
+    conviction.</p>
+
+    <p>My answer was&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I am a man." (Murmurs on the platform.)</p>
+
+    <p>"Whence come you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"From your prison."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are not a Frenchman?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, thank Heaven!" (Murmurs again.)</p>
+
+    <p>"Beware, sir, of insolence to the tribunal. We can send you
+    instantly to punishment."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know it. Why then try me at all?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because, prisoner, we desire to hear the truth first."</p>
+
+    <p>"First or last, can you bear to hear it?" (Angry looks, but
+    more attention.)</p>
+
+    <p>"We have no time to waste&mdash;the business of the Republic
+    must be done. Are you a citizen?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am; a citizen of the world."</p>
+
+    <p>"You must not equivocate with justice. Where did you live
+    before you were
+    arrested?"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page492"
+       id="page492"></a>[pg 492]</span>
+
+    <p>"On the globe." (A half-suppressed laugh among the crowd in
+    the back ground.)</p>
+
+    <p>"What profession?"</p>
+
+    <p>"None."</p>
+
+    <p>"On what then do you live, have lived, or expect to
+    live?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To-day on nothing, for your guards have given me nothing.
+    Yesterday, I lived on what I could get. To-morrow, it depends
+    on circumstances whether I shall want any thing." (A low murmur
+    of applause among the bystanders, who now gathered closer to
+    the front.)</p>
+
+    <p>"Prisoner," said the chief, swilling a glass of cognac to
+    strengthen the solemnity of his jurisprudence, "the Republic
+    must not be trifled with. You are arraigned of
+    <i>incivisme</i>. Of what country are you a subject?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of France, while I remain on her territory."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you fought for France?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have; for her laws, her liberty, her property, and her
+    honour." (Bravo! from the crowd.)</p>
+
+    <p>"Yet you are not a Republican?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; no more than you are."</p>
+
+    <p>This produced confusion on the bench. The hit was
+    contemptuously accidental; but it was a home-thrust at the
+    chief, who had former been a domestic in the Tuileries, and was
+    still strongly suspected of being a spy of the Bourbons. The
+    crowd who knew his story, who are always delighted with a blow
+    at power, burst into a general roar. But a little spruce fellow
+    on the bench, who had already exhibited a desire to take his
+    share in the interrogatory, now thrust his head over the table,
+    and said in his most searching tone&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"To come to the point&mdash;Prisoner, how do you live? What
+    are your means? All honest men must have visible means. That is
+    <i>my</i> question." (All eyes were now turned on me.)</p>
+
+    <p>I was now growing angry; and, pointing to the pile of purses
+    and watches on the table&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"No man," said I, "needs ask what are your visible means,
+    when they see that pile before you. Yet I doubt if that proves
+    you to be an honest man. That is <i>my</i> answer."</p>
+
+    <p>The little inquisitor looked furious, and glanced towards
+    the chief for protection; but his intrusion had provoked wrath
+    in that quarter, and his glance was returned with a rigid
+    smile.</p>
+
+    <p>"Prisoner," said the head of the tribunal, "though the
+    question was put improperly, it was itself a proper one. How do
+    you live?"</p>
+
+    <p>"By my abilities."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is a very doubtful support in those times."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not recommend you, or any of those around you, to make
+    the experiment," was my indignant answer.</p>
+
+    <p>The bystanders gave a general laugh, in which even the guard
+    joined. To get the laugh against one, is the most unpardonable
+    of all injuries in France, and this answer roused up the whole
+    tribunal. They scarcely gave themselves the trouble of a
+    moment's consultation. A few nods and whispers settled the
+    whole affair; and the chief, standing up and drawing his sabre
+    from its sheath&mdash;then the significant custom of those
+    places of butchery, pronounced the fatal words, "Guilty of
+    <i>incivisme</i>. Let the criminal be conducted <i>&agrave; la
+    Force</i>," the well-known phrase for immediate execution.</p>
+
+    <p>The door was opened from which none ever came back. Two
+    torches were seen glaring down the passage, and I was seized by
+    the grim escort who were to lead me to the axe.</p>
+
+    <p>The affectation of cowardice is as childish as the
+    affectation of courage; but I felt a sensation at that moment
+    which took me by surprise. I had been perfectly assured of my
+    sentence from the first glance at the judges. If ever there was
+    a spot on earth which deserved Dante's motto of
+    Erebus&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Voi qui entrate, lasciate agui speranza"&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>it was the revolutionary tribunal. Despair was written all
+    over it in characters impossible to be mistaken. I had fixed my
+    resolution to go through the whole scene, if not with heroism,
+    at least with that decent firmness which becomes a man; yet the
+    sound of the words which consigned me to the scaffold struck me
+    with a general chill. Momentary as the period was, the question
+    passed through my mind, are those paralysed limbs the same
+    which bore me so well through the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page493"
+       id="page493"></a>[pg 493]</span> hazards of the campaign?
+       Why am I to feel the fluttering of heart now, more than when
+       I was facing sabres and cannon-shot? Why am I thus frigid
+       and feeble, when I so lately fought and marched, and defied
+       alike fatigue and wounds? But I felt in this chamber of
+       death an inconceivable exhaustion, which had never
+       approached me in the havoc of the field. My feet refused to
+       move, my lips to breathe; all objects swam round, and sick
+       to death and fainting, I thrust out my hand to save me from
+       falling, and thus gave the last triumph to my murderers.</p>
+
+    <p>At this decisive moment I found my hand caught by a powerful
+    grasp, and a strong voice exclaiming, "Messieurs, I demand the
+    delay of this sentence. The criminal before you is of higher
+    importance to the state than the wretches whom justice daily
+    compels you to sacrifice. His crime is of a deeper dye. I
+    exhibit the mandate of the Government to arrest the act of the
+    tribunal, and order him to be reserved until he reveals the
+    whole of the frightful plots which endanger the Republic."</p>
+
+    <p>He then advanced to the platform; and, taking a paper from
+    his bosom, displayed to the court and the crowd the order for
+    my being remanded to prison, signed by the triumvirate, whose
+    word was law in France. Some confusion followed on the bench,
+    and some bustle among the spectators; but the document was
+    undeniable, and my sentence was suspended. I am not sure that
+    the people within much regretted the delay, however those who
+    had been lingering outside might feel themselves ill-used by a
+    pause in the executions, which had now become a popular
+    amusement; for the crowd instantly pushed forward to witness
+    another trial of sarcasm between me and my judges; but this the
+    new authority sternly forbade.</p>
+
+    <p>"The prisoner," said he, in a dictatorial tone, "is now in
+    my charge. He is a prisoner of state&mdash;an
+    Englishman&mdash;an agent of the monster Pitt"&mdash;(he
+    paused, and was answered with a general shudder;) "and, above
+    all, has actually been in arms with the fiend Brunswick, (a
+    general groan,) and with those worse than fiends, those
+    parricides, those emigrant nobles, who have come to burn our
+    harvests, slay our wives and children, and destroy the proudest
+    monument of human wisdom, the grandest triumph of human
+    success, and the most illustrious monument of the age of
+    regeneration&mdash;the Republic of France." Loud acclamations
+    followed this popular rhetoric; and the panegyrist, firmly
+    grasping me by the arm, walked with me rapidly out of court.
+    All made way for him, and, before another word could be uttered
+    by the astounded bench, we were in one of the covered carriages
+    reserved for prisoners of the higher rank, and on our way, at
+    full gallop, through the intricate streets of Paris.</p>
+
+    <p>All this was done with such hurried action, that I had
+    scarcely time to know what my own emotions were; but the relief
+    from immediate death, or rather from those depressing and
+    overwhelming sensations which perhaps make its worst
+    bitterness, was something, and hope dawned in me once more.
+    Still, it was wholly in vain that I attempted to make my man of
+    mystery utter a word. Nothing could extort a syllable from him,
+    and he was evidently unwilling that I should even see his face,
+    imperfect as the chance was among the few lamps which Paris
+    then exhibited to enlighten the dismal darkness of her
+    thoroughfares. Yet the idea that my rescue was not without a
+    purpose predominated; and I was beginning even to imagine that
+    I already felt the fresh air of the fields, and that our
+    journey would terminate outside the walls of Paris, when the
+    carriage came to a full stop, and, by the light of a torch
+    streaming on the wind in front, I saw the gate of the St
+    Lazare. All was now over&mdash;resistance or escape was equally
+    beyond me. The carriage was surrounded by the guard, who
+    ordered me to descend; their officer received the rescript for
+    my safe custody, and I had nothing before me but the dungeon.
+    But at the moment when my foot was on the step of the vehicle,
+    my companion stooped forward, and uttered in my ear, with a
+    pressure of my hand, the word "Mordecai." I was hurried onward,
+    and the carriage drove away.</p>
+
+    <p>My surprise was excessive. This talismanic word changes the
+    current <span class="pagenum"><a name="page494"
+       id="page494"></a>[pg 494]</span> of my thoughts at once. It
+       had so often and so powerfully operated in my favour, that I
+       could scarcely doubt its effect once more; yet before me
+       were the stern realities of confinement. What spell was
+       equal to those stonewalls, what dexterity of man or
+       friendship, or even the stronger love of woman, could make
+       my dungeon free, or my chains vanish into "thin air?" Still
+       there had been a interposition, and to that interposition,
+       whether for future good or ill, it certainly was due that I
+       was not already mounting the scaffold, or flung, headless
+       trunk, into the miserable and nameless grave.</p>
+
+    <p>As I passed again through the cloisters, my ears were caught
+    with the sound of music and dancing. The contrast was
+    sufficiently strong to the scene from which I had just
+    returned; yet this was the land of contrasts. To my look of
+    surprise, the turnkey who attended me answered "Perhaps you
+    have forgotten that this is Decadi, and on this night we always
+    have our masquerade. If you have not got a dress, I shall
+    supply you; my wife is a <i>fripier</i> in the Antoine; she
+    supplies all the civic f&ecirc;tes with costumes, and you may
+    have any dress you like, from a grand signor with his turban,
+    down to a <i>colporteur</i> with his pack, or a watchman with
+    his nightcap."</p>
+
+    <p>My mind was still too unsettled to enjoy masquerading,
+    notwithstanding the temptation of the turnkey's wardrobe; and I
+    felt all that absence of accommodation to circumstances, that
+    want of plasticity, that failure of grasping at every
+    hair's-breadth of enjoyment, which is declared by foreigners to
+    form the prodigious deficiency of John Bull. If I could have
+    taken refuge, for that night at least, in the saddest cell of
+    the old convent, or in the deepest dungeon of the new prison, I
+    should have gone to either with indulgence. I longed to lay
+    down my aching brains upon my pillow, and forget the fever of
+    the time. But prisoners have no choice; and the turnkey, after
+    repeating his recommendations that I should not commit an act
+    of such profound offence as to appear in the assembly without a
+    domino, if I should take nothing else from the store of the
+    most popular <i>marchande</i> in Paris, the wife of his bosom,
+    at last, with a shake of his head and a bending of his heavy
+    brows at my want of taste, unlocked the gate, and thrust me
+    into the midst of my old quarters, the chapel.</p>
+
+    <p>There a new scene indeed awaited me. The place which I had
+    left filled with trembling clusters of people, whole families
+    clinging to each other in terror, loud or mute, but all in the
+    deepest dread of their next summons, I found in a state of the
+    most extravagant festivity&mdash;the chapel lighted up from
+    floor to root&mdash;bouquets planted wherever it was possible
+    to fix an artificial flower&mdash;gaudy wreaths depending from
+    the galleries&mdash;and all the genius of this country of
+    extremes lavished on attempts at decoration. Rude as the
+    materials were, they produced at first sight a remarkably
+    striking effect. More striking still was the spectacle of the
+    whole multitude in every grotesque dress of the world, dancing
+    away as if life was but one festival.</p>
+
+    <p>As I stood aloof for a while, wholly dazzled by the glare,
+    the movement, and the multitude, I was recognised by some of my
+    "old" acquaintance&mdash;the acquaintance of twenty-four
+    hours&mdash;but here time, like every thing else, had changed
+    its meaning, and a new influx had recruited the hall. Cassini
+    and some others came forward and welcomed me, like one who had
+    returned from the tomb&mdash;the news of the day was given and
+    exchanged&mdash;a bottle of champagne was prescribed as the
+    true medicine for my lowness of pulse&mdash;and I gradually
+    gave myself up to the spirit of the hour.</p>
+
+    <p>As I wandered through the crowd, a mask dressed as a sylph
+    bent its head over my shoulder, and I heard the words, "Why are
+    you not in a domino?" I made some careless answer. "Go and get
+    one immediately," was the reply. "Take this card, fasten it on
+    your robe, and meet me here again." The mask put a card marked
+    with a large rose into my hand, and was gone waltzing away
+    among the crowd. I still lingered, leaning against one of the
+    pillars of the aisle. The mask again approached me. "Monsieur
+    Anglais," was the whisper, "you do not know your friends. Go
+    and furnish yourself with
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page495"
+       id="page495"></a>[pg 495]</span> a domino. It is essential
+       to your safety." "Who are my friends, and why do you give me
+       this advice?" was my enquiry. The mask lightly tripped round
+       me, laid its ungloved hand on mine, as if in the mere sport
+       of the dance; and I saw that it was the hand of a female
+       from its whiteness and delicacy. I was now more perplexed
+       than ever. As the form floated round me with the lightness
+       of a zephyr, it whispered the word "Mordecai," and flew off
+       into an eddy of the moving multitude. I now obeyed the
+       command; went to the little shrine where the turnkey's wife
+       had opened her <i>friperie</i>, and equipped myself with the
+       dress appointed; and, with the card fixed upon my bosom,
+       returned to take my station beside the pillar. But no sylph
+       came again; no form rivaled the zephyr before me. I listened
+       for that soft, low voice; but listened in vain. Yet what was
+       all this but the common sport of a masquerade?</p>
+
+    <p>However, an object soon drew the general attention so
+    strongly, as to put an end to private curiosity for the time.
+    This was a mask in the uniform of a national guard, but so
+    outrageously fine that his <i>entr&eacute;e</i> excited an
+    universal burst of laughter. But when, after a few displays of
+    what was apparently all but intoxication, he began a detail of
+    his own exploits, it was evident that the whole was a daring
+    caricature; and as nothing could be less popular among us than
+    the heroes of the shops, the Colonels Calicot, and Mustaches
+    <i>au comptoir</i>, all his burlesque told incomparably. The
+    old officers among us, the Vend&eacute;ans, and all the
+    ladies&mdash;for the sex are aristocrats under every government
+    and in every region of the globe&mdash;were especially
+    delighted. "Alexandre Jules C&aelig;sar," colonel of the "brave
+    battalion of the Marais," was evidently worth a dozen
+    field-marshals in his own opinion; and his contempt for
+    Vend&ocirc;me, Marlborough, and Frederick le Grand, was only
+    less piquant than the perfect imitation and keen burlesque of
+    Santerre, Henriot, and our municipal warriors. At length when
+    his plaudits and popularity were at their height, he proposed a
+    general toast to the "young heroism," of the capital, and
+    prefaced it by a song, in great repute in the old French
+    service.</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"AVANCEZ, BRAVE GUERRIERS."</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Shoulder arms&mdash;brave regiment!</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hark, the bugle sounds 'advance.'</p>
+
+            <p>Pile the baggage&mdash;strike the tent;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">France demands you&mdash;fight for
+            France.</p>
+
+            <p>If the hero gets a ball,</p>
+
+            <p>His accounts are closed&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Who'd stay wasting time at home,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Made for women to despise;</p>
+
+            <p>When, where'er we choose to roam,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">All the world before us lies,</p>
+
+            <p>Following our bugle's call,</p>
+
+            <p>Life one holiday&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"When the soldier's coin is spent,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">He has but to fight for more;</p>
+
+            <p>He pays neither tax nor rent,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">He's but where he was before.</p>
+
+            <p>If he conquer, if he fall&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p><i>Fortune de la guerre</i>&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Let the pedant waste his oil,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">With the soldier all is sport;</p>
+
+            <p>Let your blockheads make a coil</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">In the cloister or the court;</p>
+
+            <p>Let them fatten in their stall,</p>
+
+            <p>We can fatten too&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"What care we for fortune's frown,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">All that comes is for the best;</p>
+
+            <p>What's the noble's bed of down</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To the soldier's evening rest</p>
+
+            <p>On the heath or in the hall,</p>
+
+            <p>All alike to him&mdash;that's all!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"When the morn is on the sky,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hark the gay <i>reveill&eacute;</i>
+            rings!</p>
+
+            <p>Glory lights the soldier's eye,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To the gory breach he springs,</p>
+
+            <p>Plants his colours on the wall</p>
+
+            <p>Wins and wears the <i>croix</i>&mdash;that's
+            all!"</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The dashing style in which this hereditary song of the
+    French camp was given by "Colonel Alexandre Jules C&aelig;sar"
+    of the "brave battalion of the Marais," his capitally awkward
+    imitation of the soldier of the old <i>r&eacute;gime</i>, and
+    his superb affectation of military nonchalance, were so
+    admirable, that his song excited actual raptures of applause.
+    His performance was encored, and he was surrounded by a group
+    of nymphs and graces, among whom his towering figure looked
+    like a grenadier of Brobdignag in the circle of a Liliputian
+    light company. He carried on the farce for a while with great
+    adroitness and animation; but at length he put the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page496"
+       id="page496"></a>[pg 496]</span> circle of tinsel and
+       tiffany aside, and rushing up to me, insisted on making me a
+       recruit for the "brave battalion of the Marais." But I had
+       no desire to play a part in this pantomime, and tried to
+       disengage myself. One word again made me a captive: that
+       word was now "Lafontaine;" and at the same moment I saw the
+       sylph bounding to my side. What was I to think of this
+       extraordinary combination? All was as strange as a midsummer
+       night's dream. The "colonel," as if fatigued, leaned against
+       the pillar, and slightly removing his mask, I saw, with
+       sudden rejoicing, the features of that gallant young friend,
+       whom I had almost despaired of ever seeing again. "Wait in
+       this spot until I return," was all that I heard, before he
+       and the sylph had waltzed away far down the hall.</p>
+
+    <p>I waited for some time in growing anxiety; but the
+    pleasantry of the night went on as vividly as ever, and some
+    clever <i>tableaux vivants</i> had varied the quadrilles. While
+    the dancers gave way to a well-performed picture of Hector and
+    Andromache from the <i>Iliad</i>, and the hero was in the act
+    of taking the plumed helmet from his brow, with a grace which
+    enchanted our whole female population, an old Savoyard and his
+    daughter came up, one playing the little hand-organ of their
+    country, and the other dancing to her tamborine. This was
+    pretty, but my impatience was ill disposed to look or listen;
+    when I was awakened by a laugh, and the old man's mask being
+    again half turned aside, I again saw my friend: the man moved
+    slowly through the crowd, and I followed. We gradually twined
+    our way through the labyrinth of pillars, leaving the festivity
+    further and further behind, until he came to a low door, at
+    which the Savoyard tapped, and a watchword being given, the
+    cell was opened. There our robes and masks were laid aside; we
+    found peasant dresses, for which we exchanged them; and
+    following a muffled figure who carried a lantern, we began our
+    movements again through the recesses of the endless building.
+    At length we came to a stop, and our guide lifting up a
+    ponderous stone which covered the entrance to a deep and dark
+    staircase, we began to descend. I now for the first time heard
+    the cheerful voice of Lafontaine at my side. "I doubt," said
+    he, "whether a hundred years ago any one of us would have
+    ventured on a night march of this kind; for, be it known to
+    you, that we are now in the vaults of the convent, and shall
+    have to go through a whole regiment of monks and abbots in full
+    parade." I observed that, "if we were to meet them at all, they
+    would be less likely to impede our progress dead than alive;"
+    but I still advised Lafontaine to allude as little as he could
+    to the subject, lest it might have the effect of alarming our
+    fair companion. "There is no fear of that," said he, "for
+    little Julie is in love with M. le Comte, our gallant guide;
+    and a girl of eighteen desperately in love, is afraid of
+    nothing. You Englishmen are not remarkable for superstition;
+    and as for me and my compatriots, we have lost our reverence
+    for monks in any shape since the taking of the Bastile."</p>
+
+    <p>We now went on drearily and wearily through a range of
+    catacombs, stopping from time to time to ascertain whether we
+    were pursued; and occasionally not a little startled by the
+    sudden burst of sound that came from the revelry above, through
+    the ventilators of these enormous vaults. But the Count had
+    well prepared his measures, had evidently traced his way
+    before, and led us on without hinderance, until we approached a
+    species of sallyport, which, once opened, would have let us out
+    into the suburb. Here misfortune first met us; none of the keys
+    which the Count had brought with him would fit the lock. It was
+    now concluded by our alarmed party, either that the design of
+    escape had been discovered, or that the lock had been changed
+    since the day before. Here was an insurmountable difficulty. To
+    break down the gate, or break through it, was palpably
+    impossible, for it was strongly plated with iron, and would
+    have resisted every thing but a six-pounder. What was to be
+    done? To remain where we were was starvation and death; to
+    return, would be heart-breaking; yet escape was clearly out of
+    the question. The Count was furious, as he tried in vain
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page497"
+       id="page497"></a>[pg 497]</span> to shake the solid
+       obstacle; Lafontaine was in despair. I, rather more quietly,
+       took it for granted that the guillotine would settle all our
+       troubles in the course of the next day; and the pretty
+       Julie, in a deluge of tears, charging herself with having
+       undone us all, hung upon the neck of her cavalier, and
+       pledged herself, by all the hopes and fears of passion, to
+       die along with him. While the lovers were exchanging their
+       last vows, Lafontaine, in all the vexation of his soul, was
+       explaining to me the matchless excellence of the plot, which
+       had been thus defeated in the very moment of promised
+       success.</p>
+
+    <p>"You perhaps remember," said he, "the letter which the
+    father of Mariamne, that dearest girl whom I shall now never
+    see again in this world, gave you for one of his nation in
+    Paris. On the night when I last saw you, I had found it lying
+    on your table; and in the confusion of the moment, when I
+    thought you killed, and rushed into the street to gain some
+    tidings of you, I took charge of the letter, to assist me in
+    the enquiry. Unlucky as usual, I fell into the hands of a
+    rabble returning from the plunder of the palace, was fired on,
+    was wounded, and carried to the St Lazare. The governor was a
+    man of honour and a royalist, and he took care of me during a
+    dangerous illness and a slow recovery. But to give me liberty
+    was out of his power. I had lost sight of the world so long,
+    that the world lost sight of me, and I remained, forgetting and
+    forgotten; until, within these two days&mdash;when I received a
+    note from the head of the family to whom your letter was
+    directed, informing me that you had been arrested and sent to
+    the very prison in which I was&mdash;my recollection of the
+    world suddenly revived, and I determined to save you if
+    possible. I had grown familiar with the proceedings of that
+    tribunal of demons, the Revolutionary committee; and as I had
+    no doubt of your condemnation, through the mere love of
+    bloodshed, I concerted with my Jewish friend the plan of having
+    you claimed as a British agent, who had the means of making
+    important disclosures to the government. If this succeeded,
+    your life was saved for the day, and your escape was prepared
+    for the night. This weeping girl is the daughter of the late
+    governor, who has engaged in our plot to save the life of her
+    affianced husband; and now, within an hour of daylight, when
+    escape will be impossible, all our plans are thrown
+    away&mdash;we are brought to a dead stand by the want of one
+    miserable key, and shall have nothing more to do than to make
+    up our minds to die with what composure we can."</p>
+
+    <p>Having finished his story, the narrator wrapt up his head in
+    his cloak, and laid himself down like one determined never to
+    rise again. The Count and his Julie were so engaged in
+    recapitulating their sorrows, sitting side by side on a
+    tombstone, like a pair of monumental figures, that they had
+    neither ear nor eye for any thing else; but my English nature
+    was made of sterner stuff, and thinking that at the last I
+    could but die, I took the lantern and set sturdily to work to
+    examine the gate. It was soon evident that it could be neither
+    undermined nor broken down by any strength of ours; but it was
+    also evident that the lock was the old one which had closed it
+    perhaps for the last century, and that the right key was the
+    only thing wanting. Leaving Lafontaine in his despair lying at
+    the foot of the monument, on which the lovers sat murmuring
+    like a pair of turtle doves, I determined to make a thorough
+    search for the missing key, and made my way back through all
+    the windings of the catacomb, tracing the ground step by step.
+    Still no key was to be found. At last I reached the cell where
+    we had changed our dresses, and examined table, floor, and
+    chair. Still nothing was to be found; but, unluckily, the light
+    of the lantern glancing through the loop-hole of the cell,
+    caught the eye of the sentinel on the outside, and he
+    challenged. The sound made me start; and I took up one of the
+    robes to cover the light. Something hard struck my hand. It was
+    in the gown of the Savoyard's daughter. I felt its pockets,
+    and, to my infinite astonishment and delight, produced the key.
+    The pretty Julie, who had procured it, had forgotten every
+    thing in the rapture of meeting her lover, and had left it
+    behind her when she threw off her masquerading
+    costume.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page498"
+       id="page498"></a>[pg 498]</span>
+
+    <p>I now hastened back with the rapid step becoming the bearer
+    of good tidings, and revived the group of despair. The key was
+    applied to the lock, but it refused to move, and we had another
+    pang of disappointment. Lafontaine uttered a groan, and Julie
+    poured another gush of tears upon her companion's shoulder. I
+    made the experiment again; the rust of the lock was now found
+    to have been our only hinderance; and with a strong turn the
+    bolt flew back, and the door was open.</p>
+
+    <p>We had all been so much exhausted by agitation, and the
+    dreary traverse of the catacomb, that the first gush of fresh
+    air conveyed a sensation almost of new life. The passage had
+    probably been formed in the period when every large building in
+    Paris was a species of fortress; and we had still a portcullis
+    to pass. When we first pushed against it, we felt another
+    momentary pang; but age had made it an unfaithful guardian, and
+    a few stout attacks on its decayed bars gave us free way. We
+    were now under the open sky; but, to our consternation, a new
+    and still more formidable difficulty presented itself. The moat
+    was still to be passed. To attempt the drawbridge was hopeless;
+    for we could hear the sentinel pacing up and down its creaking
+    planks. The moment was critical; for a streak of grey light in
+    the far east showed that the day was at hand. After resolving
+    all imaginable plans, and abandoning them all as fruitless;
+    determining, at all events, never to return, and yet without
+    the slightest prospect of escape, except in the bottom of that
+    sullen pool which lay at our feet&mdash;the thought occurred to
+    me, that in my return through the vault I had stumbled over the
+    planks which covered a vault lately dug for a prisoner.
+    Communicating my idea to Lafontaine, we returned to the spot,
+    loaded ourselves with the planks, and fortunately found them of
+    the length that would reach across the narrowest part of the
+    fosse. Our little bridge was made without delay, and Lafontaine
+    led the way, followed by the count and Julie, I waiting to see
+    them safe across, before I added my weight to the frail
+    structure. But I was not yet fated to escape. The sentinel,
+    whose vigilance I had startled by my lantern in the cell, had
+    given the alarm; and, as I was setting my foot on the plank, a
+    discharge of fire-arms came from the battlement above. I felt
+    that I was struck, and a stunning sensation seized me. I made
+    an attempt to spring forward, but suddenly found myself unable
+    to move. The patrol from the drawbridge now surrounded me, and
+    in this helpless state, bleeding, and as I thought dying, I was
+    hurried back into the St Lazare.</p>
+
+    <p>After a fortnight's suffering in the hospital of the prison,
+    which alone probably saved me from the guillotine, then almost
+    the natural death of all the suspected, I was enabled to get on
+    my feet again. I found the prison as full as ever, but nearly
+    all its inmates had been changed except the Vend&eacute;ans,
+    whom the crooked policy of the time kept alive, partly to avoid
+    raising the whole province in revolt, partly as hostages for
+    their countrymen.</p>
+
+    <p>On my recovery, I had expected to be put down once more in
+    the list for trial; but it reached even the prison, that the
+    government were in a state of alarm for themselves, which
+    prevented them from indulging their friends in the streets with
+    the national amusement. The chance of mounting the scaffold
+    themselves had put the guillotine out of fashion; and two or
+    three minor attempts at the seizure of the Jacobin sceptre by
+    the partisans of the Girondists and Cordeliers, had been put
+    down with such difficulty, that even the Jacobin Club had begun
+    to protest against bloodshed, through the prospect of a speedy
+    retaliation. Thus we were suffered to linger on. But, "disguise
+    thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, thou art a bitter
+    draught," and the suspense was heart-sickening. At length,
+    however, a bustle outside the walls, the firing of alarm guns,
+    and the hurrying of the national guard through the streets,
+    told us that some new measure of atrocity was at hand, and we
+    too soon learned the cause.</p>
+
+    <p>The army under Dumourier had been attacked by the Austrians
+    under Clairfait, and had been defeated with heavy loss;
+    despatches had been received from their favourite general, in
+    all the rage of failure, declaring that the sole cause of the
+    disaster was <span class="pagenum"><a name="page499"
+       id="page499"></a>[pg 499]</span> information conveyed from
+       the capital to the Austrian headquarters, and demanding a
+       strict enquiry into the intrigues which had thus tarnished
+       the colours of the Republic. No intelligence could have been
+       more formidable to a government, which lived from day to day
+       on the breath of popularity; and, to turn the wrath of the
+       rabble from themselves, an order was given to examine the
+       prisons, and send the delinquents to immediate execution. It
+       may be easily believed that the briefest enquiry was enough
+       for vengeance, and the prisoners of St Lazare were the first
+       to furnish the spectacle. A train of carts rattled over the
+       pavement of our cloisters, and we were ordered to mount them
+       without delay. The guard was so strong as to preclude all
+       hope of resistance; and with all the pomp of a military
+       pageant, drums beating, trumpets sounding, and bands playing
+       <i>&Ccedil;a Ira</i> and the <i>Marseillaise</i>, we left
+       our dreary dwelling, which habit had now almost turned into
+       a home, and moved through the principal streets of the
+       capital, for the express purposes of popular display, in the
+       centre of a large body of horse and foot, and an
+       incalculable multitude of spectators, until in the distance
+       we saw the instrument of death.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_6_1"
+                    name="fn_6_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_6_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>A scene of peculiar infamy near Paris.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr />
+    <a name="warning"
+          id="warning"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE CHILD'S WARNING.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>There's blood upon the lady's cheek,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">There's brightness in her eye:</p>
+
+            <p>Who says the sentence is gone forth</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">That that fair thing must die?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Must die before the flowering lime,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Out yonder, sheds its leaf&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Can this thing be, O human flower!</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Thy blossoming so brief?</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Nay, nay, 'tis but a passing cloud,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Thou didst but droop awhile;</p>
+
+            <p>There's life, long years, and love and joy,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Whole ages, in that smile&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>In the gay call that to thy knee</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Brings quick that loving child,</p>
+
+            <p>Who looks up in those laughing eyes</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">With his large eyes so mild.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Yet, thou art doom'd&mdash;art dying; all</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">The coming hour foresee,</p>
+
+            <p>But, in love's cowardice, withhold</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">The warning word from thee.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>God keep thee and be merciful!</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">His strength is with the weak;</p>
+
+            <p>Through babes and sucklings, the Most High</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Hath oft vouchsafed to speak&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>And speaketh now&mdash;"Oh, mother dear!"</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Murmurs the little child;</p>
+
+            <p>And there is trouble in its eyes,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Those large blue eyes so mild&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Oh, mother dear! they say that soon,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">When here I seek for thee,</p>
+
+            <p>I shall not find thee&mdash;nor out there,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Under the old oak-tree;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Nor up stairs in the nursery,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Nor any where, they say.</p>
+
+            <p>Where wilt thou go to, mother dear?</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Oh, do not go away!"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Then was long silence&mdash;a deep hush&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And then the child's low sob.</p>
+
+            <p><i>Her</i> quivering eyelids close&mdash;one
+            hand</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Keeps down the heart's quick throb.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>And the lips move, though sound is none,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">That inward voice is prayer.</p>
+
+            <p>And hark! "Thy will, O Lord, be done!"</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And tears are trickling there,</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Down that pale cheek, on that young head&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And round her neck he clings;</p>
+
+            <p>And child and mother murmur out</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Unutterable things.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p><i>He</i> half unconscious&mdash;<i>she</i>
+            deep-struck</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">With sudden, solemn truth,</p>
+
+            <p>That number'd are her days on earth,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Her shroud prepared in youth&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>That all in life her heart holds dear,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">God calls her to resign.</p>
+
+            <p>She hears&mdash;feels&mdash;trembles&mdash;but looks
+            up,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And sighs, "Thy will be mine!"</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p style="margin-left: 50%">C.</p>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page500"
+       id="page500"></a>[pg 500]</span> <a name="patrons"
+          id="patrons"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE TWO PATRONS.</h2>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+    <p>The front door of a large house in Harley Street stood
+    hospitably open, and leaning against the plaster pillars (which
+    were of a very miscellaneous architecture) were two
+    individuals, who appeared as if they had been set there
+    expressly to invite the passengers to walk in. Beyond the red
+    door that intersected the passage, was seen the coloured-glass
+    entrance to a conservatory on the first landing of the
+    drawing-room stairs; and a multitude of statues lined each side
+    of the lobby, like soldiers at a procession, but which the
+    inventive skill of the proprietor had converted to nearly as
+    much use as ornament; for a plaster Apollo, in addition to
+    watching the "arrow's deathful flight," had been appointed
+    custodier of a Taglioni and a Mackintosh, which he wore with
+    easy negligence over his head&mdash;a distracted Niobe, in the
+    same manner, had undertaken the charge of a grey silk hat and a
+    green umbrella. The Gladiator wore a lady's bonnet; the Farnese
+    Hercules looked like an old-fashioned watchman, and sported a
+    dreadnought coat. A glaring red paper gave a rich appearance to
+    the hall; the stair carpet also added its contribution to the
+    rubicundity of the scene, which was brought to a <i>ne plus
+    ultra</i> by the nether habiliments of the two gentlemen who,
+    as already stated, did the honours of the door.</p>
+
+    <p>A more pleasing sight than two footmen refreshing themselves
+    on the top of the front stairs with a view of the opposite
+    houses, and gratifying the anxious public at the same time with
+    a view of themselves, it is difficult to imagine. They always
+    look so diffident and respectful, that involuntarily our
+    interest in them becomes almost too lively for words. We think
+    with disdain on miserable soldiers and hungry mechanics, and
+    half-starved paupers and whole-starved labourers; and turn,
+    with feelings of a very different kind, to the contemplation of
+    virtue rewarded, and modesty well fed, in the persons of the
+    two meditative gentlemen whose appearance at the front door in
+    Harley Street has given rise to these reflections. The elder of
+    them, who kept the post of honour on the right hand side, just
+    opposite the bell-handle, and whose superiority over the other
+    was marked by much larger legs, a more prominent blue
+    waistcoat, and a slight covering of powder over his auburn
+    locks, looked for some time at his companion, while an
+    expression of ill-disguised contempt turned up to still more
+    dignified altitude the point of his nose. At last, as if by an
+    effort, he broke forth in speech.</p>
+
+    <p>"Snipe," he said&mdash;and seeing that Mr Snipe's ears were
+    open, he continued&mdash;"I can't tell how it is, but I saw,
+    when first I came, you had never been in a reg'lar
+    fambly&mdash;never."</p>
+
+    <p>"We was always more reg'larer at Miss Hendy's nor
+    here&mdash;bed every night at ten o'clock, and up in the
+    morning at five."</p>
+
+    <p>"You'll never get up to cribbage&mdash;you're so confounded
+    slow," replied the senior; "you'll have to stick to dominoes,
+    which is only fit for babbies. Did ye think I meant Miss
+    Hendy's, or low people of that kind, when I spoke of a reg'lar
+    fambly?&mdash;I meant that you had never seen life. Did you
+    ever change plates for a marquis, Snipe?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Never heared of one. Is he in a great way of business?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A marquis is a reg'lar nob, you know; and gives reg'lar
+    good wages when you gets 'em paid. A man can't be a gentleman
+    as lives with vulgar people&mdash;old Pitskiver is a genuine
+    snob."</p>
+
+    <p>"He's a rich gentleman," returned Mr Snipe.</p>
+
+    <p>"But he's low&mdash;uncommon low"&mdash;said the
+    other&mdash;"reg'lar boiled mutton and turnips."</p>
+
+    <p>"And a wery good dish too," observed Mr Snipe, whose
+    intellect, being strictly limited to dominoes, was not quite
+    equal to the metaphorical.</p>
+
+    <p>"By mutton and turnips, I means&mdash;he may be rich; but he
+    ain't genteel, Snipe. Look at our Sophiar's
+    shoulders."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page501"
+       id="page501"></a>[pg 501]</span>
+
+    <p>Mr Snipe looked up towards his senior with a puzzled
+    expression, as if he waited for information&mdash;"What has
+    Miss Sophiar's shoulders to do with boiled mutton and
+    turnips?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing won't do but to be at it from the very beginning,"
+    said the superior, with a toss of his powdered head; "fight
+    after it as much as ever they like, wear the best of gownds,
+    and go to the fustest of boarding-schools&mdash;though they
+    plays ever so well on the piando, and talks Italian like a
+    reg'lar Frenchman&mdash;nothing won't do&mdash;<i>there's</i>
+    the boiled mutton and turnips&mdash;shocking wulgarity! Look
+    again, I say, at our Sophiar's shoulders, and see how her
+    head's set on. Spinks's Charlotte is a very different
+    affair&mdash;and there she is at the winder over the way.
+    That's quite the roast fowl and blamange," he continued,
+    looking at a very beautiful girl who appeared at the window of
+    one of the opposite houses&mdash;"a pretty blowen as ever I
+    see, and uncommon fond of Spinks."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see nothing like a fowl about the young lady," replied
+    the prosaic Mr Snipe; "and Spinks is a horrid liar."</p>
+
+    <p>"But can't you judge for yourself, Snipe? That girl opposite
+    found two footmen and a butler all waiting to receive her, with
+    a French governess and a lady's maid, the moment she got out of
+    the cradle; and I say again she's nothing but roast fowl and
+    blamange, or perhaps a breast slice of pheasant, for she's
+    uncommon genteel. How different from our boiled veals, and
+    parsley and butters! I shall give warning if we don't change
+    soon."</p>
+
+    <p>"She's a beautiful young lady," said Mr Snipe; "but I thinks
+    not half so plump and jolly as our Miss Emily or Sophia."</p>
+
+    <p>"Plump! do you think you've got a sporting license, and are
+    on the look-out for a partridge? No; I tell you all the
+    Pitskivers is low, and old Pits is the worst of the lot."</p>
+
+    <p>"I used always to hear him called a great man at Miss
+    Hendy's," replied Snipe; "no end of money, and a reg'lar
+    tip-topper. I really expected to see the queen very often drop
+    in to supper."</p>
+
+    <p>"And meet all the tag-rag we have here! What would the queen
+    care for all them portrait-painters, and poets, and engineers,
+    and writing vagabonds, as old Pits is eternally feeding? The
+    queen knows a mighty sight better, and wouldn't ax any body to
+    her table as had done nothing but write books or paint picters.
+    No; old Pits is the boy for patronizing them there fellers; but
+    mark ye, Snipe, he takes the wrong chaps. If a man is to demean
+    himself by axing a riff-raff of authors to his house, let it be
+    the big 'uns; I should not care to give a bit of dinner to
+    Dickens or Bulwer myself."</p>
+
+    <p>With this condescending confession of his interest in
+    literature, the gentleman in the shining garments looked down
+    the street, as if he expected some public approval of his
+    praiseworthy sentiments.</p>
+
+    <p>Being disappointed in this natural expectation, he resolved
+    to revenge himself by severe observations on the passers-by;
+    but the severity was partly lost on the slow-minded Mr
+    Snipe&mdash;being clothed in the peculiar phraseology of his
+    senior, in which it appeared that some particular dish was
+    placed as the representative of the individual attacked. Not
+    that Mr Daggles&mdash;for such was the philosophical footman's
+    name&mdash;saw any resemblance between his master, Mr
+    Pitskiver, and a dish of boiled mutton and turnips, or between
+    the beautiful young lady opposite and the breast of a pheasant;
+    but that, to his finely constituted mind, those dishes shadowed
+    forth the relative degrees in aristocracy which Mr Pitskiver
+    and the young lady occupied. He had probably established some
+    one super-eminent article of food as a high "ideal" to which to
+    refer all other kinds of edibles&mdash;perhaps an ortolan pie;
+    and the further removed from this imaginary point of perfection
+    any dish appeared, the more vulgar and commonplace it became;
+    and taking it for granted, that as far as human gradations are
+    concerned, the loftiest aristocracy corresponded with the
+    ortolan pie, it is evident that Mr Daggles's mode of assigning
+    rank and precedence was founded on strictly philosophical
+    principles; as much so, perhaps, as the labours of Debrett.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, look at this old covey&mdash;twig his shorts and long
+    gaiters: he's some old Suffolk squire, has grown too fat
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page502"
+       id="page502"></a>[pg 502]</span> for harriers, and goes out
+       with the greyhounds twice a-week&mdash;a truly respectable
+       member of society"&mdash;continued Mr Daggles with a sneer,
+       when the subject of his lecture had passed on&mdash;"reg'lar
+       boiled beef and greens."</p>
+
+    <p>"He ain't so fat as our Mr Pitskiver," replied Snipe; "I
+    thinks I never see no gentleman with so broad a back; except
+    p'raps a prize ox."</p>
+
+    <p>"You should get a set of harrows to clean his Chesterfield
+    with, instead of a brush&mdash;it's more like a field than a
+    coat," said Daggles. "But look here&mdash;here comes a
+    ticket!"</p>
+
+    <p>The ticket alluded to was a well-made young man, with a very
+    healthy complexion, long glossy black curls hanging down his
+    cheek, a remarkably long-backed surtout, and a small silk hat
+    resting on the very top of his umbrageous head. As he drew
+    near, he slackened his pace&mdash;passed the house slowly,
+    looking up to the drawing-room window, evidently in hopes of
+    seeing some object more attractive than the vast hydrangia
+    which rose majestically out of a large flowerpot, and darkened
+    all the lower panes. Before he had proceeded ten yards, and
+    just when Mr Daggles had fixed in his own mind on the
+    particular effort of culinary skill suggested by his
+    appearance, the ticket turned quickly round and darted up the
+    steps. Snipe stepped forward in some alarm.</p>
+
+    <p>"Your master's not at home," said the Ticket; "but the
+    ladies"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Is all out in the featon, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you be good enough&mdash;I see I may trust
+    you&mdash;to give this note to Miss Sophia? I shall take an
+    opportunity of showing my gratitude very soon. Will you give
+    it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir, in course."</p>
+
+    <p>"Secretly? And, be assured, I shall not forget you." So
+    saying, the Ticket walked hurriedly away, and Snipe stood with
+    the note still in his hand, and looked dubiously at his
+    companion.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Daggle's eyes were fixed on the retreating figure of the
+    Ticket; and, after a careful observation of every part of his
+    dress, from the silk hat to the Wellingtons, he shook his head
+    in a desponding manner, and merely said&mdash;"Tripe!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What's to be done with this here letter?" enquired
+    Snipe.</p>
+
+    <p>"Open and read it of course. By dad! I don't think you
+    <i>are</i> up to dominoes; you must go back to skittles. He's
+    evidently enclosed the sovereign in the note; for he never
+    could have been fool enough to think that two gentlemen like us
+    are to give tick for such a sum to a stranger."</p>
+
+    <p>"What sum?" enquired Snipe.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, the sovereign he was to pay for delivering the letter.
+    If you don't like to read it yourself, give it to the old
+    snob&mdash;Pitskiver will give you a tip."</p>
+
+    <p>"But the gentleman said he would show his
+    gratitude"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"He should have showed his tin fust. There ain't no use of
+    denying it, Snipe; this is a wery low establishment, and I
+    shall cut it as soon as I can. What right has a dowdy like our
+    Sophia to be getting billydoos from fellers as ought to be
+    ashamed of theirselves for getting off their three-legged
+    stools at this time of the day? Give the note to old
+    Pits&mdash;and here, I think, he is."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver&mdash;or old Pits, as he was irreverently
+    called by his domestic&mdash;came rapidly up the street. He was
+    a little man, between fifty and sixty years of age, with an
+    exceedingly stout body and very thin legs. He was very red in
+    the face, and very short in the neck. A bright blue coat,
+    lively-coloured waistcoat, and light-green silk handkerchief
+    fastened with two sparkling pins, united to each other by a
+    gold chain, check trowsers, and polished French leather boots,
+    composed his attire. He wore an eyeglass though he was not
+    short-sighted, and a beautifully inlaid riding-whip though he
+    never rode. His white muslin pocket-handkerchief hung very
+    prominently out of the breast pocket of his coat, and his hat
+    was set a little on one side of his head, and rested with a
+    coquettish air on the top of the left whisker. What with his
+    prodigious width, and the flourishing of his whip, and the
+    imposing dignity of his appearance altogether, he seemed to
+    fill the street. Several humble pedestrians stepped off the
+    pavement on to the dirty causeway to give him room. Daggles
+    drew up, Snipe slunk back to hold the door,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page503"
+       id="page503"></a>[pg 503]</span> and Mr Pitskiver retired
+       from the eyes of men, and entered his own hall, followed by
+       his retainers.</p>
+
+    <p>"If you please, sir," said Snipe, "I have a letter for Miss
+    Sophiar."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then don't you think you had better give it her?" replied
+    Mr Pitskiver.</p>
+
+    <p>"A gentleman, sir, gave it to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll give it you, too," said the master of the mansion,
+    shaking the whip over the astonished Snipe. "What are you
+    bothering me with the ladies' notes for? Any thing for me,
+    Daggles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A few parcels, sir&mdash;books, and a couple of
+    pictures."</p>
+
+    <p>"No statue? My friend Bristles has deceived me. It was to
+    have been finished to-day. If he gives the first view to the
+    Whalleys, I'll never speak to him again. Nothing else? Then
+    have the phaeton at the door at half past five. I dine at Miss
+    Hendy's, at Hammersmith."</p>
+
+    <p>While Mr Pitskiver stepped up stairs, Snipe was going over
+    in his own mind the different grammatical meanings of the
+    words, "I'll give it you." And concluding at last that, in the
+    mouth of his master, it meant nothing but a horsewhipping, he
+    resolved, with the magnanimity of many other virtuous
+    characters who find treachery unproductive, to be true to Miss
+    Sophia, and give her the mysterious note with the greatest
+    possible secrecy.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, donkey," said Daggles, aiding his benevolent advice
+    with a kick that made it nearly superfluous, "get down them
+    kitchen stairs and learn pitch-and-toss, for you haven't brains
+    enough for any thing else&mdash;and recollect, you owes me a
+    sovereign; half from master for telling, and half from the
+    long-backed Ticket for keeping mum. You can keep the other to
+    yourself; for the job was well worth a sovereign a-piece."</p>
+
+    <p>A knock at the door interrupted the colloquy, and Snipe once
+    more emerged from the lower regions, and admitted the two fair
+    daughters of his master.</p>
+
+    <p>They were stout, bustling, rosy-cheeked girls, two or three
+    and twenty years of age, superbly dressed in flashy silks, and
+    bedizened with ribands like a triumphal arch.</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss," said Snipe, "I've got a summut for you." And he
+    looked as knowing as it was possible for a student of
+    pitch-and-toss to do.</p>
+
+    <p>"For me? What is it? Make haste, Thomas."</p>
+
+    <p>"A gentleman has been here, and left you this," replied the
+    Mercury, holding out the note. "He said something about giving
+    me a guinea; but I wasn't to let any body see."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is his hand&mdash;I know it!" cried Miss Sophia, and
+    hurried up stairs to her own room.</p>
+
+    <p>"You donkey!" growled Mr Daggles, who had overheard Snipe's
+    proceedings; "you've done me out of another ten shillings.
+    Blowed if I don't put you under the pump! She would have given
+    you a guinea for the letter by way of postage. But it all comes
+    of living with red herrings and gooses' eggs." And so saying Mr
+    Daggles resumed his usual seat in the dining-room, and went on
+    with the perusal of the <i>Morning Post</i>.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver's origin, like that of early Greece, is lost in
+    the depths of antiquity. Through an infinite variety of posts
+    and offices, he had risen to his present position, and was
+    perhaps the most multifariously occupied gentleman in her
+    majesty's dominions. He was chairman of three companies,
+    steward of six societies, general agent, and had lately reached
+    the crowning eminence of his hopes by being appointed trustee
+    of unaudited accounts. In the midst of all these labours, he
+    had gone on increasing in breadth and honour till his name was
+    a symbol of every thing respectable and well to do in the
+    world. With each new office his ambition rose, and a list of
+    his residences would be a perfect index to the state of his
+    fortunes. We can trace him from Stepney to Whitechapel; from
+    Whitechapel to Finsbury square; from Finsbury square to
+    Hammersmith; and finally, the last office (which, by the by,
+    was without a salary) had raised him,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page504"
+       id="page504"></a>[pg 504]</span> three months before our
+       account of him begins, to the centre of Harley Street. With
+       his fortune and ambition, we must do him the justice to say,
+       his liberality equally increased. He was a patron, and,
+       would have travelled fifty miles to entertain a poet at his
+       table; he had music-masters (without any other pupils) who
+       were Mozarts and Handels for his daughters&mdash;Turners and
+       Landseers (whose names were yet unknown) to teach them
+       drawing&mdash;for, by a remarkable property possessed by
+       him, in common with a great majority of mankind, every thing
+       gained a new value when it came into contact with himself.
+       He bought sets of china because they were <i>artistic</i>;
+       changed his silver plate for a more <i>picturesque</i>
+       pattern; employed Stultz for his clothes, and, above all,
+       Bell and Rannie for his wines. His cook was superb; and,
+       thanks to the above-named Bell and Rannie, there were fewer
+       headachs in the morning after a M&aelig;cenatian dinner at
+       Pitskiver's, than could have been expected by Father Matthew
+       himself. With these two exceptions&mdash;wine and
+       clothes&mdash;his patronage was more indiscriminate than
+       judicious. In fact, he patronized for the sake of
+       patronizing; and as he was always in search of a new
+       miracle, it is no wonder that he was sometimes
+       disappointed&mdash;that his Landseers sometimes turned out
+       to have no eyes, and his musicians more fitted to play the
+       Handel to a pump than an organ. But Pitskiver never lost
+       heart. If he failed in one he was sure to succeed in
+       another; he saw his name occasionally in the newspaper, by
+       giving an invitation to one of the literary gentlemen who
+       enliven the public with accounts of fearful accidents and
+       desperate offences; had his picture at the Exhibition in the
+       character of the "Portrait of a gentleman," and his bust in
+       the same place as the semblance of the honorary Secretary to
+       the Poor Man's Pension and Perpetual Annuity Institution. He
+       was a widower, and looked dreadful things at all the widows
+       of his acquaintance. And it was thought that, if he
+       succeeded in marrying off his girls, he should himself
+       become once more a candidate for the holy estate; and by
+       this wise man&oelig;uvre&mdash;for, in fact, he made no
+       secret of his intention&mdash;he enlisted in his daughters'
+       behalf all the elderly ladies who thought they had any
+       claims on the attentions of that charming creature Mr
+       Pitskiver. There were certainly no young ladies I have ever
+       heard of, so well supplied with assistants in the great art
+       of catching husbands as the two plump damsels whom we have
+       already seen enter the house in Harley Street, and one of
+       whom we have perceived placed in possession of the
+       mysterious letter by the skittle-minded Mr Snipe.</p>
+
+    <p>Miss Sophia Pitskiver, according to all ordinary ideas of
+    romance and true love, had no right whatever to indulge in such
+    luxuries, being more adapted to make pies than enter into the
+    beauty of sonnets to the moon. She was short, stout&mdash;shall
+    we be pardoned for saying the hateful word?&mdash;she was
+    dumpy, but a perfect picture of rosy health and hilarious
+    good-nature. And yet, if she had been half a foot taller, and
+    half a yard thinner, and infinitely paler, she could not have
+    been one jot more sentimental. She cultivated sentiment,
+    because it was so pleasant, and her father approved of it
+    because it was genteel. Her enthusiasm was tremendous. Her
+    ideas were all crackers, and exploded at the slightest touch.
+    She had a taste for every thing&mdash;poetry, history, fine
+    arts in general, philosophy, glory, puseyism, and, perhaps more
+    than all, for a certain tall young man, with an interesting
+    complexion, whom we have introduced to the courteous reader by
+    the name of the long-backed Ticket. It was this gentleman's
+    note she was now about to read. Sundry palpitations about the
+    robust regions of the heart might, to common eyes, have
+    appeared to arise from her speed in running up stairs. But she
+    knew better. She took but one look of the cheval glass, and
+    broke the seal.</p>
+
+    <p>"Stanzas!" she said; and, taking one other glance at the
+    mirror, she exclaimed to the agitated young lady represented
+    there, "only think!" and devoured the following
+    lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"There is a tear that will not fall</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To cool the burning heart and brain;</p>
+
+            <p>Oh, I would give my life, my all,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To feel once more that blessed rain!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page505"
+       id="page505"></a>[pg 505]</span>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"There is a grief&mdash;I feel, in sooth,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">It rends my soul, it quells my
+            tongue;</p>
+
+            <p>It dims the sunshine of my youth,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">But, oh, it will not dim it long!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"There is a place where life is o'er,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And sorrow's blasts innocuous rave;</p>
+
+            <p>A place where sadness comes no more.</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Know'st thou the place? It is the
+            grave.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Yes, if within that gentle breast</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Mild pity ever held her sway,</p>
+
+            <p>Thou'lt weep for one who finds no rest&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">The reason he can never say.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"P.S.&mdash;Miss Hendy is an angel upon earth. My friend Mr
+    Bristles, of the <i>Universal Surveyor</i>, one of the most
+    distinguished literary men of the age, has got me an invitation
+    to go to her house to-night, to read the first act of my
+    tragedy. Shall I have the happiness of seeing thee? Would to my
+    stars my fate were so fortunate! I enclose you the above lines,
+    which Bristles says are better than any of Lord Byron's, and
+    will publish next week in the <i>Universal</i>. Mayest thou
+    like them, sweetest, for they are dedicated to thee, Thine
+    ever&mdash;ALMANSOR." What she might have done beyond reading
+    the lines and letter six times over, and crying "beautiful,
+    beautiful!" as fast as she could, it is impossible to say, for
+    at that moment she was called by her venerable sire. She
+    crumpled the note up after the manner of all other heroines,
+    and hid it in her bosom; and hurried to the drawing-room, where
+    she found her father in full dress, pulling on a pair of new
+    kid gloves.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Soph, I'm off for Miss Hendy's&mdash;don't give me
+    any nonsense now about her being low, and all that sort of
+    thing; she don't move in the same circle of society, certainly,
+    as we do, but she has always distinguished people about
+    her."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, papa!" interrupted the young lady. "I don't object to
+    Miss Hendy in the least. I love her of all things, and would
+    give worlds to be going with you!"</p>
+
+    <p>"That's right! You've heard of the new poet then? Tremendous
+    they say; equal to Shakspeare&mdash;quite a great man."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! Oh, how I long to see him!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, perhaps you may one of these days. Bristles&mdash;my
+    friend Bristles of the <i>Universal</i>-says he's a
+    perfect&mdash;what do they call that pretty street in
+    Southampton?&mdash;Paragon&mdash;a perfect paragon, Bristles
+    says: I'll ask him to dinner some day."</p>
+
+    <p>"What day?&mdash;Oh, let it be soon, dear papa!"</p>
+
+    <p>"There's a dear delightful enthusiastic girl! We ought to
+    encourage people of genius. Curious we never heard of him
+    before, for he was our neighbour, I hear, in Finsbury; but
+    poor, I suppose, and did not mix with our set even then."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver looked at the opposite side of the street while
+    he spoke, as if to assure himself that he was in a still higher
+    altitude above the poet now than some few years before. But, as
+    if feeling called on to show his increased superiority by
+    greater condescension, he said, as he walked out of the room,
+    "I shall certainly have him to dinner, and Bristles, and some
+    more men of talent to meet him&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>'The feast of reason, and the flow of soul!'"</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>the only quotation, by the way, in which Mr Pitskiver was
+    ever known to indulge.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+    <p>Miss Hendy had formerly kept a school, and her portrait
+    would have done very well for a frontispiece to Mrs Trimmer.
+    She was what is called prim in her manner, and as delicate as
+    an American. She always called the legs of a table its
+    props&mdash;for the word legs was highly unfeminine. She
+    admired talent, and gave it vast quantities of tea and toast.
+    Her drawing-room was a temple of the Muses, and only open to
+    those who were bountifully endowed with the gifts of nature or
+    of fortune; for she considered it a great part of her duty to
+    act as a kind of link between Plutus and Minerva. In the effort
+    to discover objects worthy of her recommendation, she was
+    mainly aided by the celebrated Mr Bristles. Every
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page506"
+       id="page506"></a>[pg 506]</span> month whole troops of
+       Herschels and Wordsworths, and Humes and Gibbons, were
+       presented to her by the great critic; and with a devout
+       faith in all he told her, she listened enraptured to the
+       praises of those astonishing geniuses, till she had begun to
+       enter into Mr Bristles's own feelings of contempt for every
+       body except the favoured few. And to-night was the grand
+       debut of a more remarkable phenomenon than any of the
+       others. A youth of twenty-three, tall, modest, intellectual,
+       and long-haired&mdash;in short, the "Ticket"&mdash;was to
+       read the opening of a tragedy; and sculptors, painters,
+       mechanicians, and city Croesuses, were invited to be present
+       at the display. Among these last shone our friend Mr
+       Pitskiver, radiant in white waistcoat and gold chains, two
+       rings on each finger, and a cameo the size of a cheese-cake
+       on his neckcloth. The other critic, in right of his account
+       at the bank, was a tall silent gentleman, a wood-merchant
+       from the Boro', who nodded his head in an oracular manner
+       when any thing was said above his comprehension; and who was
+       a patron of rising talent, on the same enlightened
+       principles as his friend Mr Pitskiver. Mr Whalley also
+       showed his patronage in the same economical manner as the
+       other, and expected immortality at the expense of a few
+       roasts of beef and bottles of new wine.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Bristles was also of the dinner party&mdash;an
+    arrangement made by the provident Miss Hendy, that the two
+    <i>millionaires</i> might receive a little preliminary
+    information on the merits of the rest of the company, who were
+    only invited to tea. Four maiden ladies (who had pulled on blue
+    stockings in order to hide the increasing thickness of their
+    ankles, and considered Miss Hendy the legitimate successor of
+    Madame de Sta&euml;l, and Mr Pitskiver in Harley Street the
+    beau-ideal of love in a cottage) relieved the monotony of a
+    gentleman party by as profuse a display of female charms as low
+    gowns and short sleeves would allow. And about six o'clock
+    there was a highly interesting and superior party of eight, to
+    whom Miss Hendy administered cod's-head and shoulders,
+    aphorisms and oyster sauce, in almost equal proportion; while
+    Mr Pitskiver, like a "sweet seducer, blandly smiling," made
+    polite enquiries whether he should not relieve her of the
+    trouble.&mdash;"Oh no!&mdash;it degrades woman from the lofty
+    sphere of equal usefulness with the rougher sex. Why shouldn't
+    a lady help fish?&mdash;Why should she confess her inferiority?
+    The post assigned to her by nature&mdash;though usurped by
+    man&mdash;is to elevate by her example, to enlighten by her
+    precepts, and to add to the great aggregate of human felicity
+    by a manifestation of all the virtues;" saying this, she
+    inserted her knife with astonishing dexterity just under the
+    gills&mdash;and looked round for approbation.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver had recourse to his usual expedient, and said
+    something about the feast of reason; Mr Whalley shook his head
+    in a way that would have made his fortune in a grocer's window
+    in the character of Howqua; and Mr Bristles prepared himself to
+    reply&mdash;while the four literary maidens turned their eyes
+    on Aristarchus in expectation of hearing something fine. "I
+    decidedly am of opinion," said that great man, "that woman's
+    sphere is greatly misunderstood, and that you maintain the
+    dignity of your glorious sex by carving the fish.&mdash;Yet on
+    being further interrogated, I should be inclined to proceed
+    with my statement, and assert that you deprive us of pleasure,
+    in debarring us from giving you our assistance."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, why don't you help us with our samplers? why don't
+    you aid us in our knitting? why don't you assist us in hemming
+    garments?"&mdash;exclaimed Miss Hendy, digging her spoon into
+    the oyster-boat.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is what I call the feast and flow," said Mr Pitskiver;
+    while Mr Whalley nearly shook his head off his shoulders on to
+    the table-cloth. The young ladies looked slyly at Mr Pitskiver,
+    and laughed.</p>
+
+    <p>"It would be rather undignified," said Mr Bristles, "to see
+    the Lord Chancellor darning a stocking."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dignity! the very thing I complain of. Why more undignified
+    in a Lord Chancellor, or a Bishop, than in his wife? Oh, will
+    the time never come when society will be so regenerated, that
+    man will know his own position, and woman&mdash;noble,
+    elevating, surprising woman&mdash;will assume the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page507"
+       id="page507"></a>[pg 507]</span> rank to which her powers
+       and virtues entitle her!"</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Bristles was very hungry, and at that moment received his
+    plate.&mdash;"Really, Miss Hendy," he said, with his mouth
+    prodigiously distended with codfish&mdash;"there's no arguing
+    against such eloquence. I must give in." But Miss Hendy, who
+    had probably lunched, determined to accept no
+    surrender.&mdash;"No," she cried&mdash;"you shall <i>not</i>
+    give in, till I have overwhelmed you with reasons for your
+    submission. A great move is in progress&mdash;woman's rights
+    and duties are becoming every day more widely appreciated. The
+    old-fashioned scale must be re-adjusted, and woman&mdash;noble,
+    elevating, surprising woman&mdash;ascend to the loftiest
+    eminence, and sit superior on the topmost branch of the social
+    tree."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Whalley, whose professional ear was caught by the last
+    word, broke through his usual rule of only nodding his remarks,
+    and ventured to say&mdash;"Uncommon bad climbers, for the most
+    part in general, is women. Their clothes isn't adapted for
+    it.&mdash;I minds once I see a woman climb a pole after a leg
+    of mutting."</p>
+
+    <p>If looks could have killed Mr Whalley, Mr Pitskiver's eyes
+    would certainly have been tried for murder; but that
+    matter-of-fact individual was impervious to the most
+    impassioned glances. Miss Hendy sank her face in horror over
+    her plate, and celestial rosy red overspread her countenance;
+    while a look of the most extraordinary nature rewarded Mr
+    Pitskiver for all his efforts in her behalf. A look!&mdash;it
+    went quite through his waistcoat, and if it had gone straight
+    on, must have reached his heart. Mr Pitskiver was amazed at the
+    expression of the look; for he little knew that his labours
+    under the table, in attempting to check Mr Whalley's oratory by
+    pressing his toes, had unfortunately been bestowed on the
+    delicate foot of his hostess; and what less could she do than
+    respond to the gentle courtesy by a glance of gratitude for
+    what she considered a movement of sympathy and condolence under
+    the atrocious reminiscences of the wood-merchant? Mr Whalley,
+    however, was struck with the mournful silence that followed his
+    observation.</p>
+
+    <p>"That was a thing as happing'd on a pole," he said. "In
+    cooss it would be wery different on a tree&mdash;because of the
+    branches, as I think you was a-saying, Miss Hendy?"</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver grew desperate. "Bristles," he cried, "any
+    thing new in sculpture? By the by, you haven't sent me
+    Stickleback's jack-ass as you promised. Is it a fine work?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have no hesitation," replied the critic, "with a perfect
+    recollection of Canova's Venus, and even Moggs's Pandean Piper,
+    which I reviewed in last number of the <i>Universal</i>, in
+    declaring that Stickleback's work (it is a female, not a
+    jack-ass) is the noblest effort of the English chisel; there is
+    life about it&mdash;a power&mdash;a feeling&mdash;a
+    sentiment&mdash;it is overwhelming! I shall express these ideas
+    in print. Stickleback's fame is secured by a stupendous ass, at
+    once so simple and so grand."</p>
+
+    <p>"A female, I think you said?" enquired Miss Hendy.</p>
+
+    <p>"A jeanie&mdash;miraculously soft, yet full of graceful
+    dignity," replied Bristles bowing to the enquirer, as if the
+    description applied to her.</p>
+
+    <p>"I honour the sculptor for breaking through the prejudices
+    of sex in this splendid instance!" exclaimed the lady. "The
+    feminine star is in the ascendant. How much more illustrious
+    the triumph! How greater the difficulty to express in visible
+    types, the soft, subduing, humanizing graces of the female
+    disposition, than to imprint the coarse outline of masculine
+    strength! How rough the contour of an Irish hodman to the sweet
+    flexibilities of the Venus of Canova!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Canova was by no means equal to Stickleback," said Mr
+    Bristles magisterially. "I have devoted much time to the study
+    of the fine arts&mdash;I have seen many statues&mdash;I have
+    frequently been in sculptors' studios; I prefer Stickleback to
+    Canova."</p>
+
+    <p>"I honour his moral elevation," observed Miss Hendy, "in
+    stamping on eternal marble the femininity of the subject of his
+    chisel."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must really have the first view," whispered Mr Pitskiver.
+    "Can't you <span class="pagenum"><a name="page508"
+       id="page508"></a>[pg 508]</span> remind him, Bristles? Don't
+       send it to Whalley on my account."</p>
+
+    <p>But Mr Whalley, who was a rival M&aelig;cenas, put in a word
+    for himself, "Mr Bristles," he said, "this must be a uncomming
+    statty of a she-ass. I oncet was recommended to drink a
+    she-ass's milk myself, and liked it uncomming. I must have the
+    private sight you promised; and, if you'll fix a day, I vill
+    ask you and the artist to dine."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, my dear sir&mdash;but Mr Pitskiver and
+    Stickleback, they are friends, you know, Mr Whalley, and
+    perhaps Mr P.'s interest may be useful in getting the great
+    artist an order to ornament some of the new buildings. I have
+    some thoughts of recommending him to offer the very statue we
+    talk of for the front of the Mansion-house. A hint on the
+    subject has already appeared in the <i>Universal</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss Hendy," said Mr Pitskiver for the tenth time, "this is
+    the regular feast and flow; and nothing pleases me so much in
+    my good friend Bristles as his candid praise of other men's
+    talents. You seldom find clever people allowing each other's
+    merits."</p>
+
+    <p>"Or stupid ones either"&mdash;replied Mr Bristles before the
+    lady had time to answer; "the fact is, we are much improved
+    since former days. Our great men don't quarrel as they used to
+    do&mdash;conscious of one's own dignity, why refuse a just
+    appreciation of others? Stickleback has often told me, that
+    Chantrey was not altogether without merit&mdash;I myself
+    pronounce Macauley far from stupid; and my intellectual friend,
+    young Sidsby, who will read us the first act of his tragedy
+    to-night, allows a very respectable degree of dramatic power to
+    Lord Byron. Surely this is a far better state of things than
+    the perpetual carpings of Popes and Addisons, Smiths and
+    Johnsons, Foxes and Pitts."</p>
+
+    <p>"And all owing to the rising influence of the female sex,"
+    interposed Miss Hendy. "But woman has not yet received her full
+    development. The time will come when her influence is
+    universal; when, softened, subdued, purified, and elevated, the
+    animal now called Man will be unknown. You will be all
+    women&mdash;can the world look for higher destiny?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In cooss," observed Mr Whalley&mdash;"if we are all turned
+    into woming, the world will come to a end. For 'spose a
+    case;&mdash;'spose it had been my sister as married Mrs Whalley
+    instead of me&mdash;it's probable there wouldn't have been no
+    great fambly; wich in cooss, if there was no
+    poppleation"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>But what the fearful result of this supposed case would have
+    been, has never been discovered; for Miss Hendy, making a
+    signal to the four representatives of the female sex started
+    out of the room as if she had heard Mr Whalley had the plague,
+    and left the gentlemen to themselves.</p>
+
+    <p>"De Sta&euml;l was no match for that wonderful woman," said
+    Mr Bristles, resuming his chair. "I don't believe so noble an
+    intellect was ever enshrined in so beautiful a form
+    before."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you think her pretty?" enquired Mr Pitskiver.</p>
+
+    <p>"Pretty? no, sir&mdash;beautiful! Here is the finest sort of
+    loveliness&mdash;the light blazing from within, that years
+    cannot extinguish. I consider Miss Hendy the finest woman in
+    England; and decidedly the most intellectual."</p>
+
+    <p>The fact of Miss Hendy's beauty had never struck Mr
+    Pitskiver before. But he knew that Bristles was a judge, and
+    took it at once for granted. The finest woman in England had
+    looked in a most marvellous manner into his face, and the small
+    incident of the foot under the table was not forgotten.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver was inspired by the subject of his
+    contemplations, and proposed her health in a strain of
+    eloquence which produced a wonderful amount of head-shaking
+    from Mr Whalley, and frequent exclamations of "Demosthenes,"
+    "Cicero," "Burke all over!" from the more enraptured Mr
+    Bristles.</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm horrible afear'd," observed the elder gentleman putting
+    down his empty glass, "as my son Bill Whalley is a reg'lar
+    fool."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, pardon me!" exclaimed Bristles&mdash;"I haven't the,
+    honour of his intimacy,
+    but&mdash;"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page509"
+       id="page509"></a>[pg 509]</span>
+
+    <p>"Only think the liberties he allows himself in regard to
+    this here intellectual lady, Miss Hendy. He never hears her
+    name without a putting of his thumb on the top of his nose, and
+    a shaking of his fingers in my face, and a crying out for a
+    friend of his'n of the name of Walker. Its uncomming
+    provoking&mdash;and sich a steady good business hand there
+    ain't in the Boro'. I can't fadom it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Some people have positively no souls," chimed in Mr
+    Pitskiver, looking complacently down his beautiful waistcoat,
+    as if he felt that souls were in some sort of proportion to the
+    tenements they inhabited, and that his was of gigantic size;
+    "but I did not think that your son William was so totally void
+    of ideas. I shall talk to him next Sunday's dinner."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you talks to him about Memel and Dantzic, you'll find
+    there ain't such a judge of timber in London," said the father,
+    who was evidently proud of his son's mercantile qualifications;
+    "but with regard to this here pottery, and scupshire, and other
+    things as I myself delights in, he don't care nothin about 'em.
+    He wouldn't give twopence to see Stickleback's statty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then he had better not have the honour," said Pitskiver.
+    "Bristles, you'll send it to Harley Street. First view is every
+    thing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Really, gentlemen, you are both such exquisite judges of
+    the arts, and such discriminating patrons of artists, that I
+    find it difficult to determine between you. Shall we let
+    Stickleback settle the point himself?"</p>
+
+    <p>Both the M&aelig;cenases consented, each at the same time
+    making resolutions in his own mind to make the unhappy artist
+    suffer, if by any chance his rival should get the preference.
+    After another glass or two of the dark-coloured liquid which
+    wore the label of port, and which Bristles maintained was the
+    richest wine he had ever tasted, as it was furnished by a
+    particular friend of his, who, in addition to being a wine
+    merchant, was one of the most talented men in Europe, and a
+    regular contributor to the <i>Universal</i> under the signature
+    "Squirk,"&mdash;after another glass or two of this bepraised
+    beverage, which, at the same time, did not seem altogether to
+    suit the taste of the two patrons of the arts and sciences, the
+    gentlemen adjourned to the drawing-room, from which music had
+    been sounding for a considerable time.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+    <p>On entering the room they were nearly made fitting inmates
+    of the deaf and dumb institution, by the most portentous sounds
+    that ever endangered a human ear. A large party was assembled,
+    ranged solemnly on chairs and sofas all round the wall, every
+    eye turned with intense interest to the upper end of the
+    apartment, where stood a tall stout man, blowing with
+    incredible effect into a twisted horn, which, to all outward
+    appearance, had not long ceased to ornament the forehead of a
+    Highland bull. A common horn it was&mdash;and the skill of the
+    strong-winded performer consisted in extracting a succession of
+    roars and bellowings from its upper end, which would have done
+    honour to the vocal powers of its late possessor. A tune it
+    certainly was, for immense outbreaks of sound came at regular
+    intervals, and the performer kept thumping his foot on the
+    floor as if he were keeping time; but as the intermediate notes
+    were of such a very soft nature as to be altogether inaudible,
+    the company were left to fill up the blanks at their own
+    discretion; and Mr Pitskiver, who was somewhat warlike,
+    perceived at once it was Rule Britannia, while Mr Whalley shook
+    his head in a state of profound loyalty, and thought it was God
+    save the Queen. When the ingenious musician withdrew the bull's
+    horn from his mouth, and paused after his labours in a state of
+    extreme calefaction, murmurs of applause ran all round the
+    room.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr Slingo," said Mr Bristles, "Mr Slingo, you have
+    immortalized yourself, by evoking the soul of Handel from so
+    common an instrument as an ox's horn. I have studied music as a
+    science&mdash;I have reviewed an
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page510"
+       id="page510"></a>[pg 510]</span> opera&mdash;and once met
+       Sir Henry Bishop at the Chinese exhibition; and I will make
+       bold to say, that more genius was never shown by Rossini or
+       Cherubini, than you have displayed on this stupendous and
+       interesting occasion. Allow me, Mr Slingo, to shake your
+       hand."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Bristles gave a warm squeeze to the delighted musician's
+    enormous fingers&mdash;and all the company were enchanted with
+    the liberality and condescension of the celebrated author, and
+    the humility and gratitude of the musical phenomenon, who could
+    not find words to express his gratification. Miss Hendy was
+    also profuse in her praises. "Pray, Mr Slingo," she said taking
+    the horn, and examining it very closely, "do you know what
+    animal we are indebted to for this delicious instrument?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I took it from the head of a brown cow."</p>
+
+    <p>"A cow!&mdash;ha!"&mdash;exclaimed the lady&mdash;"but I
+    could have told you so before. There is a sweetness, a
+    softness, and femininization of tone, in the slower passages,
+    that it struck me at once could only proceed from the milder
+    sex. We shall not have to wait long for the answer to a
+    question which has stirred the heart of mankind to its
+    foundations&mdash;can Women etherealize society? I say she
+    can&mdash;I say she will&mdash;I say she shall!"</p>
+
+    <p>Miss Hendy said this with considerable vehemence, and darted
+    a look of the same extraordinary nature as had puzzled Mr
+    Pitskiver at dinner, full in the face of that enraptured
+    gentleman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, 'pon my soul, she's a very fine woman!" he said almost
+    audibly; and again the commendations of Mr Bristles recurred to
+    his thoughts&mdash;"and has such a fund of eloquence. I wish to
+    heaven somebody would take a fancy to my girls! I will ask a
+    lot of young men to dinner."</p>
+
+    <p>In the midst of these cogitations he drew near Miss
+    Hendy&mdash;and if you were to judge by the number of elbows
+    which young ladies, in all parts of the room, nudged into other
+    young ladies' sides, and the strange smiles and winks that were
+    exchanged by the more distant members of the society&mdash;you
+    might easily perceive that there was something very impressive
+    in the manner of his address. He bowed at every word, while the
+    gold chains across his waistcoat glistened and jingled at every
+    motion. Miss Hendy's head also was bent till the white spangles
+    on her turban seemed affected with St Vitus's dance; and their
+    voices gradually sank lower and lower, till they descended at
+    last to an actual whisper. There were seven female hearts in
+    that assemblage bursting with spite, and one with triumph. Mr
+    Pitskiver had never been known to whisper it any body's ear
+    before.</p>
+
+    <p>In the mean time Mr Bristles, as literary master of the
+    ceremonies, had made a call on Mr Sidsby to proceed with his
+    reading of the first act of his play. A tall young gentleman,
+    very good-looking, and very shy, was with difficulty persuaded
+    to seat himself in the middle of the room; and with trembling
+    hands he drew from his pocket a roll of manuscript, though, to
+    judge from his manner, he did not seem quite master of his
+    subject.</p>
+
+    <p>"Modesty, always the accompaniment of true genius," observed
+    Mr Bristles, apologetically to the expectant audience. "Go on,
+    my good sir; you will gain courage as you proceed."</p>
+
+    <p>All was then silent. Mr Pitskiver at Miss Hendy's side, near
+    the door; Mr Whalley straining his long neck to catch the
+    faintest echo of their conversation; the others casting from
+    time to time enquiring glances towards the illustrious pair;
+    but all endeavouring to appear intensely interested in the
+    drama. Mr Sidsby began:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>It was a play of the passions. A black lady fell in love
+    with a white general. Her language was fit for a dragon. She
+    breathed nothing but fire. It seemed, by a strange coincidence
+    of ideas between Sidsby and Shakspeare, to bear no small
+    resemblance to Othello, with the distinction already stated of
+    the colour of the Desdemona. But breathless attention rewarded
+    the reader's toil; and though he occasionally missed a word, in
+    which he was always set right by Mr Bristles, and did not enter
+    very warmly into the more vigorous parts of the declamation,
+    his efforts were <span class="pagenum"><a name="page511"
+       id="page511"></a>[pg 511]</span> received with overwhelming
+       approbation, and Bristles as usual led the chorus of
+       admiration.</p>
+
+    <p>"A wonderful play! an astonishing effort! Certainly up to
+    the finest things in Otway, if not of Shakspeare
+    himself&mdash;a power, a life, an impetus. I have never met
+    with such a magnificent opening act."</p>
+
+    <p>"I wish you would bring him to taste my mutting, Mr
+    Bristles," said Mr Whalley; "as he's a poet he most likely
+    don't touch butcher meat every day, and a good tuck-out of a
+    Sunday won't do him no harm. But I say, Mr Bristles, I must
+    railly make a point of seeing Stickleback's donkey first. Say
+    you'll do it&mdash;there's a good fellow."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Pitskiver also extended his hospitable invitation to the
+    successful dramatist; and urged no less warmly his right to the
+    first inspection of the masterpiece of the modern chisel.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have had a very particular conversation with Miss Hendy,"
+    he said, laying his hand confidentially on the great critic's
+    shoulder.</p>
+
+    <p>"An extraordinary woman!" chimed in Bristles, "the glory of
+    the present times."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must have an additional treasure to boast of in my
+    house," resumed Mr Pitskiver, whose heart seemed more than ever
+    set on cutting out Mr Whalley in priority of inspection of the
+    unequaled statue. "You'll help me, I know&mdash;I may depend on
+    you, Mr Bristles."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may indeed, sir&mdash;a house such as yours needed only
+    such an addition to make it perfect."</p>
+
+    <p>"You'll procure me the pride, the gratification&mdash;you'll
+    manage it for me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will indeed," said Mr Bristles, seizing the offered hand
+    of the overjoyed Pitskiver; "since your happiness depends on
+    it, you may trust to me for every exertion."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you'll plead my cause&mdash;you'll speak in the proper
+    quarter?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, you may consider it all arranged."</p>
+
+    <p>"But secretly, quietly, no blabbing&mdash;these matters are
+    always best done without noise. I would even keep it from my
+    daughters' knowledge, till we are quite prepared to reveal it
+    in all its charms."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is indeed a masterpiece&mdash;a
+    chef-d'oeuvre&mdash;beauty and expression unequaled."</p>
+
+    <p>"I flatter myself I am a bit of a judge; and when I have had
+    it in my possession for a short time, I will let you know the
+    result."</p>
+
+    <p>The party were now about to break up.</p>
+
+    <p>"Them's uncomming pleasant little meetings, arn't them?"
+    said Mr Whalley to one of the middle-aged spinsters who had
+    been present at dinner; "and I thinks this one is like to have
+    a very favourable conclusion."</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss Hendy?" enquired the spinster in breathless
+    anticipation.</p>
+
+    <p>"Jist so," responded the other&mdash;"there can't be no
+    mystery no longer, and they'll be off for France in a few
+    days."</p>
+
+    <p>"For France?&mdash;gracious! how do you know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I hear'd Mr Bristles, which is their confidant, say
+    something about a chay and Dover. In cooss they will go that
+    way to Boulogne."</p>
+
+    <p>Oh, M&aelig;cenas! is there no difference between the
+    chef-d'oeuvre of the great Stickleback, and the town of Dover
+    and a post-chaise.</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+    <p>In a week after these events, six or seven gentlemen were
+    gathered round a table in a room very near the skylight in the
+    Minerva chambers. Our former acquaintance, Mr Bristles, whose
+    name shone in white paint above the entrance door, was
+    evidently strongly impressed with the dignity of his position;
+    and as in the pauses of conversation he placed the pen he was
+    using transversely in his mouth, and turned over the pages of
+    various books on the table before him, it will be seen that he
+    presided not at a feast of substantial meat and drink, but at
+    one of those regular "feasts and flows" which the great Mr
+    Pitskiver was in the habit of alluding to, in describing the
+    intellectual treats of which he was so prodigious a
+    glutton.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page512"
+       id="page512"></a>[pg 512]</span>
+
+    <p>"What success, Sidsby?" enquired Bristles with a vast
+    appearance of interest.</p>
+
+    <p>"None at all," replied the successful dramatist, or, in
+    other words, the long-backed Ticket to whom we were introduced
+    at the commencement of the story. "I have no invitation to
+    dinner yet, and Sophy thinks he has forgotten me."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's odd&mdash;very odd," mused Mr Bristles, "for I don't
+    know that I ever praised any one half so highly before, not
+    even Stickleback; and the first act was really superb. It took
+    me a whole week to write it."</p>
+
+    <p>"But I did not understand some parts of it, and I am afraid
+    I spoiled it in the reading. But Sophy was enchanted with the
+    poem you made me copy."</p>
+
+    <p>"A sensible girl; but how to get at the father is the thing.
+    I have mentioned a few of the perfections of our friend Miss
+    Hendy to him in a way that I think will stick. If we could get
+    <i>her</i> good word."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, she's very good!" replied Sidsby, "she says I'm far
+    above Lord Byron and Thomas Moore."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not? haven't I told you to say, wherever you go, that
+    she is above Corinne?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah," said Sidsby, "but what's the use of all this to me? I
+    am a wine-merchant, not a poet; my uncle will soon take me into
+    partnership, and when they find out that I know no more about
+    literature than a pig, what an impostor they'll think me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not more of an impostor than half the other literary men of
+    the day, who have got praised into fame as you have, by
+    judicious and disinterested friends. No: you must still go on.
+    I shall have the second act ready for you next week, and you
+    can make it six dozen of sherry instead of three. You must
+    please the girl first, and get at the father afterwards. She's
+    of a decidedly intellectual turn, and has four thousand pounds
+    in her own right."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't believe she is more intellectual than myself; but
+    that silly old noodle, her father"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Stop!" exclaimed Bristles in great agitation, "this is
+    against all rule. Mr Pitskiver is our friend&mdash;a man of the
+    profoundest judgment and most capacious understanding. I doubt
+    whether a greater judge of merit ever existed than Mr
+    Pitskiver."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hear, hear!" resounded in various degrees of intensity all
+    round the table.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, all I can say is this&mdash;that if I don't get on by
+    shamming cleverness, I'll try what open honesty will do, and
+    follow Bill Whalley's advice."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bill Whalley! who is he?" asked Bristles with a sneer.</p>
+
+    <p>"Son of the old Tom Noddy you make such a precious fool
+    of."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr Whalley of the Boro' is <i>our</i> friend, Mr
+    Sidsby&mdash;a man of the profoundest judgment and most
+    capacious understanding. I doubt whether a greater judge of
+    merit ever existed than Mr Whalley of the Boro'."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hear hear!" again resounded; and Mr Sidsby, shaking his
+    head, said no more, but looked as sulky as his naturally
+    good-tempered features would let him.</p>
+
+    <p>"And now, Stickleback," said Mr Bristles&mdash;"I am happy
+    to tell you your fortune is made; your fame will rise higher
+    and higher."</p>
+
+    <p>A little dark-complexioned man with very large mouth and
+    very flat nose, looked a little disdainful at this speech,
+    which to any one else would have sounded like a compliment.</p>
+
+    <p>"I always knew that merit such as I felt I possessed, would
+    force its way, in spite of envy and detraction," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"We have an uphill fight of it, I assure you," rejoined Mr
+    Bristles; "but by dint of throwing it on pretty thick, we are
+    in hopes some of it will stick."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, Mr Bristles," resumed the artist, "I don't at all like
+    the style you talk in to me. You always speak as if my
+    reputation had been made by your praises. Now, talents such as
+    mine"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Are very high, my good sir; no one who reads the
+    <i>Universal</i> doubts that fact for a moment."</p>
+
+    <p>"Talents, I say, such as mine," pursued Mr Stickleback,
+    "were sure to raise me to the highest honours; and it is too
+    bad for you to claim all the merit of my success."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not I; but all our friends here," said Bristles. "For two
+    years we <span class="pagenum"><a name="page513"
+       id="page513"></a>[pg 513]</span> have done nothing but
+       praise you wherever we went. Haven't we sneered at Bailey,
+       and laughed at the ancient statues? Who wrote the epigram on
+       Thorwaldsen&mdash;was it not our friend now present, Mr
+       Banks? a gentleman, I must say, perfectly unequaled in the
+       radiance of his wit and the delicious pungency of his
+       satire. Without us, what would you have been?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly what I am. The only sculptor worth a sixpence since
+    the fine arts were invented," replied the self-satisfied Mr
+    Stickleback.</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said Mr Bristles; "since you force us to tell you what
+    we have done for you, I will mention it. We have persuaded all
+    our friends, we have even persuaded yourself, that you have
+    some knowledge of sculpture; whereas every one who follows his
+    own judgment, and is not led astray by our puffs, must see that
+    you could not carve an old woman's face out of a radish; that
+    you are fit for nothing with the chisel but to smooth
+    gravestones, and cut crying cherubs over a churchyard door;
+    that your donkey"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what of my donkey, as you call it?" cried the enraged
+    sculptor, "I have heard you praise it a thousand times."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course you have; but do you think I meant it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"As much as I meant what I said, when I praised some of your
+    ridiculous rubbish in the <i>Universal</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, indeed! Then you think my writings ridiculous
+    rubbish?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;I do&mdash;very ridiculous rubbish."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then let me tell you, Mr Stickleback, you are about as good
+    a critic as a sculptor. My writings, sir, are universally
+    appreciated. To find fault with <i>them</i> shows you are unfit
+    for our acquaintance; and with regard to Mr Pitskiver's
+    recommendation to the city building committee, and your donkey
+    to adorn the pediment of the Mansion-house&mdash;you have of
+    course given up all hopes of any interest <i>I</i> may
+    possess."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gentlemen," said a young man with small piercing eyes and a
+    rather dirty complexion, with long hair rolling over the collar
+    of his coat&mdash;"are you not a little premature in shivering
+    the friendship by a blow of temper which had been consolidated
+    by several years of mutual reciprocity?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Silence, Snooksby!&mdash;I have been insulted. I was ever a
+    foe to ingratitude, and grievous shall the expiation be,"
+    replied Bristles.</p>
+
+    <p>"I now address myself to you, sir," continued Snooksby,
+    turning to the wrathful sculptor, whose wrath, however, had
+    begun to evaporate in reflecting on the diminished chance of
+    the promotion so repeatedly promised by Mr Bristles for his
+    donkey; "and I feel on this momintous occasion, that it is my
+    impiritive duty to endeavour to reinimite the expiring imbers
+    of amity, and re-knit the relaxed cords of unanimity. Mr
+    Stickleback, you were wrong&mdash;decidedly, powerfully,
+    undeniably wrong&mdash;in denominiting the splindid
+    lucibritions of our illustrious friend by the name of
+    ridiculous rubbish. Apoligise, apoligise, apoligise; and I know
+    too well the glowing sympithies of that philinthripic heart to
+    doubt for a moment that its vibrations will instantly beat in
+    unisin with yours."</p>
+
+    <p>"I never meant to call his writings rubbish," said the
+    subdued sculptor. "I know he's the greatest writer in
+    England."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you, my dear Stickleback, the greatest sculptor the
+    world has ever seen!" exclaimed the easily propitiated critic.
+    "Why will you doubt my respect, my admiration of your
+    surpassing talent? Let us understand each other better&mdash;we
+    shall both be ever indebted to the eloquent Mr
+    Snooksby&mdash;(may he soon get on the vestry, the object of
+    his inadequate ambition;) for a speech more refulgent in simple
+    pathos, varied metaphor, and conclusive reasoning, it has not
+    been my good fortune to hear. When our other friends leave me,
+    Stickleback, I hope you will stay for half an hour. I have a
+    most important secret to confide to you, and a favour to
+    ask."</p>
+
+    <p>The hint seemed to be sufficient. The rest of the party soon
+    retired; and Bristles and Stickleback began their confidential
+    conclave.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page514"
+       id="page514"></a>[pg 514]</span>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+    <p>But another confidential conclave, of rather a more
+    interesting nature to the parties concerned, took place three
+    days after these occurrences in the shady walk in St James's
+    Park. Under the trees sauntered four people&mdash;equally
+    divided&mdash;a lady and a gentleman; the ladies brilliantly
+    dressed, stout, and handsome&mdash;the gentlemen also in the
+    most fashionable costume: one tall and thin, the long-backed
+    Ticket; and the other short and amazingly comfortable-looking,
+    Mr William Whalley&mdash;for shortness called Bill. Whether,
+    while he admired the trunks of the old elms, he calculated what
+    would be their value in deals, this narrative disdains to
+    mention; but it feels by no means bound to retain the same
+    cautious reserve with regard to his sentiments while he gazed
+    into the eyes of Emily Pitskiver. He thought them beautiful
+    eyes; and if they had been turned upon you with the same
+    loving, trusting expression, ten to one you would have thought
+    them beautiful too. The other pair seemed equally happy.</p>
+
+    <p>"So you don't like me the worse," said Mr Sidsby, "now that
+    you know I am not a poet?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know how it is, but I don't think I care for poetry
+    now at all," replied the lady. "In fact, I suppose my passion
+    for it was never real, and I only fancied I was enchanted with
+    it from hearing papa and Mr Bristles perpetually raving about
+    strength and genius. Is Miss Hendy a really clever woman?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A genuine humbug, I should say&mdash;gooseberry champagne
+    at two shillings a bottle," was the somewhat professional
+    verdict on Miss Hendy's claims.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! you shouldn't talk that way of Miss Hendy&mdash;who
+    knows but she may be my mamma soon?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He can never be such a confounded jackass!" said Mr Sidsby,
+    without giving a local habitation or a name to the personal
+    pronoun <i>he</i>.</p>
+
+    <p>"He loses his daughters, I can tell him," said Miss Sophy
+    with a toss of her head, that set all the flowers on the top of
+    her bonnet shaking&mdash;"Emily and I are quite resolved on
+    that."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what can you do?" enquired the gentleman, who did not
+    appear to be very nearly akin to &OElig;dipus.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do? Why, don't we get possession of mamma's fortune if he
+    marries; and can't we&mdash;oh, you've squeezed my ring into my
+    finger!"</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear Sophy, I was only trying to show you how much I
+    admired your spirit. I hope he'll marry Miss Hendy with all my
+    heart."</p>
+
+    <p>When a conversation has got to this point, a chronicle of
+    any pretensions to respectability will maintain a rigid
+    silence; and we will therefore only observe, that by the time
+    Mr William Whalley and Emily had come to Marlborough House,
+    their conversation had arrived at a point where discretion
+    becomes as indispensably a chronicler's duty as in the case of
+    the other couple.</p>
+
+    <p>"We must get home," said Sophy.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why should you go yet? There is no chance of your father
+    being back from the city for hours to come."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! but we must get home. We have been out a long time."
+    And so saying, she led the way up the steps by the Duke of
+    York's column, followed by her sister and her swain&mdash;and
+    attended at a respectful distance by a tall gentleman with an
+    immense gold-headed walking-stick, displaying nether
+    integuments of the brightest red, and white silk stockings of
+    unexampled purity. The reader, if he had heard the various
+    whispered allusions to different dishes, such as "sheep's
+    head," "calf's foot jelly," "rhubarb tart," and "toasted
+    cheese," would have been at no loss to recognise the indignant
+    Daggles, whose culinary vocabulary it seemed impossible to
+    exhaust. He followed, watching every motion of the happy
+    couples. "Well, if this ain't too bad!&mdash;I've a great mind
+    to tell old Pits how them disgusting saussingers runs after his
+    mince-pies&mdash;meets 'em in the Park; gallivants with them
+    under the trees as if they was ortolans and beccaficas; bills
+    and coos with 'em as if they was real turtles and punch
+    <i>&agrave; la Romaine</i>.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page515"
+       id="page515"></a>[pg 515]</span> How the old cucumber would
+       flare up! Up Regent Street, along Oxford Street, through the
+       square, up to our own door. Well, blowed if that ain't a
+       good one! Into the very house they goes; up stairs to the
+       drawing-room. O Lord! that there should be such impudence in
+       beefsteaks and ingans! They couldn't be more audacious if
+       they was Perigord pies."</p>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+    <p>Half an hour passed&mdash;an hour&mdash;and yet the
+    conversation was flowing on as briskly as ever. Mr Bill Whalley
+    had explained the exact difference between Norway and Canada
+    timber, greatly to Miss Emily's satisfaction; and Miss Sophia
+    had again and again expressed her determination to leave the
+    house the moment Miss Hendy entered it; and both the young
+    ladies had related the energetic language in which they had
+    expressed this resolution to their father, and threatened him
+    with immediate desertion if he didn't cut that horrid old
+    schoolmistress at once. The same speeches about happiness and
+    simple cottages, with peace and contentment, had been made a
+    dozen time over by all parties, when the great clock in the
+    hall&mdash;a Dutch pendule, inserted in a statue of
+    Time&mdash;struck three o'clock, and at the same moment a loud
+    rap was heard at the front door.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who can it be?" exclaimed Miss Sophia. "It isn't papa's
+    knock;"&mdash;and hiding her face in the thick hydrangia which
+    filled the drawing-room window, she gazed down to catch a
+    glimpse of the entrance steps. She only saw the top of a large
+    wooden case, and the white hat of a gentleman who rested his
+    hand on the burden, and was giving directions to the bearers to
+    be very careful how they carried it up stairs.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr Whalley started up, as did Mr Sidsby, in no small alarm.
+    "I wouldn't be found here for half-a-crown," said the former
+    gentleman: "old father would shake his head into a reg'lar
+    palsy if he knew I was philandering here, when the Riga brig is
+    unloading at the wharf."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us go into the back drawing-room," suggested one of the
+    young ladies, "and you can get out quite easily when the
+    parcel, whatever it is, is delivered." They accordingly retired
+    to the back drawing-room, and in a few minutes had the
+    satisfaction of hearing heavy steps on the stairs, and the
+    voice of the redoubtable Mr Bristles saying, "Gently,
+    gently,&mdash;I have no hesitation in stating, that you were
+    never entrusted with so valuable a burden before. Deposit it
+    with gentleness on the large table in the middle; and, you may
+    now boast, that your hands have borne the noblest specimen of
+    grace and genius that modern ages have produced."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's that everlasting donkey papa is always talking about!"
+    whispered Sophia.</p>
+
+    <p>"If it's Stickleback's statue," said Mr William Whalley,
+    "the little vagabond promised the first sight of it to old
+    father. He'll be in a precious stew when he finds his rival has
+    been beforehand!"</p>
+
+    <p>The porters now apparently retired, and the youthful
+    prisoners in the back drawing-room tried to effect their escape
+    by the door which opened on the stairs; but, alas! it was
+    locked on the outside, and it was evident, from the soliloquy
+    of Mr Bristles, that their retreat was cut off through the
+    front room. A knock&mdash;the well-known rat, tat, tat, of the
+    owner of the mansion&mdash;now completed their perplexity; and,
+    in a moment more, they heard the steps of several persons
+    rushing up stairs.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr Pitskiver!" exclaimed Bristles in intense agitation,
+    "you have surely forgotten our agreement&mdash;Snooksby!
+    Butters! Banks! Why, I am quite overpowered with the surprise!
+    It was to have been alone, without witnesses; or at most, in my
+    presence. But so public!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Never mind, my dear Bristles. Why should I conceal my
+    triumph&mdash;my happiness&mdash;the boast and gratification of
+    my future days? Let us <span class="pagenum"><a name="page516"
+       id="page516"></a>[pg 516]</span> open the casket that
+       enshrines such unequaled merits."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you really wish for no further secresy," replied Mr
+    Bristles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly! Don't I know that that case contains a
+    masterpiece, softly sweet and beautifully feminine, as a
+    talented friend of ours would say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"An exquisite woman, indeed!" said Bristles; "and a truly
+    talented friend. The case, as you justly observe," proceeded
+    the critic, while he untied the cords, "contains the most
+    glorious manifestation of the softening influences of sex."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's a pity she's an ass," suggested Mr Pitskiver. "I can't
+    help thinking that that's a drawback."</p>
+
+    <p>"What?&mdash;what is a drawback, my dear sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That femininity, as Miss Hendy calls it, should be brought
+    so prominently forward in the person of an ass."</p>
+
+    <p>"An ass?&mdash;I don't understand! Are you serious?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Serious! to be sure, my dear Bristles. In spite of all
+    efforts to assume an intellectual expression, the donkey,
+    depend upon it, preponderates&mdash;the long visage, the dull
+    eyes, the crooked legs&mdash;it is impossible to perceive any
+    grace in such a wretched animal. I can't help thinking that if
+    it had been a young girl you had brought me&mdash;say, a
+    sleeping nymph&mdash;full of youth and beauty, 'twould have
+    been a vast improvement on the scraggy jeanie contained in this
+    box. But clear away, Bristles, we are all impatience."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear sir&mdash;Mr Pitskiver&mdash;unaccustomed as I am,
+    his I can truly say is the most uncomfortable moment of my
+    life."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, what's the matter with you, Bristles, can't you untie
+    the string?"&mdash;"Here," continued Mr Pitskiver, "give me the
+    cord," and so saying he untwisted it in a moment&mdash;down
+    fell the side of the case, and to the astonished eyes of the
+    assembled critics, and also of the party in the back
+    drawing-room, revealed, not the masterpiece of the immortal
+    Stickleback, but a female figure enveloped in a grey silk
+    cloak, and covering its face with a white muslin
+    handkerchief.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, what the mischief is all this?" exclaimed the
+    bewildered Mr Pitskiver; "this isn't the jeanie-ass you
+    promised me a sight of. Who the deuce is this?"</p>
+
+    <p>The handkerchief was majestically removed, and the sharp
+    eyes of Miss Hendy fixed in unspeakable disdain on the
+    assembled party.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis I, base man! Are all your protestations of admiration
+    come to this? Who shall doubt hereafter that it is the task of
+    noble, gentle, self-denying woman to elevate society?"</p>
+
+    <p>A smothered but very audible laugh proceeding from the back
+    drawing-room, interrupted the further eloquence of the
+    regenerator of mankind; and, finding concealment useless, the
+    two young ladies threw open the door, and advanced with their
+    attendant lovers to the table. The female philosopher, with the
+    assistance of Mr Bristles, descended from her lofty pedestal,
+    and looked unutterable basilisks at the open-mouthed
+    M&aelig;cenas, who turned his eyes from the wooden box to Miss
+    Hendy, and from Miss Hendy to the wooden box, without trusting
+    himself with a word of either explanation or enquiry.</p>
+
+    <p>"We told you of our intentions, papa," said Miss Sophia, "if
+    you brought that old lady to your house."</p>
+
+    <p>"I didn't bring her; I give you my honour 'twas that
+    scoundrel Bristles," whispered the dismayed Pitskiver.</p>
+
+    <p>"You told me sir," exclaimed Bristles, "that you would be
+    for ever indebted to me if I brought this lady to your
+    mansion&mdash;that she was the perfection of grace and
+    innocence. By a friendly arrangement with Mr Stickleback, the
+    greatest sculptor of ancient or modern times, I managed to
+    secure to this illustrious woman an admission to your house,
+    which, I understood, she could not openly obtain through the
+    opposition of your daughters. I considered that you knew of the
+    arrangement, sir; and I know that, with a soft and feminine
+    trustfulness, this most gentle and intellectual ornament of her
+    sex and species consented to meet the wish you had so ardently
+    expressed."</p>
+
+    <p>"I never had a wish of the kind," cried Mr Pitskiver; "and I
+    believe you talking fellows and chattering
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page517"
+       id="page517"></a>[pg 517]</span> women are all in a plot to
+       make me ridiculous. I won't stand it any longer."</p>
+
+    <p>"Stand what?" enquired Mr Bristles, knitting his brows.</p>
+
+    <p>"Your nonsensical praises of each other&mdash;your boastings
+    of Sticklebacks, and Snooksbys, and Bankses; a set of mere
+    humbugs and blockheads! And even this foolish woman, with her
+    femininities and re-invigorating society, I believe to be a
+    regular quack. By dad! one would think there had never been a
+    woman in the world before."</p>
+
+    <p>"Your observations are uncalled for"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"By no manner of means," continued the senior, waxing bolder
+    from the sound of his own voice. "I believe you're in a
+    conspiracy to puff each other into reputation; and, if
+    possible, get hold of some silly fellow's daughters. But no
+    painting, chiseling, writing, or sonneteering blackguard, shall
+    ever catch a girl of mine. What the deuce brings <i>you</i>
+    here, sir?" he added, fiercely turning to Mr Sidsby. "You're
+    the impostor that read the first act of a play"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I read it, sir," said the youth, "but didn't write a word
+    of it, I assure you. Bristles is the author, and I gave him six
+    dozen of sherry."</p>
+
+    <p>"No indeed, papa; he never wrote a line in his life," said
+    Sophia.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then he may have you if he likes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor I, except in the ledger," modestly observed Mr Bill
+    Whalley.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then take Emily with all my heart. Here, Daggles," he
+    continue, ringing the bell, "open the street-door, and show
+    these parties out!"</p>
+
+    <p>Amidst muttered threats, fierce looks, and lips contorted
+    into all modes and expression of indignation, the guests
+    speedily disappeared. And while Mr Pitskiver, still panting
+    from his exertions, related to his daughters and their
+    enchanted partners his grounds for anger at the attempt to
+    impose Miss Hendy on him instead of a statue, Mr Daggles shut
+    the front door in great exultation as the last of the intruders
+    vanished, and said&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Snipe, old Pits may do after all. He ain't a bad round of
+    beef; and I almost like our two mutton-chops, since they have
+    freed the house from such shocking sour-crouts and watery
+    taties as I have just flinged into the street."</p>
+
+    <p>But it was impossible to convert the great Mr Bristles to
+    the belief into which his quondam follower, Mr Pitskiver, had
+    fallen as to the qualities of Miss Hendy. That literary
+    gentleman had too just a perception of the virtues of the
+    modern Corinne, and of a comfortable house at Hammersmith, with
+    an income of seven hundred a-year, to allow them to waste their
+    sweetness on some indecent clown, unqualified by genius and
+    education to appreciate them. The result of this resolution was
+    seen in a very few days after the interesting scene in Harley
+    Street; and the following announcement in the newspapers will
+    put our readers in as full a state of knowledge as we can boast
+    of being in ourselves:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Woman's value Vindicated as the teacher and example of Man,
+    by Mrs Bristles, late Miss Hendy, Hammersmith."</p>
+    <hr class="full" />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page518"
+       id="page518"></a>[pg 518]</span> <a name="ireland"
+          id="ireland"></a>
+
+    <h2>IRELAND.</h2>
+
+    <p>An interdict has rested, through four months, on the
+    discussion of Irish affairs&mdash;an interdict self-imposed by
+    the English press, in a spirit of honourable (almost of
+    superstitious) jealousy on behalf of public justice; jealousy
+    for the law, that it should not be biased by irresponsible
+    statements&mdash;jealousy for the accused, that they should not
+    be prejudiced by extra-judicial charges. At length the
+    interdict is raised, and we are all free once more to discuss
+    the great interests so long sealed up and sequestered by the
+    tribunals of Dublin. Could it have been foreseen or fancied,
+    pending this sequestration, that before it should be removed by
+    the delivery of the verdict, nay, two months before the trial
+    should have closed in a technical sense, by the delivery of the
+    sentence, the original interest (profound as it was) would be
+    obliterated, effaced, practically superseded, by a new phasis
+    of the same unparalleled movement? Yet this has happened. A
+    debate, which (like a series of natural echoes) has awakened
+    and revived all the political transactions of last year in
+    Ireland, should naturally have preserved the same relation to
+    those transactions that any other shadow or reflection bears to
+    the substance. And so it would: but unhappily with these
+    rehearsals of the past, have mingled tumultuous menaces of a
+    new plot. And these menaces, in the very act of uttering
+    themselves, advertise for accomplices, and openly organize
+    themselves as the principle of a new faction for refusing
+    tranquillity once more to Ireland. Once more an opportunity is
+    to be stifled for obtaining rest to that afflicted land.</p>
+
+    <p>This "monster" debate, therefore, presents us in equal
+    proportions with grounds of disgust and terror&mdash;a disgust
+    which forces us often to forget the new form of terror&mdash;a
+    terror (from a new conspiracy) which forces us to forget even
+    the late conspiracy of Repeal, and that glorious catastrophe
+    which has trampled it under foot for ever.</p>
+
+    <p>It is painful to the understanding&mdash;this iteration of
+    statements a thousand times refuted; it is painful to the
+    heart&mdash;this eternal neglect (in exchange for a <i>hear,
+    hear</i>) of what the speaker knows to be mere necessities of a
+    poor distracted land: this folly privileged by courtesy, this
+    treason privileged by the place. If indeed of every idle
+    word&mdash;meaning not trivial word, but word consciously
+    false&mdash;men shall hereafter give account, Heavens! what an
+    arrear, in the single case of Ireland, will by this time have
+    gathered against the House of Commons! Perfectly appalled we
+    are when we look into the formless chaos of that nine nights'
+    debate! Beginning with a motion which he who made it did not
+    wish<a id="fn_7_tag1"
+       name="fn_7_tag1"></a><a href="#fn_7_1"><sup>1</sup></a> to
+       succeed&mdash;ending <span class="pagenum"><a name="page519"
+       id="page519"></a>[pg 519]</span> with a vote by which
+       one-half of the parties to that vote meant the flattest
+       contradiction of all that was contemplated by the rest. On
+       this quarter, a section raging in the highest against the
+       Protestant church&mdash;on that quarter, a section (in
+       terror of their constituents) vowing aid to this church, and
+       yet allying themselves with men pledged to her destruction.
+       <i>Here</i>, men rampant against the Minister as having
+       strained the laws, in what regarded Ireland, for the sake of
+       a vigour altogether unnecessary; <i>there</i>, men
+       threatening impeachment&mdash;as for a lenity in the same
+       case altogether intolerable! To the right, "how durst you
+       diminish the army in Ireland, leaving that country, up to
+       March 1843, with a force lower by 2400 rank and file shall
+       the lowest that the Whigs had maintained?" To the left, "how
+       durst you govern Ireland by martial strength?" Question from
+       the Minister&mdash;"Will you of the Opposition place popish
+       bishops in the House of Lords?" Answer from a premature
+       sponsor of Lord John's&mdash;"We will." Answer from Lord
+       John&mdash;"I will not." <i>Question retrospective</i> from
+       the Conservatives&mdash;"What is it, not being already done,
+       that we could have done for Ireland?" <i>Answer</i> from the
+       Liberals&mdash;"Oh, a thousand things!" <i>Question
+       prospective</i> from the Conservatives&mdash;"What is it,
+       then, in particular, that you, in our places, would do for
+       Ireland? Name it." <i>Answer</i> from the
+       Liberals&mdash;"Oh, nothing in particular!" Sir R. Peel
+       ought to have done for Ireland whole worlds of new things.
+       But the Liberals, with the very same power to <i>do</i>
+       heretofore, and to <i>propose</i> now, neither did then, nor
+       can propose at present. And why? partly because the
+       privilege of acting for Ireland, so fruitful in reproaches,
+       is barren in practice: the one thing that remained to be
+       done,&mdash;viz. the putting down agitators&mdash;<i>has</i>
+       been done; and partly because the privilege of proposing for
+       Ireland is dangerous: first, as pledging themselves
+       hereafter; second, because to specify, though it were in so
+       trivial a matter as the making pounds into guineas for
+       Maynooth, is but to put on record, and to publish their own
+       party incapacity to agree upon any one of the merest trifles
+       imaginable. Anarchy of anarchies, very mob of very mobs,
+       whose internal strife is greater than your common enmity
+       <i>ab extra</i>&mdash;what shall we believe? Which is your
+       true doctrine? Where do you fasten your real charge? Amongst
+       conflicting arguments, which is it that you adopt? Amongst
+       self-destroying purposes, for which is it that you make your
+       election?</p>
+
+    <p>It might seem almost unnecessary to answer those who thus
+    answer themselves, or to expose the ruinous architecture of
+    politicians, who thus with mutual hands tear down their own
+    walls as they advance, were it not for the other aspect of the
+    debate. But the times are agitated; the crisis of Ireland is
+    upon us; now, or not at all, there is an opening for a new dawn
+    to arise upon the distracted land; and when a public necessity
+    calls for a contradiction of the enemy, it is a providential
+    bounty that we are able to plead his <i>self</i>-contradiction.
+    In the hurry of the public mind, there is always a danger that
+    many great advantages for the truth should be overlooked: even
+    things seen steadily, yet seen but once and amongst alien
+    objects, are seen to little purpose. Lowered also in their
+    apparent value by the prejudice, that what passes in parliament
+    is but the harmless skirmishing of partisanship, dazzling the
+    eye, but innocuous as the aurora borealis, demonstrations only
+    too certain of coming evils receive but little attention in
+    their earlier stages. Yet undoubtedly, if the laws applicable
+    to conspiracy can in any way be evaded, we may see by the
+    extensive cabal now organizing itself in England for aiding the
+    Irish conspiracy to overthrow the Irish Protestant church, that
+    we have but exchanged one form of agitation for a worse. Worse
+    in what respect? Not as measured simply by the ruin it would
+    cause&mdash;between ruin and ruin, there is little reason for
+    choice; but worse, as having all the old supporters that Repeal
+    ever counted, and many others beside. Especially with Repeal
+    agitation recommending itself to the Irish priesthood, and to
+    those whom the priesthood can put in motion, it will recommend
+    itself also and separately to vast multitudes amongst
+    ourselves. It is worse also&mdash;not because in the event more
+    ruinous, but because in its means less desperate. All the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page520"
+       id="page520"></a>[pg 520]</span> factious in politics and
+       the schismatic in religion&mdash;all those who, caring
+       little or nothing about religion as a <i>spiritual</i>
+       interest, seek to overthrow the present Ministers&mdash;all
+       those who (caring little or nothing about politics as a
+       trading interest) seek to overthrow the Church of
+       England&mdash;all, again, who are distressed in point of
+       patriotism, as in Ireland many are, hoping to establish a
+       foreign influence upon any prosperous body of native
+       prejudice against British influence, are now throwing
+       themselves, as by a forlorn hope, into this rearmost of
+       their batteries, (but also the strongest)&mdash;a deadly and
+       combined struggle to pull down the Irish Protestant
+       establishment. And why? because nothing else is left to them
+       as a hopeful subject of conspiracy, now that the Repeal
+       conspiracy is crushed; and because in its own nature an
+       assault upon Protestantism has always been a promising
+       speculation&mdash;sure to draw support from England, whilst
+       Repeal drew none; and because such an assault strikes at the
+       citadel of our strength. For the established church of
+       Ireland is the one main lever by which Great Britain carries
+       out the machinery of her power over the Irish people. The
+       Protestant church is by analogy the umbilical cord through
+       which England connects herself <i>materially</i> with
+       Ireland; through <i>that</i> she propagates her milder
+       influence; <i>that</i> gone, the rest would offer only
+       coercive influence. Without going diffusively into such a
+       point, two vast advantages to the civil administration, from
+       the predominance of a Protestant church in Ireland, meet us
+       at the threshold: 1st, that it moulds by the gentlest of all
+       possible agencies the <i>recusant</i> part of this Irish
+       nation into a growing conformity with the two other limbs of
+       the empire. The Irish population is usually assumed at about
+       one fourth part of the total imperial population. Now, the
+       gradual absorption of so large a section amongst our
+       resources into the temper, sympathies, and moral habits of
+       the rest, is an object to be kept in view by every
+       successive government, let their politics otherwise be what
+       they may; and therefore to be kept in view by all Irish
+       institutions. In Canada everybody is <i>now</i> aware how
+       much this country has been wanting to herself, (that is,
+       wanting to the united interests equally of England and
+       Canada,) in not having operated from the first upon the
+       political dispositions of the old French population by the
+       powerful machinery of her own language, and in some cases of
+       her institutions. Her neglect in this instance she now feels
+       to have been at her own cost, and therefore politically to
+       have been her crime. Granting to her population a certain
+       degree of education, and of familiarity with the English
+       language, certain civic privileges, (as those of voting at
+       political elections, of holding offices, profitable or
+       honorary, &amp;c.,) under such reasonable latitude as to
+       time as might have made the transition easy, England would
+       have prevented the late wicked insurrection in Canada, and
+       gradually have obliterated the external monuments of French
+       remembrances, which have served only to nurse a senseless
+       (because a hopeless) enmity. Now, in Ireland, the Protestant
+       predominance has long since trained and moulded the channels
+       through which flows the ordinary ambition of her national
+       aristocracy. The Popery of Ireland settles and roots itself
+       chiefly in the peasantry of three provinces. The bias of the
+       gentry, and of the aspiring in all ranks, is towards
+       Protestantism. Activity of mind and honourable ambition in
+       every land, where the two forms of Christianity are
+       politically in equilibrium, move in that same line of
+       direction. Undoubtedly the Emancipation bill of 1829 was
+       calculated, or might have seemed calculated, to disturb this
+       old order of tendencies. But against that disturbance, and
+       in defiance of the unexampled liberality shown to Papists
+       upon <i>every</i> mode of national competition, there is
+       still in action (<i>and judging by the condition of the
+       Irish bar, in undiminished action</i>) the old spontaneous
+       tendency of Protestantism to 'go ahead;' the fact being that
+       the original independency and freedom of the Protestant
+       principle not only create this tendency, but also meet and
+       favour it wherever nature has already created it, so as to
+       operate in the way of a perpetual bounty upon Protestant
+       leanings. Here, therefore, is <i>one</i> of the great
+       advantages to every English government
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page521"
+       id="page521"></a>[pg 521]</span> from upholding and
+       fostering, in all modes left open by the Emancipation bill,
+       the Protestant principle&mdash;viz. as a principle which is
+       the pledge of a continual tendency to union; since, as no
+       prejudice can flatter itself with seeing the twenty-one
+       millions of our Protestant population pass over to Popery,
+       it remains that we encourage a tendency in the adverse
+       direction, long since established and annually increasing
+       amongst the six and a half Irish Papists. Thus only can our
+       total population be fused; and without that fusion, it will
+       scarcely be hoped that we can enjoy the whole unmutilated
+       use of our own latent power.</p>
+
+    <p>Towards such a purpose therefore, <i>as tending to union</i>
+    by its political effects, the Protestant predominancy is
+    useful; and secondly, were it no otherwise useful, it is so to
+    every possible administration by means of its patronage. This
+    function of a government&mdash;which, being withdrawn, no
+    government could have the means of sustaining itself for a
+    year&mdash;connects the collateral channels of Irish honours
+    and remunerations with the great national current of similar
+    distributions at home. We see that the Scottish establishment,
+    although differing essentially by church government, yet on the
+    ground that doctrinally it is almost in alliance with the
+    Church of England, has not (except by a transient caprice)
+    refused to the crown a portion of its patronage. On the other
+    hand, if the Roman Catholic church were installed as the ruling
+    church, every avenue and access for the government to the
+    administration of national resources so great, would be closed
+    at once. These evils from the overthrow of the Protestant
+    church, we mention <i>in limine</i>, not as the
+    greatest&mdash;they are the least; or, at any rate, they are so
+    with reference to the highest interests&mdash;but for their
+    immediate results upon the purposes common to all governments;
+    and <i>there</i> they would be fatal, for any Roman Catholic
+    church, where it happens also (like the Irish) to be a Papal
+    church, neither will nor <i>can</i> confide privileges of this
+    nature to the state. A Papal church, not modified (as the
+    Gallican church) by <i>original</i> limitations of the Papal
+    authority, not modified (as even the bigoted churches of
+    Portugal and Austria) by modern <i>conventional</i> limitations
+    of that alien authority, gloomily refuses and must refuse, to
+    accept any thing from the state, for the simple reason that she
+    is incapacitated for giving any thing. Wisely, according to the
+    wisdom of this world, she cuts away from below the footing of
+    the state all ground on which a pretence could ever be advanced
+    for interfering with herself. Consequently, whosoever, and by
+    whatsoever organs, would suffer from the overthrow of the Irish
+    church as now established by law, the administration of the
+    land would feel the effects from such a change, first and
+    instantly. Let us not mistake the case. Mr O'Connell did not
+    seriously aim at Repeal&mdash;<i>that</i> he knew too well to
+    be an enterprise which could not surmount its earliest stages
+    without coming into collision with the armed forces of the
+    land; and no man will ever believe that he dreamed of
+    prevailing <i>there</i>. What was it, then, that he <i>did</i>
+    aim at? It was the establishment in supremacy of the Papal
+    church. His meaning was, in case he had been left quietly to
+    build up his aspiring purpose so high as seriously to alarm the
+    government, then suddenly to halt, to propose by way of
+    compromise some step in advance for his own church. Suppose
+    that some arrangement which should have the effect of placing
+    that church on a footing of equality, as a privileged (not as
+    an endowed) church, with the present establishment; this
+    gained, he might have safely left the church herself
+    thenceforwards, from such a position of advantage, to fight her
+    way onwards, to the utter destruction of her rival.</p>
+
+    <p>Thus it was that the conspirators hoped to terrify the
+    minister into secret negotiation and compromise. But that hope
+    failed. The minister was firm. He watched and waited his
+    opportunity; he kept his eye settled upon them, to profit by
+    the first opening which their folly should offer to the
+    dreadful artillery of law. At last, said the minister, we will
+    put to proof this vaunt of yours. We dare not bring you to
+    trial, is your boast. Now, we will see that settled; and, at
+    the same time, we will try whether
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page522"
+       id="page522"></a>[pg 522]</span> we cannot put you down for
+       ever. That trial was made, and with what perfection of
+       success the reader knows; for let us remind him, that the
+       perfection we speak of lay as much in the manner of the
+       trial as in its result&mdash;in the sanctities of
+       abstinence, in the holy forbearance to use any one of many
+       decent advantages, in the reverence for the sublime equities
+       of law. Oh, mightiest of spectacles which human grandeur can
+       unfold to the gaze of less civilized nations, when the
+       ermine of the judge and the judgment-seat, belted by no
+       swords, bristling with no bayonets&mdash;when the shadowy
+       power of conscience, citing, as it were, into the immediate
+       presence of God twelve upright men, accomplishing for great
+       kingdoms, by one day's memorable verdict, that solemn
+       revolution which elsewhere would have caused torrents of
+       blood to flow, and would perhaps have unsealed the tears of
+       generations. Since the trial of the seven
+       bishops<a id="fn_7_tag2"
+       name="fn_7_tag2"></a><a href="#fn_7_2"><sup>2</sup></a>&mdash;which
+       inaugurated for England the certainty that for <i>her</i>
+       the "bloody writing" was torn which would have consigned her
+       children to the mercies of despotism&mdash;there has been no
+       such crisis, no such agitation, no such almighty triumph.
+       Here was the <i>second</i> chapter of the history; and
+       lastly, that the nine nights' debate attached itself as the
+       <i>third</i>, is evident from its real purpose, which may be
+       expressed strictly in this problem: Given, as a fact beyond
+       all doubt, that O'Connell's Repeal conspiracy is for ever
+       shattered; let it now be proposed, as a thing worthy of the
+       combined parties in opposition, to find out some vicarious
+       or supplementary matter for sedition. A new agitation must
+       be found, gentlemen&mdash;a new grievance must be had, or
+       Ireland is tranquillized, and we are lost. Was there ever a
+       case illustrating so strongly the maxim, that no man can be
+       effectually ruined except by himself? Here is Lord John
+       Russell, taxed a thousand times with having not merely used
+       Mr O'Connell as an ally, but actually as having lent himself
+       to Mr O'Connell as an instrument. Is that true? A wise man,
+       kind-hearted, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page523"
+       id="page523"></a>[pg 523]</span> and liberal in the
+       construction of motives, will have found himself hitherto
+       unwilling to suppose a thing so full of disgrace; he will
+       have fancied arguments for scepticism. But just at this
+       moment of critical suspense, forth steps Lord John himself,
+       and by his own act dissipates all doubts, frankly
+       subscribing the whole charge against himself; for his own
+       motion reveals and publishes his wrath against the ministers
+       for having extinguished the only man, viz. a piratical
+       conspirator, by whose private license there was any safety
+       for navigating the sea of Irish politics. The exact relation
+       in which Lord John had hitherto stood to Mr O'Connell, was
+       that of a land-owner paying black-mail to the cateran who
+       guaranteed his flocks from molestation: how naturally must
+       the grazier turn with fury on the man who, by suppressing
+       his guardian, has made it hopeless for the future to gain
+       private ease by trafficking in public wrongs! The real
+       grievance was, the lopping Dagon of all power to stand
+       erect, and thus laying the Whig-radical under the necessity
+       of "walking in the light of the constitution" without aid
+       from Irish crutches. The real<i>onus</i> imposed on Lord
+       John's party is, where to look for, and how to suborn, some
+       new idol and some fresh idolatry. Still to dispense with the
+       laws in Ireland in the event of their own return to power,
+       still to banish tranquillity from Ireland in the event of
+       Sir Robert's power continuing, required that some new
+       conspiracy should be cited to the public service, possibly
+       (after the 15th of April) some new conspirator. The new
+       seditious movement could not be doubtful: by many degrees of
+       preference, the war upon the Irish church had the "call."
+       This is to be the war now pursued, and with advantages (as
+       we have already said) never possessed by the Repeal cause.
+       The chief advantage of <i>that</i> lay in the utter darkness
+       to the Irish peasantry of the word "Repeal." What it meant
+       no wizard could guess; and merely as a subject to allure by
+       uncertain hopes, on the old maxim of "omne ignotum pro
+       magnifico," the choice of that word had considerable merit.
+       But the cause of Popery has another kind of merit, and
+       (again we remind the reader) reposes upon another kind of
+       support. In that cause the Irish peasantry will be
+       unaffectedly and spontaneously zealous; in that cause there
+       will be a confluence from many quarters of English aid. Far
+       other phenomena will now come forward. Meetings, even of the
+       kind convened by Mr O'Connell, are not, we must remember,
+       found to be unlawful by the issue of the late trials. Had
+       certain melodramatic features been as cautiously banished
+       from Mr O'Connell's parades as latterly they were affectedly
+       sought, it is certain that, to this hour, he and his
+       pretended myriads would have been untouched by the petrific
+       mace of the policeman. Lay aside this theatrical costuming
+       of cavalry, of military step, &amp;c., and it will be found
+       that these meetings were lawful. Most certainly a meeting
+       for the purpose of petitioning is not, and (unless by its
+       own folly) never can be, found unlawful.</p>
+
+    <p>But may not this new conspiracy, which is now mustering and
+    organizing itself, be put down summarily by force? We may judge
+    of <i>that</i> by what has happened to the old conspiracy. Put
+    down by martial violence, or by the police, Repeal would have
+    retired for the moment only to come forward and reconstruct
+    itself in successive shapes of mischief not provided for by
+    law, or not shaped to meet the grasp of an executive so limited
+    as, in these days, any English executive must find itself. On
+    the other hand, once brought under the cognizance of law, it
+    has been crushed in its fraudulent form, and compelled to
+    transmigrate at once into that sincere, substantial, and final
+    form, towards which it was always tending. Whatever of extra
+    peril is connected with a movement so much more intelligible
+    than Repeal, and so much more in alliance with the natural
+    prepossessions of the Irish mind&mdash;better it is, after all,
+    that this peril should be forced to show itself in open
+    daylight, than that it should be lurking in ambush or mining
+    underground; ready for a burst when other mischief might be
+    abroad, or evading the clue of our public guardians. Besides
+    that, Repeal also had its own peculiar terrors, notwithstanding
+    that it did not grow up originally upon any stock of popular
+    wishes, but <span class="pagenum"><a name="page524"
+       id="page524"></a>[pg 524]</span> had been an artificial
+       growth propagated by an artificial inoculation. That flame
+       also could burn fiercely when fanned by incendiaries,
+       although it did not supply its own combustibles. And, think
+       as we may of the two evils, valued as mischief against
+       mischief, Repeal against Anti-protestantism, certain it is,
+       that one most important advantage has accrued to Government
+       from the change. Fighting against Repeal, they had to rely
+       upon one sole resource of doubtful issue; for, after all,
+       the law stood on the interpretation of a jury, and therefore
+       too much on the soundness of individual minds; whereas in
+       meeting the assaults of Anti-protestantism, backed as it is
+       by six millions of combatants, ministers will find
+       themselves reposing on the whole strength of two nations,
+       and of that section, even amongst the Irish, which is
+       socially the strongest. An old enemy is thus replaced by a
+       new one many hundred-fold more naturally malignant; true,
+       but immediately the new one will call forth a natural
+       antagonism many thousand-fold more determined. Such is the
+       result; and, though alarming in itself, for ministers it
+       remains an advantage and a trophy. How was this result
+       accomplished? By a Fabian policy of watching, waiting,
+       warding, and assaulting at the right moment. Three times
+       within the last twelve months have the Government been
+       thrown upon their energies of attack and defence; three
+       times have they been summoned to the most trying exercise of
+       skill&mdash;vigilantly to parry, and seasonably to strike:
+       <i>first</i>, when their duty was to watch and to arrest
+       agitation; <i>secondly</i>, when their duty was, by process
+       of law, to crush agitation; <i>thirdly</i>, when their duty
+       was to explain and justify before Parliament whatsoever they
+       had done through the two former stages. Now, then, let us
+       rapidly pursue the steps of our ministers through each
+       severally of these three stages; and by seasonable
+       <i>resum&eacute;</i> or recapitulation, however brief, let
+       us claim the public praise for what merits praise, and apply
+       our vindication to what has been most misrepresented. The
+       first charge preferred against the Government was, that it
+       did not instantly attack the Repealers on their earliest
+       appearance. We must all recollect this charge, and the
+       bitterness with which it was urged during the whole of last
+       summer; for, in fact, the difference of opinion upon this
+       question led to a schism even amongst the Conservative party
+       and press. The majority, headed by the leading morning
+       paper, have treated it to this day as a ground of suspicion
+       against Government, or at least as an impeachment of their
+       courage, that they should have lingered or hesitated upon
+       the proper policy. Our Journal was amongst the few which,
+       after considerable reflection and perhaps doubt, defended
+       the course adopted; and specifically upon the following
+       suggestion, <i>inter alia</i>, viz. that Peel and the
+       Wellesley were assuredly at that moment watching Mr
+       O'Connell, not at all, therefore, hesitating as to the
+       general character of the policy to be observed, but only
+       waiting for the best mode (best in effect, best in
+       popularity) of enforcing that policy. And we may remind our
+       readers, that on that occasion we applied to the situation
+       of the two parties, as they stood watching and watched, the
+       passage from Wordsworth&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"The vacillating bondsman of the Pope</p>
+
+            <p>Shrinks from the verdict of that steadfast eye."</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>There was no great merit in being right; but it is proper to
+    remind our readers that we <i>were</i> right. And there is
+    considerable merit, more merit than appears, in not having been
+    wrong; for in that we should have followed not only a vast
+    leading majority amongst public authorities, but we should have
+    followed an instinct of impassioned justice, which cannot
+    endure to witness the triumph, though known to be but fugitive,
+    of insolence and hyperbolical audacity. Not as partisans, which
+    was proved by the caution of our manner, but after some
+    deliberation, we expressed our conviction that Government was
+    not slumbering, but surveying its ground, taking up its
+    position, and trying the range of its artillery, in order to
+    strike surely, to strike once, but so that no second blow
+    should be needed. All <span class="pagenum"><a name="page525"
+       id="page525"></a>[pg 525]</span> this has been done; so far
+       our predictions have been realized; and to that extent the
+       Government has vindicated itself. But still it may be asked,
+       to <i>what</i> extent? Doubtless the thing has been done,
+       and done completely. Yet <i>that</i> will not necessarily
+       excuse the Government. To be well done is, in many cases,
+       all that we require; but in questions of civil policy often
+       there is even more importance that it should be <i>soon</i>
+       done, done maturely, (that is, seasonably done with a view
+       to certain evils growing up concurrently with the evil,)
+       done even prematurely with respect to immediate bad
+       consequences open to instant arrest. At this moment amongst
+       the parliamentary opponents of ministers, though some are
+       taxing them with unconstitutional harshness, (or at least
+       with that <i>summum jus</i> which the Roman proverb
+       denounces as <i>summa injuria</i>,) in having ever
+       interfered at all with Mr O'Connell, others of the same
+       faction are roundly imputing to them a system of decoy, a
+       "laying of traps," (that was the word,) in waiting so
+       patiently for the ripening of the Repeal frenzy. Upon the
+       same principle, a criminal may have a right to complain that
+       her Majesty, when extending mercy to a first crime, or a
+       crime palliated by its circumstances, and that a merciful
+       prosecutor who intercedes effectually on his behalf with the
+       court, have both been laying a trap for his future conduct;
+       since, assuredly, there is one motive the less to a base
+       nature for abstaining from evil in the mitigated
+       consequences which the evil drew after it. On the same
+       principle the Repealers, having found Sir R. Peel so
+       anxious, in the first stages of their career, to spare them
+       altogether, were seduced into thinking that surely he never
+       would strike so hard when at length he had made ready to
+       strike. Still, with submission, we think that to found false
+       expectations upon a spirit of lenity, and upon that mistake
+       to found an abuse of goodness that was really sincere, was
+       not the fault of Sir R. Peel, but of the Repealers. Any
+       man's goodness becomes a trap to him who is capable of
+       making it such; since the most noble forbearance,
+       misinterpreted as fear, will probably enough operate as a
+       snare for such a person by tempting him into excesses
+       calculated to rouse that courage with which all genuine
+       forbearance is associated. If the early moderation of
+       Government did really entrap any man, that man has himself,
+       and his own meanness of heart, to thank for his delusion.
+       But were it otherwise, and the Government became properly
+       responsible for any possible misinterpretation of their own
+       lenity&mdash;even in that case, it will remain to be
+       enquired whether Government <i>could</i> have acted
+       otherwise than it did. For else, though Government could owe
+       little enough to the conspirator; yet with respect to the
+       ill-educated and misled labouring man, whose honest
+       sensibilities were so grievously played upon by traitors, we
+       do ourselves conceive that Government had a clamorous duty.
+       If such men by thousands believed that the cause of Repeal
+       was patriotic, that we consider a delusion not of a kind or
+       a class to challenge exposure from Government; they have
+       neither such functions assigned to them, nor could they
+       assume any office of teaching without suspicion. But when
+       the credulity of the poor was shown also in anticipating
+       impunity for the leader of Repeal, and upon the ground that
+       ministers feared him, when for this belief there was really
+       much plausible sanction in the behaviour of the Whig
+       ministers&mdash;too plainly it became a marked duty of Sir
+       Robert Peel to warn them how matters stood; to let them know
+       that sedition tended to dangerous results, and that
+       <i>his</i> Government was bound by no secret understanding,
+       with sedition for averting its natural penalties. So much,
+       we all agree, was due from the present Government to the
+       poorer classes; and exactly because former governments had
+       practically taken another view of sedition. If, therefore,
+       Sir R. Peel had left unpaid this great debt, he failed
+       grievously in the duties of his high office; but we are of
+       opinion that he did <i>not</i>. We have an obscure
+       remembrance that the Queen's speech uttered a voice on this
+       point&mdash;a solemn, a monitory, a parental voice. We seem
+       to recollect also, that in his own parliamentary place he
+       warned the deluded followers of Repeal&mdash;that they were
+       engaged in a chase that must be fruitless, and
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page526"
+       id="page526"></a>[pg 526]</span> might easily become
+       criminal. What was open to him, therefore, Sir Robert did.
+       He applied motives, such as there were within his power, to
+       lure men away from this seditious service. The "traps" he
+       laid were all in that direction. If more is required of him
+       by people arguing the case at present, it remains to ask
+       whether more was at that time in his power.</p>
+
+    <p>The present administration came into power in September
+    1841. Why the Repealers did not go to work instantly, is more
+    than we can explain; but so it was. In March of 1843, and not
+    sooner, Mr O'Connell opened a new shop of mercenary agitation,
+    and probably for the last time that he will ever do so. The
+    <i>surveillance</i> of Government, it now appears, commenced
+    almost simultaneously; why not the reaction of Government? Upon
+    that it is worth spending a few words. It is now made known to
+    the public, that from the very first Sir R. Peel had taken such
+    measures of precaution as were really open to him. In
+    communicating, officially with any district whatsoever, in any
+    one of the three kingdoms, the proper channel through which the
+    directions travel is the lord-lieutenant of the particular
+    county in which the district lies. He is the direct
+    representative of the sovereign&mdash;he stands at the head of
+    the county magistrates, and is officially the organ between the
+    executive and his own rural province. To this officer in every
+    county, Sir R. Peel addressed a letter of instructions; and the
+    principle on which these instructions turned was&mdash;that for
+    the present he was to exercise a jealous neutrality; not
+    interfering without further directions in ordinary cases, that
+    is, where simply Repeal was advocated, or individuals were
+    abused; but that, on the first <i>suggestion</i> of local
+    outrages, the first <i>incitement</i> to mischief, arrests and
+    other precautionary measures were to take place. Not much more
+    than twenty years are gone by, since magistrates moved on
+    principles so wholly different, that now, and to the youthful
+    of this generation, they would seem monstrous. In those days,
+    let any man be found to swear that he apprehended danger to his
+    property, or violence to his person, from the assembling of a
+    mob in a place assigned, and the magistrate would have held it
+    his duty to disperse or prevent that meeting. But now <i>on a
+    chang&eacute; tout cela</i>; and as easily might a magistrate
+    of this day commit Fanny Elssler as a vagabond. Yet even in
+    these days we have heard it mooted&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>1. On the mere ground of <i>numerical amount</i>, and as for
+    that reason alone an uncontrollable mass, might not such a
+    meeting have been liable to dispersion?
+    <i>Answer</i>&mdash;this allegation of monstrous numbers was
+    uniformly a falsehood; and a falsehood gross and childish. Was
+    it for the dignity of Government to assume, as grounds of
+    action, fables so absurd as these? <i>Not</i> to have assumed
+    them, will never be made an argument of blame against the
+    Executive; and, indeed, it was not possible to do so, since
+    Government had employed qualified persons to estimate the
+    numbers, and in some instances to measure the ground. The only
+    real charge against Government, in connexion with these fables,
+    is (and we grieve to say it) that of having echoed them, in an
+    ambiguous way, at one point of the trials; not exactly assuming
+    them for true, and resting any other truth upon their credit,
+    but repeating them as parts <i>inter alia</i> of current
+    popular hearsay. Now this, though probably the act of some
+    subordinate officer, does a double indignity to Government; it
+    is discreditable to the understanding, if such palpable nursery
+    tales are adopted for any purpose; and openly to adulterate
+    with falsehood, even in those cases where the falsehood is not
+    associated with folly, still more deeply wounds the character
+    of an honourable government. But, besides, had the numerical
+    estimates stood upon any footing of truth, mere numbers could
+    not have been pleaded as an argument for reasonable alarm. The
+    false estimate was not pleaded by the Repealers until
+    <i>after</i> the meetings, and as an inference from facts. But
+    the use of the argument was <i>before</i> the meeting, and to
+    prevent the meeting. And if the experience of past meetings
+    were urged as an argument for presuming that the coming one
+    would be not less numerous, concurrently would be urged this
+    same experience as a demonstration that no
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page527"
+       id="page527"></a>[pg 527]</span> danger was to be
+       apprehended. Dangerous the meetings certainly were in
+       another sense; but, in the police sense, so little
+       dangerous, that each successive meeting squared, cubed,
+       &amp;c., in geometrical progression the guarantee in point
+       of safety for all meetings that were to follow.</p>
+
+    <p>2. On the ground of <i>sedition</i>, and disaffection to the
+    Government, might not these assemblages have been lawfully
+    dispersed or prevented? Unfortunately, not under our modern
+    atmosphere of political liberality. In time of war, when it may
+    again become necessary, for the very salvation of the land, to
+    suspend the <i>habeas corpus</i> act, sedition would revive
+    into a new meaning. But, at all times, sedition is of too
+    unlimited a nature to form the basis of an affidavit sworn
+    before a police magistrate; and it is an idea which very much
+    sympathizes with the <i>general</i> principles of political
+    rights. When these are unusually licentious, sedition is
+    interpreted liberally and laxly. Where danger tightens the
+    restraints upon popular liberty, the idea of sedition is more
+    narrowly defined. Sedition, besides, very much depends upon
+    overt acts as expounding it. And to take any controversial
+    ground for the basis of restraint upon personal liberty, would
+    probably end in disappointment. At the same time, we must make
+    one remark. Some months ago, in considering what offence was
+    committed by the public avowal of the Repeal doctrine, we
+    contended, that it amounted constructively to treason; and on
+    the following argument&mdash;Why had any body supposed it
+    lawful to entertain or to propagate such a doctrine? Simply, on
+    the reflexion that, up to the summer of 1800, there <i>was</i>
+    no union with Ireland: since August of that 1800, this great
+    change had been made. And by what? By an act of Parliament. But
+    could there be any harm in seeking the repeal of a
+    parliamentary act? Is not <i>that</i> done in every session of
+    the two Houses? And as to the more or less importance of an
+    act, <i>that</i> is a matter of opinion. But we contended, that
+    the sanctity of an act is to be deduced from the sanctity of
+    the subjects for which it legislates. And in proof of this, we
+    alleged the <i>Act of Settlement</i>. Were it so, that simply
+    the term <i>Act of Parliament</i> implied a license universally
+    for undoing and canceling it, then how came the Act of
+    Settlement to enjoy so peculiar a consecration? We take upon us
+    to say&mdash;that, in any year since the Revolution of 1688-9,
+    to have called a meeting for the purpose of framing a petition
+    against this act, would have been treason. Might not Parliament
+    itself entertain a motion for repealing it, or for modifying
+    it? Certainly; for we have no laws resembling those Athenian
+    laws, which made it capitally punishable to propose their
+    repeal. And secondly,&mdash;no body external to the two Houses,
+    however venerable, can have power to take cognizance of words
+    uttered in either of those Houses. Every Parliament, of
+    necessity, must be invested with a discretionary power over
+    every arrangement made by their predecessors. Each several
+    Parliament must have the same power to <i>undo</i>, which
+    former Parliaments had to <i>do</i>. The two Houses have the
+    keys of St Peter&mdash;to unloose in the nineteenth century
+    whatever the earliest Parliament in the twelfth century could
+    bind. But this privilege is proper and exclusive to the two
+    Houses acting in conjunction. Outside their walls, no man has
+    power to do more than to propose as a petitioner some lawful
+    change. But how could that be a lawful change which must begin
+    by proposing to shift the allegiance into some other channel
+    than that in which it now flows? The line of succession, as
+    limited in the act, is composed of persons all interested. As
+    against <i>them</i>, merely contingent and reversionary heirs,
+    no treason could exist. But we have supposed the attempt to be
+    against the individual family then occupying the throne. And it
+    is clear that no pretence, drawn from the repealable nature of
+    an English law, can avail to make it less, or other than
+    treason, for a person outside of Parliament to propose the
+    repeal of <i>this</i> act as to any point affecting the
+    existing royal family, or at least, so many of that family as
+    are privileged persons known to the constitution. Now, then,
+    this remark instantly points to two classes of acts; one upon
+    which to all men is open
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page528"
+       id="page528"></a>[pg 528]</span> the right of calling for
+       Repeal; another upon which no such right is open. But if
+       this be so, then to urge the legality of calling for a
+       Repeal of the Union, on the ground that this union rests
+       only upon an act of Parliament, is absurd; because that
+       leaves it still doubtful whether this act falls under the
+       one class or the other.</p>
+
+    <p>Why do we mention this? Because we think it exceedingly
+    important that the attention of parliament should be called to
+    the subject, and to the necessity of holding certain points in
+    our constitution as absolutely sacred. If a man or party should
+    go about proclaiming the unlawfulness, in a religious sense, of
+    <i>property</i>, and agitating for that doctrine amongst the
+    lower classes by appropriate arguments&mdash;it would soon be
+    found necessary to check them, and the sanctity of property
+    would soon be felt to merit civil support. Possibly it will be
+    replied&mdash;"Supposing the revolutionary doctrines followed
+    by overt acts, then the true redress is by attacking these
+    acts." Yet every body feels that, if the doctrine and the acts
+    continued to propagate themselves, very soon both would be
+    punished. In the case where missionaries incited negro slaves
+    to outrages on property, or were said to do so, nobody proposed
+    to punish only the overt outrages. So, again, in the event of
+    those doctrines being revived which denounced all differences
+    of rank, and the official distinctions of civil government, it
+    would be too late to punish the results after the bonds of
+    society were generally relaxed. Ministers are placed in a very
+    false position, continually taxing a man with proposing the
+    repeal of a law as if <i>that</i> were an admitted crime, and
+    yet also pronouncing the proposed repeal of any law to be a
+    privilege of every citizen. They will soon find it necessary to
+    make their election for one or other of these incompatible
+    views.</p>
+
+    <p>Meantime, in direct opposition to this uncertainty of the
+    ministers, the Irish Attorney-General has drawn the same
+    argument from the Act of Settlement which we have drawn. In
+    February 1844, the Irish Attorney-General pronounced his views;
+    <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i> in August or September 1843. A fact
+    which we mention&mdash;not as imputing to that learned
+    gentleman any obligation to ourselves; for, on the contrary, it
+    strengthens the opinion to have been <i>independently</i>
+    adopted by different minds, but in order to acquit ourselves
+    from the natural suspicion of having, in a legal question,
+    derived our own views from a high legal authority.</p>
+
+    <p>3. Might not the Repeal Association have been arrested and
+    prosecuted at first, viz. in March 1843, as six months
+    afterwards they were, on a charge of conspiracy? That was a
+    happy thought, by whomsoever suggested; and strange that an
+    idea, so often applied to minor offences as well as to
+    political offences, should not at once have been seen to press
+    with crushing effect upon these disturbers of the public peace.
+    Since the great change in the combination laws, this doctrine
+    of conspiracy is the only means by which masters retain any
+    power at all. Wheresoever there are reciprocal rights, for one
+    of the two antagonist interests to combine in defence of their
+    own, presupposes in very many cases an unfair disturbance of
+    the legal equilibrium. Society, as being an inert body in
+    relation to any separate interests of its own, and chiefly from
+    the obscurity of these interests, cannot be supposed to
+    combine; and therefore cannot combine even to prevent
+    combinations. Government is the perpetual guardian and organ of
+    society in relation to its interests. Government, therefore,
+    prosecutes. This, however, left the original question as to the
+    Repeal of the Irish Union act, whether a lawful attempt or not
+    lawful, untouched. And necessary it was to do so. Had the
+    prosecutor even been satisfied on that point, no jury would
+    have regarded it as other than a delicate question in the
+    casuistry of political metaphysics. But the offence of
+    combining, by means of tumultuous meetings, and by means of
+    connecting with this obscure question rancorous nationalities
+    or personalities, so as to make <i>that</i> a matter of
+    agitating interest to poor men, which else they would have
+    regarded as a pure scholastic abstraction&mdash;this was a
+    crime well understood by the jury; and thence
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page529"
+       id="page529"></a>[pg 529]</span> flowed the verdict. But
+       could not the same verdict have been obtained in the month
+       of March? Certainly not. For the act of <i>conspiracy</i>
+       must prove itself by collusion between speeches and
+       speeches, between speeches and newspapers, between reporters
+       and newspapers, between newspaper and newspaper. But in the
+       infancy of such a concern, these links of concert and mutual
+       reverberation are few, hard to collect, and unless
+       carelessly diffused, (as in the palmy days of the Repeal
+       Association they were,) difficult to prove.</p>
+
+    <p>In short, no indictment could have availed that was not
+    founded on the offence of conspiracy; and <i>that</i> would not
+    have been available with certainty much before the autumn, when
+    in fact the conspirators were held to bail. To have failed
+    would have been ruinous. We have seen how hardly the furious
+    Opposition have submitted to the Government measure, under its
+    present principle of simple confidence in the law as it is: had
+    new laws, or suspension of old ones, been found
+    requisite&mdash;the desperate resistance of the Liberals would
+    have reacted contagiously on the excitement in Ireland, so as
+    to cause more mischief in a secondary way, than any measure of
+    restraint upon the Repealers could have healed directly.</p>
+
+    <p>It is certain, meantime, that Sir R. Peel did not wish to
+    provoke a struggle with the Repealers. Feeling, probably,
+    considerable doubts upon the issue of any trial, moving upon
+    whatsoever principle&mdash;because in any case the composition
+    of the jury must depend a good deal upon chance, and one
+    recusant juror, or one juror falling ill at a critical moment,
+    might have reduced the whole process to a nihility&mdash;Sir
+    Robert, like any moderate man, hoped that his warnings might
+    meet with attention. They did not. So far from <i>that</i>, the
+    Repealers kindled into more frenzy through their own violence,
+    irritated no doubt by public sympathy with their worst counsels
+    in America and elsewhere. At length the case indicated in the
+    minister's instructions to the lords-lieutenant of counties,
+    the <i>casus f&aelig;deris</i>, actually occurred. One meeting
+    was fixed ostentatiously on the anniversary of the rebellion in
+    1798; and against the intended meeting at Clontarf, large
+    displays of cavalry and of military discipline were publicly
+    advertised. These things were decisive: the viceroy returned
+    suddenly to Ireland: the Privy Council of Ireland assembled: a
+    proclamation issued from government: the conspirators were
+    arrested: and in the regular course the trials came on.</p>
+
+    <p>Such is our account of the first stage in this great
+    political transaction; and this first stage it is which most
+    concerns the reputation of Government. For though the merit of
+    the trials, or second stage, must also belong to Government, so
+    far as regards the resolution to adopt this course, and the
+    general principle of their movement; yet in the particular
+    conduct of their parts, these trials naturally devolved upon
+    the law-officers. In the admirable balance of firmness and
+    forbearance it is hardly possible to imagine the minister
+    exceeded. And here, where chiefly he stood between a double
+    fire of attacks, irreconcilable in themselves, and proceeding
+    not less on friends than foes, it is now found by official
+    exposures that Sir Robert's conduct is not open to a trivial
+    demur. He made his preparations for vindicating the laws in
+    such a spirit of energy, as though he had resolved upon
+    allowing no escape for the enemy; he opened a <i>locus
+    penitenti&aelig;</i>, noiseless and indulgent to the feelings
+    of the offenders, with so constant an overture of placability
+    as if he had resolved upon letting them <i>all</i> escape. The
+    kindness of the manner was as perfect as the brilliancy of the
+    success.</p>
+
+    <p>Next, as regards the trials, there is so very much diffused
+    through the speeches or the incidents of what is noticeable on
+    one ground or other&mdash;that we shall confine ourselves to
+    those points which are chiefly concerned in the one great
+    factious (let us add fraudulent) attempt within the House of
+    Commons to disparage the justice of the trial. In all history,
+    we remember nothing that ever issued from a baffled and
+    mortified party more audacious than this. As, on the other
+    hand, in all history we remember nothing more anxiously or
+    sublimely conscientious than the whole
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page530"
+       id="page530"></a>[pg 530]</span> conduct of the trial. More
+       conspicuously are these qualities displayed, as it was
+       inevitable they should, in the verdict. Never yet has there
+       been a document of this nature more elaborate and fervent in
+       the energy of its distinctions, than this most memorable
+       verdict; and the immortal twelve will send down their names
+       to posterity as the roll-call of those upright citizens,
+       who, in defiance of menaces, purchased peace to their
+       afflicted country at the price of peril to themselves. With
+       partisans, of course, all this goes for nothing; and no cry
+       was more steadily raised in the House of Commons than the
+       revolting falsehood&mdash;that the conspirators had not
+       obtained a fair trial. Upon the three pretences by which
+       this monstrous allegation endeavoured to sustain itself, we
+       will say a word. Two quarrels have been raised with
+       incidents occurring at separate stages in the striking of
+       the jury. What happened first of all was supposed to be a
+       mere casual effect of hurry. Good reason there has since
+       appeared, to suspect in this affair no such excusable
+       accident, but a very fraudulent result of a plan for
+       vitiating the whole proceedings. Such things are likely
+       enough to be attempted by obscure partisans. But at all
+       events any trick that may have been practised, is traced
+       decisively to the party of the defendants. But the whole
+       effect of the trick, if such it were, was to diminish the
+       original fund from which the names of the second list were
+       to be drawn, by about one twenty-ninth part. But this
+       inconsiderable loss was as likely to serve the defendants as
+       not; for the object, as we have said, was&mdash;simply by
+       vitiating the proceeding to protract the trial, and thus to
+       benefit by a larger range of favourable accidents. But why
+       not cure this irregularity, however caused, by the means
+       open to the court? Simply for these reasons, explained by
+       the Attorney-General:&mdash;1st, that such a proceeding
+       would operate injuriously upon many other trials; and 2d, as
+       to this particular trial, that it would delay it until the
+       year 1845. The next incident is still more illustrative of
+       the determination, taken beforehand, to quarrel with the
+       arrangements, on whatever principle conducted. When the list
+       of persons eligible as jurors has been reduced by the
+       unobjectionable process of balloting to forty-eight, from
+       that amount they are further reduced by ultimate challenges;
+       and the necessity resting upon each party to make these
+       challenges is not discretional, but peremptory. It happened
+       that the officer who challenged on behalf of the crown,
+       struck off about ten Roman Catholics. The public are weary
+       of hearing it explained&mdash;that these names were not
+       challenged <i>as</i> Catholics, but as Repealers. Some
+       persons have gone so far as to maintain&mdash;that even
+       Repealers ought not to have been challenged. This, however,
+       has been found rather too strong a doctrine for the House of
+       Commons&mdash;to have asked for a verdict of guilty from men
+       glorying in the very name which expresses the offence. Did
+       any man ever suggest a special jury of smugglers in a suit
+       of our lady the Queen, for the offence of "running" goods?
+       Yet certainly they are well qualified as respects
+       professional knowledge of the case. We on our part maintain,
+       that not merely Repealers were inadmissible on the Dublin
+       jury, but generally Roman Catholics; and we say this without
+       disrespect to that body, as will appear from what follows.
+       It will often happen that men are challenged as labouring
+       under prejudices which disqualify them for an impartial
+       discharge of a juror's duty. But these prejudices may be of
+       two kinds. First, they may be the natural product of a
+       certain birth, education, and connexion; and these are cases
+       in which it will almost be a <i>duty</i> for one so biased
+       to have contracted something of a permanent inability to
+       judge fairly under circumstances which interest his
+       prejudices. But secondly, there are other prejudices, as,
+       for instance, of passions, of blind anger, or of selfish
+       interest. Such cases of prejudice are less honourable; and
+       yet no man scruples to tell another, under circumstances of
+       this nature, that he cannot place confidence in his
+       impartiality. No offence is either meant or taken. A trial
+       is transferred from Radnorshire to Warwickshire in order to
+       secure justice: yet Radnorshire is not offended. And every
+       day a witness is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page531"
+       id="page531"></a>[pg 531]</span> told to stand down, when he
+       is acknowledged to have the slightest pecuniary interest in
+       the case, without feeling himself insulted. Yet the
+       insinuation is a most gross one&mdash;that, because he might
+       be ten guineas richer or poorer by the event of the trial,
+       he is not capable of giving a fair testimony. This would be
+       humiliating, were it not seen that keen interests compel men
+       to speak bluntly and plainly: men cannot sacrifice their
+       prospects of justice to ceremony and form. Now, when a Roman
+       Catholic is challenged as a juryman, it is under the first
+       and comparatively inoffensive mode of imputation. It is not
+       said&mdash;you are under a cloud of passion, or under a bias
+       of gross self-interest. But simply&mdash;you have certain
+       religious opinions: no imputation is made on your integrity.
+       On the contrary, it is honourable to you that you should be
+       alive to the interests of your class. Some think, and so may
+       you, that separation from England would elevate the
+       Catholics; since, in such a case, undoubtedly your religion
+       would become predominant in Ireland. It is but natural,
+       therefore, that you should lean to the cause of those who
+       favour yours. In setting aside a Catholic as a juryman on
+       the trial of Repealers, this is the imputation made upon
+       him. Now, what is there in that to wound any man's feelings?
+       Lastly, it is alleged that the presiding judge summed up in
+       terms unfavourable to the Repealers. Of course he did; and,
+       as an upright judge, how could he have done otherwise? Let
+       us for one moment consider this point also. It is often said
+       that the judge is counsel for the prisoner. But this is a
+       gross misconception. The judge, properly speaking, is
+       counsel for the law, and for every thing which can effect
+       the right understanding of the evidence. Consequently he
+       sometimes appears to be advocating the prisoner's cause,
+       merely because the point which he is clearing up happens to
+       make for the prisoner. But equally he would have appeared to
+       be against the prisoner, if he found it necessary to
+       dissipate perplexities that would have benefited the
+       prisoner. His business is with no personal interest, but
+       generally with the interest of truth and
+       equity&mdash;whichever way those may point. Upon this
+       principle, in summing up, it is the judge's duty to appraise
+       the entire evidence; and if any argument lurks obscurely in
+       the evidence, he must strip it of its obscurity, and bring
+       it forward with fuller advantage. That may happen to favour
+       the prisoner, or it may weigh against him. But the judge
+       cannot have any regard to these consequences. His concern is
+       simply with the pressure and incidence of the testimony. If,
+       therefore, a prisoner has brought forward witnesses who were
+       able to depose any thing in his favour, be assured that the
+       judge will not overlook that deposition. But, if no such
+       deposition were made, is it meant that the judge is to
+       invent it? The whole notion has grown out of the original
+       conceit&mdash;that a defendant in relation to the judge is
+       in the relation of a client to an advocate. But this is no
+       otherwise true than as it is true of every party and
+       interest connected with the case. All these alike the judge
+       is to uphold in their true equitable position and rights. In
+       summing up, the judge used such facts as had been furnished
+       to him. All these happened to be against the Repealers; and
+       therefore the judge appeared to be against then. But the
+       same impression would have resulted, if he had simply read
+       his notes of the evidence.</p>
+
+    <p>Such are the desperate attempts to fasten charges of
+    unfairness on this fairest of all recorded trials. And with an
+    interest so keen in promoting the belief of some unfairness,
+    was there ever yet a trial that could have satisfied the losing
+    party? Losers have a proverbial privilege for being out of
+    temper. But in this case more is sought than the mere
+    gratification of wrath. Fresh hopes spring up in every stage of
+    this protracted contest, and they are all equally groundless.
+    First, Mr O'Connell was not to be arrested: it was impossible
+    and absurd to suppose it. Next, <i>being</i> arrested, he was
+    not to be tried. We must all remember the many assurances in
+    Dublin papers&mdash;that all was done to save appearances, but
+    that no trial would take place. Then, when it was past denial
+    that the trial had really begun, it was to break down on
+    grounds past numbering. Finally,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page532"
+       id="page532"></a>[pg 532]</span> the jury would never dare
+       to record a verdict of guilty. This, however, being actually
+       done, then was Mr O'Connell to bring writs of error; he was
+       to "take the sense" of the whole Irish bench; and, having
+       taken all that, he was to take the sense of the Lords. And
+       after all these things were accomplished, finally (as we
+       then understood it) he was to take himself off in the
+       direction pointed out by the judges. But we find that he has
+       not yet reconciled himself to <i>that</i>. Intimations come
+       out at intervals that the judges will never dare to pass any
+       but a nominal sentence upon him. We conclude that all these
+       endless conflicts with the legal necessities of his case are
+       the mere gasconades of Irish newspapers, addressing
+       themselves to provincial readers. Were there reason to
+       suppose them authorized by the Repealers, there would be
+       still higher argument for what we are going to say. But
+       under any circumstances, we agree with the opinion expressed
+       dispassionately and seasonably by the <i>Times</i>
+       newspaper&mdash;that judgment must be executed in this case.
+       We agree with that journal&mdash;that the nation requires it
+       as a homage rendered necessary to the violated majesty of
+       law. Nobody wishes that, at Mr O'Connell's age, any
+       <i>severe</i> punishment should be inflicted. Nobody will
+       misunderstand, in such a case, the mitigation of the
+       sentence. The very absence of all claim to mitigation, makes
+       it impossible to mistake the motive to lenity in <i>his</i>
+       case. But judgment must be done on Cawdor. Two aggravations,
+       and heavy ones, of the offence have occurred even since the
+       trial. One is the tone of defiance still maintained by
+       newspapers under his control. Already, with one voice, they
+       are ready to assure the country, in case of the sentence
+       being incommensurate to the case, that Government wished to
+       be severe, but had not courage for the effort; and that
+       Government dares not enforce the sentence. The other
+       aggravation lies in this&mdash;that he, a convicted
+       conspirator, has presumed to take his seat amongst the
+       senators of the land&mdash;"Venit in senatum, fit particeps
+       consilii." Yet Catiline, here denounced to the public rage,
+       <i>was</i> not a <i>convicted</i> conspirator; and even his
+       conspiracy rests very much on the word of an enemy. It is
+       true that, in some formal sense, a man's conviction is not
+       complete in our law until sentence has been pronounced. But
+       this makes no real difference as to the scandalous affront
+       which Mr O'Connell has thus put upon the laws of the land.
+       And in that view it is, viz. as an atonement for the many
+       outrages offered to the laws, that the nation waits for the
+       consummation of this public example.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_7_1"
+                    name="fn_7_1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_7_tag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The reader may suppose that Lord John Russell had no
+        motive for wishing his motion to fail, because (as he was
+        truly admonished by Sir Robert Peel) that motion pledged
+        him to nothing, and was "an exercise in political fluxions
+        on the problem of combining the <i>maximum</i> of damage to
+        his opponents with the <i>minimum</i> of prospective
+        engagement to himself." True: but for all that Lord John
+        would have cursed the hour in which he resolved on such a
+        motion, had it succeeded. What would have followed?
+        Ministers would have gone out: Sir Robert Peel has
+        repeatedly said they would in the event of parliament
+        condemning their Irish policy. This would bring in Lord
+        John, and <i>then</i> would be revealed the distraction of
+        his party, the chicanery of his late motion, and the mere
+        incapacity of moving at all upon Irish questions, either to
+        the right or to the left, for <i>any</i> government which
+        at this moment the Whig-radicals could form. Doubtless,
+        Lord John cherishes hopes of future power; but not at
+        present. "Wait a little," is his secret caution to friends:
+        let us see Ireland settled; let the turn be taken; let the
+        policy of Sir Robert Peel (at length able to operate
+        through the last assertion of the law) have once taken
+        root; and then, having the benefit of measures which past
+        declarations would not permit him personally to initiate,
+        nor his party even to propose, Lord John might return to
+        power securely&mdash;saying of the Peel policy, "Fieri non
+        debuit, <i>factum</i> valet."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="fn_7_2"
+                    name="fn_7_2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b>
+                    <a href="#fn_7_tag2">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>The trial of the seven bishops for declining to obey the
+        king's order in council against what, in conscience, they
+        believed to be the law of the land, is the more strictly a
+        parallel case, because, as in Ireland, the whole Popish
+        part of the population&mdash;in effect, therefore, the
+        whole physical strength of the land&mdash;<i>seemed</i> to
+        have arrayed itself on the side of the conspiracy; so in
+        England, the only armed force, and that close to London,
+        was supposed to have been bought over by the systematic
+        indulgence of the king. Himself and the queen (Mary of
+        Modena) had courted them through the summer. But all was
+        fruitless against the overwhelming sympathy of the troops
+        with an universal popular feeling. Bishop Burnet mentions
+        that this army (about 10,000 men, and then encamped beyond
+        Hounslow) broke into tremendous cheers at the moment when
+        the news of the acquittal reached them. Whilst lauding
+        their Creator his majesty was present. But a far more
+        picturesque account of the case is given by an ancestor of
+        the present Lord Lonsdale's, whose memoirs (still in MS.)
+        are alluded to in one of his Ecclesiastic Sonnets by Mr
+        Wordsworth, our present illustrious laureate. One trait is
+        of a nature so fine, and so inevitable under similar
+        circumstances of interest, that, but for the intervention
+        of the sea, we should certainly have witnessed its
+        repetition on the termination of the Dublin trials. Lord
+        Lowther (such was the title at that time) mentions that, as
+        the bishops came down the Thames in their boat after their
+        acquittal, a perpetual series of men, linked knee to knee,
+        knelt down along the shore. The blessing given, up rose a
+        continuous thunder of huzzas; and these, by a kind of
+        natural telegraph, ran along the streets and the river,
+        through Brentford, and so on to Hounslow. According to the
+        illustration of Lord L., this voice of a nation rolled like
+        a <i>feu-de-joie</i>, or running fire, the who le ten miles
+        from London to Hounslow, within a few minutes; or, like a
+        train of gunpowder laid from London to the camp, this
+        irresistible sentiment finally involved in its torrent
+        evenits professional and hired enemies. C&aelig;sar
+        mentions that such a transmission, telegraphically
+        propagated from mouth to mouth, of a Roman victory, reached
+        himself, at a distance of 160 miles, within about four
+        hours.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <h4><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's
+    Work</i></h4>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844, by Various
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844, 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: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: October 5, 2004 [EBook #13633]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jon Ingram, Victoria Woosley, the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team, and The Internet Library of Early Journals
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      BLACKWOOD'S
+
+                  EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+
+
+
+     No. CCCXLII.     APRIL, 1844.        VOL. LV.
+
+
+
+
+                  TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+    THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.
+      --A TALE OF VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.--PART II.
+
+    THE SLAVE-TRADE.
+
+    MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.
+      --THE ARABS OF CORDOVA.
+
+    TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.
+      --A FRAGMENT FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.
+
+    THE BRITISH FLEET.
+
+    MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+      --PART X.
+
+    THE CHILD'S WARNING.
+
+    THE TWO PATRONS.
+
+    IRELAND.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PIRATES OF SEGNA.
+
+A TALE OF VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. IN TWO PARTS.
+
+PART II.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE.
+
+
+The time occupied by the events detailed in the three preceding
+chapters, had been passed by Antonio in a state of self-exile from his
+master's studio. Conscious of having disobeyed the earnest injunctions
+of Contarini, the weakness of his character withheld him alike from
+confessing his fault, and from encountering the penetrating gaze of
+the old painter. Neglecting thus his usual occupation, he passed his
+days in his gondola, wandering about the canals in the hope of again
+meeting with the mysterious being who had made such an impression on
+his excitable fancy. Hitherto all his researches had been fruitless;
+but although day after day passed without his finding the smallest
+trace of her he sought, his repeated disappointments seemed only to
+increase the obstinacy with which he continued the search.
+
+The incognita not only engrossed all his waking thoughts, but she
+still haunted him in his dreams. Scarcely a night passed that her
+wrinkled countenance did not hover round his pillow, now partially
+shrouded by the ample veil, then again fully exposed and apparently
+exulting in its unearthly ugliness; or else peering at him from behind
+the drapery that covered the walls of his apartment. In vain did he
+attempt to address the vision, or to follow it as it gradually receded
+and finally melted away into distance.
+
+It was from a dream of this description that he was one morning
+awakened by his faithful gondolier Jacopo. The sun was shining
+brightly through his chamber windows, and he heard an unusual degree
+of noise and bustle upon the canal without.
+
+"Up, Signor mio!" cried the gondolier joyously, and with a mixture of
+respect and affectionate familiarity in his tone and manner. "Up,
+Signor Antonio! You were not wont to oversleep yourself on the day of
+the Bridge Fight. All Venice is hastening thither. Quick, quick! or we
+shall never be able to make our way through the press of gondolas."
+
+The words of the gondolier reminded Antonio that this was the day
+appointed for the celebration of a festival, which for weeks past had
+been looked forward to with the greatest impatience and interest, by
+Venetians of all ranks, ages, and sexes; a festival which he himself
+was in the habit of regularly attending, though on this occasion his
+preoccupied thoughts and feelings had made him utterly unconscious
+that it was so near at hand.
+
+Although the ancient and bitter hatred of the Guelphs and Ghibellines
+had died away, and the factions which divided northern Italy had sunk
+into insignificance, nearly a century before this period, the memory
+of their feuds was still kept up by their great grandchildren, and
+Venice was still severed into two parties or communities, separated
+from each other by the grand canal. Those who dwelt on the western or
+land side of this boundary were styled the Nicolotti, after the parish
+of San Nicolo; while those on the eastern or sea side took the
+appellation of Castellani, from the district of Castello. Not only the
+inhabitants of the city itself, but those of the suburbs and
+neighbouring country, were included in these two denominations; the
+people from Mestre and the continent ranging themselves under the
+banners of the Nicolotti, while those from the islands were strenuous
+Castellani.
+
+The frequent and sanguinary conflicts of the Guelphs and Ghibellines
+were now replaced and commemorated by a popular festival, occurring
+sometimes once, sometimes oftener in the year; usually in the autumn
+or spring. "In order that," says an old chronicler of the time, "the
+heat being less great at those seasons, the blood of the combatants
+should not become too heated and the fight too dangerous." "Also on
+cloudy days," says the same authority, "that the spectators might not
+be molested by the sun; and on Sundays or Saints' days, that the
+people thereby might not be hindered from their occupations." On these
+occasions one of the numerous bridges was selected as the scene of the
+mock combat that constituted the chief amusement of the day. The quays
+afforded good standing-room to the spectators; and here, under the
+inspection of aediles appointed by the people, the two parties met, and
+disputed for supremacy in a battle, in which, however, no more
+dangerous weapons than fists were allowed to be brought into play.
+
+It was not the populace alone that divided itself into these two
+factions. Accordingly as the palaces of the nobles stood on the one or
+the other side of the canal, were their owners Castellani or
+Nicolotti, although their partizanship existed but in jest, and only
+showed itself in the form of encouragement to their respective
+parties; whereas with the lower orders the strife, begun in
+good-humour, not unfrequently turned to bitter earnest, and had
+dangerous and even fatal results. In the wish, however, to keep up a
+warlike spirit in the people, and perhaps still more with a view to
+make them forget, in a temporary and boundless license, the strict
+subjection in which they were habitually held, the senate was induced
+to permit the continuance of a diversion, which from the local
+arrangements of Venice, the narrowness of the streets and bridges, and
+the depth of the larger canals, was unavoidably dangerous, and almost
+invariably attended with loss of life.
+
+Hastily dressing himself, Antonio hurried into his gondola in order to
+proceed to the bridge of San Barnaba, opposite to the church of the
+same name and to the Foscarini palace, that being the spot appointed
+for the combat. The canal of the Giudecca was one black mass of
+gondolas, which rendered even a casual glimpse of the water scarcely
+obtainable; and it was amidst the cries of the gondoliers and the
+noise of boats knocking against each other, that the young painter
+passed the Dogana and reached the grand canal. There the crowd became
+so dense, that Jacopo, seeing the impossibility of passing, turned
+aside in time, and making a circuit, entered the Rio de San Trovaso,
+whence, through innumerable narrow canals, he succeeded in reaching
+the scene of the approaching conflict.
+
+The combatants were attending mass, and had not yet made their
+appearance. Wonderfully great, however, was the concourse of
+spectators already assembled. Since sunrise they had been thronging
+thither from all sides, eager to secure places which might afford them
+a good view of the fight. Every roof, gable, and chimney had its
+occupants; not a projection however small, not a wall however lofty
+and perilous, but was covered with people, for the most part provided
+with baskets of provisions, and evidently determined to sit or stand
+out the whole of the spectacle. In the anxiety to obtain good places,
+the most extraordinary risks were run, and feats of activity
+displayed. Here might be seen individuals clambering up perpendicular
+buildings, by the aid of ledges and projections which appeared far too
+narrow to afford either grasp or foot-hold; further on, some herculean
+gondolier or peasant served as base to a sort of human column,
+composed of five or six men, who, scrambling over each other's
+shoulders, attained in this manner some seemingly inaccessible
+position. The seafaring habits of the Venetian populace, who were
+accustomed from boyhood to climb the masts and rigging of vessels, now
+stood them in good stead; and notwithstanding all the noise,
+confusion, and apparent peril, it was very rarely that an accident
+occurred.
+
+Under the red awnings covering the balconies and flat roofs of the
+palaces, were seated groups of ladies, whose rich dresses, glittering
+with the costliest jewels and embroideries, appeared the more
+magnificent from being contrasted with the black attire of the grave
+patricians who accompanied them. But perhaps the most striking feature
+of this striking scene was to be found in the custom of masking, then
+almost universal in Venice, and the origin of which may be traced in
+great part to dread of the Inquisition, and of its prying enquiries
+into the actions and affairs of individuals. Amidst the sea of faces
+that thronged roofs, windows, balconies, streets, and quays, the
+minority only were uncovered, and the immense collection of masks, of
+every form and colour, had something in it peculiarly fantastic and
+unnatural, conveying an impression that the wearers mimicked human
+nature rather than belonged to it.
+
+Venice, whose trade and mercantile importance were at this period
+greatly on the decline, saw nevertheless, on occasions like the
+present, strangers from the most opposite nations of Europe, and even
+Asia, mingling peaceably on her canals. Here were Turks in their
+bright red caftans and turbans; there Armenians in long black robes;
+and Jews, whose habitually greedy and crafty countenances had for the
+nonce assumed an expression of eager curiosity and expectation. The
+mercantile spirit of the Venetians prevented them from extending to
+individuals the quarrels of states; and although the republic was then
+at war with Spain, more than one superb hidalgo might be seen, wrapped
+in his national gravity as in a mantle, and affecting a total
+disregard of the blunt or hostile observations made within his hearing
+by sailors of the Venetian navy, or by individuals smarting under the
+loss of ships and cargoes captured by Spanish galleys.
+
+Scattered here and there amongst the crowd, Antonio's searching eye
+soon remarked a number of men, to whom, accustomed as he was to
+analyse the heterogeneous composition of a Venetian mob, he was yet at
+a loss to assign any distinct class or country. Their sunburnt and
+strongly marked features were partially hidden by the folds of ample
+cloaks, in which they kept themselves closely muffled; and it appeared
+to Antonio, that in their selection of places they were more anxious
+to escape observation than to obtain a good view of the approaching
+fight. In the dark patches of shadow thrown by the overhanging
+balconies, in the recesses of deep and gloomy portals, or peering out
+from the entrance of some narrow and tortuous alley, these men were
+grouped, silent, scowling, and alone, and apparently known to none of
+the surrounding crowd. But suspicious as were the appearance and
+deportment of the persons in question, Antonio's thoughts were too
+much engrossed by another and far more interesting subject, to accord
+them much attention. He nourished the hope of discovering amongst the
+multitude assembled around him, the mysterious being who had taken so
+strong a hold on his imagination. Vainly, however, did he scan every
+balcony and window and strain his eyes to distinguish the faces of the
+more distant of the assembled dames. More than once the flutter of a
+white robe, or a momentarily fancied resemblance of figure, made his
+heart beat high with expectation, until a second glance destroyed his
+hopes; and the turning of a head or drawing aside of a veil disclosed
+the blooming features of some youthful beauty, to which, in his then
+state of mind, the wrinkled and unearthly visage of the incognita
+would have been infinitely preferable.
+
+While the young painter was thus fluctuating between hope and
+disappointment, several lads with naked arms, or but slightly
+encumbered with clothing, were giving the spectators a foretaste of
+the approaching conflict; and, encouraged by the applause which was
+liberally vouchsafed them, making violent efforts to drive one another
+off the bridge. At times the spirit of partizanship would induce some
+of the bystanders to come to the aid of those who seemed likely to be
+defeated--an interference that was repressed by the aediles stationed
+at either end of the bridge, who did their utmost to enforce the laws
+of this popular tournament. Notwithstanding their efforts, however,
+the _mostra_ or duello between two persons, by which the combat should
+begin, was often converted into the _frotta_ or melee, in which all
+pressed forward without order. The first advantage was held to be--for
+one of the combatants to draw blood, if it were only a single drop,
+from the nose or mouth of his opponent. Loud applause rewarded the
+skill and vigour of him who succeeded in throwing his adversary into
+the canal; but the clamour became deafening when a champion was found
+who maintained his station in the centre of the bridge, without any of
+the opposite party venturing to attack him. This feat won the highest
+honour that could be obtained; and he who achieved it retired from his
+post amid the waving of scarfs and handkerchiefs, and the enthusiastic
+cheers of the gratified spectators.
+
+At length the bell of the Campanile announced that mass was over, and
+presently, out of two opposite streets that had been purposely kept
+clear, the combatants emerged, pressing forward in eager haste towards
+the bridge; their arms naked to the shoulders, their breasts protected
+by leathern doublets, and their heads by closely fitting caps--their
+dress altogether as light as possible, and well adapted to the
+struggle in which they were about to engage. The loud hum of the
+multitude was hushed on their appearance, and the deepest silence
+reigned while the aediles marshaled them to their respective places, on
+which they planted themselves in threatening attitudes, their broad
+and muscular chests expanded, their fists clenched, their feet seeming
+to grasp the ground on which they stood.
+
+A loud flourish of trumpets gave the signal of the onset, and with
+inconceivable impetuosity the two parties threw themselves on each
+other. In spite, however, of the fury and violence of the shock,
+neither side yielded an inch of ground. The bridge was completely
+filled with men from end to end, and from side to side; there was no
+parapet or barrier of any kind to prevent the combatants from pushing
+one another into the canal; yet so equally balanced was the strength
+of the two parties, that after nearly half an hour's struggle very few
+men had been thrown from the bridge, and not the smallest advantage
+had been obtained either by Castellani or Nicolotti. Those in the
+rear, who had as yet done nothing but push the others forward, now
+came to the front, and the combat was renewed with fresh vigour, but
+for a long time without any result. Again and again were the
+combatants changed; but it was past noon before Antonio, whose
+thoughts had been gradually diverted from the incognita by the
+struggle that was going on, perceived symptoms of weariness amongst
+those indefatigable athletes. Here and there a knee was seen to bend,
+or a muscular form to sink, under some well-directed blow, or before a
+sudden rush of the opposite party. First one, then another of the
+combatants was hurled from the bridge into the canal, an immersion
+that, dripping with perspiration as they were, not unfrequently caused
+death or severe illness. Nevertheless the fury of the fight seemed
+rather to increase than diminish. So long as only a man here and there
+fell into the water, they were dragged out by their friends; and the
+spectators even seemed to feel pity and sympathy for the unfortunates,
+as they saw them carried along, some covered with blood, others
+paralysed by the sudden cold, with faces pale as death and limbs stiff
+and rigid. But as the fury and violence of the combatants augmented,
+the bystanders forgot every other feeling in the excitement of the
+fight, about the result of which they seemed as anxious as those who
+were actively engaged in it. Even women might be seen encouraging
+those who were driven back, and urging them once more to the charge;
+applauding and cheering them on when they advanced, and assailing
+those who hung back with vehement reproaches. The uproar and shouting,
+shrieks and yells, exceeded any thing that could be imagined. The
+partizans had got completely mixed together; and, instead of the
+struggle being confined to the foremost ranks of the contending
+parties, the whole bridge was now one coil of raging combatants. Men
+fell into the canal by scores, but no one thought of rendering them
+any assistance. Their places were immediately filled up, and the fight
+lost none of its fury from their absence.
+
+Evening was now approaching, and the combat was more violent than it
+had yet been, or than it had for years been known to be, when Antonio
+saw the cloaked and mysterious individuals who had already attracted
+his attention, emerge from their lurking-places, and disappear in
+different directions. Presently he thought he observed some of them on
+the bridge mingling with the combatants, whose blind rage prevented
+them from noticing the intrusion. Wherever they passed, there did the
+fight augment in obstinacy and fury. Suddenly there was a violent rush
+upon the bridge, a frightful outcry, and a clash of steel. At the same
+moment the blades of several swords and daggers were seen crossed and
+glittering upon the bridge, without its being possible for any one to
+divine whence the weapons came. The spectators, seized with a panic
+fear, fled in every direction, and sprang in crowds from the quays to
+seek shelter under the awnings of the gondolas covering the canal. In
+vain did the gondoliers resist the intrusion of the fugitives: all
+considerations of rank and property were lost sight of in the terror
+of the moment, and some of the boats sank under the weight of the
+multitudes that poured into them. In their haste to get away, the
+gondolas impeded each other, and became wedged together in the canal;
+and amidst the screams of the ladies and angry exclamations of the
+men, the gondoliers laid down their oars and began to dispute the
+precedence with blows. Meanwhile the people on the roofs of the
+houses, believing themselves in safety, espoused different sides, and
+threw stones and bricks at each other, and at those standing below. In
+an incredibly short time houses were entirely unroofed, and a perfect
+storm of tiles rained upon the quays and streets. Those who had first
+fled, when they attained what appeared a safe distance, halted to look
+on, and thus prevented others from getting away. Antonio was amongst
+the number whose escape was thus impeded. His gondolier lay at the
+bottom of the boat, stunned by a blow from a stone; he himself was
+bruised and wounded by the missiles that fell in all directions.
+
+The tumult was at its height when suddenly a sound was heard that had
+a truly magical effect upon the rioters, for such they might now be
+termed. The alarm-bell of St Mark's rang out its awful peal. In an
+instant the yells of defiance were hushed; the arm that was already
+drawn back to deal a blow fell harmless by its owner's side, the storm
+of missiles ceased, the contending factions parted, and left the
+combat undecided. The habit of obedience and the intimation of some
+danger to the city, stilled in an instant the rage of party feeling,
+and combatants and spectators alike hurried away in the direction of
+St Mark's place, the usual point of rendezvous on such occasions.
+
+Jacopo had now recovered his senses, and Antonio's gondola was one of
+the first which reached the square in front of the cathedral. Thence
+the young painter at once discovered the cause of the alarm. Smoke and
+flame were issuing from some buildings on the opposite island of San
+Giorgio Maggiore, where the greater part of the merchants' warehouses
+were situated. Thither the crowd of gondolas now steered, and Antonio
+found himself carried along with the stream. But although the fire was
+already beginning to subside before the prompt measures taken to
+subdue it, the alarm-bell kept clanging on; and Antonio soon perceived
+that there must be some other point of danger to which it was intended
+to turn the attention of the people. Gazing about for some indication
+of its source, he saw several gondolas hurrying towards the grand
+canal, on which most of the palaces of the nobles were situated, and
+he ordered Jacopo to steer in the same direction.
+
+On reaching the palazzo of the Malipieri family, a strange scene
+presented itself to him. The open space between the side of the palace
+and the adjacent church of San Samuele, was crowded with men engaged
+in a furious and sanguinary conflict. At one of the windows of the
+palace, a tall man in a flowing white robe, with a naked sabre in one
+hand and a musquetoon in the other, which, from the smoke still
+issuing from its muzzle, had apparently just been discharged, stood
+defending himself desperately against a band of fierce and bearded
+ruffians, who swarmed up a rope ladder fixed below the window. The
+person making so gallant a defence was the Senator Malipiero; the
+assailants were Uzcoques from the fortress of Segna.
+
+The arrival of the Proveditore Marcello at Gradiska, and his
+subsequent recognition of his jewels at the ball, having destroyed
+Strasolda's hopes of obtaining her father's liberation through the
+intervention of the archducal counsellors, the high-spirited maiden
+resolved to execute a plan she had herself devised, and which,
+although in the highest degree rash and hazardous, might still succeed
+if favoured by circumstances and conducted with skill and decision.
+This was to seize upon the person of a Venetian of note, in order to
+exchange him for the Uzcoques then languishing in the dungeons of the
+republic.
+
+The Venetians were not yet aware that the much-dreaded woivode
+Dansowich was among their prisoners. The time chosen by the Uzcoques
+for their expeditions and surprises was usually the night; and this,
+added to the custom of mask-wearing, was the cause that the features
+of Dansowich were unknown to his captors. Nevertheless the striking
+countenance and lofty bearing of the chieftain, and of one or two of
+those who were taken prisoners with him, raised suspicions that they
+were persons of mark--suspicions which were not dissipated by their
+reiterated denial of being any thing more than common Uzcoques. It was
+this doubt which saved their lives; for their captors, instead of
+hanging them at once at the yard-arm of the galleys, which was the
+usual manner of disposing of Segnarese prisoners, took them to Venice,
+and placed them at the disposal of the senate. All subsequent threats
+and promises proved ineffectual to extort from the pirates an
+acknowledgment of superior rank; and the Venetian authorities would
+perhaps have ended in believing the account they gave of themselves,
+had not the urgent applications made by the Austrian Envoy and the
+Capitano of Fiume, for the release of the Uzcoques, given their
+suspicions new strength. The object of the Venetians was, if they
+could ascertain that there was a chief among the prisoners, to obtain
+from him, by torture or otherwise, confessions which might enable them
+to prove to the Archduke the encouragement afforded by his counsellors
+to the piracies of the Segnarese. They accordingly delayed, by every
+possible pretext, giving an answer to the archducal ambassador, doing
+their utmost meanwhile to find out the real quality of the prisoners.
+This, Strasolda was most anxious that they should not discover; and
+her anxiety was scarcely less to prevent the captivity of their leader
+from becoming known among the pirates themselves. His daughter's
+entreaties, and his own better nature, had frequently caused Dansowich
+to check his followers in the atrocities they were too apt to commit.
+In consequence of this interference, Strasolda suspected her father to
+be more feared than liked by Jurissa Caiduch and some others of the
+inferior woivodes or officers; and she apprehended that, if she
+confided her plan to them, they would be more likely to thwart than to
+aid her in it. The crews of the two boats which had been engaged in
+the skirmish with the Venetian galleys when Dansowich was captured,
+and the men composing the garrison of the castle on the evening of
+that fatal occurrence, were therefore all whose assistance she could
+reckon upon. Some of those were her relatives, and the others tried
+and trusty adherents. They alone knew of their leader's captivity, his
+absence having been accounted for to the mass of Uzcoques dwelling in
+the town of Segna, by a pretended journey to Gradiska; and being too
+few in number to attack a Venetian galley, the sole plan that seemed
+to offer a chance of success to this handful of faithful followers,
+was the hazardous one devised by Strasolda. Of this, they did not
+hesitate to attempt the execution.
+
+With the utmost cunning and audacity did the Uzcoques enter Venice on
+the day appointed for the Battle of the Bridge, singly, and by twos
+and threes, variously disguised, and mingled with the country people
+and inhabitants of the islands who were hastening to the festival.
+Watching their opportunity when the fight was at the fiercest, one
+party mixed with the combatants, exciting and urging them on, and
+doing all in their power to increase the confusion; others set fire to
+the warehouses on the island of San Giorgio, in order to draw the
+public attention in that direction; while the third and most numerous
+division, favoured by the deepening twilight and the deserted state of
+that part of the city, succeeded in fixing a rope ladder to the window
+of the Malipieri palace, the chief of which noble house was, as they
+had previously ascertained, lying sick in bed in a side-chamber,
+attended only by a few domestics.
+
+But there were two things which Strasolda and the Uzcoques had
+forgotten to include in their calculations. These were, first, the
+slavish obedience of the Venetian populace to the call of their
+superiors--an obedience to which they were accustomed to sacrifice
+every feeling and passion; secondly, the Argus eyes and omnipresent
+vigilance of the Secret Tribunal. Scarcely was the ladder applied,
+when the first gush of flame from the warehouses brought a deafening
+peal from the alarm-bell; and at the same moment, the masked and armed
+familiars of the Venetian police, rising as it seemed out of the very
+earth, surrounded the ladder, and a fierce conflict began. Even the
+watchfulness and precautions of the Inquisition, however, were to a
+certain extent overmatched by Uzcoque cunning and foresight. Had it
+not been necessary to ring the alarm bell on account of the fire, the
+police, who were far the most numerous, and who each moment received
+an accession to their numbers, could scarcely have failed to capture
+some of their opponents, and thus have ascertained to a certainty what
+the promoters and the object of this audacious attempt really were.
+But before they could accomplish this, the small piazza where the
+conflict was going on was thronged with the populace, half intoxicated
+with the excitement of the scarcely less serious fight they had been
+witnessing and sharing in. In the crush and confusion that ensued,
+familiars and Uzcoques were separated; and the latter, mingling with
+the crowd, and no longer distinguishable from the cloaked and masked
+figures that surrounded them, easily succeeded in effecting their
+escape.
+
+When Antonio, who was pushed hither and thither by the mob, was able
+to extricate himself sufficiently to get another view of the window,
+the invalid nobleman, delivered from his assailants, had retired into
+his apartment, while the ladder, now deserted by the Uzcoques, had
+been cut and thrown down. Desirous of escaping from this scene of
+confusion, the young painter was making his way towards the quay,
+close to which his gondola was waiting, when his heart suddenly leaped
+within him at the sight of a muffled figure that passed near him, and
+in which he thought he recognized the mysterious old woman who had of
+late occupied so much of his thoughts. She was followed by a number of
+the rabble, who pressed upon her with oaths and curses, asserting that
+she was one of the party which had attacked the palace of the
+Malipieri.
+
+"I saw her holding the ladder," exclaimed one fellow.
+
+"Nay, she was climbing up it herself," cried a second.
+
+"Strike the foul witch dead!" shouted a score of voices.
+
+The old woman's life was in the greatest peril, when a strange and
+unaccountable, but at the same time irresistible impulse, moved
+Antonio to go to her rescue. He was forcing his way through the crowd
+with this intention, when the object of the popular fury turned her
+head towards him. Her veil was for a moment partially drawn aside,
+affording a glimpse of her features in profile; and Antonio, still the
+slave of his diseased imagination, fancied that her yellow shriveled
+features had been metamorphosed into a countenance of regular beauty;
+such a countenance, in short, as befitted the graceful and symmetrical
+form to which it belonged. Confused and bewildered, the naturally weak
+and undecided youth stood deliberating and uncertain whether he should
+attempt the rescue, which would have been by no means difficult to
+accomplish by the display of a little boldness and promptitude. Whilst
+he was thus hesitating, there suddenly broke through the crowd a
+young man, attired like himself in a black dress, and holding a naked
+rapier in his hand. The new comer had probably lost his mask in the
+tumult and confusion, for his features were uncovered, and Antonio
+saw, to his inexpressible consternation and astonishment, that they
+were the exact counterpart of his own. Before he could recover from
+this new shock, the stranger, by the aid of his fierce and determined
+demeanour, and the rapid play of his weapon, had made his way to the
+mysterious old woman, whose back was turned towards him, and seizing
+her round the waist he again forced a passage through the throng to
+the nearest gondola, which happened to be that of the young painter.
+The crowd pressed after him, and Antonio was hurried along with it to
+the edge of the quay. But at the very moment that, to avoid being
+pushed into the water by the throng, he sprang into one end of his
+gondola, he saw the stranger, who had just entered it at the other,
+gaze with a look of disgust and dismay on the features of her he had
+rescued, and then with a cry of horror, leap into another boat, which
+immediately rowed rapidly away. At the same instant Jacopo, by a
+strong sweep of the oar, spun the gondola round, and shot into a
+narrow canal which soon led them out of sight and sound of the scene
+of confusion they had just left.
+
+These various events had succeeded each other so rapidly, that Antonio
+could hardly credit his senses when he found himself in this strange
+manner the deliverer of the mysterious being who now sat under the
+awning of his gondola, her frightful countenance, unveiled in the
+struggle and no longer seen through the beautifying prism of the young
+artist's imagination, again displaying the yellow and wrinkled skin,
+and the deep-set glittering eyes, which now seemed fixed upon him with
+an expression of love and gratitude that froze his blood. With a
+shuddering sensation he retreated to the stern of the boat, where
+Jacopo stood pale and trembling, crossing himself without a moment's
+intermission.
+
+"Are you mad, Signore," whispered the gondolier, "to risk your life in
+behalf of such a frightful witch? Never did I see you so ready with
+your rapier, flashing it in people's eyes as though it had been one of
+your painting brushes."
+
+"By Heaven, Jacopo," answered Antonio, "that was not I"--
+
+"The saints protect us!" interrupted the gondolier. "You are assuredly
+bewitched, or have lost your senses, Signore. To think of your thus
+denying your own noble daring! Do, for the blessed virgin's sake, let
+us jump out upon the next landing-place, and leave the gondola to the
+sorceress who has bewitched you. Holy mother! she is coming this way!"
+
+A prey to the strangest and most contradictory emotions, Antonio
+hastily advanced to meet the mysterious being, whom he could not help
+regarding with superstitious awe, though he at the same time felt
+himself drawn towards her by a fascination, against which he found it
+was in vain to contend. The features of the unknown were again
+shrouded carefully in her veil, but her black and brilliant eyes
+glittered through it like nebulous stars.
+
+"To the house of the Capitano of Fiume," whispered she to Antonio, and
+then retreated, as if anxious to avoid further conversation, into the
+interior of the gondola.
+
+In the district of Castello, through which Antonio and his strange
+companion were now passing, the canals and quays were deserted, and
+not a sound was heard except the distant hum of the multitude
+assembled in the quarter of St Mark's. Without exciting suspicion or
+attracting observation, they reached the Rialto and the grand canal,
+and the gondola stopped at a landing-place opposite the church of San
+Moyses.
+
+As the young painter assisted his mysterious charge out of the boat, a
+gentle pressure from the warm soft hand which for a moment rested upon
+his, quickened every pulse in his frame; and long after the
+enigmatical being had disappeared behind the angle of a palace, he
+stood gazing, like one entranced, at the spot where he had last seen
+her imposing and graceful figure. The approach of Jacopo, still
+crossing himself, and calling upon all the saints for protection
+against the snares of the evil one, roused the perplexed youth from
+his reverie; and, stepping into the gondola, he was soon gliding
+rapidly over the canals in the direction of his father's palace.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE PICTURE.
+
+
+The gondola of the young painter, gliding rapidly and silently over
+the still waters of the canals, was passing a turn leading to the
+Giudecca, when it suddenly occurred to Antonio that he would seek his
+old master, and, after confessing his disobedience, relate to him the
+events of the day, and make him the confidant of his troubles and
+perplexities. A word to Jacopo changed the direction of the gondola,
+and they entered the grand canal, on which Contarini's dwelling was
+situated.
+
+The brief twilight of Italy had passed, and it was now completely
+night, dark and starless, which made more startling the sudden
+appearance of several blazing torches, borne by masked and hooded
+figures attired in black, who struck loud and repeated blows on the
+gates of the Palazzo Contarini.
+
+"Antonio Marcello! We seek Antonio Marcello!" exclaimed a deep and
+hollow voice.
+
+It would be necessary to be a Venetian, and to have lived in those
+days, fully to comprehend the feeling of horror which caused Antonio's
+blood to run cold, and the sweat to stand in beads upon his forehead,
+when he heard his name uttered by the familiars of the state
+Inquisition. Frightful dungeons, masked judges, halls hung with black,
+the block and the gleaming axe, the rack and its blood-stained
+attendants, the whole grim paraphernalia of the Secret Tribunal,
+passed like the scenes of a phantasmagoria before the mental vision of
+the young painter. He at once conjectured the cause for which they
+were seeking him. He had doubtless been taken for the youth who, by
+his energy and promptitude, had rescued the mysterious old woman from
+the mob, and who bore so striking and unaccountable resemblance to
+himself; and it must be on suspicion of his being connected with the
+attack on the Malipieri palace, that the ministers of justice were
+hunting him out. Nor did he see how he should he able to convince his
+judges of his innocence. The tale he had to tell, although the truth,
+was still too marvellous and improbable to obtain credence, and would
+be more likely to draw upon him severe punishment, or perhaps the
+torture, with the view of inducing him to confess its falsehood.
+Bewildered by his terror, Antonio sat trembling, and utterly incapable
+of deciding as to the course he should adopt, when the trusty
+gondolier again came to his rescue.
+
+"Cospetto! Signor!" he exclaimed, "have you lost your senses, that you
+run thus into the very jaws of those devil's messengers? To one like
+myself flight would certainly avail little; but, with a Proveditore
+for your father, you may arrange matters if you only take time before
+you become their prisoner. Quick, then, to the palazzo! Don't you see
+old Contarini's head stuck out of his window? He is telling them you
+are not there. They have doubtless been to your father's palace, and
+will not be likely to return thither at present."
+
+While the faithful fellow's tongue was thus wagging, his arms were not
+idle. Intimately acquainted, as became his calling, with the numerous
+windings and intricacies of the Venetian canals, he threaded them with
+unhesitating confidence; and, favoured by the darkness of the night,
+succeeded in getting Antonio unobserved through a back entrance of his
+father's palace.
+
+The first impulse of the terrified youth on finding himself thus in at
+least temporary security, was to destroy the picture of the mysterious
+old woman, which, if found by the agents of the Inquisition, might
+bear false but fatal witness against him. With pallid cheek, and still
+trembling with alarm, he was hurrying to his chamber to execute his
+intention, when he encountered his father, who advanced to meet him,
+and, grasping his arm, fixed upon him for some moments his stern and
+searching gaze.
+
+"The picture, father!" exclaimed the terror-stricken Antonio. "For the
+love of Heaven, stay me not! Let me destroy that fatal picture!"
+
+Regardless of his son's agitation and terror, the Proveditore half
+led, half forced him to a seat in a part of the room, when the red
+blaze from the larch logs that were crackling on the hearth, lit up
+the young man's features.
+
+"What means this, Antonio?" he said; "what has befallen during my
+absence at Gradiska? The familiars of the Inquisition have been
+seeking you here--you, the last person whose name I should expect to
+hear in such mouths. Alarm me it did not; for well I know that you are
+too scant of energy and settled purpose to be mixed up in conspiracies
+against the state."
+
+Antonio was still too much preoccupied by his terror to understand, or
+at any rate to heed, the severity of his father's remark. Collecting
+his scattered thoughts, he proceeded to narrate all that had occurred
+to him, not only on that day, but since his first meeting with the
+incognita near the church of San Moyses, on the very same spot whither
+he had conveyed her in his gondola but a short hour ago.
+
+"Let me destroy the painting, father!" he concluded; "it may be found,
+and used as testimony against me."
+
+The Proveditore had listened with a smile, that was at once
+contemptuous and sorrowful, to his son's narrative, and to the
+confession of his weakness and disobedience to the injunctions of his
+aged teacher. When he had finished speaking, there was a minute's
+silence, broken at last by the elder Marcello.
+
+"I have long been convinced," he said, "that Contarini would never
+succeed in making of you a painter fit to rank with those old and
+illustrious masters of whom Venice is so justly proud. But I had not
+thought so poorly of you, Antonio, as to believe that you would want
+courage to defend an object, for the attainment of which you scrupled
+not to disobey your venerable instructor. What the kind entreaties and
+remonstrances of Contarini could not induce you to abandon, you are
+ready to annihilate on the very first symptom of danger. Oh, Venice!"
+exclaimed the Proveditore, his fine countenance assuming an expression
+of extreme bitterness, as he gazed mournfully at the portraits of his
+ancestors, including more than one Doge, which were suspended round
+the walls of the apartment--"Venice! thou art indeed degenerate, when
+peril so remote can blanch the cheek of thy patrician youth."
+
+He strode twice up and down the hall, then returning to his son, bade
+him fetch the picture which he was so desirous of destroying. Antonio,
+downcast and abashed by these reproaches, which, however, were
+insufficient to awaken nobler aspirations in his weak and irresolute
+nature, hurried to his chamber, and presently returned with a roll of
+canvass in his hand, which he unfolded and spread before the
+Proveditore--then, dreading to encounter his father's ridicule, he
+shrunk back out of the firelight. But the effect produced upon
+Marcello by the portrait of the old woman, was very different from
+that anticipated by his son. Scarcely had he cast his eyes upon the
+unearthly visage, when he started back with an exclamation of horror
+and astonishment.
+
+"By all the saints, Antonio," cried he in an altered voice, "that is a
+fearful portrait! Alas, poor wretch! thou art long since in thy
+grave," continued he, addressing the picture, and with looks and tones
+strangely at variance with his usually stern and imperturbable
+deportment. "The worms have preyed on thee, and thou art as dust and
+ashes. Why, then, dost thou rise from the dead to fright me with that
+ghastly visage?"
+
+"Is the face known to you, father?" the astonished Antonio ventured to
+exclaim.
+
+"Known to me! Ay, too well! That wrinkled skin, that unearthly
+complexion, those deep-set eyes glowing like burning coals. Just so
+did she glare upon me as she swung from the tree, the blood driven
+into her features by the agonizing pressure of the halter. 'Tis the
+very look that has haunted me for years, and caused me many bitter
+moments of remorse; though, God knows, the deed was lawful and
+justifiable, done in the execution of my duty to the republic. And
+yet she lives," he continued musingly. "How could she have been saved?
+True, she had not been hanging long when we left the place. Some of
+her people, doubtless, were concealed hard by, and cut her down ere
+life had entirely fled. But, ha! 'tis a clue this to the perpetrators
+of to-day's outrage, for she was with them. Uzcoques, then they must
+have been! Said you not, Antonio, that she came from the house of the
+Capitano when first you saw her, and that to-day you left her there?"
+
+"At her own special desire, father," replied Antonio.
+
+"Then is the chain of evidence almost complete," continued the
+Proveditore. "It must have been herself. And now--this attack on the
+Malipieri palace. What was its object? A hostage?--Ay, I see it all,
+and our prisoner is none other than Dansowich himself. But we must
+have proof of that from his own confession; and this portrait may help
+to extort it."
+
+Whilst uttering these broken sentences, which were totally
+incomprehensible to the bewildered Antonio, the Proveditore had donned
+his mantle, and placed his plumed cap upon his head.
+
+"No, Antonio," said he, "we will not destroy this picture, hideous
+though it be. It may prove the means of rendering weighty service to
+the republic."
+
+And with these words, inexplicable to his son, the Proveditore left
+the apartment; and, taking with him the mysterious portrait, hastened
+to the prison were the Uzcoque leader was immured.
+
+The pirate chief was a man of large and athletic frame, of strong
+feelings, and great intellectual capabilities. His brow was large,
+open, and commanding; his countenance, bronzed with long exposure to
+the elements, and scarred with wounds, was repulsive, but by no means
+ignoble; his hair and beard had long been silvered over by time and
+calamity; but his vast bodily strength was unimpaired, and when roused
+into furious resentment, his manly chest emitted a volume of sound
+that awed every listener. Upon a larger stage, and under circumstances
+more favourable to the fair development of his natural powers and
+dispositions, the pirate Dansowich would have become one of the most
+distinguished and admirable men of his time. Placed by the accident of
+birth upon the frontiers of Christian Europe, and cherishing from
+early youth a belief that the highest interests of the human race were
+involved in the struggle between the Crescent and the Cross, he had
+embraced the glorious cause with that enthusiastic and fiery zeal
+which raises men into heroes and martyrs. Too soon, however, were
+these lofty aspirations checked and blighted by the anti-Christian
+policy of trading Venice, the bad faith of Austria towards the Uzcoque
+race, and the extortions of her counsellors. Cursing in the bitterness
+of his heart, not only Turks, Austrians, and Venetians, but all
+mankind, he no longer opposed the piratical tendencies of his
+neglected people, and eventually headed many of their marauding
+expeditions.
+
+It was nearly midnight when Dansowich was awakened from a deep but
+troubled slumber by a grating noise at the door of his dungeon.
+Anxiety of mind, and still more, the effect of confinement in an
+impure and stifling atmosphere, upon one accustomed to the breezes of
+the Adriatic and the free air of the mountains, had impaired his
+health, and his sleep was broken by harassing and painful dreams. In
+that from which he now awoke, with the sweat of anguish on his brow,
+he had fancied himself before the tribunal of the Inquisition. The
+rack was shown to him, and they bade him choose between confession and
+torture. He then thought he heard his name repeated several times in
+tones deep and sepulchral. Starting up in alarm, he saw the door of
+his prison open, and give admittance to a man muffled in a black
+cloak, who walked up to the foot of his bed of damp straw, and threw
+the rays of a dark lantern full into his dazzled eyes.
+
+The traces of recent and strong emotion, visible at that moment on the
+pirate's countenance, did not escape the Proveditore, who attributed
+them, and rightly, to an artifice he had practised. Previously to
+entering the dungeon, he had caused the name of Nicolo Dansowich to
+be repeated several times in a deep hollow voice. Aware of the
+superstitious credulity of the Uzcoques, the wily Venetian had devised
+this stratagem as one likely to produce a startling effect upon the
+prisoner, and to forward the end he proposed to obtain by his visit.
+He now seated himself upon a wooden bench, the only piece of furniture
+in the dungeon, and addressed the captive in a mild and conciliating
+tone.
+
+"You should keep better watch over your dreams," said he, "if you wish
+our tribunals to remain in ignorance of your secrets."
+
+"My dreams!" repeated the Uzcoque, somewhat startled by the ominous
+coincidence between Marcello's words and the visions that had broken
+his slumber.
+
+"Ay, friend, your dreams! The jailers are watchful, and little passes
+in these prisons without coming to their knowledge. More than once
+have they heard you revealing in your sleep that which, during your
+waking hours, you so strenuously deny.--'Enough! Enough!' you cried.
+'I will confess all. I am Nicolo Dansowich.'"
+
+While Marcello was speaking, the old Uzcoque had had time to collect
+his thoughts, and call to mind the numerous snares and devices by
+which the Venetian tribunals obtained confessions from their
+prisoners. With an intuitive keenness of perception, he in a moment
+saw through the Proveditore's stratagem, and resolved to defeat it. A
+contemptuous smile played over his features, and, shaking his head
+incredulously, he answered the Venetian--
+
+"The watchful jailers you speak of have doubtless been cheering their
+vigils with the wine flask," said he. "Their draughts must have been
+deep, to make them hear that which was never spoken."
+
+"Subterfuge will avail you nothing," replied Marcello. "Your sleeping
+confessions, although you may now wish to retract them, are yet
+sufficient grounds for the tribunal to go upon, and the most
+excruciating tortures will be used, if needful, to procure their
+waking confirmation. Reflect, Dansowich," continued the Proveditore in
+a persuasive and gentle tone, "on the position in which you now find
+yourself. Your life is forfeited; and, if you persist in your denials,
+you will never leave this dungeon but for the rack or scaffold. On the
+other hand, the senate respects you as a brave and honourable,
+although misguided man, and would gladly see you turn from the error
+of your ways. Now is the time to ensure yourself a tranquil and
+respected old age. Hearken to the proposals I am empowered to make
+you. The Signoria offers you life, freedom, and a captainship in the
+island of Candia, on the sole condition, on your part, of disclosing
+the intrigues and perfidy of the council at Gradiska, and furnishing
+us, as you are assuredly able to do, with documents by which we may
+prove to the Archduke the treachery of his ministers. Again, I
+say--Reflect! or rather hesitate not, but decide at once between a
+prosperous and honourable life, and a death of degradation and
+anguish."
+
+Neither the threats nor the temptations held out by the Proveditore
+seemed to have the smallest effect upon the Uzcoque.
+
+"You are mistaken," replied he calmly. "I am not Dansowich, nor have I
+any knowledge of the intrigues at Gradiska. I could not therefore, if
+I wished it, buy my life by the treachery demanded of me; and if the
+woivodes of Segna think as I do, they will let themselves be hewn in
+pieces before they do the bidding of your senators, or concede aught
+to the wishes of false and crafty Venice."
+
+"You are a brave man, Dansowich!" resumed the Proveditore, who saw the
+necessity of changing his tactics. "You care little for the dangers
+and sufferings of this world. But yet--pause and reflect. Your hair is
+silvered by time, and even should you escape your present peril, you
+will still, ere many years are past, have to render an account to a
+higher tribunal than ours. By an upright course you might atone for
+the crimes of your youth and manhood, and become the chosen instrument
+of Heaven to deliver your fellow-Christians from a cruel scourge and
+sore infliction."
+
+"And who has brought the scourge upon you?" demanded the old man in a
+raised voice, measuring the Proveditore with a stern and contemptuous
+look. "Is it our fault that, whilst we were striving to keep the Turk
+from the door of Christendom, you sought every means of thwarting our
+efforts by forming treaties with the infidel? You do well to remind me
+that my head is grey. I was still a youth when the name of Uzcoque was
+a title of honour as it is now a term of reproach--when my people were
+looked upon as heroes, by whose valour the Cross was exalted, and the
+Crescent bowed down to the dust. Those were the days when, on the
+ruins of Spalatro, we swore to live like eagles, amidst barren cliffs
+and naked rocks, the better to harass the heathen--the days when the
+power of the Moslem quailed and fled before us. And had not your
+sordid Venetian traders stepped in, courting the infidel for love of
+gain, the Cross would still be worshipped on all the shores of the
+Adriatic, and the Uzcoques would still combat for honour and victory
+instead of revenge and plunder. But your hand has ever been against
+us. Your long galleys were ever ready to sink our barks or blockade
+our coast; and the fate of robbers and murderers awaited our people if
+they had the mishap to fall into your hands. You reduced us at last to
+despair. Each valiant deed performed against the Turk was recompensed
+by you with new persecutions, till at last you converted into deadly
+enemies those who would willingly have been your friends and fast
+allies. Thank yourselves, then, for the foe you have raised up. Your
+own cowardice and greed have engendered the hydra which now preys upon
+your heart's blood."
+
+The Proveditore remarked with satisfaction, not unmingled with
+surprise, that the old pirate, who had hitherto replied to all
+interrogatories with a degree of cold reserve and cunning which had
+baffled his examiners, was becoming visibly excited, and losing his
+power of self-control. This was favourable to the meditated stratagem
+of the Venetian, who now, in pursuance of the scheme he had combined,
+gave the conversation another direction.
+
+"I an willing to acknowledge," said he, "that the republic has at
+times dealt somewhat hardly with your people. But which is in fact the
+worst foe, he who openly attacks you, or he who makes you his tool to
+sow discord amongst Christians, and to excite the Turks against
+Venice, while under pretence of protection he squeezes from you the
+booty obtained at the price of your blood?"
+
+"And who does that?" demanded the Uzcoque.
+
+"Who! Need you ask the question? What do you give for the shelter you
+receive from Austria? At what price do you inhabit the town and castle
+of Segna?"
+
+"At none that I am aware of," replied Dansowich fiercely. "We dwell
+there, in virtue of our compact with the Emperor, as soldiers of the
+Archduke, bound to defend the post confided to us against the
+aggressions of the infidel. As soldiers we have our pay, as mariners
+we have our lawful booty."
+
+"Pay and booty!" repeated the Proveditore scornfully. "Whence comes,
+then, your manifest misery and poverty? Whence comes it that you turn
+robbers, if in the pay of Austria? No, Dansowich, you will not deceive
+us by such flimsy pretexts! Your gains, lawful and unlawful, are
+wrested from you by the archducal counsellors, in whose hands you are
+mere puppets. 'Twas they who prompted you to tell the Turks that you
+were in league with Venice; that the republic encouraged your
+misdeeds, and shared the profits of your aggressions on the subjects
+of the Porte. They it was who caused the documents to be prepared,
+with forged seals and signatures of the illustrious Signoria, which
+were to serve as proofs of your lying assertions. Deny this, if you
+can."
+
+The beard and mustache of the old Uzcoque appeared to curl and bristle
+with fury at the insulting imputations of the Proveditore. For a
+moment he seemed about to fly at his interlocutor; his fingers
+clutched and tore the straw upon which he was sitting; and his fetters
+clanked as his whole frame shook with rage. After a brief pause, and
+by a strong effort, he restrained himself, and replied calmly to the
+taunting accusation of the Venetian.
+
+"Why go so far," said he, "to seek for motives that may be found
+nearer home? You seem to have forgotten how many times the Archduke
+has compelled us to make restitution of booty wrested from Venetian
+subjects. You forget, too, that it was in consequence of your
+complaints he sent to the cruel Rabbata to control us--Rabbata whom we
+slew in our wrath, for we are freemen and brook no tyranny. If we are
+poor individually, it is because we yield up our booty into the hands
+of our woivodes, to be used for the common good of seven hundred
+families. No, Signor! if the republic has to complain of us, let her
+remember the provocations received at her hands, the persecutions
+which converted a band of heroes into a pirate horde, and which
+changed our holy zeal against the enemies of the Cross into
+remorseless hatred of all mankind. As to the forged seals and
+signatures you talk of, and the deceptions practised on the Turks, if
+such there were, they were the self-willed act of our woivodes, and in
+no way instigated by Austria."
+
+"Thou liest, Dansowich!" said the Proveditore sternly. "Did you not
+proclaim and swear in the public market-place of the Austrian town of
+Segna, that you were the friends and allies of Venice? This you would
+never have dared to do, but with the approval and connivance of the
+archducal government."
+
+The eyes of the pirate sparkled with a strange and significant gleam
+as the Proveditore recalled the circumstance to his recollection.
+
+"Know ye not," said he with a grim smile, "whom ye have to thank for
+that good office? 'Twas Dansowich himself, who thereby but half
+fulfilled his vow of vengeance against the republic. And when did it
+occur?" he continued with rising fury. "Was it not shortly after the
+day in which that heartless villain, the Proveditore Marcello,
+captured the woivode's wife, and hung her, unoffending and
+defenceless, unshriven and unabsolved, upon a tree on the Dalmatian
+shore?"
+
+The Uzcoque paused, overcome by the bitter memories he was calling up,
+and by the fury and hatred they revived in his breast. His eyes were
+bloodshot, and the foam stood upon his lips as he concluded. The
+Proveditore smiled. The favourable moment he had been waiting had
+arrived, the moment when he doubted not that Dansowich would betray
+himself. Taking Antonio's drawing from under his cloak, he suddenly
+unrolled and held it before the Uzcoque, in such a manner that the
+light of the lantern fell full upon the ghastly countenance of the old
+woman.
+
+"Behold!" said he. "Does that resemble her you speak of?"
+
+The object of the Proveditore was gained, but he had not well
+calculated all the consequences of his stratagem.
+
+"Fiend of hell!" shouted Dansowich in a voice of thunder, while a
+sudden light seemed to burst upon him. "'Tis thou who are her
+murderer!" And bounding forward with a violence that at once freed him
+from his fetters, which fell clattering on the dungeon floor, he
+clutched the senator by the throat, and hurled him to the ground
+before the astonished Venetian had time to make the slightest
+resistance.
+
+"Art thou still in being?" he muttered, while his teeth gnashed and
+ground together. "I thought thee long since dead. But, no! 'twas
+written thou shouldst die by my hand. Be it done to thee as thou didst
+to the wife of my bosom," continued he, while kneeling on the breast
+of the Proveditore, and compressing his throat in an iron gripe that
+threatened to prove as efficacious and nearly as speedy in its
+operation as the bow-string of the Turk. In vain did Marcello struggle
+violently to free himself from the crushing pressure of the pirate's
+fingers. Although a very powerful man, and in the full vigour of his
+strength, the disadvantage at which he had been taken prevented his
+being a match for the old Uzcoque, whose sinews were braced by a long
+life of hardship. Fortunately, however, for the Venetian, the furious
+shout of Dansowich had been overheard by the guards and jailers, who
+now rushed into the dungeon, and rescued the half strangled
+Proveditore from the grasp of his fierce antagonist.
+
+"Do him no hurt!" exclaimed Marcello, so soon as he was able to speak,
+seeing that the guards were disposed to handle the Uzcoque somewhat
+roughly; "the secret I have won is well worth the risk. The prisoner
+is Dansowich, woivode of Segna."
+
+The fetters which the pirate had snapped with such facility, were,
+upon examination, found to be filed more than half through. The
+instrument by which this had been effected was sought for and
+discovered, and the prisoner, having been doubly manacled, was again
+left to the solitude of his cell. After directing all imaginable
+vigilance to be used for the safe custody of so important a captive,
+the Proveditore re-entered his gondola and was conveyed back to his
+palace.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE PIRATES.
+
+
+The desperate attempt on the life of the Proveditore, and the evidence
+given by him as to the identity of the prisoner, had the result that
+may be supposed, and the old Uzcoque was put to the torture. But the
+ingenuity of Venetian tormentors was vainly exhausted upon him; the
+most unheard of sufferings failed to extort a syllable of confession
+from his lips. At last, despairing of obtaining the desired
+information by these means, the senate commissioned Marcello, as one
+well acquainted with the localities, to make a descent on the
+Dalmatian coast, and profiting by the consternation of the Uzcoqes at
+the loss of their leader, to endeavour to surprise a small fort
+situated at some distance from Segna, and which was the abode of
+Dansowich. In the absence of the old pirate it would probably be
+carelessly guarded and easily surprised; and it was hoped that
+documents would be found there, proving that which the Venetians were
+so anxious to establish. Another object of the expedition was to
+capture, if possible, the mysterious female who had been lately seen
+more than once in Venice, and who had taken so prominent a part in the
+attack on the palace of the Malipieri.
+
+Accompanied by his son, whom for various reasons he had resolved to
+take with him, Marcello went on board an armed galley, and with a
+favouring breeze steered for the Dalmatian coast. He had little doubt
+of accomplishing the object of his expedition with ease and safety;
+for a Venetian Fleet was already blockading the channel of Segna, and
+the archducal city of Fiume, where several of the Uzcoque barks were
+undergoing repairs. The blockade had been instituted in consequence of
+the outrageous piracies committed by the Uzcoques during the Easter
+festival, and was a measure frequently adopted by the republic; which,
+although carefully avoiding a war, neglected no other means of
+enforcing their applications to the court at Gradiska for an energetic
+interference in the proceedings of the pirates. The inconvenience and
+interruption to the trade of Fiume occasioned by these blockades,
+usually induced the archducal government to institute a pretended
+investigation into the conduct of the Uzcoques, or at least to promise
+the Venetians some reparation--a mockery of satisfaction with which
+the latter, in their then state of decline and weakness, were fain to
+content themselves. Reckoning upon the terror inspired by the presence
+of the squadron now employed in the blockade, as well as upon its
+support, should he require it, the Proveditore made sure of success.
+He was doomed, however, to be cruelly disappointed in his sanguine
+anticipations.
+
+When the attempt to get possession of the person of a Venetian
+nobleman had failed, Strasolda found it impossible to keep her
+father's captivity any longer a secret, and was compelled to appeal to
+the whole of the Uzcoques to assist her in his deliverance.
+Information of the woivode's recognition, and of the tortures he had
+suffered, soon reached the ears of the pirates, who were not slow to
+perceive that the safety, and even the existence of their tribe, were
+now at stake. Although well acquainted with the inflexible character
+of Dansowich, they trembled lest the agonies he was made to suffer
+should force from him a confession, which would enable the Venetians
+to convince the archduke of the criminal collusion between his
+counsellors and the Uzcoques. This would be the signal for the
+withdrawal of the archducal protection from the pirates, who then,
+exposed to the vengeance of all whom they had plundered, must
+inevitably succumb in the unequal conflict that would ensue.
+
+The imminence of the peril inspired the Uzcoques with unwonted courage
+and energy. Jurissa Caiduch himself, forgetting any cause of dislike
+he might have to Dansowich, joined heart and hand in the plans formed
+by the pirates for the deliverance of their leader. Every man in
+Segna, whether young or old, all who could wield a cimeter or clutch a
+knife, hastily armed themselves, and crowded into the fleet of long
+light skiffs in which they were wont to make their predatory
+excursions. Then breaking furiously through the line of Venetian
+ships, stationed between Veglia and the mainland, and which were
+totally unprepared for this sudden and daring manoeuvre, they
+disappeared amidst the shoals and in the small creeks and inlets of
+the Dalmatian islands belonging to the republic, where the ponderous
+Venetian galleys would vainly attempt to follow them. Their object was
+the same which they had already attempted to carry out in Venice on
+the day of the Bridge Fight; namely, to seize upon some Venetian
+magistrate or person of importance whom they might exchange for
+Dansowich. Under the guidance of Jurissa Caiduch they waylaid and
+boarded every vessel that passed up or down the Adriatic, especially
+those coming from the Ionian islands, in hope of meeting with a
+Venetian of rank. Nor did they pursue their researches upon the water
+alone. Not a night passed that one or other of the islands was not
+lighted up by the blaze of villages, hamlets, and villas. In the
+absence of Dansowich, there was no restraint upon their fury; and
+urged on by the bloodthirsty Jurissa, the cruelties they committed
+were unprecedented even in their sanguinary annals. Nor were they
+without hope that the barbarities they were perpetrating might induce
+the Venetians to restore their leader to liberty, in order that he
+might, as was well known to be his wont, check the excesses of his
+followers.
+
+The outbreak of the pirates had been so sudden and unexpected, that
+the Proveditore, who sailed from Venice on the same day on which it
+occurred, had received no intelligence of it, and, unconscious of his
+peril, steered straight for the islands. One circumstance alone
+appeared strange to him, which was, that during the last part of his
+voyage he did not meet a single vessel, although the quarter of the
+Adriatic through which he was passing was usually crowded with
+shipping. But he was far from attributing this extraordinary change to
+its real cause.
+
+It was afternoon when Marcello's galley cane in sight of the white
+cliffs of Cherso, and shortly afterwards entered the channel, running
+between that island and Veglia. The masses of dark clouds in the
+western horizon were becoming momentarily more threatening, and
+various signs of an approaching storm made the captain of the galley
+especially anxious to get, before nightfall, into the nearest harbour,
+which was that of Pesca, at the southern extremity of the island of
+Veglia. All sail was made upon the galley, and they were running
+rapidly down the channel, when a red light suddenly flashed over the
+waves in the quarter of the horizon they were approaching, and was
+reflected back upon the sky, now darkened with clouds and by the
+approach of night. Attracted by this unusual appearance, Antonio
+hurried to the high quarterdeck of the galley; and scarcely had he
+ascended it, when the fiery glow fell in a flood of rosy light upon
+the distant chalk cliffs. Entranced by the picturesque beauty of the
+scene, the young painter forgot to enquire the cause of this singular
+illumination, when suddenly his attention was caught by a shout from
+the man at the helm.
+
+"By Heavens, 'tis a fire!" ejaculated the sailor, who had been
+watching the unusual appearance. "All Pesca must be in flames."
+
+He had scarcely uttered the words when the galley rounded a projecting
+point of land, and the correctness of the seaman's conjecture was
+apparent. A thick cloud of smoke hung like a pall over the unfortunate
+town of Pesca. Tongues of flame darted upwards from the dense black
+vapour, lighting up sea and land to an immense distance.
+
+Scarcely had Antonio's startled glance been able to take in this
+imposing spectacle, when the storm, which had long been impending,
+burst forth with tremendous violence; the wind howled furiously
+amongst the rigging, and the galley was tossed like a nutshell from
+crest to crest of the foaming waves; each moment bringing it into more
+dangerous proximity to the rocky shoals of that iron-bound shore. The
+light from the burning town showed the Venetians all the dangers of
+their situation; and their peril was the more imminent because the
+signal usually made for boats to tow large vessels through the rocks
+and breakers, was at such a moment not likely to be observed or
+attended to by the people of Pesca. Nevertheless the signal was
+hoisted; but instead of bringing the assistance so much needed by the
+Venetians, it drew upon them an enemy far more formidable than the
+elements with which they were already contending. Boats were soon seen
+approaching the galley; but as they drew near it was evident they were
+not manned by the peaceful fishermen, who usually came out to render
+assistance to vessels. They were crowded with wild, fierce-looking
+figures, who, on arriving within a short distance of the ship, set up
+a savage yell of defiance, and sent a deadly volley of musket-balls
+amongst the astounded Venetians. Before the latter had recovered from
+their astonishment, the light skiffs of the Uzcoques were within a few
+yards of the galley. Another fatally effective volley of musketry; and
+then, throwing down their fire-arms, the pirates grasped their sabres
+and made violent efforts to board. But each time that they succeeded
+in closing, the plunging of the ponderous galley into the trough of
+the sea, or the rising of some huge wave, severed them from their
+prey, and prevented them from setting foot on the decks of the
+Venetian vessel. This delay was made the most of by the officers of
+the latter, in making arrangements for defence. The Proveditore
+himself, a man of tried and chivalrous courage, and great experience
+both in land and sea warfare, lent his personal aid to the
+preparations, and in a few pithy and emphatic words strove to
+encourage the crew to a gallant resistance. But the soldiers and
+mariners who manned the galley had already sustained a heavy loss by
+the fire of the Uzcoques, and were moreover alarmed by their near
+approach to that perilous shore, as well as disheartened by the
+prospect of a contest with greatly superior numbers. Although some few
+took to their arms and occupied the posts assigned them by their
+officers, the majority seemed more disposed to tell beads and mutter
+prayers, than to display the energy and decision which alone could
+rescue them from the double peril by which they were menaced. The
+pirates, meanwhile, were constantly foiled in their attempts to board
+by the fury of the elements, till at last, becoming maddened by
+repeated disappointments, they threw off their upper garments, and
+fixing their long knives firmly between their teeth, dashed in crowds
+into the water. Familiar with that element from childhood, they
+skimmed over its surface with the lightness and rapidity of sea-mews,
+and swarmed up the sides of the galley. A vigorous defence might yet
+have saved the vessel; but the heroic days of Venice were long
+past--the race of men who had so long maintained the supremacy of the
+republic in all the Italian seas, was now extinct. After a feeble and
+irresolute resistance, the Venetians threw down their arms and begged
+for quarter; while the Proveditore, disgusted at the cowardice of his
+countrymen, indignantly broke his sword, and retreating to the
+quarterdeck, there seated himself beside his son, and calmly awaited
+his fate.
+
+Foremost among the assailants was Jurissa Caiduch, who sprang upon the
+deck of the galley, foaming with rage, and slaughtering all he met on
+his passage. The blazing town lighted up the scene, and showed him and
+his followers where to strike. In vain did the unfortunate crew
+implore quarter. None was given, and the decks of the ship soon
+streamed with blood, while each moment the cries of the victims became
+fewer and fainter.
+
+Totally forgetting in his blind fury the object of the expedition,
+Jurissa stayed not his hand in quest of hostages, but rushed with
+uplifted knife on Marcello and his son. The latter shrieked for mercy;
+while the Proveditore, unmoved by the imminence of the peril,
+preserved his dignity of mien, and fixed his deep stern gaze upon the
+pirate. Jurissa paused for an instant, staggered by the look, and awed
+by the commanding aspect, of the Venetian. Soon, however, as though
+indignant at his own momentary hesitation, he rushed forward with a
+furious shout and uplifted blade. The knife was descending, the next
+instant it would have entered the heart of Marcello; when an Uzcoque,
+recognizing by the light of the conflagration the patrician garb of
+the Proveditore, uttered a cry of surprise, and seized the arm of his
+bloodthirsty leader.
+
+"Caiduch!" exclaimed the pirate, "would you again blast our purpose?
+This man is a Venetian noble. His life may buy that of Dansowich."
+
+"It is the Proveditore Marcello!" cried Antonio, eager to profit by
+the momentary respite.
+
+The words of the young painter passed from mouth to mouth, and in a
+few seconds the whole of the Uzcoques were acquainted with the
+important capture that had been made. For a moment astonishment kept
+them tongue-tied, and then a wild shout of exultation conveyed to
+their companions on shore the intelligence of some joyful event.
+
+Ropes were now thrown out to the pirate skiffs, the galley was safely
+towed into the harbour, and the Proveditore, his son, and the few
+Venetian sailors who had escaped the general slaughter, were conducted
+to the burning town, amidst the jeers and ill-treatment of their
+captors. Exposed to great danger from the falling roofs and timbers of
+the blazing houses, they were led through the streets of Pesca, and on
+their way had ample opportunity of witnessing the incredible cruelties
+exercised by the pirates upon the inhabitants of that ill-fated town.
+What made these cruelties appear still more horrible, was the part
+taken in them by the Uzcoque women, who, as was the case at that
+period with most of the Sclavonian races, were all trained to the use
+of arms,[1] and who on this occasion swelled the ranks of the
+freebooters. Their ferocity exceeded, if possible, that of the men.
+Neither age, sex, nor station afforded any protection against these
+furies, who perpetrated barbarities the details of which would exceed
+belief.
+
+    [1] The reader of German literature will call to mind the
+    anecdote, in Jean Paul's _Levana_, of a Moldavian woman who in
+    one day slew seven men with her own hand, and the same evening
+    was delivered of a child.
+
+The violence of the flames rendering it impossible to remain in the
+town, the Uzcoques betook themselves to the castle of a nobleman,
+situated on a rising ground a short distance from Pesca. On first
+landing, the pirates had broken into this castle and made it their
+headquarters. After pillaging every thing of value, they had gratified
+their savage love of destruction by breaking and destroying what they
+could not well carry away. In the court-yard were collected piles of
+furniture, pictures of price, and fragments of rich tapestry, rent by
+those ruthless spoilers from the walls of the apartments. With this
+costly fuel had the Uzcoques lit fires, at which quarters of oxen and
+whole sheep were now roasting.
+
+A shout of triumph burst forth when the news of the Proveditore's
+capture was announced to the pirates who had remained at the castle,
+and they crowded round the unfortunate prisoners, overwhelming them
+with threats and curses. Something like silence being at length
+obtained, Jurissa commanded instant preparations to be made for the
+banquet appointed to celebrate the success of their expedition. Tables
+were arranged in a spacious hall of the castle, and upon them soon
+smoked the huge joints of meat that had been roasting at the fires,
+placed on the bare boards without dish or plate. Casks of wine that
+had been rescued from the flames of the town, or extracted from the
+castle cellars, were broached, or the heads knocked in, and the
+contents poured into jugs and flagons of every shape and size.
+Although the light of the conflagration, glaring red through the tall
+Gothic windows, lit up the hall and rendered any further illumination
+unnecessary, a number of torches had been fixed round the apartment,
+the resinous smoke of which floated in clouds over the heads of the
+revelers. Seating themselves upon benches, chairs, and empty casks,
+the Uzcoques commenced a ravenous attack upon the coarse but abundant
+viands set before them.
+
+The scene was a strange one. The brutal demeanour of the men, their
+bearded and savage aspect; the disheveled bloodstained women, mingling
+their shrill voices with the hoarse tones of their male companions;
+the disordered but often picturesque garb and various weapons of the
+pirates; the whole seen by the light of the burning houses--more
+resembled an orgie of demons than an assemblage of human beings; and
+even the cool and resolute Proveditore felt himself shudder and turn
+pale as he contemplated this carnival of horrors, celebrated by
+wretches on whose hands the blood of their fellow-men was as yet
+hardly dry. Antonio sat supporting himself against the table, seeming
+scarcely conscious of what passed around him. Both father and son had
+been compelled to take their places at the board, amidst the jeers and
+insults of the Uzcoques.
+
+The revel was at its height, when Jurissa suddenly started from his
+seat, and struck the table violently with his drinking-cup.
+
+"Hold, Uzcoques!" he exclaimed; "we have forgotten the crowning
+ornament of our banquet."
+
+He whispered something to an Uzcoque seated beside him, who left the
+room. While the pirates were still asking one another the meaning of
+Jurissa's words, the man returned, bearing before him a trencher
+covered with a cloth, which he placed at the upper end of the table.
+
+"Behold the last and best dish we can offer to our noble guests!" said
+Jurissa; "'twill suit, I doubt not, their dainty palates." And,
+tearing off the cloth, he exposed to view the grizzly and distorted
+features of a human head.
+
+The shout of savage exultation that burst from the pirates at this
+ghastly spectacle, drowned the groan of rage and grief uttered by the
+Proveditore, as he recognised in the pale and rigid countenance the
+well-known features of his friend Christophoro Veniero. That
+unfortunate nobleman, on his return from a voyage to the Levant, had
+fallen into the hands of Jurissa, who, before he was aware of the rank
+of his prisoner, had barbarously slain him. This had occurred not many
+hours before the capture of Marcello; and it was to the murder of
+Veniero that the Uzcoque made allusion, when he seized Jurissa's arm
+at the moment he was about to stab the Proveditore.
+
+One of the pirates, a man of gigantic stature and hideous aspect, now
+rose from his seat, staggering with drunkenness, and forcing open the
+jaws of the dead, placed a piece of meat between the teeth. The
+wildest laughter and applause greeted this frightful pantomime, which
+made the blood of the Proveditore run cold.
+
+"Infernal and bloody villains!" shouted he, unable to restrain his
+indignation, and starting to his feet as he spoke. There was a
+momentary pause, during which the pirates gazed at the noble Venetian,
+seemingly struck dumb with surprise at his temerity. Then, however, a
+dozen sinewy arms were extended to seize him, and a dozen daggers
+menaced his life. Dignified and immovable, the high-souled senator
+offered no resistance, but inwardly ejaculating a short prayer,
+awaited the death-stroke. It came not, however. Although some of the
+Uzcoques, in their fury and intoxication, would have immolated their
+valuable hostage, others, who had drunk less deeply, protested against
+the madness of such an act, and rushed forward to protect him. Their
+interference was resented, and a violent quarrel ensued. Knives were
+drawn, benches overturned, chairs broken up and converted into
+weapons; on all sides bare steel was flashing, deep oaths resounding,
+and missiles of various kinds flying across the tables. It would be
+impossible to say how long this scene of drunken violence would have
+lasted, or how long the Proveditore and his son would have remained
+unscathed amidst the storm, had not the advent of a fresh actor upon
+the scene stilled the tumult in a manner so sudden as to appear almost
+miraculous.
+
+The new comer was no other than the ghastly old woman who has been
+seen to play such an important part in this history, and who now
+entered the banqueting hall with hasty step and impatient gesture.
+
+"Uzcoques!" she exclaimed in a shrill, clear, and emphatic voice, that
+rose above the clamour of the brawl; "Uzcoques! what means this savage
+uproar? Are you not yet sated with rapine and slaughter, that you thus
+fall upon and tear each other? Are ye men, or wolves and tigers? Is
+this the way to obtain your leader's deliverance; and will the news of
+this day's havoc, think you, better the position of Dansowich?"
+
+The pirates hung their heads in silent confusion at this reproof. None
+dared to reply; Jurissa alone grumbled something inaudible.
+
+"Follow me!" continued the singular woman whose words had so
+extraordinary an effect on this brutal band. "Follow, every man! and
+stop as far as may be, the ruin you have begun."
+
+Obedient to her voice the Uzcoques left the hall, some of them
+sullenly and slowly enough, but none venturing to dispute the
+injunction laid upon them. The old woman waited till the scene of
+tumult and revel was abandoned by all but Marcello and his son, and
+then hurrying after the pirates, led the way to the burning town. In a
+few minutes the two Venetians beheld, from the castle windows, the
+dark forms of the freebooters moving about in the firelight, as they
+busied themselves to extinguish the conflagration. Here and there the
+white robe of the mysterious old woman was discernible as she flitted
+from one group to another, directing their efforts, and urging them to
+greater exertions.
+
+"Strange!" said the Proveditore musingly, "that so hideous and
+repulsive an old creature should exercise such commanding influence
+over these bandits."
+
+He looked round to his son as he spoke; but Antonio, worn out by the
+fatigues and agitation of the day, had stretched himself upon a bench
+and was already in a deep sleep. The Proveditore gazed at him for a
+brief space, with an expression of mingled pity, regret, and paternal
+affection upon his countenance.
+
+"As weak of body as infirm of purpose," he murmured. "Alas! that a
+name derived from old Roman ancestors should be borne by one so little
+qualified to do it honour! Had it pleased Heaven to preserve to me the
+child stolen in his infancy by the Moslem, how different would have
+been my position! That masculine and noble boy, so full of life and
+promise, would have proved a prop to my old age, and an ornament to
+his country. But now, alas!"--
+
+He continued for a while to indulge in vain regrets that the course of
+events had not been otherwise; then turning to the window, he watched
+the efforts made by the pirates to extinguish the flames, until a
+dense cloud of smoke that overhung the town was the only sign
+remaining of the conflagration.
+
+For some time the Proveditore paced up and down the hall in anxious
+thought upon his critical position, and the strange circumstances that
+had led to it. In vain did he endeavour to reconcile, with what now
+seemed more than ever inexplicable, the vindictive rage of Dansowich
+in the dungeon, and the evidence before him that the pirate's wife was
+still in existence. It was a riddle which he was unable to solve; and
+at last, despairing of success, he abandoned the attempt, and sought
+in slumber a temporary oblivion of the perils that surrounded him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE RECOGNITION.
+
+
+Upon a divan in the splendid armoury of the pacha's palace at
+Bosnia-Serai, the young Turk Ibrahim was seated in deep thought, the
+day after his return home. On the walls around him were displayed
+weapons and military accoutrements of every kind. Damascus sabres
+richly inlaid, and many with jeweled hilts, embroidered banners,
+golden stirrups, casques of embossed silver, burnished armour and
+coats-of-mail, were arranged in picturesque and fanciful devices. As
+the young Moslem gazed around him, and beheld these trophies of
+victories won by Turkish viziers and pachas in their wars against
+Austria and Venice, his martial and fearless spirit rose high, and he
+reproached himself with weakness and pusillanimity for having
+abandoned the pursuit of her he loved. Bitterly did he now regret his
+precipitation in leaving Venice the morning after the Battle of the
+Bridge, and while under the influence of the shock he had received, in
+beholding the hideous features of an old woman where he had expected
+to find the blooming countenance of Strasolda. His love for the
+Uzcoque maiden, as he had seen her when his captive, and again in the
+cavern on the coast by Segna, returned in full force. He was already
+planning a journey to Venice, when he was interrupted in his
+meditations by the noise of a horse's hoofs dashing full speed into
+the court of the palace. In another minute an attendant summoned him
+to the presence of the pacha, and there he heard the news just
+received, of the wild outbreak of the Uzcoques. The Martellossi and
+other troops were ordered to proceed immediately to the frontier, in
+order to protect Turkish Dalmatia from the pirates; and Ibrahim, at
+his urgent request, was appointed to a command in the expedition.
+
+With joyful alacrity did the young Turk arm and hurry to horse; and
+then, putting himself at the head of a troop of light cavalry, sped
+onwards in the direction of the country where he hoped to gain tidings
+of Strasolda. Having received strict orders to content himself with
+protecting the Turkish frontier, and above all not to infringe on
+Archducal territory, Ibrahim, on arriving at the boundary of the
+pachalic, left his troop in charge of the second in command, and with
+a handful of men entered Venetian Dalmatia, with the intention of
+obtaining information concerning the Uzcoques, and more especially
+concerning her he loved. He was assisted in his enquiries by the good
+understanding existing between Venice and the Porte; and he soon
+learned that, after the burning of Pesca, the pirates had suddenly
+ceased their excesses and returned to Segna, taking the Proveditore
+with them. They had not gone, however, either to the castle or the
+town; but fearful lest the Archduke should interfere, and make them
+give up their illustrious prisoners, had betaken themselves to the
+mountains, in the numerous caverns and lurking-places of which they
+were able to conceal their captives. From every mouth did the eager
+enquirer hear praises of the female who accompanied the Uzcoques. None
+spoke of her but in terms of love and gratitude. As regarded her
+appearance accounts were at variance, some representing her as young
+and beautiful, while others compassionated her frightful ugliness;
+and, more than ever perplexed by this conflicting testimony, Ibrahim
+pursued his march and his enquiries, still hoping by perseverance to
+arrive at a solution of the enigma.
+
+While the young Turk was thus employed, the Proveditore and his son
+were conveyed by their captors from one place of security to another,
+passing one night in the depths of some ravine, the next amongst the
+crags and clefts of the mountains, but always moving about in the
+daytime, and never sleeping twice in the same place. Since the evening
+of the revel at Pesca they had not again beheld the mysterious old
+woman, although they had more than once heard her clear and silvery
+voice near the place allotted to them for confinement and repose. In
+certain attentions and comforts, intended as alleviations of their
+unpleasant position, female care and thought were also visible; but
+all their efforts were vain to obtain a sight of the friendly being
+who thus hovered around them.
+
+It was on a beautiful evening some fourteen days after their capture,
+that the Proveditore and his son lay upon the bank of the only river
+that waters the rocky vicinity of Segna, wearied by a long and rapid
+march. There was an unusual degree of bustle observable amongst the
+Uzcoques, and numerous messengers had been passing to and from the
+castle of Segna, which was at no great distance from the spot where
+they had now halted. From the various indications of some
+extraordinary occurrence, the two Venetians began to hope that the
+crisis of their fate was approaching, and that they should at last
+know in what manner their captors meant to dispose of them. Nor were
+they wrong in their expectations. Suddenly the mysterious old woman
+stood before them, her partially veiled features bearing their wonted
+hideous aspect, and her eyes, usually so brilliant, dimmed with tears.
+
+"You are free," said she in an agitated voice to the Proveditore and
+his son. "Our people will escort you to Fiume in all safety, and there
+you will find galleys of the republic to convey you back to Venice."
+
+At the sight of the old woman's unearthly countenance, Antonio covered
+his face with his hands; the Proveditore rose from the ground deeply
+moved.
+
+"Singular being!" he exclaimed, "by this mildness and mercy you punish
+me more effectually than by the bloodiest revenge you could have taken
+for my cruel treatment of you."
+
+"You owe me no thanks," was the reply; "thank rather the holy Virgin,
+who sent the youth beside you to be your guardian angel, and who
+delivered you into the hands of the Uzcoques at a time when they had
+need of a hostage. Surely it was by the special intervention of Heaven
+that the murderer of the wife was sent to serve as ransom for the
+captive husband. But the atonement has come too late, the noble
+Dansowich was basely ensnared into an act of violence, and his life
+paid the forfeit of his wrath--he died upon the rack. And now the wily
+counsellors at Gradiska compel us to release you."
+
+She paused, interrupted by a flood of tears. After a short silence,
+broken only by her sobs, she became more composed, and the Proveditore
+again addressed her.
+
+"But what," said he, "could have driven Dansowich to an act of
+violence, which he must have known would entail a severe punishment?
+Surely his wife's safety and the lapse of years might have enabled him
+to forgive, if not to forget, the unsuccessful attempt upon her life."
+
+"His wife's safety!" exclaimed the old woman. "Have the trials and
+fatigues of the last few days turned your brain? Alas! too surely was
+the rope fixed round her neck; and had you not carried off her remains
+how could you have possessed her portrait, and by the devilish
+stratagem of showing it to the bereaved husband, have driven him to
+the act which cost him his life?"
+
+"Gracious Heaven! what hideous jest is this?" exclaimed Marcello. "Do
+I not see you living and standing before me; and think you I could
+ever forget your features, or the look you gave me when hanging from
+the tree? You were cut down and saved after our departure; and but a
+few weeks have elapsed since my son painted your likeness, after
+conveying you across the canal in his gondola."
+
+The old woman stood for a few moments as though petrified by what she
+had just heard. At last she passed her hand slowly across her face, as
+if to convince herself of her identity.
+
+"And she you murdered resembled _me_?" she exclaimed in a trembling
+voice. "It was of _me_ that the portrait was taken, and by _him_!" she
+continued, pointing to Antonio with a gesture of horror and contempt.
+"_My_ picture was it, that was held before Dansowich, and by _you_,
+the murderer of his wife? Holy Virgin!" she exclaimed, as the truth
+seemed to flash upon her, "how has my faith in thee misled me! I
+beheld in this youth one sent by Heaven to aid me; but now I see that
+he was prompted by the powers of darkness to steal my portrait, and
+thus become the instrument of destruction to the best and noblest of
+our race."
+
+"Forgive and spare us!" exclaimed Antonio, conscience-stricken as he
+remembered the admonitions of Contarini. "'Tis true, I was the
+instrument, but most unwittingly. How could I know so sad an end would
+follow?"
+
+"'Tis not my wont to seek revenge," replied the old woman; "nor do I
+forget that you saved my life from the fury of the Venetians."
+
+Antonio essayed to speak, but had not courage to correct the error
+into which she had been led by his strong resemblance to the gallant
+stranger.
+
+"But," she continued, "'tis time you should have full proof that the
+features you painted were not those of the wife of Dansowich."
+
+With these words she threw back her veil, unfastened some small hooks
+concealed in her abundant tresses, and took off a mask of thin and
+untanned lambskin, wrinkled and stained with yellow and purple streaks
+by exposure to sun and storm. This mask, closely fitted to features
+regular and prominent, and strongly resembling those of her
+unfortunate mother, whose large, dark, and very brilliant eyes she had
+also inherited, will explain the misconception of the Proveditore as
+well as that of Dansowich, who had never seen his daughter in a
+disguise worn only at Venice or other places of peril, and while away
+from her father and his protection.
+
+While the beautiful but still tearful Uzcoque maid stood thus revealed
+before the astonished senator, and his enraptured and speechless son,
+the approaching footfall of a horse at full speed was heard, and in an
+instant there darted round the angle of a cliff the martial figure of
+a Turk, mounted upon a large and powerful steed, of that noble race
+bred in the deserts eastward of the Caspian. The tall and graceful
+person of the stranger was attired in a close riding-dress of scarlet
+cloth, from the open breast of which gleamed a light coat-of-mail. A
+twisted turban bound with chains of glittering steel defended and
+adorned his head. A crooked cimeter suspended from his belt was his
+only weapon. His countenance bore a striking resemblance to that of
+Antonio, and had the same sweet and graceful expression about the
+mouth and chin; but the more ample and commanding forehead, the well
+opened flashing eyes, the more prominent and masculine nose, the
+clear, rich, olive complexion and soldierly bearing, proclaimed him to
+be of a widely different and higher nature. Riding close up to the
+side of Strasolda, he reined in his steed with a force and suddenness
+that threw him on his haunches; but speedily recovering his balance,
+the noble animal stood pawing the earth and lashing his sides with his
+long tail, like some untamed and kingly creature of the desert; his
+veins starting out in sharp relief, his broad chest and beautiful
+limbs spotted with foam, and his long mane, that would have swept the
+ground, streaming like a banner in the sea-breeze.
+
+For a moment the startled Strasolda gazed alternately, and in wild and
+mute amazement, at Antonio and the stranger; but all doubt and
+hesitation were dispersed in an instant by the well-remembered and
+impassioned tones, the martial bearing and Moslem garb of Ibrahim,
+whose captive she had been before she saw him in the cavern.
+
+Leaping from his saddle and circling her slender waist with his arm,
+he addressed her in those accents of truth and passion which go at
+once to the heart--
+
+"Heroic daughter of Dansowich! thou art the bright star of my destiny,
+the light of my soul! Thou must be mine! Come, then, to my heart and
+home! Gladden with thy love the life of Ibrahim, and he will give thee
+truth unfailing and love without end."
+
+Strasolda did not long hesitate. Already prepossessed in favour of the
+young and noble-minded Moslem; her allegiance to the Christian powers
+and faith weakened by the treachery of Austria; her people degraded
+into robbers; a soldier's daughter, and keenly alive to the splendours
+of martial gallantry and glory; an orphan, too, and desolate--can it
+be wondered at if she surrendered, at once and for ever, to this
+generous and impassioned lover all the sympathies of her affectionate
+nature? She spoke not; but, as she leaned half-fainting on his arm,
+her eloquent looks said that which made Ibrahim's pulses thrill with
+grateful rapture. Pressing her fondly to his bosom, he placed her on
+the back of his faithful steed, and vaulted into the saddle. Snorting
+as the vapour flew from his red nostrils, and neighing with mad
+delight, the impatient animal threw out his iron hoofs into the air,
+flew round the angle of the cliff, and joined erelong a dozen mounted
+spearmen. Then, bending their headlong course towards the far east, in
+a few seconds all had disappeared.
+
+During this scene, which passed almost with the speed of thought, the
+Proveditore, who was seated on a ledge of the cliff, had gazed
+anxiously and wildly at the youthful stranger. He knew him in an
+instant, and would have singled him out amidst thousands; but was so
+overwhelmed by a rushing tide of strong and heartrending emotions,
+that he could neither rise nor speak, and remained, long after the
+Turk had disappeared, with out-stretched arms and straining eye-balls.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed the bewildered Antonio, half suspecting
+the truth, "who was that daring youth?"
+
+After a pause, and in tones broken and inarticulate, his father
+answered--"Thy twin brother, Antonio! When a child he was stolen from
+me by some Turks in Candia; and those who stole have given him their
+own daring and heroic nature, for they are great and rising, while
+Venice and her sons are falling and degenerate. Oh Ercole! my dear and
+long-lost son--seen but a moment and then lost for ever!" ejaculated
+the bereaved father, as, refusing all comfort, he folded his cloak
+over his face and wept bitterly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--Shortly after these events, Venice, urged at last beyond all
+endurance, took up arms against Austria on account of the protection
+afforded by the latter power to the Uzcoques. The pirate vessels were
+burned, Segna besieged and taken, the Uzcoques slain or dispersed. The
+quarrel between Austria and the republic was put an end to by the
+mediation of Spain shortly before the breaking out of the Thirty
+Years' War.
+
+"Ces miserables," says a distinguished French writer, speaking of the
+Uzcoques, "furent bien plus criminels par la faute des puissances, que
+par l'instinct de leur propre nature. Les Venetiens les aigrirent;
+l'eglise Romaine prefera de les persecuter au devoir de les eclaircir;
+la maison d'Autriche en fit les instruments de sa politique, et quand
+le philosophe examine leur histoire il ne voit pas que les Uscoques
+soient les seuls criminels."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SLAVE-TRADE.[2]
+
+    [2] Fifty Days on board a Slave vessel, in 1843. By the Rev.
+    PASCOE GRENFELL HILL, Chaplain of H.M.S. Cleopatra.
+
+
+The extraordinary change which took place in the public mind in the
+beginning of the century on the subject of the slave-trade,
+unquestionably justified the determination of Government to abolish a
+traffic contradictory to every principle of Christianity. It had taken
+twenty years to obtain this victory of justice. But we must exonerate
+the mind of England from the charge of abetting this guilty traffic in
+human misery. The nation had been almost wholly ignorant of its
+nature. Of course, that Africans were shipped for the West Indies was
+known; that, as slaves, they were liable to the severities of labour,
+or the temper of masters, was also known; but in a country like
+England, where every man is occupied with the concerns of public or
+private life, and where the struggle for competence, if not for
+existence, is often of the most trying order, great evils may occur in
+the distant dependencies of the crown without receiving general notice
+from the nation. It seems to have been one of the singular results of
+the war with America, that the calamities of the slave-trade should
+have been originally brought to the knowledge of the people. The loss
+of our colonies on the mainland, naturally directed public attention
+to the increased importance of the West Indian colonies. A large
+proportion of our supplies for the war had been drawn from those
+islands; they had become the station of powerful fleets during the
+latter portion of the war; large garrisons were placed in them; the
+intercourse became enlarged from a merely commercial connexion with
+our ports, to a governmental connection with the empire; and the whole
+machinery of the West Indian social system was brought before the eye
+of England.
+
+The result was the exposure of the cruelties which slavery entails,
+and the growing resolution to clear the country of the stigma, and the
+benevolent desire to relieve a race of beings, who, however differing
+in colour and clime from ourselves, were sons of the same common
+blood, and objects of the same Divine mercy. The exertions of
+Wilberforce, and the intelligent and benevolent men whom he associated
+with himself in this great cause, were at last successful; and he
+gained for the British the noblest triumph ever gained for a nation
+over its own habits, its selfishness, its pride, and its popular
+opinion.
+
+But the manner in which this great redemption of national character
+was effected, did less honour to the wisdom of the cabinet than to the
+benevolence of the people. Fox, probably sincere, but certainly
+headlong, rushed into emancipation as he had rushed into every measure
+that bore the name of popularity. Impatient of the delay which might
+take the honour of this crowning act out of the hands of his
+party--and unquestionably, in any shape, it was an honour to any
+party--he hurried it forward without securing the concert, or
+compelling the acquiescence, of any one of the European kingdoms
+engaged in the slave-trade. It is true that England was then at war
+with them all; but there was thus only the stronger opportunity of
+pronouncing the national resolve, never to tolerate the commerce in
+slaves, and never to receive any country into our protection by which
+that most infamous of all trades was tolerated. The opportunity was
+amply given for establishing the principle, in the necessity which
+every kingdom in succession felt for the aid of England, and the
+abolition ought to have been the first article of the treaty. But the
+occasion was thrown away.
+
+The parliamentary regulations, which had largely provided for the
+comfort of the slaves on the passage from Africa, and their protection
+in the British colonies, could not be extended to the new and
+tremendous traffic which was engaged in by all the commercial states
+of Europe and the West. The closing of the British mart of slavery
+flooded the African shore with desperate dealers in the flesh and
+blood of man; whose only object was profit, and who regarded the
+miseries of the African only as they affected his sale. The ships
+which, by the British regulations, had been suffered to carry only a
+number limited to their accommodation, were now crowded with wretches,
+stowed in spaces that scarcely allowed them to breathe. The cheapness
+of the living cargo, produced by the withdrawal of the British from
+the slave coast, excited the activity, almost the fury, of the trade;
+and probably 100,000 miserable beings were thus annually dragged from
+their own country, to undergo the labour of brutes, and die the death
+of brutes in the Western World.
+
+Another source of evil was added to the original crime. The colonial
+possessions of Spain had been broken up into republics, and those were
+all slave-dealers. The great colony of Portugal, Brazil, had rushed
+into this frightful commerce with the feverish avidity of avarice set
+free from all its old restrictions. North America, coquetting with
+philanthropy, and nominally abjuring the principle of slavery,
+suffered herself to undergo the corruption of the practice for the
+temptation of the lucre, and the Atlantic was covered with
+slave-ships.
+
+But rash, ill considered, and unfortunate as was the precipitate
+measure of Fox, we shall never but rejoice at the abolition of the
+slave-trade by our country. If England had stood alone for ever in
+that abolition, it would be a national glory. To have cast that
+commerce from her at all apparent loss, was the noblest of national
+gains; and it may be only when higher knowledge shall be given to man,
+of the causes which have protected the empire through the struggles of
+war and the trials of peace, that we may know the full virtue of that
+most national and magnanimous achievement of charity to man.
+
+It is only in the spirit of this principle that the legislature has
+followed up those early exertions, by the purchase of the final
+freedom of the slave, by the astonishing donative of twenty millions
+sterling, the largest sum ever given for the purposes of humanity. It
+is only in the same spirit that our cabinet continues to press upon
+the commercial states the right of search, a right which we solicit on
+the simple ground of humanity; and which, though it cannot be our duty
+to enforce at the hazard of hostility, must never be abandoned where
+we can succeed by the representations of reason, justice, and
+religion.
+
+The curious and succinct narrative to which we now advert, gives the
+experience of a short voyage on board of one of those slave ships. And
+the miseries witnessed by its writer, whose detail seems as accurate
+as it is simple, more than justify the zeal of our foreign secretary
+in labouring to effect the total extinction of this death-dealing
+trade.
+
+H.M.S. the Cleopatra, of twenty-six guns, commanded by Captain Wyvill,
+arriving at Rio Janeiro in September 1842, the reverend writer took
+the opportunity of being transferred from the Malabar, as chaplain. In
+the beginning of September the Cleopatra left the Mauritius, to
+proceed to the Mozambique Channel, off Madagascar, her appointed
+station, to watch the slave-traders. After various cruises along the
+coast, and as far as Algoa Bay, they at last captured a slaver.
+
+_April 12._--At daybreak the look-out at the topmast-head perceived a
+vessel on the lee quarter, at such a distance as to be scarcely
+visible; but her locality being pronounced "very suspicious," the
+order was given to bear up for her. The breeze falling, the boats were
+ordered out, and in a few minutes the barge and the first gig were
+pulling away in the direction of the stranger. So variable, however,
+is the weather at this season, that before the boats had rowed a mile
+from the ship, a thick haze surrounded the ship, and the chase was
+lost sight of. The rain fell in torrents, and the ship was going seven
+knots through the water. On the clearing up of the fog, the chase was
+again visible. The sun broke forth, and the rakish-looking brigantine
+appeared to have carried on all sail during the squall. They could
+see, under her sails, the low black hull pitching up and down; and,
+approaching within range, one of the forecastle guns was cleared away
+for a bow-chaser. The British ensign had been for some time flying at
+the peak. It was at length answered by the green and yellow Brazilian
+flag. At length, after a variety of dexterous manoeuvres to escape,
+and from fifteen to twenty shots fired after her, she shortened sail
+and lay to. Dark naked forms passing across the deck, removed any
+remaining doubt as to her character, and showed that she had her slave
+cargo on board. An officer was sent to take possession, and the
+British ensign displaced the Brazilian. The scene on board was a
+sufficiently strange one; the deck was crowded with negroes to the
+number of 450, in almost riotous confusion, having risen but a little
+while before against the crew. The meagre, famished-looking throng,
+having broken through all control, had seized every thing for which
+they had a fancy in the vessel; some with handfuls of the powdered
+roots of the cassava, others with large pieces of pork and beef,
+having broken open the casks, and others with fowls, which they had
+torn from the coops. Many were busily dipping rags, fastened with bits
+of string, into the water-casks to act as sponges, and had got at the
+contents of a cask of Brazilian rum, which they greatly enjoyed.
+However, they exhibited the wildest joy, mingled with the clank of the
+iron, as they were knocking off their fetters on every side. From the
+moment the first ball had been fired, they had been actively employed
+in thus freeing themselves. The crew found but thirty thus shackled in
+pairs, but many more pairs of shackles were found below. There could
+not be a moment's doubt as to the light in which they viewed their
+captors, now become their liberators. They rushed towards them in
+crowds, and rubbed their feet and hands caressingly, even rolling
+themselves on the deck before them; and, when they saw the crew of the
+vessel rather unceremoniously sent over the side into the boat which
+was to take them prisoners to the frigate, they set up a long
+universal shout of triumph and delight. The actual number of the
+negroes now on board, amounted to 447. Of those 180 were men, few,
+however, exceeding twenty years of age; 45 women; 213 boys. The name
+of the prize was the Progresso, last from Brazil, and bound to Rio
+Janeiro. The crew were seventeen; three Spaniards, and the rest
+Brazilians. The vessel was of about 140 tons; the length of the
+slave-deck, 37 feet; its mean breadth, 211/2 feet; its height, 31/2
+feet--a horrible space to contain between four and five hundred human
+beings. How they could even breathe is scarcely conceivable. The
+captain and one of the crew were said to have been drowned in the surf
+at the embarkation of the negroes. Two Spaniards, and a Portuguese
+cook, were sent back into the prize.
+
+As the writer understood Spanish, and as some one was wanting to
+interpret between the English crew and those managers of the negroes,
+he proposed to go on board with them to their place of destination,
+the Cape of Good Hope. The English crew were a lieutenant, three petty
+officers, and nine seamen. It had been the captain's first intention
+to take a hundred of the negroes on board the frigate, which would
+probably have prevented the fearful calamities that followed; but an
+unfortunate impression prevailed, that some of them were infected with
+the small-pox. In the same evening the Progresso set sail. For the
+first few hours all went on well--the breeze was light, the weather
+warm, and the negroes were sleeping on the deck; their slender supple
+limbs entwined in a surprisingly small compass, resembling in the
+moonlight confused piles of arms and legs, rather than distinct human
+forms. But about an hour after midnight, the sky began to gather
+clouds, a haze overspread the horizon to windward, and a squall
+approached. The hands, having to shorten sail, suddenly found the
+negroes in the way, and the order was given to send them all below.
+
+There seems to have been some dreadful mismanagement to cause the
+horrid scene that followed. Why _all_ the negroes should have been
+driven down together; or why, when the vessel was put to rights, they
+should not have been allowed to return to the deck; or why, when
+driven down, the hatches should have been forced upon them--are
+matters which we cannot comprehend; but nothing could be more
+unfortunate than the consequence of those rash measures. We state the
+event in the words of the narrative:--
+
+    "The night being intensely hot and close, 400 wretched beings
+    crammed into a hold twelve yards in length, seven in breadth,
+    and only three and a half feet in height, speedily began to
+    make an effort to re-issue to the open air; being thrust back,
+    and striving the more to get out, the _after hatch_ was forced
+    down upon them. Over the other hatchway, in the fore part of
+    the vessel, a wooden grating was fastened. A scene of agony
+    followed those most unfortunate measures, unequaled by any
+    thing that we have heard of since the Black Hole of Calcutta.
+    To this _sole inlet_ for the air, the suffocating heat of the
+    hold, and perhaps panic from the strangeness of their
+    situation, made them press. They crowded to the grating, and,
+    clinging to it for air, completely barred its entrance. They
+    strove to force their way through apertures in length fourteen
+    inches, and barely six inches in breadth, and in some
+    instances succeeded. The cries, the heat, I may say without
+    exaggeration, 'the smoke of their torment,' which ascended,
+    can be compared to nothing earthly. One of the Spaniards gave
+    warning that the consequence would be many deaths--_manana
+    habra muchos muertos_."
+
+If this statement with its consequences be true, we cannot conceive
+how the conduct of those persons by whom it was brought about can be
+passed over without enquiry. There seems to have been nothing in the
+shape of _necessity_ for its palliation. There was no storm, the
+vessel was in no danger of foundering unless the hatches were fastened
+down. That the negroes might have lumbered the deck for the first few
+minutes of preparing to meet the squall is probable; but why, when
+they were palpably suffocating, they should still have been kept down,
+is one of the most unaccountable circumstances we ever remember. We
+must hope that while we are nationally incurring an enormous
+expenditure to extinguish this most guilty and detestable traffic,
+such scenes will be guarded against for ever, by the strictest orders
+to the captors of the slave-traders. It would have been infinitely
+better for the wretched cargo if they had been carried to their
+original destination, and sent to toil in the fields of Brazil.
+
+The Spaniard's prediction was true. Next morning no less than
+fifty-four crushed and mangled corpses were lifted up from the slave
+deck, and thrown overboard. We shall avoid disgusting our readers with
+mentioning the state in which their struggles had left those trampled
+and strangled beings. On the survivors being released from their
+torrid dungeon, they drank their allowance of water, somewhat more
+than half a pint to each, with inconceivable eagerness. A heavy shower
+having freshened the air, in the evening most of the negroes went
+below of their own accord, the hatchways having been left open to
+allow them air. But a short time, however, had elapsed, when they
+began tumultuously to reascend; and some of the persons on deck,
+fearful of their crowding it too much, repelled them, and they were
+trampled back, screaming and writhing in a confused mass. The hatch
+was about to be forced down upon them; and had not the lieutenant in
+charge left positive orders to the contrary, the catastrophe of last
+night would have been re-enacted. On explaining to the Spaniard that
+it was desired he should dispose those who came on deck in proper
+places, he set himself to the task with great alacrity; and he showed
+with much satisfaction how soon and how quietly they might be arranged
+out of the way of the ropes, covered with long rugs provided for the
+purpose. "To-morrow," said he, "there will be no deaths, except
+perhaps among some of those who are sick already." On the next day
+there was but one dead, but three were reported dying from the
+sufferings of the first night. They now saw the Cleopatra once more,
+and the alarm of small-pox having been found groundless, the captain
+took on board fifty of the boys.
+
+To our surprise, the provisions on board the slaver were ample for the
+negroes, consisting of Monte Video dried beef, small beans, rice, and
+cassava flour. The cabin stores were profuse; lockers filled with ale
+and porter, barrels of wine, liqueurs of various sorts, cases of
+English pickles, raisins, &c. &c.; and its list of medicines amounted
+to almost the whole _Materia Medica_. On questioning the Spaniards as
+to the probability of extinguishing the slave-trade, their reply was,
+that though in the creeks of Brazil it might be difficult, yet it had
+grown a desperate adventure. Four vessels had been already taken on
+the east coast of Africa this year; but the venture is so lucrative,
+that the profits of a fifth which escaped, would probably more than
+compensate the loss of the four.
+
+On the east coast negroes are paid for in money or coarse cottons, at
+the rate of eighteen dollars for men, and twelve for boys. At Rio
+Janeiro their value may be estimated at L52 for men, L41, 10s. for
+women, and L31 for boys. Thus, on a cargo of 500, at the mean price
+the profit will exceed L19,000--
+
+    Cost price of 500, average fifteen
+        dollars, or L3 5s. each,          L1,625
+    Selling price at Rio Janeiro, average
+        L41 10s.,                        L20,730
+
+While these enormous profits continue, it must be a matter of extreme
+difficulty to suppress the trade, especially while the principals,
+captains, and crews, have perfect impunity. At present, all that they
+suffer is the loss of their cargo. But if enactments were made, by
+which heavy fines and imprisonment were to be inflicted on the
+merchants to whom the expedition could be traced, and corporal
+punishment and transportation for life for the crews, and for the
+captains service as common sailors on board our frigates, we should
+soon find the ardour for the traffic diminished.
+
+The voyage was slow from the frequent calms. By the 20th of April they
+had advanced only to the tropic, 350 miles. From day to day the sick
+among the negroes were dropping off. A large shark followed the ship,
+which they conceived might have gorged some of the corpses. He was
+caught, but the stomach was empty. When brought on the deck, he
+exhibited the usual and remarkable tenacity of life. Though his tail
+was chopped, and even his entrails taken out, in neither of which
+operations it exhibited any sign of sensation, yet no sooner was a
+bucket of salt water poured on it to wash the deck, than it began to
+flounder about and bite on all sides.
+
+Symptoms of fever now began to appear on board, and the Portuguese
+cook died.
+
+_April 29_.--A storm, the lightning intolerably vivid, flash
+succeeding flash with scarcely a sensible intermission; blue, red, and
+of a still more dazzling white, which made the eye shrink, lighting up
+every object on deck as clearly as at mid-day. All the winds of heaven
+seemed let loose, as it blew alternately from every point of the
+compass. The screams of distress from the sick and weak in the hold,
+were heard through the roar of the tempest. From the rolling and
+creaking, one might fancy every thing going asunder. The woman's shed
+on deck had been washed down, and the planks which formed its roof
+falling in a heap, a woman was found dead under the ruin.
+
+_May 1_.--In this hemisphere, marking the approach of the cold
+weather, the naked negroes began to shiver, and their teeth to
+chatter.
+
+_May 3_.--Another storm, with severe cold. Seven negroes were found
+dead this morning. The wretched beings had begun now to steal water
+and brandy from the hold. "None can tell," says the writer, "save he
+who has tried, the pangs of thirst which may excite them in that
+heated hold, many of them fevered by mortal disease. Their daily
+allowance of water is about a half pint in the morning, and the same
+quantity in the evening." This passage now became all storms. A heavy
+squall came on _May 8_, which continued next day a strong gale. The
+first object which met the eye in the morning, was three negroes dead
+on the deck.
+
+_May 11_.--Another storm, heavier than any of the preceding ones.
+Towards evening the report of the helmsman was the gratifying one,
+that the heart of the gale was broke; yet a yellow haze overspread the
+setting sun, and it continued to blow as wildly as ever. Squalls
+rapidly succeeding each other mingled sea and air in one sheet of
+spray, blinding the eyes of the helmsman; waves towering high above
+us, tossing up the foam from their crests towards the sky, threatened
+to engulf the vessel at every moment. When the squalls, breaking
+heavily on the vessel, caused her to heel over, and the negroes to
+tumble one against each other in the hold, the shrieks of the
+sufferers through the darkness of the night, rising above the noise of
+the winds and waves, seemed of all horrors in this unhappy vessel the
+saddest. Dysentery now attacked the crew, and the boatswain's mate
+died. We pass over the melancholy details of this miserable voyage, in
+which disgusts and distresses of every kind seemed to threaten all on
+board with death, every day bringing its mortality. At last on Sunday,
+May 28th, the welcome sight of Cape Agulhas cheered them at the
+distance of ten miles. The weather was now fine, but the mortality
+continued, the fatal cases averaging four a-day. On the 1st of June
+eight were found dead in the morning; and, when the morning mist had
+cleared away, they found themselves within three miles of Simon's Bay.
+As soon as the Progresso anchored, the superintendent of the naval
+hospital came on board, and the writer descended with him for the last
+time to the slave hold. Accustomed as he had been to scenes of
+suffering, he was unable to endure a sight, surpassing all he could
+have conceived, he said, of human misery, and made a hasty retreat.
+The numbers who had died within the fifty days were 163. Even this was
+not all; for, on returning to the vessel next day, six corpses were
+added to the eight of the preceding day, and the fourteen were piled
+on deck for interment on the shore. A hundred of the healthiest
+negroes were landed at the pier to proceed in waggons to Cape Town;
+but though rescued from a state of extreme misery, the change seemed
+to excite anxiety and apprehension. Each of the men had received on
+landing a new warm jacket and trousers, and the women had each a new
+white blanket in addition to an under dress, and they were placed
+snugly in waggons; yet their countenances resembled those of condemned
+victims. Of the whole of the original cargo, not far short of one half
+had died. To what causes this horrible mortality must be imputed, it
+is not our purpose to decide; but that it did not arise from the
+original tendency of the negroes to sickness seems evident--the fact
+being, that of the fifty who were taken on board the frigate, but one
+had died at sea and one on shore. Within a few days the liberated
+negroes had acquired a more cheerful look, their first conception
+having been that they were to be devoured by the people of the
+country, and they were reluctant to eat, fearing that it was intended
+to fatten them for the purpose. However, the negroes in the colonies
+soon freed them from this apprehension.
+
+We shall be rejoiced if the publicity given to this little but
+intelligent pamphlet by our means, may assist in drawing the attention
+of the influential classes to the subject. We fully believe that, if
+we were to look for the deepest misery that was ever inflicted in this
+world, and the greatest mass of it, we should find it in the
+slave-trade. It is the misery, not as in civilized life, of scattered
+individuals, but of multitudes, and a misery comprehending every
+other; sudden separation from every tie of the human heart, parent,
+child, spouse, and country; the misery of bodily affliction, disease,
+famine, storms, shipwreck, and ultimately slavery, with all its
+wretchedness of toil and tyranny for life. We certainly do not think
+it our duty to go to war for the object of teaching humanity to other
+nations. We must no attempt to heal the calamity of the African by the
+greatest of all calamities and crimes--an unnecessary war. But England
+has only to persevere sincerely and steadily, however calmly, and she
+will, by the blessing of that supreme Disposer of the ways of men, who
+desires the happiness of all his creatures, succeed in the extinction
+of a traffic which has brought a curse, and brings it at this hour,
+and will bring it deeper still, upon every nation which insults the
+laws of humanity and the dictates of religion, by dealing in the flesh
+and blood of man.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MOSLEM HISTORIES OF SPAIN.[3]--THE ARABS OF CORDOVA.
+
+    [3] The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. By AHMED
+    IBN MOHAMMED AL-MAKKARI of Telemsan. Translated and
+    illustrated with Critical Notes by Pascual de Gayangos, late
+    Professor of Arabic in the Athenaeum of Madrid.--Printed for
+    the Oriental Translation Fund. 2 vols. 4to. 1840-43.
+
+    "The second day was that when Martel broke
+    The Mussulmen, delivering France opprest,
+    And in one mighty conflict, from the yoke
+    Of unbelieving Mecca saved the West."
+                                    SOUTHEY.
+
+
+The Arab domination in Spain is the grand romance of European history.
+The splendid but mysterious fabric of Asiatic power and science is
+seen for age after age, like the fairy castle of St John, exalted far
+above the rugged plain of Frank semi-barbarism--till the spell is at
+last broken by the iron prowess of Christian chivalry; and the
+glittering edifice vanishes from the land as though it had never been,
+leaving, like the fabled structure of the poet, only a wreath of
+laurel to bind the brows of the victor. Yet though replete with
+gorgeous materials both for history and fiction, and stored not only
+with the recondite lore of Asia and Egypt, but with the borrowed
+treasures of ancient Greece, (long known to Christendom only by
+versions through an Arabic medium,) the language and literature of
+this marvellous people, and even their history, except so far as it
+related to their never-ceasing warfare with their Christian foes,
+remained, up to the middle of the last century, a sealed book to their
+Spanish successors. Coming into possession, like the Israelites of
+old, "of a land for which they did not labour, of cities which they
+built not, of vineyards and olive-yards which they planted not," the
+Spaniards not merely contemned, but persecuted with the fiercest
+bigotry, all that was left in the peninsula of the genius and learning
+of their predecessors. Eighty thousand volumes were publicly burned in
+one fatal _auto-da-fe_ at Granada by order of Cardinal Ximenes, in
+whom the literature of his own language yet found a munificent patron;
+and so meritorious, did the deed appear in the eyes of his
+contemporaries, that the number has been magnified to an incredible
+amount by his biographers, in their zeal for the renown of their hero!
+So complete was the destruction or deportation[4] of the seventy
+public libraries, which, a century and a half before the subjugation
+of the Moors, were open in different cities of Spain, that the
+valuable collection now in the Escurial owes its origin to the
+accidental capture, early in the seventeenth century, of three ships
+laden with books belonging to Muley Zidan, emperor of Morocco--and
+even of this casual prize so little was the value appreciated, that it
+was not till more than a hundred years later, and after three-fourths
+of the books had been consumed by fire in 1671, that the learned and
+diligent Casiri was commissioned to make a catalogue of the remainder.
+The result was the well-known _Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana
+Escurialensis_, which appeared in 1760-70; and which, in the words of
+the present learned translator, "though hasty and superficial, and
+containing frequent unaccountable blunders, must, with all its
+imperfections, ever be valuable as affording palpable proof of the
+literary cultivation of the Spanish Arabs, and as containing the first
+glimpses of historical truth." Up to this time the only authority on
+Spanish history purporting to be drawn from Mohammedan sources, was
+the work of a Morisco named Miguel de Luna, written by command of the
+Inquisition; which was first printed at Granada in 1592, and has
+passed through many editions. Its value may be estimated from its
+placing the Mohammedan conquest of Spain in the time of Yakub
+Al-mansor, the actual date of whose reign was from A.D. 1184 to 1199;
+insomuch that Senor de Gayangos suggests, as a possible explanation of
+its glaring inaccuracies, that it was the writer's intention to hoax
+his employers. Casiri had, however, opened the door for further
+researches; and he was followed in the same path by Don Faustino de
+Borbon, whose works, valuable rather from the erudition which they
+display than from their judgment or critical acumen, have now become
+extremely scarce--and next by Don Antonio Jose Conde, one of the most
+zealous and laborious, if not the most accurate, of Spanish
+orientalists. His "History of the Domination of the Arabs and Moors in
+Spain," has been generally regarded as of high authority, and is in
+truth the first work on the subject drawn wholly from Arab sources;
+but it receives summary condemnation from Senor de Gayangos, for "the
+uncouth arrangement of the materials, the entire want of critical or
+explanatory notes, the unaccountable neglect to cite authorities, the
+numerous repetitions, blunders, and contradictions." These charges are
+certainly not without foundation; but they are in some measure
+accounted for by the trouble and penury in which the author's last
+years were spent, and the unfinished state in which the work was left
+at his death in 1820.
+
+    [4] The Almoravide and Almohade princes, who ruled both in
+    Spain and Africa, often inserted a clause in their treaties
+    with the Christians for the restoration of the libraries
+    captured in the towns taken from the Moslems; and Ibn Khaldun
+    mentions, that Yakob Al-mansor destined a college at Fez for
+    the reception of the books thus recovered.
+
+An authentic and comprehensive view of the Arab period, as described
+by their own writers, was therefore still a desideratum in European
+literature, which the publication before us may be considered as the
+first step towards supplying. The work of Al-Makkari, which has been
+taken as a text-book, is not so much an original history as a
+collection of extracts, sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed
+in full, from more ancient historians; and frequently giving two or
+three versions of the same event from different authorities--so that,
+though it can claim but little merit as a composition, it is of
+extreme value as a repository of fragments of authors in many cases
+now lost; and further, as the only "uninterrupted narrative of the
+conquests, wars, and settlements of the Spanish Moslems, from their
+first invasion of the Peninsula to their final expulsion." In the
+arrangement of his materials, the translator has departed
+considerably, and with advantage, from the original; giving the
+historical books in the form of a continuous narrative, and omitting
+several sections relating to matters of little interest--while the
+deficiencies and omissions of the author are supplied by an appendix,
+containing, in addition to a valuable body of original notes, copious
+extracts from numerous unpublished Arabic MSS. relating to Spain,
+which afford ample proof of the extent and diligence of his researches
+among the Oriental treasures of Paris and London. To those in the
+Escurial, however, he was denied access during his labours--an almost
+incredible measure of illiberality, which, if he be correct in
+ascribing it to his known intention of publishing in England, "ill
+suits a country" (as he justly remarks in the preface) "which has
+lately seen its archives and monastic libraries reduced to cinders,
+and scattered or sold in foreign markets, without the least struggle
+to rescue or secure them."
+
+Ahmed Al-Makkari, the author or compiler of the present work, derived
+his surname from a village near Telemsan called Makkarah, where his
+family had been established since the conquest of Africa by the Arabs.
+He was born at Telemsan some time in the latter half of the sixteenth
+century, and educated by his uncle, who held the office of Mufti in
+that city; but having quitted his native country in 1618 on a
+pilgrimage to Mekka, he married and settled in Cairo. During a visit
+to Damascus in 1628, he was received with high distinction by Ahmed
+Ibn Shahin Effendi, the director of the college of Jakmak in that
+city, and a distinguished patron of literature; at whose suggestion
+(he tells us) he undertook this work. His original purpose had been
+only to write the life of Abu Abdullah Lisanuddin, a celebrated
+historian and minister in Granada, better known to Oriental scholars
+as Ibnu'l-Khattib; but having completed this, the thought struck him
+of adding, as a second part, an historical account of the Moslems of
+Spain. He had formerly written an extensive and elaborate work on this
+subject, composed (to use his own words) "in such an elevated and
+pleasing style, that had it been publicly delivered by the common
+crier, it would have made even the stones deaf:--but, alas! the whole
+of this we had left in Maghreb (Morocco) with the rest of our
+library.... However, we have done our best to make the present work as
+useful and complete as possible." It was probably the last literary
+undertaking of his life; since he was on the point of quitting Cairo
+to fix his residence in Damascus, when he died of a fever in the
+second Jomada of A.H. 1041, (Jan. 1632,) leaving a high reputation as
+a traditionist and doctor of the Moslem law.
+
+The introductory chapter gives a sketch of the various nations which
+inhabited _Andalus_ or Spain before the Arab conquest, prefaced by
+extracts from numerous writers eulogistic of a country "whose
+excellences" (as Al-Makkari himself declares) "are such and so many
+that they cannot easily be contained in a book ... so that one of
+their wise men, who knew that the country had been called the bird's
+tail, owing to the supposed resemblance of the earth to a bird with
+extended wings, remarked that that bird was the peacock, the principal
+beauty of which was in the tail." These panegyrics are not in all
+cases exactly consistent; for while the famous geographer, Obeydullah
+Al-Bekri, "compares his native country to Syria for purity of air and
+water, to China for mines and precious stones, &c. &c., and to
+Al-Ahwaz (a district in Persia) _for the magnitude of its
+snakes_"--the Sheikh Ahmed Al-Razi (better known as the historian
+Razis) praises its comparative freedom from wild beasts and reptiles.
+The name _Andalus_ is derived by some authors from a great grandson of
+Noah so named, who settled there soon after the deluge; but Al-Makkari
+rather inclines, with Ibn Khaldun and other writers, to deduce it from
+the _Andalosh,_ (Vandals,) "a tribe of barbarians," who appear to be
+considered as the earliest inhabitants; but who, having incurred the
+divine wrath by their wickedness and idolatry, were all cut off by a
+terrible drought, which left the land for a hundred years an
+uninhabited desert. A colony then arrived from Africa, under a chief
+named Batrikus, eleven generations of whose descendants reigned for
+one hundred and fifty-seven years; after which they were all
+annihilated by the "barbarians of Rome, who invaded and conquered the
+country; and it was after their king Ishban, son of Titus, that
+Andalus was called Ishbaniah," (Hispania.) As Ishban is just after
+said to have "plundered and demolished Ilia, which is the same as
+Al-Kods the illustrious," (Jerusalem,) it is obvious that the name
+must be a corruption of Vespasian, who is thus made the son instead of
+the father of Titus. We are told that authors differ whether it was on
+this occasion, or at the former capture of Jerusalem by Bokht-Nasser,
+(Nebuchadnezzar,) at which a king of Spain named Berian was also
+present, that the table constructed by the genii for Solomon, and
+which Tarik afterwards found at Toledo, was transported to Spain--and
+Al-Makkari professes himself, as well he may, unable to reconcile the
+different accounts. Fifty-five kings descended from Ishban, whose race
+was dispossessed ("about the time of the Messiah, on whom be peace!")
+by a people called Bishtilikat, (Visigoths?) under a king called
+Talubush, (Ataulphus?) whom Al-Makkari holds to have been the same
+people as the "barbarians of Rome," though "there are not wanting
+authors who make the Goths and the Bishtilikat only one nation." After
+holding possession during the reigns of twenty-seven monarchs, they
+were in turn subdued by the Goths, whose royal residence was
+"Toleyalah, (Toledo,) though Isbiliah (Seville) continued to be the
+abode of the sciences." The Gothic kings are said to have been
+thirty-six;--but the only one particularized by name is
+"Khoshandinus, (Constantine,) who not only embraced Christianity
+himself, but called on his subjects to do the same, and is held by the
+Christians as the greatest king they ever had.... Several kings of his
+posterity reigned after him, till Andalus was finally subdued by the
+Arabs, by whose means God was pleased to make manifest the superiority
+of Islam over every other religion."
+
+With the Arab, conquest the authentic history commences; and the
+accounts given from the Moslem writers of this memorable event, which
+first gave the followers of the Prophet a footing in Europe, differ in
+no material point from the eloquent narrative of Gibbon. Al-Makkari,
+however, does not fail to inform us, that predictions had been rife
+from long past ages, which foretold the invasion and conquest of the
+country by a fierce people from Africa; and potent were the spells and
+talismans constructed to ward off the danger, "by the _Greek_ kings
+who reigned in old times." Several of these are described with due
+solemnity; and among them we find the tale of the visit paid by
+Roderic[5] to the magic tower at Toledo, which has been rendered
+familiar by the pages of Scott and Southey. We shall not here
+recapitulate the well-known incidents of the wrongs and revenge of
+Count Yllan, or Julian, the first landing of Tarif at Tarifa, the
+second expedition sent by Musa under Tarik Ibn Zeyad, and the death or
+disappearance of the Gothic king on the fatal day of Guadalete.[6] So
+complete was the discomfiture of the Christians, that the kingdom
+fell, without a second blow, before the victors of a single field; and
+was overrun with such rapidity, that from the inability of the
+conquerors to garrison the cities which surrendered, they were
+entrusted for the time to the guard of the Jews!--a singular
+circumstance, which, when coupled with the statement that many of the
+Berbers (of whom the invading army was almost wholly composed) were
+recent converts from Judaism,[7] would apparently imply that the
+conquest was facilitated by a previous correspondence. The subjugation
+of the country was completed by the arrival of Musa himself, who
+reduced Seville and the other towns which still held out, and is even
+said to have crossed the Pyrenees and sacked Narbonne;[8] but this is
+not mentioned by any Christian writer, and is referred by the
+translator to his invasion of Catalonia, which the Arabs considered as
+part of "the land of the Franks." After the first fury of conquest had
+subsided, the Christians who remained in their homes were permitted to
+live unmolested, on payment of the capitation-tax; but peculiar
+privileges were accorded to the Jews, and the hold of the Moslems on
+the country was strengthened by the vast influx of settlers, not only
+from Africa, but from Syria and Arabia, who were attracted by the
+reports of the riches and fertility of the new province. Nearly all
+the tribes of Arabia are enumerated by Al-Makkari as represented in
+Spain; and the feuds of the two great divisions, the Beni-Modhar[9] or
+race of Adnan, and the Beni-Kahttan or Arabs of Yemen, gave rise to
+most of the civil wars which subsequently desolated Andalus.
+
+    [5] He is called by the Arabic writers Ludherik--a name
+    afterwards applied as a general designation to the kings of
+    Castile.
+
+    [6] The translator adduces strong grounds for believing that
+    the battle was fought, not as usually held, in the plain of
+    Xeres, on the south bank of the Guadalete, but "nearer the
+    sea-shore, and not far from the town of Medina-Sidonia."
+
+    [7] This is not mentioned by the authors from whom Al-Makkari
+    has drawn his materials, but is stated by Professor de
+    Gayangos on the authority of Ibn Khaldun.
+
+    [8] A story is here told of Musa's reaching some colossal
+    ruins, and a monument inscribed with Arabic characters
+    pointing out that place as the term of his conquests--a legend
+    which perhaps gave the hint for one of the tales in the
+    Thousand and One Nights, in which he is sent on an expedition
+    to the city of Brass on the shores of the Western Ocean.--See
+    Lane's translation, chap. 21.
+
+    [9] Conde, and the writers who have followed him, constantly
+    speak of the Beni-Modhar as Egyptian--an error owing to the
+    neglect or omission of the point which in Arabic orthography
+    distinguishes _Modhar_ from _Missr_, (Egypt.)
+
+The spoil of the vanquished kingdom was immense--the accumulation of
+long years of luxury and freedom from foreign invasion in a country
+which, both from the fertility of the soil and the abundance of the
+precious metals, was then probably the richest in Europe. Whatever
+degree of credit we may attach to the famous table of Solomon, "said
+by some to be of pure gold, and by others green emerald," and the gems
+and ornaments of which are described with full Oriental luxuriance,
+every account referring to the booty acquired in the principal cities,
+gives ample evidence of the riches and splendour of the Visigoths.
+"The plunder found at Toledo[10] was beyond calculation. It was common
+for the lowest men in the army to find magnificent gold chains, and
+long strings of pearls and rubies. Among other precious objects were
+found 170 diadems of the purest red gold, set with every sort of
+precious stone; several measures full of emeralds, rubies, and other
+gems; and an immense number of gold and silver vases. Such was the
+eagerness for plunder, and the ignorance of some, especially the
+Berbers, that when two or more of this nation fell upon an article
+which they could not conveniently divide, they would cut it in pieces,
+whatever the material might be, and share it among them." Some of the
+victorious army seized some ships in the eastern ports, and set sail
+for their homes with their plunder; but they were speedily overtaken
+by a tremendous storm, and all perished in the waves--a manifest
+token, we are given to understand, of the Divine vengeance for the
+abandonment of the _holy_ warfare under the banners of Islam.
+
+    [10] Burkhardt (Travels in Arabia, i. 303) says, that all the
+    golden ornaments which the Khalif Walid gave to the mosque at
+    Mekka, "were sent from Toledo in Spain, and carried upon mules
+    through Africa and Arabia."
+
+Musa was on his march into Galicia to crush the last embers of
+national resistance, when his progress was checked by a peremptory
+summons from the Khalif, to answer at Damascus the charges forwarded
+against him by Tarik, whom he had unjustly disgraced and punished.
+Being convicted of falsehood, on the production by Tarik of the
+missing foot of the table of Solomon, the merit of finding which had
+been claimed by Musa, he was tortured and deprived of his riches; and
+the head of his gallant son Abdulaziz, whom he had left in command in
+Spain, was shown to him in public by the Khalif Soliman, the successor
+of Walid, with the cruel demand if he knew whose it was. "I do," was
+the father's reply: "it is the head of one who fasted and prayed; may
+the curse of Allah fall on it if he who slew him is a better man than
+he!" But though Musa was thus arrested in the last stage of his
+conquering career, so complete was the prostration of the Christians,
+that the viceroys who succeeded Abdulaziz, overlooking or disregarding
+this yet unsubdued corner of Spain, at once poured their forces across
+the Pyrenees, seeking new fields of conquest and glory in the
+countries of the Franks. But the antagonists whom they here
+encountered, unlike the luxurious Goths of Spain, still preserved the
+barbarian valour which they had brought from their German forests. And
+As-Samh, (the Zama of the Christian writers,) the first Saracen
+general who obtained a footing in France, "fell a martyr to the
+faith," with nearly his whole army, in a battle with Eudo, Duke of
+Aquitaine, before Toulouse, May 10, A.D. 721. But the fiery zeal of
+the Moslems was only stimulated by this reverse. In the course of the
+ten following years, their dominion was established as far as the
+Rhone and Garonne; till, in 732, the torrent of invasion, headed by
+the _Wali_ Abdurrahman, burst into the heart of the country; and the
+battle, decisive of the destinies of France, and perhaps of Europe,
+was fought between Tours and Poitiers, in October of that year,
+(Ramadhan, A.H. 114.) Few details are given by the Arab writers of the
+seven days' conflict, in which the ranks of the Moslems were shattered
+by the iron arm of Charles Martel; "and the army of Abdurrahman was
+cut to pieces at a spot called _Balatt-ush-Shohada_, (the Pavement of
+the Martyrs,) he himself being in the number of the slain." Some
+confusion here appears, as the same epithet had been applied to the
+former battle near Toulouse; but this "disastrous day" of Tours
+virtually extinguished the schemes of Arab conquest in France, though
+it was not till many years later that they were completely dislodged
+from Narbonne, and their other acquisitions between the Garrone and
+the Pyrenees.
+
+Meanwhile the Christian remnant, left unmolested in the Asturian and
+Galician mountains, gradually recovered courage: and in 717-18, "a
+despicable barbarian," (as he is termed by Ibn Hayyan, a writer often
+cited by Al-Makkari,) "named Belay, (Pelayo or Pelagius,) rose in
+Galicia; and from that moment the Christians began to resist the
+Moslems, and to defend their wives and daughters; for till then they
+had not shown the least inclination to do so." "Would to God," piously
+subjoins Al-Makkari, "that the Moslems had then extinguished at once
+the sparkles of a fire destined to consume their whole dominion in
+those parts! But they said--'What are thirty barbarians, perched on a
+rock? they must inevitably die!'" The spark, which contained the germ
+of the future independence of Spain, was thus suffered to remain and
+spread, while the swords of the Moslems were occupied in France; and
+its growth was further favoured by the anarchy and civil dissensions
+which broke out among the conquerors. While the leaders of the
+different Arab factions contested, sword in hand, the viceroyalty of
+Spain, the Berbers (whose conversion to Islam was apparently yet but
+imperfect) rose in furious revolt both in Spain and Africa, and were
+only overpowered by a fresh army sent by the Khalif Hisham from Syria.
+But the arrival of these reinforcements added new fuel to the old
+feuds of the Beni-Modhar, and the Yemenis or Beni-Kahttan; and a
+desperate civil war raged till 746, when the Khalif's lieutenant, the
+Emir Abu'l-Khattar, who supported the Yemenis, was killed in a pitched
+battle fought near Cordova. The leader of the victorious tribe, Yusuf
+Al-Fehri,[11] now assumed supreme power, which he exercised nearly ten
+years as an independent ruler, without reference to the court of
+Damascus. The state of affairs in the East, indeed, left little
+leisure to the Umeyyan khalifs to attend to the regulation of a remote
+province. Their throne was already tottering before the arms and
+intrigues of the Abbasides, whose black banners, under the guidance of
+the formidable Abu-Moslem, were even now bearing down from Khorassan
+upon Syria. The unpopular cause of the Beni-Umeyyah, who were detested
+for the murder of the grandsons of the Prophet under the second of
+their line, was lost in a single battle; and the death of Merwan, the
+last khalif of the race, was followed by the unsparing proscription of
+the whole family. "Every where they were seized and put to death
+without mercy; and few escaped the search made by the emissaries of
+As-Seffah, (_the bloodshedder_, the surname of the first Abbaside
+khalif,) in every province of the empire."
+
+    [11] The tribe of Fehr hold a conspicuous place in the Spanish
+    annals, and one of them was the leader of the last attempt to
+    shake off the yoke of Castile, after the capture of Granada.
+
+Among the few survivors of the general doom, was a youth named
+Abdurrahman Ibn Muawiyah, a grandson of the Khalif Hisham. In his
+infancy his granduncle Moslemah, the leader of the first Saracen host
+sent against Constantinople, had indicated him, from certain marks, as
+the destined restorer of the fallen fortunes of his race; and he was
+preserved, by a timely warning from a client of his house, from the
+fatal banquet, in which ninety of the Beni-Umeyyah were treacherously
+massacred. Yet so hot was the pursuit, that his younger brother was
+taken and slain before his eyes, while swimming the Euphrates with him
+in their flight. But Abdurrahman, after numberless perils and
+adventures, at length reached Africa, which was ruled by the _wali_
+or viceroy Abdurrahman Ibn Habib, the father of Yusuf Al-Fehri, who
+had been a personal retainer of his family. But he soon found that he
+had erred in trusting to the faith of Ibn Habib; and, after narrowly
+escaping the search made for him by the emissaries of the governor,
+lay concealed for several years, a fugitive and outlaw, among the
+tribes of Northern Africa. In this extremity, he at length cast his
+eyes on Spain, where the Abbasides had never been recognized, and
+where his own clansmen of the Koreysh, with their _maulis_, (freedmen
+or clients,) were numerous and powerful. The overtures of the royal
+adventurer were eagerly listened to by the Yemenis, who burned to
+revenge their late defeat on the Beni-Modhar; and Abdurrahman, landing
+at Al-munecar in the autumn of 755, found himself instantly at the
+head of 700 horse, and was speedily joined by the chieftain of the
+Yemenis, who admitted him into Seville. During the march the want of a
+banner was remarked, "and a long spear was produced, on the point of
+which a turban was to be placed; but as it would have been necessary
+to incline the head of the spear, which was supposed to be of
+extremely bad omen, it was held erect between two olive trees, and a
+man, ascending one of them, was enabled to fasten the turban to the
+spear without lowering it.... With this same banner did Abdurrahman,
+and his son Hisham, vanquish their enemies whenever they met them; and
+in such veneration was it held, that whenever the turban by long use
+decayed, it was not removed, but a new one placed over it. In this
+manner it was preserved till the days of Abdurrahman II.; some say
+till the days of his son Mohammed, when the turban on the spear being
+decayed, the vizirs of that monarch, seeing nothing under it but a few
+rags twisted round the spear, gave orders for their removal, and the
+whole was thrown away.... 'From that time,' remarks the judicious
+historian Ibn Hayyan, 'the empire of the Beni-Umeyyah began visibly to
+decline.'"
+
+Under the auspices of this novel _oriflamme_ the Umeyyan prince and
+his followers advanced upon Cordova, whither Yusuf Al-Fehri, who had
+been engaged in suppressing an insurrection in the _Thagher_,
+(Aragon,) had hastened to oppose them at the head of the Beni-Modhar.
+Exchanging for a mule the fiery courser which the jealous whispers of
+his adherents had remarked as designed to secure his escape in case of
+defeat, Abdurrahman led his troops to the attack; and his victory
+established on the throne of Spain a new dynasty of the Beni-Umeyyah,
+"who thus regained in the west the supremacy which they had lost in
+the east." Those of the fallen family who had escaped the general
+massacre, flocked to the court of their fortunate kinsman, "to all of
+whom he gave pensions, commands, and governments, by which means his
+empire was strengthened;"--and the robes and turbans of the monarch
+and the princes were always white, the colour assumed by the house of
+Umeyyah, in opposition to the black livery of their rivals. Though
+Abdurrahman never assumed the title of commander of the faithful, he
+suppressed the _khotbah_ or public prayers in the name of the
+Abbasides; and when Al-Ala, the _wali_ of Africa, invaded Spain in
+order to re-establish the supremacy of the eastern khalif, the head of
+his unsuccessful general, thrown before the tent of Al-mansor at
+Mekka, conveyed to him the first tidings of the destruction of the
+armament by the "hawk of the Koreysh," as he was wont to term
+Abdurrahman. In the elation of triumph from this success, he is even
+said to have contemplated marching through Africa to attack Al-mansor
+in the east; but this design was frustrated by the continual
+rebellions of the Arab tribes, whom all his address and prudence was
+unable to keep in order; and "while the Moslems were revolting against
+their sovereign, the Christians of Galicia gathered strength, took
+possession of the towns and fortresses on the frontier, and expelled
+their inhabitants." We find him at length obliged, in order to
+maintain his authority, to have recourse to the system, which in the
+next century became universal in the east, of entrusting the defence
+of his throne and person, not to the native levies of his kingdom, but
+to a standing army of purchased slaves or _Mamlukes_. "He began to
+cease all communication with the chiefs of the Arabian tribes, whom he
+found animated with a strong hatred against him, and to surround
+himself with slaves and people entirely devoted to him; for which end
+he engaged followers and took clients from every province of his
+empire, and sent over to Africa to enlist Berbers. 'Thus,' says Ibn
+Hayyan, 'Abdurrahman collected an army of slaves and Berbers,
+amounting to upwards of 40,000 men, by means of whom he always
+remained victorious, in every contest with the Arabian tribes of
+Andalus.'"
+
+The sciences and fine arts, which had been almost banished from Spain
+since the conquest, returned in the train of the new dynasty; and
+literature was encouraged by the example of Abdurrahman, who was
+himself a poet of no mean merit. His affectionate remembrance of his
+Syrian home, led him to introduce into his new kingdom the flowers and
+fruits of the east;--and the palm-tree, which was the parent of all
+those of its kind in Spain, and to which he addressed the well-known
+lines, lamenting their common fate as exiles from their fatherland,
+was planted by himself in the gardens of the Rissafah, a country
+palace built on the model of one near Damascus, in which the first
+years of his life had been spent. In architectural magnificence he
+rivaled or surpassed the former princes of his race, the monuments of
+whose grandeur still exist in the mosque of the Beni-Umeyyah at
+Damascus, and other edifices adorning the cities of Syria. The palaces
+and aqueducts which he constructed in Cordova, testified his zeal for
+the splendour, as well as his care for the salubrity, of his
+capital;--and after expending the sum of 80,000 golden _dinars_ (the
+produce of the royal fifth of all spoil taken in war) in the erection
+of the stately mosque which bears his name, he bequeathed the
+completion of the structure, at his death, A.D. 788, to his younger
+son Hisham, whom he nominated as his successor, to the exclusion of
+the elder brother Soliman. Al-Makkari devotes an entire chapter to the
+wonders of this celebrated temple, which was finished A.D. 794, nine
+years after its commencement, and received additions from almost every
+successive sovereign of the house of Umeyyah. In its present state, as
+the cathedral of Cordova, it still covers more ground than any church
+in Christendom; but the inner roof, with its elaborate carving, the
+_mihrab_, or shrine, of minute inlaid work of ivory, gems, and
+precious woods, and containing a copy of the Koran which had belonged
+to the Khalif Othman--the embossed plates of gold and silver which
+encrusted the doors, and the apples of the same metals which
+surmounted the dome--have long since disappeared; and the thousand
+(or, as some say, thirteen hundred) columns of polished marble which
+it once boasted, have been grievously reduced in number, to make room
+for the shrines and chapels of Christian saints. The unequal length
+and proportions of those which remain, their irregular grouping, and
+the want of height in the roof which they support, indicate a far
+lower grade of architectural taste than that which we find in the
+aerial palaces of Granada; but all the Arabic writers who have
+described it, concur in considering it one of the wonders of the
+world; and it ranked, in the estimation of the Spanish Moslems, as
+inferior in point of sanctity to none but the Kaaba, and the mosque of
+Omar at Jerusalem.
+
+The mood of the Beni-Umeyyah, who appear in their eastern reign only
+as gloomy and execrated tyrants, had been chastened by their
+misfortunes; and the virtues of Abdurrahman _Ad-dakhel_ (_the enterer
+or conqueror_, as he is generally termed by historians) were emulated
+by his descendants. As an illustration of the character of his son
+Hisham, it is related by Al-Makkari, that on hearing that the people
+of Cordova said, that his only motive in restoring the great bridge
+over the Guadalquivir was to pass over it himself when he went out
+hunting, he bound himself by a solemn vow never to cross it again as
+long as he lived; but the reign of this beneficent prince lasted only
+eight years. His immediate successors, Al-hakem I., and Abdurrahman
+II., were almost constantly engaged in warfare, either against their
+own rebellious relatives and revolted subjects,[12] or against the
+Christians of Galicia, who, by the middle of the ninth century, had
+advanced their frontier to the Douro and repeatedly repulsed the
+armies sent against them from Cordova; but we find no mention in the
+writers cited by Al-Makkari, either of the annual tribute of a hundred
+virgins, popularly said to have been exacted by the Moslems, or of the
+great victory in 846, by which King Ramiro redeemed his country from
+this degrading badge of vassalage.[13] So widely extended was the
+martial renown of the Umeyyan sovereigns, that in 839 a suppliant
+embassy was received by Abdurrahman II. from the Greek Emperor
+_Tufilus_, (Theophilus,) then hard pressed by the arms of the Abbaside
+khalif Al-mutassem, to solicit his aid against their common enemy;
+and, though Abdurrahman declined to embark in this distant and
+hazardous enterprise, a friendly intercourse long continued to be kept
+up between the courts of Cordova and Constantinople. The military
+establishment was fully organized, and placed on a formidable footing.
+Besides the troops quartered in the provinces and receiving regular
+pay, the _haras_ or royal guard of Mamlukes, whose commander was one
+of the principal officers of the court, was augmented to 5000 horse
+and 1000 foot, all Christians or foreigners by birth, who occupied
+barracks close to the royal palace, and constantly mounted guard at
+the gates. The coast was also defended by a powerful fleet of armed
+vessels, of which each of the seaports fitted out its proportion,
+against the hostile attacks of the Abbaside lieutenauts of Africa, and
+the predatory descents of the _Majus_[14] or Northmen; who, after
+laying waste with fire and sword the French and English coasts, had
+extended their ravages into the southern seas even to the Straits of
+Gibraltar. Lisbon and Seville were sacked by them in 844; and their
+piratical fleets continued for many years to carry pillage and
+bloodshed along the shores of the Peninsula.
+
+    [12] It was by a body of exiles under Abu Hafss Omar, the
+    Apochapsus of the Greeks, (incorrectly called Abu _Caab_ by
+    Gibbon,) driven from Cordova after one of these insurrections,
+    that Crete was conquered in 823.
+
+    [13] In this battle, according to the veracious Spanish
+    chroniclers, Santiago first appeared on his white horse in the
+    melee, fighting for the Christians.--See the "Maiden Tribute,"
+    in Lockhart's _Spanish Ballads_.
+
+    [14] _Majus_--Magians or fire worshippers, is the term
+    invariably applied to these fierce Pagans by the Arabic
+    historians, apparently by a negative induction from their
+    being neither Moslems, Jews, nor Christians.
+
+The simplicity which the first Abdurrahman had uniformly preserved in
+his dress and habits of life, was soon exchanged by his successors for
+royal magnificence, rivaling that of the Abbaside court at Bagdad. It
+was Abdurrahman II. who, in a love quarrel with a beautiful inmate of
+his harem, caused the door of her chamber to be blocked up with bags
+of silver coin, to be removed on her relenting--"and she threw herself
+on her knees and kissed his feet; but," naively adds the Arab
+historian, "the money she kept, and no portion of it ever returned to
+the treasury." The same prince testified his esteem for the fine arts,
+by riding forth in state from his capital, to welcome the arrival of
+Zaryab, a far-famed musician, whom the jealousy of a rival had driven
+from Bagdad, and who founded in Spain a famous school of music; and in
+his convivial habits, and the freedom which he allowed to the
+companions of his festive hours, his character accords with that
+assigned in the _Thousand and One Nights_, though not in the page of
+history, to Haroon-Al-Rasheed. He died in 852, leaving the crown to
+his son Mohammed, whose reign, as well as those of his two sons
+Almundhir and Abdullah, who filled the throne in succession, is but
+briefly noticed by Al-Makkari, though Senor de Gayangos has supplied
+some valuable additional matter in his notes. The never-ceasing
+contest with the Christians was waged year by year; and the Princes
+of Oviedo, though often defeated in the plain and driven back into
+their mountains, when the forces of Andalus were gathered against
+them; yet surely, though slowly, gained ground against the provincial
+_walis_ or viceroys. At the death of "Ordhun Ibn Adefunsh," (Ordono
+I.) in 866, their territory extended from the Atlantic and the Bay of
+Biscay to Salamanca; and the Moslem power was diverted by the rising
+strength of Navarre, where the Basques had shaken off the divided
+allegiance paid alternately to the court of Cordova and the
+Carlovingian rulers of France, and conferred on Garcia-Ramirez, in
+857, an independent regal title. But these distant hostilities, as
+yet, little affected the tranquillity of the seat of government, which
+was more nearly interested in the frequent revolts of the provinces
+under its rule,[15] and particularly by the rebellion of the
+_Muwallads_, (or descendants of Christian converts to Islam;) which,
+though the information extant respecting it is somewhat scanty, would
+appear to have been little less than a struggle between the two races
+for the dominion of Spain. One of the Muwallad chiefs, named Omar Ibn
+Hafssun,[16] maintained for years a sort of semi-independence in the
+Alpuxarras. Al-mundhir fell in a skirmish against him in 888, only two
+years after his accession; and the insurrection, after continuing
+through the whole reign of Abdullah, was only finally suppressed under
+Abdurrahman III.
+
+    [15] No fewer than twenty-seven insurgent leaders, in the
+    reign of Abdullah alone, are enumerated in the translator's
+    notes from Ibn Hayyan.
+
+    [16] The epithet of _kelb_, "dog," frequently applied to this
+    leader, has led Conde into the strange error of creating for
+    him a son, whom he calls _Kalib_ Ibun Hafssun. The term
+    _Muwallad_ is said to be the origin of _mulatto_.
+
+The system of government under these princes, appears to have remained
+in nearly the same form as it had been fixed by Abdurrahman I. The
+monarch nominated, during his lifetime, one of his sons as his
+successor; and the _wali-al-ahd_, or crown-prince, thus selected,
+received the oaths of allegiance of the dignitaries of the state, and
+was admitted to a share in the administration--a wise regulation,
+which prevented the recurrence of the civil wars arising from the
+ambition of princes of the blood, which had distracted the reigns of
+Al-hakem I. and Abdurrahman II. The council of the sovereign was
+composed of the _vizirs_ or ministers of the different departments,
+the _katibs_ or secretaries, and the chiefs of the law; the _walis_ of
+the six great provinces into which Abdurrahman I. divided his
+empire,[17] as well as the municipal chiefs of the principal cities
+were also summoned on emergencies:--while the prime minister, or
+highest officer of the state, in whom, as in the Turkish
+_Vizir-Azem_,[18] the supreme direction of both civil and military
+affairs was vested, was designated the _Hajib_ or chamberlain. Of the
+four orthodox[19] sects of the Soonis, the one which predominated in
+Spain, as it does to the present day in Barbary and Africa, was that
+of Malik Ibn Ans, whose doctrines were introduced in the reign of
+Al-hakem I., by doctors who had received instruction from the lips of
+the Imam Malik himself at Mekka; and was formally established by that
+prince throughout his dominions. The judicial offices were filled, as
+in other Moslem countries, by Kadis, whose decisions were regulated by
+the precepts of the Koran: but we find no mention (even before the
+assumption of the titles of Imam and Khalif by Abdurrahman III.) of
+any supreme ecclesiastical chief like the Sheikh-al-Islam or Mufti of
+the Ottomans;--though there were chief justices analogous to the
+Turkish Kadileskers, who bore the title of _Kadi-'l-jamah_.
+
+    [17] We do not find this division mentioned by the authors
+    cited by Al-Makkari; but it is stated by Conde, and appears to
+    have prevailed as long as the kingdom retained its unity. The
+    six provincial capitals were Saragossa, Toledo, Merida,
+    Valencia, Murcia, and Granada. Shortly before the arrival of
+    Abdurrahman, Yusuf Al-Fehri had organized _five_ great
+    governments, one of which comprised Narbonne and the
+    Trans-Pyrenean conquests.
+
+    [18] Under the Arab dynasties of the east, the _vizir_ was
+    exclusively an officer _of the pen_: and Makrizi expressly
+    mentions that Bedr-al-Jemali, who became vizir to the Fatimite
+    khalif Al-Mostanssor in 1074, was the first in whom _the sword
+    and the pen_ were united.
+
+    [19] See Sale's Koran. Preliminary Discourse. Sect. 8.
+
+The royal revenue was derived from a variety of sources. The principal
+were, a land-tax amounting to one-tenth of the produce of the soil and
+the mines, the capitation-tax paid by the Jews and Christians, and the
+fifth of the spoil taken from the enemy--an enormously productive item
+in a time of constant warfare--besides a duty of two and a half per
+cent on all exports and imports. These were the legitimate dues of the
+crown, sanctioned by the Koran; but the splendid court maintained by
+the later sovereigns of Cordova, their lavish expenditure in building,
+and their large military and naval establishments, often compelled
+them to have recourse to irregular methods of raising money, by forced
+loans and by duties laid on different articles of food, in direct
+violation of the Moslem law. The amount raised by all these means
+varied greatly at different periods. Under Abdurrahman II., the whole
+direct revenue is said not to have exceeded 1,000,000 of gold
+_din[=a]rs_:--but the royal fifths, and other extraordinary sources of
+income, appear not to have been included in this estimate:--and a
+century later, under the third and greatest prince of that name, we
+are told, on the authority of the biographer Ibn Khallekan, that "the
+revenues of Andalus amounted to 5,480,000 gold _din[=a]rs_, collected
+from taxes," (it is elsewhere said from the _land_-tax:) besides
+765,000 derived from markets--exclusive also of the royal fifth of the
+spoil, and the capitation-tax levied on Christians and Jews living in
+the Moslem dominions, the amount of which is said to have equaled all
+the rest. An annual sum of equal amount, reckoning the _din[=a]r_ at
+ten shillings, had never in the history of the world been raised in a
+territory of the same extent, and probably equaled the united incomes
+of all the Christian princes in Europe--if we except the revenue of
+the Greek Emperor, it certainly far exceeded them. "Of this vast
+income," Ibn Khallekan continues, "one-third was appropriated to the
+payment of the army, another third was deposited in the royal coffers
+to cover the expenses of the household, and the remainder was spent
+yearly in the construction of Az-zahra and such other buildings as
+were erected under his reign." This tripartite allotment of the
+revenue is alluded to under several reigns: the expenses of
+administration and the salaries of the civil functionaries were
+included under the second head; and the third portion was, in ordinary
+case, reserved "to repel invasions and meet emergencies."
+
+The prince under whom the vast revenue thus stated is said to have
+been collected, ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather
+Abdullah, in the 300th year of the Hejra, and the 912th of the
+Christian era:--and his reign, of more than fifty lunar years, saw the
+power and splendour of the Umeyyan dynasty attain its zenith. For some
+years after his accession, he headed his armies in person against the
+Christians and the partizans of Ibn Hafssun, who still continued in
+arms: but the severe defeat which he received in 939 at Simaneas, near
+Zamora, (called by Moslem writers the battle of Al-handik,) from
+Ramiro II. of Leon, disgusted him with active warfare; and he deputed
+the command of his armies to his generals and the princes of the
+blood, who, in annual campaigns, so effectually kept the Christians
+within their limits, that little territorial acquisition was made by
+them during his reign; while the voluntary adhesion of the Berber
+tribes, after the overthrow of the Edrisite dynasty in 941 by the arms
+of the Fatimite khalifs, gave him almost unresisted possession of
+great part of Fez and Morocco. The defeat of Al-handik, and the
+treason and execution in 950, of his elder son Abdullah, (whom
+disappointment at being postponed to his younger brother in the
+succession, had led to conspire against his father's life,) were
+almost the only clouds which dimmed the continual sunshine of his
+prosperity--and his grandeur was enhanced in the eyes of his subjects,
+by the assumption of the highest prerogatives of Islam. Hitherto the
+princes of his line had contented themselves with the style of _Amirs
+of the Moslems,_ and _Beni-Kholaifah_ or "sons of the Khalifs;" but in
+929, "seeing the state of weakness and degradation to which the
+khalifate of the Beni-Abbas at Bagdad had been reduced," he no longer
+hesitated to adopt the titles of Imam and Khalif, with the appellation
+of An-nasir Ledinillah, (defender of the religion of God,) under which
+he is generally mentioned by historians.
+
+The writers from whom Al-Makkari has drawn his materials, exhaust
+their powers of language in panegyrics on the unrivaled magnificence
+of the court of Abdurrahman; which was thronged both by men of letters
+whom the distracted state of the East had driven thither for refuge,
+and by ambassadors, not only from the princes of Islam, but from "Hoto
+the king of the Alaman," (Otho the Great of Germany,) the king of
+France, and numerous other Christian potentates. The reception of
+these missions was usually signalized by a gorgeous display of the
+pomp of the court--and the ceremonial on the arrival in 949 of the
+envoys of Constantine VII. of Constantinople, is described at length
+from Ibn Hayyan. "The vaulted hall in his palace of Az-zahra, which he
+had fixed upon as the place where he would receive their credentials,
+was beautifully decorated, and a throne glittering with gold and
+sparkling with gems raised in the midst. To the right of the throne
+stood five of the khalif's sons, to the left three others, one being
+absent from illness. Next to them were the vizirs, each at his post on
+the right or left of the throne. Then came the hajibs or chamberlains,
+the sons of the vizirs, the freed slaves of the khalif, and the wakils
+or officers of his household. The court of the palace had been strewn
+with the richest carpets; and silken awnings of the most gorgeous
+description had every where been thrown over the doors and arches.
+Presently the ambassadors entered the hall, and were struck with awe
+at the magnificence displayed, and the power of the Sultan before whom
+they stood. They advanced a few steps, and presented the letter of
+their master, Constantine son of Leo, Lord of Constantinah the Great,
+(Constantinople.) It was written on sky-blue paper, and the characters
+were of gold. Within the letter was an enclosure, the ground of which
+was also sky-blue like the first, but the characters were of silver:
+it was likewise written in Greek, and contained a list of the presents
+which the Lord of Constantinah sent to the Khalif. On the letter was a
+seal of gold of the weight of four mithkals, on one side of which was
+a likeness of the Messiah, and on the other those of the King
+Constantine and his son. The letter was enclosed in a bag of silver
+cloth, over which was a case of gold, with a portrait of King
+Constantine admirably executed on stained glass. All this was enclosed
+in a case covered with cloth of silk and gold tissue. On the first
+line of the _Inwan_ or introduction was written, 'Constantine and
+Romanin, (Romanus,) believers in the Messiah, kings of the Greeks;'
+and in the next, 'To the great and exalted in dignity and power, as he
+most deserves, the noble in descent, Abdurrahman the khalif, who rules
+over the Arabs of Andalus: may God preserve his life!'" The conclusion
+of this splendid ceremony was, however, less imposing than the
+commencement; for a learned _Faquih_, who had been appointed to
+harangue the envoys in a set speech, was so overawed by the grandeur
+around him, that "his tongue clove to his mouth, he could not
+aticulate a single word, and fell senseless to the ground" Nor did his
+successor, "who was reputed to be a prince in rhetoric, and an ocean
+of language," fare much better; for though he began fluently, "all of
+a sudden he stopped for want of a word which did not occur to him, and
+thus put an end to his peroration." In this awkward dilemma, the
+reputation of the Andalusian rhetoricians was saved by Mundhir Ibn
+Said, who not only poured forth a torrent of impromptu eloquence, but
+delivered a long ex-tempore poem, "which to this day stands
+unequalled; and Abdurrahman was so pleased, that he appointed him
+preacher and Imam to the great mosque; and some time after, the office
+of Kadi-'l-jamah, or supreme judge, being vacant, he named him to that
+high post, and made him besides reader of the Khoran to the mosque of
+Az-zahra."
+
+The palace of Az-zahra, where the eyes of the Greeks were dazzled by
+this costly pageant, is one of the familiar names of the romance of
+Spanish history:--it is known to all the world how Abdurrahman, to
+gratify the capricious fancy of a beautiful and beloved mistress,
+expended millions, and tasked the labour of thousands, in erecting on
+the plain beyond Cordova a fairy palace and city which might bear her
+name and be her own. And like a fairy fabric did Az-zahra vanish; for
+so utterly was it destroyed, during the wars and civil tumults
+attending the fall of the race which raised it, that at the present
+day not a stone can be found, not a vestige even of the foundations
+traced, to show where it once stood; and all that we know of this
+"wondrous freak of magnificence" is drawn from the glowing accounts of
+contemporary writers, who saw it during the brief period of its glory.
+It is principally from Ibn Hayyan that Al-Makkari has copied the
+details of this marvellous structure, with its "15,000 doors, counting
+each flap or fold as one," all covered either with plates of iron, or
+sheets of polished brass; and its 4000 columns, great and small, 140
+of which were presented by the Emperor of Constantinople, and 1013,
+mostly of green and rose-coloured marble, were brought from various
+parts of Africa. Among the principal ornaments were two fountains
+brought from Constantinople, "the larger of gilt bronze, beautifully
+carved with basso-relieve representing human figures,"--the smaller
+surrounded by twelve figures, made of red gold in the arsenal of
+Cordova: they were all ornamented with jewels, and the water poured
+out of their mouths. The famous fountain of quicksilver, which could
+be set in motion at pleasure, was placed in the _Kasr-al-Kholaifa_, or
+hall of the khalifs, "the roof and walls of which were of gold, and
+solid but transparent blocks of marble of various colours: on each
+side were eight doors fixed on arches of ivory and ebony, ornamented
+with gold and precious stones, and resting on pillars of variegated
+marble and transparent crystal:--and in the centre was fixed the
+unique pearl presented to An-nassir by the Greek Emperor." The mosque
+and baths attached to the palace were on a corresponding scale of
+magnificence: and the number of inmates, male and female, is said to
+have been not less than 20,000. The expenses of the establishment must
+have consumed the revenues of a kingdom, if we are to believe the
+statement, that 12,000 loaves of bread were daily allowed to feed the
+fish in the ponds! "But all this and more is recorded by orators and
+poets who have exhausted the mines of eloquence in the description,"
+--says Al-Makkari, who, after enlarging upon "the running streams, the
+luxuriant gardens, the stately buildings for the accommodation of the
+guards and high functionaries--the throngs of soldiers, pages,
+eunuchs, and slaves, attired in robes of silk and brocade, moving to
+and fro through its broad streets--and the crowds of judges, katibs,
+theologians, and poets, walking with becoming gravity through the
+spacious halls and ample courts of the palace,"--concludes with a
+burst of pious enthusiasm. "Praise be to God who allowed those
+contemptible creatures (mankind) to build such palaces, and to inhabit
+them as a recompense in this world, that the faithful might be
+stimulated to the path of virtue, by reflecting that the pleasures
+enjoyed by their owners were still very far from giving even a remote
+idea of those reserved for the true believers in paradise!"
+
+"Abdurrahman," as Al-Makkari sums up his character, "has been
+described as the mildest and most enlightened of sovereigns. His
+meekness, generosity, and love of justice, became proverbial: none of
+his ancestors surpased him in courage, zeal for religion, and other
+virtues which constitute an able and beloved monarch. He was fond of
+science, and the patron of the learned, with whom he loved to
+converse.... We should never finish, were we to transcribe the
+innumerable anecdotes respecting him which are scattered like loose
+pearls over the writings of the Andalusian poets and historians,"--but
+as the "pearls" selected possess but little novelty in the
+illustration of the kingly virtues which they commemorate, we prefer
+to quote once more the oft-repeated legacy to posterity, in which this
+"Soliman of the West," as he was called by his contemporaries,
+confessed that, like his eastern prototype, he had found all his
+grandeur "but vanity and vexation of spirit."--"After his death a
+paper was found in his on handwriting, in which were noted those days
+he had spent in happiness and without any cause of sorrow, and they
+were found to amount to fourteen. O, man of understanding! consider
+and observe the small portion of happiness the world affords, even in
+the most enviable position! The khalif An-nasir, whose prosperity in
+mundane affairs became proverbial, had only fourteen days of
+undisturbed enjoyment during a reign of fifty years, seven months, and
+three days. Praise be given to him, the Lord of eternal glory and
+everlasting empire! There is no God but he!"
+
+In the fulness of years and glory, Abdurrahman died of a paralytic
+stroke at Az-zahra, on the second or third of Ramadhan, A.H. 350,
+(Oct. 961,) and was succeeded, according to his previous nomination,
+by his son Al-hakem II., who assumed on this occasion the title of
+Al-mustanser-billah, (one who implores God's assistance.) This prince
+has been characterized, by one of the ablest of recent historians,[20]
+as "one of those rare beings, who have employed the awful engine of
+despotism in promoting the happiness and intelligence of his species;"
+and who rivaled, "in his elegant tastes, appetite for knowledge, and
+munificent patronage, the best of the Medici:"--nor is this high
+praise undeserved. Though he more than once headed his armies in
+person, with success, against the Christians and Northmen, and
+maintained on public occasions the state and magnificence which had
+been introduced by his father, the toils of war and the pomp of
+royalty were alike alien to his inclinations, which had been directed
+from his earliest years to pursuits of literature and science. The
+library which he amassed is said by some writers to have amounted to
+the almost incredible number of 400,000 volumes: and such was his
+ardour in the collection of books, that even in Persia and other
+remote regions, the munificence which he exercised through agents
+employed for the purpose, secured him copies of forthcoming works even
+before their appearance in their own country. "He made Andalus a great
+market for the literary productions of every clime ... so that rich
+men in Cordova, however illiterate they might be, rewarded writers and
+poets with the greatest munificence, and spared neither trouble nor
+expense in forming libraries." Nor were these treasures of literature
+idly accumulated, at least by Al-hakem himself; for so vast and
+various was his reading, that there was scarcely one of his books (as
+we are assured by the historian Ibn'ul-Abbar) which was not enriched
+with remarks and annotations from his pen. "In the knowledge
+especially of history, biography, and genealogy, he was surpassed by
+no living author of his days: and he wrote a voluminous history of
+Andalus, in which was displayed such sound criticism, that whatever he
+related, as borrowed from more ancient sources, might be implicitly
+relied upon."
+
+    [20] Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, i. 351.
+
+The reign of Al-hakem was the Augustan age of Andalusian literature;
+and besides the numerous learned men whom the fame of his father's and
+his own liberality, with the security of their rule, had attracted to
+Spain from other regions of Islam, we find in the pages of Al-Makkari
+an extensive list of native authors, principally in the departments of
+poetry, history, and philology, who are said to be "a few only of the
+most eminent who flourished during this reign"--but none of their
+names, however noted in their own day, are known in modern Europe.
+Nor was the gentler sex, as is usually the case in the lands of Islam,
+excluded from the general taste for letters; and one of our author's
+chapters is almost entirely filled with a catalogue of the poetesses
+who adorned Andalus at this and other periods of its history. One of
+these, Mariam or Mary, the daughter of Abu-Yakub Al-ansari, who rose
+into celebrity in the latter years of Al-hakem, appears to have been
+one of the earliest _bas-bleus_ on record. Independent of her poetical
+talents, she gave lectures at her residence at Seville "in rhetoric
+and literature; which, united to her piety, virtue, and amiable
+disposition, gained her the affection of her sex, and procured her
+many pupils: she lived to old age, and died after the 400th year of
+the Hejra," (A.D. 1010.) The favourite study of the Moslems, the
+divinity and law of the Koran, was cultivated with especial zeal under
+a monarch who was himself a rigid observer of its ordinances; and
+various anecdotes are related by Al-Makkari of the extraordinary
+deference paid by Al-hakem to the eminent theologians who frequented
+his court. The Khalif himself "attended public worship every Friday,
+and distributed alms to the poor; he laid out large sums in the
+construction of mosques, hospitals, and colleges for youth;[21] and
+being himself very strict in the observance of his religious duties,
+he enforced the precepts of the _Sunnah_ (tradition) throughout his
+dominions." With this view, severe edicts were directed against the
+use of wine, which had become prevalent among the Andalusian Moslems;
+and Al-hakem was with difficulty restrained, by representations of the
+ruin which would be thus brought on the cultivators, from ordering the
+destruction of all the vines in his dominions. But the reign of this
+excellent and enlightened prince lasted only fifteen years; and at his
+death, (Sept. 976,) which was caused by the same malady that had
+proved fatal to his father, the glory of the house of Umeyyah expired.
+
+    [21] Eighty free schools are said by other authorities to have
+    existed or been founded during this reign in Cordova; the
+    number of dwelling-houses in which at the same time, great and
+    small, is stated at 200,000.
+
+The evils of a minority had never yet been experienced in the
+succession of the Umeyyan princes, all of whom had ascended the throne
+at a mature age, and with some experience of administration from their
+previous recognition as heir. But Hisham II., (surnamed
+Al-muyyed-billah, the assisted by God,) the only son of Al-hakem, was
+but nine years old at the time of his father's decease; and for some
+time the government was directed in his name by the Hajib, Jafar
+Al-Mushafi; but the influence of the queen-mother erelong succeeded in
+displacing this faithful minister, in favour of Mohammed Ibn Abu Amir,
+who then held the post of _sahib-ush-shortah_, or captain of the
+guard. This remarkable personage (better known in history by his
+surname of Al-mansur) was the son of a religious devotee, and his
+condition in early life was so humble, that he supported himself as a
+public letter-writer in the streets of Cordova; but an accident having
+introduced him into the palace, he so skilfully wound his way among
+the intigues of the court, as to attain the highest place next the
+throne. But even this dignity was far from satisfying his ambition.
+Under various pretexts he destroyed or drove into exile, within a few
+years, all the princes of the blood, and others whose influence or
+station might have endangered the success of his projects, and
+concentrated in his own hands all the powers of the state; while the
+khalif, secluded from public view within his palace, was as completely
+a puppet in the hands of his all-powerful minister, as the khalifs of
+Bagdad at the same period in those of the _Emirs-al-Omrah_. Secure of
+the support of the soldiery, whose affections he had gained by his
+liberality, Al-mansur so little affected to disguise his assumption of
+supremacy, that he ordered his own name to be struck on the coin, and
+repeated in the public prayers, along with that of Hisham, thus
+arrogating to himself a share in the two most inalienable prerogatives
+of sovereignty. His robes were made of a peculiar fashion and stuff
+appropriated to royalty; he received embassies seated on the throne,
+and declared peace and war in his own name. To such utter helplessness
+was the khalif reduced,[22] that he was unable even to oppose the
+removal of the royal treasure fiom Cordova to a fortified palace which
+Al-mansur had built for his residence, not far from Az-zahra, and had
+named, as if in mockery, Az-zahirah;--and the Hajib was at one time
+obliged to quiet the murmurs of the populace, who doubted whether
+their sovereign was still in existence, by leading him in procession
+through the streets of the capital; "and the eyes of the people
+feasted on what had been so long concealed from them."
+
+    [22] Some historians even speak of this period as the "dynasty
+    of the Amirites," from Al-mansur's father, Abn Amir.
+
+But this daring usurpation was in part redeemed by qualities in the
+usurper worthy of a king. Though the bigotry of Al-masur led him to
+order the destruction of those volumes in the library of Al-hakem
+which treated of philosophy and the abstruse sciences, on the ground
+that such studies tended to irreligion, he was yet liberal to the
+learned men who visited his court at Az-zahirah, where he resided in
+royal splendour during the intervals of his campaigns; and he endeared
+hinself to the people, by his generosity, his rigid justice, and the
+strict control which he enforced over his subordinate officers. But it
+was on his fervent zeal for the cause of Islam, and his martial
+exploits against the Christians, (whence his surname of _Al-mansur_,
+or _the Victorious_, was derived,) that his fame and popularity
+chiefly rested. The martial spirit of the Spanish Moslems appears,
+from various anecdotes related by Al-Makkari, to have suffered great
+deterioration from the progress of luxury and decay of discipline; but
+the armies led by Al-mansur were mainly recruited from the fiery
+tribes of Barbary, and strengthened by numerous Christian slaves or
+Mamlukes, trained to serve their captors in arms against their own
+countrymen. With forces thus constituted, did Al-mansur, in whom once
+more shone forth the spirit of the Arab conquerors of past times,
+invade the Christian territories in each spring and autumn for
+twenty-six successive years, carrying the Moslem arms in triumph even
+to the shores of the "Green Sea," (Atlantic Ocean,) and into regions
+which Tarik and Musa had never reached. Astorga and Leon, in spite of
+the efforts of Bermudo II. to save his capital, were taken and razed
+to the ground in 983. Barcelona only escaped the same fate in the
+following year by submission and tribute; but the crowning glory of
+Al-mansur's achievements in the _al-jahid_ or holy war, was the
+capture, in 997, Santiago, the shrine and sepulchre of the patron
+saint of Spain. "No Moslem general had ever penetrated as far as that
+city, which is in an inaccessible position in the most remote part of
+Galicia, and is a sanctuary regarded by the Christians with veneration
+equal to that which the Moslems entertain for the Kaaba,"--but
+Al-mansur, supplied with provisions from a fleet which accompanied his
+march along the coast of Portugal, forced his way through the Galician
+defiles, and occupied the holy city without opposition--all the
+inhabitants having fled, according to Ibn Hayyan, with the exception
+of an old monk who tended the tomb. The city and cathedral were
+leveled with the ground; the shrine alone was left untouched in the
+midst of the ruins, from the belief of the Moslems that St James was
+the brother of the Messiah--and the church-bells were conveyed on the
+shoulders of the captives to Cordova, where they were suspended as
+lamps in the great mosque, to commemorate the triumph of Islam in the
+principal seat of Christian worship and pilgrimage.
+
+Such was the depression produced among the Christians by these
+repeated disasters, that, if we may believe Al-Makkari, "one of
+Al-mansur's soldiers having left his banner fixed in the earth on a
+mountain before a Christian town, the garrison dared not come out for
+several days after the retreat of the Moslem army, not knowing what
+troops might be behind it." The pressing sense of common danger, at
+length extinguished ("for the first time perhaps," as Conde remarks)
+the feuds of the Christian princes; and in the spring of 1002 the
+united forces of the Count of Castile, Sancho the Great of Navarre,
+and the King of Leon, confronted the Moslem host at Kalat-an-nosor,[23]
+(the Castle of the Eagles,) on the frontiers of Old Castile. The
+mighty conflict which ensued is very briefly dismissed by
+Al-Makkari--"Al-mansur attacked and defeated them with great
+loss"--but a far different account is given by the Christian
+chroniclers, who represent the Moslems as only saved from a total
+overthrow by the approach of night. It seems, in truth, to have been
+nearly a drawn battle, with immense carnage on both sides; but the
+advantage was decidedly with the Christians, who retained possession
+of the field; while Al-mansur, weakened by the loss of great numbers
+of his best men and officers, abandoned his camp, and retreated the
+next day across the Douro. In all his fifty-two campaigns he is said
+never before to have been defeated; and the chagrin occasioned by this
+severe reverse, joined to a malady under which he was previously
+suffering, ended his life shortly after[24] at Medinah-Selim,
+(Medinaceli.) He was buried by his sons in the same place; the dust
+which had adhered to his garments in his campaigns against the
+Christians, and which had been carefully preserved for the purpose,
+being placed in the tomb with the corpse--a practice not unusual at
+the funeral of a celebrated warrior. "This enlightened and
+never-vanquished Hajib"--says Al-Makkali, with whom Al-mansur is a
+favourite hero--"used continually to ask God to permit him to die in
+his service and in war against the infidels, and thus his desire was
+granted;... and after his death, the Mohammedan empire in Andalus
+began to show visible signs of decay."
+
+    [23] The precise locality of this famous battle is not very
+    clearly ascertained; but Conde places it betveen Soria and
+    Medinaceli.
+
+    [24] The battle is placed by the Christian writers in 998; but
+    the death of Al-mansur, which both Christians and Moslems
+    agree in stating to have taken place within a very short time,
+    is said by the latter to have been A.M. 392, A.D. 1002.
+
+Al-mansur had a worthy successor in his son Abdul-malek, who at once
+received the appointment of Hajib from the passive Khalif:--but on his
+death in 1008, the post was assumed by his brother Abdurrahman,
+popularly known as Shanjul, a Berber word signifying _madman_--a
+surname which he had earned by his habits of low vice and
+intemperance. Scarcely had he entered upon office, when, not contented
+with exercising sovereign authority, like his father and brother,
+under an appearance of delegation from the Khalif, he persuaded or
+compelled the feeble Hisham, who had no male issue, to appoint him
+_Wali-al-ahd,_ or heir-presumptive--the deed of nomination is given at
+length by Al-Makkari, and is a curious specimen of a state-paper. But
+this transfer was viewed with deep indignation by the people of
+Cordova, who were warmly attached to the line of their ancient
+princes; and their discontent being fomented by the members of the
+Umeyyan family, they rose in furious revolt during the absence of the
+Hajib on the Galician frontiers, deposed Hisham, and raised to the
+throne Mohammed-Al-muhdi, a great-grandson of Abdurrahman III.
+Abdurrahman, returning in haste to quell the insurrection, found
+himself deserted by his army, and was put to death with most of his
+family and principal adherents; and the power of the Amirites vanished
+in a day like the remembrance of dream. But the sceptre which had thus
+been struck from their grasp, found no other hand strong enough to
+seize it; and from the first deposition of Hisham II. in 1009, to the
+final dissolution of the monarchy on the abdication of Hisham III. in
+1031, the whole of Moslem Spain presented a frightful scene of
+anarchy and civil war. Besides the imbecile Hisham, who was at least
+once released and restored to the throne, and was personated by more
+than one pretender, the royal title was assumed, within twenty years
+by not fewer than six princes of the house of Umeyyah, and by three of
+a rival race--a branch of the Edrisites called Beni-Hammud, who
+endeavoured in the general confusion to assert their claims as
+descendants of the Khalif Ali. The aid of the Christians was called in
+by more than one faction; and Cordova was stormed and sacked after a
+long siege in 1013, by the African troops who followed the standard of
+Soliman Ab-muhdi, one of the Umeyyan competitors. The palaces of
+Az-zahra and Az-zahirah were utterly destroyed; the remains of Hakem's
+library, with the treasures amassed by former sovereigns, were either
+plundered or dispersed; nor did the ancient capital of Audalus, no
+more the seat of the Khalifate, ever recover its former grandeur. The
+provincial _walis_, many of whom owed their appointments to the Hajibs
+of the house of Amir, and were disaffected to the Beni-Umeyyah, every
+where threw off their allegiance and assumed independence, till only
+the districts in its immediate vicinity remained attached to Cordova,
+which was still considered the seat of the Mohammedan empire. The last
+Umeyyan prince who ruled there was a grandson of the great
+Abdurrahman, named Hisham Al-Mutadd; whom the inhabitants, after
+expelling the troops of the Beni-Hammud in 1027, invited to ascend the
+throne of his ancestors. "He was a mild and enlightened prince and
+possessed many brilliant qualities; but notwithstanding this, the
+volatile and degenerate citizens of Cordova grew discontented with
+him, and he was deposed by the army in 422, (A.D. 1031.) He left the
+capital and retired to Lerida, where he died in 428, (A.D. 1036.) He
+was the last member of that illustrious dynasty which had ruled over
+Andalus and a great portion of Africa for two hundred and eighty-four
+years, counting from the accession of Abdurrahman I., surnamed
+Ab-dakhel, in 138, (A.D. 756.) There is no God but God! He is the
+Almighty!"
+
+The fall of the Umeyyan khalifate closes the first of the two
+brilliant periods which illustrate the Arab history of Spain. The
+uninterrupted hereditary succession for ten generations, and the long
+average duration of the reign of each monarch, from the arrival in
+Spain of Abdurrahman I. in 756, to the death or disappearance of
+Hisham II. in 1009, are without a parallel it any other Moslem
+dynasty, with the single exception of the Ottoman line; and though, on
+pursuing the comparison, the Umeyyan princes cannot vie with the
+last-named race in extent of conquest and splendour of martial
+achievement, they far surpass not only the Ottomans, but almost every
+sovereign family in the annals of Islam, in the cultivation of kingly
+virtues and arts of peace, and the refinement and love of literature,
+which they introduced and fostered in their dominions. During the
+greater part of their rule, the court of Cordova was the most polished
+and enlightened in Europe removed equally from the martial rudeness of
+those of the Frank monarchs, and the punctilious attention to forms
+and jealous etiquette, within which the Grcek emperors studiously
+intrenched themselves. The useful arts, and in particular the science
+of agriculture, necessary for the support of a dense population, were
+cultivated to an extent of which no other country afforded an example;
+and the commerce which filled the ports of Spain, from all parts of
+Europe and the East, was the natural result of the industry of her
+people. In how great a degree the personal character of the Umeyyan
+sovereigns contributed to this state of political and social
+prosperity, is best proved by the rapid disruption and fall of the
+monarchy, when it passed into the feeble hands of Hisham II., and by
+the history of the two following centuries of anarchy, civil war, and
+foreign domination. But the sun of Andalusian glory, which had
+attained its meridian splendour under the Khalifs of Cordova, once
+more emerged before the close of its course from the clouds and
+darkness which surrounded it;--and its setting rays shone, with
+concentrated lustre, over the kingdom of GRANADA.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHERN MEXICO.
+
+A FRAGMENT FROM THE JOURNAL OF AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER.
+
+
+"A capital place this for our bivouac!" cried I, swinging myself off
+my mule, and stretching my arms and legs, which were stiffened by a
+long ride.
+
+It _was_ a fairish place, to all appearances--a snug ravine, well
+shaded by mahogany-trees, the ground covered with the luxuriant
+vegetation of that tropical region, a little stream bubbling and
+leaping and dashing down one of the high rocks that flanked the
+hollow, and rippling away through the tall fern towards the rear of
+the spot where we had halted, at the distance of a hundred yards from
+which the ground was low and shelving.
+
+"A capital place this for our bivouac!"
+
+My companion nodded. As to our lazy Mexican _arrieros_ and servants,
+they said nothing, but began making arrangements for passing the
+night. Curse the fellows! If they had seen us preparing to lie down in
+a swamp, cheek by jowl with an alligator, I believe they would not
+have offered a word of remonstrance. Those Mexican half-breeds, half
+Indian half Spaniard, with sometimes a dash of the Negro, are
+themselves so little pervious to the dangers and evils of their soil
+and climate, that they never seem to remember that Yankee flesh and
+blood may be rather more susceptible; that niguas[25] and musquittoes,
+and _vomito prieto_, as they call their infernal fever, are no trifles
+to encounter; without mentioning the snakes, and scorpions, and
+alligators, and other creatures of the kind, which infest their
+strange, wild, unnatural, and yet beautiful country.
+
+    [25] The nigua is a small but very dangerous insect which
+    fixes itself in the feet, bores holes in the skin, and lays
+    its eggs there. These, if not extracted, (which extraction by
+    the by is a most painful operation) cause first an intolerable
+    itching, and subsequently sores and ulcers of a sufficiently
+    serious nature to entail the loss of the feet.
+
+I had come to Mexico in company with Jonathan Rowley, a youth of
+Virginian raising, six and twenty years of age, six feet two in his
+stockings, with the limbs of a Hercules and shoulders like the side of
+a house. It was towards the close of 1824; and the recent emancipation
+of Mexico from the Spanish yoke, and its self-formation into a
+republic, had given it a new and strong interest to us Americans. We
+had been told much, too, of the beauty of the country--but in this we
+were at first rather disappointed; and we reached the capital without
+having seen any thing, except some parts of the province of Vera Cruz,
+that could justify the extravagant encomiums we had heard bestowed in
+the States upon the splendid scenery of Mexico. We had not, however,
+to go far southward from the chief city, before the character of the
+country altered, and became such as to satisfy our most sanguine
+expectations. Forests of palms, of oranges, citrons, and bananas,
+filled the valleys: the marshes and low grounds were crowded with
+mahogany-trees, and with immense fern plants, in height equal to
+trees. All nature was on a gigantic scale--the mountains of an
+enormous height, the face of the country seamed and split by
+_barrancas_ or ravines, hundreds, ay, thousands of feet deep, and
+filled with the most abundant and varied vegetation. The sky, too, was
+of the deep glowing blue of the tropics, the sort of blue which seems
+varnished or clouded with gold. But this ardent climate and teeming
+soil are not without their disadvantages. Vermin and reptiles of all
+kinds, and the deadly fever of these latitudes, render the low lands
+uninhabitable for eight months out of the twelve. At the same time
+there are large districts which are comparatively free from these
+plagues--perfect gardens of Eden, of such extreme beauty that the mere
+act of living and breathing amongst their enchanting scenes, becomes a
+positive and real enjoyment. The heart seems to leap with delight, and
+the soul to be elevated, by the contemplation of those regions of
+fairy-like magnificence.
+
+The most celebrated among these favoured provinces is the valley of
+Oaxaca, in which two mountainous districts, the Mistecca and
+Tzapoteca, bear off the palm of beauty. It was through this immense
+valley, nearly three hundred leagues in length, and surrounded by the
+highest mountains in Mexico, that we were now journeying. The kind
+attention of our charge-d'affaires at the Mexican capital, had
+procured us every possible facility in travelling through a country,
+of which the soil was at that time rarely trodden by any but native
+feet. We had numerous letters to the alcaldes and authorities of the
+towns and villages which are sparingly sprinkled over the southern
+provinces of Mexico; we were to have escorts when necessary; every
+assistance, protection, and facility, were to be afforded us. But as
+neither the authorities nor his excellency, Uncle Sam's envoy, could
+make inns and houses where none existed, it followed that we were
+often obliged to sleep _a la belle etoile_, with the sky for a
+covering. And a right splendid roof it was to our bedchamber, that
+tropical sky, with its constellations, all new to us northerns, and
+every star magnified by the effect of the atmosphere to an incredible
+size. Mars and Saturn, Venus and Jupiter, had all disappeared; the
+great and little Bear were still to be seen; in the far distance the
+ship Argo and the glowing Centaur; and, beautiful above all, the
+glorious sign of Christianity the colossal Southern Cross, in all its
+brightness and sublimity, glittering in silvery magnificence out of
+its setting of dark blue crystal.
+
+We were travelling with a state and a degree of luxury that would have
+excited the contempt of our backwoodsmen; but in a strange country we
+thought it best to do as the natives did; and accordingly, instead of
+mounting our horses and setting forth alone, with our rifles slung
+over our shoulders, and a few handfuls of parched corn and dried flesh
+in our hunting pouches, we journeyed Mexican fashion, with a whole
+string of mules, a _topith_ or guide, a couple of _arrieros_ or
+muleteers, a cook, and one or two other attendants. While the latter
+were slinging our hammocks to the lowermost branches of a tree--for in
+that part of Mexico it is not very safe to sleep upon the ground, on
+account of the snakes and vermin--our _cocinero_ lit a fire against
+the rock, and in a very few minutes an iguana which we had shot that
+day was spitted and roasting before it. It looked strange to see this
+hideous creature, in shape between a lizard and a dragon, twisting and
+turning in the light of the fire; and its disgusting appearance might
+have taken away some people's appetites; but we knew by experience
+that there is no better eating than a roasted iguana. We made a hearty
+meal off this one, concluding it with a pull at the rum flask, and
+then clambered into our hammocks; the Mexicans stretched themselves on
+the ground with their heads upon the saddles of the mules, and both
+masters and men were soon asleep.
+
+It was somewhere about midnight when I was awakened by an
+indescribable sensation of oppression from the surrounding atmosphere.
+The air seemed to be no longer air, but some poisonous exhalation that
+had suddenly arisen and enveloped us. From the rear of the ravine in
+which we lay, billows of dark mephitic mist were rolling forward,
+surrounding us with their baleful influence. It was the _vomito
+prieto_, the fever itself, embodied in the shape of a fog. At the same
+moment, and while I was gasping for breath, a sort of cloud seemed to
+settle upon me, and a thousand stings, like redhot needles, were run
+into my hands, face, neck--into every part of my limbs and body that
+was not triply guarded by clothing. I instinctively stretched forth my
+hands and closed them, clutching by the action hundreds of enormous
+musquittoes, whose droning, singing noise how almost deafened me. The
+air was literally filled by a dense swarm of these insects; and the
+agony caused by their repeated and venomous stings was indescribable.
+It was a perfect plague of Egypt.
+
+Rowley, whose hammock was slung some ten yards from mine, soon gave
+tongue: I heard him kicking and plunging, spluttering and swearing,
+with a vigour and energy that would have been ludicrous under any
+other circumstances; but matters were just then too serious for a
+laugh. With the torture, for such it was, of the musquitto bites, and
+the effect of the insidious and poisonous vapours that were each
+moment thickening around me, I was already in a high state of fever,
+alternately glowing with heat and shivering with cold, my tongue
+parched, my eyelids throbbing, my brain seemingly on fire.
+
+There was a heavy thump upon the ground. It was Rowley jumping out of
+his hammock. "Damnation" roared he, "Where are we? On the earth, or
+under the earth?--We must be--we are--in their Mexican purgatory. We
+are, or there's no snakes in Virginny. Hallo, arrieros! Pablo!
+Matteo!"
+
+At that moment a scream--but a scream of such terror and anguish as I
+never heard before or since--a scream as of women in their hour of
+agony and extreme peril, sounded within a few paces of us. I sprang
+out of my hammock; and as I did so, two white and graceful female
+figures darted or rather flew by me, shrieking--and oh! in what
+heart-rending tones--for "_Socorro! Socorro! Por Dios_! Help! Help!"
+Close upon the heels of the fugitives, bounding and leaping along with
+enormous strides and springs, came three or four dark objects which
+resembled nothing earthly. The human form they certainly possessed;
+but so hideous and horrible, so unnatural and spectre-like was their
+aspect, that their sudden encounter in that gloomy ravine, and in the
+almost darkness that surrounded us, might well have shaken the
+strongest nerves. We stood for a second, Rowley and myself, paralysed
+with astonishment at these strange appearances; but another piercing
+scream restored to us our presence of mind. One of the women had
+either tripped or fallen from fatigue, and she lay a white heap, upon
+the ground. The drapery of the other was in the clutch of one of the
+spectres, or devils, or whatever they were, when Rowley, with a cry of
+horror, rushed forward and struck a furious blow at the monster with
+his _machetto_. At the same time, and almost without knowing how, I
+found myself engaged with another of the creatures. But the contest
+was no equal one. In vain did we stab and strike with our machettos;
+our antagonists were covered and defended with a hard bristly hide,
+which our knives, although keen and pointed, had great difficulty in
+penetrating; and on the other hand we found ourselves clutched in long
+sinewy arms, terminating in hands and fingers, of which the nails were
+as sharp and strong as an eagle's talons. I felt these horrible claws
+strike into my shoulders as the creature seized me, and, drawing me
+towards him, pressed me as in the hug of a bear; while his hideous
+half man half brute visage was grinning and snarling at me, and his
+long keen white teeth were snapping and gnashing within six inches of
+my face.
+
+"God of heaven! This is horrible! Rowley! Help me!"
+
+But Rowley, in spite of his gigantic strength, was powerless as an
+infant in the grasp of these terrible opponents. He was within a few
+paces of me, struggling with two of them, and making superhuman
+efforts to regain possession of his knife, which had dropped or been
+wrenched from his hand. And all this time, where were our arrieros?
+Were they attacked likewise? Why didn't they come and help us? All
+this time!--pshaw! it was no time: it all passed in the space of a few
+seconds, in the circumference of a few yards, and in the feeble
+glimmering light of the stars, and of the smouldering embers of our
+fire, which was at some distance from us.
+
+"Ha! That has told!" A stab, dealt with all the energy of despair, had
+entered my antagonist's side. But I was like to pay dearly for it.
+Uttering a deafening yell of pain and fury, the monster clasped me
+closer to his foul and loathsome body; his sharp claws, dug deeper
+into my back, seemed to tear up my flesh: the agony was
+insupportable--my eyes began to swim, and my senses to leave me. Just
+then--Crack! crack! Two--four--a dozen musket and pistol shots,
+followed by such a chorus of yellings and howlings and unearthly
+laughter! The creature that held me seemed startled--relaxed his grasp
+slightly. At that moment a dark arm was passed before my face, there
+was a blinding flash, a yell, and I fell to the ground released from
+the clutch of my opponent. I remember nothing more. Overcome by pain,
+fatigue, terror, and the noxious vapors of that vile ravine, my senses
+abandoned me, and I swooned away.
+
+When consciousness returned, I found myself lying upon some blankets,
+under a sort of arbour of foliage and flowers. It was broad day; the
+sun shone brightly, the blossoms smelled sweet, the gay-plumaged
+hummingbirds were darting and shooting about in the sunbeams like so
+many animated fragments of a prism. A Mexican Indian, standing beside
+my couch, and whose face was unknown to me, held out a cocoa-nutshell
+containing some liquid, which I eagerly seized, and drank off the
+contents. The draught (it was a mixture of citron juice and water)
+revived me greatly; and raising myself on my elbow, although with much
+pain and difficulty, I looked around, and beheld a scene of bustle and
+life which to me was quite unintelligible. Upon the shelving hillside
+on which I was lying, a sort of encampment was established. A number
+of mules and horses were wandering about at liberty, or fastened to
+trees and bushes, and eating the forage that had been collected and
+laid before them. Some were provided with handsome and commodious
+saddles, while others had pack-saddles, intended apparently for the
+conveyance of numerous sacks, cases, and wallets, that were scattered
+about on the ground. Several muskets and rifles were leaning here and
+there against the trees; and a dozen or fifteen men were occupied in
+various ways--some filling up saddle-bags or fastening luggage on the
+mules, others lying on the ground smoking, one party surrounding a
+fire at which cooking was going on. At a short distance from my bed
+was another similarly composed couch, occupied by a man muffled up in
+blankets, and having his back turned towards me, so that I was unable
+to obtain a view of his features.
+
+"What is all this? Where am I? Where is Rowley--our guide--where are
+they all?"
+
+"_Non entiendo_," answered my brown-visaged Ganymede, shaking his
+head, and with a good-humoured smile.
+
+"_Adonde estamos?_"
+
+"_In el valle de Chihuatan, in el gran valle de Oaxaca y Guatimala;
+diez leguas de Tarifa_. In the valley of Chihuatan; ten leagues from
+Tarifa."
+
+The figure lying on the bed near me now made a movement, and turned
+round. What could it be? Its face was like a lump of raw flesh
+streaked and stained with blood. No features were distinguishable.
+
+"Who are you? What are you?" cried I.
+
+"Rowley," it answered: "Rowley I was, at least, if those devils
+haven't changed me."
+
+"Then changed you they have," cried I, with a wild laugh. "Good God!
+have they scalped him alive, or what? That is not Rowley."
+
+The Mexican, who had gone to give some drink to the creature claiming
+to be Rowley, now opened a valise that lay on the ground a short
+distance off, and took out a small looking-glass, which he brought and
+held before my face. It was then only that I began to call to mind all
+that had occurred, and understood how it was that the mask of human
+flesh lying near me might indeed be Rowley. He was, if any thing, less
+altered than myself. My eyes were almost closed; my lips, nose, and
+whole face swollen to an immense size, and perfectly unrecognisable. I
+involuntarily recoiled in dismay and disgust at my own appearance. The
+horrible night passed in the ravine, the foul and suffocating vapours,
+the furious attack of the musquittoes--the bites of which, and the
+consequent fever and inflammation, had thus disfigured us--all
+recurred to our memory. But the women, the fight with the
+monsters--beasts--Indians--whatever they were, that was still
+incomprehensible. It was no dream: my back and shoulders were still
+smarting from the wounds that had been inflicted on them by the claws
+of those creatures, and I now felt that various parts of my limbs and
+body were swathed in wet bandages. I was mustering my Spanish to ask
+the Mexican who still stood by me for an explanation of all this, when
+I suddenly became aware of a great bustle in the encampment, and saw
+every body crowding to meet a number of persons who just then emerged
+from the high fern, and amongst whom I recognized our arrieros and
+servants. The new-comers were grouped around something which they
+seemed to be dragging along the ground; several women--for the most
+part young and graceful creatures, their slender supple forms muffled
+in the flowing picturesque _reboxos_ and _frazadas_--preceded the
+party, looking back occasionally with an expression of mingled horror
+and triumph; all with rosaries in their hands, the beads of which ran
+rapidly through their fingers, while they occasionally kissed the
+cross, or made the sign on their breasts or in the air.
+
+"_Un Zambo muerto! Un Zambo Muerto!_" shouted they as they drew near.
+
+"_Han matado un Zambo!_ They have killed a Zambo!" repeated my
+attendant in a tone of exultation.
+
+The party came close up to where Rowley and I were lying; the women
+stood aside, jumping and laughing, and crossing themselves, and crying
+out "_Un Zambo! Un Zambo Muerto!_" the group opened, and we saw, lying
+dead upon the ground, one of our horrible antagonists of the preceding
+night.
+
+"Good God, what is that?" cried Rowley and I, with one breath. "_Un
+demonio!_ a devil!"
+
+"_Perdonen vos, Senores--Un Zambo mono--muy terribles los Zambos._
+Terrible monkeys these Zambos."
+
+"Monkeys!" cried I.
+
+"Monkeys!" repeated poor Rowley, raising himself up into a sitting
+posture by the help of his hands. "Monkeys--apes--by Jove! We've been
+fighting with monkeys, and it's they who have mauled us in this way.
+Well, Jonathan Rowley, think of your coming from old Virginny to
+Mexico to be whipped by a monkey. It's gone goose with _your_
+character. You can never show your face in the States again. Whipped
+by an ape!--an ape, with a tail and a hairy--O Lord! Whipped by a
+monkey!"
+
+And the ludicrousness of the notion overcoming his mortification, and
+the pain of his wounds and bites, he sank back upon the bed of
+blankets and banana leaves, laughing as well as his swollen face and
+sausage-looking lips would allow him.
+
+It was as much as I could do to persuade myself, that the carcass
+lying before me had never been inhabited by a human soul. It was
+humiliating to behold the close affinity between this huge ape and our
+own species. Had it not been for the tail, I could have fancied I saw
+the dead body of some prairie hunter dressed in skins. It was exactly
+like a powerful, well-grown man; and even the expression of the face
+had more of bad human passions than of animal instinct. The feet and
+thighs were those of a muscular man: the legs rather too curved and
+calfless, though I have seen Negroes who had scarcely better ones; the
+tendons of the hands stood out like whipcords; the nails were as long
+as a tiger's claws. No wonder that we had been overmatched in our
+struggle with the brutes. No man could have withstood them. The arms
+of this one were like packets of cordage, all muscle, nerve, and
+sinew; and the hands were clasped together with such force, that the
+efforts of eight or ten Mexicans and Indians were insufficient to
+disunite them.
+
+Whatever remained to be cleared up in our night's adventures was now
+soon explained. Our guide, through ignorance or thoughtlessness, had
+allowed us to take up our bivouac within a very unsafe distance of one
+of the most pestiferous swamps in the whole province. Shortly after we
+had fallen asleep, a party of Mexican travellers had arrived, and
+established themselves within a few hundred yards of us, but on a
+rising ground, where they avoided the mephitic vapours and the
+musquittoes which had so tortured Rowley and myself. In the night two
+of the women, having ventured a short distance from the encampment,
+were surprised by the zambos, or huge man-apes, common in some parts
+of Southern Mexico; and finding themselves cut off from their
+friends, had fled they knew not whither, fortunately for them taking
+the direction of our bivouac. Their screams, our shouts, and the
+yellings and diabolical laughter of the zambos, had brought the
+Mexicans to our assistance. The monkeys showed no fight after the
+first volley; several of then must have been wounded, but only the one
+now lying before us had remained upon the field.
+
+The Mexicans we had fallen amongst were on the Tzapoteca, principally
+cochineal gatherers, and kinder-hearted people there could not well
+be. They seemed to think they never could do enough for us; the women
+especially, and more particularly the two whom we had endeavoured to
+rescue from the power of the apes. These latter certainly had cause to
+be grateful. It made us shudder to think of their fate had they not
+met with us. It was the delay caused by our attacking the brutes that
+had given the Mexicans time to come up.
+
+Every attention was shown to us. We were fanned with palm leaves,
+refreshed with cooling drinks, our wounds carefully dressed and
+bandaged, our heated, irritated, musquitto-bitten limbs and faces
+washed with balsam and the juice of herbs: more tender and careful
+nurses it would be impossible to find. We soon began to feel better,
+and were able to sit up and look about us; carefully avoiding,
+however, to look at each other, for we could not get reconciled to the
+horrible appearance of our swollen, bloody, and disgusting features.
+From our position on the rising ground, we had a full view over the
+frightful swamp at the entrance of which all our misfortunes had
+happened. There it lay, steaming like a great kettle; endless mists
+rising from it, out of which appeared here and there the crown of some
+mighty tree towering above the banks of vapour. To the left, cliffs
+and crags were to be seen which had the appearance of being baseless,
+and of swimming on the top of the mist. The vultures and carrion-birds
+circled screaming above the huge caldron, or perched on the tops of
+the tall palms, which looked like enormous umbrellas, or like the
+roofs of Chinese summer-houses. Out of the swamp itself proceeded the
+yellings, snarlings, and growlings of the alligators, bull-frogs, and
+myriads of unclean beasts that it harboured.
+
+The air was unusually sultry and oppressive: from time to time the
+rolling of distant thunder was audible. We could hear the Mexicans
+consulting amongst themselves as to the propriety of continuing their
+journey, to which our suffering state seemed to be the chief obstacle.
+From what we could collect of their discourse, they were unwilling to
+leave us in this dangerous district, and in our helpless condition,
+with a guide and attendants who were either untrustworthy or totally
+incompetent to lead us aright. Yet there seemed to be some pressing
+necessity for continuing the march; and presently some of the older
+Mexicans, who appeared to have the direction of the caravan, came up
+to us and enquired how we felt, and if we thought we were able to
+travel; adding, that from the signs on the earth and in the air, they
+feared a storm, and that the nearest habitation or shelter was at many
+leagues' distance. Thanks to the remedies that had been applied, our
+sufferings were much diminished. We felt weak and hungry, and telling
+the Mexicans we should be ready to proceed in half an hour, we desired
+our servants to get us something to eat. But our new friends
+forestalled them, and brought us a large piece of iguana, with roasted
+bananas, and cocoa-nutshell cups full of coffee, to all of which
+Rowley and I applied ourselves with much gusto. Meanwhile our
+muleteers and the Tzapotecans were busy packing their beasts and
+making ready for the start.
+
+We had not eaten a dozen mouthfuls when we say a man running down the
+hill with a branch in each hand. As soon as he appeared, a number of
+the Mexicans left their occupations and hurried to meet him.
+
+"_Siete horas!_" shouted the man. "Seven hours, and no more!"
+
+"No more than seven hours!" echoed the Tzapotecans, in tones of the
+wildest terror and alarm. "_La Santissima nos guarde!_ It will take
+more than ten to reach the village."
+
+"What's all that about?" said I with my mouth full, to Rowley.
+
+"Don't know--some of their Indian tricks, I suppose."
+
+"_Que es esto_?" asked I carelessly. "What's the matter?"
+
+"_Que es esto_!" repeated an old Tzapotecan, with long grey hair
+curling from under his _sombrero_, and a withered but finely marked
+countenance. "_Las aguas! El ouracan!_ In seven hours the deluge and
+the hurricane!"
+
+"_Vamos, por la Santissima!_ For the blessed Virgin's sake let us be
+gone!" cried a dozen of the Mexicans, pushing two green boughs into
+our very faces.
+
+"What are those branches?"
+
+"From the tempest-tree--the prophet of the storm," was the reply.
+
+And Tzapotecans and women, arrieros and servants, ran about in the
+utmost terror and confusion, with cries of "_Vamos, paso redoblado_!
+Off with us, or we are all lost, man and beast," and saddling,
+packing, and scrambling on their mules. And before Rowley and I knew
+where we were, they tore us away from our iguana and coffee, and
+hoisted and pushed us into our saddles. Such a scene of bustle and
+desperate hurry I never beheld. The place where the encampment had
+been was alive with men and women, horses and mules, shouting,
+shrieking and talking, neighing and kicking; but with all the
+confusion there was little time lost, and in less than three minutes
+from the first alarm being given, we were scampering away over stock
+and stone, in a long, wild, irregular sort of train.
+
+The rapidity and excitement of our ride seemed to have the effect of
+calming our various sufferings, or of making us forget them; and we
+soon thought no more of the fever, or of stings or musquitto bites. It
+was a ride for life or death, and our horses stepped out as if they
+knew how much depended on their exertions.
+
+In the hurry and confusion we had been mounted on horses instead of
+our our own mules; and splendid animals they were. I doubt if our
+Virginians could beat them, and that is saying a great deal. There was
+no effort or straining in their movements; it seemed mere play to them
+to surmount the numerous difficulties we encountered on our road. Over
+mountain and valley, swamp and barranca, always the same steady
+surefootedness--crawling like cats over the soft places, gliding like
+snakes up the steep rocky ascents, and stretching out with prodigious
+energy when the ground was favourable; yet with such easy action that
+we scarcely felt the motion. We should have sat in the roomy Spanish
+saddles as comfortably as in arm-chairs, had it not been for the
+numerous obstacles in our path, which was strewed with fallen trees
+and masses of rock. We were obliged to be perpetually stooping and
+bowing our heads to avoid the creeping plants that swung and twined
+and twisted across the track, intermingled often with huge thorns as
+long as a man's arm. These latter stuck out from the trees on which
+they grew like so many brown bayonets; and a man who had run up
+against one of them, would have been transfixed by it as surely as
+though it had been of steel. We pushed on, however, in Indian file,
+following the two guides, who kept at the head of the party, and
+making our way through places where a wild-cat would have difficulty
+in passing; through thickets of mangroves, mimosas, and tall fern, and
+cactuses with their thorny leaves full twenty feet long; the path
+turning and winding all the while. Now and then a momentary
+improvement in the nature of the ground enabled us to catch a glimpse
+of the whole column of march. We were struck by its picturesque
+appearance, the guides in front acting as pioneers, and looking out on
+all sides as cautiously and anxiously as though they had been soldiers
+expecting an ambuscade; the graceful forms of the women bowing and
+bending over their horses' manes, and often leaving fragments of their
+mantillas and rebozas on the branches and thorns of the labyrinth
+through which we were struggling. But it was no time to indulge in
+contemplation of the picturesque, and of this we were constantly made
+aware by the anxious vociferations of the Mexicans. "_Vamos! Por Dios,
+vamos!_" cried they, if the slightest symptom of flagging became
+visible in the movements of any one of the party; and at the words,
+our horses, as though gifted with understanding, pushed forward with
+renewed vigour and alacrity.
+
+On we went--up hill and down, in the depths of the valley and over the
+soft fetid swamp. That valley of Oaxaca has just as much right to be
+called a valley as our Alleghanies would have to be called bottoms. In
+the States we should call it a chain of mountains. Out of it rise at
+every step hills a good two thousand feet above the level of the
+valley, and four or five thousand above that of the sea; but these are
+lost sight of, and become flat ground by the force of comparison; that
+is, when compared with the gigantic mountains that surround the valley
+on all sides like a frame. And what a splendid frame they do compose,
+those colossal mountains, in their rich variety of form and colouring!
+here shining out like molten gold, there changing to a dark bronze;
+covered lower down with various shades of green, and with the crimson
+and purple, and violet and bright yellow, and azure and dazzling
+white, of the millions of paulinias and convolvoluses and other
+flowering plants, from amongst which rise the stately palm-trees, full
+a hundred feet high, their majestic green turbans towering like
+sultans' heads above the luxuriance of the surrounding flower and
+vegetable world. Then the mahogany-trees, the chicozapotes, and again
+in the barrancas the candelabra-like cactuses, and higher up the
+knotted and majestic live oak. An incessant change of plants, trees,
+and climate. We had been five hours in the saddle, and had already
+changed our climate three times; passed from the temperate zone, the
+_tierra templada_, into the torrid heat of the _tierra muy caliente_.
+It was in the latter temperature that we found ourselves at the
+expiration of the above-named time, dripping with perspiration,
+roasting and stewing in the heat. We were surrounded by a new world of
+plants and animals. The borax and mangroves and fern were here as
+lofty as forest-trees, whilst the trees themselves shot up like church
+steeples. In the thickets around us were numbers of black tigers--we
+saw dozens of those cowardly sneaking beasts--iguanas full three feet
+long, squirrels double the size of any we had ever seen, and panthers,
+and wild pigs, and jackals, and apes and monkeys of every tribe and
+description, who threatened and grinned and chattered at us from the
+branches of the trees. But what is that yonder to the right, that
+stands out so white against the dark blue sky and the bronze-coloured
+rocks? A town--Quidricovi, d'ye call it?
+
+We had now ridden a good five or six leagues, and begun to think we
+had escaped the _aguas_ or deluge, of which the prospect had so
+terrified our friends the Tzapotecans. Rowley calculated, as he went
+puffing and grumbling along, that it wouldn't do any harm to let our
+beasts draw breath for a minute or two. The scrambling and constant
+change of pace rendered necessary by the nature of the road, or rather
+track, that we followed, was certainly dreadfully fatiguing both to
+man and beast. As for conversation it was out of the question. We had
+plenty to do to avoid getting our necks broken, or our teeth knocked
+out, as we struggled along, up and down barrancas, through marshes and
+thickets, over rocks and fallen trees, and through mimosas and bushes
+laced and twined together with thorns and creeping plants--all of
+which would have been beautiful in a picture, but was most infernally
+unpoetical in reality.
+
+"_Vamos! Por la Santissima Madre, vamos!_" yelled our guides, and the
+cry was taken up by the Mexicans, in a shrill wild tone that jarred
+strangely upon our ears, and made the horses start and strain forward.
+Hurra! on we go, through thorns and bushes, which scratch and flog us,
+and tear our clothes to rags. We shall be naked if this lasts long. It
+is a regular race. In front the two guides, stooping, nodding, bowing,
+crouching down, first to one side, then to the other, like a couple of
+mandarins or Indian idols--behind them a Tzapotecan in his picturesque
+capa, then the women, then more Tzapotecans. There is little thought
+about precedence or ceremony; and Rowley and I, having been in the
+least hurry to start, find ourselves bringing up the rear of the whole
+column.
+
+"_Vamos! Por la Santissima! Las aguas, las aguas!_" is again yelled by
+twenty voices. Hang the fools! Can't they be quiet with their eternal
+_vamos_? We can have barely two leagues more to go to reach the
+_rancho_, or village, they were talking of, and appearances are not as
+yet very alarming. It is getting rather thick to be sure; but that's
+nothing, only the exhalations from the swamp, for we are again
+approaching one of those cursed swamps, and can hear the music of the
+alligators and bullfrogs. There they are, the beauties; a couple of
+them are taking a peep at us, sticking their elegant heads and long
+delicate snouts out of the slime and mud. The neighbourhood is none of
+the best; but luckily the path is firm and good, carefully made,
+evidently by Indian hands. None but Indians could live and labour and
+travel habitually, in such a pestilential atmosphere. Thank God! we
+are out of it at last. Again on firm forest ground, amidst the
+magnificent monotony of the eternal palms and mahogany-trees. But--see
+there!
+
+A new and surpassingly beautiful landscape burst suddenly upon our
+view, seeming to dance in the transparent atmosphere. On either side
+mountains, those on the left in deep shadow, those on the right
+standing forth like colossal figures of light, in a beauty and
+splendour that seemed really supernatural, every tree, every branch
+shining in its own vivid and glorious colouring. There lay the valley
+in its tropical luxuriance and beauty, one sheet of bloom and blossom
+up to the topmost crown of the palm-trees, that shot up, some of them,
+a hundred and fifty and a hundred and eighty feet high. Thousands and
+millions of convolvoluses, paulinias, bignonias, dendrobiums, climbing
+from the fern to the tree trunks, from the trunks to the branches and
+summits of the trees, and thence again falling gracefully down, and
+catching and clinging to the mangroves and blocks of granite. It burst
+upon us like a scene of enchantment, as we emerged from the darkness
+of the forest into the dazzling light and colouring of that glorious
+valley.
+
+"_Misericordia, misericordia! Audi nos peccadores! Misericordia, las
+aquas!_" suddenly screamed and exclaimed the Mexicans in various
+intonations of terror and despair. We looked around us. What can be
+the matter? We see nothing. Nothing, except that from just behind
+those two mountains, which project like mighty promontories into the
+valley, a cloud is beginning to rise. "What is it? What is wrong?" A
+dozen voices answered us--
+
+"_Por la Santa Virgen_, for the holy Virgin's sake, on, on! _No hay
+tiempo para hablar_. We have still two leagues to go, and in one hour
+comes the flood."
+
+And they recommenced their howling, yelling chorus of "_Misericordia!
+Audi nos peccadores!_" and "_Santissima Virgen_, and _Todos santos y
+angeles!_"
+
+"Are the fellows mad?" shouted Rowley, "What if the water does come?
+It won't swallow you. A ducking more or less is no such great matter.
+You are not made of sugar or salt. Many's the drenching I've had in
+the States, and none the worse for it. Yet our rains are no child's
+play neither."
+
+On looking round us, however, we were involuntarily struck with the
+sudden change in the appearance of the heavens. The usual golden black
+blue colour of the sky was gone, and had been replaced by a dull
+gloomy grey. The quality of the air appeared also to have changed; it
+was neither very warm nor very cold, but it had lost its lightness and
+elasticity, and seemed to oppress and weigh us down. Presently we saw
+the dark cloud rise gradually from behind the hills, completely
+clearing their summits, and then sweeping along until it hung over the
+valley, in form and appearance like some monstrous night-moth, resting
+the tips of its enormous wings on the mountains on either side. To our
+right we still saw the roofs and walls of Quidricovi, apparently at a
+very short distance.
+
+"Why not go to Quidricovi?" shouted I to the guides, "we cannot be far
+off."
+
+"More than five leagues," answered the men, shaking their heads and
+looking up anxiously at the huge moth, which was still creeping and
+crawling on, each moment darker and more threatening. It was like
+some frightful monster, or the fabled Kraken, working itself along by
+its claws, which were struck deep into the mountain-wall on either
+side of its line of progress, and casting its hideous shadow over hill
+and dale, forest and valley, clothing them in gloom and darkness. To
+our right hand and behind us, the mountains were still of a glowing
+golden red, lighted up by the sun, but to the left and in our front
+all was black and dark. With the same glance we beheld the deepest
+gloom and the brightest day, meeting each other but not mingling. It
+was a strange and ominous sight.
+
+Ominous enough; and the brute creation seem to feel it so as well as
+ourselves. The chattering parrots, the hopping, gibbering, quarrelsome
+apes, all the birds and beasts, scream and cry and flutter and spring
+about, as though seeking a refuge from some impending danger. Even our
+horses begin to tremble and groan--refuse to go on, start and snort.
+The whole animal world is in commotion, as if seized with an
+overwhelming panic. The forest is teeming with inhabitants. Whence
+come they, all these living things? On every side is heard the howling
+and snarling of beasts, the frightened cries and chirpings of birds.
+The vultures and turkey-buzzards, that a few minutes before were
+circling high in the air, are now screaming amidst the branches of the
+mahogany-trees; every creature that has life is running, scampering,
+flying--apes and tigers, birds and creeping things.
+
+"_Vamos, por la Santissima!_ On! or we are all lost."
+
+And we ride, we rush along--neither masses of rock, nor fallen trees,
+nor thorns and brambles, check our wild career. Over every thing we
+go, leaping, scrambling, plunging, riding like desperate men, flying
+from a danger of which the nature is not clearly defined, but which we
+feel to be great and imminent. It is a frightful terror-striking foe,
+that huge night-moth, which comes ever nearer, growing each moment
+bigger and blacker. Looking behind us, we catch one last glimpse of
+the red and bloodshot sun, which the next instant disappears behind
+the edge of the mighty cloud.
+
+Still we push on. Hosts of tigers, and monkeys both large and small,
+and squirrels and jackals, come close up to us as if seeking shelter,
+and then finding none, retreat howling into the forest. There is not a
+breath of air stirring, yet all nature--plants and trees, men and
+beasts--seem to quiver and tremble with apprehension. Our horses pant
+and groan as they bound along with dilated nostrils and glaring eyes,
+trembling in every limb, sweating at every pore, half wild with
+terror; giving springs and leaps that more resemble those of a hunted
+tiger than of a horse.
+
+The prayer and exclamations of the terrified Mexicans, continued
+without intermission, whispered and shrieked and groaned in every
+variety of intonation. The earthy hue of intense terror was upon every
+countenance. For some moments a death-like stillness, an unnatural
+calm, reigned around us: it was as though the elements were holding in
+their breath, and collecting their energies for some mighty outbreak.
+Then came a low indistinct moaning sound, that seemed to issue from
+the bowels of the earth. The warning was significant.
+
+"Halt! stop" shouted we to the guides. "Stop! and let us seek shelter
+from the storm."
+
+"On! for God's sake, on! or we are lost," was the reply.
+
+Thank Heaven! the path is getting wider--we come to a descent--they
+are leading us out of the forest. If the storm had come on while we
+were among the trees, we might be crushed to death by the falling
+branches. We are close to a barranca.
+
+"_Alerto! Alerto!_" shrieked the Mexicans. "_Madre de Dios! Dios!
+Dios!"_
+
+And well might they call to God for help in that awful moment. The
+gigantic night-moth gaped and shot forth tongues of fire--a ghastly
+white flame, that contrasted strangely and horribly with the dense
+black cloud from which it issued. There was a peal of thunder that
+seemed to shake the earth, then a pause during which nothing was heard
+but the panting of our horses as they dashed across the barranca, and
+began straining up the steep side of a knoll or hillock. The cloud
+again opened: for a second every thing was lighted up. Another thunder
+clap, and then, as though the gates of its prison had been suddenly
+burst open, the tempest came forth in its might and fury, breaking,
+crushing, and sweeping away all that opposed it. The trees of the
+forest staggered and tottered for a moment, as if making an effort to
+bear up against the storm; but it was in vain: the next instant, with
+a report like that of ten thousand cannon, whole acres of mighty trees
+were snapped off, their branches shivered, their roots torn up; it was
+no longer a forest but a chaos; an ocean of boughs and tree-trunks,
+that were tossed about like the waves of the sea, or thrown into the
+air like straws. The atmosphere was darkened with dust, and leaves,
+and branches.
+
+"God be merciful to us! Rowley! where are ye?--No answer. What is
+become of them all?"
+
+A second blast more furious than the first. Can the mountains resist
+it? will they stand? By the Almighty! they do not. The earth trembles;
+the hillock, on the leeside of which we are, rocks and shakes; and the
+air grows thick and suffocating--full of dust and saltpetre and
+sulphur. We are like to choke. All around is dark as night. We can see
+nothing, hear nothing but the howling of the hurricane, and the
+thunder and rattle of falling trees and shivered branches.
+
+Suddenly the hurricane ceases, and all is hushed; but so suddenly that
+the charge is startling and unnatural. No sound is audible save the
+creaking and moaning of the trees with which the ground is cumbered.
+It is like a sudden pause in a battle, when the roar of the cannon and
+clang of charging squadrons cease, and nought is heard but the
+groaning of the wounded, the agonized sobs and gasps of the dying.
+
+The report of a pistol is heard; then another, a third, hundreds,
+thousands of them. It is the flood, _las aguas_; the shots are drops
+of rain; but such drops! each as big as a hen's egg. They strike with
+the force of enormous hailstones--stunning and blinding us. The next
+moment there is no distinction of drops, the windows of heaven are
+opened; it is no longer rain nor flood, but a sea, a cataract, a
+Niagara. The hillock on which I am standing, undermined by the waters,
+gives way and crumbles under me; in ten seconds' time I find myself in
+the barranca, which is converted into a river, off my horse, which is
+gone I know not whither. The only person I see near me is Rowley, also
+dismounted and struggling against the stream, which is already up to
+our waists, and sweeps along with it huge branches and entire trees,
+that threaten each moment to carry us away with them, or to crush us
+against the rocks. We avoid these dangers, God knows how, make violent
+efforts to stem the torrent and gain the side of the barranca;
+although, even should we succeed, it is so steep that we can scarcely
+hope to climb it without assistance. And whence is that assistance to
+come? Of the Mexicans we see or hear nothing. They are doubtless all
+drowned or dashed to pieces. They were higher up on the hillock than
+we were, must consequently have been swept down with more force, and
+were probably carried away by the torrent. Nor can we hope for a
+better fate. Wearied by our ride, weakened by the fever and sufferings
+of the preceding night, we are in no condition to strive much longer
+with the furious elements. For one step that we gain, we lose two. The
+waters rise; already they are nearly up to our armpits. It is in vain
+to resist any longer. Our fate is sealed.
+
+"Rowley, all is over--let us die like men. God have mercy on our
+souls!"
+
+Rowley was a few paces higher up the barranca. He made me no answer,
+but looked at me with a calm, cold, and yet somewhat regretful smile
+upon his countenance. Then all at once he ceased the efforts he was
+making to resist the stream and gain the bank, folded his arms on his
+breast and gave a look up and around him as though to bid farewell to
+the world he was about to leave. The current was sweeping him rapidly
+down towards me, when suddenly a wild hurra burst from his lips, and
+he recommenced his struggles against the waters, striving violently to
+retain a footing on the slippery, uneven bed of the stream.
+
+"_Tenga! Tenga!_" screamed a dozen voices, that seemed to proceed from
+spirits of the air; and at the same moment something whistled about my
+ears and struck me a smart blow across the face. With the instinct of
+a drowning man, I clutched the _lasso_ that had been thrown to me.
+Rowley was at my elbow and seized it also. It was immediately drawn
+tight, and by its aid we gained the bank, and began ascending the side
+of the barranca, composed of rugged, declivitous rocks, affording but
+scanty foot-hold. God grant the lasso may prove tough! The strain on
+it is fearful. Rowley is a good fifteen stone, and I am no feather;
+and in some parts of our perilous ascent the rocks are almost as
+perpendicular and smooth as a wall of masonry, and we are obliged to
+cling with our whole weight to the lasso, which seems to stretch, and
+crack, and grow visibly thinner. Nothing but a strip of twisted
+cow-hide between us and a frightful agonizing death on the sharp rocks
+and in the foaming waters below. But the lasso holds good, and now the
+chief peril is past: we get some sort of footing--a point of rock, or
+a tree-root to clutch at. Another strain up this rugged slope of
+granite, another pull at the lasso; a leap, a last violent effort,
+and--_Viva_!--we are seized under the arms, dragged up, held upon our
+feet for a moment, and then--we sink exhausted to the ground in the
+midst of the Tzapotecans, mules, arrieros, guides, and women, who are
+sheltered from the storm in a sort of natural cavern. At the moment at
+which the hillock had given way under Rowley and myself, who were a
+short distance in rear of the party, the Mexicans had succeeded in
+attaining firm footing on a broad rocky ledge, a shelf of the
+precipice that flanked the barranca. Upon this ledge, which gradually
+widened into a platform, they found themselves in safety under some
+projecting crags that sheltered them completely from the tempest.
+Thence they looked down upon the barranca, where they descried Rowley
+and myself struggling for our lives in the roaring torrent; and
+thence, by knotting several lassos together, they were able to give us
+the opportune aid which had rescued us from our desperate situation.
+But whether this aid had come soon enough to save our lives was still
+a question, or at least for some time appeared to be so. The life
+seemed driven out of our bodies by all we had gone through: we were
+unable to move a finger, and lay helpless and motionless, with only a
+glimmering indistinct perception, not amounting to consciousness, of
+what was going on around us. Fatigue, the fever, the immersion in cold
+water when reeking with perspiration, the sufferings of all kinds we
+had endured in the course of the last twenty hours, had completely
+exhausted and broken us down.
+
+The storm did not last long in its violence, but swept onwards,
+leaving a broad track of desolation behind it. The Mexicans
+recommenced their journey, with the exception of four or five who
+remained with us and our arrieros and servants. The village to which
+we were proceeding was not above a league off; but even that short
+distance Rowley and myself were in no condition to accomplish. The
+kind-hearted Tzapotecans made us swallow cordials, stripped off our
+drenched and tattered garments, and wrapped us in an abundance of
+blankets. We fell into a deep sleep, which lasted all that evening and
+the greater part of the night, and so much refreshed us that about an
+hour before daybreak we were able to resume our march--at a slow pace,
+it is true, and suffering grievously in every part of our bruised and
+wounded limbs and bodies, at each jolt or rough motion of the mules on
+which we were clinging, rather than sitting.
+
+Our path lay over hill and dale, perpetually rising and falling. We
+soon got out of the district or zone that had been swept by the
+preceding day's hurricane, and after nearly an hour's ride, we paused
+on the crest of a steep descent, at the foot of which, as our guides
+informed us, lay the land of promise, the long looked-for _rancho_.
+While the muleteers were seeing to the girths of their beasts, and
+giving the due equilibrium to the baggage, before commencing the
+downward march, Rowley and I sat upon our mules, wrapped in large
+Mexican _capas_, gazing at the morning-star as it sank down and grew
+gradually paler and fainter. Suddenly the eastern sky began to
+brighten, and a brilliant beam appeared in the west, a point of light
+no bigger than a star--but yet not a star; it was of a far rosier hue.
+The next moment a second sparkling spot appeared, near to the first,
+which now swelled out into a sort of fiery tongue, that seemed to lick
+round the silvery summit of the snow-clad mountain. As we gazed,
+five--ten--twenty hill tops were tinged with the same rose-coloured
+glow; in another moment they became like fiery banners spread out
+against the heavens, while sparkling tongues and rays of golden light
+flashed and flamed round them, springing like meteors from one
+mountain summit to another, lighting them up like a succession of
+beacons. Scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the distant pinnacles
+of the mountains had appeared to us as huge phantom-like figures of a
+silvery white, dimly marked out upon a dark star-spangled ground; now
+the whole immense chain blazed like volcanoes covered with glowing
+lava, rising out of the darkness that still lingered on their flanks
+and bases, visible and wonderful witnesses to the omnipotence of _him_
+who said, "Let there be light, and there was light."
+
+Above, all was broad day, flaming sunlight; below, all black night.
+Here and there streams of light burst through clefts and openings in
+the mountains, and then ensued an extraordinary kind of conflict. The
+shades of darkness seemed to live and move, to struggle against the
+bright beams that fell amongst them and broke their masses, forcing
+them down the wooded heights, tearing them asunder and dispersing them
+like tissues of cobwebs; so that successively, and as if by a stroke
+of enchantment, there appeared, first the deep indigo blue of the
+tamarinds and chicozapotes, then the bright green of the sugar-canes,
+lower down the darker green of the nopal-trees, lower still the white
+and green and gold and bright yellow of the orange and citron groves,
+and lowest of all, the stately fan-palms, and date-palms, and bananas;
+all glittering with millions of dewdrops, that covered them like a
+ganze veil embroidered with diamonds and rubies. And still in the very
+next valley all was utter darkness.
+
+We sat silent and motionless, gazing at this scene of enchantment.
+
+Presently the sun rose higher, and a flood of light illumined the
+whole valley, which lay some few hundred feet below us--a perfect
+garden, such as no northern imagination could picture forth; a garden
+of sugar-canes, cotton, and nopal-trees, intermixed with thickets of
+pomegranate and strawberry-trees, and groves of orange, fig, and
+lemon, giants of their kind, shooting up to a far greater height than
+the oak attains in the States--every tree a perfect hothouse, a
+pyramid of flowers, covered with bloom and blossom to its topmost
+spray. All was light, and freshness, and beauty; every object seemed
+to dance and rejoice in the clear elastic golden atmosphere. It was an
+earthly paradise, fresh from the hand of its Creator, and at first we
+could discover no sign of man or his works. Presently, however, we
+discerned the village lying almost at our feet, the small stone houses
+overgrown with flowers and embedded in trees; so that scarcely a
+square foot of roof or wall was to be seen. Even the church was
+concealed in a garland of orange-trees, and had lianas and
+star-flowered creepers climbing over and dangling on it, up as high as
+the slender cross that surmounted its square white tower. As we gazed,
+the first sign of life appeared in the village. A puff of blue smoke
+rose curling and spiral from a chimney, and the matin bell rang out
+its summons to prayer. Our Mexicans fell on their knees and crossed
+themselves, repeating their Ave-marias. We involuntarily took off our
+hats, and whispered a thanksgiving to the God who had been with us in
+the hour of peril, and was now so visible to us in his works.
+
+The Mexicans rose from their knees.
+
+"_Vamos! Senores,_" said one of them, laying his hand on the bridle of
+my mule. "To the _rancho_, to breakfast."
+
+We rode slowly down into the valley.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE BRITISH FLEET[26].
+
+    [26] Memoirs of Admiral Earl St Vincent. By T.S. TUCKER. 2 vols.
+
+
+Were the question proposed to us, What is the most extraordinary,
+complete, and effective instance of skill, contrivance, science, and
+power, ever combined by man? we should unhesitatingly answer, an
+English line-of-battle ship. Take the model of a 120 gun ship--large
+as it may be for a floating body, its space is not great. For example,
+it is not half the ordinary size of a nobleman's mansion; yet that
+ship carries a thousand men with convenience, and lodges them day and
+night, with sufficient room for the necessary distinctions of
+obedience and command--has separate apartments for the admiral and the
+captain, for the different ranks of officers, and even for the
+different ranks of seamen--separate portions below decks for the
+sleeping of the crew, the dining of the officers, and the receptacle
+for the sick and wounded. Those thousand men are to be fed three times
+a-day, and provisions for four months are to be stowed. One hundred
+and twenty cannon, some of them of the heaviest metal, are to be
+carried; and room is to be found for all the weight of shot and
+quantities of powder, with other missiles, rockets, and signal fires,
+necessary for service. Besides this, room is to be provided for the
+stowage of fresh rigging, sails, ropes, cables, and yards, to replace
+those lost by accident, battle, or wear and tear. Besides this, too,
+there is to be a provision for the hospital. So far for the mere
+necessaries of the ship. Then we are to regard the science; for
+nothing can be more essential than the skill and the instruments of
+the navigator, as nothing can be more fatal than a scientific error, a
+false calculation, or a remission of vigilance. We shall do no more
+than allude to the habits of command essential to keep a thousand of
+these rough and daring spirits in order, and that, too, an order of
+the most implicit, steady, and active kind; nor to their knowledge of
+tactics, and conduct in battle. The true definition of the
+line-of-battle ship being, a floating regiment of artillery in a
+barrack, which, at the beat of a drum, may be turned into a field of
+battle, or, at the command of government, may be sent flying on the
+wings of the wind round the world. We think that we have thus
+established our proposition. If not, let any thing else be shown which
+exhibits the same quantity of power _packed_ within the same space;
+and that power, too, increasing daily by new contrivances of stowage
+and building, by new models of guns, and new inventions in machinery.
+England is at this moment building two hundred steam-ships, with guns
+of a calibre to which all the past were trifling, with room for a
+regiment of land troops besides their crews, and with the known power
+of defying wind and wave, and throwing an army in full equipment for
+the field, within a few days, on any coast of Europe.
+
+It is remarkable that the use of the navy, as a great branch of the
+military power of England, had been scarcely contemplated until the
+last century. Though the sea-coast of England, the largest of any
+European state, and the national habits of an insular country, might
+have pointed out this direction for the national energies from the
+earliest period, yet England was a kingdom for five hundred years
+before she seems to have thought of the use of ships as an instrument
+of public power. In the long war with France during the fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries, the ships were almost wholly mercantile; and,
+when employed in wars, were chiefly employed as transports to throw
+our troops on the French soil. It was the reign of Elizabeth, that
+true birth of the progress of England, that first developed the powers
+of an armed navy. The Spanish invasion forced the country to meet the
+Armada by means like its own; and the triumph, though won by a higher
+agency, and due to the winds and waves, or rather to the Supreme
+Providence which watched over the land of Protestantism, awoke the
+nation to the true faculty of defence; and from that period alone
+could the burden of the fine national song be realized, and Britain
+was to "rule the main." The expeditions against the Spanish West
+Indies, and the new ardour of discovery in regions where brilliant
+fable lent its aid to rational curiosity, carried on the process of
+naval power. The war against Holland, under Charles II., though
+disastrous and impolitic, showed at least that the fleet of England
+was the true arm of its strength; and the humiliation of the only
+rival of her commerce at once taught her where the sinews of war lay,
+and by what means the foundations of naval empire were to be laid. But
+it was not until the close of the last century that the truth came
+before the nation in its full form. The American war--a war of
+skirmishes--had its direct effect, perhaps its providential purpose,
+in compelling England to prepare for the tremendous collision which
+was so soon to follow, and which was to be the final security of the
+Continent itself. It was then, for the first time, that the nation was
+driven to the use of a navy on a great scale. The war, lying on the
+western shore of an ocean, made the use of naval armaments necessary
+to every operation. The treacherous hostility of the French cabinet,
+and the unfortunate subserviency of Spain to that treachery, made
+corresponding energy on the part of England a matter of public demand;
+and when France and Spain sent out fleets of a magnitude till then
+unknown, England was urged to follow their example. The defeats of the
+combined navies excited the nation to still more vigorous efforts; and
+the war closed with so full a demonstration of the matchless
+importance of a great navy to England, that the public feeling was
+fixed on giving it the largest contribution of the national
+confidence.
+
+The time was at hand when the trial was to involve every interest of
+England and mankind. The first grand struggle of revolutionary France
+with England was to be on the seas; and the generation of naval
+officers who had been reared in the American war, then rising into
+vigour, trained by its experience, and stimulated by its example,
+gallantly maintained the honour of their country. A succession of
+sanguinary battles followed, each on the largest scale, and each
+closing in British victory; until the republic, in despair, abandoned
+the fatal element, and tied her fortunes in the easier conflicts of
+the land. The accession of Napoleon renewed the struggle for naval
+supremacy, until one vast blow extinguished his hopes and his navy at
+Trafalgar. Peace now exists, and long may it exist! but France is
+rapidly renewing her navy, taking every opportunity of exercising its
+strength, and especially patronising the policy of founding those
+colonies which it idly imagines to be the source of British opulence.
+But whether the wisdom of Louis Philippe limits the protection of
+French trade to the benefits which commerce may confer on his vast
+kingdom, or looks forward to the support which a mercantile navy may
+give to a warlike one, we must not sleep on our posts. The life of any
+individual is brief on a national scale; and his successor, whether
+regent or republican, may be as hot-headed, rash, and ambitious, as
+this great monarch has shown himself rational, prudent, and peaceful.
+We must prepare for all chances; and our true preparation must be, a
+fleet that may defy all.
+
+It is a remarkable instance of the slowness with which science
+advances, that almost the whole scientific portion of seamanship has
+grown up since the middle of the seventeenth century, though America
+had been reached in 1492, and India in 1496; and thus the world had
+been nearly rounded before what would now be regarded as the ordinary
+knowledge of a navigator had been acquired. England has the honour of
+making the first advances. It was an Englishman, Norwood, who made the
+first measurement of a degree between London and York, and fixed it at
+122,399 English yards. The attention of the world thus once awakened,
+Huygens and Cassini applied themselves to ascertain the figure of the
+earth. The first experiments of the French _savans_ were in
+contradiction to Newton's theory of the flattening of the poles; but
+the controversy was the means of exciting new interest. The eyes of
+the scientific world were turned more intently on the subject. New
+experiments were made, which corrected the old; and finally, on the
+measurement of the arc in Peru, and in the north, truth and Newton
+triumphed, and the equatorial diameter was found to exceed the polar
+by a two hundred and fourth part of the whole. This was perhaps the
+finest problem ever solved by science; the most perplexing in its
+early state--exhibiting for a while the strongest contradiction of
+experiment and theory, occupying in a greater degree the attention of
+philosophers than any before or since, and finally established with a
+certainty which every subsequent observation has only tended to
+confirm. And this triumph belonged to an Englishman.
+
+The investigation by measurements has since been largely adopted. In
+1787, joint commissions were issued by England and France to connect
+the Greenwich and Parisian observations. Arcs of the meridian have
+since been measured across the whole breadth of France and Spain, and
+also near the Arctic circle, and in the Indian peninsula.
+
+In navigation, the grand point for the sailor is to ascertain his
+latitude and longitude; in other words, to know where he is. The
+discovery of the latitude is easily effected by the quadrant, but the
+longitude is the difficulty. Any means which ascertained the hour at
+Greenwich, at the instant of making a celestial observation in any
+other part, would answer the difficulty; for the difference in
+quarters of an hour would give the difference of the degrees. But
+clocks could not be used on shipboard, and the best watches failed to
+keep the time. In the reign of Anne, Parliament offered a reward of L.
+5000, perhaps not far from the value of twice the sum in the present
+day, for a watch within a certain degree of accuracy. Harrison, a
+watchmaker, sent in a watch which came within the limits, losing but
+two minutes in a voyage to the West Indies; yet even this was an error
+of thirty miles.
+
+But, though chronometers have since been considerably improved, there
+are difficulties in their preservation in good order which have made
+it expedient to apply to other means; and the lunar tables of Mayer of
+Gottingen, formed in 1755, and subsequently improved by Dr Maskelyne
+and others, have brought the error within seven miles and a half.
+
+Improvements of a very important order have also taken place in the
+mariner's compass; the variation of the needle has been reduced to
+rules, and some anomalies arising from the metallic attraction of the
+ship itself, have been corrected by Professor Barlow's experiments.
+The use of the marine barometer and thermometer have also largely
+assisted to give notice of tempests; and some ingenious theories have
+been lately formed, which, promising to give a knowledge of the origin
+and nature of tempests, are obviously not unlikely to assist the
+navigator in stemming their violence, or escaping them altogether.
+
+The construction of ships for both the merchant and the public service
+has undergone striking improvements within this century. Round sterns,
+for the defence of a vessel engaged with several opponents at once;
+compartments in the hold, for security against leaks; iron tanks for
+water, containing twice the quantity, and keeping it free from the
+impurities of casks; a better general stowage; provisions prepared so
+as to remain almost fresh during an East Indian voyage; every means of
+preserving health, suggested by science, and succeeding to the most
+remarkable degree; a more intelligent system of shipbuilding, and a
+constant series of experiments on the shape, stowage, and sailing of
+ships, are among the beneficial changes of later times. But the one
+great change--steam--will probably swallow up all the rest, and form a
+new era in shipbuilding, in navigation, in the power and nature of a
+navy, and in the comfort, safety, and protection of the crews in
+actual engagement. The use of steam is still so palpably in its
+infancy, yet that infancy is so gigantic, that it is equally difficult
+to say what it may yet become, and to limit its progress. It will have
+the one obvious advantage to mankind in general, of making the
+question of war turn more than ever on the financial and mechanical
+resources of a people; and thus increasing the necessity for
+commercial opulence and intellectual exertion. It may expose nations
+more to each other's attacks; but it will render hostility more
+dreaded, because more dangerous. On the whole, like the use of
+gunpowder, which made a Tartar war impossible, and which rapidly
+tended to civilize Europe, steam appears to be intended as a further
+step in the same high process, in which force is to be put down by
+intelligence, and success, even in war, is to depend on the industry
+of peace; thus, in fact, providing a perpetual restriction on the
+belligerent propensities of nations, and urging the uncivilized, by
+necessity, to own the superiority, and follow the example of the
+civilized, by knowledge, habit, and principle.
+
+It is not to be forgotten, even in this general and brief view of the
+values of the British fleet, that it has, within these few years,
+assumed a new character as an instrument of war. The Syrian campaign,
+the shortest, and, beyond all comparison, the most brilliant on
+record, if we are to estimate military distinction, not only by the
+gallantry of the conflict, but by the results of the victory--this
+campaign, which at once finished the war in Syria, gave peace to
+Turkey, reduced Egypt to obedience, rescued the sultan from Russian
+influence, and Egypt from French; or rather rescued all Europe from
+the collision of England, France, and Russia; and even, by the
+evidence of our naval capabilities, taught American faction the wisdom
+of avoiding hostilities--this grand operation was effected by a small
+portion of the British navy, well commanded, directed to the right
+point, and acting with national energy. The three hours' cannonade of
+Acre, the most effective achievement in the annals of war, exhibited a
+new use of a ship's broadside; for, though ships' guns had often
+battered forts before, it was the first instance of a _fleet_ employed
+in attack, and fully overpowering all opposition. The attack on
+Algiers was the only exploit of a similar kind; but its success was
+limited, and the result was so far disastrous, that it at once fixed
+the eye of France on the invasion of Algiers, and disabled and
+disheartened the native government from vigorous resistance. The
+victory of the fleet at Acre will also have the effect of changing the
+whole system of defence in fortresses and cities exposed to the sea.
+
+But a still further advance in the employment of fleets as an
+instrument of hostilities, has since occurred in the Chinese
+war--their simultaneous operation with troops. In former assaults of
+fortresses, the troops and ships attacked the same line of defence,
+and the consequence was the waste of force. From the moment when the
+troops approached the land, the fire of the ships necessarily ceased,
+and the fleet then remained spectators of the assault. But in this
+war, while the troops attacked on the land side, the fleet ran up to
+the sea batteries, and both attacks went on together--of course
+dividing the attention of the enemy, thus having a double chance of
+success, and employing both arms of the service in full energy. This
+masterly combination the Duke of Wellington, the highest military
+authority in Europe, pronounced to be a new principle in war; and even
+this is, perhaps, only the beginning of a system of combination which
+will lead to new victories, if war should ever unhappily return.
+
+We now revert to the history of a naval hero.
+
+John Jervis, the second son of Swynfen Jervis, Esq., was born on the
+20th of January 1735. He was descended, on both the paternal and
+maternal side, from families which had figured in the olden times of
+England. The family of Jervis possessed estates in Staffordshire as
+far back as the reign of Edward III. The family of Swynfen was also
+long established in Worcestershire. John Swynfen was a public
+character during the troubled times of Charles I. and Cromwell, and
+until a late period in the reign of Charles II. He had been originally
+a strong Parliamentarian; but, thinking that the party went too far,
+he was turned out of parliament for tardiness by the Protector. But
+his original politics adhered to him still; for, even after the
+restoration, he was joined with Hampden, the grandson of the
+celebrated patriot, in drawing up the Bill of Exclusion. Among his
+ancestors by the mother's side was Sir John Turton, a judge in the
+Court of King's Bench, married to a daughter of the brave Colonel
+Samuel Moore, who made the memorable defence of Hopton Castle in the
+Civil War.
+
+But no man less regarded ancestry than the subject of the present
+pages, who, in writing with reference to his pedigree, observed, in
+his usual frank and straightforward language--"They were all highly
+respectable; but, _et genus et proavos_, nearly all the Latin I now
+recollect, always struck my ear as the sound maxim for officers and
+statesmen."
+
+His first school was at Burton-upon-Trent, where a slight incident
+seemed to designate his future politics and fortitude. In 1745, when
+the Pretender marched into the heart of the kingdom, without being
+joined by his friends or opposed by his enemies, as Gibbon
+antithetically observed, all the boys at the school, excepting young
+Jervis and Dick Meux, (afterwards the eminent brewer,) wore plaid
+ribands sent to them from home, and they pelted their two
+constitutional playmates, calling them Whigs.
+
+His father designed young Jervis for the law; but, in 1747, removing
+to Greenwich on being appointed Counsel to the Admiralty and Auditor
+to the Hospital, naval sights were too near not to prove a strong
+temptation to the mind of an animated and vigorous boy. His parents
+were still strongly for the adoption of his father's profession; but
+there was another authority on the subject, the family coachman, one
+Pinkhorne, who, saying that it was a shame to go into a profession
+where all were rogues, determined the future hero; and, before the
+year was over, he ran away, to commence life as a sailor. He was
+reclaimed, however, by his family, and was regularly entered in the
+navy, in January 1748, on board the Gloucester, fifty guns, Commodore
+Townshend--twenty pounds being all that was given to him by his father
+for his equipment. The Gloucester sailed for the West Indies; and
+thus, at the age of thirteen, young Jervis began the world. It appears
+that the rigid economy of his father, combined with the singular good
+sense of this mere child, urged him to every means of acquiring the
+knowledge of his profession. The monotonous life of a guard-ship
+already seemed to him a waste of time, while the expenses on shore
+must have been ruinous to his slender finances. He therefore
+volunteered into whatever ship was going to sea. He thus writes to his
+sister from on board the Sphinx, 1753:--"There are many entertainments
+and public assemblies here, but they are rather above my sphere, many
+inconveniences and expenses attending them; so that my chief employ,
+when from my duty, is reading, studying navigation, and perusing my
+own letters, of which I have almost enough to make an octavo volume."
+
+At length, however, his twenty pounds were exhausted; and, at the end
+of three years, he drew for twenty pounds more. It is vexatious to say
+that his bill was dishonoured; and he never received another shilling
+from any one. It is scarcely possible to conceive that so harsh a
+measure could have been the result of intention; but it subjected this
+extraordinary boy to the severest privations. To take up the
+dishonoured bill, he was obliged to effect his discharge from one ship
+into another, so as to obtain his pay tickets, which he sold at forty
+per cent discount. His remaining six years on the station were spent
+in the exercise of a severe economy, and the endurance even of severe
+suffering. He was compelled to sell all his bedding, and sleep on the
+bare deck. He had no other resource than, generally, to make and mend,
+and always to wash, his own clothes. He never afforded himself any
+fresh meat; and even the fruit and vegetables, which are so necessary
+and so cheap, he could obtain only by barter from the negroes, for the
+small share of provisions which he could subduct from his own
+allowance. True as all this doubtless is, it reflects more severely on
+the captain and officers of his own ship, than even upon his parents.
+The latter, on the other side of the Atlantic, might have no knowledge
+of his difficulties; but that those who saw his sufferings from day to
+day could have allowed them to continue, argues a degree of negligence
+and inhumanity, of which we hope that no present instance occurs in
+our navy, and which at any period would appear incomprehensible. In
+1754, young Jervis returned to England, and passed his examination for
+lieutenant with great credit.
+
+The commencement of the war with France was, like the commencement of
+English wars in general, disastrous. We seldom make due preparation.
+Fleets inferior to the enemy in equipment and number, are sent out on
+the emergency; detachments of troops are sent where armies should have
+gone; and thus victory itself is without effect. Thus for a year or
+two we continue blundering if not beaten, and angry with our generals
+and admirals for failing to do impossibilities. At last the nation
+becomes fairly roused; the success of the enemy makes exertion
+necessary; their insolence inflames the popular indignation; a great
+effort is made; a triumph is obtained, and a peace follows, which
+might have been accomplished half a dozen years before, at a tenth
+part of the expense in blood and treasure which it cost to consummate
+the war. Our troops under Braddock, a brave fool, were beaten by the
+French and Indians in America. Our Mediterranean fleet was baffled
+under the unfortunate command of Byng. Minorca was taken before our
+eyes, and the naval and military stars of England seem to have gone
+down together. Yet this era of national dishonour and public disgust
+was followed by the three years of Chatham's administration, a period
+of triumph that equaled the campaigns of Marlborough at the
+commencement of the century, and was scarcely eclipsed even by the
+splendours that followed its close.
+
+The skill and talent of young Jervis had already given him distinction
+among the rising officers of the feet. He had become a favourite with
+Admiral Saunders, was taken with him from ship to ship; and when the
+admiral was recalled from the Mediterranean to take the command of the
+naval force destined to co-operate in the attack on Quebec, by the
+heroic and lamented General Wolfe, young Jervis was selected to be
+first lieutenant of the Prince, which bore the admiral's flag. On the
+passage out, the general and his aide-de-camp, Captain, afterwards the
+well-known Colonel Barre, were guests on board the Prince, and of
+course Jervis had the advantage of their intelligent society. In
+February 1759, the fleet sailed from England, and in June proceeded
+from Louisburg to the St Lawrence. Lieutenant Jervis was now appointed
+to the command of the Porcupine sloop; and on the general requesting a
+naval force to escort his transports past Quebec, the Porcupine was
+ordered by the admiral to lead. The service was one of extreme
+difficulty; for the attempt to sound the channel the day before had
+failed, though it was made by the master of the fleet, Cook,
+afterwards the celebrated navigator. The winds suddenly falling calm,
+prevented the Porcupine from reaching her station. A heavy fire was
+instantly opened upon her from every gun that could be brought to
+bear, and the army were in terror of her being destroyed, for the
+general was on board. But Jervis's skill was equal to his gallantry;
+he hoisted out his boats, cheered his men through the fire, and
+brought his ship to her station.
+
+A little incident occurred on the night before the memorable
+engagement, which even at this distance of time is of painful
+interest, but which shows the confidence reposed in the young naval
+officer by the hero of Quebec. After the orders for the assault next
+day were given, Wolfe requested a private interview with him; and
+saying that he had the strongest presentiment of falling on the field,
+yet that he should fall in victory, he took from his bosom the
+miniature of a young lady to whom he was attached, gave it to Jervis,
+desiring that, if the foreboding came to pass, he should return it to
+her on his arrival in England. Wolfe's gallant fate and brilliant
+victory are known: the picture was delivered to Miss Lowther.
+
+After the capture of Quebec, Jervis was dispatched to England; and was
+appointed to the Scorpion, to carry out important despatches to
+General Amherst. On this occasion, he gave an instance of that
+remarkable promptitude which characterised him throughout his whole
+career. The Scorpion was in such a crazy state that she had nearly
+foundered between Spithead and Plymouth. On reaching the latter port,
+and representing at once the condition of the vessel and the
+importance of the despatches, the port-admiral instantly ordered him
+to proceed to sea in the Albany, a sloop in the Sound. But the Albany
+had been a long time in commission; her people claimed arrears of pay;
+and by no means relishing a voyage across the Atlantic in such
+weather, they absolutely refused to heave the anchor. Their young
+commander first tried remonstrance, but in vain; he then took a more
+effectual means--he ordered his boat's crew, whom he had brought from
+the Scorpion, to take their hatchets and cut the cables, and then go
+aloft to loosen the foresail. Perceiving the kind of man with whom
+they had to do, the crew submitted, and the Albany instantly proceeded
+to sea: the ringleaders were punished; and the service was performed.
+The Albany made New York in twenty-four days.
+
+In October 1761, Commander Jervis was made Post, into the Gosport of
+60 guns. Among his midshipmen was the afterwards Admiral Lord Keith.
+In 1762, peace was made. The Gosport was paid off next year, and
+Captain Jervis did not serve again until 1769, when he commanded the
+Alarm of 32 guns for the next three years.
+
+A striking incident occurred during the cruise of this vessel in the
+Mediterranean, exhibiting not only the spirit of her captain, but the
+historic recollections by which that spirit was sustained. One Sunday
+afternoon, the day after her arrival at Genoa, two Turkish slaves, in
+enjoyment of the holiday's rest from labour, sauntered from their
+galley near the mole. Seeing the Alarm's boat, they jumped into her,
+wrapped themselves in the British colours, and exclaimed, "We are
+free!" The Genoese officer on duty, however, ordered them to be
+dragged out, which was done, though one of them tore away in his
+struggle a piece of the boat's pendant. On the circumstance reaching
+the captain's ears he was indignant, and demanded instant reparation.
+To use his own language:--"I required," said he, "of the Doge and
+Senate, that both the slaves should be brought on board, with the part
+of the torn pendant which the slave carried off with him; the officer
+of the guard punished; and an apology made on the quarterdeck of the
+Alarm, under the king's colours, for the outrage offered to the
+British nation."
+
+On the following Tuesday this was complied with in all the
+particulars; but, unhappily, the government at home did not exhibit
+the spirit of their gallant officer abroad; and in a letter which he
+addressed to his brother he says:--"_I had an opportunity of carrying
+the British flag, in relation to two Turkish slaves, as high as Blake
+had ever done_, for which I am publicly censured; though I hope we
+have too much virtue left, for me not to be justified in private."
+
+The result, however, of this transaction was, that for many years
+afterwards, in the Barbary states, if a slave could but touch the
+British colours, which all our men-of-war's boats carry in foreign
+ports, he could of right demand his release. This, however, was
+counteracted as far as possible by the renewed vigilance of the Moors,
+who kept all their slaves out of sight while a British flag flew in
+the harbour. The allusion to the famous Blake shows with what studies
+the young officer fed his mind, and in how high a spirit he was
+prepared to adopt them.
+
+Another instance of his skill and intrepidity soon followed. In March
+1770, the frigate, after a tempestuous cruise, came to anchor at
+Marseilles. An equinoctial gale came on, and after two days of
+desperate exertion, and throwing many of the guns overboard, the
+frigate was driven from her anchors, stranded on a reef of rocks, and
+the crew in such peril that they were saved only by the most
+extraordinary exertions, and the assistance of the people on shore.
+The port officer, M. de Peltier, exhibited great kindness and
+activity, and the ship was rapidly repaired, but with such an exact
+economy, that its complete refit, with the expense of the crew for
+three months, amounted only to L1415.
+
+The first act of this excellent son was to write to his father:--"Do
+not be alarmed, my dear sir, at the newspaper accounts which you will
+hear of the Alarm. The interposition of Divine Providence has
+miraculously preserved her. The same Providence will, I hope, give
+long life to my dear father, mother, and brother."
+
+In July he wrote to his sister from Mahon, after the repairs of the
+vessel:--"The Alarm is the completest thing I ever saw on the water,
+insomuch that I forgot she was the other day, in the opinion of most
+beholders, her own officers and crew not excepted, a miserable sunken
+wreck. Such is the reward of perseverance. Happily for my reputation,
+my health at that period happened to be equal to the task, or I had
+been lost for ever, instead of receiving continual marks of public and
+private approbation of my conduct; but this is _entre nous_. I never
+speak or write on the subject except to those I most love. You will
+easily believe Barrington to be one; his goodness to me is romantic."
+
+It is gratifying to state, that the English Admiralty, on the young
+captain's warm representation of the French superintendent, M. de
+Peltier's hospitality and kindness, sent a handsome piece of plate in
+public acknowledgment to that officer; and, as if to make the
+compliment perfect in all its parts, as it arrived before the frigate
+had left the station, the captain had the indulgence of presenting it
+in person; thus making, as his letter to his father mentioned, "the
+family of Pleville de Peltier happy beyond description."
+
+The frigate was soon after paid off, and as there was no probability
+of his being speedily employed, he applied himself to gain every
+species of knowledge connected with his profession. We strongly doubt
+whether the example of this rising officer is not even more important
+when we regard him in peace than in the activity and daring of war.
+There is no want of courage and conduct in the British fleet; but life
+on shore offers too many temptations to indolence, to be always turned
+to the use of which it is capable. Captain Jervis, on the contrary,
+appears always to have regarded life on shore preparatory to life
+afloat, and to be constantly employed in laying up knowledge for those
+emergencies which so often occur in the bold and perilous life of the
+sailor. There is often something like a predictive spirit in the early
+career of great men, which urges them to make provision for greatness;
+and remote as is the condition of a captain of a smart frigate from
+the commander of fleets, yet the captain of the Alarm, though the
+least ostentatious of men, seems always to have had a glance towards
+the highest duties of the British admiral. "Time," says Franklin, "is
+the stuff that life is made of;" and as France is the antagonist with
+which the power of England naturally expects to struggle, his first
+object was to acquire all possible knowledge of the naval means of
+France. The primary step was to acquire a knowledge of the language.
+Accordingly, he went to France, and placed himself in a _pension_.
+There he applied himself so closely to the study of the language, that
+his health became out of order, and his family requested him to
+return. But this he declined, and in his answer said that he had
+adopted this pursuit on the best view a military man in his situation
+could form. "For it will always," said he, "be useful to have a
+general idea of this prevalent language, and a knowledge of the
+country with which we have so long contended, and which must ever be
+our rival in arms and commerce."
+
+Having accomplished his object of acquiring sufficient fluency in
+speaking French, his next excursion was to St Petersburg. He and
+Captain Barrington went in a merchant vessel, and reached Cronstadt.
+While at sea, Captain Jervis kept a regular log. During the voyage,
+all the headlands are described, all the soundings noted, and every
+opportunity to test and correct the charts adopted. As an example, he
+remarks on the castle of Cronenburg, which guards the entrance into
+the Sound, that it may be overlooked by a line-of-battle ship, which
+may anchor in good ground as near the beach as she pleases. He remarks
+the two channels leading to Copenhagen, puts all the lighthouses down
+on his own chart, and lays down all the approaches to St Petersburg
+accurately; "because," said he, "I find all the charts are incorrect,
+and it may be useful." And he actually did find it useful; for when he
+was at the head of the Admiralty, this knowledge enabled him, while
+his colleagues hesitated, to give his orders confidently to Sir
+Charles Pole, in command of the Baltic fleet. His sojourn at St
+Petersburg was but brief; but it was at a time of remarkable
+excitement. The Empress Catharine was at the height of her splendour,
+a legislator and a conqueror, and surrounded by a court exhibiting all
+the daring and dashing characters of her vast empire. His description
+of this celebrated woman's character on one public occasion, shows the
+exactness with which he observed every thing:--"When she entered the
+cathedral, Catharine mingled her salutations to the saints and the
+people, showing at once her compliance with religious ceremonials, and
+her attentions to her servants and the foreign ambassadors. But she
+showed no devotion, in which she was not singular, old people and
+Cossack officers excepted. During the sermon she took occasion to
+smile and nod to those whom she meant to gratify; and surely no
+sovereign ever possessed the power of pleasing all within her eye to
+the degree she did. She was dressed in the Guards' uniform, which was
+a scarlet pelisse, and a green silk robe lapelled from top to bottom.
+Her hair was combed neatly, and boxed _en militaire_, with a small
+cap, and an ornament of diamonds in front; a blue riband, and the
+order of St Andrew on her right shoulder."
+
+He speaks of the empress excelling in that inclination of the body
+which the Russian ladies substitute for the curtsy, and which he
+justly regards as very becoming, the empress adding dignity and grace.
+He describes Orloff as an herculean figure, finely proportioned, with
+a cheerful eye, and, for a Russian, a good complexion: Potemkin as
+having stature and shoulders, but being ill limbed and of a most
+forbidding countenance. His examination of the Russian dockyards,
+naval armament, and general style of shipbuilding, was most exact; and
+he records in his notes his having seen, in the naval arsenals of
+Norway, sheds to cover ships on the stocks--an important arrangement,
+which was afterwards claimed as an invention at home.
+
+After inspecting the harbours of Sweden and Norway, the travellers
+returned by Holland, where they made similar investigations. In the
+following year they renewed their tour of inspection, and traversed
+the western parts of France. And this active pursuit of knowledge was
+carried on without any pecuniary assistance beyond his half-pay. He
+had hitherto made no prize-money. "To be sure," he said in after days,
+"we sometimes did fare rather roughly; but what signifies that now? my
+object was attained."
+
+His character was now high, but it is to be presumed that he had some
+powerful interest; for on his return he was appointed to two
+line-of-battle ships in succession, the Kent, 74, and the Foudroyant,
+84, a French prize, and reckoned the finest two-decker in the navy.
+
+From this period a new scene opened before him, and his career became
+a part of the naval history of England. In 1778 he joined the Channel
+fleet, and his ship was placed by the celebrated Keppel as one of his
+seconds in the order of battle, and immediately astern of the
+admiral's ship, the Victory, on the 27th of July, in the drawn battle
+off Ushant with the French fleet commanded by D'Orvilliers. The people
+of England are not content with drawn battles, and the result of this
+action produced a general uproar. Keppel threw the blame on the
+tardiness of Sir Hugh Palliser, the second in command. Palliser
+retorted, and the result was a court-martial on the commander of the
+fleet; which, however, ended in a triumphant acquittal. It was not
+generally known that Keppel's defence, which was admired as a model of
+intelligence, and even of eloquence, was drawn up by Captain Jervis.
+The transaction, though so long passed away, is not yet beyond
+discussion; and there is still some interest in knowing the opinion of
+so powerful a mind on the general subject. It was thus given in a
+private letter to his friend Jackson:--"I do not agree that we were
+outwitted. The French, I am convinced, never would have fought us if
+they had not been surprised into it by a sudden flow of wind; and when
+they formed their inimitable line after our brush, it was merely to
+cover their intention of flight."
+
+He then gives one of those comprehensive maxims which already show
+the experienced "admiral:"--"I have often told you that two fleets of
+equal force can never produce decisive events, unless they are equally
+determined to fight it out, or the commander-in-chief of one of them
+misconducts his line." We have then an instance of that manly feeling
+which is one of the truest characteristics of greatness, and yet which
+has been deficient in some very remarkable men.
+
+"I perceive," says he, "it is the fashion of people to puff
+themselves. For my part, I forbade my officers to write by the frigate
+that carried the despatches. I did not write a syllable myself, except
+touching my health; nor shall I, but to state the intrepidity of the
+officers and people under my command, (through the most infernal fire
+I ever saw or heard,) to Lord Sandwich," (first lord of the
+Admiralty.) But one cannot feel the merit of this self-denial without
+a glance at his actual hazards and services during the battle.
+
+"In justice to the Foudroyant," he thus ends his letter, "I must
+observe to you, that though she received the fire of seventeen sail,
+and had the Bretagne, Ville de Paris, and a seventy-four on her at the
+same time, and appeared more disabled in her masts and rigging than
+any other ship, she was the first in the line of battle, and truly
+fitter for business, in essentials, (because her people were cool,)
+than when she began. _Keep this to yourself_, unless you hear too much
+said in praise of others.
+
+"J.J."
+
+The national wrath was poured on Sir Hugh Palliser, Keppel's second in
+command, whose tardiness in obeying signals was charged as the cause
+of the French escape; so strong had already become the national
+assurance that a British fleet could go forth only to victory. But the
+succession of courts-martial cleared up nothing except the characters
+of the two admirals. Palliser was enabled to show that his ship had
+suffered so much from the enemy's fire as to be at least (plausibly)
+unfit for close action, and the whole dispute on land closed, like the
+naval conflict, in a drawn battle. Jervis was the chief witness for
+Keppel, as serving next his ship; and his testimony was of the highest
+order to the gallantry, skill, and perseverance of the admiral. But
+Palliser was acknowledged to be brave; and it is evident from Jervis's
+personal opinion, that when it was once the object of the enemy's
+commander to get away, it was next to impossible to have prevented his
+escape.
+
+But these were trying times for the British navy: it was scarcely
+acquainted with its own strength; the nation, disgusted with the
+nature of the American war, refused its sympathy; without that
+sympathy ministers could do nothing effectual, and never can do any
+thing effectual. The character of the cabinet was feebleness, the
+spirit of the metropolis was faction; the king, though one of the best
+of men, was singularly unpopular; and the war became a system of
+feeble defence against arrogant and increasing hostilities. France,
+powerful as she was, became more powerful by the national
+exultation--the frenzied rejoicing in the success of American
+revolt--and the revived hope of European supremacy in a nation which
+had been broken down since the days of Marlborough; a crush which had
+been felt in every sinew of France for a hundred angry years. Spain,
+always strong, but unable to use her strength, had now given it in to
+the training of discipline; and the combined fleets presented a
+display of force, which, in the haughty language of the Tuileries, was
+formed to sweep the seas.
+
+The threat was put in rapid and unexpected execution. The combined
+fleet moved up the Channel; and to the surprise, the sorrow, and the
+indignation of England, the British fleet, under Sir Charles Hardy,
+was seen making, what could only be called "a dignified retreat." The
+Foudroyant, on that melancholy occasion, had been astern of the
+Victory, the admiral's ship. If Jervis had been admiral, he would have
+tried the fate of battle--and he would have done right. No result of a
+battle could have been so painful to the national feelings, or so
+injurious in its effects on the feelings of Europe, as that retreat.
+If the whole British fleet on that occasion had perished, its
+gallantry would have only raised a new spirit of worth and power in
+the nation; and England has resources that, when once fully called
+into exertion, are absolutely unconquerable. But that was a dishonour;
+and even now we can echo the feelings of the brave and high-minded
+young officer, who was condemned to share in the disgrace. He writes
+to his sister, as if to relieve the fulness of his heart at the
+moment--"I am in the most humbled state of mind I ever experienced,
+from the retreat we have made before the combined fleets all
+_yesterday_ and _this morning_." The Admiralty ultimately gave the
+retreating admiral an official certificate of good behaviour, "their
+high approbation of Sir Charles Hardy's wise and prudent conduct;" but
+"gallant and bold conduct" would have been a better testimonial. The
+truth seems to be, that the Admiralty, blamable themselves in sending
+him to sea with an inadequate force, and scarcely expecting to escape
+if they had suffered him to lie under the charge, were glad to avail
+themselves of his personal character as a man of known bravery; and
+thus quash a process which must finally have brought them before the
+tribunal. But let naval officers remember, that the officer who fights
+is the officer of the nation. Nelson's maxim is unanswerable--"The
+captain cannot be mistaken who lays his ship alongside the enemy."
+
+This, too, was a period of cabinet revolutions. No favouritism can
+sustain a ministry which has become disgustful to the nation. Lord
+North, though ingenious, dexterous, and long enough in possession of
+power to have filled all its offices with his dependents, was driven
+from the premiership with such a storm of national contempt, that he
+could scarcely be sheltered by the curtains of the throne. Lord
+Rockingham, a dull minister, was transformed into a brilliant one by
+his contrast with the national weariness of Lord North; and it fell to
+the lot of Captain Jervis to give the country the first omen of
+returning victory. France had already combined Holland in her
+alliance, and the French minister, already made insolent by his
+triumph in the Channel, had determined on a blow in a quarter where
+English interests were most vulnerable, and where the assault was
+least expected. A squadron of French line-of-battle ships, convoying a
+fleet of transports, were prepared for an expedition to the East
+Indies.
+
+The preparations for the combined movement were on an immense scale.
+The fleets of France, Spain, and Holland were again to sweep the
+Channel; and while the attention of the British fleets was thus
+engrossed, the Eastern expedition was to sail from Brest. The
+Admiralty, in order to counteract, or at least delay, this formidable
+movement, immediately dispatched Admiral Barrington, with twelve sail
+of the line, to cruise in the bay of Biscay. On the 18th of April the
+French expedition sailed, and on the 20th, when Admiral Barrington had
+reached a few leagues beyond Ushant, the Artois frigate signaled a
+hostile fleet, but could not discover their flag or numbers. The
+signal being made for a general chase, the Foudroyant, Jervis's ship,
+soon left the rest of the fleet behind; and before night she had so
+much gained upon the enemy as to ascertain that they were six French
+ships of war, with eighteen sail of convoy. The whole of the British
+fleet, being several leagues astern, was now lost sight of, and did
+not come up till the following day. In the mean time Jervis was left
+alone. At ten at night, the French ships of war separating, Jervis,
+selecting the largest for pursuit, prepared to attack: at twelve, he
+had approached near enough to see that the chase was a ship of the
+line. The Foudroyant's superior manoeuvring enabled her to commence
+the engagement by a raking fire. Its effect was so powerful, that the
+enemy was thrown into extreme disorder, and was carried by boarding,
+after an action of only three quarters of an hour. The prize was the
+Pegase, seventy-four. The loss of life on board the enemy was great;
+but by an extraordinary piece of good fortune, on board the Foudroyant
+not a man was killed, Captain Jervis and five seamen being the only
+wounded.
+
+To the gallantry which produced this striking success, the young
+officer added extreme delicacy with respect to his prisoners. He would
+not allow the first boat to be sent on board the prize, until he had
+given written orders for the particular preservation of every thing
+in the shape of property belonging to the French officers, adding at
+the bottom of his memorandum,--"For though I have the highest opinion
+of my officers, we must not be suspected of designs to plunder."
+
+The result of the action was, that sixteen transports out of twenty
+were taken, according to the letter of young Ricketts, the captain's
+nephew. It must be owned, that brave as the French are, their admiral
+made but a bad figure in this business: why the sight of one vessel
+should have been sufficient to disperse a fleet of six men-of-war, and
+of course ruin an expedition which must thus be left without convoy,
+is not easily to be accounted for; or why, when the admiral saw that
+his pursuer was but a single ship, he should not have turned upon him
+and crushed him, it is equally difficult to say. It only shows that
+his court wanted common sense as much as he wanted discretion. The
+expedition was destroyed, and the Foudroyant had the whole honour of
+the victory.
+
+An action between single ships of this force is rare at any period,
+and nothing could be nearer a match in point of equipment then the two
+ships. The Foudroyant had the larger tonnage, and carried three more
+guns on her broadside; but the Pegase threw a greater weight of shot,
+had a more numerous crew, and a large proportion of soldiers on board.
+The English ship, however, had the incomparable advantage of a crew
+which had sailed together for six years, and been disciplined by such
+an officer as Jervis.
+
+The ministry and the king were equally rejoiced at this return of the
+naval distinctions of the country, and the immediate consequence was,
+the conferring of a baronetcy and the order of the Bath upon the
+gallant officer. Congratulations of all kinds were poured upon him by
+the ministry, his admiral, and his brother officers. The admiral
+writes, in speaking of the squadron's cruise, "but the Pegase is every
+thing, and does the highest honour to Jervis."
+
+Another instance of his decision, and, as in all probability will be
+thought, of the clearness of his judgment, was shortly after given in
+the memorable relief of Gibraltar. As it was likely that the combined
+fleets of France and Spain would oppose the passage of the British,
+Lord Howe, at an early period, called the flag-officers and captains
+on board the Victory, and proposed to them the question--Whether,
+considering the superiority of the enemy's numbers, it might not be
+advisable to fight the battle at night, when British discipline might
+counterbalance the numerical superiority? All the officers junior to
+Jervis gave their opinion for the night attack, but he dissented.
+"Expressing his regret that he must offer an opinion, not only
+contrary to that of his brother officers, but also, as he feared, to
+that of his commander-in-chief, he was convinced that battle in the
+day would be greatly preferable. In the first place, because it would
+give an opportunity for the display of his lordship's tactics, and
+afford the means of taking prompt advantage of any mistake of the
+enemy, change of the wind, or any other favourable circumstance; while
+in the melee of a battle at night, there must always be greater risk
+of separation, and of ships receiving the fire of their friends as
+well as their foes." It is obvious to every comprehension, that a
+night action must preclude all manoeuvring, and prevent the greater
+skill of the tactician from having any advantage over the blunderer
+who turns his ships into mere batteries. The only officer who
+coincided with Jervis was Admiral Barrington, who gave as an
+additional and a just argument for the attack by day, that it would
+give an opportunity of ascertaining the conduct of the respective
+captains in action. On those opinions Lord Howe made no comment; but
+it is presumed that he ultimately agreed with them, from his conduct
+in the celebrated action of the 1st of June 1794, when he had the
+enemy's fleet directly to leeward of him from the night before.
+
+In the relief of Gibraltar, the Foudroyant had the honour to be the
+ship which was dispatched from the fleet to escort the victuallers
+into the harbour, which was accomplished amid the acclamations of the
+garrison. It had been expected that Lord Howe would have attacked the
+combined fleets, and the nation of course looked forward to a victory;
+but they were disappointed. The fact is, that Lord Howe, though a
+brave man, and what is generally regarded as a good officer, was of a
+different class of mind from the Jervises and Nelsons. He did his
+duty, but he did no more. The men who were yet to give a character to
+the navy did more than their duty, suffered no opportunity of
+distinction to escape them, relied on the invincibility of British
+prowess when it was boldly directed, and by that reliance rendered it
+invincible.
+
+There was a kindness and generosity of nature in this future
+"thunderbolt of war," which shows how compatible the gentler feelings
+are with the gallant daring, and comprehensive talent of the great
+commander. Having happened to receive the Duc de Chabelais on board
+his ship when at Cadiz, the politeness of his reception caused the
+Sardinian prince to exhibit his gratitude in some handsome presents to
+the officers. One of Jervis's letters mentions, that the prince had
+given to each of the lieutenants a handsome gold box; to the
+lieutenant of marines and five of the midshipmen gold watches; and to
+the other officers and ship's company, a princely sum of money.
+
+"I pride myself," he adds, "exceedingly in the presents being so
+diffused; on all former occasions they have centred in the captain."
+In another letter he says,--"I was twenty-four hours in the bay of
+Marseilles about a fortnight ago, just time to receive the warm
+embraces of a man to whose bravery and friendship I had some months
+before been indebted for my reputation, the preservation of the people
+under my command, and of the Alarm. You would have felt infinite
+pleasure at the scene of our interview." In a letter to the
+under-secretary of the Admiralty, he says,--"My dear Jackson, you must
+allow me to interest your humanity in favour of poor Spicer, who,
+overwhelmed with dropsy, asthma, and a large family, and with nothing
+but his pay to support him under those afflictions, is appointed to
+the ---- under a mean man, and very likely to go to the East Indies.
+The letter which he writes to the Board, desiring to be excused from
+his appointment, is dictated by me."
+
+He then mentions a contingency, "in which case I shall write for
+Spicer to be first lieutenant of the Foudroyant, with intention to
+nurse him, and keep him clear of all expense." Shortly after the
+Foudroyant was paid off, Sir John Jervis was united to a lady to whom
+he had long been attached, the daughter of Sir Thomas Parker, Chief
+Baron of the Exchequer. Every man in England, as he rises into
+distinction, necessarily becomes a politician. It was the misfortune
+of Sir John Jervis, and it was his only misfortune, that he was a
+politician before he had risen into distinction. Having had the ill
+luck to profess himself a Whig, at a period when he could scarcely
+have known the nature of the connexion, he unhappily adhered to it
+long after Whiggism had ceased to possess either public utility or
+national respect. But his Whiggism was unconscious Toryism after all:
+it was what even his biographer is forced to call it, Whig Royalism,
+or pretty nearly what Blake's Republicanism was--a determination to
+raise his country to the highest eminence to which his talents and
+bravery could contribute, without regarding by whom the government was
+administered. At the general election of 1784, he sat for Yarmouth.
+
+In 1787, Sir John Jervis was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. At
+the general election in 1790, he was returned for Wycombe, and shared
+in parliament the successive defeats of his party; until, in 1793, he
+was called to a nobler field, in which, unembarrassed by party, and
+undegraded by Whiggism, his talents took their natural direction in
+the cause of his country. It is now scarcely necessary to remark upon
+the narrow system of enterprise with which England began the great
+revolutionary war; nor can it now be doubted that, if the energies of
+the country had been directed to meet the enemy in Europe, measureless
+misfortunes might have been averted. If the succession of fleets and
+armies which were wasted upon the conquest of the French West Indies,
+had been employed in the protection of the feebler European states,
+there can be no question that the progress of the French armies would
+have been signally retarded, if invasion had not been thrown back
+over the French frontier. For instance, it would have been utterly
+impossible for Napoleon, in 1796, to have marched triumphantly
+throughout Italy with the British fleet covering the coast, commanding
+all the harbours, and ready to throw in troops in aid of the
+insurrections in his rear.
+
+But it was the policy of the time to pacify the merchants, whose
+bugbear was a negro insurrection in the West Indies; and whether the
+genius or the fears of Pitt gave way to the impression, the
+consequence was equally lamentable--the mighty power of England was
+wasted on the capture of sugar islands, which we did not want, which
+we could not cultivate, and which cost the lives, by disease and
+climate, of ten times the number of gallant men who might have saved
+Europe. At the close of 1793, a grand expedition against the French
+Caribbee islands was resolved upon by the British cabinet; and it is a
+remarkable instance of both the reputation of Sir John Jervis and the
+impartiality of the great minister, that a Whig member of parliament
+should have been chosen to command the naval part of the expedition.
+
+The expedition consisted of twenty-two ships of war and six thousand
+troops, the troops divided into three brigades, of which one was
+commanded by the late Duke of Kent. Sir John Jervis hoisted his flag
+as vice-admiral of the blue on the 3d of October.
+
+A ludicrous circumstance occurred in the instance of a favourite
+officer, Mr Bayntun, who had applied for permission to join Sir John.
+Bayntun received in answer the following decisive note: "Sir, your
+having thought fit to take to yourself a wife, you are to look for no
+further attention from your humble servant, J. JERVIS." It happened
+that Bayntun was a bachelor, and he instantly wrote an exculpatory
+letter, denying that he had been guilty of so formidable a charge. The
+mistake arose from a misdirection in two notes which the admiral had
+written on the same subject. He had left them to Lady Jervis to
+direct, and she had addressed them to the wrong persons. The
+consequence, however, was, that Bayntun received the appointment, and
+the married man the refusal. This inveteracy against married officers
+seems strange in one who had committed the same crime himself; yet he
+constantly persisted in calling officers who married moon-struck, and
+appears at all times to have regarded matrimony in the service as
+little short of personal ruin.
+
+On the passage out, a curious circumstance occurred to the Zebra
+frigate, under command of the gallant Robert Faulknor. The Zebra,
+which had been separated from the rest of the squadron, saw one
+evening a ship on the horizon. All sail was made in chase, and the
+ship was discovered to be a twenty-eight gun frigate. All contrivances
+were adopted to induce her to show her colours, but without success.
+At length Faulknor, impatient of delay, and disregarding the disparity
+of force, closed upon her, and jumped on board at the head of his men.
+To his astonishment he found that she was a Dutch frigate, quietly
+pursuing her way; and as Holland was at peace with England, equally
+unexpecting and unprepared for an attack. This instance of apathy
+night have procured her a broadside; but luckily the affair finished
+with the shaking of hands.
+
+On the 5th of February the expedition reached Martinique. On the 18th
+of March Fort Lewis was stormed, General Rochambeau capitulated, and
+Martinique was taken, St Lucie followed, the Saintes next fell, and
+the final conquest was Guadaloupe. Thus in three months the capture of
+the French islands was complete.
+
+But an enemy more formidable than the sword was now to be encountered.
+The yellow fever began its ravages. The troops perished in such
+numbers, that the regiments were reduced to skeletons; and just at the
+moment when the disease was at its height, Victor Hughes was
+dispatched from France with an expedition. The islands fell one by one
+into his hands, and the campaign was utterly thrown away.
+
+The romantic portion of the European campaigns now began. The French
+Directory, unpopular at home, wearied by the sanguinary successes of
+the Vendean insurrection, and baffled in their invasion of Germany,
+were in a condition of the greatest perplexity, when a new wonder of
+war taught France again to conquer. Napoleon Bonaparte, since so
+memorable, but then known only as commanding a company of artillery at
+Toulon, and repelling the armed mob in Paris, was appointed to command
+the army on the Italian frontier. Even now, with all our knowledge of
+his genius, and the splendid experience of his successes, his sudden
+elevation, his daring offer of command, his plan of the Italian
+campaign, and his almost instantaneous victories, are legitimate
+matter of astonishment. In him we have the instance of a young man of
+twenty-six, who had never seen a campaign, who had never commanded a
+brigade, nor even a regiment, undertaking the command of an army,
+proposing the invasion of a country of eighteen millions, garrisoned
+by the army of one of the greatest military powers of Europe, which
+had nearly 300,000 soldiers in the field, and which was in the most
+intimate alliance with all the sovereigns of Italy. Yet, extravagant
+as all those conceptions seem, and improbable as those results
+certainly were, two campaigns saw every project realized--Italy
+conquered, the Tyrol, the great southern barrier of Austria,
+overpassed, and peace signed within a hundred miles of Vienna. The
+invasion of Italy first awoke the British ministry to the true
+direction of the vast naval powers of England. To save Italy if
+possible, was the primary object; the next was to prevent the
+superiority of the French fleet in the Mediterranean. A powerful fleet
+had been prepared in Toulon, for the purpose of aiding the French army
+in its invasion, and finally taking possession of all the ports and
+islands, until it should have realized the project of Louis XIV., of
+turning the Mediterranean into a French lake. It was determined to
+keep up a powerful British fleet to oppose this project, and Sir John
+Jervis was appointed to the command. Nothing could be a higher
+testimony to the opinion entertained of his talents, as his connexion
+with the Whigs was undisguised. But Pitt's feeling for the public
+service overcame all personal predilections, and this great officer
+was sent to take the command of the most extensive and important
+station to which a British admiral could be appointed. Lord Hood had
+previously declined it, on the singular plea of inadequacy of force;
+and Sir Charles Hotham having solicited his recall in consequence of
+declining health, the gallant Jervis was sent forth to establish the
+renown of his country and his own.
+
+The fleet was a noble command. It consisted on the whole of about
+twenty-five sail of the line, two of them of a hundred guns, and five
+of ninety-eight; thirty-six frigates, and fifteen or sixteen sloops
+and other armed vessels.
+
+Among the officers of the fleet were almost all the names which
+subsequently obtained distinction in the great naval victories--
+Troubridge, Hallowell, Hood, Collingwood, &c., and first of the first,
+that star of the British seaman, Nelson. It is remarkable, and only a
+just tribute to the new admiral, that he, almost from his earliest
+intercourse with those gallant men, marked their merits, although
+hitherto they had found no opportunities of acquiring distinction--all
+were to come. Nelson, in writing to his wife, speaking of the
+admiral's notice of him, says, "Sir John Jervis was a perfect stranger
+to me, therefore I feel the more flattered." The admiral, in writing
+to the secretary of the Admiralty, says--"I am afraid of being thought
+a puffer, like many of my brethren, or I should before have dealt out
+to the Board the merits of Captain Troubridge, which are very
+uncommon."
+
+The French fleet, of fifteen sail of the line, lay in Toulon, ready to
+convoy an army to plunge upon the Roman states. Sir John Jervis
+instantly proceeded to block up Toulon, keeping what is called the
+in-shore squadron looking into the harbour's mouth, while the main
+body cruised outside. The admiral at once employed Nelson on the
+brilliant service for which he was fitted, and sent him with a flying
+squadron of a ship of the line, three frigates, and two sloops, to
+scour the coast of Italy. The duties of the Mediterranean fleet,
+powerful as the armament was, were immense. Independently of the
+blockade of Toulon, and the necessity of continually watching the
+enemy's fleet, which might be brought out by the same wind which blew
+off the British, the admiral had the responsibility of protecting the
+Mediterranean convoys, of sustaining the British interests in the
+neutral courts, of assisting the allies on shore, of overawing the
+Barbary powers, which were then peculiarly restless and insolent, and
+of upholding the general supremacy of England, from Smyrna to
+Gibraltar.
+
+The French campaign opened on the 9th of April 1797, and the Austrians
+were beaten on the following day at Montenotte, and in a campaign of a
+month Bonaparte reached Milan. The success of the enemy increased to
+an extraordinary degree the difficulties of the British admiral. The
+repairs of the fleet, the provisioning, and every other circumstance
+connected with the land, lay under increased impediments; but they
+were all gradually overcome by the vigilance and intelligence of the
+admiral.
+
+A curious and characteristic circumstance occurred, soon after his
+taking the command. Nelson had captured a vessel carrying 152 Austrian
+grenadiers, who had been made prisoners by the French, and actually
+sold by their captors to the Spaniards, for the purpose of enlisting
+them in the Spanish army. His letter to Jackson, the secretary of
+legation at Turin, on this subject, spiritedly expresses his
+feelings:--
+
+    "SIR,--From a Swiss dealer in human flesh, the demand made
+    upon me to deliver up 152 Austrian grenadiers, serving on
+    board his Majesty's fleet under my command, is natural enough,
+    but that a Spaniard, who is a noble creature, should join in
+    such a demand, I must confess astonishes me; and I can only
+    account for it by the Chevalier Caamano being ignorant that
+    the persons in question were made prisoners of war in the last
+    war with General Beaulieu, and are not deserters, and that
+    they were most basely sold by the French commissaries to the
+    vile crimps who recruit for the foreign regiments in the
+    service of Spain. It is high time a stop should be put to this
+    abominable traffic, a million times more disgraceful than the
+    African slave-trade."
+
+But other dangers now menaced the British supremacy in the
+Mediterranean. The victories of Bonaparte had terrified all the
+Italian states into neutrality or absolute submission; and the success
+of the Directory, and perhaps their bribes, influenced the miserably
+corrupt and feeble Spanish ministry, to make common cause with the
+conquering republic. Spain at last became openly hostile. This was a
+tremendous increase of hazards, because Spain had fifty-seven sail of
+the line, and a crowd of frigates. The difficulty of blockading Toulon
+was now increased by the failure of provisions. On the night of the 2d
+of November, the admiral sent for the master of the Victory, and told
+him that he now had not the least hope of being reinforced, and had
+made up his mind to push down to Gibraltar with all possible dispatch.
+
+The passage became a stormy one, and it was with considerable
+difficulty that the fleet reached Gibraltar. Some of the transports
+were lost, a ship of the line went down, and several of the fleet were
+disabled.
+
+The result of the French successes and the Austrian misfortunes, was
+an order for the fleet to leave the Mediterranean, and take up its
+station at the Tagus. The vivid spirit of Nelson was especially
+indignant at this change of scene. In one of his letters he says--"We
+are preparing to leave the Mediterranean, a measure which I cannot
+approve. They at home do not know what this fleet is capable of
+performing--any thing, and every thing. Of all the fleets I ever saw,
+I never saw one, in point of officers and men, equal to Sir John
+Jervis's, who is a commander able to lead them to glory." The
+admiral's merits were recognized by the government in a still more
+permanent manner; for, by a despatch from the Admiralty in February
+1797, it was announced that the king had raised him to the dignity of
+the peerage.
+
+The prospect now darkened round every quarter of the horizon. The
+power of Austria had given way; Spain and Holland were combined
+against our naval supremacy; Italy was lost; a French expedition
+threatened Ireland; there was a strong probability of the invasion of
+Portugal; and the junction of the French and Spanish fleets might
+endanger not merely the Tagus fleet, but expose the Channel fleet to
+an encounter with numbers so superior, as to leave the British shores
+open to invasion. The domestic difficulties, too, had their share.
+The necessity of suspending cash payments at the Bank had, if not
+thrown a damp upon the nation, at least given so formidable a ground
+for the fallacies and bitterness of the Opposition, as deeply to
+embarrass even the fortitude of the great minister. We can now see how
+slightly all these hazards eventually affected the real power of
+England; and we now feel how fully adequate the strength of this
+extraordinary and inexhaustible country was to resist all obstacles
+and turn the trial into triumph. But faction was busy, party predicted
+ruin, public men used every art to dispirit the nation and inflame the
+populace; and the result was, a state of public anxiety of which no
+former war had given the example.
+
+It is incontestable that the list of the British navy at this period
+of the war exhibited some of the noblest specimens of English
+character--brave, intelligent, and indefatigable men, ready for any
+service, and equal for all; with all the intrepidity of heroes,
+possessing the highest science of their profession, and exhibiting at
+once that lion-heartedness, and that knowledge, which gave the British
+navy the command of the ocean. And yet, if we were to assign the
+highest place where all were high, we should probably assign it to
+Lord St Vincent as an admiral. Nelson certainly, as an executive
+officer, defies all competition; his three battles, Copenhagen,
+Aboukir, and Trafalgar, each of them a title to eminent distinction,
+place him as a conqueror at the head of all. But an admiral has other
+duties than those of the line of battle; and for a great naval
+administrator, first disciplining a fleet, then supplying it with all
+the means of victory, and finally leading it to victory--Lord St
+Vincent was perhaps the most complete example on record of all the
+combined qualities that make the British admiral. His profound
+tactics, his stern but salutary exactness of command, his incomparable
+judgment, and his cool and unhesitating intrepidity, form one of the
+very noblest models of high command. All those qualities were now to
+be called into full exertion.
+
+The continental campaign had left Europe at the mercy of France.
+England was now the only enemy, and she was to be assailed, in the
+first instance, by a naval war. To prevent the junction of the Spanish
+and French fleets, the Tagus was the station fixed upon by Lord St
+Vincent. Ill luck seemed to frown upon the fleet. The Bombay Castle, a
+seventy-four, was lost going in; the St George, a ninety, grounded in
+coming out, and was obliged to be docked; still the admiral determined
+to keep the sea, though his fleet was reduced to eight sail of the
+line. The day before he left the Tagus, information was received that
+the enemy's fleets had both left the Mediterranean. The French had
+gone to Brest, the Spanish first to Toulon, then to Carthagena, and
+was now proceeding to join the French at Brest. A reinforcement of six
+sail of the line now fortunately joined the fleet off the Tagus; but
+at the same time information was received that the Spanish fleet of
+twenty-seven sail of the line, with fourteen frigates, had passed
+Cadiz, and could not be far distant. To prevent the junction of this
+immense force with the powerful fleet already prepared for a start in
+Brest, was of the utmost national importance; for, combined, they must
+sweep the Channel. The admiral instantly formed his plan, and sailed
+for Cape St Vincent.
+
+The details of the magnificent encounter which followed, are among the
+best portions of the volumes. They are strikingly given, and will
+attract the notice, as they might form the model, of the future
+historian of this glorious period of our annals. We can now give only
+an outline.
+
+On the announcement of the Spanish advance, the first object was to
+gain exact intelligence, and ships were stationed in all quarters on
+the look-out. But on the 13th Captain Foote, in the Niger frigate,
+joined, with the intelligence that he had kept sight of the enemy for
+three days. The admiral was now to have a new reinforcement, not in
+ships but in heroes; the Minerva frigate, bearing Nelson's broad
+pendant, from the Mediterranean, arrived, and Nelson shifted his
+pendant into the Captain. The Lively frigate, with Lord Garlies, also
+arrived from Corsica. The signal was made, "To keep close order, and
+prepare for battle." On that day, Lord Garlies, Sir Gilbert Elliot,
+and Captain Hallowell, with some other officers, dined on board the
+Victory. At breaking up, the toast was drunk, "Victory over the Dons,
+in the battle from which they cannot escape to-morrow!"
+
+The "gentlemen of England who live at home at ease," can probably have
+but little conception of the price which men in high command pay for
+glory. No language can describe the anxieties which have often
+exercised the minds of those bold and prominent characters, of whom we
+now know little but of their laurels. The solemn responsibilities of
+their condition, the consciousness that a false step might be ruin,
+the feeling that the eye of their country was fixed upon them, the
+hope of renown, the dread of tarnishing all their past distinctions,
+must pass powerfully and painfully through the mind of men fitted for
+the struggles by which greatness is to be alone achieved.
+
+"It is believed that Sir John Jervis did not go to bed that night, but
+sat up writing. It is certain that he executed his will." In the
+course of the first and second watches, the enemy's signal-guns were
+distinctly heard; and, as he noticed them sounding more and more
+audibly, Sir John made more earnest enquiries as to the compact order
+and situation of his own ships, as well as they could be made out in
+the darkness. Long before break of day, he walked the deck in more
+than even his usual silence. When the grey of the morning of the 14th
+enabled him to discern his fleet, his first remarks were high
+approbation of his captains, for "their admirably close order, and
+that he wished they were now well up with the enemy; for," added he
+thoughtfully, "a victory is very essential to England at this moment."
+
+Now came on the day of decision. The morning was foggy; but as the
+mist cleared up, the Lively, and then the Niger, signaled "a strange
+fleet." The Bonne Citoyenne was next ordered to reconnoitre. Soon
+after, the Culloden's guns announced the enemy. At twenty minutes past
+ten the signal was made to six of the ships--"to chase." Sir John
+still walked the quarterdeck, and, as the enemy's numbers were
+counted, they were duly reported to him by the captain of the fleet.
+
+"There are eight sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty-five sail of the line, Sir John."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"There are twenty-seven sail of the line, Sir John." This was
+accompanied by some remark on the great disparity of the two forces.
+Sir John's gallant answer now was:--
+
+"Enough, sir--no more of that: the die is cast, and if there are fifty
+sail, I will go through them."
+
+At forty minutes past ten the signal was made to form line of battle
+ahead and astern of the Victory, and to steer S.S.W. The fog was now
+cleared off, and the British fleet were seen admirably formed in the
+closest order; while the Spaniards were stretching in two straggling
+bodies across the horizon, leaving an open space between. The
+opportunity of dividing their fleet struck the admiral at once, and at
+half-past eleven the signal was made to pass through the enemy's line,
+and engage them to leeward. At twelve o'clock, as the Culloden was
+reaching close up to the enemy, the British fleet hoisted their
+colours, and the Culloden opened her fire. An extraordinary incident,
+even in those colossal battles, occurred to this fine ship. The course
+of the Culloden brought her directly on board one of the enemy's
+three-deckers. The first lieutenant, Griffiths, reported to her
+captain, Troubridge, that a collision was inevitable. "Can't help it,
+Griffiths--let the weakest fend off," was the hero's reply. The
+Culloden, still pushing on, fired two of her double-shotted broadsides
+into the Spaniard with such tremendous effect, that the three-decker
+went about, and the guns of her other side not being even cast loose,
+she did not fire a single shot, while the Culloden passed triumphantly
+through. Scarcely had she broken the enemy's line, than the
+commander-in-chief signaled the order to tack in succession.
+Troubridge's manoeuvre was so dashingly performed, that the admiral
+could not restrain his delight and admiration.
+
+"Look, Jackson," he rapturously exclaimed, "look at Troubridge there!
+He tacks his ship to battle as if the eyes of all England were upon
+him; and would to God they were, for then they would see him to be
+what I know him."
+
+The leeward division of the enemy, perceiving the fatal consequences
+of their disunited order of sailing, now endeavoured to retrieve the
+day, and to break through the British line. A vice-admiral, in a
+three-decker, led them, and was reaching up to the Victory just as she
+had come up to tack in her station. The vice-admiral stood on with
+great apparent determination till within pistol-shot, but there he
+stopped; and when the Victory could bring her guns to bear upon him,
+she thundered in two of her broadsides, sweeping the Spaniard's decks,
+and so terrified him, that when his sails filled, he ran clear out of
+the battle altogether. The Victory then tacked into her station, and
+the conflict raged with desperate fury. At this period of the battle,
+the Spanish commander-in-chief bore up with nine sail of the line to
+run round the British, and rejoin his leeward division. This was a
+formidable manoeuvre; but no sooner was it commenced, than his eye
+caught it "whose greatest wish it ever was to be the first to find,
+and foremost to fight, his enemy." Nelson, instead of waiting till his
+turn to tack should bring him into action, took it upon himself to
+depart from the prescribed mode of attack, and ordered his ship to be
+immediately wore. This masterly manoeuvre was completely successful,
+at once arresting the Spanish commander-in-chief, and carrying Nelson
+and Collingwood into the van and brunt of the battle. He now attacked
+the four-decker, the Santissima Trinidada, also engaged by the
+Culloden. The Captain's fore-topmast being now shot away, Nelson put
+his helm down, and let her come to the wind, that he might board the
+San Nicolas; Captain, afterwards Sir Edward Berry, then a passenger
+with Nelson, jumping into her mizen-chains, was the first in the
+enemy's ship; Nelson leading his boarders, and a party of the 69th
+regiment, immediately followed, and the colours were hauled down.
+While he was on the deck of the San Nicolas, the San Josef, disabled,
+fell on board. Nelson instantly seized the opportunity of boarding her
+from his prize; followed by Captain Berry, and Lieutenant Pierson of
+the 69th, he led the boarders, and jumped into the San Josef's
+main-chains. He was then informed that the ship had surrendered. Four
+line-of-battle ships had now been taken, and the Santissima Trinidada
+had also struck; but she subsequently made her escape, for now the
+Spanish leeward division, fourteen sail, having re-formed their line,
+bore down to support their commander-in-chief: to receive them, Sir
+John Jervis was obliged to form a line of battle on the starboard
+tack--the enemy immediately retired. Thus, at five in the evening,
+concluded the most brilliant battle that had ever till then been
+fought at sea.
+
+Captain Calder was immediately sent off with the despatch, and arrived
+in London on the 3d of March. A battle gained over such a numerical
+superiority, for it was much more than two to one, when we take into
+our estimate the immense size of the enemy's ships, and their weight
+of metal, there being one four-decker of 130 guns, and six
+three-deckers of 112, of which two were taken; and further, the more
+interesting circumstance, that this great victory was gained on our
+part with only the loss of 73 killed and 227 wounded, the public
+feeling of exultation was unbounded; and when the minister on that
+very evening proposed that the vote of thanks should be taken on the
+following Monday, the House would hear of no delay, but insisted on
+recording its gratitude at the moment. The House of Peers gave a
+similar vote on the 8th; and the Commons and the Crown immediately
+proposed to settle upon the admiral a pension of three thousand
+a-year. A member of the House of Commons, on moving for an address to
+the Crown to confer some signal mark of favour on the admiral, was
+instantly replied to by the sonorous eloquence of the minister--"Can
+it be supposed," said he, "that the Crown can require to be prompted
+to pay the just tribute of approbation and honour to those who have
+eminently distinguished themselves by public services? On the part of
+his Majesty's ministers, I can safely affirm, that before the last
+splendid instance of the conduct of the gallant admiral, we have not
+been remiss in watching the uniform tenor of his professional career.
+We have witnessed the whole of his proceedings--such instances of
+perseverance, of diligence, and of exertion in the public service, as,
+though less brilliant and dazzling than the last exploit, are only
+less meritorious as they are put in competition with a single day,
+which has produced such incalculable benefit to the British empire."
+
+The result was an earldom. The first lord of the Admiralty, Lord
+Spencer, having already written to Sir John the royal pleasure to
+promote him to a peerage, and the letter not having reached him
+previously to the battle, he thus had notice of the two steps in the
+peerage nearly at once.
+
+Popular honours now flowed in upon him: London voted its freedom in a
+gold box, with swords to the admirals of the fleet and Nelson;
+vice-admirals Parker and Thompson were created baronets; Nelson
+received the red riband; the chief cities and towns of England and
+Ireland sent their freedoms and presents; and the king gave all the
+admirals and captains a gold medal.
+
+We must now be brief in our observations on the services of this most
+distinguished person. We have next a narrative of the suppression of
+the memorable mutiny of 1798, whose purpose it was to have suffered
+the enemy's fleet to leave their harbours, to revolutionize the
+Mediterranean fleet, and, after putting the admirals and captains to
+death, proceed to every folly and frenzy that could be committed by
+men conscious of power, and equally conscious that forgiveness was
+impossible. The fleet under Lord St Vincent was on the point of
+corruption, when it was restored to discipline by the singular
+firmness of the admiral, who, by exhibiting his determination to
+punish all insubordination, extinguished this most alarming
+disaffection, and saved the naval name of the country.
+
+On the resignation of Mr Pitt in 1801, and the appointment of Mr
+Addington as first lord of the treasury, a letter was written from the
+new minister to Lord St Vincent, offering him the appointment of first
+lord of the Admiralty. Having obtained an interview with the king, and
+explained the general tone of his political feelings, the king told
+him he very much wished to see him at the Admiralty, and to place the
+navy entirely in his hands. This was perhaps the only appointment of
+that singularly feeble administration which met with universal
+approval. There could be no question of the intelligence, high
+principle, or public services of the great admiral. Mr Addington came
+into power under circumstances which would have tried the talents of a
+man of first-rate ability. The war had exhausted the patience, though
+not the power, of the nation. All our allies had failed. The severity
+of the taxes was doubly felt, when the war had necessarily turned into
+a blockade on the Continent. We had thus all the exhaustion of
+hostilities without the excitement of triumph; and, to increase public
+anxieties, the failure of the harvest threatened a comparative famine.
+Wheat, which on an average of the preceding ten years had been 54s. a
+quarter, was now at 110s., then rose to 139s., and even reached as
+high as 180s. At one period the quartern loaf had risen to 1s. 10-1/2d.
+The popular cry now arose for peace. France, which with all her
+victories had been taught the precariousness of war, by the loss of
+Egypt and the capture of her army, was now also eager for peace.
+England had but two allies, Portugal and Turkey. At length the peace
+was made, and Lord St Vincent's attention was then drawn to an object
+which he had long in view, the reformation of the dockyards. This was
+indeed the Augean stable, and unexampled clamour arose from the
+multitude who had indolently fattened for years on the easy plunder of
+the public stores. However, the reform went on: perquisites were
+abolished, privileges taken away; and, rough as the operation was,
+nothing could be more salutary than its effect. The acuteness of the
+gallant old man at the head of the Admiralty could not be evaded, his
+vigour could not be defied, and his public spirit gave him an
+influence with the country, which enabled him to outlive faction and
+put down calumny. Yet this was evidently the most painful, and, to a
+certain extent, the most unsuccessful portion of his long career.
+Nominally a Whig, but practically a Tory--for his loyalty was
+unimpeachable and his honour without a stain--Lord St Vincent found
+himself in the condition of a man who presses reform on those with
+whom hitherto it has been only a watchword, and expects faction to act
+up to its professions.
+
+The Addington treaty was soon discovered to be nothing more than a
+truce. Napoleon lived only in war; hostilities were essential to the
+government which he had formed for France; and his theory of
+government, false as it was, and his passion for excitement, whatever
+might be its price, made even the two years of peace so irksome to
+him, that he actually adopted a gross and foolish insult to the
+British ambassador as the means of compelling us to renew the
+conflict. The first result was, the return of Pitt to power; the next,
+the total ruin of the French navy at Trafalgar; the next, the bloody
+and ruinous war with Russia, expressly for the ruin of England through
+the ruin of her commerce; and finally the crash of Waterloo, which
+extinguished his diadem and his dominion together--a series of events,
+occurring within little more than ten years, of a more stupendous
+order than had hitherto affected the fate of any individual, or
+influenced the destinies of an European kingdom.
+
+With the ministry of Mr Addington, Lord St Vincent retired from public
+life. He was now old, and the hardships of long service had partially
+exhausted his original vigour of frame. He retired to his seat,
+Rochetts in Essex, and there led the delightful life of a man who had
+gained opulence and distinction by pre-eminent services, and whose old
+age was surrounded by love, honour, and troops of friends. He appeared
+from time to time in the House of Lords, where, however, he spoke but
+seldom, but where he always spoke with dignity and effect.
+
+In the month of March 1823, Lord St Vincent was seized with a general
+feeling of infirmity which portended his speedy dissolution. He had a
+violent and convulsive cough; yet his intellects were strongly turned
+upon public events, and he expressed an anxiety to know all that could
+be known of events in France, which was then disturbed; of the Spanish
+revolution, which then threatened to involve Europe; and even of the
+affairs of Greece. In the course of the evening of the 13th, while his
+physician and family were round him, his strength suddenly gave way,
+and at half past eight he died, at the age of eighty-eight, and was
+buried at Stone in Staffordshire. He was succeeded in the peerage by
+his nephew, who, however, inherits only the viscounty.
+
+In our general notice of Lord St Vincent's career, we have adverted as
+little as possible to the opinions which his biographer had introduced
+from his own view of public affairs. We have no wish to make a peevish
+return to the writer of a work which has given us both information and
+pleasure. But it is necessary to caution Mr Tucker against giving
+trite and trifling opinions on subjects of which he evidently knows so
+little as of the Romish question, or the state of Ireland. Nothing is
+easier than to be at once solemn and superficial on such topics; and
+when a writer of this order flings his epithets of "bigoted, harsh,
+and impolitic," and the other stock phrases of party organs, he only
+enfeebles our respect for his authority in the immediate matters of
+his work, and rather lowers our respect for his faculties in all. The
+question of Popery in Ireland, is not a question of religion but of
+faction. Religious controversy on Romish doctrines has long ceased to
+exist. Romanism has no grounds on which a controversy can be
+sustained. It cannot appeal to the Scriptures, which it shuts up; and
+it will no longer be suffered to appeal to its mere childish pretence
+of infallibility. Its only ground in Ireland is party; and the present
+unhappy condition to which it has reduced Ireland, exhibits the
+natural consequences of indulgence to Popery, and the only means by
+which its spirit can be rendered consistent with the order of society.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART X.
+
+
+    "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+    Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+    Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+    Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+    And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+    Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+    Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+                                       SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+On reaching the prison, I gave up all for lost; sullenly resigned
+myself to what now seemed the will of fate; and without a word, except
+in answer to the interrogatory of my name and country, followed the
+two horrid-looking ruffians who performed the office of turnkeys. St
+Lazare had been a monastery, and its massiveness, grimness, and
+confusion of buildings, with its extreme silence at that late hour,
+gave me the strongest impression of a huge catacomb above ground. The
+door of a cell was opened for me after traversing a long succession of
+cloisters; and on a little wooden trestle, and wrapt in my cloak, I
+attempted to sleep. But if sleep has not much to boast of in Paris at
+any time, what was it then? I had scarcely closed my eyes when I was
+roused by a rapid succession of musket-shots, fired at the opposite
+side of the cloister, the light of torches flashing through the long
+avenues, and the shouts of men and women in wrath, terror, and agony.
+I threw myself off my uneasy bed, and climbing up by my prison bars,
+endeavoured to ascertain the cause of the melee. But the imperfect
+light served little more than to show a general mustering of the
+national guard in the court, and a huge and heavy building, into which
+they were discharging random shots whenever a head appeared at its
+casements. A loud huzza followed whenever one of those shots appeared
+to take effect, and a laugh equally loud ran through the ranks when
+the bullet wasted its effect on the massive mullions or stained glass
+of the windows. A tall figure on horseback, whom I afterwards learned
+to be Henriot, the commandant of the national guard, galloped up and
+down the court with the air of a general-in-chief manoeuvring an army.
+I think that he actually had provided himself with a truncheon to meet
+all the emergencies of supreme command. While this sanguinary, and yet
+mocking representation of warfare was going on, M. le Commandant was
+in full eloquence and prodigious gesticulation. "A la gloire, mes
+enfans!" was his constant cry. "Fight, _mes braves!_ the honour of
+France demands it: the eyes of Europe--of the world--are turned upon
+you. _Vive la Republique!_" And all this accompanied with waving his
+hat, and spurring his horse into foam and fury. But fortune is a jade
+after all; and the hero of the tricolored scarf was destined to have
+his laurels a little shorn, even on this narrow field. While his
+charger was caracoling over the cloisters, and his veterans from the
+cellars and counters of Paris were popping off their muskets at the
+unfortunates who started up against the old casement, I heard a sudden
+rush and run; a low postern of the cloister had been flung back, and
+the prisoners within the building had made a sally on their
+tormentors. A massacre at the Bicetre, in which six thousand had
+perished, had warned these unhappy people that neither the prison
+wall, nor night, was to be security against the rage of the
+bloodhounds with whom murder seemed to have grown into a pastime; and
+after having seen several of their number shot down within their
+dungeon, they determined to attack them, and, if they must die, at
+least die in manly defence. Their rush was perfectly successful; it
+had the effect of a complete surprise; and though their only weapons
+were fragments of their firewood--for all fire-arms and knives had
+been taken from them immediately on their entrance into the
+prison--they routed the heroes of the guard at the first charge. Even
+the gallant commander himself only shared the chance of his
+"camarades:" a flourish or two of his sabre, and an adjuration of
+"liberty," had no other effect than to insure a heavier shower of
+blows, and I had the gratification of seeing the braggadocio go down
+from his saddle in the midst of a group, who certainly had no
+veneration for the majesty of the truncheon. The victory was achieved;
+but, like many another victory, it produced no results: the gates of
+the St Lazare were too strongly guarded to be forced by an unarmed
+crowd, and I saw the prisoners successively and gloomily return to the
+only roof, melancholy as that was, which now could shelter them.
+
+The morning brought my case before the authorities of this den. Half a
+dozen coarse and filthy uniformed men, and some of them evidently
+sufferers in the tumult of the night, for their heads were bound up
+and their arms bandaged--a matter which, if it did not improve their
+appearance, gave me every reason to expect increased brutishness in
+their tempers--formed the tribunal. The hall in which they had
+established their court had once been the kitchen of the convent; and,
+though all signs of hospitality had vanished, its rude and wild
+construction, its stone floor and vaulted roof, and even its yawning
+and dark recesses for the different operations which, in other days,
+had made it a scene of busy cheerfulness, now gave it a look of
+dreariness in the extreme. I could have easily imagined it to be a
+chamber of the Inquisition. But men in my circumstances have not much
+time for the work of fancy; and I was instantly called on for my name,
+and business in France. I had heard enough of popular justice to
+believe, that I had now arrived within sight of the last struggle, and
+I resolved to give these ruffians no triumph over the Englishman.
+
+"Citizen, who are you?" Was the first interrogatory.
+
+"I am no citizen, no Frenchman, and no republican," was my answer. My
+judges stared at each other.
+
+"You are a prisoner. How came you here?"
+
+"You are judges; how came you there?"
+
+"You are charged with crimes against the Republic."
+
+"In my country no man is expected to criminate himself."
+
+"But you are a traitor: can you deny that?"
+
+"I am no traitor to my king; can you say as much for yourselves?" They
+now began to cast furious glances at me.
+
+"You are insolent: what brought you into the territory of France?"
+
+"The same thing which placed you on that bench--force."
+
+"Are you mad?"
+
+"No--are you?"
+
+"Do you not know that we can send you to the"--
+
+"If you do, I shall only go before _you_."
+
+This put an end to my interrogatory at once. I had accidentally
+touched upon the nerve which quivered in every bosom of these fellows.
+There was a singular presentiment among even the boldest of the
+Revolutionists, that the new order of things would not last, and that,
+when the change came, it would be a bloody one. Life had become
+sufficiently precarious already among the possessors of power; and the
+least intimation of death was actually formidable to a race of
+villains whose hands were hourly imbued in slaughter. I had been
+hitherto placed in scarcely more than surveillance. An order for my
+confinement as a "Brigand Anglais," was made out by the indignant
+"commission," and I was transferred from my narrow and lonely cell
+into the huge crowded building in the opposite cloister, which had
+been the scene of the attack on the previous night. I could, with
+Cato, "smile on the drawn dagger and defy its point." I walked out
+with the air of a Cato.
+
+This change, intended for my infinite degradation until the guillotine
+should have dispatched its business in arrear, I found much to my
+advantage. The man who expects nothing, cannot be hurt by
+disappointment; and when I was conducted from my solitary cell into
+the midst of four or five hundred prisoners, I felt the human feelings
+kindle in me, which had been chilled between my four stone walls.
+
+The prisoners with whom I was now to take my chance, were of all
+ranks, professions, and degrees of crime. The true crime in the eyes
+of the republic being, to be rich. Yet there the culprit had some hope
+of being suffered to live, at least while daily examinations, with the
+hourly perspective of the axe, could make him contribute to the purses
+of the tribunal. Those who happened to be poor, were found guilty of
+_incivisme_ at once, and were daily drafted off to the Place de Greve,
+from which they never returned. But some of the prisoners were from La
+Vendee, peasants mixed with nobles; who, though no formal shape of
+resistance to the republic was yet declared, had exhibited enough of
+that gallant contempt of the new tyranny, which afterwards
+immortalized the name, to render them obnoxious to the ruffians at its
+head. It was this sturdy portion which had made the dash on the night
+of the riot, and their daring had the effect, at least, of saving
+their fellow-prisoners in future from being made marks, to teach the
+national guard the art of shooting. Even their sentries kept a
+respectful distance; and M. Henriot, wisely mindful of his
+flagellation, flourished his staff of command no more within our
+cloister. We were, in fact, left almost wholly to ourselves. Yet, if a
+philosopher desired to take a lesson in human nature, this was the
+spot of earth for the study. We had it in every shape and shade. We
+had it in the wits and blockheads, the courtiers and the clowns, the
+opulent and the ruined, the brave and the pusillanimous--and all under
+the strangest pressure of those feelings which rouse the nature of man
+to its most undisguised display. Death was before every eye. Where was
+the use of wearing a mask, when the wearer was so soon to part with
+his head? Pretence gradually vanished, and a general spirit of
+boldness, frankness, and something, if not exactly of dignity, at
+least of manliness, superseded the customary cringing of society under
+a despotism. In all but the name, we were better republicans than the
+tribe who shouted in the streets, or robbed in the tribunals.
+
+I made the remark one day to the Marquis de Cassini, a philosopher and
+pupil of the great Buffon. "The reason is," said he, "that men differ
+chiefly by circumstances, as they differ chiefly by their clothes.
+Throw off their dress, whether embroidery or rags, and you will find
+the same number of ribs in them all."
+
+"But my chief surprise is, to find in this prison more mutual
+kindness, and, in every sense, more generosity of sentiment, than one
+generally expects to meet in the world."
+
+"Helvetius would tell you that all this was self-interest," was my
+pale-visaged and contemplative friend's reply. "But I always regarded
+M. Helvetius in the light of a well-trained baboon, who thought, when
+men stared at his tricks, they were admiring his talents. The truth
+is, that self-interest is the mere creature of society, and is the
+most active in the basest society. It is the combined cowardice and
+cruelty of men struggling for existence; the savageness of the forest,
+where men cannot gather acorns enough to share with their fellows; the
+effort for life, where there is but one plank in a storm, and where,
+if you are to cling at all, it must be by drowning the weaker party.
+But here," and he cast his eyes calmly round the crowd, "as there is
+not the slightest possibility that any one of us will escape, we have
+the better opportunity of showing our original _bienseance_. All the
+struggling on earth will not save us from the guillotine; and
+therefore we resolve to accommodate each other for the rest of our
+journey."
+
+I agreed with him on the philosophy of the case, and in return he
+introduced me to some of the Vendean nobles, who had hitherto
+exhibited their general scorn of Parisian contact by confining
+themselves to the circle of their followers. I was received with the
+distinction due to my introducer, and was invited to join their supper
+that night. The prison had once been the chapel of the convent; and
+though the desecration had taken place a hundred years before, and the
+revolutionary spoil had spared but little of the remaining ornaments,
+the original massiveness of the building, and the nobleness of the
+architecture, had withstood the assaults of both time and plunder. The
+roofs of the aisles could not be reached except by flame, and the
+monuments of the ancient priors and prelates, when they had once been
+stripped of their crosses, were too solid for the passing fury of the
+mob. And thus, in the midst of emblems of mortality, and the
+recollections of old solemnity, were set some hundreds of people, who
+knew as little of each other as if they had met in a caravansery, and
+who, perhaps, expected to part as soon. The scene was curious, but by
+no means uncheerful. The national spirit is inextinguishable; and,
+however my countrymen may bear up against the extremes of ill-fortune,
+no man meets its beginnings with so easy an air as the man of France.
+Our supper was laid out in one of the side chapels; and, coarse and
+scanty as it was, I seldom recollect an evening which I passed with a
+lighter sense of the burden of a prisoner's time. I found the Vendean
+nobles a manlier race than their more courtly countrymen. Yet they had
+courtliness of their own; but it was more the manner of our own
+country gentlemen of the last century, than the polish of Versailles.
+Their habits of living on their domains, of country sports, of
+intercourse with their peasantry, and of the general simplicity of
+country life, had drawn a strong line of distinction between them and
+the dukes and marquises of the royal saloons. Like all Frenchmen of
+the day, they conversed largely upon the politics of France; but there
+was a striking reserve in their style. The existing royal family were
+but little mentioned, or mentioned only with a certain kind of sacred
+respect. Their misfortunes prohibited the slightest severity of
+language. Yet still it was not difficult to see, that those
+straightforward and honest lords of the soil, who were yet to prove
+themselves the true chevaliers of France, could feel as acutely, and
+express as strongly, the injuries inflicted by the absurdities and
+vices of the successive administrations of their reign, as if they had
+figured in the clubs of the capital. But the profligacies of the
+preceding monarch, and the tribe of fools and knaves whom those
+profligacies as naturally gathered round him as the plague propagates
+its own contagion, met with no mercy. And, though they were spoken of
+with the gravity which became the character and rank of the speakers,
+they were denounced with a sternness which seemed beyond the morals or
+the mind of their country. Louis XV., Du Barri, and the whole long
+succession of corrupting and corrupted cabinets, which had at length
+rendered the monarchy odious, were denounced in terms worthy of
+gallant men; who, though resolved to sink or swim with the throne,
+experienced all the bitterness of generous indignation at the crimes
+which had raised the storm.
+
+We had our songs too, and some of them were as contemptuous as ever
+came from the pen of Parisian satire. Among my recollections of the
+night was one of those songs, of which the _refrain_ was--
+
+    "Le Bien-Aime--_de l'Almanac_."
+
+A burlesque on the title--Le Bien-Aime, &c., which the court calendar,
+and the court calendar _alone_, had annually given to the late king. I
+can offer only a paraphrase.
+
+     "Louis Quinze, our burning shame,
+      Hear our song, 'old well-beloved,'
+    What if courts and camps are tame,
+      Pension'd beggars laced and gloved,
+    France's love grows rather slack,
+    Idol of--the Almanac.
+
+     "Let your flatterers hang or drown,
+      We are of another school,
+    Truth no more shall be put down,
+      We can call a fool a fool,
+    Fearless of Bastile or rack,
+    Titus of--the Almanac.
+
+     "Louis, trample on your serfs,
+      We'll be trampled on no more,
+    Revel in your _parc aux cerfs_,[27]
+      Eat and drink--'twill soon be o'er.
+    France will steer another tack,
+    Solon of--the Almanac!
+
+     "Hear your praises from your pages,
+      Hear them from your liveried lords,
+    Let your valets earn their wages,
+      Liars, living on their words;
+    We'll soon give them nuts to crack,
+    Caesar of--the Almanac!
+
+     "When a dotard fills the throne,
+      Fit for nothing but a nurse,
+    When a nation's general groan,
+      Yields to nothing but its curse;
+    What are armies at thy back,
+    Henri of--the Almanac?
+
+     "When the truth is bought and sold,
+      When the wrongs of man are spurn'd,
+    Then the crown's last knell is toll'd,
+      Then, old Time, thy glass has turn'd,
+    And comes flying from thy pack
+    To nations a _new_ Almanac!
+
+     "Mistress, minister, Bourbon,
+      Rule by bayonets, bribes, and spies,
+    Charlatans in church and throne,
+      France is opening all her eyes--
+    Down go minion, king, and quack,
+    We'll have _our_ new Almanac!"
+
+    [27] A scene of peculiar infamy near Paris.
+
+When I returned to the place where my mattress was flung, the crowd
+had already sunk to rest, and there was a general silence throughout
+the building. The few lights which our jailers supplied to us, had
+become fewer; and, except for the heavy sound of the doubled sentries'
+tread outside, I might have imagined myself in a vast cemetery. The
+agitation of the day, followed by the somewhat unsuitable gayety of
+the evening, had thrown me into such a state of mental and bodily
+fatigue, that I had scarcely laid my side on my bed, untempting as it
+was, when I dropped into a heavy slumber. The ingenuity of our
+tormentors, however, prohibited our knowing any thing in the shape of
+indulgence; and in realisation of the dramatist's renowned _mot_,
+"traitors never sleep," the prison door was suddenly flung open--a
+drum rattled through the aisle--the whole body of the prisoners were
+ordered to stand forth and answer to their names; this ceremony
+concluding with the march of the whole night-guard into the chapel,
+and their being ordered to load with ball-cartridge, to give us the
+sufficient knowledge of what any attempt to escape would bring upon us
+in future. This refinement in cruelty we owed to the _escapade_ of the
+night before.
+
+At length, after a variety of insulting queries, even this scene was
+over. The guard marched out, the roll of their drum passed away among
+the cloisters; we went shivering to our beds--threw ourselves down
+dressed as we were, and tried to forget France and our jailers.
+
+But a French night in those times was like no other, and I had yet to
+witness a scene such as I believe could not have existed in any other
+country of the globe.
+
+After some period of feverish sleep I was awakened by a strange
+murmur, which, mixing with my dreams, had given me the comfortless
+idea of hearing the roar of the multitude at some of the horrid
+displays of the guillotine; and as I half opened my unwilling eyes,
+still heavy with sleep, I saw a long procession of figures, in flowing
+mantles and draperies, moving down the huge hall. A semicircle of beds
+filled the extremity of the chapel, which had been vacated by a draft
+of unfortunate beings, carried off during the day to that dreadful
+tribunal, whose sole employment seemed to be the supply of the axe,
+and from which no one was ever expected to return. While my eyes, with
+a strange and almost superstitious anxiety--such is the influence of
+time and place--followed this extraordinary train, I saw it take
+possession of the range of beds; each new possessor sitting wrapt in
+his pale vesture, and perfectly motionless. I can scarcely describe
+the singular sensations with which I continued to gaze on the
+spectacle. My eyes sometimes closed, and I almost conceived that the
+whole was a dream; but the forms were too distinct for this
+conjecture, and the question with me now became, "are they flesh and
+blood?" I had not sunk so far into reverie as to imagine that they
+were the actual spectres of the unhappy tenants of those beds on the
+night before, all of whom were now, doubtless, in the grave; but the
+silence, the distance, the dimness perplexed me, and I left the
+question to be settled by the event. At a gesture from the central
+figure they all stood up--and a man loaded with fetters was brought
+forward in front of their line. I now found that a trial was going on:
+the group were the judges, the man was the presumed criminal; there
+was an accuser, there was an advocate--in short, all the general
+process of a trial was passing before my view. Curiosity would
+naturally have made me spring from my bed and approach this
+extraordinary spectacle; but I am not ashamed now to acknowledge, that
+I felt a nervelessness and inability to speak or move, which for the
+time wholly awed me. All that I could discover was, that the accused
+was charged with _incivisme_, and that, defying the court and
+disdaining the charge, he was pronounced guilty--the whole circle,
+standing up as the sentence was pronounced, and with a solemn waving
+of their arms and murmur of their voices, assenting to the act of the
+judge. The victim was then seized on, swept away into the darkness,
+and after a brief pause I heard a shriek and a crash; the sentence had
+been fulfilled--all was over. The court now covered their heads with
+their mantles, as if in sorrow for this formidable necessity.
+
+But how shall I speak of the closing scene? However it surprised and
+absorbed me in that moment of nervous excitement, I can allude to it
+now only as characteristic of a time when every mind in France was
+half lunatic. I saw a figure enveloped in star-coloured light emerge
+from the darkness, slowly ascend, in a vesture floating round it like
+the robes which Raphael or Guido gives to the beings of another
+sphere, and, accompanied by a burst of harmony as it rose, ascend to
+the roof, where it suddenly disappeared. All was instantly the silence
+and the darkness of the grave.
+
+Daylight brought back my senses, and I was convinced that the
+pantomimic spirit of the people, however unaccountably it might
+disregard proprieties, had been busy with the scene. I should now
+certainly have abandoned the supernatural portion of the conjecture
+altogether; but on mentioning it to Cassini, he let me into the
+solution at once.
+
+"Have you never observed," said he, "the passion of all people for
+walking on the edge of a precipice, climbing a church tower, looking
+down from a battlement, or doing any one thing which gives them the
+nearest possible chance of breaking their necks?--then you can
+comprehend the performance of last night. There we are, like fowls in
+a coop: every day sees some of us taken out; and the amusement of the
+remaining fowls is to imagine how the heads of the others were taken
+from their bodies." The prisoners were practising a trial.
+
+I gave an involuntary look of surprise at this species of amusement,
+and remarked something on the violation of common feeling--to say
+nothing of the almost profaneness which it involved.
+
+"As to the feeling," said Cassini, with that shrug which no shoulders
+but those of a Frenchman can ever give, "it is a matter of taste; and
+perhaps we have no right to dictate in such matters to persons who
+would think a week a long lease of life, and who, instead of seven
+days, may not have so many hours. As to the profanation, if your
+English scruples made you sensitive on such points, I can assure you
+that you might have seen some things much more calculated to excite
+your sensibilities. The display last night was simply the trial of a
+royalist; and as we are all more or less angry with republicanism at
+this moment, and with some small reason too, the royalist, though he
+was condemned, as every body now is, was suffered to have his
+apotheosis. But _I_ have seen exhibitions in which the republican was
+the criminal, and the scene that followed was really startling even to
+my rather callous conceptions. Sometimes we even had one of the
+colossal ruffians who are now lording it over France. I have seen St
+Just, Couthon, Caier, Danton, nay Robespierre himself; arraigned
+before our midnight tribunal; for this amusement is the only one which
+we can enjoy without fear of interruption from our jailers. Thus we
+enjoy it with the greater gusto, and revenge ourselves for the
+tribulations of the day by trying our tormentors at night."
+
+"I am satisfied with the reason, although I am not yet quite
+reconciled to the performance. Who were the actors?"
+
+"You are now nearer the truth than you suspected. We have men of every
+trade here, and, among the rest, we have actors enough to stock the
+_Comedie Francaise_. If you remain long enough among us, you will see
+some of the best farces of the best time played uncommonly well by our
+fellow _detenus_. But in the interim--for our stage is permitted by
+the municipality to open in the St Lazare only four times a month--a
+piece of cruelty which we all regard as intolerable--our actors
+refresh their faculties with all kinds of displays. You acknowledge
+that the scene last night was well got up; and if you should see the
+trial of some of our 'Grands Democrats,' be assured that your
+admiration will not be attracted by showy vesture, blue lights, or the
+harmonies of the old asthmatic organ in yonder gallery; our pattern
+will be taken from the last scene of 'Il Don Giovanni.' You will have
+no pasteboard figure suspended from the roof, and wafted upward in
+starlight or moonlight. But if you wish to see the exhibition, I am
+concerned to tell you that you must wait, for to-night all our
+_artistes_ are busy. In what, do you conceive?"
+
+I professed my inability to fathom "the infinite resources of the
+native mind, where amusement was the question."
+
+"Well then--not to keep you in suspense--we are to have a masquerade."
+
+The fact was even so. France having grown tired of all things that had
+been, grew tired of weeks, and Decades were the law of the land. The
+year was divided into packs of ten days each, and she began the great
+game of time by shuffling and cutting her cards anew. The change was
+not marked by any peculiar good fortune; for it was laughed at, as
+every thing in France was except an order for deportation to the
+colonies, or a march to the scaffold. The populace, fully admitting
+the right of government to deal with kings and priests as it pleased,
+regarded the interference with their pleasures as a breach of compact;
+and the result was, that the populace had their Dimanche as well as
+their Decadi, and that the grand experiment for wiping out the Sunday,
+issued in giving them two holidays instead of one.
+
+It was still early in the day when some bustle in the porch of the
+prison turned all eyes towards it, and a new detachment of prisoners
+was brought in. I shall say nothing of the scenes of wretchedness
+which followed; the wild terrors of women on finding themselves in
+this melancholy place, which looked, and was, scarcely more than a
+vestibule to the tomb; the deep distress of parents, with their
+children clinging round them, and the general despair--a despair which
+was but too well founded. Yet the tumult of their settling and
+distribution among the various quarters of the chapel had scarcely
+subsided when another scene was at hand. The commissary of the
+district came in, with a list of the prisoners who were summoned
+before the tribunal. Our prison population was like the waters of a
+bath, as one stream flowed in another flowed out; the level was
+constantly sustained. With an instinctive pang I heard my name
+pronounced among those unhappy objects of sanguinary rule. Cassini
+approached me with a smile, which he evidently put on to conceal his
+emotion.
+
+"This is quick work, M. Marston," said he, taking my hand. "As the
+ruffian in the school fable says, 'Hodie tibi, cras nihi'--twelve
+hours will probably make all the difference between us."
+
+I took off the little locket coutaining my last remembrance of
+Clotilde, and put it into his hands, requesting him, if he survived,
+to transmit it to his incomparable countrywoman, with an assurance
+that I remembered her in an hour when all else was forgotten.
+
+"I shall perform the part of your legatee," said he, "till to-morrow;
+then I will find some other depositary. Here you must know that
+heirship is rapid, and that the will is executed before the ink is
+dry." He turned away to hide a tear. "I have not known you long, sir,"
+said he; "but in this place we must be expeditious in every thing. You
+are too young to die. If you are sacrificed, I am convinced that you
+will die like a gentleman and a man of honour. And yet I have some
+feeling, some presentiment, nay almost a consciousness, that you will
+not be cut off, at least until you are as weary of the world as I am."
+
+I endeavoured to put on a face of resignation, if not of cheerfulness,
+and said, "That though my country might revenge my death, my being
+engaged in its service would only make my condemnation inevitable. But
+I was prepared."
+
+"At all events, my young friend," said he, "if you escape from this
+pandemonium of France, take this paper, and vindicate the memory of
+Cassini."
+
+He gave me a memoir, which I could not help receiving with a smile,
+from the brevity of the period during which the trust was likely to
+hold. The gendarme now came up to demand my attendance. I shook hands
+with the marquis, who at that moment was certainly no philosopher, and
+followed the train.
+
+We were about fifty in number; and after being placed in open
+artillery waggons, the procession moved rapidly through the suburb,
+until we reached one of those dilapidated and hideous-looking
+buildings which were then to be found startling the stranger's eye
+with the recollections of the St Bartholomew and the Fronde.
+
+A crowd, assembled round the door of one of these melancholy shades,
+and the bayonets of a company of the national guard glittering above
+their heads, at length indicated the place of our destination. The
+crowd shouted, and called us "aristocrats, thirsting for the blood of
+the good citizens." The line of the guard opened, and we were rapidly
+passed through several halls, the very dwelling of decay, until we
+reached a large court, where the prisoners remained while the judges
+were occupied in deciding on the fate of the train which the morning
+had already provided. I say nothing of the insults which were
+intended, if not to add new bitterness to death, to indulge the
+wretched men and women who could find an existence in attending on the
+offices of the tribunal, with opportunities of triumphing over those
+born to better things. While we remained in the court exposed to the
+weather, which was now cold and gusty, shouts were heard at intervals,
+which, as the turnkeys informed us, arose from the spectators of the
+executions--death, in these fearful days, immediately following
+sentence. Yet, to the last the ludicrous often mingled with the
+melancholy. While I was taking my place in the file according to the
+order of our summons, and was next in rotation for trial, a smart and
+overdressed young man stepped out of his place in the rank, and
+drawing from his bosom a pamphlet in manuscript, presented it to me,
+with the special entreaty that, "in case I survived, I should take
+care of its propagation throughout Europe." My answer naturally was,
+"That my fate was fully as precarious as that of the rest, and that
+thus I had no hope of being able to give his pamphlet to mankind."
+
+"_Mais_, monsieur," that phrase which means so many inexpressible
+things--"But, sir, you must observe, that by putting my pamphlet into
+your charge, it has a double chance. You may read it as a part of your
+defence; it is a treatise on the government of France, which settles
+all the disputed questions, reconciles republicanism with monarchy,
+and shows how a revolution may be made to purify all things without
+overthrowing any. Thus my sentiments will become public at once, the
+world will be enlightened, and, though _you_ may perish, France will
+be saved."
+
+Nothing could be more convincing; yet I continued stubborn. He
+persisted. I suggested the "possibility of my not being suffered to
+make any defence whatever, but of being swept away at once; in this
+case endangering the total loss of his conceptions to the world;" but
+I had to deal with a man of resources.
+
+"No," said the author and philanthropist; "for that event I have
+provided. I have a second copy folded on my breast, which I shall read
+when I am called on for trial. Then those immortal truths shall not be
+left to accident; I shall have two chances for celebrity; the labour
+of my life shall be known; nor shall the name of Jean Jacques
+Pelletier go to the tomb without the renown due to a philosopher."
+
+But further deprecation on my part was cut short by the appearance of
+two of the guard, by whom I was marched to the presence of the
+tribunal. The day had now waned, and two or three lamps showed my
+weary eye the judges, whose decision was to make the difference to me
+between life and death, within the next half hour. Their appearance
+was the reverse of one likely to reconcile the unfortunate to the
+severity of the law. They were seven or eight sitting on a raised
+platform, with a long table in their front, covered with papers, with
+what seemed to be the property taken from the condemned at the
+moment--watches, purses, and trinkets; and among those piles, very
+visibly the fragments of a dinner--plates and soups, with several
+bottles of cognac and wine. Justice was so indefatigable in France,
+that its ministers were forced to mingle all the functions of public
+and private life together; and to be intoxicated in the act of passing
+sentence of death was no uncommon event.
+
+The judges of those sectional tribunals were generally ruffians of the
+lowest description, who, having made themselves notorious by violence
+and Jacobinism, had driven away the usual magistracy, and, under the
+pretext of administering justice, were actually driving a gainful
+trade in robbery of every kind. The old costume of the courts of law
+was of course abjured; and the new civic costume, which was obviously
+constructed on the principle of leaving the lands free for butchery,
+and preserving the garments free from any chance of being disfigured
+by the blood of the victim--for they were the perfection of savage
+squalidness--was displayed _a la rigueur_ on the bench. A short coat
+without sleeves, the shirt sleeves tucked up as for instant execution,
+the neck open, no collar, fierce mustaches, a head of clotted hair,
+sometimes a red nightcap stuck on one side, and sometimes a red
+handkerchief tied round it as a temporary "bonnet de nuit"--for the
+judges frequently, in drunkenness or fatigue, threw themselves on the
+bench or the floor, and slept--exhibited the regenerated aspect of
+Themis in the capital of the polished world.
+
+My name was now called. I shall not say with what a throb of heart I
+heard it. But at the moment when I was stepping forward, I felt my
+skirt pulled by one of the guard behind me. I looked, and recognized
+through all his beard, and the hair that in profusion covered his
+physiognomy, my police friend, who seemed to possess the faculty of
+being every where--a matter, however, rendered easier to him by his
+being in the employ of the government--and who simply whispered the
+words--"Be firm, and acknowledge nothing." Slight as the hint was, it
+had come in good time; for I had grown desperate from the sight of the
+perpetual casualties round me, and, like Cassini's idea of the man
+walking on the edge of the precipice, had felt some inclination to
+jump off, and take my chance. But now contempt and defiance took the
+place of despair; and instead of openly declaring my purposes and
+performances, my mind was made up to leave them to find out what they
+could.
+
+On my being marched up to the foot of the platform between two
+frightful-looking ruffians, whose coats and trousers seemed to have
+been dyed in gore, to show that they were worthy of the murders of
+September, and who, to make "assurance doubly sure," wore on their
+sword-belts the word "September," painted in broad characters, I
+remained for a while unquestioned, until they turned over a pile of
+names which they had flung on the table before them. At last their
+perplexity was relieved by one of the clerks, who pronounced my name.
+I was then interrogated in nearly the same style as before the
+committee of my first captors. I gave them short answers.
+
+"Who are you?" asked the principal distributor of rabble justice. The
+others stooped forward, pens in hand, to record my conviction.
+
+My answer was--
+
+"I am a man." (Murmurs on the platform.)
+
+"Whence come you?"
+
+"From your prison."
+
+"You are not a Frenchman?"
+
+"No, thank Heaven!" (Murmurs again.)
+
+"Beware, sir, of insolence to the tribunal. We can send you instantly
+to punishment."
+
+"I know it. Why then try me at all?"
+
+"Because, prisoner, we desire to hear the truth first."
+
+"First or last, can you bear to hear it?" (Angry looks, but more
+attention.)
+
+"We have no time to waste--the business of the Republic must be done.
+Are you a citizen?"
+
+"I am; a citizen of the world."
+
+"You must not equivocate with justice. Where did you live before you
+were arrested?"
+
+"On the globe." (A half-suppressed laugh among the crowd in the back
+ground.)
+
+"What profession?"
+
+"None."
+
+"On what then do you live, have lived, or expect to live?"
+
+"To-day on nothing, for your guards have given me nothing. Yesterday,
+I lived on what I could get. To-morrow, it depends on circumstances
+whether I shall want any thing." (A low murmur of applause among the
+bystanders, who now gathered closer to the front.)
+
+"Prisoner," said the chief, swilling a glass of cognac to strengthen
+the solemnity of his jurisprudence, "the Republic must not be trifled
+with. You are arraigned of _incivisme_. Of what country are you a
+subject?"
+
+"Of France, while I remain on her territory."
+
+"Have you fought for France?"
+
+"I have; for her laws, her liberty, her property, and her honour."
+(Bravo! from the crowd.)
+
+"Yet you are not a Republican?"
+
+"No; no more than you are."
+
+This produced confusion on the bench. The hit was contemptuously
+accidental; but it was a home-thrust at the chief, who had former been
+a domestic in the Tuileries, and was still strongly suspected of being
+a spy of the Bourbons. The crowd who knew his story, who are always
+delighted with a blow at power, burst into a general roar. But a
+little spruce fellow on the bench, who had already exhibited a desire
+to take his share in the interrogatory, now thrust his head over the
+table, and said in his most searching tone--
+
+"To come to the point--Prisoner, how do you live? What are your means?
+All honest men must have visible means. That is _my_ question." (All
+eyes were now turned on me.)
+
+I was now growing angry; and, pointing to the pile of purses and
+watches on the table--
+
+"No man," said I, "needs ask what are your visible means, when they
+see that pile before you. Yet I doubt if that proves you to be an
+honest man. That is _my_ answer."
+
+The little inquisitor looked furious, and glanced towards the chief
+for protection; but his intrusion had provoked wrath in that quarter,
+and his glance was returned with a rigid smile.
+
+"Prisoner," said the head of the tribunal, "though the question was
+put improperly, it was itself a proper one. How do you live?"
+
+"By my abilities."
+
+"That is a very doubtful support in those times."
+
+"I do not recommend you, or any of those around you, to make the
+experiment," was my indignant answer.
+
+The bystanders gave a general laugh, in which even the guard joined.
+To get the laugh against one, is the most unpardonable of all injuries
+in France, and this answer roused up the whole tribunal. They scarcely
+gave themselves the trouble of a moment's consultation. A few nods and
+whispers settled the whole affair; and the chief, standing up and
+drawing his sabre from its sheath--then the significant custom of
+those places of butchery, pronounced the fatal words, "Guilty of
+_incivisme_. Let the criminal be conducted _a la Force_," the
+well-known phrase for immediate execution.
+
+The door was opened from which none ever came back. Two torches were
+seen glaring down the passage, and I was seized by the grim escort who
+were to lead me to the axe.
+
+The affectation of cowardice is as childish as the affectation of
+courage; but I felt a sensation at that moment which took me by
+surprise. I had been perfectly assured of my sentence from the first
+glance at the judges. If ever there was a spot on earth which deserved
+Dante's motto of Erebus--
+
+    "Voi qui entrate, lasciate agui speranza"--
+
+it was the revolutionary tribunal. Despair was written all over it in
+characters impossible to be mistaken. I had fixed my resolution to go
+through the whole scene, if not with heroism, at least with that
+decent firmness which becomes a man; yet the sound of the words which
+consigned me to the scaffold struck me with a general chill. Momentary
+as the period was, the question passed through my mind, are those
+paralysed limbs the same which bore me so well through the hazards of
+the campaign? Why am I to feel the fluttering of heart now, more than
+when I was facing sabres and cannon-shot? Why am I thus frigid and
+feeble, when I so lately fought and marched, and defied alike fatigue
+and wounds? But I felt in this chamber of death an inconceivable
+exhaustion, which had never approached me in the havoc of the field.
+My feet refused to move, my lips to breathe; all objects swam round,
+and sick to death and fainting, I thrust out my hand to save me from
+falling, and thus gave the last triumph to my murderers.
+
+At this decisive moment I found my hand caught by a powerful grasp,
+and a strong voice exclaiming, "Messieurs, I demand the delay of this
+sentence. The criminal before you is of higher importance to the state
+than the wretches whom justice daily compels you to sacrifice. His
+crime is of a deeper dye. I exhibit the mandate of the Government to
+arrest the act of the tribunal, and order him to be reserved until he
+reveals the whole of the frightful plots which endanger the Republic."
+
+He then advanced to the platform; and, taking a paper from his bosom,
+displayed to the court and the crowd the order for my being remanded
+to prison, signed by the triumvirate, whose word was law in France.
+Some confusion followed on the bench, and some bustle among the
+spectators; but the document was undeniable, and my sentence was
+suspended. I am not sure that the people within much regretted the
+delay, however those who had been lingering outside might feel
+themselves ill-used by a pause in the executions, which had now become
+a popular amusement; for the crowd instantly pushed forward to witness
+another trial of sarcasm between me and my judges; but this the new
+authority sternly forbade.
+
+"The prisoner," said he, in a dictatorial tone, "is now in my charge.
+He is a prisoner of state--an Englishman--an agent of the monster
+Pitt"--(he paused, and was answered with a general shudder;) "and,
+above all, has actually been in arms with the fiend Brunswick, (a
+general groan,) and with those worse than fiends, those parricides,
+those emigrant nobles, who have come to burn our harvests, slay our
+wives and children, and destroy the proudest monument of human wisdom,
+the grandest triumph of human success, and the most illustrious
+monument of the age of regeneration--the Republic of France." Loud
+acclamations followed this popular rhetoric; and the panegyrist,
+firmly grasping me by the arm, walked with me rapidly out of court.
+All made way for him, and, before another word could be uttered by the
+astounded bench, we were in one of the covered carriages reserved for
+prisoners of the higher rank, and on our way, at full gallop, through
+the intricate streets of Paris.
+
+All this was done with such hurried action, that I had scarcely time
+to know what my own emotions were; but the relief from immediate
+death, or rather from those depressing and overwhelming sensations
+which perhaps make its worst bitterness, was something, and hope
+dawned in me once more. Still, it was wholly in vain that I attempted
+to make my man of mystery utter a word. Nothing could extort a
+syllable from him, and he was evidently unwilling that I should even
+see his face, imperfect as the chance was among the few lamps which
+Paris then exhibited to enlighten the dismal darkness of her
+thoroughfares. Yet the idea that my rescue was not without a purpose
+predominated; and I was beginning even to imagine that I already felt
+the fresh air of the fields, and that our journey would terminate
+outside the walls of Paris, when the carriage came to a full stop,
+and, by the light of a torch streaming on the wind in front, I saw the
+gate of the St Lazare. All was now over--resistance or escape was
+equally beyond me. The carriage was surrounded by the guard, who
+ordered me to descend; their officer received the rescript for my safe
+custody, and I had nothing before me but the dungeon. But at the
+moment when my foot was on the step of the vehicle, my companion
+stooped forward, and uttered in my ear, with a pressure of my hand,
+the word "Mordecai." I was hurried onward, and the carriage drove
+away.
+
+My surprise was excessive. This talismanic word changes the current
+of my thoughts at once. It had so often and so powerfully operated in
+my favour, that I could scarcely doubt its effect once more; yet
+before me were the stern realities of confinement. What spell was
+equal to those stonewalls, what dexterity of man or friendship, or
+even the stronger love of woman, could make my dungeon free, or my
+chains vanish into "thin air?" Still there had been a interposition,
+and to that interposition, whether for future good or ill, it
+certainly was due that I was not already mounting the scaffold, or
+flung, headless trunk, into the miserable and nameless grave.
+
+As I passed again through the cloisters, my ears were caught with the
+sound of music and dancing. The contrast was sufficiently strong to
+the scene from which I had just returned; yet this was the land of
+contrasts. To my look of surprise, the turnkey who attended me
+answered "Perhaps you have forgotten that this is Decadi, and on this
+night we always have our masquerade. If you have not got a dress, I
+shall supply you; my wife is a _fripier_ in the Antoine; she supplies
+all the civic fetes with costumes, and you may have any dress you
+like, from a grand signor with his turban, down to a _colporteur_ with
+his pack, or a watchman with his nightcap."
+
+My mind was still too unsettled to enjoy masquerading, notwithstanding
+the temptation of the turnkey's wardrobe; and I felt all that absence
+of accommodation to circumstances, that want of plasticity, that
+failure of grasping at every hair's-breadth of enjoyment, which is
+declared by foreigners to form the prodigious deficiency of John Bull.
+If I could have taken refuge, for that night at least, in the saddest
+cell of the old convent, or in the deepest dungeon of the new prison,
+I should have gone to either with indulgence. I longed to lay down my
+aching brains upon my pillow, and forget the fever of the time. But
+prisoners have no choice; and the turnkey, after repeating his
+recommendations that I should not commit an act of such profound
+offence as to appear in the assembly without a domino, if I should
+take nothing else from the store of the most popular _marchande_ in
+Paris, the wife of his bosom, at last, with a shake of his head and a
+bending of his heavy brows at my want of taste, unlocked the gate, and
+thrust me into the midst of my old quarters, the chapel.
+
+There a new scene indeed awaited me. The place which I had left filled
+with trembling clusters of people, whole families clinging to each
+other in terror, loud or mute, but all in the deepest dread of their
+next summons, I found in a state of the most extravagant
+festivity--the chapel lighted up from floor to root--bouquets planted
+wherever it was possible to fix an artificial flower--gaudy wreaths
+depending from the galleries--and all the genius of this country of
+extremes lavished on attempts at decoration. Rude as the materials
+were, they produced at first sight a remarkably striking effect. More
+striking still was the spectacle of the whole multitude in every
+grotesque dress of the world, dancing away as if life was but one
+festival.
+
+As I stood aloof for a while, wholly dazzled by the glare, the
+movement, and the multitude, I was recognised by some of my "old"
+acquaintance--the acquaintance of twenty-four hours--but here time,
+like every thing else, had changed its meaning, and a new influx had
+recruited the hall. Cassini and some others came forward and welcomed
+me, like one who had returned from the tomb--the news of the day was
+given and exchanged--a bottle of champagne was prescribed as the true
+medicine for my lowness of pulse--and I gradually gave myself up to
+the spirit of the hour.
+
+As I wandered through the crowd, a mask dressed as a sylph bent its
+head over my shoulder, and I heard the words, "Why are you not in a
+domino?" I made some careless answer. "Go and get one immediately,"
+was the reply. "Take this card, fasten it on your robe, and meet me
+here again." The mask put a card marked with a large rose into my
+hand, and was gone waltzing away among the crowd. I still lingered,
+leaning against one of the pillars of the aisle. The mask again
+approached me. "Monsieur Anglais," was the whisper, "you do not know
+your friends. Go and furnish yourself with a domino. It is essential
+to your safety." "Who are my friends, and why do you give me this
+advice?" was my enquiry. The mask lightly tripped round me, laid its
+ungloved hand on mine, as if in the mere sport of the dance; and I saw
+that it was the hand of a female from its whiteness and delicacy. I
+was now more perplexed than ever. As the form floated round me with
+the lightness of a zephyr, it whispered the word "Mordecai," and flew
+off into an eddy of the moving multitude. I now obeyed the command;
+went to the little shrine where the turnkey's wife had opened her
+_friperie_, and equipped myself with the dress appointed; and, with
+the card fixed upon my bosom, returned to take my station beside the
+pillar. But no sylph came again; no form rivaled the zephyr before me.
+I listened for that soft, low voice; but listened in vain. Yet what
+was all this but the common sport of a masquerade?
+
+However, an object soon drew the general attention so strongly, as to
+put an end to private curiosity for the time. This was a mask in the
+uniform of a national guard, but so outrageously fine that his
+_entree_ excited an universal burst of laughter. But when, after a few
+displays of what was apparently all but intoxication, he began a
+detail of his own exploits, it was evident that the whole was a daring
+caricature; and as nothing could be less popular among us than the
+heroes of the shops, the Colonels Calicot, and Mustaches _au
+comptoir_, all his burlesque told incomparably. The old officers among
+us, the Vendeans, and all the ladies--for the sex are aristocrats
+under every government and in every region of the globe--were
+especially delighted. "Alexandre Jules Caesar," colonel of the "brave
+battalion of the Marais," was evidently worth a dozen field-marshals
+in his own opinion; and his contempt for Vendome, Marlborough, and
+Frederick le Grand, was only less piquant than the perfect imitation
+and keen burlesque of Santerre, Henriot, and our municipal warriors.
+At length when his plaudits and popularity were at their height, he
+proposed a general toast to the "young heroism," of the capital, and
+prefaced it by a song, in great repute in the old French service.
+
+    "AVANCEZ, BRAVE GUERRIERS."
+
+    "Shoulder arms--brave regiment!
+      Hark, the bugle sounds 'advance.'
+    Pile the baggage--strike the tent;
+      France demands you--fight for France.
+    If the hero gets a ball,
+    His accounts are closed--that's all!
+
+    "Who'd stay wasting time at home,
+      Made for women to despise;
+    When, where'er we choose to roam,
+      All the world before us lies,
+    Following our bugle's call,
+    Life one holiday--that's all!
+
+    "When the soldier's coin is spent,
+      He has but to fight for more;
+    He pays neither tax nor rent,
+      He's but where he was before.
+    If he conquer, if he fall--
+    _Fortune de la guerre_--that's all!
+
+    "Let the pedant waste his oil,
+      With the soldier all is sport;
+    Let your blockheads make a coil
+      In the cloister or the court;
+    Let them fatten in their stall,
+    We can fatten too--that's all!
+
+    "What care we for fortune's frown,
+      All that comes is for the best;
+    What's the noble's bed of down
+      To the soldier's evening rest
+    On the heath or in the hall,
+    All alike to him--that's all!
+
+    "When the morn is on the sky,
+      Hark the gay _reveille_ rings!
+    Glory lights the soldier's eye,
+      To the gory breach he springs,
+    Plants his colours on the wall
+    Wins and wears the _croix_--that's all!"
+
+The dashing style in which this hereditary song of the French camp was
+given by "Colonel Alexandre Jules Caesar" of the "brave battalion of
+the Marais," his capitally awkward imitation of the soldier of the old
+_regime_, and his superb affectation of military nonchalance, were so
+admirable, that his song excited actual raptures of applause. His
+performance was encored, and he was surrounded by a group of nymphs
+and graces, among whom his towering figure looked like a grenadier of
+Brobdignag in the circle of a Liliputian light company. He carried on
+the farce for a while with great adroitness and animation; but at
+length he put the circle of tinsel and tiffany aside, and rushing up
+to me, insisted on making me a recruit for the "brave battalion of the
+Marais." But I had no desire to play a part in this pantomime, and
+tried to disengage myself. One word again made me a captive: that word
+was now "Lafontaine;" and at the same moment I saw the sylph bounding
+to my side. What was I to think of this extraordinary combination? All
+was as strange as a midsummer night's dream. The "colonel," as if
+fatigued, leaned against the pillar, and slightly removing his mask, I
+saw, with sudden rejoicing, the features of that gallant young friend,
+whom I had almost despaired of ever seeing again. "Wait in this spot
+until I return," was all that I heard, before he and the sylph had
+waltzed away far down the hall.
+
+I waited for some time in growing anxiety; but the pleasantry of the
+night went on as vividly as ever, and some clever _tableaux vivants_
+had varied the quadrilles. While the dancers gave way to a
+well-performed picture of Hector and Andromache from the _Iliad_, and
+the hero was in the act of taking the plumed helmet from his brow,
+with a grace which enchanted our whole female population, an old
+Savoyard and his daughter came up, one playing the little hand-organ
+of their country, and the other dancing to her tamborine. This was
+pretty, but my impatience was ill disposed to look or listen; when I
+was awakened by a laugh, and the old man's mask being again half
+turned aside, I again saw my friend: the man moved slowly through the
+crowd, and I followed. We gradually twined our way through the
+labyrinth of pillars, leaving the festivity further and further
+behind, until he came to a low door, at which the Savoyard tapped, and
+a watchword being given, the cell was opened. There our robes and
+masks were laid aside; we found peasant dresses, for which we
+exchanged them; and following a muffled figure who carried a lantern,
+we began our movements again through the recesses of the endless
+building. At length we came to a stop, and our guide lifting up a
+ponderous stone which covered the entrance to a deep and dark
+staircase, we began to descend. I now for the first time heard the
+cheerful voice of Lafontaine at my side. "I doubt," said he, "whether
+a hundred years ago any one of us would have ventured on a night march
+of this kind; for, be it known to you, that we are now in the vaults
+of the convent, and shall have to go through a whole regiment of monks
+and abbots in full parade." I observed that, "if we were to meet them
+at all, they would be less likely to impede our progress dead than
+alive;" but I still advised Lafontaine to allude as little as he could
+to the subject, lest it might have the effect of alarming our fair
+companion. "There is no fear of that," said he, "for little Julie is
+in love with M. le Comte, our gallant guide; and a girl of eighteen
+desperately in love, is afraid of nothing. You Englishmen are not
+remarkable for superstition; and as for me and my compatriots, we have
+lost our reverence for monks in any shape since the taking of the
+Bastile."
+
+We now went on drearily and wearily through a range of catacombs,
+stopping from time to time to ascertain whether we were pursued; and
+occasionally not a little startled by the sudden burst of sound that
+came from the revelry above, through the ventilators of these enormous
+vaults. But the Count had well prepared his measures, had evidently
+traced his way before, and led us on without hinderance, until we
+approached a species of sallyport, which, once opened, would have let
+us out into the suburb. Here misfortune first met us; none of the keys
+which the Count had brought with him would fit the lock. It was now
+concluded by our alarmed party, either that the design of escape had
+been discovered, or that the lock had been changed since the day
+before. Here was an insurmountable difficulty. To break down the gate,
+or break through it, was palpably impossible, for it was strongly
+plated with iron, and would have resisted every thing but a
+six-pounder. What was to be done? To remain where we were was
+starvation and death; to return, would be heart-breaking; yet escape
+was clearly out of the question. The Count was furious, as he tried in
+vain to shake the solid obstacle; Lafontaine was in despair. I,
+rather more quietly, took it for granted that the guillotine would
+settle all our troubles in the course of the next day; and the pretty
+Julie, in a deluge of tears, charging herself with having undone us
+all, hung upon the neck of her cavalier, and pledged herself, by all
+the hopes and fears of passion, to die along with him. While the
+lovers were exchanging their last vows, Lafontaine, in all the
+vexation of his soul, was explaining to me the matchless excellence of
+the plot, which had been thus defeated in the very moment of promised
+success.
+
+"You perhaps remember," said he, "the letter which the father of
+Mariamne, that dearest girl whom I shall now never see again in this
+world, gave you for one of his nation in Paris. On the night when I
+last saw you, I had found it lying on your table; and in the confusion
+of the moment, when I thought you killed, and rushed into the street
+to gain some tidings of you, I took charge of the letter, to assist me
+in the enquiry. Unlucky as usual, I fell into the hands of a rabble
+returning from the plunder of the palace, was fired on, was wounded,
+and carried to the St Lazare. The governor was a man of honour and a
+royalist, and he took care of me during a dangerous illness and a slow
+recovery. But to give me liberty was out of his power. I had lost
+sight of the world so long, that the world lost sight of me, and I
+remained, forgetting and forgotten; until, within these two days--when
+I received a note from the head of the family to whom your letter was
+directed, informing me that you had been arrested and sent to the very
+prison in which I was--my recollection of the world suddenly revived,
+and I determined to save you if possible. I had grown familiar with
+the proceedings of that tribunal of demons, the Revolutionary
+committee; and as I had no doubt of your condemnation, through the
+mere love of bloodshed, I concerted with my Jewish friend the plan of
+having you claimed as a British agent, who had the means of making
+important disclosures to the government. If this succeeded, your life
+was saved for the day, and your escape was prepared for the night.
+This weeping girl is the daughter of the late governor, who has
+engaged in our plot to save the life of her affianced husband; and
+now, within an hour of daylight, when escape will be impossible, all
+our plans are thrown away--we are brought to a dead stand by the want
+of one miserable key, and shall have nothing more to do than to make
+up our minds to die with what composure we can."
+
+Having finished his story, the narrator wrapt up his head in his
+cloak, and laid himself down like one determined never to rise again.
+The Count and his Julie were so engaged in recapitulating their
+sorrows, sitting side by side on a tombstone, like a pair of
+monumental figures, that they had neither ear nor eye for any thing
+else; but my English nature was made of sterner stuff, and thinking
+that at the last I could but die, I took the lantern and set sturdily
+to work to examine the gate. It was soon evident that it could be
+neither undermined nor broken down by any strength of ours; but it was
+also evident that the lock was the old one which had closed it perhaps
+for the last century, and that the right key was the only thing
+wanting. Leaving Lafontaine in his despair lying at the foot of the
+monument, on which the lovers sat murmuring like a pair of turtle
+doves, I determined to make a thorough search for the missing key, and
+made my way back through all the windings of the catacomb, tracing the
+ground step by step. Still no key was to be found. At last I reached
+the cell where we had changed our dresses, and examined table, floor,
+and chair. Still nothing was to be found; but, unluckily, the light of
+the lantern glancing through the loop-hole of the cell, caught the eye
+of the sentinel on the outside, and he challenged. The sound made me
+start; and I took up one of the robes to cover the light. Something
+hard struck my hand. It was in the gown of the Savoyard's daughter. I
+felt its pockets, and, to my infinite astonishment and delight,
+produced the key. The pretty Julie, who had procured it, had forgotten
+every thing in the rapture of meeting her lover, and had left it
+behind her when she threw off her masquerading costume.
+
+I now hastened back with the rapid step becoming the bearer of good
+tidings, and revived the group of despair. The key was applied to the
+lock, but it refused to move, and we had another pang of
+disappointment. Lafontaine uttered a groan, and Julie poured another
+gush of tears upon her companion's shoulder. I made the experiment
+again; the rust of the lock was now found to have been our only
+hinderance; and with a strong turn the bolt flew back, and the door
+was open.
+
+We had all been so much exhausted by agitation, and the dreary
+traverse of the catacomb, that the first gush of fresh air conveyed a
+sensation almost of new life. The passage had probably been formed in
+the period when every large building in Paris was a species of
+fortress; and we had still a portcullis to pass. When we first pushed
+against it, we felt another momentary pang; but age had made it an
+unfaithful guardian, and a few stout attacks on its decayed bars gave
+us free way. We were now under the open sky; but, to our
+consternation, a new and still more formidable difficulty presented
+itself. The moat was still to be passed. To attempt the drawbridge was
+hopeless; for we could hear the sentinel pacing up and down its
+creaking planks. The moment was critical; for a streak of grey light
+in the far east showed that the day was at hand. After resolving all
+imaginable plans, and abandoning them all as fruitless; determining,
+at all events, never to return, and yet without the slightest prospect
+of escape, except in the bottom of that sullen pool which lay at our
+feet--the thought occurred to me, that in my return through the vault
+I had stumbled over the planks which covered a vault lately dug for a
+prisoner. Communicating my idea to Lafontaine, we returned to the
+spot, loaded ourselves with the planks, and fortunately found them of
+the length that would reach across the narrowest part of the fosse.
+Our little bridge was made without delay, and Lafontaine led the way,
+followed by the count and Julie, I waiting to see them safe across,
+before I added my weight to the frail structure. But I was not yet
+fated to escape. The sentinel, whose vigilance I had startled by my
+lantern in the cell, had given the alarm; and, as I was setting my
+foot on the plank, a discharge of fire-arms came from the battlement
+above. I felt that I was struck, and a stunning sensation seized me. I
+made an attempt to spring forward, but suddenly found myself unable to
+move. The patrol from the drawbridge now surrounded me, and in this
+helpless state, bleeding, and as I thought dying, I was hurried back
+into the St Lazare.
+
+After a fortnight's suffering in the hospital of the prison, which
+alone probably saved me from the guillotine, then almost the natural
+death of all the suspected, I was enabled to get on my feet again. I
+found the prison as full as ever, but nearly all its inmates had been
+changed except the Vendeans, whom the crooked policy of the time kept
+alive, partly to avoid raising the whole province in revolt, partly as
+hostages for their countrymen.
+
+On my recovery, I had expected to be put down once more in the list
+for trial; but it reached even the prison, that the government were in
+a state of alarm for themselves, which prevented them from indulging
+their friends in the streets with the national amusement. The chance
+of mounting the scaffold themselves had put the guillotine out of
+fashion; and two or three minor attempts at the seizure of the Jacobin
+sceptre by the partisans of the Girondists and Cordeliers, had been
+put down with such difficulty, that even the Jacobin Club had begun to
+protest against bloodshed, through the prospect of a speedy
+retaliation. Thus we were suffered to linger on. But, "disguise
+thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, thou art a bitter draught," and
+the suspense was heart-sickening. At length, however, a bustle outside
+the walls, the firing of alarm guns, and the hurrying of the national
+guard through the streets, told us that some new measure of atrocity
+was at hand, and we too soon learned the cause.
+
+The army under Dumourier had been attacked by the Austrians under
+Clairfait, and had been defeated with heavy loss; despatches had been
+received from their favourite general, in all the rage of failure,
+declaring that the sole cause of the disaster was information
+conveyed from the capital to the Austrian headquarters, and demanding
+a strict enquiry into the intrigues which had thus tarnished the
+colours of the Republic. No intelligence could have been more
+formidable to a government, which lived from day to day on the breath
+of popularity; and, to turn the wrath of the rabble from themselves,
+an order was given to examine the prisons, and send the delinquents to
+immediate execution. It may be easily believed that the briefest
+enquiry was enough for vengeance, and the prisoners of St Lazare were
+the first to furnish the spectacle. A train of carts rattled over the
+pavement of our cloisters, and we were ordered to mount them without
+delay. The guard was so strong as to preclude all hope of resistance;
+and with all the pomp of a military pageant, drums beating, trumpets
+sounding, and bands playing _Ca Ira_ and the _Marseillaise_, we left
+our dreary dwelling, which habit had now almost turned into a home,
+and moved through the principal streets of the capital, for the
+express purposes of popular display, in the centre of a large body of
+horse and foot, and an incalculable multitude of spectators, until in
+the distance we saw the instrument of death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE CHILD'S WARNING.
+
+
+    There's blood upon the lady's cheek,
+      There's brightness in her eye:
+    Who says the sentence is gone forth
+      That that fair thing must die?
+
+    Must die before the flowering lime,
+      Out yonder, sheds its leaf--
+    Can this thing be, O human flower!
+      Thy blossoming so brief?
+
+    Nay, nay, 'tis but a passing cloud,
+      Thou didst but droop awhile;
+    There's life, long years, and love and joy,
+      Whole ages, in that smile--
+
+    In the gay call that to thy knee
+      Brings quick that loving child,
+    Who looks up in those laughing eyes
+      With his large eyes so mild.
+
+    Yet, thou art doom'd--art dying; all
+      The coming hour foresee,
+    But, in love's cowardice, withhold
+      The warning word from thee.
+
+    God keep thee and be merciful!
+      His strength is with the weak;
+    Through babes and sucklings, the Most High
+      Hath oft vouchsafed to speak--
+
+    And speaketh now--"Oh, mother dear!"
+      Murmurs the little child;
+    And there is trouble in its eyes,
+      Those large blue eyes so mild--
+
+    "Oh, mother dear! they say that soon,
+      When here I seek for thee,
+    I shall not find thee--nor out there,
+      Under the old oak-tree;
+
+    "Nor up stairs in the nursery,
+      Nor any where, they say.
+    Where wilt thou go to, mother dear?
+      Oh, do not go away!"
+
+    Then was long silence--a deep hush--
+      And then the child's low sob.
+    _Her_ quivering eyelids close--one hand
+      Keeps down the heart's quick throb.
+
+    And the lips move, though sound is none,
+      That inward voice is prayer.
+    And hark! "Thy will, O Lord, be done!"
+      And tears are trickling there,
+
+    Down that pale cheek, on that young head--
+      And round her neck he clings;
+    And child and mother murmur out
+      Unutterable things.
+
+    _He_ half unconscious--_she_ deep-struck
+      With sudden, solemn truth,
+    That number'd are her days on earth,
+      Her shroud prepared in youth--
+
+    That all in life her heart holds dear,
+      God calls her to resign.
+    She hears--feels--trembles--but looks up,
+      And sighs, "Thy will be mine!"
+
+                                           C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE TWO PATRONS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+The front door of a large house in Harley Street stood hospitably
+open, and leaning against the plaster pillars (which were of a very
+miscellaneous architecture) were two individuals, who appeared as if
+they had been set there expressly to invite the passengers to walk in.
+Beyond the red door that intersected the passage, was seen the
+coloured-glass entrance to a conservatory on the first landing of the
+drawing-room stairs; and a multitude of statues lined each side of the
+lobby, like soldiers at a procession, but which the inventive skill of
+the proprietor had converted to nearly as much use as ornament; for a
+plaster Apollo, in addition to watching the "arrow's deathful flight,"
+had been appointed custodier of a Taglioni and a Mackintosh, which he
+wore with easy negligence over his head--a distracted Niobe, in the
+same manner, had undertaken the charge of a grey silk hat and a green
+umbrella. The Gladiator wore a lady's bonnet; the Farnese Hercules
+looked like an old-fashioned watchman, and sported a dreadnought coat.
+A glaring red paper gave a rich appearance to the hall; the stair
+carpet also added its contribution to the rubicundity of the scene,
+which was brought to a _ne plus ultra_ by the nether habiliments of
+the two gentlemen who, as already stated, did the honours of the door.
+
+A more pleasing sight than two footmen refreshing themselves on the
+top of the front stairs with a view of the opposite houses, and
+gratifying the anxious public at the same time with a view of
+themselves, it is difficult to imagine. They always look so diffident
+and respectful, that involuntarily our interest in them becomes almost
+too lively for words. We think with disdain on miserable soldiers and
+hungry mechanics, and half-starved paupers and whole-starved
+labourers; and turn, with feelings of a very different kind, to the
+contemplation of virtue rewarded, and modesty well fed, in the persons
+of the two meditative gentlemen whose appearance at the front door in
+Harley Street has given rise to these reflections. The elder of them,
+who kept the post of honour on the right hand side, just opposite the
+bell-handle, and whose superiority over the other was marked by much
+larger legs, a more prominent blue waistcoat, and a slight covering of
+powder over his auburn locks, looked for some time at his companion,
+while an expression of ill-disguised contempt turned up to still more
+dignified altitude the point of his nose. At last, as if by an effort,
+he broke forth in speech.
+
+"Snipe," he said--and seeing that Mr Snipe's ears were open, he
+continued--"I can't tell how it is, but I saw, when first I came, you
+had never been in a reg'lar fambly--never."
+
+"We was always more reg'larer at Miss Hendy's nor here--bed every
+night at ten o'clock, and up in the morning at five."
+
+"You'll never get up to cribbage--you're so confounded slow," replied
+the senior; "you'll have to stick to dominoes, which is only fit for
+babbies. Did ye think I meant Miss Hendy's, or low people of that
+kind, when I spoke of a reg'lar fambly?--I meant that you had never
+seen life. Did you ever change plates for a marquis, Snipe?"
+
+"Never heared of one. Is he in a great way of business?"
+
+"A marquis is a reg'lar nob, you know; and gives reg'lar good wages
+when you gets 'em paid. A man can't be a gentleman as lives with
+vulgar people--old Pitskiver is a genuine snob."
+
+"He's a rich gentleman," returned Mr Snipe.
+
+"But he's low--uncommon low"--said the other--"reg'lar boiled mutton
+and turnips."
+
+"And a wery good dish too," observed Mr Snipe, whose intellect, being
+strictly limited to dominoes, was not quite equal to the metaphorical.
+
+"By mutton and turnips, I means--he may be rich; but he ain't genteel,
+Snipe. Look at our Sophiar's shoulders."
+
+Mr Snipe looked up towards his senior with a puzzled expression, as if
+he waited for information--"What has Miss Sophiar's shoulders to do
+with boiled mutton and turnips?"
+
+"Nothing won't do but to be at it from the very beginning," said the
+superior, with a toss of his powdered head; "fight after it as much as
+ever they like, wear the best of gownds, and go to the fustest of
+boarding-schools--though they plays ever so well on the piando, and
+talks Italian like a reg'lar Frenchman--nothing won't do--_there's_
+the boiled mutton and turnips--shocking wulgarity! Look again, I say,
+at our Sophiar's shoulders, and see how her head's set on. Spinks's
+Charlotte is a very different affair--and there she is at the winder
+over the way. That's quite the roast fowl and blamange," he continued,
+looking at a very beautiful girl who appeared at the window of one of
+the opposite houses--"a pretty blowen as ever I see, and uncommon fond
+of Spinks."
+
+"I see nothing like a fowl about the young lady," replied the prosaic
+Mr Snipe; "and Spinks is a horrid liar."
+
+"But can't you judge for yourself, Snipe? That girl opposite found two
+footmen and a butler all waiting to receive her, with a French
+governess and a lady's maid, the moment she got out of the cradle; and
+I say again she's nothing but roast fowl and blamange, or perhaps a
+breast slice of pheasant, for she's uncommon genteel. How different
+from our boiled veals, and parsley and butters! I shall give warning
+if we don't change soon."
+
+"She's a beautiful young lady," said Mr Snipe; "but I thinks not half
+so plump and jolly as our Miss Emily or Sophia."
+
+"Plump! do you think you've got a sporting license, and are on the
+look-out for a partridge? No; I tell you all the Pitskivers is low,
+and old Pits is the worst of the lot."
+
+"I used always to hear him called a great man at Miss Hendy's,"
+replied Snipe; "no end of money, and a reg'lar tip-topper. I really
+expected to see the queen very often drop in to supper."
+
+"And meet all the tag-rag we have here! What would the queen care for
+all them portrait-painters, and poets, and engineers, and writing
+vagabonds, as old Pits is eternally feeding? The queen knows a mighty
+sight better, and wouldn't ax any body to her table as had done
+nothing but write books or paint picters. No; old Pits is the boy for
+patronizing them there fellers; but mark ye, Snipe, he takes the wrong
+chaps. If a man is to demean himself by axing a riff-raff of authors
+to his house, let it be the big 'uns; I should not care to give a bit
+of dinner to Dickens or Bulwer myself."
+
+With this condescending confession of his interest in literature, the
+gentleman in the shining garments looked down the street, as if he
+expected some public approval of his praiseworthy sentiments.
+
+Being disappointed in this natural expectation, he resolved to revenge
+himself by severe observations on the passers-by; but the severity was
+partly lost on the slow-minded Mr Snipe--being clothed in the peculiar
+phraseology of his senior, in which it appeared that some particular
+dish was placed as the representative of the individual attacked. Not
+that Mr Daggles--for such was the philosophical footman's name--saw
+any resemblance between his master, Mr Pitskiver, and a dish of boiled
+mutton and turnips, or between the beautiful young lady opposite and
+the breast of a pheasant; but that, to his finely constituted mind,
+those dishes shadowed forth the relative degrees in aristocracy which
+Mr Pitskiver and the young lady occupied. He had probably established
+some one super-eminent article of food as a high "ideal" to which to
+refer all other kinds of edibles--perhaps an ortolan pie; and the
+further removed from this imaginary point of perfection any dish
+appeared, the more vulgar and commonplace it became; and taking it for
+granted, that as far as human gradations are concerned, the loftiest
+aristocracy corresponded with the ortolan pie, it is evident that Mr
+Daggles's mode of assigning rank and precedence was founded on
+strictly philosophical principles; as much so, perhaps, as the labours
+of Debrett.
+
+"Now, look at this old covey--twig his shorts and long gaiters: he's
+some old Suffolk squire, has grown too fat for harriers, and goes out
+with the greyhounds twice a-week--a truly respectable member of
+society"--continued Mr Daggles with a sneer, when the subject of his
+lecture had passed on--"reg'lar boiled beef and greens."
+
+"He ain't so fat as our Mr Pitskiver," replied Snipe; "I thinks I
+never see no gentleman with so broad a back; except p'raps a prize
+ox."
+
+"You should get a set of harrows to clean his Chesterfield with,
+instead of a brush--it's more like a field than a coat," said Daggles.
+"But look here--here comes a ticket!"
+
+The ticket alluded to was a well-made young man, with a very healthy
+complexion, long glossy black curls hanging down his cheek, a
+remarkably long-backed surtout, and a small silk hat resting on the
+very top of his umbrageous head. As he drew near, he slackened his
+pace--passed the house slowly, looking up to the drawing-room window,
+evidently in hopes of seeing some object more attractive than the vast
+hydrangia which rose majestically out of a large flowerpot, and
+darkened all the lower panes. Before he had proceeded ten yards, and
+just when Mr Daggles had fixed in his own mind on the particular
+effort of culinary skill suggested by his appearance, the ticket
+turned quickly round and darted up the steps. Snipe stepped forward in
+some alarm.
+
+"Your master's not at home," said the Ticket; "but the ladies"--
+
+"Is all out in the featon, sir."
+
+"Will you be good enough--I see I may trust you--to give this note to
+Miss Sophia? I shall take an opportunity of showing my gratitude very
+soon. Will you give it?"
+
+"Yes, sir, in course."
+
+"Secretly? And, be assured, I shall not forget you." So saying, the
+Ticket walked hurriedly away, and Snipe stood with the note still in
+his hand, and looked dubiously at his companion.
+
+Mr Daggle's eyes were fixed on the retreating figure of the Ticket;
+and, after a careful observation of every part of his dress, from the
+silk hat to the Wellingtons, he shook his head in a desponding manner,
+and merely said--"Tripe!"
+
+"What's to be done with this here letter?" enquired Snipe.
+
+"Open and read it of course. By dad! I don't think you _are_ up to
+dominoes; you must go back to skittles. He's evidently enclosed the
+sovereign in the note; for he never could have been fool enough to
+think that two gentlemen like us are to give tick for such a sum to a
+stranger."
+
+"What sum?" enquired Snipe.
+
+"Why, the sovereign he was to pay for delivering the letter. If you
+don't like to read it yourself, give it to the old snob--Pitskiver
+will give you a tip."
+
+"But the gentleman said he would show his gratitude"--
+
+"He should have showed his tin fust. There ain't no use of denying it,
+Snipe; this is a wery low establishment, and I shall cut it as soon as
+I can. What right has a dowdy like our Sophia to be getting billydoos
+from fellers as ought to be ashamed of theirselves for getting off
+their three-legged stools at this time of the day? Give the note to
+old Pits--and here, I think, he is."
+
+Mr Pitskiver--or old Pits, as he was irreverently called by his
+domestic--came rapidly up the street. He was a little man, between
+fifty and sixty years of age, with an exceedingly stout body and very
+thin legs. He was very red in the face, and very short in the neck. A
+bright blue coat, lively-coloured waistcoat, and light-green silk
+handkerchief fastened with two sparkling pins, united to each other by
+a gold chain, check trowsers, and polished French leather boots,
+composed his attire. He wore an eyeglass though he was not
+short-sighted, and a beautifully inlaid riding-whip though he never
+rode. His white muslin pocket-handkerchief hung very prominently out
+of the breast pocket of his coat, and his hat was set a little on one
+side of his head, and rested with a coquettish air on the top of the
+left whisker. What with his prodigious width, and the flourishing of
+his whip, and the imposing dignity of his appearance altogether, he
+seemed to fill the street. Several humble pedestrians stepped off the
+pavement on to the dirty causeway to give him room. Daggles drew up,
+Snipe slunk back to hold the door, and Mr Pitskiver retired from the
+eyes of men, and entered his own hall, followed by his retainers.
+
+"If you please, sir," said Snipe, "I have a letter for Miss Sophiar."
+
+"Then don't you think you had better give it her?" replied Mr
+Pitskiver.
+
+"A gentleman, sir, gave it to me."
+
+"I'll give it you, too," said the master of the mansion, shaking the
+whip over the astonished Snipe. "What are you bothering me with the
+ladies' notes for? Any thing for me, Daggles?"
+
+"A few parcels, sir--books, and a couple of pictures."
+
+"No statue? My friend Bristles has deceived me. It was to have been
+finished to-day. If he gives the first view to the Whalleys, I'll
+never speak to him again. Nothing else? Then have the phaeton at the
+door at half past five. I dine at Miss Hendy's, at Hammersmith."
+
+While Mr Pitskiver stepped up stairs, Snipe was going over in his own
+mind the different grammatical meanings of the words, "I'll give it
+you." And concluding at last that, in the mouth of his master, it
+meant nothing but a horsewhipping, he resolved, with the magnanimity
+of many other virtuous characters who find treachery unproductive, to
+be true to Miss Sophia, and give her the mysterious note with the
+greatest possible secrecy.
+
+"Now, donkey," said Daggles, aiding his benevolent advice with a kick
+that made it nearly superfluous, "get down them kitchen stairs and
+learn pitch-and-toss, for you haven't brains enough for any thing
+else--and recollect, you owes me a sovereign; half from master for
+telling, and half from the long-backed Ticket for keeping mum. You can
+keep the other to yourself; for the job was well worth a sovereign
+a-piece."
+
+A knock at the door interrupted the colloquy, and Snipe once more
+emerged from the lower regions, and admitted the two fair daughters of
+his master.
+
+They were stout, bustling, rosy-cheeked girls, two or three and twenty
+years of age, superbly dressed in flashy silks, and bedizened with
+ribands like a triumphal arch.
+
+"Miss," said Snipe, "I've got a summut for you." And he looked as
+knowing as it was possible for a student of pitch-and-toss to do.
+
+"For me? What is it? Make haste, Thomas."
+
+"A gentleman has been here, and left you this," replied the Mercury,
+holding out the note. "He said something about giving me a guinea; but
+I wasn't to let any body see."
+
+"It is his hand--I know it!" cried Miss Sophia, and hurried up stairs
+to her own room.
+
+"You donkey!" growled Mr Daggles, who had overheard Snipe's
+proceedings; "you've done me out of another ten shillings. Blowed if I
+don't put you under the pump! She would have given you a guinea for
+the letter by way of postage. But it all comes of living with red
+herrings and gooses' eggs." And so saying Mr Daggles resumed his usual
+seat in the dining-room, and went on with the perusal of the _Morning
+Post_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Mr Pitskiver's origin, like that of early Greece, is lost in the
+depths of antiquity. Through an infinite variety of posts and offices,
+he had risen to his present position, and was perhaps the most
+multifariously occupied gentleman in her majesty's dominions. He was
+chairman of three companies, steward of six societies, general agent,
+and had lately reached the crowning eminence of his hopes by being
+appointed trustee of unaudited accounts. In the midst of all these
+labours, he had gone on increasing in breadth and honour till his name
+was a symbol of every thing respectable and well to do in the world.
+With each new office his ambition rose, and a list of his residences
+would be a perfect index to the state of his fortunes. We can trace
+him from Stepney to Whitechapel; from Whitechapel to Finsbury square;
+from Finsbury square to Hammersmith; and finally, the last office
+(which, by the by, was without a salary) had raised him, three months
+before our account of him begins, to the centre of Harley Street. With
+his fortune and ambition, we must do him the justice to say, his
+liberality equally increased. He was a patron, and, would have
+travelled fifty miles to entertain a poet at his table; he had
+music-masters (without any other pupils) who were Mozarts and Handels
+for his daughters--Turners and Landseers (whose names were yet
+unknown) to teach them drawing--for, by a remarkable property
+possessed by him, in common with a great majority of mankind, every
+thing gained a new value when it came into contact with himself. He
+bought sets of china because they were _artistic_; changed his silver
+plate for a more _picturesque_ pattern; employed Stultz for his
+clothes, and, above all, Bell and Rannie for his wines. His cook was
+superb; and, thanks to the above-named Bell and Rannie, there were
+fewer headachs in the morning after a Maecenatian dinner at
+Pitskiver's, than could have been expected by Father Matthew himself.
+With these two exceptions--wine and clothes--his patronage was more
+indiscriminate than judicious. In fact, he patronized for the sake of
+patronizing; and as he was always in search of a new miracle, it is no
+wonder that he was sometimes disappointed--that his Landseers
+sometimes turned out to have no eyes, and his musicians more fitted to
+play the Handel to a pump than an organ. But Pitskiver never lost
+heart. If he failed in one he was sure to succeed in another; he saw
+his name occasionally in the newspaper, by giving an invitation to one
+of the literary gentlemen who enliven the public with accounts of
+fearful accidents and desperate offences; had his picture at the
+Exhibition in the character of the "Portrait of a gentleman," and his
+bust in the same place as the semblance of the honorary Secretary to
+the Poor Man's Pension and Perpetual Annuity Institution. He was a
+widower, and looked dreadful things at all the widows of his
+acquaintance. And it was thought that, if he succeeded in marrying off
+his girls, he should himself become once more a candidate for the holy
+estate; and by this wise manoeuvre--for, in fact, he made no secret of
+his intention--he enlisted in his daughters' behalf all the elderly
+ladies who thought they had any claims on the attentions of that
+charming creature Mr Pitskiver. There were certainly no young ladies I
+have ever heard of, so well supplied with assistants in the great art
+of catching husbands as the two plump damsels whom we have already
+seen enter the house in Harley Street, and one of whom we have
+perceived placed in possession of the mysterious letter by the
+skittle-minded Mr Snipe.
+
+Miss Sophia Pitskiver, according to all ordinary ideas of romance and
+true love, had no right whatever to indulge in such luxuries, being
+more adapted to make pies than enter into the beauty of sonnets to the
+moon. She was short, stout--shall we be pardoned for saying the
+hateful word?--she was dumpy, but a perfect picture of rosy health and
+hilarious good-nature. And yet, if she had been half a foot taller,
+and half a yard thinner, and infinitely paler, she could not have been
+one jot more sentimental. She cultivated sentiment, because it was so
+pleasant, and her father approved of it because it was genteel. Her
+enthusiasm was tremendous. Her ideas were all crackers, and exploded
+at the slightest touch. She had a taste for every thing--poetry,
+history, fine arts in general, philosophy, glory, puseyism, and,
+perhaps more than all, for a certain tall young man, with an
+interesting complexion, whom we have introduced to the courteous
+reader by the name of the long-backed Ticket. It was this gentleman's
+note she was now about to read. Sundry palpitations about the robust
+regions of the heart might, to common eyes, have appeared to arise
+from her speed in running up stairs. But she knew better. She took but
+one look of the cheval glass, and broke the seal.
+
+"Stanzas!" she said; and, taking one other glance at the mirror, she
+exclaimed to the agitated young lady represented there, "only think!"
+and devoured the following lines:--
+
+    "There is a tear that will not fall
+      To cool the burning heart and brain;
+    Oh, I would give my life, my all,
+      To feel once more that blessed rain!
+
+    "There is a grief--I feel, in sooth,
+      It rends my soul, it quells my tongue;
+    It dims the sunshine of my youth,
+      But, oh, it will not dim it long!
+
+    "There is a place where life is o'er,
+      And sorrow's blasts innocuous rave;
+    A place where sadness comes no more.
+      Know'st thou the place? It is the grave.
+
+    "Yes, if within that gentle breast
+      Mild pity ever held her sway,
+    Thou'lt weep for one who finds no rest--
+      The reason he can never say.
+
+"P.S.--Miss Hendy is an angel upon earth. My friend Mr Bristles, of
+the _Universal Surveyor_, one of the most distinguished literary men
+of the age, has got me an invitation to go to her house to-night, to
+read the first act of my tragedy. Shall I have the happiness of seeing
+thee? Would to my stars my fate were so fortunate! I enclose you the
+above lines, which Bristles says are better than any of Lord Byron's,
+and will publish next week in the _Universal_. Mayest thou like them,
+sweetest, for they are dedicated to thee, Thine ever--ALMANSOR." What
+she might have done beyond reading the lines and letter six times
+over, and crying "beautiful, beautiful!" as fast as she could, it is
+impossible to say, for at that moment she was called by her venerable
+sire. She crumpled the note up after the manner of all other heroines,
+and hid it in her bosom; and hurried to the drawing-room, where she
+found her father in full dress, pulling on a pair of new kid gloves.
+
+"Well, Soph, I'm off for Miss Hendy's--don't give me any nonsense now
+about her being low, and all that sort of thing; she don't move in the
+same circle of society, certainly, as we do, but she has always
+distinguished people about her."
+
+"Oh, papa!" interrupted the young lady. "I don't object to Miss Hendy
+in the least. I love her of all things, and would give worlds to be
+going with you!"
+
+"That's right! You've heard of the new poet then? Tremendous they say;
+equal to Shakspeare--quite a great man."
+
+"Indeed! Oh, how I long to see him!"
+
+"Well, perhaps you may one of these days. Bristles--my friend Bristles
+of the _Universal_-says he's a perfect--what do they call that pretty
+street in Southampton?--Paragon--a perfect paragon, Bristles says:
+I'll ask him to dinner some day."
+
+"What day?--Oh, let it be soon, dear papa!"
+
+"There's a dear delightful enthusiastic girl! We ought to encourage
+people of genius. Curious we never heard of him before, for he was our
+neighbour, I hear, in Finsbury; but poor, I suppose, and did not mix
+with our set even then."
+
+Mr Pitskiver looked at the opposite side of the street while he spoke,
+as if to assure himself that he was in a still higher altitude above
+the poet now than some few years before. But, as if feeling called on
+to show his increased superiority by greater condescension, he said,
+as he walked out of the room, "I shall certainly have him to dinner,
+and Bristles, and some more men of talent to meet him--
+
+    'The feast of reason, and the flow of soul!'"
+
+the only quotation, by the way, in which Mr Pitskiver was ever known
+to indulge.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Miss Hendy had formerly kept a school, and her portrait would have
+done very well for a frontispiece to Mrs Trimmer. She was what is
+called prim in her manner, and as delicate as an American. She always
+called the legs of a table its props--for the word legs was highly
+unfeminine. She admired talent, and gave it vast quantities of tea and
+toast. Her drawing-room was a temple of the Muses, and only open to
+those who were bountifully endowed with the gifts of nature or of
+fortune; for she considered it a great part of her duty to act as a
+kind of link between Plutus and Minerva. In the effort to discover
+objects worthy of her recommendation, she was mainly aided by the
+celebrated Mr Bristles. Every month whole troops of Herschels and
+Wordsworths, and Humes and Gibbons, were presented to her by the great
+critic; and with a devout faith in all he told her, she listened
+enraptured to the praises of those astonishing geniuses, till she had
+begun to enter into Mr Bristles's own feelings of contempt for every
+body except the favoured few. And to-night was the grand debut of a
+more remarkable phenomenon than any of the others. A youth of
+twenty-three, tall, modest, intellectual, and long-haired--in short,
+the "Ticket"--was to read the opening of a tragedy; and sculptors,
+painters, mechanicians, and city Croesuses, were invited to be present
+at the display. Among these last shone our friend Mr Pitskiver,
+radiant in white waistcoat and gold chains, two rings on each finger,
+and a cameo the size of a cheese-cake on his neckcloth. The other
+critic, in right of his account at the bank, was a tall silent
+gentleman, a wood-merchant from the Boro', who nodded his head in an
+oracular manner when any thing was said above his comprehension; and
+who was a patron of rising talent, on the same enlightened principles
+as his friend Mr Pitskiver. Mr Whalley also showed his patronage in
+the same economical manner as the other, and expected immortality at
+the expense of a few roasts of beef and bottles of new wine.
+
+Mr Bristles was also of the dinner party--an arrangement made by the
+provident Miss Hendy, that the two _millionaires_ might receive a
+little preliminary information on the merits of the rest of the
+company, who were only invited to tea. Four maiden ladies (who had
+pulled on blue stockings in order to hide the increasing thickness of
+their ankles, and considered Miss Hendy the legitimate successor of
+Madame de Stael, and Mr Pitskiver in Harley Street the beau-ideal of
+love in a cottage) relieved the monotony of a gentleman party by as
+profuse a display of female charms as low gowns and short sleeves
+would allow. And about six o'clock there was a highly interesting and
+superior party of eight, to whom Miss Hendy administered cod's-head
+and shoulders, aphorisms and oyster sauce, in almost equal proportion;
+while Mr Pitskiver, like a "sweet seducer, blandly smiling," made
+polite enquiries whether he should not relieve her of the
+trouble.--"Oh no!--it degrades woman from the lofty sphere of equal
+usefulness with the rougher sex. Why shouldn't a lady help fish?--Why
+should she confess her inferiority? The post assigned to her by
+nature--though usurped by man--is to elevate by her example, to
+enlighten by her precepts, and to add to the great aggregate of human
+felicity by a manifestation of all the virtues;" saying this, she
+inserted her knife with astonishing dexterity just under the
+gills--and looked round for approbation.
+
+Mr Pitskiver had recourse to his usual expedient, and said something
+about the feast of reason; Mr Whalley shook his head in a way that
+would have made his fortune in a grocer's window in the character of
+Howqua; and Mr Bristles prepared himself to reply--while the four
+literary maidens turned their eyes on Aristarchus in expectation of
+hearing something fine. "I decidedly am of opinion," said that great
+man, "that woman's sphere is greatly misunderstood, and that you
+maintain the dignity of your glorious sex by carving the fish.--Yet on
+being further interrogated, I should be inclined to proceed with my
+statement, and assert that you deprive us of pleasure, in debarring us
+from giving you our assistance."
+
+"Then, why don't you help us with our samplers? why don't you aid us
+in our knitting? why don't you assist us in hemming garments?"--exclaimed
+Miss Hendy, digging her spoon into the oyster-boat.
+
+"This is what I call the feast and flow," said Mr Pitskiver; while Mr
+Whalley nearly shook his head off his shoulders on to the table-cloth.
+The young ladies looked slyly at Mr Pitskiver, and laughed.
+
+"It would be rather undignified," said Mr Bristles, "to see the Lord
+Chancellor darning a stocking."
+
+"Dignity! the very thing I complain of. Why more undignified in a Lord
+Chancellor, or a Bishop, than in his wife? Oh, will the time never
+come when society will be so regenerated, that man will know his own
+position, and woman--noble, elevating, surprising woman--will assume
+the rank to which her powers and virtues entitle her!"
+
+Mr Bristles was very hungry, and at that moment received his
+plate.--"Really, Miss Hendy," he said, with his mouth prodigiously
+distended with codfish--"there's no arguing against such eloquence. I
+must give in." But Miss Hendy, who had probably lunched, determined to
+accept no surrender.--"No," she cried--"you shall _not_ give in, till
+I have overwhelmed you with reasons for your submission. A great move
+is in progress--woman's rights and duties are becoming every day more
+widely appreciated. The old-fashioned scale must be re-adjusted, and
+woman--noble, elevating, surprising woman--ascend to the loftiest
+eminence, and sit superior on the topmost branch of the social tree."
+
+Mr Whalley, whose professional ear was caught by the last word, broke
+through his usual rule of only nodding his remarks, and ventured to
+say--"Uncommon bad climbers, for the most part in general, is women.
+Their clothes isn't adapted for it.--I minds once I see a woman climb
+a pole after a leg of mutting."
+
+If looks could have killed Mr Whalley, Mr Pitskiver's eyes would
+certainly have been tried for murder; but that matter-of-fact
+individual was impervious to the most impassioned glances. Miss Hendy
+sank her face in horror over her plate, and celestial rosy red
+overspread her countenance; while a look of the most extraordinary
+nature rewarded Mr Pitskiver for all his efforts in her behalf. A
+look!--it went quite through his waistcoat, and if it had gone
+straight on, must have reached his heart. Mr Pitskiver was amazed at
+the expression of the look; for he little knew that his labours under
+the table, in attempting to check Mr Whalley's oratory by pressing his
+toes, had unfortunately been bestowed on the delicate foot of his
+hostess; and what less could she do than respond to the gentle
+courtesy by a glance of gratitude for what she considered a movement
+of sympathy and condolence under the atrocious reminiscences of the
+wood-merchant? Mr Whalley, however, was struck with the mournful
+silence that followed his observation.
+
+"That was a thing as happing'd on a pole," he said. "In cooss it would
+be wery different on a tree--because of the branches, as I think you
+was a-saying, Miss Hendy?"
+
+Mr Pitskiver grew desperate. "Bristles," he cried, "any thing new in
+sculpture? By the by, you haven't sent me Stickleback's jack-ass as
+you promised. Is it a fine work?"
+
+"I have no hesitation," replied the critic, "with a perfect
+recollection of Canova's Venus, and even Moggs's Pandean Piper, which
+I reviewed in last number of the _Universal_, in declaring that
+Stickleback's work (it is a female, not a jack-ass) is the noblest
+effort of the English chisel; there is life about it--a power--a
+feeling--a sentiment--it is overwhelming! I shall express these ideas
+in print. Stickleback's fame is secured by a stupendous ass, at once
+so simple and so grand."
+
+"A female, I think you said?" enquired Miss Hendy.
+
+"A jeanie--miraculously soft, yet full of graceful dignity," replied
+Bristles bowing to the enquirer, as if the description applied to her.
+
+"I honour the sculptor for breaking through the prejudices of sex in
+this splendid instance!" exclaimed the lady. "The feminine star is in
+the ascendant. How much more illustrious the triumph! How greater the
+difficulty to express in visible types, the soft, subduing, humanizing
+graces of the female disposition, than to imprint the coarse outline
+of masculine strength! How rough the contour of an Irish hodman to the
+sweet flexibilities of the Venus of Canova!"
+
+"Canova was by no means equal to Stickleback," said Mr Bristles
+magisterially. "I have devoted much time to the study of the fine
+arts--I have seen many statues--I have frequently been in sculptors'
+studios; I prefer Stickleback to Canova."
+
+"I honour his moral elevation," observed Miss Hendy, "in stamping on
+eternal marble the femininity of the subject of his chisel."
+
+"I must really have the first view," whispered Mr Pitskiver. "Can't
+you remind him, Bristles? Don't send it to Whalley on my account."
+
+But Mr Whalley, who was a rival Maecenas, put in a word for himself,
+"Mr Bristles," he said, "this must be a uncomming statty of a she-ass.
+I oncet was recommended to drink a she-ass's milk myself, and liked it
+uncomming. I must have the private sight you promised; and, if you'll
+fix a day, I vill ask you and the artist to dine."
+
+"Certainly, my dear sir--but Mr Pitskiver and Stickleback, they are
+friends, you know, Mr Whalley, and perhaps Mr P.'s interest may be
+useful in getting the great artist an order to ornament some of the
+new buildings. I have some thoughts of recommending him to offer the
+very statue we talk of for the front of the Mansion-house. A hint on
+the subject has already appeared in the _Universal_."
+
+"Miss Hendy," said Mr Pitskiver for the tenth time, "this is the
+regular feast and flow; and nothing pleases me so much in my good
+friend Bristles as his candid praise of other men's talents. You
+seldom find clever people allowing each other's merits."
+
+"Or stupid ones either"--replied Mr Bristles before the lady had time
+to answer; "the fact is, we are much improved since former days. Our
+great men don't quarrel as they used to do--conscious of one's own
+dignity, why refuse a just appreciation of others? Stickleback has
+often told me, that Chantrey was not altogether without merit--I
+myself pronounce Macauley far from stupid; and my intellectual friend,
+young Sidsby, who will read us the first act of his tragedy to-night,
+allows a very respectable degree of dramatic power to Lord Byron.
+Surely this is a far better state of things than the perpetual
+carpings of Popes and Addisons, Smiths and Johnsons, Foxes and Pitts."
+
+"And all owing to the rising influence of the female sex," interposed
+Miss Hendy. "But woman has not yet received her full development. The
+time will come when her influence is universal; when, softened,
+subdued, purified, and elevated, the animal now called Man will be
+unknown. You will be all women--can the world look for higher
+destiny?"
+
+"In cooss," observed Mr Whalley--"if we are all turned into woming,
+the world will come to a end. For 'spose a case;--'spose it had been
+my sister as married Mrs Whalley instead of me--it's probable there
+wouldn't have been no great fambly; wich in cooss, if there was no
+poppleation"--
+
+But what the fearful result of this supposed case would have been, has
+never been discovered; for Miss Hendy, making a signal to the four
+representatives of the female sex started out of the room as if she
+had heard Mr Whalley had the plague, and left the gentlemen to
+themselves.
+
+"De Stael was no match for that wonderful woman," said Mr Bristles,
+resuming his chair. "I don't believe so noble an intellect was ever
+enshrined in so beautiful a form before."
+
+"Do you think her pretty?" enquired Mr Pitskiver.
+
+"Pretty? no, sir--beautiful! Here is the finest sort of
+loveliness--the light blazing from within, that years cannot
+extinguish. I consider Miss Hendy the finest woman in England; and
+decidedly the most intellectual."
+
+The fact of Miss Hendy's beauty had never struck Mr Pitskiver before.
+But he knew that Bristles was a judge, and took it at once for
+granted. The finest woman in England had looked in a most marvellous
+manner into his face, and the small incident of the foot under the
+table was not forgotten.
+
+Mr Pitskiver was inspired by the subject of his contemplations, and
+proposed her health in a strain of eloquence which produced a
+wonderful amount of head-shaking from Mr Whalley, and frequent
+exclamations of "Demosthenes," "Cicero," "Burke all over!" from the
+more enraptured Mr Bristles.
+
+"I'm horrible afear'd," observed the elder gentleman putting down his
+empty glass, "as my son Bill Whalley is a reg'lar fool."
+
+"Oh, pardon me!" exclaimed Bristles--"I haven't the, honour of his
+intimacy, but--" "Only think the liberties he allows himself in
+regard to this here intellectual lady, Miss Hendy. He never hears her
+name without a putting of his thumb on the top of his nose, and a
+shaking of his fingers in my face, and a crying out for a friend of
+his'n of the name of Walker. Its uncomming provoking--and sich a
+steady good business hand there ain't in the Boro'. I can't fadom it."
+
+"Some people have positively no souls," chimed in Mr Pitskiver,
+looking complacently down his beautiful waistcoat, as if he felt that
+souls were in some sort of proportion to the tenements they inhabited,
+and that his was of gigantic size; "but I did not think that your son
+William was so totally void of ideas. I shall talk to him next
+Sunday's dinner."
+
+"If you talks to him about Memel and Dantzic, you'll find there ain't
+such a judge of timber in London," said the father, who was evidently
+proud of his son's mercantile qualifications; "but with regard to this
+here pottery, and scupshire, and other things as I myself delights in,
+he don't care nothin about 'em. He wouldn't give twopence to see
+Stickleback's statty."
+
+"Then he had better not have the honour," said Pitskiver. "Bristles,
+you'll send it to Harley Street. First view is every thing."
+
+"Really, gentlemen, you are both such exquisite judges of the arts,
+and such discriminating patrons of artists, that I find it difficult
+to determine between you. Shall we let Stickleback settle the point
+himself?"
+
+Both the Maecenases consented, each at the same time making resolutions
+in his own mind to make the unhappy artist suffer, if by any chance
+his rival should get the preference. After another glass or two of the
+dark-coloured liquid which wore the label of port, and which Bristles
+maintained was the richest wine he had ever tasted, as it was
+furnished by a particular friend of his, who, in addition to being a
+wine merchant, was one of the most talented men in Europe, and a
+regular contributor to the _Universal_ under the signature
+"Squirk,"--after another glass or two of this bepraised beverage,
+which, at the same time, did not seem altogether to suit the taste of
+the two patrons of the arts and sciences, the gentlemen adjourned to
+the drawing-room, from which music had been sounding for a
+considerable time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+On entering the room they were nearly made fitting inmates of the deaf
+and dumb institution, by the most portentous sounds that ever
+endangered a human ear. A large party was assembled, ranged solemnly
+on chairs and sofas all round the wall, every eye turned with intense
+interest to the upper end of the apartment, where stood a tall stout
+man, blowing with incredible effect into a twisted horn, which, to all
+outward appearance, had not long ceased to ornament the forehead of a
+Highland bull. A common horn it was--and the skill of the
+strong-winded performer consisted in extracting a succession of roars
+and bellowings from its upper end, which would have done honour to the
+vocal powers of its late possessor. A tune it certainly was, for
+immense outbreaks of sound came at regular intervals, and the
+performer kept thumping his foot on the floor as if he were keeping
+time; but as the intermediate notes were of such a very soft nature as
+to be altogether inaudible, the company were left to fill up the
+blanks at their own discretion; and Mr Pitskiver, who was somewhat
+warlike, perceived at once it was Rule Britannia, while Mr Whalley
+shook his head in a state of profound loyalty, and thought it was God
+save the Queen. When the ingenious musician withdrew the bull's horn
+from his mouth, and paused after his labours in a state of extreme
+calefaction, murmurs of applause ran all round the room.
+
+"Mr Slingo," said Mr Bristles, "Mr Slingo, you have immortalized
+yourself, by evoking the soul of Handel from so common an instrument
+as an ox's horn. I have studied music as a science--I have reviewed an
+opera--and once met Sir Henry Bishop at the Chinese exhibition; and I
+will make bold to say, that more genius was never shown by Rossini or
+Cherubini, than you have displayed on this stupendous and interesting
+occasion. Allow me, Mr Slingo, to shake your hand."
+
+Mr Bristles gave a warm squeeze to the delighted musician's enormous
+fingers--and all the company were enchanted with the liberality and
+condescension of the celebrated author, and the humility and gratitude
+of the musical phenomenon, who could not find words to express his
+gratification. Miss Hendy was also profuse in her praises. "Pray, Mr
+Slingo," she said taking the horn, and examining it very closely, "do
+you know what animal we are indebted to for this delicious
+instrument?"
+
+"I took it from the head of a brown cow."
+
+"A cow!--ha!"--exclaimed the lady--"but I could have told you so
+before. There is a sweetness, a softness, and femininization of tone,
+in the slower passages, that it struck me at once could only proceed
+from the milder sex. We shall not have to wait long for the answer to
+a question which has stirred the heart of mankind to its
+foundations--can Women etherealize society? I say she can--I say she
+will--I say she shall!"
+
+Miss Hendy said this with considerable vehemence, and darted a look of
+the same extraordinary nature as had puzzled Mr Pitskiver at dinner,
+full in the face of that enraptured gentleman.
+
+"Oh, 'pon my soul, she's a very fine woman!" he said almost audibly;
+and again the commendations of Mr Bristles recurred to his
+thoughts--"and has such a fund of eloquence. I wish to heaven somebody
+would take a fancy to my girls! I will ask a lot of young men to
+dinner."
+
+In the midst of these cogitations he drew near Miss Hendy--and if you
+were to judge by the number of elbows which young ladies, in all parts
+of the room, nudged into other young ladies' sides, and the strange
+smiles and winks that were exchanged by the more distant members of
+the society--you might easily perceive that there was something very
+impressive in the manner of his address. He bowed at every word, while
+the gold chains across his waistcoat glistened and jingled at every
+motion. Miss Hendy's head also was bent till the white spangles on her
+turban seemed affected with St Vitus's dance; and their voices
+gradually sank lower and lower, till they descended at last to an
+actual whisper. There were seven female hearts in that assemblage
+bursting with spite, and one with triumph. Mr Pitskiver had never been
+known to whisper it any body's ear before.
+
+In the mean time Mr Bristles, as literary master of the ceremonies,
+had made a call on Mr Sidsby to proceed with his reading of the first
+act of his play. A tall young gentleman, very good-looking, and very
+shy, was with difficulty persuaded to seat himself in the middle of
+the room; and with trembling hands he drew from his pocket a roll of
+manuscript, though, to judge from his manner, he did not seem quite
+master of his subject.
+
+"Modesty, always the accompaniment of true genius," observed Mr
+Bristles, apologetically to the expectant audience. "Go on, my good
+sir; you will gain courage as you proceed."
+
+All was then silent. Mr Pitskiver at Miss Hendy's side, near the door;
+Mr Whalley straining his long neck to catch the faintest echo of their
+conversation; the others casting from time to time enquiring glances
+towards the illustrious pair; but all endeavouring to appear intensely
+interested in the drama. Mr Sidsby began:--
+
+It was a play of the passions. A black lady fell in love with a white
+general. Her language was fit for a dragon. She breathed nothing but
+fire. It seemed, by a strange coincidence of ideas between Sidsby and
+Shakspeare, to bear no small resemblance to Othello, with the
+distinction already stated of the colour of the Desdemona. But
+breathless attention rewarded the reader's toil; and though he
+occasionally missed a word, in which he was always set right by Mr
+Bristles, and did not enter very warmly into the more vigorous parts
+of the declamation, his efforts were received with overwhelming
+approbation, and Bristles as usual led the chorus of admiration.
+
+"A wonderful play! an astonishing effort! Certainly up to the finest
+things in Otway, if not of Shakspeare himself--a power, a life, an
+impetus. I have never met with such a magnificent opening act."
+
+"I wish you would bring him to taste my mutting, Mr Bristles," said Mr
+Whalley; "as he's a poet he most likely don't touch butcher meat every
+day, and a good tuck-out of a Sunday won't do him no harm. But I say,
+Mr Bristles, I must railly make a point of seeing Stickleback's donkey
+first. Say you'll do it--there's a good fellow."
+
+Mr Pitskiver also extended his hospitable invitation to the successful
+dramatist; and urged no less warmly his right to the first inspection
+of the masterpiece of the modern chisel.
+
+"I have had a very particular conversation with Miss Hendy," he said,
+laying his hand confidentially on the great critic's shoulder.
+
+"An extraordinary woman!" chimed in Bristles, "the glory of the
+present times."
+
+"I must have an additional treasure to boast of in my house," resumed
+Mr Pitskiver, whose heart seemed more than ever set on cutting out Mr
+Whalley in priority of inspection of the unequaled statue. "You'll
+help me, I know--I may depend on you, Mr Bristles."
+
+"You may indeed, sir--a house such as yours needed only such an
+addition to make it perfect."
+
+"You'll procure me the pride, the gratification--you'll manage it for
+me."
+
+"I will indeed," said Mr Bristles, seizing the offered hand of the
+overjoyed Pitskiver; "since your happiness depends on it, you may
+trust to me for every exertion."
+
+"And you'll plead my cause--you'll speak in the proper quarter?"
+
+"Certainly, you may consider it all arranged."
+
+"But secretly, quietly, no blabbing--these matters are always best
+done without noise. I would even keep it from my daughters' knowledge,
+till we are quite prepared to reveal it in all its charms."
+
+"It is indeed a masterpiece--a chef-d'oeuvre--beauty and expression
+unequaled."
+
+"I flatter myself I am a bit of a judge; and when I have had it in my
+possession for a short time, I will let you know the result."
+
+The party were now about to break up.
+
+"Them's uncomming pleasant little meetings, arn't them?" said Mr
+Whalley to one of the middle-aged spinsters who had been present at
+dinner; "and I thinks this one is like to have a very favourable
+conclusion."
+
+"Miss Hendy?" enquired the spinster in breathless anticipation.
+
+"Jist so," responded the other--"there can't be no mystery no longer,
+and they'll be off for France in a few days."
+
+"For France?--gracious! how do you know?"
+
+"I hear'd Mr Bristles, which is their confidant, say something about a
+chay and Dover. In cooss they will go that way to Boulogne."
+
+Oh, Maecenas! is there no difference between the chef-d'oeuvre of the
+great Stickleback, and the town of Dover and a post-chaise.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+In a week after these events, six or seven gentlemen were gathered
+round a table in a room very near the skylight in the Minerva
+chambers. Our former acquaintance, Mr Bristles, whose name shone in
+white paint above the entrance door, was evidently strongly impressed
+with the dignity of his position; and as in the pauses of conversation
+he placed the pen he was using transversely in his mouth, and turned
+over the pages of various books on the table before him, it will be
+seen that he presided not at a feast of substantial meat and drink,
+but at one of those regular "feasts and flows" which the great Mr
+Pitskiver was in the habit of alluding to, in describing the
+intellectual treats of which he was so prodigious a glutton.
+
+"What success, Sidsby?" enquired Bristles with a vast appearance of
+interest.
+
+"None at all," replied the successful dramatist, or, in other words,
+the long-backed Ticket to whom we were introduced at the commencement
+of the story. "I have no invitation to dinner yet, and Sophy thinks he
+has forgotten me."
+
+"That's odd--very odd," mused Mr Bristles, "for I don't know that I
+ever praised any one half so highly before, not even Stickleback; and
+the first act was really superb. It took me a whole week to write it."
+
+"But I did not understand some parts of it, and I am afraid I spoiled
+it in the reading. But Sophy was enchanted with the poem you made me
+copy."
+
+"A sensible girl; but how to get at the father is the thing. I have
+mentioned a few of the perfections of our friend Miss Hendy to him in
+a way that I think will stick. If we could get _her_ good word."
+
+"Oh, she's very good!" replied Sidsby, "she says I'm far above Lord
+Byron and Thomas Moore."
+
+"Why not? haven't I told you to say, wherever you go, that she is
+above Corinne?"
+
+"Ah," said Sidsby, "but what's the use of all this to me? I am a
+wine-merchant, not a poet; my uncle will soon take me into
+partnership, and when they find out that I know no more about
+literature than a pig, what an impostor they'll think me!"
+
+"Not more of an impostor than half the other literary men of the day,
+who have got praised into fame as you have, by judicious and
+disinterested friends. No: you must still go on. I shall have the
+second act ready for you next week, and you can make it six dozen of
+sherry instead of three. You must please the girl first, and get at
+the father afterwards. She's of a decidedly intellectual turn, and has
+four thousand pounds in her own right."
+
+"I don't believe she is more intellectual than myself; but that silly
+old noodle, her father"--
+
+"Stop!" exclaimed Bristles in great agitation, "this is against all
+rule. Mr Pitskiver is our friend--a man of the profoundest judgment
+and most capacious understanding. I doubt whether a greater judge of
+merit ever existed than Mr Pitskiver."
+
+"Hear, hear!" resounded in various degrees of intensity all round the
+table.
+
+"Well, all I can say is this--that if I don't get on by shamming
+cleverness, I'll try what open honesty will do, and follow Bill
+Whalley's advice."
+
+"Bill Whalley! who is he?" asked Bristles with a sneer.
+
+"Son of the old Tom Noddy you make such a precious fool of."
+
+"Mr Whalley of the Boro' is _our_ friend, Mr Sidsby--a man of the
+profoundest judgment and most capacious understanding. I doubt whether
+a greater judge of merit ever existed than Mr Whalley of the Boro'."
+
+"Hear hear!" again resounded; and Mr Sidsby, shaking his head, said no
+more, but looked as sulky as his naturally good-tempered features
+would let him.
+
+"And now, Stickleback," said Mr Bristles--"I am happy to tell you your
+fortune is made; your fame will rise higher and higher."
+
+A little dark-complexioned man with very large mouth and very flat
+nose, looked a little disdainful at this speech, which to any one else
+would have sounded like a compliment.
+
+"I always knew that merit such as I felt I possessed, would force its
+way, in spite of envy and detraction," he said.
+
+"We have an uphill fight of it, I assure you," rejoined Mr Bristles;
+"but by dint of throwing it on pretty thick, we are in hopes some of
+it will stick."
+
+"Now, Mr Bristles," resumed the artist, "I don't at all like the style
+you talk in to me. You always speak as if my reputation had been made
+by your praises. Now, talents such as mine"--
+
+"Are very high, my good sir; no one who reads the _Universal_ doubts
+that fact for a moment."
+
+"Talents, I say, such as mine," pursued Mr Stickleback, "were sure to
+raise me to the highest honours; and it is too bad for you to claim
+all the merit of my success."
+
+"Not I; but all our friends here," said Bristles. "For two years we
+have done nothing but praise you wherever we went. Haven't we sneered
+at Bailey, and laughed at the ancient statues? Who wrote the epigram
+on Thorwaldsen--was it not our friend now present, Mr Banks? a
+gentleman, I must say, perfectly unequaled in the radiance of his wit
+and the delicious pungency of his satire. Without us, what would you
+have been?"
+
+"Exactly what I am. The only sculptor worth a sixpence since the fine
+arts were invented," replied the self-satisfied Mr Stickleback.
+
+"No," said Mr Bristles; "since you force us to tell you what we have
+done for you, I will mention it. We have persuaded all our friends, we
+have even persuaded yourself, that you have some knowledge of
+sculpture; whereas every one who follows his own judgment, and is not
+led astray by our puffs, must see that you could not carve an old
+woman's face out of a radish; that you are fit for nothing with the
+chisel but to smooth gravestones, and cut crying cherubs over a
+churchyard door; that your donkey"--
+
+"Well, what of my donkey, as you call it?" cried the enraged sculptor,
+"I have heard you praise it a thousand times."
+
+"Of course you have; but do you think I meant it?"
+
+"As much as I meant what I said, when I praised some of your
+ridiculous rubbish in the _Universal_."
+
+"Oh, indeed! Then you think my writings ridiculous rubbish?"
+
+"Yes--I do--very ridiculous rubbish."
+
+"Then let me tell you, Mr Stickleback, you are about as good a critic
+as a sculptor. My writings, sir, are universally appreciated. To find
+fault with _them_ shows you are unfit for our acquaintance; and with
+regard to Mr Pitskiver's recommendation to the city building
+committee, and your donkey to adorn the pediment of the
+Mansion-house--you have of course given up all hopes of any interest
+_I_ may possess."
+
+"Gentlemen," said a young man with small piercing eyes and a rather
+dirty complexion, with long hair rolling over the collar of his
+coat--"are you not a little premature in shivering the friendship by a
+blow of temper which had been consolidated by several years of mutual
+reciprocity?"
+
+"Silence, Snooksby!--I have been insulted. I was ever a foe to
+ingratitude, and grievous shall the expiation be," replied Bristles.
+
+"I now address myself to you, sir," continued Snooksby, turning to the
+wrathful sculptor, whose wrath, however, had begun to evaporate in
+reflecting on the diminished chance of the promotion so repeatedly
+promised by Mr Bristles for his donkey; "and I feel on this momintous
+occasion, that it is my impiritive duty to endeavour to reinimite the
+expiring imbers of amity, and re-knit the relaxed cords of unanimity.
+Mr Stickleback, you were wrong--decidedly, powerfully, undeniably
+wrong--in denominiting the splindid lucibritions of our illustrious
+friend by the name of ridiculous rubbish. Apoligise, apoligise,
+apoligise; and I know too well the glowing sympithies of that
+philinthripic heart to doubt for a moment that its vibrations will
+instantly beat in unisin with yours."
+
+"I never meant to call his writings rubbish," said the subdued
+sculptor. "I know he's the greatest writer in England."
+
+"And you, my dear Stickleback, the greatest sculptor the world has
+ever seen!" exclaimed the easily propitiated critic. "Why will you
+doubt my respect, my admiration of your surpassing talent? Let us
+understand each other better--we shall both be ever indebted to the
+eloquent Mr Snooksby--(may he soon get on the vestry, the object of
+his inadequate ambition;) for a speech more refulgent in simple
+pathos, varied metaphor, and conclusive reasoning, it has not been my
+good fortune to hear. When our other friends leave me, Stickleback, I
+hope you will stay for half an hour. I have a most important secret to
+confide to you, and a favour to ask."
+
+The hint seemed to be sufficient. The rest of the party soon retired;
+and Bristles and Stickleback began their confidential conclave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+But another confidential conclave, of rather a more interesting nature
+to the parties concerned, took place three days after these
+occurrences in the shady walk in St James's Park. Under the trees
+sauntered four people--equally divided--a lady and a gentleman; the
+ladies brilliantly dressed, stout, and handsome--the gentlemen also in
+the most fashionable costume: one tall and thin, the long-backed
+Ticket; and the other short and amazingly comfortable-looking, Mr
+William Whalley--for shortness called Bill. Whether, while he admired
+the trunks of the old elms, he calculated what would be their value in
+deals, this narrative disdains to mention; but it feels by no means
+bound to retain the same cautious reserve with regard to his
+sentiments while he gazed into the eyes of Emily Pitskiver. He thought
+them beautiful eyes; and if they had been turned upon you with the
+same loving, trusting expression, ten to one you would have thought
+them beautiful too. The other pair seemed equally happy.
+
+"So you don't like me the worse," said Mr Sidsby, "now that you know I
+am not a poet?"
+
+"I don't know how it is, but I don't think I care for poetry now at
+all," replied the lady. "In fact, I suppose my passion for it was
+never real, and I only fancied I was enchanted with it from hearing
+papa and Mr Bristles perpetually raving about strength and genius. Is
+Miss Hendy a really clever woman?"
+
+"A genuine humbug, I should say--gooseberry champagne at two shillings
+a bottle," was the somewhat professional verdict on Miss Hendy's
+claims.
+
+"Oh! you shouldn't talk that way of Miss Hendy--who knows but she may
+be my mamma soon?"
+
+"He can never be such a confounded jackass!" said Mr Sidsby, without
+giving a local habitation or a name to the personal pronoun _he_.
+
+"He loses his daughters, I can tell him," said Miss Sophy with a toss
+of her head, that set all the flowers on the top of her bonnet
+shaking--"Emily and I are quite resolved on that."
+
+"But what can you do?" enquired the gentleman, who did not appear to
+be very nearly akin to Oedipus.
+
+"Do? Why, don't we get possession of mamma's fortune if he marries;
+and can't we--oh, you've squeezed my ring into my finger!"
+
+"My dear Sophy, I was only trying to show you how much I admired your
+spirit. I hope he'll marry Miss Hendy with all my heart."
+
+When a conversation has got to this point, a chronicle of any
+pretensions to respectability will maintain a rigid silence; and we
+will therefore only observe, that by the time Mr William Whalley and
+Emily had come to Marlborough House, their conversation had arrived at
+a point where discretion becomes as indispensably a chronicler's duty
+as in the case of the other couple.
+
+"We must get home," said Sophy.
+
+"Why should you go yet? There is no chance of your father being back
+from the city for hours to come."
+
+"Oh! but we must get home. We have been out a long time." And so
+saying, she led the way up the steps by the Duke of York's column,
+followed by her sister and her swain--and attended at a respectful
+distance by a tall gentleman with an immense gold-headed
+walking-stick, displaying nether integuments of the brightest red, and
+white silk stockings of unexampled purity. The reader, if he had heard
+the various whispered allusions to different dishes, such as "sheep's
+head," "calf's foot jelly," "rhubarb tart," and "toasted cheese,"
+would have been at no loss to recognise the indignant Daggles, whose
+culinary vocabulary it seemed impossible to exhaust. He followed,
+watching every motion of the happy couples. "Well, if this ain't too
+bad!--I've a great mind to tell old Pits how them disgusting
+saussingers runs after his mince-pies--meets 'em in the Park;
+gallivants with them under the trees as if they was ortolans and
+beccaficas; bills and coos with 'em as if they was real turtles and
+punch _a la Romaine_. How the old cucumber would flare up! Up Regent
+Street, along Oxford Street, through the square, up to our own door.
+Well, blowed if that ain't a good one! Into the very house they goes;
+up stairs to the drawing-room. O Lord! that there should be such
+impudence in beefsteaks and ingans! They couldn't be more audacious if
+they was Perigord pies."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Half an hour passed--an hour--and yet the conversation was flowing on
+as briskly as ever. Mr Bill Whalley had explained the exact difference
+between Norway and Canada timber, greatly to Miss Emily's
+satisfaction; and Miss Sophia had again and again expressed her
+determination to leave the house the moment Miss Hendy entered it; and
+both the young ladies had related the energetic language in which they
+had expressed this resolution to their father, and threatened him with
+immediate desertion if he didn't cut that horrid old schoolmistress at
+once. The same speeches about happiness and simple cottages, with
+peace and contentment, had been made a dozen time over by all parties,
+when the great clock in the hall--a Dutch pendule, inserted in a
+statue of Time--struck three o'clock, and at the same moment a loud
+rap was heard at the front door.
+
+"Who can it be?" exclaimed Miss Sophia. "It isn't papa's knock;"--and
+hiding her face in the thick hydrangia which filled the drawing-room
+window, she gazed down to catch a glimpse of the entrance steps. She
+only saw the top of a large wooden case, and the white hat of a
+gentleman who rested his hand on the burden, and was giving directions
+to the bearers to be very careful how they carried it up stairs.
+
+Mr Whalley started up, as did Mr Sidsby, in no small alarm. "I
+wouldn't be found here for half-a-crown," said the former gentleman:
+"old father would shake his head into a reg'lar palsy if he knew I was
+philandering here, when the Riga brig is unloading at the wharf."
+
+"Let us go into the back drawing-room," suggested one of the young
+ladies, "and you can get out quite easily when the parcel, whatever it
+is, is delivered." They accordingly retired to the back drawing-room,
+and in a few minutes had the satisfaction of hearing heavy steps on
+the stairs, and the voice of the redoubtable Mr Bristles saying,
+"Gently, gently,--I have no hesitation in stating, that you were never
+entrusted with so valuable a burden before. Deposit it with gentleness
+on the large table in the middle; and, you may now boast, that your
+hands have borne the noblest specimen of grace and genius that modern
+ages have produced."
+
+"It's that everlasting donkey papa is always talking about!" whispered
+Sophia.
+
+"If it's Stickleback's statue," said Mr William Whalley, "the little
+vagabond promised the first sight of it to old father. He'll be in a
+precious stew when he finds his rival has been beforehand!"
+
+The porters now apparently retired, and the youthful prisoners in the
+back drawing-room tried to effect their escape by the door which
+opened on the stairs; but, alas! it was locked on the outside, and it
+was evident, from the soliloquy of Mr Bristles, that their retreat was
+cut off through the front room. A knock--the well-known rat, tat, tat,
+of the owner of the mansion--now completed their perplexity; and, in a
+moment more, they heard the steps of several persons rushing up
+stairs.
+
+"Mr Pitskiver!" exclaimed Bristles in intense agitation, "you have
+surely forgotten our agreement--Snooksby! Butters! Banks! Why, I am
+quite overpowered with the surprise! It was to have been alone,
+without witnesses; or at most, in my presence. But so public!"
+
+"Never mind, my dear Bristles. Why should I conceal my triumph--my
+happiness--the boast and gratification of my future days? Let us open
+the casket that enshrines such unequaled merits."
+
+"If you really wish for no further secresy," replied Mr Bristles.
+
+"Certainly! Don't I know that that case contains a masterpiece, softly
+sweet and beautifully feminine, as a talented friend of ours would
+say?"
+
+"An exquisite woman, indeed!" said Bristles; "and a truly talented
+friend. The case, as you justly observe," proceeded the critic, while
+he untied the cords, "contains the most glorious manifestation of the
+softening influences of sex."
+
+"It's a pity she's an ass," suggested Mr Pitskiver. "I can't help
+thinking that that's a drawback."
+
+"What?--what is a drawback, my dear sir?"
+
+"That femininity, as Miss Hendy calls it, should be brought so
+prominently forward in the person of an ass."
+
+"An ass?--I don't understand! Are you serious?"
+
+"Serious! to be sure, my dear Bristles. In spite of all efforts to
+assume an intellectual expression, the donkey, depend upon it,
+preponderates--the long visage, the dull eyes, the crooked legs--it is
+impossible to perceive any grace in such a wretched animal. I can't
+help thinking that if it had been a young girl you had brought
+me--say, a sleeping nymph--full of youth and beauty, 'twould have been
+a vast improvement on the scraggy jeanie contained in this box. But
+clear away, Bristles, we are all impatience."
+
+"My dear sir--Mr Pitskiver--unaccustomed as I am, his I can truly say
+is the most uncomfortable moment of my life."
+
+"Why, what's the matter with you, Bristles, can't you untie the
+string?"--"Here," continued Mr Pitskiver, "give me the cord," and so
+saying he untwisted it in a moment--down fell the side of the case,
+and to the astonished eyes of the assembled critics, and also of the
+party in the back drawing-room, revealed, not the masterpiece of the
+immortal Stickleback, but a female figure enveloped in a grey silk
+cloak, and covering its face with a white muslin handkerchief.
+
+"Why, what the mischief is all this?" exclaimed the bewildered Mr
+Pitskiver; "this isn't the jeanie-ass you promised me a sight of. Who
+the deuce is this?"
+
+The handkerchief was majestically removed, and the sharp eyes of Miss
+Hendy fixed in unspeakable disdain on the assembled party.
+
+"'Tis I, base man! Are all your protestations of admiration come to
+this? Who shall doubt hereafter that it is the task of noble, gentle,
+self-denying woman to elevate society?"
+
+A smothered but very audible laugh proceeding from the back
+drawing-room, interrupted the further eloquence of the regenerator of
+mankind; and, finding concealment useless, the two young ladies threw
+open the door, and advanced with their attendant lovers to the table.
+The female philosopher, with the assistance of Mr Bristles, descended
+from her lofty pedestal, and looked unutterable basilisks at the
+open-mouthed Maecenas, who turned his eyes from the wooden box to Miss
+Hendy, and from Miss Hendy to the wooden box, without trusting himself
+with a word of either explanation or enquiry.
+
+"We told you of our intentions, papa," said Miss Sophia, "if you
+brought that old lady to your house."
+
+"I didn't bring her; I give you my honour 'twas that scoundrel
+Bristles," whispered the dismayed Pitskiver.
+
+"You told me sir," exclaimed Bristles, "that you would be for ever
+indebted to me if I brought this lady to your mansion--that she was
+the perfection of grace and innocence. By a friendly arrangement with
+Mr Stickleback, the greatest sculptor of ancient or modern times, I
+managed to secure to this illustrious woman an admission to your
+house, which, I understood, she could not openly obtain through the
+opposition of your daughters. I considered that you knew of the
+arrangement, sir; and I know that, with a soft and feminine
+trustfulness, this most gentle and intellectual ornament of her sex
+and species consented to meet the wish you had so ardently expressed."
+
+"I never had a wish of the kind," cried Mr Pitskiver; "and I believe
+you talking fellows and chattering women are all in a plot to make me
+ridiculous. I won't stand it any longer."
+
+"Stand what?" enquired Mr Bristles, knitting his brows.
+
+"Your nonsensical praises of each other--your boastings of
+Sticklebacks, and Snooksbys, and Bankses; a set of mere humbugs and
+blockheads! And even this foolish woman, with her femininities and
+re-invigorating society, I believe to be a regular quack. By dad! one
+would think there had never been a woman in the world before."
+
+"Your observations are uncalled for"--
+
+"By no manner of means," continued the senior, waxing bolder from the
+sound of his own voice. "I believe you're in a conspiracy to puff each
+other into reputation; and, if possible, get hold of some silly
+fellow's daughters. But no painting, chiseling, writing, or
+sonneteering blackguard, shall ever catch a girl of mine. What the
+deuce brings _you_ here, sir?" he added, fiercely turning to Mr
+Sidsby. "You're the impostor that read the first act of a play"--
+
+"I read it, sir," said the youth, "but didn't write a word of it, I
+assure you. Bristles is the author, and I gave him six dozen of
+sherry."
+
+"No indeed, papa; he never wrote a line in his life," said Sophia.
+
+"Then he may have you if he likes."
+
+"Nor I, except in the ledger," modestly observed Mr Bill Whalley.
+
+"Then take Emily with all my heart. Here, Daggles," he continue,
+ringing the bell, "open the street-door, and show these parties out!"
+
+Amidst muttered threats, fierce looks, and lips contorted into all
+modes and expression of indignation, the guests speedily disappeared.
+And while Mr Pitskiver, still panting from his exertions, related to
+his daughters and their enchanted partners his grounds for anger at
+the attempt to impose Miss Hendy on him instead of a statue, Mr
+Daggles shut the front door in great exultation as the last of the
+intruders vanished, and said--
+
+"Snipe, old Pits may do after all. He ain't a bad round of beef; and I
+almost like our two mutton-chops, since they have freed the house from
+such shocking sour-crouts and watery taties as I have just flinged
+into the street."
+
+But it was impossible to convert the great Mr Bristles to the belief
+into which his quondam follower, Mr Pitskiver, had fallen as to the
+qualities of Miss Hendy. That literary gentleman had too just a
+perception of the virtues of the modern Corinne, and of a comfortable
+house at Hammersmith, with an income of seven hundred a-year, to allow
+them to waste their sweetness on some indecent clown, unqualified by
+genius and education to appreciate them. The result of this resolution
+was seen in a very few days after the interesting scene in Harley
+Street; and the following announcement in the newspapers will put our
+readers in as full a state of knowledge as we can boast of being in
+ourselves:--
+
+"Woman's value Vindicated as the teacher and example of Man, by Mrs
+Bristles, late Miss Hendy, Hammersmith."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IRELAND.
+
+
+An interdict has rested, through four months, on the discussion of
+Irish affairs--an interdict self-imposed by the English press, in a
+spirit of honourable (almost of superstitious) jealousy on behalf of
+public justice; jealousy for the law, that it should not be biased by
+irresponsible statements--jealousy for the accused, that they should
+not be prejudiced by extra-judicial charges. At length the interdict
+is raised, and we are all free once more to discuss the great
+interests so long sealed up and sequestered by the tribunals of
+Dublin. Could it have been foreseen or fancied, pending this
+sequestration, that before it should be removed by the delivery of the
+verdict, nay, two months before the trial should have closed in a
+technical sense, by the delivery of the sentence, the original
+interest (profound as it was) would be obliterated, effaced,
+practically superseded, by a new phasis of the same unparalleled
+movement? Yet this has happened. A debate, which (like a series of
+natural echoes) has awakened and revived all the political
+transactions of last year in Ireland, should naturally have preserved
+the same relation to those transactions that any other shadow or
+reflection bears to the substance. And so it would: but unhappily with
+these rehearsals of the past, have mingled tumultuous menaces of a new
+plot. And these menaces, in the very act of uttering themselves,
+advertise for accomplices, and openly organize themselves as the
+principle of a new faction for refusing tranquillity once more to
+Ireland. Once more an opportunity is to be stifled for obtaining rest
+to that afflicted land.
+
+This "monster" debate, therefore, presents us in equal proportions
+with grounds of disgust and terror--a disgust which forces us often to
+forget the new form of terror--a terror (from a new conspiracy) which
+forces us to forget even the late conspiracy of Repeal, and that
+glorious catastrophe which has trampled it under foot for ever.
+
+It is painful to the understanding--this iteration of statements a
+thousand times refuted; it is painful to the heart--this eternal
+neglect (in exchange for a _hear, hear_) of what the speaker knows to
+be mere necessities of a poor distracted land: this folly privileged
+by courtesy, this treason privileged by the place. If indeed of every
+idle word--meaning not trivial word, but word consciously false--men
+shall hereafter give account, Heavens! what an arrear, in the single
+case of Ireland, will by this time have gathered against the House of
+Commons! Perfectly appalled we are when we look into the formless
+chaos of that nine nights' debate! Beginning with a motion which he
+who made it did not wish[28] to succeed--ending with a vote by which
+one-half of the parties to that vote meant the flattest contradiction
+of all that was contemplated by the rest. On this quarter, a section
+raging in the highest against the Protestant church--on that quarter,
+a section (in terror of their constituents) vowing aid to this church,
+and yet allying themselves with men pledged to her destruction.
+_Here_, men rampant against the Minister as having strained the laws,
+in what regarded Ireland, for the sake of a vigour altogether
+unnecessary; _there_, men threatening impeachment--as for a lenity in
+the same case altogether intolerable! To the right, "how durst you
+diminish the army in Ireland, leaving that country, up to March 1843,
+with a force lower by 2400 rank and file shall the lowest that the
+Whigs had maintained?" To the left, "how durst you govern Ireland by
+martial strength?" Question from the Minister--"Will you of the
+Opposition place popish bishops in the House of Lords?" Answer from a
+premature sponsor of Lord John's--"We will." Answer from Lord John--"I
+will not." _Question retrospective_ from the Conservatives--"What is
+it, not being already done, that we could have done for Ireland?"
+_Answer_ from the Liberals--"Oh, a thousand things!" _Question
+prospective_ from the Conservatives--"What is it, then, in particular,
+that you, in our places, would do for Ireland? Name it." _Answer_ from
+the Liberals--"Oh, nothing in particular!" Sir R. Peel ought to have
+done for Ireland whole worlds of new things. But the Liberals, with
+the very same power to _do_ heretofore, and to _propose_ now, neither
+did then, nor can propose at present. And why? partly because the
+privilege of acting for Ireland, so fruitful in reproaches, is barren
+in practice: the one thing that remained to be done,--viz. the putting
+down agitators--_has_ been done; and partly because the privilege of
+proposing for Ireland is dangerous: first, as pledging themselves
+hereafter; second, because to specify, though it were in so trivial a
+matter as the making pounds into guineas for Maynooth, is but to put
+on record, and to publish their own party incapacity to agree upon any
+one of the merest trifles imaginable. Anarchy of anarchies, very mob
+of very mobs, whose internal strife is greater than your common enmity
+_ab extra_--what shall we believe? Which is your true doctrine? Where
+do you fasten your real charge? Amongst conflicting arguments, which
+is it that you adopt? Amongst self-destroying purposes, for which is
+it that you make your election?
+
+    [28] The reader may suppose that Lord John Russell had no
+    motive for wishing his motion to fail, because (as he was
+    truly admonished by Sir Robert Peel) that motion pledged him
+    to nothing, and was "an exercise in political fluxions on the
+    problem of combining the _maximum_ of damage to his opponents
+    with the _minimum_ of prospective engagement to himself."
+    True: but for all that Lord John would have cursed the hour in
+    which he resolved on such a motion, had it succeeded. What
+    would have followed? Ministers would have gone out: Sir Robert
+    Peel has repeatedly said they would in the event of parliament
+    condemning their Irish policy. This would bring in Lord John,
+    and _then_ would be revealed the distraction of his party, the
+    chicanery of his late motion, and the mere incapacity of
+    moving at all upon Irish questions, either to the right or to
+    the left, for _any_ government which at this moment the
+    Whig-radicals could form. Doubtless, Lord John cherishes hopes
+    of future power; but not at present. "Wait a little," is his
+    secret caution to friends: let us see Ireland settled; let the
+    turn be taken; let the policy of Sir Robert Peel (at length
+    able to operate through the last assertion of the law) have
+    once taken root; and then, having the benefit of measures
+    which past declarations would not permit him personally to
+    initiate, nor his party even to propose, Lord John might
+    return to power securely--saying of the Peel policy, "Fieri
+    non debuit, _factum_ valet."
+
+It might seem almost unnecessary to answer those who thus answer
+themselves, or to expose the ruinous architecture of politicians, who
+thus with mutual hands tear down their own walls as they advance, were
+it not for the other aspect of the debate. But the times are agitated;
+the crisis of Ireland is upon us; now, or not at all, there is an
+opening for a new dawn to arise upon the distracted land; and when a
+public necessity calls for a contradiction of the enemy, it is a
+providential bounty that we are able to plead his _self_-contradiction.
+In the hurry of the public mind, there is always a danger that many
+great advantages for the truth should be overlooked: even things seen
+steadily, yet seen but once and amongst alien objects, are seen to
+little purpose. Lowered also in their apparent value by the prejudice,
+that what passes in parliament is but the harmless skirmishing of
+partisanship, dazzling the eye, but innocuous as the aurora borealis,
+demonstrations only too certain of coming evils receive but little
+attention in their earlier stages. Yet undoubtedly, if the laws
+applicable to conspiracy can in any way be evaded, we may see by the
+extensive cabal now organizing itself in England for aiding the Irish
+conspiracy to overthrow the Irish Protestant church, that we have but
+exchanged one form of agitation for a worse. Worse in what respect?
+Not as measured simply by the ruin it would cause--between ruin and
+ruin, there is little reason for choice; but worse, as having all the
+old supporters that Repeal ever counted, and many others beside.
+Especially with Repeal agitation recommending itself to the Irish
+priesthood, and to those whom the priesthood can put in motion, it
+will recommend itself also and separately to vast multitudes amongst
+ourselves. It is worse also--not because in the event more ruinous,
+but because in its means less desperate. All the factious in politics
+and the schismatic in religion--all those who, caring little or
+nothing about religion as a _spiritual_ interest, seek to overthrow
+the present Ministers--all those who (caring little or nothing about
+politics as a trading interest) seek to overthrow the Church of
+England--all, again, who are distressed in point of patriotism, as in
+Ireland many are, hoping to establish a foreign influence upon any
+prosperous body of native prejudice against British influence, are now
+throwing themselves, as by a forlorn hope, into this rearmost of their
+batteries, (but also the strongest)--a deadly and combined struggle to
+pull down the Irish Protestant establishment. And why? because nothing
+else is left to them as a hopeful subject of conspiracy, now that the
+Repeal conspiracy is crushed; and because in its own nature an assault
+upon Protestantism has always been a promising speculation--sure to
+draw support from England, whilst Repeal drew none; and because such
+an assault strikes at the citadel of our strength. For the established
+church of Ireland is the one main lever by which Great Britain carries
+out the machinery of her power over the Irish people. The Protestant
+church is by analogy the umbilical cord through which England connects
+herself _materially_ with Ireland; through _that_ she propagates her
+milder influence; _that_ gone, the rest would offer only coercive
+influence. Without going diffusively into such a point, two vast
+advantages to the civil administration, from the predominance of a
+Protestant church in Ireland, meet us at the threshold: 1st, that it
+moulds by the gentlest of all possible agencies the _recusant_ part of
+this Irish nation into a growing conformity with the two other limbs
+of the empire. The Irish population is usually assumed at about one
+fourth part of the total imperial population. Now, the gradual
+absorption of so large a section amongst our resources into the
+temper, sympathies, and moral habits of the rest, is an object to be
+kept in view by every successive government, let their politics
+otherwise be what they may; and therefore to be kept in view by all
+Irish institutions. In Canada everybody is _now_ aware how much this
+country has been wanting to herself, (that is, wanting to the united
+interests equally of England and Canada,) in not having operated from
+the first upon the political dispositions of the old French population
+by the powerful machinery of her own language, and in some cases of
+her institutions. Her neglect in this instance she now feels to have
+been at her own cost, and therefore politically to have been her
+crime. Granting to her population a certain degree of education, and
+of familiarity with the English language, certain civic privileges,
+(as those of voting at political elections, of holding offices,
+profitable or honorary, &c.,) under such reasonable latitude as to
+time as might have made the transition easy, England would have
+prevented the late wicked insurrection in Canada, and gradually have
+obliterated the external monuments of French remembrances, which have
+served only to nurse a senseless (because a hopeless) enmity. Now, in
+Ireland, the Protestant predominance has long since trained and
+moulded the channels through which flows the ordinary ambition of her
+national aristocracy. The Popery of Ireland settles and roots itself
+chiefly in the peasantry of three provinces. The bias of the gentry,
+and of the aspiring in all ranks, is towards Protestantism. Activity
+of mind and honourable ambition in every land, where the two forms of
+Christianity are politically in equilibrium, move in that same line of
+direction. Undoubtedly the Emancipation bill of 1829 was calculated,
+or might have seemed calculated, to disturb this old order of
+tendencies. But against that disturbance, and in defiance of the
+unexampled liberality shown to Papists upon _every_ mode of national
+competition, there is still in action (_and judging by the condition
+of the Irish bar, in undiminished action_) the old spontaneous
+tendency of Protestantism to 'go ahead;' the fact being that the
+original independency and freedom of the Protestant principle not only
+create this tendency, but also meet and favour it wherever nature has
+already created it, so as to operate in the way of a perpetual bounty
+upon Protestant leanings. Here, therefore, is _one_ of the great
+advantages to every English government from upholding and fostering,
+in all modes left open by the Emancipation bill, the Protestant
+principle--viz. as a principle which is the pledge of a continual
+tendency to union; since, as no prejudice can flatter itself with
+seeing the twenty-one millions of our Protestant population pass over
+to Popery, it remains that we encourage a tendency in the adverse
+direction, long since established and annually increasing amongst the
+six and a half Irish Papists. Thus only can our total population be
+fused; and without that fusion, it will scarcely be hoped that we can
+enjoy the whole unmutilated use of our own latent power.
+
+Towards such a purpose therefore, _as tending to union_ by its
+political effects, the Protestant predominancy is useful; and
+secondly, were it no otherwise useful, it is so to every possible
+administration by means of its patronage. This function of a
+government--which, being withdrawn, no government could have the means
+of sustaining itself for a year--connects the collateral channels of
+Irish honours and remunerations with the great national current of
+similar distributions at home. We see that the Scottish establishment,
+although differing essentially by church government, yet on the ground
+that doctrinally it is almost in alliance with the Church of England,
+has not (except by a transient caprice) refused to the crown a portion
+of its patronage. On the other hand, if the Roman Catholic church were
+installed as the ruling church, every avenue and access for the
+government to the administration of national resources so great, would
+be closed at once. These evils from the overthrow of the Protestant
+church, we mention _in limine_, not as the greatest--they are the
+least; or, at any rate, they are so with reference to the highest
+interests--but for their immediate results upon the purposes common to
+all governments; and _there_ they would be fatal, for any Roman
+Catholic church, where it happens also (like the Irish) to be a Papal
+church, neither will nor _can_ confide privileges of this nature to
+the state. A Papal church, not modified (as the Gallican church) by
+_original_ limitations of the Papal authority, not modified (as even
+the bigoted churches of Portugal and Austria) by modern _conventional_
+limitations of that alien authority, gloomily refuses and must refuse,
+to accept any thing from the state, for the simple reason that she is
+incapacitated for giving any thing. Wisely, according to the wisdom of
+this world, she cuts away from below the footing of the state all
+ground on which a pretence could ever be advanced for interfering with
+herself. Consequently, whosoever, and by whatsoever organs, would
+suffer from the overthrow of the Irish church as now established by
+law, the administration of the land would feel the effects from such a
+change, first and instantly. Let us not mistake the case. Mr O'Connell
+did not seriously aim at Repeal--_that_ he knew too well to be an
+enterprise which could not surmount its earliest stages without coming
+into collision with the armed forces of the land; and no man will ever
+believe that he dreamed of prevailing _there_. What was it, then, that
+he _did_ aim at? It was the establishment in supremacy of the Papal
+church. His meaning was, in case he had been left quietly to build up
+his aspiring purpose so high as seriously to alarm the government,
+then suddenly to halt, to propose by way of compromise some step in
+advance for his own church. Suppose that some arrangement which should
+have the effect of placing that church on a footing of equality, as a
+privileged (not as an endowed) church, with the present establishment;
+this gained, he might have safely left the church herself
+thenceforwards, from such a position of advantage, to fight her way
+onwards, to the utter destruction of her rival.
+
+Thus it was that the conspirators hoped to terrify the minister into
+secret negotiation and compromise. But that hope failed. The minister
+was firm. He watched and waited his opportunity; he kept his eye
+settled upon them, to profit by the first opening which their folly
+should offer to the dreadful artillery of law. At last, said the
+minister, we will put to proof this vaunt of yours. We dare not bring
+you to trial, is your boast. Now, we will see that settled; and, at
+the same time, we will try whether we cannot put you down for ever.
+That trial was made, and with what perfection of success the reader
+knows; for let us remind him, that the perfection we speak of lay as
+much in the manner of the trial as in its result--in the sanctities of
+abstinence, in the holy forbearance to use any one of many decent
+advantages, in the reverence for the sublime equities of law. Oh,
+mightiest of spectacles which human grandeur can unfold to the gaze of
+less civilized nations, when the ermine of the judge and the
+judgment-seat, belted by no swords, bristling with no bayonets--when
+the shadowy power of conscience, citing, as it were, into the
+immediate presence of God twelve upright men, accomplishing for great
+kingdoms, by one day's memorable verdict, that solemn revolution which
+elsewhere would have caused torrents of blood to flow, and would
+perhaps have unsealed the tears of generations. Since the trial of the
+seven bishops[29]--which inaugurated for England the certainty that
+for _her_ the "bloody writing" was torn which would have consigned her
+children to the mercies of despotism--there has been no such crisis,
+no such agitation, no such almighty triumph. Here was the _second_
+chapter of the history; and lastly, that the nine nights' debate
+attached itself as the _third_, is evident from its real purpose,
+which may be expressed strictly in this problem: Given, as a fact
+beyond all doubt, that O'Connell's Repeal conspiracy is for ever
+shattered; let it now be proposed, as a thing worthy of the combined
+parties in opposition, to find out some vicarious or supplementary
+matter for sedition. A new agitation must be found, gentlemen--a new
+grievance must be had, or Ireland is tranquillized, and we are lost.
+Was there ever a case illustrating so strongly the maxim, that no man
+can be effectually ruined except by himself? Here is Lord John
+Russell, taxed a thousand times with having not merely used Mr
+O'Connell as an ally, but actually as having lent himself to Mr
+O'Connell as an instrument. Is that true? A wise man, kind-hearted,
+and liberal in the construction of motives, will have found himself
+hitherto unwilling to suppose a thing so full of disgrace; he will
+have fancied arguments for scepticism. But just at this moment of
+critical suspense, forth steps Lord John himself, and by his own act
+dissipates all doubts, frankly subscribing the whole charge against
+himself; for his own motion reveals and publishes his wrath against
+the ministers for having extinguished the only man, viz. a piratical
+conspirator, by whose private license there was any safety for
+navigating the sea of Irish politics. The exact relation in which Lord
+John had hitherto stood to Mr O'Connell, was that of a land-owner
+paying black-mail to the cateran who guaranteed his flocks from
+molestation: how naturally must the grazier turn with fury on the man
+who, by suppressing his guardian, has made it hopeless for the future
+to gain private ease by trafficking in public wrongs! The real
+grievance was, the lopping Dagon of all power to stand erect, and thus
+laying the Whig-radical under the necessity of "walking in the light
+of the constitution" without aid from Irish crutches. The real _onus_
+imposed on Lord John's party is, where to look for, and how to suborn,
+some new idol and some fresh idolatry. Still to dispense with the laws
+in Ireland in the event of their own return to power, still to banish
+tranquillity from Ireland in the event of Sir Robert's power
+continuing, required that some new conspiracy should be cited to the
+public service, possibly (after the 15th of April) some new
+conspirator. The new seditious movement could not be doubtful: by many
+degrees of preference, the war upon the Irish church had the "call."
+This is to be the war now pursued, and with advantages (as we have
+already said) never possessed by the Repeal cause. The chief advantage
+of _that_ lay in the utter darkness to the Irish peasantry of the word
+"Repeal." What it meant no wizard could guess; and merely as a subject
+to allure by uncertain hopes, on the old maxim of "omne ignotum pro
+magnifico," the choice of that word had considerable merit. But the
+cause of Popery has another kind of merit, and (again we remind the
+reader) reposes upon another kind of support. In that cause the Irish
+peasantry will be unaffectedly and spontaneously zealous; in that
+cause there will be a confluence from many quarters of English aid.
+Far other phenomena will now come forward. Meetings, even of the kind
+convened by Mr O'Connell, are not, we must remember, found to be
+unlawful by the issue of the late trials. Had certain melodramatic
+features been as cautiously banished from Mr O'Connell's parades as
+latterly they were affectedly sought, it is certain that, to this
+hour, he and his pretended myriads would have been untouched by the
+petrific mace of the policeman. Lay aside this theatrical costuming of
+cavalry, of military step, &c., and it will be found that these
+meetings were lawful. Most certainly a meeting for the purpose of
+petitioning is not, and (unless by its own folly) never can be, found
+unlawful.
+
+    [29] The trial of the seven bishops for declining to obey the
+    king's order in council against what, in conscience, they
+    believed to be the law of the land, is the more strictly a
+    parallel case, because, as in Ireland, the whole Popish part
+    of the population--in effect, therefore, the whole physical
+    strength of the land--_seemed_ to have arrayed itself on the
+    side of the conspiracy; so in England, the only armed force,
+    and that close to London, was supposed to have been bought
+    over by the systematic indulgence of the king. Himself and the
+    queen (Mary of Modena) had courted them through the summer.
+    But all was fruitless against the overwhelming sympathy of the
+    troops with an universal popular feeling. Bishop Burnet
+    mentions that this army (about 10,000 men, and then encamped
+    beyond Hounslow) broke into tremendous cheers at the moment
+    when the news of the acquittal reached them. Whilst lauding
+    their Creator his majesty was present. But a far more
+    picturesque account of the case is given by an ancestor of the
+    present Lord Lonsdale's, whose memoirs (still in MS.) are
+    alluded to in one of his Ecclesiastic Sonnets by Mr
+    Wordsworth, our present illustrious laureate. One trait is of
+    a nature so fine, and so inevitable under similar
+    circumstances of interest, that, but for the intervention of
+    the sea, we should certainly have witnessed its repetition on
+    the termination of the Dublin trials. Lord Lowther (such was
+    the title at that time) mentions that, as the bishops came
+    down the Thames in their boat after their acquittal, a
+    perpetual series of men, linked knee to knee, knelt down along
+    the shore. The blessing given, up rose a continuous thunder of
+    huzzas; and these, by a kind of natural telegraph, ran along
+    the streets and the river, through Brentford, and so on to
+    Hounslow. According to the illustration of Lord L., this voice
+    of a nation rolled like a _feu-de-joie_, or running fire, the
+    whole ten miles from London to Hounslow, within a few minutes;
+    or, like a train of gunpowder laid from London to the camp,
+    this irresistible sentiment finally involved in its torrent
+    evenits professional and hired enemies. Caesar mentions that
+    such a transmission, telegraphically propagated from mouth to
+    mouth, of a Roman victory, reached himself, at a distance of
+    160 miles, within about four hours.
+
+But may not this new conspiracy, which is now mustering and organizing
+itself, be put down summarily by force? We may judge of _that_ by what
+has happened to the old conspiracy. Put down by martial violence, or
+by the police, Repeal would have retired for the moment only to come
+forward and reconstruct itself in successive shapes of mischief not
+provided for by law, or not shaped to meet the grasp of an executive
+so limited as, in these days, any English executive must find itself.
+On the other hand, once brought under the cognizance of law, it has
+been crushed in its fraudulent form, and compelled to transmigrate at
+once into that sincere, substantial, and final form, towards which it
+was always tending. Whatever of extra peril is connected with a
+movement so much more intelligible than Repeal, and so much more in
+alliance with the natural prepossessions of the Irish mind--better it
+is, after all, that this peril should be forced to show itself in open
+daylight, than that it should be lurking in ambush or mining
+underground; ready for a burst when other mischief might be abroad, or
+evading the clue of our public guardians. Besides that, Repeal also
+had its own peculiar terrors, notwithstanding that it did not grow up
+originally upon any stock of popular wishes, but had been an
+artificial growth propagated by an artificial inoculation. That flame
+also could burn fiercely when fanned by incendiaries, although it did
+not supply its own combustibles. And, think as we may of the two
+evils, valued as mischief against mischief, Repeal against
+Anti-protestantism, certain it is, that one most important advantage
+has accrued to Government from the change. Fighting against Repeal,
+they had to rely upon one sole resource of doubtful issue; for, after
+all, the law stood on the interpretation of a jury, and therefore too
+much on the soundness of individual minds; whereas in meeting the
+assaults of Anti-protestantism, backed as it is by six millions of
+combatants, ministers will find themselves reposing on the whole
+strength of two nations, and of that section, even amongst the Irish,
+which is socially the strongest. An old enemy is thus replaced by a
+new one many hundred-fold more naturally malignant; true, but
+immediately the new one will call forth a natural antagonism many
+thousand-fold more determined. Such is the result; and, though
+alarming in itself, for ministers it remains an advantage and a
+trophy. How was this result accomplished? By a Fabian policy of
+watching, waiting, warding, and assaulting at the right moment. Three
+times within the last twelve months have the Government been thrown
+upon their energies of attack and defence; three times have they been
+summoned to the most trying exercise of skill--vigilantly to parry,
+and seasonably to strike: _first_, when their duty was to watch and to
+arrest agitation; _secondly_, when their duty was, by process of law,
+to crush agitation; _thirdly_, when their duty was to explain and
+justify before Parliament whatsoever they had done through the two
+former stages. Now, then, let us rapidly pursue the steps of our
+ministers through each severally of these three stages; and by
+seasonable _resume_ or recapitulation, however brief, let us claim the
+public praise for what merits praise, and apply our vindication to
+what has been most misrepresented. The first charge preferred against
+the Government was, that it did not instantly attack the Repealers on
+their earliest appearance. We must all recollect this charge, and the
+bitterness with which it was urged during the whole of last summer;
+for, in fact, the difference of opinion upon this question led to a
+schism even amongst the Conservative party and press. The majority,
+headed by the leading morning paper, have treated it to this day as a
+ground of suspicion against Government, or at least as an impeachment
+of their courage, that they should have lingered or hesitated upon the
+proper policy. Our Journal was amongst the few which, after
+considerable reflection and perhaps doubt, defended the course
+adopted; and specifically upon the following suggestion, _inter alia_,
+viz. that Peel and the Wellesley were assuredly at that moment
+watching Mr O'Connell, not at all, therefore, hesitating as to the
+general character of the policy to be observed, but only waiting for
+the best mode (best in effect, best in popularity) of enforcing that
+policy. And we may remind our readers, that on that occasion we
+applied to the situation of the two parties, as they stood watching
+and watched, the passage from Wordsworth--
+
+    "The vacillating bondsman of the Pope
+    Shrinks from the verdict of that steadfast eye."
+
+There was no great merit in being right; but it is proper to remind
+our readers that we _were_ right. And there is considerable merit,
+more merit than appears, in not having been wrong; for in that we
+should have followed not only a vast leading majority amongst public
+authorities, but we should have followed an instinct of impassioned
+justice, which cannot endure to witness the triumph, though known to
+be but fugitive, of insolence and hyperbolical audacity. Not as
+partisans, which was proved by the caution of our manner, but after
+some deliberation, we expressed our conviction that Government was not
+slumbering, but surveying its ground, taking up its position, and
+trying the range of its artillery, in order to strike surely, to
+strike once, but so that no second blow should be needed. All this
+has been done; so far our predictions have been realized; and to that
+extent the Government has vindicated itself. But still it may be
+asked, to _what_ extent? Doubtless the thing has been done, and done
+completely. Yet _that_ will not necessarily excuse the Government. To
+be well done is, in many cases, all that we require; but in questions
+of civil policy often there is even more importance that it should be
+_soon_ done, done maturely, (that is, seasonably done with a view to
+certain evils growing up concurrently with the evil,) done even
+prematurely with respect to immediate bad consequences open to instant
+arrest. At this moment amongst the parliamentary opponents of
+ministers, though some are taxing them with unconstitutional
+harshness, (or at least with that _summum jus_ which the Roman proverb
+denounces as _summa injuria_,) in having ever interfered at all with
+Mr O'Connell, others of the same faction are roundly imputing to them
+a system of decoy, a "laying of traps," (that was the word,) in
+waiting so patiently for the ripening of the Repeal frenzy. Upon the
+same principle, a criminal may have a right to complain that her
+Majesty, when extending mercy to a first crime, or a crime palliated
+by its circumstances, and that a merciful prosecutor who intercedes
+effectually on his behalf with the court, have both been laying a trap
+for his future conduct; since, assuredly, there is one motive the less
+to a base nature for abstaining from evil in the mitigated
+consequences which the evil drew after it. On the same principle the
+Repealers, having found Sir R. Peel so anxious, in the first stages of
+their career, to spare them altogether, were seduced into thinking
+that surely he never would strike so hard when at length he had made
+ready to strike. Still, with submission, we think that to found false
+expectations upon a spirit of lenity, and upon that mistake to found
+an abuse of goodness that was really sincere, was not the fault of Sir
+R. Peel, but of the Repealers. Any man's goodness becomes a trap to
+him who is capable of making it such; since the most noble
+forbearance, misinterpreted as fear, will probably enough operate as a
+snare for such a person by tempting him into excesses calculated to
+rouse that courage with which all genuine forbearance is associated.
+If the early moderation of Government did really entrap any man, that
+man has himself, and his own meanness of heart, to thank for his
+delusion. But were it otherwise, and the Government became properly
+responsible for any possible misinterpretation of their own
+lenity--even in that case, it will remain to be enquired whether
+Government _could_ have acted otherwise than it did. For else, though
+Government could owe little enough to the conspirator; yet with
+respect to the ill-educated and misled labouring man, whose honest
+sensibilities were so grievously played upon by traitors, we do
+ourselves conceive that Government had a clamorous duty. If such men
+by thousands believed that the cause of Repeal was patriotic, that we
+consider a delusion not of a kind or a class to challenge exposure
+from Government; they have neither such functions assigned to them,
+nor could they assume any office of teaching without suspicion. But
+when the credulity of the poor was shown also in anticipating impunity
+for the leader of Repeal, and upon the ground that ministers feared
+him, when for this belief there was really much plausible sanction in
+the behaviour of the Whig ministers--too plainly it became a marked
+duty of Sir Robert Peel to warn them how matters stood; to let them
+know that sedition tended to dangerous results, and that _his_
+Government was bound by no secret understanding, with sedition for
+averting its natural penalties. So much, we all agree, was due from
+the present Government to the poorer classes; and exactly because
+former governments had practically taken another view of sedition. If,
+therefore, Sir R. Peel had left unpaid this great debt, he failed
+grievously in the duties of his high office; but we are of opinion
+that he did _not_. We have an obscure remembrance that the Queen's
+speech uttered a voice on this point--a solemn, a monitory, a parental
+voice. We seem to recollect also, that in his own parliamentary place
+he warned the deluded followers of Repeal--that they were engaged in a
+chase that must be fruitless, and might easily become criminal. What
+was open to him, therefore, Sir Robert did. He applied motives, such
+as there were within his power, to lure men away from this seditious
+service. The "traps" he laid were all in that direction. If more is
+required of him by people arguing the case at present, it remains to
+ask whether more was at that time in his power.
+
+The present administration came into power in September 1841. Why the
+Repealers did not go to work instantly, is more than we can explain;
+but so it was. In March of 1843, and not sooner, Mr O'Connell opened a
+new shop of mercenary agitation, and probably for the last time that
+he will ever do so. The _surveillance_ of Government, it now appears,
+commenced almost simultaneously; why not the reaction of Government?
+Upon that it is worth spending a few words. It is now made known to
+the public, that from the very first Sir R. Peel had taken such
+measures of precaution as were really open to him. In communicating,
+officially with any district whatsoever, in any one of the three
+kingdoms, the proper channel through which the directions travel is
+the lord-lieutenant of the particular county in which the district
+lies. He is the direct representative of the sovereign--he stands at
+the head of the county magistrates, and is officially the organ
+between the executive and his own rural province. To this officer in
+every county, Sir R. Peel addressed a letter of instructions; and the
+principle on which these instructions turned was--that for the present
+he was to exercise a jealous neutrality; not interfering without
+further directions in ordinary cases, that is, where simply Repeal was
+advocated, or individuals were abused; but that, on the first
+_suggestion_ of local outrages, the first _incitement_ to mischief,
+arrests and other precautionary measures were to take place. Not much
+more than twenty years are gone by, since magistrates moved on
+principles so wholly different, that now, and to the youthful of this
+generation, they would seem monstrous. In those days, let any man be
+found to swear that he apprehended danger to his property, or violence
+to his person, from the assembling of a mob in a place assigned, and
+the magistrate would have held it his duty to disperse or prevent that
+meeting. But now _on a change tout cela_; and as easily might a
+magistrate of this day commit Fanny Elssler as a vagabond. Yet even in
+these days we have heard it mooted--
+
+1. On the mere ground of _numerical amount_, and as for that reason
+alone an uncontrollable mass, might not such a meeting have been
+liable to dispersion? _Answer_--this allegation of monstrous numbers
+was uniformly a falsehood; and a falsehood gross and childish. Was it
+for the dignity of Government to assume, as grounds of action, fables
+so absurd as these? _Not_ to have assumed them, will never be made an
+argument of blame against the Executive; and, indeed, it was not
+possible to do so, since Government had employed qualified persons to
+estimate the numbers, and in some instances to measure the ground. The
+only real charge against Government, in connexion with these fables,
+is (and we grieve to say it) that of having echoed them, in an
+ambiguous way, at one point of the trials; not exactly assuming them
+for true, and resting any other truth upon their credit, but repeating
+them as parts _inter alia_ of current popular hearsay. Now this,
+though probably the act of some subordinate officer, does a double
+indignity to Government; it is discreditable to the understanding, if
+such palpable nursery tales are adopted for any purpose; and openly to
+adulterate with falsehood, even in those cases where the falsehood is
+not associated with folly, still more deeply wounds the character of
+an honourable government. But, besides, had the numerical estimates
+stood upon any footing of truth, mere numbers could not have been
+pleaded as an argument for reasonable alarm. The false estimate was
+not pleaded by the Repealers until _after_ the meetings, and as an
+inference from facts. But the use of the argument was _before_ the
+meeting, and to prevent the meeting. And if the experience of past
+meetings were urged as an argument for presuming that the coming one
+would be not less numerous, concurrently would be urged this same
+experience as a demonstration that no danger was to be apprehended.
+Dangerous the meetings certainly were in another sense; but, in the
+police sense, so little dangerous, that each successive meeting
+squared, cubed, &c., in geometrical progression the guarantee in point
+of safety for all meetings that were to follow.
+
+2. On the ground of _sedition_, and disaffection to the Government,
+might not these assemblages have been lawfully dispersed or prevented?
+Unfortunately, not under our modern atmosphere of political
+liberality. In time of war, when it may again become necessary, for
+the very salvation of the land, to suspend the _habeas corpus_ act,
+sedition would revive into a new meaning. But, at all times, sedition
+is of too unlimited a nature to form the basis of an affidavit sworn
+before a police magistrate; and it is an idea which very much
+sympathizes with the _general_ principles of political rights. When
+these are unusually licentious, sedition is interpreted liberally and
+laxly. Where danger tightens the restraints upon popular liberty, the
+idea of sedition is more narrowly defined. Sedition, besides, very
+much depends upon overt acts as expounding it. And to take any
+controversial ground for the basis of restraint upon personal liberty,
+would probably end in disappointment. At the same time, we must make
+one remark. Some months ago, in considering what offence was committed
+by the public avowal of the Repeal doctrine, we contended, that it
+amounted constructively to treason; and on the following argument--Why
+had any body supposed it lawful to entertain or to propagate such a
+doctrine? Simply, on the reflexion that, up to the summer of 1800,
+there _was_ no union with Ireland: since August of that 1800, this
+great change had been made. And by what? By an act of Parliament. But
+could there be any harm in seeking the repeal of a parliamentary act?
+Is not _that_ done in every session of the two Houses? And as to the
+more or less importance of an act, _that_ is a matter of opinion. But
+we contended, that the sanctity of an act is to be deduced from the
+sanctity of the subjects for which it legislates. And in proof of
+this, we alleged the _Act of Settlement_. Were it so, that simply the
+term _Act of Parliament_ implied a license universally for undoing and
+canceling it, then how came the Act of Settlement to enjoy so peculiar
+a consecration? We take upon us to say--that, in any year since the
+Revolution of 1688-9, to have called a meeting for the purpose of
+framing a petition against this act, would have been treason. Might
+not Parliament itself entertain a motion for repealing it, or for
+modifying it? Certainly; for we have no laws resembling those Athenian
+laws, which made it capitally punishable to propose their repeal. And
+secondly,--no body external to the two Houses, however venerable, can
+have power to take cognizance of words uttered in either of those
+Houses. Every Parliament, of necessity, must be invested with a
+discretionary power over every arrangement made by their predecessors.
+Each several Parliament must have the same power to _undo_, which
+former Parliaments had to _do_. The two Houses have the keys of St
+Peter--to unloose in the nineteenth century whatever the earliest
+Parliament in the twelfth century could bind. But this privilege is
+proper and exclusive to the two Houses acting in conjunction. Outside
+their walls, no man has power to do more than to propose as a
+petitioner some lawful change. But how could that be a lawful change
+which must begin by proposing to shift the allegiance into some other
+channel than that in which it now flows? The line of succession, as
+limited in the act, is composed of persons all interested. As against
+_them_, merely contingent and reversionary heirs, no treason could
+exist. But we have supposed the attempt to be against the individual
+family then occupying the throne. And it is clear that no pretence,
+drawn from the repealable nature of an English law, can avail to make
+it less, or other than treason, for a person outside of Parliament to
+propose the repeal of _this_ act as to any point affecting the
+existing royal family, or at least, so many of that family as are
+privileged persons known to the constitution. Now, then, this remark
+instantly points to two classes of acts; one upon which to all men is
+open the right of calling for Repeal; another upon which no such
+right is open. But if this be so, then to urge the legality of calling
+for a Repeal of the Union, on the ground that this union rests only
+upon an act of Parliament, is absurd; because that leaves it still
+doubtful whether this act falls under the one class or the other.
+
+Why do we mention this? Because we think it exceedingly important that
+the attention of parliament should be called to the subject, and to
+the necessity of holding certain points in our constitution as
+absolutely sacred. If a man or party should go about proclaiming the
+unlawfulness, in a religious sense, of _property_, and agitating for
+that doctrine amongst the lower classes by appropriate arguments--it
+would soon be found necessary to check them, and the sanctity of
+property would soon be felt to merit civil support. Possibly it will
+be replied--"Supposing the revolutionary doctrines followed by overt
+acts, then the true redress is by attacking these acts." Yet every
+body feels that, if the doctrine and the acts continued to propagate
+themselves, very soon both would be punished. In the case where
+missionaries incited negro slaves to outrages on property, or were
+said to do so, nobody proposed to punish only the overt outrages. So,
+again, in the event of those doctrines being revived which denounced
+all differences of rank, and the official distinctions of civil
+government, it would be too late to punish the results after the bonds
+of society were generally relaxed. Ministers are placed in a very
+false position, continually taxing a man with proposing the repeal of
+a law as if _that_ were an admitted crime, and yet also pronouncing
+the proposed repeal of any law to be a privilege of every citizen.
+They will soon find it necessary to make their election for one or
+other of these incompatible views.
+
+Meantime, in direct opposition to this uncertainty of the ministers,
+the Irish Attorney-General has drawn the same argument from the Act of
+Settlement which we have drawn. In February 1844, the Irish
+Attorney-General pronounced his views; _Blackwood's Magazine_ in
+August or September 1843. A fact which we mention--not as imputing to
+that learned gentleman any obligation to ourselves; for, on the
+contrary, it strengthens the opinion to have been _independently_
+adopted by different minds, but in order to acquit ourselves from the
+natural suspicion of having, in a legal question, derived our own
+views from a high legal authority.
+
+3. Might not the Repeal Association have been arrested and prosecuted
+at first, viz. in March 1843, as six months afterwards they were, on a
+charge of conspiracy? That was a happy thought, by whomsoever
+suggested; and strange that an idea, so often applied to minor
+offences as well as to political offences, should not at once have
+been seen to press with crushing effect upon these disturbers of the
+public peace. Since the great change in the combination laws, this
+doctrine of conspiracy is the only means by which masters retain any
+power at all. Wheresoever there are reciprocal rights, for one of the
+two antagonist interests to combine in defence of their own,
+presupposes in very many cases an unfair disturbance of the legal
+equilibrium. Society, as being an inert body in relation to any
+separate interests of its own, and chiefly from the obscurity of these
+interests, cannot be supposed to combine; and therefore cannot combine
+even to prevent combinations. Government is the perpetual guardian and
+organ of society in relation to its interests. Government, therefore,
+prosecutes. This, however, left the original question as to the Repeal
+of the Irish Union act, whether a lawful attempt or not lawful,
+untouched. And necessary it was to do so. Had the prosecutor even been
+satisfied on that point, no jury would have regarded it as other than
+a delicate question in the casuistry of political metaphysics. But the
+offence of combining, by means of tumultuous meetings, and by means of
+connecting with this obscure question rancorous nationalities or
+personalities, so as to make _that_ a matter of agitating interest to
+poor men, which else they would have regarded as a pure scholastic
+abstraction--this was a crime well understood by the jury; and thence
+flowed the verdict. But could not the same verdict have been obtained
+in the month of March? Certainly not. For the act of _conspiracy_ must
+prove itself by collusion between speeches and speeches, between
+speeches and newspapers, between reporters and newspapers, between
+newspaper and newspaper. But in the infancy of such a concern, these
+links of concert and mutual reverberation are few, hard to collect,
+and unless carelessly diffused, (as in the palmy days of the Repeal
+Association they were,) difficult to prove.
+
+In short, no indictment could have availed that was not founded on the
+offence of conspiracy; and _that_ would not have been available with
+certainty much before the autumn, when in fact the conspirators were
+held to bail. To have failed would have been ruinous. We have seen how
+hardly the furious Opposition have submitted to the Government
+measure, under its present principle of simple confidence in the law
+as it is: had new laws, or suspension of old ones, been found
+requisite--the desperate resistance of the Liberals would have reacted
+contagiously on the excitement in Ireland, so as to cause more
+mischief in a secondary way, than any measure of restraint upon the
+Repealers could have healed directly.
+
+It is certain, meantime, that Sir R. Peel did not wish to provoke a
+struggle with the Repealers. Feeling, probably, considerable doubts
+upon the issue of any trial, moving upon whatsoever principle--because
+in any case the composition of the jury must depend a good deal upon
+chance, and one recusant juror, or one juror falling ill at a critical
+moment, might have reduced the whole process to a nihility--Sir
+Robert, like any moderate man, hoped that his warnings might meet with
+attention. They did not. So far from _that_, the Repealers kindled
+into more frenzy through their own violence, irritated no doubt by
+public sympathy with their worst counsels in America and elsewhere. At
+length the case indicated in the minister's instructions to the
+lords-lieutenant of counties, the _casus faederis_, actually occurred.
+One meeting was fixed ostentatiously on the anniversary of the
+rebellion in 1798; and against the intended meeting at Clontarf, large
+displays of cavalry and of military discipline were publicly
+advertised. These things were decisive: the viceroy returned suddenly
+to Ireland: the Privy Council of Ireland assembled: a proclamation
+issued from government: the conspirators were arrested: and in the
+regular course the trials came on.
+
+Such is our account of the first stage in this great political
+transaction; and this first stage it is which most concerns the
+reputation of Government. For though the merit of the trials, or
+second stage, must also belong to Government, so far as regards the
+resolution to adopt this course, and the general principle of their
+movement; yet in the particular conduct of their parts, these trials
+naturally devolved upon the law-officers. In the admirable balance of
+firmness and forbearance it is hardly possible to imagine the minister
+exceeded. And here, where chiefly he stood between a double fire of
+attacks, irreconcilable in themselves, and proceeding not less on
+friends than foes, it is now found by official exposures that Sir
+Robert's conduct is not open to a trivial demur. He made his
+preparations for vindicating the laws in such a spirit of energy, as
+though he had resolved upon allowing no escape for the enemy; he
+opened a _locus penitentiae_, noiseless and indulgent to the feelings
+of the offenders, with so constant an overture of placability as if he
+had resolved upon letting them _all_ escape. The kindness of the
+manner was as perfect as the brilliancy of the success.
+
+Next, as regards the trials, there is so very much diffused through
+the speeches or the incidents of what is noticeable on one ground or
+other--that we shall confine ourselves to those points which are
+chiefly concerned in the one great factious (let us add fraudulent)
+attempt within the House of Commons to disparage the justice of the
+trial. In all history, we remember nothing that ever issued from a
+baffled and mortified party more audacious than this. As, on the other
+hand, in all history we remember nothing more anxiously or sublimely
+conscientious than the whole conduct of the trial. More conspicuously
+are these qualities displayed, as it was inevitable they should, in
+the verdict. Never yet has there been a document of this nature more
+elaborate and fervent in the energy of its distinctions, than this
+most memorable verdict; and the immortal twelve will send down their
+names to posterity as the roll-call of those upright citizens, who, in
+defiance of menaces, purchased peace to their afflicted country at the
+price of peril to themselves. With partisans, of course, all this goes
+for nothing; and no cry was more steadily raised in the House of
+Commons than the revolting falsehood--that the conspirators had not
+obtained a fair trial. Upon the three pretences by which this
+monstrous allegation endeavoured to sustain itself, we will say a
+word. Two quarrels have been raised with incidents occurring at
+separate stages in the striking of the jury. What happened first of
+all was supposed to be a mere casual effect of hurry. Good reason
+there has since appeared, to suspect in this affair no such excusable
+accident, but a very fraudulent result of a plan for vitiating the
+whole proceedings. Such things are likely enough to be attempted by
+obscure partisans. But at all events any trick that may have been
+practised, is traced decisively to the party of the defendants. But
+the whole effect of the trick, if such it were, was to diminish the
+original fund from which the names of the second list were to be
+drawn, by about one twenty-ninth part. But this inconsiderable loss
+was as likely to serve the defendants as not; for the object, as we
+have said, was--simply by vitiating the proceeding to protract the
+trial, and thus to benefit by a larger range of favourable accidents.
+But why not cure this irregularity, however caused, by the means open
+to the court? Simply for these reasons, explained by the
+Attorney-General:--1st, that such a proceeding would operate
+injuriously upon many other trials; and 2d, as to this particular
+trial, that it would delay it until the year 1845. The next incident
+is still more illustrative of the determination, taken beforehand, to
+quarrel with the arrangements, on whatever principle conducted. When
+the list of persons eligible as jurors has been reduced by the
+unobjectionable process of balloting to forty-eight, from that amount
+they are further reduced by ultimate challenges; and the necessity
+resting upon each party to make these challenges is not discretional,
+but peremptory. It happened that the officer who challenged on behalf
+of the crown, struck off about ten Roman Catholics. The public are
+weary of hearing it explained--that these names were not challenged
+_as_ Catholics, but as Repealers. Some persons have gone so far as to
+maintain--that even Repealers ought not to have been challenged. This,
+however, has been found rather too strong a doctrine for the House of
+Commons--to have asked for a verdict of guilty from men glorying in
+the very name which expresses the offence. Did any man ever suggest a
+special jury of smugglers in a suit of our lady the Queen, for the
+offence of "running" goods? Yet certainly they are well qualified as
+respects professional knowledge of the case. We on our part maintain,
+that not merely Repealers were inadmissible on the Dublin jury, but
+generally Roman Catholics; and we say this without disrespect to that
+body, as will appear from what follows. It will often happen that men
+are challenged as labouring under prejudices which disqualify them for
+an impartial discharge of a juror's duty. But these prejudices may be
+of two kinds. First, they may be the natural product of a certain
+birth, education, and connexion; and these are cases in which it will
+almost be a _duty_ for one so biased to have contracted something of a
+permanent inability to judge fairly under circumstances which interest
+his prejudices. But secondly, there are other prejudices, as, for
+instance, of passions, of blind anger, or of selfish interest. Such
+cases of prejudice are less honourable; and yet no man scruples to
+tell another, under circumstances of this nature, that he cannot place
+confidence in his impartiality. No offence is either meant or taken. A
+trial is transferred from Radnorshire to Warwickshire in order to
+secure justice: yet Radnorshire is not offended. And every day a
+witness is told to stand down, when he is acknowledged to have the
+slightest pecuniary interest in the case, without feeling himself
+insulted. Yet the insinuation is a most gross one--that, because he
+might be ten guineas richer or poorer by the event of the trial, he is
+not capable of giving a fair testimony. This would be humiliating,
+were it not seen that keen interests compel men to speak bluntly and
+plainly: men cannot sacrifice their prospects of justice to ceremony
+and form. Now, when a Roman Catholic is challenged as a juryman, it is
+under the first and comparatively inoffensive mode of imputation. It
+is not said--you are under a cloud of passion, or under a bias of
+gross self-interest. But simply--you have certain religious opinions:
+no imputation is made on your integrity. On the contrary, it is
+honourable to you that you should be alive to the interests of your
+class. Some think, and so may you, that separation from England would
+elevate the Catholics; since, in such a case, undoubtedly your
+religion would become predominant in Ireland. It is but natural,
+therefore, that you should lean to the cause of those who favour
+yours. In setting aside a Catholic as a juryman on the trial of
+Repealers, this is the imputation made upon him. Now, what is there in
+that to wound any man's feelings? Lastly, it is alleged that the
+presiding judge summed up in terms unfavourable to the Repealers. Of
+course he did; and, as an upright judge, how could he have done
+otherwise? Let us for one moment consider this point also. It is often
+said that the judge is counsel for the prisoner. But this is a gross
+misconception. The judge, properly speaking, is counsel for the law,
+and for every thing which can effect the right understanding of the
+evidence. Consequently he sometimes appears to be advocating the
+prisoner's cause, merely because the point which he is clearing up
+happens to make for the prisoner. But equally he would have appeared
+to be against the prisoner, if he found it necessary to dissipate
+perplexities that would have benefited the prisoner. His business is
+with no personal interest, but generally with the interest of truth
+and equity--whichever way those may point. Upon this principle, in
+summing up, it is the judge's duty to appraise the entire evidence;
+and if any argument lurks obscurely in the evidence, he must strip it
+of its obscurity, and bring it forward with fuller advantage. That may
+happen to favour the prisoner, or it may weigh against him. But the
+judge cannot have any regard to these consequences. His concern is
+simply with the pressure and incidence of the testimony. If,
+therefore, a prisoner has brought forward witnesses who were able to
+depose any thing in his favour, be assured that the judge will not
+overlook that deposition. But, if no such deposition were made, is it
+meant that the judge is to invent it? The whole notion has grown out
+of the original conceit--that a defendant in relation to the judge is
+in the relation of a client to an advocate. But this is no otherwise
+true than as it is true of every party and interest connected with the
+case. All these alike the judge is to uphold in their true equitable
+position and rights. In summing up, the judge used such facts as had
+been furnished to him. All these happened to be against the Repealers;
+and therefore the judge appeared to be against then. But the same
+impression would have resulted, if he had simply read his notes of the
+evidence.
+
+Such are the desperate attempts to fasten charges of unfairness on
+this fairest of all recorded trials. And with an interest so keen in
+promoting the belief of some unfairness, was there ever yet a trial
+that could have satisfied the losing party? Losers have a proverbial
+privilege for being out of temper. But in this case more is sought
+than the mere gratification of wrath. Fresh hopes spring up in every
+stage of this protracted contest, and they are all equally groundless.
+First, Mr O'Connell was not to be arrested: it was impossible and
+absurd to suppose it. Next, _being_ arrested, he was not to be tried.
+We must all remember the many assurances in Dublin papers--that all
+was done to save appearances, but that no trial would take place.
+Then, when it was past denial that the trial had really begun, it was
+to break down on grounds past numbering. Finally, the jury would
+never dare to record a verdict of guilty. This, however, being
+actually done, then was Mr O'Connell to bring writs of error; he was
+to "take the sense" of the whole Irish bench; and, having taken all
+that, he was to take the sense of the Lords. And after all these
+things were accomplished, finally (as we then understood it) he was to
+take himself off in the direction pointed out by the judges. But we
+find that he has not yet reconciled himself to _that_. Intimations
+come out at intervals that the judges will never dare to pass any but
+a nominal sentence upon him. We conclude that all these endless
+conflicts with the legal necessities of his case are the mere
+gasconades of Irish newspapers, addressing themselves to provincial
+readers. Were there reason to suppose them authorized by the
+Repealers, there would be still higher argument for what we are going
+to say. But under any circumstances, we agree with the opinion
+expressed dispassionately and seasonably by the _Times_
+newspaper--that judgment must be executed in this case. We agree with
+that journal--that the nation requires it as a homage rendered
+necessary to the violated majesty of law. Nobody wishes that, at Mr
+O'Connell's age, any _severe_ punishment should be inflicted. Nobody
+will misunderstand, in such a case, the mitigation of the sentence.
+The very absence of all claim to mitigation, makes it impossible to
+mistake the motive to lenity in _his_ case. But judgment must be done
+on Cawdor. Two aggravations, and heavy ones, of the offence have
+occurred even since the trial. One is the tone of defiance still
+maintained by newspapers under his control. Already, with one voice,
+they are ready to assure the country, in case of the sentence being
+incommensurate to the case, that Government wished to be severe, but
+had not courage for the effort; and that Government dares not enforce
+the sentence. The other aggravation lies in this--that he, a convicted
+conspirator, has presumed to take his seat amongst the senators of the
+land--"Venit in senatum, fit particeps consilii." Yet Catiline, here
+denounced to the public rage, _was_ not a _convicted_ conspirator; and
+even his conspiracy rests very much on the word of an enemy. It is
+true that, in some formal sense, a man's conviction is not complete in
+our law until sentence has been pronounced. But this makes no real
+difference as to the scandalous affront which Mr O'Connell has thus
+put upon the laws of the land. And in that view it is, viz. as an
+atonement for the many outrages offered to the laws, that the nation
+waits for the consummation of this public example.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work_
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844, by Various
+
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