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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14324 ***
+
+[Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added
+by the transcriber. Footnotes will be found at the end of the text.]
+
+
+
+
+LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.
+
+APRIL, 1875.
+
+Vol. XV, No. 88
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.
+  CONCLUDING PAPER.
+
+THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE by W. A. BAILLIE-GROHMAN.
+
+THREE FEATHERS by WILLIAM BLACK.
+  CHAPTER XXIX      MABYN DREAMS.
+  CHAPTER XXX       FERN IN DIE WELT.
+  CHAPTER XXXI      "BLUE IS THE SWEETEST."
+  CHAPTER XXXII.    THE EXILE'S RETURN.
+
+SONNET by F. A. HILLARD.
+
+NICE by R. DAVEY.
+
+THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.
+  I.    ORIGIN OF THE RASKOL.
+  II.   OPPOSITION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.
+  III.  INTERNAL DIVISIONS.
+
+ELEANOR'S CAREER by ITA ANIOL PROKOP.
+
+AN AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY YEARS AGO by
+  ETHEL C. GALE.
+
+A MARCH VIOLET by EMMA LAZARUS.
+
+WHAT IS A CONCLAVE? by T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
+
+MONSOOR PACHA by GEORGE H. BOKER.
+
+HOW HAM WAS CURED by JENNIE WOODVILLE.
+
+ON THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS by KATE HILLARD.
+
+OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+  ARTISTS' MODELS IN ROME by T. A. T.
+  FAUST IN POLAND by E. C. R.
+  A LETTER FROM HAVANA by F. C. N.
+  FRENCH SLANG by F. A.
+  NOTES.
+
+LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+Books Received.
+
+FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  FOREST OF COCKATOOS.
+
+  SYDNEY.
+
+  ASTROLABE AND ZÉLÉE ON CORAL REEFS
+
+  CANNIBAL FIRES.
+
+  MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF BURKE.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF BURKE.
+
+  VALLEY OF LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  GORGE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  HOBART TOWN.
+
+  ON THE WAY TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.
+
+  OUR ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.
+
+  INTERIOR OF TOMERL'S COTTAGE.
+
+  "FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED MYSELF IN."
+
+  ENTERING THE EYRIE.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE
+
+OF
+
+_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_.
+
+
+APRIL, 1875.
+
+Vol. XV, No. 88
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.
+
+CONCLUDING PAPER.
+
+[Illustration: FOREST OF COCKATOOS.]
+
+
+People who go to Australia expecting every other man they meet to be a
+convict, and every convict a ruffian in felon's garb, will assuredly
+find themselves mistaken. And if contemplating a residence in Sydney or
+Melbourne they need not anticipate the necessity of living in a tent or
+a shanty, nor yet of accepting the society of convicts or negroes as the
+only alternative to a life of solitude. Neither will it be necessary to
+go armed with revolvers by day, nor to place plate and jewels under
+guard at night. Sydney, the capital of the penal colony, is a quiet,
+orderly city, abounding in villas and gardens, churches and schools, and
+about its well-lighted streets ride and walk well-dressed and well-bred
+people, whose visages betray neither the ruffian nor the cannibal. Some
+of them may be convicts or "ticket-of-leave-men," but this a stranger
+would need to be told, as they dress like others, their equipages are
+quite as stylish, and many of them not only amass more property, but are
+really more honest, than some of those never sentenced, because they
+know that the continuance of their freedom depends on their reputation.
+
+[Illustration: SYDNEY.]
+
+The city, built on the south side of a beautiful lake, is perfectly
+unique in design, being composed of five broad promontories, looking
+like the five fingers of a hand slightly expanded. All the important
+streets run from east to west, and each terminates in a distinct harbor,
+while clearly visible from the upper portion of the street is a grand
+moving panorama of vessels of every description, with masts, sails and
+colors that seem peering out from every interstice between the houses.
+Each day witnesses the arrival and departure of eight or ten steamers,
+ferry-boats leave every half hour all the principal landings for the
+various sections of the city, and the wharves are lined with the
+shipping of every nation, many of the vessels ranging from fifteen
+hundred to two thousand tons burden. On a huge rock in Watson's Bay
+stands the lighthouse at the entrance of Port Jackson. The sea lashes
+the black rock with ceaseless fury, the light from the summit rendering
+even the base visible at a great distance. The light is 350 feet above
+the level of the sea, yet it was almost under its very rays that the
+good ship Dunbar came to grief. Missing the passage, she was engulfed in
+the raging sea, and her three hundred and ninety passengers perished in
+full view of the homes they were seeking.
+
+Orange and almond trees, with other tropical plants, loaded with
+blossoms and fruit, beautify the lowlands, while in more elevated
+localities are found the fruits and foliage of the temperate zone, very
+many of them exotics brought by the settlers from their English homes.
+Down to the very water's edge extends the verdure of tree and shrub,
+overshadowing to the right Fort Jackson, and to the left Middle Harbor.
+The Government House commands the bay with the imposing mien of a
+fortress, and the magnificent reception-rooms are worthy of a
+sovereign's court. The garden surrounding it occupies a beautiful
+promontory, its borders washed by the sea, the walks shaded by trees
+imported from Europe, and the whole parterre redolent with tropical
+beauty and fragrance. On the promenades are frequently assembled at
+evening two or three hundred ladies and gentlemen in full dress, while
+military bands discourse sweet music for the entertainment of the
+brilliant throng.
+
+Ballarat may be called the city of gold; Melbourne, of clubs, democracy
+and thriving commerce; Hobart Town takes the premium for hospitality and
+picturesque beauty; but Sydney bears the impress of genuine English
+aristocracy, in combination with a sort of Creole piquancy singularly in
+contrast with English exclusiveness, yet giving a wonderful charm to the
+society of this city of high life, so full of gayety, brilliancy and
+luxury. Who would recognize in the Sydney of to-day, with its four
+hundred thousand inhabitants, its churches, theatres and libraries, the
+outgrowth of the penal colony of Botany Bay, planted only eighty-seven
+years ago on savage shores? It was in May, 1787, that the first colony
+left England for Botany Bay, a squadron of eleven vessels, carrying
+eleven hundred and eighteen colonists to make a lodgment on an unknown
+shore inhabited by savages. Of these eleven hundred and eighteen, there
+were six hundred male and two hundred and fifty female convicts, the
+remaining portion being composed of officers and soldiers to take charge
+of the new penal settlement, under the command of Governor Phillip. From
+so unpromising a beginning has grown the present rich and flourishing
+settlement, and in lieu of the few temporary shanties erected by the
+first colonists there stands a magnificent city of more than ordinarily
+fine architecture, with banks and hospitals, schools and churches--among
+the latter a superb cathedral--all displaying the proverbial prodigality
+of labor and expense for which the English are noted in the erection and
+adornment of their public edifices. Among the educational establishments
+are the English University, with a public hall like that of Westminster;
+St. John's College (Catholic); and national primary and high schools,
+where are educated about thirty-four thousand pupils at an annual
+expense to the government of more than three hundred thousand dollars.
+From the parent colony have sprung others, while the poverty and
+corruption that were the distinguishing features of the original element
+have been gradually lost in the more recent importations of honest and
+respectable citizens.
+
+Apart from the wealth and gayety of Sydney, there is much in its various
+grades of society to interest the average tourist. The "ticket-of-leave
+men"--that is, convicts who, having served out a portion of their term
+and been favorably reported for good conduct, are permitted to go at
+large and begin life anew--form a distinct class, and exert a widespread
+influence by their wealth, benevolence and commercial enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: ASTROLABE AND ZÉLÉE ON CORAL REEFS.]
+
+Very many of the better class are talented and well educated, with the
+manners and appearance of gentlemen; and in some cases there has been
+perhaps but the _single_ crime for which they suffered expatriation
+and disgrace. Such as these, as a rule, conduct themselves with
+propriety from the moment of being sentenced; never murmur at their work
+or discipline, be it ever so hard; and probably after a single year of
+hardship are favorably reported, and permitted to seek or make homes for
+themselves. Many of them own bank shares and real estate, and some
+become immensely rich, either by ability or chance good-fortune. The
+property is their own, but the owners are always watched by those in
+power, and are liable at any moment to be ordered back to their old
+positions. These "remanded men" are treated with the greatest severity,
+and few have sufficient power of endurance to live out even a short term
+with its increase of rigor and hardship. Yet to the energy and
+enterprise of the liberated felons is probably due, more than to any
+other cause, that increase of prosperity which has long since rendered
+these colonies not only self-supporting, but a source of revenue to the
+Crown.
+
+[Illustration: CANNIBAL FIRES.]
+
+Another and the most dangerous class of convicts are those known as
+"bushrangers." They are desperate fellows, composed of the very lowest
+scum of England, have ordinarily been sentenced for life, and, having no
+hope of pardon or desire for amendment, they escape as soon as possible,
+often by the murder of one or more of their guards, and take refuge in
+the wilds of the interior. Some of these bushrangers are associated
+together in large hordes, but others roam solitary for months before
+they will venture to trust their lives in the hands of other desperadoes
+like themselves. There are hundreds of these lawless men prowling like
+wild beasts for their prey in the vicinity of every thoroughfare between
+the cities and the mines, robbing and murdering defenceless passengers,
+plundering the mails, and constantly exacting the best of their flocks
+and herds from the stockmen and shepherds, who in their isolated
+positions dare not refuse their demands. So desperate is the character
+of these outlaws that they are seldom taken, though thousands of pounds
+are occasionally offered for the head of some noted ringleader. They may
+be killed in skirmishes, but will not suffer themselves to be taken
+alive. A man calling himself "Black Darnley" ranged the woods for years,
+committing all sorts of crimes, but at length met a violent death at the
+hands of another convict, whose daughter he had outraged.
+
+A curious memento of the first theatre opened in Sydney and the first
+performance within its walls has come down to us from the year 1796,
+about eight years after the establishment of the penal colony. It was
+opened by permission of the governor: all the actors were convicts who
+won the privilege by good behavior, and the price of admission was one
+shilling, payable in silver, flour, meat or wine. The prologue, written
+by a _cidevant_ pickpocket of London, illustrates the character of
+the times in those early days of the colony:
+
+    From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come,
+    Though not with much _éclat_ or beat of drum,
+    True patriots all; for be it understood,
+    We left our country for our country's good:
+    No private views disgraced our generous zeal;
+    What urged our travels was our country's weal;
+    And none will doubt but that our emigration
+    Has proved most useful to the British nation.
+    But, you inquire, what could our breasts inflame
+    With this new passion for theatric fame?
+    What in the practice of our former days
+    Could shape our talents to exhibit plays?
+    Your patience, sirs: some observations made,
+    You'll grant us equal to the scenic trade.
+    He who to midnight ladders is no stranger
+    You'll own will make an admirable Ranger,
+    And sure in Filch I shall be quite at home:
+    Some true-bred Falstaff we may hope to start.
+    The scene to vary, we shall try in time
+    To treat you with a little pantomime.
+    Here light and easy Columbines are found,
+    And well-tried Harlequins with us abound.
+    From durance vile our precious selves to keep,
+    We often had recourse to the flying leap,
+    To a black face have sometimes owed escape,
+    And Hounslow Heath has proved the worth of crape.
+    But how, you ask, can we e'er hope to soar.
+    Above these scenes, and rise to tragic lore?
+    Too oft, alas! we've forced the unwilling tear,
+    And petrified the heart with real fear.
+    Macbeth a harvest of applause will reap,
+    For some of us, I fear, have murdered sleep.
+    His lady, too, with grace will sleep and talk:
+    Our females have been used at night to walk.
+    Grant us your favor, put us to the test:
+    To gain your smiles we'll do our very best,
+    And without dread of future Turnkey Lockets,
+    Thus, in an honest way, still _pick your pockets_!
+
+It was by the coral-bound Straits of Torres, reckoned by navigators the
+most difficult in the world, that the English government determined a
+few years ago to send an envoy to open communication between the
+Australian colony and the Dutch possessions of Java and Sumatra. The
+Hero was the vessel selected for this perilous mission--a voyage of
+twelve hundred miles through seas studded thickly with reefs and islands
+of coral, many of which lay just beneath the surface of the
+waves--hidden pitfalls of death whose yawning jaws threatened instant
+destruction to the unwary voyager. The splendid steamer Cowarra had been
+wrecked on these reefs only a few months before, but a single one of her
+two hundred and seventy-five passengers escaping a watery grave. Her
+tall masts, still standing bolt upright amid the coral-reefs, presented
+a gaunt spectacle, plainly visible from the Hero's decks as she threaded
+her way among the shoaly waters, while a similar though less tragical
+warning was the disaster that had overtaken two other vessels, the
+Astrolabe and the Zélée, which by a sudden ebb of the tide were thrown
+high and dry upon the sands, and remained in this frightful condition
+for eight days before the returning waters drifted them off. But the
+Hero was a staunch craft--an iron blockade-runner, built at Glasgow
+during our late war. She was of twelve hundred tons burden, manned by
+forty-two men, and had already weathered storms and dangers enough to
+earn a right to the name she bore. Right nobly she fulfilled her
+dangerous mission, threading her way with difficulty among whole fields
+of coral, that sometimes almost enclosed her low hull as between two
+walls; again seeming upon the very verge of the breakers or ready to be
+engulfed in their whirling eddies, but emerging at last into the open
+channel, a monument of the skill and watchfulness of her officers. Many
+of these for days together never left the deck, and the lead was cast
+three or four times an hour during the whole passage of these dangerous
+seas. Such is the history of navigation in coral seas, but if full of
+danger, they are equally replete with picturesque beauty. In the coral
+isle, with its blue lagoon, its circling reef and smiling vegetation,
+there is a wondrous fascination; while in the long reefs, with the ocean
+driving furiously upon them, only to be driven pitilessly back, all
+wreathed in white foam and diamond spray, there is enough of the sublime
+to transfix the most careless observer. The barrier reef that skirts the
+north-east coast of the Australian continent is the grandest coral
+formation in the world, stretching for a distance of a thousand miles,
+with a varying breadth of from two hundred yards to a mile. The maximum
+distance from the shore is seventy miles, but it rarely exceeds
+twenty-five or thirty. Between this and the mainland lies a sheltered
+channel, safe, for the most part, when reached; but there are few open
+passages from the ocean, and the shoals of imperfectly-formed coral that
+lie concealed just below the surface render the most watchful care
+necessary to a safe passage. The fires of the cannibals, visible on
+every peak all along the coast, shed their ruddy light over the blue
+waters, illumining here and there some lofty crest, and adding a weird
+beauty to the enchanting scene.
+
+[Illustration: MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS.]
+
+"America has no monuments," say our Transatlantic cousins, "because it
+is but two hundred years old." Well, Australia, with little more than
+three-quarters of a hundred, has already its monument--a beautiful
+bronze monument erected to the memory of the explorers Burke and Wills
+on a lofty pedestal of elegant workmanship, and occupying a commanding
+eminence in the city of Melbourne. The figures, two in number, are of
+more than life size, one rising above the other--the chief, with noble
+form and dignified air, fraternally supporting his younger confrere. The
+pedestal shows three bas-reliefs of exquisite design--one the return to
+Cooper's Creek,
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.]
+
+where the torn garments and emaciated limbs tell with sad emphasis the
+woeful tale of hardship and toil through which the heroic explorers had
+been passing; another exhibiting the subsequent death of Burke;
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF BURKE.]
+
+and the third the finding of the remains.
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF BURKE.]
+
+Burke and Wills, to whom belongs the honor of being the first explorers
+that crossed the entire continent of Australia, extending their
+researches from the Australian to the Pacific Ocean, set out on the 20th
+of August, 1860, with a party of fifteen hardy pioneers upon their
+perilous mission. Burke was in the prime of life, a man of iron frame,
+dauntless courage and an enthusiasm that knew neither difficulty nor
+danger. Wills, who belonged to a family that had already given one of
+its members to Sir John Franklin's fatal expedition, to find a martyr's
+grave among the eternal icebergs of the north, was somewhat younger, and
+perhaps less enthusiastic, but was endowed with a rare discretion and
+far-seeing sagacity that peculiarly fitted him to be the friend and
+counselor of the enthusiastic Burke in such an undertaking. All
+Melbourne was in excitement: the government gave fifty thousand dollars,
+various individuals ten thousand, to aid the enterprise; and every heart
+was aglow with aspirations for their success as the little band of
+heroes waved their adieus and turned their faces outward to seek paths
+hitherto untrodden by the white man's foot. Besides horses, twenty-seven
+camels had been imported from India for the express use of the explorers
+and for the transportation of tents, baggage, equipments, and fifteen
+months' supply of provisions, with vessels for carrying such supplies of
+water as the character of the country over which they were passing
+should require them to take with them. Their plan of march divided
+itself into three stages, of which Cooper's Creek was the middle one,
+and about the centre of the Australian continent. At first their
+progress was slow, encumbered as they were by excess of baggage and
+equipments: then discontents arose in the little band, and Burke, too
+ardent and impulsive for a leader, was first grieved, and then angered,
+at what he deemed a want of spirit among some of his men. On the 19th of
+October, at Menindie, he left a portion of the troop under the command
+of Lieutenant Wright, with orders after a short rest to rejoin him at
+Cooper's Creek. It was the end of January before Wright set out for the
+point indicated. Meanwhile, as month followed month, bringing to
+Melbourne no news of Burke's party, the worst fears were awakened
+concerning its fate, and an expedition was fitted out to search for the
+lost heroes. To young Howitt was given the command, and it was his
+fortune to unveil the sad mystery that had enveloped their fate. On the
+29th of June, 1861, crossing the river Loddon, Howitt encountered a
+portion of Burke's company under the lead of Brahe, the fourth
+lieutenant. Four of his men had died of scurvy, and the rest of his
+little band seemed utterly dispirited. Howitt learned that in two months
+Burke had crossed the entire route, sometimes desert, sometimes prairie,
+between Menindie and Cooper's Creek, and had reached the borders of the
+Gulf of Carpentaria, on the extreme north of the continent; also, that
+he was there in January, enduring the fiercest heat of summer, and men
+and beasts alike languishing for water, and nearly out of provisions. It
+was all in vain that he deplored the tardiness of Wright, and hoped, as
+he neared Cooper's Creek, for the coming of those who alone had the
+means of life for his little squad of famished men. Equally in vain that
+Wills with three camels reconnoitred the ground for scores of miles,
+hoping to find water. Not an oasis, not a rivulet, was to be found, and
+without a single drop of water to quench their parched lips they set out
+on another long and dreary march. Desiring to secure the utmost speed,
+Burke had left Brahe on the 16th of December with the sick and most of
+his provisions at Cooper's Creek, to remain three months at least, and
+longer if they were able, while he, with Wills, Grey and King, and six
+camels, pushed bravely on, determined not to halt till the Pacific was
+reached. Battling with the terrible heat, sometimes for days together
+without water, and again obtaining a supply when they had almost
+perished for want of it, having occasional fierce conflicts with the
+natives, and more deadly encounters with poisonous serpents, but with an
+energy and courage that knew no such word as failure, the indomitable
+quartette went bravely on. The wished-for goal was reached, and the
+heroes, jubiliant though worn and weary, then returned once more to
+Cooper's Creek, to find the post deserted by Brahe, and Wright not
+arrived, while neither water nor provisions remained to supply their
+need.
+
+[Illustration: VALLEY OF LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+All this Howitt learned after his arrival at the rendezvous, where he
+observed cut in the bark of a tree the word "Dig," and on throwing up
+the earth found an iron casket deposited by Brahe, giving the date of
+his departure and reasons for withdrawal before the appointed time. Of
+far deeper interest were papers written by Burke, announcing that he had
+reached the Pacific coast, and retraced his steps as far as Cooper's
+Creek--that for two months the little party had advanced rapidly, making
+constantly new discoveries of fertile lands, widespread prairies,
+gushing streams and well-watered valleys. Occasionally they had found
+lagoons of salt water, hills of red sand, trees of beautiful foliage,
+and mounds indicating the presence at some unknown period of the
+aboriginal inhabitants. They had discovered a range of high mountains in
+the north, and called them the Standish Mountains, while at their foot
+lay outspread a scene so lovely, of verdant groves and fertile meadows,
+of well-watered plains and heavy forest trees, that they christened it
+the Land of Promise. Then they reached again more sterile lands, parched
+and dry, without a rivulet or an oasis. They suffered for water and food
+grew scarce, but, sure of relief at Cooper's Creek, they pushed bravely
+on, and reached the rendezvous to learn that the men who could have
+saved them had passed on but seven hours before! After having
+accomplished so much, so bravely battled with heat and hunger, serpents
+and cannibals, to perish at last of starvation, seemed a fate too
+terrible; and we cannot wonder that the little band fought their destiny
+to the last. Little scraps of the journal of Burke and his friends tell
+the sad tale of the last few weeks of agony. On March 6th, Burke seemed
+near dying from having eaten a bit of a large serpent that he had
+cooked. On the 30th they killed one of their camels, and on April 10th
+they killed "Billy," Burke's favorite riding-horse. On the 11th they
+were forced to halt on account of the condition of Grey, who was no
+longer able to proceed. On the 21st they reached an oasis--a little
+squad of human skeletons, scarcely more than alive.
+
+
+[Illustration: COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+Far and wide their longing eyes gazed in search of succor: they called
+aloud with all their little remaining strength, but the oasis was
+deserted, and the echo of their own sad voices was all the reply that
+reached the despairing men. Then, at their rendezvous, finding the word
+"Dig" on the tree where Howitt found it at a later day, they opened the
+soil, and so learned the departure of Brahe on that very morning. How
+terribly tantalizing, after their exhausting march and still more
+exhausting return, after having killed and eaten all their camels but
+two, and all their horses, after making discoveries that unlocked to the
+world the vast interior of this hitherto unknown continent, to find that
+they were just too late to be saved! Despair and death seemed staring
+them in the face: their long overtaxed powers of endurance failed them
+utterly, and the gaunt spectre of famine that had been journeying with
+the brave men for weeks threatened now to enfold them in its terrible
+embrace. Should they yield without another struggle? Burke suddenly
+remembered Mount Despair, a cattle-station about one hundred and fifty
+leagues away, and with his indomitable resolution persuaded his
+companions to start for it, depositing first in the little iron casket
+the journal of his discoveries and the date of his departure. As if to
+add the last finishing stroke of agony to the sad story, Burke and his
+companions had hardly turned their faces westward ere Brahe and Wright,
+who had met at the passage of the Loddon, and were now overwhelmed with
+remorse at their careless neglect of their leader's orders, determined
+to revisit Cooper's Creek, and see if any tidings were to be gained of
+the missing party.
+
+[Illustration: GORGE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+Thoughtless as imprudent, they did not examine the casket, but supposing
+it had remained undisturbed where they left it, they turned their faces
+southward to the Darling, utterly unsuspicious of the recent visit of
+Burke and his unfortunate comrades. Within two days after the trio began
+their dreary march to Mount Despair both their camels fell from
+exhaustion, but still the poor weary travelers pressed onward,
+continuing their search till the 24th of May. Discovering no eminence
+above the horizon, they then gave up in despair and began to retrace
+their steps, leaving on a tree the date of departure. In one more day's
+march they would have reached the summit and been saved!
+
+On the 20th of June it was evident that young Wills could not long
+survive, and on the 29th are dated his last words, a letter to his
+father full of tenderness and resignation: "My death here within a few
+hours is certain, but my soul is calm." Still, almost in the last agony
+he made another effort to escape his fatal destiny, and set forth to
+reconnoitre the ground once more if perchance succor might be found.
+Alone, with none to close his eyes, he fell asleep, and Howitt after
+long search found the skeleton body stretched upon the sands, the
+natives having compassionately covered it with boughs and leaves.
+Burke's last words are dated on the 28th, one day earlier than those of
+Wills: "We have gained the shores of the ocean, but we have been
+aband--" The last word is unfinished, as if his pen had refused to make
+the cruel record. Burke's wasted remains too were found, covered with
+leaves and boughs. By his side lay his revolver, and the record of his
+great exploits was in the little casket at the foot of the tree. King
+survived, and was found by Howitt, naked, famished and unable to speak
+or walk; but after long recruiting he was able to relate the details of
+suffering of those last few months, unknown to all the world save
+himself. Howitt reverently wrapped the precious remains in the union
+jack, and, leaving them in their lonely grave, retraced his steps to
+Melbourne with the precious casket of papers, the last legacy of the
+dead heroes. On the 6th of the following December, Howitt again visited
+the desolate spot, charged with the melancholy mission of bringing back
+the remains for interment in Melbourne. The chaste and elegant monument
+that marks the spot where the heroes sleep is a far less enduring
+memorial than exists in the wonderful development and unprecedented
+prosperity which mark the colony as the fruit of the labors, sufferings
+and death of these martyred heroes.
+
+A pretty romance is associated with the discovery and naming of Van
+Diemen's Land. A young man, Tasman by name, who had been scornfully
+rejected by a Dutch nabob as the suitor of his daughter, resolved to
+prove himself worthy of the lady of his heart. So, while his inamorata
+was cruelly imprisoned in the palace of her sire at Batavia, young
+Tasman, instead of wasting time in regrets, set forth on a voyage of
+adventure, seeking to win by prowess what gallantry had failed to
+effect. On his first voyage he so far circumnavigated the island as to
+be convinced of its insular character, but really saw little of the
+land. In subsequent voyages he made extensive explorations, calling not
+only the mainland, but all the little islets he discovered, by the
+several names and synonyms of Mademoiselle Van Diemen, his beloved. When
+at length he was able to lay before the Dutch government the charts of
+his voyages and a digest of his discoveries in the beautiful land where
+he had already planted the standard of Holland, the cruel sire relented
+and consented to receive as a son-in-law the successful adventurer.
+Tasman, it seems, never very fully explored the waters that surrounded
+his domain, and the honor was reserved to two young men, Flinders and
+Bass, of discovering in 1797 the deep, wide strait of two hundred and
+seventy miles in width that bears the name of Bass. The scenery of Van
+Diemen's Land is full of picturesque beauty--a sort of miniature
+Switzerland, with snow-clad peaks, rocks and ravines, foaming cataracts
+and multitudinous little lakes with their circling belt of green and
+dancing rivulets bordered with flowers. The Valley of Launceston is a
+very Arcadia of pastoral repose, while the Tamar--which in its whole
+course is rather a succession of beautiful lakes than an ordinary
+river--with its narrow defiles, basaltic rocks and sparkling cataracts,
+picturesque rocks that cut off one lake and suddenly reveal another, is
+a very miracle of beauty, dancing, frothing, foaming, like some playful
+sprite possessed with the very spirit of mischief.
+
+[Illustration: HOBART TOWN.]
+
+Hobart Town, the capital of Tasmania, is a quiet, hospitable little
+town, but a very hotbed of aristocracy--the single spot on the
+Australian continent where English exclusiveness can, after the gay
+seasons of the large cities, retire to aristocratic country-seats, to
+nurse and revivify its pride of birth, without fear of coming in contact
+with anything parvenu or plebeian. The town is prettily laid out, with a
+genuine Gothic château for its government palace, and elegant private
+residences. It seems tame and deserted when visited from Sydney or
+Melbourne, but offers just the rest and refreshment one needs after a
+season of exhausting labor in the mines of Ballarat.
+
+
+The rapid growth of the Australian colonies, their remoteness from the
+mother country, and the vastness of the territory over which they are
+spread, naturally suggest the question whether they are destined to
+remain in a condition of dependence or are likely to follow the example
+of their American prototypes. On this point the opinion of the count of
+Beauvoir is entitled to consideration, as that of an impartial as well
+as intelligent observer. He had expected, he tells us, in visiting the
+country, to find it preparing for its speedy emancipation; but he left
+it with the conviction that, far from desiring a severance of the
+connection, the colonists would regard it as a blow to their material
+interests--the one event, in fact, capable of arresting their
+unparalleled progress. It can only occur as the result of a European war
+in which the power of England shall be so crippled as to disable her
+from protecting these distant possessions, casting upon them the whole
+burden of self-defence, and forcing them to assume the responsibilities
+of national existence.
+
+
+
+
+THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.]
+
+
+A somewhat tedious journey of thirty hours from Paris brought me one
+fine afternoon in the early part of July to Kulstein, an ancient
+fortress forming the frontier-town of the North Tyrol, toward Bavaria.
+While occupied in passing my portmanteau through the prying and
+unutterably dirty hands of the custom-house officials I was accosted by
+a man dressed in the garb of a Tyrolese mountaineer--short leathern
+breeches reaching to the knee, gray stockings, heavy hobnailed shoes, a
+nondescript species of jacket of the roughest frieze, and a battered hat
+adorned with two or three feathers of the capercailzie and a plume of
+the royal eagle. Old Hansel was one of the gamekeepers on a large
+imperial preserve close by, with whom some years previously I had on
+more than one occasion shared a hard couch under the stunted pines when
+inopportune night overtook us near the glaciers while in hot pursuit of
+the chamois.
+
+This unexpected meeting proved a source of the liveliest interest to me,
+inasmuch as this old veteran of the mountains was on the point of
+starting on an expedition of a somewhat remarkable character. A pair of
+golden eagles, it appeared, had made a neighboring valley the scene of
+their frequent ravages and depredations among the cattle and game, and
+Hansel was about to organize an expedition to search for, and if
+possible despoil, the eyrie. Of late years these birds have become very
+rare. Switzerland is nearly, if not quite, cleared of them, while the
+Tyrol, affording greater solitude and a larger stock of game, can boast
+of eight or at the most ten couples. They are, as is well known, the
+largest and most powerful of all the birds of prey inhabiting Europe,
+measuring from eight to eight and a half feet in the span, and
+possessing terrible strength of beak, talons and wings. A full-grown
+golden eagle can easily carry off a young chamois, a full-grown roe or a
+sheep, none of them weighing less than thirty pounds; and well-attested
+cases have occurred of young children being thus abstracted. In the fall
+of 1873 a boy nearly eight years of age was carried away by one of these
+birds from the very door of his parents' cottage, situated not far from
+the celebrated Königsee, near Salzburg.
+
+[Illustration: OUR ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.]
+
+The breeding-season falls in the month of June, and in the course of the
+first fortnight of the succeeding month the young offspring take wing
+and commence their raids in quest of pillage on their own account. The
+eyrie or nest is an object of the greatest care with the parent birds,
+the site being chosen with a view to the greatest possible security,
+generally in some crevice on the face of a perpendicular precipice
+several hundred feet in height. It is built of dry sticks of wood coated
+on the inside with moss. Hansel informed me of a surmise that the eyrie
+of this pair would be discovered in the face of the terribly steep
+"Falknerwand;" and although I had once before been engaged in a similar
+exploit, I could not resist the temptation to join in this expedition,
+and despatched on the spot a telegram to the friend who was awaiting my
+arrival in Ampezzo in order to make some ascents in the Dolomites,
+announcing a detention of some days. This done, we re-entered the cars
+and proceeded a few stations farther down the line to quaint old
+Rattenberg, a small town on the banks of the swift Inn. Not an hour from
+this place the scantily-inhabited Brandenberg valley opens on the broad
+and sunny Innthal. The former is merely a mountain-gorge. Far up in its
+recesses stands a small cottage belonging to the keeper of a wood-drift,
+and in close proximity to this solitary habitation is a second very wild
+and wellnigh inaccessible ravine, the scene of the coming adventure.
+
+Having passed the night in the modest little inn at Rattenberg, Hansel
+and I set off next morning long before sunrise on our eight hours' tramp
+to the wood-drift by a path which was in most places of just sufficient
+breadth to allow of one person passing at a time. Few of my
+fellow-travelers of the day before would have recognized me in the
+costume I had donned for the occasion--an old and much-patched coat,
+short leathern trousers, as worn and torn as the poorest woodcutter's,
+and a ten-seasoned hat which had been originally green, then brown, and
+had now become gray. My face and knees were still bronzed from the
+exposure attendant on a long course of Alpine climbing the year before.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF TOMERL'S COTTAGE.]
+
+The keeper of the wood-drift was an old acquaintance of mine, whose
+qualities as a keen sportsman had shone forth when four or five years
+previously I had quartered myself for a month in his secluded
+neighborhood, spending the day, and frequently also the night, on the
+peaks and passes surrounding his cottage. To the buxom Moidel, his
+pretty young wife, I was also no stranger, and her smile and blush
+assured me that she still remembered the time when, reigning supreme
+over her father's cattle on a neighboring alp, she had administered to
+the wants of the young sportsman seeking a night's lodging in the
+lonesome chalet. Many a merry evening had I spent in the low,
+oak-paneled "general room" of Tomerl's cottage when he was still a gay
+young bachelor, and no change had since been made in the aspect of the
+apartment. In one corner stood the huge pile of pottery used for heating
+the room, and round it were still fixed the rows of wooden laths by
+means of which I had so frequently dried my soaking apparel. Running the
+whole length of the room was a broad bench, in front of which were
+placed two strong tables; and at one of these were seated, at our
+entrance, two woodcutters, who had heard of the intended expedition and
+come to offer their help. They informed us that four more men engaged in
+wood-felling in a forest an hour or so distant would also be delighted
+to join us, as they did at the close of their day's work.
+
+The evening was spent in discussing the details of the approaching
+exploit and getting our various arrangements and implements in order. At
+nine o'clock, leaving Tomerl and his wife their accustomed bed on the
+top of the stove, the rest of us retired to our common bed-room, the
+hayloft. We were up again by three, and an hour later were all ready to
+start. Tomerl led the way, but stopped ere we lost sight of the cottage
+to shout a last "jodler" to his wife, who returned the greeting with a
+clear, bell-like voice, though her heart was doubtless beating fast
+under her smartly-laced bodice.
+
+Three hours later we had reached the gorge, and after some difficult
+scrambling and wading through turbulent torrents we arrived at the base
+of the Falknerwand, which rises perpendicularly upward of nine hundred
+feet--an altitude diminished in appearance by the tenfold greater height
+of the surrounding mountains. Finding, after a few minutes' close
+observation, that nothing could be done from the base of the cliff, we
+proceeded to scale it by a circuitous route up a practicable but
+nevertheless terribly steep incline. Safely arrived at the top, we threw
+down our burdens and began to reconnoitre the terrain, which we did
+_ventre à terre_, bending over the cliff as far as we dared. Great
+was our dismay to perceive that some eighty or ninety feet below us a
+narrow rocky ledge, which had escaped our notice when looking up from
+the foot of the cliff, projected shelf-wise from the face of the
+precipice, shutting out all view of a crevice which we had descried from
+the bottom, and which, as we anticipated, contained the eyrie.
+
+After consulting some time, we decided to lower ourselves down to this
+rock-band, and make it the base of our further movements, instead of
+operating, as we had intended, from the crest of the cliff, where
+everything but for this obstacle would have been tenfold easier. Posting
+one of the men at the top of the cliff to lower the heavy rope, three
+hundred feet in length, by means of a cord, we descended to the ledge,
+which was nowhere more than three feet in width, and in several places
+scarcely over a foot and a half. Standing in a single row on this
+miniature platform, we had to manipulate the rope with a yawning gulf
+some eight hundred feet in depth beside us, and nothing to lay hold of
+for support but the smooth face of the rock.
+
+We began operations by driving a strong iron hook into the solid rock,
+at a point some two or three feet above the ledge. Through this hook the
+rope was passed, one end pendent over the cliff; and to obviate the
+peril of its being frayed and speedily severed by the sharp outer edge
+of our platform, we rigged up a block of wood with some iron stays to
+serve as an immovable pulley. These preparations completed, the men were
+assigned to their respective positions. Hansel and Tomerl, two renowned
+shots, were to lie at full length, rifle in hand, one at each end of the
+row, to act as my guardian angels if I were surprised and attacked by
+the old eagles while engaged in the work of spoliation. The remaining
+woodcutters, with the exception of the one who had been left on the top
+of the cliff, were placed in file along the ledge to lower and raise the
+plank which was to serve as my seat, and to which the rope was securely
+fastened after being passed through an iron ring attached to my stout
+leathern girdle. A signal-line was to hang at my side, and a
+hunting-knife, a revolver, a strong canvas bag to hold the booty, and an
+ashen pole iron-shod at one end and provided with a strong iron boathook
+at the other, completed my equipment, each article of which had
+undergone the strictest scrutiny before its adoption.
+
+Taking the pole from the hands of Hansel, I let myself glide over the
+edge of the cliff, and the next moment hung in empty space. After being
+lowered about eighty feet, I found myself on a level with the crevice
+before mentioned, and gave the preconcerted signal for arresting my
+downward progress. Owing, however, to a beetling crag or boulder which
+overhung the recess, I was still at a distance of ten or twelve feet
+horizontally from the goal. Fixing the boathook into a convenient
+indentation of the rock, I gradually pulled myself in till I reached the
+face of the wall. Then leaving the plank, I crawled up an inclined slab
+of rock which led to the actual crevice, until I was stopped by a
+barrier of dry sticks about two feet in height. Raising myself on my
+knees, I peered into the oval-shaped eyrie, and saw perched up at the
+farther side two splendid young golden eagles.
+
+[Illustration: "FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED
+MYSELF IN."]
+
+It is a very rare occurrence to find two young eagles in one eyrie.
+These, though only four or five weeks old, were formidable birds,
+measuring considerably over six feet in the span, and displaying beaks
+and talons of imposing size. It took some time to capture and pinion
+these powerful and refractory ornithological specimens, whose loud,
+discordant screams caused me several times to glance involuntarily over
+my shoulder at the strip of horizon visible, to assure myself that the
+old eagles were not swooping down to the rescue. I was in the more haste
+to leave the eyrie that the stench which emanated from the remains of
+numerous victims strewn in and about it was something terrific. These
+relics, which I had the curiosity to count, consisted of a half-devoured
+carcass of a chamois, three pairs of chamois' horns and the
+corresponding bones of the animals, the skeleton of a goat picked clean,
+the remains of an Alpine hare, and the head and neck of a fawn.
+
+[Illustration: ENTERING THE EYRIE.]
+
+The canvas bag being too small to contain both the eaglets, I was
+obliged to hang one of them to my belt, after tying my handkerchief
+round his beak. The game secured, I crept cautiously down the slab to
+the plank, and fixing the hook of my pole in the indentation of which I
+had made use in drawing myself in, I gave the preconcerted two jerks
+with the signal-line. Now occurred the first of a series of accidents
+which came near resulting fatally to the whole party. Contrary to my
+strict injunctions, the men hauling the rope gave a sudden and violent
+pull, wrenching the pole from my grasp, and communicating to the plank a
+motion like that of a pendulum, which sent me flying out into space,
+with the immediate prospect of being dashed by the retrograde swing
+against the solid wall of rock. Happily, I preserved my presence of
+mind, and grasped instantly the only chance of escape. Tilting myself
+back as far as the rope and the ring on my belt allowed, and stretching
+out my legs horizontally, I awaited the contact. Half a second later
+came a heavy blow on the soles of my feet, the pain of which ran through
+my whole frame like the shock of a galvanic battery. Had it been my
+head, the reader would probably never have been troubled with any
+account of my sensations. As it was, my feet, though protected by
+immensely heavy iron-shod shoes, received a concussion the effects of
+which continued to be felt for weeks.
+
+Almost at the moment of this incident I had noticed a dark object
+shooting past me, at so close a proximity that I distinctly heard the
+whistling sound as it cleft the air. Supposing it to be a stone, I gave
+it no further thought, and my attention was presently occupied by a
+sharp gash which the young eagle at my belt managed to inflict on my
+left thigh. It was not until I had stopped the haemorrhage by strewing
+some grains of powder into the wound that I perceived with surprise that
+I was still stationary, instead of ascending, as in due course I ought
+to have been. The boulder of rock projecting a few feet over my head
+prevented any view of the ledge, and my shouts inquiring the cause of
+the delay received indistinct answers, the words "patience" and "wait"
+being the only intelligible ones. These might have had a consoling
+influence but for the fact that a thunderstorm--an occurrence of great
+frequency in the beginning of summer in the High Alps--was fast
+approaching, and my position was one that exposed me to its full fury
+without any possibility of escape. Ere long it burst over my head,
+drenching me to the skin in the first five minutes, while the lightning
+played about me in every direction, and terrific claps of thunder
+followed each other at intervals of scarcely a few seconds. What
+heightened the danger as well as the absurdity of my situation was the
+chance that one or both of the old eagles might return at any moment,
+under circumstances that must render a struggle, if any ensued, a most
+unequal one. Supposing my guards to be still at their post, the distance
+of the ledge was such as to make a shot at a flying bird, large as it
+might be, anything but a sure one; and the tactics of the golden eagle
+when defending its home do not allow of any second attempt. A speck is
+seen on the horizon, and the next moment the powerful bird is down with
+one fell swoop: a flap with its strong wing and the unhappy victim is
+stunned, and immediately ripped open from the chest to his hip, while
+his skull is cleft or fractured by a single blow of the tremendous beak.
+Instances are, however, known in which the cool and self-possessed
+"pendant" has shot or cut down his foe at the very instant of the
+encounter. Happily, my own powers were not put to so severe a test: the
+old birds were that day far off, circling probably in majestic swoops
+over some distant valley or gorge.
+
+I was forced, however, to be constantly on the alert, and my impatience
+and perplexity may be imagined as hours elapsed and there were still no
+signs of my approaching deliverance. The storm had long since passed
+over, and darkness was settling down when I again felt a pull at the
+rope, and continued my ascent, begun nearly four hours before. It was of
+the utmost importance that the whole party should regain the top of the
+cliff before night had fairly set in. I therefore deferred, on my
+arrival at the ledge, all questions and rebukes till we had gained a
+place of safety. The heavy rope, fastened to the cord, was hauled up by
+the man on the top, and after it had been secured to a tree-stump we
+swarmed up without loss of time. We had still before us a somewhat
+perilous scramble in the darkness down the steep incline, but the
+exhaustion we had undergone made it necessary that we should first
+recruit our strength by means of the food and bottle of "Schnapps" with
+which we were fortunately provided. While we were thus engaged I
+received from my companions an account of the causes of the perilous
+delay.
+
+On receiving my signal they had begun to haul, but after the first pull
+had felt a sudden jerk, and perceived that the block, supposed to have
+been securely fastened at the edge of the platform, was gone. They
+imagined at first that it had struck and killed me, but my shouts soon
+apprised them of my safety. Fearing to continue the process of hauling
+lest the rope should be cut by the sharp-edged stones, they informed the
+man on the cliff of the mishap, and despatched him to procure a second
+block. He accordingly ran down the slope to the bottom of the mountain,
+cut a young pine tree, shaped a block, and was in the act of carrying it
+up when the storm burst forth, and the lightning, playing around him in
+vivid flashes, cleft and splintered a rock weighing hundreds of tons
+that had stood within thirty paces of him. He received no injury except
+being thrown on the ground and partially stunned by the terrible
+concussion, but it was not till after a considerable time that he was
+able to rise and continue his ascent. Had he been killed, our situation
+would have been a most precarious one. There would have been no
+possibility of regaining the cliff without help, and as our party
+comprised all the working force of the neighborhood, and Tomerl's
+cottage was the only dwelling within fifteen or twenty miles, our
+chances of rescue would have been extremely slight.
+
+We reached the bottom of the mountain as the upper part was beginning to
+be lit by the rays of a full moon, and a three hours' tramp brought us
+without further mishap to the cottage. Moidel, forewarned of our return
+by a series of "jodlers," a sound which may challenge competition as a
+joyful acclaim, had prepared an ample supper; and when Tomerl produced
+his well-tuned "zither," a species of guitar producing simple but soft
+and highly musical strains, the mirth was at its height. Then followed
+songs eulogistic of the life of the chamois-stalker, who, "with his gun
+in his hand, a chamois on his back and a girl in his heart," has no
+cause to envy a king. A dance called the "Schuhblatteln," in which the
+art consists in touching the soles of one's shoes with the palm of the
+hand, finished our evening's amusement, and we retired, rather worn out,
+just as day was breaking.
+
+After four hours' sleep we rose refreshed and eager to examine our two
+captives. Attached to Tomerl's cottage was a diminutive barn, from which
+we removed the door, and nailing strong laths across the aperture,
+managed to improvise a large and roomy cage. A couple of rabbits
+furnished a luxurious breakfast, which was devoured with extraordinary
+voracity. The hen-bird, as is the case with all birds of prey, was
+considerably larger and stronger than her brother, though the latter had
+the finer head and eyes.
+
+A week after their capture they were "feathered" for the first time.
+This process consists in pulling out the long down-like plumes situated
+on the under side of the strong tail-feathers. These plumes, which, if
+taken from a full-grown eagle, frequently measure seven or eight inches
+in length, are highly prized by the Tyrolese peasants, but still more by
+the inhabitants of the neighboring Bavarian Highlands, who do not
+hesitate to expend a month's wages in the purchase of two or three with
+which to adorn their hats or those of their buxom sweethearts. The value
+of a crop of plumes varies somewhat. Generally, however, an eagle yields
+about forty florins' ($16) worth of feathers per annum.
+
+Six weeks after this incident I again wended my steps into the secluded
+Brandenburg valley, and found the eagles thriving and much grown. Being
+curious to see if their confinement had subdued their wild and ferocious
+spirit, I removed one of the laths and entered the barn. An angry hiss,
+similar to that of a snake, warned me of danger, but too late to save my
+hands some severe scratches. With one bound and a flap of their gigantic
+wings they were on me, and had it not been for Tomerl, who was standing
+just behind me armed with a stout cudgel, I should have paid dearly for
+my incautious visit.
+
+I know of no instance where human skill has subdued in the slightest
+degree the haughty spirit of the free-born golden eagle. An untamable
+ferocity is the predominating characteristic of this noble bird, more
+than of any other animal. Circling majestically among the fleeting
+clouds, he reigns lord paramount over his vast domain, avoiding the
+sight and resenting the approach of man.
+
+                                        W.A. BAILLIE-GROHMAN.
+
+
+
+
+THREE FEATHERS.
+
+BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A PRINCESS OF THULE."
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+MABYN DREAMS.
+
+
+"Yes, mother," said Mabyn, bursting into the room, "here I am; and
+Jennifer's down stairs with my box; and I am to stay with you here for
+another week or a fortnight; and Wenna's to go back at once, for the
+whole world is convulsed because of Mr. Trelyon's coming of age; and
+Mrs. Trelyon has sent and taken all our spare rooms; and father says
+Wenna must come back directly, for it's always 'Wenna, do this,' and
+'Wenna, do that;' and if Wenna isn't there, of course the sky will
+tumble down on the earth--Mother, what's the matter, and where's Wenna?"
+
+Mabyn was suddenly brought up in the middle of her voluble speech by the
+strange expression on her mother's face.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn, something dreadful has happened to our Wenna."
+
+Mabyn turned deadly white. "Is she ill?" she said, almost in a whisper.
+
+"No, not ill, but a great trouble has fallen on her."
+
+Then the mother, in a low voice, apparently fearful that any one should
+overhear, began to tell her younger daughter of all she had learnt
+within the past day or two--how young Trelyon had been bold enough to
+tell Wenna that he loved her; how Wenna had dallied with her conscience
+and been loath to part with him; how at length she had as good as
+revealed to him that she loved him in return; and how she was now
+overwhelmed and crushed beneath a sense of her own faithlessness and the
+impossibility of making reparation to her betrothed.
+
+"Only to think, Mabyn," said the mother in accents of despair, "that all
+this distress should have come about in such a quiet and unexpected way!
+Who could have foreseen it? Why, of all the people in the world, you
+would have thought our Wenna was the least likely to have any misery of
+this sort; and many a time--don't you remember?--I used to say it was so
+wise of her getting engaged to a prudent and elderly man, who would save
+her from the plagues and trials that young girls often suffer at the
+hands of their lovers. I thought she was so comfortably settled.
+Everything promised her a quiet and gentle life. And now this sudden
+shock has come upon her, she seems to think she is not fit to live, and
+she goes on in such a wild way--"
+
+"Where is she?" Mabyn said abruptly.
+
+"No, no, no!" the mother said anxiously, "you must not speak a word to
+her, Mabyn. You must not let her know I have told you anything about it.
+Leave her to herself, for a while at least: if you speak to her, she
+will take it you mean to accuse her, for she says you warned her, and
+she would pay no heed. Leave her to herself, Mabyn."
+
+"Then where is Mr. Trelyon?" said Mabyn, with some touch of indignation
+in her voice. "What is he doing? Is he leaving her to herself too?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean, Mabyn," her mother said timidly.
+
+"Why doesn't he come forward like a man and marry her?" said Mabyn
+boldly. "Yes, that is what I would do if I were a man. She has sent him
+away? Yes, of course: that is right and proper. And Wenna will go on
+doing what is right and proper, if you allow her, to the very end, and
+the end will be a lifetime of misery: that's all. No, my notion is, that
+she should do something that is not right and is quite improper, if only
+it makes her happy; and you'll see if I don't get her to do it. Why,
+mother, haven't you had eyes to see that these two have been in love for
+years? Nobody in the world had ever the least control over him but her:
+he would do anything for Wenna; and she--why she always came back
+singing after she had met and spoken to him. And then you talk about a
+prudent and sensible husband! I don't want Wenna to marry a watchful,
+mean, old, stocking-darning cripple, who will creep about the house all
+day and peer into cupboards, and give her fourpence-halfpenny a week to
+live on. I want her to marry a man--one that is strong enough to protect
+her. And I tell you, mother--I've said it before, and I say it
+again--she _shall not_ marry Mr. Roscorla."
+
+"Mabyn," said her mother, "you are getting madder than ever. Your
+dislike to Mr. Roscorla is most unreasonable. A cripple! Why--"
+
+"Oh, mother!" Mabyn cried with a bright light on her face, "only think
+of our Wenna being married to Mr. Trelyon, and how happy and pleased and
+pretty she would look as they went walking together! And then how proud
+he would be to have so nice a wife! and he would joke about her and be
+very impertinent, but he would simply worship her all the same, and do
+everything he could to please her. And he would take her away and show
+her all the beautiful places abroad; and he would have a yacht, too; and
+he would give her a fine house in London. And don't you think our Wenna
+would fascinate everybody with her mouselike ways and her nice small
+steps? And if they did have any trouble, wouldn't she be better to have
+somebody with her not timid and anxious and pettifogging, but somebody
+who wouldn't be cast down, but make her as brave as himself?"
+
+Miss Mabyn was a shrewd young woman, and she saw that her mother's
+quick, imaginative, sympathetic nature was being captivated by this
+picture. She determined to have her as an ally.
+
+"And don't you see, mother, how it all lies within her reach? Harry
+Trelyon is in love with her: there was no need for him to say so. I knew
+it long before he did. And she--why, she has told him now that she cares
+for him; and if I were he, I know what I'd do in his place. What is
+there in the way? Why, a--a sort of understanding."
+
+"A promise, Mabyn," said the mother.
+
+"Well, a promise," said the girl desperately, and coloring somewhat.
+"But it was a promise given in ignorance: she didn't know--how could she
+know? Everybody knows that such promises are constantly broken. If you
+are in love with somebody else, what's the good of your keeping the
+promise? Now, mother, won't you argue with her? See here: if she keeps
+her promise, there's three people miserable. If she breaks it, there's
+only one; and I doubt whether he's got the capacity to be miserable.
+That's two to one, or three to one, is it? Now, will you argue with her,
+mother?"
+
+"Mabyn, Mabyn," the mother said with a shake of the head, but evidently
+pleased with the voice of the tempter, "your fancy has run away with
+you. Why, Mr. Trelyon has never proposed to marry her."
+
+"I know he wants to," said Mabyn confidently.
+
+"How can you know?"
+
+"I'll ask him and prove it to you."
+
+"Indeed," said the mother sadly, "it is no thought of marriage that is
+in Wenna's head just now. The poor girl is full of remorse and
+apprehension. I think she would like to start at once for Jamaica, and
+fling herself at Mr. Roscorla's feet and confess her fault. I am glad
+she has to go back to Eglosilyan: that may distract her mind in a
+measure: at present she is suffering more than she shows."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"In her own room, tired out and fast asleep. I looked in a few minutes
+ago."
+
+Mabyn went up stairs, after having seen that Jennifer had properly
+bestowed her box. Wenna had just risen from the sofa, and was standing
+in the middle of the room. Her younger and taller sister went blithely
+forward to her, kissed her as usual, took no notice of the sudden flush
+of red that sprang into her face, and proceeded to state, in a
+business-like fashion, all the arrangements that had to be made.
+
+"Have you been enjoying yourself, Wenna?" Mabyn said with a fine air of
+indifference.
+
+"Oh yes," Wenna answered; adding hastily, "Don't you think mother is
+greatly improved?"
+
+"Wonderfully! I almost forgot she was an invalid. How lucky you are to
+be going back to see all the fine doings at the Hall! Of course they
+will ask you up."
+
+"They will do nothing of the kind," Wenna said with some asperity, and
+with her face turned aside.
+
+"Lord and Lady Amersham have already come to the Hall."
+
+"Oh, indeed!"
+
+"Yes. They said some time ago that there was a good chance of Mr.
+Trelyon marrying the daughter--the tall girl with yellow hair, you
+remember?"
+
+"And the stooping shoulders? Yes. I should think they would be glad to
+get her married to anybody. She's thirty."
+
+"Oh, Wenna!"
+
+"Mr. Trelyon told me so," said Wenna sharply.
+
+"And they are a little surprised," continued Mabyn in the same
+indifferent way, but watching her sister all the while, "that Mr.
+Trelyon has remained absent until so near the time. But I suppose he
+means to take Miss Penaluna with him. She lives here, doesn't she? They
+used to say there was a chance of a marriage there too."
+
+"Mabyn, what do you mean?" Wenna said suddenly and angrily. "What do I
+care about Mr. Trelyon's marriage? What is it you mean?"
+
+But the firmness of her lips began to yield: there was an ominous
+trembling about them, and at the same moment her younger sister caught
+her to her bosom, and hid her face there and hushed her wild sobbing.
+She would hear no confession. She knew enough. Nothing would convince
+her that Wenna had done anything wrong, so there was no use speaking
+about it.
+
+"Wenna," she said in a low voice, "have you sent him any message?"
+
+"Oh no, no!" the girl said trembling. "I fear even to think of him; and
+when you mentioned his name, Mabyn, it seemed to choke me. And now I
+have to go back to Eglosilyan; and oh, if you only knew how I dread
+that, Mabyn!"
+
+Mabyn's conscience was struck. She it was who had done this thing. She
+had persuaded her father that her mother needed another week or
+fortnight at Penzance; she had frightened him by telling what bother he
+would suffer if Wenna were not back at the inn during the festivities at
+Trelyon Hall; and then she had offered to go and take her sister's post.
+George Rosewarne was heartily glad to exchange the one daughter for the
+other. Mabyn was too independent; she thwarted him; sometimes she
+insisted on his bestirring himself. Wenna, on the other hand, went about
+the place like some invisible spirit of order, making everything
+comfortable for him without noise or worry. He was easily led to issue
+the necessary orders; and so it was that Mabyn thought she was doing her
+sister a friendly turn by sending her back to Eglosilyan in order to
+join in congratulating Harry Trelyon on his entrance into man's estate.
+Now Mabyn found that she had only plunged her sister into deeper
+trouble. What could be done to save her?
+
+"Wenna," said Mabyn rather timidly, "do you think he has left Penzance?"
+
+Wenna turned to her with a sudden look of entreaty in her face: "I
+cannot bear to speak of him, Mabyn. I have no right to: I hope you will
+not ask me. Just now I--I am going to write a letter--to Jamaica. I
+shall tell the whole truth. It is for him to say what must happen now. I
+have done him a great injury: I did not intend it, I had no thought of
+it, but my own folly and thoughtlessness brought it about, and I have to
+bear the penalty. I don't think he need be anxious about punishing me."
+
+She turned away with a tired look on her face, and began to get out her
+writing materials. Mabyn watched her for a moment or two in silence;
+then she left and went to her own room, saying to herself, "Punishment!
+Whoever talks of punishment will have to address himself to me."
+
+When she got to her own room she wrote these words on a piece of paper
+in her firm, bold, free hand: "A friend would like to see you for a
+minute in front of the post-office in the middle of the town." She put
+that in an envelope, and addressed the envelope to Harry Trelyon, Esq.
+Still keeping her bonnet on, she went down stairs and had a little
+general conversation with her mother, in the course of which she quite
+casually asked the name of the hotel at which Mr. Trelyon had been
+staying. Then, just as if she were going out to the Parade to have a
+look at the sea, she carelessly left the house.
+
+The dusk of the evening was growing to dark. A white mist lay over the
+sea. The solitary lamps were being lit along the Parade, each golden
+star shining sharply in the pale purple twilight, but a more confused
+glow of orange showed where the little town was busy in its narrow
+thoroughfares. She got hold of a small boy, gave him the letter, a
+sixpence and his instructions. He was to ask if the gentleman were in
+the hotel. If not, had he left Penzance, or would he return that night?
+In any case, the boy was not to leave the letter unless Mr. Trelyon was
+there.
+
+The small boy returned in a couple of minutes. The gentleman was there,
+and had taken the letter. So Mabyn at once set out for the centre of the
+town, and soon found herself in among a mass of huddled houses, bright
+shops and thoroughfares pretty well filled with strolling sailors, women
+getting home from market and townspeople come out to gossip. She had
+accurately judged that she would be less observed in this busy little
+place than out on the Parade; and as it was the first appointment she
+had ever made to meet a young gentleman alone, she was just a little
+nervous.
+
+Trelyon was there. He had recognized the handwriting in a moment. He had
+no time to ridicule or even to think of Mabyn's school-girl affectation
+of secresy: he had at once rushed off to the place of appointment, and
+that by a short cut of which she had no knowledge.
+
+"Mabyn, what's the matter? Is Wenna ill?" he said, forgetting in his
+anxiety even to shake hands with her.
+
+"Oh no, she isn't," said Mabyn rather coldly and defiantly. If he was in
+love with her sister, it was for him to make advances. "Oh no, she's
+pretty well, thank you," continued Mabyn, indifferently. "But she never
+could stand much worry. I wanted to see you about that. She is going
+back to Eglosilyan to-morrow; and you must promise not to have her asked
+up to the Hall while these grand doings are going on--you must not try
+to see her and persuade her. If you could keep out of her way
+altogether--"
+
+"You know all about it, then, Mabyn?" he said suddenly; and even in the
+dusky light of the street she could see the rapid look of gladness that
+filled his face. "And you are not going to be vexed, eh? You'll remain
+friends with me, Mabyn--you will tell me how she is from time to time.
+Don't you see, I must go away; and--and, by Jove, Mabyn! I've got such a
+lot to tell you!"
+
+She looked round.
+
+"I can't talk to you here. Won't you walk back by the other road behind
+the town?" he said.
+
+Yes, she would go willingly with him now. The anxiety of his face, the
+almost wild way in which he seemed to beg for her help and friendship,
+the mere impatience of his manner, pleased and satisfied her. This was
+as it should be. Here was no sweetheart by line and rule, demonstrating
+his affection by argument, and acting at all times with a studied
+propriety; but a real, true lover, full of passionate hope and as
+passionate fear; ready to do anything, and yet not knowing what to do.
+Above all, he was "brave and handsome, like a prince," and therefore a
+fit lover for her gentle sister.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Trelyon," she said with a great burst of confidence, "I did so
+fear that you might be indifferent!"
+
+"Indifferent!" said he with some bitterness. "Perhaps that is the best
+thing that could happen, only it isn't very likely to happen. Did you
+ever see anybody placed as I am placed, Mabyn? Nothing but
+stumbling-blocks every way I look. Our family have always been
+hot-headed and hot-tempered: if I told my grandmother at this minute how
+I am situated, I believe she would say, 'Why don't you go like a man and
+run off with the girl?'"
+
+"Yes!" said Mabyn, quite delighted.
+
+"But suppose you've bothered and worried the girl until you feel ashamed
+of yourself, and she begs of you to leave her, aren't you bound in fair
+manliness to go?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mabyn doubtfully.
+
+"Well, I do. It would be very mean to pester her. I'm off as soon as
+these people leave the Hall. But then there are other things. There is
+your sister engaged to this fellow out in Jamaica--"
+
+"Isn't he a horrid wretch?" said Mabyn between her teeth.
+
+"Oh, I quite agree with you. If I could have it out with him now! But,
+after all, what harm has the man done? Is it any wonder he wanted to get
+Wenna for a wife?"
+
+"Oh, but he cheated her," said Mabyn warmly. "He persuaded her and
+reasoned with her, and argued her into marrying him. And what business
+had he to tell her that love between young people is all bitterness and
+trial, and that a girl is only safe when she marries a prudent and
+elderly man who will look after her? Why, it is to look after him that
+he wants her. Wenna is going to him as a housekeeper and a nurse.
+Only--only, Mr. Trelyon, _she hasn't gone to him just yet_!"
+
+"Oh, I don't think he did anything unfair," the young man said gloomily.
+"It doesn't matter, anyhow. What I was going to say is, that my
+grandmother's notion of what one of our family ought to do in such a
+case can't be carried out: whatever you may think of a man, you can't go
+and try to rob him of his sweetheart behind his back. Even supposing she
+were willing to break with him--which she is not--you've at least got to
+wait to give the fellow a chance."
+
+"There I quite disagree with you, Mr. Trelyon," Mabyn said warmly. "Wait
+to give him a chance to make our Wenna miserable! Is she to be made the
+prize of a sort of fight? If I were a man I'd pay less attention to my
+own scruples and try what I could do for her--Oh, Mr. Trelyon--I--I beg
+your pardon."
+
+Mabyn suddenly stopped on the road, overwhelmed with confusion. She had
+been so warmly thinking of her sister's welfare that she had been
+hurried into something worse than an indiscretion.
+
+"What then, Mabyn?" said he, profoundly surprised.
+
+"I beg your pardon: I have been so thoughtless. I had no right to assume
+that you wished--that you wished for the--for the opportunity--"
+
+"Of marrying Wenna?" said he with a great stare. "But what else have we
+been speaking about? Or rather, I suppose we did assume it. Well, the
+more I think over it, Mabyn, the more I am maddened by all these
+obstacles, and by the notion of all the things that may happen. That's
+the bad part of my going away. How can I tell what may happen? He might
+come back and insist on her marrying him right off."
+
+"Mr. Trelyon," said Mabyn, speaking very clearly, "there's one thing you
+may be sure of. If you let me know where you are, nothing will happen to
+Wenna that you don't hear of."
+
+He took her hand and pressed it in mute thankfulness. He was not
+insensible to the value of having so warm an advocate, so faithful an
+ally, always at Wenna's side.
+
+"How long do letters take in going to Jamaica?" Mabyn asked.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"I could fetch him back for you directly," said she, "if you would like
+that."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By writing and telling him that you and Wenna were going to get
+married. Wouldn't that fetch him back pretty quickly?"
+
+"I doubt it. He wouldn't believe it of Wenna. Then he is a sensible sort
+of fellow, and would say to himself that if the news was true he would
+have his journey for nothing. Besides, Barnes says that things are
+looking well with him in Jamaica--better than anybody expected. He might
+not be anxious to leave."
+
+They had now got back to the Parade, and Mabyn stopped: "I must leave
+you now, Mr. Trelyon. Mind not to go near Wenna when you get to
+Eglosilyan."
+
+"She sha'n't even see me. I shall be there only a couple of days or so;
+then I am going to London. I am going to have a try at the Civil Service
+examinations--for first commissions, you know. I shall only come back to
+Eglosilyan for a day now and again at long intervals. You have promised
+to write to me, Mabyn. Well, I'll send you my address."
+
+She looked at him keenly as she offered him her hand. "I wouldn't be
+downhearted if I were you," she said. "Very odd things sometimes
+happen."
+
+"Oh, I sha'n't be very down-hearted," said he, "so long as I hear that
+she is all right, and not vexing herself about anything."
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Trelyon. I am sorry I can't take any message for you."
+
+"To her? No, that is impossible. Good-bye, Mabyn: I think you are the
+best friend I have in the world."
+
+"We'll see about that," she said as she walked rapidly off.
+
+Her mother had been sufficiently astonished by her long absence: she was
+now equally surprised by the excitement and pleasure visible in her
+face.
+
+"Oh, mammy, do you know whom I've seen? Mr. Trelyon."
+
+"Mabyn!"
+
+"Yes. We've walked right round Penzance all by ourselves. And it's all
+settled, mother."
+
+"What is all settled?"
+
+"The understanding between him and me. An offensive and defensive
+alliance. Let tyrants beware!"
+
+She took off her bonnet and came and sat down on the floor by the side
+of the sofa: "Oh, mammy, I see such beautiful things in the future! You
+wouldn't believe it if I told you all I see. Everybody else seems
+determined to forecast such gloomy events. There's Wenna crying and
+writing letters of contrition, and expecting all sorts of anger and
+scolding; there's Mr. Trelyon haunted by the notion that Mr. Roscorla
+will suddenly come home and marry Wenna right off; and as for him out
+there in Jamaica, I expect he'll be in a nice state when he hears of all
+this. But far on ahead of all that I see such a beautiful picture!"
+
+"It is a dream of yours, Mabyn," her mother said, but there was an
+imaginative light in her fine eyes too.
+
+"No, it is not a dream, mother, for there are so many people all wishing
+now that it should come about, in spite of these gloomy fancies. What is
+there to prevent it when we are all agreed?--Mr. Trelyon and I heading
+the list with our important alliance; and you, mother, would be so proud
+to see Wenna happy; and Mrs. Trelyon pets her as if she were a daughter
+already; and everybody--every man, woman and child--in Eglosilyan would
+rather see that come about than get a guinea apiece. Oh, mother, if you
+could see the picture that I see just now!"
+
+"It is a pretty picture, Mabyn," her mother said, shaking her head. "But
+when you think of everybody being agreed, you forget one, and that is
+Wenna herself. Whatever she thinks fit and right to do, that she is
+certain to do, and all your alliances and friendly wishes won't alter
+her decision, even if it should break her heart. And indeed I hope the
+poor child won't sink under the terrible strain that is on her: what do
+you think of her looks, Mabyn?"
+
+"They want mending--yes, they want mending," Mabyn admitted, apparently
+with some compunction, but then she added boldly, "and you know as well
+as I do, mother, that there is but the one way of mending them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+FERN IN DIE WELT.
+
+
+If this story were not tied by its title to the duchy of Cornwall, it
+might be interesting enough to follow Mr. Roscorla into the new world
+that had opened all around him, and say something of the sudden shock
+his old habits had thus received, and of the quite altered views of his
+own life he had been led to form. As matters stand, we can only pay him
+a flying visit.
+
+He is seated in a verandah fronting a garden, in which pomegranates and
+oranges form the principal fruit. Down below him some blacks are
+bringing provisions up to Yacca Farm along the cactus avenue leading to
+the gate. Far away on his right the last rays of the sun are shining on
+the summit of Blue Mountain Peak, and along the horizon the reflected
+glow of the sky shines on the calm sea. It is a fine, still evening; his
+cigar smells sweet in the air; it is a time for indolent dreaming and
+for memories of home.
+
+But Mr. Roscorla is not so much enraptured by thoughts of home as he
+might be. "Why," he is saying to himself, "my life in Basset Cottage was
+no life at all, but only a waiting for death. Day after day passed in
+that monotonous fashion: what had one to look forward to but old age,
+sickness, and then the quiet of a coffin? It was nothing but an hourly
+procession to the grave, varied by rabbit-shooting. This bold breaking
+away from the narrow life of such a place has given me a new lease of
+existence. Now I can look back with surprise on the dullness of that
+Cornish village, and on the regularity of habits which I did not know
+were habits. For is not that always the case? You don't know that you
+are forming a habit: you take each act to be an individual act, which
+you may perform or not at will; but, all the same, the succession of
+them is getting you into its power; custom gets a grip of your ways of
+thinking as well as your ways of living; the habit is formed, and it
+does not cease its hold until it conducts you to the grave. Try Jamaica
+for a cure. Fling a sleeping man into the sea, and watch if he does not
+wake. Why, when I look back to the slow, methodical, common-place life I
+led at Eglosilyan, can I wonder that I was sometimes afraid of Wenna
+Rosewarne regarding me as a somewhat staid and venerable individual, on
+whose infirmities she ought to take pity?"
+
+He rose and began to walk up and down the verandah, putting his foot
+down firmly. His loose linen suit was smart enough: his complexion had
+been improved by the sun. The consciousness that his business affairs
+were promising well did not lessen his sense of self-importance.
+
+"Wenna must be prepared to move about a bit when I go back," he was
+saying to himself. "She must give up that daily attendance on cottagers'
+children. If all turns out well, I don't see why we should not live in
+London, for who will know there who her father was? That consideration
+was of no consequence so long as I looked forward to living the rest of
+my life in Basset Cottage: now there are other things to be thought of
+when there is a chance of my going among my old friends again."
+
+By this time, it must be observed, Mr. Roscorla had abandoned his hasty
+intention of returning to England to upbraid Wenna with having received
+a ring from Harry Trelyon. After all, he reasoned with himself, the mere
+fact that she should talk thus simply and frankly about young Trelyon
+showed that, so far as she was concerned, her loyalty to her absent
+lover was unbroken. As for the young gentleman himself, he was, Mr.
+Roscorla knew, fond of joking. He had doubtless thought it a fine thing
+to make a fool of two or three women by imposing on them this
+cock-and-bull story of finding a ring by dredging. He was a little angry
+that Wenna should have been deceived; but then, he reflected, these
+gypsy rings are so much like one another that the young man had probably
+got a pretty fair duplicate. For the rest, he did not want to quarrel
+with Harry Trelyon at present.
+
+But as he was walking up and down the verandah, looking a much younger
+and brisker man than the Mr. Roscorla who had left Eglosilyan, a servant
+came through the house and brought him a couple of letters. He saw they
+were respectively from Mr. Barnes and from Wenna; and, curiously enough,
+he opened the reverend gentleman's first--perhaps as schoolboys like to
+leave the best bit of a tart to the last.
+
+He read the letter over carefully; he sat down and read it again; then
+he put it before him on the table. He was evidently puzzled by it. "What
+does this man mean by writing these letters to me?"--so Mr. Roscorla,
+who was a cautious and reflective person, communed with himself.--"He is
+no particular friend of mine. He must be driving at something. Now he
+says that I am to be of good cheer. I must not think anything of what he
+formerly wrote. Mr. Trelyon is leaving Eglosilyan for good, and his
+mother will at last have some peace of mind. What a pity it is that this
+sensitive creature should be at the mercy of the rude passions of this
+son of hers! that she should have no protector! that she should be
+allowed to mope herself to death in a melancholy seclusion!"
+
+An odd fancy occurred to Mr. Roscorla at this moment, and he smiled: "I
+think I have got a clew to Mr. Barnes's disinterested anxiety about my
+affairs. The widower would like to protect the solitary and unfriended
+widow, but the young man is in the way. The young man would be very much
+in the way if he married Wenna Rosewarne; the widower's fears drive him
+into suspicion, then into certainty; nothing will do but that I should
+return to England at once and spoil this little arrangement. But as soon
+as Harry Trelyon declares his intention of leaving Eglosilyan for good,
+then my affairs may go anyhow. Mr. Barnes finds the coast clear: I am
+bidden to stay where I am. Well, that is what I mean to do; but now I
+fancy I understand Mr. Barnes's generous friendship for me and his
+affectionate correspondence."
+
+He turned to Wenna's letter with much compunction. He owed her some
+atonement for having listened to the disingenuous reports of this
+scheming clergyman. How could he have so far forgotten the firm,
+uncompromising rectitude of the girl's character, her sensitive notions
+of honor, the promises she had given?
+
+He read her letter, and as he read his eyes seemed to grow hot with
+rage. He paid no heed to the passionate contrition of the trembling
+lines--to the obvious pain that she had endured in telling the story,
+without concealment, against herself--to the utter and abject
+wretchedness with which she awaited his decision. It was thus that she
+had kept faith with him the moment his back was turned! Such were the
+safeguards afforded by a woman's sense of honor! What a fool he had
+been, to imagine that any woman could remain true to her promise so soon
+as some other object of flirtation and incipient love-making came in her
+way!
+
+He looked at the letter again: he could scarcely believe it to be in her
+handwriting. This the quiet, reasonable, gentle and timid Wenna
+Rosewarne, whose virtues were almost a trifle too severe? The despair
+and remorse of the letter did not touch him--he was too angry and
+indignant over the insult to himself--but it astonished him. The
+passionate emotion of those closely-written pages he could scarcely
+connect with the shy, frank, kindly little girl he remembered: it was a
+cry of agony from a tortured woman, and he knew at least that for her
+the old quiet time was over.
+
+He knew not what to do. All this that had happened was new to him: it
+was old and gone by in England, and who could tell what further
+complications might have arisen? But his anger required some vent: he
+went in-doors, called for a lamp, and sat down and wrote with a hard and
+resolute look on his face:
+
+     "I have received your letter. I am not surprised. You are a woman,
+     and I ought to have known that a woman's promise is of value so
+     long as you are by her side to see that she keeps it. You ask what
+     reparation you can make: I ask if there is any that you can
+     suggest. No: you have done what cannot be undone. Do you think a
+     man would marry a woman who is in love with, or has been in love
+     with, another man, even if he could overlook her breach of faith
+     and the shameless thoughtlessness of her conduct? My course is
+     clear, at all events. I give you back the promise that you did not
+     know how to keep; and now you can go and ask the young man who has
+     been making a holiday toy of you whether he will be pleased to
+     marry you.
+
+                "RICHARD ROSCORLA."
+
+He sealed and addressed this letter, still with the firm, hard look
+about his face: then he summoned a servant--a tall, red-haired Irishman.
+He did not hesitate for a moment: "Look here, Sullivan: the English
+mails go out to-morrow morning. You must ride down to the post-office as
+hard as you can go; and if you're a few minutes late, see Mr. Keith and
+give him my compliments, and ask him if he can possibly take this letter
+if the mails are not made up. It is of great importance. Quick, now!"
+
+He watched the man go clattering down the cactus avenue until he was out
+of sight. Then he turned, put the letters in his pocket, went in-doors,
+and again struck a small gong that did duty for a bell. He wanted his
+horse brought round at once. He was going over to Pleasant Farm:
+probably he would not return that night. He lit another cigar, and paced
+up and down the gravel in front of the house until the horse was brought
+round.
+
+When he reached Pleasant Farm the stars were shining overhead, and the
+odors of the night-flowers came floating out of the forest, but inside
+the house there were brilliant lights and the voices of men talking. A
+bachelor supper-party was going forward. Mr. Roscorla entered, and
+presently was seated at the hospitable board. They had never seen him so
+gay, and they had certainly never seen him so generously inclined, for
+Mr. Roscorla was economical in his habits. He would have them all to
+dinner the next evening, and promised them such champagne as had never
+been sent to Kingston before. He passed round his best cigars, he hinted
+something about unlimited loo, he drank pretty freely, and was
+altogether in a jovial humor.
+
+"England!" he said, when some one mentioned the mother-country. "Of one
+thing I am pretty certain: England will never see me again. No, a man
+lives here: in England he waits for his death. What life I have got
+before me I shall live in Jamaica: that is my view of the question."
+
+"Then she is coming out to you?" said his host with a grin.
+
+Roscorla's face flushed with anger. "There is no _she_ in the matter,"
+he said abruptly, almost fiercely. "I thank God I am not tied to any
+woman!"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," said his host good-naturedly, who did not care
+to recall the occasions on which Mr. Roscorla had been rather pleased to
+admit that certain tender ties bound him to his native land.
+
+"No, there is not," he said. "What fool would have his comfort and peace
+of mind depend on the caprice of a woman? I like your plan better,
+Rogers: when they're dependent on you, you can do as you like, but when
+they've got to be treated as equals, they're the devil. No, my boys, you
+don't find me going in for the angel in the house--she's too exacting.
+Is it to be unlimited?"
+
+Now to play unlimited loo in a reckless fashion is about the easiest way
+of getting rid of money that the ingenuity of man has devised. The other
+players were much better qualified to run such risks than Mr. Roscorla,
+but none played half so wildly as he. His I.O.U.'s went freely about. At
+one point in the evening the floating paper bearing the signature of Mr.
+Roscorla represented a sum of about three hundred pounds, and yet his
+losses did not weigh heavily on him. At length every one got tired, and
+it was resolved to stop short at a certain hour. But from this point the
+luck changed: nothing could stand against his cards; one by one his
+I.O.U.'s were recalled; and when they all rose from the table he had won
+about forty-eight pounds. He was not elated.
+
+He went to his room and sat down in an easy-chair; and then it seemed to
+him that he saw Eglosilyan once more, and the far coasts of Cornwall,
+and the broad uplands lying under a blue English sky. That was his home,
+and he had cut himself away from it, and from the little glimmer of
+romance that had recently brightened it for him. Every bit of the place,
+too, was associated somehow with Wenna Rosewarne. He could see the seat
+fronting the Atlantic on which she used to sit and sew on the fine
+summer forenoons. He could see the rough road leading over the downs on
+which he met her one wintry morning, she wrapped up and driving her
+father's dog-cart, while the red sun in the sky seemed to brighten the
+pink color the cold wind had brought into her cheeks. He thought of her
+walking sedately up to church; of her wild scramblings among the rocks
+with Mabyn; of her enjoyment of a fierce wind when it came laden with
+the spray of the great rollers breaking on the cliff outside. What was
+the song she used to sing to herself as she went along the quiet
+woodland ways?--
+
+    Your Polly has never been false, she declares,
+    Since last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs.
+
+He could not let her go. All the anger of wounded vanity had left his
+heart: he thought now only of the chance he was throwing away. Where
+else could he hope to find for himself so pleasant a companion and
+friend, who would cheer up his dull daily life with her warm sympathies,
+her quick humor, her winning womanly ways?
+
+He thought of that letter he had sent away, and cursed his own folly. So
+long as she was bound by her promise he knew he could marry her when he
+pleased, but now he had voluntarily released her. In a couple of weeks
+she would hold her manumission in her hands; the past would no longer
+have any power over her; if ever they met they would meet as mere
+acquaintances. Every moment the prize slipping out of his grasp seemed
+to grow more valuable; his vexation with himself grew intolerable; he
+suddenly resolved that he would make a wild effort to get back that
+fatal letter.
+
+He had sat communing with himself for over an hour: all the household
+was fast asleep. He would not wake any one, for fear of being compelled
+to give explanations; so he noiselessly crept along the dark passages
+until he got to the door, which he carefully opened and let himself out.
+The night was wonderfully clear, the constellations throbbing and
+glittering overhead: the trees were black against the pale sky.
+
+He made his way round to the stables, and had some sort of notion that
+he would try to get at his horse, until it occurred to him that some
+suddenly awakened servant or master would probably send a bullet
+whizzing at him. So he abandoned that enterprise, and set off to walk as
+quickly as he could down the slopes of the mountain, with the stars
+still shining over his head, the air sweet with powerful scents, the
+leaves of the bushes hanging silently in the semi-darkness.
+
+How long he walked he did not know: he was not aware that when he
+reached the sleeping town a pale gray was lightening the eastern skies.
+He went to the house of the postmaster and hurriedly aroused him. Mr.
+Keith began to think that the ordinarily sedate Mr. Roscorla had gone
+mad.
+
+"But I must have the letter," he said. "Come now, Keith, you can give it
+me back if you like. Of course I know it is very wrong, but you'll do it
+to oblige a friend."
+
+"My dear sir," said the postmaster, who could not get time for
+explanation, "the mails were made up last night--"
+
+"Yes, yes, but you can open the English bag."
+
+"They were sent on board last night."
+
+"Then the packet is still in the harbor: you might come down with me."
+
+"She sails at daybreak."
+
+"It is not daybreak yet," said Mr. Roscorla, looking up.
+
+Then he saw how the gray dawn had come over the skies, banishing the
+stars, and he became aware of the wan light shining around him. With the
+new day his life was altered; he would no more be as he had been; the
+chief aim and purpose of his existence had been changed.
+
+Walking heedlessly back, he came to a point from which he had a distant
+view of the harbor and the sea beyond. Far away out on the dull gray
+plain was a steamer slowly making her way toward the east. Was that the
+packet bound for England, carrying to Wenna Rosewarne the message that
+she was free?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+"BLUE IS THE SWEETEST."
+
+
+The following correspondence may now, without any great breach of
+confidence, be published:
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN, Monday morning.
+
+    DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know what Mr. Roscorla says in the
+    letter Wenna has just received? Why, that you could not get
+    up that ring by dredging, but that you must have bought the
+    other one at Plymouth. Just think of the wicked old wretch
+    fancying such things! As if you would give a ring _of emeralds
+    to any one_! Tell me that this is a story, that I may bid
+    Wenna contradict him at once. I have got no patience with a man
+    who is given over to such mean suspicions. Yours faithfully,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+
+    "LONDON, Tuesday night.
+
+    Dear Mabyn: I am sorry to say Mr. Roscorla is right. It was a
+    foolish trick--I did not think it would be successful, for my
+    hitting the size of her finger was rather a stroke of luck--but
+    I thought it would amuse her if she did find it out after an
+    hour or two. I was afraid to tell her afterward, for she would
+    think it impertinent. What's to be done? Is she angry about it.
+    Yours sincerely,
+
+    HARRY TRELYON."
+
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN.
+
+    Dear Mr. Trelyon: How could you do such a thing? Why, to give
+    Wenna, of all people in the world, an emerald ring, just after I
+    had got Mr. Roscorla to give her one, for bad luck to himself!
+    Why, how could you do it? I don't know what to say about it,
+    unless you demand it back, _and send her one with sapphires in
+    it at once_.
+
+    Yours, M.R.
+
+    P.S.--As quick as ever you can."
+
+
+    "LONDON, Friday evening.
+
+    Dear Mabyn: Why, you know she wouldn't take a sapphire ring or
+    any other from me. Yours faithfully,
+
+    H. TRELYON."
+
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. TRELYON: Pray don't lose any time in writing, but
+    send me at once a sapphire ring for Wenna. You have hit the size
+    once, and you can do it again; but in any case I have marked the
+    size on this bit of thread, and the jeweler will understand. And
+    please, dear Mr. Trelyon, don't get a very expensive one, but a
+    plain, good one, just what a poor person like me would buy for a
+    present if I wanted to. And post it at once, please: _this is
+    very important_. Yours most sincerely,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+In consequence of this correspondence Mabyn one morning proceeded to
+seek out her sister, whom she found busy with the accounts of the sewing
+club, which was now in a flourishing condition. Mabyn seemed a little
+shy. "Oh, Wenna," she said, "I have something to tell you. You know I
+wrote to ask Mr. Trelyon about the ring. Well, he's very, very
+sorry--oh, you don't know how sorry he is, Wenna--but it's quite true.
+He thought he'd please you by getting the ring, and that you would make
+a joke of it when you found it out; and then he was afraid to speak of
+it afterward."
+
+Wenna had quietly slipped the ring off her finger. She betrayed no
+emotion at the mention of Mr. Trelyon's name. Her face was a trifle red:
+that was, all. "It was a stupid thing to do," she said, "but I suppose
+he meant no harm. Will you send him back the ring?"
+
+"Yes," she said eagerly. "Give me the ring, Wenna."
+
+She carefully wrapped it up in a piece of paper and put it in her
+pocket. Any one who knew her would have seen by her face that she meant
+to give that ring short shrift. Then she said timidly, "You are not very
+angry, Wenna?"
+
+"No. I am sorry I should have vexed Mr. Roscorla by my carelessness."
+
+"Wenna," the younger sister continued, even more timidly, "do you know
+what I've heard about rings?--that when you've worn one for some time on
+a finger, you ought never to leave it off altogether: I think it affects
+the circulation, or something of that kind. Now, if Mr. Trelyon were to
+send you another ring, just to--to keep the place of that one until Mr.
+Roscorla came back--"
+
+"Mabyn, you must be mad to think of such a thing," said her sister,
+looking down.
+
+"Oh yes," Mabyn said meekly, "I thought you wouldn't like the notion of
+Mr. Trelyon giving you a ring. And so, dear Wenna, I've--I've got a ring
+for you--you won't mind taking it from me--and if you do wear it on the
+engaged finger, why, that doesn't matter, don't you see?"
+
+She produced the ring of dark blue stones, and herself put it on Wenna's
+finger.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn," Wenna said, "how could you be so extravagant? And just
+after you gave me that ten shillings for the Leans!"
+
+"You be quiet," said Mabyn briskly, going off with a light look on her
+face.
+
+And yet there was some determination about her mouth. She hastily put on
+her hat and went out. She took the path by the hillside over the little
+harbor, and eventually she reached the face of the black cliff, at the
+foot of which a gray-green sea was dashing in white masses of foam:
+there was not a living thing around her but the choughs and daws, and
+the white seagulls sailing overhead.
+
+She took out a large sheet of brown paper and placed it on the ground.
+Then she sought out a bit of rock weighing about two pounds. Then she
+took out the little parcel which contained the emerald ring, tied it up
+carefully along with the stone in the sheet of brown paper: finally, she
+rose up to her full height and heaved the whole into the sea. A splash
+down there, and that was all.
+
+She clapped her hands with joy: "And now, my precious emerald ring,
+that's the last of you, I imagine! And there isn't much chance of a fish
+bringing you back, to make mischief with your ugly green stones."
+
+Then she went home, and wrote this note:
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN, Monday.
+
+    DEAR MR. TRELYON: I have just thrown the emerald ring you gave
+    Wenna into the sea, and she wears the other one now _on her
+    engaged finger_, but she thinks I bought it. Did you ever
+    hear of an old-fashioned rhyme that is this?--
+
+         Oh, green is forsaken,
+           And yellow's forsworn;
+         And blue is thesweetest
+           Color that's worn.
+
+    You can't tell what mischief that emerald ring might not have
+    done. But the sapphires that Wenna is wearing now are perfectly
+    beautiful; and Wenna is not so heartbroken that she isn't very
+    proud of them. I never saw such a beautiful ring. Yours
+    sincerely,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE.
+
+    P.S.--Are you never coming back to Eglosilyan any more?"
+
+So the days went by, and Mabyn waited with a secret hope to see what
+answer Mr. Roscorla would send to that letter of confession and
+contrition Wenna had written to him at Penzance. The letter had been
+written as an act of duty, and posted too; but there was no mail going
+out for ten days thereafter, so that a considerable time had to elapse
+before the answer came.
+
+During that time Wenna went about her ordinary duties just as if there
+was no hidden fire of pain consuming her heart; there was no word spoken
+by her or to her of all that had recently occurred; her mother and
+sister were glad to see her so continuously busy. At first she shrank
+from going up to Trelyon Hall, and would rather have corresponded with
+Mrs. Trelyon about their joint work of charity, but she conquered the
+feeling, and went and saw the gentle lady, who perceived nothing altered
+or strange in her demeanor. At last the letter from Jamaica came; and
+Mabyn, having sent it up to her sister's room, waited for a few minutes,
+and then followed it. She was a little afraid, despite her belief in the
+virtues of the sapphire ring.
+
+When she entered the room she uttered a slight cry of alarm and ran
+forward to her sister. Wenna was seated on a chair by the side of the
+bed, but she had thrown her arms out on the bed, her head was between
+them, and she was sobbing as if her heart would break.
+
+"Wenna, what is the matter? what has he said to you?"
+
+Mabyn's eyes were all afire now. Wenna would not answer. She would not
+even raise her head.
+
+"Wenna, I want to see that letter."
+
+"Oh no, no!" the girl moaned. "I deserve it: he says what is true. I
+want you to leave me alone, Mabyn: you--you can't do anything to
+help this."
+
+But Mabyn had by this time perceived that her sister held in her hand,
+crumpled up, the letter which was the cause of this wild outburst of
+grief. She went forward and firmly took it out of the yielding fingers:
+then she turned to the light and read it. "Oh, if I were a man!" she
+said; and then the very passion of her indignation, finding no other
+vent, filled her eyes with proud and angry tears. She forgot to rejoice
+that her sister was now free. She only saw the cruel insult of those
+lines, and the fashion in which it had struck down its victim. "Wenna,"
+she said hotly, "you ought to have more spirit. You don't mean to say
+you care for the opinion of a man who would write to any girl like that?
+You ought to be precious glad that he has shown himself in his true
+colors. Why, he never cared a bit for you--never!--or he would never
+turn at a moment's notice and insult you."
+
+"I have deserved it all; it is every word of it true; he could not have
+written otherwise." That was all that Wenna would say between her sobs.
+
+"Well," retorted Mabyn, "after all, I am glad he was angry. I did not
+think he had so much spirit. And if this is his opinion of you, I don't
+think it is worth heeding, only I hope he'll keep to it. Yes, I do. I
+hope he'll continue to think you everything that is wicked, and remain
+out in Jamaica. Wenna, you must not lie and cry like that. Come, get up,
+and look at the strawberries that Mr. Trewhella has sent you."
+
+"Please, Mabyn, leave me alone, there's a good girl."
+
+"I shall be up again in a few minutes, then: I want you to drive me over
+to St. Gwennis. Wenna, I _must_ go over to St. Gwennis before lunch; and
+father won't let me have anybody to drive. Do you hear, Wenna?"
+
+Then she went out and down into the kitchen, where she bothered Jennifer
+for a few minutes until she had got an iron heated at the fire. With
+this implement she carefully smoothed out the crumpled letter, and then
+she as carefully folded it, took it up stairs, and put it safely away in
+her own desk. She had just time to write a few lines:
+
+    "DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know what news I have got to tell you?
+    Can you guess? The engagement between Mr. Roscorla and Wenna
+    _is broken off_; and I have got in my possession the letter
+    in which he sets her free. If you knew how glad I am! I should
+    like to cry 'Hurrah! hurrah!' all through the streets of
+    Eglosilyan; and I think every one else would do the same if only
+    they knew. Of course she is very much grieved, for he has been
+    most insulting. I cannot tell you the things he has said: you
+    would kill him if you heard them. But she will come round very
+    soon, I know: and then she will have her freedom again, and no
+    more emerald rings, and letters all filled with arguments. Would
+    you like to see her, Mr. Trelyon? But don't come yet--not for a
+    long time: she would only get angry and obstinate. I'll tell you
+    when to come; and in the mean time, you know, she is still
+    wearing your ring, so that you need not be afraid. How glad I
+    shall be to see you again! Yours most faithfully,
+
+    "MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+She went down stairs quickly and put this letter in the letter-box.
+There was an air of triumph on her face. She had worked for this
+result--aided by the mysterious powers of Fate, whom she had conjured to
+serve her--and now the welcome end of her labors had arrived. She bade
+the hostler get out the dog-cart, as if she were the queen of Sheba
+going to visit Solomon. She went marching up to her sister's room,
+announcing her approach with a more than ordinarily accurate rendering
+of "Oh, the men of merry, merry England!" so that a stranger might have
+fancied that he heard the very voice of Harry Trelyon, with all its
+unmelodious vigor, ringing along the passage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE EXILE'S RETURN.
+
+
+Perhaps you have been away in distant parts of the earth, each day
+crowded with new experiences and slowly obscuring the clear pictures of
+England with which you left: perhaps you have only been hidden away in
+London, amid its ceaseless noise, its strange faces, its monotonous
+recurrence of duties. Let us say, in any case, that you are returning
+home for a space to the quiet of Northern Cornwall.
+
+You look out of the high window of a Plymouth hotel early in the
+morning. There is a promise of a beautiful autumn day--a ring of pink
+mist lies around the horizon; overhead the sky is clear and blue; the
+white sickle of the moon still lingers visible. The new warmth of the
+day begins to melt the hoarfrost in the meadows, and you know that out
+beyond the town the sun is shining brilliantly on the wet grass, with
+the brown cattle gleaming red in the light.
+
+You leave the great world behind, with all its bustle, crowds and
+express engines, when you get into the quiet little train that takes you
+leisurely up to Launceston, through woods, by the sides of rivers, over
+great valleys. There is a sense of repose about this railway journey.
+The train stops at any number of small stations--apparently to let the
+guard have a chat with the station-master--and then jogs on in a quiet,
+contented fashion. And on such an autumn day as this, that is a
+beautiful, still, rich-colored and English-looking country through which
+it passes. Here is a deep valley, all glittering with the dew and the
+sunlight. Down in the hollow a farmyard is half hidden behind the
+yellowing elms; a boy is driving a flock of white geese along the
+twisting road; the hedges are red with the withering briers. Up here,
+along the hillsides, the woods of scrub-oak are glowing with every
+imaginable hue of gold, crimson and bronze, except where a few dark firs
+appear, or where a tuft of broom, pure and bright in its green, stands
+out among the faded brackens. The gorse is profusely in bloom: it always
+is in Cornwall. Still farther over there are sheep visible on the
+uplands; beyond these, again, the bleak brown moors rise into peaks of
+hills; overhead the silent blue, and all around the sweet, fresh country
+air.
+
+With a sharp whistle the small train darts into an opening in the hills:
+here we are in the twilight of a great wood. The tall trees are becoming
+bare; the ground is red with the fallen leaves; through the branches the
+blue-winged jay flies, screaming harshly; you can smell the damp and
+resinous odors of the ferns. Out again we get into the sunlight! and lo!
+a rushing, brawling, narrow stream, its clear flood swaying this way and
+that by the big stones; a wall of rock overhead crowned by glowing
+furze; a herd of red cattle sent scampering through the bright-green
+grass. Now we get slowly into a small white station, and catch a glimpse
+of a tiny town over in the valley: again we go on by wood and valley, by
+rocks and streams and farms. It is a pleasant drive on such a morning.
+
+In one of the carriages in this train Master Harry Trelyon and his
+grandmother were seated. How he had ever persuaded her to go with him to
+Cornwall by train was mysterious enough, for the old lady thoroughly
+hated all such modern devices. It was her custom to go traveling all
+over the country with a big, old-fashioned phaeton and a pair of horses;
+and her chief amusement during these long excursions was driving up to
+any big house she took a fancy to, in order to see if there was a chance
+of its being let to her. The faithful old servant who attended her, and
+who was about as old as the coachman, had a great respect for his
+mistress, but sometimes he swore--inaudibly--when she ordered him to
+make the usual inquiry at the front-door of some noble lord's country
+residence, which he would as soon have thought of letting as of
+forfeiting his seat in the House of Peers or his hopes of heaven. But
+the carriage and horses were coming down, all the same, to Eglosilyan,
+to take her back again.
+
+"Harry," she was saying at this moment, "the longer I look at you, the
+more positive I am that you are ill. I don't like your color: you are
+thin and careworn and anxious. What is the matter with you?"
+
+"Going to school again at twenty-one is hard work, grandmother," he
+said. "Don't you try it. But I don't think I'm particularly ill: few
+folks can keep a complexion like yours, grandmother."
+
+"Yes," said the old lady, rather pleased, "many's the time they said
+that about me, that there wasn't much to complain of in my looks; and
+that's what a girl thinks of then, and sweethearts and balls, and all
+the other men looking savage when she's dancing with any one of them.
+Well, well, Harry; and what is all this about you and the young lady
+your mother has made such a pet of? Oh yes, I have my suspicions; and
+she's engaged to another man, isn't she? Your grandfather would have
+fought him, I'll be bound; but we live in a peaceable way now. Well,
+well, no matter; but hasn't that got something to do with your glum
+looks, Harry?"
+
+"I tell you, grandmother, I have been hard at work in London. You can't
+look very brilliant after a few months in London."
+
+"And what keeps you in London at this time of the year?" said this
+plain-spoken old lady. "Your fancy about getting into the army?
+Nonsense, man! don't tell me such a tale as that. There's a woman in the
+case: a Trelyon never puts himself so much about from any other cause.
+To stop in town at this time of the year! Why, your grandfather, and
+your father too, would have laughed to hear of it. I haven't had a brace
+of birds or a pheasant sent me since last autumn--not one. Come, sir, be
+frank with me. I'm an old woman, but I can hold my tongue."
+
+"There's nothing to tell, grandmother," he said. "You just about hit it
+in that guess of yours: I suppose Juliott told you. Well, the girl is
+engaged to another man: what more is to be said?"
+
+"The man's in Jamaica?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why are you going down to-day?"
+
+"Only for a brief visit: I've been a long time away."
+
+The old lady sat silent for some time. She had heard of the whole affair
+before, but she wished to have the rumor confirmed. And at first she was
+sorely troubled that her grandson should contemplate marrying the
+daughter of an innkeeper, however intelligent, amiable and well-educated
+the young lady might be; but she knew the Trelyons pretty well, and knew
+that if he had made up his mind to it, argument and remonstrance would
+be useless. Moreover, she had a great affection for this young man, and
+was strongly disposed to sympathize with any wish of his. She grew in
+time to have a great interest in Miss Wenna Rosewarne: at this moment
+the chief object of her visit was to make her acquaintance. She grew to
+pity young Trelyon in his disappointment, and was inclined to believe
+that the person in Jamaica was something of a public enemy. The fact
+was, her mere sympathy for her grandson would have converted her to a
+sympathy with the wildest project he could have formed.
+
+"Dear! dear!" she said, "what awkward things engagements are when they
+stand in your way! Shall I tell you the truth? I was just about as good
+as engaged to John Cholmondeley when I gave myself up to your
+grandfather. But there! when a girl's heart pulls her one way, and her
+promise pulls her another way, she needs to be a very firm-minded young
+woman if she means to hold fast. John Cholmondeley was as good-hearted a
+young fellow as ever lived--yes, I will say that for him--and I was
+mightily sorry for him; but--but you see, that's how things come about.
+Dear! dear! that evening at Bath--I remember it as well as if it was
+yesterday; and it was only two months after I had run away with your
+grandfather. Yes, there was a ball that night; and we had kept very
+quiet, you know, after coming back; but this time your grandfather had
+set his heart on taking me out before everybody, and you know he had to
+have his way. As sure as I live, Harry, the first man I saw was John
+Cholmondeley--just as white as a ghost: they said he had been drinking
+hard and gambling pretty nearly the whole of these two months. He
+wouldn't come near me: he wouldn't take the least notice of me. The
+whole night he pretended to be vastly gay and merry: he danced with
+everybody, but his eyes never came near me. Well--you know what a girl
+is--that vexed me a little bit; for there never was a man such a slave
+to a woman as he was to me. Dear! dear! the way my father used to laugh
+at him, until he got wild with anger! Well, I went up to him at last,
+when he was by himself, and I said to him, just in a careless way, you
+know, 'John, aren't you going to dance with me to-night?' Well, do you
+know, his face got quite white again; and he said--I remember the very
+words, all as cold as ice--'Madam,' says he, 'I am glad to find that
+your hurried trip to Scotland has impaired neither your good looks nor
+your self-command.' Wasn't it cruel of him?--but then, poor fellow! he
+had been badly used, I admit that. Poor young fellow! he never did
+marry; and I don't believe he ever forgot me to his dying day. Many a
+time I'd like to have told him all about it, and how there was no use in
+my marrying him if I liked another man better; but though we met
+sometimes, and especially when he came down about the Reform Bill
+time--and I do believe I made a red-hot radical of him--he was always
+very proud, and I hadn't the heart to go back on the old story. But I'll
+tell you what your grandfather did for him: he got him returned at the
+very next election, and he on the other side, too; and after a bit a man
+begins to think more about getting a seat in Parliament than about
+courting an empty-headed girl. I have met this Mr. Roscorla, haven't I?"
+
+"Of course you have."
+
+"A good-looking man rather, with a fresh complexion and gray hair?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean by good looks," said Trelyon shortly. "I
+shouldn't think people would call him an Adonis. But there's no
+accounting for tastes."
+
+"Perhaps I may have been mistaken," the old lady said, "but there was a
+gentleman at Plymouth Station who seemed to be something like what I can
+recall of Mr. Roscorla: you didn't see him, I suppose?"
+
+"At Plymouth Station, grandmother?" the young man said, becoming rather
+uneasy.
+
+"Yes. He got into the train just as we came up. A neatly-dressed man,
+gray hair and a healthy-looking face. I must have seen him somewhere
+about here before."
+
+"Roscorla is in Jamaica," said Trelyon positively.
+
+Just at this moment the train slowed into Launceston Station, and the
+people began to get out on the platform.
+
+"That is the man I mean," said the old lady.
+
+Trelyon turned and stared. There, sure enough, was Mr. Roscorla, looking
+not one whit different from the precise, elderly, fresh-colored
+gentleman who had left Cornwall some seven months before.
+
+"Good Lord, Harry!" said the old lady nervously, looking at her
+grandson's face, "don't have a fight here."
+
+The next second Mr. Roscorla wheeled round, anxious about some luggage,
+and now it was his turn to stare in astonishment and anger--anger,
+because he had been told that Harry Trelyon never came near Cornwall,
+and his first sudden suspicion was that he had been deceived. All this
+had happened in a minute. Trelyon was the first to regain his
+self-command. He walked deliberately forward, held out his hand, and
+said, "Hillo, Roscorla! back in England again? I didn't know you were
+coming."
+
+"No," said Mr. Roscorla, with his face grown just a trifle grayer--"no,
+I suppose not."
+
+In point of fact, he had not informed any one of his coming. He had
+prepared a little surprise. The chief motive of his return was to get
+Wenna to cancel for ever that unlucky letter of release he had sent her,
+which he had done more or less successfully in subsequent
+correspondence; but he had also hoped to introduce a little romanticism
+into his meeting with her. He would enter Eglosilyan on foot. He would
+wander down to the rocks at the mouth of the harbor on the chance of
+finding Wenna there. Might he not hear her humming to herself, as she
+sat and sewed, some snatch of "Your Polly has never been false, she
+declares"? or was that the very last ballad in the world she would now
+think of singing? Then the delight of regarding again the placid, bright
+face and earnest eyes, of securing once more a perfect understanding
+between them, and their glad return to the inn!
+
+All this had been spoiled by the appearance of this young man: he loved
+him none the more for that.
+
+"I suppose you haven't got a trap waiting for you?" said Trelyon with
+cold politeness. "I can drive you over if you like."
+
+He could do no less than make the offer: the other had no alternative
+but to accept. Old Mrs. Trelyon heard this compact made with
+considerable dread.
+
+Indeed, it was a dismal drive over to Eglosilyan, bright as the forenoon
+was. The old lady did her best to be courteous to Mr. Roscorla and
+cheerful with her grandson, but she was oppressed by the belief that it
+was only her presence that had so far restrained the two men from giving
+vent to the rage and jealousy that filled their hearts.
+
+The conversation kept up was singular.
+
+"Are you going to remain in England long, Roscorla?" said the younger of
+the two men, making an unnecessary cut at one of the two horses he was
+driving.
+
+"Don't know yet. Perhaps I may."
+
+"Because," said Trelyon with angry impertinence, "I suppose if you do,
+you'll have to look round for a housekeeper."
+
+The insinuation was felt; and Roscorla's eyes looked anything but
+pleasant as he answered, "You forget I've got Mrs. Cornish to look after
+my house."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Cornish is not much of a companion for you."
+
+"Men seldom want to make companions of their housekeepers," was the
+retort, uttered rather hotly.
+
+"But sometimes they wish to have the two offices combined, for economy's
+sake."
+
+At this juncture Mrs. Trelyon struck in, somewhat wildly, with a remark
+about an old ruined house which seemed to have had at one time a private
+still inside: the danger was staved off for the moment. "Harry," she
+said, "mind what you are about: the horses seem very fresh."
+
+"Yes, they like a good run: I suspect they've had precious little to do
+since I left Cornwall."
+
+Did she fear that the young man was determined to throw them into a
+ditch or down a precipice, with the wild desire of killing his rival at
+any cost? If she had known the whole state of affairs between them--the
+story of the emerald ring, for example--she would have understood at
+least the difficulty experienced by these two men in remaining decently
+civil toward each other.
+
+So they passed over the high and wide moors until far ahead they caught
+a glimpse of the blue plain of the sea. Mr. Roscorla relapsed into
+silence: he was becoming a trifle nervous. He was probably so occupied
+with anticipations of his meeting with Wenna that he failed to notice
+the objects around him; and one of these, now become visible, was a very
+handsome young lady, who was coming smartly along a wooded lane,
+carrying a basket of bright-colored flowers.
+
+"Why, here's Mabyn Rosewarne! I must wait for her."
+
+Mabyn had seen at a distance Mrs. Trelyon's gray horses: she guessed
+that the young master had come back, and that he had brought some
+strangers with him. She did not like to be stared at by strangers. She
+came along the path with her eyes fixed on the ground: she thought it
+impertinent of Harry Trelyon to wait to speak to her.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn," he cried, "you must let me drive you home. And let me
+introduce you to my grandmother. There is some one else whom you know."
+
+The young lady bowed to Mrs. Trelyon; then she stared and changed color
+somewhat when she saw Mr. Roscorla; then she was helped up into a seat.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Trelyon?" she said. "I am very glad to see you have
+come back.--How do you do, Mr. Roscorla?"
+
+She shook hands with them both, but not quite in the same fashion.
+
+"And you have sent no message that you were coming?" she said, looking
+her companion straight in the face.
+
+"No--no, I did not," he said, angry and embarrassed by the open enmity
+of the girl. "I thought I should surprise you all."
+
+"You have surprised me, any way," said Mabyn, "for how can you be so
+thoughtless? Wenna has been very ill--I tell you she has been very ill
+indeed, though she has said little about it--and the least thing upsets
+her. How can you think of frightening her so? Do you know what you are
+doing? I wish you would go away back to Launceston or London, and write
+her a note there, if you are coming, instead of trying to frighten her."
+
+This was the language, it appeared to Mr. Roscorla, of a virago; only,
+viragoes do not ordinarily have tears in their eyes, as was the case
+with Mabyn when she finished her indignant appeal.
+
+"Mr. Trelyon, do you think it is fair to go and frighten Wenna so?" she
+demanded.
+
+"It is none of my business," Trelyon answered with an air as if he had
+said to his rival, "Yes, go and kill the girl. You are a nice sort of
+gentleman, to come down from London to kill the girl!"
+
+"This is absurd," said Mr. Roscorla contemptuously, for he was stung
+into reprisal by the persecution of these two: "a girl isn't so easily
+frightened out of her wits. Why, she must have known that my coming home
+was at any time probable."
+
+"I have no doubt she feared that it was," said Mabyn, partly to herself:
+for once she was afraid of speaking out. Presently, however, a brighter
+light came over the girl's face. "Why, I quite forgot," she said,
+addressing Harry Trelyon--"I quite forgot that Wenna was just going up
+to Trelyon Hall when I left. Of course she will be up there. You will be
+able to tell her that Mr. Roscorla has arrived, won't you?"
+
+The malice of this suggestion was so apparent that the young gentleman
+in front could not help grinning at it: fortunately, his face could not
+be seen by his rival. What _he_ thought of the whole arrangement
+can only be imagined. And so, as it happened, Mr. Roscorla and his
+friend Mabyn were dropped at the inn, while Harry Trelyon drove his
+grandmother up and on to the Hall.
+
+"Well, Harry," the old lady said, "I am glad to be able to breathe at
+last: I thought you two were going to kill each other."
+
+"There is no fear of that," the young man said: "that is not the way in
+which this affair has to be settled. It is entirely a matter for her
+decision; and look how everything is in his favor. I am not even allowed
+to say a word to her; and even if I could, he is a deal cleverer than me
+in argument. He would argue my head off in half an hour."
+
+"But you don't turn a girl's heart round by argument, Harry. When a girl
+has to choose between a young lover and an elderly one, it isn't always
+good sense that directs her choice. Is Miss Wenna Rosewarne at all like
+her sister?"
+
+"She's not such a tomboy," he said, "but she is quite as straightforward
+and proud, and quick to tell you what is the right thing to do. There's
+no sort of shamming tolerated by these two girls. But then Wenna is
+gentler and quieter, and more soft and lovable, than Mabyn--in my fancy,
+you know; and she is more humorous and clever, so that she never gets
+into those school-girl rages. But it is really a shame to compare them
+like that; and, indeed, if any one said the least thing against one of
+these girls, the other would precious soon make him regret the day he
+was born. You don't catch me doing that with either of them. I've had a
+warning already when I hinted that Mabyn might probably manage to keep
+her husband in good order. And so she would, I believe, if the husband
+were not of the right sort; but when she is really fond of anybody, she
+becomes their slave out and out. There is nothing she wouldn't do for
+her sister; and her sister thinks there's nobody in the world like
+Mabyn. So you see--"
+
+He stopped in the middle of this sentence.
+
+"Grandmother," he said, almost in a whisper, "here she is coming along
+the road."
+
+"Miss Rosewarne?"
+
+"Yes: shall I introduce you?"
+
+"If you like."
+
+Wenna was coming down the steep road between the high hedges with a
+small girl on each side of her, whom she was leading by the hand. She
+was gayly talking to them: you could hear the children laughing at what
+she said. Old Mrs. Trelyon came to the conclusion that this merry young
+lady, with the light and free step, the careless talk and fresh color in
+her face, was certainly not dying of any love-affair.
+
+"Take the reins, grandmother, for a minute."
+
+He had leapt down into the road, and was standing before her almost ere
+she had time to recognize him. For a moment a quick gleam of gladness
+shone on her face: then, almost instinctively, she seemed to shrink from
+him, and she was reserved, distant, and formal.
+
+He introduced her to the old lady, who said something nice to her about
+her sister. The young man was looking wistfully at her, troubled at
+heart that she treated him so coldly.
+
+"I have got to break some news to you," he said: "perhaps you will
+consider it good news."
+
+She looked up quickly.
+
+"Nothing has happened to anybody--only some one has arrived. Mr.
+Roscorla is at the inn."
+
+She did not flinch. He was vexed with her that she showed no sign of
+fear or dislike. On the contrary, she quickly said that she must then go
+down to the inn; and she bade them both good-bye in a placid and
+ordinary way, while he drove off with dark thoughts crowding into his
+imagination of what might happen down at the inn during the next few
+days. He was angry with her, he scarcely knew why.
+
+Meanwhile Wenna, apparently quite calm, went on down the road, but there
+was no more laughing in her voice, no more light in her face.
+
+"Miss Wenna," said the smaller of the two children, who could not
+understand this change, and who looked up with big, wondering eyes, "why
+does oo tremble so?"
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+SONNET.
+
+
+    The curious eye may watch her lovely face,
+      Whereon such rare and roseate tinctures glow,
+    And cry, How fair the rose and lily show
+      Mid all the glories of a maiden grace!
+    If this sweet show, this bloom and tender glance,
+      Would so attract a stranger's unskilled eyes,
+    Until he sees the light of Paradise
+      Dawn in the garden of that countenance--
+    I, to whom love hath given finer powers,
+      See there the emblems of a flowering soul
+    That hath its root in other world than ours,
+      And which doth ever seek its native goal;
+    Meanwhile decks life with love and grace and flowers,
+      And in one beauteous garland binds the whole.
+
+                                        F.A. HILLARD.
+
+
+
+
+NICE.
+
+
+Twenty-Two centuries ago--eighteen hundred years before Columbus sailed
+in quest of the New World--a Phocean colony from Marseilles founded this
+celebrated city, calling it Nichê (Nice or Victory), in honor of a
+signal triumph obtained by their arms over their enemies, the Ligurians,
+or inhabitants of the northern coast of Italy. For ages it flourished,
+being almost as famous with the ancients as a health-resort as it is
+to-day; but its evil hour came when the Goths, Lombards and Franks in
+A.D. 405, pouring through the defiles and gorges of the Maritime Alps,
+laid Nice and almost all the other cities of Italy, even beyond Rome, in
+ashes. A hundred years later it was rebuilt, but its beautiful forum,
+its classical temples, its mosaic-paved villas and marble theatres had
+disappeared utterly, and the new city was but a shadow of the old. In
+the tenth century the Saracens conquered Nice, and remained in quiet
+possession for seventy years, and during their stay introduced much of
+the tropical vegetation which we still admire. They were finally driven
+away by the insurgent natives in A.D. 975, but they left the impress of
+their occupation in many Arabic words which still mark the local
+_patois_; and as a number of the fugitives were captured and reduced to
+slavery, intermarrying in the course of time with the native population,
+the Moorish type is still very noticeable amongst the peasantry. Freed
+from the Saracenic yoke, the Niçois lived in peace for nearly two
+centuries, being only disturbed from time to time by the unwelcome
+visitations of pirates. Later on, toward the middle of the thirteenth
+century, like most other Southern and Italian cities, Nice fell a victim
+to the constant quarrels of the powerful families allied respectively to
+the Ghibelline and Guelphic factions. Thus, the incessant broils between
+the Lascaris of Tenda, the Grimaldis of Monaco and the Dorias of
+Dolceacqua desolated the surrounding country, and often reduced the city
+to a state of siege. The Niçois were compelled to keep up a perpetual
+guerilla, which, however inspiriting, was by no means conducive to their
+material prosperity. In 1364 an invasion of locusts from Africa led to a
+famine, and ultimately a plague which destroyed two-thirds of the
+population. The people, attributing their misfortunes to the
+intercession of the Jews with the powers below, rose up and massacred
+them: only five Israelites out of over two thousand are said to have
+escaped their blind fury. When order was at last re-established, and the
+Niçois began to settle down again, they perceived their impoverished and
+subordinate position to be so alarming that their only chance of safety
+was immediately to place themselves under the protection of the dukes of
+Savoy, who for a century and a half defended them from the attacks of
+their numerous enemies in a most valiant manner. But in 1521, Francis I.
+of France wrenched the city and province from the beneficent rule of the
+Savoyards and proclaimed himself count of Nice. In 1524 war broke out
+between Francis and the emperor Charles V., and the contending armies
+alternately devastated and pillaged Nice and its environs. The pest
+reappeared, and with it a drought and famine of so fearful a character
+that many thousand persons perished, and others in their despair slew
+themselves. Pope Paul III. undertook the difficult task of reconciling
+the belligerents, and even went so far as to travel to Nice for the
+purpose. A marble cross which gives its name to a suburb of the town
+("La Croix de Marbre") still marks the spot where the conference took
+place in which Francis and Charles swore a peace in the presence of His
+Holiness which they took the first opportunity to violate. In 1540 the
+war recommenced, and a number of dissolute young men of good family
+formed themselves into organized companies of bandits and overran
+the country, to the terror of the wretched peasantry and the utter ruin
+of many hundreds of honest families. But in 1543 a second Joan of Arc
+was raised up by Providence to deliver the Niçois in the person of the
+still popular heroine, Catterina Segurana. Francis I. had recently
+scandalized Christendom by allying himself with the famous Mohammedan
+corsair, Barbarossa of Algiers with a view of reconquering Nice, which
+he considered the key of Italy. Accordingly, one fine morning three
+hundred vessels belonging to the Algerine pirate entered the neighboring
+port of Villefranche, and presently the whole country was filled with a
+horde of turbaned freebooters. Cimiez, Montboron, Mont Gros and a
+hundred other villages and hamlets were soon alive with French marauders
+and Turkish pirates, who presently proceeded to bombard the city itself.
+The siege was short, but terrible, and the inhabitants were at the last
+gasp when the energetic Catterina Segurana, a washer-woman by trade, and
+surnamed _Mao faccia_ ("Ugly face"), on account of the homeliness of her
+countenance, seized a hatchet, and, after a vigorous address to her
+fellow-citizens, placed herself at their head and led them against the
+enemy. The same result attended her efforts as did those of her
+immediate prototype, the glorious Maid of Orleans. She so animated the
+people, so roused their patriotism, that before the day was over the
+French and infidels were conquered, and the bold and generous Catterina.
+stood surrounded by her enthusiastic fellow-citizens, waving the
+conquered Algerine flag, in token of victory, from the summit of the
+castle hill, on the spot where formerly stood her statue.[001]
+
+From the time of the brave Catterina to our own, Nice has sustained at
+least a dozen sieges of more or less severity. That of 1706 was perhaps
+one of the most shocking on record. The city, by the treaty of Turin of
+1696, had once more passed under the protectorate of the dukes of Savoy,
+but the French, who have always had a longing eye for the "Department of
+the Maritime Alps," as they even then called it, broke the treaty they
+had themselves framed, and sent the duc de la Feuillade over the
+frontier with twenty thousand men to conquer the country. Nice was then
+governed by the marquis de Caraglio, who, although entreated by the
+enemy to allow the women and children to leave the city's gates,
+positively refused to do so. The consequence was that during the siege,
+which lasted six months, more than a third of the inhabitants perished
+from starvation. Men are said to have killed their wives for food, and
+women their children. Sixty thousand shells fell in various parts of the
+town, and the castle, cathedral and many churches were entirely
+destroyed.[002]
+
+In 1792, under the First Republic, Nice was again occupied by the
+French, and declared a _chef-lieu de département_. By the treaty of 1814
+the place was handed over to the Piedmontese, and stayed contentedly
+beneath the rule of the Sardinian kings until 1860, when, by the treaty
+of March 24, Napoleon III. annexed the county of Nice and the duchy of
+Savoy to his imperial possessions, in exchange for the services his army
+had rendered Italy at Magenta and Solferino. How long Nice will continue
+French is a question somewhat difficult to answer just now. There exists
+in the city and province a very strong Italian party, and during the war
+of 1870, Nice was declared in a state of siege, owing to the constant
+and very serious demonstrations of a certain part of the population. One
+of the leading inhabitants, a noted banker, even went so far as
+to travel to Florence with the intention of proving to the Italian
+government that whilst the French troops were concentrated in the north
+those of Victor Emmanuel would find no difficulty in crossing the
+frontier and uniting Nice to Italy. To the honor of the Italian
+government, this treacherous suggestion was rejected, but in those days
+the feeling between France and Italy was more cordial than it has since
+been. The Italian party is so active in the city and the department that
+the government has difficulty in keeping note of its proceedings.
+Thousands of pamphlets are secretly circulated amongst the lower orders,
+in which the advantages of the city's return to Italy are vividly
+contrasted with the disadvantages it suffers from by remaining French.
+The clergy, however, who are both numerous and influential, are French
+to a man, and dread the hour which will see them governed by the "jailer
+of Pius IX.," and consequently prove a very great assistance to the
+authorities in counteracting the intrigues of the Italians. But should
+ever, in future years, a war break out between either France and Italy,
+or between France and Italy's new ally, Prussia, the _question de Nice_
+will be once more on the _tapis_, and victory alone will preserve this
+magnificent possession to its present owners.
+
+Nice may well boast herself a rival in point of splendor of natural
+position of the most famous cities of the South--of Lisbon, Genoa,
+Naples and Constantinople--and she eclipses them in point of climate.
+Built at the eastern extremity of a fine gulf--that of Les Anges--and
+backed by an amphitheatre of hills and lofty mountains, she is sheltered
+from cold winds in winter, and in summer the Alpine breezes temper an
+atmosphere which would else be unendurably sultry, owing to the
+prevalence of the sirocco, a hot wind which passes directly hither over
+the Mediterranean from the burning shores of Africa. One can scarcely
+imagine a more glorious panorama than that of this city and its environs
+as seen from the sea or from any neighboring elevation. Let us suppose
+it a fine morning late in spring, and that we stand upon the deck of a
+yacht about a mile and a half distant from the shore. Nice, we see,
+surrounds a steep and rugged rock which rises almost perpendicularly
+from the Mediterranean to the height of about six hundred feet, and is
+crested by the ruins of the ancient castle, and covered with terraced
+gardens forming a delicious promenade. Groves of cypresses and sycamores
+hang on the declivities of this rock, which in places is rough with
+cactuses and aloes and with the Indian fig, whose bright orange flowers,
+when the sun's rays fall on them, have a magic splendor of color. A
+group of palm trees at the extremest elevation, standing out on a high
+crag, add not a little to the picturesque appearance of this singular
+urban hill. On one side of this rock the rapid torrent Paillon,
+traversed by several handsome bridges, some of them adorned with
+statues, separates the "old" from the "new" town. On the other is the
+port, filled with steamers and innumerable fishing-craft. Beyond the
+port stretches the Boulevard de l'Impératrice, inaugurated a few years
+since by the late empress of Russia, with its fine villas, notably the
+splendid Venetian Palace, an exact reproduction of the celebrated
+Moncenigo Palace at Venice, belonging to Viscount Vigier, whose wife was
+once a popular idol of the musical world of Paris and London--Sophie
+Cruvelli--and the extraordinary Moresque-looking castle of Mr. Smith,
+which is well called the _Folie d'un Anglais_--the "craze of an
+Englishman." The latter stands on the end of a promontory, and with its
+lofty towers and domes closes in the view. It is perhaps the most
+curious residence in the world, being built on a barren rock, and its
+apartments literally hewn out of the marble of which it is composed. On
+the top of the hill is a long building, with two curious twin towers and
+a dome, built of red brick faced with white marble. Here is situated the
+chief entrance. You descend from the spacious entry-hall a long well
+staircase cut in the rock and lighted from above, until you reach a
+superb octagonal chamber of white marble ornamented with
+statues and Oriental divans covered with Persian silk. This is the great
+saloon, and leading out of it are other fine chambers, all of them lined
+with polished marble and furnished with Eastern magnificence.
+Externally, there is no trace of these chambers visible. They are, as I
+have said, excavated, like Egyptian tombs, in the heart of the mountain.
+The proprietor, an eccentric English bachelor, never inhabits this
+fantastic mansion, but lives in a second-rate hotel, spending thousands
+annually in adding embellishments to his astonishing castle, where,
+notwithstanding its magnificent suites of apartments, no human being has
+ever slept a night or eaten a meal.
+
+"Smith's Craze," as I have said, closes in the view to our right. To the
+left, beyond the torrent Paillon, is situated modern Nice, with its
+quays, leviathan hotels, and an almost interminable line of villas
+marking the celebrated Promenade des Anglais. The background of the
+scene is filled up by a semicircle of well-wooded hills, verdant with
+vines, fig, orange, olive and pomegranate trees, and sparkling with
+white country-seats, convents, and campanili. Towering over these hills
+appears another range, of rocky and bold outlines, and then another, of
+lofty mountains whose peaks lose themselves in clouds, and by their
+fantastic figures form as delightful an horizon as the eye can behold.
+In the centre rises the conical peak of Monte Cao, an extinct volcano,
+exactly resembling Vesuvius in conformation, and only wanting a curl of
+smoke issuing from its crater to make the illusion perfect. Alongside of
+Monte Cao is another extinct volcano, on which are seen the ruins of the
+ancient and deserted village of Châteauneuf, while between the two
+summits (thirty-five hundred feet high) are distinctly visible the peaks
+of some of the ever-snowy Alps. The foreground of the picture is formed
+by the deep indigo waters of the Mediterranean, diversified by a hundred
+sunny sails, and overhead hangs the cloudless Italian sky.
+
+Let us now put back to port and walk through the city, visiting first
+Old Nice, then the modern Pompeii, as Alphonse Karr pleasantly calls
+the new town. Old Nice resembles Genoa on a small scale, and has very
+narrow streets of lofty (and in some cases really fine) houses, no end
+of churches, gloomy-looking convents, and one or two palaces. In the
+narrow streets surrounding the cathedral--a large and showy building,
+formerly a parish church--is a market supplied with native
+fruits--oranges, lemons, grapes, figs, and many varieties of melons and
+nuts. The streets, which are in places so narrow that you can almost
+stretch your arms across them, are full of bright-looking shops, with
+all their varied goods displayed at the open, unglazed windows. Here and
+there one comes across remains of ancient times of considerable
+interest. Thus, in the Rue Droite is an old house, with a series of
+quaint little arches and a curious Gothic gateway, which was formerly
+part of the palace inhabited by Joanna II. of Naples. Near the church of
+St. Jacques is another old residence, with an odd decoration on its
+front in the shape of colossal figures of Adam and Eve, executed in
+alto-rilievo, which have their feet on either side of the doorway and
+their heads above the fifth story. The tree of knowledge, over-laden
+with its dangerous fruit, flourishes between the windows of what was
+once the saloon, and is now a manufactory of maccaroni. In the Rue du
+Centre is the quondam palace of the Lascaris family, an old Italian
+mansion, with marble balconies, wide, majestic staircases adorned with
+Corinthian columns, and vast apartments frescoed by Carlone, a reputable
+Genoese painter of mythological subjects. Carlone's gods and goddesses
+look down no longer on the members of the House of Lascaris, who once
+ruled over Tenda, and were the lineal descendants of the imperial
+Byzantine house of Del Comneno, but on those of an amiable Niçois
+family, who most willingly show the old palace to any stranger who may
+choose to knock at their door.
+
+Some years ago a Turinese lawyer, looking over his father's private
+papers, discovered that he was the legitimate heir to the Lascaris
+titles and estates, which had been left unreclaimed for many
+centuries. This gentleman, on proving his claim, assumed the grandiose
+title of Prince Lascaris del Comneno, grand duke of Macedonia. His glory
+was short-lived. His wife went to Rome and obtained a full recognition
+of her rights from the Holy Father and admission into the first circles
+of Roman society, but was subsequently expelled from the city for
+plotting against the papal government; but she returned with the
+Piedmontese occupation in 1870, only, however, to get into a still worse
+pickle by exposing herself to the charge of defrauding Flaminio Spada's
+bank of a large sum of money. During the trial she _mizzled_, and has
+not, I believe, been heard of since. This lady is the famous "Princess
+Mopsa" about whose adventures the Roman papers have entertained their
+readers considerably during the last year or so.
+
+The churches are usually in the Italian style, having heavy façades,
+plain brick sides and queer but rather picturesque bell-towers.
+Internally, they are gaudy and tasteless, the altars ornamented on high
+days and holidays with innumerable wax candles, festoons of red, white
+and blue drapery, and huge pyramids of paper roses with gold foliage.
+Ecclesiastical affairs are presided over by Monsignor Pietro Sola, a
+charming old bishop, who is the essence of kindliness and charity. He
+was formerly one of the spiritual directors of Queen Adelaide of
+Austria, the late wife of Victor Emmanuel. The number of priests, monks
+and nuns is very considerable. There is a very large Franciscan
+monastery up at Cimiez on the hill, and a rambling old Capuchin convent
+at St. Bartolomé. The Nice Capuchins are a splendid body of men, and a
+goodly sight to see marching in a procession with their
+chocolate-colored hooded robes and long, flowing beards. Their present
+prior is a marquis Raggi of Genoa, a man of high family and rank, who
+some years since abandoned a world he had known only too well, gave all
+his fortune to the poor, and turned monk.
+
+There is a street in the old part of Nice which is perfectly unique. It
+is nearly a mile and a half long, runs parallel with the sea, and
+consists of a double row of low, one-storied houses having a paved
+terrace on their roofs, to which you ascend by several handsome
+staircases. The terrace forms a very popular promenade of an evening,
+and from it are enjoyed lovely views of the bay and mountains. Between
+these two rows of houses is the fish-market, where are frequently seen
+displayed monsters like Victor Hugo's famous _pieuve_ sprawling out
+their dozen glutinous legs fringed with eyes and deadly weapons in
+almost supernatural hideousness, to the admiration of a group of English
+or American tourists. Hard by the fish-market is the Corso, a shady
+promenade round which the gala carriages drive in Carnival time, while
+the masked inmates pelt and get pelted in turn with comfits made of
+painted clay. The Corso is also the scene of numerous religious
+processions, some of which are quaint and picturesque. There are a
+number of ancient confraternities established amongst the trades-people
+of Nice, who wear costumes of, red, white, black and blue serge,
+according to the guild they belong to. This sack-like garment covers
+them from head to foot, face and all, there being only two eyeholes slit
+in the mask to permit the wearer to see out. These brotherhoods attend
+the sick, bury the dead and take care of the widows and orphans, and in
+Holy Week make the narrow streets of the old city delightful to the
+artistic eye by the bright mass of their vivid-colored raiment, the
+flickering of their tapers, and the gigantic crucifixes of gold and
+silver they carry in procession from church to church. Every morning
+there is a market held on the Corso of fruits, vegetables and flowers.
+Such magnificent baskets of camellias, japonicas and roses, such
+nosegays of violets and orange-blossoms, can be seen, I fancy, nowhere
+but at Nice. Here also the peasant-women sometimes bring immense pots of
+Peruvian aloes for sale, whose snowy blossoms are scented like those of
+the magnolia, and rise in gigantic pyramids of magnificent cup-shaped
+flowers. They are plants to salute respectfully as you pass by
+them, such is their size and dignity. In Holy Week women are to be seen
+all over the old town selling plaited palm branches of a pale
+straw-color, some of which are bedecked with little bows of ribbon or
+stars of tinsel, used in the ceremonies of Palm Sunday. The
+peasant-girls who come to market at Nice are rather handsome, but as
+dark as Nubians, with almond-shaped eyes and long, coarse black hair,
+which they wear plaited into tails bound round the head with broad
+velvet ribbons, like a coronet. On the top of this headgear they sport a
+wide-brimmed straw hat of peculiar shape, ornamented with little black
+crosses made of narrow velvet. In Princess Marie Lichtenstein's _Holland
+House_ there is a portrait of Lady Augusta Holland wearing one of these
+Nice hats.
+
+But it is time for us to cross the bridges and pay our respects to Nice
+the "new." When I first visited Nice in 1856 at least two-thirds of this
+part of the city were not in existence. There were no splendid
+railway-stations then; only one or two, instead of twenty, monster
+hotels; the Promenade des Anglais only extended about a mile along the
+shore, instead of four; and there were but one quay and two bridges. Now
+superb quays line the river on either side, and there are six bridges,
+and Heaven only knows how many churches for the accommodation of all the
+denominations imaginable and unimaginable, from Père Lavigne's very
+beautiful and very orthodox church, in which Monsignor Capel has
+preached in Lent, down to Léon Pilate's, where collections are made for
+the evangelical missions presided over by Mrs. Gould and W.C. Van Metre.
+There is a Greek church of exceeding beauty, the altar-screen of which
+was sent from Moscow as a present from the czar; and an Episcopal
+church, surrounded by a beautiful cemetery, where sleeps the philosophic
+Bussy d'Anglas, with many others whose names are well known. The real
+Niçois almost all dwell in Old Nice, leaving the new city to the foreign
+colony. Indeed, the natives are rarely if ever seen, except in the
+street. They keep to their old quiet way of living, and, beyond letting
+their houses and selling their goods, appear to be utterly unconscious
+even of the existence of the strangers on the other side of Paillon.
+Many of the Nice families are titled and wealthy, but with the exception
+of that of the count de Cessoles, it is very rare to meet the Niçois in
+society. Mademoiselle Mathilde de Cessoles is the reigning belle, and
+deserves the honor. She is a superb-looking woman, with a head and
+countenance worthy of a regal diadem. Her features resemble those of the
+House of Bourbon, her complexion is admirable, and she has a certain
+good-natured, indolent, sultana way of moving which is perfectly
+charming. Cupid alone knows how many have sighed for her hand since her
+long reign as a queen of society began, but none have as yet been
+favored with a kinder glance than that of friendship. Scottish dukes,
+Roman princes and American officers have wooed, but never won: la belle
+Mathilde still walks the orange groves of her villa, "in virgin
+meditation, fancy free."
+
+"But it waxes late--'tis near three o'clock:" let us hasten past the
+casinos, cafes, reading-rooms, Turkish baths and American drinking-bars
+which flourish on the quays, and make our way to the Promenade des
+Anglais, by this time alive with fashionables. The "Promenade," as I
+have said, is nearly four miles long, and faces the sea. It is very
+broad, and has on one side a row of villas and hotels--on the other a
+walk shaded by oleanders and palm trees, through the openings of which
+are obtained magnificent views of the Mediterranean. Some of these
+villas are remarkably beautiful, especially that of the Princes Stirby,
+the former sovereigns of Wallachia, which is surrounded with exquisite
+gardens abounding with noble camellia trees, some of which produce as
+many as fifteen hundred flowers. The Villa de Dempierre is very pretty,
+and is the property of the countess of that name, who is a most
+noteworthy person. Madame de Dempierre belongs to one of the most
+ancient and wealthy families of France. She was once a great
+beauty, and is still a brilliant wit and charming artist. Some years ago
+she visited the empress of Russia, then residing at Nice, where she
+died. Her Imperial Majesty, who was noted for her habit of making
+personal remarks, said bluntly, "Madame la comtesse, how beautiful you
+must have been!" "Majesty," answered the _spirituelle_ Madame de
+Dempierre, "you were complaining of the nearness of your sight: since
+you can distinguish my beauty through the vista of so many years, I
+think you enjoy long-sightedness in a remarkable degree." The empress
+wrinkled her nose, and presently observed: "I think, countess, I
+remember to have seen your husband, General de Dempierre, in Russia."
+"Doubtless Your Majesty did so: he was the first Frenchman that entered
+the Kremlin." The czarina was silent: the fall of Moscow was not a
+pleasant subject of conversation to the wife of Nicholas. The Villa de
+Diesbach comes next, the winter residence of the historical family of
+that name, into which married a few years since a tall, gazelle-eyed
+American belle, Miss Meta McCall. Then follows the pretty Villa
+Bouxhoevden, the property of a Corlandese count of a very noble house,
+whose wife hails from New Jersey. The countess is much the fashion, and
+her hospitable house is a rendezvous of the elite of the foreign and
+American colony. She is a tall, graceful woman, with a pale and
+interesting countenance, shadowed with clusters of light-brown curls,
+which reminds one of Vandyke's portraits of Queen Henrietta Maria--a
+likeness somewhat increased by costumes admirably suited to her
+style--long flowing robes of rich silk trimmed with ermine and costly
+lace. Then there is Mrs. Williams's garden, with Indian creepers and
+gaudy Eastern plants, sent to her by her gallant son, the Crimean hero,
+from the slopes of the Himalayas. Here on a Sunday gathers a pleasant
+circle to drink five-o'clock tea and listen to the bright remarks of
+Madame de la Caume, the daughter of the hostess, who knows more about
+French politics than many a deputy at Versailles. But whilst we have
+been looking in at villa-gardens the Promenade has filled up rapidly. A
+continuous stream of carriages occupies the centre of the road, a throng
+of gay folks animate with their showiest toilets the oleander walk and
+the Jardin Publique, where a tolerable band plays for two or three hours
+thrice a week. The marble stairs of the Casino are crowded with
+loungers, and the windows and balconies of every villa are filled with
+well-dressed men and women. Nowhere, perhaps, excepting in Rotten Row or
+the Bois de Boulogne, can so many celebrated and beautiful women and
+handsome or famous men be seen parading up and down together as on the
+Promenade des Anglais of a fine afternoon in the season. Here gathers
+the _crême de la crême_ of two worlds, the Old and the New, Europe and
+America. In the winter of 1870 the town was crowded to excess. Never
+before were there so many notabilities assembled at Nice--never was
+there so much gossip, so much _cancan_ and small talk. It was amusing to
+sit in the shade of a palm tree on the promenade and review the
+_personæ_ of this Vanity Fair. Frederick Charles of Prussia and his
+princess in a landau, with two Nubians on the box; the crown-princess
+Victoria of England and her sister of Hesse-Darmstadt, on a trip from
+Cannes, where they were then visiting; Her Grace of Newcastle; De
+Villemessant of the _Figaro_, in an invalid's chair, the most
+accomplished of _causeurs_; Count Montalivet, the former minister of
+Louis Philippe, and by him, for a few days at the full of the season, a
+little old gentleman with a squeaky voice, M. Adolphe Thiers. Next comes
+a group of ladies, the three daughters of the Hispano-Mexican duchess De
+Fernan-Nuñez; all three looking exactly alike, tall and dark; all three
+of a height; all three invariably dressed in black, with lofty Tyrolese
+hats and cocks' feathers; all three unmarried; all three marriageable,
+and worth Croesus only knows how many millions; all three invariably
+alone--a fact which made old Madame Colaredo scream out of her window
+one day, "_Tiens! voilà les trois cent (sans) gardes_!" Then follow
+Lord Rokeby, the most affable of lordships; Lord Portarlington;
+General Sir William Williams of Kars; Princess Kantacuzène, the last
+descendant of the imperial Byzantine house of that name; the ideally
+lovely Miss Amy Shaw of Boston; the three pretty Miss Warrens of New
+York; Madame Gavini de Campile, the wife of the prefect, a fine-looking
+dame gloriously arrayed in showy robes, whom half the society adored and
+the rest cordially hated; the duke de Mouchy, who married Anna Murat;
+the duke de Périgord-Talleyrand, who married an American; the duke de la
+Conquista, who derives his title from the conquest of Peru; the lovely
+countess Del Borgo; and the famous Italian beauty, Madame Bellotti, a
+Milanese lady, whose maiden name was Visconti, of that semi-royal house.
+Theresa Bellotti's beauty is of a grand style seen nowhere out of Italy.
+Picture her to yourself as I once saw her at a masquerade at the
+préfecture. Round her superb figure swept an ample robe of crimson
+velvet looped up with bands of gold. Her bare arms, models worthy of the
+chisel of Canova, gleamed from the rich sables which lined the hanging
+sleeves of her dress. Her hair, dark as night, was gathered up in the
+high fashion Sir Joshua Reynolds loved to depict. A half-moon of
+enormous diamonds fastened a plume over her left temple, and her neck
+and fingers flashed back the colors of the rainbow from a thousand gems.
+As to her face, it was radiant. Rich color flushed her cheeks, her eyes
+sparkled with animation when she spoke; but at times, when her features
+resumed a calm after conversation, she resembled the portraits of some
+of the famous Italian women of the Renaissance--her own ancestress, for
+instance, Bianca Visconti, duchess of Milan, or Veronica Cibò, or
+Lucrezia Petroni, whose daughter was the ill-fated Beatrice Cenci. And
+now come by the fascinating Mrs. Lloyd, whom all the world knows and
+likes; grand-looking Mrs. Senator Grymes of Louisiana, a witty,
+brilliant old lady, whose salon is one of the most elegant in Nice;
+Baron Haussmann, and with him his colossal daughter, Madame de Perneti,
+the handsomest of giantesses, who was once asked to join in private
+theatricals, but when the stage was built up in her friend's
+drawing-room, being about five feet from the level of the rest of the
+chamber, it was discovered that _la belle Caryatide_, as her friends
+call her, could not act on it, for the simple reason that she was a full
+head taller than the scenery; clever Madame de Skariatine, the daughter
+of the famous Count Schouvalof (the "Shoveloff" of our times), who,
+after being Russian ambassador half over Europe, turned Barnabite monk
+at Rome; Lady Dalling and Bulwer, the great duke of Wellington's niece,
+and now the widow of one of England's most illustrious statesmen;
+hospitable Marquise de St. Agnan, and her pretty daughter, Mademoiselle
+Henriette; and Princess Souvarow, _ci-devant_ widow Apraxine, _ci-devant_
+widow Kisselof, the most fascinating of Russian princesses, and one of
+the greatest of female gamblers, who one night broke the bank at Monte
+Carlo for two hundred and fifty thousand francs, and lost them the next.
+On the opposite side of the way, screening herself from observation,
+demurely clad in sober-colored attire, Madame Volnis passes along from
+some mission of charity. This lady was once one of the most popular
+actresses on the French stage, and with Mademoiselle Mars and Rose Chéri
+was the idol of Paris--Léontine Fay. She was, if possible, a still
+greater favorite in St. Petersburg, where, on her retirement from the
+stage, she became French reader to the late czarina. Since the death of
+the empress she has always resided at Nice, where she is distinguished
+for her exalted piety and extreme charity. Even when on the stage this
+lady devoted her leisure to charitable works. She was always remarked
+for her modesty of manner: her dress was simplicity itself. At the
+theatre she wore costumes rich and elegant, suited to the parts she
+enacted, but in society she invariably appeared in plain white muslin or
+dark silk. It would be impossible to exaggerate her goodness. Her whole
+life has been passed amongst the poor, in the minute fulfillment
+of her duties, and on her knees in church. After acting one part of
+the evening, she would hasten, on the fall of the curtain, to pass the
+rest of it watching by the bedside of some poor wretch stricken low
+perhaps by some infectious disease. During the war of 1870, Madame
+Volnis's conduct was angelical. If there was some awful operation to be
+performed upon any of the wounded soldiers sent to Nice from the field
+of battle, it was she who was present, who held the sufferer's hand, and
+who consoled and cheered with the tenderness of a Sister of Charity--of
+a mother.
+
+As the austere figure of Léontine Fay passes away, hidden in a cloud of
+sunny dust raised by the wheels of a hundred carriages, another form
+comes upon the stage, radiant amongst the most brilliant, the observed
+of all observers--Madame Rattazzi, _née_ Princess Bonaparte Wyse. What a
+wonderful toilette is hers! One fine afternoon she appeared upon the
+Promenade clad in a purple velvet robe, edged and flounced with
+canary-colored satin, looped up voluminously _en panier_, and adorned
+with big bows of yellow ribbon. Her hat was a broad-brimmed Leghorn
+straw trimmed with large bunches of pansies. No one but Madame Rattazzi
+could have worn such an attire in the public streets without the risk of
+being hooted, but such are the grace and beauty of this celebrated woman
+that her costume seemed in perfect keeping. She was in Nice one winter
+for at least five months, and every day saw her out in a fresh dress.
+When she travels she has more boxes than Madame Ristori. She dwelt on
+the Promenade, over the dowager of Colaredo, who had a special spite
+against her; in consequence of which she invariably illuminated her
+windows, when she had company, with the Italian colors, red, white and
+green, to the supreme disgust of the old Ultramontane countess. Her
+apartment was elegantly furnished, and adorned with beautiful vases of
+mignonette and plants of moss-roses. When she received of an evening the
+chambers were agreeably lighted up with many pale and subdued lamps. Her
+tables were always covered with new books, magazines and several copies
+of her own poems and novels, including an exceedingly clever story,
+_Louise Keller_, which she had just finished. On the walls hung pictures
+in oil and water-colors of her own execution; on the piano were
+scattered, together with much classical music, some hymns, polkas and
+ballads of her composition. One night she acted in a comedy of her own
+writing, and her rendering of the part of the heroine, a witty and
+intriguing widow, was inimitable. Many severe critics have declared that
+Madame Rattazzi is, as an actress, a worthy rival of Fargeuil or
+Madeleine Brohan. Her manners are very fascinating--a little bit too
+natural to be quite French, and a little too ceremonious to be quite
+Italian. She would have proved an invaluable acquisition at the downfall
+of the tower of Babel, for she is mistress of I dare not say how many
+languages. As a rule, women hate her, and men do just the contrary. This
+is not to be wondered at, for she is very beautiful even now. Her face
+has the chiseled cameo features of her uncle, Napoleon I.; her eyes are
+deep violet, fringed with long sweeping lashes; her mouth is perfectly
+exquisite, and on either side of it two pretty dimples appear whenever
+she smiles. So many enemies has she amongst her own sex that to avenge
+herself for the affronts they constantly offer her she published a
+magazine in Florence called the _Matinées Italiennes_, for the purpose
+of showing up her female antagonists. Here is a sample: "At Nice a grand
+ball; Madame la Viscomtesse de B---- _en grande toilette_, looking for
+all the world like a big Nuremberg doll, with her black hair dyed an
+impossible straw-color, and appearing at least five years younger than
+she did when I first saw her make her _début_ in society five-and-twenty
+years ago; and she was then a gushing maiden of twenty-one." By and by
+comes the hour of vengeance. Madame Rattazzi gives a ball, and not a
+woman will go to it. In 1870 she gave one at the Grand Hotel, to which
+half the town was invited. There arrived at the festal scene
+about five hundred men and just thirty-two women. It was funny enough.
+The thirty-two women besported themselves with thirty-two partners in
+the centre of the hall to the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut,
+psaltery, and all kinds of musical instruments, whilst the rest of the
+men stood round the hall five deep, like a deep dark fringe on a Turkish
+carpet. Madame Rattazzi, however, achieved a great triumph against all
+odds. By dint of grace, charm of manners and tact she put all her guests
+in the best humor. The "thirty-two" had a fine time of it, and danced to
+their hearts' content. The five hundred men were introduced and grouped
+and wined and punched until every man there swore that earth did not
+hold a fairer or more genial hostess. Madame Rattazzi was "supported,"
+as the phrase goes, on this memorable occasion by Madame la Princesse,
+her mother, a rather formidable-looking dowager, a daughter of Lucian
+Bonaparte, and widow of Sir Thomas Wyse, once British consul at Athens.
+Her Imperial Highness Princess Letitia must have been a wonderful beauty
+in her youth--a stately grand being who one could easily imagine might
+have resembled the Roman Agrippina or empress Livia. Once the barrier of
+her stately manners overcome, she proved to be a talkative, affable
+woman of the world, with a huge experience thereof. I can see her now,
+dressed in a scarlet satin robe and glittering with jewels. She wore a
+headdress of diamonds with two long ostrich feathers in it, one of
+which, a white one, got out of its place and stood bolt upright, as if
+it was frightened, until some charitable hand laid it down. This was, I
+fancy, the last ball Princess Letitia ever graced, for she died a very
+little while afterward. Poor Rattazzi was there too. He was not a
+striking-looking man, but agreeable and excessively polite. He rarely
+talked politics--I rather suspect from the fear of compromising
+himself--but his conversation was was pleasant and varied. After his
+death Madame Rattazzi removed to Monaco, where she busied herself with
+editing his letters and memoirs--a task which, it appears, the Italian
+government would be delighted that she should spare herself, as his
+papers are said to be very full of compromising matter relative to the
+Mentana expedition. A large sum of money was offered her to relinquish
+her hold on these documents, but she answered by a letter published in
+the Italian papers that they were left to her as a sacred trust, and
+that she felt herself in duty bound to make their contents public, in
+order to justify her husband's memory. As a curious proof of her
+political sagacity--unless it is to be considered a mere coincidence--I
+may mention that in January, 1870, she came to a masked ball at the
+Casino dressed as Mars, in a short skirt of red satin, a cuirass of
+gold, on her head a helmet, in one hand a spear, and in the other a
+shield, and on it was written "Roma." Did Madame Rattazzi foresee that
+by September of the same year there would be a war, and that as one of
+its results Rome would so soon become the capital of that Italy which
+her husband had helped to build up?[003]
+
+From this somewhat rambling sketch the reader will readily understand
+that Nice is one of the great centres of society in Europe, and indeed
+in late years it is rather, as a place of gay reunion that it is
+frequented than as a resort for invalids. Since the foundation of
+quieter colonies at Mentone and San Remo, Nice has somewhat lost its
+reputation as a sanitarium, for it is rather difficult, especially for
+young people, to resist the temptation of its innumerable balls and
+round of gayeties; and these are not considered conducive to the
+preservation of health even amongst the healthiest. The medical men,
+therefore, recommend places along the neighboring coast which enjoy
+the same or even greater advantages of climate. That of Nice, after
+all that has been written about it, still seems to me one of the finest
+in the world. The air is exquisitely pure and clear, and has proved
+beneficial in many hundreds of cases of incipient consumption. But the
+fatal error is often made of sending hither patients in whom the disease
+has made considerable progress. In such cases the irritating air hastens
+death. I have known people brought here in the second and last stages of
+consumption, who have been carried off in a fortnight after their
+arrival, and who might have lingered on for years elsewhere. The patient
+who finds himself benefited should remain at Nice for at least three or
+four years, only varying the air in summer by a visit to some of the
+many pleasant places in the neighboring mountains, where the atmosphere
+is pure, cool and wholesome. Perhaps, it is owing in part to the
+brightness of the sunshine and the beauty of the scenery that soon after
+his arrival the health of the invalid often revives as if by
+enchantment. Alphonse Karr, a resident of many years, who knows every
+nook and corner of the place, and who has cultivated a garden in its
+environs as celebrated throughout the world as his own sparkling pen,
+says well: "Who is there so downhearted as to resist the glorious heat
+of the sun, the beauty of that deepest of blue seas, the loveliness of
+the varied trees, the tropical vegetation, the scent of the
+orange-flowers, the music of the brooks, the sight of the ever-changing
+hues of the mountains of _Nizza la bella_?"
+
+                                        R. DAVEY.
+
+
+
+
+THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.
+
+FROM THE FRENCH OF ANATOLE LEROY-BEAULIEU.
+
+
+
+
+I.--ORIGIN OF THE RASKOL.
+
+
+For more than two centuries Russian orthodoxy has been undermined by
+obscure sects, unknown to foreigners, and little known to Russians
+themselves. Beneath the imposing pile of the official Church have been
+hollowed out vast underground burrows and a labyrinth of gloomy crypts,
+which form a retreat for the popular beliefs and superstitions. We
+propose to descend into these catacombs of ignorance and fanaticism. We
+shall attempt to map them out, to explore their remotest nooks, and to
+lay hold in this, their hiding-place, of the character and aspirations
+of the people. Nothing could yield better means of acquaintance with the
+genius of the nation and the groundwork of Russian society. The
+_Raskol_, with its thousand sects, is perhaps the most original
+feature of Russia, and what most sharply distinguishes it from Western
+Europe.
+
+Like rivers colored by the soil through which they flow, religions often
+change their characteristics according to the nations who practice them.
+The Raskol is Byzantine Christianity issuing from the Russian lower
+classes. In the thick and muddy waters of Muscovite sectarianism we can
+distinguish foreign admixtures, sometimes Protestant, sometimes Jewish,
+or even Mohammedan, more frequently Gnostic or pagan. The Raskol,
+nevertheless, remains wholly different, in principle and in tendency,
+from all the religions and religious movements of the world: it is
+original and national from the foundation up. So thoroughly Russian is
+it that outside of its native country it has never made a proselyte, and
+even within the empire has hardly any adherents excepting among the
+people of "Greater Russia," the most thoroughly national of all. So
+spontaneous has been its growth that in all its phases it is its own
+best interpreter, and if confined to an isolated continent, its
+development would have been the same. The Raskol is the most national of
+all the religious movements to which Christianity has given birth, and
+at the same time the most exclusively popular. It took its rise, not in
+the schools, nor in the monasteries, but in the mujik's hovel and in the
+shop; and it has never spread beyond its birthplace. Hence, the student
+of politics and the philosopher take a keener interest in ignorant
+heresies than is to be found in their doctrines alone. These sects of
+lately-liberated peasants claim an attention by no means due to their
+meagre theology, from their being the symptom of a mental condition and
+a social state for even a distant approach to which all Western Europe
+would be scoured in vain.
+
+The Raskol (schism) is neither a sect nor a group of sects. It is,
+rather, an aggregate of doctrines and heresies, which are often
+divergent or even contradictory, with no other tie than a common
+starting-point and a common hostility to the official orthodox Church.
+In this respect the Raskol is more nearly analogous to Protestantism
+than to anything else. It is inferior to Protestantism in the numbers
+and education of its adherents, but it almost equals it as regards the
+variety and originality of its developments. Further the likeness cannot
+be fairly said to go. In the midst of their unfilial revolt, German
+Protestantism and the Russian Raskol preserve alike the signs of their
+origin, the stamp (so to speak) of the Church whence they have issued,
+as well as of the widely-differing states of society which gave them
+birth. In Western Europe love of speculation and a critical spirit gave
+rise to the larger part of modern sects, while in Russia they are the
+offspring of reverence and unenlightened obstinacy. In the West, the
+predominance of feeling over the value attached to the externals of
+religion has been the cause of religious divisions, whereas the same
+result has been produced in Russia by an extraordinary reverence for
+external forms for ritual and ceremonial. The two movements thus seem to
+be in absolutely opposite directions, but they have nevertheless
+terminated at the same point. In other words, the Raskol, when once
+freed from the authority which maintained the unity of the faith, was as
+powerless as Protestantism to establish any authority within itself. It
+has in consequence become a prey to the same license of opinion, to the
+same individualism, and, finally, to the same anarchy.
+
+Few religious revolutions have involved results so, complex as the
+Raskol, yet few have been simpler in their inception. The countless
+sects which for two centuries have had their being among the Russian
+people took their rise, in general, from the revision of the liturgy.
+One stock produced them nearly all: only a few sects (though these, by
+the way, are by no means the least curious) date from an earlier time or
+have another origin than this liturgic reform. The Middle Ages in
+Russia, as elsewhere, were marked by the rise of heresies. Of these the
+oldest may have arisen before the Mongol conquest, from contact with
+Greeks or Slaves, particularly with the Bulgarian Bogomiles, the
+ancestors or Oriental brethren of the Albigenses. Other heresies sprang
+up later in the North, in the Novgorod region, from intercourse with
+Jewish or other Western traders. Of most of these the name alone
+remains: such are the _Martinovtsy_, the _Strigolniki_, the
+Judaizers, and so on. All these sects were dying away when the Raskol
+broke out; and it absorbed all the vague, embryonic beliefs floating in
+the popular mind. Some of these antique heresies--the Strigolniki, for
+instance--after having disappeared from history, seem to have come to
+light again in the shape of certain sects of our own days; and one might
+fancy that they had been for centuries running on in an underground
+channel.
+
+In the dim disputes of mediæval times, however, one may make out with
+some clearness the fundamental principle of the Raskol: it is a
+scrupulous veneration for the letter--formalism, in a word. "In such a
+year," says a Novgorod chronicler of the fifteenth century, "certain
+philosophers began to chant, '_O_ Lord, have mercy upon us!' while
+others said, '_Lord_, have mercy upon us!'"[004] In this remark the
+whole Raskol stands revealed. Controversies like these begat the schism
+which has rent the Russian Church asunder. Religious invocations have
+for this people the nature of magical formulæ, the slightest change in
+which destroys their efficacy. The Russian clings to the heathen
+feeling, though he hides it under a Christian veil. He believes in the
+power of particular words and gestures. He still seems to regard his
+priest as a kind of _chaman_, religious ceremonies as enchantments,
+and religion in general as witchcraft. A fondness for rites
+(_obriad_) is indeed one of the characteristics of the inhabitant
+of Greater Russia. The way in which Russia was converted to Christianity
+has much to do with this. The mass of the people became Christians at
+the bidding of others, and with no sufficient preparatory instruction,
+without even having passed through all the stages of that polytheistic
+evolution from which other nations of Europe had emerged before their
+adoption of Christianity. The religion of the gospel was, in its highest
+statement, too far advanced for the mental and social condition of the
+people; and so it was corrupted, or rather reduced to external forms.
+Russia adopted merely the outside of Christianity; and there, even more
+strictly than in the West, it is true that the peasant was still a
+heathen. Other nations have adopted the outside of a religion, and have
+afterward absorbed its spirit: from its geographical and historical
+remoteness such an absorption was hard for Russia to achieve. It was
+separated from the centres of the Christian world by distance and by
+Mongol rule: its religion, like everything else, was debased by poverty
+and ignorance. Theology, properly speaking, utterly vanished, and its
+place was taken by ceremonial, which thus became the whole of religion.
+Amidst the general degradation a knowledge of the words and rites of
+public worship was all that could be exacted of a clergy which did not
+always know how to read.
+
+The changes which had taken place in the traditional texts and ritual
+have little solid ground for the popular devotion entertained for them.
+The liturgy was corrupted by the superstitious veneration paid it by the
+ignorant. False readings had crept into the books which contained the
+various local "uses," to borrow a term from the Anglican terminology.
+Liturgical unity had imperceptibly disappeared amidst various readings
+and discordant ceremonies. In course of transcription absurdities had
+slipped into the missals, along with grotesque additions and arbitrary
+intercalations, while the new readings were received with the respect
+due to antiquity, and these sometimes unintelligible passages acquired a
+sanctity in direct proportion to their obscurity. The devout mind found
+in them mysteries and occult meanings. On such perverted texts were
+erected theories and systems which pious fraud from time to time
+expanded into treatises attributed to the Fathers of the Church. So wild
+was the confusion, and so palpable the alterations, that early in the
+sixteenth century Vassili IV., a Russian prince, summoned a Greek monk
+for the purpose of revising the liturgical books. But the blind
+veneration of the clergy and people rendered this attempt abortive. The
+reviser, Maximus, was condemned by a council, and confined on a charge
+of heresy in a distant monastery. The crisis was superinduced by the
+introduction of the press. Here, as elsewhere, the new discovery brought
+with it a taste for the study and revision of texts, and ultimately
+violent theological contests. The missals which issued from the Russian
+presses of the sixteenth century at first only aggravated the evils for
+which they should have afforded a remedy. The errors of the manuscripts
+from which they were printed received from these missals the authority
+and circulation of type. The copyists had introduced countless
+variations, but these acquired a fresh unity and unanimity from the very
+fact of their publication in such a form.
+
+The Slavonic liturgy of Russia seemed in a state of hopeless corruption
+when, toward the middle of the seventeenth century, the patriarch Nikon
+determined upon a measure of reform. In addition to a degree of
+cultivation unusual in his age and country, and an enterprising and
+determined character, he possessed what was specially required for such
+a step: he had learning, firmness and power, for through his influence
+over Alexis, the czar, he ruled the State almost as thoroughly as he
+ruled the Church. In Russia, as it was before Peter the Great, a task so
+completely dependent on learning was indeed a bold undertaking. By order
+of the patriarch ancient Greek and Slavonic manuscripts were gathered
+from all quarters, and monks were summoned from Byzantium and from the
+learned community of Athos to collate the Slavic versions with their
+Greek originals. The interpolations due to the ignorance or whims of
+copyists were remorselessly stricken out, and into the ritual, thus
+purified, was introduced the pomp customary at the court of Byzantium.
+The new missals were printed and adopted by a council (through the
+patriarch's influence), and finally imposed, with all the authority of
+the state government, on every Russian province. "A sore trembling laid
+hold upon me," says a copyist of the sixteenth century, "and I was
+affrighted when the reverend Maximus the Greek bade me blot out certain
+lines from one of our Church books." Not less was the scandal under
+Peter the Great. The man who laid hands on the sacred books was
+everywhere held guilty of sacrilege. Whether from a knowledge of the
+propriety of the measure, or from the spirit of ecclesiastical fidelity,
+the higher clergy upheld the patriarch, but their inferiors and the
+common people made a determined fight. And even now, after the lapse of
+more than two centuries, a large body adhere immovably to the ancient
+books and the ancient ritual, which are made sacred to them by the
+approbation of national councils and the blessing of generations of
+patriarchs. Such was the inception of the schism, the Raskol, which
+still divides the Russian Church. Tracing the matter back to its source,
+the contest is seen to turn upon the knotty question of the transmission
+and the translation of the sacred texts, which has more than once
+divided the churches of the West. In Russia no one was competent to form
+a proper judgment of the essence of the dispute, and it was thus
+rendered only more lasting and bitter. Monks, deacons, plain sextons,
+denounced the innovations as novelties borrowed from Rome or from the
+Protestants, and as being tantamount to the bringing in of a new
+religion. When the Church brought to bear upon these recusants the pains
+and penalties everywhere employed against heretics, the only result was
+to give the schism martyrs, and with martyrs a fresh impetus. Ten years
+after the promulgation of the revised liturgy its rash author fell a
+victim to the jealousy of the boyards and to his own arrogance, and was
+solemnly deposed by a council. To the Raskol his deposition appeared in
+the light of a justification of their own course. The condemnation of
+the reformer seemed necessarily to involve the condemnation of the
+reform. Great, then, was the popular bewilderment when the council
+turned from deposing the author of the liturgic revision to hurl its
+anathemas against those who opposed that revision. The share taken in
+this excommunication by the Oriental patriarchs rather lessened than
+added to its weight, since the dissenters denied to Greek and Syrian
+bishops, who knew not a letter of the Slavonic alphabet, the right of
+passing judgment on Slavonic books.
+
+The theological world is no stranger to subtleties, but never perhaps
+did causes so trifling breed such interminable quarrels. The sign and
+the form of the cross, the heading of processions westward or eastward,
+the reading of a particular article of the Creed, the spelling of the
+name of Jesus, the inscription to be placed over the crucifix, the
+single or double repetition of the Hallelujah, the number of eucharistic
+wafers to be consecrated,--such are the leading points in the
+controversy which ever since has rent the Russian Church. The orthodox
+make the sign of the cross with three fingers, while the dissenters
+follow the Armenian practice of only two. The former permit the cross
+with four arms, like our own: the latter cannot away with any but that
+with eight arms, with a crosspiece for the Saviour's head and another
+for his feet. Since the reform the Church chants the Hallelujah thrice,
+the Raskolniks only twice. The dissenters defend their persistence by
+symbolical interpretations, and delight to make a profession of faith
+out of the simplest rite. For instance, they insist that after their
+fashion of making the sign of the cross the three closed fingers render
+homage to the Trinity, while the two others testify to the double nature
+of Christ, so that, without uttering a word, the sign of the cross is an
+act of adherence to the three fundamental dogmas of Christianity--the
+Trinity, the incarnation and the atonement. In like manner they
+interpret the double Hallelujah following the three Glorias, and cast it
+in the teeth of their opponents that they ignore in their ritual one or
+another of the great Christian doctrines. Such interpretations, based on
+corrupted texts or feigned visions, show the grotesque blending of
+coarseness and subtlety which makes up the Raskol.
+
+If we may judge from the origin of the schism, its essence lies in the
+worship of the letter, the servile respect for forms. To the
+anti-reforming Russian, ceremonies form the whole of Christianity, and
+liturgy is one with orthodoxy. The same confusion between faith and the
+outward forms of worship is revealed by the chosen name in which the
+dissenters delight. Not content with the title of _Starovbriadtsy_
+(old ritualists), they adopt that of _Starovery_ (maintainers of
+the old faith), which amounts to styling themselves _true_
+believers, the genuine orthodox, since in religious matters, unlike
+those of human science, authority is on the side of antiquity, and even
+innovations must come forward invoking the past. Here, as often happens,
+there is little ground for the Starovery's boast, for if they preserve
+the ancient Russian books, their opponents have gone back to the old
+Byzantine liturgy; and the party which most loudly vaunts its claim to
+antiquity does so with least reason.
+
+The principle of the Raskol, which sometimes runs out into the wildest
+dreams of mysticism, is essentially realistic. Under this materialistic
+_cultus_, however, there lurks a sort of idealism, of coarse
+spiritualism. Religious vagaries, with all their absurdities, always
+have a lofty, sometimes even a sublime, side. It would be wrong to fancy
+that there is nothing but ignorant superstition in the Starovere's
+scrupulous attachment to his ancestral worship. The vulgar heresy is, in
+fact, only an overdone ritualism, whose logic lands it in absurdity. The
+Old Believer's reverence for the letter comes from his belief that
+letter and spirit are indissolubly united, and that the forms of
+religion are as needful as its essence. Religion is to him, both as
+regards forms and dogmas, a whole, all whose parts hang together; and no
+human hand can touch this masterpiece of Providence without blemishing
+it. There is an occult sense in every word and in every rite. He cannot
+believe that any ceremony or formula of the Church is void of meaning or
+of efficacy. Divine service has nothing in it merely accessory,
+indifferent or unmeaning. Holy things are holy throughout: in the
+worship of the Lord everything is deep and full of mystery; and it is
+blasphemy to change anything or to withhold from it its proper
+veneration. The Starovere, of course, cannot formulate his doctrine, but
+if he could, religion would appear, according to his view, a sort of
+completed and adequate representation of the supernatural world. His
+simple logic exacts from all public worship an absolute perfection which
+it is impossible to realize. Looked at in this light, the Old Believer
+who marched to the stake for the sign of the cross, and sacrificed his
+tongue rather than chant another Hallelujah, grows highly respectable.
+From this standing-point the Russian schism is essentially religious:
+its mistake, so to speak, is the excess of religion. Symbolism is the
+principle of its formalism, or rather the Raskol is symbolism run into a
+heresy. This gives it originality and value in sectarian history. To
+these extravagant ritualists ceremonies are not simply the garb of
+religion: they are its flesh and blood, in whose absence dogma is but a
+lifeless skeleton. Thus, the Raskol is the direct opposite of ordinary
+Protestantism, which by its very nature sets small store by outward
+ceremonies, regarding them as needless ornament or a dangerous
+superfluity. Ritual to the Starovere is as much an integral part of
+traditional Christianity as doctrine: it, is equally the legacy of
+Christ and the apostles; and the sole mission of the Church and the
+clergy is to preserve both intact. This leaning to symbolism saves his
+scrupulous fidelity to outward forms from degenerating into a slavish
+superstition. On the other hand, the allegorizing tendency which clings
+fast to the letter sometimes takes odd liberties with the spirit of
+ceremonies and texts. It is the peculiarity of the symbolizing temper
+scrupulously to respect the form while arbitrarily dealing with the
+spirit. Thus, the ritual and the sacred books become a kind of heavenly
+charade, whose answer must be found by the imagination. And so, in their
+hunt after the hidden sense of narratives and words, some of the
+Raskolniks have allegorized the histories of the Old and New Testaments,
+and changed the gospel records into parables. Some have gone so far as
+to see in the greatest of the gospel miracles nothing but types.[005]
+Such a system of exegesis easily leads to a kind of mystic rationalism:
+the forms of religion tend to gain more consistency than the essence,
+and public worship to be placed above doctrine. Some of the extreme
+sects of the Raskol have actually reached this point. A perfect carnival
+of wild interpretation prevailed among this ignorant rabble, and crazy
+doctrines and grotesque tenets were not slow in following in its train.
+
+The Old Believer loves his peculiar rites, not only for the meaning he
+puts into them, but also for the sake of the authority on which he holds
+them: the moral and social _rationale_ of the schism is a deep
+respect for traditional customs and for the habits handed down from his
+forefathers. But even in his slavish devotion to ancestral ritual and
+prayers the Starovere simply exaggerates a feeling which, if not
+properly religious, commonly links itself with religion and adds to its
+influence. All men and all nations set great store by the maintenance of
+their hereditary faith, and even the common rhetorical abuse of such
+phrases demonstrates its power. When thus intertwined with the
+associations of family and country, religion assumes the guise of an
+inheritance solemnly committed to our trust by the departed. This
+feeling is singularly powerful in Russia from linking itself with a
+superstitious veneration for antiquity. You can often get no other
+reason from many of these sectaries for the faith that is in them. Quite
+recently a judge tried to bring to reason a group of peasants who were
+under prosecution for celebrating clandestine religious rites, but he
+could extract no other answer than this: "Our fathers practiced these
+customs. Take us anywhere you please, but leave us free to worship as
+our fathers did." A like reply is said to have been made by the Old
+Believers of Moscow to the late czarovitch on occasion of a visit to
+their burying-ground at Rogojski.
+
+The liturgic reform of the seventeenth century was a revolution in the
+simplest elements of worship: it called upon the son to unlearn the sign
+of the cross that his mother had taught him. Such a change would have
+been hazardous anywhere, but it caused a peculiarly serious disturbance
+in Russia, where all prayer is connected with a kind of ceremonial of
+repeated bowings and crossings, which more closely resemble the
+devotional customs of the Mohammedans than those of other Christian
+countries. The people violently rejected the new sign of the cross and
+the entire reformed liturgy. It mattered little that the new ritual was
+more ancient than their own. The ignorant Russian knows no antiquity
+older than his fathers and grandfathers, and his attachment to the outer
+forms of orthodoxy was only intensified by remembering the recent
+attempts of popes and Jesuits to gain a foothold in the country. If he
+suffered the least change in his cherished customs, he might risk being
+Romanized, and, like the United Greeks of Poland, one day wake up and
+find himself part and parcel of the spiritual dominion of the papacy.
+With such dim fears the Old Believer opposed to the orthodox hierarchy a
+blind fidelity to orthodoxy. Their dread of seeing the Church corrupted
+inspired people and clergy with suspicion of all foreigners, even of
+their brethren in the faith whom the czars or the patriarchs had invited
+from Byzantium and from Kief. The Russian alone, of all the orthodox
+nations, had maintained his independence against infidel and pope, and
+he held himself the people of God, chosen to preserve the true faith.
+Everything European was indiscriminately rejected by this long-isolated
+nation. Their detestation of the West, its churches and its
+civilization, leads some of the Old Believers to anathematize even the
+language of theology and learning. Not longer ago than the close of the
+last century one of their writers waxed hot against the orthodox priests
+of Lesser Russia, many of whom, he said, "study the thrice-accursed
+Latin tongue." He reviled them for their readiness to commit the mortal
+sin of calling God _Deus_, and God the Father _Pater_, as
+though the Deity could have no other than the Slavic name of _Bog_,
+or the change of appellation involved a change of God. A like spirit is
+evident in the resistance offered by the Staroveres to the correct
+spelling of the name of Jesus, whom they persist in calling Issous,
+rejecting as diabolical the more accurate form Iissous. Such
+peculiarities show a nation shut up in its own vastness and isolated by
+its position and its history. It is a kind of Christianized China,
+knowing, and desiring to know, nothing beyond itself.
+
+The revolt against the innovating patriarch was, in reality, a revolt
+against foreign, particularly against Western, influences. Instead of
+the accusation that he leaned to Romanism or Lutheranism, it would have
+been a better representation of the real grievance to charge him and the
+czar with borrowing from the West, not its theology, but its spirit and
+civilization, and even this, perhaps, unwittingly. The outbreak of the
+Raskol synchronizes with the introduction of foreign influence; and the
+coincidence is not accidental. The schism was but the reaction against
+the reforms which the Romanoffs carried out in so European a spirit. The
+patriarch's enterprise has been sometimes attributed to his vanity or
+his thirst for literary fame, but it was really the first indication of
+the approaching revolution, and of a growing sympathy with the West,
+where (as in England, for instance) at about the same period
+analogous[006] reforms gave birth to similar disturbances. If the former
+hermit of the White Sea invited criticism and learning to review the
+ritual of his Church, it was only in obedience to the same
+_Zeitgeist_ which under Peter the Great's elder brother, who
+succeeded Alexis, was to found at Moscow a kind of ecclesiastical
+university modeled on that of Kief. The Church, not less than the State,
+felt the Western breeze that was rising on the Russian steppes. And, as
+the Western spirit first attempted to introduce itself in the sphere of
+religion, so religion confronted it with its most formidable barrier.
+From the historian's point of view, the Raskol is that same popular
+resistance to the introduction of Western novelties which under Peter
+the Great passed from its original aspect of an ecclesiastical and
+religious revolt into the further stage of a social and civil
+insurrection.
+
+
+
+
+II.--OPPOSITION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.
+
+
+In spite of himself, Peter the Great both inherited and aggravated
+the schism. At the present day it is hard to picture the impression
+produced upon his subjects by Peter I. He not merely astonished and
+bewildered them: he scandalized them. An open, systematic and
+sometimes brutal attack was made upon the customs, traditions and
+prejudices of the people. The reformer did not confine himself to
+the civil institutions: he laid violent hands upon the Church, and
+forced his way into the family, regulating, as the whim seized him,
+both public affairs and the private life of the citizen. The
+old-fashioned Russian was a stranger in Peter's new empire. His eyes
+were shocked by the spectacle of an unaccustomed garb, and novel
+administrative titles fell strangely on his ear. Names and things,
+the almanac and the laws, the alphabet and the fashions of
+dress,--everything was transformed. The very elements of
+civilization were hardly recognizable. The year began on the first
+of January, instead of the first of September. Men were no longer to
+date from the creation, but must adopt the Latin era. The old
+Slavonic characters, hallowed by immemorial ecclesiastical use, were
+partly cast aside, and what were retained took a new shape. The
+masculine attire was altered and the chin was shorn of its beard,
+while the veil no longer might protect the modesty of the women. The
+impression made by such a succession of shocks upon a nation so
+bigotedly attached to its ancestral ways was comparable only to an
+earthquake rocking Old Russia to its foundations.
+
+Many of these innovations, as being borrowed from the Romanists or
+the Lutherans of the West, had a religious significance for the
+people. The change introduced by Peter the Great in the ancient
+calendar, in the Slavonic alphabet and in the national costume
+seemed but a carrying out of those which Nikon had initiated. So
+natural was the parallel that the Old Believers held the one to be
+but the continuation of the other; and the notion took shape in a
+seditious legend, according to which Peter was the adulterous
+offspring of the patriarch. The popular aversion felt for the
+reforms of the latter was augmented by that aroused by the emperor's
+innovations: the social revolt took the disguise of religion, since
+it had been provoked by a Church measure, and still more because
+Russia had not yet emerged from that stage of civilization in which
+every great popular movement assumes a religious aspect. A national
+prestige was thus communicated to the Raskol, which in its turn lent
+to the popular resistance the energy of religion. By giving the
+social revolt the semblance of a struggle for the rights of
+conscience the schism imparted to it a vigor and persistency which
+the lapse of two centuries has not succeeded in crushing.
+
+But the Raskol rebelled not only against innovations and the
+introduction of foreign elements, but still more obstinately against
+the principle of the reforms and the modern method of state
+administration. The Russian, like the Mohammedan East of to-day and
+all other primitive societies, was most keenly sensitive to the
+burdens and vexations made necessary by this imitation of the
+European governmental system. From this point of view the Raskol was
+the opposition of a half-patriarchal society to the regular,
+scientific, omnipresent, impersonal system of European
+administration. It kicks instinctively against centralization and
+bureaucracy--against the state's encroachments upon private life,
+the family and the community. It struggles to tear itself loose from
+the pitiless machinery of government, hemming every life within its
+iron pale. The Cossack took refuge in the wild freedom of nomadic
+life, and the Old Believer was equally averse to giving in to the
+complicated mechanism of government. He would have nothing to do
+with the census, with passports or stamped paper. He strove to elude
+the new systems of taxation and conscription, and to this day some
+of the Raskolniks are in a state of systematic revolt against the
+simplest of governmental methods. Religious grounds, of course, are
+found for this insubordination, and they have theological arguments
+to urge against the census, as well as against the registration of
+births and deaths. In the opinion of a strict Old Believer the right
+of numbering the people belongs to God alone, as is shown by the
+biblical record of David's punishment. Sometimes the official
+designations strengthen the scruples of these simple folk, with
+their tendency to attach a great importance to phrases and names;
+and hence, partly at least, the popular antipathy to the poll-tax
+under its Russian form, "soul-tax." The revolt against such phrases
+is the fashion in which this nation of serfs, whose body was chained
+to the soil, asserted its possession of a soul.[007]
+
+The struggle against the supervision and interference of the state
+has gone with some sects to the length of refusing submission to
+obligations imposed by every civilized country. The _Stranniki_
+(wanderers) in particular boast of keeping up a ceaseless struggle
+with the civil authority, and make rebellion a moral principle and a
+religious duty. From condemning the state as the protector and
+helper of the Church, they have come to cursing it for its own
+tendencies and claims. Thus, the singular spectacle is presented of
+the more extreme schismatics looking upon their native government
+with the same feelings as were entertained by some of the Christians
+of the first three centuries toward the pagan empire of Rome. To
+these fanatics the government of the orthodox czars came to be the
+reign of Satan and the dominion of Antichrist. Nor was this an empty
+metaphor: it was a clear, determined conviction, and it still exerts
+a strong religious and political influence upon the schism. The
+Raskolniks could see but one interpretation of the overturning of
+public and private order under Peter the Great, and for what they
+regarded as the triumph of darkness: to them it was the coming end
+of the world and the advent of Antichrist. The old customs, it
+seemed, must carry with them in their fall the Church, society and
+all mankind. For centuries the extremity of agony or of wonder has
+wrung this cry from Christendom. After political revolutions and
+disastrous wars, in the most enlightened countries of Europe, in
+France and elsewhere, religious persons, in the panic of calamity,
+have been seen to take refuge in this last solution for the woes of
+Church or of State, and proclaim with the Raskolniks that the time
+was at hand. But what must have been the state of mind in Old Russia
+when the stunning blows of Peter the Great seemed to be dashing
+everything to pieces? Even at the period of the liturgic reform the
+fanatics had cried that the patriarch's fall was the harbinger of
+the world's end. The days of man, they said, are numbered; the
+Apocalyptic woes are at hand; Antichrist draws nigh. With the
+accession of Peter the Great, while he was reducing everything to
+confusion before their bewildered eyes, and trampling under foot the
+old customs, along with morality itself at times, the Raskolniks
+were at no loss to recognize in him the coming Antichrist. Nations
+are not always clear-sighted: the creator of modern Russia was
+regarded by a considerable portion of his subjects as an envoy or
+representative of hell; and his empire has never ceased to hold the
+unexampled position of a government cursed by a part of its own
+people as the dominion of Antichrist.
+
+This Satanic apotheosis derived no little support from some of the
+reformer's idiosyncrasies. He was to his subjects what a rejected
+claimant of the Messianic office may have been to the Jews--a stone
+of stumbling and a rock of offence to the people whom he came to
+bring to a new birth. His civil and ecclesiastical reforms, with the
+seeming decapitation of the Church by the abrogation of the
+patriarchate, were to the mass of the people an enigma only one
+shade less disreputable than the demeanor of himself and his
+courtiers. The repudiation of his legitimate wife, Eudoxia, and his
+adulterous connection with a foreign concubine, the death
+(perhaps by his own hand) of his son Alexis, even the morbid state
+of his health and the nervous twitching of his face, and his
+astonishing triumphs after equally incredible disasters, contributed
+to invest the sombre and gigantic physiognomy of the reformer with a
+kind of diabolic halo. The vices of Ivan the Terrible had been as
+monstrous, but even in the thick of his crimes he was a true
+Russian, as superstitious a devotee as the meanest of his subjects.
+But the astonishment and bewilderment inspired by Peter the Great
+were only deepened by the reverence felt by the old Russian for the
+person of his sovereign. Men could not help doubting whether such a
+man, who had cast aside his national and scriptural title for the
+foreign and heathen style of emperor, could be the true, the "white"
+czar. The story of the usurpers and the false Dmitri had not faded
+from the popular memory; and thus there grew up amidst the
+unlettered and bewildered Russian people a string of legends in
+which were harmonized their belief in the reign of Antichrist and
+the popular respect for the czar. In this way the Raskolniks have
+created a fantastic history which has been handed down to our own
+days, according to one version of which, as has been said, Peter the
+Great is the impious bastard of the patriarch Nikon (and from such a
+parentage only a devil's offspring could be looked for); while
+another asserts that Peter Alexovitch was a pious prince, like his
+forefathers, but that he had perished at sea, and in his stead had
+been substituted a Jew of the race of Danof, or Satan. On gaining
+possession of the throne, continues the legend, the false czar
+immured the czarina in a convent, slew the czarovitch, espoused a
+German adventuress and filled Russia with foreigners. Such is the
+Old Believers' explanation of the portentous phenomenon of a Russian
+czar engaged in destroying the institutions of Holy Russia. In the
+midst of the nineteenth century the incidents of Peter's career,
+whether insignificant or important--his vices not less than his
+glory--are used as proofs of his infernal mission. The remarkable
+victories with which he recovered from terrible disasters were
+miracles wrought by the help of the devil and the Freemasons. The
+extension of his power beyond that of all previous Russian monarchs
+and of all the ancient _bogatyrs_ was effected by the determination
+of Satan that his offspring should receive divine honors. The same
+interpretation is applied to the simplest events. Thus, Peter's
+celebration with allegorical figures and festivals of the beginning
+of the year on the first of January was due to his desire to restore
+the worship of false deities and "the old Roman idol Janus." These
+silly fables, and this incapacity of understanding how a pagan name
+or emblem can be used without falling back into paganism, betray one
+of the peculiar features of the Raskol--namely, the realistic
+nature, of its symbolism, and its matter-of-fact determination to
+fill images, allegories and words with occult meaning.
+
+When once the presence of Antichrist was clearly made out, there was
+nothing to hinder the application to Russia of the gloomy
+descriptions of the prophets. Their disposition to hunt out
+mysterious enigmas in names and numbers made it easy for the
+fanatics to find the whole Apocalypse in modern Russia; and the
+number of the Beast was sought in the names of Peter and of his
+successors. Each letter of the Slavonic alphabet, as of the Greek,
+has a numerical value, and the problem is thus to add up the total
+of the letters of a name, and so obtain the Apocalyptic number 666
+(Rev. xiii. 18). By inserting, reduplicating or omitting certain
+letters, and not insisting too strongly on an exact result, the
+sectaries have discovered the infernal number in the names of most
+of the Russian sovereigns from Peter the Great to Nicholas. Such
+alterations are defended on the ground that to throw investigators
+off the scent the Beast changes the number which is meant to
+designate him, so that he should be recognized under the number 662
+or 664 as clearly as under 666. Turning from the particular
+sovereign to the imperial title, the Raskolniks have unearthed the
+number of the Beast in the letters composing it. Singularly
+enough, it happens that all which is needed to obtain the
+Apocalyptic number from the word _imperator_ is the omission of the
+second letter; whence they say that Antichrist hides his accursed
+name behind the letter M. By an equally odd and embarrassing
+coincidence the Council of Moscow--which, after deposing Nikon,
+definitively excommunicated the schismatics--met in 1666. Here,
+plainly enough was the fatal number, and when the reform of the
+calendar attracted the attention of the Old Believers to the point,
+they considered it a weapon thrust into their hands by their
+opponents. The year in question, accordingly, was fixed as the date
+of Satan's accession. But not content with turning the line of
+monarchs into so many emissaries of hell, some of these champions of
+Old Russia have managed, by the help of an anagram, to identify
+their native country with the mysterious land which is the object of
+so many prophetic curses. In the _Asshur_ of the Bible they find
+_Russia_, and apply to it the anathemas launched by the prophets
+against Nineveh and Babylon.
+
+The infernal sign, however, was visible to the Raskolniks not only
+in the title and the names of their rulers, but in all their
+innovations as well, and in all that they imported from abroad.
+Since Russia is under the dominion of the "devil, the demon's son,"
+the truly faithful are bound to reject all that has been introduced
+during "the years of Satan." Encouraged by the notion of Antichrist,
+the Raskol's opposition against the modern reform of government
+spread until it embraces in its hostility everything brought from
+the West. In no other of its developments do we see more distinctly
+the characteristic features of the schism, its narrow formalism and
+its coarse allegorizing, its blind worship of the past and its
+national exclusiveness. It presented the novel spectacle of a group
+of popular sects holding in abomination every object of foreign
+commerce, everything new--material articles of consumption not less
+than the discoveries of science. While the products of the East and
+West Indies were pouring into the rest of Europe, the Old Believer
+rigorously excluded them. He frowned upon the use of tobacco, of
+tea, of coffee and of sugar, and by a curious transfer of his
+respect for antiquity to his meat and drink, he stormed against
+almost all colonial produce as heretical and diabolical. All that
+had come in since Nikon and Peter was put under the ban by the
+champions of the ancient liturgy. One Raskolnik forbade traveling on
+turnpikes, because they were an invention of Antichrist. More
+recently, another showed that the potato was the forbidden fruit
+which caused the fall of our first mother. On every side the Old
+Believer raised about him a wall of scruples and prejudices,
+entrenching himself behind his stagnation and ignorance, and
+anathematizing all civilization in a breath. To meet Peter's edicts
+enjoining a new costume or alphabet or calendar, the Raskol put
+forth a second decalogue: "Thou shalt not shave; Thou shalt not
+smoke; Thou shalt use no sugar," etc. In the North, where they are
+stricter and more numerous, many Raskolniks still have conscientious
+scruples about using tobacco and putting sugar in their tea. The
+scriptural arguments urged for this opposition are generally marked
+by the coarsest realism. The Old Believer who will not smoke adduces
+the passage, "There is nothing from without a man that entering into
+him can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are
+they that defile the man." The rebuker of the use of sugar urges
+that blood is used in its manufacture; whereas Scripture forbids the
+eating of the blood of animals--a prohibition, by the way, which
+seems to have been maintained longer in Russia than in any other
+Christian country. The true ground of the opposition to this or that
+article or habit is to be sought not in these theological arguments,
+but in its novelty and late introduction. As regards his way of life
+and his faith, his table and his devotions, he is minded to tread in
+his forefathers' footsteps. A Raskolnik and a member of the orthodox
+Church were drinking together, when the latter took a cigar. "Out on
+the infernal poison!" cried the Raskolnik.--"What do you, think of brandy?"
+asked his companion. "Oh! Wine" (_vino_, the Russian name for
+brandy)--"wine was Noah's favorite drink."--"Very good!" said the
+other: "now prove to me that Noah was not a smoker." These folk are
+still in the patriarchal stage, and an appeal to antiquity is an end
+of controversy, "Jeer not at the old," says one of their proverbs,
+"for the old man knows old things and teaches justice."
+
+The parties to any political or religious contest need a
+standard--some outward sign which appeals to the eye and the
+intelligence of all. The most serious of the political questions
+that convulse France to-day are symbolized and summed up in the
+color of a flag; and thus in the Russian conflict between popular
+obstinacy and the modern propagandism the rallying-sign of the Old
+Believers, and the emblem of the champions of nationality and
+conservatism, was the beard. The national chin was the centre of a
+conflict less puerile than might be fancied. Long before Peter the
+Great imitators of Western ways had begun to shave, thus setting at
+defiance the Oriental custom which everywhere prevailed in Russia.
+Under Peter's father one of the Raskol leaders, the protopope
+Avvakum, denounced "these bold-faced" men--bold-faced meaning
+shaven. The prohibition of Leviticus (xxix. 27; xxi. 5) was first
+adduced, in conformity with the love for alleging religious
+scruples. Recourse was next had to the ancient missals and the
+decrees of the _Stoglaf_, a sort of ecclesiastical code attributed
+to a national council. The prohibition of the razor was at first
+confined to the clergy, but it spread by little and little to all
+the faithful of the orthodox Church. Up to the time of Nikon the
+patriarchs had laid hardly less stress on forms and on the exclusion
+of foreign ways than their future opponents of the Raskol, and had
+condemned shaving as "an heretical practice which disfigures the
+image of God, and makes men look like dogs and cats." This is the
+main theological argument of the foes of the barber, and their
+current interpretation of the verse of Genesis, "God created man in
+His own image," "The image of God is the beard," writes a Raskolnik
+about 1830, "and His likeness is the moustache." "Look at the old
+images of Christ and the saints," urge the Old Believers: "all of
+them wear their beards." And so cogent is the argument that the
+orthodox theologians are fain to hunt up the scanty list of
+beardless saints to be found in Byzantine iconography. Whatever the
+force of the arguments drawn from divinity, at bottom the opposition
+was only the simple folks' one way of seeing things--the same
+clinging to forms, the same compound of symbolism and realism. The
+living work of God is to them as sacred as the text of the divine
+word. Every word and letter of the sacred office must have its
+separate significance; and they cannot admit that the hair with
+which the Almighty has covered a man's face is without a meaning. It
+is to them the distinctive mark of the male countenance; to remove
+it is to change, and therefore to disfigure, the divine handiwork:
+it is, in short, hardly less than mutilation.[008]
+
+The beard, like the single repetition of the Hallelujah and the
+cross with eight branches, has had its martyrs. No later than last
+year (1874), on the Gulf of Finland a peasant who had been drafted
+for the navy obstinately refused to be shaved, and rather than
+betray his religion underwent a sentence of several years for
+insubordination. Scruples of this sort have led the government to
+grant permission to wear the beard in the case of certain corps (for
+instance, the Cossacks of the Ural) which are mainly composed of Old
+Believers. Peter the Great used every means to overcome these
+popular prejudices, but the beard was too much for the reformer.
+Finding himself unable to shave all the recusants by force, he
+bethought him of laying a tax on the wearers of long beards, but in
+vain. He was similarly foiled in his attempt to lay a double tax on
+the schismatic upholders of the ancient ways. He forbade them to live
+in the towns; he deprived them of civil rights; he forced them to
+wear a bit of red cloth on the shoulder as a distinctive badge; but
+these measures only marked them out as the bravest champions of
+national traditions, and increased the respect everywhere rendered
+them.
+
+Such an attitude toward civilization leaves no room for mistake as
+to the social and political character of the schism. It is a popular
+protest against the irruption of foreign customs. It is a reaction
+against the reforms of Peter the Great, somewhat as Ultramontanism
+is a reaction against the spirit of the French Revolution. The
+Staroveres are the champions of ancient customs in the civil sphere
+as well as in the religious. The Old Believer is emphatically the
+old-fashioned Russian--the Slavophilist of the lower classes--and
+hence extreme to the point of absurdity. His revolt against
+authority has more resemblance to that of La Vendée than to that of
+the Jacobins. Like a conscript obstinately refusing to join his
+regiment, he holds back from all part and lot in the changes of
+modern Russia; and in this light the schism is the feature which
+above all others assimilates Russia to the East.
+
+And just as the East has bound itself fast to externals, so the
+Raskolnik praises his fossilism to the skies, and would gladly run
+the risk of petrifying society in its inherited shape. With him, as
+with the child or the Oriental, wisdom and science belong to the
+infancy of civilization, and the maxims of antiquity leave nothing
+to be learnt. Under both aspects the Old Believer is reactionary,
+opposed to the very principle of progress--the hero of routine and a
+martyr to prejudice. His gaze turns naturally to the past, and if
+reform ever enters his mind, he dreams of a return to the good old
+times of yore. Even his struggle against authority is based on the
+old idea of sovereignty: his political motto, as well as that of
+most of the people, is, "No emperor, but a czar!" The czar was one
+day pointed out to a Raskolnik conscript. "That is no czar," he
+said: "he wears a moustache, a uniform and a sword, like all the
+rest of the officers. He is nothing but a general." These
+worshipers of the past, with their devotion to ceremonial, think of
+the czar only as a long-bearded man in a flowing robe, such as they
+see in the ancient images. The Old Believers are the exaggerated
+representatives of the spirit of stagnation which everywhere
+confronts the Russian government. Nothing gives a clearer conception
+of the obstacles still in the way of reforms which elsewhere would
+be matters of course (as, for instance, the substitution of the
+Gregorian for the Julian calendar) than the resistance which other
+measures have already encountered.
+
+In principle the Raskol is conservative, not to say reactionary, but
+its attitude toward the Church and the State, and the habits
+engendered by two centuries of opposition and persecution, give it a
+revolutionary, or even an anarchical, character. A secret tie unites
+all the branches of public authority, and the rejection of one leads
+to the rejection of another. As has been said by an eminent
+historian of Russia, the refusal to submit to a single form of
+authority brings into activity a disposition to rid one's self of
+all social and moral ties. The Hussite revolt against Rome speedily
+results in the Taborite revolt against society: Luther calls the
+Anabaptists into being. The same phenomenon is repeated in Russia,
+in England and in Scotland. Once carried away by the spirit of
+revolt, an irresistible tendency sweeps the schism on in the
+direction of civil liberty; and both in theory and in practice some
+of these sects have reached the most unbridled license. Hence, by
+one of those contrasts which are so common in Russia, the Raskol is
+judged in two utterly different ways, each of which is partly
+correct. The reactionary movement in its inception had the
+appearance of an assertion of the rights of individual liberty and
+national life, as opposed to the autocratic government; and such it
+was, after a fashion--the fashion of refractory conscripts or of
+smugglers, not to say of brigands--the fashion, in short, in which
+all abuses and prejudices are defended. What it claimed
+was liberty, indeed, but liberty as the commonalty understand
+it--liberty to retain its customs, its superstitions and its
+ignorance--liberty to go and come as it chose. But in all this there
+was no notion of political freedom. With all his hatred of foreign
+importations, the Old Believer is no enemy to reform in the sense of
+national tradition or of furthering the interests of the lower
+classes, the artisan and the peasant. Like all popular movements,
+the Raskol is essentially democratic, and in some of its sects
+socialistic and communistic.
+
+Two things which have especially tended to give the Raskol a
+democratic--or even liberal--complexion are serfdom and the
+bureaucratic despotism of the country. It was no mere coincidence
+which caused the Raskol to break out about half a century after
+serfdom was established. Much of its popularity and life was due to
+the enslavement of the mass of the people. The slave was proud of
+having a different faith from his master; and slavery is always a
+propitious soil for the growth of sects. This nation of serfs dimly
+felt the Raskol to be an assertion of religious liberty and
+self-respect against master, Church and government; and these were
+symbolized by the beard and the peculiar sign of the cross. The
+Raskol offered to all the oppressed a moral, and often a material,
+refuge, an asylum for all enemies of the master and the law, and a
+shelter for the fugitive serf, for the deserter, for public debtors
+and outlaws of every description. Some sects (as the Wanderers, for
+example) are specially organized for such purposes. In these
+respects the Raskol was unconsciously one form of the opposition to
+serfdom and official despotism; and hence the Old Believers are most
+numerous among the most refractory elements of Russia--in the North
+among the free peasants (the old colonists of Novgorod), and in the
+South among the independent Cossacks of the steppes. Religious and
+political opposition have joined hands, and to this combination is
+due the strength of the great popular movements of the seventeenth
+and eighteenth centuries, such as the Streltsy insurrections at the
+time of the revolt of Pougatchef, whose excesses curiously recall
+the wars of the Peasants and Anabaptists in the West before the
+abolition of serfdom. In the great Russian Jacquerie, and in all the
+seditions which held out the hope of emancipation, the first place
+was taken by the Old Believers and the Cossacks, most of whom held
+the same faith. These two forms of national resistance are naturally
+akin. They equally personify the character and the prejudices of the
+old Russian. Their main point is their character of protests, so
+that an Old Believer may be described as a Cossack in religion,
+transporting into that domain the instincts peculiar to the wild
+horsemen of the Don. But both Cossack and Starovere have found
+themselves forced to give way before the march of civilization, and
+the different branches into which the Raskol has split have reached
+very divergent conclusions both as to politics and religion.
+
+
+
+
+III.--INTERNAL DIVISIONS.
+
+
+Nothing is more logical than religious creeds--nothing more rigorously
+consequent in its deductions than the theological mind. Religious
+thought has an unimpeded course in the twilight of mystery where it
+takes its airy flight, and no material facts avail to check it or divert
+it from the chosen path. The innate logic of the Russian mind adds force
+to the kindred theological quality in its influence upon the Raskol, for
+the inhabitant of Greater Russia is distinguished for his logical
+consecutiveness and his acceptance of the extremest consequences of a
+position. This is partly the cause of the multiplicity and growth of the
+strange doctrines prevalent among them; and while this disposition
+frequently lands the schism in the most grotesque of absurdities, it
+gives a remarkable unity and regularity to even its apparent
+divergencies and variations. Irregularity and the play of chance have as
+little real place in this spiritual phenomenon as in one belonging to
+the region of physics; and a knowledge of the _terminus a quo_
+would have suggested its complications as well as the point ultimately
+reached. One is now and then tempted to look upon the various sects as
+utterly chaotic, but it is not difficult to trace the general course of
+their natural evolution.
+
+A less robust faith might easily have been cast down by the obstacle
+which confronted the schism at the outset. The revolt aimed at
+maintaining the ritual, yet the lack of priests to officiate
+necessitated its abandonment. The defenders of the old faith found
+themselves, at the first step, deprived of the means of practicing its
+rites. A single bishop, Paul of Kolomna, had held out for the ancient
+books at the time of Nikon's reform, but he had been imprisoned, and
+perhaps put to death: at all events, he died without consecrating a
+bishop, and the Raskol was consequently left without an episcopate or a
+priesthood. Now, Oriental orthodoxy is not simply doctrinal in its
+character, but, as M. A. Réville has remarked of Catholicism, "is, above
+all, a method of establishing communication between man and God by the
+medium of an organized priesthood, whose successive members transmit
+uninterruptedly the divine powers which they hold from Christ;" and the
+death of Paul of Kolomna snapped the chain uniting the Old Believers
+with Christ, for ever depriving the schism of the powers conferred by
+Christ on the apostles and essential to the continuance of the
+priesthood and the Church.
+
+The Raskol, so to speak, was stillborn. Unless they retraced their
+steps, there were but two paths to take--either to admit priests
+consecrated by a Church they had condemned, or to dispense with the
+clergy, who alone could celebrate the rites in defence of which they had
+revolted. There was little to choose between the two self-contradictory
+courses, and each had its partisans. This first check split the schism
+into two groups, whose hostility has not been allayed by the lapse of
+two centuries. According to some, as Christianity cannot exist without a
+priesthood, its complicity with Nikon's heresy has not deprived the
+Russian Church of apostolic powers--of the _cheirotonia_, or right
+to consecrate bishops and priests by the laying on of hands; and as
+their ordination is valid, the schismatics have only to bring back
+priests of the official Church to the observance of the ancient ritual.
+To this it is answered that by abandoning the ancient books and
+anathematizing the ancient traditions the sect of Nikon has lost all
+claim to the apostolical succession, so that the established clergy
+constitute no longer a Church, but the synagogue of Satan. All communion
+with these emissaries of hell is a sin, and ordination by the apostate
+bishops a defilement. The Oriental patriarchs have shared the heresy of
+the Russian prelates by agreeing to their anathemas against the ancient
+rites, and orthodoxy has carried with it in its fall the episcopate,
+apostolical succession and the lawful priesthood.
+
+Thus, in the first generation the Raskol fell into two sections--the
+_Popovtsy_, who adhere to the priests, and the _Bezpopovtsy_,
+who do not. To recruit their clergy the Popovtsy were fain to have
+recourse to deserters from the established Church, and were thus
+dependent upon it; though we shall see that of late they have succeeded
+in getting an independent episcopate along with a complete
+ecclesiastical hierarchy. By maintaining a priesthood, however scanty
+and ignorant, the Popovtsy preserve the sacraments and the orthodox
+Christian system; and, despite the inconsistency of admitting the
+priests of a Church that they condemn, they have paused at the first
+step of schism and maintain the original position. It is almost
+impossible, on the other hand, for the Bezpopovtsy to stop on the slope
+down which their logic inexorably drags them. Involved in the
+abandonment of the priesthood is that of orthodoxy, or at least of the
+orthodox ritual, and the sacrament of orders carries with it the
+sacraments which none but the priest can administer. Of the seven
+traditional channels of divine grace, baptism alone remains open: the
+other six are dried up for ever. Thus, the first step of the Bezpopovtsy
+brings them to the destruction of the first principle of Christian
+worship. The more rigid of them do not shrink from this most glaring of
+contradictions. To save the entire ritual they have sacrificed its most
+essential parts. For the double Hallelujah and the sign of the cross
+with two fingers instead of three they have foregone the whole Christian
+life and the one visible link between man and God, which is to be found
+only in the sacraments. The abolition of the sacred ministry and divine
+service is their protest against the trifling changes introduced into
+their devotional customs by the established Church. In barring the
+entrance to Nikon's so-called innovations they have done away with the
+priesthood, and so with every dyke against sectarian whimsies or the
+very novelties against which they blindly contend.
+
+In the melancholy upshot of the Bezpopovtsy movement there was nothing
+to satisfy the fondness for ceremonial and tradition to which the schism
+owed its birth; and it was hard to fill the gap left by the loss of
+priesthood and sacraments. The old orthodox law had become impossible to
+carry out, yet it had not been abrogated. Though perfectly united as to
+rejecting the priesthood, they accordingly fell into new fragments,
+marked now by hesitations and compromises, and now by grotesque fancies
+or by cruel doctrines. For the timid and for those who clung to public
+worship it was impossible to believe in Christian life and salvation
+without the divinely-appointed means; and in the perplexed effort to
+supply the loss of the sacraments their piety resorted to all manner of
+ingenious make-believes. Priestly absolution being out of the question,
+confession is sometimes made to the "elder" or to a woman, and the
+promise of pardon has to do duty for the direct absolution. As the
+Eucharist cannot be consecrated, famishing souls resort to types or
+memorials of the holy sacrament; and for this _quasi_ communion
+rites have been devised which are sometimes pleasing, sometimes bloody
+and horrible. One of these is the distribution of raisins by a young
+girl; while one sect (which is, however, but indirectly connected with
+the Raskol) use the breast of a young maiden instead of the element of
+bread. To one of the Bezpopovtsy sects the name of "gapers" is given,
+because they are accustomed to keep their mouths open during the
+Maundy-Thursday service, that the angels, God's only remaining
+ministers, may give them drink from an invisible chalice, since, as they
+hold, Christ cannot have wholly deprived the faithful of the flesh and
+blood offered upon the cross.
+
+Such are the expedients of the more gentle or enthusiastic to escape
+from the religious vacuum into which schism has precipitated them. Quite
+different is the course of the more strict and dauntless theologians;
+and the ascendency of logic over pious feeling carries with these the
+majority of the Bezpopovtsy. No consequence is too revolting for them,
+and no hesitating subterfuge worthy of a thought. The priesthood, they
+hold, is extinct, leaving only the sacrament of baptism, which the laity
+may administer. Make-believes are of no avail. The chain that linked
+Heaven with earth is snapped, and can be reunited only by miracle.
+Meanwhile, the faithful are like men shipwrecked on a desert island
+without a priest among them. Eucharist, penitence, chrism, and, more
+than all, marriage, are alike impossible. The priest alone can pronounce
+the nuptial benediction; and where there is no priest there can be no
+marriage. Such is the ultimate consequence of the schism--the rock on
+which the Bezpopovtsy split. With marriage the family goes, society with
+the family, and such teachings can never be in harmony with the
+feelings, with society or with morality. Marriage is their
+stumbling-block and the principal matter on which their discussions and
+divisions turn, giving rise to the wildest aberrations and strangest
+compromises. The more practical retain marriage as a social
+conventionality, while the more logical make celibacy universally
+binding, thereby fostering anything but asceticism. Among the Russian
+sectaries the familiar combination is repeated of sensuality and
+mysticism. Free-love has been both preached and practiced among them;
+and among the lower classes the grossest heresies of ancient Gnosticism
+have mingled with the wildest and most morbid of modern social theories.
+Most of their theological writers, while avoiding such extremes, urge
+the most extraordinary maxims in connection with their forbiddance of
+marriage, such as that immorality, being but a passing weakness, is less
+criminal than marriage, which is interdicted by the faith.... To such a
+point as this have the conscientious champions of old ceremonial been
+brought. They have carried with them a few shreds of ancient ritual, and
+they have not only abandoned Christian and natural morality, but in
+their struggle with modern government and civilization deny the
+principle which upholds all society.
+
+Even fanatics must stand affrighted before conclusions like these, and
+the Bezpopovtsy feel the need of some justification for their subversal
+of the _cultus_ and the morality of Christianity. They find but one
+solution for the awful enigma presented by Christ's abandonment of the
+Church and mankind, by the extinction of appointed sacraments and means
+of grace, and by the impious rupture of the tie between man and God. The
+downfall of Church and priesthood and the triumph of falsehood and wrong
+were foretold by the prophets. This is the time predicted in Holy Writ,
+when the very elect shall be wellnigh seduced, and when God shall seem
+to give up His own into the hand of the Adversary. The priestless Church
+is the Church in the state of widowhood foretold by Daniel in the last
+days. Thus, the Raskol was brought by the new path of theology to that
+belief in the approaching end of the world and the reign of Antichrist
+to which we have already seen it led by its aversion to ecclesiastical
+and civil reforms. That the reign of Antichrist is begun is the
+fundamental doctrine of the Raskol, and particularly of the
+Bezpopovstchin. In the light of this new dogma all the contradictions of
+the latter are explained and justified. This is the reason for the
+extinction of the priesthood, of marriage and of the family.
+Wherefore--many ask--wherefore continue the race when the archangel's
+trump is about to proclaim the end of humanity?
+
+The end of the world was announced to be nigh even before Peter the
+Great; and they who proclaimed it are not yet weary of awaiting it. Like
+Christians in the West in other periods, they are not undeceived by the
+delay of the destined time, and are at no loss to explain it. Many
+consider the reign of Antichrist to be a period or era which may last
+for centuries, as one of the three great epochs in religious history,
+and as having, like those of the old and the new dispensations, a law of
+its own which abrogates what went before. All of the Raskolniks, or even
+of the Bezpopovtsy, however, do not agree as to Antichrist; for while
+his reign is generally admitted, it seems to be very differently
+understood. Those who retain the priesthood and the more moderate of
+their opponents hold his reign to be spiritual and invisible, and
+government and established Church to be the unconscious or unwilling
+tools of Satan; while the extremists of the Bezpopovstchin maintain that
+Antichrist reigns materially and palpably. He it is, as we have seen,
+who occupies the throne of the czars since Peter the Great, and his
+Sanhedrim that usurps the name of the holy synod. Trivial as the
+difference is, theologically speaking, its political consequences are
+considerable; for the state may arrive at some understanding with sects
+that only regard it as blind and misled, while even a truce is out of
+the question with those which look upon it as the incarnate enemy of
+souls.
+
+Very singular are the vagaries to which the ignorant peasants are
+naturally led by this belief. Since the world is in subjection to
+"Satan, the son of Beelzebub," all contact with it was defiling, and
+submission to its laws nothing short of a denial of the faith. To escape
+the hellish contagion the best means was isolation or rigid withdrawal
+into inaccessible retreats or desert places. In their spiritual
+confusion and terror some of the sectaries saw no refuge but death, and
+murder and suicide were systematically resorted to for the purpose of
+shortening the time of probation and hastening their departure from the
+accursed world. With some fanatics, called "child-slayers"
+(_dietoubütsy_), it was held a duty to expedite the entrance to
+heaven of newborn children, and thus to save them infernal anguish.
+Others, called "stranglers" or "butchers" (_duchelstchiki,
+tiukalstchiki_), think they render a valuable service to their
+relatives and friends by anticipating a natural death, in hastening the
+end of those who are seriously ill. Taking with a savage literalness the
+text, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it
+by force" (Matt. xi. 12), they hold that none can enter into the kingdom
+of heaven but those who die a violent death. One of the most numerous
+and powerful bodies in the first century of the Raskol, the
+_Philipovtsy_, or "burners," like the Indian fakeers, preached
+redemption by suicide, and salvation by the baptism of fire, holding
+that the flames alone could purify men from the defilements of a world
+which had fallen under the rule of Satan. In Siberia and the
+neighborhood of the Ural these sectaries have been known to burn
+themselves in hundreds on enormous piles built for the purpose, or by
+families in their hovels, to the sound of hymns and chants. Such acts
+have been known even during the present century.
+
+One insanity begets another, and belief in the presence of Antichrist
+leads to belief in the approaching restoration of the earth, the second
+advent of Christ and the millennium, which has infected the more extreme
+sects of the Bezpopovstchin, thus connecting it with Gnostic sects of
+various origins. Russian literalism, like many early Christian heresies,
+interprets the prophets and the Apocalypse in a purely material sense.
+The mujik or artisan looks for the establishment of Christ's temporal
+kingdom, and anticipates the dominion promised to the saints. Such a
+belief opens the door to a trust in prophets, and to all the
+extravagances and rascalities that come in its train. In vain does the
+Russian statute-book condemn false prophets and lying miracles: from
+time to time the country is overrun by _illuminati_ proclaiming the
+Second Advent, and occasionally giving themselves out as the expected
+Messiah. They are frequently accompanied by a woman, who plays the part
+of mystical mother or spouse, and to whom they give the title of the
+Mother of God or the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes it is only the simple
+folk who are themselves hunting for the Redeemer; and not long since
+appeared a body of Siberian sectaries, called "Christ-hunters,"
+maintaining that the Saviour was about to appear, and scouring desert
+and forest to find him. Peasants have even been known to refuse payment
+of their taxes under pretext that Christ was come and had done away with
+them. The Messiah of the Russian sectaries is sometimes sought in the
+person of a simple peasant, and sometimes in a native or foreign prince.
+Some have long beheld the expected liberator in Napoleon, for their
+persuasion that the Russian state is the reign of Antichrist easily led
+to welcoming as a Saviour any one who seemed destined to destroy it; and
+in the great enemy of the empire, the great furtherer of a general
+abolition of serfdom, many recognized the conquering Messiah of the
+prophets. It is said that at their meetings an image of Napoleon is
+worshiped, and busts of him are certainly nowhere met with more commonly
+than in Russia. An equal veneration is paid to pictures representing the
+first emperor surrounded by his marshals and floating above the clouds
+in a kind of apotheosis, which is literally accepted by the
+matter-of-fact Russian. The story runs among his worshipers that
+Napoleon is not dead, but has escaped from St. Helena and taken shelter
+on the shores of Lake Baikal, whence he will one day come forth to
+overturn the throne of Satan and found the kingdom of justice and peace.
+
+The main point of these millennial hopes was the abolition of forced
+labor and the _obrok_, the emancipation of the serfs, and the
+equitable distribution of land and other property. A ready reception was
+sure to await such a gospel, with its combination of promises of liberty
+and faint dreams of communism; and something of the kind is necessary to
+explain the easy success of so many extravagant sects, lying prophets
+and feigned Messiahs. Dreams like these in the West incited the
+revolutions of the peasants in mediæval times and of the Anabaptists in
+the sixteenth century, but they must slowly vanish with the slavery
+which gave them birth. The age of freedom anticipated by the mujik, the
+kingdom of God of which he caught a glimpse in the promises of the
+prophets, is come at last: the Messiah and freer of the people has
+appeared, and his reign is begun. The emancipation of the serfs has
+given a blow to these millennial dreams, and consequently to the more
+advanced sects of the Raskol: its ruin will be completed by education
+and material improvement.
+
+The sects whose general evolution we have sketched may appear to us
+ridiculous and childish. We are tempted to look with contempt upon a
+people capable of such extravagances; but such an estimate would be
+erroneous. Absurdity and extravagance have always found a ready welcome
+when presented under the garb of religion; and countries boasting of
+older and more widespread civilization are not behind Russia in this
+regard. The Raskol has its counterpart in the past and the contemporary
+sectarianism of England and of the United States. A strong likeness
+holds between the Puritans and the Old Believers; and both as to
+originality and religious eccentricities the Anglo-Saxon and the
+inhabitant of Greater Russia may be compared. The Russians delight in
+pointing out the resemblances between their country and the great
+republic of the New World; and this is not the least of them. The
+Americans have their prophets and prophetesses, just like the old
+Russian serfs, and no absurdity or immorality is too gross to find
+preachers and converts among them. How shall we account for so striking
+an analogy between the two most extensive empires of the two continents?
+To characteristics of race and an incomplete blending of different
+stocks, or to the nature of the soil, the extremes of heat and cold, and
+the strong contrasts of the seasons? to the vastness of their
+territories and the scanty diffusion of population and culture over
+areas so immense? or still again to the rapid and inharmonious growth of
+the two countries--to the lack of popular education in the one, and the
+low standard of the higher education in the other? Separately or
+combined, these causes fail completely to explain the curious
+phenomenon; and still they are the most striking points of resemblance
+between the two colossal powers. In some respects, the sectarian spirit
+presents itself in a different and almost opposite manner in the
+democratic republic and the despotic empire. In the United States the
+ranker growths of religious enthusiasm spring from an excess of
+individualism and enterprise--from the independent and pushing temper
+transported from politics and business into religion. In Russia, on the
+contrary, the popular mind has thrown off all restraint in the religious
+sphere, simply because this was long the only one in which it could
+disport itself unchecked. The religious boldness and extravagance which
+in the one country is the direct consequence of the state of society is
+in the other rather a reaction against it. Russia's advantage over
+America lies in the fact that there the excesses of fancy and zeal
+prevail in a more primitive, unsophisticated and childlike race. Some
+diseases are best passed through early in life, before the time of full
+development. It is no less true of some moral maladies: childhood
+suffers from them less than youth or maturity. Russia is still in that
+stage of civilization which is naturally subject to attacks of feverish
+and mystical religion, but one day it will emerge from it; and the
+precocious skepticism of a large portion of its educated classes shows
+plainly that no inexorable fate condemns the national character to
+credulity and superstition.
+
+The Raskol is more than a morbid symptom or a sign of weakness. If it
+does little credit to the sense or cultivation of the people, it does
+much to its heart, its conscience and its will. Independence and
+individuality are often said to be lacking in it, but the Old Believers
+show that firmness and conception of duty which are as needful as
+intelligence to a nation's strength. Beneath the dull, monotonous
+surface of political society these sects give us a glimpse of the hard
+rock which is the groundwork of this seemingly inert race: its
+originality and stern individuality are what are dear to it. One day
+Russia will display in other spheres the originality and patient, sturdy
+energy which these religious struggles have called forth. That a
+considerable portion of the people have revolted against the liturgic
+reform shows that it is not the stupid, sluggish herd Europe has so long
+imagined. On one ground at least its conscience has displayed sufficient
+independence, and told despotism that it is not all-powerful. And if
+mere ritual alterations have aroused such opposition, what would result
+from a change of religion--from the transition to Catholicism or
+Protestantism so often dreamed of and advised by Western theologians? So
+far from being always docile and void of will and determination, the
+Russian people, even in their religious vagaries, have displayed a
+singular power of organization and combination.
+
+
+
+
+ELEANOR'S CAREER.
+
+
+I first met Eleanor Vachy at a boarding-school in the city of R----,
+where we soon became intimate friends. Eleanor was the result of a
+system. When but a few months old, and an orphan, she had been left to
+the care of her aunt, Miss Willmanson, a reformer, a progressionist,
+advanced both in life and opinions, who had spared nothing to make her
+niece an example to her sex. No pugilist ever believed more fully in
+training than did Miss Willmanson: she looked upon institutions of
+learning as forcing-houses, where nipping, budding and improving the
+natural growth was the constant occupation, and where the various
+branches of knowledge were cultivated, like cabbages, at so much a head.
+When Eleanor became, so to speak, her property, she seized with avidity
+the opportunity of submitting her principles to the test of
+experiment--of demonstrating to an incredulous world the power of
+education, and the vigor of the female mind and body when formed by
+proper discipline. The child was fed in accordance with the most recent
+discoveries in chemistry: she was taught to read after the latest
+improvement in primers; she was provided with mathematical toys and
+gymnastic exercises. Did she take a walk in summer, her attention was
+directed to botany; if she picked up a stone to make it skip over a
+passing brook, passages from the _Medals of Creation_ or _Thoughts on a
+Pebble_ were quoted; and when the stone went skimming over the surface
+of the calm pool, the theory of the ricochet was explained and the
+wonders of natural philosophy were dilated upon. Every sentence she
+spoke was made the text of a lesson, and the names of sages and
+philosophers became as familiar to her as those of Jack the Giant-killer
+and Blue Beard are to ordinary children.
+
+Especially were the stories of distinguished women repeated by Miss
+Willmanson in glowing language, pointed out as precedents, and dwelt
+upon as worthy of emulation. "If their genius was great enough," she
+would remark, "to extort a recognition in times when only masculine pens
+wrote history, what could not the same ability do now?--now, when,
+strengthened by waiting, encouraged by ungrudging praise, and sure of
+having chroniclers of their own sex who will do them justice, a new era
+is dawning. The history of the world needs to be reseen from a woman's
+point of view, and rewritten by a woman's hand. Men have had
+the monopoly of making public opinion, and have distorted facts. What in
+a king they name policy, in a queen is called cruelty; what in a
+minister is diplomacy, in a favorite is deceit; what in a man is
+justice, in a woman is inhumanity; vigor is coarseness, generosity is
+weakness, sincerity becomes shallowness; and faults that are passed over
+lightly in the hero are sufficient to doom the heroine for all
+posterity."
+
+The peculiar views of Eleanor's aunt did not prevent her from being an
+agreeable acquaintance. Although she believed in the intellectual
+capacity of woman, she did not look upon herself as a representative of
+the class: her admiration of her sex did not degenerate into
+self-laudation, and her enthusiasm was not tainted by egotism. Hers was
+not a strong-mindedness that showed itself in ungainly coiffures and
+tasteless attire. It was content with desiring and claiming for woman
+whatever is best, noblest and most lovely in mind and body. She would
+have given her life to further this end, but thought it mattered little
+if her name were forgotten in the bulletin that announced success to the
+cause.
+
+Owing to her extreme reserve in talking of herself, it was very
+gradually that I gained this knowledge of Miss Willmanson's character;
+but many of her opinions were received at second hand from Eleanor, who
+admired her aunt greatly, and never tired of quoting her. It was she who
+told me that this talented lady was engaged upon a book the title of
+which was _Footsteps of Women in All Ages_. The aunt returned this
+admiration in no stinted measure, and her highest ambition seemed
+centred in her niece.
+
+Eleanor was a tall, well-formed, unaffected girl, with a clear olive
+complexion; a slight rose-colored bloom on cheeks and lips; deep blue
+eyes, rather purple than blue, rather amethyst than purple, that looked
+every one candidly in the face; and hair reminding you of late
+twilight--a shade that, though dark, still bore traces of having once
+been light, even sunny.
+
+As to her acquirements, however, what in the older lady was love of
+information, in the younger appeared to be what Pepys called a "curious
+curiosity." If she had been obliged to investigate a subject by constant
+labor, I doubt whether she would have stood the test. At school she was
+a parlor-boarder, attended outside lectures on the sciences, went to
+concerts and the opera, frequented museums, had small blank-books in
+which she took voluminous notes, and was constantly busy with some new
+scheme of improvement. In looking at her I often thought that could her
+aunt's dreams be realized, could her intellect ever approach the unusual
+symmetry and beauty of her face and form, it would indeed be an
+achievement. But was it likely that Nature, who is so grudging of her
+gifts, after having endowed her so highly physically would do as much
+for her mentally? "Aunt Will," as the girl called her, had none of these
+misgivings. This beautiful physique she believed to be the effect of her
+own foresight and care--of proper food and clothing, of training in the
+gymnasium, riding and walking. It was itself an earnest of the success
+of her plans, and made her confident for the future. One of the tenets
+of her faith was that Eleanor needed only to decide in what direction to
+exert herself, and that in any career success was certain. For this
+reason she gave her opportunities of every kind, that her choice might
+be unlimited.
+
+In this, as in every other opinion, Eleanor agreed with her aunt, not
+through vanity, but through respect and habit. What she intended to
+become was the theme of long confidences between us when alone together,
+for the time which most other girls of her age devote to dreams of love
+and lovers was employed by her in speculations about her future
+profession. The artlessness of the girl in thus appropriating to herself
+the whole field of human wisdom would have been ludicrous had it not
+been so frank: it reminded you of a child reaching out its chubby hands
+to seize the moon.
+
+In regard to love and marriage, Aunt Will was most resolute in speaking
+against them, and by precept and example she endeavored to influence her
+niece in the same direction. "It is a state which mentally
+unfits a woman for anything"--a dictum which was accepted by Eleanor
+without argument. It was understood that her life was to be devoted to
+being great, not to being loved. But Aunt Will refused to lend her help
+or advice in deciding what the career should be, believing that the
+prophetic fire would kindle itself without human help, and fearing that
+the least hint of what she desired might fetter a waking genius, though
+the girl often plaintively remarked, "I wish aunt would settle it for
+me."
+
+The entire faith with which these two women looked forward to the future
+roused no little curiosity on my part as to the realization of their
+hopes. A year after our acquaintance began the ladies left R---- to
+travel abroad. Eleanor assured me solemnly that she should not return
+until she had won renown, that vision of so many young hearts on leaving
+home. "The great trouble is to decide what to do;" and here she sighed.
+"But Aunt Will says our work shapes itself without our knowing. Some
+morning we wake and find it ready for our hands, with no more doubt on
+the subject. I am waking."
+
+"Meanwhile enjoying yourself."
+
+"Why not?" she answered, smiling: "it is what aunt wishes me to do."
+
+At first I had frequent letters from my friend, but the intervals
+between them became longer, as is usual when a new life replaces the
+old. In those which I received there was no allusion to the career, and
+I felt that inquiries on the subject would be indiscreet. If she were
+succeeding, I should hear of it soon enough; and if not, why should I
+give her pain? After a separation of about eighteen months, and a
+silence of six, one morning, on being sent for to the parlor, what was
+my surprise to find myself face to face with Eleanor Vachy, and the
+girl, prettier than ever, pressing warm kisses on my cheeks!
+
+We had been talking on every conceivable topic for perhaps an hour, as
+only friends can talk, when I chanced to remark, "You intended to make a
+much longer stay when you left: I hope nothing disagreeable has
+happened to bring you home."
+
+"Nothing _dis_agreeable," she replied, looking slightly
+embarrassed. "I would have written about it, but thought I would rather
+tell you. I hope it won't alter your opinion of me when you hear it: I
+hope you won't think less of me;" and the color mounted swiftly in her
+cheeks as she gave me one deprecating glance out of her purple eyes, and
+then as quickly hid them under their long lashes.
+
+"I will try to be impartial," I answered gravely, seeing that she was
+not in a humor to be laughed at. "I suppose it is in reference to your
+career?"
+
+"Yes it is," she replied, looking attentively at the point of her
+boot; "and I fear aunt is disappointed, although she says nothing;
+and it is very possible that you will be disappointed also."
+
+"If you have chosen anything reasonable," I remarked encouragingly, "I
+am sure your aunt will be satisfied: she is so unprejudiced, and you
+know she always declared that she would not influence you."
+
+"She trusted me too much," sighing. "What I have preferred,
+you--maybe she--that is, many people--would think no career at all."
+
+"Ah, indeed! Poetry?" (I knew that Aunt Will had no great opinion of
+most of the versifiers.)
+
+She interlocked her fingers and gave them a slight twist, looked still
+more intently at the toe of her boot, and dropped ruefully one little
+word, "No."
+
+"It is not the stage, surely?" looking at her perfect beauty with a
+sudden start.
+
+"No, no! it is not that. You cannot guess. I may as well tell you. I
+will begin at the beginning, and you will see that I could not help
+it: that is--For Mercy's sake don't look at me as if I were a
+criminal, or I won't say another word!"
+
+"Nonsense, Eleanor! I am not looking at you as if you were a criminal.
+Go on and tell me."
+
+"It is too late now," she said hastily: "I have been here so long
+already. I will see you to-morrow."
+
+"If you dare to go without making a full confession, I will never
+forgive you. Sit down: the sooner it is over the more composed you
+will feel. I have been so anxious to hear about it!"
+
+"Well, if it must be. I know you will be disgusted. I have to begin when
+we left here."
+
+"I have plenty of time to listen."
+
+    "You remember we started on the voyage by ourselves. At our first
+    dinner on board aunt recognized an old friend, a Mrs. Kenderdine,
+    who was also crossing, together with her son. That first dinner was
+    our last for some time, for, though we tried to be as strong-minded
+    as possible, in the end we were obliged to stay in our cabins.
+    Having recovered sooner than aunt, one day I stumbled out as far as
+    the companion-way, and was sitting there very disconsolately when
+    Mr. Kenderdine, passing by, stopped to ask if he should assist me on
+    deck. Of course I was only too glad to go. He had not been sick at
+    all, and could walk about quite easily, which gave me a high opinion
+    of his abilities. Later he brought me my dinner, with a glass of
+    wine, of which he did not spill a drop, and by evening I found that
+    with the aid of his arm I could promenade.
+
+    "That day was a sample of all until the voyage was over, for if I
+    attempted to move alone I stumbled, rolled and behaved with a lack
+    of dignity that was frightful; and yet, after getting a taste of
+    fresh air, I could not bear to stay below. Somehow, it became
+    understood that each morning Mr. Kenderdine might find me in the
+    companion-way at a certain hour; and as aunt would not leave her
+    state-room, and old Mrs. Kenderdine could not, we had nothing to do
+    but to try and amuse each other; so we ended by becoming pretty well
+    acquainted by the time we arrived at Queenstown.
+
+    "In England aunt was very busy. You used to think her a student
+    here: I wish you could have seen her there. For six months she spent
+    almost every hour of daylight in the library of the British Museum,
+    where she had been introduced by a learned friend. Aunt Will has a
+    wonderful admiration for Boadicea: she was also critically examining
+    the history of Queen Henrietta and of Elizabeth. She thinks the
+    latter did not do justice to her opportunities, and that her vanity
+    was the mark of a feeble mind. You know aunt has no patience with
+    vanity and--"
+
+"But about yourself, Eleanor?"
+
+    "I am coming to that directly. Mrs. Kenderdine had gone abroad to
+    get medical advice: as her health would permit her to take but
+    little exercise, a morning drive, with receiving and paying visits
+    (she is of an English family and well connected), was all she was
+    capable of.
+
+    "It happened in this way that the only ones of our party fit for
+    active duty were Fred--I mean Mr. Kenderdine--and myself. As we had
+    formed the habit of amusing each other on the voyage, we still
+    continued it. Aunt would join us when any historical site was to be
+    visited; but there were many places that were not historical, but
+    that were just as pleasant or as beautiful as if they had been, and
+    to these we went together. We stayed in London until the season was
+    over, and then started for Paris.
+
+    "You can form no idea how aunt reveled in the antiquities of Paris.
+    If she went to the Musée Cluny in the morning, we might be sure we
+    should see no more of her for that day at least. She absolutely took
+    rooms at Versailles for two weeks that she might study up the
+    _locale_ of the Pompadour, whom she regards as a female Richelieu,
+    and she also found a rich field of investigation in the lives of the
+    French queens."
+
+"And what were you doing all this time?"
+
+    "Oh! I had professors, French, Italian and German, for the
+    languages, I visited the galleries, and aunt would read me her
+    notes, so that I was gaining much information. You see, in a foreign
+    country it is not the thing to sit in the house to study: you must
+    go about as much as possible and use your eyes, which is an
+    education in itself. That is what I was doing."
+
+"About your career, I mean?"
+
+    "Don't be so impatient: I am about to tell you. We concluded to
+    spend the winter in Rome, aunt and I: the Kenderdines
+    remained in Paris. Aunt preceded me to Brussels about two weeks
+    to explore the libraries there, as we were to make the Rhine tour
+    before going to Italy. I should have accompanied her, but we were
+    expecting a remittance from home that had not arrived, and I was
+    obliged to wait for it. The day before I left Paris I was regretting
+    that I had not been to Montmorency, and Mr. Kenderdine, who
+    overheard me, proposed that as I did not mind fatigue we should go.
+    By starting early in the morning we could make our 'last day,' as he
+    called it, a _fête_. I consented, and we arranged to take the early
+    train to Enghien, to breakfast there, ride through Montmorency to
+    the Château de la Chasse, where we could have dinner, and return in
+    time for the Belgian train in the evening. The next morning I was
+    ready, my riding-skirt in a satchel, and off we went. The day was
+    perfect, the air cool and delicious. We took the cars at the Gare du
+    Nord, and in less than an hour we arrived at Enghien, ordered
+    breakfast at a charming little hotel that overlooks the lake, and
+    had it brought to us on the balcony, from whence we could listen to
+    the band playing, and look at the beautiful villas that border the
+    water, watch the invalids taking their constitutionals, and see the
+    brightly-painted boats bobbing over the small waves. While waiting
+    for the horses, Fred made me go to the springs and taste the water,
+    which is horrid: then we mounted and cantered leisurely on to
+    Montmorency, a hilly, desolate-looking place, although so much
+    lauded by the Parisians: I suppose the beautiful forest in the
+    vicinity is its attraction. The road for the next five or six miles
+    was shaded by trees, and most of it was a soft turf on which the
+    horses' hoofs rebounded noiselessly, with views of rolling country
+    at intervals. The château had been a hunting-lodge two or three
+    hundred years ago, but nothing remains of it now but a couple of
+    towers, to which a modern country inn has been added, where
+    excellent dinners may be had, as I can testify. It is a great place
+    for the picnics and pleasure-parties of the natives, but foreigners
+    seldom visit it. After we had wandered about for several hours,
+    enjoying ourselves in that silly French way, with nothing but light
+    hearts, fresh air, green grass and blue sky for all incitement
+    thereto, I, in consideration of my evening journey, recommended our
+    return. We had the horses brought round, and then my career
+    commenced."
+
+"Why, how?"
+
+    "You know that road from the château? No you don't, but I will tell
+    you of it. The woods lie on one side, and an ivy-covered wall
+    separates it from sloping fields on the other--the prettiest place
+    on earth." ("Artistic," thought I: "she has decided on
+    landscape-painting;" but I did not interrupt.) "It was just there
+    that Mr. Kenderdine came to my side: he had dismounted to open the
+    gate, and was leading his horse. He came to my side, and, looking up
+    at me, said half seriously, half smiling, 'You are very happy
+    to-day, Miss Eleanor: what will you do when I am not with you to
+    ride and walk and talk to?'
+
+    "'I suppose I shall find some one in Rome who rides, walks and talks
+    as well. They say the Campagna is lovely for riding.'
+
+    "'And perhaps some one who waltzes as well.'
+
+    "'Certainly: that is no great accomplishment. Like playing a
+    hurdy-gurdy, if you turn round often enough you cannot fail to make
+    a successful performance.'
+
+    "'There is one thing you will not find, Eleanor;' and he laid his
+    hand on my wrist: 'that is, some one who loves you as well.'
+
+    "'Mr. Kenderdine, please get on your horse, and don't talk
+    nonsense.'
+
+    "'I suppose I have as good a right to talk nonsense as any one, and
+    I believe the fancy for doing so comes to all of us once in our
+    lifetime.'
+
+    "'I admit your right to talk, and claim mine to refuse to listen;'
+    so saying, I gave my horse a cut. The animal started, but Fred's
+    hand was still on my bridle-wrist, and with a motion he checked the
+    animal so violently that it reared, afterward coming down on the sod
+    with a thud that almost unseated me.
+
+    "'I will talk, and you shall listen,' said Mr. Fred, looking
+    dangerous.
+
+    "'So it appears,' I retorted, thoroughly provoked; 'but I hope you
+    will oblige me by being as expeditious as possible, for I am very
+    much afraid that I shall miss the train to-night.'
+
+    "He looked at me a moment as if to be sure he understood my meaning,
+    then turned and sprang on his horse, at the same time remarking,
+    'You are right: I had better not detain you. I had forgotten your
+    journey.'
+
+    "We cantered on in silence for about three miles. The flush of anger
+    had slowly faded out of his face, when he commenced abruptly: 'Miss
+    Vachy, I have no _right_ to ask you what I intend asking, but I have
+    always thought you had a kind heart, and perhaps you will answer my
+    question. You may depend that the confidence you may place in me
+    will be held sacred.' Then less quickly, 'Will you tell me, have you
+    an understanding, or are you engaged, or do you care for any one
+    else?'
+
+    "For a moment I thought of entering into an explanation--of telling
+    him what my aunt expected of me, and what I intended doing--only I
+    did not myself know what I intended doing; and it seemed absurd to
+    begin such an account without being able to complete it. Besides, if
+    he thought I cared for some one else, it would end the matter and
+    save a world of argument; so I replied hesitatingly, 'I am sorry,
+    Mr. Kenderdine, that I cannot answer your question, but--'
+
+    "'Enough: I understand.'
+
+    "Then our canter quickened into a gallop, and the gallop into a
+    race. I am quite sure those horses never went at such a pace in
+    their lives before. Fred seemed unconscious of the run we were
+    making of it, unconscious of everything, urging his poor beast
+    whenever it flagged, and fretting its mouth by alternately jerking
+    and loosening the reins, until had it been anything but a livery
+    hack it would have been frantic. Conversation was impossible, and I
+    had nothing to sustain me during the ride but the satisfaction of
+    feeling that I had done my duty."
+
+    "It don't seem to me that you are getting any nearer the end of your
+    story."
+
+    "The darkest hour is that which precedes the dawn," said Eleanor,
+    adding maliciously, "if you are tired I will tell you the rest
+    to-morrow. Don't you see that I must bring you up to it gradually,
+    so that the shock will not be too great?"
+
+    "But think of the suspense I am in."
+
+    "My dear, the first steps in any career are as important as the
+    last; so curb your curiosity and listen. If you were telling it, you
+    would not get on one bit faster."
+
+    "Perhaps not," I answered doubtfully: "however, continue."
+
+    "Thanks to our haste, we got to Paris early enough to allow me to
+    rest and have supper. I had sent on my baggage by express, and had
+    nothing to worry about Starting at seven, I should arrive next
+    morning at Brussels. I can sleep famously in the cars, and I
+    apprehended no difficulty. Fred, looking as black as a thundercloud,
+    took me to the station, and was preposterous enough to ask me if I
+    was not sorry I was going."
+
+    "And what did you say?"
+
+    "Say? Why, the truth--that I was glad; and then Mr. Thundercloud
+    looked blacker than ever.
+
+    "I had several stations to pass before we reached Creil, where I was
+    to change cars and take the express. I settled myself comfortably,
+    so that I could look out of the window, and I whiled away the time
+    by reviewing the whole of my acquaintance with Mr. Kenderdine. I was
+    forced to admit that I had acted imprudently in not letting him know
+    from the beginning what my life was to be, but I never thought it
+    would matter to him. Then my conscience reproached me for the lie I
+    had implied: I might have told him the truth, and spared him the
+    mortification of believing that I preferred some one else. I knew,
+    in thinking of it calmly, that it was not to avoid an argument that
+    I had done it, but to make him feel as badly as possible, because I
+    was angry at him for stopping my horse. It was mean in me,
+    especially as that De Vezin was the person he would pitch on. You
+    see, I had made a good deal of De Vezin while in Paris, but it was
+    only to improve my French accent--a fact which poor Fred
+    could not know.
+
+    "The train whizzed on. The night grew dark: I could scarcely
+    distinguish objects outside the blurred window, but I still remained
+    attentive to the voice of the conductor as he called out the names
+    of the successive stations until--until I heard no more: I had
+    fallen asleep.
+
+    "I suppose I slept profoundly for about half an hour, when I was
+    suddenly awakened by a jerk: the cars had stopped. I was not aware I
+    had been sleeping, but I had an undefined sense that something was
+    wrong. I hastily opened the window and heard the name Liancourt
+    shouted. There was no such stopping-place between Paris and Creil,
+    for I had studied up my route before starting. The truth flashed
+    upon me, and impulsively I left my car, rushed to the conductor, and
+    asked, 'What place is this?'
+
+    "'Liancourt.'
+
+    "'And where is Creil?'
+
+    "'We have passed it. Did you want to go there?'
+
+    "'Of course I did. Why did you not call it?'
+
+    "'We did call it,' said he indignantly: 'you must have been asleep.'
+
+    "'No such thing,' I replied, for at the moment I did not think it
+    could be possible.
+
+    "There was but little time for reflection. Should I go on to the
+    next large town, or should I stay? If I went on, I should get to my
+    destination in the middle of the night, and, knowing nothing of the
+    place, might have great difficulty in finding lodgings. If I stayed,
+    I might get a train back or a carriage, or even find here a hotel of
+    some kind where they would accommodate me until morning. I decided
+    to remain, and off went the cars.
+
+    "One of the ticket-agents came forward from the office--as I
+    supposed to offer his services: there were but few people about, but
+    all understood my situation. As I said, the man came forward and
+    bowed: 'Your fare, if you please.'
+
+    "I handed him my ticket: he stood before me and repeated, 'Your
+    fare, if you please.'
+
+    "'I have given you my ticket,' said I, looking at him inquiringly.
+
+    "'This one is not for Liancourt: it is for Creil.'
+
+    "'I was going to Creil, only the train brought me past.'
+
+    "'Exactly, and you will please pay for the extra distance,' said he
+    politely.
+
+    "It was too much. I had the misfortune of being carried out of my
+    way, and this exasperating clerk was coolly asking me to pay the
+    company a premium for the result of the conductor's carelessness. It
+    was one of those situations in which words fail to express the
+    extent of your indignation. The fellow's audacity verged on the
+    sublime. He stood there with the calmness of a hero. And what did I
+    do? Why, I paid him. But I tell you truly that I have hated that
+    whole railroad company with the blackest hatred ever since. That was
+    not all. As soon as he received the provoking money--I wish it had
+    been red hot--he turned on his heel and walked into his office.
+
+    "But it was not the time to indulge in resentment: I must act
+    promptly. The people there when I arrived were fast dispersing. I
+    addressed myself to a half-grown boy who was standing near me: 'When
+    does the next train go to Paris?' I thought I had better return and
+    start afresh in the morning.
+
+    "'The last has gone for to-night,' answered the lad.
+
+    "'Are you quite sure?'
+
+    "He gave his head a decisive jerk.
+
+    "'How far is this place from Creil?'
+
+    "'About five miles.'
+
+    "'Can I get a carriage to take me there?'
+
+    "'No.' This time he looked for corroboration to the group who had
+    gathered round us, all of whom with one accord wagged their heads in
+    the negative.
+
+    "'Is there a hotel here?'
+
+    "'No.'
+
+    "'Isn't it a town?'
+
+    "'No,' much intensified.
+
+    "I knew that there are many stations in France consisting of a
+    single building located in the midst of fields: these places take
+    their names from the nearest town (which may be several
+    miles distant), and are marked on the maps by a black spot like a
+    hyphen: many of them are served by an omnibus. I found, on further
+    questioning, that this was one of the aforesaid black spots, minus
+    the omnibus.
+
+    "'What is the nearest town?' I continued.
+
+    "'Liancourt is a little more than a mile off, but it is a village.'
+
+    "'Is there an inn there?'
+
+    "'I believe there is.'
+
+    "By this time most of my audience had satisfied their curiosity and
+    departed, leaving only the boy, and an old man who attracted my
+    attention. He held a lantern which illuminated a kindly,
+    weatherbeaten face, looking like that of an old sailor. I discovered
+    later that he had come from Normandy, and like most Normans had
+    spent half his life on the waves. He seemed interested in my hapless
+    plight: perhaps he would assist me.
+
+    "'I want to go back to Creil' (I knew I should find a hotel there):
+    'won't you come with me and show me the way with your lantern?'
+
+    "'Can't, mademoiselle: can't leave here.' He gave an indicative jerk
+    of his head and thumb in a certain direction toward the railroad.
+
+    "'Why not?'
+
+    "'I am the night-watchman, and should lose my place if I left.'
+
+    "Then please point out the road: I shall have to return alone.'
+
+    "'Can't, mademoiselle: it is too dark. You would get lost.'
+
+    "I thought I could not get much more lost than I was at that moment,
+    but did not say so. Just then a bright idea struck me: 'I will walk
+    back on the railroad: I cannot fail to find my way.'
+
+    "The old man looked aghast at the proposition, and pointed to the
+    long line of high thick hedge that bordered it on each side.
+
+    "'How could you leave the track if you did get to Creil? They are
+    locked up there for the night. Besides, you would be crushed by
+    passing trains, and you would be fined too, for it is against the
+    law. Now,' he went on in that patronizing manner which, from its
+    naïveté is so charming in the French peasant--'now, mademoiselle
+    does not wish to die to-night, does she, and be also fined?'
+
+    "'No,' I replied dolefully, seeing my chances of shelter
+    diminishing, 'but I shall certainly die if you will not help me to
+    find a hotel.'
+
+    "'Wait,' he whispered--'wait a little until all the world is gone.
+    It won't be five minutes until every one has departed and every
+    light is out in the station; then--'
+
+    "I could not see how this was to improve my condition, but, having
+    no choice, I waited patiently while he went and busied himself about
+    his work. Presently he returned. Everything was silent, and pointing
+    mysteriously to the waiting-room in the building, he said in a low
+    voice, '_There_ is where you can stay till morning. They would not
+    allow it if they knew, but no one will be the wiser. You can leave
+    as soon as it is light, and to-night sleep on one of the sofas.
+    That's where I sit at night, and I will give it up to you.'
+
+    "The idea was repugnant to me. I could not consent; it was too
+    frightful; it was impossible. I hastened to say, 'It will not do--I
+    cannot stay here: you must take me back. Do take me to Creil.'
+
+    "'Can't do it.'
+
+    "'Well, take me to the next town: there is an inn, and it is not
+    far.'
+
+    "He wavered, and seeing my distress his good-nature conquered. 'I
+    will go with you,' he answered, slowly shaking his head as if
+    admonishing himself for being such a fool; 'but if they should find
+    it out--'
+
+    "You may think it was unkind in me to let him run the risk of losing
+    his place, but what was I to do? I could not submit to stay at the
+    station like a vagabond, and I could not find my way alone. So,
+    without allowing him time to change his mind, I set out. The road
+    was bad and the night dark; the lantern threw a circle of light
+    around us, but all beyond was impenetrable; still, the hope of
+    shelter at the end made the walk agreeable to me. We
+    stumbled along in silence, and by and by heard the barking of dogs
+    that always heralds a night approach to a village. The first house
+    that greeted my eyes had the welcome signboard swinging before it,
+    and above its lintel a bush. It was a tiny place, but it was a
+    refuge, and I felt quite cheerful as I requested the old tar to
+    knock.
+
+    "He did so, and the sound echoed and re-echoed, but there was no
+    response.
+
+    "'Again,' I said, and 'again,' and 'again,' with no better result.
+    It was anything but encouraging.
+
+    "'They cannot hear, they are asleep: take up a stone and beat the
+    door. You must awaken them.'
+
+    "He obediently picked up a stone, and there followed a noise like
+    thunder. I should not have been surprised to see the wee house tilt
+    over and lie down on its side under the force of the blows. Now a
+    gruff voice called out, 'What do you want?'
+
+    "'Lodging.'
+
+    "'We have no room for any one: go away.'
+
+    "'Tell him I must stay,' And with the help of my prompting the old
+    fellow put my case in the most persuasive light possible, but,
+    although we talked and knocked with perseverance, the owner of the
+    voice neither appeared, nor would he vouchsafe us another answer.
+    One might have thought the house had been suddenly enchanted.
+
+    "'It is of no use--of no use whatever: they will not open,' finally
+    said my exhausted companion.
+
+    "'Is there no other inn here?'
+
+    "'No: you will have to return.'
+
+    "'Then you must take me to Creil.'
+
+    "'That I can't do. I have been away too long already: there is a
+    freight-train expected, and I must see that the track is clear. We
+    must go back;' and he turned resolutely and led the way.
+
+    "Just as we left the village a gay party of peasant-girls passed us
+    coming from a ball, laughing and chatting merrily with their beaus.
+    I had an insane idea of accosting them, appealing to their pity, and
+    asking them to keep me for the night, but fear lest they should
+    refuse restrained me: I was too dejected to risk a second repulse.
+    I have been able to realize the poetical things they tell us of the
+    sensations of outcasts, of adventurers; and homeless wanderers ever
+    since. The sight of this merry party made me feel more terribly
+    alone; and the beaus--well, I confess I did wonder what Fred was
+    doing at that moment. Then I thought of the horror of my aunt could
+    she know where I was, and what she would think of the 'footsteps'
+    her own niece was making just then, could she see her.
+
+    "When we arrived at the station my guide preceded me to the
+    waiting-room, and I, completely worn out, meekly followed him.
+
+    "'This is much better than sleeping in the fields,' he remarked
+    cheerily as we entered: 'shall I make you a fire?'
+
+    "'No, thank you, but let me go into the other room.' My reason for
+    this was that its sofas and chairs had some pretensions to comfort,
+    being 'first class.' He went to open the connecting door. It was
+    locked.
+
+    "'This is the only room that is open: I am sorry. Wait a moment: I
+    will bring something to make a pillow, and you can sleep like a
+    top.' He went out, and returned with an old coat, which he folded
+    for me, and which, after covering it with my handkerchief, made a
+    tolerable resting-place for my head. My bed was a hard bench.
+
+    "'Now,' said my protector in a tone of much satisfaction--'now, you
+    will be well. _Voilà un bon gîte_! Both these other doors are
+    fastened, and this one you can lock after me. Very early I will come
+    and take you part of the way back, and by daylight you can easily
+    find the rest yourself. _Bonne nuit, mademoiselle: dormez bien_.' He
+    went to the door, and taking the key from the outside put it inside.
+    It would not turn. The lock had been made to work with two keys, and
+    the other was absent.
+
+    "'I will tell you what I will do,' said my friend, not in the least
+    discomfited: 'I will lock the door and take the key with me. I must
+    go up the road about two miles on my beat, but you can feel
+    quite safe: no one can get in while I am gone. There is another
+    watchman on the road: he might come while I am away, and--and raise
+    a row. It is best to lock you up.' He nodded his head with great
+    complacency at his good management, and prepared to leave me. I
+    could suggest nothing better. I was at the end of my resources, and
+    had to accept my fate. It would be interesting to know what the
+    Pompadour or Queen Elizabeth would have done under the
+    circumstances, wouldn't it?
+
+    "It was with no pleasant feeling that I saw the door shut, heard the
+    key turned, then withdrawn: the lantern glimmered for a moment
+    through the window, and I was left in the darkness a prisoner.
+    Thoroughly a prisoner, for none of the three doors had keys on my
+    side, and the windows, with their tiny panes of ground glass, were
+    high above the floor. Then, too, the old man had insisted on
+    speaking in a whisper, and walked about on tiptoe. Who were those
+    persons he evidently feared to waken? Persons near by, of course.
+    Probably they carried the missing keys and could enter at any
+    moment. And the other watchman? What if he should come, and, this
+    being the room allotted to himself and companion, refuse to be
+    barred out? Those other unknowns would be aroused by his knocking,
+    and rush in to seek an explanation. If I were found there, should I
+    be taken before the police as a vagabond? Or imagine a fire--a fire
+    and no one knowing that I am here! A fire and no means of escape! My
+    friends losing all trace of me, unable to ascertain how I came by my
+    death! And such a horrible death! Four hours yet till dawn! What
+    might not happen in four hours? The man himself might only have gone
+    to seek an accomplice to murder me. He might have known that the key
+    would not turn on the inside. But at last, in spite of myself,
+    fatigue conquered fear and I slept.
+
+    "I cannot say how long I had been unconscious when I was awakened by
+    hearing a key turning in the lock: the door cautiously opened, and a
+    man entered and came toward the bench where I was lying. My
+    drowsiness calmed me. I wondered quite placidly whether it was to be
+    robbery or murder. What a paragraph it would make in the _Moniteur_
+    next day! I would cheerfully give him my watch and purse if they
+    would content him. I might call out and rouse the house, but most
+    likely Brunhilda in my situation would have held a parley. A good
+    precedent. I sat up to show that I was awake, and in doing so
+    recognized my old man. Though nothing could look more threatening as
+    he stealthily advanced, shading his light, taking pains to make no
+    noise, I could not entirely mistrust the weatherbeaten face with its
+    anxious, benevolent eyes that met mine.
+
+    "'Is it time to go?' I asked.
+
+    "'Not yet, but soon. I have just returned, and came in to know if
+    you would have a fire: it is cold outside.'
+
+    "'No, never mind: I am doing well enough. I think I will take
+    another nap.'
+
+    "'Very well: I shall be near for the rest of the night, so you need
+    not be afraid.' And he left, carefully locking me in again.
+
+    "When he came for me the dawn was beginning to break; the morning
+    star was shining in the sky; the earliest birds were twittering, and
+    cocks answered each other from distance to distance; but not a human
+    being was to be seen. We crossed ploughed fields and stubble to find
+    the road, and I felt the truth of my guide's augury of the night
+    before. Had I attempted to go alone I should have become bewildered,
+    and ended by sleeping in the fields. It did strike me that if the
+    man wished to rob me, now would be his chance, and at first I
+    intentionally kept a little behind; but his innocent garrulity was
+    such as to allay all suspicions, and we jogged on very amicably
+    until, coming to two roads, he pointed out that which leads to
+    Creil, and bade me good-bye.
+
+    "Had I had the giving of a medal of the Legion of Honor, I should
+    have decorated him on the spot. I believe it repaid me for my
+    annoyance to have found such ample goodness, such chivalry, such
+    kindness, growing as it were by the wayside. It was as if
+    the world had rolled back into the days of knight-errantry, when to
+    rescue and protect distressed damsels ranked next to religious
+    worship. Sure am I if my weatherbeaten old man had lived at that
+    time, none would have been more renowned for gentle deeds: in this
+    prosaic age he is but a watchman on a railroad. I was about to pour
+    out my gratitude, when I remembered we were in the nineteenth
+    century, and looking into his face, I fancied that something more
+    substantial would be better. I drew out my purse. He was frankly
+    delighted with what I gave him, saying only that it was too much,
+    and we separated mutually pleased.
+
+    "I sauntered on, lingering by the way to avoid waiting at Creil;
+    consequently, I was just able to procure my ticket and a paper of
+    brioches at the buffet when the English train came in. As I stood at
+    the door, knowing that as soon as it moved off the Belgian train was
+    due, whom should I see get out but Fred! I thought he would re-enter
+    in a moment, and placed myself so that he could not see me. I was
+    mistaken. The train started, and mine puffed up: there he was still.
+    In the crowd I hoped I should not be discovered, but as I stepped
+    from the door his eyes met mine, and he rushed up to me with the
+    exclamation, 'In the name of Heaven, how did you get here? Was there
+    an accident? Are you hurt? What is the matter?'
+
+    "It was singular how his voice unnerved me: I could not say a word.
+    The crowd carried us with them, and he helped me into a car, sitting
+    by me and recommencing his questions. Then I stammered, 'You will be
+    taken on if you do not get out: there is nothing wrong.'
+
+    "For answer he shut the door of the compartment, and said, 'I am
+    going with you. Now tell me how you come to be here?'
+
+    "I do not know why I should have given way when all danger was
+    over--I believe there is no parallel case in the life of any
+    celebrated woman--but I suppose I was tired out. My anxiety and
+    fright, a night spent on a hard board, the surprise of meeting Mr.
+    Kenderdine,--whatever it was, I leaned back in the corner of the
+    seat, took out my handkerchief, and cried harder than I had ever
+    done in my life before. He was greatly alarmed, but, like a sensible
+    man, waited until I became more composed, and when I was able to
+    tell him, instead of blaming me or thinking I was stupid, he
+    censured himself for not accompanying me.
+
+    "'I did mean to ask your permission to do so, Miss Eleanor,' he said
+    slightly embarrassed, 'and I was prig enough to think you would
+    allow it, but when you told me of your engagement I did not dare.
+    After you left I had a dread that something might happen, and I
+    could not rest satisfied until I had made up my mind to come on and
+    see that you had arrived safely. I thought you would forgive me, as
+    it is for the last time, and De Vezin need not be jealous, for he
+    will have you for ever, while I--' Fred can be wonderfully pathetic.
+
+    "Then I made up my mind to undeceive him, as was my duty, you know.
+    I told him very gently that he was under a false impression. I was
+    not engaged: my aunt had educated me for a purpose, and we both had
+    quite determined that I should never marry, but instead do something
+    great in the world, though I had not yet decided what. I explained
+    it to him fully, so that there should be no more mistakes about it.
+    When I ended I did not venture to look at him for a long time,
+    fearing to see him grieved at this irrevocable barrier; but when I
+    did, what was my surprise to see his face beaming with joy! He began
+    impetuously, 'If you had told me I was to be crowned at Brussels, it
+    would not be better news. I was sure it was De Vezin who separated
+    us. Now I can hope.'
+
+    "'You must not talk in that way if you do not want our friendship to
+    cease: you offend me deeply. Can't you see that if you persist in
+    this idea of yours, our pleasant acquaintance must end?' It was so
+    frivolous in Fred, and I spoke very decidedly.
+
+    "'Not at all, Eleanor: it would only begin. Why should not our whole
+    life be like this past year?'
+
+    "'You know it can't,' said I. 'Haven't I told you the reason?'
+
+    "'It will be no reason when De Vezin asks you,' said he
+    suspiciously.
+
+    "'De Vezin is nothing to me.'
+
+    "'You carry a _gage d'amour_ from him on your watch-chain at this
+    very minute.'
+
+    "Now, wasn't that talk silly? De Vezin had brought me a two-centime
+    piece one day because I said I had never seen one, and I put a hole
+    in it and hung it to my chain. Fred to call that a _gage d'amour!_
+
+    "'Nonsense!' said I.
+
+    "'De Vezin thought the same when he saw it there. I took him for a
+    fool, but I see he was right.'
+
+    "'Well, now you will see you were both fools,' said I angrily, and I
+    twisted off the coin and threw it from the window.
+
+    "'Is only that preposterous notion in the way?' he asked, looking
+    happy again and taking a seat by me.
+
+    "I told you how I cried on first entering the cars, and now--would
+    you believe it?--I got terribly embarrassed. It seemed as if
+    everything I did or said made matters worse. I was scarcely able to
+    stammer, 'My aunt--'
+
+    "'I will speak to her. Let me put this on your finger until I can
+    replace it by another:' and he slipped off his seal and leaned
+    forward with an entreating look.
+
+    "I shook my head.
+
+    "'I won't ask you to promise anything: only wear it that I may not
+    be forgotten in Rome.'
+
+    "'No, no, I cannot!' I exclaimed, clasping my hands. I suppose the
+    action and tone were very exaggerated, for Mr. Kenderdine drew back,
+    saying, 'I shall not _force_ you to take it;' and then went to the
+    other window, took a newspaper out of his pocket and pretended to
+    read it, while I was angry and sorry and miserable, though why I
+    should feel so much like crying at what had only amused me the day
+    before I cannot understand. I suppose none of those wonderful ladies
+    would have acted so, would they?
+
+    "But you are tired long ago, and you can easily imagine what comes
+    after. See!" and she turned a ring on her finger until I could catch
+    the shimmer of its stone. "That is how it ended; and though I did
+    not accept it until the next spring in Rome, I shall always blame
+    that night for the whole affair. When I asked Fred why he took the
+    trouble to follow me after the double snubbing I had given him, he
+    said 'I was worth it.' But since we are engaged he teases me
+    shamefully--calls me doctor, hopes I intend to support him in
+    comfort and ease, and says that it always was his ambition to be the
+    husband of a strong-minded woman, and broadly hints about my
+    experience in traveling being so useful to him. And aunt? When I
+    first told her she looked so shocked and disappointed that I threw
+    myself in her arms, saying I would not distress her for the world;
+    that I would do anything she desired; that if she wished she might
+    send Fred off, for I loved her best on earth. But after some minutes
+    of deep thought she looked at me quizzically and replied, 'You know,
+    dear, I always said you must choose your career for yourself.' Then
+    seeing that I seemed hurt and ashamed, she kissed me and whispered,
+    'Love makes us selfish: my affection for you has grown stronger than
+    my ambition. If _you_ are happy, my Eleanor, I can wait patiently
+    for the advancement of the rest of my sex.'"
+
+Then Eleanor rose, and drawing her shawl round her preparatory to going,
+said shyly, "And what I came to tell you is, that the wedding will take
+place at Christmas."
+
+                                        ITA ANIOL PROKOP.
+
+
+
+
+AN AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY YEARS AGO.
+
+
+We are looking over sundry trunks and boxes, the careful and the
+careless gatherings of three generations. There are law-papers in dusty
+files; familiar gossipy letters from brothers and sisters and college
+chums; dignified letters from reverend judges and law-makers; letters
+bursting with scandalized Federalisms, and burning or melting with
+long-forgotten joys and sorrows. We have read some thousands of these
+papers, and begin to be very uncertain about the times we are living in.
+What indeed is this year of our Lord? We have a dim recollection that we
+have been wished a happy New Year in 1875, yet we are living and
+thinking with the boys and girls of 1776, who have grown to be the men
+and women of Jefferson's time.
+
+To make things more misty to our comprehension, we are sitting by a
+dormer window in a high, "hip-roofed" garret of a mansion built just
+before the Revolution, and the air is redolent of ancient memories. The
+very cobweb that swung across the window just now has a venerable
+appearance, entirely inconsistent with the fact that the housemaid's
+broom was supposed to have whisked across these beams but yesterday. But
+then the housemaids of to-day, as everybody knows, are, as a source of
+perplexity and vexation of spirit, always to be relied upon, but never
+to be relied upon for anything else. And with the thought we sigh for
+the "good old days" and the "good old servants" of our grandmothers.
+
+Happy grandmothers! so blessed in their simple, quiet lives, unvexed by
+ever-changing fashions and domestics! What did they know of trouble
+whose best silk gowns remained in fashion from year to year, and whose
+cooks never treated them to an empty breakfast-table, and a cool "I
+thought I'd be a-lavin' this marnin', mum"? Happy grandmothers!
+
+Thus thinking, we pick up a little rough paper-book with marbled covers
+from the corner of the old hair trunk where it was long ago thrown by
+some careless hand. The little tumbled book proves to be a diary. Not a
+record of a soul's strivings and pantings after a higher life, or a
+curiously minute inquiry into the possible reasons which induced the
+Almighty to allow Satan to afflict Job, but a simple daily note-book,
+the memoranda of a housekeeper. The old letters had been to us what the
+newspapers of to-day will be to the great-grandchildren of the present
+generation. The diary carried us back into the immediate home-life of
+seventy years ago.
+
+The diarist had been a fair and stately dame in her day, and it is easy
+to remove her from the frame where her portrait hangs on the walls of
+the south parlor, and fancy her seated in the same room before the
+crackling fire jotting down the memoranda of the day. She is a pretty
+sight, we think, sitting in her straight-backed mahogany arm-chair, with
+her feet on the polished brass fender and her book resting on the little
+stand, which also holds the two tall silver candlesticks with their tall
+tallow candles, for wax candles are saved for gala-nights, when diaries
+are not in requisition. She must have been nearly forty years old when
+she wrote in this little book, but we see her as her portrait shows her,
+very young-looking in spite of her stateliness, enhanced though it is by
+the high turban of embroidered muslin edged with soft lace falling over
+the clusters of fair curls on her temples, and by the black satin gown,
+short-waisted and scanty, relieved only by delicate lace frills, which
+shade the beautiful throat and the strong, white, shapely hands. The
+shadow on her face as she gazes into the fire is not marvelous, for it
+is winter in her quiet Connecticut home; the post comes but twice a
+week; her husband is representing his State in Washington, and her only
+child is studying in distant Yale. Perhaps, though, the shadow is not
+that of pure loneliness. Is there not some perplexity in it? And
+something also of vexation? Yes, and it is the very vexation of spirit
+which--in the face of Solomon's venerable testimony to the contrary--we
+had fancied to be peculiar to our own evil days. Almost the first entry
+in this quaint little diary is to the effect that "Jim was sulky
+to-night and gave short answers." A little farther on we find that
+"Yesterday Jim went away without leave, and stayed all night;" which
+delinquency, being accompanied by a suspicion of drunkenness, caused the
+anxious dame to "send for General T---- to come and give Jim a lecture."
+Lecturing, however, was not then so popular as now, and Jim appears to
+have profited little by the veteran general's discourse, for on the very
+next night he repeats his offence. We have reason also to fear that
+Jim's honesty was not above suspicion, for we read that Betsey, an
+American woman who acted as assistant housekeeper and companion, "found
+in Jim's possession a red morocco pocket-book which I had given her, but
+"--alas for Betsey!--"with the contents all gone."
+
+Other entries to the effect that madam one day lost her key to the
+wine-cellar, and the next day discovered the bibulous Jim in the said
+cellar "sucking brandy through a straw inserted in the bunghole of the
+cask," and that, "furthermore, Jim had confessed to having stolen and
+sold a coffee-basin for rum," do not tend to raise in our estimation
+this pattern of an ancient darkey. This time it appears that madam did
+not need to call in the aid of General T----, for she admits that she
+herself "lectured Jim severely;" sarcastically adding, "he professed
+penitence, but that did not hinder him from stealing another basin
+to-day."
+
+But the refractory Jim, we think, must have been the exception which
+proved the rule that all servants prior to the late Celtic invasion were
+models of deportment. Accordingly, we are not surprised to find that
+Betsey was a handmaiden held in high estimation, and that "old Jack" was
+a servant whose shortcomings were offset by his general good conduct and
+affectionate heart. But we find also that there was a certain Sally, who
+could be tolerated only because of her great culinary skill; and an
+uncertain Silvy, who appears to have been in mind, if not in fact, the
+twin-sister of Jim, with a spice of Topsy thrown in.
+
+The trouble in those days was not the prospect of suddenly losing cook
+or nursemaid, but that there was no getting rid of either. The fact of
+slavery was, under the act of 1793, slowly fading away from Connecticut,
+but all its habits remained in full force. "I wish I could send Jim and
+Silvy away," writes madam, "but the poor rascals have no place to go
+to."
+
+Silvy was a tricksome spright that delighted in breaking bottles of the
+"best Madeira wine and spilling the contents over the new English
+carpet" when the mistress had invited the parson's and the doctor's
+families to dinner. This, though of course it was "not to be endured,"
+might have been accidental, and so was very "tolerable" in comparison
+with Silvy's next exploits of poisoning the beloved house-dog and
+throwing by the roadside the bottle of wine--possibly emptied first--the
+jar of jelly and the fresh quarter of lamb which had been sent to a poor
+and sick old woman. These two offences, occurring on the same day, we
+are sorry to confess, incited the stately, white-handed dame to do
+something more decisive than to "deliver a lecture" to Silvy. It is
+demurely recorded that "for these two misdeeds I whipped Silvy." What
+effect the whipping had upon that somewhat too frolicsome damsel we are
+not informed, but madam admits that it made herself ill, and adds that
+"if Silvy does not reform it is impossible to see what can be done for
+her, for she will not listen to remonstrance. Betsey is not strong
+enough to punish so strapping a wench, and it does not seem right that a
+man should be set to whip any woman or girl, even a wench, else Jack
+could do it."
+
+However, Jack's own patience having been tried by the refractory Silvy,
+he seems to have taken the matter into his own hands, for his mistress
+tells us how she was scandalized, on her return from church, by "finding
+Jack whipping Silvy," while that young lady was "screaming vehemently,
+so that all the people passing by could hear her." As Jack had
+discovered Silvy engaged in the amiable diversion of breaking the legs
+of the young calves by throwing stones at them, one can have a little
+charity for his summary action, although, as madam gravely remarks, "he
+might at least have waited until Monday."
+
+The calves, by the way, had an unlucky winter of it, and were especially
+shaky about the legs. We find that a few weeks later "Jack having
+neglected to repair the barn floor, as he had been directed, a plank had
+given way and three of the calves' legs had been broken by the fall." We
+have felt a deep interest in the fate of these calves, but with all our
+anxiety have failed to discover whether three calves had all their legs
+broken, or only three legs in all had been sacrificed to Jack's culpable
+neglect.
+
+By this time we begin to think that madam would have been just as well
+off if she had not kept so many servants, and to wonder what they could
+have had to do. Perhaps it was the idle man's playmate that made the
+trouble. But a little farther reading in the old diary dissipates this
+illusion. If anybody thinks that our grandmothers must have been cursed
+with ennui because they did not attend three parties a night three times
+a week, with operas and theatres to fill in the off nights, they are
+mightily mistaken.
+
+Of sociability there could have been no lack in this rural neighborhood,
+for besides a ball or two madam records numbers of tea-drinkings and
+debating clubs, and meetings of the Clio, a literary club, at which
+assisted at least two future judges of the supreme courts of the States
+of their adoption, and several other men and women whose names would
+attract attention even in our clattering days. Visiting, too, of the
+old-fashioned spend-the-day sort had not gone out of date--was indeed so
+common that madam one evening enters in her journal--whether in sorrow
+or in thankfulness there is nothing to tell us, but at least as a
+notable fact--that she had "had no company to-day."
+
+But it was not company that occupied all the hours of so busy a dame as
+our diarist. Though she had not to remodel her dresses in hot chase
+after the last novelty of the fashion-weekly, she had to superintend the
+manufacture of the stuff of which her maids' gowns and her own
+morning-gowns were made, to say nothing of bed-and table-linen, etc.
+Bridget in our day seems to think that to do a family washing is a labor
+of Hercules. Yet seventy years ago before a towel could be washed the
+soap wherewith to cleanse it must be made at home; and this not by the
+aid of condensed lye or potash, but with lye drawn by a tedious process
+of filtering water through barrels or leach-tubs of hard-wood ashes. The
+"setting" of these tubs was one of the first labors of the spring, and
+to see that Silvy or Jim poured on the water at regular intervals, and
+did not continue pouring after the lye had become "too weak to bear up
+an egg," was a part of Betsey's daily duty for some weeks. Then came the
+soap-boiling in great iron kettles over the fire in the wide fireplace.
+Apparently, this was not always a certain operation. Science had not yet
+put her meddling but useful finger into the soap-pot, for madam sadly
+records that on the twenty-first of May she had superintended the
+soap-boiling, but had not been blessed with "good luck;" and on the
+third of June we find the suggestive entry, "Finished the soap-boiling
+to-day." Eleven days--for we must of course count out the two
+Sundays--eleven days of greasy, odorous soap-boiling! We think that if
+we had been in madam's slippers we should have allowed Sally, Silvy and
+the rest to try the virtues of the unaided waters of heaven upon the
+family washing, and when this ceased to be efficacious should have let
+the clothes be purified by fire. But upon second thoughts, no: it was
+too much trouble to make those clothes.
+
+We are not yet through with the preparations for the washing. The
+ancient housewife could not do without starch for her "ruffs and cuffs
+and fardingales," and for her lord's elaborately plaited ruffles. Yet
+she could not buy a box of "Duryea's best refined." The starch, like the
+soap, must be made at home. "On this day," writes our diarist, "had a
+bushel of wheat put in soak for starch;" and in another place we find
+the details of the starch-making process. The wheat was put into a tub
+and covered with water. As the chaff rose to the top it was skimmed off.
+Each day the water was carefully turned off, without disturbing the
+wheat, and fresh water was added, until after several days there was
+nothing left but a hard and perfectly white mass in the bottom of the
+tub. This mass was spread upon pewter platters and dried in the sun.
+
+Another sore trouble was the breadmaking. The great wheat-fields of the
+West were not then opened, and we find that the wheat was frequently
+"smutty;" hence, that "the barrel was bad," which must sorely have tried
+the soul of the good housewife. Woe be to Silvy if that damsel did not
+carry herself gingerly on the baking-day when the long, flat shovel
+removed from the cavernous brick oven only heavy and sticky lumps of
+baked dough, in place of the light white loaves which the painstaking
+housewife had a right to expect!
+
+In the absence of husband and son the care of a large farm fell upon our
+madam's shoulders, and the details of cost and income are dotted through
+the little journal. We can imagine the lady, gracious in her
+stateliness, marshaling old General T---- and Colonel C----, two
+veterans of the Revolution, out into her barnyard to get their opinion
+as to the value of her fat cattle, and the concealed disapproval with
+which she received their judgment that forty-five dollars was a fair
+price for the pair, "when," as she quietly remarks, "I considered that
+fifty dollars was little enough for so fine a pair of fat cattle; and in
+fact I got my own price for them the next day."
+
+Fifty dollars was a much larger sum then than now. Imagine how many
+things could be bought for fifty dollars, when butter brought but ten,
+veal three or four, beef six or seven cents respectively per pound, and
+a pair of fat young chickens brought but twenty-five cents! There is one
+article upon whose accession of price we can dwell with pleasure. Madam
+records discontentedly that it "took two men all day to kill four hogs,
+_notwithstanding_ that she had spent fifty cents for a half gallon
+of rum for them to drink." Fancy the sort of liquor that could now be
+bought for a dollar the gallon, and the sort of men that could drink two
+quarts thereof and live!
+
+It is heretical, of course, to hint a syllable against the open
+wood-fire which crackled and flickered so beautifully while our madam
+wrote about her cattle and pigs and Jim and Silvy, but in truth we
+cannot envy our ancestors the care of those fires. With three yawning,
+devouring fireplaces constantly to be fed, and an additional one for
+each of the guest-rooms so often occupied during the winter--for this
+was the visiting season--there was no lack of business for Ralph, a
+white man; and his colored coadjutors, Jack and Jim. When we look at the
+still existing kitchen fireplace, nine feet in width and four in depth,
+we cease to blame Jack for neglecting to mend the barn floor. We only
+wonder that he found time to whip Silvy.
+
+Among the occupations of the women one great time-consumer must have
+been the daily scouring, so much woodwork was left unpainted to be kept
+as white as a clean sea-beach by applications of soap and sand. Probably
+a good deal of this hand-and-knee work fell upon the unfortunate Silvy,
+as well as the polishing of the pewter plates, the brass fenders,
+andirons, tongs, shovels, door-knobs, knockers, and the various brazen
+ornaments which bedecked the heavy sideboards and tall secretaries.
+
+Seventy years ago, when gas and kerosene were not, and wax candles were
+an extravagance indulged in only on state occasions, even by the
+wealthy, the tallow dip was an article of necessity, and "candle
+dip-day" was as certain of recurrence as Christmas, though perhaps even
+less welcome than the equally certain annual Fast Day. Fancy an immense
+kitchen with the before-mentioned fireplace in the centre of one side.
+Over the blaze of backlog and forestick, and something like half a cord
+of "eight-foot wood," are swinging the iron cranes laden with great
+kettles of melting tallow. On the opposite side of the kitchen two long
+poles about two feet apart are supported at their extremities upon the
+seats of chairs. Beside the poles are other great kettles containing
+melted tallow poured on the top of hot water. Across the poles are the
+slender candle-rods, from which depend ranks upon ranks of candle-wicks
+made of tow, for cotton wick is a later invention. Little by little, by
+endlessly repeating the slow process of dipping into the kettles of
+melted tallow and hanging them to cool, the wicks take on their proper
+coating of tallow. To make the candles as large as possible was the aim,
+for the more tallow the brighter the light. When done, the ranks of
+candles, still depending from the rods, were hung in the sunniest spots
+of a sunny garret to bleach.
+
+But all these employments were as play compared with the home
+manufacture of dry goods. Ralph, Jack and Jim had no time for such work,
+so two other men were all winter kept busy in the barn at "crackling
+flax" and afterward passing it through a coarse hetchel to separate the
+coarsest or "swingling tow." After this the flax was made up into
+switches or "heads" like those which we see in pictures, or that which
+Faust's Marguerite so temptingly wields. These were deposited in barrels
+in the garret. During the winter the "heads" were brought down by the
+women to be rehetcheled once and again, removing first the coarser, and
+then the finer tow. This must have been a fearfully dusty operation. It
+makes one cough only to think of "the inch depth of flax-dust" which
+settled upon Betsey's protecting handkerchief while she "hetcheled."
+
+The finest and best of the flax was saved for spinning into thread, for
+cotton thread there was none, excepting, possibly, a little of very poor
+quality in small skeins. The small wheel that we see in the far corner
+of the garret--just like Marguerite's--was used for spinning the fine
+thread. A larger wheel was used to spin the tow into yarn for the coarse
+clothing for boys and negroes or for "filling" in the coarser linens.
+All the boys, and very often the men--perhaps even our M.C.
+himself--wore in summer trousers made of linen cloth, for which the yarn
+was spun at home by the maids, and was then taken to the weaver's to be
+made into cloth. Part of the linen yarn was dyed blue, and, mingled with
+white or unbleached yarn, was woven into a chequered stuff for the
+curtains of servants' beds and for dresses for the maids and aprons for
+their mistresses. In view of the fact that all the bed-linen and most of
+the table-linen was thus made at home, one cannot wonder that a
+house-wife's linen-closet was an object of special care and pride.
+
+If there were at that time any woolen manufactories in the United
+States, their powers of production must have been very limited, while
+foreign cloths could only have been worn by the gentlemen, and by them
+probably not at all times, for a few years later than the date of
+madam's diary we find that English cloths were sold at the then fearful
+prices of eighteen and twenty dollars per yard. So sheep must be kept
+and sheared, and their wool carded, rolled and spun. As linen-spinning
+was the fancy-work of winter, so wool-spinning was that of summer. Back
+and forth before the loud-humming big wheel briskly stepped the cheerful
+spinner through the long bright afternoons of summer, busily spinning
+the yarn that was to be woven into cloths and flannels of different
+textures. Busily indeed must both mistress and maids have stepped, for
+not without their labors could be provided the coats and trousers, the
+undershirts, the petticoats and the woolen sheets, to say nothing of
+blankets, white or chequered, and the heavy coverlets of blue or green
+and white yarns woven into curiously intermingling figures, all composed
+of little squares; and last, but not least, the yarn for countless pairs
+of long warm stockings for the feet of master and man, mistress and
+maid. For as a legacy from dying slavery the servants were still unable
+or unwilling to provide for their own wants, and the house-mistress had
+frequently to knit Jack's stockings with her own fair fingers, as well
+as to "cut out the stuff for Jim's pantaloons," which she will "try to
+teach Silvy to sew."
+
+Did we think that we had reached the last purpose for which the homespun
+woolen yarn was required? We were mistaken, for here is the entry:
+"To-day dyed the yarn for back-hall carpet. Remember to tell the weaver
+that I prefer it plaided instead of striped."
+
+Economy of time must, one would think, have been the most necessary of
+economies to the old-time housewives. With so many things to do, how did
+they find time to make those marvels of misplaced industry, the patched
+bed-quilts? Our diarist, rich as her closets were in blankets and linen,
+left but few bed-quilts to vex the eyes of her descendants, yet we read
+that "Betsey and I quilted a bed-quilt this afternoon"--their fingers
+were surely nimble--"and in the evening"--happy change of
+employment!--"Betsey finished reading aloud from Blair's
+_Lectures._ To-morrow evening we shall begin the _Spectator_.
+My husband has sent us by private hand Mr. A. Pope's translation of the
+_Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, but it has not yet arrived. Strange
+that a private hand should be slower than the post!"
+
+And indeed the slowness of the post had been a source of frequent
+disquietude to our madam during this lonely winter, for very lonely it
+was to the waiting wife and mother, notwithstanding all her occupations.
+"'Life's employments are life's enjoyments,'" she sadly writes on the
+night before Christmas, "and surely I have not a few of them; but with
+my beloved husband and son far from me I cannot half enjoy my life. I
+have given the servants their presents to-night" (though living in
+Puritan Connecticut, our madam was of Hollandish stock, and did not
+ignore the Christmas festival), "and paid them eighteen pence apiece not
+to wish me a Merry Christmas to-morrow, for little merriment indeed
+should there be for me."
+
+Yet she was a cheerful soul, this stately madam who sadly gazes into the
+fire on the Christmas Eve of seventy years ago--a cheerful, loving soul,
+and a kindly (notwithstanding her chastisement of the delinquent Silvy);
+and after all the winter wore not unhappily away.
+
+With the opening spring husband and son returned to gladden her heart,
+and we close the little diary with a smile at once of sympathy and of
+amusement as we read that while madam had intended to meet her loved
+ones with the family coach on their landing from the sloop at
+Poughkeepsie, thirty miles from her home, she was "so detained by reason
+of the depth and vileness of the mud that it was full fifteen miles this
+side the river" (Hudson) "that our coach fell in with a hired carriage
+coming this way. The road was so bad that we had difficulty in passing,
+and it was not until we were almost by that my dear husband noticed his
+own coach. There was some trouble in getting from the one carriage to
+the other, but when all were safely in the coach there was much
+rejoicing, you may be sure."
+
+                                        ETHEL C. GALE.
+
+
+
+
+A MARCH VIOLET.
+
+
+    Black boughs against a pale, clear sky,
+    Slight mists of cloud-wreaths floating by;
+    Soft sunlight, gray-blue smoky air,
+    Wet thawing snows on hillsides bare;
+    Loud streams, moist sodden earth; below
+    Quick seedlings stir, rich juices flow
+    Through frozen veins of rigid wood,
+    And the whole forest bursts in bud.
+    No longer stark the branches spread
+    An iron network overhead,
+    Albeit naked still of green;
+    Through this soft, lustrous vapor seen,
+    On budding boughs a warm flush glows,
+    With tints of purple and pale rose.
+    Breathing of spring, the delicate air
+    Lifts playfully the loosened hair
+    To kiss the cool brow. Let us rest
+    In this bright, sheltered nook, now blest
+    With broad noon sunshine over all,
+    Though here June's leafiest shadows fall.
+    Young grass sprouts here. Look up! the sky
+    Is veiled by woven greenery,
+    Fresh little folded leaves--the first,
+    And goldener than green, they burst
+    Their thick full buds and take the breeze.
+    Here, when November stripped the trees,
+    I came to wrestle with a grief:
+    Solace I sought not, nor relief.
+    I shed no tears, I craved no grace,
+    I fain would see Grief face to face,
+    Fathom her awful eyes at length,
+    Measure my strength against her strength.
+    I wondered why the Preacher saith,
+    "Like as the grass that withereth."
+    The late, close blades still waved around:
+    I clutched a handful from the ground.
+    "He mocks us cruelly," I said:
+    "The frail herb lives, and she is dead."
+    I lay dumb, sightless, deaf as she;
+    The long slow hours passed over me.
+    I saw Grief face to face; I know
+    The very form and traits of Woe.
+    I drained the galled dregs of the draught
+    She offered me: I could have laughed
+    In irony of sheer despair,
+    Although I could not weep. The air
+    Thickened with twilight shadows dim:
+    I rose and left. I knew each limb
+    Of these great trees, each gnarled, rough root
+    Piercing the clay, each cone of fruit
+    They bear in autumn.
+                         What blooms here,
+    Filling the honeyed atmosphere
+    With faint, delicious fragrancies,
+    Freighted with blessed memories?
+    The earliest March violet,
+    Dear as the image of Regret,
+    And beautiful as Hope. Again
+    Past visions thrill and haunt my brain.
+    Through tears I see the nodding head,
+    The purple and the green dispread.
+    Here, where I nursed despair that morn,
+    The promise of fresh joy is born,
+    Arrayed in sober colors still,
+    But piercing the gray mould to fill
+    With vague sweet influence the air,
+    To lift the heart's dead weight of care,
+    Longings and golden dreams to bring
+    With joyous phantasies of spring.
+
+                            EMMA LAZARUS.
+
+
+
+
+WHAT IS A CONCLAVE?
+
+
+It may be that before these lines meet the eye of the readers they are
+intended for the world will be once again witnessing that function of
+the Roman Catholic Church which of all others makes the highest
+pretensions to transcendental spiritual significance, and is in reality
+the most utterly and grossly mundane--a _conclave_. In any case, it
+cannot be long before that singular spectacle is enacted on the
+accustomed stage before the converging eyes of Christendom. In any case,
+too, it will be nearly thirty years since the world has seen the like.
+And never before since St. Peter sat (or did not sit) in the seat of the
+Roman bishops has so long a period elapsed unmarked by the election of a
+supreme pontiff. The coming conclave will be held under circumstances
+essentially dissimilar from those surrounding all its predecessors, as
+will be readily understood if we consider the difference which recent
+changes, both lay and ecclesiastical, have made in the position of the
+pope. If, on the one hand, the political changes in Europe have taken
+from the cardinals the power of creating a sovereign prince, the
+ecclesiastical changes which the late ecumenical council has wrought in
+the constitution of the Church have placed in their hands the power and
+duty of selecting a supreme ruler of the Church with acknowledged claims
+to a loftier and more tremendous authority than the most high-handed of
+his predecessors has hitherto claimed. And the nature of this authority
+is such that the political rulers of the world may well feel--and are,
+as we know, feeling--a more anxious interest in the result of the
+election than they have for many a generation felt in the elevation of a
+temporal ruler of the ci-devant States of the Church. Under these
+circumstances it may be acceptable to our readers to have some brief
+account of what conclaves are and have been.
+
+That this method of choosing a supreme head of the universal Church was
+in its origin abusive--that the earliest popes were chosen by the
+suffrages of the entire body of the faithful, that by a process of
+encroachment this election was in the course of time arrogated to
+themselves by the Roman clergy, and was ultimately, by a further process
+of similar encroachment, monopolized by the "Sacred College" of
+cardinals,--all this is sufficiently well known. It is, however, curious
+enough to merit a passing word, that a precisely analogous process of
+progressive encroachment may be observed to have taken place in the mode
+of appointing the bishops of the Church, not only in the Catholic, but
+also in the Protestant branch of it. First freely elected by the body of
+the faithful, they were subsequently chosen by the clergy, and lastly by
+a small and select body of these in the form of a "chapter." Only in
+this case a further step of encroachment being still possible, that step
+has been made; and bishops are nominated in the Catholic Church
+formally, and in the Anglican really, by the pope and the sovereign
+respectively.
+
+It does not seem that in the earliest elections made by the cardinals
+the precautions of a "conclave," or a shutting up together of the
+cardinals, was adopted. The first conclave seems to have been that which
+elected Innocent IV. in 1243, and the motive for the locking up appears
+to have been the fear of interference by the emperor Frederick, who was
+at the time ravaging all the country around Rome. The first conclave
+that was guarded by a Savelli, in whose family the office of marshal of
+the Church and guardian of the conclaves became hereditary, was that
+which elected Nicholas IV. in 1288. The mode in which this pontiff
+merited his elevation is worth telling, apropos of conclaves. The
+conclave had lasted over ten months, and been prolonged into the hottest
+and most unhealthy season, insomuch that six cardinals died, many more
+fell ill, and all ran away save one, the bishop of Palestrina. He,
+"keeping large fires continually burning to correct the air," stuck to
+it, remained in conclave all alone, and was unanimously elected pope at
+the return of the cardinals when the pestilence had ceased. In 1270 we
+find a conclave sitting under difficulties of another kind. It was at
+Viterbo, and their Eminences sat for two years without making any
+election; whereupon, we are told, Raniero Gatti, the captain of the
+city, took the step of unroofing the palace in which they were assembled
+as a means of hastening their decision. That their Eminences were not
+thus to be hurried, however, is proved by their having subsequently
+dated a bull, still to be seen with its seventeen seals, "from the
+unroofed episcopal palace of Viterbo." There were four or five popes
+elected subsequently to this, however, without conclaves; but from the
+death of Boniface VIII. in 1303 the series of conclaves has been
+unbroken. Celestine V., who abdicated in 1294, drew up the rules which,
+confirmed by his successor, Boniface VIII., and by many subsequent popes
+from time to time down to the last century, still regulate the
+assembling and holding of the conclave, modified in some degree, as
+regards the food and private comforts of the cardinals, by indulgence of
+later pontiffs.
+
+In old and long-since-forgotten books concerning the conclaves many
+curious particulars may be found respecting the customs and ceremonies
+connected with the disposal of the body of the deceased pontiff. A
+learnedly antiquarian dispute has been raised on the question whether in
+early times the body of a pope was embalmed, as we understand the word,
+or only exteriorly washed and perfumed. It seems, on the whole, clear
+that the first pope who was, properly speaking, embalmed, was Julius
+II., who died in 1513. But here is a striking account of the condition
+of things in the papal palace after the death of that great, high-handed
+and powerful pontiff, Sixtus IV., which occurred in 1484, after a reign
+of thirteen years. The statement is that of Burcardo (Burckhardt), the
+papal master of the ceremonies, the same writer whose diary, jotted down
+from day to day, has revealed to us the incredible atrocities of the
+court of Alexander VI., the Borgia pope, who died in 1503. "For all that
+I could do," writes the master of the ceremonies, who perhaps at that
+time occupied some less conspicuous post in the papal court, "I could
+not get a basin, a towel, or any kind of utensil in which the wine and
+the water for the odoriferous herbs could be put for washing the body of
+the deceased. Nor could I obtain drawers or a clean shirt for putting on
+the body, though I asked for them again and again. At length the cook
+lent me the copper kettle in which he was wont to heat the water for
+washing the plates, together with some hot water; and Andrew the barber
+brought me his barber's basin from his shop. So the pontiff was washed.
+And as there was no towel to wipe the body with, I caused him to be
+wiped with the shirt in which he died, torn into two halves. I could not
+change the drawers in which he died and was washed, because there were
+no others. His canonical vestments were put upon him without any shirt,
+and a pair of red cloth stockings, furnished by the bishop of Cervia,
+who was his chamberlain, and a long tunic, if I remember rightly, of red
+damask, as well as some other things." This pope, whose body was thus
+washed with his shirt torn in half for want of a towel, was that same
+Sixtus the enormous wealth and boundless luxury of whose nephews seem
+almost fabulous to readers even of these money-abounding days.
+
+The explanation of the extraordinary state of things above described is
+to be found in the custom which existed of sacking the apartments of the
+deceased pope as soon as ever the breath was out of his body. The utter
+lawlessness which prevailed at Rome _sede vacante_--that is to say,
+during the interval between the death of one pope and the election of
+his successor--was not, indeed, confined to the residence of the
+departed pontiff. Throughout Rome all law used to be on those occasions
+in abeyance. The streets were scenes of the most unbridled excesses and
+violence of all sorts. That was the time for the satisfying of old
+grudges. Murder was as common as murderous hate; and no man's life was
+safe save in so far as his own hand or his own walls could protect it.
+And walls did not always avail. I find a petition to Leo X. from a
+monastery in Rome, setting forth that a document assuring certain
+indulgences to the house had been lost at the time of the sack and
+plunder of the convent during the last conclave. No sort of claim, it is
+to be observed, is attempted to be set up of redress for the plunder and
+destruction of the property of the convent; only a prayer that the
+privileges in question might be again granted in consideration of the
+loss of the document. A very curious illustration of Roman manners in
+the sixteenth century is to be found in a practice with regard to these
+periods of interregnum which I find recorded by Cancellieri in his work
+on the conclaves. Roman wives, it seems, were forbidden--not without
+reason--to leave their homes and go forth into the streets of Rome at
+their pleasure. But in the articles of the marriage contract it was
+stipulated that the lady should be free to go out on certain specified
+occasions, mainly ecclesiastical festivals; and among these it was
+always specially provided that the lady might go out during the days of
+the exposition of the body of a deceased pope for the purpose of kissing
+his feet. One would have thought that, looking to the state of things in
+the city, the time of the interregnum would have been the very last to
+select for ladies to venture into the streets. It would seem, however,
+that the Roman matrons thought otherwise. Cancellieri says that it was
+in those days a common saying among Roman ladies that "Happy were they
+who were married to Spaniards!" For it would seem that the Spanish
+husbands in Rome did not think it necessary to enforce this restraint on
+their wives--a circumstance that rather curiously contradicts our
+general notions of Spanish marital feelings and discipline.
+
+In truth, the condition of Rome during the period of the conclave down
+to very recent times affords a singular evidence of the virtue of the
+old French formula, "Le roi est mort! Vive le roi!" as signifying the
+non-existence of any period of transition between one embodiment of law
+and authority and his successor; for the absence of any similar
+provision in the case of the popes made Rome a veritable hell upon earth
+during the period of a papal election.
+
+But if the city outside the walls within which the purple fathers of the
+Church were deliberating presented a scene which was a disgrace and a
+scandal to Christendom, that which was being enacted within those walls
+was very often still more profoundly scandalous. Never probably has any
+human institution existed in which practice was more grossly and
+notoriously in disaccord with pretensions and theory, and with respect
+to which the highest and most sacred of all conceivable human sanctions
+was so shamelessly desecrated and profaned to the lowest and vilest
+uses.
+
+Before touching on this part of the subject, however, it is necessary
+first to give in as few words as possible some intelligible account of
+the formal regulations and method of holding the conclave and electing
+the pontiff. All the regulations, which have been made with extreme
+minuteness, together with the subsequent modifications of them by
+different pontiffs, would occupy far too much space to be given here.
+The following rules seem to be the essential points. Ten days, including
+that of the pope's death, are to be allowed for the coming of absent
+cardinals. This delay may, however, be dispensed with for urgent
+reasons. The conclave should properly be held in the building in which
+the pope died. Regulations of various degrees of rigor have been made
+for securing the isolation of the members of the Sacred College, greater
+latitude and indulgence having been permitted as we approach modern
+times. Sundry means also were devised for hastening the deliberations of
+their Eminences. The old rule of Gregory X. prescribed that if an
+election were not made in three days, the cardinals should be supplied
+during the following five days with one dish only at dinner and one at
+supper; and if at the end of those five days the election was still
+uncompleted, the electors should be allowed only bread and water till
+they had accomplished their task. But, as may be readily supposed, all
+this has been materially modified. Many of the minute and rigorous
+precautions for preventing communication with the world outside the
+conclave have also fallen into desuetude. The purpose of these,
+however--that is, the absolute prevention of any possibility of
+consultation between those in conclave and those outside--is still
+sought to be, and probably is, maintained. Cardinals obliged to leave
+the conclave by ill-health, on sworn certificates of the two physicians
+who are shut up with them in conclave, may return to it, if able to do
+so, before the election is made. No censure or excommunication or
+deposition of any cardinal by the pope whose successor is to be elected
+can avail to deprive such cardinal of the right to take part in the
+conclave and in the election. No cardinal under pain of excommunication
+may say anything, or promise anything, or request anything, to or from
+another cardinal for the purpose of influencing him in the giving of his
+vote. It may safely be asserted, however, that pretty much all that is
+done in the conclave from the beginning to the end of it is one long
+contravention of this rule. The whole--at all events, the
+main--occupation of those in conclave consists of exactly what is here
+forbidden. The rule proceeds to declare that all such bargains,
+agreements and obligations, even sworn to, are _ipso facto_ void,
+and "he who does not keep them merits praise rather than the blame of
+perjury." This merit elected popes have usually been found to strive
+after with all their strength. Julius II., by a bull issued in 1505,
+declared that any pope elected by means of bargains or promises is
+elected simoniacally; that his election is null even if he have the vote
+of every cardinal; that he is a heresiarch and no pope; that such an
+election cannot become valid by enthronation, or by lapse of time, or by
+the obedience of the cardinals; that it is lawful for the cardinals, the
+clergy and the people of Rome to refuse obedience to a pope so elected.
+On all which Monsignor Spondano in his ecclesiastical annals, remarks,
+with a naïveté of hypocrisy which is irresistibly amusing, that inasmuch
+as there would be considerable difficulty in applying the remedy
+proposed, God has specially provided that there should never be any need
+of it. How far Monsignor Spondano can have supposed that such was the
+case will become evident from the account of the doings of a conclave
+which I propose giving to the reader presently.
+
+Together with the cardinals there are shut up in the conclave two
+attendants, called "conclavisti," for each cardinal, or three for such
+of them as are ill or infirm; one sacristan, two masters of the
+ceremonies, one confessor, two physicians, one surgeon, one carpenter,
+two barbers and ten porters. Any conclavist who may leave the conclave
+cannot on any account return. The different cells prepared in the
+Quirinal, Vatican or other place in which the conclave may be held are
+assigned to the cardinals by lot. The election may be made in the
+conclave in either of three different manners--by scrutiny of votes, by
+compromise, or by acclamation. A vote by scrutiny is to be taken twice
+every day in the conclave--once in the morning and once in the
+afternoon. All the cardinals, save such as are confined to their cells
+by infirmity, proceed to the chapel, and there, after the mass, receive
+the communion. They then return each to his cell to breakfast, and
+afterward meet in the chapel again. The next morning at 8 A.M. the
+sub-master of the ceremonies rings a bell at the door of each cell; at
+half-past eight he rings again; and at nine a third time, adding in a
+loud voice the summons, "_In capellam Domini!_"
+
+The arrangement of the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican, in which the
+voting takes place, is as follows: The floor is raised by a boarding to
+the level of the pontifical throne, which stands by the side of the
+altar, and which is left in its place in readiness for the newly-elected
+pope to seat himself and receive the "adoration" of his electors. All
+around the walls of the chapel are erected as many thrones as there are
+cardinals, and over each of them a canopy, so arranged that by means of
+a cord it can be suddenly let down; so that at the moment the election
+is pronounced all the canopies are suddenly made to fall except that of
+the new pope. In front of each throne and under each canopy there is a
+little table covered with silk--green in the case of all those cardinals
+who have been created previously to the pontificate of the pope recently
+deceased, and purple in the case of those created by him. The colors of
+the canopies are similar. On each table are printed registers prepared
+for registering the votes at each scrutiny, the schedules for giving the
+votes, the means for sealing, etc. On the front of each table is
+inscribed the name of the cardinal who is to occupy it, together with
+his armorial bearings. In the midst of the body of the chapel are six
+little tables covered with green cloth, with a seat at each of them for
+the use of any cardinal who may fear that his neighbor might overlook
+him while writing his voting paper if he wrote it on the table before
+his throne. In front of the altar there is a large table covered with
+crimson silk, on which are folded schedules, wafers, sealing-wax; four
+candles, not lighted, but ready for use; a tinder-box with steel and
+matches; scarlet and purple twine for filing the voting schedules; a box
+of needles for the same purpose; a tablet with seventy holes in it,
+answering to the number of cardinals if the college were full, and in
+each hole a little wooden counter with the name of a cardinal, so that
+there are as many counters as cardinals in the college; and finally, a
+copy of the form of oath respecting the putting the schedules into the
+urns, the two urns themselves, and a box with a key, used for receiving
+the voting papers of such cardinals as may be too ill to leave their
+cells. The two urns, however, at the time of the scrutiny are placed on
+the altar. Behind the altar there is placed a little iron brazier or
+stove, in which, after every scrutiny which does not succeed in electing
+a pope, the voting papers are burned, together with some damp straw, the
+object being to cause a dense smoke, which, passing by a pipe outside
+the building, serves to inform the Romans that no election has yet been
+made. Twice a day, at about the same hour every day till the election is
+achieved, this smoke, which is eagerly watched for by all Rome, and
+specially by the commandant of the Castle of St. Angleo, who is waiting
+to fire a salute for the new pope, tells the city that there is no pope
+yet. When the hour passes and no smoke is seen, it is known that the
+election is made, and the cannoneers fire away without waiting to know
+whom they are saluting.
+
+There is no portion of the day or of the lives of the cardinals in
+conclave which is not regulated by a host of minute regulations and
+ceremonies. The introduction of the food supplied to them; the form of
+bringing it from their palaces; the method of communication with the
+outside world, and the precautions taken to prevent any communication
+with reference to the great business in hand; the form and color of the
+garments to be worn by their Eminences and by all the subordinates; the
+amount of remuneration and perquisites to be received by the latter
+(among which regulations I find the following: "Let no man receive
+anything who has not purchased the office he holds"); the order of
+precedence of everybody, from the dean of the Sacred College to the last
+sweeper who enters the conclave with their Eminences,--all subject to
+minute rules, which would require, one would imagine, a lifetime to make
+one's self master of, and which, curious as some of them are, it is
+impossible to find place for here. We must get on to the method of
+voting.
+
+Each cardinal has a schedule about eight inches long by six wide,
+divided by printed lines into five parts. On the topmost is printed
+"Ego, Cardinalis----," to be filled up with the name and titles of the
+elector using it. On the second space are printed, toward either side of
+the paper, two circles, indicating the exact place where the paper when
+folded is to be sealed. On the middle space is printed the words "Eligo
+in Summum Pontificem R'um D'um meum Dom. Card.," leaving only the name
+of the person chosen to be filled in. On the fourth space two circles
+are printed, as on the second, indicating the places of two more seals,
+which, when the paper is folded and sealed down, make it impossible to
+see the motto which is written, together with a number, on the last
+space. On the back of the second and fourth divisions are printed the
+words "nomen" and "signum," denoting that immediately under them are the
+name and motto of the elector. There are also printed certain ornamental
+flourishes, the object of which is to render it impossible to see the
+writing within through the paper. Thus, the schedule, with its top and
+bottom folds sealed down, can be freely opened so far as to allow the
+name of the cardinal for whom the vote is given to be seen, but not so
+far as to make it possible to see the name or motto of the giver of the
+vote.
+
+When the voting papers have been thus prepared, the senior cardinal, the
+dean of the Sacred College, rises from his throne and walks to the foot
+of the altar, holding his schedule aloft between his finger and thumb.
+There he kneels and passes a brief time in private prayer. Then rising
+to his feet, he pronounces aloud in a sonorous voice the following oath:
+"Testor Christum Dominum qui me judicaturus est, me eligire quem
+secundum Deum judico eligi debere, et quod in accessu praestabo" ("I
+call to witness the Lord Christ, who shall judge me, that I elect him
+whom before God I judge ought to be elected, and which vote I shall give
+also in the _accessit_"). The last words allude to a subsequent
+part of the business of the election, to be explained presently. It is
+hardly necessary to point out to the reader that this oath, solemn as it
+sounds, might just as well be omitted. It is as a matter of course
+evident that each elector will give his vote for the person who
+_ought_ in his opinion to be elected. But as to the _motives_
+of that opinion, as to the _grounds_ on which it seems best to each
+elector that such and such a man _ought_ to be elected, the oath
+says nothing. The cardinals whose votes Alexander VI. bought thought, no
+doubt, that in all honesty they _ought_ to give their voices for
+the man who had fairly paid for them. But, putting aside such gross
+cases, let the reader reflect for a moment how extensive a ground is
+covered by the celebrated "A.M.D.G." formula ("Ad majorem Dei gloriam").
+The conscience of an elector may be supposed to speak to him thus: "It
+is true that I know A.B. to be a profligate and thoroughly worldly man,
+but his influence with such or such a statesman or monarch will probably
+be the means of saving the Church from a schism in this, that or the
+other country. And that assuredly is A.M.D.G. And he is the man,
+therefore, who ought to be elected."
+
+Well, the oath having been thus pronounced, the voter places his folded
+schedule on a silver salver, and with this casts it into the silver urn
+which is on the altar. And one after another every cardinal present does
+the same--every cardinal present except, however, any one who may not
+have received at least deacon's orders. One so disqualified may indeed
+be empowered to vote by dispensation of the deceased pope; but this
+dispensation is usually given for a limited period--a few days
+probably--only; and if this time has expired before the election is
+completed the cardinal who is not in sacred orders must cease to vote
+till he have received orders. It has frequently occurred that cardinals
+have been ordained under these circumstances in the conclave. When all
+the schedules have been placed in the urn, three cardinals, who have
+been previously chosen by lot for the purpose, as scrutineers proceed to
+verify the result of the voting. First, the schedules are counted to
+ascertain that they are equal in number to the number of the cardinals
+present. If this should not be the case, all are forthwith burned and
+the business is recommenced. But if this is all right, then comes the
+moment of interest which sets many an old heart beating under its purple
+vestments. The three scrutineers seat themselves at the large table with
+their backs turned to the altar, so that they face the assembly. Then
+each cardinal in his throne-seat places on the little table before him a
+large sheet duly prepared with the names of all the cardinals living,
+and ruled columns for the votes, and pen in hand awaits the declaration
+of these. The first scrutineer takes a schedule from the urn, unfolds
+the central part, leaving the two sealed ends intact, takes note of the
+vote declared within, and hands the paper to the second scrutineer, who
+also notes the vote and hands it to the third, who declares the vote
+aloud in a voice audible to all present, and each cardinal marks it on
+his register. Then, if the votes shall have been sufficient to elect the
+pope--that is, two-thirds of those voting--there is nothing more to be
+done save to number the votes, to verify them, and then burn the
+schedules. But if this is not the case, as it rarely if ever is, the
+cardinals proceed to the _accessit_. The papers and all the forms
+for this are precisely the same as for the first voting, save that in
+the place of the word "Eligo" there is the word "Accedo," and that in
+the place of the name of the cardinal voted for those who do not choose
+to alter their previous vote write "Nemini" ("To no one"). Then the
+matter proceeds as before; and if no election is effected, the assembly
+breaks up, and meets for another voting and scrutiny that afternoon or
+the next morning, as the case may be. And this is done twice every day
+till the election is made. The reader, I fear, may think that I have
+been prolix in my statement of these particulars of the method of the
+election, but I can assure him that I have given him only the main and
+important points, selected from some hundreds of pages in the works of
+those who have treated on the wonderfully minute regulations and
+prescriptions with which the whole matter is surrounded.
+
+It will be easily seen that the moment of proceeding to the accessit is
+the time for fine strokes of policy, for the most cautious prudence and
+craftiest cunning. The general condition of the ground has been
+disclosed by the results of the previous scrutiny. The possibilities and
+chances begin to discover themselves. "Frequently," says the President
+de Brosses, who was at Rome during the conclave which elected Benedict
+XIV. in 1740, in the charming published volume of his
+letters--"Frequently at the accessit everything which was done at the
+preceding ceremony is reversed; and it is at the accessit that the most
+subtle strokes of policy are practiced. Sometimes, for example, when a
+party has been formed for any cardinal, the leader of the party keeps in
+reserve for the accessit all the votes that he can count on as certain,
+and induces those that he suspects may be doubtful to vote for the
+person intended to be made pope at the first scrutiny, so as to make
+sure by the number of votes given whether his supporters have been true
+to their party, and to avoid unmasking his policy till he shall be sure
+of his _coup_."
+
+The story of the conclave which elected Cardinal Lambertini pope as
+Benedict XIV., gives a curious picture of the schemes and intrigues
+carried on in the mysterious seclusion of the conclave. Clement XII., of
+the Florentine Corsini family, had died. The cardinal Corsini, his
+nephew, was at the head of one faction in the conclave, and the cardinal
+Albani, nephew of Clement XI., who died in 1721, at the head of the
+other. The former party seemed at the beginning of the conclave to be
+the most numerous. But De Brosses describes the two men as follows.
+Corsini, he says, had little intelligence, less sense, and no capacity
+for affairs. Of Albani, he says that he was "highly considered for his
+capacity, and both hated and feared to excess--a man without faith,
+without principles; an implacable enemy even when appearing to be
+reconciled; of a great genius for affairs; inexhaustible in resource and
+intrigue; the ablest man in the college, and the worst-hearted man in
+Rome." It soon became clear that the struggle between the factions thus
+led would be severe, and the conclave a long one. The history of the
+plots and counterplots by which each strove to circumvent the other is
+extremely amusing, but too long to be given here. After various
+fruitless attempts, the Corsini faction concentrated all their forces on
+Cardinal Aldrovandi. He was a man of decent character, and had the
+support of a small body of independent cardinals, called the "Zelanti,"
+who, to the great disgust and contempt of their brethren in purple, were
+mainly influenced by the consideration of the worthiness of his
+character. The number of voices needed to make the election was
+thirty-four: Aldrovandi had thirty-three. Cardinal Passionei, the
+scrutator who had to declare the votes, and a member of the opposite
+faction, became, we are told, as pale as death when he announced with
+trembling voice the thirty-third vote. There was every reason to think
+that at the accessit he would have the one other vote needful to make
+the election. But it was not so. The terrible Albani was too much
+feared, and had his own party too well in hand. But the thing was run
+very close. The danger was great that during the hours of the night that
+must intervene before the next scrutiny some means might be found to
+detach _one_ Albani follower from his allegiance. There was the
+great bait to be offered that the one who changed his vote would be in
+effect the maker of the new pope. Under these circumstances, Albani felt
+that nothing but some "heroic" measure could save him. What he did was
+this: There was a certain Father Ravali, a Cordelier, and one of the
+leading men of his order, on whom Albani could depend, and who was, in
+language more expressive than ecclesiastical, "up to anything." This
+monk was instructed to seek a conference with Aldrovandi at the
+_rota_. (The rota was the opening in the wall at which such
+interviews were permitted in presence of certain high dignitaries
+specially appointed to attend it, for the express purpose of hearing all
+that might be said, and preventing any communication having reference to
+the business of the conclave. How they performed their duty the present
+story shows.) The monk began by saying that all Rome looked upon the
+election of Aldrovandi as a certain thing. Aldrovandi, doing the humble,
+replied that to be sure many of his brethren had deigned to think of
+him, but that he did not make any progress--that there were those who
+were too determinately opposed to his election, etc. The monk thereupon
+goes into a long and unctuous discourse on all the sad evils to
+Christendom of a conclave so prolonged. (It had already lasted over five
+months.) To which Aldrovandi replies that he ought rather to address his
+remonstrances to Cardinal Albani, who is in truth the cause of the
+inability of the conclave to come to an election. "Ah, monsignor,"
+returns the Cordelier, "put yourself in the place of the cardinal
+Albani. I know his sentiments from the many conversations we have had
+together. He is far from feeling any personal objection or enmity to
+you. But you know that there has been in the past unpleasant feeling
+between your family and his, and he fears that you are animated by
+hostility toward him." "I assure you," replies Aldrovandi, falling into
+the trap, "that he is greatly mistaken. I have long since forgotten all
+the circumstances you allude to. Besides, as I remember, the cardinal
+had no part in the matter. He can't doubt that I have the greatest
+respect for his personal character. Besides, I am not the man to forget
+a service rendered to me." "Since those are the sentiments of Your
+Eminence," cries the monk, "I begin to see an end to this interminable
+conclave. I perceive that there will be no difficulty in arranging
+matters between Your Eminence and the cardinal Albani. Will you permit
+me to be the medium of your sentiments upon the subject?" Aldrovandi is
+delighted, and feels the tiara already on his head. Then, after a little
+indifferent talk, the Cordelier, in the act of taking leave of the
+cardinal, turns back and says, "But, after all, the mere word of a poor
+monk like me is hardly sufficient between personages such as Your
+Eminence and the cardinal Albani. Permit me to write you a letter, in
+which I will lay before Your Eminence those considerations concerning
+the crying evils of the length of this conclave which I have ventured to
+mention to you, and that will give me an opportunity of entering on the
+matters we have been speaking of. And then you, in your reply to me, can
+take occasion to say what you have already been observing to me of your
+sentiments toward the cardinal Albani." Aldrovandi eagerly agreed to
+this, and the two letters were at once written. "I am told," adds De
+Brosses, "that the letter of Aldrovandi was strong on the subject of the
+_gratitude_ he should feel toward Albani." No sooner has the
+perfidious Cordelier got the letter into his hand than he runs with it
+to Albani, who goes with it at once to the body of the "Zelanti"
+cardinals with pious horror in his face: "Here! Look at your Aldrovandi,
+your man of God, that you tell me is incapable of intriguing in order to
+become His vicar! Here he is making promises to seduce me into violating
+my conscience."--"Alas! alas! It is too true! Clearly the Holy Ghost
+will none of him. Speak to us of him no more!" So Aldrovandi's chance
+was gone, and Albani found the means of uniting the necessary number of
+voices on Lambertini, a good-enough sort of man, by all accounts, but
+hardly of the wood from which popes are or should be made. He became
+that Benedict XIV. who was Voltaire's correspondent, and who, as the
+story goes, when he was asked by a young Roman patrician to make him a
+list of the books he would recommend for his studies, replied, "My dear
+boy, we always keep a list of the best books ready made. It is called
+the _Index Expurgatorius_!"
+
+Such were the doings of conclaves, and such the popes which resulted
+from them, in that eighteenth century whose boasted philosophy pretty
+well culminated in the conviction that pudding was good and sugar sweet.
+Such will not be the conclave which will assemble at the death of the
+present pontiff. The election will doubtless be scrupulously canonical
+on all points; and, though it may be doubted how far the deliberations
+of the Sacred College will be calculated to advance the truly understood
+spiritual interests of humanity, there is, I think, little doubt that
+they will be directed, according to the lights of the members, to the
+choice of that individual who shall in their opinion be most likely to
+advance the interests of the Church "A.D.M.G."
+
+                                        T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
+
+
+
+
+MONSOOR PACHA.
+
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, it is pleasant to meet
+     Here, in the heart of this treacherous town--
+  Where faith is a peril and courtship a cheat,
+     More false to the touch than a rose overblown--
+     With a soul that is true to itself, as your own.
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, as two gentlemen may,
+     Civilized, city-bred, link we our hands:
+  Now from the town to the desert away!
+     Ours is a friendship whose spirit demands
+     The scope of the sky and the stretch of the sands.
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, doff your courtier's garb;
+     We have given to courtesy all of its dues;
+  Spring to your throne on the back of your barb,
+     Shake to the breezes your regal burnous,
+     Wave your lance-sceptre wherever you choose!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! ah, I know you at length!
+     King of the desert, your children are come
+  To cluster, like sheep, in the shade of your strength,
+     Or to strike, like young lions, for country and home,
+     When your eyes are ablaze at the roll of the drum!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! now one gallop, to see
+     The land you have sworn that no despot shall grind!
+  Though sun-tanned and arid, by Allah! 'tis free!
+     Its crops are these lances: these sons of the wind,
+     Our steeds, are its flocks--a grim harvest to bind!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! how we dash o'er the sand,
+     Hissing behind us like storm-driven snow!
+  Flash the long guns of your wild Arab band,
+     Brandish the spears, and the light jereeds throw,
+     As, half-winged, through the shrill singing breezes we go!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! send the horses away:
+     The sports of your tribe I have seen with delight.
+  Now let us watch while the rose-tinted day
+     Fades from the desert, and peace-bearing Night
+     Shakes the first gem on her brow in our sight.
+
+  Monsoor, my host! lo, I enter your tent,
+     As brother by brother, hands clasping, is led:
+  I sleep like a child in a dream Heaven-sent;
+     For have I not eaten the salt and the bread?
+     And Monsoor will answer for me with his head.
+
+                                        GEORGE H. BOKER.
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 10, 1875.
+
+
+
+
+HOW HAM WAS CURED.
+
+
+This was in slave times. It was also immediately after dinner, and the
+gentlemen had gone to the east piazza. Mr. Smith was walking back and
+forth, talking somewhat excitedly for him, while Dr. Rutherford sat with
+his feet on the railing, thoughtfully executing the sentimental
+performance of cutting his nails. Dr. Rutherford was an old friend of
+Mr. Smith who had been studying surgery in Philadelphia, and now, on his
+way back to South Carolina, had tarried to make us a visit.
+
+"You see," Mr. Smith was saying, "about a week ago one of our old
+negroes died under the impression that she was 'tricked' or bewitched,
+and the consequence has been that the entire plantation is demoralized.
+You never saw anything like it."
+
+"Many a time," said Dr. Rutherford, and calmly cut his nails.
+
+"There is not a negro on the place," continued Edward, "who does not lie
+down at night in terror of the Evil Eye, and go to his work in the
+morning paralyzed by dread of what the day may bring. Why, there is a
+perfect panic among them. They are falling about like a set of ten-pins.
+This morning I sent for Wash (best hand on the place) to see about
+setting out tobacco plants, and behold Wash curled up under a haystack
+getting ready to die! It is enough to--So as soon as you came this
+morning a plan entered my head for putting a stop to the thing. It will
+be necessary to acknowledge that two or three of them are under the
+spell, and it is better to select those who already fancy themselves
+so.--Rosalie!" I appeared at the window. "Are any of the house-servants
+'witched?"
+
+"Mercy is," said I, "and I presume Mammy is going to be: I saw her make
+a curtsey to the black cat this morning."
+
+"Well, what is your plan?" inquired Dr. Rutherford.
+
+Mr. Smith seated himself on the piazza railing, dangling his feet
+thereagainst, rounding his shoulders in the most attractive and engaging
+manner, as you see men do, and proceeded to develop his idea. I was
+called off at the moment, and did not return for an hour or two. As I
+did so I heard Dr. Rutherford say, "All right! Blow the horn;" and the
+overseer down in the yard
+
+    Blew a blast as loud and shrill
+    As the wild-boar heard on Temple Hill--
+
+an event which at this unusual hour of the day produced perfect
+consternation among the already excited negroes. They no doubt supposed
+it the musical exercise set apart for the performance of the angel
+Gabriel on the day of judgment, and in less than ten minutes all without
+exception had come pell-mell, helter-skelter, running to "the house."
+The dairymaid left her churn, and the housemaid put down her broom; the
+ploughs stood still, and when the horses turned their heads to see what
+was the matter they found they had no driver; she also who was cooking
+for the hands "fled from the path of duty" (no Casabianca nonsense for
+_her!_), leaving the "middling" to sputter into blackness and the
+corn-pones to share its fate. Mothers had gathered up their children of
+both sexes, and grouped them in little terrified companies about the
+yard and around the piazza-steps.
+
+Edward was now among them, endeavoring to subdue the excitement, and
+having to some extent succeeded, he made a signal to Dr. Rutherford, who
+came forward to address the negroes. Throwing his shoulders back and
+looking around with dignity, he exclaimed, "I am the great Dr.
+Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I was far away in the North,
+hundreds of miles from here, and I saw a spot on the sun, and it looked
+like the Evil Eye! And I found it was a great black smoke. Then I knew
+that witch-fires were burning in the mountains, and witches were dancing
+in the valleys; and the light of the Eye was red! I am the great Dr.
+Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I called my black cat up and
+told her to smell for blood, and she smelled, and she smelled, and she
+smelled! She smelled, and she smelled, and she smelled! And presently
+her hair stood up like bristles, and her eyes shot out sparks of fire,
+and her tail was as stiff as iron!" He threw his shoulders back, looked
+imposingly around and repeated: "I am the great Dr. Rutherford the
+witch-doctor of Boston! My black Cat tells me that the witch is
+here--that she has hung the deadly nightshade at your cabin-doors, and
+your blood is turning to water. You are beginning to wither away. You
+shiver in the sunshine; you don't want to eat; your hearts are heavy and
+you don't feel like work; and when you come from the field you don't
+take down the banjo and pat and shuffle and dance, but you sit down in
+the corner with your heads on your hands, and would go to sleep, but you
+know that as soon as you shut your eyes she will cast hers on you
+through the chinks in the cabin-wall."
+
+"Dat's me!" said Mercy--"dat certny is me!"
+
+"Gret day in de mornin', mas' witch-doctor! How you know? Is you been
+tricked?" inquired Martha, who, having been reared on the plantation,
+was unacquainted with the etiquette observed at lectures.
+
+Wash groaned heavily, and shook his head from side to side in silent
+commendation of the doctor's lore.
+
+"My black cat tells me that the witch is here; and she _is_ here!"
+(Immense sensation among the children of Ham.) "But," continued he with
+a majestic wave of the arm, "she can do you no harm, for I _also_ am
+here, the great Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston!"
+
+"Doctor," inquired Edward in a loud voice, "can you tell who is conjured
+and who is not?"
+
+"I cannot tell unless robed in the blandishments of plagiarism and the
+satellites of hygienic art as expunged by the gyrations of nebular
+hypothesis. Await ye!" He and Mr, Smith went into the house.
+
+The negroes were very much impressed. They have excessive reverence for
+grandiloquent language, and the less they understand of it the better
+they like it.
+
+"What dat he say, honey?" asked old Mammy. "I can't heer like I used
+ter."
+
+"He says he will be back soon, Mammy, and tell if any of you are
+tricked," said I; and just then Edward and the doctor reappeared,
+bearing between them a pine table. On this table were arranged about
+forty little pyramids of whitish-looking powder, and in their midst
+stood a bottle containing some clear liquid, like water. Dr. Rutherford
+seated himself behind it, robed in the black gown he had used in the
+dissecting-room, and crowned by a conical head-piece about two feet
+high, manufactured by Edward and himself, and which they had completed
+by placing on the pinnacle thereof a human skull. The effect of this
+picturesque costume was heightened by two large red circles around the
+doctor's eyes--whether obtained from the juice of the pokeberry or the
+inkstand on Edward's desk need not be determined.
+
+In front of the table stood the negroes, men, women and children. There
+was the preacher, decked in the clerical livery of a standing collar and
+white cravat, but, perhaps in deference to the day of the week, these
+were modified by the secular apparel of a yellow cotton shirt and
+homespun pantaloons, attached to a pair of old "galluses," which had
+been mended with twine, and pieced with leather, and lengthened with
+string, till, if any of the original remained, none could tell the color
+thereof nor what they had been in the day of their youth. The effect was
+not harmonious. There was Mammy, with her low wrinkled forehead, and
+white turban, and toothless gums, and skin of shining blackness, which
+testified that her material wants were not neglected. There was Wash, a
+great, stalwart negro, who ordinarily seemed able to cope with any ten
+men you might meet, now looking so subdued and dispirited, and of a
+complexion so ashy, that he really appeared old and shrunken and weak.
+There was William Wirt, the ploughboy, affected by a chronic grin which
+not even the solemnity of this occasion could dissipate, but the
+character of which seemed changed by the awestruck eyes that rolled
+above the heavy red lips and huge white teeth. There was Apollo--in
+social and domestic circles known as 'Poller--there was Apollo, his hair
+standing about his head in little black tufts or horns wrapped with
+cotton cord to make it grow, one brawny black shoulder protruding from a
+rent in his yellow cotton shirt, his pantaloons hanging loosely around
+his hips, and bagging around that wonderful foot which did not suggest
+his name, unless his sponsors in baptism were of a very satirical turn.
+There were Martha, and Susan, and Minerva, and Cinderella, and
+Chesterfield, and Pitt, and a great many other grown ones, besides a
+crowd of children, the smallest among the latter being clad in the
+dishabille of a single garment, which reached perhaps to the knee, but
+had little to boast in the way of latitude.
+
+There they all stood in little groups about the yard, looking with awe
+and reverence at the great Dr. Rutherford, who sat behind the table with
+his black gown and frightful eyes and skull-crowned cap.
+
+"You see these little heaps of powder and this bottle of water. You will
+come forward one at a time and pour a few drops of the water in this
+bottle on one of these little heaps of powder. If the powder turns
+black, the person who pours on the water is 'witched. If the powder
+remains white, the person who pours on the water is _not_ 'witched. You
+may all examine the powders, and see for yourselves whether there is any
+difference between them, and you will each pour from the same bottle."
+
+During a silence so intense that nothing was heard save the hum of two
+great "bumblebees" that darted in and out among the trees and flew at
+erratic angles above our heads, the negroes came forward and stretched
+their necks over each other's shoulders, peering curiously at the
+little mounds of powder that lay before them, at the innocent-looking
+bottle that stood in their midst, and the great high priest who sat
+behind. They stretched their necks over each other's shoulders, and each
+endeavored to push his neighbor to the front; but those in front, with
+due reverence for the uncanny nature of the table, were determined not
+to be forced too near it, and the result was a quiet struggle, a silent
+wrestle, an undertone of wriggle, that was irresistibly funny.
+
+Then arose the great high priest: "Range ye!"
+
+Not knowing the nature of this order, the negroes scattered instanter
+and then collected _en masse_ around Mr. Smith.
+
+"Range ye! range!" repeated the doctor with dignity, and Edward
+proceeded to arrange them in a long, straggling row, urging upon them
+that there was no cause for alarm, as, even should any of them prove
+'witched, the doctor had charms with him by which to cast off the spell.
+
+"Come, Martha," said Edward; but Martha was dismayed, and giving her
+neighbor a hasty shove, exclaimed,
+
+"You go fus', Unk' Lumfrey: you's de preacher."
+
+Uncle Humphrey disengaged his elbow with an angry hitch: "I don't keer
+if I is: go 'long yose'f."
+
+"Well, de Lord knows I'm 'feerd to go," said Martha; "but ef I sot up
+for preachin', 'peers to me I wouldn' be'feerd to sass witches nor
+goses, nor nuffin' else."
+
+"I don't preach no time but Sundays, an' dis ain't Sunday," said Uncle
+Humphrey.
+
+"Hy, nigger!" exclaimed Martha in desperation, "is you gwine to go back
+on de Lord cos 'tain't Sunday? How come you don't trus' on Him
+week-a-days?"
+
+"I does trus' on Him fur as enny sense in doin' uv it; but ef I go to
+enny my foolishness, fus' thing I know de Lord gwine leave me to take
+keer uv myse'f, preacher or no preacher--same as ef He was ter say,
+'Dat's all right, cap'n: ef you gwine to boss dis job, boss it;' an'
+den whar _I_ be? Mas' Ned tole you to go: go on, an' lemme 'lone."
+
+"Uncle Humphrey," said Edward, "there is nothing whatever to be afraid
+of, and you must set the rest an example. Come!"
+
+Uncle Humphrey obeyed, but as he did so he turned his head and
+rolled--or, as the negroes say, _walled_--his eyes at Martha in a manner
+which convinced her, whatever her doubts in other matters pertaining to
+theology, that there is such a thing as future punishment. The old
+fellow advanced, and under direction of the great high priest poured
+some of the contents of the bottle on the powder indicated to him, and
+it remained white.
+
+"Thang Gord!" he exclaimed with a fervency which left no doubt of his
+sincerity, and hastened away.
+
+Two or three others followed with a similar result. Then came Mercy, the
+housemaid, and as her trembling fingers poured the liquid forth, behold
+the powder changed and turned to black! The commotion was indescribable,
+and Mercy was about to have a nervous fit when Dr. Rutherford, fixing
+his eyes on her, said in a tone of command, "Be quiet--be perfectly
+quiet, and in two hours I will destroy the spell. Go over there and sit
+down."
+
+She tottered to a seat under one of the trees.
+
+One or two more took their turn, among them Mammy, but the powders
+remained white. I had entreated Edward not to pronounce her 'witched,
+because she was so old and I loved her so: I could not bear that she
+should be frightened. You should have seen her when she found that she
+was safe. The stiff old limbs became supple and the terrified
+countenance full of joy, and the dear ridiculous old thing threw her
+arms up in the air, and laughed and cried, and shouted, and praised God,
+and knocked off her turban, and burst open her apron-strings, and
+refused to be quieted till the doctor ordered her to be removed from the
+scene of action. The idea of retiring to the seclusion of her cabin
+while all this was going on was simply preposterous, and Mammy at once
+exhibited the soothing effect of the suggestion; so the play proceeded.
+
+More white powders. Then Apollo's turned black, and, poor fellow! when
+it did so, he might have been a god or a demon, or anything else you
+never saw, for his face looked little like that of a human being, giving
+you the impression only of wildly-rolling eyeballs, and great white
+teeth glistening in a ghastly, feeble, almost idiotic grin.
+
+Edward went up to him and laid his hand on his shoulder: "That's all
+right, my boy. We'll have you straight in no time, and you will be the
+best man at the shucking to-morrow night."
+
+More white powders. Then came Wash, great big Wash; and when his powder
+changed, what do you suppose he did? Well, he just fainted outright.
+
+The remaining powders retaining their color, and Wash having been
+restored to consciousness, Dr. Rutherford directed him to a clump of
+chinquapin bushes near the "big gate" at the entrance of the plantation.
+There he would find a flat stone. Beneath this stone he would find
+thirteen grains of moulding corn and some goat's hair. These he was to
+bring back with him. Under the first rail near the same gate Mercy would
+find: a dead frog with its eyes torn out, and across the road in the
+hollow of a stump Apollo was to look for a muskrat's tail and a weasel's
+paw. They went off reluctantly, the entire _corps de plantation_
+following, and soon they all came scampering back, trampling down the
+ox-eyed daisies and jamming each other against the corners of the rail
+fence, for, sure enough, the witch's treasures had been found, but not a
+soul had dared to touch them. Dr. Rutherford sternly ordered them back,
+but all hands hung fire, and their countenances evinced resistance of
+such a stubborn character that Edward at length volunteered to go with
+them. Then it was all right, and presently returned the most laughable
+procession that was ever seen--Wash with his arms at right angles,
+bearing his grains of moulding grain on a burdock leaf which he held at
+as great a distance as the size of the leaf and the length of his arms
+would admit, his neck craned out and his eyes so glued to the uncanny
+corn that he stumbled over every stick and stone that lay in his path;
+Mercy next, with ludicrous solemnity, bearing her unsightly burden on
+the end of a corn-stalk; Apollo last, his weasel's paw and muskrat's
+tail deposited in the toe of an old brogan which he had found by the
+roadside, brown and wrinkled and stiff, with a hole in the side and the
+ears curled back, and which he had hung by the heel to a long crooked
+stick. On they came, the crowd around them following at irregular
+distances, surging back and forth, advancing or retreating as they were
+urged by curiosity or repelled by fear.
+
+It was now getting dark, so Dr. Rutherford, having had the table
+removed, brought forth three large plates filled with different colored
+powders. On one he placed Mercy's frog, on another Wash's corn, and on
+the third the muskrat's tail and weasel's paw taken from Apollo's shoe.
+Then we all waited in silence while with his hands behind him he strode
+solemnly back and forth in front of the three plates. At length the bees
+had ceased to hum; the cattle had come home of themselves, and could be
+heard lowing in the distance; the many shadows had deepened into one;
+twilight had faded and darkness come. Then he stood still: "I am the
+great Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I will now set fire to
+these witch's eggs, and if they burn the flames will scorch her. She
+will scream and fly away, and it will be a hundred years before another
+witch appears in this part of the country."
+
+He applied a match to Apollo's plate and immediately the whole place was
+illuminated by a pale blue glare which fell with ghastly effect on the
+awestricken countenances around, while in the distance, apparently near
+the "big gate," arose a succession of the most frightful shrieks ever
+heard or imagined. Then the torch was applied to Mercy's frog, and
+forthwith every nook and corner, every leaf and every blade of grass was
+bathed in a flood of blood-red light, while the cries grew, if
+possible, louder and fiercer. Then came Wash's corn, which burned with a
+poisonous green glare, and lashed its sickly light over the house and
+yard and the crowd of black faces; and hardly had this died away when
+from the direction of the big gate there slowly ascended what appeared
+to be a blood-red ball.
+
+"There she goes!" said the great Dr. Rutherford, and we all stood gazing
+up into the heavens, till at length the thing burst into flames, the
+sparks died away and no more was to be seen.
+
+"Now, that is the last of her!" impressively announced the witch-doctor
+of Boston; "and neither she nor her sisters will dare come to this
+country again for the next hundred years. You can all make your minds
+easy about witches."
+
+Then came triumph instead of dread, and scorn took the place of fear.
+There arose a succession of shouts and cheers, laughter and jeers. They
+patted their knees and shuffled their feet and wagged their heads in
+derision.
+
+"Hyar! hyar! old gal! Done burnt up, is you? Take keer whar you lay yo'
+aigs arfer dis!" advised William Wirt in a loud voice.--"Go 'long, pizen
+sass!" said Martha. "You done lay yo' las' aig, you is!"--"Hooray
+tag-rag!" shouted Chesterfield.--"Histe yo' heels, ole Mrs. Satan,"
+cried one.--"You ain't no better'n a free nigger!" said another.--"Yo'
+wheel done skotch for good, ole skeer-face! hyar! hyar! You better not
+come foolin' 'long o' Mas' Ned's niggers no mo'!"
+
+The next night was a gala one, and a merrier set of negroes never sang
+at a corn-shucking, nor did a jollier leader than Wash ever tread the
+pile, while Mercy sat on a throne of shucks receiving Sambo's homage,
+and, unmolested by fear, coyly held a corncob between her teeth as she
+hung her head and bashfully consented that he should come next day to
+"ax Mas' Ned de liberty of de plantashun."
+
+
+"But, Edward," said I, "why did those three powders turn black?"
+
+"Because they were calomel, my dear, and it was lime-water that was
+poured on them," said Mr. Smith.
+
+"Well, but why did not the others turn black too?"
+
+"Because the others were tartarized antimony."
+
+"Where did you get what was in the plates, that made the lights, you
+know?"
+
+"Rutherford had the material. He is going to settle in a small country
+town, so he provided himself with all sorts of drugs and chemicals
+before he left Philadelphia."
+
+"But, Edward," persisted I, putting my hand over his book to make him
+stop reading, "how came those things where they were found? and the
+balloon to ascend just at the proper moment? and who or what was it
+screaming so? Neither you nor Dr. Rutherford had left the yard except to
+go into the house."
+
+"No, my dear; but you remember Dick Kirby came over just after dinner,
+and he would not ask any better fun than to fix all that."
+
+"Humph!" said I, "men are not so stupid, after all."
+
+Edward looked more amused than flattered, which shows how conceited men
+are.
+
+                                        JENNIE WOODVILLE.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.
+
+
+The last thing which the student learns, the last thing which the world,
+that universal student, comprehends, is how to study. It is only after
+our little store of facts has been laboriously accumulated, after we
+have tried path after path that promised to take us by an easy way up
+the Hill Difficulty, and have abandoned each in turn,--it is only when
+we have attained a point somewhere near the top, that we can look down
+and see the way we should have come, the one road that avoided
+unnecessary steepness and needless windings, and led by the quickest and
+easiest direction to the summit. The knowledge that we have thus gained,
+however late to profit by it ourselves, should at least be valuable to
+others. But, unfortunately, as Balzac has said, experience is an article
+that no one will use at second hand. When the great teachers of the
+world, who have been its most patient scholars, shall go to work to
+teach us how to study, and when we are content to learn, then we shall
+all be in a fair way to become sages.
+
+But, in the mean time, there are two things we must apprehend--truisms
+both of them, but, like all truisms, better known theoretically than
+practically. The first is, that we must not use a microscope if we want
+to study the stars; and the second is, that we must beware of having a
+fly between the lenses of our telescope, unless we wish to discover a
+monster in the moon. If a discriminating public would not consider it an
+insult, one might add, in the third place, that it is useless to look
+for lunar rainbows in the daytime.
+
+It is true that all this sounds like child's play, but it is astonishing
+how many of our Shakespearian critics commit one or all of these faults.
+Forgetting entirely that criticism demands common sense, impartial
+judgment, intense sympathy, a total absence of prejudice, and a great
+deal of general information, they bring to their task minds deeply
+tinctured with preconceived systems of truth, goodness and beauty, upon
+whose Procrustean bed the unfortunate poet must be stretched; while, as
+if ignorant of the history of thought, they judge the productions of
+another age and another atmosphere by the canons of criticism that hold
+good to-day among ourselves. Not only this, but they snuff enigmas in
+every line, and scent abstruse theories behind the simplest
+statement. They take up passages of Shakespeare whose obvious meaning
+any person of average intelligence can understand, and turn and twist
+them into such intricate doublings that they cannot undo their own
+puzzle. They attack his poetry as if it were a second Rosetta Stone, or
+as if it had to be read, like the lines in a Hebrew book, backward. They
+study him in the spirit of the fool, who, being given a book upside
+down, stood on his head to read it--a position naturally confusing to
+the intellect.
+
+Nor is it only in their methods of investigation that many of our
+Shakespearian critics are at fault. Their fondness for rearing vast
+temples of possibilities upon small corner-stones of fact is proverbial.
+We know that Shakespeare went to London, where he both wrote and acted
+plays, and upon this slender basis you may find, in almost any of his
+commentators, such added items of biography as this sentence from
+Heraud's book upon Shakespeare's _Inner Life:_ "That he had a house in
+Southwark, that his brother Edmund lived with him, and that his wife was
+his frequent companion in London, are all exceedingly probable
+suppositions." So they may be to Mr. Heraud's mind, but the next
+biographer shall form a totally different set of "exceedingly probable
+suppositions" equally satisfactory to himself. The same critic says that
+when Shakespeare, in his Sonnets, spoke of "a black beauty" (a phrase
+universally used to express a brunette as late even as the age of Queen
+Anne), the poet had his Bible open at Solomon's Song, and meant the
+Bride "who is black but comely;" in other words, the Reformed Church.
+Mr. Page, the artist, finds in the Chandos portrait, after it has been
+cleaned and scraped, and upon the photographs of the German mask, a
+certain mark which he thinks the indication of a scar. Two gentlemen,
+one an artist, who have seen the mask itself, assure him that they find
+his scar to be merely a slight abrasion or discoloration of the plaster;
+but Mr. Page, secure in his position, quotes Sonnet 112,
+
+    Your love and pity doth the impression fill
+    Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow,
+
+and triumphantly asks, "If that doesn't refer to the scar, what does it
+refer to?"
+
+The Sonnets of Shakespeare have been quite too much neglected by the
+lovers of his plays, and Stevens said that the strongest act of
+Parliament that could be framed would fail to compel readers into their
+service. Two classes of minds, however, have always pondered over
+them--the poets, who could not fail to appreciate their wonderful power
+and beauty, and the psychologists, who have found in them an ample field
+for speculation. The variety and extent of the theories of these latter
+gentlemen can only be rivaled by the feat of the camel-evolving German.
+Indeed, it is the true German school of thought to which these
+speculations belong, and it is but just that to a genuine Teuton belongs
+the honor of the most extraordinary solution of the mystery yet given.
+It would take too long to sum up all the theories that have been
+broached upon the subject, but two or three will do as an example.
+Without stopping to dwell upon the ideas of M. Philarète Chasles, or of
+Gen. Hitchcock, who believes the Sonnets to be addressed to the Ideal
+Beauty, we will pass on to the book of Mr. Henry Browne, published in
+London in 1870. His idea is that the Sonnets are dedicated to William
+Herbert, afterward earl of Pembroke, and are intended chiefly as a
+parody upon the reigning fashion of mistress-sonneting and upon the
+sonneteers of the day, especially Davies and Drayton; that they also
+contain much which is valuable in the way of autobiography, and that
+"the key to the whole mystery lies in _Shakespeare's_ conceit (_i. e_.,
+Mr. Browne's conceit) of the union of his friend and his Muse by
+marriage of verse and mind; by which means, and for which favor, his
+youth and beauty are immortalized, but which theme does not fully
+commence till the friend had declined the invitation to marriage, which
+refusal begets the mystic melody." Mr. Browne graciously accepts the
+Sonnets in their order, and professes to be unable to name the real
+mistress of Herbert, though he considers Lady Penelope Rich to
+be the object of their allegorical satire.
+
+Mr. Heraud also accepts the order of the Sonnets as correct. His book
+contains an article on the Sonnets published by him in _Temple Bar_ for
+April, 1862, the result, he declares (and far be it from us to dispute
+it), of pure induction. He has evolved the theory that Shakespeare in
+writing against celibacy had in view the practice of the Roman Catholic
+Church; that the friend whom he apostrophizes was the Ideal Man, the
+universal humanity, who gradually develops into the Divine Ideal, and
+becomes a Messiah, while the Woman is the Church, the "black but comely
+bride" of Solomon. "Shakespeare found himself between two loves--the
+celibate Church on the one hand, that deified herself, and the Reformed
+Church on the other, that eschewed Mariolatry and restored worship to
+its proper object.... Thus, Shakespeare parabolically opposed the
+Mariolatry of his time to the purer devotion of the word of God, which
+it was the mission of his age to inaugurate."
+
+This is pretty well for a flight of inductive genius, but it is quite
+surpassed by the soaring Teutonic mind before mentioned, who, in the
+words of the reflective Breitmann,
+
+    Dinks so deeply
+    As only Deutschers can.
+
+This mighty philosopher, of whom Mr. Heraud speaks with becoming
+reverence, is Herr Barnstorff, who published a book in 1862 to prove
+that the "W.H." of the dedication means _William Himself_, and that the
+Sonnets are apostrophes to Shakespeare's Interior Individuality! Mr.
+Heraud thinks this idea is rather too German, but, after all, not so
+very far out of the way, for in Sonnet 42 the poet certainly declares
+that his Ideal Man is simply his Objective Self.[009] For, as Mr. Heraud
+beautifully and lucidly remarks, "the Many, how multitudinous soever,
+are yet properly but the reflex of the One, and the sum of both is the
+Universe." And herein, according to Mr. Heraud, we find the key to the
+mystery.
+
+In 1866, Mr. Gerald Massey published a large volume on the same
+subject, with the somewhat pretentious title. _Shakespeare's Sonnets,
+never before interpreted; his private friends identified; together with
+a recovered likeness of himself_. The first chapter contains a summary
+of the opinions of Coleridge, Wordsworth and others upon the Sonnets; a
+notice of the theory of Bright and Boaden (_Gentleman's Magazine_,
+1832), afterward confirmed by a book written by Charles Armitage Brown
+(1838); the theories of Hunter, Hallam, Dyce, Mrs. Jameson, M. Chasles,
+Ulrici, Gervinus and many others (most of them, by the way, confirming
+the theory originated by Boaden and Bright); and having thus gone over
+the work of twenty-five _named_ authors, and a space of time extending
+from 1817 to 1866, Mr. Massey begins his second chapter by saying that
+as yet there has never been any genuine attempt to interpret the
+Sonnets, "nothing having been done except a little surface-work." Mr. C.
+Armitage Brown in particular (who, by the way, must not be confounded
+with Mr. _Henry Browne_) appears to be Mr. Massey's special aversion.
+The very name of Brown irritates him as scarlet does an excitable bull.
+Armitage Brown was the intimate friend of Keats and Landor, and, Severn
+says, was considered to know more about the Sonnets than any man then
+living, while the "personal theory," as Mr. Massey styles it, has had a
+far larger number of supporters than any other. Unfortunately, the
+opinions of others have not the slightest weight with Mr. Massey, and
+words are too weak to express his scorn of this theory and its
+supporters. Mr. Brown wraps things in a winding sheet of witless words
+(delicious alliteration!); he leaves the subject dark and dubious as
+ever; his theory has only served to trouble deep waters, and make them
+so muddy that it is impossible to see to the bottom; in short, Mr. Brown
+and his fellow thinkers, in the opinion of Mr. Massey, are
+arch-deceivers and audacious misinterpreters, and have no more idea of
+what Shakespeare meant than they have of telling the truth about it. Why
+Mr. Massey should have worked himself into a passion before he
+began to write is a mystery darker than any he attempts to solve, but
+the intemperate, bitter and self-conceited tone of the whole book is
+alone an immense injury to its critical value.
+
+In constructing his elaborate theory of the Sonnets, Mr. Massey has
+committed many grave offences against the rules of criticism. He has
+gone to his work with the strongest possible prejudices; he has begun it
+with certain preconceived ideas of what Shakespeare meant to write; he
+has found it necessary to destroy entirely the order of the poems, and
+to rearrange them, even sometimes to alter the text, to fit his own
+notions; and he has carried his investigations into such puerile and
+minute twistings of the text as can only be paralleled by Mr. Page's
+quotation in support of his scar. For instance, in Sonnet 78 occur these
+lines:
+
+    Thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing
+      And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,
+    Have added feathers to the learned's wing
+      And given grace a double majesty.
+
+Mr. Massey thinks that in this quatrain (which the vulgar mind would
+accept as it stands, nor expect to treat as other than figurative)
+Shakespeare was passing in review the writers under the patronage of the
+earl of Southampton, to whom the sonnet is addressed, and that he can
+identify the four personifications! Shakespeare of course is the Dumb
+taught to sing by the favor of the earl; resolute John Florio, the
+translator of Montaigne, is Heavy Ignorance; Tom Nash is the Learned,
+who has had feathers added to his wing; and Marlowe is the Grace to whom
+is given a double majesty! Marlowe's chief characteristic was majesty,
+says Mr. Massey; therefore, we suppose, he is spoken of as _grace_. The
+rest of his "exquisite reasons" may be found at pages 134-143 of the
+book.
+
+This is nothing, however, to the feats of which Mr. Massey's subtlety is
+capable. Sonnet 38 begins:
+
+    How can my Muse want subject to invent,
+      While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse
+    Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
+      For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
+
+That is, kindly explains Mr. Massey--lest we should be tempted to accept
+the obvious meaning of the lines, that the poet could not want a
+subject while his friend lived, whose worth was too great for every
+ordinary writing to celebrate fitly--"that is, the new subject of the
+earl's suggesting and the new form of the earl's inventing are too
+choice to be committed to _common paper_; which means that Shakespeare
+had until then written his personal sonnets on slips of paper provided
+by himself, and now the excelling argument of the earl's love is to be
+written in Southampton's own book"! Perhaps it means that Shakespeare
+had taken to gilt-edged, hot-pressed, double-scented Bath note.
+
+Mr. Massey's ingenuity in getting over a difficulty is as great as his
+faculty of construction. Having assumed Lady Rich (that Stella whose
+golden hair makes half the glory of Sidney's verse) to be the "black
+beauty" of the Sonnets, he finds that Sonnet 130 perversely says, "If
+hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head"--a bit of evidence that
+would seem to upset this theory. But Mr. Massey is not to be put down so
+easily. This is ironical, he says in effect; Shakespeare did not mean
+this; "it is a bit of malicious subtlety to call the lady's hair black
+wires, which was so often besung as golden hair; and _she had been so
+vain of its mellow splendor!_ ... And there is the '_if_' to be
+considered--'much virtue in an _if'!_--'_If_ hairs be wires,' says the
+speaker, 'black wires grow on her head!' So that the 'black' is only
+used conditionally, and the fact remains that 'hairs' are _not_
+'wires.'" If we are to interpret Shakespeare in this manner, where is
+such foolery to cease?
+
+To sum up the principal facts of Mr. Massey's elaborate theory in a few
+words, we find that he considers the Sonnets to be dedicated to William
+Herbert, earl of Pembroke, as "their only begetter" (or obtainer) for
+the publisher, Mr. Thomas Thorpe; that they consist properly of two
+series, the first written for Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton,
+the second for the earl of Pembroke; that they begin with the poet's
+advice to Southampton to marry; that when the earl fell in love with
+Elizabeth Vernon, he suggested a new argument (see Sonnet 38),
+wherein is no such thing as a _new_ argument, by the way; and that then
+the poet begins to write love-poems in the person of his friend. This
+continues up to the year 1603, when the earl of Southampton was released
+from prison, the dramatic sonnets being interspersed with personal ones.
+These dramatic sonnets also include sonnets written for Elizabeth Vernon
+of and to Penelope Lady Rich, of whom she is supposed to be jealous;
+sonnets from Southampton to herself upon the lovers' quarrel, and the
+desperate flirtation of Elizabeth Vernon to punish her lover (which Mr.
+Massey says ensued upon this jealousy); together with various other
+sonnets between them, and upon the earl's varying fortunes, his
+marriage, imprisonment, etc., which make up the first series. The second
+series are love-poems written for William Herbert, and addressed to Lady
+Rich, who is supposed by Mr. Massey to be the "black beauty" (or
+brunette) of the closing sonnets, although it is well known that Lady
+Rich was a golden blonde, with nothing dark about her but her black
+eyes. To make out this complicated story, Mr. Massey arranges the
+Sonnets in groups to suit his fancy, baptizes them as he chooses, and
+does not scruple to vilify the fair name of man or woman in order to
+make out his argument and to defend the spotless purity of Shakespeare's
+moral character.
+
+_Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems_, by Charles Armitage Brown
+(1838), is the book which more than all others on the subject seems to
+have excited Mr. Massey's indignation, chiefly because it is the leading
+advocate of "the personal theory"--that is, the autobiographical and
+non-dramatic character of the poems. This implies an acceptance of the
+statement clearly made in the Sonnets of Shakespeare's infidelity to his
+wife; and this Mr. Massey pronounces an outrageous and unwarranted
+slander. But in order to leave the name of Shakespeare pure from any
+stain of mortal imperfection, Mr. Massey arranges a dramatic intention
+for the Sonnets which involves, with more or less of light or evil
+conduct, no less than four other names--the earl of Southampton and
+Elizabeth Vernon (daughter of Sir John Vernon), whom he afterward
+married; William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and Lady Rich, for whom Mr.
+Massey finds no words too abusive, and whom he considers the "worser
+spirit" of the later Sonnets. The history of this lady is sufficiently
+well known, and, so far as I can ascertain, there is no historical
+warrant for supposing her to have been the mistress of Herbert, or the
+beguiler of Southampton into such a lapse of duty to his beloved
+Elizabeth Vernon as should inspire the expressions of Sonnets 134, 133,
+144, which Mr. Massey says are written in the person of this lady to
+Lady Rich. Lady Penelope Devereux, sister of Essex, was born in 1563,
+and her father, who died when she was but thirteen, expressed a desire
+that she should be married to Sir Philip Sidney. For some unknown reason
+the intended match was broken off, and the fair Penelope, who is
+described as "a lady in whom lodged all attractive graces of beauty, wit
+and sweetness of behavior which might render her the absolute mistress
+of all eyes and hearts," was married in 1580 to Lord Rich, a man whom
+she detested. Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_, a series of one hundred
+and eight sonnets and poems addressed to Lady Rich, and celebrating the
+strength and the purity of their love for each other, was first printed
+in 1591. Sidney had died five years before, and so long as he lived, at
+least, no whisper had been breathed against Lady Rich. In 1600 we have
+the first notice of her losing the queen's favor from a suspicion of her
+infidelity to her husband, and in 1605, having been divorced, her lover,
+the earl of Devonshire, formerly Lord Mountjoy, immediately married her.
+He defended her in an eloquent _Discourse_ and an _Epistle to the King_,
+in which he says: "A lady of great birth and virtue, being in the power
+of her friends, was by them married against her will unto one against
+whom she did protest at the very solemnity and ever after." Lord Rich
+treated her with great brutality, and having ceased to live with her for
+twelve years, "did by persuasions and threatenings move her to
+consent unto a divorce, and to confess a fault with a nameless
+stranger." In spite of Mountjoy's noble pleadings for his wife, the
+whole court rose up against his marriage. The earl's sensitive heart was
+broken by the disgrace he had brought upon one whom he had loved so
+dearly and so long (for he was Sidney's rival in his early youth, and
+had been rejected by Lady Penelope's family before her marriage with
+Lord Rich), and he died of grief four months after their marriage, April
+3, 1606. His countess, "worn out with lamentation," did not long survive
+him.
+
+Does that look like the conduct of a light and fickle heart? or was it
+likely that so noble a man as Charles Mountjoy would have died of grief
+for the disgrace he had brought upon a notoriously bad woman? As to Lord
+Southampton's alleged flirtation with Lady Rich, which so excited
+Elizabeth Vernon's jealousy, Mr. Massey has not one circumstance in
+proof of it but the forced interpretation he chooses to put upon certain
+lines of certain sonnets which he has wrested from their proper places,
+as well as their proper meaning. After using such sonnets as the 144th
+to express this jealousy, he quietly confesses at the end of the chapter
+that it could not have gone very deep, as the intimacy of the two fair
+cousins (for such was their relationship) continued to be of the
+closest--that it was to Lady Rich's house that Elizabeth Vernon retired
+after her secret marriage to the earl in 1598, and there her baby was
+born, named Penelope after her cousin and friend! There was only matter
+enough in it for poetry, Mr. Massey concludes after having upset the
+whole order of the Sonnets to prove its reality.
+
+Now, as to the story of Lady Rich's having been the mistress of Herbert,
+for whom Mr. Massey says that twenty-four of the Sonnets were written.
+William Herbert, afterward earl of Pembroke, was born in 1580. He came
+up to London in 1598, being then eighteen years of age, and made the
+acquaintance of Shakespeare, who was then thirty-four years old. Lady
+Rich, at that time, according to Mr. Massey's own statement, was
+"getting on for forty." The fact is that she was just thirty-five,
+having been born, as he tells us, in 1563. According to the obvious
+meaning of the Sonnets, the lady spoken of is much younger than
+Shakespeare, instead of a year older, and, according to Mr. Massey, Lady
+Rich was at that time (1597) in the midst of her love-affair with
+Mountjoy. The lady of the Sonnets, if we take them literally, could have
+borne no such high position as Lady Rich: she seems to have been neither
+remarkably beautiful and high-bred, nor virtuous, and was evidently a
+married woman of no reputation. (_Sonnets_ 150, 152.)
+
+It is impossible to bring up separately, in a single article, the items
+contained in a volume of 603 pages, so we must be content to leave Mr.
+Massey's theory with these meagre allusions to its principal statements,
+and pass on to that of Mr. Charles Armitage Brown. Upholding the opinion
+that the Sonnets are autobiographical, he maintains that they are in
+reality not sonnets, but poems in the sonnet stanza, there being but
+three sonnets, properly so called, in the series. The poems are six in
+number, terminating each with an appropriate _envoi_, and are addressed,
+the first five to the poet's friend, "W.H.," and the sixth to his
+mistress. That friend must have been very young, very handsome, of high
+birth and fortune; and to all this the description of William Herbert
+exactly answers. The divisions made by Mr. Brown are as follows: First
+poem, 1 to 26--to his friend, persuading him to marry. Second poem, 27
+to 55--to his friend, who had robbed the poet of his mistress, forgiving
+him. Third poem, 56 to 77--to his friend, complaining of his coldness,
+and warning him of life's decay. Fourth poem, 78 to 101--to his friend,
+complaining that he prefers another poet's praises, and reproving him
+for faults that may injure his character. Fifth poem, 102 to 126--to his
+friend, excusing himself for having been some time silent, and
+disclaiming the charge of inconstancy. Sixth poem, 127 to 152--to his
+mistress, on her infidelity. In this last poem, says Mr. Brown,
+we find the whole tenor to be "hate of my sin grounded on sinful
+loving." However the poet may waver, and for the moment seem to return
+to his former thralldom, indignation at the faithlessness of his
+mistress and at her having been, through treachery, the cause of his
+estrangement from a friend, at the last completely conquers his sinful
+loving. "For myself," continues Mr. Brown, "I confess I have not the
+heart to blame him at all, purely because he so keenly reproaches
+himself for his own sin and folly. Fascinated as he was, he did not,
+like other poets similarly guilty, directly or by implication obtrude
+his own passions on the world as reasonable laws. Had such been the
+case, he might have merited our censure, possibly our contempt."
+
+Having thus glanced over the work of the principal commentators upon the
+Sonnets, let us try the simple plan of reading them as we read
+Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, for instance, or the _Sonnets from the
+Portuguese_, by Mrs. Browning. In Mr. R.G. White's admirable edition of
+Shakespeare he confesses that he has no opinion upon the subject: "Mr.
+Thomas Thorpe appears in his dedication as the Sphinx of literature, and
+thus far he has not met his Oedipus." But herein have we not the main
+difficulty stated? The first great error committed by almost all
+students of the Sonnets, if we may be pardoned the opinion, is to take
+it for granted that they are a mystery whose key is lost. Just so long
+as the Sonnets are considered as a species of enigma they will be
+misunderstood and misinterpreted. It was not Shakespeare's habit to talk
+in riddles or to propound psychological problems: of all poets except
+Chaucer he is the most simple, direct and straightforward.
+
+We have in the _Amoretti_ of Spenser, and in the _Astrophel and Stella_
+of Sir Philip Sidney, admirable examples of autobiographical poems
+written mostly in sonnet stanza, of irregular and varied construction
+and subject, although the general theme is the same. Surely we may bring
+to the study of Shakespeare's poems the same simple method used in
+reading these. Poets of his own day, and using in their highest flights
+the form which was Shakespeare's familiar relaxation, nobody has tried
+to ascribe to Sidney and Spenser metaphysical mysteries and
+psychological conceits. Let us hope that some day this mistaken idolatry
+of Shakespeare, which besmokes his shrine with concealing clouds of
+incense, will be done away with, and that we shall be allowed to behold
+the simple truth, which never suffers in his case for being naked.
+
+In his 76th Sonnet, Shakespeare says,
+
+    Why write I still all one, ever the same.
+      And keep invention in a noted weed,
+    _That every word doth almost tell my name_,
+      _Showing their birth and whence they did proceed_?
+    Oh know, sweet love, I always write of you,
+    And you and love are still my argument.
+
+With this explicit declaration of Shakespeare, the general character of
+the poems, and the similar writings of his friends and contemporaries,
+we can but consider the Sonnets as autobiographical poems, written
+during a period of time beginning certainly as early as 1598 (when Meres
+speaks of Shakespeare's having written sonnets), and ceasing some time
+before their first publication in 1609. In the same way were written the
+poems composing Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, which, although dedicated to
+"A.H.H.," close with a long poem addressed to the poet's sister.
+
+The first and principal series of the Sonnets (divided from the second
+in many editions of Shakespeare by a mark of separation) is clearly
+addressed to a male friend. The extremely lover-like use of language by
+which they are characterized was a common trait of the age; and here
+again we see the necessity of thoroughly understanding the atmosphere
+that Shakespeare breathed. To us, with our frigid vocabulary of
+friendship, such a style sounds unnatural, and undignified perhaps: with
+the Elizabethans it was an every-day habit. Lilly, the author of
+_Euphues_, says in his _Endymion,_ "The love of men to women is a thing
+common and of course; the friendship of man to man, infinite and
+immortal." And indeed it is to the influence of the _Euphues_ that much
+of the poetic ardor of language characterizing the masculine friendship
+of the time was due. A man's beauty was as often the theme of
+verse as a woman's, and the endearing terms only associated by us with
+the conversation of lovers were used continually among men. The friends
+in Shakespeare's plays, as in all the other dramas and novels of the
+period, continually address each other as "sweet," and even "sweet love"
+and "beloved." Ben Jonson called himself the "lover" of Camden, and
+dedicated his eulogistic lines to "my beloved Mr. William Shakespeare."
+There is therefore no reason for considering the language of the first
+series of Sonnets as necessarily inapplicable to a masculine friend. The
+second series, beginning with the 127th Sonnet, is as evidently
+addressed, as Mr. Brown says, "to his mistress, on her infidelity;" and
+the Sonnets end with two upon "Cupid's Brand," admitted by all to be
+separate poems, and wrongfully tacked on to the Sonnets proper.
+
+Taking it for granted, then, from this very literal survey of the text,
+that the Sonnets are autobiographical, we find their study divided into
+two branches: (1) the story that the poems themselves tell by the most
+simple and direct statements; and (2) the conjectural explanation of the
+personages of that story, involving a careful historical comparison of
+names and dates, but amounting, after all is said that can be said,
+simply to conjecture, incapable of direct proof. The first part is to
+the real lover of Shakespeare and of poetry the only important one; the
+second concerns that which is mortal and has passed away. The first
+implies a knowledge of the friendship and the love of Shakespeare; the
+second the discovery of the names of his friend, of the poet who was his
+rival in the praises of that friend, and of the mistress who was
+unworthy of them both; not to mention such other items concerning time
+and place as might be ascertained by a persevering antiquarian.
+
+It is impossible, within less than a volume, to quote from the Sonnets
+very freely, therefore we shall be compelled to trust to the reader's
+recollection of them, assisted by an occasional reference; this
+explanation of them being simply a record of the impressions they have
+produced upon an unbiased mind reading them as one would read any other
+poetry of the same character.
+
+The story unfolded by the Sonnets, then, is this: Shakespeare had an
+ardent friendship, made all the livelier by the fervor of the poetic
+temperament, for a young man of noble birth and very great personal
+beauty, himself a lover of poetry, if not a poet. This youth was very
+much younger than Shakespeare, who was already beginning to speak of
+himself as past the prime of life, although he was probably not more
+than thirty-four. The friend of Shakespeare was almost perfect in
+beauty, intellect and disposition, but he had two faults: he was
+extremely fond of flattery (Sonnet 84), and he was over-addicted to
+pleasure:
+
+    How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
+    Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,
+    Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!   (95.)
+
+Shakespeare scorned to palter with the truth--"fair, kind and true" he
+had called his friend--but he saw his faults with the keen eye of love,
+that cannot bear an imperfection in the one who should be all-perfect.
+
+    Thou truly fair wert truly sympathized
+    In true plain words by thy true-telling friend;   (82.)
+
+and
+
+                        I love thee in such sort,
+    As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report;   (36.)
+
+therefore in all love he warns him to take heed.
+
+Such was the character of Shakespeare's friend, to whom he begins by
+addressing seventeen sonnets (or poems in the sonnet stanza, which is
+the better definition), urging him to marry. He knows the weakness of
+his character and the temptations that beset him, and in a strain of
+loving persuasion, whose theme bears great resemblance to many passages
+in Sidney's _Arcadia_, he beseeches him, now that he stands upon the top
+of happy hours,
+
+    Make thee another self for love of me.
+    That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
+
+Sonnet 17 in a most beautiful manner sums up the argument and ends the
+subject.
+
+The Sonnets from the 18th to the 126th are all addressed to this beloved
+friend, who nevertheless, early in the history of their
+friendship, inflicted upon the poet a cruel wrong. With the 33d Sonnet
+begin the references to this double treachery. It is impossible for an
+unprejudiced reader to interpret this and the other poems upon the same
+subject in any way but one. The mistress of Shakespeare, fascinated by
+the beauty and brilliant qualities of his friend, took advantage of the
+poet's absence to win that facile heart, so incapable of resisting the
+charms of woman and the tongue of flattery;
+
+    And when a woman woos, what woman's son
+    Will sourly leave her till she have prevailed? (41.)
+
+His friend's loss was the greater to the poet, for, although he loved
+with passionate strength, it was against his conscience and his reason.
+Such a love, he says, is "enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;"
+"Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream."
+
+    All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
+    To shun the heaven that leadeth to this hell. (129.)
+
+Nor does he mince matters in directly addressing her. She is a brunette,
+with black eyes and black hair, yet black in nothing except her deeds,
+which have given her an evil reputation. She has sealed false bonds of
+love as often as he, and is twice forsworn, having deceived both her
+husband and her lover. She is as cruel as if she had that transcendent
+beauty which in reality she only possesses in his doting eyes. He knows
+that her heart is "a bay where all men ride," and yet love persuades him
+to believe her true.
+
+    Who taught thee how to make me love thee more
+    The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
+
+She is his "worser spirit," tempting him to ill--his "false plague,"
+whom he knows to be "as black as hell, as dark as night," though he has
+sworn her fair and true. His friend's name is Will also, and Sonnets
+135, 136 contain a play upon their names:
+
+    Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy "Will,"
+    And "Will" to boot, and "Will" in overplus.
+
+Only love my name, he says to her, and then you will still love me, for
+_my_ name too is "Will."
+
+Such are the three actors in this tragedy of sin and sorrow and remorse;
+and the more we read these wonderful poems, and perceive the intense
+passion that throbs through them, the nearer we seem to get to the great
+heart of Shakespeare, the real inner life of that man of whose outer
+personality we know so little. We see him wounded to the quick by his
+dearest friend, yet weighing the sin of that friend in the balance of
+divinest mercy as he acknowledges the strength of the temptation, and,
+while he does not extenuate the sin, extends a loving pardon to the
+sinner. He knows weakness of his own soul: he himself struggles in the
+toils of an unworthy passion, which his reason abhors while his heart is
+led captive. His is the battle and the defeat: who is he that he should
+judge with indignant virtue the failing of another?--
+
+    I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
+      Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
+    And yet love knows it is a greater grief
+      To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.   (40.)
+
+He pardons the penitent as freely as only so great and magnanimous a
+soul can, but gently reminds him that "though thou repent, yet I have
+still the loss:"
+
+    The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
+    To him that bears the strong offence's cross. (34.)
+
+Hereafter we two must be twain, the poet says, although our undivided
+loves are one, for fear thy good report suffer, which is to me as my
+own. Do not even remember me after I am dead, if that remembrance cause
+you any sorrow, nor rehearse my poor name, but let your love decay with
+my life;
+
+    Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
+    And mock you with me after I am gone.
+
+Such is the story of the Sonnets, the saddest of all stories, as it
+comes to us from the simple and unbiased reading of the series as it
+stands, without alteration or transposition. The meaning is sufficiently
+obvious without making any change, although, judging from the purely
+eulogistic character of some of the first series of the Sonnets, and the
+purely reflective style of others, it seems probable that those which
+are more or less reproachful in tone may belong together, nearer the
+second series. Still, even to this rearrangement there are objections
+when we consider the alternations of feeling and the different
+conditions that must have affected the poet during the space of time
+covered by these poems. In the 104th Sonnet three years are mentioned as
+having elapsed since the friends first met, and the time covered by the
+whole series was probably still longer. Conjectural evidence points to
+William Herbert as the person to whom the Sonnets are addressed. His
+name, his age, his beauty, his rank, all agree with Shakespeare's
+description. As for the earl of Southampton, the poet's early patron, to
+whom the _Venus and Adonis_ and the _Lucrece_ are dedicated, his name
+was Henry; he was but nine years younger than Shakespeare, and therefore
+not likely to have been called by him "a sweet boy;" he was a remarkably
+plain man, instead of an Adonis, and noted, not for his devotion to
+women in general, but for his ardent attachment to Mistress Elizabeth
+Vernon, whom he married secretly, in spite of the queen's opposition, in
+1598. Now, the earliest mention that we have of Shakespeare's poems is
+when Meres speaks of "his sugared sonnets among his private friends."
+This was in 1598, and, as Hallam and other critics have argued, is
+probably a reference to earlier sonnets which have been lost, not to
+those published in 1609. It was in 1598 that William Herbert, a
+brilliant and fascinating young man, addicted to pleasure and
+susceptible to flattery, but strongly disinclined to marriage, came up
+to London to live, having visited the metropolis during the previous
+year.
+
+As for Lady Rich, besides the objections already urged on the score of
+her personal appearance and her age, Shakespeare would never have dared
+to speak of a reigning beauty of the court in the words of Sonnets 137,
+144, 152. In fact, Mr. Massey's whole argument upon this head is based
+upon his assertion that the poems are dramatic and not personal.
+
+Mr. Massey's conviction that Marlowe is the rival poet of whose "great
+verse" Shakespeare was jealous depends upon Southampton, and not
+Herbert, being acknowledged to be the friend addressed, for Marlowe died
+in 1593, when Herbert was but thirteen years old, and five years before
+we have the first mention of Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets.
+Certainly, a writer who had died five years before we find any mention
+of the Sonnets can hardly be the living poet of whom Shakespeare
+distinctly speaks in Sonnets 80 and 86. Also in Sonnet 82 he makes
+mention of the "dedicated words" this rival addresses to his friend.
+Now, we have no evidence that Marlowe ever dedicated anything to
+Southampton, although Mr. Massey tries to bolster up a desperate case by
+saying that "there is nothing improbable in supposing that Marlowe's
+_Hero and Leander_ was intended to be dedicated to Southampton" had the
+poet lived to finish it!
+
+A stronger chain of evidence (still conjectural, it must be remembered)
+points to Ben Jonson as this rival poet. His _Epigrams_, which contain a
+eulogy upon Pembroke, and his _Catiline_, were both dedicated to this
+earl, although neither of them was published till after the Sonnets. We
+find the earl of Pembroke's name among the actors in Ben Jonson's
+masques, and Falkland's eclogue testifies to their intimacy. And in the
+80th Sonnet, Shakespeare uses the same comparison of himself and his
+rival, to two ships of different bulk, which Fuller used to describe
+Shakespeare and Ben Jonson as they appeared at the Mermaid Tavern.
+
+As for the name of the false woman who ensnared two such noble hearts,
+it is lost for ever, let us hope, in a deserved oblivion. The scanty
+data that we have given here are about all that can be accepted without
+wrenching history and poetry from their proper sphere. But so long as
+the spirit is more than the letter, so long will the Sonnets of
+Shakespeare be read by all true lovers of true poetry, whether their
+historical significance ever be known or not. They are the saddest and
+the sweetest story of friendship that we have in all literature; and
+while one faithful friend remains possessed of that fine wit that can
+"hear with eyes what silent love hath writ," his heart will beat in
+answer to the perfect love of the greatest of all poets and the noblest
+of all friends.
+
+                                        KATE HILLARD.
+
+
+
+
+OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+
+ARTISTS' MODELS IN ROME.
+
+
+Some visitors to the Eternal City leave it without having found time to
+see this one of its wonders, while others are driven by the sad
+inelasticity of the hours to leave a different class of objects for
+"another time." But it may be safely asserted that none who have been at
+Rome for even twenty-four hours ever left it without having had their
+attention forcibly arrested by the groups of painters' and sculptors'
+models--the former mainly--who haunt the upper part of the great steps
+that lead up from the Piazza di Spagna to the Trinità di Monti, and
+perhaps even more specially the corner where the Via Sistina falls into
+the Piazza Barberini. But very few probably have asked for, and fewer
+still obtained, information as to who and what these people are, and
+whence they come. Yet to an attentive observer many points about the
+appearance of these groups must suggest that a curious interest might
+attach itself to the reply to such questions. There are sights in Rome
+of grander and greater interest, but there is nothing in all the famous
+centre of the Catholic world more distinctively, essentially and
+exclusively Roman, more unlike anything that is seen elsewhere, more
+instinct with _couleur locale_, than these singularly picturesque groups
+of nomads.
+
+Let us, then, take a stroll among them, starting from that bright centre
+of the foreigners' quarter of Rome, the Piazza di Spagna. It is a
+brilliant January day, and, we will say, ten o'clock in the morning. In
+the Via Babuino and the neighboring streets, which the sun has not yet
+visited, the morning cold is a little sharp. _Matutina parum cautos jam
+frigora mordent_. But the magnificent flight of the great stair--there
+are properly eleven flights, divided by as many spacious and handsomely
+balustraded landing-places, each flight consisting of twelve steps, and
+all of white marble--with its southern exposure has almost the
+temperature of a hothouse. There are two or three beggars basking in the
+sunshine near the bottom of the steps. But our models do not consort
+with these. Not only are they not beggars, but they belong to a
+different caste and a different race. We leisurely saunter up the huge
+stair, pausing at each landing-place to turn and enjoy the view over the
+city, and the gradually rising luminous haze around the cupola of St.
+Peter's, and the heights of Monte Mario clear against the brilliant blue
+sky. It is not till we are at the topmost flight that we come upon the
+objects of our ramble. There we fall in with a group of them, consisting
+perhaps of three or four girls, as many children, a man in the prime of
+life, and an aged patriarch. There is not the smallest possibility that
+we should pass them unobserved. They are far too remarkable and too
+unlike anything else around us. Even those who have no eye for the
+specialties of type which characterize the human countenance will not
+fail to be struck by the peculiarities of the costume of the group of
+figures before us. At the first glance the eye is caught by the quantity
+of bright color in their dresses. The older women wear the picturesque
+white, flatly-folded linen cloth on their heads which is the usual dress
+of the _contadine_ women in the neighborhood of Rome. The younger have
+their hair ornamented with some huge filagree pin or other device of a
+fashion which proclaims itself to the most unskilled eye as that of some
+two or three hundred years ago. All have light bodices of bright blue or
+red stuff laced in front, and short petticoats of some equally bright
+color, not falling below the ankle. But the most singular portion of the
+costume is the universally-worn apron. It consists of a piece of very
+stout and coarsely-woven wool of the brightest blue, green or yellow,
+about twenty inches broad by thirty-three in length, across which, near
+the top and near the bottom, run two stripes, each about eight
+inches wide, of hand-worked embroidery of the strangest,
+old-world-looking patterns and the most brilliant colors. These things
+are manufactured by the peasantry of the hill-country in the
+neighborhood of San Germano, who grow, shear, spin, weave, dye and
+embroider the wool themselves. And being barbarously unsophisticated by
+any adulteration of cotton, and in no wise stinted in the quantity of
+material, they are wonderfully strong and enduring. The most remarkable
+thing about them, however, is the unerring instinct with which these
+uneducated manufacturers harmonize the most audaciously violent
+contrasts of brilliant color. It is not too much to assert that they are
+_never_ at fault in this respect. So much is this the case, and so truly
+artistic is this homely peasant manufacture, that there is hardly a
+painter's studio in Rome in which two or three of these richly colored
+apron-cloths may not be seen covering a sofa or thrown over the back of
+a chair. A great part of the singularly picturesque and striking
+appearance of the group of figures we are speaking of is due to the
+universal use of these aprons by the women. The men also affect an
+unusually large amount of bright color in their costume. The waistcoat
+is almost always scarlet; the velveteen jacket or short coat generally
+blue; the breeches sometimes the same, but often of bright yellow
+leather, and the stockings a lighter blue. The men often wear a long
+cloak reaching to the heels, always hanging open in front, and generally
+lined with bright green baize. They generally, too, have some
+bright-colored ribbons around their high-peaked, conical felt hats. But
+I must not forget to mention the costume of the children. It consists of
+an exact copy in miniature of that of their elders; and the
+inconceivable quaintness and queer old-world look produced is not to be
+imagined by those who have never witnessed it. Fancy a little imp of six
+or seven years old dressed in little blue jacket, bright-yellow leather
+breeches, blue stockings, sheepskin sandals on his little bits of feet,
+and long bright flaxen curls streaming down from under a gayly-ribboned
+brigand's hat!
+
+But if the first glance is given to this singularity of costume, the
+second will not fail to take cognizance of the remarkable beauty of
+feature to be observed in almost every individual of this race of
+models. The men are well grown, almost invariably wear their black hair
+streaming over their shoulders, and have generally fine eyes and
+picturesquely colored, swarthy red faces. But the beauty of the girls is
+in almost every case something quite extraordinary; and the same may be
+said of the children. The next thing which the closeness of observation
+this unusual degree of beauty is calculated to attract will reveal to
+the observer is that all these singularly lovely faces are remarkably
+like each other, and at the same time remarkably unlike any of the faces
+around them. There is often much beauty among the Roman women of the
+lower classes, but it is of an essentially different type. The Roman
+beauty is generally large in stature and ample in development, with
+features whose tendency to heaviness needs the majestic and Juno-like
+style of beauty which the Roman women so frequently have to redeem them.
+But the countenances of the women of whom we have been speaking have
+nothing at all of this. The features are small, delicately cut, the form
+of face generally short, rather than tending to oval, being in this
+respect also in marked contrast with the ordinary Roman type. There is a
+type of face well known to most English eyes, though less so, I take it,
+to those on the western side of the Atlantic, which is strangely
+recalled to the memory by these model-girls; and that is the gypsy type.
+There is the same Oriental look about them, the same brilliancy of dark
+eyes under dark low brows, the same delicately-cut noses and full yet
+finely-chiseled lips. They have also almost invariably the same wondrous
+wealth of long raven black tresses, glossy but not fine. The complexions
+are fresher, more delicate, and with more of bloom, than is often seen
+among the gypsies; and this is the principal difference between the two
+types. There is also another point of similarity, which, if the
+accounts of Eastern travelers may be accepted, seems also to point to an
+Oriental origin. I allude to the singular gracefulness of "pose" which
+is observable in these people, among the men and women alike. There they
+stand and lounge, or sit propped, half recumbent, against a balustrade
+in the sun, in all sorts of attitudes, but in all they are graceful.
+There is that indefinable simplicity and ease in the natural movement
+and disposition of their limbs which tuition can never, and birth in the
+purple can so rarely, enable a European to assume. It may perhaps be
+supposed that the exigencies of their profession have not been without
+influence in producing the effect I am speaking of. But I do not think
+that such is the case. In the young and the old, in the children even,
+the same thing is observable; and the exceeding difficulty of teaching
+it may be accepted, I think, as a guarantee that it has not been taught
+in the case of creatures so unteachable as these half-wild sons and
+daughters of Nature.
+
+Now, if these people, who for generations past have exercised the
+profession of artists' models in Rome, do really belong to a race apart
+from the inhabitants of the district around Rome, as I think cannot be
+doubted by any one who has carefully observed them, the question
+suggests itself, Who and what are they, and whence do they come?
+Fortunately, we are not unprovided with an answer, and the answer is
+rather a curious one. If the excursionist from Rome to Tivoli will
+extend his ramble a little way among the Sabine Mountains which lie
+behind it, up the valley through which the Teverone--the _præceps Anio_
+of Horace--runs down into the Campagna, he will see on his right hand,
+when he has left Tivoli about ten miles behind him, a most romantically
+situated little town on the summit of a conically shaped mountain. The
+name of it is Saracinesco, and its story is as curious as its situation.
+It is said--and the tradition has every appearance of truth--that the
+town was founded by a body of Saracens after their defeat by Berengarius
+in the ninth century. The spot is just such as might have been selected
+for such a purpose. It is difficult of access to an extraordinary
+degree, and it is said to be no less than two thousand five hundred feet
+above the stream which flows at the base of the rocky hill on which it
+is built. Tradition, however, is not the only testimony to the truth of
+this account of the origin of the strangely placed little town, for in
+many cases the inhabitants have preserved their old Arabic names. It is
+from this strange eyrie of Saracinesco that our picturesque and handsome
+friends of the Piazzi di Spagna descend to seek a living at Rome from
+the profession which they have followed for generations of artists'
+models. And this is the explanation of the singular sameness of
+beautiful feature, the utterly un-Roman type, the sharply-cut features,
+and the admirable grace of movement and of attitude which characterize
+these denizens of the steps--if of the steppes no longer.
+
+What a life they lead! From early morn to dewy eve there they lounge, in
+every sort of restful attitude, basking in the sun, with nothing on
+earth to occupy mind or body save an eternal clatter. On what subjects,
+who shall say or attempt to guess? Every now and then one of the tribe
+is hired by an artist to go and _pose_ for a Judith, a Lucretia, a
+Venus, as the case may be. Some are wanted for an arm, some for a hand,
+some for a brow, some for a leg, some for a bust. Some one may have a
+special gift for personating an ancient Roman, and another exactly
+assume the saintly look of a Madonna or the smile and expression of a
+Venus. Their several and special gifts and capacities are all well known
+in the world of their patrons, and special reputations are made in the
+art-world accordingly. It is a strange life: not probably conducive to a
+high development of intellectual and moral excellence, but very much so
+to the picturesque peopling of the most magnificent flight of stairs in
+Christendom.
+
+                                        T. A. T.
+
+
+
+
+FAUST IN POLAND.
+
+
+Nowhere do we see the genuine soul and character of a people so
+distinctly as in its myths, legends, popular songs and traditions. They
+reflect faithfully, though--perhaps we should say,
+_because_--unconsciously, the deeds, aspirations and beliefs of the
+earlier ages, and not only afford to our own precious material for
+philological and ethnological study, but still exert, in many instances
+at least, considerable influence over the ideas and feelings of men. The
+Faust legend will never lose its mysterious fascination: many poets have
+felt it, but Goethe's insight penetrated all its depth of meaning, and
+his marvelous poem is for us the supreme expression of it.
+
+But it is interesting to find the same legend in Poland, with
+characteristic variations from the German conception, illustrative of
+the hospitality and chivalry and the dominant influence of woman which
+are such marked features in Polish history. Twardowsky (the Doctor
+Faustus of Poland) lived in the sixteenth century, in the time of
+Sigismund Augustus. He studied at the University of Cracow, rose to the
+rank of doctor, and devoted himself especially to chemistry and physics,
+having a secret laboratory in a vast cavern of Mount Krzemionki. Science
+in those days was regarded as intimately associated with the black arts,
+and it was not surprising that Twardowsky's contemporaries added the
+title of sorcerer to those of doctor and professor, supposed he had made
+an alliance with Satan, and fancied an army of demons always waiting to
+do his bidding. All this did not prevent his enjoyment of the king's
+favor. Sigismund had married, against his mother's wish, Barbara
+Radziwill, the beautiful daughter of a Polish magnate. The nobles,
+probably influenced by Bona, the mother of the king, demanded that
+Barbara should be repudiated: he indignantly refused, and shortly
+afterward she was poisoned. The grief and rage of Sigismund were
+without bounds: he exiled his mother, wore black all the rest of his
+life, and had the apartments of his palace hung with it. His melancholy
+gave him new interest in the occult sciences, and he became more than
+ever intimate with Twardowsky, sometimes visiting him in his cavern,
+sometimes receiving him secretly in his palace. At first, he was
+satisfied with the chemical experiments which the populace regarded as
+supernatural, but after a while he urgently desired Twardowsky to
+produce for him a vision of Barbara. Twardowsky appointed a night for
+the exhibition of his skill, and after drawing a magic circle and
+pronouncing some mysterious words, he called Barbara thrice by name, and
+she appeared--not as a spectre risen from the tomb, but in all the
+beauty and freshness which had been the king's delight. He fainted at
+the sight, and his regard for the magician increased greatly. But one
+fatal evening he found the door of the cavern shut. Twardowsky, not
+expecting him, was not there. After some delay the door was opened by a
+beautiful young woman. "Barbara!" exclaimed Sigismund. "Barbara is my
+name, but I am alive, not dead," was her reply. Twardowsky's device was
+now exposed. He had created an illusion for the satisfaction of
+Sigismund by employing this substitute for his lost Barbara. She was a
+girl named Barbara Gisemka, whom Twardowsky had rescued from the hands
+of a furious mob, had concealed in his cavern, and initiated into the
+sciences to which he devoted himself. She became his adept and his
+mistress. But the king, furious at the imposition which had been
+practiced upon him, and desirous of making this beautiful creature his
+own, had Twardowsky murdered, and gave out that the devil had carried
+him off. Barbara Gisemka acquired immense influence over the mind of her
+royal lover, which lasted while he lived. When he was ill she suffered
+no physician to approach him, and was with him when he died in 1572.
+
+So much for history. Tradition has transformed Twardowsky into a gay and
+brilliant gentleman, who, in order to gain all the pleasures of life,
+sold his soul to the devil, engaging on his honor to give it up to him
+whenever he (the devil) should enter the city of Rome. Twardowsky now
+enjoyed to the full his new power, reveling in luxury himself, and
+lavishing gifts and banquets on his friends. The populace also
+shared his generosity--all the more, too, from the strange manner of it.
+On one occasion, we are told, he pierced three holes in a shoemaker's
+nose with his own awl, and caused a tun of brandy to flow from it for
+the refreshment of the crowd. One day he was informed that a stranger
+who was at the inn called the "City of Rome" wished to see him. He went
+at once to the place with no misgivings, but on his arrival there found
+the devil, who had come to claim the fulfillment of the contract.
+Provoked at the quibble, he resolved to employ a ruse himself, and just
+as the devil was about to take possession of him he seized the infant
+child of the innkeeper from its cradle and held it up before him, its
+innocence being a sure defence against Satan's power. He, however,
+demanded what had become of his plighted word. The honor of the Polish
+gentleman could not resist this appeal. He put down the child and rose
+into the air with Satan. But while they were still hovering over Cracow
+the sound of church-bells awoke in Twardowsky's recollection a hymn to
+the Virgin, which he forthwith sang, and the devil could hold him no
+longer. Twardowsky, however, could not get down again, but remains
+suspended in the air, only receiving news from the earth by means of a
+spider which happened to be on the tail of his coat, and which
+occasionally spins a thread and goes down, for a while, returning with
+whatever it may have picked up for his information and amusement.
+
+No Polish story would be complete without a woman, and so we find that
+Twardowsky had a wife, beautiful, witty and imperious, with all the
+fascinations universally conceded to the Polish women. Madame Twardowsky
+is said to have ruled her husband just as he ruled the devil during the
+time of that personage's subjection; and there is a second version of
+the story which makes her too much for Satan himself. According to this
+account, Twardowsky was entertaining a number of friends at the "City of
+Rome," when suddenly the devil appeared. While Twardowsky, to gain
+time, was reading over the compact, his wife, looking over his
+shoulder, suddenly laughed, and addressing the devil, told him there
+were still three conditions for him to fulfill, on failure of which the
+parchment should be torn up, and asked whether she might impose them.
+The devil politely replied in the affirmative. "Here, then," said she,
+"see this horse painted on the wall of the inn: I wish to mount him, and
+you must make me a whip of sand and a staple of walnuts." The devil
+bowed, and in a moment the horse was prancing before their eyes. The
+lady now had a large tub of holy water brought in, and invited the
+devil, as his second task, to plunge into it and refresh his weary
+limbs. He coughed, shivered, then went in resolutely, coming out again
+as quickly as possible, and shaking himself well. "The third task will
+be a pleasant one," said the lady with her most bewitching smile: "The
+first year my husband passes in hell you shall spend with me, swearing
+to me love, fidelity and implicit obedience. Will you?" The devil rushed
+toward the door, but she was too quick for him, and succeeded in locking
+it and putting the key into her pocket. Satan, resolved to escape from
+the servitude in store for him, could only do so by going through the
+keyhole, which has been black ever since.
+
+                                        E. C. R.
+
+
+
+
+A LETTER FROM HAVANA.
+
+HAVANA, Feb. 14, 1875.
+
+
+It is not a very long sail from home to Cuba--you pass into the Bay of
+Havana on the morning of the fifth day, if you have luck--but the sky
+and land you left behind at this wintry season at home are very
+different from those you find on arriving here. It is a great change in
+so short a time from the dun-colored shore and the frozen river to the
+waving verdure of the Cuban coast and the sparkling blue and white of
+the water. We made the land before daylight, and, the rules forbidding
+us to enter the harbor till sunrise, we bobbed up and down for two or
+three hours a mile or so outside of the Moro Castle, which guards the
+narrow entrance to Havana. The moon was so brilliant that we did not
+have to wait for day to enjoy the scene before us: in fact, it could not
+have been improved by the sun. The fortress of Moro crouches on a bed of
+rock, rearing a tall lighthouse aloft. Its Moorish turrets have a soft
+rounded outline, and the undulations of the shore blend with the masonry
+of the castle; only a sharp retiring angle here and there gives an
+occasional glimpse of a grim purpose. When the Moro light is put out,
+ships in the offing may enter the bay. The mouth of the harbor is not
+more than half a mile wide, and on the shore opposite to the Moro the
+town of Havana comes down to the water's edge, withdrawing up the bay on
+one hand, and up the sea-coast on the other. A pilot is not necessary
+except for the perquisites of office, but one comes on board, and with
+anxious countenance directs the ship straight on through clear water for
+a mile, when the anchor is dropped.
+
+Just as day breaks on the high ground on the Moro shore, and the growing
+light brings houses and trees and ships into relief, with all their rich
+variety of color, the scene is memorable and full of beauty. On the
+green slope behind the castle, while the outline of the tropical
+vegetation is only stealing into view, there is hid, and yet visible, a
+long, low building of yellow columns, blue facade, brown gables and red
+tiles: if you shut out the rest of the landscape with your hands, you
+would say it was a picture by Fortuny. The expanse of the bay is fine,
+and the large fleet at anchor furnishes it but thinly. Townward, as the
+sun's rays begin to dissipate the brown shadows and define shape and
+color, the city sparkles like a gorgeous mosaic; but in another half
+hour, when the sun is higher, the hazy softness has departed and the
+city is ablaze with light, so that your eyes can scarcely look at it.
+Then, if you have seen it earlier, it loses its charm.
+
+I was jealous of Havana from what I had heard and read of it: if the
+shore-line, and the entrance, and the bay, and the scene were finer than
+Rio, I was prepared to be angry; but Rio is grand and Havana is pretty,
+so that one may like both and not divide his allegiance. A patchwork of
+good pictures in the Moorish vein of town, and shore, and water would
+reproduce, and yet not copy, all that Havana has to offer; but there is
+not a picture in the world that aspires to the grandeur of Rio. But I
+won't deny the sparkle and brilliancy of Havana. At this moment the sky
+is of a perfect "Himmel-blau." I can see from my window, near the roof,
+the rich, harmonious Moorish blending of varied colors in the houses;
+and beyond these "the white feet of the wind shine along the sea." A
+ship with all sail set is coming into port, the white-capped waves
+rolling her along before the stiff sea-breeze. Wind is the bane of the
+place. It sets in to blow, as the sailors say, soon after daylight nine
+days in ten, and blows all day, and sometimes far into the night. It is
+not always the soft, perennial zephyr of tradition, but often chill and
+raw, and then there is no escape from it except to shut yourself in your
+room; and that means hermetically sealing, for when you close a window
+here you close a shutter, and thus, if you shut out the breeze, you shut
+the light out also. The doors and windows are not meant to exclude the
+air, and so when the breeze gets on a frolic it whirls up stairs and
+down--goeth, in fact, where it listeth; and sometimes one feels it going
+through him like a knife.
+
+The houses are built in one width of rooms round a hollow square;
+consequently, when you put your boots out you put them out of doors. In
+the midst of the house, with the sky overhead, the umbrageous palm tree
+and banana spread their broad leaves. The rooms are high and white, with
+little furniture, and no curtains, with open ceiling of painted rafters,
+and iron gratings, like a prison's bars, shutting out the street in the
+front of the house. Behind these gratings the passer-by may see the
+Cuban family arranged in two prim rows of arm-chairs _vis-à-vis_,
+or gathered about the bars as if looking for some means of escape.
+Occasionally now in some of the better quarters a child of either sex,
+but black as night, disports itself in full view, "covered by the
+darkness only." There is an infinite variety of opinion in regard to the
+clothing necessary to comfort here. I have often found a light overcoat
+comfortable, but there is a tribe or clan from some Spanish province
+whose boast it is to wear coat nor vest by day or night. The
+representatives of the various provinces maintain their individuality
+here, and preserve for festive occasions the costumes which characterize
+them in Spain. Some of these are very rich, and many of the men,
+especially of the lower orders, being stalwart and handsome, their gala
+appearance is decidedly striking. In the fête in honor of Alfonso XII.
+there were some beautiful groups of men, women and children in Spanish
+costumes, dancing in the procession with silk emblems and flower
+wreaths, and singing provincial songs. Others were mounted on the
+splendid Andalusian horses, which make one's mouth water with desire to
+ride them. They are as beautiful as Fromentin and Gérôme have painted
+them--such eyes and nostrils, and such action! It has taken centuries to
+produce him, but at last there is a saddle-horse: if only for parade
+occasions, that is no matter. He is perfect in his kind. The Arab keeps
+his horse in his tent, but the Cuban keeps his in his house. We should
+say that the horse-owning Cuban sleeps over a stable, but no doubt to
+his mind his stable is merely under his room. A rich gentleman in town
+has encased his horses in a beautiful drawing-room of cedar and
+satin-wood, and it is rather pleasant than otherwise to pass through it
+on the way to the other apartments.
+
+The houses of Havana are low; the streets are narrow; the sidewalks
+ditto: there is an occasional plaza of broad, white glare, which must be
+intolerable in summer-time. The Prado has trees which are rather Dutch
+than tropical; and the Paseo, where the driving is, is quite a fine
+avenue. This afternoon, though it is Lent, the Carnival will rage there.
+Some people go in masks, but not many; and there are no confetti. It is
+mainly a parade--rich people turning out in their best, poor people
+making light of their poverty: the rich gorgeous in apparel, and
+splendid in equipage, the poor arrayed in some gay, inexpensive motley,
+and crowded into miserable vehicles. The particolored costumes give an
+aspect of brightness to the street; but it is a solemn sight to see four
+Cuban women, of the middle age, drawn by a four-in-hand, arrayed in full
+ball-dress, powdered and bejeweled, and passing in review of admiring
+mankind.
+
+The ugliness of the women amounts to a vice, and is unredeemed by any
+quality such as sometimes palliates plainness of features. I have cried
+aloud for the beautiful Cuban, but in vain. I am assured that she
+exists, am told, "My dear fellow, you never made a greater mistake in
+your life," am poohpoohed in various ways; but I cannot find her. I hear
+it said that owing to the political chaos here she has retired from
+public view, but it is not denied that she will go to the Carnival and
+the opera. I was warned not to expect her at the ball in Alfonso's honor
+at the Spanish Club, and certainly it was a timely warning. Fancy a long
+hall of colored marble, pillars running the length of it forming
+arcades; balconies on both sides hanging over the streets, and full of
+young men smoking cigarettes; men parading up and down the hall and
+quizzing the women, who were all seated--two rows of them, hundreds all
+together--seriously contemplating the male procession: enameled,
+powdered, attired in the wealth of the Indies, saying nothing, doing
+nothing, not smiling, not blinking, just sitting there, an awful array
+of hideousness. After the band struck up and the dancing began, I
+remained long enough to lose in the music the horrible impression of,
+the opening scene, and then hurried home. At the opera and the Carnival
+it is not so positively unendurable, but a handsome face, or a pretty
+face, or even an intelligent, expressive face, I have not yet seen in a
+woman in Havana; and at this season of the year, if ever, Havana is
+Cuba. I don't condemn them--I merely give my luck.
+
+The town is of course full of Spanish military and their accessories,
+civil functionaries who are all Spanish, money-makers, adventurers,
+shoddy. The Spanish army is at "the front," posted across or partly
+across the island on a sort of strong picket-line, fortified by
+block-houses, whence watch is kept on the movements of the insurgents,
+who seem to come and go as they please in the Spanish front, and cross
+the lines with impunity. The Spanish hold the whole seaboard, all
+important towns and villages, hold the insurgents practically in check,
+so far as the fertile region of the island is concerned, and from year
+to year keep military matters just about in _statu quo_. The
+insurgents dwell in the wildest portion of the island, often in almost
+impenetrable woods, living the life of savages, and depending on the
+bounty of Nature for their daily bread.
+
+So the war lingers. It is not what we would call a war: it is a
+condition of armed hostility. It is conducted almost wholly at the
+expense of Spain in _men_, wholly at the expense of Cuba in
+_money_. The Cuban volunteers are a home-guard, but the purse of
+the Cubans is open. Spain is not loath to dip into it, and taxation
+for carrying on the government and the war has become very
+onerous--dreadfully so, in fact, though I believe that the Cubans do not
+realize it so fully as strangers do. The government is impoverished; the
+war makes no progress; what becomes of the enormous revenue derived from
+the taxes? A rich planter said to me dryly, "They are ignorant men: they
+make mistakes in applying it." Hard things are openly said of all
+Spanish officials; and all officials, from the captain-general to the
+harbor pilot, are Spanish. Startling things are heard here every day in
+political and military discussions. The people think in classes: there
+is the Spanish view, the Creole view, the foreign view--none very
+dispassionate, and none very accurate. There is no accepted basis of
+fact for anything: nobody believes anybody else, and truth here lies in
+a _very_ deep well. But one thing else is clear. Cuba, so gifted by
+Nature, is being despoiled by man; and what ought to be a garden will
+become overgrown with weeds if there is not a change of fortune. There
+is taxation without representation under an iron despotism: there is an
+army without war, and the people look on. It is not necessary to find
+any new means of going to the bad at a gallop. The rich give practical
+support to the Spanish, and moral support to the insurrection; but if
+the insurrection should triumph, I can't see how it will benefit the
+Creole Cubans of property. I think ideas here are confused on the
+subject, and while they are giving hearty encouragement to neither
+cause, between the two they are sure to be utterly ruined.
+
+I have spent a week in all on sugar plantations in the interior. I was
+delightfully entertained, and reveled in the luxury of soft air and
+out-of-door life. I was on horseback a good deal, riding one of the
+shuffling little animals they have here, whose gait is so easy that it
+doesn't amount to motion. The crops are to a great extent still uncut;
+the green cane, which looks like our broom-corn at a distance, waves in
+the winds as far as the eye can reach. The country is level, but has a
+frame of mountain-land. The woods are festooned with air-plants and
+parasites; palm trees dot the landscape in every direction or run in
+splendid avenues, sometimes in double rows, alternating with the round,
+full mamey tree, whose deep green foliage brings into fine relief the
+white stalk of the palm. The breeze rustles through the broad
+plantations of bananas and sways the orange groves. The gardens are rich
+in flowers of brilliant hues. The fields swarm with negroes and
+ox-carts; the ponderous machinery of the boiling-houses maintains a
+steady hum; the picturesque buildings are all touched with Fortuny-like
+tints: there is much to see and much to tell of, but I must have some
+regard for your patience. I have not finished, but I must stop.
+
+                                        F. C. N.
+
+
+
+
+FRENCH SLANG.
+
+
+Reading the slang of a language is much like seeing the said language in
+its intellectual shirt-sleeves, off duty and taking its ease: one feels
+sure of detecting some essential characteristics of the people who speak
+it, and one turns over the pages of a slang dictionary expecting to
+recognize through its corruption and perversions the real nature of the
+people who have created it. French slang is no exception to this,
+theory: the two hundred and thirty double-columned pages of M. Larcher's
+_Dictionnaire historique, etymologique et anecdotique de l'argot
+parisien_ tell us that the two grand sources and inspirations of our
+American slang are entirely wanting: there is not a humorous word or
+phrase from beginning to end; and hardly an instance of that incongruous
+exaggeration which is so salient a picture of our best-known and most
+original slang phrases. But, on the other hand, there is satire keen and
+fine on every page, a reckless, devil-may-care gayety, and throughout
+that mocking spirit which is so essentially French, making game alike of
+its own pain and that of others, and jeering always at the sight of an
+altar, never mind what may chance to be thereon, whether its own sacred
+things or those of others. Half the words in the book are quaint,
+grotesque phrasings of two ideas--ideas which most people on our side of
+the water are hardly inclined to joke about: one is the idea of death,
+and the other the frailty or falseness of women. One is specially struck
+by the wealth of words and the sameness of ideas, and, above all, by the
+quickwittedness that must belong to the people who can all catch a
+verbal allusion or suggestion as Anglo-Saxons might a plump, square hit.
+Sometimes a little unconscious pathos mingles with the mocking vein, for
+courage is moving when it is light-hearted. When a Frenchman tells you
+he has eaten nothing for two days, he adds, "Ça, ce n'est pas drôle"
+("Now, that's no joke"). "Coeur d'artichaut" (a heart like an artichoke)
+is a felicitous expression for a person who has a succession of caprices
+and short-lived fancies; and there is something to the point in the
+satire which calls a surgical instrument "baume d'acier" (steel balm),
+or in the saying which mocks the credulous faith many people vaguely
+have in the efficacy of mineral waters: "Croyez cela et buvez de l'eau"
+(Believe that and drink water). There is something desperately
+significant in a language in which the lover who supports, protects and
+is deceived is called "le dessus," and the one who is favored at his
+expense "le dessous;" while the words "une femme," a woman, without
+qualification, are identical with frailty, and virtue, being the
+exception, demands an adjective to identify and proclaim it.
+
+But there is something fine in the old French slang for the beginning of
+a war: "La danse va commencer" (The dance is about to begin, or the ball
+to open), and this dates from time immemorial: fighting has always been
+fun to Frenchmen. And there is something better still in the phrase
+which has become an official one, and has a proper technical meaning,
+with which the orders of a naval officer when sent on a difficult or
+dangerous expedition always end. "Debrouillez vous," meaning simply
+"Come well out of it." There must be stuff in men who can be trusted to
+always extricate themselves from a tight place with credit to their flag
+without more words than that simple exhortation. But one cannot say much
+for the morality of a country where, when any one says "la muette" (the
+dumb one), it is understood to mean conscience.
+
+The instances are rare of resemblance between our slang phrases and
+theirs. Once in a while such a phrase as "Asseyezvous dessus"
+(literally, Sit on him) strikes one; but seldom. French slang teems with
+words that caricature and satirize personal defects, of which many are
+brutally coarse and not quotable. A comical expression for a sumptuous
+meal is a "Balthazar" (Belshazzar); and an unpleasant one for a coffin
+is a "boite a dominos" (a box of dominoes); a droll phrase for a
+plagiarist is "demarqueur de linge" (some one who alters the marking of
+another's linen). An interesting fact for the notice of physiologists is
+that when the officers of the engineer corps lose a comrade from
+insanity, they say, "Il s'est passé au dixième," in allusion to the fact
+that their loss in numbers from this cause amounts to practical
+decimation. This is attributed to the close study of the exact sciences.
+Under "femme du demi-monde" we find the origin of the phrase as created
+by A. Dumas fils: "Femme née dans un monde distingué, dont elle conserve
+les manières sans en respecter les lois" ("a woman belonging by birth to
+the upper class, the manners of which she retains, without respecting
+its laws"); but the present meaning is quite different from this, the
+phrase being now used as a euphuistic designation of a disreputable
+woman. French slang is saturated with irreverence. A common term for an
+emaciated-looking man is to call him an "ecce homo," and a "grippe
+Jésus" is thieves' slang for a gendarme.
+
+The author of this dictionary evidently sympathizes with modern
+romanticists and light literature in general, for we find "académicien"
+defined as "littérateur suranné." One is always inclined to suspect sour
+grapes of giving the flavor to French sarcasm concerning the Academy,
+and is reminded of Piron's epigram in the shape of his own epitaph:
+
+    Ci git Piron qui ne fut rien,
+    Pas même académicien.
+
+He wrote it, however, after his failure to obtain one of the
+much-coveted arm-chairs.
+
+Our national vanity might be flattered by hearing that the phrase
+"L'oeil Américain" is used to describe an eye whose piercing vision is
+escaped by nothing, were we not told that it dates from the translation
+of Cooper's Leatherstocking tales into French, and has no reference, as
+"Natty Bumpo" would say, to "_white_ gifts."
+
+We find long, elaborate definitions of those much-disputed words,
+"chic," "cachet" and "chien," which, after all has been said, seem to
+take their meaning from the intention of those who use them and the
+perception of those who hear. "Chocnoso" is a delightfully expressive
+and absurd onomatopeic word to describe what is brilliant, startling and
+remarkable. The most striking feature of this elaborate book is that,
+although it contains almost words enough to constitute the vocabulary of
+a miniature language, yet the vast majority of these words would be as
+unintelligible to an educated Frenchman as to an Englishman. The bulk of
+French slang is never heard by the ears of educated people nor uttered
+by their lips: it circulates among the classes which create it; and the
+size of this dictionary is therefore not necessarily appalling to a
+Frenchman's eyes: it does not represent the corruption of the language,
+because slang does not taint the speech of those classes who control and
+make the standard speech and literature of the nation. If a dictionary
+of English slang were published now, how many young ladies and gentlemen
+of the educated classes, either in England or America, could profess
+honest and absolute ignorance of the meaning of most of the words? The
+answer to this question makes the moral of this paper.
+
+                                        F. A.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+If it be true, as a writer in the February Gossip says, that "it is what
+Mr. Mill has omitted to tell us in his _Autobiography_, quite as much as
+what he has there told us, that excites popular curiosity," the
+following anecdote told by John Neal, one of Jeremy Bentham's
+secretaries, may be found interesting. The father of John Stuart Mill,
+it seems, was in the habit of borrowing books of Bentham, and was even
+allowed the privilege of carrying them away without asking permission--a
+courtesy so well utilized that from five to seven hundred volumes found
+their way in time from Bentham's library into the study of the elder
+Mill. He was a more conscientious borrower, however, than most of his
+class are, for he had a case made for these books, kept them carefully
+locked up, and carried the key in his pocket. This put the owner to some
+trouble occasionally when he wanted to consult his books. In one
+instance he begged Mr. Mill to leave the key when the latter was going
+out of town. In vain, however, for Mill marched off to the country
+carrying the key with him, and Bentham had to wait a whole month for a
+peep at his own books. If we could know all the facts, doubtless it
+would be found that Mill knew too well the careless habits of the
+philosopher to trust him to such an extent. It is not prudent to
+decide until the evidence is all in. It is that these books--two or
+three thousand dollars' worth, according to Neal--were, on the death of
+Mr. Bentham, all recovered by his heir.
+
+
+Quarritch, a London bookseller, lately advertised for sale a Chinese
+book from the library of the emperor Khang-Hi, bearing the following
+title: _Yu Sionan Row-wen youen kien_--that is, "Mirror of the Profound
+Resources of Ancient Literature," being extracts from those profound
+resources arranged chronologically in the order of their production; but
+the singular thing about the book is its typography. It is printed in
+inks of four different colors. All the articles dating from the time of
+Confucius (B.C. 550) to the Mongol dynasty (A.D. 1260) are printed in
+black, with punctuations in red. All names of persons and places are
+upon scrolls, to distinguish them from the ordinary text. Observations
+upon the emperor Khang-Hi (who annotated the whole book autographically)
+are printed in yellow, the color of the reigning dynasty; those upon
+scholars and authors living at the time of the publication of the book
+are printed in red, the color of the living; those upon persons deceased
+in blue, the mourning color of China. The work is in twenty-five
+volumes, preserved in four cases. It was printed in 1685.
+
+
+In the infancy of astronomy the moon and all the planets of our solar
+system were supposed to be gliding along over the smooth blue firmament
+like a boat upon smooth water or a sleigh upon ice. The blue vault was a
+solid substance; hence the word _firm_ament. In this vault were set the
+"fixed" stars, and of course the moon or any planet passing across it
+might run straight into the constellation Leo or some other dreadful
+beast; and this explained why direful things happened to this world,
+which was supposed to be the only world in the universe. As the moon has
+always been the most observed of all the heavenly bodies, and as she
+passes most rapidly across the constellations of the zodiac, it is easy
+to understand that her phases should excite profound wonder, and that
+strange effects should be predicated upon these phases, called "changes"
+from time immemorial. In fact, however, the moon is not "changing" at
+one time any more than at another. She is continually passing in and out
+of the earth's shadow as she revolves around the earth, and the width of
+this shadow, with the state of being in the full light of the sun,
+constitutes her phases or changes. She does not "enter" any sign of the
+zodiac in the sense of entering, as understood by the illiterate; and if
+she did, the signs Cancer, Leo, Virgo, have no comprehensible relation,
+to plants or parts of the human body. Again, if the moon or sun, or any
+of the planets, are said to "enter" these signs, they are not now the
+same as the constellations known as the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin. They
+did correspond some two thousand or more years ago, when the zodiacal
+belt was divided into twelve parts and named; but at present, on account
+of the nutation or gyratory motion of the poles of the earth, the signs
+of the zodiac (not the constellations) are drifting westward at the rate
+of one degree in about seventy-one years. This movement is known in
+astronomy as the precession or recession of the equinoxes. It happens,
+therefore, that when the astrologer consults his tables, and finds that,
+at, the time of the birth of a person whose horoscope he is going to
+cast, Venus was in Cancer--a terrible condition of things for happiness
+in love--Venus is in reality passing the constellation Gemini or the
+Twins, which ought to make everything all lovely. The development of the
+Copernican system did a great deal of damage to the interests of
+astrology, but it was not until the discovery of the precession of the
+equinoxes that this venerable and pretentious art received its
+death-blow. To be sure, "the fools are not all dead yet," for certain
+people still pay five dollars to have their horoscopes cast, and not a
+few rustics consult the moon or the almanac before planting beans or
+weaning calves.
+
+
+
+
+LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+
+The Romance of the English Stage.
+  By Percy Fitzgerald.
+  Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott
+  & Co.
+
+
+According to Carlyle, the only biographies in the English language worth
+reading--of course with implied exceptions--are the lives of players.
+Over English biographers in general there hangs, as he says, a
+"Damocles' sword of Respectability," forbidding revelations that might
+either offend somebody's sensibilities or exhibit the subject in any
+other than a dignified attitude and sober light, and, as a consequence,
+compelling the suppression of details which were needed to render the
+portraiture characteristic and lifelike. Actors being as a class outside
+the pale of "respectability," no such sacrifice is demanded in their
+case; and whereas in their lifetime they assume many characters, and
+though constantly before the public are known to it only in disguised
+forms and borrowed attributes, after death their personality is laid
+bare, and they are made to contribute once more to the entertainment of
+the world by a last appearance in which nothing is unreal and nothing
+dissembled or concealed. This, of course, applies far better to a former
+period than to the present, as does also the explanation of the same
+fact offered by Mr. Fitzgerald--namely, the romantic interest attaching
+to the stage and exciting curiosity in regard to those wonderful beings
+who appear before us as embodiments of passion and poetry, humor and
+whimsicality, transporting us into an ideal world, and leaving us, when
+they vanish, in a prosaic one to which they do not seem to belong.
+Illusions of this kind are scarcely retained by even the young--perhaps,
+indeed, least of all by the young--of our generation. Moreover, the
+changes which society has undergone during the last half century have
+rubbed out much that was distinctive in the actor's life, and have given
+to manners and habits in general a uniformity that leaves little that is
+striking and piquant to describe. The adventures and the eccentricities
+of actors and actresses of a bygone time were paralleled or exceeded by
+those of other classes. At present such sources of interest are rare in
+any class, and we are obliged to have recourse to sensational novels or
+the records of crime.
+
+Future biographers are no more likely to have such a subject as Samuel
+Johnson than such a one as George Frederick Cooke; while both Boswell
+and Dunlap, had they written in our day, would probably have been much
+more reticent and much less amusing. We cannot therefore agree with Mr.
+Fitzgerald in thinking that the colorless character of the few
+theatrical biographies that have appeared in recent times is to be
+ascribed to the decay of the art of acting and the lack of an ideal
+involving a long and arduous struggle in the attainment of eminence. In
+France, as he justly observes, the history of the profession has never
+possessed the same adventurous interest, the lives of French actors
+showing in general a mere record of steady and regular progression, such
+as is found in other professions. The stage in France, as in all
+Catholic countries, lay under a heavier ban than in England; but on this
+very account the actors constituted a separate class, having little
+contact with society, receiving few recruits from without, regulated by
+fixed usages, and confined to a particular groove. In England, on the
+contrary, the stage was an outlet for irregular talent, impatient of
+steady labor or severe restrictions, and captivated by the freedom and
+diversity of a career which, beginning in vagrancy, might lead at a
+single bound to a brilliant and enviable position. Hence the biographies
+of English players, taken collectively, offer a vast store of amusing
+anecdotes, illustrative not only of the history of the stage, but of
+personal character and social manners. Yet books of this kind; though
+read with avidity on their first appearance, have naturally fallen into
+neglect. Like most other biographies, they are overloaded with details
+that have no abiding interest, and few readers of the present day are
+tempted to explore the mass for themselves. It was, however, no very
+arduous task to sift out the more valuable relics and dispose them in
+proper order, and we can only wonder that Mr. Fitzgerald was not
+anticipated in the performance of it by some earlier collector. Gait's
+_Lives of the Players_ and Dr. Doran's _History of the English
+Stage_ have left this particular field almost wholly unworked, and it
+is one for which Mr. Fitzgerald was well fitted, both by his previous
+labors and knowledge of the soil, and by his practiced dexterity in the
+use of the necessary implements. He has accordingly produced a volume
+which may either be read consecutively or dipped into at random with the
+certainty of entertainment and without risk of tedium. Among the sources
+from which his material is drawn he assigns the first place to the
+_Memoirs of Tate Wilkinson_ and its sequel, _The Wandering
+Patentee_, and the summary which he gives, as far as possible in the
+narrator's own language, presents a graphic picture of the provincial
+stage at a period when it formed a real nursery of talent for the
+metropolitan theatres, enriched with anecdotes of Foote and Garrick as
+lively and dramatic as any of the scenes in their own farces, and
+affording the strongest confirmation of their protégé's account of his
+unrivaled mimicry. The story of George Anne Bellamy, and that of Mrs.
+Robinson, the "Perdita" of a somewhat later day, deal with the more
+familiar and less obsolete vicissitudes of betrayed beauty, while giving
+us glimpses of a social crust that has since been replaced by a more
+composite exterior. A deeper and far more pathetic interest attaches to
+the brief career of Gerald Griffin, the author of _The Collegians_
+and _Gisippus_, who, had he lived in our day, would have been in
+danger of having his head turned by premature success, instead of being
+heart-sickened by long neglect and coarse rebuffs, and smothering his
+aspirations in a convent. In striking contrast with this pale figure is
+the portly and imposing one of Robert William Elliston, type of
+theatrical charlatans, embodiment of bombast and puffery, monarch over
+the realm of pasteboard, immortalized by Lamb, and surely not
+undeserving of the honor. With him may be said to have ended the line of
+the eccentrics, which fills a large space in Mr. Fitzgerald's volume.
+The great actors are comparatively unnoticed, Garrick, Siddons and Kean
+being only introduced incidentally, while a whole chapter is given to
+"the ill-fated Mossop." This is consistent with the general design of
+the book, but there was no good reason for a fresh repetition of the
+oft-told tale of the Ireland forgeries. There are, as Mr. Fitzgerald
+remarks, many subjects--such as the lives of Macklin and Quin, of Mrs.
+Inchbald and Mrs. Jordan--omitted which might fairly have claimed a
+place, and which would furnish ample matter for a second and equally
+agreeable volume.
+
+
+Democracy and Monarchy in France from the
+  Inception of the Great Revolution to the
+  Overthrow of the Second Empire.
+  By Charles Kendall Adams, Professor of History
+  in the University of Michigan.
+  New York: Henry Holt & Co.
+
+
+There can be no more fruitful and interesting study than that of the
+changes and struggles which have occurred in France since the fall of
+the ancient monarchy. But the time has not yet come when a general
+survey can be taken of this important epoch, its successive phases seen
+in their true relations and proportions, and its character fully and
+correctly appreciated. The overthrow of the Second Empire was clearly
+not the closing scene of the drama, and even within the last few weeks a
+sudden turn in the line of events has awakened curiosity afresh, and
+prepared us for the introduction of new elements or new complications,
+with results which can only be conjectured. For lack of that key which
+the Future still holds in its hand the most acute and comprehensive mind
+must be at fault in the endeavor to analyze the workings and appreciate
+the significance of the conflicting principles. If Professor Adams has
+had no such misgivings, this seems to be accounted for by his ready
+acceptance of a theory which has long passed current in England and
+America, and which springs from a habit peculiar to the people of these
+two countries of regarding the movements of all other nations, when not
+on a parallel course, as deviations from a prescribed orbit. According
+to this theory, the excesses of the First Revolution, due in part to the
+passions engendered by a long course of misgovernment, in part to wild
+speculations and experiments, produced an anarchical spirit which has
+frustrated every subsequent attempt to establish a solid government of
+any form, including the constitutional monarchy of Louis Philippe,
+patterned on the English model--the resemblance being in fact that of a
+castle of cards to its Gothic prototype--which offered the proper
+compound of liberty and authority in sufficiently balanced proportions.
+The French people having thus proved itself incapable of uniting liberty
+with order, the one great need is the destruction or suppression of the
+revolutionary spirit, to which end a strong government of whatever kind
+is the first requisite, and some form of Napoleonism the most available,
+it being improbable that the nation would accept permanently anything
+better. Such is the view of Professor Adams, one with which all readers
+have long been familiar, but which most independent thinkers have come
+to reject as shallow and false. However obscure the issue, however
+doubtful the solution, it cannot but be apparent to all who, casting
+aside prejudices, have studied the history of France in its entirety and
+recognized its special character, that its course during the period in
+question exhibits no mere series of lawless oscillations, but a process
+of development, often checked and retarded, often prematurely hastened,
+but passing from stage to stage without suffering itself to be stifled
+by factitious aid or crushed by arbitrary repression. What underlies the
+history of these events, what distinguishes it from the galvanic
+agitations of the torpid Spanish populations in Europe and America, is
+the constant presence and activity of ideas, shaping and shaped by
+events, hardened or fused by conflict, and preserving through all
+vicissitudes and convulsions the incomparable vitality of the nation.
+France, more than any other country, is to be studied as a living
+spirit, not as an inert mass, and in a study of this kind the
+mechanico-philosophical method will not carry us far. It does not appear
+to strike Professor Adams as singular that a nation "abandoned for the
+last eighty years to the domination of Siva, the fierce god of
+destruction," should have all this while been cutting a somewhat
+respectable figure in literature, science and the arts, and during most
+of that period paid its way in the solid and shining metal considered by
+our rulers to have merely a mythical significance. Or rather he seems to
+contend that civilization has in fact perished in France, that as "such
+a tendency to turbulence is destructive of all healthy national growth,"
+the inevitable result has ensued. He admits that there are still some
+good scholars in France, but he proves--need we add, by
+statistics?--that the illiteracy of the masses is greater than it was
+under the _ancien regime_, if not in the reign of Clovis. The
+controlling influence of Paris is shown, of course, to have been a prime
+source of mischief, and we are asked to "imagine the United States
+withdrawing from all interest in political affairs, and saying to New
+York City, 'Govern us as you please: we do not care to interfere.'" The
+fact, as most people are aware, is not at all as here assumed; but that
+aside, is it possible that Professor Adams knows so little of the
+difference in the origin and structure of the two nations as not to
+perceive that the comparison is ridiculous?
+
+
+
+
+_Books Received_.
+
+
+Social Life in Greece, from Homer to Menander.
+  By Rev. J.P. Mahaffy, M.A.
+  London: MacMillan & Co.
+
+A Free Lance in the Field of Life and Letters.
+  By William Cleaver Wilkinson.
+  New York: Albert Mason.
+
+The Bewildered Querists and other Nonsense.
+  By Francis Blake Crofton.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+A Practical Theory of Voussoir Arches.
+  By Professor William Cain, C.E.
+  New York: D. Van Nostrand.
+
+On Teaching: Its Ends and Means.
+  By Henry Calderwood.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+The Influence of Music on Health and Life.
+  By Dr. H. Chomet.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+The Man in the Moon, and Other People.
+  By R.W. Raymond.
+  New York: J.B. Ford & Co.
+
+Sowed by the Wind; or, The Poor Boy's Fortune.
+  By Elijah Kellogg.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Religion and Modern Materialism.
+  By James Martineau.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith.
+  By Alfred P. Putnam.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Winter Homes for Invalids. By Joseph W. Howe, M.D.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Helps to a Life of Prayer. By Rev. J.M. Manning, D.D.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Far from the Madding Crowd. By Thomas Hardy.
+  New York: Henry Holt & Co.
+
+A Foregone Conclusion. By W.D. Howells.
+  Boston: James R. Osgood & Co.
+
+That Queer Girl. By Virginia F. Townsend.
+  Illustrated.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Magnetism and Electricity. By John Angell.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Estelle: A Novel. By Mrs. Annie Edwards.
+  New York: Sheldon & Co.
+
+A Rambling Story. By Mary Cowden Clarke.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Life and Times of Sir Philip Sidney.
+  New York: J.B. Ford & Co.
+
+An Old Sailor's Story. By George Sergeant.
+  Boston: Henry Hoyt.
+
+Nature and Culture. By Harvey Rice.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+The Story of Boon. By H.H.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+[Footnote 001: Another statue to this remarkable woman is now in
+progress of execution, and will be soon ready to place on its
+pedestal in one of the principal squares of the town.]
+
+[Footnote 002: So complete was the destruction that few persons who
+now visit Nice would ever imagine that the hill in its centre, which
+is laid out with terraced gardens and used as a public promenade, was
+before the siege of 1706 completely covered with houses, churches, an
+episcopal palace, a fine cathedral of great antiquity, and an immense
+castle, which still gives its name to the fashionable walk, _Le
+Château_. Every vestige, save the crumbling walls of the fortress, of
+this by far the largest portion of the old town has entirely
+disappeared, and picnics are now made under the shade of beautiful
+avenues of trees which replace the labyrinthine streets of yore.]
+
+[Footnote 003: Madame Rattazzi is now living in Paris, in the little
+palace once inhabited by the duke d'Aquila, in the Cour de la Reine,
+where she entertains the literary and artistic world once a week. Her
+soirées this year are becoming famous. Recently she acted in
+Ponsard's _Horace et Lydie_ and in other little comedies, assisted by
+the greatest actors and actresses of Paris including Mesdames Favart
+and Roussel, but according to universal testimony her own performance
+was by far the finest. Never has Madame Rattazzi been so popular as
+at present, and her salon is frequented by all the celebrities of the
+French capital, to whom she extends the most charming hospitality.]
+
+[Footnote 004: This refers to the _Gospodi pomiloui_ (the Roman
+Catholic _Kyrie eleison_), which perpetually recurs in the Russian
+liturgy. Similar discussions about the _Hallelujah_ and other
+liturgic forms are met with long before the Raskol broke out.]
+
+[Footnote 005: If we may trust Dmitri of Rostof, a bishop of the last
+century, even so early certain sectaries regarded the raising of
+Lazarus as not a fact, but a parable: "Lazarus is the human soul, and
+his death is sin. His sisters, Martha and Mary, are the body and the
+soul. The tomb represents the cares of this life, and his raising
+from the dead is conversion. Similarly, Christ's entry into Jerusalem
+sitting on an ass is a mere parable."]
+
+[Footnote 006: The analogy must certainly be admitted to lie very far
+from the surface.--(_Note of the Translator_.)]
+
+[Footnote 007: The opposition of some of the Raskolniks to this tax
+(which has lately been modified) was rendered more determined by the
+fact that in the interval between one census and another the tax
+continued to be paid for "dead souls." Gogol's novel is founded on
+this. From its being nominally levied on the dead, this tax was
+regarded by these simple people as a sacrilege.]
+
+[Footnote 008: To combat this notion, an orthodox bishop, Dmitri of
+Rostof, wrote a treatise on the image and likeness of God. A
+Raskolnik told this prelate, "We would as lief lose our heads as our
+beard."--"Will your heads grow again?" was the bishop's retort.]
+
+[Footnote 009: "But here's the joy, my friend and I are one..."]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular
+Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14324 ***
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+           font-size : 0.9em;}
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+</head>
+
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14324 ***</div>
+
+    <div class="trans-note">
+        Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents and the list of
+        illustrations were added by the transcriber.
+    </div>
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <h1>LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE</h1>
+
+    <h3>OF</h3><br />
+
+
+    <h2><i>POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE</i>.</h2>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <h4>APRIL, 1875.<br />
+     Vol. XV, No. 88</h4>
+    <hr class="short" />
+    <br />
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <div class="toc">
+        <p><big><b>TABLE OF CONTENTS</b></big>
+        <span class="TOCpagenum"><b>Page</b></span></p><br />
+        <br />
+
+
+        <p><b>AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.</b></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CONCLUDING
+        PAPER.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#AUSTRALIAN_SCENES_AND_ADVENTURES">
+        <b>393</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE<br />
+         by W. A.
+        BAILLIE-GROHMAN.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#THE_GOLDEN_EAGLE_AND_HIS_EYRIE">
+        <b>407</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>THREE FEATHERS by WILLIAM BLACK.</b></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CHAPTER
+        XXIX&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;MABYN
+        DREAMS.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>415</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CHAPTER
+        XXX&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;FERN IN DIE
+        WELT.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>420</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CHAPTER
+        XXXI&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"BLUE IS THE
+        SWEETEST."<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><b>
+        424</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CHAPTER XXXII.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        EXILE"S
+        RETURN.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"><b>
+        428</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>SONNET by F. A.
+        HILLARD.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#SONNET"><b>433</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+
+        <p><b>NICE by R.
+        DAVEY.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#NICE"><b>434</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+
+        <p><b>THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.</b></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ORIGIN OF THE
+        RASKOL.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#I_ORIGIN_OF_THE_RASKOL">
+        <b>444</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;OPPOSITION TO MODERN
+        CIVILIZATION.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#II_OPPOSITION_TO_MODERN_CIVILIZATION">
+        <b>451</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;INTERNAL
+        DIVISIONS.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#III_INTERNAL_DIVISIONS">
+        <b>457</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>ELEANOR'S CAREER by ITA ANIOL
+        PROKOP.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#ELEANORS_CAREER">
+        <b>463</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>AN AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY<br />
+         YEARS AGO by ETHEL C.
+        GALE.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#AN_AMERICAN_LADYS_OCCUPATIONS_SEVENTY_YEARS_AGO">
+        <b>475</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>A MARCH VIOLET by EMMA
+        LAZARUS.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#A_MARCH_VIOLET">
+        <b>481</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>WHAT IS A CONCLAVE? by T. ADOLPHUS
+        TROLLOPE.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#WHAT_IS_A_CONCLAVE">
+        <b>482</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>MONSOOR PACHA by GEORGE H.
+        BOKER.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#MONSOOR_PACHA">
+        <b>491</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>HOW HAM WAS CURED by JENNIE
+        WOODVILLE.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#HOW_HAM_WAS_CURED">
+        <b>492</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>ON THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS<br />
+         by KATE
+        HILLARD.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#ON_THE_STUDY_OF_SHAKESPEARES_SONNETS">
+        <b>497</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.</b></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">ARTISTS' MODELS IN ROME by T. A.
+        T.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#ARTISTS_MODELS_IN_ROME">
+        <b>507</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">FAUST IN POLAND by E. C.
+        R.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#FAUST_IN_POLAND"><b>510</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">A LETTER FROM HAVANA by F. C.
+        N.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#A_LETTER_FROM_HAVANA"><b>
+        511</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">FRENCH SLANG by F.
+        A.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#FRENCH_SLANG"><b>514</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">
+        NOTES.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#NOTES"><b>517</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+
+        <p><b>LITERATURE OF THE
+        DAY.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#LITERATURE_OF_THE_DAY">
+        <b>518</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p class="i4"><i>Books
+        Received</i>.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#Books_Received">
+        <b>519</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</b></p><br />
+
+
+        <blockquote>
+            <p><a href="#FOREST_OF_COCKATOOS">FOREST OF
+            COCKATOOS.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#SYDNEY">SYDNEY.</a></p>
+
+            <p>
+            <a href="#ASTROLABE_AND_ZELEE_ON_CORAL_REEFS">ASTROLABE
+            AND Z&Eacute;L&Eacute;E ON CORAL REEFS</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#CANNIBAL_FIRES">CANNIBAL FIRES.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#MONUMENT_TO_BURKE_AND_WILLS">MONUMENT TO
+            BURKE AND WILLS.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#RETURN_TO_COOPERS_CREEK">BAS-RELIEF:
+            RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#DEATH_OF_BURKE">BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF
+            BURKE.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#FINDING_OF_BURKE">BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF
+            BURKE.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#VALLEY_OF_LAUNCESTON">VALLEY OF
+            LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#COURSE_OF_THE_TAMAR">COURSE OF THE TAMAR,
+            VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#GORGE_OF_THE_TAMAR">GORGE OF THE TAMAR,
+            VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#HOBART_TOWN">HOBART TOWN.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#ON_THE_WAY_TO_THE_WOOD_DRIFT">ON THE WAY
+            TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#ARRIVAL_AT_THE_DRIFT_KEEPERS_COTTAGE">OUR
+            ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#INTERIOR_OF_TOMERLS_COTTAGE">INTERIOR OF
+            TOMERL'S COTTAGE.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#I_PULLED_MYSELF_IN">"FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK
+            INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED MYSELF IN."</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#ENTERING_THE_EYRIE">ENTERING THE
+            EYRIE.</a></p>
+        </blockquote>
+
+        <p><a href="#FOOT_NOTES"><b>FOOTNOTES.</b></a></p>
+    </div><br />
+
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 393]</span> <br />
+     <a id="AUSTRALIAN_SCENES_AND_ADVENTURES"
+          name="AUSTRALIAN_SCENES_AND_ADVENTURES"></a>
+
+    <h2>AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.</h2>
+
+    <h3>CONCLUDING PAPER.</h3>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="FOREST_OF_COCKATOOS"
+             name="FOREST_OF_COCKATOOS"></a><img alt="FOREST_OF_COCKATOOS (182K)"
+             src="images/0001-1.gif"
+             height="457"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>FOREST OF COCKATOOS.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>People who go to Australia expecting every other man they
+    meet to be a convict, and every convict a ruffian in felon's
+    garb, will assuredly find themselves mistaken. And if
+    contemplating a residence in Sydney or Melbourne they need not
+    anticipate the necessity of living in a tent or a shanty, nor
+    yet of accepting the society of convicts or negroes as the only
+    alternative to a life of solitude. Neither will it be necessary
+    to go armed with revolvers by day, nor to place plate and
+    jewels under guard at night. Sydney, the capital of the penal
+    colony, is a quiet, <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    394]</span>orderly city, abounding in villas and gardens,
+    churches and schools, and about its well-lighted streets ride
+    and walk well-dressed and well-bred people, whose visages
+    betray neither the ruffian nor the cannibal. Some of them may
+    be convicts or "ticket-of-leave-men," but this a stranger would
+    need to be told, as they dress like others, their equipages are
+    quite as stylish, and many of them not only amass more
+    property, but are really more honest, than some of those never
+    sentenced, because they know that the continuance of their
+    freedom depends on their reputation.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="SYDNEY"
+             name="SYDNEY"></a><img alt="SYDNEY (111K)"
+             src="images/0002-1.gif"
+             height="403"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>SYDNEY</b>
+    </div>.
+
+    <p>The city, built on the south side of a beautiful lake, is
+    perfectly unique in design, being composed of five broad
+    promontories, looking like the five fingers of a hand slightly
+    expanded. All the important streets run from east to west, and
+    each terminates in a distinct harbor, <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    395]</span>while clearly visible from the upper portion of the
+    street is a grand moving panorama of vessels of every
+    description, with masts, sails and colors that seem peering out
+    from every interstice between the houses. Each day witnesses
+    the arrival and departure of eight or ten steamers, ferry-boats
+    leave every half hour all the principal landings for the
+    various sections of the city, and the wharves are lined with
+    the shipping of every nation, many of the vessels ranging from
+    fifteen hundred to two thousand tons burden. On a huge rock in
+    Watson's Bay stands the lighthouse at the entrance of Port
+    Jackson. The sea lashes the black rock with ceaseless fury, the
+    light from the summit rendering even the base visible at a
+    great distance. The light is 350 feet above the level of the
+    sea, yet it was almost under its very rays that the good ship
+    Dunbar came to grief. Missing the passage, she was engulfed in
+    the raging sea, and her three hundred and ninety passengers
+    perished in full view of the homes they were seeking.</p>
+
+    <p>Orange and almond trees, with other tropical plants, loaded
+    with blossoms and fruit, beautify the lowlands, while in more
+    elevated localities are found the fruits and foliage of the
+    temperate zone, very many of them exotics brought by the
+    settlers from their English homes. Down to the very water's
+    edge extends the verdure of tree and shrub, overshadowing to
+    the right Fort Jackson, and to the left Middle Harbor. The
+    Government House commands the bay with the imposing mien of a
+    fortress, and the magnificent reception-rooms are worthy of a
+    sovereign's court. The garden surrounding it occupies a
+    beautiful promontory, its borders washed by the sea, the walks
+    shaded by trees imported from Europe, and the whole parterre
+    redolent with tropical beauty and fragrance. On the promenades
+    are frequently assembled at evening two or three hundred ladies
+    and gentlemen in full dress, while military bands discourse
+    sweet music for the entertainment of the brilliant throng.</p>
+
+    <p>Ballarat may be called the city of gold; Melbourne, of
+    clubs, democracy and thriving commerce; Hobart Town takes the
+    premium for hospitality and picturesque beauty; but Sydney
+    bears the impress of genuine English aristocracy, in
+    combination with a sort of Creole piquancy singularly in
+    contrast with English exclusiveness, yet giving a wonderful
+    charm to the society of this city of high life, so full of
+    gayety, brilliancy and luxury. Who would recognize in the
+    Sydney of to-day, with its four hundred thousand inhabitants,
+    its churches, theatres and libraries, the outgrowth of the
+    penal colony of Botany Bay, planted only eighty-seven years ago
+    on savage shores? It was in May, 1787, that the first colony
+    left England for Botany Bay, a squadron of eleven vessels,
+    carrying eleven hundred and eighteen colonists to make a
+    lodgment on an unknown shore inhabited by savages. Of these
+    eleven hundred and eighteen, there were six hundred male and
+    two hundred and fifty female convicts, the remaining portion
+    being composed of officers and soldiers to take charge of the
+    new penal settlement, under the command of Governor Phillip.
+    From so unpromising a beginning has grown the present rich and
+    flourishing settlement, and in lieu of the few temporary
+    shanties erected by the first colonists there stands a
+    magnificent city of more than ordinarily fine architecture,
+    with banks and hospitals, schools and churches&mdash;among the
+    latter a superb cathedral&mdash;all displaying the proverbial
+    prodigality of labor and expense for which the English are
+    noted in the erection and adornment of their public edifices.
+    Among the educational establishments are the English
+    University, with a public hall like that of Westminster; St.
+    John's College (Catholic); and national primary and high
+    schools, where are educated about thirty-four thousand pupils
+    at an annual expense to the government of more than three
+    hundred thousand dollars. From the parent colony have sprung
+    others, while the poverty and corruption that were the
+    distinguishing features of the original element have been
+    gradually lost in the more recent importations of honest and
+    respectable citizens.</p>
+
+    <p>Apart from the wealth and gayety of
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 396]</span>Sydney, there is much in
+    its various grades of society to interest the average tourist.
+    The "ticket-of-leave men"&mdash;that is, convicts who, having
+    served out a portion of their term and been favorably reported
+    for good conduct, are permitted to go at large and begin life
+    anew&mdash;form a distinct class, and exert a widespread
+    influence by their wealth, benevolence and commercial
+    enterprise.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="ASTROLABE_AND_ZELEE_ON_CORAL_REEFS"
+             name="ASTROLABE_AND_ZELEE_ON_CORAL_REEFS"></a><img alt="ASTROLABE_AND_ZELEE_ON_CORAL_REEFS (114K)"
+             src="images/0005-1.gif"
+             height="421"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>ASTROLABE AND Z&Eacute;L&Eacute;E ON CORAL REEFS</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Very many of the better class are talented and well
+    educated, with the manners and appearance of gentlemen; and in
+    some cases there has been perhaps but the <i>single</i> crime
+    for which they suffered expatriation and disgrace. Such as
+    these, as a rule, conduct themselves with propriety from the
+    moment of being sentenced; never murmur at their work or
+    discipline, be it ever so hard; and probably after a single
+    year of hardship are favorably reported, and permitted to seek
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 397]</span>or make homes for
+    themselves. Many of them own bank shares and real estate, and
+    some become immensely rich, either by ability or chance
+    good-fortune. The property is their own, but the owners are
+    always watched by those in power, and are liable at any moment
+    to be ordered back to their old positions. These "remanded men"
+    are treated with the greatest severity, and few have sufficient
+    power of endurance to live out even a short term with its
+    increase of rigor and hardship. Yet to the energy and
+    enterprise of the liberated felons is probably due, more than
+    to any other cause, that increase of prosperity which has long
+    since rendered these colonies not only self-supporting, but a
+    source of revenue to the Crown.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="CANNIBAL_FIRES"
+             name="CANNIBAL_FIRES"></a><img alt="CANNIBAL_FIRES (104K)"
+             src="images/0006-1.gif"
+             height="346"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>CANNIBAL FIRES.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Another and the most dangerous class of convicts are those
+    known as "bushrangers." They are desperate fellows, composed of
+    the very lowest scum of England, have ordinarily been sentenced
+    for life, and, having no hope of pardon or desire for
+    amendment, they escape as soon as possible, often by the murder
+    of one or more of their guards, and take refuge in the wilds of
+    the interior. Some of these bushrangers are associated together
+    in large hordes, but others roam solitary for months before
+    they will venture to trust their lives in the hands of other
+    desperadoes like themselves. There are hundreds of these
+    lawless men prowling like wild beasts for their prey in the
+    vicinity of every thoroughfare between the cities and the
+    mines, robbing and murdering defenceless passengers, plundering
+    the mails, and constantly exacting the best of their flocks and
+    herds from the stockmen and shepherds, who in their isolated
+    positions dare not refuse their demands. So desperate is the
+    character of these outlaws that they are seldom taken, though
+    thousands of pounds are occasionally offered for the head of
+    some noted ringleader. They may be killed in skirmishes, but
+    will not suffer themselves to be taken alive. A man calling
+    himself "Black Darnley" ranged the woods for years, committing
+    all sorts of crimes, but at length met a violent death at the
+    hands of another convict, whose daughter he had outraged.</p>
+
+    <p>A curious memento of the first theatre opened in Sydney and
+    the first performance within its walls has come down to us from
+    the year 1796, about eight years after the establishment of the
+    penal colony. It was opened by permission of the governor: all
+    the actors were convicts who won the privilege by good
+    behavior, and the price of admission was
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 398]</span> one shilling, payable in
+    silver, flour, meat or wine. The prologue, written by a
+    <i>cidevant</i> pickpocket of London, illustrates the character
+    of the times in those early days of the colony:</p>
+
+    <div class='poem_1'
+         align="center">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we
+            come,</p>
+
+            <p>Though not with much <i>&eacute;clat</i> or beat of
+            drum,</p>
+
+            <p>True patriots all; for be it understood,</p>
+
+            <p>We left our country for our country's good:</p>
+
+            <p>No private views disgraced our generous zeal;</p>
+
+            <p>What urged our travels was our country's weal;</p>
+
+            <p>And none will doubt but that our emigration</p>
+
+            <p>Has proved most useful to the British nation.</p>
+
+            <p>But, you inquire, what could our breasts inflame</p>
+
+            <p>With this new passion for theatric fame?</p>
+
+            <p>What in the practice of our former days</p>
+
+            <p>Could shape our talents to exhibit plays?</p>
+
+            <p>Your patience, sirs: some observations made,</p>
+
+            <p>You'll grant us equal to the scenic trade.</p>
+
+            <p>He who to midnight ladders is no stranger</p>
+
+            <p>You'll own will make an admirable Ranger,</p>
+
+            <p>And sure in Filch I shall be quite at home:</p>
+
+            <p>Some true-bred Falstaff we may hope to start.</p>
+
+            <p>The scene to vary, we shall try in time</p>
+
+            <p>To treat you with a little pantomime.</p>
+
+            <p>Here light and easy Columbines are found,</p>
+
+            <p>And well-tried Harlequins with us abound.</p>
+
+            <p>From durance vile our precious selves to keep,</p>
+
+            <p>We often had recourse to the flying leap,</p>
+
+            <p>To a black face have sometimes owed escape,</p>
+
+            <p>And Hounslow Heath has proved the worth of
+            crape.</p>
+
+            <p>But how, you ask, can we e'er hope to soar.</p>
+
+            <p>Above these scenes, and rise to tragic lore?</p>
+
+            <p>Too oft, alas! we've forced the unwilling tear,</p>
+
+            <p>And petrified the heart with real fear.</p>
+
+            <p>Macbeth a harvest of applause will reap,</p>
+
+            <p>For some of us, I fear, have murdered sleep.</p>
+
+            <p>His lady, too, with grace will sleep and talk:</p>
+
+            <p>Our females have been used at night to walk.</p>
+
+            <p>Grant us your favor, put us to the test:</p>
+
+            <p>To gain your smiles we'll do our very best,</p>
+
+            <p>And without dread of future Turnkey Lockets,</p>
+
+            <p>Thus, in an honest way, still <i>pick your
+            pockets</i>!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>It was by the coral-bound Straits of Torres, reckoned by
+    navigators the most difficult in the world, that the English
+    government determined a few years ago to send an envoy to open
+    communication between the Australian colony and the Dutch
+    possessions of Java and Sumatra. The Hero was the vessel
+    selected for this perilous mission&mdash;a voyage of twelve
+    hundred miles through seas studded thickly with reefs and
+    islands of coral, many of which lay just beneath the surface of
+    the waves&mdash;hidden pitfalls of death whose yawning jaws
+    threatened instant destruction to the unwary voyager. The
+    splendid steamer Cowarra had been wrecked on these reefs only a
+    few months before, but a single one of her two hundred and
+    seventy-five passengers escaping a watery grave. Her tall
+    masts, still standing bolt upright amid the coral-reefs,
+    presented a gaunt spectacle, plainly visible from the Hero's
+    decks as she threaded her way among the shoaly waters, while a
+    similar though less tragical warning was the disaster that had
+    overtaken two other vessels, the Astrolabe and the
+    Z&eacute;l&eacute;e, which by a sudden ebb of the tide were
+    thrown high and dry upon the sands, and remained in this
+    frightful condition for eight days before the returning waters
+    drifted them off. But the Hero was a staunch craft&mdash;an
+    iron blockade-runner, built at Glasgow during our late war. She
+    was of twelve hundred tons burden, manned by forty-two men, and
+    had already weathered storms and dangers enough to earn a right
+    to the name she bore. Right nobly she fulfilled her dangerous
+    mission, threading her way with difficulty among whole fields
+    of coral, that sometimes almost enclosed her low hull as
+    between two walls; again seeming upon the very verge of the
+    breakers or ready to be engulfed in their whirling eddies, but
+    emerging at last into the open channel, a monument of the skill
+    and watchfulness of her officers. Many of these for days
+    together never left the deck, and the lead was cast three or
+    four times an hour during the whole passage of these dangerous
+    seas. Such is the history of navigation in coral seas, but if
+    full of danger, they are equally replete with picturesque
+    beauty. In the coral isle, with its blue lagoon, its circling
+    reef and smiling vegetation, there is a wondrous fascination;
+    while in the long reefs, with the ocean driving furiously upon
+    them, only to be driven pitilessly back, all wreathed in white
+    foam and diamond spray, there is enough of the sublime to
+    transfix the most careless observer. The barrier reef that
+    skirts the north-east coast of the Australian continent is the
+    grandest coral formation in the world, stretching for a
+    distance of a thousand miles, with a varying breadth of from
+    two hundred yards to a mile. The maximum distance from the
+    shore is seventy miles, but it rarely exceeds twenty-five or
+    thirty. Between this and the mainland lies a sheltered channel,
+    safe, for the most part, when reached; but there are few open
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 399]</span>passages from the ocean,
+    and the shoals of imperfectly-formed coral that lie concealed
+    just below the surface render the most watchful care necessary
+    to a safe passage. The fires of the cannibals, visible on every
+    peak all along the coast, shed their ruddy light over the blue
+    waters, illumining here and there some lofty crest, and adding
+    a weird beauty to the enchanting scene.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="MONUMENT_TO_BURKE_AND_WILLS"
+             name="MONUMENT_TO_BURKE_AND_WILLS"></a><img alt="MONUMENT_TO_BURKE_AND_WILLS (70K)"
+             src="images/0009-1.gif"
+             height="425"
+             width="278" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"America has no monuments," say our Transatlantic cousins,
+    "because it is but two hundred years old." Well, Australia,
+    with little more than three-quarters of a hundred, has already
+    its monument&mdash;a beautiful bronze monument erected to the
+    memory of the explorers Burke and Wills on a lofty pedestal of
+    elegant workmanship, and occupying a commanding eminence in the
+    city of Melbourne. <span class="pagenum">[Pg 400]</span>The
+    figures, two in number, are of more than life size, one rising
+    above the other&mdash;the chief, with noble form and dignified
+    air, fraternally supporting his younger confrere. The pedestal
+    shows three bas-reliefs of exquisite design&mdash;one the
+    return to Cooper's Creek,</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="RETURN_TO_COOPERS_CREEK"
+             name="RETURN_TO_COOPERS_CREEK"></a><img alt="RETURN_TO_COOPER'S_CREEK (84K)"
+             src="images/0010-1.gif"
+             height="294"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>BAS-RELIEF: RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>where the torn garments and emaciated limbs tell with sad
+    emphasis the woeful tale of hardship and toil through which the
+    heroic explorers had been passing; another exhibiting the
+    subsequent death of Burke;</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="DEATH_OF_BURKE"
+             name="DEATH_OF_BURKE"></a><img alt="DEATH_OF_BURKE (89K)"
+             src="images/0010-2.gif"
+             height="287"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF BURKE.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>and the third the finding of the remains.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="FINDING_OF_BURKE"
+             name="FINDING_OF_BURKE"></a><img alt="FINDING_OF_BURKE (104K)"
+             src="images/0011-1.gif"
+             height="290"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF BURKE.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Burke and Wills, to whom belongs the honor of being the
+    first explorers that crossed the entire continent of Australia,
+    extending their researches from the Australian to the Pacific
+    Ocean, set out on the 20th of August, 1860, with a party of
+    fifteen hardy pioneers upon their perilous mission. Burke was
+    in the prime of life, a man of iron frame, dauntless courage
+    and an enthusiasm that knew neither difficulty nor danger.
+    Wills, who belonged to a family that had already given one of
+    its members to Sir John Franklin's fatal expedition, to find a
+    martyr's grave among the eternal icebergs of the north, was
+    somewhat younger, and perhaps less enthusiastic, but was
+    endowed with a rare discretion and far-seeing sagacity that
+    peculiarly fitted him to be the friend and counselor of the
+    enthusiastic Burke in such an undertaking. All Melbourne was in
+    excitement: the government gave fifty thousand dollars, various
+    individuals ten thousand, to aid the enterprise; and every
+    heart was aglow with aspirations for their success as the
+    little band of heroes <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    401]</span>waved their adieus and turned their faces outward to
+    seek paths hitherto untrodden by the white man's foot. Besides
+    horses, twenty-seven camels had been imported from India for
+    the express use of the explorers and for the transportation of
+    tents, baggage, equipments, and fifteen months' supply of
+    provisions, with vessels for carrying such supplies of water as
+    the character of the country over which they were passing
+    should require them to take with them. Their plan of march
+    divided itself into three stages, of which Cooper's Creek was
+    the middle one, and about the centre of the Australian
+    continent. At first their progress was slow, encumbered as they
+    were by excess of baggage and equipments: then discontents
+    arose in the little band, and Burke, too ardent and impulsive
+    for a leader, was first grieved, and then angered, at what he
+    deemed a want of spirit among some of his men. On the 19th of
+    October, at Menindie, he left a portion of the troop under the
+    command of Lieutenant Wright, with orders after a short rest to
+    rejoin him at Cooper's Creek. It was the end of January before
+    Wright set out for the point indicated. Meanwhile, as month
+    followed month, bringing to Melbourne no news of Burke's party,
+    the worst fears were awakened concerning its fate, and an
+    expedition was fitted out to search for the lost heroes. To
+    young Howitt was given the command, and it was his fortune to
+    unveil the sad mystery that had enveloped their fate. On the
+    29th of June, 1861, crossing the river Loddon, Howitt
+    encountered a portion of Burke's company under the lead of
+    Brahe, the fourth lieutenant. Four of his men had died of
+    scurvy, and the rest of his little band seemed utterly
+    dispirited. Howitt learned that in two months Burke had crossed
+    the entire route, sometimes desert, sometimes prairie, between
+    Menindie and Cooper's Creek, and had reached the borders of the
+    Gulf of Carpentaria, on the extreme north of the continent;
+    also, that he was there in January, enduring the fiercest heat
+    of summer, and men and beasts alike languishing for water, and
+    nearly out of provisions. It was all in vain that he deplored
+    the tardiness of Wright, and hoped, as he neared Cooper's
+    Creek, for the coming of those who alone had the means of life
+    for his little squad of famished men. Equally in vain that
+    Wills with three camels reconnoitred the ground for scores of
+    miles, hoping to find water. Not an oasis, not a rivulet, was
+    to be found, and without a single drop of water to quench their
+    parched lips they set out on another long and dreary march.
+    Desiring to secure the utmost speed, Burke had left Brahe on
+    the 16th of December with the sick and most of his provisions
+    at Cooper's Creek, to remain three months at least, and longer
+    if they were able, while he, with Wills, Grey and King, and six
+    camels, pushed bravely <span class="pagenum">[Pg 402]</span>on,
+    determined not to halt till the Pacific was reached. Battling
+    with the terrible heat, sometimes for days together without
+    water, and again obtaining a supply when they had almost
+    perished for want of it, having occasional fierce conflicts
+    with the natives, and more deadly encounters with poisonous
+    serpents, but with an energy and courage that knew no such word
+    as failure, the indomitable quartette went bravely on. The
+    wished-for goal was reached, and the heroes, jubiliant though
+    worn and weary, then returned once more to Cooper's Creek, to
+    find the post deserted by Brahe, and Wright not arrived, while
+    neither water nor provisions remained to supply their need.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="VALLEY_OF_LAUNCESTON"
+             name="VALLEY_OF_LAUNCESTON"></a><img alt="VALLEY_OF_LAUNCESTON (130K)"
+             src="images/0012-1.gif"
+             height="449"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>VALLEY OF LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>All this Howitt learned after his arrival at the rendezvous,
+    where he observed cut in the bark of a tree the word "Dig," and
+    on throwing up the earth found an iron casket deposited by
+    Brahe, giving the date of his departure and reasons for
+    withdrawal before the appointed time. Of far deeper interest
+    were papers written by Burke, announcing that he had reached
+    the Pacific coast, and retraced his steps as far as Cooper's
+    Creek&mdash;that for two months the little party had advanced
+    rapidly, making constantly new discoveries of fertile lands,
+    widespread prairies, gushing streams and well-watered valleys.
+    Occasionally they had found lagoons of salt water, hills of red
+    sand, trees of beautiful foliage, and mounds indicating the
+    presence at some unknown period of the aboriginal inhabitants.
+    They had discovered a range of high mountains in the north, and
+    called them the Standish Mountains, while at their foot lay
+    outspread a scene so lovely, of verdant groves and fertile
+    meadows, of well-watered plains and heavy forest trees, that
+    they christened it the Land of Promise. Then they reached again
+    more sterile lands, parched and dry, without a rivulet or an
+    oasis. They suffered for water and food grew scarce, but, sure
+    of relief at Cooper's Creek, they pushed bravely on, and
+    reached the rendezvous to learn that the men who could have
+    saved them had passed on but seven hours before! After having
+    accomplished so much, so bravely battled with heat and hunger,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 403]</span>serpents and cannibals, to
+    perish at last of starvation, seemed a fate too terrible; and
+    we cannot wonder that the little band fought their destiny to
+    the last. Little scraps of the journal of Burke and his friends
+    tell the sad tale of the last few weeks of agony. On March 6th,
+    Burke seemed near dying from having eaten a bit of a large
+    serpent that he had cooked. On the 30th they killed one of
+    their camels, and on April 10th they killed "Billy," Burke's
+    favorite riding-horse. On the 11th they were forced to halt on
+    account of the condition of Grey, who was no longer able to
+    proceed. On the 21st they reached an oasis&mdash;a little squad
+    of human skeletons, scarcely more than alive.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="COURSE_OF_THE_TAMAR"
+             name="COURSE_OF_THE_TAMAR"></a><img alt="COURSE_OF_THE_TAMAR (181K)"
+             src="images/0013-1.gif"
+             height="451"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Far and wide their longing eyes gazed in search of succor:
+    they called aloud with all their little remaining strength, but
+    the oasis was deserted, and the echo of their own sad voices
+    was all the reply that reached the despairing men. Then, at
+    their rendezvous, finding the word "Dig" on the tree where
+    Howitt found it at a later day, they opened the soil, and so
+    learned the departure of Brahe on that very morning. How
+    terribly tantalizing, after their exhausting march and still
+    more exhausting return, after having killed and eaten all their
+    camels but two, and all their horses, after making discoveries
+    that unlocked to the world the vast interior of this hitherto
+    unknown continent, to find that they were just too late to be
+    saved! Despair and death seemed staring them in the face: their
+    long overtaxed powers of endurance failed them utterly, and the
+    gaunt spectre of famine that had been journeying with the brave
+    men for weeks threatened now to enfold them in its terrible
+    embrace. Should they yield without another struggle? Burke
+    suddenly remembered Mount Despair, a cattle-station about one
+    hundred and fifty leagues away, and with his indomitable
+    resolution persuaded his companions to start for it, depositing
+    first in the little iron casket the journal of his discoveries
+    and the date of his departure. As if to add the last finishing
+    stroke of agony to the sad story, Burke and his companions had
+    hardly turned their faces westward ere Brahe and Wright, who
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 404]</span>had met at the passage of
+    the Loddon, and were now overwhelmed with remorse at their
+    careless neglect of their leader's orders, determined to
+    revisit Cooper's Creek, and see if any tidings were to be
+    gained of the missing party.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="GORGE_OF_THE_TAMAR"
+             name="GORGE_OF_THE_TAMAR"></a><img alt="GORGE_OF_THE_TAMAR (92K)"
+             src="images/0014-1.gif"
+             height="550"
+             width="351" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>GORGE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Thoughtless as imprudent, they did not examine the casket,
+    but supposing it had remained undisturbed where they left it,
+    they turned their faces southward to the Darling, utterly
+    unsuspicious of the recent visit of Burke and his unfortunate
+    comrades. Within two days after the trio began their dreary
+    march to Mount Despair both their camels fell from exhaustion,
+    but still the poor weary travelers pressed onward, continuing
+    their search till the 24th of May. Discovering no eminence
+    above the horizon, they then gave up in despair and began to
+    retrace their steps, leaving on a tree the date of departure.
+    In one more day's march they would have reached the summit and
+    been saved!</p>
+
+    <p>On the 20th of June it was evident that young Wills could
+    not long survive, and on the 29th are dated his last words, a
+    letter to his father full of tenderness and resignation: "My
+    death here within a few hours is certain, but my soul is calm."
+    Still, almost in the last agony he made another effort to
+    escape his fatal destiny, and set forth to reconnoitre the
+    ground once more if perchance succor might be found. Alone,
+    with none to close his eyes, he fell asleep, and Howitt after
+    long search found the skeleton body stretched upon the sands,
+    the natives having compassionately covered it with boughs and
+    leaves. Burke's last words are dated on the 28th, one day
+    earlier than those of Wills: "We have gained the shores of the
+    ocean, but we have been a band&mdash;" The last word is
+    unfinished, as if his pen had refused to make the cruel record.
+    Burke's wasted remains too were found, covered with leaves and
+    boughs. By his side lay his <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    405]</span>revolver, and the record of his great exploits was
+    in the little casket at the foot of the tree. King survived,
+    and was found by Howitt, naked, famished and unable to speak or
+    walk; but after long recruiting he was able to relate the
+    details of suffering of those last few months, unknown to all
+    the world save himself. Howitt reverently wrapped the precious
+    remains in the union jack, and, leaving them in their lonely
+    grave, retraced his steps to Melbourne with the precious casket
+    of papers, the last legacy of the dead heroes. On the 6th of
+    the following December, Howitt again visited the desolate spot,
+    charged with the melancholy mission of bringing back the
+    remains for interment in Melbourne. The chaste and elegant
+    monument that marks the spot where the heroes sleep is a far
+    less enduring memorial than exists in the wonderful development
+    and unprecedented <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    406]</span>prosperity which mark the colony as the fruit of the
+    labors, sufferings and death of these martyred heroes.</p>
+
+    <p>A pretty romance is associated with the discovery and naming
+    of Van Diemen's Land. A young man, Tasman by name, who had been
+    scornfully rejected by a Dutch nabob as the suitor of his
+    daughter, resolved to prove himself worthy of the lady of his
+    heart. So, while his inamorata was cruelly imprisoned in the
+    palace of her sire at Batavia, young Tasman, instead of wasting
+    time in regrets, set forth on a voyage of adventure, seeking to
+    win by prowess what gallantry had failed to effect. On his
+    first voyage he so far circumnavigated the island as to be
+    convinced of its insular character, but really saw little of
+    the land. In subsequent voyages he made extensive explorations,
+    calling not only the mainland, but all the little islets he
+    discovered, by the several names and synonyms of Mademoiselle
+    Van Diemen, his beloved. When at length he was able to lay
+    before the Dutch government the charts of his voyages and a
+    digest of his discoveries in the beautiful land where he had
+    already planted the standard of Holland, the cruel sire
+    relented and consented to receive as a son-in-law the
+    successful adventurer. Tasman, it seems, never very fully
+    explored the waters that surrounded his domain, and the honor
+    was reserved to two young men, Flinders and Bass, of
+    discovering in 1797 the deep, wide strait of two hundred and
+    seventy miles in width that bears the name of Bass. The scenery
+    of Van Diemen's Land is full of picturesque beauty&mdash;a sort
+    of miniature Switzerland, with snow-clad peaks, rocks and
+    ravines, foaming cataracts and multitudinous little lakes with
+    their circling belt of green and dancing rivulets bordered with
+    flowers. The Valley of Launceston is a very Arcadia of pastoral
+    repose, while the Tamar&mdash;which in its whole course is
+    rather a succession of beautiful lakes than an ordinary
+    river&mdash;with its narrow defiles, basaltic rocks and
+    sparkling cataracts, picturesque rocks that cut off one lake
+    and suddenly reveal another, is a very miracle of beauty,
+    dancing, frothing, foaming, like some playful sprite possessed
+    with the very spirit of mischief.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="HOBART_TOWN"
+             name="HOBART_TOWN"></a><img alt="HOBART_TOWN (131K)"
+             src="images/0015-1.gif"
+             height="407"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>HOBART TOWN</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Hobart Town, the capital of Tasmania, is a quiet, hospitable
+    little town, but a very hotbed of aristocracy&mdash;the single
+    spot on the Australian continent where English exclusiveness
+    can, after the gay seasons of the large cities, retire to
+    aristocratic country-seats, to nurse and revivify its pride of
+    birth, without fear of coming in contact with anything parvenu
+    or plebeian. The town is prettily laid out, with a genuine
+    Gothic ch&acirc;teau for its government palace, and elegant
+    private residences. It seems tame and deserted when visited
+    from Sydney or Melbourne, but offers just the rest and
+    refreshment one needs after a season of exhausting labor in the
+    mines of Ballarat.</p>
+    <hr class='short' />
+
+    <p>The rapid growth of the Australian colonies, their
+    remoteness from the mother country, and the vastness of the
+    territory over which they are spread, naturally suggest the
+    question whether they are destined to remain in a condition of
+    dependence or are likely to follow the example of their
+    American prototypes. On this point the opinion of the count of
+    Beauvoir is entitled to consideration, as that of an impartial
+    as well as intelligent observer. He had expected, he tells us,
+    in visiting the country, to find it preparing for its speedy
+    emancipation; but he left it with the conviction that, far from
+    desiring a severance of the connection, the colonists would
+    regard it as a blow to their material interests&mdash;the one
+    event, in fact, capable of arresting their unparalleled
+    progress. It can only occur as the result of a European war in
+    which the power of England shall be so crippled as to disable
+    her from protecting these distant possessions, casting upon
+    them the whole burden of self-defence, and forcing them to
+    assume the responsibilities of national
+    existence.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 407]</span>
+    <a id="THE_GOLDEN_EAGLE_AND_HIS_EYRIE"
+          name="THE_GOLDEN_EAGLE_AND_HIS_EYRIE"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE.</h2>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="ON_THE_WAY_TO_THE_WOOD_DRIFT"
+             name="ON_THE_WAY_TO_THE_WOOD_DRIFT"></a><img alt="ON_THE_WAY_TO_THE_WOOD-DRIFT (175K)"
+             src="images/0018-1.gif"
+             height="442"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>ON THE WAY TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>A somewhat tedious journey of thirty hours from Paris
+    brought me one fine afternoon in the early part of July to
+    Kulstein, an ancient fortress forming the frontier-town of the
+    North Tyrol, toward Bavaria. While occupied in passing my
+    portmanteau through the prying and unutterably dirty hands of
+    the custom-house officials I was accosted by a man dressed in
+    the garb of a Tyrolese mountaineer&mdash;short leathern
+    breeches reaching to the knee, gray stockings, heavy hobnailed
+    shoes, a nondescript species of jacket of the roughest frieze,
+    and a battered hat adorned with two or three feathers of the
+    capercailzie and a plume of the royal eagle. Old Hansel was one
+    of the gamekeepers on a large imperial preserve close by, with
+    whom some years previously I had on more than one occasion
+    shared a hard couch under the stunted pines when inopportune
+    night overtook us near the glaciers while in hot pursuit of the
+    chamois.</p>
+
+    <p>This unexpected meeting proved a source of the liveliest
+    interest to me, inasmuch as this old veteran of the mountains
+    was on the point of starting on an expedition of a somewhat
+    remarkable character. A pair of golden eagles, it appeared, had
+    made a neighboring valley the scene of their frequent ravages
+    and depredations among the cattle and game, and Hansel was
+    about to organize an expedition to search for, and if possible
+    despoil, the eyrie. Of late years these birds have become very
+    rare. Switzerland is nearly, if not quite, cleared of them,
+    while the Tyrol, affording greater solitude and a larger stock
+    of game, can boast of eight or at the most ten couples. They
+    are, as is well known, the largest and most powerful of all the
+    birds of prey inhabiting Europe, measuring from eight to eight
+    and a half feet in the span, and possessing terrible strength
+    of beak, talons and wings. A full-grown golden eagle can easily
+    carry off a young chamois, a full-grown roe or a sheep, none of
+    them weighing less <span class="pagenum">[Pg 408]</span>than
+    thirty pounds; and well-attested cases have occurred of young
+    children being thus abstracted. In the fall of 1873 a boy
+    nearly eight years of age was carried away by one of these
+    birds from the very door of his parents' cottage, situated not
+    far from the celebrated K&ouml;nigsee, near Salzburg.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="ARRIVAL_AT_THE_DRIFT_KEEPERS_COTTAGE"
+             name="ARRIVAL_AT_THE_DRIFT_KEEPERS_COTTAGE"></a><img alt="ARRIVAL_AT_THE_DRIFT-KEEPER'S_COTTAGE (109K)"
+             src="images/0019-1.gif"
+             height="450"
+             width="415" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>OUR ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The breeding-season falls in the month of June, and in the
+    course of the first fortnight of the succeeding month the young
+    offspring take wing and commence their raids in quest of
+    pillage on their own account. The eyrie or nest is an object of
+    the greatest care with the parent birds, the site being chosen
+    with a view to the greatest possible security, generally in
+    some crevice on the face of a perpendicular precipice several
+    hundred feet in height. It is built of dry sticks of wood
+    coated on the inside with moss. Hansel informed me of a surmise
+    that the eyrie of this pair would be discovered in the face of
+    the terribly steep "Falknerwand;" and although I had once
+    before been engaged in a similar exploit, I could not resist
+    the temptation to join in this expedition, and despatched on
+    the spot a telegram to the friend who was awaiting my arrival
+    in Ampezzo in order to make some ascents in the Dolomites,
+    announcing a detention of some days. This done, we re-entered
+    the cars and proceeded a few stations farther down the line to
+    quaint old Rattenberg, a small town on the banks of the swift
+    Inn. Not an hour from this place the scantily-inhabited
+    Brandenberg valley opens on the broad and sunny Innthal. The
+    former is merely a mountain-gorge. Far up in its recesses
+    stands a small cottage belonging to the keeper of a wood-drift,
+    and in close proximity to this solitary habitation is a
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 409]</span>second very wild and
+    wellnigh inaccessible ravine, the scene of the coming
+    adventure.</p>
+
+    <p>Having passed the night in the modest little inn at
+    Rattenberg, Hansel and I set off next morning long before
+    sunrise on our eight hours' tramp to the wood-drift by a path
+    which was in most places of just sufficient breadth to allow of
+    one person passing at a time. Few of my fellow-travelers of the
+    day before would have recognized me in the costume I had donned
+    for the occasion&mdash;an old and much-patched coat, short
+    leathern trousers, as worn and torn as the poorest
+    woodcutter's, and a ten-seasoned hat which had been originally
+    green, then brown, and had now become gray. My face and knees
+    were still bronzed from the exposure attendant on a long course
+    of Alpine climbing the year before.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="INTERIOR_OF_TOMERLS_COTTAGE"
+             name="INTERIOR_OF_TOMERLS_COTTAGE"></a><img alt="INTERIOR_OF_TOMERLS_COTTAGE (191K)"
+             src="images/0020-1.gif"
+             height="447"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>INTERIOR OF TOMERL'S COTTAGE.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The keeper of the wood-drift was an old acquaintance of
+    mine, whose qualities as a keen sportsman had shone forth when
+    four or five years previously I had quartered myself for a
+    month in his secluded neighborhood, spending the day, and
+    frequently also the night, on the peaks and passes surrounding
+    his cottage. To the buxom Moidel, his pretty young wife, I was
+    also no stranger, and her smile and blush assured me that she
+    still remembered the time when, reigning supreme over her
+    father's cattle on a neighboring alp, she had administered to
+    the wants of the young sportsman seeking a night's lodging in
+    the lonesome chalet. Many a merry evening had I spent in the
+    low, oak-paneled "general room" of Tomerl's cottage when he was
+    still a gay young bachelor, and no change had since been made
+    in the aspect of the apartment. In one corner stood the huge
+    pile of pottery used for heating the room, and round it were
+    still fixed the rows of wooden laths by means of which I had so
+    frequently dried my soaking apparel. Running the whole length
+    of the room was a broad bench, in front of which were placed
+    two strong tables; and at one of these were seated, at our
+    entrance, two woodcutters, who had heard of the intended
+    expedition and come to offer their help. They informed us that
+    four more men engaged in wood-felling in a forest an hour or so
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 410]</span>distant would also be
+    delighted to join us, as they did at the close of their day's
+    work.</p>
+
+    <p>The evening was spent in discussing the details of the
+    approaching exploit and getting our various arrangements and
+    implements in order. At nine o'clock, leaving Tomerl and his
+    wife their accustomed bed on the top of the stove, the rest of
+    us retired to our common bed-room, the hayloft. We were up
+    again by three, and an hour later were all ready to start.
+    Tomerl led the way, but stopped ere we lost sight of the
+    cottage to shout a last "jodler" to his wife, who returned the
+    greeting with a clear, bell-like voice, though her heart was
+    doubtless beating fast under her smartly-laced bodice.</p>
+
+    <p>Three hours later we had reached the gorge, and after some
+    difficult scrambling and wading through turbulent torrents we
+    arrived at the base of the Falknerwand, which rises
+    perpendicularly upward of nine hundred feet&mdash;an altitude
+    diminished in appearance by the tenfold greater height of the
+    surrounding mountains. Finding, after a few minutes' close
+    observation, that nothing could be done from the base of the
+    cliff, we proceeded to scale it by a circuitous route up a
+    practicable but nevertheless terribly steep incline. Safely
+    arrived at the top, we threw down our burdens and began to
+    reconnoitre the terrain, which we did <i>ventre &agrave;
+    terre</i>, bending over the cliff as far as we dared. Great was
+    our dismay to perceive that some eighty or ninety feet below us
+    a narrow rocky ledge, which had escaped our notice when looking
+    up from the foot of the cliff, projected shelf-wise from the
+    face of the precipice, shutting out all view of a crevice which
+    we had descried from the bottom, and which, as we anticipated,
+    contained the eyrie.</p>
+
+    <p>After consulting some time, we decided to lower ourselves
+    down to this rock-band, and make it the base of our further
+    movements, instead of operating, as we had intended, from the
+    crest of the cliff, where everything but for this obstacle
+    would have been tenfold easier. Posting one of the men at the
+    top of the cliff to lower the heavy rope, three hundred feet in
+    length, by means of a cord, we descended to the ledge, which
+    was nowhere more than three feet in width, and in several
+    places scarcely over a foot and a half. Standing in a single
+    row on this miniature platform, we had to manipulate the rope
+    with a yawning gulf some eight hundred feet in depth beside us,
+    and nothing to lay hold of for support but the smooth face of
+    the rock.</p>
+
+    <p>We began operations by driving a strong iron hook into the
+    solid rock, at a point some two or three feet above the ledge.
+    Through this hook the rope was passed, one end pendent over the
+    cliff; and to obviate the peril of its being frayed and
+    speedily severed by the sharp outer edge of our platform, we
+    rigged up a block of wood with some iron stays to serve as an
+    immovable pulley. These preparations completed, the men were
+    assigned to their respective positions. Hansel and Tomerl, two
+    renowned shots, were to lie at full length, rifle in hand, one
+    at each end of the row, to act as my guardian angels if I were
+    surprised and attacked by the old eagles while engaged in the
+    work of spoliation. The remaining woodcutters, with the
+    exception of the one who had been left on the top of the cliff,
+    were placed in file along the ledge to lower and raise the
+    plank which was to serve as my seat, and to which the rope was
+    securely fastened after being passed through an iron ring
+    attached to my stout leathern girdle. A signal-line was to hang
+    at my side, and a hunting-knife, a revolver, a strong canvas
+    bag to hold the booty, and an ashen pole iron-shod at one end
+    and provided with a strong iron boathook at the other,
+    completed my equipment, each article of which had undergone the
+    strictest scrutiny before its adoption.</p>
+
+    <p>Taking the pole from the hands of Hansel, I let myself glide
+    over the edge of the cliff, and the next moment hung in empty
+    space. After being lowered about eighty feet, I found myself on
+    a level with the crevice before mentioned, and gave the
+    preconcerted signal for arresting my downward progress. Owing,
+    however, to a beetling crag or boulder which overhung the
+    recess, I was still at <span class="pagenum">[Pg 411]</span>a
+    distance of ten or twelve feet horizontally from the goal.
+    Fixing the boathook into a convenient indentation of the rock,
+    I gradually pulled myself in till I reached the face of the
+    wall. Then leaving the plank, I crawled up an inclined slab of
+    rock which led to the actual crevice, until I was stopped by a
+    barrier of dry sticks about two feet in height. Raising myself
+    on my knees, I peered into the oval-shaped eyrie, and saw
+    perched up at the farther side two splendid young golden
+    eagles.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="I_PULLED_MYSELF_IN"
+             name="I_PULLED_MYSELF_IN"></a><img alt="I_PULLED_MYSELF_IN (95K)"
+             src="images/0023-1.gif"
+             height="450"
+             width="306" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>"FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED
+        MYSELF IN."</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>It is a very rare occurrence to find two young eagles in one
+    eyrie. These, though only four or five weeks old, were
+    formidable birds, measuring considerably over six feet in the
+    span, and displaying beaks and talons of imposing size. It took
+    some time to capture and pinion these powerful and refractory
+    ornithological specimens, whose loud, discordant screams caused
+    me several times to glance involuntarily over my shoulder at
+    the strip of horizon visible, to assure myself that the old
+    eagles were not swooping down to <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    412]</span>the rescue. I was in the more haste to leave the
+    eyrie that the stench which emanated from the remains of
+    numerous victims strewn in and about it was something terrific.
+    These relics, which I had the curiosity to count, consisted of
+    a half-devoured carcass of a chamois, three pairs of chamois'
+    horns and the corresponding bones of the animals, the skeleton
+    of a goat picked clean, the remains of an Alpine hare, and the
+    head and neck of a fawn.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="ENTERING_THE_EYRIE"
+             name="ENTERING_THE_EYRIE"></a><img alt="ENTERING_THE_EYRIE (96K)"
+             src="images/0024-1.gif"
+             height="450"
+             width="390" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>ENTERING THE EYRIE</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The canvas bag being too small to contain both the eaglets,
+    I was obliged to hang one of them to my belt, after tying my
+    handkerchief round his beak. The game secured, I crept
+    cautiously down the slab to the plank, and fixing the hook of
+    my pole in the indentation of which I had made use in drawing
+    myself in, I gave the preconcerted two jerks with the
+    signal-line. Now occurred the first of a series of accidents
+    which came near resulting fatally to the whole party. Contrary
+    to my strict injunctions, the men hauling the rope gave a
+    sudden and violent pull, wrenching the pole from my grasp, and
+    communicating to the plank a motion like that of a pendulum,
+    which sent me flying out into space, with the immediate
+    prospect of being dashed by the retrograde swing against the
+    solid wall of rock. Happily, I preserved my presence of mind,
+    and grasped instantly the only chance of escape. Tilting myself
+    back as far as the rope and the ring on my belt allowed, and
+    stretching out my legs horizontally, I awaited the contact.
+    Half a second later came a heavy blow on the soles of my feet,
+    the pain of which ran through my whole frame like the shock of
+    a galvanic battery. Had it <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    413]</span> been my head, the reader would probably never have
+    been troubled with any account of my sensations. As it was, my
+    feet, though protected by immensely heavy iron-shod shoes,
+    received a concussion the effects of which continued to be felt
+    for weeks.</p>
+
+    <p>Almost at the moment of this incident I had noticed a dark
+    object shooting past me, at so close a proximity that I
+    distinctly heard the whistling sound as it cleft the air.
+    Supposing it to be a stone, I gave it no further thought, and
+    my attention was presently occupied by a sharp gash which the
+    young eagle at my belt managed to inflict on my left thigh. It
+    was not until I had stopped the haemorrhage by strewing some
+    grains of powder into the wound that I perceived with surprise
+    that I was still stationary, instead of ascending, as in due
+    course I ought to have been. The boulder of rock projecting a
+    few feet over my head prevented any view of the ledge, and my
+    shouts inquiring the cause of the delay received indistinct
+    answers, the words "patience" and "wait" being the only
+    intelligible ones. These might have had a consoling influence
+    but for the fact that a thunderstorm&mdash;an occurrence of
+    great frequency in the beginning of summer in the High
+    Alps&mdash;was fast approaching, and my position was one that
+    exposed me to its full fury without any possibility of escape.
+    Ere long it burst over my head, drenching me to the skin in the
+    first five minutes, while the lightning played about me in
+    every direction, and terrific claps of thunder followed each
+    other at intervals of scarcely a few seconds. What heightened
+    the danger as well as the absurdity of my situation was the
+    chance that one or both of the old eagles might return at any
+    moment, under circumstances that must render a struggle, if any
+    ensued, a most unequal one. Supposing my guards to be still at
+    their post, the distance of the ledge was such as to make a
+    shot at a flying bird, large as it might be, anything but a
+    sure one; and the tactics of the golden eagle when defending
+    its home do not allow of any second attempt. A speck is seen on
+    the horizon, and the next moment the powerful bird is down with
+    one fell swoop: a flap with its strong wing and the unhappy
+    victim is stunned, and immediately ripped open from the chest
+    to his hip, while his skull is cleft or fractured by a single
+    blow of the tremendous beak. Instances are, however, known in
+    which the cool and self-possessed "pendant" has shot or cut
+    down his foe at the very instant of the encounter. Happily, my
+    own powers were not put to so severe a test: the old birds were
+    that day far off, circling probably in majestic swoops over
+    some distant valley or gorge.</p>
+
+    <p>I was forced, however, to be constantly on the alert, and my
+    impatience and perplexity may be imagined as hours elapsed and
+    there were still no signs of my approaching deliverance. The
+    storm had long since passed over, and darkness was settling
+    down when I again felt a pull at the rope, and continued my
+    ascent, begun nearly four hours before. It was of the utmost
+    importance that the whole party should regain the top of the
+    cliff before night had fairly set in. I therefore deferred, on
+    my arrival at the ledge, all questions and rebukes till we had
+    gained a place of safety. The heavy rope, fastened to the cord,
+    was hauled up by the man on the top, and after it had been
+    secured to a tree-stump we swarmed up without loss of time. We
+    had still before us a somewhat perilous scramble in the
+    darkness down the steep incline, but the exhaustion we had
+    undergone made it necessary that we should first recruit our
+    strength by means of the food and bottle of "Schnapps" with
+    which we were fortunately provided. While we were thus engaged
+    I received from my companions an account of the causes of the
+    perilous delay.</p>
+
+    <p>On receiving my signal they had begun to haul, but after the
+    first pull had felt a sudden jerk, and perceived that the
+    block, supposed to have been securely fastened at the edge of
+    the platform, was gone. They imagined at first that it had
+    struck and killed me, but my shouts soon apprised them of my
+    safety. Fearing to continue the process of hauling lest the
+    rope should be cut by the sharp-edged <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    414]</span> stones, they informed the man on the cliff of the
+    mishap, and despatched him to procure a second block. He
+    accordingly ran down the slope to the bottom of the mountain,
+    cut a young pine tree, shaped a block, and was in the act of
+    carrying it up when the storm burst forth, and the lightning,
+    playing around him in vivid flashes, cleft and splintered a
+    rock weighing hundreds of tons that had stood within thirty
+    paces of him. He received no injury except being thrown on the
+    ground and partially stunned by the terrible concussion, but it
+    was not till after a considerable time that he was able to rise
+    and continue his ascent. Had he been killed, our situation
+    would have been a most precarious one. There would have been no
+    possibility of regaining the cliff without help, and as our
+    party comprised all the working force of the neighborhood, and
+    Tomerl's cottage was the only dwelling within fifteen or twenty
+    miles, our chances of rescue would have been extremely
+    slight.</p>
+
+    <p>We reached the bottom of the mountain as the upper part was
+    beginning to be lit by the rays of a full moon, and a three
+    hours' tramp brought us without further mishap to the cottage.
+    Moidel, forewarned of our return by a series of "jodlers," a
+    sound which may challenge competition as a joyful acclaim, had
+    prepared an ample supper; and when Tomerl produced his
+    well-tuned "zither," a species of guitar producing simple but
+    soft and highly musical strains, the mirth was at its height.
+    Then followed songs eulogistic of the life of the
+    chamois-stalker, who, "with his gun in his hand, a chamois on
+    his back and a girl in his heart," has no cause to envy a king.
+    A dance called the "Schuhblatteln," in which the art consists
+    in touching the soles of one's shoes with the palm of the hand,
+    finished our evening's amusement, and we retired, rather worn
+    out, just as day was breaking.</p>
+
+    <p>After four hours' sleep we rose refreshed and eager to
+    examine our two captives. Attached to Tomerl's cottage was a
+    diminutive barn, from which we removed the door, and nailing
+    strong laths across the aperture, managed to improvise a large
+    and roomy cage. A couple of rabbits furnished a luxurious
+    breakfast, which was devoured with extraordinary voracity. The
+    hen-bird, as is the case with all birds of prey, was
+    considerably larger and stronger than her brother, though the
+    latter had the finer head and eyes.</p>
+
+    <p>A week after their capture they were "feathered" for the
+    first time. This process consists in pulling out the long
+    down-like plumes situated on the under side of the strong
+    tail-feathers. These plumes, which, if taken from a full-grown
+    eagle, frequently measure seven or eight inches in length, are
+    highly prized by the Tyrolese peasants, but still more by the
+    inhabitants of the neighboring Bavarian Highlands, who do not
+    hesitate to expend a month's wages in the purchase of two or
+    three with which to adorn their hats or those of their buxom
+    sweethearts. The value of a crop of plumes varies somewhat.
+    Generally, however, an eagle yields about forty florins' ($16)
+    worth of feathers per annum.</p>
+
+    <p>Six weeks after this incident I again wended my steps into
+    the secluded Brandenburg valley, and found the eagles thriving
+    and much grown. Being curious to see if their confinement had
+    subdued their wild and ferocious spirit, I removed one of the
+    laths and entered the barn. An angry hiss, similar to that of a
+    snake, warned me of danger, but too late to save my hands some
+    severe scratches. With one bound and a flap of their gigantic
+    wings they were on me, and had it not been for Tomerl, who was
+    standing just behind me armed with a stout cudgel, I should
+    have paid dearly for my incautious visit.</p>
+
+    <p>I know of no instance where human skill has subdued in the
+    slightest degree the haughty spirit of the free-born golden
+    eagle. An untamable ferocity is the predominating
+    characteristic of this noble bird, more than of any other
+    animal. Circling majestically among the fleeting clouds, he
+    reigns lord paramount over his vast domain, avoiding the sight
+    and resenting the approach of man.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">W. A.
+    BAILLIE-GROHMAN.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 415]</span>
+
+    <h2>THREE FEATHERS.</h2>
+
+    <p class="center">BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A PRINCESS OF
+    THULE."</p><a id="CHAPTER_XXIX"
+          name="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER XXIX.</h3>
+
+    <p class="center"><b>MABYN DREAMS</b>.</p><br />
+
+
+    <p>"Yes, mother," said Mabyn, bursting into the room, "here I
+    am; and Jennifer's down stairs with my box; and I am to stay
+    with you here for another week or a fortnight; and Wenna's to
+    go back at once, for the whole world is convulsed because of
+    Mr. Trelyon's coming of age; and Mrs. Trelyon has sent and
+    taken all our spare rooms; and father says Wenna must come back
+    directly, for it's always 'Wenna, do this,' and 'Wenna, do
+    that;' and if Wenna isn't there, of course the sky will tumble
+    down on the earth&mdash;Mother, what's the matter, and where's
+    Wenna?"</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn was suddenly brought up in the middle of her voluble
+    speech by the strange expression on her mother's face.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mabyn, something dreadful has happened to our
+    Wenna."</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn turned deadly white. "Is she ill?" she said, almost in
+    a whisper.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, not ill, but a great trouble has fallen on her."</p>
+
+    <p>Then the mother, in a low voice, apparently fearful that any
+    one should overhear, began to tell her younger daughter of all
+    she had learnt within the past day or two&mdash;how young
+    Trelyon had been bold enough to tell Wenna that he loved her;
+    how Wenna had dallied with her conscience and been loath to
+    part with him; how at length she had as good as revealed to him
+    that she loved him in return; and how she was now overwhelmed
+    and crushed beneath a sense of her own faithlessness and the
+    impossibility of making reparation to her betrothed.</p>
+
+    <p>"Only to think, Mabyn," said the mother in accents of
+    despair, "that all this distress should have come about in such
+    a quiet and unexpected way! Who could have foreseen it? Why, of
+    all the people in the world, you would have thought our Wenna
+    was the least likely to have any misery of this sort; and many
+    a time&mdash;don't you remember?&mdash;I used to say it was so
+    wise of her getting engaged to a prudent and elderly man, who
+    would save her from the plagues and trials that young girls
+    often suffer at the hands of their lovers. I thought she was so
+    comfortably settled. Everything promised her a quiet and gentle
+    life. And now this sudden shock has come upon her, she seems to
+    think she is not fit to live, and she goes on in such a wild
+    way&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is she?" Mabyn said abruptly.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, no!" the mother said anxiously, "you must not speak
+    a word to her, Mabyn. You must not let her know I have told you
+    anything about it. Leave her to herself, for a while at least:
+    if you speak to her, she will take it you mean to accuse her,
+    for she says you warned her, and she would pay no heed. Leave
+    her to herself, Mabyn."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then where is Mr. Trelyon?" said Mabyn, with some touch of
+    indignation in her voice. "What is he doing? Is he leaving her
+    to herself too?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know what you mean, Mabyn," her mother said
+    timidly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why doesn't he come forward like a man and marry her?" said
+    Mabyn boldly. "Yes, that is what I would do if I were a man.
+    She has sent him away? Yes, of course: that is right and
+    proper. And Wenna will go on doing what is right and proper, if
+    you allow her, to the very end, and the end will be a lifetime
+    of misery: that's all. No, my notion is, that she should do
+    something that is not right and is quite improper, if only it
+    makes her happy; and you'll see if I don't get her to do it.
+    Why, mother, haven't you had eyes to see that these two have
+    been in love for years? Nobody in the world had ever the least
+    control over him but her: he would do anything for Wenna; and
+    she&mdash;why she always came back singing after she had met
+    and spoken to him. And then you talk about a prudent and
+    sensible husband! <span class="pagenum">[Pg 416]</span>I don't
+    want Wenna to marry a watchful, mean, old, stocking-darning
+    cripple, who will creep about the house all day and peer into
+    cupboards, and give her fourpence-halfpenny a week to live on.
+    I want her to marry a man&mdash;one that is strong enough to
+    protect her. And I tell you, mother&mdash;I've said it before,
+    and I say it again&mdash;she <i>shall not</i> marry Mr.
+    Roscorla."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn," said her mother, "you are getting madder than ever.
+    Your dislike to Mr. Roscorla is most unreasonable. A cripple!
+    Why&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, mother!" Mabyn cried with a bright light on her face,
+    "only think of our Wenna being married to Mr. Trelyon, and how
+    happy and pleased and pretty she would look as they went
+    walking together! And then how proud he would be to have so
+    nice a wife! and he would joke about her and be very
+    impertinent, but he would simply worship her all the same, and
+    do everything he could to please her. And he would take her
+    away and show her all the beautiful places abroad; and he would
+    have a yacht, too; and he would give her a fine house in
+    London. And don't you think our Wenna would fascinate everybody
+    with her mouselike ways and her nice small steps? And if they
+    did have any trouble, wouldn't she be better to have somebody
+    with her not timid and anxious and pettifogging, but somebody
+    who wouldn't be cast down, but make her as brave as
+    himself?"</p>
+
+    <p>Miss Mabyn was a shrewd young woman, and she saw that her
+    mother's quick, imaginative, sympathetic nature was being
+    captivated by this picture. She determined to have her as an
+    ally.</p>
+
+    <p>"And don't you see, mother, how it all lies within her
+    reach? Harry Trelyon is in love with her: there was no need for
+    him to say so. I knew it long before he did. And she&mdash;why,
+    she has told him now that she cares for him; and if I were he,
+    I know what I'd do in his place. What is there in the way? Why,
+    a&mdash;a sort of understanding."</p>
+
+    <p>"A promise, Mabyn," said the mother.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, a promise," said the girl desperately, and coloring
+    somewhat. "But it was a promise given in ignorance: she didn't
+    know&mdash;how could she know? Everybody knows that such
+    promises are constantly broken. If you are in love with
+    somebody else, what's the good of your keeping the promise?
+    Now, mother, won't you argue with her? See here: if she keeps
+    her promise, there's three people miserable. If she breaks it,
+    there's only one; and I doubt whether he's got the capacity to
+    be miserable. That's two to one, or three to one, is it? Now,
+    will you argue with her, mother?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn, Mabyn," the mother said with a shake of the head,
+    but evidently pleased with the voice of the tempter, "your
+    fancy has run away with you. Why, Mr. Trelyon has never
+    proposed to marry her."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know he wants to," said Mabyn confidently.</p>
+
+    <p>"How can you know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll ask him and prove it to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed," said the mother sadly, "it is no thought of
+    marriage that is in Wenna's head just now. The poor girl is
+    full of remorse and apprehension. I think she would like to
+    start at once for Jamaica, and fling herself at Mr. Roscorla's
+    feet and confess her fault. I am glad she has to go back to
+    Eglosilyan: that may distract her mind in a measure: at present
+    she is suffering more than she shows."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is she?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In her own room, tired out and fast asleep. I looked in a
+    few minutes ago."</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn went up stairs, after having seen that Jennifer had
+    properly bestowed her box. Wenna had just risen from the sofa,
+    and was standing in the middle of the room. Her younger and
+    taller sister went blithely forward to her, kissed her as
+    usual, took no notice of the sudden flush of red that sprang
+    into her face, and proceeded to state, in a business-like
+    fashion, all the arrangements that had to be made.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you been enjoying yourself, Wenna?" Mabyn said with a
+    fine air of indifference.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh yes," Wenna answered; adding hastily, "Don't you think
+    mother is greatly improved?"</p>
+
+    <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 417]</span>"Wonderfully! I almost
+    forgot she was an invalid. How lucky you are to be going back
+    to see all the fine doings at the Hall! Of course they will ask
+    you up."</p>
+
+    <p>"They will do nothing of the kind," Wenna said with some
+    asperity, and with her face turned aside.</p>
+
+    <p>"Lord and Lady Amersham have already come to the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. They said some time ago that there was a good chance
+    of Mr. Trelyon marrying the daughter&mdash;the tall girl with
+    yellow hair, you remember?"</p>
+
+    <p>"And the stooping shoulders? Yes. I should think they would
+    be glad to get her married to anybody. She's thirty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Wenna!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Trelyon told me so," said Wenna sharply.</p>
+
+    <p>"And they are a little surprised," continued Mabyn in the
+    same indifferent way, but watching her sister all the while,
+    "that Mr. Trelyon has remained absent until so near the time.
+    But I suppose he means to take Miss Penaluna with him. She
+    lives here, doesn't she? They used to say there was a chance of
+    a marriage there too."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn, what do you mean?" Wenna said suddenly and angrily.
+    "What do I care about Mr. Trelyon's marriage? What is it you
+    mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>But the firmness of her lips began to yield: there was an
+    ominous trembling about them, and at the same moment her
+    younger sister caught her to her bosom, and hid her face there
+    and hushed her wild sobbing. She would hear no confession. She
+    knew enough. Nothing would convince her that Wenna had done
+    anything wrong, so there was no use speaking about it.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna," she said in a low voice, "have you sent him any
+    message?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh no, no!" the girl said trembling. "I fear even to think
+    of him; and when you mentioned his name, Mabyn, it seemed to
+    choke me. And now I have to go back to Eglosilyan; and oh, if
+    you only knew how I dread that, Mabyn!"</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn's conscience was struck. She it was who had done this
+    thing. She had persuaded her father that her mother needed
+    another week or fortnight at Penzance; she had frightened him
+    by telling what bother he would suffer if Wenna were not back
+    at the inn during the festivities at Trelyon Hall; and then she
+    had offered to go and take her sister's post. George Rosewarne
+    was heartily glad to exchange the one daughter for the other.
+    Mabyn was too independent; she thwarted him; sometimes she
+    insisted on his bestirring himself. Wenna, on the other hand,
+    went about the place like some invisible spirit of order,
+    making everything comfortable for him without noise or worry.
+    He was easily led to issue the necessary orders; and so it was
+    that Mabyn thought she was doing her sister a friendly turn by
+    sending her back to Eglosilyan in order to join in
+    congratulating Harry Trelyon on his entrance into man's estate.
+    Now Mabyn found that she had only plunged her sister into
+    deeper trouble. What could be done to save her?</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna," said Mabyn rather timidly, "do you think he has
+    left Penzance?"</p>
+
+    <p>Wenna turned to her with a sudden look of entreaty in her
+    face: "I cannot bear to speak of him, Mabyn. I have no right
+    to: I hope you will not ask me. Just now I&mdash;I am going to
+    write a letter&mdash;to Jamaica. I shall tell the whole truth.
+    It is for him to say what must happen now. I have done him a
+    great injury: I did not intend it, I had no thought of it, but
+    my own folly and thoughtlessness brought it about, and I have
+    to bear the penalty. I don't think he need be anxious about
+    punishing me."</p>
+
+    <p>She turned away with a tired look on her face, and began to
+    get out her writing materials. Mabyn watched her for a moment
+    or two in silence; then she left and went to her own room,
+    saying to herself, "Punishment! Whoever talks of punishment
+    will have to address himself to me."</p>
+
+    <p>When she got to her own room she wrote these words on a
+    piece of paper in her firm, bold, free hand: "A friend would
+    like to see you for a minute in front of the post-office in the
+    middle of the town." She put that in an envelope,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 418]</span>and addressed the envelope
+    to Harry Trelyon, Esq. Still keeping her bonnet on, she went
+    down stairs and had a little general conversation with her
+    mother, in the course of which she quite casually asked the
+    name of the hotel at which Mr. Trelyon had been staying. Then,
+    just as if she were going out to the Parade to have a look at
+    the sea, she carelessly left the house.</p>
+
+    <p>The dusk of the evening was growing to dark. A white mist
+    lay over the sea. The solitary lamps were being lit along the
+    Parade, each golden star shining sharply in the pale purple
+    twilight, but a more confused glow of orange showed where the
+    little town was busy in its narrow thoroughfares. She got hold
+    of a small boy, gave him the letter, a sixpence and his
+    instructions. He was to ask if the gentleman were in the hotel.
+    If not, had he left Penzance, or would he return that night? In
+    any case, the boy was not to leave the letter unless Mr.
+    Trelyon was there.</p>
+
+    <p>The small boy returned in a couple of minutes. The gentleman
+    was there, and had taken the letter. So Mabyn at once set out
+    for the centre of the town, and soon found herself in among a
+    mass of huddled houses, bright shops and thoroughfares pretty
+    well filled with strolling sailors, women getting home from
+    market and townspeople come out to gossip. She had accurately
+    judged that she would be less observed in this busy little
+    place than out on the Parade; and as it was the first
+    appointment she had ever made to meet a young gentleman alone,
+    she was just a little nervous.</p>
+
+    <p>Trelyon was there. He had recognized the handwriting in a
+    moment. He had no time to ridicule or even to think of Mabyn's
+    school-girl affectation of secresy: he had at once rushed off
+    to the place of appointment, and that by a short cut of which
+    she had no knowledge.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn, what's the matter? Is Wenna ill?" he said,
+    forgetting in his anxiety even to shake hands with her.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh no, she isn't," said Mabyn rather coldly and defiantly.
+    If he was in love with her sister, it was for him to make
+    advances. "Oh no, she's pretty well, thank you," continued
+    Mabyn, indifferently. "But she never could stand much worry. I
+    wanted to see you about that. She is going back to Eglosilyan
+    to-morrow; and you must promise not to have her asked up to the
+    Hall while these grand doings are going on&mdash;you must not
+    try to see her and persuade her. If you could keep out of her
+    way altogether&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"You know all about it, then, Mabyn?" he said suddenly; and
+    even in the dusky light of the street she could see the rapid
+    look of gladness that filled his face. "And you are not going
+    to be vexed, eh? You'll remain friends with me, Mabyn&mdash;you
+    will tell me how she is from time to time. Don't you see, I
+    must go away; and&mdash;and, by Jove, Mabyn! I've got such a
+    lot to tell you!"</p>
+
+    <p>She looked round.</p>
+
+    <p>"I can't talk to you here. Won't you walk back by the other
+    road behind the town?" he said.</p>
+
+    <p>Yes, she would go willingly with him now. The anxiety of his
+    face, the almost wild way in which he seemed to beg for her
+    help and friendship, the mere impatience of his manner, pleased
+    and satisfied her. This was as it should be. Here was no
+    sweetheart by line and rule, demonstrating his affection by
+    argument, and acting at all times with a studied propriety; but
+    a real, true lover, full of passionate hope and as passionate
+    fear; ready to do anything, and yet not knowing what to do.
+    Above all, he was "brave and handsome, like a prince," and
+    therefore a fit lover for her gentle sister.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mr. Trelyon," she said with a great burst of
+    confidence, "I did so fear that you might be indifferent!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Indifferent!" said he with some bitterness. "Perhaps that
+    is the best thing that could happen, only it isn't very likely
+    to happen. Did you ever see anybody placed as I am placed,
+    Mabyn? Nothing but stumbling-blocks every way I look. Our
+    family have always been hot-headed and hot-tempered: if I told
+    my grandmother at this minute how I am situated, I believe she
+    would say, 'Why don't you go like a man and run off with the
+    girl?'"</p>
+
+    <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 419]</span>"Yes!" said Mabyn,
+    quite delighted.</p>
+
+    <p>"But suppose you've bothered and worried the girl until you
+    feel ashamed of yourself, and she begs of you to leave her,
+    aren't you bound in fair manliness to go?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know," said Mabyn doubtfully.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I do. It would be very mean to pester her. I'm off as
+    soon as these people leave the Hall. But then there are other
+    things. There is your sister engaged to this fellow out in
+    Jamaica&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Isn't he a horrid wretch?" said Mabyn between her
+    teeth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I quite agree with you. If I could have it out with him
+    now! But, after all, what harm has the man done? Is it any
+    wonder he wanted to get Wenna for a wife?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, but he cheated her," said Mabyn warmly. "He persuaded
+    her and reasoned with her, and argued her into marrying him.
+    And what business had he to tell her that love between young
+    people is all bitterness and trial, and that a girl is only
+    safe when she marries a prudent and elderly man who will look
+    after her? Why, it is to look after him that he wants her.
+    Wenna is going to him as a housekeeper and a nurse.
+    Only&mdash;only, Mr. Trelyon, <i>she hasn't gone to him just
+    yet</i>!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I don't think he did anything unfair," the young man
+    said gloomily. "It doesn't matter, anyhow. What I was going to
+    say is, that my grandmother's notion of what one of our family
+    ought to do in such a case can't be carried out: whatever you
+    may think of a man, you can't go and try to rob him of his
+    sweetheart behind his back. Even supposing she were willing to
+    break with him&mdash;which she is not&mdash;you've at least got
+    to wait to give the fellow a chance."</p>
+
+    <p>"There I quite disagree with you, Mr. Trelyon," Mabyn said
+    warmly. "Wait to give him a chance to make our Wenna miserable!
+    Is she to be made the prize of a sort of fight? If I were a man
+    I'd pay less attention to my own scruples and try what I could
+    do for her&mdash;Oh, Mr. Trelyon&mdash;I&mdash;I beg your
+    pardon."</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn suddenly stopped on the road, overwhelmed with
+    confusion. She had been so warmly thinking of her sister's
+    welfare that she had been hurried into something worse than an
+    indiscretion.</p>
+
+    <p>"What then, Mabyn?" said he, profoundly surprised.</p>
+
+    <p>"I beg your pardon: I have been so thoughtless. I had no
+    right to assume that you wished&mdash;that you wished for
+    the&mdash;for the opportunity&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of marrying Wenna?" said he with a great stare. "But what
+    else have we been speaking about? Or rather, I suppose we did
+    assume it. Well, the more I think over it, Mabyn, the more I am
+    maddened by all these obstacles, and by the notion of all the
+    things that may happen. That's the bad part of my going away.
+    How can I tell what may happen? He might come back and insist
+    on her marrying him right off."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Trelyon," said Mabyn, speaking very clearly, "there's
+    one thing you may be sure of. If you let me know where you are,
+    nothing will happen to Wenna that you don't hear of."</p>
+
+    <p>He took her hand and pressed it in mute thankfulness. He was
+    not insensible to the value of having so warm an advocate, so
+    faithful an ally, always at Wenna's side.</p>
+
+    <p>"How long do letters take in going to Jamaica?" Mabyn
+    asked.</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know."</p>
+
+    <p>"I could fetch him back for you directly," said she, "if you
+    would like that."</p>
+
+    <p>"How?"</p>
+
+    <p>"By writing and telling him that you and Wenna were going to
+    get married. Wouldn't that fetch him back pretty quickly?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I doubt it. He wouldn't believe it of Wenna. Then he is a
+    sensible sort of fellow, and would say to himself that if the
+    news was true he would have his journey for nothing. Besides,
+    Barnes says that things are looking well with him in
+    Jamaica&mdash;better than anybody expected. He might not be
+    anxious to leave."</p>
+
+    <p>They had now got back to the Parade, and Mabyn stopped: "I
+    must leave you now, Mr. Trelyon. Mind not to go near Wenna when
+    you get to Eglosilyan."</p>
+
+    <p>"She sha'n't even see me. I shall be
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 420]</span>there only a couple of
+    days or so; then I am going to London. I am going to have a try
+    at the Civil Service examinations&mdash;for first commissions,
+    you know. I shall only come back to Eglosilyan for a day now
+    and again at long intervals. You have promised to write to me,
+    Mabyn. Well, I'll send you my address."</p>
+
+    <p>She looked at him keenly as she offered him her hand. "I
+    wouldn't be downhearted if I were you," she said. "Very odd
+    things sometimes happen."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I sha'n't be very down-hearted," said he, "so long as I
+    hear that she is all right, and not vexing herself about
+    anything."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good-bye, Mr. Trelyon. I am sorry I can't take any message
+    for you."</p>
+
+    <p>"To her? No, that is impossible. Good-bye, Mabyn: I think
+    you are the best friend I have in the world."</p>
+
+    <p>"We'll see about that," she said as she walked rapidly
+    off.</p>
+
+    <p>Her mother had been sufficiently astonished by her long
+    absence: she was now equally surprised by the excitement and
+    pleasure visible in her face.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, mammy, do you know whom I've seen? Mr. Trelyon."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. We've walked right round Penzance all by ourselves.
+    And it's all settled, mother."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is all settled?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The understanding between him and me. An offensive and
+    defensive alliance. Let tyrants beware!"</p>
+
+    <p>She took off her bonnet and came and sat down on the floor
+    by the side of the sofa: "Oh, mammy, I see such beautiful
+    things in the future! You wouldn't believe it if I told you all
+    I see. Everybody else seems determined to forecast such gloomy
+    events. There's Wenna crying and writing letters of contrition,
+    and expecting all sorts of anger and scolding; there's Mr.
+    Trelyon haunted by the notion that Mr. Roscorla will suddenly
+    come home and marry Wenna right off; and as for him out there
+    in Jamaica, I expect he'll be in a nice state when he hears of
+    all this. But far on ahead of all that I see such a beautiful
+    picture!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a dream of yours, Mabyn," her mother said, but there
+    was an imaginative light in her fine eyes too.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, it is not a dream, mother, for there are so many people
+    all wishing now that it should come about, in spite of these
+    gloomy fancies. What is there to prevent it when we are all
+    agreed?&mdash;Mr. Trelyon and I heading the list with our
+    important alliance; and you, mother, would be so proud to see
+    Wenna happy; and Mrs. Trelyon pets her as if she were a
+    daughter already; and everybody&mdash;every man, woman and
+    child&mdash;in Eglosilyan would rather see that come about than
+    get a guinea apiece. Oh, mother, if you could see the picture
+    that I see just now!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a pretty picture, Mabyn," her mother said, shaking
+    her head. "But when you think of everybody being agreed, you
+    forget one, and that is Wenna herself. Whatever she thinks fit
+    and right to do, that she is certain to do, and all your
+    alliances and friendly wishes won't alter her decision, even if
+    it should break her heart. And indeed I hope the poor child
+    won't sink under the terrible strain that is on her: what do
+    you think of her looks, Mabyn?"</p>
+
+    <p>"They want mending&mdash;yes, they want mending," Mabyn
+    admitted, apparently with some compunction, but then she added
+    boldly, "and you know as well as I do, mother, that there is
+    but the one way of mending them."</p><br />
+     <a id="CHAPTER_XXX"
+          name="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER XXX.</h3>
+
+    <p class="center"><b>FERN IN DIE WELT.</b></p><br />
+
+
+    <p>If this story were not tied by its title to the duchy of
+    Cornwall, it might be interesting enough to follow Mr. Roscorla
+    into the new world that had opened all around him, and say
+    something of the sudden shock his old habits had thus received,
+    and of the quite altered views of his own life he had been led
+    to form. As matters stand, we can only pay him a flying
+    visit.</p>
+
+    <p>He is seated in a verandah fronting a garden, in which
+    pomegranates and oranges form the principal fruit. Down
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 421]</span>below him some blacks are
+    bringing provisions up to Yacca Farm along the cactus avenue
+    leading to the gate. Far away on his right the last rays of the
+    sun are shining on the summit of Blue Mountain Peak, and along
+    the horizon the reflected glow of the sky shines on the calm
+    sea. It is a fine, still evening; his cigar smells sweet in the
+    air; it is a time for indolent dreaming and for memories of
+    home.</p>
+
+    <p>But Mr. Roscorla is not so much enraptured by thoughts of
+    home as he might be. "Why," he is saying to himself, "my life
+    in Basset Cottage was no life at all, but only a waiting for
+    death. Day after day passed in that monotonous fashion: what
+    had one to look forward to but old age, sickness, and then the
+    quiet of a coffin? It was nothing but an hourly procession to
+    the grave, varied by rabbit-shooting. This bold breaking away
+    from the narrow life of such a place has given me a new lease
+    of existence. Now I can look back with surprise on the dullness
+    of that Cornish village, and on the regularity of habits which
+    I did not know were habits. For is not that always the case?
+    You don't know that you are forming a habit: you take each act
+    to be an individual act, which you may perform or not at will;
+    but, all the same, the succession of them is getting you into
+    its power; custom gets a grip of your ways of thinking as well
+    as your ways of living; the habit is formed, and it does not
+    cease its hold until it conducts you to the grave. Try Jamaica
+    for a cure. Fling a sleeping man into the sea, and watch if he
+    does not wake. Why, when I look back to the slow, methodical,
+    common-place life I led at Eglosilyan, can I wonder that I was
+    sometimes afraid of Wenna Rosewarne regarding me as a somewhat
+    staid and venerable individual, on whose infirmities she ought
+    to take pity?"</p>
+
+    <p>He rose and began to walk up and down the verandah, putting
+    his foot down firmly. His loose linen suit was smart enough:
+    his complexion had been improved by the sun. The consciousness
+    that his business affairs were promising well did not lessen
+    his sense of self-importance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna must be prepared to move about a bit when I go back,"
+    he was saying to himself. "She must give up that daily
+    attendance on cottagers' children. If all turns out well, I
+    don't see why we should not live in London, for who will know
+    there who her father was? That consideration was of no
+    consequence so long as I looked forward to living the rest of
+    my life in Basset Cottage: now there are other things to be
+    thought of when there is a chance of my going among my old
+    friends again."</p>
+
+    <p>By this time, it must be observed, Mr. Roscorla had
+    abandoned his hasty intention of returning to England to
+    upbraid Wenna with having received a ring from Harry Trelyon.
+    After all, he reasoned with himself, the mere fact that she
+    should talk thus simply and frankly about young Trelyon showed
+    that, so far as she was concerned, her loyalty to her absent
+    lover was unbroken. As for the young gentleman himself, he was,
+    Mr. Roscorla knew, fond of joking. He had doubtless thought it
+    a fine thing to make a fool of two or three women by imposing
+    on them this cock-and-bull story of finding a ring by dredging.
+    He was a little angry that Wenna should have been deceived; but
+    then, he reflected, these gypsy rings are so much like one
+    another that the young man had probably got a pretty fair
+    duplicate. For the rest, he did not want to quarrel with Harry
+    Trelyon at present.</p>
+
+    <p>But as he was walking up and down the verandah, looking a
+    much younger and brisker man than the Mr. Roscorla who had left
+    Eglosilyan, a servant came through the house and brought him a
+    couple of letters. He saw they were respectively from Mr.
+    Barnes and from Wenna; and, curiously enough, he opened the
+    reverend gentleman's first&mdash;perhaps as schoolboys like to
+    leave the best bit of a tart to the last.</p>
+
+    <p>He read the letter over carefully; he sat down and read it
+    again; then he put it before him on the table. He was evidently
+    puzzled by it. "What does this man mean by writing these
+    letters to me?"&mdash;so Mr. Roscorla, who was a cautious and
+    reflective person, communed with himself.&mdash;"He is no
+    particular friend <span class="pagenum">[Pg 422]</span>of mine.
+    He must be driving at something. Now he says that I am to be of
+    good cheer. I must not think anything of what he formerly
+    wrote. Mr. Trelyon is leaving Eglosilyan for good, and his
+    mother will at last have some peace of mind. What a pity it is
+    that this sensitive creature should be at the mercy of the rude
+    passions of this son of hers! that she should have no
+    protector! that she should be allowed to mope herself to death
+    in a melancholy seclusion!"</p>
+
+    <p>An odd fancy occurred to Mr. Roscorla at this moment, and he
+    smiled: "I think I have got a clew to Mr. Barnes's
+    disinterested anxiety about my affairs. The widower would like
+    to protect the solitary and unfriended widow, but the young man
+    is in the way. The young man would be very much in the way if
+    he married Wenna Rosewarne; the widower's fears drive him into
+    suspicion, then into certainty; nothing will do but that I
+    should return to England at once and spoil this little
+    arrangement. But as soon as Harry Trelyon declares his
+    intention of leaving Eglosilyan for good, then my affairs may
+    go anyhow. Mr. Barnes finds the coast clear: I am bidden to
+    stay where I am. Well, that is what I mean to do; but now I
+    fancy I understand Mr. Barnes's generous friendship for me and
+    his affectionate correspondence."</p>
+
+    <p>He turned to Wenna's letter with much compunction. He owed
+    her some atonement for having listened to the disingenuous
+    reports of this scheming clergyman. How could he have so far
+    forgotten the firm, uncompromising rectitude of the girl's
+    character, her sensitive notions of honor, the promises she had
+    given?</p>
+
+    <p>He read her letter, and as he read his eyes seemed to grow
+    hot with rage. He paid no heed to the passionate contrition of
+    the trembling lines&mdash;to the obvious pain that she had
+    endured in telling the story, without concealment, against
+    herself&mdash;to the utter and abject wretchedness with which
+    she awaited his decision. It was thus that she had kept faith
+    with him the moment his back was turned! Such were the
+    safeguards afforded by a woman's sense of honor! What a fool he
+    had been, to imagine that any woman could remain true to her
+    promise so soon as some other object of flirtation and
+    incipient love-making came in her way!</p>
+
+    <p>He looked at the letter again: he could scarcely believe it
+    to be in her handwriting. This the quiet, reasonable, gentle
+    and timid Wenna Rosewarne, whose virtues were almost a trifle
+    too severe? The despair and remorse of the letter did not touch
+    him&mdash;he was too angry and indignant over the insult to
+    himself&mdash;but it astonished him. The passionate emotion of
+    those closely-written pages he could scarcely connect with the
+    shy, frank, kindly little girl he remembered: it was a cry of
+    agony from a tortured woman, and he knew at least that for her
+    the old quiet time was over.</p>
+
+    <p>He knew not what to do. All this that had happened was new
+    to him: it was old and gone by in England, and who could tell
+    what further complications might have arisen? But his anger
+    required some vent: he went in-doors, called for a lamp, and
+    sat down and wrote with a hard and resolute look on his
+    face:</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"I have received your letter. I am not surprised. You
+        are a woman, and I ought to have known that a woman's
+        promise is of value so long as you are by her side to see
+        that she keeps it. You ask what reparation you can make: I
+        ask if there is any that you can suggest. No: you have done
+        what cannot be undone. Do you think a man would marry a
+        woman who is in love with, or has been in love with,
+        another man, even if he could overlook her breach of faith
+        and the shameless thoughtlessness of her conduct? My course
+        is clear, at all events. I give you back the promise that
+        you did not know how to keep; and now you can go and ask
+        the young man who has been making a holiday toy of you
+        whether he will be pleased to marry you.</p>
+
+        <p class='author'>"RICHARD ROSCORLA."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>He sealed and addressed this letter, still with the firm,
+    hard look about his face: then he summoned a servant&mdash;a
+    tall, red-haired Irishman. He did not hesitate for a moment:
+    "Look here, Sullivan: <span class="pagenum">[Pg 423]</span>the
+    English mails go out to-morrow morning. You must ride down to
+    the post-office as hard as you can go; and if you're a few
+    minutes late, see Mr. Keith and give him my compliments, and
+    ask him if he can possibly take this letter if the mails are
+    not made up. It is of great importance. Quick, now!"</p>
+
+    <p>He watched the man go clattering down the cactus avenue
+    until he was out of sight. Then he turned, put the letters in
+    his pocket, went in-doors, and again struck a small gong that
+    did duty for a bell. He wanted his horse brought round at once.
+    He was going over to Pleasant Farm: probably he would not
+    return that night. He lit another cigar, and paced up and down
+    the gravel in front of the house until the horse was brought
+    round.</p>
+
+    <p>When he reached Pleasant Farm the stars were shining
+    overhead, and the odors of the night-flowers came floating out
+    of the forest, but inside the house there were brilliant lights
+    and the voices of men talking. A bachelor supper-party was
+    going forward. Mr. Roscorla entered, and presently was seated
+    at the hospitable board. They had never seen him so gay, and
+    they had certainly never seen him so generously inclined, for
+    Mr. Roscorla was economical in his habits. He would have them
+    all to dinner the next evening, and promised them such
+    champagne as had never been sent to Kingston before. He passed
+    round his best cigars, he hinted something about unlimited loo,
+    he drank pretty freely, and was altogether in a jovial
+    humor.</p>
+
+    <p>"England!" he said, when some one mentioned the
+    mother-country. "Of one thing I am pretty certain: England will
+    never see me again. No, a man lives here: in England he waits
+    for his death. What life I have got before me I shall live in
+    Jamaica: that is my view of the question."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then she is coming out to you?" said his host with a
+    grin.</p>
+
+    <p>Roscorla's face flushed with anger. "There is no <i>she</i>
+    in the matter," he said abruptly, almost fiercely. "I thank God
+    I am not tied to any woman!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I beg your pardon," said his host good-naturedly, who
+    did not care to recall the occasions on which Mr. Roscorla had
+    been rather pleased to admit that certain tender ties bound him
+    to his native land.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, there is not," he said. "What fool would have his
+    comfort and peace of mind depend on the caprice of a woman? I
+    like your plan better, Rogers: when they're dependent on you,
+    you can do as you like, but when they've got to be treated as
+    equals, they're the devil. No, my boys, you don't find me going
+    in for the angel in the house&mdash;she's too exacting. Is it
+    to be unlimited?"</p>
+
+    <p>Now to play unlimited loo in a reckless fashion is about the
+    easiest way of getting rid of money that the ingenuity of man
+    has devised. The other players were much better qualified to
+    run such risks than Mr. Roscorla, but none played half so
+    wildly as he. His I.O.U.'s went freely about. At one point in
+    the evening the floating paper bearing the signature of Mr.
+    Roscorla represented a sum of about three hundred pounds, and
+    yet his losses did not weigh heavily on him. At length every
+    one got tired, and it was resolved to stop short at a certain
+    hour. But from this point the luck changed: nothing could stand
+    against his cards; one by one his I.O.U.'s were recalled; and
+    when they all rose from the table he had won about forty-eight
+    pounds. He was not elated.</p>
+
+    <p>He went to his room and sat down in an easy-chair; and then
+    it seemed to him that he saw Eglosilyan once more, and the far
+    coasts of Cornwall, and the broad uplands lying under a blue
+    English sky. That was his home, and he had cut himself away
+    from it, and from the little glimmer of romance that had
+    recently brightened it for him. Every bit of the place, too,
+    was associated somehow with Wenna Rosewarne. He could see the
+    seat fronting the Atlantic on which she used to sit and sew on
+    the fine summer forenoons. He could see the rough road leading
+    over the downs on which he met her one wintry morning, she
+    wrapped up and driving her father's dog-cart, while the red sun
+    in the sky seemed to brighten the pink color the cold wind had
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 424]</span>brought into her cheeks.
+    He thought of her walking sedately up to church; of her wild
+    scramblings among the rocks with Mabyn; of her enjoyment of a
+    fierce wind when it came laden with the spray of the great
+    rollers breaking on the cliff outside. What was the song she
+    used to sing to herself as she went along the quiet woodland
+    ways?&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <p>Your Polly has never been false, she declares,</p>
+
+        <p>Since last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He could not let her go. All the anger of wounded vanity had
+    left his heart: he thought now only of the chance he was
+    throwing away. Where else could he hope to find for himself so
+    pleasant a companion and friend, who would cheer up his dull
+    daily life with her warm sympathies, her quick humor, her
+    winning womanly ways?</p>
+
+    <p>He thought of that letter he had sent away, and cursed his
+    own folly. So long as she was bound by her promise he knew he
+    could marry her when he pleased, but now he had voluntarily
+    released her. In a couple of weeks she would hold her
+    manumission in her hands; the past would no longer have any
+    power over her; if ever they met they would meet as mere
+    acquaintances. Every moment the prize slipping out of his grasp
+    seemed to grow more valuable; his vexation with himself grew
+    intolerable; he suddenly resolved that he would make a wild
+    effort to get back that fatal letter.</p>
+
+    <p>He had sat communing with himself for over an hour: all the
+    household was fast asleep. He would not wake any one, for fear
+    of being compelled to give explanations; so he noiselessly
+    crept along the dark passages until he got to the door, which
+    he carefully opened and let himself out. The night was
+    wonderfully clear, the constellations throbbing and glittering
+    overhead: the trees were black against the pale sky.</p>
+
+    <p>He made his way round to the stables, and had some sort of
+    notion that he would try to get at his horse, until it occurred
+    to him that some suddenly awakened servant or master would
+    probably send a bullet whizzing at him. So he abandoned that
+    enterprise, and set off to walk as quickly as he could down the
+    slopes of the mountain, with the stars still shining over his
+    head, the air sweet with powerful scents, the leaves of the
+    bushes hanging silently in the semi-darkness.</p>
+
+    <p>How long he walked he did not know: he was not aware that
+    when he reached the sleeping town a pale gray was lightening
+    the eastern skies. He went to the house of the postmaster and
+    hurriedly aroused him. Mr. Keith began to think that the
+    ordinarily sedate Mr. Roscorla had gone mad.</p>
+
+    <p>"But I must have the letter," he said. "Come now, Keith, you
+    can give it me back if you like. Of course I know it is very
+    wrong, but you'll do it to oblige a friend."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear sir," said the postmaster, who could not get time
+    for explanation, "the mails were made up last night&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, but you can open the English bag."</p>
+
+    <p>"They were sent on board last night."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then the packet is still in the harbor: you might come down
+    with me."</p>
+
+    <p>"She sails at daybreak."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not daybreak yet," said Mr. Roscorla, looking up.</p>
+
+    <p>Then he saw how the gray dawn had come over the skies,
+    banishing the stars, and he became aware of the wan light
+    shining around him. With the new day his life was altered; he
+    would no more be as he had been; the chief aim and purpose of
+    his existence had been changed.</p>
+
+    <p>Walking heedlessly back, he came to a point from which he
+    had a distant view of the harbor and the sea beyond. Far away
+    out on the dull gray plain was a steamer slowly making her way
+    toward the east. Was that the packet bound for England,
+    carrying to Wenna Rosewarne the message that she was
+    free?</p><br />
+
+
+    <h3><a id="CHAPTER_XXXI"
+       name="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h3>
+
+    <p class="center"><b>"BLUE IS THE SWEETEST."</b></p><br />
+
+
+    <p>The following correspondence may now, without any great
+    breach of confidence, be published:</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p class="author">"EGLOSILYAN, Monday morning.</p>
+
+        <p>DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+        425]</span>what Mr. Roscorla says in the letter Wenna has
+        just received? Why, that you could not get up that ring by
+        dredging, but that you must have bought the other one at
+        Plymouth. Just think of the wicked old wretch fancying such
+        things! As if you would give a ring <i>of emeralds to any
+        one</i>! Tell me that this is a story, that I may bid Wenna
+        contradict him at once. I have got no patience with a man
+        who is given over to such mean suspicions. Yours
+        faithfully,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">MABYN ROSEWARNE."</p><br />
+
+
+        <p class="author">"LONDON, Tuesday night.</p>
+
+        <p>Dear Mabyn: I am sorry to say Mr. Roscorla is right. It
+        was a foolish trick&mdash;I did not think it would be
+        successful, for my hitting the size of her finger was
+        rather a stroke of luck&mdash;but I thought it would amuse
+        her if she did find it out after an hour or two. I was
+        afraid to tell her afterward, for she would think it
+        impertinent. What's to be done? Is she angry about it.
+        Yours sincerely,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">HARRY TRELYON."</p><br />
+
+
+        <p class="author">"EGLOSILYAN.</p>
+
+        <p>Dear Mr. Trelyon: How could you do such a thing? Why, to
+        give Wenna, of all people in the world, an emerald ring,
+        just after I had got Mr. Roscorla to give her one, for bad
+        luck to himself! Why, how could you do it? I don't know
+        what to say about it, unless you demand it back, <i>and
+        send her one with sapphires in it at once</i>.</p>
+
+        <p class="author">Yours, M.R.</p>
+
+        <p>P.S.&mdash;As quick as ever you can."</p><br />
+
+
+        <p class="author">"LONDON, Friday evening.</p>
+
+        <p>Dear Mabyn: Why, you know she wouldn't take a sapphire
+        ring or any other from me. Yours faithfully,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">H. TRELYON."</p><br />
+
+
+        <p>"MY DEAR MR. TRELYON: Pray don't lose any time in
+        writing, but send me at once a sapphire ring for Wenna. You
+        have hit the size once, and you can do it again; but in any
+        case I have marked the size on this bit of thread, and the
+        jeweler will understand. And please, dear Mr. Trelyon,
+        don't get a very expensive one, but a plain, good one, just
+        what a poor person like me would buy for a present if I
+        wanted to. And post it at once, please: <i>this is very
+        important</i>. Yours most sincerely,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">MABYN ROSEWARNE."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>In consequence of this correspondence Mabyn one morning
+    proceeded to seek out her sister, whom she found busy with the
+    accounts of the sewing club, which was now in a flourishing
+    condition. Mabyn seemed a little shy. "Oh, Wenna," she said, "I
+    have something to tell you. You know I wrote to ask Mr. Trelyon
+    about the ring. Well, he's very, very sorry&mdash;oh, you don't
+    know how sorry he is, Wenna&mdash;but it's quite true. He
+    thought he'd please you by getting the ring, and that you would
+    make a joke of it when you found it out; and then he was afraid
+    to speak of it afterward."</p>
+
+    <p>Wenna had quietly slipped the ring off her finger. She
+    betrayed no emotion at the mention of Mr. Trelyon's name. Her
+    face was a trifle red: that was, all. "It was a stupid thing to
+    do," she said, "but I suppose he meant no harm. Will you send
+    him back the ring?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," she said eagerly. "Give me the ring, Wenna."</p>
+
+    <p>She carefully wrapped it up in a piece of paper and put it
+    in her pocket. Any one who knew her would have seen by her face
+    that she meant to give that ring short shrift. Then she said
+    timidly, "You are not very angry, Wenna?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No. I am sorry I should have vexed Mr. Roscorla by my
+    carelessness."</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna," the younger sister continued, even more timidly,
+    "do you know what I've heard about rings?&mdash;that when
+    you've worn one for some time on a finger, you ought never to
+    leave it off altogether: I think it affects the circulation, or
+    something of that kind. Now, if Mr. Trelyon were to send you
+    another ring, just to&mdash;to keep the place of that one until
+    Mr. Roscorla came back&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn, you must be mad to think of such a thing," said her
+    sister, looking down.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh yes," Mabyn said meekly, "I thought you wouldn't like
+    the notion of Mr. Trelyon giving you a ring. And so, dear
+    Wenna, I've&mdash;I've got a ring for <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    426]</span>you&mdash;you won't mind taking it from me&mdash;and
+    if you do wear it on the engaged finger, why, that doesn't
+    matter, don't you see?"</p>
+
+    <p>She produced the ring of dark blue stones, and herself put
+    it on Wenna's finger.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mabyn," Wenna said, "how could you be so extravagant?
+    And just after you gave me that ten shillings for the
+    Leans!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You be quiet," said Mabyn briskly, going off with a light
+    look on her face.</p>
+
+    <p>And yet there was some determination about her mouth. She
+    hastily put on her hat and went out. She took the path by the
+    hillside over the little harbor, and eventually she reached the
+    face of the black cliff, at the foot of which a gray-green sea
+    was dashing in white masses of foam: there was not a living
+    thing around her but the choughs and daws, and the white
+    seagulls sailing overhead.</p>
+
+    <p>She took out a large sheet of brown paper and placed it on
+    the ground. Then she sought out a bit of rock weighing about
+    two pounds. Then she took out the little parcel which contained
+    the emerald ring, tied it up carefully along with the stone in
+    the sheet of brown paper: finally, she rose up to her full
+    height and heaved the whole into the sea. A splash down there,
+    and that was all.</p>
+
+    <p>She clapped her hands with joy: "And now, my precious
+    emerald ring, that's the last of you, I imagine! And there
+    isn't much chance of a fish bringing you back, to make mischief
+    with your ugly green stones."</p>
+
+    <p>Then she went home, and wrote this note:</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p class="author">"EGLOSILYAN, Monday.</p>
+
+        <p>DEAR MR. TRELYON: I have just thrown the emerald ring
+        you gave Wenna into the sea, and she wears the other one
+        now <i>on her engaged finger</i>, but she thinks I bought
+        it. Did you ever hear of an old-fashioned rhyme that is
+        this?&mdash;</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+            <div class="stanza">
+                <p>Oh, green is forsaken,</p>
+
+                <p class="i2">And yellow's forsworn;</p>
+
+                <p>And blue is thesweetest</p>
+
+                <p class="i2">Color that's worn.</p>
+            </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p>You can't tell what mischief that emerald ring might not
+        have done. But the sapphires that Wenna is wearing now are
+        perfectly beautiful; and Wenna is not so heartbroken that
+        she isn't very proud of them. I never saw such a beautiful
+        ring. Yours sincerely,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">MABYN ROSEWARNE.</p>
+
+        <p>P.S.&mdash;Are you never coming back to Eglosilyan any
+        more?"</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>So the days went by, and Mabyn waited with a secret hope to
+    see what answer Mr. Roscorla would send to that letter of
+    confession and contrition Wenna had written to him at Penzance.
+    The letter had been written as an act of duty, and posted too;
+    but there was no mail going out for ten days thereafter, so
+    that a considerable time had to elapse before the answer
+    came.</p>
+
+    <p>During that time Wenna went about her ordinary duties just
+    as if there was no hidden fire of pain consuming her heart;
+    there was no word spoken by her or to her of all that had
+    recently occurred; her mother and sister were glad to see her
+    so continuously busy. At first she shrank from going up to
+    Trelyon Hall, and would rather have corresponded with Mrs.
+    Trelyon about their joint work of charity, but she conquered
+    the feeling, and went and saw the gentle lady, who perceived
+    nothing altered or strange in her demeanor. At last the letter
+    from Jamaica came; and Mabyn, having sent it up to her sister's
+    room, waited for a few minutes, and then followed it. She was a
+    little afraid, despite her belief in the virtues of the
+    sapphire ring.</p>
+
+    <p>When she entered the room she uttered a slight cry of alarm
+    and ran forward to her sister. Wenna was seated on a chair by
+    the side of the bed, but she had thrown her arms out on the
+    bed, her head was between them, and she was sobbing as if her
+    heart would break.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna, what is the matter? what has he said to you?"</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn's eyes were all afire now. Wenna would not answer. She
+    would not even raise her head.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna, I want to see that letter."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh no, no!" the girl moaned. "I deserve it: he says what is
+    true. I want <span class="pagenum">[Pg 427]</span>you to leave
+    me alone, Mabyn: you&mdash;you can't do anything to help
+    this."</p>
+
+    <p>But Mabyn had by this time perceived that her sister held in
+    her hand, crumpled up, the letter which was the cause of this
+    wild outburst of grief. She went forward and firmly took it out
+    of the yielding fingers: then she turned to the light and read
+    it. "Oh, if I were a man!" she said; and then the very passion
+    of her indignation, finding no other vent, filled her eyes with
+    proud and angry tears. She forgot to rejoice that her sister
+    was now free. She only saw the cruel insult of those lines, and
+    the fashion in which it had struck down its victim. "Wenna,"
+    she said hotly, "you ought to have more spirit. You don't mean
+    to say you care for the opinion of a man who would write to any
+    girl like that? You ought to be precious glad that he has shown
+    himself in his true colors. Why, he never cared a bit for
+    you&mdash;never!&mdash;or he would never turn at a moment's
+    notice and insult you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have deserved it all; it is every word of it true; he
+    could not have written otherwise." That was all that Wenna
+    would say between her sobs.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," retorted Mabyn, "after all, I am glad he was angry.
+    I did not think he had so much spirit. And if this is his
+    opinion of you, I don't think it is worth heeding, only I hope
+    he'll keep to it. Yes, I do. I hope he'll continue to think you
+    everything that is wicked, and remain out in Jamaica. Wenna,
+    you must not lie and cry like that. Come, get up, and look at
+    the strawberries that Mr. Trewhella has sent you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Please, Mabyn, leave me alone, there's a good girl."</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall be up again in a few minutes, then: I want you to
+    drive me over to St. Gwennis. Wenna, I <i>must</i> go over to
+    St. Gwennis before lunch; and father won't let me have anybody
+    to drive. Do you hear, Wenna?"</p>
+
+    <p>Then she went out and down into the kitchen, where she
+    bothered Jennifer for a few minutes until she had got an iron
+    heated at the fire. With this implement she carefully smoothed
+    out the crumpled letter, and then she as carefully folded it,
+    took it up stairs, and put it safely away in her own desk. She
+    had just time to write a few lines:</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        "DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know what news I have got to tell
+        you? Can you guess? The engagement between Mr. Roscorla and
+        Wenna <i>is broken off</i>; and I have got in my possession
+        the letter in which he sets her free. If you knew how glad
+        I am! I should like to cry 'Hurrah! hurrah!' all through
+        the streets of Eglosilyan; and I think every one else would
+        do the same if only they knew. Of course she is very much
+        grieved, for he has been most insulting. I cannot tell you
+        the things he has said: you would kill him if you heard
+        them. But she will come round very soon, I know: and then
+        she will have her freedom again, and no more emerald rings,
+        and letters all filled with arguments. Would you like to
+        see her, Mr. Trelyon? But don't come yet&mdash;not for a
+        long time: she would only get angry and obstinate. I'll
+        tell you when to come; and in the mean time, you know, she
+        is still wearing your ring, so that you need not be afraid.
+        How glad I shall be to see you again! Yours most
+        faithfully,
+
+        <p class="author">"MABYN ROSEWARNE."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>She went down stairs quickly and put this letter in the
+    letter-box. There was an air of triumph on her face. She had
+    worked for this result&mdash;aided by the mysterious powers of
+    Fate, whom she had conjured to serve her&mdash;and now the
+    welcome end of her labors had arrived. She bade the hostler get
+    out the dog-cart, as if she were the queen of Sheba going to
+    visit Solomon. She went marching up to her sister's room,
+    announcing her approach with a more than ordinarily accurate
+    rendering of "Oh, the men of merry, merry England!" so that a
+    stranger might have fancied that he heard the very voice of
+    Harry Trelyon, with all its unmelodious vigor, ringing along
+    the passage.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="CHAPTER_XXXII"
+       name="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h3>
+
+    <p class="center"><b>THE EXILE'S RETURN.</b></p><br />
+
+
+    <p>Perhaps you have been away in distant parts of the earth,
+    each day crowded with new experiences and slowly obscuring
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 428]</span>the clear pictures of
+    England with which you left: perhaps you have only been hidden
+    away in London, amid its ceaseless noise, its strange faces,
+    its monotonous recurrence of duties. Let us say, in any case,
+    that you are returning home for a space to the quiet of
+    Northern Cornwall.</p>
+
+    <p>You look out of the high window of a Plymouth hotel early in
+    the morning. There is a promise of a beautiful autumn
+    day&mdash;a ring of pink mist lies around the horizon; overhead
+    the sky is clear and blue; the white sickle of the moon still
+    lingers visible. The new warmth of the day begins to melt the
+    hoarfrost in the meadows, and you know that out beyond the town
+    the sun is shining brilliantly on the wet grass, with the brown
+    cattle gleaming red in the light.</p>
+
+    <p>You leave the great world behind, with all its bustle,
+    crowds and express engines, when you get into the quiet little
+    train that takes you leisurely up to Launceston, through woods,
+    by the sides of rivers, over great valleys. There is a sense of
+    repose about this railway journey. The train stops at any
+    number of small stations&mdash;apparently to let the guard have
+    a chat with the station-master&mdash;and then jogs on in a
+    quiet, contented fashion. And on such an autumn day as this,
+    that is a beautiful, still, rich-colored and English-looking
+    country through which it passes. Here is a deep valley, all
+    glittering with the dew and the sunlight. Down in the hollow a
+    farmyard is half hidden behind the yellowing elms; a boy is
+    driving a flock of white geese along the twisting road; the
+    hedges are red with the withering briers. Up here, along the
+    hillsides, the woods of scrub-oak are glowing with every
+    imaginable hue of gold, crimson and bronze, except where a few
+    dark firs appear, or where a tuft of broom, pure and bright in
+    its green, stands out among the faded brackens. The gorse is
+    profusely in bloom: it always is in Cornwall. Still farther
+    over there are sheep visible on the uplands; beyond these,
+    again, the bleak brown moors rise into peaks of hills; overhead
+    the silent blue, and all around the sweet, fresh country
+    air.</p>
+
+    <p>With a sharp whistle the small train darts into an opening
+    in the hills: here we are in the twilight of a great wood. The
+    tall trees are becoming bare; the ground is red with the fallen
+    leaves; through the branches the blue-winged jay flies,
+    screaming harshly; you can smell the damp and resinous odors of
+    the ferns. Out again we get into the sunlight! and lo! a
+    rushing, brawling, narrow stream, its clear flood swaying this
+    way and that by the big stones; a wall of rock overhead crowned
+    by glowing furze; a herd of red cattle sent scampering through
+    the bright-green grass. Now we get slowly into a small white
+    station, and catch a glimpse of a tiny town over in the valley:
+    again we go on by wood and valley, by rocks and streams and
+    farms. It is a pleasant drive on such a morning.</p>
+
+    <p>In one of the carriages in this train Master Harry Trelyon
+    and his grandmother were seated. How he had ever persuaded her
+    to go with him to Cornwall by train was mysterious enough, for
+    the old lady thoroughly hated all such modern devices. It was
+    her custom to go traveling all over the country with a big,
+    old-fashioned phaeton and a pair of horses; and her chief
+    amusement during these long excursions was driving up to any
+    big house she took a fancy to, in order to see if there was a
+    chance of its being let to her. The faithful old servant who
+    attended her, and who was about as old as the coachman, had a
+    great respect for his mistress, but sometimes he
+    swore&mdash;inaudibly&mdash;when she ordered him to make the
+    usual inquiry at the front-door of some noble lord's country
+    residence, which he would as soon have thought of letting as of
+    forfeiting his seat in the House of Peers or his hopes of
+    heaven. But the carriage and horses were coming down, all the
+    same, to Eglosilyan, to take her back again.</p>
+
+    <p>"Harry," she was saying at this moment, "the longer I look
+    at you, the more positive I am that you are ill. I don't like
+    your color: you are thin and careworn and anxious. What is the
+    matter with you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Going to school again at twenty-one
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 429]</span>is hard work,
+    grandmother," he said. "Don't you try it. But I don't think I'm
+    particularly ill: few folks can keep a complexion like yours,
+    grandmother."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said the old lady, rather pleased, "many's the time
+    they said that about me, that there wasn't much to complain of
+    in my looks; and that's what a girl thinks of then, and
+    sweethearts and balls, and all the other men looking savage
+    when she's dancing with any one of them. Well, well, Harry; and
+    what is all this about you and the young lady your mother has
+    made such a pet of? Oh yes, I have my suspicions; and she's
+    engaged to another man, isn't she? Your grandfather would have
+    fought him, I'll be bound; but we live in a peaceable way now.
+    Well, well, no matter; but hasn't that got something to do with
+    your glum looks, Harry?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I tell you, grandmother, I have been hard at work in
+    London. You can't look very brilliant after a few months in
+    London."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what keeps you in London at this time of the year?"
+    said this plain-spoken old lady. "Your fancy about getting into
+    the army? Nonsense, man! don't tell me such a tale as that.
+    There's a woman in the case: a Trelyon never puts himself so
+    much about from any other cause. To stop in town at this time
+    of the year! Why, your grandfather, and your father too, would
+    have laughed to hear of it. I haven't had a brace of birds or a
+    pheasant sent me since last autumn&mdash;not one. Come, sir, be
+    frank with me. I'm an old woman, but I can hold my tongue."</p>
+
+    <p>"There's nothing to tell, grandmother," he said. "You just
+    about hit it in that guess of yours: I suppose Juliott told
+    you. Well, the girl is engaged to another man: what more is to
+    be said?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The man's in Jamaica?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why are you going down to-day?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Only for a brief visit: I've been a long time away."</p>
+
+    <p>The old lady sat silent for some time. She had heard of the
+    whole affair before, but she wished to have the rumor
+    confirmed. And at first she was sorely troubled that her
+    grandson should contemplate marrying the daughter of an
+    innkeeper, however intelligent, amiable and well-educated the
+    young lady might be; but she knew the Trelyons pretty well, and
+    knew that if he had made up his mind to it, argument and
+    remonstrance would be useless. Moreover, she had a great
+    affection for this young man, and was strongly disposed to
+    sympathize with any wish of his. She grew in time to have a
+    great interest in Miss Wenna Rosewarne: at this moment the
+    chief object of her visit was to make her acquaintance. She
+    grew to pity young Trelyon in his disappointment, and was
+    inclined to believe that the person in Jamaica was something of
+    a public enemy. The fact was, her mere sympathy for her
+    grandson would have converted her to a sympathy with the
+    wildest project he could have formed.</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear! dear!" she said, "what awkward things engagements are
+    when they stand in your way! Shall I tell you the truth? I was
+    just about as good as engaged to John Cholmondeley when I gave
+    myself up to your grandfather. But there! when a girl's heart
+    pulls her one way, and her promise pulls her another way, she
+    needs to be a very firm-minded young woman if she means to hold
+    fast. John Cholmondeley was as good-hearted a young fellow as
+    ever lived&mdash;yes, I will say that for him&mdash;and I was
+    mightily sorry for him; but&mdash;but you see, that's how
+    things come about. Dear! dear! that evening at Bath&mdash;I
+    remember it as well as if it was yesterday; and it was only two
+    months after I had run away with your grandfather. Yes, there
+    was a ball that night; and we had kept very quiet, you know,
+    after coming back; but this time your grandfather had set his
+    heart on taking me out before everybody, and you know he had to
+    have his way. As sure as I live, Harry, the first man I saw was
+    John Cholmondeley&mdash;just as white as a ghost: they said he
+    had been drinking hard and gambling pretty nearly the whole of
+    these two months. He wouldn't come near me: he wouldn't take
+    the least notice of me. The whole night he pretended to
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 430]</span>be vastly gay and merry:
+    he danced with everybody, but his eyes never came near me.
+    Well&mdash;you know what a girl is&mdash;that vexed me a little
+    bit; for there never was a man such a slave to a woman as he
+    was to me. Dear! dear! the way my father used to laugh at him,
+    until he got wild with anger! Well, I went up to him at last,
+    when he was by himself, and I said to him, just in a careless
+    way, you know, 'John, aren't you going to dance with me
+    to-night?' Well, do you know, his face got quite white again;
+    and he said&mdash;I remember the very words, all as cold as
+    ice&mdash;'Madam,' says he, 'I am glad to find that your
+    hurried trip to Scotland has impaired neither your good looks
+    nor your self-command.' Wasn't it cruel of him?&mdash;but then,
+    poor fellow! he had been badly used, I admit that. Poor young
+    fellow! he never did marry; and I don't believe he ever forgot
+    me to his dying day. Many a time I'd like to have told him all
+    about it, and how there was no use in my marrying him if I
+    liked another man better; but though we met sometimes, and
+    especially when he came down about the Reform Bill
+    time&mdash;and I do believe I made a red-hot radical of
+    him&mdash;he was always very proud, and I hadn't the heart to
+    go back on the old story. But I'll tell you what your
+    grandfather did for him: he got him returned at the very next
+    election, and he on the other side, too; and after a bit a man
+    begins to think more about getting a seat in Parliament than
+    about courting an empty-headed girl. I have met this Mr.
+    Roscorla, haven't I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course you have."</p>
+
+    <p>"A good-looking man rather, with a fresh complexion and gray
+    hair?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know what you mean by good looks," said Trelyon
+    shortly. "I shouldn't think people would call him an Adonis.
+    But there's no accounting for tastes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Perhaps I may have been mistaken," the old lady said, "but
+    there was a gentleman at Plymouth Station who seemed to be
+    something like what I can recall of Mr. Roscorla: you didn't
+    see him, I suppose?"</p>
+
+    <p>"At Plymouth Station, grandmother?" the young man said,
+    becoming rather uneasy.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. He got into the train just as we came up. A
+    neatly-dressed man, gray hair and a healthy-looking face. I
+    must have seen him somewhere about here before."</p>
+
+    <p>"Roscorla is in Jamaica," said Trelyon positively.</p>
+
+    <p>Just at this moment the train slowed into Launceston
+    Station, and the people began to get out on the platform.</p>
+
+    <p>"That is the man I mean," said the old lady.</p>
+
+    <p>Trelyon turned and stared. There, sure enough, was Mr.
+    Roscorla, looking not one whit different from the precise,
+    elderly, fresh-colored gentleman who had left Cornwall some
+    seven months before.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good Lord, Harry!" said the old lady nervously, looking at
+    her grandson's face, "don't have a fight here."</p>
+
+    <p>The next second Mr. Roscorla wheeled round, anxious about
+    some luggage, and now it was his turn to stare in astonishment
+    and anger&mdash;anger, because he had been told that Harry
+    Trelyon never came near Cornwall, and his first sudden
+    suspicion was that he had been deceived. All this had happened
+    in a minute. Trelyon was the first to regain his self-command.
+    He walked deliberately forward, held out his hand, and said,
+    "Hillo, Roscorla! back in England again? I didn't know you were
+    coming."</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said Mr. Roscorla, with his face grown just a trifle
+    grayer&mdash;"no, I suppose not."</p>
+
+    <p>In point of fact, he had not informed any one of his coming.
+    He had prepared a little surprise. The chief motive of his
+    return was to get Wenna to cancel for ever that unlucky letter
+    of release he had sent her, which he had done more or less
+    successfully in subsequent correspondence; but he had also
+    hoped to introduce a little romanticism into his meeting with
+    her. He would enter Eglosilyan on foot. He would wander down to
+    the rocks at the mouth of the harbor on the chance of finding
+    Wenna there. Might he not hear her humming to herself, as she
+    sat and sewed, some snatch of "Your Polly has never been false,
+    she declares"? <span class="pagenum">[Pg 431]</span>or was that
+    the very last ballad in the world she would now think of
+    singing? Then the delight of regarding again the placid, bright
+    face and earnest eyes, of securing once more a perfect
+    understanding between them, and their glad return to the
+    inn!</p>
+
+    <p>All this had been spoiled by the appearance of this young
+    man: he loved him none the more for that.</p>
+
+    <p>"I suppose you haven't got a trap waiting for you?" said
+    Trelyon with cold politeness. "I can drive you over if you
+    like."</p>
+
+    <p>He could do no less than make the offer: the other had no
+    alternative but to accept. Old Mrs. Trelyon heard this compact
+    made with considerable dread.</p>
+
+    <p>Indeed, it was a dismal drive over to Eglosilyan, bright as
+    the forenoon was. The old lady did her best to be courteous to
+    Mr. Roscorla and cheerful with her grandson, but she was
+    oppressed by the belief that it was only her presence that had
+    so far restrained the two men from giving vent to the rage and
+    jealousy that filled their hearts.</p>
+
+    <p>The conversation kept up was singular.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you going to remain in England long, Roscorla?" said
+    the younger of the two men, making an unnecessary cut at one of
+    the two horses he was driving.</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't know yet. Perhaps I may."</p>
+
+    <p>"Because," said Trelyon with angry impertinence, "I suppose
+    if you do, you'll have to look round for a housekeeper."</p>
+
+    <p>The insinuation was felt; and Roscorla's eyes looked
+    anything but pleasant as he answered, "You forget I've got Mrs.
+    Cornish to look after my house."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mrs. Cornish is not much of a companion for you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Men seldom want to make companions of their housekeepers,"
+    was the retort, uttered rather hotly.</p>
+
+    <p>"But sometimes they wish to have the two offices combined,
+    for economy's sake."</p>
+
+    <p>At this juncture Mrs. Trelyon struck in, somewhat wildly,
+    with a remark about an old ruined house which seemed to have
+    had at one time a private still inside: the danger was staved
+    off for the moment. "Harry," she said, "mind what you are
+    about: the horses seem very fresh."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, they like a good run: I suspect they've had precious
+    little to do since I left Cornwall."</p>
+
+    <p>Did she fear that the young man was determined to throw them
+    into a ditch or down a precipice, with the wild desire of
+    killing his rival at any cost? If she had known the whole state
+    of affairs between them&mdash;the story of the emerald ring,
+    for example&mdash;she would have understood at least the
+    difficulty experienced by these two men in remaining decently
+    civil toward each other.</p>
+
+    <p>So they passed over the high and wide moors until far ahead
+    they caught a glimpse of the blue plain of the sea. Mr.
+    Roscorla relapsed into silence: he was becoming a trifle
+    nervous. He was probably so occupied with anticipations of his
+    meeting with Wenna that he failed to notice the objects around
+    him; and one of these, now become visible, was a very handsome
+    young lady, who was coming smartly along a wooded lane,
+    carrying a basket of bright-colored flowers.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, here's Mabyn Rosewarne! I must wait for her."</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn had seen at a distance Mrs. Trelyon's gray horses: she
+    guessed that the young master had come back, and that he had
+    brought some strangers with him. She did not like to be stared
+    at by strangers. She came along the path with her eyes fixed on
+    the ground: she thought it impertinent of Harry Trelyon to wait
+    to speak to her.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mabyn," he cried, "you must let me drive you home. And
+    let me introduce you to my grandmother. There is some one else
+    whom you know."</p>
+
+    <p>The young lady bowed to Mrs. Trelyon; then she stared and
+    changed color somewhat when she saw Mr. Roscorla; then she was
+    helped up into a seat.</p>
+
+    <p>"How do you do, Mr. Trelyon?" she said. "I am very glad to
+    see you have come back.&mdash;How do you do, Mr. Roscorla?"</p>
+
+    <p>She shook hands with them both, but not quite in the same
+    fashion.</p>
+
+    <p>"And you have sent no message that <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    432]</span>you were coming?" she said, looking her companion
+    straight in the face.</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no, I did not," he said, angry and embarrassed by
+    the open enmity of the girl. "I thought I should surprise you
+    all."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have surprised me, any way," said Mabyn, "for how can
+    you be so thoughtless? Wenna has been very ill&mdash;I tell you
+    she has been very ill indeed, though she has said little about
+    it&mdash;and the least thing upsets her. How can you think of
+    frightening her so? Do you know what you are doing? I wish you
+    would go away back to Launceston or London, and write her a
+    note there, if you are coming, instead of trying to frighten
+    her."</p>
+
+    <p>This was the language, it appeared to Mr. Roscorla, of a
+    virago; only, viragoes do not ordinarily have tears in their
+    eyes, as was the case with Mabyn when she finished her
+    indignant appeal.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Trelyon, do you think it is fair to go and frighten
+    Wenna so?" she demanded.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is none of my business," Trelyon answered with an air as
+    if he had said to his rival, "Yes, go and kill the girl. You
+    are a nice sort of gentleman, to come down from London to kill
+    the girl!"</p>
+
+    <p>"This is absurd," said Mr. Roscorla contemptuously, for he
+    was stung into reprisal by the persecution of these two: "a
+    girl isn't so easily frightened out of her wits. Why, she must
+    have known that my coming home was at any time probable."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have no doubt she feared that it was," said Mabyn, partly
+    to herself: for once she was afraid of speaking out. Presently,
+    however, a brighter light came over the girl's face. "Why, I
+    quite forgot," she said, addressing Harry Trelyon&mdash;"I
+    quite forgot that Wenna was just going up to Trelyon Hall when
+    I left. Of course she will be up there. You will be able to
+    tell her that Mr. Roscorla has arrived, won't you?"</p>
+
+    <p>The malice of this suggestion was so apparent that the young
+    gentleman in front could not help grinning at it: fortunately,
+    his face could not be seen by his rival. What <i>he</i> thought
+    of the whole arrangement can only be imagined. And so, as it
+    happened, Mr. Roscorla and his friend Mabyn were dropped at the
+    inn, while Harry Trelyon drove his grandmother up and on to the
+    Hall.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Harry," the old lady said, "I am glad to be able to
+    breathe at last: I thought you two were going to kill each
+    other."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is no fear of that," the young man said: "that is not
+    the way in which this affair has to be settled. It is entirely
+    a matter for her decision; and look how everything is in his
+    favor. I am not even allowed to say a word to her; and even if
+    I could, he is a deal cleverer than me in argument. He would
+    argue my head off in half an hour."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you don't turn a girl's heart round by argument, Harry.
+    When a girl has to choose between a young lover and an elderly
+    one, it isn't always good sense that directs her choice. Is
+    Miss Wenna Rosewarne at all like her sister?"</p>
+
+    <p>"She's not such a tomboy," he said, "but she is quite as
+    straightforward and proud, and quick to tell you what is the
+    right thing to do. There's no sort of shamming tolerated by
+    these two girls. But then Wenna is gentler and quieter, and
+    more soft and lovable, than Mabyn&mdash;in my fancy, you know;
+    and she is more humorous and clever, so that she never gets
+    into those school-girl rages. But it is really a shame to
+    compare them like that; and, indeed, if any one said the least
+    thing against one of these girls, the other would precious soon
+    make him regret the day he was born. You don't catch me doing
+    that with either of them. I've had a warning already when I
+    hinted that Mabyn might probably manage to keep her husband in
+    good order. And so she would, I believe, if the husband were
+    not of the right sort; but when she is really fond of anybody,
+    she becomes their slave out and out. There is nothing she
+    wouldn't do for her sister; and her sister thinks there's
+    nobody in the world like Mabyn. So you see&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>He stopped in the middle of this sentence.</p>
+
+    <p>"Grandmother," he said, almost in a whisper, "here she is
+    coming along the road."</p>
+
+    <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 433]</span>"Miss Rosewarne?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes: shall I introduce you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"If you like."</p>
+
+    <p>Wenna was coming down the steep road between the high hedges
+    with a small girl on each side of her, whom she was leading by
+    the hand. She was gayly talking to them: you could hear the
+    children laughing at what she said. Old Mrs. Trelyon came to
+    the conclusion that this merry young lady, with the light and
+    free step, the careless talk and fresh color in her face, was
+    certainly not dying of any love-affair.</p>
+
+    <p>"Take the reins, grandmother, for a minute."</p>
+
+    <p>He had leapt down into the road, and was standing before her
+    almost ere she had time to recognize him. For a moment a quick
+    gleam of gladness shone on her face: then, almost
+    instinctively, she seemed to shrink from him, and she was
+    reserved, distant, and formal.</p>
+
+    <p>He introduced her to the old lady, who said something nice
+    to her about her sister. The young man was looking wistfully at
+    her, troubled at heart that she treated him so coldly.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have got to break some news to you," he said: "perhaps
+    you will consider it good news."</p>
+
+    <p>She looked up quickly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing has happened to anybody&mdash;only some one has
+    arrived. Mr. Roscorla is at the inn."</p>
+
+    <p>She did not flinch. He was vexed with her that she showed no
+    sign of fear or dislike. On the contrary, she quickly said that
+    she must then go down to the inn; and she bade them both
+    good-bye in a placid and ordinary way, while he drove off with
+    dark thoughts crowding into his imagination of what might
+    happen down at the inn during the next few days. He was angry
+    with her, he scarcely knew why.</p>
+
+    <p>Meanwhile Wenna, apparently quite calm, went on down the
+    road, but there was no more laughing in her voice, no more
+    light in her face.</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss Wenna," said the smaller of the two children, who
+    could not understand this change, and who looked up with big,
+    wondering eyes, "why does oo tremble so?"</p>
+
+    <p class="center">[TO BE CONTINUED.]</p><a id="SONNET"
+          name='SONNET'></a>
+
+    <h2 align="center">SONNET.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem_1"
+         align="center">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>The curious eye may watch her lovely face,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Whereon such rare and roseate tinctures
+            glow,</p>
+
+            <p>And cry, How fair the rose and lily show</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Mid all the glories of a maiden
+            grace!</p>
+
+            <p>If this sweet show, this bloom and tender
+            glance,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Would so attract a stranger's unskilled
+            eyes,</p>
+
+            <p>Until he sees the light of Paradise</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Dawn in the garden of that
+            countenance&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>I, to whom love hath given finer powers,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">See there the emblems of a flowering
+            soul</p>
+
+            <p>That hath its root in other world than ours,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And which doth ever seek its native
+            goal;</p>
+
+            <p>Meanwhile decks life with love and grace and
+            flowers,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And in one beauteous garland binds the
+            whole.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p class="author">F. A. HILLARD.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    434]</span>
+
+    <h2><a name="NICE"
+       id="NICE"></a>NICE.</h2>
+
+    <p>Twenty-Two centuries ago&mdash;eighteen hundred years before
+    Columbus sailed in quest of the New World&mdash;a Phocean
+    colony from Marseilles founded this celebrated city, calling it
+    Nich&ecirc; (Nice or Victory), in honor of a signal triumph
+    obtained by their arms over their enemies, the Ligurians, or
+    inhabitants of the northern coast of Italy. For ages it
+    flourished, being almost as famous with the ancients as a
+    health-resort as it is to-day; but its evil hour came when the
+    Goths, Lombards and Franks in A.D. 405, pouring through the
+    defiles and gorges of the Maritime Alps, laid Nice and almost
+    all the other cities of Italy, even beyond Rome, in ashes. A
+    hundred years later it was rebuilt, but its beautiful forum,
+    its classical temples, its mosaic-paved villas and marble
+    theatres had disappeared utterly, and the new city was but a
+    shadow of the old. In the tenth century the Saracens conquered
+    Nice, and remained in quiet possession for seventy years, and
+    during their stay introduced much of the tropical vegetation
+    which we still admire. They were finally driven away by the
+    insurgent natives in A.D. 975, but they left the impress of
+    their occupation in many Arabic words which still mark the
+    local <i>patois</i>; and as a number of the fugitives were
+    captured and reduced to slavery, intermarrying in the course of
+    time with the native population, the Moorish type is still very
+    noticeable amongst the peasantry. Freed from the Saracenic
+    yoke, the Ni&ccedil;ois lived in peace for nearly two
+    centuries, being only disturbed from time to time by the
+    unwelcome visitations of pirates. Later on, toward the middle
+    of the thirteenth century, like most other Southern and Italian
+    cities, Nice fell a victim to the constant quarrels of the
+    powerful families allied respectively to the Ghibelline and
+    Guelphic factions. Thus, the incessant broils between the
+    Lascaris of Tenda, the Grimaldis of Monaco and the Dorias of
+    Dolceacqua desolated the surrounding country, and often reduced
+    the city to a state of siege. The Ni&ccedil;ois were compelled
+    to keep up a perpetual guerilla, which, however inspiriting,
+    was by no means conducive to their material prosperity. In 1364
+    an invasion of locusts from Africa led to a famine, and
+    ultimately a plague which destroyed two-thirds of the
+    population. The people, attributing their misfortunes to the
+    intercession of the Jews with the powers below, rose up and
+    massacred them: only five Israelites out of over two thousand
+    are said to have escaped their blind fury. When order was at
+    last re-established, and the Ni&ccedil;ois began to settle down
+    again, they perceived their impoverished and subordinate
+    position to be so alarming that their only chance of safety was
+    immediately to place themselves under the protection of the
+    dukes of Savoy, who for a century and a half defended them from
+    the attacks of their numerous enemies in a most valiant manner.
+    But in 1521, Francis I. of France wrenched the city and
+    province from the beneficent rule of the Savoyards and
+    proclaimed himself count of Nice. In 1524 war broke out between
+    Francis and the emperor Charles V., and the contending armies
+    alternately devastated and pillaged Nice and its environs. The
+    pest reappeared, and with it a drought and famine of so fearful
+    a character that many thousand persons perished, and others in
+    their despair slew themselves. Pope Paul III. undertook the
+    difficult task of reconciling the belligerents, and even went
+    so far as to travel to Nice for the purpose. A marble cross
+    which gives its name to a suburb of the town ("La Croix de
+    Marbre") still marks the spot where the conference took place
+    in which Francis and Charles swore a peace in the presence of
+    His Holiness which they took the first opportunity to violate.
+    In 1540 the war recommenced, and a number of dissolute young
+    men of good family <span class="pagenum">[Pg 435]</span>formed
+    themselves into organized companies of bandits and overran the
+    country, to the terror of the wretched peasantry and the utter
+    ruin of many hundreds of honest families. But in 1543 a second
+    Joan of Arc was raised up by Providence to deliver the
+    Ni&ccedil;ois in the person of the still popular heroine,
+    Catterina Segurana. Francis I. had recently scandalized
+    Christendom by allying himself with the famous Mohammedan
+    corsair, Barbarossa of Algiers with a view of reconquering
+    Nice, which he considered the key of Italy. Accordingly, one
+    fine morning three hundred vessels belonging to the Algerine
+    pirate entered the neighboring port of Villefranche, and
+    presently the whole country was filled with a horde of turbaned
+    freebooters. Cimiez, Montboron, Mont Gros and a hundred other
+    villages and hamlets were soon alive with French marauders and
+    Turkish pirates, who presently proceeded to bombard the city
+    itself. The siege was short, but terrible, and the inhabitants
+    were at the last gasp when the energetic Catterina Segurana, a
+    washer-woman by trade, and surnamed <i>Mao faccia</i> ("Ugly
+    face"), on account of the homeliness of her countenance, seized
+    a hatchet, and, after a vigorous address to her
+    fellow-citizens, placed herself at their head and led them
+    against the enemy. The same result attended her efforts as did
+    those of her immediate prototype, the glorious Maid of Orleans.
+    She so animated the people, so roused their patriotism, that
+    before the day was over the French and infidels were conquered,
+    and the bold and generous Catterina. stood surrounded by her
+    enthusiastic fellow-citizens, waving the conquered Algerine
+    flag, in token of victory, from the summit of the castle hill,
+    on the spot where formerly stood her
+    statue.<a name="FNanchor_001_1"
+       id="FNanchor_001_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_001_1"
+       class="fnanchor">[001]</a></p>
+
+    <p>From the time of the brave Catterina to our own, Nice has
+    sustained at least a dozen sieges of more or less severity.
+    That of 1706 was perhaps one of the most shocking on record.
+    The city, by the treaty of Turin of
+    <!-- Page 67 --><a name="Page_67"
+       id="Page_67"></a> 1696, had once more passed under the
+       protectorate of the dukes of Savoy, but the French, who have
+       always had a longing eye for the "Department of the Maritime
+       Alps," as they even then called it, broke the treaty they
+       had themselves framed, and sent the duc de la Feuillade over
+       the frontier with twenty thousand men to conquer the
+       country. Nice was then governed by the marquis de Caraglio,
+       who, although entreated by the enemy to allow the women and
+       children to leave the city's gates, positively refused to do
+       so. The consequence was that during the siege, which lasted
+       six months, more than a third of the inhabitants perished
+       from starvation. Men are said to have killed their wives for
+       food, and women their children. Sixty thousand shells fell
+       in various parts of the town, and the castle, cathedral and
+       many churches were entirely
+       destroyed.<a name="FNanchor_002_2"
+       id="FNanchor_002_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_002_2"
+       class="fnanchor">[002]</a></p>
+
+    <p>In 1792, under the First Republic, Nice was again occupied
+    by the French, and declared a <i>chef-lieu de
+    d&eacute;partement</i>. By the treaty of 1814 the place was
+    handed over to the Piedmontese, and stayed contentedly beneath
+    the rule of the Sardinian kings until 1860, when, by the treaty
+    of March 24, Napoleon III. annexed the county of Nice and the
+    duchy of Savoy to his imperial possessions, in exchange for the
+    services his army had rendered Italy at Magenta and Solferino.
+    How long Nice will continue French is a question somewhat
+    difficult to answer just now. There exists in the city and
+    province a very strong Italian party, and during the war of
+    1870, Nice was declared in a state of siege, owing to the
+    constant and very serious demonstrations of a certain part of
+    the population. One of the leading inhabitants, a noted banker,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 436]</span>even went so far as to
+    travel to Florence with the intention of proving to the Italian
+    government that whilst the French troops were concentrated in
+    the north those of Victor Emmanuel would find no difficulty in
+    crossing the frontier and uniting Nice to Italy. To the honor
+    of the Italian government, this treacherous suggestion was
+    rejected, but in those days the feeling between France and
+    Italy was more cordial than it has since been. The Italian
+    party is so active in the city and the department that the
+    government has difficulty in keeping note of its proceedings.
+    Thousands of pamphlets are secretly circulated amongst the
+    lower orders, in which the advantages of the city's return to
+    Italy are vividly contrasted with the disadvantages it suffers
+    from by remaining French. The clergy, however, who are both
+    numerous and influential, are French to a man, and dread the
+    hour which will see them governed by the "jailer of Pius IX.,"
+    and consequently prove a very great assistance to the
+    authorities in counteracting the intrigues of the Italians. But
+    should ever, in future years, a war break out between either
+    France and Italy, or between France and Italy's new ally,
+    Prussia, the <i>question de Nice</i> will be once more on the
+    <i>tapis</i>, and victory alone will preserve this magnificent
+    possession to its present owners.</p>
+
+    <p>Nice may well boast herself a rival in point of splendor of
+    natural position of the most famous cities of the
+    South&mdash;of Lisbon, Genoa, Naples and
+    Constantinople&mdash;and she eclipses them in point of climate.
+    Built at the eastern extremity of a fine gulf&mdash;that of Les
+    Anges&mdash;and backed by an amphitheatre of hills and lofty
+    mountains, she is sheltered from cold winds in winter, and in
+    summer the Alpine breezes temper an atmosphere which would else
+    be unendurably sultry, owing to the prevalence of the sirocco,
+    a hot wind which passes directly hither over the Mediterranean
+    from the burning shores of Africa. One can scarcely imagine a
+    more glorious panorama than that of this city and its environs
+    as seen from the sea or from any neighboring elevation. Let us
+    suppose it a fine <!-- Page 69 --><a name="Page_69"
+       id="Page_69"></a>morning late in spring, and that we stand
+       upon the deck of a yacht about a mile and a half distant
+       from the shore. Nice, we see, surrounds a steep and rugged
+       rock which rises almost perpendicularly from the
+       Mediterranean to the height of about six hundred feet, and
+       is crested by the ruins of the ancient castle, and covered
+       with terraced gardens forming a delicious promenade. Groves
+       of cypresses and sycamores hang on the declivities of this
+       rock, which in places is rough with cactuses and aloes and
+       with the Indian fig, whose bright orange flowers, when the
+       sun's rays fall on them, have a magic splendor of color. A
+       group of palm trees at the extremest elevation, standing out
+       on a high crag, add not a little to the picturesque
+       appearance of this singular urban hill. On one side of this
+       rock the rapid torrent Paillon, traversed by several
+       handsome bridges, some of them adorned with statues,
+       separates the "old" from the "new" town. On the other is the
+       port, filled with steamers and innumerable fishing-craft.
+       Beyond the port stretches the Boulevard de
+       l'Imp&eacute;ratrice, inaugurated a few years since by the
+       late empress of Russia, with its fine villas, notably the
+       splendid Venetian Palace, an exact reproduction of the
+       celebrated Moncenigo Palace at Venice, belonging to Viscount
+       Vigier, whose wife was once a popular idol of the musical
+       world of Paris and London&mdash;Sophie Cruvelli&mdash;and
+       the extraordinary Moresque-looking castle of Mr. Smith,
+       which is well called the <i>Folie d'un Anglais</i>&mdash;the
+       "craze of an Englishman." The latter stands on the end of a
+       promontory, and with its lofty towers and domes closes in
+       the view. It is perhaps the most curious residence in the
+       world, being built on a barren rock, and its apartments
+       literally hewn out of the marble of which it is composed. On
+       the top of the hill is a long building, with two curious
+       twin towers and a dome, built of red brick faced with white
+       marble. Here is situated the chief entrance. You descend
+       from the spacious entry-hall a long well staircase cut in
+       the rock and lighted from above, until you reach a superb
+       octagonal chamber of white marble <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+       437]</span>ornamented with statues and Oriental divans
+       covered with Persian silk. This is the great saloon, and
+       leading out of it are other fine chambers, all of them lined
+       with polished marble and furnished with Eastern
+       magnificence. Externally, there is no trace of these
+       chambers visible. They are, as I have said, excavated, like
+       Egyptian tombs, in the heart of the mountain. The
+       proprietor, an eccentric English bachelor, never inhabits
+       this fantastic mansion, but lives in a second-rate hotel,
+       spending thousands annually in adding embellishments to his
+       astonishing castle, where, notwithstanding its magnificent
+       suites of apartments, no human being has ever slept a night
+       or eaten a meal.</p>
+
+    <p>"Smith's Craze," as I have said, closes in the view to our
+    right. To the left, beyond the torrent Paillon, is situated
+    modern Nice, with its quays, leviathan hotels, and an almost
+    interminable line of villas marking the celebrated Promenade
+    des Anglais. The background of the scene is filled up by a
+    semicircle of well-wooded hills, verdant with vines, fig,
+    orange, olive and pomegranate trees, and sparkling with white
+    country-seats, convents, and campanili. Towering over these
+    hills appears another range, of rocky and bold outlines, and
+    then another, of lofty mountains whose peaks lose themselves in
+    clouds, and by their fantastic figures form as delightful an
+    horizon as the eye can behold. In the centre rises the conical
+    peak of Monte Cao, an extinct volcano, exactly resembling
+    Vesuvius in conformation, and only wanting a curl of smoke
+    issuing from its crater to make the illusion perfect. Alongside
+    of Monte Cao is another extinct volcano, on which are seen the
+    ruins of the ancient and deserted village of Ch&acirc;teauneuf,
+    while between the two summits (thirty-five hundred feet high)
+    are distinctly visible the peaks of some of the ever-snowy
+    Alps. The foreground of the picture is formed by the deep
+    indigo waters of the Mediterranean, diversified by a hundred
+    sunny sails, and overhead hangs the cloudless Italian sky.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us now put back to port and walk through the city,
+    visiting first Old Nice, <!-- Page 71 --><a name="Page_71"
+       id="Page_71"></a>then the modern Pompeii, as Alphonse Karr
+       pleasantly calls the new town. Old Nice resembles Genoa on a
+       small scale, and has very narrow streets of lofty (and in
+       some cases really fine) houses, no end of churches,
+       gloomy-looking convents, and one or two palaces. In the
+       narrow streets surrounding the cathedral&mdash;a large and
+       showy building, formerly a parish church&mdash;is a market
+       supplied with native fruits&mdash;oranges, lemons, grapes,
+       figs, and many varieties of melons and nuts. The streets,
+       which are in places so narrow that you can almost stretch
+       your arms across them, are full of bright-looking shops,
+       with all their varied goods displayed at the open, unglazed
+       windows. Here and there one comes across remains of ancient
+       times of considerable interest. Thus, in the Rue Droite is
+       an old house, with a series of quaint little arches and a
+       curious Gothic gateway, which was formerly part of the
+       palace inhabited by Joanna II. of Naples. Near the church of
+       St. Jacques is another old residence, with an odd decoration
+       on its front in the shape of colossal figures of Adam and
+       Eve, executed in alto-rilievo, which have their feet on
+       either side of the doorway and their heads above the fifth
+       story. The tree of knowledge, over-laden with its dangerous
+       fruit, flourishes between the windows of what was once the
+       saloon, and is now a manufactory of maccaroni. In the Rue du
+       Centre is the quondam palace of the Lascaris family, an old
+       Italian mansion, with marble balconies, wide, majestic
+       staircases adorned with Corinthian columns, and vast
+       apartments frescoed by Carlone, a reputable Genoese painter
+       of mythological subjects. Carlone's gods and goddesses look
+       down no longer on the members of the House of Lascaris, who
+       once ruled over Tenda, and were the lineal descendants of
+       the imperial Byzantine house of Del Comneno, but on those of
+       an amiable Ni&ccedil;ois family, who most willingly show the
+       old palace to any stranger who may choose to knock at their
+       door.</p>
+
+    <p>Some years ago a Turinese lawyer, looking over his father's
+    private papers, discovered that he was the legitimate heir to
+    the Lascaris titles and estates, <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    438]</span>which had been left unreclaimed for many centuries.
+    This gentleman, on proving his claim, assumed the grandiose
+    title of Prince Lascaris del Comneno, grand duke of Macedonia.
+    His glory was short-lived. His wife went to Rome and obtained a
+    full recognition of her rights from the Holy Father and
+    admission into the first circles of Roman society, but was
+    subsequently expelled from the city for plotting against the
+    papal government; but she returned with the Piedmontese
+    occupation in 1870, only, however, to get into a still worse
+    pickle by exposing herself to the charge of defrauding Flaminio
+    Spada's bank of a large sum of money. During the trial she
+    <i>mizzled</i>, and has not, I believe, been heard of since.
+    This lady is the famous "Princess Mopsa" about whose adventures
+    the Roman papers have entertained their readers considerably
+    during the last year or so.</p>
+
+    <p>The churches are usually in the Italian style, having heavy
+    fa&ccedil;ades, plain brick sides and queer but rather
+    picturesque bell-towers. Internally, they are gaudy and
+    tasteless, the altars ornamented on high days and holidays with
+    innumerable wax candles, festoons of red, white and blue
+    drapery, and huge pyramids of paper roses with gold foliage.
+    Ecclesiastical affairs are presided over by Monsignor Pietro
+    Sola, a charming old bishop, who is the essence of kindliness
+    and charity. He was formerly one of the spiritual directors of
+    Queen Adelaide of Austria, the late wife of Victor Emmanuel.
+    The number of priests, monks and nuns is very considerable.
+    There is a very large Franciscan monastery up at Cimiez on the
+    hill, and a rambling old Capuchin convent at St.
+    Bartolom&eacute;. The Nice Capuchins are a splendid body of
+    men, and a goodly sight to see marching in a procession with
+    their chocolate-colored hooded robes and long, flowing beards.
+    Their present prior is a marquis Raggi of Genoa, a man of high
+    family and rank, who some years since abandoned a world he had
+    known only too well, gave all his fortune to the poor, and
+    turned monk.</p>
+
+    <p>There is a street in the old part of Nice
+    <!-- Page 73 --><a name="Page_73"
+       id="Page_73"></a>which is perfectly unique. It is nearly a
+       mile and a half long, runs parallel with the sea, and
+       consists of a double row of low, one-storied houses having a
+       paved terrace on their roofs, to which you ascend by several
+       handsome staircases. The terrace forms a very popular
+       promenade of an evening, and from it are enjoyed lovely
+       views of the bay and mountains. Between these two rows of
+       houses is the fish-market, where are frequently seen
+       displayed monsters like Victor Hugo's famous <i>pieuve</i>
+       sprawling out their dozen glutinous legs fringed with eyes
+       and deadly weapons in almost supernatural hideousness, to
+       the admiration of a group of English or American tourists.
+       Hard by the fish-market is the Corso, a shady promenade
+       round which the gala carriages drive in Carnival time, while
+       the masked inmates pelt and get pelted in turn with comfits
+       made of painted clay. The Corso is also the scene of
+       numerous religious processions, some of which are quaint and
+       picturesque. There are a number of ancient confraternities
+       established amongst the trades-people of Nice, who wear
+       costumes of, red, white, black and blue serge, according to
+       the guild they belong to. This sack-like garment covers them
+       from head to foot, face and all, there being only two
+       eyeholes slit in the mask to permit the wearer to see out.
+       These brotherhoods attend the sick, bury the dead and take
+       care of the widows and orphans, and in Holy Week make the
+       narrow streets of the old city delightful to the artistic
+       eye by the bright mass of their vivid-colored raiment, the
+       flickering of their tapers, and the gigantic crucifixes of
+       gold and silver they carry in procession from church to
+       church. Every morning there is a market held on the Corso of
+       fruits, vegetables and flowers. Such magnificent baskets of
+       camellias, japonicas and roses, such nosegays of violets and
+       orange-blossoms, can be seen, I fancy, nowhere but at Nice.
+       Here also the peasant-women sometimes bring immense pots of
+       Peruvian aloes for sale, whose snowy blossoms are scented
+       like those of the magnolia, and rise in gigantic pyramids of
+       magnificent cup-shaped<span class="pagenum">[Pg
+       439]</span>flowers. They are plants to salute respectfully
+       as you pass by them, such is their size and dignity. In Holy
+       Week women are to be seen all over the old town selling
+       plaited palm branches of a pale straw-color, some of which
+       are bedecked with little bows of ribbon or stars of tinsel,
+       used in the ceremonies of Palm Sunday. The peasant-girls who
+       come to market at Nice are rather handsome, but as dark as
+       Nubians, with almond-shaped eyes and long, coarse black
+       hair, which they wear plaited into tails bound round the
+       head with broad velvet ribbons, like a coronet. On the top
+       of this headgear they sport a wide-brimmed straw hat of
+       peculiar shape, ornamented with little black crosses made of
+       narrow velvet. In Princess Marie Lichtenstein's <i>Holland
+       House</i> there is a portrait of Lady Augusta Holland
+       wearing one of these Nice hats.</p>
+
+    <p>But it is time for us to cross the bridges and pay our
+    respects to Nice the "new." When I first visited Nice in 1856
+    at least two-thirds of this part of the city were not in
+    existence. There were no splendid railway-stations then; only
+    one or two, instead of twenty, monster hotels; the Promenade
+    des Anglais only extended about a mile along the shore, instead
+    of four; and there were but one quay and two bridges. Now
+    superb quays line the river on either side, and there are six
+    bridges, and Heaven only knows how many churches for the
+    accommodation of all the denominations imaginable and
+    unimaginable, from P&egrave;re Lavigne's very beautiful and
+    very orthodox church, in which Monsignor Capel has preached in
+    Lent, down to L&eacute;on Pilate's, where collections are made
+    for the evangelical missions presided over by Mrs. Gould and
+    W.C. Van Metre. There is a Greek church of exceeding beauty,
+    the altar-screen of which was sent from Moscow as a present
+    from the czar; and an Episcopal church, surrounded by a
+    beautiful cemetery, where sleeps the philosophic Bussy
+    d'Anglas, with many others whose names are well known. The real
+    Ni&ccedil;ois almost all dwell in Old Nice, leaving the new
+    city to the foreign colony. Indeed, the natives are rarely if
+    ever seen, except <!-- Page 75 --><a name="Page_75"
+       id="Page_75"></a>in the street. They keep to their old quiet
+       way of living, and, beyond letting their houses and selling
+       their goods, appear to be utterly unconscious even of the
+       existence of the strangers on the other side of Paillon.
+       Many of the Nice families are titled and wealthy, but with
+       the exception of that of the count de Cessoles, it is very
+       rare to meet the Ni&ccedil;ois in society. Mademoiselle
+       Mathilde de Cessoles is the reigning belle, and deserves the
+       honor. She is a superb-looking woman, with a head and
+       countenance worthy of a regal diadem. Her features resemble
+       those of the House of Bourbon, her complexion is admirable,
+       and she has a certain good-natured, indolent, sultana way of
+       moving which is perfectly charming. Cupid alone knows how
+       many have sighed for her hand since her long reign as a
+       queen of society began, but none have as yet been favored
+       with a kinder glance than that of friendship. Scottish
+       dukes, Roman princes and American officers have wooed, but
+       never won: la belle Mathilde still walks the orange groves
+       of her villa, "in virgin meditation, fancy free."</p>
+
+    <p>"But it waxes late&mdash;'tis near three o'clock:" let us
+    hasten past the casinos, cafes, reading-rooms, Turkish baths
+    and American drinking-bars which flourish on the quays, and
+    make our way to the Promenade des Anglais, by this time alive
+    with fashionables. The "Promenade," as I have said, is nearly
+    four miles long, and faces the sea. It is very broad, and has
+    on one side a row of villas and hotels&mdash;on the other a
+    walk shaded by oleanders and palm trees, through the openings
+    of which are obtained magnificent views of the Mediterranean.
+    Some of these villas are remarkably beautiful, especially that
+    of the Princes Stirby, the former sovereigns of Wallachia,
+    which is surrounded with exquisite gardens abounding with noble
+    camellia trees, some of which produce as many as fifteen
+    hundred flowers. The Villa de Dempierre is very pretty, and is
+    the property of the countess of that name, who is a most
+    noteworthy person. Madame de Dempierre belongs to one of the
+    most ancient and wealthy families of France.
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 440]</span>She was once a great
+    beauty, and is still a brilliant wit and charming artist. Some
+    years ago she visited the empress of Russia, then residing at
+    Nice, where she died. Her Imperial Majesty, who was noted for
+    her habit of making personal remarks, said bluntly, "Madame la
+    comtesse, how beautiful you must have been!" "Majesty,"
+    answered the <i>spirituelle</i> Madame de Dempierre, "you were
+    complaining of the nearness of your sight: since you can
+    distinguish my beauty through the vista of so many years, I
+    think you enjoy long-sightedness in a remarkable degree." The
+    empress wrinkled her nose, and presently observed: "I think,
+    countess, I remember to have seen your husband, General de
+    Dempierre, in Russia." "Doubtless Your Majesty did so: he was
+    the first Frenchman that entered the Kremlin." The czarina was
+    silent: the fall of Moscow was not a pleasant subject of
+    conversation to the wife of Nicholas. The Villa de Diesbach
+    comes next, the winter residence of the historical family of
+    that name, into which married a few years since a tall,
+    gazelle-eyed American belle, Miss Meta McCall. Then follows the
+    pretty Villa Bouxhoevden, the property of a Corlandese count of
+    a very noble house, whose wife hails from New Jersey. The
+    countess is much the fashion, and her hospitable house is a
+    rendezvous of the elite of the foreign and American colony. She
+    is a tall, graceful woman, with a pale and interesting
+    countenance, shadowed with clusters of light-brown curls, which
+    reminds one of Vandyke's portraits of Queen Henrietta
+    Maria&mdash;a likeness somewhat increased by costumes admirably
+    suited to her style&mdash;long flowing robes of rich silk
+    trimmed with ermine and costly lace. Then there is Mrs.
+    Williams's garden, with Indian creepers and gaudy Eastern
+    plants, sent to her by her gallant son, the Crimean hero, from
+    the slopes of the Himalayas. Here on a Sunday gathers a
+    pleasant circle to drink five-o'clock tea and listen to the
+    bright remarks of Madame de la Caume, the daughter of the
+    hostess, who knows more about French politics than many a
+    deputy at Versailles. But whilst we have been looking in
+    <!-- Page 77 --><a name="Page_77"
+       id="Page_77"></a>at villa-gardens the Promenade has filled
+       up rapidly. A continuous stream of carriages occupies the
+       centre of the road, a throng of gay folks animate with their
+       showiest toilets the oleander walk and the Jardin Publique,
+       where a tolerable band plays for two or three hours thrice a
+       week. The marble stairs of the Casino are crowded with
+       loungers, and the windows and balconies of every villa are
+       filled with well-dressed men and women. Nowhere, perhaps,
+       excepting in Rotten Row or the Bois de Boulogne, can so many
+       celebrated and beautiful women and handsome or famous men be
+       seen parading up and down together as on the Promenade des
+       Anglais of a fine afternoon in the season. Here gathers the
+       <i>cr&ecirc;me de la cr&ecirc;me</i> of two worlds, the Old
+       and the New, Europe and America. In the winter of 1870 the
+       town was crowded to excess. Never before were there so many
+       notabilities assembled at Nice&mdash;never was there so much
+       gossip, so much <i>cancan</i> and small talk. It was amusing
+       to sit in the shade of a palm tree on the promenade and
+       review the <i>person&aelig;</i> of this Vanity Fair.
+       Frederick Charles of Prussia and his princess in a landau,
+       with two Nubians on the box; the crown-princess Victoria of
+       England and her sister of Hesse-Darmstadt, on a trip from
+       Cannes, where they were then visiting; Her Grace of
+       Newcastle; De Villemessant of the <i>Figaro</i>, in an
+       invalid's chair, the most accomplished of <i>causeurs</i>;
+       Count Montalivet, the former minister of Louis Philippe, and
+       by him, for a few days at the full of the season, a little
+       old gentleman with a squeaky voice, M. Adolphe Thiers. Next
+       comes a group of ladies, the three daughters of the
+       Hispano-Mexican duchess De Fernan-Nu&ntilde;ez; all three
+       looking exactly alike, tall and dark; all three of a height;
+       all three invariably dressed in black, with lofty Tyrolese
+       hats and cocks' feathers; all three unmarried; all three
+       marriageable, and worth Croesus only knows how many
+       millions; all three invariably alone&mdash;a fact which made
+       old Madame Colaredo scream out of her window one day,
+       "<i>Tiens! voil&agrave; les trois cent (sans) gardes</i>!"
+       Then follow Lord <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+       441]</span>Rokeby, the most affable of lordships; Lord
+       Portarlington; General Sir William Williams of Kars;
+       Princess Kantacuz&egrave;ne, the last descendant of the
+       imperial Byzantine house of that name; the ideally lovely
+       Miss Amy Shaw of Boston; the three pretty Miss Warrens of
+       New York; Madame Gavini de Campile, the wife of the prefect,
+       a fine-looking dame gloriously arrayed in showy robes, whom
+       half the society adored and the rest cordially hated; the
+       duke de Mouchy, who married Anna Murat; the duke de
+       P&eacute;rigord-Talleyrand, who married an American; the
+       duke de la Conquista, who derives his title from the
+       conquest of Peru; the lovely countess Del Borgo; and the
+       famous Italian beauty, Madame Bellotti, a Milanese lady,
+       whose maiden name was Visconti, of that semi-royal house.
+       Theresa Bellotti's beauty is of a grand style seen nowhere
+       out of Italy. Picture her to yourself as I once saw her at a
+       masquerade at the pr&eacute;fecture. Round her superb figure
+       swept an ample robe of crimson velvet looped up with bands
+       of gold. Her bare arms, models worthy of the chisel of
+       Canova, gleamed from the rich sables which lined the hanging
+       sleeves of her dress. Her hair, dark as night, was gathered
+       up in the high fashion Sir Joshua Reynolds loved to depict.
+       A half-moon of enormous diamonds fastened a plume over her
+       left temple, and her neck and fingers flashed back the
+       colors of the rainbow from a thousand gems. As to her face,
+       it was radiant. Rich color flushed her cheeks, her eyes
+       sparkled with animation when she spoke; but at times, when
+       her features resumed a calm after conversation, she
+       resembled the portraits of some of the famous Italian women
+       of the Renaissance&mdash;her own ancestress, for instance,
+       Bianca Visconti, duchess of Milan, or Veronica Cib&ograve;,
+       or Lucrezia Petroni, whose daughter was the ill-fated
+       Beatrice Cenci. And now come by the fascinating Mrs. Lloyd,
+       whom all the world knows and likes; grand-looking Mrs.
+       Senator Grymes of Louisiana, a witty, brilliant old lady,
+       whose salon is one of the most elegant in Nice; Baron
+       Haussmann, and with <!-- Page 79 --><a name="Page_79"
+       id="Page_79"></a>him his colossal daughter, Madame de
+       Perneti, the handsomest of giantesses, who was once asked to
+       join in private theatricals, but when the stage was built up
+       in her friend's drawing-room, being about five feet from the
+       level of the rest of the chamber, it was discovered that
+       <i>la belle Caryatide</i>, as her friends call her, could
+       not act on it, for the simple reason that she was a full
+       head taller than the scenery; clever Madame de Skariatine,
+       the daughter of the famous Count Schouvalof (the "Shoveloff"
+       of our times), who, after being Russian ambassador half over
+       Europe, turned Barnabite monk at Rome; Lady Dalling and
+       Bulwer, the great duke of Wellington's niece, and now the
+       widow of one of England's most illustrious statesmen;
+       hospitable Marquise de St. Agnan, and her pretty daughter,
+       Mademoiselle Henriette; and Princess Souvarow,
+       <i>ci-devant</i> widow Apraxine, <i>ci-devant</i> widow
+       Kisselof, the most fascinating of Russian princesses, and
+       one of the greatest of female gamblers, who one night broke
+       the bank at Monte Carlo for two hundred and fifty thousand
+       francs, and lost them the next. On the opposite side of the
+       way, screening herself from observation, demurely clad in
+       sober-colored attire, Madame Volnis passes along from some
+       mission of charity. This lady was once one of the most
+       popular actresses on the French stage, and with Mademoiselle
+       Mars and Rose Ch&eacute;ri was the idol of
+       Paris&mdash;L&eacute;ontine Fay. She was, if possible, a
+       still greater favorite in St. Petersburg, where, on her
+       retirement from the stage, she became French reader to the
+       late czarina. Since the death of the empress she has always
+       resided at Nice, where she is distinguished for her exalted
+       piety and extreme charity. Even when on the stage this lady
+       devoted her leisure to charitable works. She was always
+       remarked for her modesty of manner: her dress was simplicity
+       itself. At the theatre she wore costumes rich and elegant,
+       suited to the parts she enacted, but in society she
+       invariably appeared in plain white muslin or dark silk. It
+       would be impossible to exaggerate her goodness. Her whole
+       life has been passed amongst the poor, in the minute
+       fulfillment <span class="pagenum">[Pg 442]</span>of her
+       duties, and on her knees in church. After acting one part of
+       the evening, she would hasten, on the fall of the curtain,
+       to pass the rest of it watching by the bedside of some poor
+       wretch stricken low perhaps by some infectious disease.
+       During the war of 1870, Madame Volnis's conduct was
+       angelical. If there was some awful operation to be performed
+       upon any of the wounded soldiers sent to Nice from the field
+       of battle, it was she who was present, who held the
+       sufferer's hand, and who consoled and cheered with the
+       tenderness of a Sister of Charity&mdash;of a mother.</p>
+
+    <p>As the austere figure of L&eacute;ontine Fay passes away,
+    hidden in a cloud of sunny dust raised by the wheels of a
+    hundred carriages, another form comes upon the stage, radiant
+    amongst the most brilliant, the observed of all
+    observers&mdash;Madame Rattazzi, <i>n&eacute;e</i> Princess
+    Bonaparte Wyse. What a wonderful toilette is hers! One fine
+    afternoon she appeared upon the Promenade clad in a purple
+    velvet robe, edged and flounced with canary-colored satin,
+    looped up voluminously <i>en panier</i>, and adorned with big
+    bows of yellow ribbon. Her hat was a broad-brimmed Leghorn
+    straw trimmed with large bunches of pansies. No one but Madame
+    Rattazzi could have worn such an attire in the public streets
+    without the risk of being hooted, but such are the grace and
+    beauty of this celebrated woman that her costume seemed in
+    perfect keeping. She was in Nice one winter for at least five
+    months, and every day saw her out in a fresh dress. When she
+    travels she has more boxes than Madame Ristori. She dwelt on
+    the Promenade, over the dowager of Colaredo, who had a special
+    spite against her; in consequence of which she invariably
+    illuminated her windows, when she had company, with the Italian
+    colors, red, white and green, to the supreme disgust of the old
+    Ultramontane countess. Her apartment was elegantly furnished,
+    and adorned with beautiful vases of mignonette and plants of
+    moss-roses. When she received of an evening the chambers were
+    agreeably lighted up with many pale and subdued lamps. Her
+    tables <!-- Page 81 --><a name="Page_81"
+       id="Page_81"></a>were always covered with new books,
+       magazines and several copies of her own poems and novels,
+       including an exceedingly clever story, <i>Louise Keller</i>,
+       which she had just finished. On the walls hung pictures in
+       oil and water-colors of her own execution; on the piano were
+       scattered, together with much classical music, some hymns,
+       polkas and ballads of her composition. One night she acted
+       in a comedy of her own writing, and her rendering of the
+       part of the heroine, a witty and intriguing widow, was
+       inimitable. Many severe critics have declared that Madame
+       Rattazzi is, as an actress, a worthy rival of Fargeuil or
+       Madeleine Brohan. Her manners are very fascinating&mdash;a
+       little bit too natural to be quite French, and a little too
+       ceremonious to be quite Italian. She would have proved an
+       invaluable acquisition at the downfall of the tower of
+       Babel, for she is mistress of I dare not say how many
+       languages. As a rule, women hate her, and men do just the
+       contrary. This is not to be wondered at, for she is very
+       beautiful even now. Her face has the chiseled cameo features
+       of her uncle, Napoleon I.; her eyes are deep violet, fringed
+       with long sweeping lashes; her mouth is perfectly exquisite,
+       and on either side of it two pretty dimples appear whenever
+       she smiles. So many enemies has she amongst her own sex that
+       to avenge herself for the affronts they constantly offer her
+       she published a magazine in Florence called the
+       <i>Matin&eacute;es Italiennes</i>, for the purpose of
+       showing up her female antagonists. Here is a sample: "At
+       Nice a grand ball; Madame la Viscomtesse de B&mdash;&mdash;
+       <i>en grande toilette</i>, looking for all the world like a
+       big Nuremberg doll, with her black hair dyed an impossible
+       straw-color, and appearing at least five years younger than
+       she did when I first saw her make her <i>d&eacute;but</i> in
+       society five-and-twenty years ago; and she was then a
+       gushing maiden of twenty-one." By and by comes the hour of
+       vengeance. Madame Rattazzi gives a ball, and not a woman
+       will go to it. In 1870 she gave one at the Grand Hotel, to
+       which half the town was invited. There arrived at the festal
+       <span class="pagenum">[Pg 443]</span>scene about five
+       hundred men and just thirty-two women. It was funny enough.
+       The thirty-two women besported themselves with thirty-two
+       partners in the centre of the hall to the sound of the
+       cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of
+       musical instruments, whilst the rest of the men stood round
+       the hall five deep, like a deep dark fringe on a Turkish
+       carpet. Madame Rattazzi, however, achieved a great triumph
+       against all odds. By dint of grace, charm of manners and
+       tact she put all her guests in the best humor. The
+       "thirty-two" had a fine time of it, and danced to their
+       hearts' content. The five hundred men were introduced and
+       grouped and wined and punched until every man there swore
+       that earth did not hold a fairer or more genial hostess.
+       Madame Rattazzi was "supported," as the phrase goes, on this
+       memorable occasion by Madame la Princesse, her mother, a
+       rather formidable-looking dowager, a daughter of Lucian
+       Bonaparte, and widow of Sir Thomas Wyse, once British consul
+       at Athens. Her Imperial Highness Princess Letitia must have
+       been a wonderful beauty in her youth&mdash;a stately grand
+       being who one could easily imagine might have resembled the
+       Roman Agrippina or empress Livia. Once the barrier of her
+       stately manners overcome, she proved to be a talkative,
+       affable woman of the world, with a huge experience thereof.
+       I can see her now, dressed in a scarlet satin robe and
+       glittering with jewels. She wore a headdress of diamonds
+       with two long ostrich feathers in it, one of which, a white
+       one, got out of its place and stood bolt upright, as if it
+       was frightened, until some charitable hand laid it down.
+       This was, I fancy, the last ball Princess Letitia ever
+       graced, for she died a very little while afterward. Poor
+       Rattazzi was there too. He was not a striking-looking man,
+       but agreeable and excessively polite. He rarely talked
+       politics&mdash;I rather suspect from the fear of
+       compromising himself&mdash;but his conversation was was
+       pleasant and varied. After his death Madame Rattazzi removed
+       to Monaco, where she busied herself with editing his letters
+       and memoirs&mdash;a task <!-- Page 83 --><a name="Page_83"
+       id="Page_83"></a>which, it appears, the Italian government
+       would be delighted that she should spare herself, as his
+       papers are said to be very full of compromising matter
+       relative to the Mentana expedition. A large sum of money was
+       offered her to relinquish her hold on these documents, but
+       she answered by a letter published in the Italian papers
+       that they were left to her as a sacred trust, and that she
+       felt herself in duty bound to make their contents public, in
+       order to justify her husband's memory. As a curious proof of
+       her political sagacity&mdash;unless it is to be considered a
+       mere coincidence&mdash;I may mention that in January, 1870,
+       she came to a masked ball at the Casino dressed as Mars, in
+       a short skirt of red satin, a cuirass of gold, on her head a
+       helmet, in one hand a spear, and in the other a shield, and
+       on it was written "Roma." Did Madame Rattazzi foresee that
+       by September of the same year there would be a war, and that
+       as one of its results Rome would so soon become the capital
+       of that Italy which her husband had helped to build
+       up?<a name="FNanchor_003_3"
+       id="FNanchor_003_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_003_3"
+       class="fnanchor">[003]</a></p>
+
+    <p>From this somewhat rambling sketch the reader will readily
+    understand that Nice is one of the great centres of society in
+    Europe, and indeed in late years it is rather, as a place of
+    gay reunion that it is frequented than as a resort for
+    invalids. Since the foundation of quieter colonies at Mentone
+    and San Remo, Nice has somewhat lost its reputation as a
+    sanitarium, for it is rather difficult, especially for young
+    people, to resist the temptation of its innumerable balls and
+    round of gayeties; and these are not considered conducive to
+    the preservation of health even amongst the healthiest. The
+    medical men, therefore, recommend places along the neighboring
+    coast which enjoy <span class="pagenum">[Pg 444]</span>the same
+    or even greater advantages of climate. That of Nice, after all
+    that has been written about it, still seems to me one of the
+    finest in the world. The air is exquisitely pure and clear, and
+    has proved beneficial in many hundreds of cases of incipient
+    consumption. But the fatal error is often made of sending
+    hither patients in whom the disease has made considerable
+    progress. In such cases the irritating air hastens death. I
+    have known people brought here in the second and last stages of
+    consumption, who have been carried off in a fortnight after
+    their arrival, and who might have lingered on for years
+    elsewhere. The patient who finds himself benefited should
+    remain at Nice for at least three or four years, only varying
+    the air in summer by a visit to some of the many pleasant
+    places in the neighboring mountains, where the atmosphere is
+    pure, cool and wholesome. Perhaps, it is owing in part to the
+    brightness of the sunshine and the beauty of the scenery that
+    soon after his arrival the health of the invalid often revives
+    as if by enchantment. Alphonse Karr, a resident of many years,
+    who knows every nook and corner of the place, and who has
+    cultivated a garden in its environs as celebrated throughout
+    the world as his own sparkling pen, says well: "Who is there so
+    downhearted as to resist the glorious heat of the sun, the
+    beauty of that deepest of blue seas, the loveliness of the
+    varied trees, the tropical vegetation, the scent of the
+    orange-flowers, the music of the brooks, the sight of the
+    ever-changing hues of the mountains of <i>Nizza la
+    bella</i>?"</p>
+
+    <p class="author">R. DAVEY.</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="THE_RASKOL_AND_SECTS_IN_RUSSIA"
+       name="THE_RASKOL_AND_SECTS_IN_RUSSIA"></a>THE RASKOL, AND
+       SECTS IN RUSSIA.</h2>
+
+    <h4>FROM THE FRENCH OF ANATOLE LEROY-BEAULIEU.</h4>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <h3><a name="I_ORIGIN_OF_THE_RASKOL"
+       id="I_ORIGIN_OF_THE_RASKOL"></a>I.&mdash;ORIGIN OF THE
+       RASKOL.</h3>
+
+    <p>For more than two centuries Russian orthodoxy has been
+    undermined by obscure sects, unknown to foreigners, and little
+    known to Russians themselves. Beneath the imposing pile of the
+    official Church have been hollowed out vast underground burrows
+    and a labyrinth of gloomy crypts, which form a retreat for the
+    popular beliefs and superstitions. We propose to descend into
+    these catacombs of ignorance and fanaticism. We shall attempt
+    to map them out, to explore their remotest nooks, and to lay
+    hold in this, their hiding-place, of the character and
+    aspirations of the people. Nothing could yield better means of
+    acquaintance with the genius of the nation and the groundwork
+    of Russian society. The <i>Raskol</i>, with its thousand sects,
+    is perhaps the most original feature of Russia, and what most
+    sharply distinguishes it from Western Europe.</p>
+
+    <p>Like rivers colored by the soil through which they flow,
+    religions often change their characteristics according to the
+    nations who practice them. The Raskol is Byzantine Christianity
+    issuing from the Russian lower classes. In the thick and muddy
+    waters of Muscovite sectarianism we can distinguish foreign
+    admixtures, sometimes Protestant, sometimes Jewish, or even
+    Mohammedan, more frequently Gnostic or pagan. The Raskol,
+    nevertheless, remains wholly different, in principle and in
+    tendency, from all the religions and religious movements of the
+    world: it is original and national from the foundation up. So
+    thoroughly Russian is it that outside of its native country it
+    has never made a proselyte, and even within the empire has
+    hardly any adherents excepting among the people of "Greater
+    Russia," the most thoroughly national of all. So spontaneous
+    has been its growth that in all its phases it is
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 445]</span>its own best interpreter,
+    and if confined to an isolated continent, its development would
+    have been the same. The Raskol is the most national of all the
+    religious movements to which Christianity has given birth, and
+    at the same time the most exclusively popular. It took its
+    rise, not in the schools, nor in the monasteries, but in the
+    mujik's hovel and in the shop; and it has never spread beyond
+    its birthplace. Hence, the student of politics and the
+    philosopher take a keener interest in ignorant heresies than is
+    to be found in their doctrines alone. These sects of
+    lately-liberated peasants claim an attention by no means due to
+    their meagre theology, from their being the symptom of a mental
+    condition and a social state for even a distant approach to
+    which all Western Europe would be scoured in vain.</p>
+
+    <p>The Raskol (schism) is neither a sect nor a group of sects.
+    It is, rather, an aggregate of doctrines and heresies, which
+    are often divergent or even contradictory, with no other tie
+    than a common starting-point and a common hostility to the
+    official orthodox Church. In this respect the Raskol is more
+    nearly analogous to Protestantism than to anything else. It is
+    inferior to Protestantism in the numbers and education of its
+    adherents, but it almost equals it as regards the variety and
+    originality of its developments. Further the likeness cannot be
+    fairly said to go. In the midst of their unfilial revolt,
+    German Protestantism and the Russian Raskol preserve alike the
+    signs of their origin, the stamp (so to speak) of the Church
+    whence they have issued, as well as of the widely-differing
+    states of society which gave them birth. In Western Europe love
+    of speculation and a critical spirit gave rise to the larger
+    part of modern sects, while in Russia they are the offspring of
+    reverence and unenlightened obstinacy. In the West, the
+    predominance of feeling over the value attached to the
+    externals of religion has been the cause of religious
+    divisions, whereas the same result has been produced in Russia
+    by an extraordinary reverence for external forms for ritual and
+    ceremonial. The two movements thus seem to be in absolutely
+    opposite directions, but they have nevertheless terminated at
+    the same point. In other words, the Raskol, when once freed
+    from the authority which maintained the unity of the faith, was
+    as powerless as Protestantism to establish any authority within
+    itself. It has in consequence become a prey to the same license
+    of opinion, to the same individualism, and, finally, to the
+    same anarchy.</p>
+
+    <p>Few religious revolutions have involved results so, complex
+    as the Raskol, yet few have been simpler in their inception.
+    The countless sects which for two centuries have had their
+    being among the Russian people took their rise, in general,
+    from the revision of the liturgy. One stock produced them
+    nearly all: only a few sects (though these, by the way, are by
+    no means the least curious) date from an earlier time or have
+    another origin than this liturgic reform. The Middle Ages in
+    Russia, as elsewhere, were marked by the rise of heresies. Of
+    these the oldest may have arisen before the Mongol conquest,
+    from contact with Greeks or Slaves, particularly with the
+    Bulgarian Bogomiles, the ancestors or Oriental brethren of the
+    Albigenses. Other heresies sprang up later in the North, in the
+    Novgorod region, from intercourse with Jewish or other Western
+    traders. Of most of these the name alone remains: such are the
+    <i>Martinovtsy</i>, the <i>Strigolniki</i>, the Judaizers, and
+    so on. All these sects were dying away when the Raskol broke
+    out; and it absorbed all the vague, embryonic beliefs floating
+    in the popular mind. Some of these antique heresies&mdash;the
+    Strigolniki, for instance&mdash;after having disappeared from
+    history, seem to have come to light again in the shape of
+    certain sects of our own days; and one might fancy that they
+    had been for centuries running on in an underground
+    channel.</p>
+
+    <p>In the dim disputes of medi&aelig;val times, however, one
+    may make out with some clearness the fundamental principle of
+    the Raskol: it is a scrupulous veneration for the
+    letter&mdash;formalism, in a word. "In such a year," says a
+    Novgorod chronicler of the fifteenth century, "certain
+    philosophers <span class="pagenum">[Pg 446]</span>began to
+    chant, '<i>O</i> Lord, have mercy upon us!' while others said,
+    '<i>Lord</i>, have mercy upon us!'"<a name="FNanchor_004_4"
+       id="FNanchor_004_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_004_4"
+       class="fnanchor">[004]</a> In this remark the whole Raskol
+       stands revealed. Controversies like these begat the schism
+       which has rent the Russian Church asunder. Religious
+       invocations have for this people the nature of magical
+       formul&aelig;, the slightest change in which destroys their
+       efficacy. The Russian clings to the heathen feeling, though
+       he hides it under a Christian veil. He believes in the power
+       of particular words and gestures. He still seems to regard
+       his priest as a kind of <i>chaman</i>, religious ceremonies
+       as enchantments, and religion in general as witchcraft. A
+       fondness for rites (<i>obriad</i>) is indeed one of the
+       characteristics of the inhabitant of Greater Russia. The way
+       in which Russia was converted to Christianity has much to do
+       with this. The mass of the people became Christians at the
+       bidding of others, and with no sufficient preparatory
+       instruction, without even having passed through all the
+       stages of that polytheistic evolution from which other
+       nations of Europe had emerged before their adoption of
+       Christianity. The religion of the gospel was, in its highest
+       statement, too far advanced for the mental and social
+       condition of the people; and so it was corrupted, or rather
+       reduced to external forms. Russia adopted merely the outside
+       of Christianity; and there, even more strictly than in the
+       West, it is true that the peasant was still a heathen. Other
+       nations have adopted the outside of a religion, and have
+       afterward absorbed its spirit: from its geographical and
+       historical remoteness such an absorption was hard for Russia
+       to achieve. It was separated from the centres of the
+       Christian world by distance and by Mongol rule: its
+       religion, like everything else, was debased by poverty and
+       ignorance. Theology, properly speaking, utterly vanished,
+       and its place was taken by ceremonial, which thus became the
+       whole of religion. Amidst the general degradation a
+       knowledge of the words and rites of public worship was all
+       that could be exacted of a clergy which did not always know
+       how to read.</p>
+
+    <p>The changes which had taken place in the traditional texts
+    and ritual have little solid ground for the popular devotion
+    entertained for them. The liturgy was corrupted by the
+    superstitious veneration paid it by the ignorant. False
+    readings had crept into the books which contained the various
+    local "uses," to borrow a term from the Anglican terminology.
+    Liturgical unity had imperceptibly disappeared amidst various
+    readings and discordant ceremonies. In course of transcription
+    absurdities had slipped into the missals, along with grotesque
+    additions and arbitrary intercalations, while the new readings
+    were received with the respect due to antiquity, and these
+    sometimes unintelligible passages acquired a sanctity in direct
+    proportion to their obscurity. The devout mind found in them
+    mysteries and occult meanings. On such perverted texts were
+    erected theories and systems which pious fraud from time to
+    time expanded into treatises attributed to the Fathers of the
+    Church. So wild was the confusion, and so palpable the
+    alterations, that early in the sixteenth century Vassili IV., a
+    Russian prince, summoned a Greek monk for the purpose of
+    revising the liturgical books. But the blind veneration of the
+    clergy and people rendered this attempt abortive. The reviser,
+    Maximus, was condemned by a council, and confined on a charge
+    of heresy in a distant monastery. The crisis was superinduced
+    by the introduction of the press. Here, as elsewhere, the new
+    discovery brought with it a taste for the study and revision of
+    texts, and ultimately violent theological contests. The missals
+    which issued from the Russian presses of the sixteenth century
+    at first only aggravated the evils for which they should have
+    afforded a remedy. The errors of the manuscripts from which
+    they were printed received from these missals the authority and
+    circulation of type. The copyists had introduced countless
+    variations, but these acquired a fresh unity and unanimity
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 447]</span>from the very fact of
+    their publication in such a form.</p>
+
+    <p>The Slavonic liturgy of Russia seemed in a state of hopeless
+    corruption when, toward the middle of the seventeenth century,
+    the patriarch Nikon determined upon a measure of reform. In
+    addition to a degree of cultivation unusual in his age and
+    country, and an enterprising and determined character, he
+    possessed what was specially required for such a step: he had
+    learning, firmness and power, for through his influence over
+    Alexis, the czar, he ruled the State almost as thoroughly as he
+    ruled the Church. In Russia, as it was before Peter the Great,
+    a task so completely dependent on learning was indeed a bold
+    undertaking. By order of the patriarch ancient Greek and
+    Slavonic manuscripts were gathered from all quarters, and monks
+    were summoned from Byzantium and from the learned community of
+    Athos to collate the Slavic versions with their Greek
+    originals. The interpolations due to the ignorance or whims of
+    copyists were remorselessly stricken out, and into the ritual,
+    thus purified, was introduced the pomp customary at the court
+    of Byzantium. The new missals were printed and adopted by a
+    council (through the patriarch's influence), and finally
+    imposed, with all the authority of the state government, on
+    every Russian province. "A sore trembling laid hold upon me,"
+    says a copyist of the sixteenth century, "and I was affrighted
+    when the reverend Maximus the Greek bade me blot out certain
+    lines from one of our Church books." Not less was the scandal
+    under Peter the Great. The man who laid hands on the sacred
+    books was everywhere held guilty of sacrilege. Whether from a
+    knowledge of the propriety of the measure, or from the spirit
+    of ecclesiastical fidelity, the higher clergy upheld the
+    patriarch, but their inferiors and the common people made a
+    determined fight. And even now, after the lapse of more than
+    two centuries, a large body adhere immovably to the ancient
+    books and the ancient ritual, which are made sacred to them by
+    the approbation of national councils and the blessing of
+    generations of patriarchs. Such was the inception of the
+    schism, the Raskol, which still divides the Russian Church.
+    Tracing the matter back to its source, the contest is seen to
+    turn upon the knotty question of the transmission and the
+    translation of the sacred texts, which has more than once
+    divided the churches of the West. In Russia no one was
+    competent to form a proper judgment of the essence of the
+    dispute, and it was thus rendered only more lasting and bitter.
+    Monks, deacons, plain sextons, denounced the innovations as
+    novelties borrowed from Rome or from the Protestants, and as
+    being tantamount to the bringing in of a new religion. When the
+    Church brought to bear upon these recusants the pains and
+    penalties everywhere employed against heretics, the only result
+    was to give the schism martyrs, and with martyrs a fresh
+    impetus. Ten years after the promulgation of the revised
+    liturgy its rash author fell a victim to the jealousy of the
+    boyards and to his own arrogance, and was solemnly deposed by a
+    council. To the Raskol his deposition appeared in the light of
+    a justification of their own course. The condemnation of the
+    reformer seemed necessarily to involve the condemnation of the
+    reform. Great, then, was the popular bewilderment when the
+    council turned from deposing the author of the liturgic
+    revision to hurl its anathemas against those who opposed that
+    revision. The share taken in this excommunication by the
+    Oriental patriarchs rather lessened than added to its weight,
+    since the dissenters denied to Greek and Syrian bishops, who
+    knew not a letter of the Slavonic alphabet, the right of
+    passing judgment on Slavonic books.</p>
+
+    <p>The theological world is no stranger to subtleties, but
+    never perhaps did causes so trifling breed such interminable
+    quarrels. The sign and the form of the cross, the heading of
+    processions westward or eastward, the reading of a particular
+    article of the Creed, the spelling of the name of Jesus, the
+    inscription to be placed over the crucifix, the single or
+    double repetition of the Hallelujah, the number of eucharistic
+    wafers to be consecrated,&mdash;such <span class="pagenum">Pg
+    448]</span>are the leading points in the controversy which ever
+    since has rent the Russian Church. The orthodox make the sign
+    of the cross with three fingers, while the dissenters follow
+    the Armenian practice of only two. The former permit the cross
+    with four arms, like our own: the latter cannot away with any
+    but that with eight arms, with a crosspiece for the Saviour's
+    head and another for his feet. Since the reform the Church
+    chants the Hallelujah thrice, the Raskolniks only twice. The
+    dissenters defend their persistence by symbolical
+    interpretations, and delight to make a profession of faith out
+    of the simplest rite. For instance, they insist that after
+    their fashion of making the sign of the cross the three closed
+    fingers render homage to the Trinity, while the two others
+    testify to the double nature of Christ, so that, without
+    uttering a word, the sign of the cross is an act of adherence
+    to the three fundamental dogmas of Christianity&mdash;the
+    Trinity, the incarnation and the atonement. In like manner they
+    interpret the double Hallelujah following the three Glorias,
+    and cast it in the teeth of their opponents that they ignore in
+    their ritual one or another of the great Christian doctrines.
+    Such interpretations, based on corrupted texts or feigned
+    visions, show the grotesque blending of coarseness and subtlety
+    which makes up the Raskol.</p>
+
+    <p>If we may judge from the origin of the schism, its essence
+    lies in the worship of the letter, the servile respect for
+    forms. To the anti-reforming Russian, ceremonies form the whole
+    of Christianity, and liturgy is one with orthodoxy. The same
+    confusion between faith and the outward forms of worship is
+    revealed by the chosen name in which the dissenters delight.
+    Not content with the title of <i>Starovbriadtsy</i> (old
+    ritualists), they adopt that of <i>Starovery</i> (maintainers
+    of the old faith), which amounts to styling themselves
+    <i>true</i> believers, the genuine orthodox, since in religious
+    matters, unlike those of human science, authority is on the
+    side of antiquity, and even innovations must come forward
+    invoking the past. Here, as often happens, there is little
+    ground for the Starovery's boast, for if they preserve the
+    ancient Russian books, their opponents have gone back to the
+    old Byzantine liturgy; and the party which most loudly vaunts
+    its claim to antiquity does so with least reason.</p>
+
+    <p>The principle of the Raskol, which sometimes runs out into
+    the wildest dreams of mysticism, is essentially realistic.
+    Under this materialistic <i>cultus</i>, however, there lurks a
+    sort of idealism, of coarse spiritualism. Religious vagaries,
+    with all their absurdities, always have a lofty, sometimes even
+    a sublime, side. It would be wrong to fancy that there is
+    nothing but ignorant superstition in the Starovere's scrupulous
+    attachment to his ancestral worship. The vulgar heresy is, in
+    fact, only an overdone ritualism, whose logic lands it in
+    absurdity. The Old Believer's reverence for the letter comes
+    from his belief that letter and spirit are indissolubly united,
+    and that the forms of religion are as needful as its essence.
+    Religion is to him, both as regards forms and dogmas, a whole,
+    all whose parts hang together; and no human hand can touch this
+    masterpiece of Providence without blemishing it. There is an
+    occult sense in every word and in every rite. He cannot believe
+    that any ceremony or formula of the Church is void of meaning
+    or of efficacy. Divine service has nothing in it merely
+    accessory, indifferent or unmeaning. Holy things are holy
+    throughout: in the worship of the Lord everything is deep and
+    full of mystery; and it is blasphemy to change anything or to
+    withhold from it its proper veneration. The Starovere, of
+    course, cannot formulate his doctrine, but if he could,
+    religion would appear, according to his view, a sort of
+    completed and adequate representation of the supernatural
+    world. His simple logic exacts from all public worship an
+    absolute perfection which it is impossible to realize. Looked
+    at in this light, the Old Believer who marched to the stake for
+    the sign of the cross, and sacrificed his tongue rather than
+    chant another Hallelujah, grows highly respectable. From this
+    standing-point the Russian schism is essentially religious: its
+    mistake, so to speak, is the <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    449]</span>excess of religion. Symbolism is the principle of
+    its formalism, or rather the Raskol is symbolism run into a
+    heresy. This gives it originality and value in sectarian
+    history. To these extravagant ritualists ceremonies are not
+    simply the garb of religion: they are its flesh and blood, in
+    whose absence dogma is but a lifeless skeleton. Thus, the
+    Raskol is the direct opposite of ordinary Protestantism, which
+    by its very nature sets small store by outward ceremonies,
+    regarding them as needless ornament or a dangerous superfluity.
+    Ritual to the Starovere is as much an integral part of
+    traditional Christianity as doctrine: it, is equally the legacy
+    of Christ and the apostles; and the sole mission of the Church
+    and the clergy is to preserve both intact. This leaning to
+    symbolism saves his scrupulous fidelity to outward forms from
+    degenerating into a slavish superstition. On the other hand,
+    the allegorizing tendency which clings fast to the letter
+    sometimes takes odd liberties with the spirit of ceremonies and
+    texts. It is the peculiarity of the symbolizing temper
+    scrupulously to respect the form while arbitrarily dealing with
+    the spirit. Thus, the ritual and the sacred books become a kind
+    of heavenly charade, whose answer must be found by the
+    imagination. And so, in their hunt after the hidden sense of
+    narratives and words, some of the Raskolniks have allegorized
+    the histories of the Old and New Testaments, and changed the
+    gospel records into parables. Some have gone so far as to see
+    in the greatest of the gospel miracles nothing but
+    types.<a name="FNanchor_005_5"
+       id="FNanchor_005_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_005_5"
+       class="fnanchor">[005]</a> Such a system of exegesis easily
+       leads to a kind of mystic rationalism: the forms of religion
+       tend to gain more consistency than the essence, and public
+       worship to be placed above doctrine. Some of the extreme
+       sects of the Raskol have actually reached this point. A
+       perfect carnival of wild interpretation prevailed among this
+       ignorant rabble, and crazy doctrines and grotesque tenets
+       were not slow in following in its train.</p>
+
+    <p>The Old Believer loves his peculiar rites, not only for the
+    meaning he puts into them, but also for the sake of the
+    authority on which he holds them: the moral and social
+    <i>rationale</i> of the schism is a deep respect for
+    traditional customs and for the habits handed down from his
+    forefathers. But even in his slavish devotion to ancestral
+    ritual and prayers the Starovere simply exaggerates a feeling
+    which, if not properly religious, commonly links itself with
+    religion and adds to its influence. All men and all nations set
+    great store by the maintenance of their hereditary faith, and
+    even the common rhetorical abuse of such phrases demonstrates
+    its power. When thus intertwined with the associations of
+    family and country, religion assumes the guise of an
+    inheritance solemnly committed to our trust by the departed.
+    This feeling is singularly powerful in Russia from linking
+    itself with a superstitious veneration for antiquity. You can
+    often get no other reason from many of these sectaries for the
+    faith that is in them. Quite recently a judge tried to bring to
+    reason a group of peasants who were under prosecution for
+    celebrating clandestine religious rites, but he could extract
+    no other answer than this: "Our fathers practiced these
+    customs. Take us anywhere you please, but leave us free to
+    worship as our fathers did." A like reply is said to have been
+    made by the Old Believers of Moscow to the late czarovitch on
+    occasion of a visit to their burying-ground at Rogojski.</p>
+
+    <p>The liturgic reform of the seventeenth century was a
+    revolution in the simplest elements of worship: it called upon
+    the son to unlearn the sign of the cross that his mother had
+    taught him. Such a change would have been hazardous anywhere,
+    but it caused a peculiarly serious disturbance in Russia, where
+    all prayer is connected with a kind of ceremonial of repeated
+    bowings and crossings, which more closely resemble the
+    devotional customs of the Mohammedans than those
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 450]</span>of other Christian
+    countries. The people violently rejected the new sign of the
+    cross and the entire reformed liturgy. It mattered little that
+    the new ritual was more ancient than their own. The ignorant
+    Russian knows no antiquity older than his fathers and
+    grandfathers, and his attachment to the outer forms of
+    orthodoxy was only intensified by remembering the recent
+    attempts of popes and Jesuits to gain a foothold in the
+    country. If he suffered the least change in his cherished
+    customs, he might risk being Romanized, and, like the United
+    Greeks of Poland, one day wake up and find himself part and
+    parcel of the spiritual dominion of the papacy. With such dim
+    fears the Old Believer opposed to the orthodox hierarchy a
+    blind fidelity to orthodoxy. Their dread of seeing the Church
+    corrupted inspired people and clergy with suspicion of all
+    foreigners, even of their brethren in the faith whom the czars
+    or the patriarchs had invited from Byzantium and from Kief. The
+    Russian alone, of all the orthodox nations, had maintained his
+    independence against infidel and pope, and he held himself the
+    people of God, chosen to preserve the true faith. Everything
+    European was indiscriminately rejected by this long-isolated
+    nation. Their detestation of the West, its churches and its
+    civilization, leads some of the Old Believers to anathematize
+    even the language of theology and learning. Not longer ago than
+    the close of the last century one of their writers waxed hot
+    against the orthodox priests of Lesser Russia, many of whom, he
+    said, "study the thrice-accursed Latin tongue." He reviled them
+    for their readiness to commit the mortal sin of calling God
+    <i>Deus</i>, and God the Father <i>Pater</i>, as though the
+    Deity could have no other than the Slavic name of <i>Bog</i>,
+    or the change of appellation involved a change of God. A like
+    spirit is evident in the resistance offered by the Staroveres
+    to the correct spelling of the name of Jesus, whom they persist
+    in calling Issous, rejecting as diabolical the more accurate
+    form Iissous. Such peculiarities show a nation shut up in its
+    own vastness and isolated by its position and its history. It
+    is a kind of Christianized China, knowing, and desiring to
+    know, nothing beyond itself.</p>
+
+    <p>The revolt against the innovating patriarch was, in reality,
+    a revolt against foreign, particularly against Western,
+    influences. Instead of the accusation that he leaned to
+    Romanism or Lutheranism, it would have been a better
+    representation of the real grievance to charge him and the czar
+    with borrowing from the West, not its theology, but its spirit
+    and civilization, and even this, perhaps, unwittingly. The
+    outbreak of the Raskol synchronizes with the introduction of
+    foreign influence; and the coincidence is not accidental. The
+    schism was but the reaction against the reforms which the
+    Romanoffs carried out in so European a spirit. The patriarch's
+    enterprise has been sometimes attributed to his vanity or his
+    thirst for literary fame, but it was really the first
+    indication of the approaching revolution, and of a growing
+    sympathy with the West, where (as in England, for instance) at
+    about the same period analogous<a name="FNanchor_006_6"
+       id="FNanchor_006_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_006_6"
+       class="fnanchor">[006]</a> reforms gave birth to similar
+       disturbances. If the former hermit of the White Sea invited
+       criticism and learning to review the ritual of his Church,
+       it was only in obedience to the same <i>Zeitgeist</i> which
+       under Peter the Great's elder brother, who succeeded Alexis,
+       was to found at Moscow a kind of ecclesiastical university
+       modeled on that of Kief. The Church, not less than the
+       State, felt the Western breeze that was rising on the
+       Russian steppes. And, as the Western spirit first attempted
+       to introduce itself in the sphere of religion, so religion
+       confronted it with its most formidable barrier. From the
+       historian's point of view, the Raskol is that same popular
+       resistance to the introduction of Western novelties which
+       under Peter the Great passed from its original aspect of an
+       ecclesiastical and religious revolt into the further stage
+       of a social and civil
+       insurrection.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 451]</span>
+
+    <h3><a name="II_OPPOSITION_TO_MODERN_CIVILIZATION"
+       id="II_OPPOSITION_TO_MODERN_CIVILIZATION"></a>II.&mdash;OPPOSITION
+       TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.</h3>
+
+    <p>In spite of himself, Peter the Great both inherited and
+    aggravated the schism. At the present day it is hard to picture
+    the impression produced upon his subjects by Peter I. He not
+    merely astonished and bewildered them: he scandalized them. An
+    open, systematic and sometimes brutal attack was made upon the
+    customs, traditions and prejudices of the people. The reformer
+    did not confine himself to the civil institutions: he laid
+    violent hands upon the Church, and forced his way into the
+    family, regulating, as the whim seized him, both public affairs
+    and the private life of the citizen. The old-fashioned Russian
+    was a stranger in Peter's new empire. His eyes were shocked by
+    the spectacle of an unaccustomed garb, and novel administrative
+    titles fell strangely on his ear. Names and things, the almanac
+    and the laws, the alphabet and the fashions of
+    dress,&mdash;everything was transformed. The very elements of
+    civilization were hardly recognizable. The year began on the
+    first of January, instead of the first of September. Men were
+    no longer to date from the creation, but must adopt the Latin
+    era. The old Slavonic characters, hallowed by immemorial
+    ecclesiastical use, were partly cast aside, and what were
+    retained took a new shape. The masculine attire was altered and
+    the chin was shorn of its beard, while the veil no longer might
+    protect the modesty of the women. The impression made by such a
+    succession of shocks upon a nation so bigotedly attached to its
+    ancestral ways was comparable only to an earthquake rocking Old
+    Russia to its foundations.</p>
+
+    <p>Many of these innovations, as being borrowed from the
+    Romanists or the Lutherans of the West, had a religious
+    significance for the people. The change introduced by Peter the
+    Great in the ancient calendar, in the Slavonic alphabet and in
+    the national costume seemed but a carrying out of those which
+    Nikon had initiated. So natural was the parallel that the Old
+    Believers held the one to be but the continuation of the other;
+    and the notion took shape in a seditious legend, according to
+    which Peter was the adulterous offspring of the patriarch. The
+    popular aversion felt for the reforms of the latter was
+    augmented by that aroused by the emperor's innovations: the
+    social revolt took the disguise of religion, since it had been
+    provoked by a Church measure, and still more because Russia had
+    not yet emerged from that stage of civilization in which every
+    great popular movement assumes a religious aspect. A national
+    prestige was thus communicated to the Raskol, which in its turn
+    lent to the popular resistance the energy of religion. By
+    giving the social revolt the semblance of a struggle for the
+    rights of conscience the schism imparted to it a vigor and
+    persistency which the lapse of two centuries has not succeeded
+    in crushing.</p>
+
+    <p>But the Raskol rebelled not only against innovations and the
+    introduction of foreign elements, but still more obstinately
+    against the principle of the reforms and the modern method of
+    state administration. The Russian, like the Mohammedan East of
+    to-day and all other primitive societies, was most keenly
+    sensitive to the burdens and vexations made necessary by this
+    imitation of the European governmental system. From this point
+    of view the Raskol was the opposition of a half-patriarchal
+    society to the regular, scientific, omnipresent, impersonal
+    system of European administration. It kicks instinctively
+    against centralization and bureaucracy&mdash;against the
+    state's encroachments upon private life, the family and the
+    community. It struggles to tear itself loose from the pitiless
+    machinery of government, hemming every life within its iron
+    pale. The Cossack took refuge in the wild freedom of nomadic
+    life, and the Old Believer was equally averse to giving in to
+    the complicated mechanism of government. He would have nothing
+    to do with the census, with passports or stamped paper. He
+    strove to elude the new systems of taxation and conscription,
+    and to this day some of the Raskolniks are in a state of
+    systematic revolt against the simplest of governmental methods.
+    Religious grounds, of course, are found for this
+    insubordination, and they have theological arguments
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 452]</span>to urge against the
+    census, as well as against the registration of births and
+    deaths. In the opinion of a strict Old Believer the right of
+    numbering the people belongs to God alone, as is shown by the
+    biblical record of David's punishment. Sometimes the official
+    designations strengthen the scruples of these simple folk, with
+    their tendency to attach a great importance to phrases and
+    names; and hence, partly at least, the popular antipathy to the
+    poll-tax under its Russian form, "soul-tax." The revolt against
+    such phrases is the fashion in which this nation of serfs,
+    whose body was chained to the soil, asserted its possession of
+    a soul.<a name="FNanchor_007_7"
+       id="FNanchor_007_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_007_7"
+       class="fnanchor">[007]</a></p>
+
+    <p>The struggle against the supervision and interference of the
+    state has gone with some sects to the length of refusing
+    submission to obligations imposed by every civilized country.
+    The <i>Stranniki</i> (wanderers) in particular boast of keeping
+    up a ceaseless struggle with the civil authority, and make
+    rebellion a moral principle and a religious duty. From
+    condemning the state as the protector and helper of the Church,
+    they have come to cursing it for its own tendencies and claims.
+    Thus, the singular spectacle is presented of the more extreme
+    schismatics looking upon their native government with the same
+    feelings as were entertained by some of the Christians of the
+    first three centuries toward the pagan empire of Rome. To these
+    fanatics the government of the orthodox czars came to be the
+    reign of Satan and the dominion of Antichrist. Nor was this an
+    empty metaphor: it was a clear, determined conviction, and it
+    still exerts a strong religious and political influence upon
+    the schism. The Raskolniks could see but one interpretation of
+    the overturning of public and private order under Peter the
+    Great, and for what they regarded as the triumph of darkness:
+    to them it was the coming end of the world and the advent of
+    Antichrist. The old customs, it seemed, must carry with them in
+    their fall the Church, society and all mankind. For centuries
+    the extremity of agony or of wonder has wrung this cry from
+    Christendom. After political revolutions and disastrous wars,
+    in the most enlightened countries of Europe, in France and
+    elsewhere, religious persons, in the panic of calamity, have
+    been seen to take refuge in this last solution for the woes of
+    Church or of State, and proclaim with the Raskolniks that the
+    time was at hand. But what must have been the state of mind in
+    Old Russia when the stunning blows of Peter the Great seemed to
+    be dashing everything to pieces? Even at the period of the
+    liturgic reform the fanatics had cried that the patriarch's
+    fall was the harbinger of the world's end. The days of man,
+    they said, are numbered; the Apocalyptic woes are at hand;
+    Antichrist draws nigh. With the accession of Peter the Great,
+    while he was reducing everything to confusion before their
+    bewildered eyes, and trampling under foot the old customs,
+    along with morality itself at times, the Raskolniks were at no
+    loss to recognize in him the coming Antichrist. Nations are not
+    always clear-sighted: the creator of modern Russia was regarded
+    by a considerable portion of his subjects as an envoy or
+    representative of hell; and his empire has never ceased to hold
+    the unexampled position of a government cursed by a part of its
+    own people as the dominion of Antichrist.</p>
+
+    <p>This Satanic apotheosis derived no little support from some
+    of the reformer's idiosyncrasies. He was to his subjects what a
+    rejected claimant of the Messianic office may have been to the
+    Jews&mdash;a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the
+    people whom he came to bring to a new birth. His civil and
+    ecclesiastical reforms, with the seeming decapitation of the
+    Church by the abrogation of the patriarchate, were to the mass
+    of the people an enigma only one shade less disreputable than
+    the demeanor of himself and his courtiers. The repudiation of
+    his legitimate wife, Eudoxia, and his adulterous connection
+    with a foreign <span class="pagenum">[Pg 453]</span>concubine,
+    the death (perhaps by his own hand) of his son Alexis, even the
+    morbid state of his health and the nervous twitching of his
+    face, and his astonishing triumphs after equally incredible
+    disasters, contributed to invest the sombre and gigantic
+    physiognomy of the reformer with a kind of diabolic halo. The
+    vices of Ivan the Terrible had been as monstrous, but even in
+    the thick of his crimes he was a true Russian, as superstitious
+    a devotee as the meanest of his subjects. But the astonishment
+    and bewilderment inspired by Peter the Great were only deepened
+    by the reverence felt by the old Russian for the person of his
+    sovereign. Men could not help doubting whether such a man, who
+    had cast aside his national and scriptural title for the
+    foreign and heathen style of emperor, could be the true, the
+    "white" czar. The story of the usurpers and the false Dmitri
+    had not faded from the popular memory; and thus there grew up
+    amidst the unlettered and bewildered Russian people a string of
+    legends in which were harmonized their belief in the reign of
+    Antichrist and the popular respect for the czar. In this way
+    the Raskolniks have created a fantastic history which has been
+    handed down to our own days, according to one version of which,
+    as has been said, Peter the Great is the impious bastard of the
+    patriarch Nikon (and from such a parentage only a devil's
+    offspring could be looked for); while another asserts that
+    Peter Alexovitch was a pious prince, like his forefathers, but
+    that he had perished at sea, and in his stead had been
+    substituted a Jew of the race of Danof, or Satan. On gaining
+    possession of the throne, continues the legend, the false czar
+    immured the czarina in a convent, slew the czarovitch, espoused
+    a German adventuress and filled Russia with foreigners. Such is
+    the Old Believers' explanation of the portentous phenomenon of
+    a Russian czar engaged in destroying the institutions of Holy
+    Russia. In the midst of the nineteenth century the incidents of
+    Peter's career, whether insignificant or important&mdash;his
+    vices not less than his glory&mdash;are used as proofs of his
+    infernal mission. The remarkable victories with which he
+    recovered from terrible disasters were miracles wrought by the
+    help of the devil and the Freemasons. The extension of his
+    power beyond that of all previous Russian monarchs and of all
+    the ancient <i>bogatyrs</i> was effected by the determination
+    of Satan that his offspring should receive divine honors. The
+    same interpretation is applied to the simplest events. Thus,
+    Peter's celebration with allegorical figures and festivals of
+    the beginning of the year on the first of January was due to
+    his desire to restore the worship of false deities and "the old
+    Roman idol Janus." These silly fables, and this incapacity of
+    understanding how a pagan name or emblem can be used without
+    falling back into paganism, betray one of the peculiar features
+    of the Raskol&mdash;namely, the realistic nature, of its
+    symbolism, and its matter-of-fact determination to fill images,
+    allegories and words with occult meaning.</p>
+
+    <p>When once the presence of Antichrist was clearly made out,
+    there was nothing to hinder the application to Russia of the
+    gloomy descriptions of the prophets. Their disposition to hunt
+    out mysterious enigmas in names and numbers made it easy for
+    the fanatics to find the whole Apocalypse in modern Russia; and
+    the number of the Beast was sought in the names of Peter and of
+    his successors. Each letter of the Slavonic alphabet, as of the
+    Greek, has a numerical value, and the problem is thus to add up
+    the total of the letters of a name, and so obtain the
+    Apocalyptic number 666 (Rev. xiii. 18). By inserting,
+    reduplicating or omitting certain letters, and not insisting
+    too strongly on an exact result, the sectaries have discovered
+    the infernal number in the names of most of the Russian
+    sovereigns from Peter the Great to Nicholas. Such alterations
+    are defended on the ground that to throw investigators off the
+    scent the Beast changes the number which is meant to designate
+    him, so that he should be recognized under the number 662 or
+    664 as clearly as under 666. Turning from the particular
+    sovereign to the imperial title, the Raskolniks have unearthed
+    the number of the Beast in the <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    454]</span>letters composing it. Singularly enough, it happens
+    that all which is needed to obtain the Apocalyptic number from
+    the word <i>imperator</i> is the omission of the second letter;
+    whence they say that Antichrist hides his accursed name behind
+    the letter M. By an equally odd and embarrassing coincidence
+    the Council of Moscow&mdash;which, after deposing Nikon,
+    definitively excommunicated the schismatics&mdash;met in 1666.
+    Here, plainly enough was the fatal number, and when the reform
+    of the calendar attracted the attention of the Old Believers to
+    the point, they considered it a weapon thrust into their hands
+    by their opponents. The year in question, accordingly, was
+    fixed as the date of Satan's accession. But not content with
+    turning the line of monarchs into so many emissaries of hell,
+    some of these champions of Old Russia have managed, by the help
+    of an anagram, to identify their native country with the
+    mysterious land which is the object of so many prophetic
+    curses. In the <i>Asshur</i> of the Bible they find
+    <i>Russia</i>, and apply to it the anathemas launched by the
+    prophets against Nineveh and Babylon.</p>
+
+    <p>The infernal sign, however, was visible to the Raskolniks
+    not only in the title and the names of their rulers, but in all
+    their innovations as well, and in all that they imported from
+    abroad. Since Russia is under the dominion of the "devil, the
+    demon's son," the truly faithful are bound to reject all that
+    has been introduced during "the years of Satan." Encouraged by
+    the notion of Antichrist, the Raskol's opposition against the
+    modern reform of government spread until it embraces in its
+    hostility everything brought from the West. In no other of its
+    developments do we see more distinctly the characteristic
+    features of the schism, its narrow formalism and its coarse
+    allegorizing, its blind worship of the past and its national
+    exclusiveness. It presented the novel spectacle of a group of
+    popular sects holding in abomination every object of foreign
+    commerce, everything new&mdash;material articles of consumption
+    not less than the discoveries of science. While the products of
+    the East and West Indies were pouring into the rest of Europe,
+    the Old Believer rigorously excluded them. He frowned upon the
+    use of tobacco, of tea, of coffee and of sugar, and by a
+    curious transfer of his respect for antiquity to his meat and
+    drink, he stormed against almost all colonial produce as
+    heretical and diabolical. All that had come in since Nikon and
+    Peter was put under the ban by the champions of the ancient
+    liturgy. One Raskolnik forbade traveling on turnpikes, because
+    they were an invention of Antichrist. More recently, another
+    showed that the potato was the forbidden fruit which caused the
+    fall of our first mother. On every side the Old Believer raised
+    about him a wall of scruples and prejudices, entrenching
+    himself behind his stagnation and ignorance, and anathematizing
+    all civilization in a breath. To meet Peter's edicts enjoining
+    a new costume or alphabet or calendar, the Raskol put forth a
+    second decalogue: "Thou shalt not shave; Thou shalt not smoke;
+    Thou shalt use no sugar," etc. In the North, where they are
+    stricter and more numerous, many Raskolniks still have
+    conscientious scruples about using tobacco and putting sugar in
+    their tea. The scriptural arguments urged for this opposition
+    are generally marked by the coarsest realism. The Old Believer
+    who will not smoke adduces the passage, "There is nothing from
+    without a man that entering into him can defile him; but the
+    things which come out of him, those are they that defile the
+    man." The rebuker of the use of sugar urges that blood is used
+    in its manufacture; whereas Scripture forbids the eating of the
+    blood of animals&mdash;a prohibition, by the way, which seems
+    to have been maintained longer in Russia than in any other
+    Christian country. The true ground of the opposition to this or
+    that article or habit is to be sought not in these theological
+    arguments, but in its novelty and late introduction. As regards
+    his way of life and his faith, his table and his devotions, he
+    is minded to tread in his forefathers' footsteps. A Raskolnik
+    and a member of the orthodox Church were drinking together,
+    when the latter took a cigar. "Out on the infernal poison!"
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 455]</span>cried the
+    Raskolnik.&mdash;"What do you, think of brandy?" asked his
+    companion. "Oh! Wine" (<i>vino</i>, the Russian name for
+    brandy)&mdash;"wine was Noah's favorite drink."&mdash;"Very
+    good!" said the other: "now prove to me that Noah was not a
+    smoker." These folk are still in the patriarchal stage, and an
+    appeal to antiquity is an end of controversy, "Jeer not at the
+    old," says one of their proverbs, "for the old man knows old
+    things and teaches justice."</p>
+
+    <p>The parties to any political or religious contest need a
+    standard&mdash;some outward sign which appeals to the eye and
+    the intelligence of all. The most serious of the political
+    questions that convulse France to-day are symbolized and summed
+    up in the color of a flag; and thus in the Russian conflict
+    between popular obstinacy and the modern propagandism the
+    rallying-sign of the Old Believers, and the emblem of the
+    champions of nationality and conservatism, was the beard. The
+    national chin was the centre of a conflict less puerile than
+    might be fancied. Long before Peter the Great imitators of
+    Western ways had begun to shave, thus setting at defiance the
+    Oriental custom which everywhere prevailed in Russia. Under
+    Peter's father one of the Raskol leaders, the protopope
+    Avvakum, denounced "these bold-faced" men&mdash;bold-faced
+    meaning shaven. The prohibition of Leviticus (xxix. 27; xxi. 5)
+    was first adduced, in conformity with the love for alleging
+    religious scruples. Recourse was next had to the ancient
+    missals and the decrees of the <i>Stoglaf</i>, a sort of
+    ecclesiastical code attributed to a national council. The
+    prohibition of the razor was at first confined to the clergy,
+    but it spread by little and little to all the faithful of the
+    orthodox Church. Up to the time of Nikon the patriarchs had
+    laid hardly less stress on forms and on the exclusion of
+    foreign ways than their future opponents of the Raskol, and had
+    condemned shaving as "an heretical practice which disfigures
+    the image of God, and makes men look like dogs and cats." This
+    is the main theological argument of the foes of the barber, and
+    their current interpretation of the verse of Genesis, "God
+    created man in His own image," "The image of God is the beard,"
+    writes a Raskolnik about 1830, "and His likeness is the
+    moustache." "Look at the old images of Christ and the saints,"
+    urge the Old Believers: "all of them wear their beards." And so
+    cogent is the argument that the orthodox theologians are fain
+    to hunt up the scanty list of beardless saints to be found in
+    Byzantine iconography. Whatever the force of the arguments
+    drawn from divinity, at bottom the opposition was only the
+    simple folks' one way of seeing things&mdash;the same clinging
+    to forms, the same compound of symbolism and realism. The
+    living work of God is to them as sacred as the text of the
+    divine word. Every word and letter of the sacred office must
+    have its separate significance; and they cannot admit that the
+    hair with which the Almighty has covered a man's face is
+    without a meaning. It is to them the distinctive mark of the
+    male countenance; to remove it is to change, and therefore to
+    disfigure, the divine handiwork: it is, in short, hardly less
+    than mutilation.<a name="FNanchor_008_8"
+       id="FNanchor_008_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_008_8"
+       class="fnanchor">[008]</a></p>
+
+    <p>The beard, like the single repetition of the Hallelujah and
+    the cross with eight branches, has had its martyrs. No later
+    than last year (1874), on the Gulf of Finland a peasant who had
+    been drafted for the navy obstinately refused to be shaved, and
+    rather than betray his religion underwent a sentence of several
+    years for insubordination. Scruples of this sort have led the
+    government to grant permission to wear the beard in the case of
+    certain corps (for instance, the Cossacks of the Ural) which
+    are mainly composed of Old Believers. Peter the Great used
+    every means to overcome these popular prejudices, but the beard
+    was too much for the reformer. Finding himself unable to shave
+    all the recusants by force, he bethought him of laying a tax on
+    the wearers of long beards, but in vain. He was similarly
+    foiled in his attempt to lay a double tax on the schismatic
+    upholders of the ancient ways. He forbade them
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 456]</span>to live in the towns; he
+    deprived them of civil rights; he forced them to wear a bit of
+    red cloth on the shoulder as a distinctive badge; but these
+    measures only marked them out as the bravest champions of
+    national traditions, and increased the respect everywhere
+    rendered them.</p>
+
+    <p>Such an attitude toward civilization leaves no room for
+    mistake as to the social and political character of the schism.
+    It is a popular protest against the irruption of foreign
+    customs. It is a reaction against the reforms of Peter the
+    Great, somewhat as Ultramontanism is a reaction against the
+    spirit of the French Revolution. The Staroveres are the
+    champions of ancient customs in the civil sphere as well as in
+    the religious. The Old Believer is emphatically the
+    old-fashioned Russian&mdash;the Slavophilist of the lower
+    classes&mdash;and hence extreme to the point of absurdity. His
+    revolt against authority has more resemblance to that of La
+    Vend&eacute;e than to that of the Jacobins. Like a conscript
+    obstinately refusing to join his regiment, he holds back from
+    all part and lot in the changes of modern Russia; and in this
+    light the schism is the feature which above all others
+    assimilates Russia to the East.</p>
+
+    <p>And just as the East has bound itself fast to externals, so
+    the Raskolnik praises his fossilism to the skies, and would
+    gladly run the risk of petrifying society in its inherited
+    shape. With him, as with the child or the Oriental, wisdom and
+    science belong to the infancy of civilization, and the maxims
+    of antiquity leave nothing to be learnt. Under both aspects the
+    Old Believer is reactionary, opposed to the very principle of
+    progress&mdash;the hero of routine and a martyr to prejudice.
+    His gaze turns naturally to the past, and if reform ever enters
+    his mind, he dreams of a return to the good old times of yore.
+    Even his struggle against authority is based on the old idea of
+    sovereignty: his political motto, as well as that of most of
+    the people, is, "No emperor, but a czar!" The czar was one day
+    pointed out to a Raskolnik conscript. "That is no czar," he
+    said: "he wears a moustache, a uniform and a sword, like all
+    the rest of the officers. He is nothing but a general." These
+    worshipers of the past, with their devotion to ceremonial,
+    think of the czar only as a long-bearded man in a flowing robe,
+    such as they see in the ancient images. The Old Believers are
+    the exaggerated representatives of the spirit of stagnation
+    which everywhere confronts the Russian government. Nothing
+    gives a clearer conception of the obstacles still in the way of
+    reforms which elsewhere would be matters of course (as, for
+    instance, the substitution of the Gregorian for the Julian
+    calendar) than the resistance which other measures have already
+    encountered.</p>
+
+    <p>In principle the Raskol is conservative, not to say
+    reactionary, but its attitude toward the Church and the State,
+    and the habits engendered by two centuries of opposition and
+    persecution, give it a revolutionary, or even an anarchical,
+    character. A secret tie unites all the branches of public
+    authority, and the rejection of one leads to the rejection of
+    another. As has been said by an eminent historian of Russia,
+    the refusal to submit to a single form of authority brings into
+    activity a disposition to rid one's self of all social and
+    moral ties. The Hussite revolt against Rome speedily results in
+    the Taborite revolt against society: Luther calls the
+    Anabaptists into being. The same phenomenon is repeated in
+    Russia, in England and in Scotland. Once carried away by the
+    spirit of revolt, an irresistible tendency sweeps the schism on
+    in the direction of civil liberty; and both in theory and in
+    practice some of these sects have reached the most unbridled
+    license. Hence, by one of those contrasts which are so common
+    in Russia, the Raskol is judged in two utterly different ways,
+    each of which is partly correct. The reactionary movement in
+    its inception had the appearance of an assertion of the rights
+    of individual liberty and national life, as opposed to the
+    autocratic government; and such it was, after a
+    fashion&mdash;the fashion of refractory conscripts or of
+    smugglers, not to say of brigands&mdash;the fashion, in short,
+    in which all abuses and prejudices are defended. What it
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 457]</span>claimed was liberty,
+    indeed, but liberty as the commonalty understand
+    it&mdash;liberty to retain its customs, its superstitions and
+    its ignorance&mdash;liberty to go and come as it chose. But in
+    all this there was no notion of political freedom. With all his
+    hatred of foreign importations, the Old Believer is no enemy to
+    reform in the sense of national tradition or of furthering the
+    interests of the lower classes, the artisan and the peasant.
+    Like all popular movements, the Raskol is essentially
+    democratic, and in some of its sects socialistic and
+    communistic.</p>
+
+    <p>Two things which have especially tended to give the Raskol a
+    democratic&mdash;or even liberal&mdash;complexion are serfdom
+    and the bureaucratic despotism of the country. It was no mere
+    coincidence which caused the Raskol to break out about half a
+    century after serfdom was established. Much of its popularity
+    and life was due to the enslavement of the mass of the people.
+    The slave was proud of having a different faith from his
+    master; and slavery is always a propitious soil for the growth
+    of sects. This nation of serfs dimly felt the Raskol to be an
+    assertion of religious liberty and self-respect against master,
+    Church and government; and these were symbolized by the beard
+    and the peculiar sign of the cross. The Raskol offered to all
+    the oppressed a moral, and often a material, refuge, an asylum
+    for all enemies of the master and the law, and a shelter for
+    the fugitive serf, for the deserter, for public debtors and
+    outlaws of every description. Some sects (as the Wanderers, for
+    example) are specially organized for such purposes. In these
+    respects the Raskol was unconsciously one form of the
+    opposition to serfdom and official despotism; and hence the Old
+    Believers are most numerous among the most refractory elements
+    of Russia&mdash;in the North among the free peasants (the old
+    colonists of Novgorod), and in the South among the independent
+    Cossacks of the steppes. Religious and political opposition
+    have joined hands, and to this combination is due the strength
+    of the great popular movements of the seventeenth and
+    eighteenth centuries, such as the Streltsy insurrections at the
+    time of the revolt of Pougatchef, whose excesses curiously
+    recall the wars of the Peasants and Anabaptists in the West
+    before the abolition of serfdom. In the great Russian
+    Jacquerie, and in all the seditions which held out the hope of
+    emancipation, the first place was taken by the Old Believers
+    and the Cossacks, most of whom held the same faith. These two
+    forms of national resistance are naturally akin. They equally
+    personify the character and the prejudices of the old Russian.
+    Their main point is their character of protests, so that an Old
+    Believer may be described as a Cossack in religion,
+    transporting into that domain the instincts peculiar to the
+    wild horsemen of the Don. But both Cossack and Starovere have
+    found themselves forced to give way before the march of
+    civilization, and the different branches into which the Raskol
+    has split have reached very divergent conclusions both as to
+    politics and religion.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="III_INTERNAL_DIVISIONS"
+       name="III_INTERNAL_DIVISIONS"></a>III.&mdash;INTERNAL
+       DIVISIONS.</h3>
+
+    <p>Nothing is more logical than religious creeds&mdash;nothing
+    more rigorously consequent in its deductions than the
+    theological mind. Religious thought has an unimpeded course in
+    the twilight of mystery where it takes its airy flight, and no
+    material facts avail to check it or divert it from the chosen
+    path. The innate logic of the Russian mind adds force to the
+    kindred theological quality in its influence upon the Raskol,
+    for the inhabitant of Greater Russia is distinguished for his
+    logical consecutiveness and his acceptance of the extremest
+    consequences of a position. This is partly the cause of the
+    multiplicity and growth of the strange doctrines prevalent
+    among them; and while this disposition frequently lands the
+    schism in the most grotesque of absurdities, it gives a
+    remarkable unity and regularity to even its apparent
+    divergencies and variations. Irregularity and the play of
+    chance have as little real place in this spiritual phenomenon
+    as in one belonging to the region of physics; and a knowledge
+    of the <i>terminus a quo</i> would have suggested its
+    complications as well <span class="pagenum">[Pg 458]</span>as
+    the point ultimately reached. One is now and then tempted to
+    look upon the various sects as utterly chaotic, but it is not
+    difficult to trace the general course of their natural
+    evolution.</p>
+
+    <p>A less robust faith might easily have been cast down by the
+    obstacle which confronted the schism at the outset. The revolt
+    aimed at maintaining the ritual, yet the lack of priests to
+    officiate necessitated its abandonment. The defenders of the
+    old faith found themselves, at the first step, deprived of the
+    means of practicing its rites. A single bishop, Paul of
+    Kolomna, had held out for the ancient books at the time of
+    Nikon's reform, but he had been imprisoned, and perhaps put to
+    death: at all events, he died without consecrating a bishop,
+    and the Raskol was consequently left without an episcopate or a
+    priesthood. Now, Oriental orthodoxy is not simply doctrinal in
+    its character, but, as M. A. R&eacute;ville has remarked of
+    Catholicism, "is, above all, a method of establishing
+    communication between man and God by the medium of an organized
+    priesthood, whose successive members transmit uninterruptedly
+    the divine powers which they hold from Christ;" and the death
+    of Paul of Kolomna snapped the chain uniting the Old Believers
+    with Christ, for ever depriving the schism of the powers
+    conferred by Christ on the apostles and essential to the
+    continuance of the priesthood and the Church.</p>
+
+    <p>The Raskol, so to speak, was stillborn. Unless they retraced
+    their steps, there were but two paths to take&mdash;either to
+    admit priests consecrated by a Church they had condemned, or to
+    dispense with the clergy, who alone could celebrate the rites
+    in defence of which they had revolted. There was little to
+    choose between the two self-contradictory courses, and each had
+    its partisans. This first check split the schism into two
+    groups, whose hostility has not been allayed by the lapse of
+    two centuries. According to some, as Christianity cannot exist
+    without a priesthood, its complicity with Nikon's heresy has
+    not deprived the Russian Church of apostolic powers&mdash;of
+    the <i>cheirotonia</i>, or right to consecrate bishops and
+    priests by the laying on of hands; and as their ordination is
+    valid, the schismatics have only to bring back priests of the
+    official Church to the observance of the ancient ritual. To
+    this it is answered that by abandoning the ancient books and
+    anathematizing the ancient traditions the sect of Nikon has
+    lost all claim to the apostolical succession, so that the
+    established clergy constitute no longer a Church, but the
+    synagogue of Satan. All communion with these emissaries of hell
+    is a sin, and ordination by the apostate bishops a defilement.
+    The Oriental patriarchs have shared the heresy of the Russian
+    prelates by agreeing to their anathemas against the ancient
+    rites, and orthodoxy has carried with it in its fall the
+    episcopate, apostolical succession and the lawful
+    priesthood.</p>
+
+    <p>Thus, in the first generation the Raskol fell into two
+    sections&mdash;the <i>Popovtsy</i>, who adhere to the priests,
+    and the <i>Bezpopovtsy</i>, who do not. To recruit their clergy
+    the Popovtsy were fain to have recourse to deserters from the
+    established Church, and were thus dependent upon it; though we
+    shall see that of late they have succeeded in getting an
+    independent episcopate along with a complete ecclesiastical
+    hierarchy. By maintaining a priesthood, however scanty and
+    ignorant, the Popovtsy preserve the sacraments and the orthodox
+    Christian system; and, despite the inconsistency of admitting
+    the priests of a Church that they condemn, they have paused at
+    the first step of schism and maintain the original position. It
+    is almost impossible, on the other hand, for the Bezpopovtsy to
+    stop on the slope down which their logic inexorably drags them.
+    Involved in the abandonment of the priesthood is that of
+    orthodoxy, or at least of the orthodox ritual, and the
+    sacrament of orders carries with it the sacraments which none
+    but the priest can administer. Of the seven traditional
+    channels of divine grace, baptism alone remains open: the other
+    six are dried up for ever. Thus, the first step of the
+    Bezpopovtsy brings them to the destruction of the first
+    principle of Christian worship. The more rigid of them do not
+    shrink from this most glaring <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    459]</span>of contradictions. To save the entire ritual they
+    have sacrificed its most essential parts. For the double
+    Hallelujah and the sign of the cross with two fingers instead
+    of three they have foregone the whole Christian life and the
+    one visible link between man and God, which is to be found only
+    in the sacraments. The abolition of the sacred ministry and
+    divine service is their protest against the trifling changes
+    introduced into their devotional customs by the established
+    Church. In barring the entrance to Nikon's so-called
+    innovations they have done away with the priesthood, and so
+    with every dyke against sectarian whimsies or the very
+    novelties against which they blindly contend.</p>
+
+    <p>In the melancholy upshot of the Bezpopovtsy movement there
+    was nothing to satisfy the fondness for ceremonial and
+    tradition to which the schism owed its birth; and it was hard
+    to fill the gap left by the loss of priesthood and sacraments.
+    The old orthodox law had become impossible to carry out, yet it
+    had not been abrogated. Though perfectly united as to rejecting
+    the priesthood, they accordingly fell into new fragments,
+    marked now by hesitations and compromises, and now by grotesque
+    fancies or by cruel doctrines. For the timid and for those who
+    clung to public worship it was impossible to believe in
+    Christian life and salvation without the divinely-appointed
+    means; and in the perplexed effort to supply the loss of the
+    sacraments their piety resorted to all manner of ingenious
+    make-believes. Priestly absolution being out of the question,
+    confession is sometimes made to the "elder" or to a woman, and
+    the promise of pardon has to do duty for the direct absolution.
+    As the Eucharist cannot be consecrated, famishing souls resort
+    to types or memorials of the holy sacrament; and for this
+    <i>quasi</i> communion rites have been devised which are
+    sometimes pleasing, sometimes bloody and horrible. One of these
+    is the distribution of raisins by a young girl; while one sect
+    (which is, however, but indirectly connected with the Raskol)
+    use the breast of a young maiden instead of the element of
+    bread. To one of the Bezpopovtsy sects the name of "gapers" is
+    given, because they are accustomed to keep their mouths open
+    during the Maundy-Thursday service, that the angels, God's only
+    remaining ministers, may give them drink from an invisible
+    chalice, since, as they hold, Christ cannot have wholly
+    deprived the faithful of the flesh and blood offered upon the
+    cross.</p>
+
+    <p>Such are the expedients of the more gentle or enthusiastic
+    to escape from the religious vacuum into which schism has
+    precipitated them. Quite different is the course of the more
+    strict and dauntless theologians; and the ascendency of logic
+    over pious feeling carries with these the majority of the
+    Bezpopovtsy. No consequence is too revolting for them, and no
+    hesitating subterfuge worthy of a thought. The priesthood, they
+    hold, is extinct, leaving only the sacrament of baptism, which
+    the laity may administer. Make-believes are of no avail. The
+    chain that linked Heaven with earth is snapped, and can be
+    reunited only by miracle. Meanwhile, the faithful are like men
+    shipwrecked on a desert island without a priest among them.
+    Eucharist, penitence, chrism, and, more than all, marriage, are
+    alike impossible. The priest alone can pronounce the nuptial
+    benediction; and where there is no priest there can be no
+    marriage. Such is the ultimate consequence of the
+    schism&mdash;the rock on which the Bezpopovtsy split. With
+    marriage the family goes, society with the family, and such
+    teachings can never be in harmony with the feelings, with
+    society or with morality. Marriage is their stumbling-block and
+    the principal matter on which their discussions and divisions
+    turn, giving rise to the wildest aberrations and strangest
+    compromises. The more practical retain marriage as a social
+    conventionality, while the more logical make celibacy
+    universally binding, thereby fostering anything but asceticism.
+    Among the Russian sectaries the familiar combination is
+    repeated of sensuality and mysticism. Free-love has been both
+    preached and practiced among them; and among the lower classes
+    the grossest heresies of ancient <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    460]</span>Gnosticism have mingled with the wildest and most
+    morbid of modern social theories. Most of their theological
+    writers, while avoiding such extremes, urge the most
+    extraordinary maxims in connection with their forbiddance of
+    marriage, such as that immorality, being but a passing
+    weakness, is less criminal than marriage, which is interdicted
+    by the faith.... To such a point as this have the conscientious
+    champions of old ceremonial been brought. They have carried
+    with them a few shreds of ancient ritual, and they have not
+    only abandoned Christian and natural morality, but in their
+    struggle with modern government and civilization deny the
+    principle which upholds all society.</p>
+
+    <p>Even fanatics must stand affrighted before conclusions like
+    these, and the Bezpopovtsy feel the need of some justification
+    for their subversal of the <i>cultus</i> and the morality of
+    Christianity. They find but one solution for the awful enigma
+    presented by Christ's abandonment of the Church and mankind, by
+    the extinction of appointed sacraments and means of grace, and
+    by the impious rupture of the tie between man and God. The
+    downfall of Church and priesthood and the triumph of falsehood
+    and wrong were foretold by the prophets. This is the time
+    predicted in Holy Writ, when the very elect shall be wellnigh
+    seduced, and when God shall seem to give up His own into the
+    hand of the Adversary. The priestless Church is the Church in
+    the state of widowhood foretold by Daniel in the last days.
+    Thus, the Raskol was brought by the new path of theology to
+    that belief in the approaching end of the world and the reign
+    of Antichrist to which we have already seen it led by its
+    aversion to ecclesiastical and civil reforms. That the reign of
+    Antichrist is begun is the fundamental doctrine of the Raskol,
+    and particularly of the Bezpopovstchin. In the light of this
+    new dogma all the contradictions of the latter are explained
+    and justified. This is the reason for the extinction of the
+    priesthood, of marriage and of the family. Wherefore&mdash;many
+    ask&mdash;wherefore continue the race when the archangel's
+    trump is about to proclaim the end of humanity?</p>
+
+    <p>The end of the world was announced to be nigh even before
+    Peter the Great; and they who proclaimed it are not yet weary
+    of awaiting it. Like Christians in the West in other periods,
+    they are not undeceived by the delay of the destined time, and
+    are at no loss to explain it. Many consider the reign of
+    Antichrist to be a period or era which may last for centuries,
+    as one of the three great epochs in religious history, and as
+    having, like those of the old and the new dispensations, a law
+    of its own which abrogates what went before. All of the
+    Raskolniks, or even of the Bezpopovtsy, however, do not agree
+    as to Antichrist; for while his reign is generally admitted, it
+    seems to be very differently understood. Those who retain the
+    priesthood and the more moderate of their opponents hold his
+    reign to be spiritual and invisible, and government and
+    established Church to be the unconscious or unwilling tools of
+    Satan; while the extremists of the Bezpopovstchin maintain that
+    Antichrist reigns materially and palpably. He it is, as we have
+    seen, who occupies the throne of the czars since Peter the
+    Great, and his Sanhedrim that usurps the name of the holy
+    synod. Trivial as the difference is, theologically speaking,
+    its political consequences are considerable; for the state may
+    arrive at some understanding with sects that only regard it as
+    blind and misled, while even a truce is out of the question
+    with those which look upon it as the incarnate enemy of
+    souls.</p>
+
+    <p>Very singular are the vagaries to which the ignorant
+    peasants are naturally led by this belief. Since the world is
+    in subjection to "Satan, the son of Beelzebub," all contact
+    with it was defiling, and submission to its laws nothing short
+    of a denial of the faith. To escape the hellish contagion the
+    best means was isolation or rigid withdrawal into inaccessible
+    retreats or desert places. In their spiritual confusion and
+    terror some of the sectaries saw no refuge but death, and
+    murder and suicide were systematically resorted to for the
+    purpose of shortening the time of probation and hastening their
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 461]</span>departure from the
+    accursed world. With some fanatics, called "child-slayers"
+    (<i>dietoub&uuml;tsy</i>), it was held a duty to expedite the
+    entrance to heaven of newborn children, and thus to save them
+    infernal anguish. Others, called "stranglers" or "butchers"
+    (<i>duchelstchiki, tiukalstchiki</i>), think they render a
+    valuable service to their relatives and friends by anticipating
+    a natural death, in hastening the end of those who are
+    seriously ill. Taking with a savage literalness the text, "The
+    kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it
+    by force" (Matt. xi. 12), they hold that none can enter into
+    the kingdom of heaven but those who die a violent death. One of
+    the most numerous and powerful bodies in the first century of
+    the Raskol, the <i>Philipovtsy</i>, or "burners," like the
+    Indian fakeers, preached redemption by suicide, and salvation
+    by the baptism of fire, holding that the flames alone could
+    purify men from the defilements of a world which had fallen
+    under the rule of Satan. In Siberia and the neighborhood of the
+    Ural these sectaries have been known to burn themselves in
+    hundreds on enormous piles built for the purpose, or by
+    families in their hovels, to the sound of hymns and chants.
+    Such acts have been known even during the present century.</p>
+
+    <p>One insanity begets another, and belief in the presence of
+    Antichrist leads to belief in the approaching restoration of
+    the earth, the second advent of Christ and the millennium,
+    which has infected the more extreme sects of the
+    Bezpopovstchin, thus connecting it with Gnostic sects of
+    various origins. Russian literalism, like many early Christian
+    heresies, interprets the prophets and the Apocalypse in a
+    purely material sense. The mujik or artisan looks for the
+    establishment of Christ's temporal kingdom, and anticipates the
+    dominion promised to the saints. Such a belief opens the door
+    to a trust in prophets, and to all the extravagances and
+    rascalities that come in its train. In vain does the Russian
+    statute-book condemn false prophets and lying miracles: from
+    time to time the country is overrun by <i>illuminati</i>
+    proclaiming the Second Advent, and occasionally giving
+    themselves out as the expected Messiah. They are frequently
+    accompanied by a woman, who plays the part of mystical mother
+    or spouse, and to whom they give the title of the Mother of God
+    or the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes it is only the simple folk who
+    are themselves hunting for the Redeemer; and not long since
+    appeared a body of Siberian sectaries, called "Christ-hunters,"
+    maintaining that the Saviour was about to appear, and scouring
+    desert and forest to find him. Peasants have even been known to
+    refuse payment of their taxes under pretext that Christ was
+    come and had done away with them. The Messiah of the Russian
+    sectaries is sometimes sought in the person of a simple
+    peasant, and sometimes in a native or foreign prince. Some have
+    long beheld the expected liberator in Napoleon, for their
+    persuasion that the Russian state is the reign of Antichrist
+    easily led to welcoming as a Saviour any one who seemed
+    destined to destroy it; and in the great enemy of the empire,
+    the great furtherer of a general abolition of serfdom, many
+    recognized the conquering Messiah of the prophets. It is said
+    that at their meetings an image of Napoleon is worshiped, and
+    busts of him are certainly nowhere met with more commonly than
+    in Russia. An equal veneration is paid to pictures representing
+    the first emperor surrounded by his marshals and floating above
+    the clouds in a kind of apotheosis, which is literally accepted
+    by the matter-of-fact Russian. The story runs among his
+    worshipers that Napoleon is not dead, but has escaped from St.
+    Helena and taken shelter on the shores of Lake Baikal, whence
+    he will one day come forth to overturn the throne of Satan and
+    found the kingdom of justice and peace.</p>
+
+    <p>The main point of these millennial hopes was the abolition
+    of forced labor and the <i>obrok</i>, the emancipation of the
+    serfs, and the equitable distribution of land and other
+    property. A ready reception was sure to await such a gospel,
+    with its combination of promises of liberty and faint dreams of
+    communism; and something of the kind is necessary to explain
+    the easy success of so many <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    462]</span>extravagant sects, lying prophets and feigned
+    Messiahs. Dreams like these in the West incited the revolutions
+    of the peasants in medi&aelig;val times and of the Anabaptists
+    in the sixteenth century, but they must slowly vanish with the
+    slavery which gave them birth. The age of freedom anticipated
+    by the mujik, the kingdom of God of which he caught a glimpse
+    in the promises of the prophets, is come at last: the Messiah
+    and freer of the people has appeared, and his reign is begun.
+    The emancipation of the serfs has given a blow to these
+    millennial dreams, and consequently to the more advanced sects
+    of the Raskol: its ruin will be completed by education and
+    material improvement.</p>
+
+    <p>The sects whose general evolution we have sketched may
+    appear to us ridiculous and childish. We are tempted to look
+    with contempt upon a people capable of such extravagances; but
+    such an estimate would be erroneous. Absurdity and extravagance
+    have always found a ready welcome when presented under the garb
+    of religion; and countries boasting of older and more
+    widespread civilization are not behind Russia in this regard.
+    The Raskol has its counterpart in the past and the contemporary
+    sectarianism of England and of the United States. A strong
+    likeness holds between the Puritans and the Old Believers; and
+    both as to originality and religious eccentricities the
+    Anglo-Saxon and the inhabitant of Greater Russia may be
+    compared. The Russians delight in pointing out the resemblances
+    between their country and the great republic of the New World;
+    and this is not the least of them. The Americans have their
+    prophets and prophetesses, just like the old Russian serfs, and
+    no absurdity or immorality is too gross to find preachers and
+    converts among them. How shall we account for so striking an
+    analogy between the two most extensive empires of the two
+    continents? To characteristics of race and an incomplete
+    blending of different stocks, or to the nature of the soil, the
+    extremes of heat and cold, and the strong contrasts of the
+    seasons? to the vastness of their territories and the scanty
+    diffusion of population and culture over areas so immense? or
+    still again to the rapid and inharmonious growth of the two
+    countries&mdash;to the lack of popular education in the one,
+    and the low standard of the higher education in the other?
+    Separately or combined, these causes fail completely to explain
+    the curious phenomenon; and still they are the most striking
+    points of resemblance between the two colossal powers. In some
+    respects, the sectarian spirit presents itself in a different
+    and almost opposite manner in the democratic republic and the
+    despotic empire. In the United States the ranker growths of
+    religious enthusiasm spring from an excess of individualism and
+    enterprise&mdash;from the independent and pushing temper
+    transported from politics and business into religion. In
+    Russia, on the contrary, the popular mind has thrown off all
+    restraint in the religious sphere, simply because this was long
+    the only one in which it could disport itself unchecked. The
+    religious boldness and extravagance which in the one country is
+    the direct consequence of the state of society is in the other
+    rather a reaction against it. Russia's advantage over America
+    lies in the fact that there the excesses of fancy and zeal
+    prevail in a more primitive, unsophisticated and childlike
+    race. Some diseases are best passed through early in life,
+    before the time of full development. It is no less true of some
+    moral maladies: childhood suffers from them less than youth or
+    maturity. Russia is still in that stage of civilization which
+    is naturally subject to attacks of feverish and mystical
+    religion, but one day it will emerge from it; and the
+    precocious skepticism of a large portion of its educated
+    classes shows plainly that no inexorable fate condemns the
+    national character to credulity and superstition.</p>
+
+    <p>The Raskol is more than a morbid symptom or a sign of
+    weakness. If it does little credit to the sense or cultivation
+    of the people, it does much to its heart, its conscience and
+    its will. Independence and individuality are often said to be
+    lacking in it, but the Old Believers show that firmness and
+    conception of duty which are as needful as
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 463]</span>intelligence to a nation's
+    strength. Beneath the dull, monotonous surface of political
+    society these sects give us a glimpse of the hard rock which is
+    the groundwork of this seemingly inert race: its originality
+    and stern individuality are what are dear to it. One day Russia
+    will display in other spheres the originality and patient,
+    sturdy energy which these religious struggles have called
+    forth. That a considerable portion of the people have revolted
+    against the liturgic reform shows that it is not the stupid,
+    sluggish herd Europe has so long imagined. On one ground at
+    least its conscience has displayed sufficient independence, and
+    told despotism that it is not all-powerful. And if mere ritual
+    alterations have aroused such opposition, what would result
+    from a change of religion&mdash;from the transition to
+    Catholicism or Protestantism so often dreamed of and advised by
+    Western theologians? So far from being always docile and void
+    of will and determination, the Russian people, even in their
+    religious vagaries, have displayed a singular power of
+    organization and combination.</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="ELEANORS_CAREER"
+       name="ELEANORS_CAREER"></a>ELEANOR'S CAREER.</h2>
+
+    <p>I first met Eleanor Vachy at a boarding-school in the city
+    of R&mdash;&mdash;, where we soon became intimate friends.
+    Eleanor was the result of a system. When but a few months old,
+    and an orphan, she had been left to the care of her aunt, Miss
+    Willmanson, a reformer, a progressionist, advanced both in life
+    and opinions, who had spared nothing to make her niece an
+    example to her sex. No pugilist ever believed more fully in
+    training than did Miss Willmanson: she looked upon institutions
+    of learning as forcing-houses, where nipping, budding and
+    improving the natural growth was the constant occupation, and
+    where the various branches of knowledge were cultivated, like
+    cabbages, at so much a head. When Eleanor became, so to speak,
+    her property, she seized with avidity the opportunity of
+    submitting her principles to the test of experiment&mdash;of
+    demonstrating to an incredulous world the power of education,
+    and the vigor of the female mind and body when formed by proper
+    discipline. The child was fed in accordance with the most
+    recent discoveries in chemistry: she was taught to read after
+    the latest improvement in primers; she was provided with
+    mathematical toys and gymnastic exercises. Did she take a walk
+    in summer, her attention was directed to botany; if she picked
+    up a stone to make it skip over a passing brook, passages from
+    the <i>Medals of Creation</i> or <i>Thoughts on a Pebble</i>
+    were quoted; and when the stone went skimming over the surface
+    of the calm pool, the theory of the ricochet was explained and
+    the wonders of natural philosophy were dilated upon. Every
+    sentence she spoke was made the text of a lesson, and the names
+    of sages and philosophers became as familiar to her as those of
+    Jack the Giant-killer and Blue Beard are to ordinary
+    children.</p>
+
+    <p>Especially were the stories of distinguished women repeated
+    by Miss Willmanson in glowing language, pointed out as
+    precedents, and dwelt upon as worthy of emulation. "If their
+    genius was great enough," she would remark, "to extort a
+    recognition in times when only masculine pens wrote history,
+    what could not the same ability do now?&mdash;now, when,
+    strengthened by waiting, encouraged by ungrudging praise, and
+    sure of having chroniclers of their own sex who will do them
+    justice, a new era is dawning. The history of the world needs
+    to be reseen from a woman's point of view, and rewritten by a
+    woman's hand. <span class="pagenum">[Pg 464]</span>Men have had
+    the monopoly of making public opinion, and have distorted
+    facts. What in a king they name policy, in a queen is called
+    cruelty; what in a minister is diplomacy, in a favorite is
+    deceit; what in a man is justice, in a woman is inhumanity;
+    vigor is coarseness, generosity is weakness, sincerity becomes
+    shallowness; and faults that are passed over lightly in the
+    hero are sufficient to doom the heroine for all posterity."</p>
+
+    <p>The peculiar views of Eleanor's aunt did not prevent her
+    from being an agreeable acquaintance. Although she believed in
+    the intellectual capacity of woman, she did not look upon
+    herself as a representative of the class: her admiration of her
+    sex did not degenerate into self-laudation, and her enthusiasm
+    was not tainted by egotism. Hers was not a strong-mindedness
+    that showed itself in ungainly coiffures and tasteless attire.
+    It was content with desiring and claiming for woman whatever is
+    best, noblest and most lovely in mind and body. She would have
+    given her life to further this end, but thought it mattered
+    little if her name were forgotten in the bulletin that
+    announced success to the cause.</p>
+
+    <p>Owing to her extreme reserve in talking of herself, it was
+    very gradually that I gained this knowledge of Miss
+    Willmanson's character; but many of her opinions were received
+    at second hand from Eleanor, who admired her aunt greatly, and
+    never tired of quoting her. It was she who told me that this
+    talented lady was engaged upon a book the title of which was
+    <i>Footsteps of Women in All Ages</i>. The aunt returned this
+    admiration in no stinted measure, and her highest ambition
+    seemed centred in her niece.</p>
+
+    <p>Eleanor was a tall, well-formed, unaffected girl, with a
+    clear olive complexion; a slight rose-colored bloom on cheeks
+    and lips; deep blue eyes, rather purple than blue, rather
+    amethyst than purple, that looked every one candidly in the
+    face; and hair reminding you of late twilight&mdash;a shade
+    that, though dark, still bore traces of having once been light,
+    even sunny.</p>
+
+    <p>As to her acquirements, however, what in the older lady was
+    love of information, in the younger appeared to be what Pepys
+    called a "curious curiosity." If she had been obliged to
+    investigate a subject by constant labor, I doubt whether she
+    would have stood the test. At school she was a parlor-boarder,
+    attended outside lectures on the sciences, went to concerts and
+    the opera, frequented museums, had small blank-books in which
+    she took voluminous notes, and was constantly busy with some
+    new scheme of improvement. In looking at her I often thought
+    that could her aunt's dreams be realized, could her intellect
+    ever approach the unusual symmetry and beauty of her face and
+    form, it would indeed be an achievement. But was it likely that
+    Nature, who is so grudging of her gifts, after having endowed
+    her so highly physically would do as much for her mentally?
+    "Aunt Will," as the girl called her, had none of these
+    misgivings. This beautiful physique she believed to be the
+    effect of her own foresight and care&mdash;of proper food and
+    clothing, of training in the gymnasium, riding and walking. It
+    was itself an earnest of the success of her plans, and made her
+    confident for the future. One of the tenets of her faith was
+    that Eleanor needed only to decide in what direction to exert
+    herself, and that in any career success was certain. For this
+    reason she gave her opportunities of every kind, that her
+    choice might be unlimited.</p>
+
+    <p>In this, as in every other opinion, Eleanor agreed with her
+    aunt, not through vanity, but through respect and habit. What
+    she intended to become was the theme of long confidences
+    between us when alone together, for the time which most other
+    girls of her age devote to dreams of love and lovers was
+    employed by her in speculations about her future profession.
+    The artlessness of the girl in thus appropriating to herself
+    the whole field of human wisdom would have been ludicrous had
+    it not been so frank: it reminded you of a child reaching out
+    its chubby hands to seize the moon.</p>
+
+    <p>In regard to love and marriage, Aunt Will was most resolute
+    in speaking against them, and by precept and example she
+    endeavored to influence her niece in the same direction. "It is
+    a <span class="pagenum">[Pg 465]</span>state which mentally
+    unfits a woman for anything"&mdash;a dictum which was accepted
+    by Eleanor without argument. It was understood that her life
+    was to be devoted to being great, not to being loved. But Aunt
+    Will refused to lend her help or advice in deciding what the
+    career should be, believing that the prophetic fire would
+    kindle itself without human help, and fearing that the least
+    hint of what she desired might fetter a waking genius, though
+    the girl often plaintively remarked, "I wish aunt would settle
+    it for me."</p>
+
+    <p>The entire faith with which these two women looked forward
+    to the future roused no little curiosity on my part as to the
+    realization of their hopes. A year after our acquaintance began
+    the ladies left R&mdash;&mdash; to travel abroad. Eleanor
+    assured me solemnly that she should not return until she had
+    won renown, that vision of so many young hearts on leaving
+    home. "The great trouble is to decide what to do;" and here she
+    sighed. "But Aunt Will says our work shapes itself without our
+    knowing. Some morning we wake and find it ready for our hands,
+    with no more doubt on the subject. I am waking."</p>
+
+    <p>"Meanwhile enjoying yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not?" she answered, smiling: "it is what aunt wishes me
+    to do."</p>
+
+    <p>At first I had frequent letters from my friend, but the
+    intervals between them became longer, as is usual when a new
+    life replaces the old. In those which I received there was no
+    allusion to the career, and I felt that inquiries on the
+    subject would be indiscreet. If she were succeeding, I should
+    hear of it soon enough; and if not, why should I give her pain?
+    After a separation of about eighteen months, and a silence of
+    six, one morning, on being sent for to the parlor, what was my
+    surprise to find myself face to face with Eleanor Vachy, and
+    the girl, prettier than ever, pressing warm kisses on my
+    cheeks!</p>
+
+    <p>We had been talking on every conceivable topic for perhaps
+    an hour, as only friends can talk, when I chanced to remark,
+    "You intended to make a much longer stay when you left: I hope
+    nothing disagreeable has happened to bring you home."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing <i>dis</i>agreeable," she replied, looking slightly
+    embarrassed. "I would have written about it, but thought I
+    would rather tell you. I hope it won't alter your opinion of me
+    when you hear it: I hope you won't think less of me;" and the
+    color mounted swiftly in her cheeks as she gave me one
+    deprecating glance out of her purple eyes, and then as quickly
+    hid them under their long lashes.</p>
+
+    <p>"I will try to be impartial," I answered gravely, seeing
+    that she was not in a humor to be laughed at. "I suppose it is
+    in reference to your career?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes it is," she replied, looking attentively at the point
+    of her boot; "and I fear aunt is disappointed, although she
+    says nothing; and it is very possible that you will be
+    disappointed also."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you have chosen anything reasonable," I remarked
+    encouragingly, "I am sure your aunt will be satisfied: she is
+    so unprejudiced, and you know she always declared that she
+    would not influence you."</p>
+
+    <p>"She trusted me too much," sighing. "What I have preferred,
+    you&mdash;maybe she&mdash;that is, many people&mdash;would
+    think no career at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, indeed! Poetry?" (I knew that Aunt Will had no great
+    opinion of most of the versifiers.)</p>
+
+    <p>She interlocked her fingers and gave them a slight twist,
+    looked still more intently at the toe of her boot, and dropped
+    ruefully one little word, "No."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not the stage, surely?" looking at her perfect beauty
+    with a sudden start.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no! it is not that. You cannot guess. I may as well
+    tell you. I will begin at the beginning, and you will see that
+    I could not help it: that is&mdash;For Mercy's sake don't look
+    at me as if I were a criminal, or I won't say another
+    word!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nonsense, Eleanor! I am not looking at you as if you were a
+    criminal. Go on and tell me."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is too late now," she said hastily: "I have been here so
+    long already. I will see you to-morrow."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you dare to go without making a
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 466]</span>full confession, I will
+    never forgive you. Sit down: the sooner it is over the more
+    composed you will feel. I have been so anxious to hear about
+    it!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, if it must be. I know you will be disgusted. I have
+    to begin when we left here."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have plenty of time to listen."</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"You remember we started on the voyage by ourselves. At
+        our first dinner on board aunt recognized an old friend, a
+        Mrs. Kenderdine, who was also crossing, together with her
+        son. That first dinner was our last for some time, for,
+        though we tried to be as strong-minded as possible, in the
+        end we were obliged to stay in our cabins. Having recovered
+        sooner than aunt, one day I stumbled out as far as the
+        companion-way, and was sitting there very disconsolately
+        when Mr. Kenderdine, passing by, stopped to ask if he
+        should assist me on deck. Of course I was only too glad to
+        go. He had not been sick at all, and could walk about quite
+        easily, which gave me a high opinion of his abilities.
+        Later he brought me my dinner, with a glass of wine, of
+        which he did not spill a drop, and by evening I found that
+        with the aid of his arm I could promenade.</p>
+
+        <p>"That day was a sample of all until the voyage was over,
+        for if I attempted to move alone I stumbled, rolled and
+        behaved with a lack of dignity that was frightful; and yet,
+        after getting a taste of fresh air, I could not bear to
+        stay below. Somehow, it became understood that each morning
+        Mr. Kenderdine might find me in the companion-way at a
+        certain hour; and as aunt would not leave her state-room,
+        and old Mrs. Kenderdine could not, we had nothing to do but
+        to try and amuse each other; so we ended by becoming pretty
+        well acquainted by the time we arrived at Queenstown.</p>
+
+        <p>"In England aunt was very busy. You used to think her a
+        student here: I wish you could have seen her there. For six
+        months she spent almost every hour of daylight in the
+        library of the British Museum, where she had been
+        introduced by a learned friend. Aunt Will has a wonderful
+        admiration for Boadicea: she was also critically examining
+        the history of Queen Henrietta and of Elizabeth. She thinks
+        the latter did not do justice to her opportunities, and
+        that her vanity was the mark of a feeble mind. You know
+        aunt has no patience with vanity and&mdash;"</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"But about yourself, Eleanor?"</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"I am coming to that directly. Mrs. Kenderdine had gone
+        abroad to get medical advice: as her health would permit
+        her to take but little exercise, a morning drive, with
+        receiving and paying visits (she is of an English family
+        and well connected), was all she was capable of.</p>
+
+        <p>"It happened in this way that the only ones of our party
+        fit for active duty were Fred&mdash;I mean Mr.
+        Kenderdine&mdash;and myself. As we had formed the habit of
+        amusing each other on the voyage, we still continued it.
+        Aunt would join us when any historical site was to be
+        visited; but there were many places that were not
+        historical, but that were just as pleasant or as beautiful
+        as if they had been, and to these we went together. We
+        stayed in London until the season was over, and then
+        started for Paris.</p>
+
+        <p>"You can form no idea how aunt reveled in the
+        antiquities of Paris. If she went to the Mus&eacute;e Cluny
+        in the morning, we might be sure we should see no more of
+        her for that day at least. She absolutely took rooms at
+        Versailles for two weeks that she might study up the
+        <i>locale</i> of the Pompadour, whom she regards as a
+        female Richelieu, and she also found a rich field of
+        investigation in the lives of the French queens."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"And what were you doing all this time?"</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"Oh! I had professors, French, Italian and German, for
+        the languages, I visited the galleries, and aunt would read
+        me her notes, so that I was gaining much information. You
+        see, in a foreign country it is not the thing to sit in the
+        house to study: you must go about as much as possible and
+        use your eyes, which is an education in itself. That is
+        what I was doing."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"About your career, I mean?"</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"Don't be so impatient: I am about to tell you. We
+        concluded to spend the winter in Rome, aunt and I: the
+        Kenderdines <span class="pagenum">[Pg 467]</span>remained
+        in Paris. Aunt preceded me to Brussels about two weeks to
+        explore the libraries there, as we were to make the Rhine
+        tour before going to Italy. I should have accompanied her,
+        but we were expecting a remittance from home that had not
+        arrived, and I was obliged to wait for it. The day before I
+        left Paris I was regretting that I had not been to
+        Montmorency, and Mr. Kenderdine, who overheard me, proposed
+        that as I did not mind fatigue we should go. By starting
+        early in the morning we could make our 'last day,' as he
+        called it, a <i>f&ecirc;te</i>. I consented, and we
+        arranged to take the early train to Enghien, to breakfast
+        there, ride through Montmorency to the Ch&acirc;teau de la
+        Chasse, where we could have dinner, and return in time for
+        the Belgian train in the evening. The next morning I was
+        ready, my riding-skirt in a satchel, and off we went. The
+        day was perfect, the air cool and delicious. We took the
+        cars at the Gare du Nord, and in less than an hour we
+        arrived at Enghien, ordered breakfast at a charming little
+        hotel that overlooks the lake, and had it brought to us on
+        the balcony, from whence we could listen to the band
+        playing, and look at the beautiful villas that border the
+        water, watch the invalids taking their constitutionals, and
+        see the brightly-painted boats bobbing over the small
+        waves. While waiting for the horses, Fred made me go to the
+        springs and taste the water, which is horrid: then we
+        mounted and cantered leisurely on to Montmorency, a hilly,
+        desolate-looking place, although so much lauded by the
+        Parisians: I suppose the beautiful forest in the vicinity
+        is its attraction. The road for the next five or six miles
+        was shaded by trees, and most of it was a soft turf on
+        which the horses' hoofs rebounded noiselessly, with views
+        of rolling country at intervals. The ch&acirc;teau had been
+        a hunting-lodge two or three hundred years ago, but nothing
+        remains of it now but a couple of towers, to which a modern
+        country inn has been added, where excellent dinners may be
+        had, as I can testify. It is a great place for the picnics
+        and pleasure-parties of the natives, but foreigners seldom
+        visit it. After we had wandered about for several hours,
+        enjoying ourselves in that silly French way, with nothing
+        but light hearts, fresh air, green grass and blue sky for
+        all incitement thereto, I, in consideration of my evening
+        journey, recommended our return. We had the horses brought
+        round, and then my career commenced."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Why, how?"</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"You know that road from the ch&acirc;teau? No you
+        don't, but I will tell you of it. The woods lie on one
+        side, and an ivy-covered wall separates it from sloping
+        fields on the other&mdash;the prettiest place on earth."
+        ("Artistic," thought I: "she has decided on
+        landscape-painting;" but I did not interrupt.) "It was just
+        there that Mr. Kenderdine came to my side: he had
+        dismounted to open the gate, and was leading his horse. He
+        came to my side, and, looking up at me, said half
+        seriously, half smiling, 'You are very happy to-day, Miss
+        Eleanor: what will you do when I am not with you to ride
+        and walk and talk to?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I suppose I shall find some one in Rome who rides,
+        walks and talks as well. They say the Campagna is lovely
+        for riding.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'And perhaps some one who waltzes as well.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Certainly: that is no great accomplishment. Like
+        playing a hurdy-gurdy, if you turn round often enough you
+        cannot fail to make a successful performance.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'There is one thing you will not find, Eleanor;' and he
+        laid his hand on my wrist: 'that is, some one who loves you
+        as well.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Mr. Kenderdine, please get on your horse, and don't
+        talk nonsense.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I suppose I have as good a right to talk nonsense as
+        any one, and I believe the fancy for doing so comes to all
+        of us once in our lifetime.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I admit your right to talk, and claim mine to refuse
+        to listen;' so saying, I gave my horse a cut. The animal
+        started, but Fred's hand was still on my bridle-wrist, and
+        with a motion he checked the animal so violently that it
+        reared, afterward coming down on the sod with a thud that
+        almost unseated me.</p>
+
+        <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 468]</span>"'I will talk, and
+        you shall listen,' said Mr. Fred, looking dangerous.</p>
+
+        <p>"'So it appears,' I retorted, thoroughly provoked; 'but
+        I hope you will oblige me by being as expeditious as
+        possible, for I am very much afraid that I shall miss the
+        train to-night.'</p>
+
+        <p>"He looked at me a moment as if to be sure he understood
+        my meaning, then turned and sprang on his horse, at the
+        same time remarking, 'You are right: I had better not
+        detain you. I had forgotten your journey.'</p>
+
+        <p>"We cantered on in silence for about three miles. The
+        flush of anger had slowly faded out of his face, when he
+        commenced abruptly: 'Miss Vachy, I have no <i>right</i> to
+        ask you what I intend asking, but I have always thought you
+        had a kind heart, and perhaps you will answer my question.
+        You may depend that the confidence you may place in me will
+        be held sacred.' Then less quickly, 'Will you tell me, have
+        you an understanding, or are you engaged, or do you care
+        for any one else?'</p>
+
+        <p>"For a moment I thought of entering into an
+        explanation&mdash;of telling him what my aunt expected of
+        me, and what I intended doing&mdash;only I did not myself
+        know what I intended doing; and it seemed absurd to begin
+        such an account without being able to complete it. Besides,
+        if he thought I cared for some one else, it would end the
+        matter and save a world of argument; so I replied
+        hesitatingly, 'I am sorry, Mr. Kenderdine, that I cannot
+        answer your question, but&mdash;'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Enough: I understand.'</p>
+
+        <p>"Then our canter quickened into a gallop, and the gallop
+        into a race. I am quite sure those horses never went at
+        such a pace in their lives before. Fred seemed unconscious
+        of the run we were making of it, unconscious of everything,
+        urging his poor beast whenever it flagged, and fretting its
+        mouth by alternately jerking and loosening the reins, until
+        had it been anything but a livery hack it would have been
+        frantic. Conversation was impossible, and I had nothing to
+        sustain me during the ride but the satisfaction of feeling
+        that I had done my duty."</p>
+
+        <p>"It don't seem to me that you are getting any nearer the
+        end of your story."</p>
+
+        <p>"The darkest hour is that which precedes the dawn," said
+        Eleanor, adding maliciously, "if you are tired I will tell
+        you the rest to-morrow. Don't you see that I must bring you
+        up to it gradually, so that the shock will not be too
+        great?"</p>
+
+        <p>"But think of the suspense I am in."</p>
+
+        <p>"My dear, the first steps in any career are as important
+        as the last; so curb your curiosity and listen. If you were
+        telling it, you would not get on one bit faster."</p>
+
+        <p>"Perhaps not," I answered doubtfully: "however,
+        continue."</p>
+
+        <p>"Thanks to our haste, we got to Paris early enough to
+        allow me to rest and have supper. I had sent on my baggage
+        by express, and had nothing to worry about Starting at
+        seven, I should arrive next morning at Brussels. I can
+        sleep famously in the cars, and I apprehended no
+        difficulty. Fred, looking as black as a thundercloud, took
+        me to the station, and was preposterous enough to ask me if
+        I was not sorry I was going."</p>
+
+        <p>"And what did you say?"</p>
+
+        <p>"Say? Why, the truth&mdash;that I was glad; and then Mr.
+        Thundercloud looked blacker than ever.</p>
+
+        <p>"I had several stations to pass before we reached Creil,
+        where I was to change cars and take the express. I settled
+        myself comfortably, so that I could look out of the window,
+        and I whiled away the time by reviewing the whole of my
+        acquaintance with Mr. Kenderdine. I was forced to admit
+        that I had acted imprudently in not letting him know from
+        the beginning what my life was to be, but I never thought
+        it would matter to him. Then my conscience reproached me
+        for the lie I had implied: I might have told him the truth,
+        and spared him the mortification of believing that I
+        preferred some one else. I knew, in thinking of it calmly,
+        that it was not to avoid an argument that I had done it,
+        but to make him feel as badly as possible, because I was
+        angry at him for stopping my horse. It was mean in me,
+        especially as that De Vezin was the person he would pitch
+        on. You see, I had made a good deal of De Vezin while in
+        Paris, but it was only to <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+        469]</span>improve my French accent&mdash;a fact which poor
+        Fred could not know.</p>
+
+        <p>"The train whizzed on. The night grew dark: I could
+        scarcely distinguish objects outside the blurred window,
+        but I still remained attentive to the voice of the
+        conductor as he called out the names of the successive
+        stations until&mdash;until I heard no more: I had fallen
+        asleep.</p>
+
+        <p>"I suppose I slept profoundly for about half an hour,
+        when I was suddenly awakened by a jerk: the cars had
+        stopped. I was not aware I had been sleeping, but I had an
+        undefined sense that something was wrong. I hastily opened
+        the window and heard the name Liancourt shouted. There was
+        no such stopping-place between Paris and Creil, for I had
+        studied up my route before starting. The truth flashed upon
+        me, and impulsively I left my car, rushed to the conductor,
+        and asked, 'What place is this?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Liancourt.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'And where is Creil?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'We have passed it. Did you want to go there?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Of course I did. Why did you not call it?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'We did call it,' said he indignantly: 'you must have
+        been asleep.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No such thing,' I replied, for at the moment I did not
+        think it could be possible.</p>
+
+        <p>"There was but little time for reflection. Should I go
+        on to the next large town, or should I stay? If I went on,
+        I should get to my destination in the middle of the night,
+        and, knowing nothing of the place, might have great
+        difficulty in finding lodgings. If I stayed, I might get a
+        train back or a carriage, or even find here a hotel of some
+        kind where they would accommodate me until morning. I
+        decided to remain, and off went the cars.</p>
+
+        <p>"One of the ticket-agents came forward from the
+        office&mdash;as I supposed to offer his services: there
+        were but few people about, but all understood my situation.
+        As I said, the man came forward and bowed: 'Your fare, if
+        you please.'</p>
+
+        <p>"I handed him my ticket: he stood before me and
+        repeated, 'Your fare, if you please.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I have given you my ticket,' said I, looking at him
+        inquiringly.</p>
+
+        <p>"'This one is not for Liancourt: it is for Creil.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I was going to Creil, only the train brought me
+        past.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Exactly, and you will please pay for the extra
+        distance,' said he politely.</p>
+
+        <p>"It was too much. I had the misfortune of being carried
+        out of my way, and this exasperating clerk was coolly
+        asking me to pay the company a premium for the result of
+        the conductor's carelessness. It was one of those
+        situations in which words fail to express the extent of
+        your indignation. The fellow's audacity verged on the
+        sublime. He stood there with the calmness of a hero. And
+        what did I do? Why, I paid him. But I tell you truly that I
+        have hated that whole railroad company with the blackest
+        hatred ever since. That was not all. As soon as he received
+        the provoking money&mdash;I wish it had been red
+        hot&mdash;he turned on his heel and walked into his
+        office.</p>
+
+        <p>"But it was not the time to indulge in resentment: I
+        must act promptly. The people there when I arrived were
+        fast dispersing. I addressed myself to a half-grown boy who
+        was standing near me: 'When does the next train go to
+        Paris?' I thought I had better return and start afresh in
+        the morning.</p>
+
+        <p>"'The last has gone for to-night,' answered the lad.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Are you quite sure?'</p>
+
+        <p>"He gave his head a decisive jerk.</p>
+
+        <p>"'How far is this place from Creil?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'About five miles.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Can I get a carriage to take me there?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No.' This time he looked for corroboration to the
+        group who had gathered round us, all of whom with one
+        accord wagged their heads in the negative.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is there a hotel here?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Isn't it a town?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No,' much intensified.</p>
+
+        <p>"I knew that there are many stations in France
+        consisting of a single building located in the midst of
+        fields: these places take their names from the nearest
+        <span class="pagenum">[Pg 470]</span>town (which may be
+        several miles distant), and are marked on the maps by a
+        black spot like a hyphen: many of them are served by an
+        omnibus. I found, on further questioning, that this was one
+        of the aforesaid black spots, minus the omnibus.</p>
+
+        <p>"'What is the nearest town?' I continued.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Liancourt is a little more than a mile off, but it is
+        a village.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is there an inn there?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I believe there is.'</p>
+
+        <p>"By this time most of my audience had satisfied their
+        curiosity and departed, leaving only the boy, and an old
+        man who attracted my attention. He held a lantern which
+        illuminated a kindly, weatherbeaten face, looking like that
+        of an old sailor. I discovered later that he had come from
+        Normandy, and like most Normans had spent half his life on
+        the waves. He seemed interested in my hapless plight:
+        perhaps he would assist me.</p>
+
+        <p>"'I want to go back to Creil' (I knew I should find a
+        hotel there): 'won't you come with me and show me the way
+        with your lantern?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Can't, mademoiselle: can't leave here.' He gave an
+        indicative jerk of his head and thumb in a certain
+        direction toward the railroad.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Why not?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I am the night-watchman, and should lose my place if I
+        left.'</p>
+
+        <p>"Then please point out the road: I shall have to return
+        alone.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Can't, mademoiselle: it is too dark. You would get
+        lost.'</p>
+
+        <p>"I thought I could not get much more lost than I was at
+        that moment, but did not say so. Just then a bright idea
+        struck me: 'I will walk back on the railroad: I cannot fail
+        to find my way.'</p>
+
+        <p>"The old man looked aghast at the proposition, and
+        pointed to the long line of high thick hedge that bordered
+        it on each side.</p>
+
+        <p>"'How could you leave the track if you did get to Creil?
+        They are locked up there for the night. Besides, you would
+        be crushed by passing trains, and you would be fined too,
+        for it is against the law. Now,' he went on in that
+        patronizing manner which, from its na&iuml;vet&eacute; is
+        so charming in the French peasant&mdash;'now, mademoiselle
+        does not wish to die to-night, does she, and be also
+        fined?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No,' I replied dolefully, seeing my chances of shelter
+        diminishing, 'but I shall certainly die if you will not
+        help me to find a hotel.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Wait,' he whispered&mdash;'wait a little until all the
+        world is gone. It won't be five minutes until every one has
+        departed and every light is out in the station;
+        then&mdash;'</p>
+
+        <p>"I could not see how this was to improve my condition,
+        but, having no choice, I waited patiently while he went and
+        busied himself about his work. Presently he returned.
+        Everything was silent, and pointing mysteriously to the
+        waiting-room in the building, he said in a low voice,
+        '<i>There</i> is where you can stay till morning. They
+        would not allow it if they knew, but no one will be the
+        wiser. You can leave as soon as it is light, and to-night
+        sleep on one of the sofas. That's where I sit at night, and
+        I will give it up to you.'</p>
+
+        <p>"The idea was repugnant to me. I could not consent; it
+        was too frightful; it was impossible. I hastened to say,
+        'It will not do&mdash;I cannot stay here: you must take me
+        back. Do take me to Creil.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Can't do it.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Well, take me to the next town: there is an inn, and
+        it is not far.'</p>
+
+        <p>"He wavered, and seeing my distress his good-nature
+        conquered. 'I will go with you,' he answered, slowly
+        shaking his head as if admonishing himself for being such a
+        fool; 'but if they should find it out&mdash;'</p>
+
+        <p>"You may think it was unkind in me to let him run the
+        risk of losing his place, but what was I to do? I could not
+        submit to stay at the station like a vagabond, and I could
+        not find my way alone. So, without allowing him time to
+        change his mind, I set out. The road was bad and the night
+        dark; the lantern threw a circle of light around us, but
+        all beyond was impenetrable; still, the hope of shelter at
+        the end made the walk agreeable to
+        <span class="pagenum">[Pg 471]</span>me. We stumbled along
+        in silence, and by and by heard the barking of dogs that
+        always heralds a night approach to a village. The first
+        house that greeted my eyes had the welcome signboard
+        swinging before it, and above its lintel a bush. It was a
+        tiny place, but it was a refuge, and I felt quite cheerful
+        as I requested the old tar to knock.</p>
+
+        <p>"He did so, and the sound echoed and re-echoed, but
+        there was no response.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Again,' I said, and 'again,' and 'again,' with no
+        better result. It was anything but encouraging.</p>
+
+        <p>"'They cannot hear, they are asleep: take up a stone and
+        beat the door. You must awaken them.'</p>
+
+        <p>"He obediently picked up a stone, and there followed a
+        noise like thunder. I should not have been surprised to see
+        the wee house tilt over and lie down on its side under the
+        force of the blows. Now a gruff voice called out, 'What do
+        you want?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Lodging.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'We have no room for any one: go away.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Tell him I must stay,' And with the help of my
+        prompting the old fellow put my case in the most persuasive
+        light possible, but, although we talked and knocked with
+        perseverance, the owner of the voice neither appeared, nor
+        would he vouchsafe us another answer. One might have
+        thought the house had been suddenly enchanted.</p>
+
+        <p>"'It is of no use&mdash;of no use whatever: they will
+        not open,' finally said my exhausted companion.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is there no other inn here?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No: you will have to return.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Then you must take me to Creil.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'That I can't do. I have been away too long already:
+        there is a freight-train expected, and I must see that the
+        track is clear. We must go back;' and he turned resolutely
+        and led the way.</p>
+
+        <p>"Just as we left the village a gay party of
+        peasant-girls passed us coming from a ball, laughing and
+        chatting merrily with their beaus. I had an insane idea of
+        accosting them, appealing to their pity, and asking them to
+        keep me for the night, but fear lest they should refuse
+        restrained me: I was too dejected to risk a second repulse.
+        I have been able to realize the poetical things they tell
+        us of the sensations of outcasts, of adventurers; and
+        homeless wanderers ever since. The sight of this merry
+        party made me feel more terribly alone; and the
+        beaus&mdash;well, I confess I did wonder what Fred was
+        doing at that moment. Then I thought of the horror of my
+        aunt could she know where I was, and what she would think
+        of the 'footsteps' her own niece was making just then,
+        could she see her.</p>
+
+        <p>"When we arrived at the station my guide preceded me to
+        the waiting-room, and I, completely worn out, meekly
+        followed him.</p>
+
+        <p>"'This is much better than sleeping in the fields,' he
+        remarked cheerily as we entered: 'shall I make you a
+        fire?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No, thank you, but let me go into the other room.' My
+        reason for this was that its sofas and chairs had some
+        pretensions to comfort, being 'first class.' He went to
+        open the connecting door. It was locked.</p>
+
+        <p>"'This is the only room that is open: I am sorry. Wait a
+        moment: I will bring something to make a pillow, and you
+        can sleep like a top.' He went out, and returned with an
+        old coat, which he folded for me, and which, after covering
+        it with my handkerchief, made a tolerable resting-place for
+        my head. My bed was a hard bench.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Now,' said my protector in a tone of much
+        satisfaction&mdash;'now, you will be well. <i>Voil&agrave;
+        un bon g&icirc;te</i>! Both these other doors are fastened,
+        and this one you can lock after me. Very early I will come
+        and take you part of the way back, and by daylight you can
+        easily find the rest yourself. <i>Bonne nuit, mademoiselle:
+        dormez bien</i>.' He went to the door, and taking the key
+        from the outside put it inside. It would not turn. The lock
+        had been made to work with two keys, and the other was
+        absent.</p>
+
+        <p>"'I will tell you what I will do,' said my friend, not
+        in the least discomfited: 'I will lock the door and take
+        the key with me. I must go up the road about two miles on
+        my beat, but you can feel <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+        472]</span>quite safe: no one can get in while I am gone.
+        There is another watchman on the road: he might come while
+        I am away, and&mdash;and raise a row. It is best to lock
+        you up.' He nodded his head with great complacency at his
+        good management, and prepared to leave me. I could suggest
+        nothing better. I was at the end of my resources, and had
+        to accept my fate. It would be interesting to know what the
+        Pompadour or Queen Elizabeth would have done under the
+        circumstances, wouldn't it?</p>
+
+        <p>"It was with no pleasant feeling that I saw the door
+        shut, heard the key turned, then withdrawn: the lantern
+        glimmered for a moment through the window, and I was left
+        in the darkness a prisoner. Thoroughly a prisoner, for none
+        of the three doors had keys on my side, and the windows,
+        with their tiny panes of ground glass, were high above the
+        floor. Then, too, the old man had insisted on speaking in a
+        whisper, and walked about on tiptoe. Who were those persons
+        he evidently feared to waken? Persons near by, of course.
+        Probably they carried the missing keys and could enter at
+        any moment. And the other watchman? What if he should come,
+        and, this being the room allotted to himself and companion,
+        refuse to be barred out? Those other unknowns would be
+        aroused by his knocking, and rush in to seek an
+        explanation. If I were found there, should I be taken
+        before the police as a vagabond? Or imagine a fire&mdash;a
+        fire and no one knowing that I am here! A fire and no means
+        of escape! My friends losing all trace of me, unable to
+        ascertain how I came by my death! And such a horrible
+        death! Four hours yet till dawn! What might not happen in
+        four hours? The man himself might only have gone to seek an
+        accomplice to murder me. He might have known that the key
+        would not turn on the inside. But at last, in spite of
+        myself, fatigue conquered fear and I slept.</p>
+
+        <p>"I cannot say how long I had been unconscious when I was
+        awakened by hearing a key turning in the lock: the door
+        cautiously opened, and a man entered and came toward the
+        bench where I was lying. My drowsiness calmed me. I
+        wondered quite placidly whether it was to be robbery or
+        murder. What a paragraph it would make in the
+        <i>Moniteur</i> next day! I would cheerfully give him my
+        watch and purse if they would content him. I might call out
+        and rouse the house, but most likely Brunhilda in my
+        situation would have held a parley. A good precedent. I sat
+        up to show that I was awake, and in doing so recognized my
+        old man. Though nothing could look more threatening as he
+        stealthily advanced, shading his light, taking pains to
+        make no noise, I could not entirely mistrust the
+        weatherbeaten face with its anxious, benevolent eyes that
+        met mine.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is it time to go?' I asked.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Not yet, but soon. I have just returned, and came in
+        to know if you would have a fire: it is cold outside.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No, never mind: I am doing well enough. I think I will
+        take another nap.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Very well: I shall be near for the rest of the night,
+        so you need not be afraid.' And he left, carefully locking
+        me in again.</p>
+
+        <p>"When he came for me the dawn was beginning to break;
+        the morning star was shining in the sky; the earliest birds
+        were twittering, and cocks answered each other from
+        distance to distance; but not a human being was to be seen.
+        We crossed ploughed fields and stubble to find the road,
+        and I felt the truth of my guide's augury of the night
+        before. Had I attempted to go alone I should have become
+        bewildered, and ended by sleeping in the fields. It did
+        strike me that if the man wished to rob me, now would be
+        his chance, and at first I intentionally kept a little
+        behind; but his innocent garrulity was such as to allay all
+        suspicions, and we jogged on very amicably until, coming to
+        two roads, he pointed out that which leads to Creil, and
+        bade me good-bye.</p>
+
+        <p>"Had I had the giving of a medal of the Legion of Honor,
+        I should have decorated him on the spot. I believe it
+        repaid me for my annoyance to have found such ample
+        goodness, such chivalry, such <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+        473]</span>kindness, growing as it were by the wayside. It
+        was as if the world had rolled back into the days of
+        knight-errantry, when to rescue and protect distressed
+        damsels ranked next to religious worship. Sure am I if my
+        weatherbeaten old man had lived at that time, none would
+        have been more renowned for gentle deeds: in this prosaic
+        age he is but a watchman on a railroad. I was about to pour
+        out my gratitude, when I remembered we were in the
+        nineteenth century, and looking into his face, I fancied
+        that something more substantial would be better. I drew out
+        my purse. He was frankly delighted with what I gave him,
+        saying only that it was too much, and we separated mutually
+        pleased.</p>
+
+        <p>"I sauntered on, lingering by the way to avoid waiting
+        at Creil; consequently, I was just able to procure my
+        ticket and a paper of brioches at the buffet when the
+        English train came in. As I stood at the door, knowing that
+        as soon as it moved off the Belgian train was due, whom
+        should I see get out but Fred! I thought he would re-enter
+        in a moment, and placed myself so that he could not see me.
+        I was mistaken. The train started, and mine puffed up:
+        there he was still. In the crowd I hoped I should not be
+        discovered, but as I stepped from the door his eyes met
+        mine, and he rushed up to me with the exclamation, 'In the
+        name of Heaven, how did you get here? Was there an
+        accident? Are you hurt? What is the matter?'</p>
+
+        <p>"It was singular how his voice unnerved me: I could not
+        say a word. The crowd carried us with them, and he helped
+        me into a car, sitting by me and recommencing his
+        questions. Then I stammered, 'You will be taken on if you
+        do not get out: there is nothing wrong.'</p>
+
+        <p>"For answer he shut the door of the compartment, and
+        said, 'I am going with you. Now tell me how you come to be
+        here?'</p>
+
+        <p>"I do not know why I should have given way when all
+        danger was over&mdash;I believe there is no parallel case
+        in the life of any celebrated woman&mdash;but I suppose I
+        was tired out. My anxiety and fright, a night spent on a
+        hard board, the surprise of meeting Mr.
+        Kenderdine,&mdash;whatever it was, I leaned back in the
+        corner of the seat, took out my handkerchief, and cried
+        harder than I had ever done in my life before. He was
+        greatly alarmed, but, like a sensible man, waited until I
+        became more composed, and when I was able to tell him,
+        instead of blaming me or thinking I was stupid, he censured
+        himself for not accompanying me.</p>
+
+        <p>"'I did mean to ask your permission to do so, Miss
+        Eleanor,' he said slightly embarrassed, 'and I was prig
+        enough to think you would allow it, but when you told me of
+        your engagement I did not dare. After you left I had a
+        dread that something might happen, and I could not rest
+        satisfied until I had made up my mind to come on and see
+        that you had arrived safely. I thought you would forgive
+        me, as it is for the last time, and De Vezin need not be
+        jealous, for he will have you for ever, while I&mdash;'
+        Fred can be wonderfully pathetic.</p>
+
+        <p>"Then I made up my mind to undeceive him, as was my
+        duty, you know. I told him very gently that he was under a
+        false impression. I was not engaged: my aunt had educated
+        me for a purpose, and we both had quite determined that I
+        should never marry, but instead do something great in the
+        world, though I had not yet decided what. I explained it to
+        him fully, so that there should be no more mistakes about
+        it. When I ended I did not venture to look at him for a
+        long time, fearing to see him grieved at this irrevocable
+        barrier; but when I did, what was my surprise to see his
+        face beaming with joy! He began impetuously, 'If you had
+        told me I was to be crowned at Brussels, it would not be
+        better news. I was sure it was De Vezin who separated us.
+        Now I can hope.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'You must not talk in that way if you do not want our
+        friendship to cease: you offend me deeply. Can't you see
+        that if you persist in this idea of yours, our pleasant
+        acquaintance must end?' It was so frivolous in Fred, and I
+        spoke very decidedly.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Not at all, Eleanor: it would only begin. Why should
+        not our whole life be like this past year?'</p>
+
+        <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 474]</span>"'You know it
+        can't,' said I. 'Haven't I told you the reason?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'It will be no reason when De Vezin asks you,' said he
+        suspiciously.</p>
+
+        <p>"'De Vezin is nothing to me.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'You carry a <i>gage d'amour</i> from him on your
+        watch-chain at this very minute.'</p>
+
+        <p>"Now, wasn't that talk silly? De Vezin had brought me a
+        two-centime piece one day because I said I had never seen
+        one. and I put a hole in it and hung it to my chain. Fred
+        to call that a <i>gage d'amour!</i></p>
+
+        <p>"'Nonsense!' said I.</p>
+
+        <p>"'De Vezin thought the same when he saw it there. I took
+        him for a fool, but I see he was right.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Well, now you will see you were both fools,' said I
+        angrily, and I twisted off the coin and threw it from the
+        window.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is only that preposterous notion in the way?' he
+        asked, looking happy again and taking a seat by me.</p>
+
+        <p>"I told you how I cried on first entering the cars, and
+        now&mdash;would you believe it?&mdash;I got terribly
+        embarrassed. It seemed as if everything I did or said made
+        matters worse. I was scarcely able to stammer, 'My
+        aunt&mdash;'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I will speak to her. Let me put this on your finger
+        until I can replace it by another:' and he slipped off his
+        seal and leaned forward with an entreating look.</p>
+
+        <p>"I shook my head.</p>
+
+        <p>"'I won't ask you to promise anything: only wear it that
+        I may not be forgotten in Rome.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No, no, I cannot!' I exclaimed, clasping my hands. I
+        suppose the action and tone were very exaggerated, for Mr.
+        Kenderdine drew back, saying, 'I shall not <i>force</i> you
+        to take it;' and then went to the other window, took a
+        newspaper out of his pocket and pretended to read it, while
+        I was angry and sorry and miserable, though why I should
+        feel so much like crying at what had only amused me the day
+        before I cannot understand. I suppose none of those
+        wonderful ladies would have acted so, would they?</p>
+
+        <p>"But you are tired long ago, and you can easily imagine
+        what comes after. See!" and she turned a ring on her finger
+        until I could catch the shimmer of its stone. "That is how
+        it ended; and though I did not accept it until the next
+        spring in Rome, I shall always blame that night for the
+        whole affair. When I asked Fred why he took the trouble to
+        follow me after the double snubbing I had given him, he
+        said 'I was worth it.' But since we are engaged he teases
+        me shamefully&mdash;calls me doctor, hopes I intend to
+        support him in comfort and ease, and says that it always
+        was his ambition to be the husband of a strong-minded
+        woman, and broadly hints about my experience in traveling
+        being so useful to him. And aunt? When I first told her she
+        looked so shocked and disappointed that I threw myself in
+        her arms, saying I would not distress her for the world;
+        that I would do anything she desired; that if she wished
+        she might send Fred off, for I loved her best on earth. But
+        after some minutes of deep thought she looked at me
+        quizzically and replied, 'You know, dear, I always said you
+        must choose your career for yourself.' Then seeing that I
+        seemed hurt and ashamed, she kissed me and whispered, 'Love
+        makes us selfish: my affection for you has grown stronger
+        than my ambition. If <i>you</i> are happy, my Eleanor, I
+        can wait patiently for the advancement of the rest of my
+        sex.'"</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Then Eleanor rose, and drawing her shawl round her
+    preparatory to going, said shyly, "And what I came to tell you
+    is, that the wedding will take place at Christmas."</p>
+
+    <p class="author">ITA ANIOL
+    PROKOP.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 475]</span>
+
+    <h2><a name="AN_AMERICAN_LADYS_OCCUPATIONS_SEVENTY_YEARS_AGO"
+       id="AN_AMERICAN_LADYS_OCCUPATIONS_SEVENTY_YEARS_AGO"></a>AN
+       AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY YEARS AGO.</h2>
+
+    <p>We are looking over sundry trunks and boxes, the careful and
+    the careless gatherings of three generations. There are
+    law-papers in dusty files; familiar gossipy letters from
+    brothers and sisters and college chums; dignified letters from
+    reverend judges and law-makers; letters bursting with
+    scandalized Federalisms, and burning or melting with
+    long-forgotten joys and sorrows. We have read some thousands of
+    these papers, and begin to be very uncertain about the times we
+    are living in. What indeed is this year of our Lord? We have a
+    dim recollection that we have been wished a happy New Year in
+    1875, yet we are living and thinking with the boys and girls of
+    1776, who have grown to be the men and women of Jefferson's
+    time.</p>
+
+    <p>To make things more misty to our comprehension, we are
+    sitting by a dormer window in a high, "hip-roofed" garret of a
+    mansion built just before the Revolution, and the air is
+    redolent of ancient memories. The very cobweb that swung across
+    the window just now has a venerable appearance, entirely
+    inconsistent with the fact that the housemaid's broom was
+    supposed to have whisked across these beams but yesterday. But
+    then the housemaids of to-day, as everybody knows, are, as a
+    source of perplexity and vexation of spirit, always to be
+    relied upon, but never to be relied upon for anything else. And
+    with the thought we sigh for the "good old days" and the "good
+    old servants" of our grandmothers.</p>
+
+    <p>Happy grandmothers! so blessed in their simple, quiet lives,
+    unvexed by ever-changing fashions and domestics! What did they
+    know of trouble whose best silk gowns remained in fashion from
+    year to year, and whose cooks never treated them to an empty
+    breakfast-table, and a cool "I thought I'd be a-lavin' this
+    marnin', mum"? Happy grandmothers!</p>
+
+    <p>Thus thinking, we pick up a little rough paper-book with
+    marbled covers from the corner of the old hair trunk where it
+    was long ago thrown by some careless hand. The little tumbled
+    book proves to be a diary. Not a record of a soul's strivings
+    and pantings after a higher life, or a curiously minute inquiry
+    into the possible reasons which induced the Almighty to allow
+    Satan to afflict Job, but a simple daily note-book, the
+    memoranda of a housekeeper. The old letters had been to us what
+    the newspapers of to-day will be to the great-grandchildren of
+    the present generation. The diary carried us back into the
+    immediate home-life of seventy years ago.</p>
+
+    <p>The diarist had been a fair and stately dame in her day, and
+    it is easy to remove her from the frame where her portrait
+    hangs on the walls of the south parlor, and fancy her seated in
+    the same room before the crackling fire jotting down the
+    memoranda of the day. She is a pretty sight, we think, sitting
+    in her straight-backed mahogany arm-chair, with her feet on the
+    polished brass fender and her book resting on the little stand,
+    which also holds the two tall silver candlesticks with their
+    tall tallow candles, for wax candles are saved for gala-nights,
+    when diaries are not in requisition. She must have been nearly
+    forty years old when she wrote in this little book, but we see
+    her as her portrait shows her, very young-looking in spite of
+    her stateliness, enhanced though it is by the high turban of
+    embroidered muslin edged with soft lace falling over the
+    clusters of fair curls on her temples, and by the black satin
+    gown, short-waisted and scanty, relieved only by delicate lace
+    frills, which shade the beautiful throat and the strong, white,
+    shapely hands. The shadow on her face as she gazes into the
+    fire is not marvelous, for it is winter in her quiet
+    Connecticut home; the post comes but twice a week; her husband
+    is representing his State in Washington, and her only child is
+    studying in distant Yale. <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    476]</span>Perhaps, though, the shadow is not that of pure
+    loneliness. Is there not some perplexity in it? And something
+    also of vexation? Yes, and it is the very vexation of spirit
+    which&mdash;in the face of Solomon's venerable testimony to the
+    contrary&mdash;we had fancied to be peculiar to our own evil
+    days. Almost the first entry in this quaint little diary is to
+    the effect that "Jim was sulky to-night and gave short
+    answers." A little farther on we find that "Yesterday Jim went
+    away without leave, and stayed all night;" which delinquency,
+    being accompanied by a suspicion of drunkenness, caused the
+    anxious dame to "send for General T&mdash;&mdash; to come and
+    give Jim a lecture." Lecturing, however, was not then so
+    popular as now, and Jim appears to have profited little by the
+    veteran general's discourse, for on the very next night he
+    repeats his offence. We have reason also to fear that Jim's
+    honesty was not above suspicion, for we read that Betsey, an
+    American woman who acted as assistant housekeeper and
+    companion, "found in Jim's possession a red morocco pocket-book
+    which I had given her, but"&mdash;alas for Betsey!&mdash;"with
+    the contents all gone."</p>
+
+    <p>Other entries to the effect that madam one day lost her key
+    to the wine-cellar, and the next day discovered the bibulous
+    Jim in the said cellar "sucking brandy through a straw inserted
+    in the bunghole of the cask," and that, "furthermore, Jim had
+    confessed to having stolen and sold a coffee-basin for rum," do
+    not tend to raise in our estimation this pattern of an ancient
+    darkey. This time it appears that madam did not need to call in
+    the aid of General T&mdash;&mdash;, for she admits that she
+    herself "lectured Jim severely;" sarcastically adding, "he
+    professed penitence, but that did not hinder him from stealing
+    another basin to-day."</p>
+
+    <p>But the refractory Jim, we think, must have been the
+    exception which proved the rule that all servants prior to the
+    late Celtic invasion were models of deportment. Accordingly, we
+    are not surprised to find that Betsey was a handmaiden held in
+    high estimation, and that "old Jack" was a servant whose
+    shortcomings were offset by his general good conduct and
+    affectionate heart. But we find also that there was a certain
+    Sally, who could be tolerated only because of her great
+    culinary skill; and an uncertain Silvy, who appears to have
+    been in mind, if not in fact, the twin-sister of Jim, with a
+    spice of Topsy thrown in.</p>
+
+    <p>The trouble in those days was not the prospect of suddenly
+    losing cook or nursemaid, but that there was no getting rid of
+    either. The fact of slavery was, under the act of 1793, slowly
+    fading away from Connecticut, but all its habits remained in
+    full force. "I wish I could send Jim and Silvy away," writes
+    madam, "but the poor rascals have no place to go to."</p>
+
+    <p>Silvy was a tricksome spright that delighted in breaking
+    bottles of the "best Madeira wine and spilling the contents
+    over the new English carpet" when the mistress had invited the
+    parson's and the doctor's families to dinner. This, though of
+    course it was "not to be endured," might have been accidental,
+    and so was very "tolerable" in comparison with Silvy's next
+    exploits of poisoning the beloved house-dog and throwing by the
+    roadside the bottle of wine&mdash;possibly emptied
+    first&mdash;the jar of jelly and the fresh quarter of lamb
+    which had been sent to a poor and sick old woman. These two
+    offences, occurring on the same day, we are sorry to confess,
+    incited the stately, white-handed dame to do something more
+    decisive than to "deliver a lecture" to Silvy. It is demurely
+    recorded that "for these two misdeeds I whipped Silvy." What
+    effect the whipping had upon that somewhat too frolicsome
+    damsel we are not informed, but madam admits that it made
+    herself ill, and adds that "if Silvy does not reform it is
+    impossible to see what can be done for her, for she will not
+    listen to remonstrance. Betsey is not strong enough to punish
+    so strapping a wench, and it does not seem right that a man
+    should be set to whip any woman or girl, even a wench, else
+    Jack could do it."</p>
+
+    <p>However, Jack's own patience having been tried by the
+    refractory Silvy, he seems to have taken the matter into his
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 477]</span>own hands, for his
+    mistress tells us how she was scandalized, on her return from
+    church, by "finding Jack whipping Silvy," while that young lady
+    was "screaming vehemently, so that all the people passing by
+    could hear her." As Jack had discovered Silvy engaged in the
+    amiable diversion of breaking the legs of the young calves by
+    throwing stones at them, one can have a little charity for his
+    summary action, although, as madam gravely remarks, "he might
+    at least have waited until Monday."</p>
+
+    <p>The calves, by the way, had an unlucky winter of it, and
+    were especially shaky about the legs. We find that a few weeks
+    later "Jack having neglected to repair the barn floor, as he
+    had been directed, a plank had given way and three of the
+    calves' legs had been broken by the fall." We have felt a deep
+    interest in the fate of these calves, but with all our anxiety
+    have failed to discover whether three calves had all their legs
+    broken, or only three legs in all had been sacrificed to Jack's
+    culpable neglect.</p>
+
+    <p>By this time we begin to think that madam would have been
+    just as well off if she had not kept so many servants, and to
+    wonder what they could have had to do. Perhaps it was the idle
+    man's playmate that made the trouble. But a little farther
+    reading in the old diary dissipates this illusion. If anybody
+    thinks that our grandmothers must have been cursed with ennui
+    because they did not attend three parties a night three times a
+    week, with operas and theatres to fill in the off nights, they
+    are mightily mistaken.</p>
+
+    <p>Of sociability there could have been no lack in this rural
+    neighborhood, for besides a ball or two madam records numbers
+    of tea-drinkings and debating clubs, and meetings of the Clio,
+    a literary club, at which assisted at least two future judges
+    of the supreme courts of the States of their adoption, and
+    several other men and women whose names would attract attention
+    even in our clattering days. Visiting, too, of the
+    old-fashioned spend-the-day sort had not gone out of
+    date&mdash;was indeed so common that madam one evening enters
+    in her journal&mdash;whether in sorrow or in thankfulness there
+    is nothing to tell us, but at least as a notable
+    fact&mdash;that she had "had no company to-day."</p>
+
+    <p>But it was not company that occupied all the hours of so
+    busy a dame as our diarist. Though she had not to remodel her
+    dresses in hot chase after the last novelty of the
+    fashion-weekly, she had to superintend the manufacture of the
+    stuff of which her maids' gowns and her own morning-gowns were
+    made, to say nothing of bed-and table-linen, etc. Bridget in
+    our day seems to think that to do a family washing is a labor
+    of Hercules. Yet seventy years ago before a towel could be
+    washed the soap wherewith to cleanse it must be made at home;
+    and this not by the aid of condensed lye or potash, but with
+    lye drawn by a tedious process of filtering water through
+    barrels or leach-tubs of hard-wood ashes. The "setting" of
+    these tubs was one of the first labors of the spring, and to
+    see that Silvy or Jim poured on the water at regular intervals,
+    and did not continue pouring after the lye had become "too weak
+    to bear up an egg," was a part of Betsey's daily duty for some
+    weeks. Then came the soap-boiling in great iron kettles over
+    the fire in the wide fireplace. Apparently, this was not always
+    a certain operation. Science had not yet put her meddling but
+    useful finger into the soap-pot, for madam sadly records that
+    on the twenty-first of May she had superintended the
+    soap-boiling, but had not been blessed with "good luck;" and on
+    the third of June we find the suggestive entry, "Finished the
+    soap-boiling to-day." Eleven days&mdash;for we must of course
+    count out the two Sundays&mdash;eleven days of greasy, odorous
+    soap-boiling! We think that if we had been in madam's slippers
+    we should have allowed Sally, Silvy and the rest to try the
+    virtues of the unaided waters of heaven upon the family
+    washing, and when this ceased to be efficacious should have let
+    the clothes be purified by fire. But upon second thoughts, no:
+    it was too much trouble to make those clothes.</p>
+
+    <p>We are not yet through with the preparations for the
+    washing. The ancient housewife could not do without starch
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 478]</span>for her "ruffs and cuffs
+    and fardingales," and for her lord's elaborately plaited
+    ruffles. Yet she could not buy a box of "Duryea's best
+    refined." The starch, like the soap, must be made at home. "On
+    this day," writes our diarist, "had a bushel of wheat put in
+    soak for starch;" and in another place we find the details of
+    the starch-making process. The wheat was put into a tub and
+    covered with water. As the chaff rose to the top it was skimmed
+    off. Each day the water was carefully turned off, without
+    disturbing the wheat, and fresh water was added, until after
+    several days there was nothing left but a hard and perfectly
+    white mass in the bottom of the tub. This mass was spread upon
+    pewter platters and dried in the sun.</p>
+
+    <p>Another sore trouble was the breadmaking. The great
+    wheat-fields of the West were not then opened, and we find that
+    the wheat was frequently "smutty;" hence, that "the barrel was
+    bad," which must sorely have tried the soul of the good
+    housewife. Woe be to Silvy if that damsel did not carry herself
+    gingerly on the baking-day when the long, flat shovel removed
+    from the cavernous brick oven only heavy and sticky lumps of
+    baked dough, in place of the light white loaves which the
+    painstaking housewife had a right to expect!</p>
+
+    <p>In the absence of husband and son the care of a large farm
+    fell upon our madam's shoulders, and the details of cost and
+    income are dotted through the little journal. We can imagine
+    the lady, gracious in her stateliness, marshaling old General
+    T&mdash;&mdash; and Colonel C&mdash;&mdash;, two veterans of
+    the Revolution, out into her barnyard to get their opinion as
+    to the value of her fat cattle, and the concealed disapproval
+    with which she received their judgment that forty-five dollars
+    was a fair price for the pair, "when," as she quietly remarks,
+    "I considered that fifty dollars was little enough for so fine
+    a pair of fat cattle; and in fact I got my own price for them
+    the next day."</p>
+
+    <p>Fifty dollars was a much larger sum then than now. Imagine
+    how many things could be bought for fifty dollars, when butter
+    brought but ten, veal three or four, beef six or seven cents
+    respectively per pound, and a pair of fat young chickens
+    brought but twenty-five cents! There is one article upon whose
+    accession of price we can dwell with pleasure. Madam records
+    discontentedly that it "took two men all day to kill four hogs,
+    <i>notwithstanding</i> that she had spent fifty cents for a
+    half gallon of rum for them to drink." Fancy the sort of liquor
+    that could now be bought for a dollar the gallon, and the sort
+    of men that could drink two quarts thereof and live!</p>
+
+    <p>It is heretical, of course, to hint a syllable against the
+    open wood-fire which crackled and flickered so beautifully
+    while our madam wrote about her cattle and pigs and Jim and
+    Silvy, but in truth we cannot envy our ancestors the care of
+    those fires. With three yawning, devouring fireplaces
+    constantly to be fed, and an additional one for each of the
+    guest-rooms so often occupied during the winter&mdash;for this
+    was the visiting season&mdash;there was no lack of business for
+    Ralph, a white man; and his colored coadjutors, Jack and Jim.
+    When we look at the still existing kitchen fireplace, nine feet
+    in width and four in depth, we cease to blame Jack for
+    neglecting to mend the barn floor. We only wonder that he found
+    time to whip Silvy.</p>
+
+    <p>Among the occupations of the women one great time-consumer
+    must have been the daily scouring, so much woodwork was left
+    unpainted to be kept as white as a clean sea-beach by
+    applications of soap and sand. Probably a good deal of this
+    hand-and-knee work fell upon the unfortunate Silvy, as well as
+    the polishing of the pewter plates, the brass fenders,
+    andirons, tongs, shovels, door-knobs, knockers, and the various
+    brazen ornaments which bedecked the heavy sideboards and tall
+    secretaries.</p>
+
+    <p>Seventy years ago, when gas and kerosene were not, and wax
+    candles were an extravagance indulged in only on state
+    occasions, even by the wealthy, the tallow dip was an article
+    of necessity, and "candle dip-day" was as certain of recurrence
+    as Christmas, though perhaps even less welcome than the equally
+    certain <span class="pagenum">[Pg 479]</span>annual Fast Day.
+    Fancy an immense kitchen with the before-mentioned fireplace in
+    the centre of one side. Over the blaze of backlog and
+    forestick, and something like half a cord of "eight-foot wood,"
+    are swinging the iron cranes laden with great kettles of
+    melting tallow. On the opposite side of the kitchen two long
+    poles about two feet apart are supported at their extremities
+    upon the seats of chairs. Beside the poles are other great
+    kettles containing melted tallow poured on the top of hot
+    water. Across the poles are the slender candle-rods, from which
+    depend ranks upon ranks of candle-wicks made of tow, for cotton
+    wick is a later invention. Little by little, by endlessly
+    repeating the slow process of dipping into the kettles of
+    melted tallow and hanging them to cool, the wicks take on their
+    proper coating of tallow. To make the candles as large as
+    possible was the aim, for the more tallow the brighter the
+    light. When done, the ranks of candles, still depending from
+    the rods, were hung in the sunniest spots of a sunny garret to
+    bleach.</p>
+
+    <p>But all these employments were as play compared with the
+    home manufacture of dry goods. Ralph, Jack and Jim had no time
+    for such work, so two other men were all winter kept busy in
+    the barn at "crackling flax" and afterward passing it through a
+    coarse hetchel to separate the coarsest or "swingling tow."
+    After this the flax was made up into switches or "heads" like
+    those which we see in pictures, or that which Faust's
+    Marguerite so temptingly wields. These were deposited in
+    barrels in the garret. During the winter the "heads" were
+    brought down by the women to be rehetcheled once and again,
+    removing first the coarser, and then the finer tow. This must
+    have been a fearfully dusty operation. It makes one cough only
+    to think of "the inch depth of flax-dust" which settled upon
+    Betsey's protecting handkerchief while she "hetcheled."</p>
+
+    <p>The finest and best of the flax was saved for spinning into
+    thread, for cotton thread there was none, excepting, possibly,
+    a little of very poor quality in small skeins. The small wheel
+    that we see in the far corner of the garret&mdash;just like
+    Marguerite's&mdash;was used for spinning the fine thread. A
+    larger wheel was used to spin the tow into yarn for the coarse
+    clothing for boys and negroes or for "filling" in the coarser
+    linens. All the boys, and very often the men&mdash;perhaps even
+    our M.C. himself&mdash;wore in summer trousers made of linen
+    cloth, for which the yarn was spun at home by the maids, and
+    was then taken to the weaver's to be made into cloth. Part of
+    the linen yarn was dyed blue, and, mingled with white or
+    unbleached yarn, was woven into a chequered stuff for the
+    curtains of servants' beds and for dresses for the maids and
+    aprons for their mistresses. In view of the fact that all the
+    bed-linen and most of the table-linen was thus made at home,
+    one cannot wonder that a house-wife's linen-closet was an
+    object of special care and pride.</p>
+
+    <p>If there were at that time any woolen manufactories in the
+    United States, their powers of production must have been very
+    limited, while foreign cloths could only have been worn by the
+    gentlemen, and by them probably not at all times, for a few
+    years later than the date of madam's diary we find that English
+    cloths were sold at the then fearful prices of eighteen and
+    twenty dollars per yard. So sheep must be kept and sheared, and
+    their wool carded, rolled and spun. As linen-spinning was the
+    fancy-work of winter, so wool-spinning was that of summer. Back
+    and forth before the loud-humming big wheel briskly stepped the
+    cheerful spinner through the long bright afternoons of summer,
+    busily spinning the yarn that was to be woven into cloths and
+    flannels of different textures. Busily indeed must both
+    mistress and maids have stepped, for not without their labors
+    could be provided the coats and trousers, the undershirts, the
+    petticoats and the woolen sheets, to say nothing of blankets,
+    white or chequered, and the heavy coverlets of blue or green
+    and white yarns woven into curiously intermingling figures, all
+    composed of little squares; and last, but not least, the yarn
+    for countless pairs of long warm stockings for the feet of
+    master and man, mistress and maid. <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    480]</span>For as a legacy from dying slavery the servants were
+    still unable or unwilling to provide for their own wants, and
+    the house-mistress had frequently to knit Jack's stockings with
+    her own fair fingers, as well as to "cut out the stuff for
+    Jim's pantaloons," which she will "try to teach Silvy to
+    sew."</p>
+
+    <p>Did we think that we had reached the last purpose for which
+    the homespun woolen yarn was required? We were mistaken, for
+    here is the entry: "To-day dyed the yarn for back-hall carpet.
+    Remember to tell the weaver that I prefer it plaided instead of
+    striped."</p>
+
+    <p>Economy of time must, one would think, have been the most
+    necessary of economies to the old-time housewives. With so many
+    things to do, how did they find time to make those marvels of
+    misplaced industry, the patched bed-quilts? Our diarist, rich
+    as her closets were in blankets and linen, left but few
+    bed-quilts to vex the eyes of her descendants, yet we read that
+    "Betsey and I quilted a bed-quilt this afternoon"&mdash;their
+    fingers were surely nimble&mdash;"and in the
+    evening"&mdash;happy change of employment!&mdash;"Betsey
+    finished reading aloud from Blair's <i>Lectures.</i> To-morrow
+    evening we shall begin the <i>Spectator</i>. My husband has
+    sent us by private hand Mr. A. Pope's translation of the
+    <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>, but it has not yet arrived.
+    Strange that a private hand should be slower than the
+    post!"</p>
+
+    <p>And indeed the slowness of the post had been a source of
+    frequent disquietude to our madam during this lonely winter,
+    for very lonely it was to the waiting wife and mother,
+    notwithstanding all her occupations. "'Life's employments are
+    life's enjoyments,'" she sadly writes on the night before
+    Christmas, "and surely I have not a few of them; but with my
+    beloved husband and son far from me I cannot half enjoy my
+    life. I have given the servants their presents to-night"
+    (though living in Puritan Connecticut, our madam was of
+    Hollandish stock, and did not ignore the Christmas festival),
+    "and paid them eighteen pence apiece not to wish me a Merry
+    Christmas to-morrow, for little merriment indeed should there
+    be for me."</p>
+
+    <p>Yet she was a cheerful soul, this stately madam who sadly
+    gazes into the fire on the Christmas Eve of seventy years
+    ago&mdash;a cheerful, loving soul, and a kindly
+    (notwithstanding her chastisement of the delinquent Silvy); and
+    after all the winter wore not unhappily away.</p>
+
+    <p>With the opening spring husband and son returned to gladden
+    her heart, and we close the little diary with a smile at once
+    of sympathy and of amusement as we read that while madam had
+    intended to meet her loved ones with the family coach on their
+    landing from the sloop at Poughkeepsie, thirty miles from her
+    home, she was "so detained by reason of the depth and vileness
+    of the mud that it was full fifteen miles this side the river"
+    (Hudson) "that our coach fell in with a hired carriage coming
+    this way. The road was so bad that we had difficulty in
+    passing, and it was not until we were almost by that my dear
+    husband noticed his own coach. There was some trouble in
+    getting from the one carriage to the other, but when all were
+    safely in the coach there was much rejoicing, you may be
+    sure."</p>
+
+    <p class='author'>ETHEL C. GALE.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    481]</span>
+
+    <h2><a name="A_MARCH_VIOLET"
+       id="A_MARCH_VIOLET"></a>A MARCH VIOLET.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem_1"
+         align="center">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Black boughs against a pale, clear sky,</p>
+
+            <p>Slight mists of cloud-wreaths floating by;</p>
+
+            <p>Soft sunlight, gray-blue smoky air,</p>
+
+            <p>Wet thawing snows on hillsides bare;</p>
+
+            <p>Loud streams, moist sodden earth; below</p>
+
+            <p>Quick seedlings stir, rich juices flow</p>
+
+            <p>Through frozen veins of rigid wood,</p>
+
+            <p>And the whole forest bursts in bud.</p>
+
+            <p>No longer stark the branches spread</p>
+
+            <p>An iron network overhead,</p>
+
+            <p>Albeit naked still of green;</p>
+
+            <p>Through this soft, lustrous vapor seen,</p>
+
+            <p>On budding boughs a warm flush glows,</p>
+
+            <p>With tints of purple and pale rose.</p>
+
+            <p>Breathing of spring, the delicate air</p>
+
+            <p>Lifts playfully the loosened hair</p>
+
+            <p>To kiss the cool brow. Let us rest</p>
+
+            <p>In this bright, sheltered nook, now blest</p>
+
+            <p>With broad noon sunshine over all,</p>
+
+            <p>Though here June's leafiest shadows fall.</p>
+
+            <p>Young grass sprouts here. Look up! the sky</p>
+
+            <p>Is veiled by woven greenery,</p>
+
+            <p>Fresh little folded leaves-the first,</p>
+
+            <p>And goldener than green, they burst</p>
+
+            <p>Their thick full buds and take the breeze.</p>
+
+            <p>Here, when November stripped the trees,</p>
+
+            <p>I came to wrestle with a grief:</p>
+
+            <p>Solace I sought not, nor relief.</p>
+
+            <p>I shed no tears, I craved no grace,</p>
+
+            <p>I fain would see Grief face to face,</p>
+
+            <p>Fathom her awful eyes at length,</p>
+
+            <p>Measure my strength against her strength.</p>
+
+            <p>I wondered why the Preacher saith,</p>
+
+            <p>"Like as the grass that withereth."</p>
+
+            <p>The late, close blades still waved around:</p>
+
+            <p>I clutched a handful from the ground.</p>
+
+            <p>"He mocks us cruelly," I said:</p>
+
+            <p>"The frail herb lives, and she is dead."</p>
+
+            <p>I lay dumb, sightless, deaf as she;</p>
+
+            <p>The long slow hours passed over me.</p>
+
+            <p>I saw Grief face to face; I know</p>
+
+            <p>The very form and traits of Woe.</p>
+
+            <p>I drained the galled dregs of the draught</p>
+
+            <p>She offered me: I could have laughed</p>
+
+            <p>In irony of sheer despair,</p>
+
+            <p>Although I could not weep. The air</p>
+
+            <p>Thickened with twilight shadows dim:</p>
+
+            <p>I rose and left. I knew each
+            limb</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 482]</span>
+
+            <p>Of these great trees, each gnarled, rough root</p>
+
+            <p>Piercing the clay, each cone of fruit</p>
+
+            <p>They bear in autumn.</p>
+
+            <p class="i18">What blooms here,</p>
+
+            <p>Filling the honeyed atmosphere</p>
+
+            <p>With faint, delicious fragrancies,</p>
+
+            <p>Freighted with blessed memories?</p>
+
+            <p>The earliest March violet,</p>
+
+            <p>Dear as the image of Regret,</p>
+
+            <p>And beautiful as Hope. Again</p>
+
+            <p>Past visions thrill and haunt my brain.</p>
+
+            <p>Through tears I see the nodding head,</p>
+
+            <p>The purple and the green dispread.</p>
+
+            <p>Here, where I nursed despair that morn,</p>
+
+            <p>The promise of fresh joy is born,</p>
+
+            <p>Arrayed in sober colors still,</p>
+
+            <p>But piercing the gray mould to fill</p>
+
+            <p>With vague sweet influence the air,</p>
+
+            <p>To lift the heart's dead weight of care,</p>
+
+            <p>Longings and golden dreams to bring</p>
+
+            <p>With joyous phantasies of spring.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p class="author">EMMA LAZARUS.</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="WHAT_IS_A_CONCLAVE"
+       name="WHAT_IS_A_CONCLAVE"></a>WHAT IS A CONCLAVE?</h2>
+
+    <p>It may be that before these lines meet the eye of the
+    readers they are intended for the world will be once again
+    witnessing that function of the Roman Catholic Church which of
+    all others makes the highest pretensions to transcendental
+    spiritual significance, and is in reality the most utterly and
+    grossly mundane&mdash;a <i>conclave</i>. In any case, it cannot
+    be long before that singular spectacle is enacted on the
+    accustomed stage before the converging eyes of Christendom. In
+    any case, too, it will be nearly thirty years since the world
+    has seen the like. And never before since St. Peter sat (or did
+    not sit) in the seat of the Roman bishops has so long a period
+    elapsed unmarked by the election of a supreme pontiff. The
+    coming conclave will be held under circumstances essentially
+    dissimilar from those surrounding all its predecessors, as will
+    be readily understood if we consider the difference which
+    recent changes, both lay and ecclesiastical, have made in the
+    position of the pope. If, on the one hand, the political
+    changes in Europe have taken from the cardinals the power of
+    creating a sovereign prince, the ecclesiastical changes which
+    the late ecumenical council has wrought in the constitution of
+    the Church have placed in their hands the power and duty of
+    selecting a supreme ruler of the Church with acknowledged
+    claims to a loftier and more tremendous authority than the most
+    high-handed of his predecessors has hitherto claimed. And the
+    nature of this authority is such that the political rulers of
+    the world may well feel&mdash;and are, as we know,
+    feeling&mdash;a more anxious interest in the result of the
+    election than they have for many a generation felt in the
+    elevation of a temporal ruler of the ci-devant States of the
+    Church. Under these circumstances it may be acceptable to our
+    readers to have some brief account of what conclaves are and
+    have been.</p>
+
+    <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 483]</span>That this method of
+    choosing a supreme head of the universal Church was in its
+    origin abusive&mdash;that the earliest popes were chosen by the
+    suffrages of the entire body of the faithful, that by a process
+    of encroachment this election was in the course of time
+    arrogated to themselves by the Roman clergy, and was
+    ultimately, by a further process of similar encroachment,
+    monopolized by the "Sacred College" of cardinals,&mdash;all
+    this is sufficiently well known. It is, however, curious enough
+    to merit a passing word, that a precisely analogous process of
+    progressive encroachment may be observed to have taken place in
+    the mode of appointing the bishops of the Church, not only in
+    the Catholic, but also in the Protestant branch of it. First
+    freely elected by the body of the faithful, they were
+    subsequently chosen by the clergy, and lastly by a small and
+    select body of these in the form of a "chapter." Only in this
+    case a further step of encroachment being still possible, that
+    step has been made; and bishops are nominated in the Catholic
+    Church formally, and in the Anglican really, by the pope and
+    the sovereign respectively.</p>
+
+    <p>It does not seem that in the earliest elections made by the
+    cardinals the precautions of a "conclave," or a shutting up
+    together of the cardinals, was adopted. The first conclave
+    seems to have been that which elected Innocent IV. in 1243, and
+    the motive for the locking up appears to have been the fear of
+    interference by the emperor Frederick, who was at the time
+    ravaging all the country around Rome. The first conclave that
+    was guarded by a Savelli, in whose family the office of marshal
+    of the Church and guardian of the conclaves became hereditary,
+    was that which elected Nicholas IV. in 1288. The mode in which
+    this pontiff merited his elevation is worth telling, apropos of
+    conclaves. The conclave had lasted over ten months, and been
+    prolonged into the hottest and most unhealthy season, insomuch
+    that six cardinals died, many more fell ill, and all ran away
+    save one, the bishop of Palestrina. He, "keeping large fires
+    continually burning to correct the air," stuck to it, remained
+    in conclave all alone, and was unanimously elected pope at the
+    return of the cardinals when the pestilence had ceased. In 1270
+    we find a conclave sitting under difficulties of another kind.
+    It was at Viterbo, and their Eminences sat for two years
+    without making any election; whereupon, we are told, Raniero
+    Gatti, the captain of the city, took the step of unroofing the
+    palace in which they were assembled as a means of hastening
+    their decision. That their Eminences were not thus to be
+    hurried, however, is proved by their having subsequently dated
+    a bull, still to be seen with its seventeen seals, "from the
+    unroofed episcopal palace of Viterbo." There were four or five
+    popes elected subsequently to this, however, without conclaves;
+    but from the death of Boniface VIII. in 1303 the series of
+    conclaves has been unbroken. Celestine V., who abdicated in
+    1294, drew up the rules which, confirmed by his successor,
+    Boniface VIII., and by many subsequent popes from time to time
+    down to the last century, still regulate the assembling and
+    holding of the conclave, modified in some degree, as regards
+    the food and private comforts of the cardinals, by indulgence
+    of later pontiffs.</p>
+
+    <p>In old and long-since-forgotten books concerning the
+    conclaves many curious particulars may be found respecting the
+    customs and ceremonies connected with the disposal of the body
+    of the deceased pontiff. A learnedly antiquarian dispute has
+    been raised on the question whether in early times the body of
+    a pope was embalmed, as we understand the word, or only
+    exteriorly washed and perfumed. It seems, on the whole, clear
+    that the first pope who was, properly speaking, embalmed, was
+    Julius II., who died in 1513. But here is a striking account of
+    the condition of things in the papal palace after the death of
+    that great, high-handed and powerful pontiff, Sixtus IV., which
+    occurred in 1484, after a reign of thirteen years. The
+    statement is that of Burcardo (Burckhardt), the papal master of
+    the ceremonies, the same writer whose diary, jotted down from
+    day to day, has revealed to us the incredible atrocities of the
+    court <span class="pagenum">[Pg 484]</span>of Alexander VI.,
+    the Borgia pope, who died in 1503. "For all that I could do,"
+    writes the master of the ceremonies, who perhaps at that time
+    occupied some less conspicuous post in the papal court, "I
+    could not get a basin, a towel, or any kind of utensil in which
+    the wine and the water for the odoriferous herbs could be put
+    for washing the body of the deceased. Nor could I obtain
+    drawers or a clean shirt for putting on the body, though I
+    asked for them again and again. At length the cook lent me the
+    copper kettle in which he was wont to heat the water for
+    washing the plates, together with some hot water; and Andrew
+    the barber brought me his barber's basin from his shop. So the
+    pontiff was washed. And as there was no towel to wipe the body
+    with, I caused him to be wiped with the shirt in which he died,
+    torn into two halves. I could not change the drawers in which
+    he died and was washed, because there were no others. His
+    canonical vestments were put upon him without any shirt, and a
+    pair of red cloth stockings, furnished by the bishop of Cervia,
+    who was his chamberlain, and a long tunic, if I remember
+    rightly, of red damask, as well as some other things." This
+    pope, whose body was thus washed with his shirt torn in half
+    for want of a towel, was that same Sixtus the enormous wealth
+    and boundless luxury of whose nephews seem almost fabulous to
+    readers even of these money-abounding days.</p>
+
+    <p>The explanation of the extraordinary state of things above
+    described is to be found in the custom which existed of sacking
+    the apartments of the deceased pope as soon as ever the breath
+    was out of his body. The utter lawlessness which prevailed at
+    Rome <i>sede vacante</i>&mdash;that is to say, during the
+    interval between the death of one pope and the election of his
+    successor&mdash;was not, indeed, confined to the residence of
+    the departed pontiff. Throughout Rome all law used to be on
+    those occasions in abeyance. The streets were scenes of the
+    most unbridled excesses and violence of all sorts. That was the
+    time for the satisfying of old grudges. Murder was as common as
+    murderous hate; and no man's life was safe save in so far as
+    his own hand or his own walls could protect it. And walls did
+    not always avail. I find a petition to Leo X. from a monastery
+    in Rome, setting forth that a document assuring certain
+    indulgences to the house had been lost at the time of the sack
+    and plunder of the convent during the last conclave. No sort of
+    claim, it is to be observed, is attempted to be set up of
+    redress for the plunder and destruction of the property of the
+    convent; only a prayer that the privileges in question might be
+    again granted in consideration of the loss of the document. A
+    very curious illustration of Roman manners in the sixteenth
+    century is to be found in a practice with regard to these
+    periods of interregnum which I find recorded by Cancellieri in
+    his work on the conclaves. Roman wives, it seems, were
+    forbidden&mdash;not without reason&mdash;to leave their homes
+    and go forth into the streets of Rome at their pleasure. But in
+    the articles of the marriage contract it was stipulated that
+    the lady should be free to go out on certain specified
+    occasions, mainly ecclesiastical festivals; and among these it
+    was always specially provided that the lady might go out during
+    the days of the exposition of the body of a deceased pope for
+    the purpose of kissing his feet. One would have thought that,
+    looking to the state of things in the city, the time of the
+    interregnum would have been the very last to select for ladies
+    to venture into the streets. It would seem, however, that the
+    Roman matrons thought otherwise. Cancellieri says that it was
+    in those days a common saying among Roman ladies that "Happy
+    were they who were married to Spaniards!" For it would seem
+    that the Spanish husbands in Rome did not think it necessary to
+    enforce this restraint on their wives&mdash;a circumstance that
+    rather curiously contradicts our general notions of Spanish
+    marital feelings and discipline.</p>
+
+    <p>In truth, the condition of Rome during the period of the
+    conclave down to very recent times affords a singular evidence
+    of the virtue of the old French formula, "Le roi est mort! Vive
+    le roi!" as signifying the non-existence of any period of
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 485]</span>transition between one
+    embodiment of law and authority and his successor; for the
+    absence of any similar provision in the case of the popes made
+    Rome a veritable hell upon earth during the period of a papal
+    election.</p>
+
+    <p>But if the city outside the walls within which the purple
+    fathers of the Church were deliberating presented a scene which
+    was a disgrace and a scandal to Christendom, that which was
+    being enacted within those walls was very often still more
+    profoundly scandalous. Never probably has any human institution
+    existed in which practice was more grossly and notoriously in
+    disaccord with pretensions and theory, and with respect to
+    which the highest and most sacred of all conceivable human
+    sanctions was so shamelessly desecrated and profaned to the
+    lowest and vilest uses.</p>
+
+    <p>Before touching on this part of the subject, however, it is
+    necessary first to give in as few words as possible some
+    intelligible account of the formal regulations and method of
+    holding the conclave and electing the pontiff. All the
+    regulations, which have been made with extreme minuteness,
+    together with the subsequent modifications of them by different
+    pontiffs, would occupy far too much space to be given here. The
+    following rules seem to be the essential points. Ten days,
+    including that of the pope's death, are to be allowed for the
+    coming of absent cardinals. This delay may, however, be
+    dispensed with for urgent reasons. The conclave should properly
+    be held in the building in which the pope died. Regulations of
+    various degrees of rigor have been made for securing the
+    isolation of the members of the Sacred College, greater
+    latitude and indulgence having been permitted as we approach
+    modern times. Sundry means also were devised for hastening the
+    deliberations of their Eminences. The old rule of Gregory X.
+    prescribed that if an election were not made in three days, the
+    cardinals should be supplied during the following five days
+    with one dish only at dinner and one at supper; and if at the
+    end of those five days the election was still uncompleted, the
+    electors should be allowed only bread and water till they had
+    accomplished their task. But, as may be readily supposed, all
+    this has been materially modified. Many of the minute and
+    rigorous precautions for preventing communication with the
+    world outside the conclave have also fallen into desuetude. The
+    purpose of these, however&mdash;that is, the absolute
+    prevention of any possibility of consultation between those in
+    conclave and those outside&mdash;is still sought to be, and
+    probably is, maintained. Cardinals obliged to leave the
+    conclave by ill-health, on sworn certificates of the two
+    physicians who are shut up with them in conclave, may return to
+    it, if able to do so, before the election is made. No censure
+    or excommunication or deposition of any cardinal by the pope
+    whose successor is to be elected can avail to deprive such
+    cardinal of the right to take part in the conclave and in the
+    election. No cardinal under pain of excommunication may say
+    anything, or promise anything, or request anything, to or from
+    another cardinal for the purpose of influencing him in the
+    giving of his vote. It may safely be asserted, however, that
+    pretty much all that is done in the conclave from the beginning
+    to the end of it is one long contravention of this rule. The
+    whole&mdash;at all events, the main&mdash;occupation of those
+    in conclave consists of exactly what is here forbidden. The
+    rule proceeds to declare that all such bargains, agreements and
+    obligations, even sworn to, are <i>ipso facto</i> void, and "he
+    who does not keep them merits praise rather than the blame of
+    perjury." This merit elected popes have usually been found to
+    strive after with all their strength. Julius II., by a bull
+    issued in 1505, declared that any pope elected by means of
+    bargains or promises is elected simoniacally; that his election
+    is null even if he have the vote of every cardinal; that he is
+    a heresiarch and no pope; that such an election cannot become
+    valid by enthronation, or by lapse of time, or by the obedience
+    of the cardinals; that it is lawful for the cardinals, the
+    clergy and the people of Rome to refuse obedience to a pope so
+    elected. On all which Monsignor <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    486]</span>Spondano in his ecclesiastical annals, remarks, with
+    a na&iuml;vet&eacute; of hypocrisy which is irresistibly
+    amusing, that inasmuch as there would be considerable
+    difficulty in applying the remedy proposed, God has specially
+    provided that there should never be any need of it. How far
+    Monsignor Spondano can have supposed that such was the case
+    will become evident from the account of the doings of a
+    conclave which I propose giving to the reader presently.</p>
+
+    <p>Together with the cardinals there are shut up in the
+    conclave two attendants, called "conclavisti," for each
+    cardinal, or three for such of them as are ill or infirm; one
+    sacristan, two masters of the ceremonies, one confessor, two
+    physicians, one surgeon, one carpenter, two barbers and ten
+    porters. Any conclavist who may leave the conclave cannot on
+    any account return. The different cells prepared in the
+    Quirinal, Vatican or other place in which the conclave may be
+    held are assigned to the cardinals by lot. The election may be
+    made in the conclave in either of three different
+    manners&mdash;by scrutiny of votes, by compromise, or by
+    acclamation. A vote by scrutiny is to be taken twice every day
+    in the conclave&mdash;once in the morning and once in the
+    afternoon. All the cardinals, save such as are confined to
+    their cells by infirmity, proceed to the chapel, and there,
+    after the mass, receive the communion. They then return each to
+    his cell to breakfast, and afterward meet in the chapel again.
+    The next morning at 8 A.M. the sub-master of the ceremonies
+    rings a bell at the door of each cell; at half-past eight he
+    rings again; and at nine a third time, adding in a loud voice
+    the summons, "<i>In capellam Domini!</i>"</p>
+
+    <p>The arrangement of the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican, in
+    which the voting takes place, is as follows: The floor is
+    raised by a boarding to the level of the pontifical throne,
+    which stands by the side of the altar, and which is left in its
+    place in readiness for the newly-elected pope to seat himself
+    and receive the "adoration" of his electors. All around the
+    walls of the chapel are erected as many thrones as there are
+    cardinals, and over each of them a canopy, so arranged that by
+    means of a cord it can be suddenly let down; so that at the
+    moment the election is pronounced all the canopies are suddenly
+    made to fall except that of the new pope. In front of each
+    throne and under each canopy there is a little table covered
+    with silk&mdash;green in the case of all those cardinals who
+    have been created previously to the pontificate of the pope
+    recently deceased, and purple in the case of those created by
+    him. The colors of the canopies are similar. On each table are
+    printed registers prepared for registering the votes at each
+    scrutiny, the schedules for giving the votes, the means for
+    sealing, etc. On the front of each table is inscribed the name
+    of the cardinal who is to occupy it, together with his armorial
+    bearings. In the midst of the body of the chapel are six little
+    tables covered with green cloth, with a seat at each of them
+    for the use of any cardinal who may fear that his neighbor
+    might overlook him while writing his voting paper if he wrote
+    it on the table before his throne. In front of the altar there
+    is a large table covered with crimson silk, on which are folded
+    schedules, wafers, sealing-wax; four candles, not lighted, but
+    ready for use; a tinder-box with steel and matches; scarlet and
+    purple twine for filing the voting schedules; a box of needles
+    for the same purpose; a tablet with seventy holes in it,
+    answering to the number of cardinals if the college were full,
+    and in each hole a little wooden counter with the name of a
+    cardinal, so that there are as many counters as cardinals in
+    the college; and finally, a copy of the form of oath respecting
+    the putting the schedules into the urns, the two urns
+    themselves, and a box with a key, used for receiving the voting
+    papers of such cardinals as may be too ill to leave their
+    cells. The two urns, however, at the time of the scrutiny are
+    placed on the altar. Behind the altar there is placed a little
+    iron brazier or stove, in which, after every scrutiny which
+    does not succeed in electing a pope, the voting papers are
+    burned, together with some damp straw, the object
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 487]</span>being to cause a dense
+    smoke, which, passing by a pipe outside the building, serves to
+    inform the Romans that no election has yet been made. Twice a
+    day, at about the same hour every day till the election is
+    achieved, this smoke, which is eagerly watched for by all Rome,
+    and specially by the commandant of the Castle of St. Angleo,
+    who is waiting to fire a salute for the new pope, tells the
+    city that there is no pope yet. When the hour passes and no
+    smoke is seen, it is known that the election is made, and the
+    cannoneers fire away without waiting to know whom they are
+    saluting.</p>
+
+    <p>There is no portion of the day or of the lives of the
+    cardinals in conclave which is not regulated by a host of
+    minute regulations and ceremonies. The introduction of the food
+    supplied to them; the form of bringing it from their palaces;
+    the method of communication with the outside world, and the
+    precautions taken to prevent any communication with reference
+    to the great business in hand; the form and color of the
+    garments to be worn by their Eminences and by all the
+    subordinates; the amount of remuneration and perquisites to be
+    received by the latter (among which regulations I find the
+    following: "Let no man receive anything who has not purchased
+    the office he holds"); the order of precedence of everybody,
+    from the dean of the Sacred College to the last sweeper who
+    enters the conclave with their Eminences,&mdash;all subject to
+    minute rules, which would require, one would imagine, a
+    lifetime to make one's self master of, and which, curious as
+    some of them are, it is impossible to find place for here. We
+    must get on to the method of voting.</p>
+
+    <p>Each cardinal has a schedule about eight inches long by six
+    wide, divided by printed lines into five parts. On the topmost
+    is printed "Ego, Cardinalis&mdash;&mdash;," to be filled up
+    with the name and titles of the elector using it. On the second
+    space are printed, toward either side of the paper, two
+    circles, indicating the exact place where the paper when folded
+    is to be sealed. On the middle space is printed the words
+    "Eligo in Summum Pontificem R'um D'um meum Dom. Card.," leaving
+    only the name of the person chosen to be filled in. On the
+    fourth space two circles are printed, as on the second,
+    indicating the places of two more seals, which, when the paper
+    is folded and sealed down, make it impossible to see the motto
+    which is written, together with a number, on the last space. On
+    the back of the second and fourth divisions are printed the
+    words "nomen" and "signum," denoting that immediately under
+    them are the name and motto of the elector. There are also
+    printed certain ornamental flourishes, the object of which is
+    to render it impossible to see the writing within through the
+    paper. Thus, the schedule, with its top and bottom folds sealed
+    down, can be freely opened so far as to allow the name of the
+    cardinal for whom the vote is given to be seen, but not so far
+    as to make it possible to see the name or motto of the giver of
+    the vote.</p>
+
+    <p>When the voting papers have been thus prepared, the senior
+    cardinal, the dean of the Sacred College, rises from his throne
+    and walks to the foot of the altar, holding his schedule aloft
+    between his finger and thumb. There he kneels and passes a
+    brief time in private prayer. Then rising to his feet, he
+    pronounces aloud in a sonorous voice the following oath:
+    "Testor Christum Dominum qui me judicaturus est, me eligire
+    quem secundum Deum judico eligi debere, et quod in accessu
+    praestabo" ("I call to witness the Lord Christ, who shall judge
+    me, that I elect him whom before God I judge ought to be
+    elected, and which vote I shall give also in the
+    <i>accessit</i>"). The last words allude to a subsequent part
+    of the business of the election, to be explained presently. It
+    is hardly necessary to point out to the reader that this oath,
+    solemn as it sounds, might just as well be omitted. It is as a
+    matter of course evident that each elector will give his vote
+    for the person who <i>ought</i> in his opinion to be elected.
+    But as to the <i>motives</i> of that opinion, as to the
+    <i>grounds</i> on which it seems best to each elector that such
+    and such a man <i>ought</i> to be elected, the oath says
+    nothing. The cardinals whose votes Alexander VI. bought
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 488]</span>thought, no doubt, that in
+    all honesty they <i>ought</i> to give their voices for the man
+    who had fairly paid for them. But, putting aside such gross
+    cases, let the reader reflect for a moment how extensive a
+    ground is covered by the celebrated "A.M.D.G." formula ("Ad
+    majorem Dei gloriam"). The conscience of an elector may be
+    supposed to speak to him thus: "It is true that I know A.B. to
+    be a profligate and thoroughly worldly man, but his influence
+    with such or such a statesman or monarch will probably be the
+    means of saving the Church from a schism in this, that or the
+    other country. And that assuredly is A.M.D.G. And he is the
+    man, therefore, who ought to be elected."</p>
+
+    <p>Well, the oath having been thus pronounced, the voter places
+    his folded schedule on a silver salver, and with this casts it
+    into the silver urn which is on the altar. And one after
+    another every cardinal present does the same&mdash;every
+    cardinal present except, however, any one who may not have
+    received at least deacon's orders. One so disqualified may
+    indeed be empowered to vote by dispensation of the deceased
+    pope; but this dispensation is usually given for a limited
+    period&mdash;a few days probably&mdash;only; and if this time
+    has expired before the election is completed the cardinal who
+    is not in sacred orders must cease to vote till he have
+    received orders. It has frequently occurred that cardinals have
+    been ordained under these circumstances in the conclave. When
+    all the schedules have been placed in the urn, three cardinals,
+    who have been previously chosen by lot for the purpose, as
+    scrutineers proceed to verify the result of the voting. First,
+    the schedules are counted to ascertain that they are equal in
+    number to the number of the cardinals present. If this should
+    not be the case, all are forthwith burned and the business is
+    recommenced. But if this is all right, then comes the moment of
+    interest which sets many an old heart beating under its purple
+    vestments. The three scrutineers seat themselves at the large
+    table with their backs turned to the altar, so that they face
+    the assembly. Then each cardinal in his throne-seat places on
+    the little table before him a large sheet duly prepared with
+    the names of all the cardinals living, and ruled columns for
+    the votes, and pen in hand awaits the declaration of these. The
+    first scrutineer takes a schedule from the urn, unfolds the
+    central part, leaving the two sealed ends intact, takes note of
+    the vote declared within, and hands the paper to the second
+    scrutineer, who also notes the vote and hands it to the third,
+    who declares the vote aloud in a voice audible to all present,
+    and each cardinal marks it on his register. Then, if the votes
+    shall have been sufficient to elect the pope&mdash;that is,
+    two-thirds of those voting&mdash;there is nothing more to be
+    done save to number the votes, to verify them, and then burn
+    the schedules. But if this is not the case, as it rarely if
+    ever is, the cardinals proceed to the <i>accessit</i>. The
+    papers and all the forms for this are precisely the same as for
+    the first voting, save that in the place of the word "Eligo"
+    there is the word "Accedo," and that in the place of the name
+    of the cardinal voted for those who do not choose to alter
+    their previous vote write "Nemini" ("To no one"). Then the
+    matter proceeds as before; and if no election is effected, the
+    assembly breaks up, and meets for another voting and scrutiny
+    that afternoon or the next morning, as the case may be. And
+    this is done twice every day till the election is made. The
+    reader, I fear, may think that I have been prolix in my
+    statement of these particulars of the method of the election,
+    but I can assure him that I have given him only the main and
+    important points, selected from some hundreds of pages in the
+    works of those who have treated on the wonderfully minute
+    regulations and prescriptions with which the whole matter is
+    surrounded.</p>
+
+    <p>It will be easily seen that the moment of proceeding to the
+    accessit is the time for fine strokes of policy, for the most
+    cautious prudence and craftiest cunning. The general condition
+    of the ground has been disclosed by the results of the previous
+    scrutiny. The possibilities and chances begin to discover
+    themselves. "Frequently," says the President de
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 489]</span>Brosses, who was at Rome
+    during the conclave which elected Benedict XIV. in 1740, in the
+    charming published volume of his letters&mdash;"Frequently at
+    the accessit everything which was done at the preceding
+    ceremony is reversed; and it is at the accessit that the most
+    subtle strokes of policy are practiced. Sometimes, for example,
+    when a party has been formed for any cardinal, the leader of
+    the party keeps in reserve for the accessit all the votes that
+    he can count on as certain, and induces those that he suspects
+    may be doubtful to vote for the person intended to be made pope
+    at the first scrutiny, so as to make sure by the number of
+    votes given whether his supporters have been true to their
+    party, and to avoid unmasking his policy till he shall be sure
+    of his <i>coup</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>The story of the conclave which elected Cardinal Lambertini
+    pope as Benedict XIV., gives a curious picture of the schemes
+    and intrigues carried on in the mysterious seclusion of the
+    conclave. Clement XII., of the Florentine Corsini family, had
+    died. The cardinal Corsini, his nephew, was at the head of one
+    faction in the conclave, and the cardinal Albani, nephew of
+    Clement XI., who died in 1721, at the head of the other. The
+    former party seemed at the beginning of the conclave to be the
+    most numerous. But De Brosses describes the two men as follows.
+    Corsini, he says, had little intelligence, less sense, and no
+    capacity for affairs. Of Albani, he says that he was "highly
+    considered for his capacity, and both hated and feared to
+    excess&mdash;a man without faith, without principles; an
+    implacable enemy even when appearing to be reconciled; of a
+    great genius for affairs; inexhaustible in resource and
+    intrigue; the ablest man in the college, and the worst-hearted
+    man in Rome." It soon became clear that the struggle between
+    the factions thus led would be severe, and the conclave a long
+    one. The history of the plots and counterplots by which each
+    strove to circumvent the other is extremely amusing, but too
+    long to be given here. After various fruitless attempts, the
+    Corsini faction concentrated all their forces on Cardinal
+    Aldrovandi. He was a man of decent character, and had the
+    support of a small body of independent cardinals, called the
+    "Zelanti," who, to the great disgust and contempt of their
+    brethren in purple, were mainly influenced by the consideration
+    of the worthiness of his character. The number of voices needed
+    to make the election was thirty-four: Aldrovandi had
+    thirty-three. Cardinal Passionei, the scrutator who had to
+    declare the votes, and a member of the opposite faction,
+    became, we are told, as pale as death when he announced with
+    trembling voice the thirty-third vote. There was every reason
+    to think that at the accessit he would have the one other vote
+    needful to make the election. But it was not so. The terrible
+    Albani was too much feared, and had his own party too well in
+    hand. But the thing was run very close. The danger was great
+    that during the hours of the night that must intervene before
+    the next scrutiny some means might be found to detach
+    <i>one</i> Albani follower from his allegiance. There was the
+    great bait to be offered that the one who changed his vote
+    would be in effect the maker of the new pope. Under these
+    circumstances, Albani felt that nothing but some "heroic"
+    measure could save him. What he did was this: There was a
+    certain Father Ravali, a Cordelier, and one of the leading men
+    of his order, on whom Albani could depend, and who was, in
+    language more expressive than ecclesiastical, "up to anything."
+    This monk was instructed to seek a conference with Aldrovandi
+    at the <i>rota</i>. (The rota was the opening in the wall at
+    which such interviews were permitted in presence of certain
+    high dignitaries specially appointed to attend it, for the
+    express purpose of hearing all that might be said, and
+    preventing any communication having reference to the business
+    of the conclave. How they performed their duty the present
+    story shows.) The monk began by saying that all Rome looked
+    upon the election of Aldrovandi as a certain thing. Aldrovandi,
+    doing the humble, replied that to be sure many of his brethren
+    had deigned to think of him, but that he did not make any
+    progress&mdash;that there were those who were too determinately
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 490]</span>opposed to his election,
+    etc. The monk thereupon goes into a long and unctuous discourse
+    on all the sad evils to Christendom of a conclave so prolonged.
+    (It had already lasted over five months.) To which Aldrovandi
+    replies that he ought rather to address his remonstrances to
+    Cardinal Albani, who is in truth the cause of the inability of
+    the conclave to come to an election. "Ah, monsignor," returns
+    the Cordelier, "put yourself in the place of the cardinal
+    Albani. I know his sentiments from the many conversations we
+    have had together. He is far from feeling any personal
+    objection or enmity to you. But you know that there has been in
+    the past unpleasant feeling between your family and his, and he
+    fears that you are animated by hostility toward him." "I assure
+    you," replies Aldrovandi, falling into the trap, "that he is
+    greatly mistaken. I have long since forgotten all the
+    circumstances you allude to. Besides, as I remember, the
+    cardinal had no part in the matter. He can't doubt that I have
+    the greatest respect for his personal character. Besides, I am
+    not the man to forget a service rendered to me." "Since those
+    are the sentiments of Your Eminence," cries the monk, "I begin
+    to see an end to this interminable conclave. I perceive that
+    there will be no difficulty in arranging matters between Your
+    Eminence and the cardinal Albani. Will you permit me to be the
+    medium of your sentiments upon the subject?" Aldrovandi is
+    delighted, and feels the tiara already on his head. Then, after
+    a little indifferent talk, the Cordelier, in the act of taking
+    leave of the cardinal, turns back and says, "But, after all,
+    the mere word of a poor monk like me is hardly sufficient
+    between personages such as Your Eminence and the cardinal
+    Albani. Permit me to write you a letter, in which I will lay
+    before Your Eminence those considerations concerning the crying
+    evils of the length of this conclave which I have ventured to
+    mention to you, and that will give me an opportunity of
+    entering on the matters we have been speaking of. And then you,
+    in your reply to me, can take occasion to say what you have
+    already been observing to me of your sentiments toward the
+    cardinal Albani." Aldrovandi eagerly agreed to this, and the
+    two letters were at once written. "I am told," adds De Brosses,
+    "that the letter of Aldrovandi was strong on the subject of the
+    <i>gratitude</i> he should feel toward Albani." No sooner has
+    the perfidious Cordelier got the letter into his hand than he
+    runs with it to Albani, who goes with it at once to the body of
+    the "Zelanti" cardinals with pious horror in his face: "Here!
+    Look at your Aldrovandi, your man of God, that you tell me is
+    incapable of intriguing in order to become His vicar! Here he
+    is making promises to seduce me into violating my
+    conscience."&mdash;"Alas! alas! It is too true! Clearly the
+    Holy Ghost will none of him. Speak to us of him no more!" So
+    Aldrovandi's chance was gone, and Albani found the means of
+    uniting the necessary number of voices on Lambertini, a
+    good-enough sort of man, by all accounts, but hardly of the
+    wood from which popes are or should be made. He became that
+    Benedict XIV. who was Voltaire's correspondent, and who, as the
+    story goes, when he was asked by a young Roman patrician to
+    make him a list of the books he would recommend for his
+    studies, replied, "My dear boy, we always keep a list of the
+    best books ready made. It is called the <i>Index
+    Expurgatorius</i>!"</p>
+
+    <p>Such were the doings of conclaves, and such the popes which
+    resulted from them, in that eighteenth century whose boasted
+    philosophy pretty well culminated in the conviction that
+    pudding was good and sugar sweet. Such will not be the conclave
+    which will assemble at the death of the present pontiff. The
+    election will doubtless be scrupulously canonical on all
+    points; and, though it may be doubted how far the deliberations
+    of the Sacred College will be calculated to advance the truly
+    understood spiritual interests of humanity, there is, I think,
+    little doubt that they will be directed, according to the
+    lights of the members, to the choice of that individual who
+    shall in their opinion be most likely to advance the interests
+    of the Church "A.D.M.G."</p>
+
+    <p class="author">T. ADOLPHUS
+    TROLLOPE.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 491]</span>
+
+    <h2><a id="MONSOOR_PACHA"
+       name="MONSOOR_PACHA"></a>MONSOOR PACHA.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem_1"
+         align="center">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor Pacha, it is pleasant to meet</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Here, in the heart of this treacherous
+            town&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Where faith is a peril and courtship a cheat,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">More false to the touch than a rose
+            overblown&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">With a soul that is true to itself, as
+            your own.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor Pacha, as two gentlemen may,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Civilized, city-bred, link we our
+            hands:</p>Now from the town to the desert away!
+
+            <p class="i4">Ours is a friendship whose spirit
+            demands</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">The scope of the sky and the stretch of
+            the sands.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor Pacha, doff your courtier's garb;</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">We have given to courtesy all of its
+            dues;</p>
+
+            <p>Spring to your throne on the back of your barb,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Shake to the breezes your regal
+            burnous,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Wave your lance-sceptre wherever you
+            choose!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my chief! ah, I know you at length!</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">King of the desert, your children are
+            come</p>
+
+            <p>To cluster, like sheep, in the shade of your
+            strength,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Or to strike, like young lions, for
+            country and home,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">When your eyes are ablaze at the roll of
+            the drum!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my chief! now one gallop, to see</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">The land you have sworn that no despot
+            shall grind!</p>
+
+            <p>Though sun-tanned and arid, by Allah! 'tis free!</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Its crops are these lances: these sons of
+            the wind,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Our steeds, are its flocks&mdash;a grim
+            harvest to bind!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my chief! how we dash o'er the sand,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Hissing behind us like storm-driven
+            snow!</p>
+
+            <p>Flash the long guns of your wild Arab band,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Brandish the spears, and the light
+            jereeds throw,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">As, half-winged, through the shrill
+            singing breezes we go!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my chief! send the horses away:</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">The sports of your tribe I have seen with
+            delight.</p>
+
+            <p>Now let us watch while the rose-tinted day</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Fades from the desert, and peace-bearing
+            Night</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Shakes the first gem on her brow in our
+            sight.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my host! lo, I enter your tent,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">As brother by brother, hands clasping, is
+            led:</p>
+
+            <p>I sleep like a child in a dream Heaven-sent;</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">For have I not eaten the salt and the
+            bread?</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">And Monsoor will answer for me with his
+            head.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p class="author">GEORGE H. BOKER.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="note">
+        CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 10, 1875.
+    </blockquote><span class="pagenum">[Pg 492]</span>
+
+    <h2><a id="HOW_HAM_WAS_CURED"
+       name="HOW_HAM_WAS_CURED"></a>HOW HAM WAS CURED.</h2>
+
+    <p>This was in slave times. It was also immediately after
+    dinner, and the gentlemen had gone to the east piazza. Mr.
+    Smith was walking back and forth, talking somewhat excitedly
+    for him, while Dr. Rutherford sat with his feet on the railing,
+    thoughtfully executing the sentimental performance of cutting
+    his nails. Dr. Rutherford was an old friend of Mr. Smith who
+    had been studying surgery in Philadelphia, and now, on his way
+    back to South Carolina, had tarried to make us a visit.</p>
+
+    <p>"You see," Mr. Smith was saying, "about a week ago one of
+    our old negroes died under the impression that she was
+    'tricked' or bewitched, and the consequence has been that the
+    entire plantation is demoralized. You never saw anything like
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Many a time," said Dr. Rutherford, and calmly cut his
+    nails.</p>
+
+    <p>"There is not a negro on the place," continued Edward, "who
+    does not lie down at night in terror of the Evil Eye, and go to
+    his work in the morning paralyzed by dread of what the day may
+    bring. Why, there is a perfect panic among them. They are
+    falling about like a set of ten-pins. This morning I sent for
+    Wash (best hand on the place) to see about setting out tobacco
+    plants, and behold Wash curled up under a haystack getting
+    ready to die! It is enough to&mdash;So as soon as you came this
+    morning a plan entered my head for putting a stop to the thing.
+    It will be necessary to acknowledge that two or three of them
+    are under the spell, and it is better to select those who
+    already fancy themselves so.&mdash;Rosalie!" I appeared at the
+    window. "Are any of the house-servants 'witched?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Mercy is," said I, "and I presume Mammy is going to be: I
+    saw her make a curtsey to the black cat this morning."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what is your plan?" inquired Dr. Rutherford.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Smith seated himself on the piazza railing, dangling his
+    feet thereagainst, rounding his shoulders in the most
+    attractive and engaging manner, as you see men do, and
+    proceeded to develop his idea. I was called off at the moment,
+    and did not return for an hour or two. As I did so I heard Dr.
+    Rutherford say, "All right! Blow the horn;" and the overseer
+    down in the yard</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Blew a blast as loud and shrill</p>
+
+            <p>As the wild-boar heard on Temple Hill&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>an event which at this unusual hour of the day produced
+    perfect consternation among the already excited negroes. They
+    no doubt supposed it the musical exercise set apart for the
+    performance of the angel Gabriel on the day of judgment, and in
+    less than ten minutes all without exception had come pell-mell,
+    helter-skelter, running to "the house." The dairymaid left her
+    churn, and the housemaid put down her broom; the ploughs stood
+    still, and when the horses turned their heads to see what was
+    the matter they found they had no driver; she also who was
+    cooking for the hands "fled from the path of duty" (no
+    Casabianca nonsense for <i>her!</i>), leaving the "middling" to
+    sputter into blackness and the corn-pones to share its fate.
+    Mothers had gathered up their children of both sexes, and
+    grouped them in little terrified companies about the yard and
+    around the piazza-steps.</p>
+
+    <p>Edward was now among them, endeavoring to subdue the
+    excitement, and having to some extent succeeded, he made a
+    signal to Dr. Rutherford, who came forward to address the
+    negroes. Throwing his shoulders back and looking around with
+    dignity, he exclaimed, "I am the great Dr. Rutherford, the
+    witch-doctor of Boston! I was far away in the North, hundreds
+    of miles from here, and I saw a spot on the sun, and it looked
+    like the Evil Eye! And I found it was a great black smoke. Then
+    I knew that witch-fires were burning in the mountains, and
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 493]</span>witches were dancing in
+    the valleys; and the light of the Eye was red! I am the great
+    Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I called my black
+    cat up and told her to smell for blood, and she smelled, and
+    she smelled, and she smelled! She smelled, and she smelled, and
+    she smelled! And presently her hair stood up like bristles, and
+    her eyes shot out sparks of fire, and her tail was as stiff as
+    iron!" He threw his shoulders back, looked imposingly around
+    and repeated: "I am the great Dr. Rutherford the witch-doctor
+    of Boston! My black Cat tells me that the witch is
+    here&mdash;that she has hung the deadly nightshade at your
+    cabin-doors, and your blood is turning to water. You are
+    beginning to wither away. You shiver in the sunshine; you don't
+    want to eat; your hearts are heavy and you don't feel like
+    work; and when you come from the field you don't take down the
+    banjo and pat and shuffle and dance, but you sit down in the
+    corner with your heads on your hands, and would go to sleep,
+    but you know that as soon as you shut your eyes she will cast
+    hers on you through the chinks in the cabin-wall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dat's me!" said Mercy&mdash;"dat certny is me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Gret day in de mornin', mas' witch-doctor! How you know? Is
+    you been tricked?" inquired Martha, who, having been reared on
+    the plantation, was unacquainted with the etiquette observed at
+    lectures.</p>
+
+    <p>Wash groaned heavily, and shook his head from side to side
+    in silent commendation of the doctor's lore.</p>
+
+    <p>"My black cat tells me that the witch is here; and she
+    <i>is</i> here!" (Immense sensation among the children of Ham.)
+    "But," continued he with a majestic wave of the arm, "she can
+    do you no harm, for I <i>also</i> am here, the great Dr.
+    Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Doctor," inquired Edward in a loud voice, "can you tell who
+    is conjured and who is not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot tell unless robed in the blandishments of
+    plagiarism and the satellites of hygienic art as expunged by
+    the gyrations of nebular hypothesis. Await ye!" He and Mr,
+    Smith went into the house.</p>
+
+    <p>The negroes were very much impressed. They have excessive
+    reverence for grandiloquent language, and the less they
+    understand of it the better they like it.</p>
+
+    <p>"What dat he say, honey?" asked old Mammy. "I can't heer
+    like I used ter."</p>
+
+    <p>"He says he will be back soon, Mammy, and tell if any of you
+    are tricked," said I; and just then Edward and the doctor
+    reappeared, bearing between them a pine table. On this table
+    were arranged about forty little pyramids of whitish-looking
+    powder, and in their midst stood a bottle containing some clear
+    liquid, like water. Dr. Rutherford seated himself behind it,
+    robed in the black gown he had used in the dissecting-room, and
+    crowned by a conical head-piece about two feet high,
+    manufactured by Edward and himself, and which they had
+    completed by placing on the pinnacle thereof a human skull. The
+    effect of this picturesque costume was heightened by two large
+    red circles around the doctor's eyes&mdash;whether obtained
+    from the juice of the pokeberry or the inkstand on Edward's
+    desk need not be determined.</p>
+
+    <p>In front of the table stood the negroes, men, women and
+    children. There was the preacher, decked in the clerical livery
+    of a standing collar and white cravat, but, perhaps in
+    deference to the day of the week, these were modified by the
+    secular apparel of a yellow cotton shirt and homespun
+    pantaloons, attached to a pair of old "galluses," which had
+    been mended with twine, and pieced with leather, and lengthened
+    with string, till, if any of the original remained, none could
+    tell the color thereof nor what they had been in the day of
+    their youth. The effect was not harmonious. There was Mammy,
+    with her low wrinkled forehead, and white turban, and toothless
+    gums, and skin of shining blackness, which testified that her
+    material wants were not neglected. There was Wash, a great,
+    stalwart negro, who ordinarily seemed able to cope with any ten
+    men you might meet, now looking so subdued and dispirited,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 494]</span>and of a complexion so
+    ashy, that he really appeared old and shrunken and weak. There
+    was William Wirt, the ploughboy, affected by a chronic grin
+    which not even the solemnity of this occasion could dissipate,
+    but the character of which seemed changed by the awestruck eyes
+    that rolled above the heavy red lips and huge white teeth.
+    There was Apollo&mdash;in social and domestic circles known as
+    'Poller&mdash;there was Apollo, his hair standing about his
+    head in little black tufts or horns wrapped with cotton cord to
+    make it grow, one brawny black shoulder protruding from a rent
+    in his yellow cotton shirt, his pantaloons hanging loosely
+    around his hips, and bagging around that wonderful foot which
+    did not suggest his name, unless his sponsors in baptism were
+    of a very satirical turn. There were Martha, and Susan, and
+    Minerva, and Cinderella, and Chesterfield, and Pitt, and a
+    great many other grown ones, besides a crowd of children, the
+    smallest among the latter being clad in the dishabille of a
+    single garment, which reached perhaps to the knee, but had
+    little to boast in the way of latitude.</p>
+
+    <p>There they all stood in little groups about the yard,
+    looking with awe and reverence at the great Dr. Rutherford, who
+    sat behind the table with his black gown and frightful eyes and
+    skull-crowned cap.</p>
+
+    <p>"You see these little heaps of powder and this bottle of
+    water. You will come forward one at a time and pour a few drops
+    of the water in this bottle on one of these little heaps of
+    powder. If the powder turns black, the person who pours on the
+    water is 'witched. If the powder remains white, the person who
+    pours on the water is <i>not</i> 'witched. You may all examine
+    the powders, and see for yourselves whether there is any
+    difference between them, and you will each pour from the same
+    bottle."</p>
+
+    <p>During a silence so intense that nothing was heard save the
+    hum of two great "bumblebees" that darted in and out among the
+    trees and flew at erratic angles above our heads, the negroes
+    came forward and stretched their necks over each other's
+    shoulders, peering curiously at the little mounds of powder
+    that lay before them, at the innocent-looking bottle that stood
+    in their midst, and the great high priest who sat behind. They
+    stretched their necks over each other's shoulders, and each
+    endeavored to push his neighbor to the front; but those in
+    front, with due reverence for the uncanny nature of the table,
+    were determined not to be forced too near it, and the result
+    was a quiet struggle, a silent wrestle, an undertone of
+    wriggle, that was irresistibly funny.</p>
+
+    <p>Then arose the great high priest: "Range ye!"</p>
+
+    <p>Not knowing the nature of this order, the negroes scattered
+    instanter and then collected <i>en masse</i> around Mr.
+    Smith.</p>
+
+    <p>"Range ye! range!" repeated the doctor with dignity, and
+    Edward proceeded to arrange them in a long, straggling row,
+    urging upon them that there was no cause for alarm, as, even
+    should any of them prove 'witched, the doctor had charms with
+    him by which to cast off the spell.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come, Martha," said Edward; but Martha was dismayed, and
+    giving her neighbor a hasty shove, exclaimed,</p>
+
+    <p>"You go fus', Unk' Lumfrey: you's de preacher."</p>
+
+    <p>Uncle Humphrey disengaged his elbow with an angry hitch: "I
+    don't keer if I is: go 'long yose'f."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, de Lord knows I'm 'feerd to go," said Martha; "but ef
+    I sot up for preachin', 'peers to me I wouldn' be'feerd to sass
+    witches nor goses, nor nuffin' else."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't preach no time but Sundays, an' dis ain't Sunday,"
+    said Uncle Humphrey.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hy, nigger!" exclaimed Martha in desperation, "is you gwine
+    to go back on de Lord cos 'tain't Sunday? How come you don't
+    trus' on Him week-a-days?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I does trus' on Him fur as enny sense in doin' uv it; but
+    ef I go to enny my foolishness, fus' thing I know de Lord gwine
+    leave me to take keer uv myse'f, preacher or no
+    preacher&mdash;same as ef He was ter say, 'Dat's all right,
+    cap'n: ef you gwine to boss dis job, boss it;' an'
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 495]</span>den whar <i>I</i> be? Mas'
+    Ned tole you to go: go on, an' lemme 'lone."</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncle Humphrey," said Edward, "there is nothing whatever to
+    be afraid of, and you must set the rest an example. Come!"</p>
+
+    <p>Uncle Humphrey obeyed, but as he did so he turned his head
+    and rolled&mdash;or, as the negroes say,
+    <i>walled</i>&mdash;his eyes at Martha in a manner which
+    convinced her, whatever her doubts in other matters pertaining
+    to theology, that there is such a thing as future punishment.
+    The old fellow advanced, and under direction of the great high
+    priest poured some of the contents of the bottle on the powder
+    indicated to him, and it remained white.</p>
+
+    <p>"Thang Gord!" he exclaimed with a fervency which left no
+    doubt of his sincerity, and hastened away.</p>
+
+    <p>Two or three others followed with a similar result. Then
+    came Mercy, the housemaid, and as her trembling fingers poured
+    the liquid forth, behold the powder changed and turned to
+    black! The commotion was indescribable, and Mercy was about to
+    have a nervous fit when Dr. Rutherford, fixing his eyes on her,
+    said in a tone of command, "Be quiet&mdash;be perfectly quiet,
+    and in two hours I will destroy the spell. Go over there and
+    sit down."</p>
+
+    <p>She tottered to a seat under one of the trees.</p>
+
+    <p>One or two more took their turn, among them Mammy, but the
+    powders remained white. I had entreated Edward not to pronounce
+    her 'witched, because she was so old and I loved her so: I
+    could not bear that she should be frightened. You should have
+    seen her when she found that she was safe. The stiff old limbs
+    became supple and the terrified countenance full of joy, and
+    the dear ridiculous old thing threw her arms up in the air, and
+    laughed and cried, and shouted, and praised God, and knocked
+    off her turban, and burst open her apron-strings, and refused
+    to be quieted till the doctor ordered her to be removed from
+    the scene of action. The idea of retiring to the seclusion of
+    her cabin while all this was going on was simply preposterous,
+    and Mammy at once exhibited the soothing effect of the
+    suggestion; so the play proceeded.</p>
+
+    <p>More white powders. Then Apollo's turned black, and, poor
+    fellow! when it did so, he might have been a god or a demon, or
+    anything else you never saw, for his face looked little like
+    that of a human being, giving you the impression only of
+    wildly-rolling eyeballs, and great white teeth glistening in a
+    ghastly, feeble, almost idiotic grin.</p>
+
+    <p>Edward went up to him and laid his hand on his shoulder:
+    "That's all right, my boy. We'll have you straight in no time,
+    and you will be the best man at the shucking to-morrow
+    night."</p>
+
+    <p>More white powders. Then came Wash, great big Wash; and when
+    his powder changed, what do you suppose he did? Well, he just
+    fainted outright.</p>
+
+    <p>The remaining powders retaining their color, and Wash having
+    been restored to consciousness, Dr. Rutherford directed him to
+    a clump of chinquapin bushes near the "big gate" at the
+    entrance of the plantation. There he would find a flat stone.
+    Beneath this stone he would find thirteen grains of moulding
+    corn and some goat's hair. These he was to bring back with him.
+    Under the first rail near the same gate Mercy would find: a
+    dead frog with its eyes torn out, and across the road in the
+    hollow of a stump Apollo was to look for a muskrat's tail and a
+    weasel's paw. They went off reluctantly, the entire <i>corps de
+    plantation</i> following, and soon they all came scampering
+    back, trampling down the ox-eyed daisies and jamming each other
+    against the corners of the rail fence, for, sure enough, the
+    witch's treasures had been found, but not a soul had dared to
+    touch them. Dr. Rutherford sternly ordered them back, but all
+    hands hung fire, and their countenances evinced resistance of
+    such a stubborn character that Edward at length volunteered to
+    go with them. Then it was all right, and presently returned the
+    most laughable procession that was ever seen&mdash;Wash with
+    his arms at right angles, bearing his grains of moulding grain
+    on a burdock leaf which he held at as great a distance as the
+    size of the leaf and the length of his arms
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 496]</span>would admit, his neck
+    craned out and his eyes so glued to the uncanny corn that he
+    stumbled over every stick and stone that lay in his path; Mercy
+    next, with ludicrous solemnity, bearing her unsightly burden on
+    the end of a corn-stalk; Apollo last, his weasel's paw and
+    muskrat's tail deposited in the toe of an old brogan which he
+    had found by the roadside, brown and wrinkled and stiff, with a
+    hole in the side and the ears curled back, and which he had
+    hung by the heel to a long crooked stick. On they came, the
+    crowd around them following at irregular distances, surging
+    back and forth, advancing or retreating as they were urged by
+    curiosity or repelled by fear.</p>
+
+    <p>It was now getting dark, so Dr. Rutherford, having had the
+    table removed, brought forth three large plates filled with
+    different colored powders. On one he placed Mercy's frog, on
+    another Wash's corn, and on the third the muskrat's tail and
+    weasel's paw taken from Apollo's shoe. Then we all waited in
+    silence while with his hands behind him he strode solemnly back
+    and forth in front of the three plates. At length the bees had
+    ceased to hum; the cattle had come home of themselves, and
+    could be heard lowing in the distance; the many shadows had
+    deepened into one; twilight had faded and darkness come. Then
+    he stood still: "I am the great Dr. Rutherford, the
+    witch-doctor of Boston! I will now set fire to these witch's
+    eggs, and if they burn the flames will scorch her. She will
+    scream and fly away, and it will be a hundred years before
+    another witch appears in this part of the country."</p>
+
+    <p>He applied a match to Apollo's plate and immediately the
+    whole place was illuminated by a pale blue glare which fell
+    with ghastly effect on the awestricken countenances around,
+    while in the distance, apparently near the "big gate," arose a
+    succession of the most frightful shrieks ever heard or
+    imagined. Then the torch was applied to Mercy's frog, and
+    forthwith every nook and corner, every leaf and every blade of
+    grass was bathed in a flood of blood-red light, while the cries
+    grew, if possible, louder and fiercer. Then came Wash's corn,
+    which burned with a poisonous green glare, and lashed its
+    sickly light over the house and yard and the crowd of black
+    faces; and hardly had this died away when from the direction of
+    the big gate there slowly ascended what appeared to be a
+    blood-red ball.</p>
+
+    <p>"There she goes!" said the great Dr. Rutherford, and we all
+    stood gazing up into the heavens, till at length the thing
+    burst into flames, the sparks died away and no more was to be
+    seen.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, that is the last of her!" impressively announced the
+    witch-doctor of Boston; "and neither she nor her sisters will
+    dare come to this country again for the next hundred years. You
+    can all make your minds easy about witches."</p>
+
+    <p>Then came triumph instead of dread, and scorn took the place
+    of fear. There arose a succession of shouts and cheers,
+    laughter and jeers. They patted their knees and shuffled their
+    feet and wagged their heads in derision.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hyar! hyar! old gal! Done burnt up, is you? Take keer whar
+    you lay yo' aigs arfer dis!" advised William Wirt in a loud
+    voice.&mdash;"Go 'long, pizen sass!" said Martha. "You done lay
+    yo' las' aig, you is!"&mdash;"Hooray tag-rag!" shouted
+    Chesterfield.&mdash;"Histe yo' heels, ole Mrs. Satan," cried
+    one.&mdash;"You ain't no better'n a free nigger!" said
+    another.&mdash;"Yo' wheel done skotch for good, ole skeer-face!
+    hyar! hyar! You better not come foolin' 'long o' Mas' Ned's
+    niggers no mo'!"</p>
+
+    <p>The next night was a gala one, and a merrier set of negroes
+    never sang at a corn-shucking, nor did a jollier leader than
+    Wash ever tread the pile, while Mercy sat on a throne of shucks
+    receiving Sambo's homage, and, unmolested by fear, coyly held a
+    corncob between her teeth as she hung her head and bashfully
+    consented that he should come next day to "ax Mas' Ned de
+    liberty of de plantashun."</p>
+    <hr class='short' />
+
+    <p>"But, Edward," said I, "why did those three powders turn
+    black?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because they were calomel, my dear,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 497]</span>and it was lime-water that
+    was poured on them," said Mr. Smith.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but why did not the others turn black too?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because the others were tartarized antimony."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where did you get what was in the plates, that made the
+    lights, you know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Rutherford had the material. He is going to settle in a
+    small country town, so he provided himself with all sorts of
+    drugs and chemicals before he left Philadelphia."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, Edward," persisted I, putting my hand over his book to
+    make him stop reading, "how came those things where they were
+    found? and the balloon to ascend just at the proper moment? and
+    who or what was it screaming so? Neither you nor Dr. Rutherford
+    had left the yard except to go into the house."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, my dear; but you remember Dick Kirby came over just
+    after dinner, and he would not ask any better fun than to fix
+    all that."</p>
+
+    <p>"Humph!" said I, "men are not so stupid, after all."</p>
+
+    <p>Edward looked more amused than flattered, which shows how
+    conceited men are.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">JENNIE WOODVILLE.</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="ON_THE_STUDY_OF_SHAKESPEARES_SONNETS"
+       name="ON_THE_STUDY_OF_SHAKESPEARES_SONNETS"></a>ON THE STUDY
+       OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.</h2>
+
+    <p>The last thing which the student learns, the last thing
+    which the world, that universal student, comprehends, is how to
+    study. It is only after our little store of facts has been
+    laboriously accumulated, after we have tried path after path
+    that promised to take us by an easy way up the Hill Difficulty,
+    and have abandoned each in turn,&mdash;it is only when we have
+    attained a point somewhere near the top, that we can look down
+    and see the way we should have come, the one road that avoided
+    unnecessary steepness and needless windings, and led by the
+    quickest and easiest direction to the summit. The knowledge
+    that we have thus gained, however late to profit by it
+    ourselves, should at least be valuable to others. But,
+    unfortunately, as Balzac has said, experience is an article
+    that no one will use at second hand. When the great teachers of
+    the world, who have been its most patient scholars, shall go to
+    work to teach us how to study, and when we are content to
+    learn, then we shall all be in a fair way to become sages.</p>
+
+    <p>But, in the mean time, there are two things we must
+    apprehend&mdash;truisms both of them, but, like all truisms,
+    better known theoretically than practically. The first is, that
+    we must not use a microscope if we want to study the stars; and
+    the second is, that we must beware of having a fly between the
+    lenses of our telescope, unless we wish to discover a monster
+    in the moon. If a discriminating public would not consider it
+    an insult, one might add, in the third place, that it is
+    useless to look for lunar rainbows in the daytime.</p>
+
+    <p>It is true that all this sounds like child's play, but it is
+    astonishing how many of our Shakespearian critics commit one or
+    all of these faults. Forgetting entirely that criticism demands
+    common sense, impartial judgment, intense sympathy, a total
+    absence of prejudice, and a great deal of general information,
+    they bring to their task minds deeply tinctured with
+    preconceived systems of truth, goodness and beauty, upon whose
+    Procrustean bed the unfortunate poet must be stretched; while,
+    as if ignorant of the history of thought, they judge the
+    productions of another age and another atmosphere by the canons
+    of criticism that hold good to-day among ourselves. Not only
+    this, but they snuff enigmas in every line, and scent abstruse
+    theories <span class="pagenum">[Pg 498]</span>behind the
+    simplest statement. They take up passages of Shakespeare whose
+    obvious meaning any person of average intelligence can
+    understand, and turn and twist them into such intricate
+    doublings that they cannot undo their own puzzle. They attack
+    his poetry as if it were a second Rosetta Stone, or as if it
+    had to be read, like the lines in a Hebrew book, backward. They
+    study him in the spirit of the fool, who, being given a book
+    upside down, stood on his head to read it&mdash;a position
+    naturally confusing to the intellect.</p>
+
+    <p>Nor is it only in their methods of investigation that many
+    of our Shakespearian critics are at fault. Their fondness for
+    rearing vast temples of possibilities upon small corner-stones
+    of fact is proverbial. We know that Shakespeare went to London,
+    where he both wrote and acted plays, and upon this slender
+    basis you may find, in almost any of his commentators, such
+    added items of biography as this sentence from Heraud's book
+    upon Shakespeare's <i>Inner Life:</i> "That he had a house in
+    Southwark, that his brother Edmund lived with him, and that his
+    wife was his frequent companion in London, are all exceedingly
+    probable suppositions." So they may be to Mr. Heraud's mind,
+    but the next biographer shall form a totally different set of
+    "exceedingly probable suppositions" equally satisfactory to
+    himself. The same critic says that when Shakespeare, in his
+    Sonnets, spoke of "a black beauty" (a phrase universally used
+    to express a brunette as late even as the age of Queen Anne),
+    the poet had his Bible open at Solomon's Song, and meant the
+    Bride "who is black but comely;" in other words, the Reformed
+    Church. Mr. Page, the artist, finds in the Chandos portrait,
+    after it has been cleaned and scraped, and upon the photographs
+    of the German mask, a certain mark which he thinks the
+    indication of a scar. Two gentlemen, one an artist, who have
+    seen the mask itself, assure him that they find his scar to be
+    merely a slight abrasion or discoloration of the plaster; but
+    Mr. Page, secure in his position, quotes Sonnet 112,</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Your love and pity doth the impression fill</p>
+
+            <p>Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow,</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>and triumphantly asks, "If that doesn't refer to the scar,
+    what does it refer to?"</p>
+
+    <p>The Sonnets of Shakespeare have been quite too much
+    neglected by the lovers of his plays, and Stevens said that the
+    strongest act of Parliament that could be framed would fail to
+    compel readers into their service. Two classes of minds,
+    however, have always pondered over them&mdash;the poets, who
+    could not fail to appreciate their wonderful power and beauty,
+    and the psychologists, who have found in them an ample field
+    for speculation. The variety and extent of the theories of
+    these latter gentlemen can only be rivaled by the feat of the
+    camel-evolving German. Indeed, it is the true German school of
+    thought to which these speculations belong, and it is but just
+    that to a genuine Teuton belongs the honor of the most
+    extraordinary solution of the mystery yet given. It would take
+    too long to sum up all the theories that have been broached
+    upon the subject, but two or three will do as an example.
+    Without stopping to dwell upon the ideas of M. Philar&egrave;te
+    Chasles, or of Gen. Hitchcock, who believes the Sonnets to be
+    addressed to the Ideal Beauty, we will pass on to the book of
+    Mr. Henry Browne, published in London in 1870. His idea is that
+    the Sonnets are dedicated to William Herbert, afterward earl of
+    Pembroke, and are intended chiefly as a parody upon the
+    reigning fashion of mistress-sonneting and upon the sonneteers
+    of the day, especially Davies and Drayton; that they also
+    contain much which is valuable in the way of autobiography, and
+    that "the key to the whole mystery lies in <i>Shakespeare's</i>
+    conceit (<i>i.e</i>., Mr. Browne's conceit) of the union of his
+    friend and his Muse by marriage of verse and mind; by which
+    means, and for which favor, his youth and beauty are
+    immortalized, but which theme does not fully commence till the
+    friend had declined the invitation to marriage, which refusal
+    begets the mystic melody." Mr. Browne graciously accepts the
+    Sonnets in their order, and professes to be unable to name the
+    real mistress of Herbert, though he considers
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 499]</span>Lady Penelope Rich to be
+    the object of their allegorical satire.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Heraud also accepts the order of the Sonnets as correct.
+    His book contains an article on the Sonnets published by him in
+    <i>Temple Bar</i> for April, 1862, the result, he declares (and
+    far be it from us to dispute it), of pure induction. He has
+    evolved the theory that Shakespeare in writing against celibacy
+    had in view the practice of the Roman Catholic Church; that the
+    friend whom he apostrophizes was the Ideal Man, the universal
+    humanity, who gradually develops into the Divine Ideal, and
+    becomes a Messiah, while the Woman is the Church, the "black
+    but comely bride" of Solomon. "Shakespeare found himself
+    between two loves&mdash;the celibate Church on the one hand,
+    that deified herself, and the Reformed Church on the other,
+    that eschewed Mariolatry and restored worship to its proper
+    object.... Thus, Shakespeare parabolically opposed the
+    Mariolatry of his time to the purer devotion of the word of
+    God, which it was the mission of his age to inaugurate."</p>
+
+    <p>This is pretty well for a flight of inductive genius, but it
+    is quite surpassed by the soaring Teutonic mind before
+    mentioned, who, in the words of the reflective Breitmann,</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <p class="i2">Dinks so deeply</p>
+
+        <p>As only Deutschers can.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>This mighty philosopher, of whom Mr. Heraud speaks with
+    becoming reverence, is Herr Barnstorff, who published a book in
+    1862 to prove that the "W.H." of the dedication means
+    <i>William Himself</i>, and that the Sonnets are apostrophes to
+    Shakespeare's Interior Individuality! Mr. Heraud thinks this
+    idea is rather too German, but, after all, not so very far out
+    of the way, for in Sonnet 42 the poet certainly declares that
+    his Ideal Man is simply his Objective
+    Self.<a name="FNanchor_009_9"
+       id="FNanchor_009_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_009_9"
+       class="fnanchor">[009]</a> For, as Mr. Heraud beautifully
+       and lucidly remarks, "the Many, how multitudinous soever,
+       are yet properly but the reflex of the One, and the sum of
+       both is the Universe." And herein, according to Mr. Heraud,
+       we find the key to the mystery.</p>
+
+    <p>In 1866, Mr. Gerald Massey published a large volume on the
+    same subject, with the somewhat pretentious title.
+    <i>Shakespeare's Sonnets, never before interpreted; his private
+    friends identified; together with a recovered likeness of
+    himself</i>. The first chapter contains a summary of the
+    opinions of Coleridge, Wordsworth and others upon the Sonnets;
+    a notice of the theory of Bright and Boaden (<i>Gentleman's
+    Magazine</i>, 1832), afterward confirmed by a book written by
+    Charles Armitage Brown (1838); the theories of Hunter, Hallam,
+    Dyce, Mrs. Jameson, M. Chasles, Ulrici, Gervinus and many
+    others (most of them, by the way, confirming the theory
+    originated by Boaden and Bright); and having thus gone over the
+    work of twenty-five <i>named</i> authors, and a space of time
+    extending from 1817 to 1866, Mr. Massey begins his second
+    chapter by saying that as yet there has never been any genuine
+    attempt to interpret the Sonnets, "nothing having been done
+    except a little surface-work." Mr. C. Armitage Brown in
+    particular (who, by the way, must not be confounded with Mr.
+    <i>Henry Browne</i>) appears to be Mr. Massey's special
+    aversion. The very name of Brown irritates him as scarlet does
+    an excitable bull. Armitage Brown was the intimate friend of
+    Keats and Landor, and, Severn says, was considered to know more
+    about the Sonnets than any man then living, while the "personal
+    theory," as Mr. Massey styles it, has had a far larger number
+    of supporters than any other. Unfortunately, the opinions of
+    others have not the slightest weight with Mr. Massey, and words
+    are too weak to express his scorn of this theory and its
+    supporters. Mr. Brown wraps things in a winding sheet of
+    witless words (delicious alliteration!); he leaves the subject
+    dark and dubious as ever; his theory has only served to trouble
+    deep waters, and make them so muddy that it is impossible to
+    see to the bottom; in short, Mr. Brown and his fellow thinkers,
+    in the opinion of Mr. Massey, are arch-deceivers and audacious
+    misinterpreters, and have no more idea of what Shakespeare
+    meant than they have of telling the truth about it. Why Mr.
+    Massey should have worked himself <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    500]</span>into a passion before he began to write is a mystery
+    darker than any he attempts to solve, but the intemperate,
+    bitter and self-conceited tone of the whole book is alone an
+    immense injury to its critical value.</p>
+
+    <p>In constructing his elaborate theory of the Sonnets, Mr.
+    Massey has committed many grave offences against the rules of
+    criticism. He has gone to his work with the strongest possible
+    prejudices; he has begun it with certain preconceived ideas of
+    what Shakespeare meant to write; he has found it necessary to
+    destroy entirely the order of the poems, and to rearrange them,
+    even sometimes to alter the text, to fit his own notions; and
+    he has carried his investigations into such puerile and minute
+    twistings of the text as can only be paralleled by Mr. Page's
+    quotation in support of his scar. For instance, in Sonnet 78
+    occur these lines:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,</p>
+
+            <p>Have added feathers to the learned's wing</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And given grace a double majesty.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Mr. Massey thinks that in this quatrain (which the vulgar
+    mind would accept as it stands, nor expect to treat as other
+    than figurative) Shakespeare was passing in review the writers
+    under the patronage of the earl of Southampton, to whom the
+    sonnet is addressed, and that he can identify the four
+    personifications! Shakespeare of course is the Dumb taught to
+    sing by the favor of the earl; resolute John Florio, the
+    translator of Montaigne, is Heavy Ignorance; Tom Nash is the
+    Learned, who has had feathers added to his wing; and Marlowe is
+    the Grace to whom is given a double majesty! Marlowe's chief
+    characteristic was majesty, says Mr. Massey; therefore, we
+    suppose, he is spoken of as <i>grace</i>. The rest of his
+    "exquisite reasons" may be found at pages 134-143 of the
+    book.</p>
+
+    <p>This is nothing, however, to the feats of which Mr. Massey's
+    subtlety is capable. Sonnet 38 begins:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>How can my Muse want subject to invent,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">While thou dost breathe, that pour'st
+            into my verse</p>
+
+            <p>Thine own sweet argument, too excellent</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">For every vulgar paper to rehearse?</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>That is, kindly explains Mr. Massey&mdash;lest we should be
+    tempted to accept the obvious meaning of the lines, that the
+    poet could not want a subject while his friend lived, whose
+    worth was too great for every ordinary writing to celebrate
+    fitly&mdash;"that is, the new subject of the earl's suggesting
+    and the new form of the earl's inventing are too choice to be
+    committed to <i>common paper</i>; which means that Shakespeare
+    had until then written his personal sonnets on slips of paper
+    provided by himself, and now the excelling argument of the
+    earl's love is to be written in Southampton's own book"!
+    Perhaps it means that Shakespeare had taken to gilt-edged,
+    hot-pressed, double-scented Bath note.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Massey's ingenuity in getting over a difficulty is as
+    great as his faculty of construction. Having assumed Lady Rich
+    (that Stella whose golden hair makes half the glory of Sidney's
+    verse) to be the "black beauty" of the Sonnets, he finds that
+    Sonnet 130 perversely says, "If hairs be wires, black wires
+    grow on her head"&mdash;a bit of evidence that would seem to
+    upset this theory. But Mr. Massey is not to be put down so
+    easily. This is ironical, he says in effect; Shakespeare did
+    not mean this; "it is a bit of malicious subtlety to call the
+    lady's hair black wires, which was so often besung as golden
+    hair; and <i>she had been so vain of its mellow splendor!</i>
+    ... And there is the '<i>if</i>' to be considered&mdash;'much
+    virtue in an <i>if'!</i>&mdash;'<i>If</i> hairs be wires,' says
+    the speaker, 'black wires grow on her head!' So that the
+    'black' is only used conditionally, and the fact remains that
+    'hairs' are <i>not</i> 'wires.'" If we are to interpret
+    Shakespeare in this manner, where is such foolery to cease?</p>
+
+    <p>To sum up the principal facts of Mr. Massey's elaborate
+    theory in a few words, we find that he considers the Sonnets to
+    be dedicated to William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, as "their
+    only begetter" (or obtainer) for the publisher, Mr. Thomas
+    Thorpe; that they consist properly of two series, the first
+    written for Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, the second
+    for the earl of Pembroke; that they begin with the poet's
+    advice to Southampton to marry; that when the earl fell in love
+    with Elizabeth Vernon, <span class="pagenum">[Pg 501]</span>he
+    suggested a new argument (see Sonnet 38), wherein is no such
+    thing as a <i>new</i> argument, by the way; and that then the
+    poet begins to write love-poems in the person of his friend.
+    This continues up to the year 1603, when the earl of
+    Southampton was released from prison, the dramatic sonnets
+    being interspersed with personal ones. These dramatic sonnets
+    also include sonnets written for Elizabeth Vernon of and to
+    Penelope Lady Rich, of whom she is supposed to be jealous;
+    sonnets from Southampton to herself upon the lovers' quarrel,
+    and the desperate flirtation of Elizabeth Vernon to punish her
+    lover (which Mr. Massey says ensued upon this jealousy);
+    together with various other sonnets between them, and upon the
+    earl's varying fortunes, his marriage, imprisonment, etc.,
+    which make up the first series. The second series are
+    love-poems written for William Herbert, and addressed to Lady
+    Rich, who is supposed by Mr. Massey to be the "black beauty"
+    (or brunette) of the closing sonnets, although it is well known
+    that Lady Rich was a golden blonde, with nothing dark about her
+    but her black eyes. To make out this complicated story, Mr.
+    Massey arranges the Sonnets in groups to suit his fancy,
+    baptizes them as he chooses, and does not scruple to vilify the
+    fair name of man or woman in order to make out his argument and
+    to defend the spotless purity of Shakespeare's moral
+    character.</p>
+
+    <p><i>Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems</i>, by Charles
+    Armitage Brown (1838), is the book which more than all others
+    on the subject seems to have excited Mr. Massey's indignation,
+    chiefly because it is the leading advocate of "the personal
+    theory"&mdash;that is, the autobiographical and non-dramatic
+    character of the poems. This implies an acceptance of the
+    statement clearly made in the Sonnets of Shakespeare's
+    infidelity to his wife; and this Mr. Massey pronounces an
+    outrageous and unwarranted slander. But in order to leave the
+    name of Shakespeare pure from any stain of mortal imperfection,
+    Mr. Massey arranges a dramatic intention for the Sonnets which
+    involves, with more or less of light or evil conduct, no less
+    than four other names&mdash;the earl of Southampton and
+    Elizabeth Vernon (daughter of Sir John Vernon), whom he
+    afterward married; William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and Lady
+    Rich, for whom Mr. Massey finds no words too abusive, and whom
+    he considers the "worser spirit" of the later Sonnets. The
+    history of this lady is sufficiently well known, and, so far as
+    I can ascertain, there is no historical warrant for supposing
+    her to have been the mistress of Herbert, or the beguiler of
+    Southampton into such a lapse of duty to his beloved Elizabeth
+    Vernon as should inspire the expressions of Sonnets 134, 133,
+    144, which Mr. Massey says are written in the person of this
+    lady to Lady Rich. Lady Penelope Devereux, sister of Essex, was
+    born in 1563, and her father, who died when she was but
+    thirteen, expressed a desire that she should be married to Sir
+    Philip Sidney. For some unknown reason the intended match was
+    broken off, and the fair Penelope, who is described as "a lady
+    in whom lodged all attractive graces of beauty, wit and
+    sweetness of behavior which might render her the absolute
+    mistress of all eyes and hearts," was married in 1580 to Lord
+    Rich, a man whom she detested. Sidney's <i>Astrophel and
+    Stella</i>, a series of one hundred and eight sonnets and poems
+    addressed to Lady Rich, and celebrating the strength and the
+    purity of their love for each other, was first printed in 1591.
+    Sidney had died five years before, and so long as he lived, at
+    least, no whisper had been breathed against Lady Rich. In 1600
+    we have the first notice of her losing the queen's favor from a
+    suspicion of her infidelity to her husband, and in 1605, having
+    been divorced, her lover, the earl of Devonshire, formerly Lord
+    Mountjoy, immediately married her. He defended her in an
+    eloquent <i>Discourse</i> and an <i>Epistle to the King</i>, in
+    which he says: "A lady of great birth and virtue, being in the
+    power of her friends, was by them married against her will unto
+    one against whom she did protest at the very solemnity and ever
+    after." Lord Rich treated her with great brutality, and having
+    ceased to live with her for twelve <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    502]</span>years, "did by persuasions and threatenings move her
+    to consent unto a divorce, and to confess a fault with a
+    nameless stranger." In spite of Mountjoy's noble pleadings for
+    his wife, the whole court rose up against his marriage. The
+    earl's sensitive heart was broken by the disgrace he had
+    brought upon one whom he had loved so dearly and so long (for
+    he was Sidney's rival in his early youth, and had been rejected
+    by Lady Penelope's family before her marriage with Lord Rich),
+    and he died of grief four months after their marriage, April 3,
+    1606. His countess, "worn out with lamentation," did not long
+    survive him.</p>
+
+    <p>Does that look like the conduct of a light and fickle heart?
+    or was it likely that so noble a man as Charles Mountjoy would
+    have died of grief for the disgrace he had brought upon a
+    notoriously bad woman? As to Lord Southampton's alleged
+    flirtation with Lady Rich, which so excited Elizabeth Vernon's
+    jealousy, Mr. Massey has not one circumstance in proof of it
+    but the forced interpretation he chooses to put upon certain
+    lines of certain sonnets which he has wrested from their proper
+    places, as well as their proper meaning. After using such
+    sonnets as the 144th to express this jealousy, he quietly
+    confesses at the end of the chapter that it could not have gone
+    very deep, as the intimacy of the two fair cousins (for such
+    was their relationship) continued to be of the
+    closest&mdash;that it was to Lady Rich's house that Elizabeth
+    Vernon retired after her secret marriage to the earl in 1598,
+    and there her baby was born, named Penelope after her cousin
+    and friend! There was only matter enough in it for poetry, Mr.
+    Massey concludes after having upset the whole order of the
+    Sonnets to prove its reality.</p>
+
+    <p>Now, as to the story of Lady Rich's having been the mistress
+    of Herbert, for whom Mr. Massey says that twenty-four of the
+    Sonnets were written. William Herbert, afterward earl of
+    Pembroke, was born in 1580. He came up to London in 1598, being
+    then eighteen years of age, and made the acquaintance of
+    Shakespeare, who was then thirty-four years old. Lady Rich, at
+    that time, according to Mr. Massey's own statement, was
+    "getting on for forty." The fact is that she was just
+    thirty-five, having been born, as he tells us, in 1563.
+    According to the obvious meaning of the Sonnets, the lady
+    spoken of is much younger than Shakespeare, instead of a year
+    older, and, according to Mr. Massey, Lady Rich was at that time
+    (1597) in the midst of her love-affair with Mountjoy. The lady
+    of the Sonnets, if we take them literally, could have borne no
+    such high position as Lady Rich: she seems to have been neither
+    remarkably beautiful and high-bred, nor virtuous, and was
+    evidently a married woman of no reputation. (<i>Sonnets</i>
+    150, 152.)</p>
+
+    <p>It is impossible to bring up separately, in a single
+    article, the items contained in a volume of 603 pages, so we
+    must be content to leave Mr. Massey's theory with these meagre
+    allusions to its principal statements, and pass on to that of
+    Mr. Charles Armitage Brown. Upholding the opinion that the
+    Sonnets are autobiographical, he maintains that they are in
+    reality not sonnets, but poems in the sonnet stanza, there
+    being but three sonnets, properly so called, in the series. The
+    poems are six in number, terminating each with an appropriate
+    <i>envoi</i>, and are addressed, the first five to the poet's
+    friend, "W.H.," and the sixth to his mistress. That friend must
+    have been very young, very handsome, of high birth and fortune;
+    and to all this the description of William Herbert exactly
+    answers. The divisions made by Mr. Brown are as follows: First
+    poem, 1 to 26&mdash;to his friend, persuading him to marry.
+    Second poem, 27 to 55&mdash;to his friend, who had robbed the
+    poet of his mistress, forgiving him. Third poem, 56 to
+    77&mdash;to his friend, complaining of his coldness, and
+    warning him of life's decay. Fourth poem, 78 to 101&mdash;to
+    his friend, complaining that he prefers another poet's praises,
+    and reproving him for faults that may injure his character.
+    Fifth poem, 102 to 126&mdash;to his friend, excusing himself
+    for having been some time silent, and disclaiming the charge of
+    inconstancy. Sixth poem, 127 to 152&mdash;to his mistress, on
+    her infidelity. In this last poem, says
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 503]</span>Mr. Brown, we find the
+    whole tenor to be "hate of my sin grounded on sinful loving."
+    However the poet may waver, and for the moment seem to return
+    to his former thralldom, indignation at the faithlessness of
+    his mistress and at her having been, through treachery, the
+    cause of his estrangement from a friend, at the last completely
+    conquers his sinful loving. "For myself," continues Mr. Brown,
+    "I confess I have not the heart to blame him at all, purely
+    because he so keenly reproaches himself for his own sin and
+    folly. Fascinated as he was, he did not, like other poets
+    similarly guilty, directly or by implication obtrude his own
+    passions on the world as reasonable laws. Had such been the
+    case, he might have merited our censure, possibly our
+    contempt."</p>
+
+    <p>Having thus glanced over the work of the principal
+    commentators upon the Sonnets, let us try the simple plan of
+    reading them as we read Tennyson's <i>In Memoriam</i>, for
+    instance, or the <i>Sonnets from the Portuguese</i>, by Mrs.
+    Browning. In Mr. R.G. White's admirable edition of Shakespeare
+    he confesses that he has no opinion upon the subject: "Mr.
+    Thomas Thorpe appears in his dedication as the Sphinx of
+    literature, and thus far he has not met his Oedipus." But
+    herein have we not the main difficulty stated? The first great
+    error committed by almost all students of the Sonnets, if we
+    may be pardoned the opinion, is to take it for granted that
+    they are a mystery whose key is lost. Just so long as the
+    Sonnets are considered as a species of enigma they will be
+    misunderstood and misinterpreted. It was not Shakespeare's
+    habit to talk in riddles or to propound psychological problems:
+    of all poets except Chaucer he is the most simple, direct and
+    straightforward.</p>
+
+    <p>We have in the <i>Amoretti</i> of Spenser, and in the
+    <i>Astrophel and Stella</i> of Sir Philip Sidney, admirable
+    examples of autobiographical poems written mostly in sonnet
+    stanza, of irregular and varied construction and subject,
+    although the general theme is the same. Surely we may bring to
+    the study of Shakespeare's poems the same simple method used in
+    reading these. Poets of his own day, and using in their highest
+    flights the form which was Shakespeare's familiar relaxation,
+    nobody has tried to ascribe to Sidney and Spenser metaphysical
+    mysteries and psychological conceits. Let us hope that some day
+    this mistaken idolatry of Shakespeare, which besmokes his
+    shrine with concealing clouds of incense, will be done away
+    with, and that we shall be allowed to behold the simple truth,
+    which never suffers in his case for being naked.</p>
+
+    <p>In his 76th Sonnet, Shakespeare says,</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Why write I still all one, ever the same.</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And keep invention in a noted weed,</p>
+
+            <p><i>That every word doth almost tell my name</i>,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2"><i>Showing their birth and whence they
+            did proceed</i>?</p>
+
+            <p>Oh know, sweet love, I always write of you,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And you and love are still my
+            argument.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>With this explicit declaration of Shakespeare, the general
+    character of the poems, and the similar writings of his friends
+    and contemporaries, we can but consider the Sonnets as
+    autobiographical poems, written during a period of time
+    beginning certainly as early as 1598 (when Meres speaks of
+    Shakespeare's having written sonnets), and ceasing some time
+    before their first publication in 1609. In the same way were
+    written the poems composing Tennyson's <i>In Memoriam</i>,
+    which, although dedicated to "A.H.H.," close with a long poem
+    addressed to the poet's sister.</p>
+
+    <p>The first and principal series of the Sonnets (divided from
+    the second in many editions of Shakespeare by a mark of
+    separation) is clearly addressed to a male friend. The
+    extremely lover-like use of language by which they are
+    characterized was a common trait of the age; and here again we
+    see the necessity of thoroughly understanding the atmosphere
+    that Shakespeare breathed. To us, with our frigid vocabulary of
+    friendship, such a style sounds unnatural, and undignified
+    perhaps: with the Elizabethans it was an every-day habit.
+    Lilly, the author of <i>Euphues</i>, says in his
+    <i>Endymion,</i> "The love of men to women is a thing common
+    and of course; the friendship of man to man, infinite and
+    immortal." And indeed it is to the influence of the
+    <i>Euphues</i> that much of the poetic ardor of language
+    characterizing the masculine friendship of the time was due.
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 504]</span>A man's beauty was as
+    often the theme of verse as a woman's, and the endearing terms
+    only associated by us with the conversation of lovers were used
+    continually among men. The friends in Shakespeare's plays, as
+    in all the other dramas and novels of the period, continually
+    address each other as "sweet," and even "sweet love" and
+    "beloved." Ben Jonson called himself the "lover" of Camden, and
+    dedicated his eulogistic lines to "my beloved Mr. William
+    Shakespeare." There is therefore no reason for considering the
+    language of the first series of Sonnets as necessarily
+    inapplicable to a masculine friend. The second series,
+    beginning with the 127th Sonnet, is as evidently addressed, as
+    Mr. Brown says, "to his mistress, on her infidelity;" and the
+    Sonnets end with two upon "Cupid's Brand," admitted by all to
+    be separate poems, and wrongfully tacked on to the Sonnets
+    proper.</p>
+
+    <p>Taking it for granted, then, from this very literal survey
+    of the text, that the Sonnets are autobiographical, we find
+    their study divided into two branches: (1) the story that the
+    poems themselves tell by the most simple and direct statements;
+    and (2) the conjectural explanation of the personages of that
+    story, involving a careful historical comparison of names and
+    dates, but amounting, after all is said that can be said,
+    simply to conjecture, incapable of direct proof. The first part
+    is to the real lover of Shakespeare and of poetry the only
+    important one; the second concerns that which is mortal and has
+    passed away. The first implies a knowledge of the friendship
+    and the love of Shakespeare; the second the discovery of the
+    names of his friend, of the poet who was his rival in the
+    praises of that friend, and of the mistress who was unworthy of
+    them both; not to mention such other items concerning time and
+    place as might be ascertained by a persevering antiquarian.</p>
+
+    <p>It is impossible, within less than a volume, to quote from
+    the Sonnets very freely, therefore we shall be compelled to
+    trust to the reader's recollection of them, assisted by an
+    occasional reference; this explanation of them being simply a
+    record of the impressions they have produced upon an unbiased
+    mind reading them as one would read any other poetry of the
+    same character.</p>
+
+    <p>The story unfolded by the Sonnets, then, is this:
+    Shakespeare had an ardent friendship, made all the livelier by
+    the fervor of the poetic temperament, for a young man of noble
+    birth and very great personal beauty, himself a lover of
+    poetry, if not a poet. This youth was very much younger than
+    Shakespeare, who was already beginning to speak of himself as
+    past the prime of life, although he was probably not more than
+    thirty-four. The friend of Shakespeare was almost perfect in
+    beauty, intellect and disposition, but he had two faults: he
+    was extremely fond of flattery (Sonnet 84), and he was
+    over-addicted to pleasure:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame</p>
+
+            <p>Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,</p>
+
+            <p>Doth spot the beauty of thy budding
+            name!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (95.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Shakespeare scorned to palter with the truth&mdash;"fair,
+    kind and true" he had called his friend&mdash;but he saw his
+    faults with the keen eye of love, that cannot bear an
+    imperfection in the one who should be all-perfect.</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Thou truly fair wert truly sympathized</p>
+
+            <p>In true plain words by thy true-telling
+            friend;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(82.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>and</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p class="i10">I love thee in such sort,</p>
+
+            <p>As, thou being mine, mine is thy good
+            report;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(36.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>therefore in all love he warns him to take heed.</p>
+
+    <p>Such was the character of Shakespeare's friend, to whom he
+    begins by addressing seventeen sonnets (or poems in the sonnet
+    stanza, which is the better definition), urging him to marry.
+    He knows the weakness of his character and the temptations that
+    beset him, and in a strain of loving persuasion, whose theme
+    bears great resemblance to many passages in Sidney's
+    <i>Arcadia</i>, he beseeches him, now that he stands upon the
+    top of happy hours,</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Make thee another self for love of me.</p>
+
+            <p>That beauty still may live in thine or thee.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Sonnet 17 in a most beautiful manner sums up the argument
+    and ends the subject.</p>
+
+    <p>The Sonnets from the 18th to the 126th are all addressed to
+    this beloved friend, <span class="pagenum">[Pg 505]</span>who
+    nevertheless, early in the history of their friendship,
+    inflicted upon the poet a cruel wrong. With the 33d Sonnet
+    begin the references to this double treachery. It is impossible
+    for an unprejudiced reader to interpret this and the other
+    poems upon the same subject in any way but one. The mistress of
+    Shakespeare, fascinated by the beauty and brilliant qualities
+    of his friend, took advantage of the poet's absence to win that
+    facile heart, so incapable of resisting the charms of woman and
+    the tongue of flattery;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>And when a woman woos, what woman's son</p>
+
+            <p>Will sourly leave her till she have
+            prevailed?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(41.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>His friend's loss was the greater to the poet, for, although
+    he loved with passionate strength, it was against his
+    conscience and his reason. Such a love, he says, is "enjoyed no
+    sooner but despised straight;" "Before, a joy proposed; behind,
+    a dream."</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>All this the world well knows; yet none knows
+            well</p>
+
+            <p>To shun the heaven that leadeth to this
+            hell.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(129.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Nor does he mince matters in directly addressing her. She is
+    a brunette, with black eyes and black hair, yet black in
+    nothing except her deeds, which have given her an evil
+    reputation. She has sealed false bonds of love as often as he,
+    and is twice forsworn, having deceived both her husband and her
+    lover. She is as cruel as if she had that transcendent beauty
+    which in reality she only possesses in his doting eyes. He
+    knows that her heart is "a bay where all men ride," and yet
+    love persuades him to believe her true.</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Who taught thee how to make me love thee more</p>
+
+            <p>The more I hear and see just cause of hate?</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>She is his "worser spirit," tempting him to ill&mdash;his
+    "false plague," whom he knows to be "as black as hell, as dark
+    as night," though he has sworn her fair and true. His friend's
+    name is Will also, and Sonnets 135, 136 contain a play upon
+    their names:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy "Will,"</p>
+
+            <p>And "Will" to boot, and "Will" in overplus.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Only love my name, he says to her, and then you will still
+    love me, for <i>my</i> name too is "Will."</p>
+
+    <p>Such are the three actors in this tragedy of sin and sorrow
+    and remorse; and the more we read these wonderful poems, and
+    perceive the intense passion that throbs through them, the
+    nearer we seem to get to the great heart of Shakespeare, the
+    real inner life of that man of whose outer personality we know
+    so little. We see him wounded to the quick by his dearest
+    friend, yet weighing the sin of that friend in the balance of
+    divinest mercy as he acknowledges the strength of the
+    temptation, and, while he does not extenuate the sin, extends a
+    loving pardon to the sinner. He knows weakness of his own soul:
+    he himself struggles in the toils of an unworthy passion, which
+    his reason abhors while his heart is led captive. His is the
+    battle and the defeat: who is he that he should judge with
+    indignant virtue the failing of another?&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Although thou steal thee all my
+            poverty;</p>
+
+            <p>And yet love knows it is a greater grief</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To bear love's wrong than hate's known
+            injury.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(40.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He pardons the penitent as freely as only so great and
+    magnanimous a soul can, but gently reminds him that "though
+    thou repent, yet I have still the loss:"</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief</p>
+
+            <p>To him that bears the strong offence's
+            cross.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(34.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Hereafter we two must be twain, the poet says, although our
+    undivided loves are one, for fear thy good report suffer, which
+    is to me as my own. Do not even remember me after I am dead, if
+    that remembrance cause you any sorrow, nor rehearse my poor
+    name, but let your love decay with my life;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Lest the wise world should look into your moan,</p>
+
+            <p>And mock you with me after I am gone.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Such is the story of the Sonnets, the saddest of all
+    stories, as it comes to us from the simple and unbiased reading
+    of the series as it stands, without alteration or
+    transposition. The meaning is sufficiently obvious without
+    making any change, although, judging from the purely eulogistic
+    character of some of the first series of the Sonnets, and the
+    purely reflective style of others, it seems probable that those
+    which are more or less reproachful in tone may belong together,
+    nearer the second series. Still, even to this rearrangement
+    there are objections <span class="pagenum">[Pg 506]</span>when
+    we consider the alternations of feeling and the different
+    conditions that must have affected the poet during the space of
+    time covered by these poems. In the 104th Sonnet three years
+    are mentioned as having elapsed since the friends first met,
+    and the time covered by the whole series was probably still
+    longer. Conjectural evidence points to William Herbert as the
+    person to whom the Sonnets are addressed. His name, his age,
+    his beauty, his rank, all agree with Shakespeare's description.
+    As for the earl of Southampton, the poet's early patron, to
+    whom the <i>Venus and Adonis</i> and the <i>Lucrece</i> are
+    dedicated, his name was Henry; he was but nine years younger
+    than Shakespeare, and therefore not likely to have been called
+    by him "a sweet boy;" he was a remarkably plain man, instead of
+    an Adonis, and noted, not for his devotion to women in general,
+    but for his ardent attachment to Mistress Elizabeth Vernon,
+    whom he married secretly, in spite of the queen's opposition,
+    in 1598. Now, the earliest mention that we have of
+    Shakespeare's poems is when Meres speaks of "his sugared
+    sonnets among his private friends." This was in 1598, and, as
+    Hallam and other critics have argued, is probably a reference
+    to earlier sonnets which have been lost, not to those published
+    in 1609. It was in 1598 that William Herbert, a brilliant and
+    fascinating young man, addicted to pleasure and susceptible to
+    flattery, but strongly disinclined to marriage, came up to
+    London to live, having visited the metropolis during the
+    previous year.</p>
+
+    <p>As for Lady Rich, besides the objections already urged on
+    the score of her personal appearance and her age, Shakespeare
+    would never have dared to speak of a reigning beauty of the
+    court in the words of Sonnets 137, 144, 152. In fact, Mr.
+    Massey's whole argument upon this head is based upon his
+    assertion that the poems are dramatic and not personal.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Massey's conviction that Marlowe is the rival poet of
+    whose "great verse" Shakespeare was jealous depends upon
+    Southampton, and not Herbert, being acknowledged to be the
+    friend addressed, for Marlowe died in 1593, when Herbert was
+    but thirteen years old, and five years before we have the first
+    mention of Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets. Certainly, a
+    writer who had died five years before we find any mention of
+    the Sonnets can hardly be the living poet of whom Shakespeare
+    distinctly speaks in Sonnets 80 and 86. Also in Sonnet 82 he
+    makes mention of the "dedicated words" this rival addresses to
+    his friend. Now, we have no evidence that Marlowe ever
+    dedicated anything to Southampton, although Mr. Massey tries to
+    bolster up a desperate case by saying that "there is nothing
+    improbable in supposing that Marlowe's <i>Hero and Leander</i>
+    was intended to be dedicated to Southampton" had the poet lived
+    to finish it!</p>
+
+    <p>A stronger chain of evidence (still conjectural, it must be
+    remembered) points to Ben Jonson as this rival poet. His
+    <i>Epigrams</i>, which contain a eulogy upon Pembroke, and his
+    <i>Catiline</i>, were both dedicated to this earl, although
+    neither of them was published till after the Sonnets. We find
+    the earl of Pembroke's name among the actors in Ben Jonson's
+    masques, and Falkland's eclogue testifies to their intimacy.
+    And in the 80th Sonnet, Shakespeare uses the same comparison of
+    himself and his rival, to two ships of different bulk, which
+    Fuller used to describe Shakespeare and Ben Jonson as they
+    appeared at the Mermaid Tavern.</p>
+
+    <p>As for the name of the false woman who ensnared two such
+    noble hearts, it is lost for ever, let us hope, in a deserved
+    oblivion. The scanty data that we have given here are about all
+    that can be accepted without wrenching history and poetry from
+    their proper sphere. But so long as the spirit is more than the
+    letter, so long will the Sonnets of Shakespeare be read by all
+    true lovers of true poetry, whether their historical
+    significance ever be known or not. They are the saddest and the
+    sweetest story of friendship that we have in all literature;
+    and while one faithful friend remains possessed of that fine
+    wit that can "hear with eyes what silent love hath writ," his
+    heart will beat in answer to the perfect love of the greatest
+    of all poets and the noblest of all friends.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">KATE HILLARD.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    507]</span>
+
+    <h2><a id="OUR_MONTHLY_GOSSIP"
+       name="OUR_MONTHLY_GOSSIP"></a>OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.</h2>
+
+    <h3><a id="ARTISTS_MODELS_IN_ROME"
+       name="ARTISTS_MODELS_IN_ROME"></a>ARTISTS' MODELS IN
+       ROME.</h3>
+
+    <p>Some visitors to the Eternal City leave it without having
+    found time to see this one of its wonders, while others are
+    driven by the sad inelasticity of the hours to leave a
+    different class of objects for "another time." But it may be
+    safely asserted that none who have been at Rome for even
+    twenty-four hours ever left it without having had their
+    attention forcibly arrested by the groups of painters' and
+    sculptors' models&mdash;the former mainly&mdash;who haunt the
+    upper part of the great steps that lead up from the Piazza di
+    Spagna to the Trinit&agrave; di Monti, and perhaps even more
+    specially the corner where the Via Sistina falls into the
+    Piazza Barberini. But very few probably have asked for, and
+    fewer still obtained, information as to who and what these
+    people are, and whence they come. Yet to an attentive observer
+    many points about the appearance of these groups must suggest
+    that a curious interest might attach itself to the reply to
+    such questions. There are sights in Rome of grander and greater
+    interest, but there is nothing in all the famous centre of the
+    Catholic world more distinctively, essentially and exclusively
+    Roman, more unlike anything that is seen elsewhere, more
+    instinct with <i>couleur locale</i>, than these singularly
+    picturesque groups of nomads.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us, then, take a stroll among them, starting from that
+    bright centre of the foreigners' quarter of Rome, the Piazza di
+    Spagna. It is a brilliant January day, and, we will say, ten
+    o'clock in the morning. In the Via Babuino and the neighboring
+    streets, which the sun has not yet visited, the morning cold is
+    a little sharp. <i>Matutina parum cautos jam frigora
+    mordent</i>. But the magnificent flight of the great
+    stair&mdash;there are properly eleven flights, divided by as
+    many spacious and handsomely balustraded landing-places, each
+    flight consisting of twelve steps, and all of white
+    marble&mdash;with its southern exposure has almost the
+    temperature of a hothouse. There are two or three beggars
+    basking in the sunshine near the bottom of the steps. But our
+    models do not consort with these. Not only are they not
+    beggars, but they belong to a different caste and a different
+    race. We leisurely saunter up the huge stair, pausing at each
+    landing-place to turn and enjoy the view over the city, and the
+    gradually rising luminous haze around the cupola of St.
+    Peter's, and the heights of Monte Mario clear against the
+    brilliant blue sky. It is not till we are at the topmost flight
+    that we come upon the objects of our ramble. There we fall in
+    with a group of them, consisting perhaps of three or four
+    girls, as many children, a man in the prime of life, and an
+    aged patriarch. There is not the smallest possibility that we
+    should pass them unobserved. They are far too remarkable and
+    too unlike anything else around us. Even those who have no eye
+    for the specialties of type which characterize the human
+    countenance will not fail to be struck by the peculiarities of
+    the costume of the group of figures before us. At the first
+    glance the eye is caught by the quantity of bright color in
+    their dresses. The older women wear the picturesque white,
+    flatly-folded linen cloth on their heads which is the usual
+    dress of the <i>contadine</i> women in the neighborhood of
+    Rome. The younger have their hair ornamented with some huge
+    filagree pin or other device of a fashion which proclaims
+    itself to the most unskilled eye as that of some two or three
+    hundred years ago. All have light bodices of bright blue or red
+    stuff laced in front, and short petticoats of some equally
+    bright color, not falling below the ankle. But the most
+    singular portion of the costume is the universally-worn apron.
+    It consists of a piece of very stout and coarsely-woven wool of
+    the brightest blue, green or yellow, about twenty inches broad
+    by thirty-three in length, across which, near the top and
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 508]</span>near the bottom, run two
+    stripes, each about eight inches wide, of hand-worked
+    embroidery of the strangest, old-world-looking patterns and the
+    most brilliant colors. These things are manufactured by the
+    peasantry of the hill-country in the neighborhood of San
+    Germano, who grow, shear, spin, weave, dye and embroider the
+    wool themselves. And being barbarously unsophisticated by any
+    adulteration of cotton, and in no wise stinted in the quantity
+    of material, they are wonderfully strong and enduring. The most
+    remarkable thing about them, however, is the unerring instinct
+    with which these uneducated manufacturers harmonize the most
+    audaciously violent contrasts of brilliant color. It is not too
+    much to assert that they are <i>never</i> at fault in this
+    respect. So much is this the case, and so truly artistic is
+    this homely peasant manufacture, that there is hardly a
+    painter's studio in Rome in which two or three of these richly
+    colored apron-cloths may not be seen covering a sofa or thrown
+    over the back of a chair. A great part of the singularly
+    picturesque and striking appearance of the group of figures we
+    are speaking of is due to the universal use of these aprons by
+    the women. The men also affect an unusually large amount of
+    bright color in their costume. The waistcoat is almost always
+    scarlet; the velveteen jacket or short coat generally blue; the
+    breeches sometimes the same, but often of bright yellow
+    leather, and the stockings a lighter blue. The men often wear a
+    long cloak reaching to the heels, always hanging open in front,
+    and generally lined with bright green baize. They generally,
+    too, have some bright-colored ribbons around their high-peaked,
+    conical felt hats. But I must not forget to mention the costume
+    of the children. It consists of an exact copy in miniature of
+    that of their elders; and the inconceivable quaintness and
+    queer old-world look produced is not to be imagined by those
+    who have never witnessed it. Fancy a little imp of six or seven
+    years old dressed in little blue jacket, bright-yellow leather
+    breeches, blue stockings, sheepskin sandals on his little bits
+    of feet, and long bright flaxen curls streaming down from under
+    a gayly-ribboned brigand's hat!</p>
+
+    <p>But if the first glance is given to this singularity of
+    costume, the second will not fail to take cognizance of the
+    remarkable beauty of feature to be observed in almost every
+    individual of this race of models. The men are well grown,
+    almost invariably wear their black hair streaming over their
+    shoulders, and have generally fine eyes and picturesquely
+    colored, swarthy red faces. But the beauty of the girls is in
+    almost every case something quite extraordinary; and the same
+    may be said of the children. The next thing which the closeness
+    of observation this unusual degree of beauty is calculated to
+    attract will reveal to the observer is that all these
+    singularly lovely faces are remarkably like each other, and at
+    the same time remarkably unlike any of the faces around them.
+    There is often much beauty among the Roman women of the lower
+    classes, but it is of an essentially different type. The Roman
+    beauty is generally large in stature and ample in development,
+    with features whose tendency to heaviness needs the majestic
+    and Juno-like style of beauty which the Roman women so
+    frequently have to redeem them. But the countenances of the
+    women of whom we have been speaking have nothing at all of
+    this. The features are small, delicately cut, the form of face
+    generally short, rather than tending to oval, being in this
+    respect also in marked contrast with the ordinary Roman type.
+    There is a type of face well known to most English eyes, though
+    less so, I take it, to those on the western side of the
+    Atlantic, which is strangely recalled to the memory by these
+    model-girls; and that is the gypsy type. There is the same
+    Oriental look about them, the same brilliancy of dark eyes
+    under dark low brows, the same delicately-cut noses and full
+    yet finely-chiseled lips. They have also almost invariably the
+    same wondrous wealth of long raven black tresses, glossy but
+    not fine. The complexions are fresher, more delicate, and with
+    more of bloom, than is often seen among the gypsies; and this
+    is the principal difference between the two types. There is
+    also another [Pg 509]point of similarity, which, if the
+    accounts of Eastern travelers may be accepted, seems also to
+    point to an Oriental origin. I allude to the singular
+    gracefulness of "pose" which is observable in these people,
+    among the men and women alike. There they stand and lounge, or
+    sit propped, half recumbent, against a balustrade in the sun,
+    in all sorts of attitudes, but in all they are graceful. There
+    is that indefinable simplicity and ease in the natural movement
+    and disposition of their limbs which tuition can never, and
+    birth in the purple can so rarely, enable a European to assume.
+    It may perhaps be supposed that the exigencies of their
+    profession have not been without influence in producing the
+    effect I am speaking of. But I do not think that such is the
+    case. In the young and the old, in the children even, the same
+    thing is observable; and the exceeding difficulty of teaching
+    it may be accepted, I think, as a guarantee that it has not
+    been taught in the case of creatures so unteachable as these
+    half-wild sons and daughters of Nature.</p>
+
+    <p>Now, if these people, who for generations past have
+    exercised the profession of artists' models in Rome, do really
+    belong to a race apart from the inhabitants of the district
+    around Rome, as I think cannot be doubted by any one who has
+    carefully observed them, the question suggests itself, Who and
+    what are they, and whence do they come? Fortunately, we are not
+    unprovided with an answer, and the answer is rather a curious
+    one. If the excursionist from Rome to Tivoli will extend his
+    ramble a little way among the Sabine Mountains which lie behind
+    it, up the valley through which the Teverone&mdash;the
+    <i>pr&aelig;ceps Anio</i> of Horace&mdash;runs down into the
+    Campagna, he will see on his right hand, when he has left
+    Tivoli about ten miles behind him, a most romantically situated
+    little town on the summit of a conically shaped mountain. The
+    name of it is Saracinesco, and its story is as curious as its
+    situation. It is said&mdash;and the tradition has every
+    appearance of truth&mdash;that the town was founded by a body
+    of Saracens after their defeat by Berengarius in the ninth
+    century. The spot is just such as might have been selected for
+    such a purpose. It is difficult of access to an extraordinary
+    degree, and it is said to be no less than two thousand five
+    hundred feet above the stream which flows at the base of the
+    rocky hill on which it is built. Tradition, however, is not the
+    only testimony to the truth of this account of the origin of
+    the strangely placed little town, for in many cases the
+    inhabitants have preserved their old Arabic names. It is from
+    this strange eyrie of Saracinesco that our picturesque and
+    handsome friends of the Piazzi di Spagna descend to seek a
+    living at Rome from the profession which they have followed for
+    generations of artists' models. And this is the explanation of
+    the singular sameness of beautiful feature, the utterly
+    un-Roman type, the sharply-cut features, and the admirable
+    grace of movement and of attitude which characterize these
+    denizens of the steps&mdash;if of the steppes no longer.</p>
+
+    <p>What a life they lead! From early morn to dewy eve there
+    they lounge, in every sort of restful attitude, basking in the
+    sun, with nothing on earth to occupy mind or body save an
+    eternal clatter. On what subjects, who shall say or attempt to
+    guess? Every now and then one of the tribe is hired by an
+    artist to go and <i>pose</i> for a Judith, a Lucretia, a Venus,
+    as the case may be. Some are wanted for an arm, some for a
+    hand, some for a brow, some for a leg, some for a bust. Some
+    one may have a special gift for personating an ancient Roman,
+    and another exactly assume the saintly look of a Madonna or the
+    smile and expression of a Venus. Their several and special
+    gifts and capacities are all well known in the world of their
+    patrons, and special reputations are made in the art-world
+    accordingly. It is a strange life: not probably conducive to a
+    high development of intellectual and moral excellence, but very
+    much so to the picturesque peopling of the most magnificent
+    flight of stairs in Christendom.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">T. A. T.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="FAUST_IN_POLAND"
+       name="FAUST_IN_POLAND"></a>FAUST IN POLAND.</h3>
+
+    <p>Nowhere do we see the genuine soul and character of a people
+    so distinctly <span class="pagenum">[Pg 510]</span>as in its
+    myths, legends, popular songs and traditions. They reflect
+    faithfully, though&mdash;perhaps we should say,
+    <i>because</i>&mdash;unconsciously, the deeds, aspirations and
+    beliefs of the earlier ages, and not only afford to our own
+    precious material for philological and ethnological study, but
+    still exert, in many instances at least, considerable influence
+    over the ideas and feelings of men. The Faust legend will never
+    lose its mysterious fascination: many poets have felt it, but
+    Goethe's insight penetrated all its depth of meaning, and his
+    marvelous poem is for us the supreme expression of it.</p>
+
+    <p>But it is interesting to find the same legend in Poland,
+    with characteristic variations from the German conception,
+    illustrative of the hospitality and chivalry and the dominant
+    influence of woman which are such marked features in Polish
+    history. Twardowsky (the Doctor Faustus of Poland) lived in the
+    sixteenth century, in the time of Sigismund Augustus. He
+    studied at the University of Cracow, rose to the rank of
+    doctor, and devoted himself especially to chemistry and
+    physics, having a secret laboratory in a vast cavern of Mount
+    Krzemionki. Science in those days was regarded as intimately
+    associated with the black arts, and it was not surprising that
+    Twardowsky's contemporaries added the title of sorcerer to
+    those of doctor and professor, supposed he had made an alliance
+    with Satan, and fancied an army of demons always waiting to do
+    his bidding. All this did not prevent his enjoyment of the
+    king's favor. Sigismund had married, against his mother's wish,
+    Barbara Radziwill, the beautiful daughter of a Polish magnate.
+    The nobles, probably influenced by Bona, the mother of the
+    king, demanded that Barbara should be repudiated: he
+    indignantly refused, and shortly afterward she was poisoned.
+    The grief and rage of Sigismund were without bounds: he exiled
+    his mother, wore black all the rest of his life, and had the
+    apartments of his palace hung with it. His melancholy gave him
+    new interest in the occult sciences, and he became more than
+    ever intimate with Twardowsky, sometimes visiting him in his
+    cavern, sometimes receiving him secretly in his palace. At
+    first, he was satisfied with the chemical experiments which the
+    populace regarded as supernatural, but after a while he
+    urgently desired Twardowsky to produce for him a vision of
+    Barbara. Twardowsky appointed a night for the exhibition of his
+    skill, and after drawing a magic circle and pronouncing some
+    mysterious words, he called Barbara thrice by name, and she
+    appeared&mdash;not as a spectre risen from the tomb, but in all
+    the beauty and freshness which had been the king's delight. He
+    fainted at the sight, and his regard for the magician increased
+    greatly. But one fatal evening he found the door of the cavern
+    shut. Twardowsky, not expecting him, was not there. After some
+    delay the door was opened by a beautiful young woman.
+    "Barbara!" exclaimed Sigismund. "Barbara is my name, but I am
+    alive, not dead," was her reply. Twardowsky's device was now
+    exposed. He had created an illusion for the satisfaction of
+    Sigismund by employing this substitute for his lost Barbara.
+    She was a girl named Barbara Gisemka, whom Twardowsky had
+    rescued from the hands of a furious mob, had concealed in his
+    cavern, and initiated into the sciences to which he devoted
+    himself. She became his adept and his mistress. But the king,
+    furious at the imposition which had been practiced upon him,
+    and desirous of making this beautiful creature his own, had
+    Twardowsky murdered, and gave out that the devil had carried
+    him off. Barbara Gisemka acquired immense influence over the
+    mind of her royal lover, which lasted while he lived. When he
+    was ill she suffered no physician to approach him, and was with
+    him when he died in 1572.</p>
+
+    <p>So much for history. Tradition has transformed Twardowsky
+    into a gay and brilliant gentleman, who, in order to gain all
+    the pleasures of life, sold his soul to the devil, engaging on
+    his honor to give it up to him whenever he (the devil) should
+    enter the city of Rome. Twardowsky now enjoyed to the full his
+    new power, reveling in luxury himself, and lavishing gifts and
+    banquets on his <span class="pagenum">[Pg 511]</span>friends.
+    The populace also shared his generosity&mdash;all the more,
+    too, from the strange manner of it. On one occasion, we are
+    told, he pierced three holes in a shoemaker's nose with his own
+    awl, and caused a tun of brandy to flow from it for the
+    refreshment of the crowd. One day he was informed that a
+    stranger who was at the inn called the "City of Rome" wished to
+    see him. He went at once to the place with no misgivings, but
+    on his arrival there found the devil, who had come to claim the
+    fulfillment of the contract. Provoked at the quibble, he
+    resolved to employ a ruse himself, and just as the devil was
+    about to take possession of him he seized the infant child of
+    the innkeeper from its cradle and held it up before him, its
+    innocence being a sure defence against Satan's power. He,
+    however, demanded what had become of his plighted word. The
+    honor of the Polish gentleman could not resist this appeal. He
+    put down the child and rose into the air with Satan. But while
+    they were still hovering over Cracow the sound of church-bells
+    awoke in Twardowsky's recollection a hymn to the Virgin, which
+    he forthwith sang, and the devil could hold him no longer.
+    Twardowsky, however, could not get down again, but remains
+    suspended in the air, only receiving news from the earth by
+    means of a spider which happened to be on the tail of his coat,
+    and which occasionally spins a thread and goes down, for a
+    while, returning with whatever it may have picked up for his
+    information and amusement.</p>
+
+    <p>No Polish story would be complete without a woman, and so we
+    find that Twardowsky had a wife, beautiful, witty and
+    imperious, with all the fascinations universally conceded to
+    the Polish women. Madame Twardowsky is said to have ruled her
+    husband just as he ruled the devil during the time of that
+    personage's subjection; and there is a second version of the
+    story which makes her too much for Satan himself. According to
+    this account, Twardowsky was entertaining a number of friends
+    at the "City of Rome," when suddenly the devil appeared. While
+    Twardowsky, to gain time, was reading over the compact, his
+    wife, looking over his shoulder, suddenly laughed, and
+    addressing the devil, told him there were still three
+    conditions for him to fulfill, on failure of which the
+    parchment should be torn up, and asked whether she might impose
+    them. The devil politely replied in the affirmative. "Here,
+    then," said she, "see this horse painted on the wall of the
+    inn: I wish to mount him, and you must make me a whip of sand
+    and a staple of walnuts." The devil bowed, and in a moment the
+    horse was prancing before their eyes. The lady now had a large
+    tub of holy water brought in, and invited the devil, as his
+    second task, to plunge into it and refresh his weary limbs. He
+    coughed, shivered, then went in resolutely, coming out again as
+    quickly as possible, and shaking himself well. "The third task
+    will be a pleasant one," said the lady with her most bewitching
+    smile: "The first year my husband passes in hell you shall
+    spend with me, swearing to me love, fidelity and implicit
+    obedience. Will you?" The devil rushed toward the door, but she
+    was too quick for him, and succeeded in locking it and putting
+    the key into her pocket. Satan, resolved to escape from the
+    servitude in store for him, could only do so by going through
+    the keyhole, which has been black ever since.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">E. C. R.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="A_LETTER_FROM_HAVANA"
+       name="A_LETTER_FROM_HAVANA"></a>A LETTER FROM HAVANA.</h3>
+
+    <p class="author">HAVANA, Feb. 14, 1875.</p>
+
+    <p>It is not a very long sail from home to Cuba&mdash;you pass
+    into the Bay of Havana on the morning of the fifth day, if you
+    have luck&mdash;but the sky and land you left behind at this
+    wintry season at home are very different from those you find on
+    arriving here. It is a great change in so short a time from the
+    dun-colored shore and the frozen river to the waving verdure of
+    the Cuban coast and the sparkling blue and white of the water.
+    We made the land before daylight, and, the rules forbidding us
+    to enter the harbor till sunrise, we bobbed up and down for two
+    or three hours a mile or so outside of the Moro Castle, which
+    guards the narrow entrance to Havana. The moon
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 512]</span>was so brilliant that we
+    did not have to wait for day to enjoy the scene before us: in
+    fact, it could not have been improved by the sun. The fortress
+    of Moro crouches on a bed of rock, rearing a tall lighthouse
+    aloft. Its Moorish turrets have a soft rounded outline, and the
+    undulations of the shore blend with the masonry of the castle;
+    only a sharp retiring angle here and there gives an occasional
+    glimpse of a grim purpose. When the Moro light is put out,
+    ships in the offing may enter the bay. The mouth of the harbor
+    is not more than half a mile wide, and on the shore opposite to
+    the Moro the town of Havana comes down to the water's edge,
+    withdrawing up the bay on one hand, and up the sea-coast on the
+    other. A pilot is not necessary except for the perquisites of
+    office, but one comes on board, and with anxious countenance
+    directs the ship straight on through clear water for a mile,
+    when the anchor is dropped.</p>
+
+    <p>Just as day breaks on the high ground on the Moro shore, and
+    the growing light brings houses and trees and ships into
+    relief, with all their rich variety of color, the scene is
+    memorable and full of beauty. On the green slope behind the
+    castle, while the outline of the tropical vegetation is only
+    stealing into view, there is hid, and yet visible, a long, low
+    building of yellow columns, blue facade, brown gables and red
+    tiles: if you shut out the rest of the landscape with your
+    hands, you would say it was a picture by Fortuny. The expanse
+    of the bay is fine, and the large fleet at anchor furnishes it
+    but thinly. Townward, as the sun's rays begin to dissipate the
+    brown shadows and define shape and color, the city sparkles
+    like a gorgeous mosaic; but in another half hour, when the sun
+    is higher, the hazy softness has departed and the city is
+    ablaze with light, so that your eyes can scarcely look at it.
+    Then, if you have seen it earlier, it loses its charm.</p>
+
+    <p>I was jealous of Havana from what I had heard and read of
+    it: if the shore-line, and the entrance, and the bay, and the
+    scene were finer than Rio, I was prepared to be angry; but Rio
+    is grand and Havana is pretty, so that one may like both and
+    not divide his allegiance. A patchwork of good pictures in the
+    Moorish vein of town, and shore, and water would reproduce, and
+    yet not copy, all that Havana has to offer; but there is not a
+    picture in the world that aspires to the grandeur of Rio. But I
+    won't deny the sparkle and brilliancy of Havana. At this moment
+    the sky is of a perfect "Himmel-blau." I can see from my
+    window, near the roof, the rich, harmonious Moorish blending of
+    varied colors in the houses; and beyond these "the white feet
+    of the wind shine along the sea." A ship with all sail set is
+    coming into port, the white-capped waves rolling her along
+    before the stiff sea-breeze. Wind is the bane of the place. It
+    sets in to blow, as the sailors say, soon after daylight nine
+    days in ten, and blows all day, and sometimes far into the
+    night. It is not always the soft, perennial zephyr of
+    tradition, but often chill and raw, and then there is no escape
+    from it except to shut yourself in your room; and that means
+    hermetically sealing, for when you close a window here you
+    close a shutter, and thus, if you shut out the breeze, you shut
+    the light out also. The doors and windows are not meant to
+    exclude the air, and so when the breeze gets on a frolic it
+    whirls up stairs and down&mdash;goeth, in fact, where it
+    listeth; and sometimes one feels it going through him like a
+    knife.</p>
+
+    <p>The houses are built in one width of rooms round a hollow
+    square; consequently, when you put your boots out you put them
+    out of doors. In the midst of the house, with the sky overhead,
+    the umbrageous palm tree and banana spread their broad leaves.
+    The rooms are high and white, with little furniture, and no
+    curtains, with open ceiling of painted rafters, and iron
+    gratings, like a prison's bars, shutting out the street in the
+    front of the house. Behind these gratings the passer-by may see
+    the Cuban family arranged in two prim rows of arm-chairs
+    <i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i>, or gathered about the bars as if
+    looking for some means of escape. Occasionally now in some of
+    the better quarters a child of either sex, but black as night,
+    disports itself in full view, "covered
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 513</span>]by the darkness only."
+    There is an infinite variety of opinion in regard to the
+    clothing necessary to comfort here. I have often found a light
+    overcoat comfortable, but there is a tribe or clan from some
+    Spanish province whose boast it is to wear coat nor vest by day
+    or night. The representatives of the various provinces maintain
+    their individuality here, and preserve for festive occasions
+    the costumes which characterize them in Spain. Some of these
+    are very rich, and many of the men, especially of the lower
+    orders, being stalwart and handsome, their gala appearance is
+    decidedly striking. In the f&ecirc;te in honor of Alfonso XII.
+    there were some beautiful groups of men, women and children in
+    Spanish costumes, dancing in the procession with silk emblems
+    and flower wreaths, and singing provincial songs. Others were
+    mounted on the splendid Andalusian horses, which make one's
+    mouth water with desire to ride them. They are as beautiful as
+    Fromentin and G&eacute;r&ocirc;me have painted them&mdash;such
+    eyes and nostrils, and such action! It has taken centuries to
+    produce him, but at last there is a saddle-horse: if only for
+    parade occasions, that is no matter. He is perfect in his kind.
+    The Arab keeps his horse in his tent, but the Cuban keeps his
+    in his house. We should say that the horse-owning Cuban sleeps
+    over a stable, but no doubt to his mind his stable is merely
+    under his room. A rich gentleman in town has encased his horses
+    in a beautiful drawing-room of cedar and satin-wood, and it is
+    rather pleasant than otherwise to pass through it on the way to
+    the other apartments.</p>
+
+    <p>The houses of Havana are low; the streets are narrow; the
+    sidewalks ditto: there is an occasional plaza of broad, white
+    glare, which must be intolerable in summer-time. The Prado has
+    trees which are rather Dutch than tropical; and the Paseo,
+    where the driving is, is quite a fine avenue. This afternoon,
+    though it is Lent, the Carnival will rage there. Some people go
+    in masks, but not many; and there are no confetti. It is mainly
+    a parade&mdash;rich people turning out in their best, poor
+    people making light of their poverty: the rich gorgeous in
+    apparel, and splendid in equipage, the poor arrayed in some
+    gay, inexpensive motley, and crowded into miserable vehicles.
+    The particolored costumes give an aspect of brightness to the
+    street; but it is a solemn sight to see four Cuban women, of
+    the middle age, drawn by a four-in-hand, arrayed in full
+    ball-dress, powdered and bejeweled, and passing in review of
+    admiring mankind.</p>
+
+    <p>The ugliness of the women amounts to a vice, and is
+    unredeemed by any quality such as sometimes palliates plainness
+    of features. I have cried aloud for the beautiful Cuban, but in
+    vain. I am assured that she exists, am told, "My dear fellow,
+    you never made a greater mistake in your life," am poohpoohed
+    in various ways; but I cannot find her. I hear it said that
+    owing to the political chaos here she has retired from public
+    view, but it is not denied that she will go to the Carnival and
+    the opera. I was warned not to expect her at the ball in
+    Alfonso's honor at the Spanish Club, and certainly it was a
+    timely warning. Fancy a long hall of colored marble, pillars
+    running the length of it forming arcades; balconies on both
+    sides hanging over the streets, and full of young men smoking
+    cigarettes; men parading up and down the hall and quizzing the
+    women, who were all seated&mdash;two rows of them, hundreds all
+    together&mdash;seriously contemplating the male procession:
+    enameled, powdered, attired in the wealth of the Indies, saying
+    nothing, doing nothing, not smiling, not blinking, just sitting
+    there, an awful array of hideousness. After the band struck up
+    and the dancing began, I remained long enough to lose in the
+    music the horrible impression of, the opening scene, and then
+    hurried home. At the opera and the Carnival it is not so
+    positively unendurable, but a handsome face, or a pretty face,
+    or even an intelligent, expressive face, I have not yet seen in
+    a woman in Havana; and at this season of the year, if ever,
+    Havana is Cuba. I don't condemn them&mdash;I merely give my
+    luck.</p>
+
+    <p>The town is of course full of Spanish military and their
+    accessories, civil functionaries <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    514]</span>who are all Spanish, money-makers, adventurers,
+    shoddy. The Spanish army is at "the front," posted across or
+    partly across the island on a sort of strong picket-line,
+    fortified by block-houses, whence watch is kept on the
+    movements of the insurgents, who seem to come and go as they
+    please in the Spanish front, and cross the lines with impunity.
+    The Spanish hold the whole seaboard, all important towns and
+    villages, hold the insurgents practically in check, so far as
+    the fertile region of the island is concerned, and from year to
+    year keep military matters just about in <i>statu quo</i>. The
+    insurgents dwell in the wildest portion of the island, often in
+    almost impenetrable woods, living the life of savages, and
+    depending on the bounty of Nature for their daily bread.</p>
+
+    <p>So the war lingers. It is not what we would call a war: it
+    is a condition of armed hostility. It is conducted almost
+    wholly at the expense of Spain in <i>men</i>, wholly at the
+    expense of Cuba in <i>money</i>. The Cuban volunteers are a
+    home-guard, but the purse of the Cubans is open. Spain is not
+    loath to dip into it, and taxation for carrying on the
+    government and the war has become very onerous&mdash;dreadfully
+    so, in fact, though I believe that the Cubans do not realize it
+    so fully as strangers do. The government is impoverished; the
+    war makes no progress; what becomes of the enormous revenue
+    derived from the taxes? A rich planter said to me dryly, "They
+    are ignorant men: they make mistakes in applying it." Hard
+    things are openly said of all Spanish officials; and all
+    officials, from the captain-general to the harbor pilot, are
+    Spanish. Startling things are heard here every day in political
+    and military discussions. The people think in classes: there is
+    the Spanish view, the Creole view, the foreign view&mdash;none
+    very dispassionate, and none very accurate. There is no
+    accepted basis of fact for anything: nobody believes anybody
+    else, and truth here lies in a <i>very</i> deep well. But one
+    thing else is clear. Cuba, so gifted by Nature, is being
+    despoiled by man; and what ought to be a garden will become
+    overgrown with weeds if there is not a change of fortune. There
+    is taxation without representation under an iron despotism:
+    there is an army without war, and the people look on. It is not
+    necessary to find any new means of going to the bad at a
+    gallop. The rich give practical support to the Spanish, and
+    moral support to the insurrection; but if the insurrection
+    should triumph, I can't see how it will benefit the Creole
+    Cubans of property. I think ideas here are confused on the
+    subject, and while they are giving hearty encouragement to
+    neither cause, between the two they are sure to be utterly
+    ruined.</p>
+
+    <p>I have spent a week in all on sugar plantations in the
+    interior. I was delightfully entertained, and reveled in the
+    luxury of soft air and out-of-door life. I was on horseback a
+    good deal, riding one of the shuffling little animals they have
+    here, whose gait is so easy that it doesn't amount to motion.
+    The crops are to a great extent still uncut; the green cane,
+    which looks like our broom-corn at a distance, waves in the
+    winds as far as the eye can reach. The country is level, but
+    has a frame of mountain-land. The woods are festooned with
+    air-plants and parasites; palm trees dot the landscape in every
+    direction or run in splendid avenues, sometimes in double rows,
+    alternating with the round, full mamey tree, whose deep green
+    foliage brings into fine relief the white stalk of the palm.
+    The breeze rustles through the broad plantations of bananas and
+    sways the orange groves. The gardens are rich in flowers of
+    brilliant hues. The fields swarm with negroes and ox-carts; the
+    ponderous machinery of the boiling-houses maintains a steady
+    hum; the picturesque buildings are all touched with
+    Fortuny-like tints: there is much to see and much to tell of,
+    but I must have some regard for your patience. I have not
+    finished, but I must stop.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">F. C. N.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="FRENCH_SLANG"
+       name="FRENCH_SLANG"></a>FRENCH SLANG.</h3>
+
+    <p>Reading the slang of a language is much like seeing the said
+    language in its intellectual shirt-sleeves, off duty and taking
+    its ease: one feels sure of detecting some essential
+    characteristics of the people who speak it, and one turns
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 515]</span>over the pages of a slang
+    dictionary expecting to recognize through its corruption and
+    perversions the real nature of the people who have created it.
+    French slang is no exception to this, theory: the two hundred
+    and thirty double-columned pages of M. Larcher's
+    <i>Dictionnaire historique, etymologique et anecdotique de
+    l'argot parisien</i> tell us that the two grand sources and
+    inspirations of our American slang are entirely wanting: there
+    is not a humorous word or phrase from beginning to end; and
+    hardly an instance of that incongruous exaggeration which is so
+    salient a picture of our best-known and most original slang
+    phrases. But, on the other hand, there is satire keen and fine
+    on every page, a reckless, devil-may-care gayety, and
+    throughout that mocking spirit which is so essentially French,
+    making game alike of its own pain and that of others, and
+    jeering always at the sight of an altar, never mind what may
+    chance to be thereon, whether its own sacred things or those of
+    others. Half the words in the book are quaint, grotesque
+    phrasings of two ideas&mdash;ideas which most people on our
+    side of the water are hardly inclined to joke about: one is the
+    idea of death, and the other the frailty or falseness of women.
+    One is specially struck by the wealth of words and the sameness
+    of ideas, and, above all, by the quickwittedness that must
+    belong to the people who can all catch a verbal allusion or
+    suggestion as Anglo-Saxons might a plump, square hit. Sometimes
+    a little unconscious pathos mingles with the mocking vein, for
+    courage is moving when it is light-hearted. When a Frenchman
+    tells you he has eaten nothing for two days, he adds,
+    "&Ccedil;a, ce n'est pas dr&ocirc;le" ("Now, that's no joke").
+    "Coeur d'artichaut" (a heart like an artichoke) is a felicitous
+    expression for a person who has a succession of caprices and
+    short-lived fancies; and there is something to the point in the
+    satire which calls a surgical instrument "baume d'acier" (steel
+    balm), or in the saying which mocks the credulous faith many
+    people vaguely have in the efficacy of mineral waters: "Croyez
+    cela et buvez de l'eau" (Believe that and drink water). There
+    is something desperately significant in a language in which the
+    lover who supports, protects and is deceived is called "le
+    dessus," and the one who is favored at his expense "le
+    dessous;" while the words "une femme," a woman, without
+    qualification, are identical with frailty, and virtue, being
+    the exception, demands an adjective to identify and proclaim
+    it.</p>
+
+    <p>But there is something fine in the old French slang for the
+    beginning of a war: "La danse va commencer" (The dance is about
+    to begin, or the ball to open), and this dates from time
+    immemorial: fighting has always been fun to Frenchmen. And
+    there is something better still in the phrase which has become
+    an official one, and has a proper technical meaning, with which
+    the orders of a naval officer when sent on a difficult or
+    dangerous expedition always end. "Debrouillez vous," meaning
+    simply "Come well out of it." There must be stuff in men who
+    can be trusted to always extricate themselves from a tight
+    place with credit to their flag without more words than that
+    simple exhortation. But one cannot say much for the morality of
+    a country where, when any one says "la muette" (the dumb one),
+    it is understood to mean conscience.</p>
+
+    <p>The instances are rare of resemblance between our slang
+    phrases and theirs. Once in a while such a phrase as
+    "Asseyezvous dessus" (literally, Sit on him) strikes one; but
+    seldom. French slang teems with words that caricature and
+    satirize personal defects, of which many are brutally coarse
+    and not quotable. A comical expression for a sumptuous meal is
+    a "Balthazar" (Belshazzar); and an unpleasant one for a coffin
+    is a "boite a dominos" (a box of dominoes); a droll phrase for
+    a plagiarist is "demarqueur de linge" (some one who alters the
+    marking of another's linen). An interesting fact for the notice
+    of physiologists is that when the officers of the engineer
+    corps lose a comrade from insanity, they say, "Il s'est
+    pass&eacute; au dixi&egrave;me," in allusion to the fact that
+    their loss in numbers from this cause amounts to practical
+    decimation. This is attributed to the <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    516]</span>close study of the exact sciences. Under "femme du
+    demi-monde" we find the origin of the phrase as created by A.
+    Dumas fils: "Femme n&eacute;e dans un monde distingu&eacute;,
+    dont elle conserve les mani&egrave;res sans en respecter les
+    lois" ("a woman belonging by birth to the upper class, the
+    manners of which she retains, without respecting its laws");
+    but the present meaning is quite different from this, the
+    phrase being now used as a euphuistic designation of a
+    disreputable woman. French slang is saturated with irreverence.
+    A common term for an emaciated-looking man is to call him an
+    "ecce homo," and a "grippe J&eacute;sus" is thieves' slang for
+    a gendarme.</p>
+
+    <p>The author of this dictionary evidently sympathizes with
+    modern romanticists and light literature in general, for we
+    find "acad&eacute;micien" defined as "litt&eacute;rateur
+    surann&eacute;." One is always inclined to suspect sour grapes
+    of giving the flavor to French sarcasm concerning the Academy,
+    and is reminded of Piron's epigram in the shape of his own
+    epitaph:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Ci git Piron qui ne fut rien,</p>Pas m&ecirc;me
+            acad&eacute;micien.
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He wrote it, however, after his failure to obtain one of the
+    much-coveted arm-chairs.</p>
+
+    <p>Our national vanity might be flattered by hearing that the
+    phrase "L'oeil Am&eacute;ricain" is used to describe an eye
+    whose piercing vision is escaped by nothing, were we not told
+    that it dates from the translation of Cooper's Leatherstocking
+    tales into French, and has no reference, as "Natty Bumpo" would
+    say, to "<i>white</i> gifts."</p>
+
+    <p>We find long, elaborate definitions of those much-disputed
+    words, "chic," "cachet" and "chien," which, after all has been
+    said, seem to take their meaning from the intention of those
+    who use them and the perception of those who hear. "Chocnoso"
+    is a delightfully expressive and absurd onomatopeic word to
+    describe what is brilliant, startling and remarkable. The most
+    striking feature of this elaborate book is that, although it
+    contains almost words enough to constitute the vocabulary of a
+    miniature language, yet the vast majority of these words would
+    be as unintelligible to an educated Frenchman as to an
+    Englishman. The bulk of French slang is never heard by the ears
+    of educated people nor uttered by their lips: it circulates
+    among the classes which create it; and the size of this
+    dictionary is therefore not necessarily appalling to a
+    Frenchman's eyes: it does not represent the corruption of the
+    language, because slang does not taint the speech of those
+    classes who control and make the standard speech and literature
+    of the nation. If a dictionary of English slang were published
+    now, how many young ladies and gentlemen of the educated
+    classes, either in England or America, could profess honest and
+    absolute ignorance of the meaning of most of the words? The
+    answer to this question makes the moral of this paper.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">F. A.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="NOTES"
+       name="NOTES"></a>NOTES.</h3>
+
+    <p>If it be true, as a writer in the February Gossip says, that
+    "it is what Mr. Mill has omitted to tell us in his
+    <i>Autobiography</i>, quite as much as what he has there told
+    us, that excites popular curiosity," the following anecdote
+    told by John Neal, one of Jeremy Bentham's secretaries, may be
+    found interesting. The father of John Stuart Mill, it seems,
+    was in the habit of borrowing books of Bentham, and was even
+    allowed the privilege of carrying them away without asking
+    permission&mdash;a courtesy so well utilized that from five to
+    seven hundred volumes found their way in time from Bentham's
+    library into the study of the elder Mill. He was a more
+    conscientious borrower, however, than most of his class are,
+    for he had a case made for these books, kept them carefully
+    locked up, and carried the key in his pocket. This put the
+    owner to some trouble occasionally when he wanted to consult
+    his books. In one instance he begged Mr. Mill to leave the key
+    when the latter was going out of town. In vain, however, for
+    Mill marched off to the country carrying the key with him, and
+    Bentham had to wait a whole month for a peep at his own books.
+    If we could know all the facts, doubtless it would be found
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 517]</span>that Mill knew too well
+    the careless habits of the philosopher to trust him to such an
+    extent. It is not prudent to decide until the evidence is all
+    in. It is that these books&mdash;two or three thousand dollars'
+    worth, according to Neal&mdash;were, on the death of Mr.
+    Bentham, all recovered by his heir.</p><br />
+
+
+    <p>Quarritch, a London bookseller, lately advertised for sale a
+    Chinese book from the library of the emperor Khang-Hi, bearing
+    the following title: <i>Yu Sionan Row-wen youen
+    kien</i>&mdash;that is, "Mirror of the Profound Resources of
+    Ancient Literature," being extracts from those profound
+    resources arranged chronologically in the order of their
+    production; but the singular thing about the book is its
+    typography. It is printed in inks of four different colors. All
+    the articles dating from the time of Confucius (B.C. 550) to
+    the Mongol dynasty (A.D. 1260) are printed in black, with
+    punctuations in red. All names of persons and places are upon
+    scrolls, to distinguish them from the ordinary text.
+    Observations upon the emperor Khang-Hi (who annotated the whole
+    book autographically) are printed in yellow, the color of the
+    reigning dynasty; those upon scholars and authors living at the
+    time of the publication of the book are printed in red, the
+    color of the living; those upon persons deceased in blue, the
+    mourning color of China. The work is in twenty-five volumes,
+    preserved in four cases. It was printed in 1685.</p><br />
+
+
+    <p>In the infancy of astronomy the moon and all the planets of
+    our solar system were supposed to be gliding along over the
+    smooth blue firmament like a boat upon smooth water or a sleigh
+    upon ice. The blue vault was a solid substance; hence the word
+    <i>firm</i>ament. In this vault were set the "fixed" stars, and
+    of course the moon or any planet passing across it might run
+    straight into the constellation Leo or some other dreadful
+    beast; and this explained why direful things happened to this
+    world, which was supposed to be the only world in the universe.
+    As the moon has always been the most observed of all the
+    heavenly bodies, and as she passes most rapidly across the
+    constellations of the zodiac, it is easy to understand that her
+    phases should excite profound wonder, and that strange effects
+    should be predicated upon these phases, called "changes" from
+    time immemorial. In fact, however, the moon is not "changing"
+    at one time any more than at another. She is continually
+    passing in and out of the earth's shadow as she revolves around
+    the earth, and the width of this shadow, with the state of
+    being in the full light of the sun, constitutes her phases or
+    changes. She does not "enter" any sign of the zodiac in the
+    sense of entering, as understood by the illiterate; and if she
+    did, the signs Cancer, Leo, Virgo, have no comprehensible
+    relation, to plants or parts of the human body. Again, if the
+    moon or sun, or any of the planets, are said to "enter" these
+    signs, they are not now the same as the constellations known as
+    the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin. They did correspond some two
+    thousand or more years ago, when the zodiacal belt was divided
+    into twelve parts and named; but at present, on account of the
+    nutation or gyratory motion of the poles of the earth, the
+    signs of the zodiac (not the constellations) are drifting
+    westward at the rate of one degree in about seventy-one years.
+    This movement is known in astronomy as the precession or
+    recession of the equinoxes. It happens, therefore, that when
+    the astrologer consults his tables, and finds that, at, the
+    time of the birth of a person whose horoscope he is going to
+    cast, Venus was in Cancer&mdash;a terrible condition of things
+    for happiness in love&mdash;Venus is in reality passing the
+    constellation Gemini or the Twins, which ought to make
+    everything all lovely. The development of the Copernican system
+    did a great deal of damage to the interests of astrology, but
+    it was not until the discovery of the precession of the
+    equinoxes that this venerable and pretentious art received its
+    death-blow. To be sure, "the fools are not all dead yet," for
+    certain people still pay five dollars to have their horoscopes
+    cast, and not a few rustics consult the moon or the almanac
+    before planting beans or weaning
+    calves.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 518]</span>
+
+    <h2><a id="LITERATURE_OF_THE_DAY"
+       name="LITERATURE_OF_THE_DAY"></a>LITERATURE OF THE DAY.</h2>
+
+    <p style="text-indent: -1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b>The Romance
+    of the English Stage.</b><br />
+     By Percy Fitzgerald.<br />
+     Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott &amp; Co.</p>
+
+    <p>According to Carlyle, the only biographies in the English
+    language worth reading&mdash;of course with implied
+    exceptions&mdash;are the lives of players. Over English
+    biographers in general there hangs, as he says, a "Damocles'
+    sword of Respectability," forbidding revelations that might
+    either offend somebody's sensibilities or exhibit the subject
+    in any other than a dignified attitude and sober light, and, as
+    a consequence, compelling the suppression of details which were
+    needed to render the portraiture characteristic and lifelike.
+    Actors being as a class outside the pale of "respectability,"
+    no such sacrifice is demanded in their case; and whereas in
+    their lifetime they assume many characters, and though
+    constantly before the public are known to it only in disguised
+    forms and borrowed attributes, after death their personality is
+    laid bare, and they are made to contribute once more to the
+    entertainment of the world by a last appearance in which
+    nothing is unreal and nothing dissembled or concealed. This, of
+    course, applies far better to a former period than to the
+    present, as does also the explanation of the same fact offered
+    by Mr. Fitzgerald&mdash;namely, the romantic interest attaching
+    to the stage and exciting curiosity in regard to those
+    wonderful beings who appear before us as embodiments of passion
+    and poetry, humor and whimsicality, transporting us into an
+    ideal world, and leaving us, when they vanish, in a prosaic one
+    to which they do not seem to belong. Illusions of this kind are
+    scarcely retained by even the young&mdash;perhaps, indeed,
+    least of all by the young&mdash;of our generation. Moreover,
+    the changes which society has undergone during the last half
+    century have rubbed out much that was distinctive in the
+    actor's life, and have given to manners and habits in general a
+    uniformity that leaves little that is striking and piquant to
+    describe. The adventures and the eccentricities of actors and
+    actresses of a bygone time were paralleled or exceeded by those
+    of other classes. At present such sources of interest are rare
+    in any class, and we are obliged to have recourse to
+    sensational novels or the records of crime.</p>
+
+    <p>Future biographers are no more likely to have such a subject
+    as Samuel Johnson than such a one as George Frederick Cooke;
+    while both Boswell and Dunlap, had they written in our day,
+    would probably have been much more reticent and much less
+    amusing. We cannot therefore agree with Mr. Fitzgerald in
+    thinking that the colorless character of the few theatrical
+    biographies that have appeared in recent times is to be
+    ascribed to the decay of the art of acting and the lack of an
+    ideal involving a long and arduous struggle in the attainment
+    of eminence. In France, as he justly observes, the history of
+    the profession has never possessed the same adventurous
+    interest, the lives of French actors showing in general a mere
+    record of steady and regular progression, such as is found in
+    other professions. The stage in France, as in all Catholic
+    countries, lay under a heavier ban than in England; but on this
+    very account the actors constituted a separate class, having
+    little contact with society, receiving few recruits from
+    without, regulated by fixed usages, and confined to a
+    particular groove. In England, on the contrary, the stage was
+    an outlet for irregular talent, impatient of steady labor or
+    severe restrictions, and captivated by the freedom and
+    diversity of a career which, beginning in vagrancy, might lead
+    at a single bound to a brilliant and enviable position. Hence
+    the biographies of English players, taken collectively, offer a
+    vast store of amusing anecdotes, illustrative not only of the
+    history of the stage, but of personal character and social
+    manners. Yet books of this kind; though read with avidity on
+    their first appearance, have naturally fallen into neglect.
+    Like most other biographies, they are overloaded with details
+    that have no abiding interest, and few readers of the present
+    day are tempted to explore the mass for themselves. It was,
+    however, no very arduous task to sift out the more valuable
+    relics and dispose them in proper order, and we can only wonder
+    that Mr. Fitzgerald was not anticipated in the performance of
+    it by some earlier collector. Gait's <i>Lives of the
+    Players</i> and Dr. Doran's <i>History of the English Stage</i>
+    have left this particular field almost wholly unworked, and it
+    is one for which Mr. Fitzgerald was well fitted, both
+    by<span class="pagenum">[Pg 519]</span>his previous labors and
+    knowledge of the soil, and by his practiced dexterity in the
+    use of the necessary implements. He has accordingly produced a
+    volume which may either be read consecutively or dipped into at
+    random with the certainty of entertainment and without risk of
+    tedium. Among the sources from which his material is drawn he
+    assigns the first place to the <i>Memoirs of Tate Wilkinson</i>
+    and its sequel, <i>The Wandering Patentee</i>, and the summary
+    which he gives, as far as possible in the narrator's own
+    language, presents a graphic picture of the provincial stage at
+    a period when it formed a real nursery of talent for the
+    metropolitan theatres, enriched with anecdotes of Foote and
+    Garrick as lively and dramatic as any of the scenes in their
+    own farces, and affording the strongest confirmation of their
+    prot&Atilde;&copy;g&Atilde;&copy;'s account of his unrivaled
+    mimicry. The story of George Anne Bellamy, and that of Mrs.
+    Robinson, the "Perdita" of a somewhat later day, deal with the
+    more familiar and less obsolete vicissitudes of betrayed
+    beauty, while giving us glimpses of a social crust that has
+    since been replaced by a more composite exterior. A deeper and
+    far more pathetic interest attaches to the brief career of
+    Gerald Griffin, the author of <i>The Collegians</i> and
+    <i>Gisippus</i>, who, had he lived in our day, would have been
+    in danger of having his head turned by premature success,
+    instead of being heart-sickened by long neglect and coarse
+    rebuffs, and smothering his aspirations in a convent. In
+    striking contrast with this pale figure is the portly and
+    imposing one of Robert William Elliston, type of theatrical
+    charlatans, embodiment of bombast and puffery, monarch over the
+    realm of pasteboard, immortalized by Lamb, and surely not
+    undeserving of the honor. With him may be said to have ended
+    the line of the eccentrics, which fills a large space in Mr.
+    Fitzgerald's volume. The great actors are comparatively
+    unnoticed, Garrick, Siddons and Kean being only introduced
+    incidentally, while a whole chapter is given to "the ill-fated
+    Mossop." This is consistent with the general design of the
+    book, but there was no good reason for a fresh repetition of
+    the oft-told tale of the Ireland forgeries. There are, as Mr.
+    Fitzgerald remarks, many subjects&mdash;such as the lives of
+    Macklin and Quin, of Mrs. Inchbald and Mrs.
+    Jordan&mdash;omitted which might fairly have claimed a place,
+    and which would furnish ample matter for a second and equally
+    agreeable volume.</p>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <p style="text-indent: -1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b>Democracy
+    and Monarchy in France from the Inception of the Great
+    Revolution to the Overthrow of the Second Empire.</b><br />
+     By Charles Kendall Adams, Professor of History in the
+    University of Michigan.<br />
+     New York: Henry Holt &amp; Co.</p>
+
+    <p>There can be no more fruitful and interesting study than
+    that of the changes and struggles which have occurred in France
+    since the fall of the ancient monarchy. But the time has not
+    yet come when a general survey can be taken of this important
+    epoch, its successive phases seen in their true relations and
+    proportions, and its character fully and correctly appreciated.
+    The overthrow of the Second Empire was clearly not the closing
+    scene of the drama, and even within the last few weeks a sudden
+    turn in the line of events has awakened curiosity afresh, and
+    prepared us for the introduction of new elements or new
+    complications, with results which can only be conjectured. For
+    lack of that key which the Future still holds in its hand the
+    most acute and comprehensive mind must be at fault in the
+    endeavor to analyze the workings and appreciate the
+    significance of the conflicting principles. If Professor Adams
+    has had no such misgivings, this seems to be accounted for by
+    his ready acceptance of a theory which has long passed current
+    in England and America, and which springs from a habit peculiar
+    to the people of these two countries of regarding the movements
+    of all other nations, when not on a parallel course, as
+    deviations from a prescribed orbit. According to this theory,
+    the excesses of the First Revolution, due in part to the
+    passions engendered by a long course of misgovernment, in part
+    to wild speculations and experiments, produced an anarchical
+    spirit which has frustrated every subsequent attempt to
+    establish a solid government of any form, including the
+    constitutional monarchy of Louis Philippe, patterned on the
+    English model&mdash;the resemblance being in fact that of a
+    castle of cards to its Gothic prototype&mdash;which offered the
+    proper compound of liberty and authority in sufficiently
+    balanced proportions. The French people having thus proved
+    itself incapable of uniting liberty with order, the one great
+    need is the destruction or suppression of the revolutionary
+    spirit, to which end a strong government of whatever kind is
+    the first requisite, and some form of Napoleonism the most
+    available, it being improbable that the nation would accept
+    permanently anything better. [Pg 520]Such is the view of
+    Professor Adams, one with which all readers have long been
+    familiar, but which most independent thinkers have come to
+    reject as shallow and false. However obscure the issue, however
+    doubtful the solution, it cannot but be apparent to all who,
+    casting aside prejudices, have studied the history of France in
+    its entirety and recognized its special character, that its
+    course during the period in question exhibits no mere series of
+    lawless oscillations, but a process of development, often
+    checked and retarded, often prematurely hastened, but passing
+    from stage to stage without suffering itself to be stifled by
+    factitious aid or crushed by arbitrary repression. What
+    underlies the history of these events, what distinguishes it
+    from the galvanic agitations of the torpid Spanish populations
+    in Europe and America, is the constant presence and activity of
+    ideas, shaping and shaped by events, hardened or fused by
+    conflict, and preserving through all vicissitudes and
+    convulsions the incomparable vitality of the nation. France,
+    more than any other country, is to be studied as a living
+    spirit, not as an inert mass, and in a study of this kind the
+    mechanico-philosophical method will not carry us far. It does
+    not appear to strike Professor Adams as singular that a nation
+    "abandoned for the last eighty years to the domination of Siva,
+    the fierce god of destruction," should have all this while been
+    cutting a somewhat respectable figure in literature, science
+    and the arts, and during most of that period paid its way in
+    the solid and shining metal considered by our rulers to have
+    merely a mythical significance. Or rather he seems to contend
+    that civilization has in fact perished in France, that as "such
+    a tendency to turbulence is destructive of all healthy national
+    growth," the inevitable result has ensued. He admits that there
+    are still some good scholars in France, but he
+    proves&mdash;need we add, by statistics?&mdash;that the
+    illiteracy of the masses is greater than it was under the
+    <i>ancien regime</i>, if not in the reign of Clovis. The
+    controlling influence of Paris is shown, of course, to have
+    been a prime source of mischief, and we are asked to "imagine
+    the United States withdrawing from all interest in political
+    affairs, and saying to New York City, 'Govern us as you please:
+    we do not care to interfere.'" The fact, as most people are
+    aware, is not at all as here assumed; but that aside, is it
+    possible that Professor Adams knows so little of the difference
+    in the origin and structure of the two nations as not to
+    perceive that the comparison is ridiculous?</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="Books_Received"
+       name="Books_Received"></a><i>Books Received</i>.</h2>
+
+    <p>Social Life in Greece, from Homer to Menander.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Rev. J.P. Mahaffy,
+    M.A.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">London: MacMillan &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     A Free Lance in the Field of Life and Letters.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By William Cleaver
+    Wilkinson.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: Albert
+    Mason.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     The Bewildered Querists and other Nonsense.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Francis Blake
+    Crofton.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     A Practical Theory of Voussoir Arches.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Professor William Cain,
+    C.E.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: D. Van
+    Nostrand.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     On Teaching: Its Ends and Means.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Henry
+    Calderwood.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     The Influence of Music on Health and Life.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Dr. H. Chomet.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     The Man in the Moon, and Other People.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By R.W. Raymond.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: J.B. Ford &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Sowed by the Wind; or, The Poor Boy's Fortune.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Elijah
+    Kellogg.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Lee &amp;
+    Shepard.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Religion and Modern Materialism.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By James
+    Martineau.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Alfred P.
+    Putnam.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Roberts
+    Brothers.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Winter Homes for Invalids. By Joseph W. Howe, M.D.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Helps to a Life of Prayer. By Rev. J.M. Manning, D.D.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Lee &amp;
+    Shepard.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Far from the Madding Crowd. By Thomas Hardy.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: Henry Holt &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     A Foregone Conclusion. By W.D. Howells.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: James R. Osgood &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     That Queer Girl. By Virginia F. Townsend.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Illustrated.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Lee &amp;
+    Shepard.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Magnetism and Electricity. By John Angell.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Estelle: A Novel. By Mrs. Annie Edwards.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: Sheldon &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     A Rambling Story. By Mary Cowden Clarke.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Roberts
+    Brothers.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Life and Times of Sir Philip Sidney.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: J.B. Ford &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     An Old Sailor's Story. By George Sergeant.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Henry
+    Hoyt.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Nature and Culture. By Harvey Rice.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Lee &amp;
+    Shepard.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     The Story of Boon. By H.H.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Roberts
+    Brothers.</span></p>
+    <hr class="short" />
+    <br />
+
+
+    <h3><a name="FOOT_NOTES"
+       id="FOOT_NOTES"></a> FOOTNOTES.</h3><br />
+
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_001_1"
+           id="Footnote_001_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_001_1"><span class="label">
+        [001]</span></a> Another statue to this remarkable woman is
+        now in progress of execution, and will be soon ready to
+        place on its pedestal in one of the principal squares of
+        the town.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_002_2"
+           id="Footnote_002_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_002_2"><span class="label">
+        [002]</span></a> So complete was the destruction that few
+        persons who now visit Nice would ever imagine that the hill
+        in its centre, which is laid out with terraced gardens and
+        used as a public promenade, was before the siege of 1706
+        completely covered with houses, churches, an episcopal
+        palace, a fine cathedral of great antiquity, and an immense
+        castle, which still gives its name to the fashionable walk,
+        <i>Le Ch&acirc;teau</i>. Every vestige, save the crumbling
+        walls of the fortress, of this by far the largest portion
+        of the old town has entirely disappeared, and picnics are
+        now made under the shade of beautiful avenues of trees
+        which replace the labyrinthine streets of yore.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_003_3"
+           id="Footnote_003_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_003_3"><span class="label">
+        [003]</span></a> Madame Rattazzi is now living in Paris, in
+        the little palace once inhabited by the duke d'Aquila, in
+        the Cour de la Reine, where she entertains the literary and
+        artistic world once a week. Her soir&eacute;es this year
+        are becoming famous. Recently she acted in Ponsard's
+        <i>Horace et Lydie</i> and in other little comedies,
+        assisted by the greatest actors and actresses of Paris
+        including Mesdames Favart and Roussel, but according to
+        universal testimony her own performance was by far the
+        finest. Never has Madame Rattazzi been so popular as at
+        present, and her salon is frequented by all the celebrities
+        of the French capital, to whom she extends the most
+        charming hospitality.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_004_4"
+           id="Footnote_004_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_004_4"><span class="label">
+        [004]</span></a> This refers to the <i>Gospodi pomiloui</i>
+        (the Roman Catholic <i>Kyrie eleison</i>), which
+        perpetually recurs in the Russian liturgy. Similar
+        discussions about the <i>Hallelujah</i> and other liturgic
+        forms are met with long before the Raskol broke out.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_005_5"
+           id="Footnote_005_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_005_5"><span class="label">
+        [005]</span></a> If we may trust Dmitri of Rostof, a bishop
+        of the last century, even so early certain sectaries
+        regarded the raising of Lazarus as not a fact, but a
+        parable: "Lazarus is the human soul, and his death is sin.
+        His sisters, Martha and Mary, are the body and the soul.
+        The tomb represents the cares of this life, and his raising
+        from the dead is conversion. Similarly, Christ's entry into
+        Jerusalem sitting on an ass is a mere parable."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_006_6"
+           id="Footnote_006_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_006_6"><span class="label">
+        [006]</span></a> The analogy must certainly be admitted to
+        lie very far from the surface.&mdash;(<i>Note of the
+        Translator</i>.)</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_007_7"
+           id="Footnote_007_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_007_7"><span class="label">
+        [007]</span></a> The opposition of some of the Raskolniks
+        to this tax (which has lately been modified) was rendered
+        more determined by the fact that in the interval between
+        one census and another the tax continued to be paid for
+        "dead souls." Gogol's novel is founded on this. From its
+        being nominally levied on the dead, this tax was regarded
+        by these simple people as a sacrilege.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_008_8"
+           id="Footnote_008_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_008_8"><span class="label">
+        [008]</span></a> To combat this notion, an orthodox bishop,
+        Dmitri of Rostof, wrote a treatise on the image and
+        likeness of God. A Raskolnik told this prelate, "We would
+        as lief lose our heads as our beard."&mdash;"Will your
+        heads grow again?" was the bishop's retort.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_009_9"
+           id="Footnote_009_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_009_9"><span class="label">
+        [009]</span></a> "But here's the joy, my friend and I are
+        one..."</p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14324 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #14324 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14324)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature
+And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88, 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: Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 11, 2004 [EBook #14324]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Gundry and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+[Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added
+by the transcriber. Footnotes will be found at the end of the text.]
+
+
+
+
+LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.
+
+APRIL, 1875.
+
+Vol. XV, No. 88
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.
+  CONCLUDING PAPER.
+
+THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE by W. A. BAILLIE-GROHMAN.
+
+THREE FEATHERS by WILLIAM BLACK.
+  CHAPTER XXIX      MABYN DREAMS.
+  CHAPTER XXX       FERN IN DIE WELT.
+  CHAPTER XXXI      "BLUE IS THE SWEETEST."
+  CHAPTER XXXII.    THE EXILE'S RETURN.
+
+SONNET by F. A. HILLARD.
+
+NICE by R. DAVEY.
+
+THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.
+  I.    ORIGIN OF THE RASKOL.
+  II.   OPPOSITION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.
+  III.  INTERNAL DIVISIONS.
+
+ELEANOR'S CAREER by ITA ANIOL PROKOP.
+
+AN AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY YEARS AGO by
+  ETHEL C. GALE.
+
+A MARCH VIOLET by EMMA LAZARUS.
+
+WHAT IS A CONCLAVE? by T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
+
+MONSOOR PACHA by GEORGE H. BOKER.
+
+HOW HAM WAS CURED by JENNIE WOODVILLE.
+
+ON THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS by KATE HILLARD.
+
+OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+  ARTISTS' MODELS IN ROME by T. A. T.
+  FAUST IN POLAND by E. C. R.
+  A LETTER FROM HAVANA by F. C. N.
+  FRENCH SLANG by F. A.
+  NOTES.
+
+LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+Books Received.
+
+FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  FOREST OF COCKATOOS.
+
+  SYDNEY.
+
+  ASTROLABE AND ZÉLÉE ON CORAL REEFS
+
+  CANNIBAL FIRES.
+
+  MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF BURKE.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF BURKE.
+
+  VALLEY OF LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  GORGE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  HOBART TOWN.
+
+  ON THE WAY TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.
+
+  OUR ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.
+
+  INTERIOR OF TOMERL'S COTTAGE.
+
+  "FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED MYSELF IN."
+
+  ENTERING THE EYRIE.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE
+
+OF
+
+_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_.
+
+
+APRIL, 1875.
+
+Vol. XV, No. 88
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.
+
+CONCLUDING PAPER.
+
+[Illustration: FOREST OF COCKATOOS.]
+
+
+People who go to Australia expecting every other man they meet to be a
+convict, and every convict a ruffian in felon's garb, will assuredly
+find themselves mistaken. And if contemplating a residence in Sydney or
+Melbourne they need not anticipate the necessity of living in a tent or
+a shanty, nor yet of accepting the society of convicts or negroes as the
+only alternative to a life of solitude. Neither will it be necessary to
+go armed with revolvers by day, nor to place plate and jewels under
+guard at night. Sydney, the capital of the penal colony, is a quiet,
+orderly city, abounding in villas and gardens, churches and schools, and
+about its well-lighted streets ride and walk well-dressed and well-bred
+people, whose visages betray neither the ruffian nor the cannibal. Some
+of them may be convicts or "ticket-of-leave-men," but this a stranger
+would need to be told, as they dress like others, their equipages are
+quite as stylish, and many of them not only amass more property, but are
+really more honest, than some of those never sentenced, because they
+know that the continuance of their freedom depends on their reputation.
+
+[Illustration: SYDNEY.]
+
+The city, built on the south side of a beautiful lake, is perfectly
+unique in design, being composed of five broad promontories, looking
+like the five fingers of a hand slightly expanded. All the important
+streets run from east to west, and each terminates in a distinct harbor,
+while clearly visible from the upper portion of the street is a grand
+moving panorama of vessels of every description, with masts, sails and
+colors that seem peering out from every interstice between the houses.
+Each day witnesses the arrival and departure of eight or ten steamers,
+ferry-boats leave every half hour all the principal landings for the
+various sections of the city, and the wharves are lined with the
+shipping of every nation, many of the vessels ranging from fifteen
+hundred to two thousand tons burden. On a huge rock in Watson's Bay
+stands the lighthouse at the entrance of Port Jackson. The sea lashes
+the black rock with ceaseless fury, the light from the summit rendering
+even the base visible at a great distance. The light is 350 feet above
+the level of the sea, yet it was almost under its very rays that the
+good ship Dunbar came to grief. Missing the passage, she was engulfed in
+the raging sea, and her three hundred and ninety passengers perished in
+full view of the homes they were seeking.
+
+Orange and almond trees, with other tropical plants, loaded with
+blossoms and fruit, beautify the lowlands, while in more elevated
+localities are found the fruits and foliage of the temperate zone, very
+many of them exotics brought by the settlers from their English homes.
+Down to the very water's edge extends the verdure of tree and shrub,
+overshadowing to the right Fort Jackson, and to the left Middle Harbor.
+The Government House commands the bay with the imposing mien of a
+fortress, and the magnificent reception-rooms are worthy of a
+sovereign's court. The garden surrounding it occupies a beautiful
+promontory, its borders washed by the sea, the walks shaded by trees
+imported from Europe, and the whole parterre redolent with tropical
+beauty and fragrance. On the promenades are frequently assembled at
+evening two or three hundred ladies and gentlemen in full dress, while
+military bands discourse sweet music for the entertainment of the
+brilliant throng.
+
+Ballarat may be called the city of gold; Melbourne, of clubs, democracy
+and thriving commerce; Hobart Town takes the premium for hospitality and
+picturesque beauty; but Sydney bears the impress of genuine English
+aristocracy, in combination with a sort of Creole piquancy singularly in
+contrast with English exclusiveness, yet giving a wonderful charm to the
+society of this city of high life, so full of gayety, brilliancy and
+luxury. Who would recognize in the Sydney of to-day, with its four
+hundred thousand inhabitants, its churches, theatres and libraries, the
+outgrowth of the penal colony of Botany Bay, planted only eighty-seven
+years ago on savage shores? It was in May, 1787, that the first colony
+left England for Botany Bay, a squadron of eleven vessels, carrying
+eleven hundred and eighteen colonists to make a lodgment on an unknown
+shore inhabited by savages. Of these eleven hundred and eighteen, there
+were six hundred male and two hundred and fifty female convicts, the
+remaining portion being composed of officers and soldiers to take charge
+of the new penal settlement, under the command of Governor Phillip. From
+so unpromising a beginning has grown the present rich and flourishing
+settlement, and in lieu of the few temporary shanties erected by the
+first colonists there stands a magnificent city of more than ordinarily
+fine architecture, with banks and hospitals, schools and churches--among
+the latter a superb cathedral--all displaying the proverbial prodigality
+of labor and expense for which the English are noted in the erection and
+adornment of their public edifices. Among the educational establishments
+are the English University, with a public hall like that of Westminster;
+St. John's College (Catholic); and national primary and high schools,
+where are educated about thirty-four thousand pupils at an annual
+expense to the government of more than three hundred thousand dollars.
+From the parent colony have sprung others, while the poverty and
+corruption that were the distinguishing features of the original element
+have been gradually lost in the more recent importations of honest and
+respectable citizens.
+
+Apart from the wealth and gayety of Sydney, there is much in its various
+grades of society to interest the average tourist. The "ticket-of-leave
+men"--that is, convicts who, having served out a portion of their term
+and been favorably reported for good conduct, are permitted to go at
+large and begin life anew--form a distinct class, and exert a widespread
+influence by their wealth, benevolence and commercial enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: ASTROLABE AND ZÉLÉE ON CORAL REEFS.]
+
+Very many of the better class are talented and well educated, with the
+manners and appearance of gentlemen; and in some cases there has been
+perhaps but the _single_ crime for which they suffered expatriation
+and disgrace. Such as these, as a rule, conduct themselves with
+propriety from the moment of being sentenced; never murmur at their work
+or discipline, be it ever so hard; and probably after a single year of
+hardship are favorably reported, and permitted to seek or make homes for
+themselves. Many of them own bank shares and real estate, and some
+become immensely rich, either by ability or chance good-fortune. The
+property is their own, but the owners are always watched by those in
+power, and are liable at any moment to be ordered back to their old
+positions. These "remanded men" are treated with the greatest severity,
+and few have sufficient power of endurance to live out even a short term
+with its increase of rigor and hardship. Yet to the energy and
+enterprise of the liberated felons is probably due, more than to any
+other cause, that increase of prosperity which has long since rendered
+these colonies not only self-supporting, but a source of revenue to the
+Crown.
+
+[Illustration: CANNIBAL FIRES.]
+
+Another and the most dangerous class of convicts are those known as
+"bushrangers." They are desperate fellows, composed of the very lowest
+scum of England, have ordinarily been sentenced for life, and, having no
+hope of pardon or desire for amendment, they escape as soon as possible,
+often by the murder of one or more of their guards, and take refuge in
+the wilds of the interior. Some of these bushrangers are associated
+together in large hordes, but others roam solitary for months before
+they will venture to trust their lives in the hands of other desperadoes
+like themselves. There are hundreds of these lawless men prowling like
+wild beasts for their prey in the vicinity of every thoroughfare between
+the cities and the mines, robbing and murdering defenceless passengers,
+plundering the mails, and constantly exacting the best of their flocks
+and herds from the stockmen and shepherds, who in their isolated
+positions dare not refuse their demands. So desperate is the character
+of these outlaws that they are seldom taken, though thousands of pounds
+are occasionally offered for the head of some noted ringleader. They may
+be killed in skirmishes, but will not suffer themselves to be taken
+alive. A man calling himself "Black Darnley" ranged the woods for years,
+committing all sorts of crimes, but at length met a violent death at the
+hands of another convict, whose daughter he had outraged.
+
+A curious memento of the first theatre opened in Sydney and the first
+performance within its walls has come down to us from the year 1796,
+about eight years after the establishment of the penal colony. It was
+opened by permission of the governor: all the actors were convicts who
+won the privilege by good behavior, and the price of admission was one
+shilling, payable in silver, flour, meat or wine. The prologue, written
+by a _cidevant_ pickpocket of London, illustrates the character of
+the times in those early days of the colony:
+
+    From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come,
+    Though not with much _éclat_ or beat of drum,
+    True patriots all; for be it understood,
+    We left our country for our country's good:
+    No private views disgraced our generous zeal;
+    What urged our travels was our country's weal;
+    And none will doubt but that our emigration
+    Has proved most useful to the British nation.
+    But, you inquire, what could our breasts inflame
+    With this new passion for theatric fame?
+    What in the practice of our former days
+    Could shape our talents to exhibit plays?
+    Your patience, sirs: some observations made,
+    You'll grant us equal to the scenic trade.
+    He who to midnight ladders is no stranger
+    You'll own will make an admirable Ranger,
+    And sure in Filch I shall be quite at home:
+    Some true-bred Falstaff we may hope to start.
+    The scene to vary, we shall try in time
+    To treat you with a little pantomime.
+    Here light and easy Columbines are found,
+    And well-tried Harlequins with us abound.
+    From durance vile our precious selves to keep,
+    We often had recourse to the flying leap,
+    To a black face have sometimes owed escape,
+    And Hounslow Heath has proved the worth of crape.
+    But how, you ask, can we e'er hope to soar.
+    Above these scenes, and rise to tragic lore?
+    Too oft, alas! we've forced the unwilling tear,
+    And petrified the heart with real fear.
+    Macbeth a harvest of applause will reap,
+    For some of us, I fear, have murdered sleep.
+    His lady, too, with grace will sleep and talk:
+    Our females have been used at night to walk.
+    Grant us your favor, put us to the test:
+    To gain your smiles we'll do our very best,
+    And without dread of future Turnkey Lockets,
+    Thus, in an honest way, still _pick your pockets_!
+
+It was by the coral-bound Straits of Torres, reckoned by navigators the
+most difficult in the world, that the English government determined a
+few years ago to send an envoy to open communication between the
+Australian colony and the Dutch possessions of Java and Sumatra. The
+Hero was the vessel selected for this perilous mission--a voyage of
+twelve hundred miles through seas studded thickly with reefs and islands
+of coral, many of which lay just beneath the surface of the
+waves--hidden pitfalls of death whose yawning jaws threatened instant
+destruction to the unwary voyager. The splendid steamer Cowarra had been
+wrecked on these reefs only a few months before, but a single one of her
+two hundred and seventy-five passengers escaping a watery grave. Her
+tall masts, still standing bolt upright amid the coral-reefs, presented
+a gaunt spectacle, plainly visible from the Hero's decks as she threaded
+her way among the shoaly waters, while a similar though less tragical
+warning was the disaster that had overtaken two other vessels, the
+Astrolabe and the Zélée, which by a sudden ebb of the tide were thrown
+high and dry upon the sands, and remained in this frightful condition
+for eight days before the returning waters drifted them off. But the
+Hero was a staunch craft--an iron blockade-runner, built at Glasgow
+during our late war. She was of twelve hundred tons burden, manned by
+forty-two men, and had already weathered storms and dangers enough to
+earn a right to the name she bore. Right nobly she fulfilled her
+dangerous mission, threading her way with difficulty among whole fields
+of coral, that sometimes almost enclosed her low hull as between two
+walls; again seeming upon the very verge of the breakers or ready to be
+engulfed in their whirling eddies, but emerging at last into the open
+channel, a monument of the skill and watchfulness of her officers. Many
+of these for days together never left the deck, and the lead was cast
+three or four times an hour during the whole passage of these dangerous
+seas. Such is the history of navigation in coral seas, but if full of
+danger, they are equally replete with picturesque beauty. In the coral
+isle, with its blue lagoon, its circling reef and smiling vegetation,
+there is a wondrous fascination; while in the long reefs, with the ocean
+driving furiously upon them, only to be driven pitilessly back, all
+wreathed in white foam and diamond spray, there is enough of the sublime
+to transfix the most careless observer. The barrier reef that skirts the
+north-east coast of the Australian continent is the grandest coral
+formation in the world, stretching for a distance of a thousand miles,
+with a varying breadth of from two hundred yards to a mile. The maximum
+distance from the shore is seventy miles, but it rarely exceeds
+twenty-five or thirty. Between this and the mainland lies a sheltered
+channel, safe, for the most part, when reached; but there are few open
+passages from the ocean, and the shoals of imperfectly-formed coral that
+lie concealed just below the surface render the most watchful care
+necessary to a safe passage. The fires of the cannibals, visible on
+every peak all along the coast, shed their ruddy light over the blue
+waters, illumining here and there some lofty crest, and adding a weird
+beauty to the enchanting scene.
+
+[Illustration: MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS.]
+
+"America has no monuments," say our Transatlantic cousins, "because it
+is but two hundred years old." Well, Australia, with little more than
+three-quarters of a hundred, has already its monument--a beautiful
+bronze monument erected to the memory of the explorers Burke and Wills
+on a lofty pedestal of elegant workmanship, and occupying a commanding
+eminence in the city of Melbourne. The figures, two in number, are of
+more than life size, one rising above the other--the chief, with noble
+form and dignified air, fraternally supporting his younger confrere. The
+pedestal shows three bas-reliefs of exquisite design--one the return to
+Cooper's Creek,
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.]
+
+where the torn garments and emaciated limbs tell with sad emphasis the
+woeful tale of hardship and toil through which the heroic explorers had
+been passing; another exhibiting the subsequent death of Burke;
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF BURKE.]
+
+and the third the finding of the remains.
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF BURKE.]
+
+Burke and Wills, to whom belongs the honor of being the first explorers
+that crossed the entire continent of Australia, extending their
+researches from the Australian to the Pacific Ocean, set out on the 20th
+of August, 1860, with a party of fifteen hardy pioneers upon their
+perilous mission. Burke was in the prime of life, a man of iron frame,
+dauntless courage and an enthusiasm that knew neither difficulty nor
+danger. Wills, who belonged to a family that had already given one of
+its members to Sir John Franklin's fatal expedition, to find a martyr's
+grave among the eternal icebergs of the north, was somewhat younger, and
+perhaps less enthusiastic, but was endowed with a rare discretion and
+far-seeing sagacity that peculiarly fitted him to be the friend and
+counselor of the enthusiastic Burke in such an undertaking. All
+Melbourne was in excitement: the government gave fifty thousand dollars,
+various individuals ten thousand, to aid the enterprise; and every heart
+was aglow with aspirations for their success as the little band of
+heroes waved their adieus and turned their faces outward to seek paths
+hitherto untrodden by the white man's foot. Besides horses, twenty-seven
+camels had been imported from India for the express use of the explorers
+and for the transportation of tents, baggage, equipments, and fifteen
+months' supply of provisions, with vessels for carrying such supplies of
+water as the character of the country over which they were passing
+should require them to take with them. Their plan of march divided
+itself into three stages, of which Cooper's Creek was the middle one,
+and about the centre of the Australian continent. At first their
+progress was slow, encumbered as they were by excess of baggage and
+equipments: then discontents arose in the little band, and Burke, too
+ardent and impulsive for a leader, was first grieved, and then angered,
+at what he deemed a want of spirit among some of his men. On the 19th of
+October, at Menindie, he left a portion of the troop under the command
+of Lieutenant Wright, with orders after a short rest to rejoin him at
+Cooper's Creek. It was the end of January before Wright set out for the
+point indicated. Meanwhile, as month followed month, bringing to
+Melbourne no news of Burke's party, the worst fears were awakened
+concerning its fate, and an expedition was fitted out to search for the
+lost heroes. To young Howitt was given the command, and it was his
+fortune to unveil the sad mystery that had enveloped their fate. On the
+29th of June, 1861, crossing the river Loddon, Howitt encountered a
+portion of Burke's company under the lead of Brahe, the fourth
+lieutenant. Four of his men had died of scurvy, and the rest of his
+little band seemed utterly dispirited. Howitt learned that in two months
+Burke had crossed the entire route, sometimes desert, sometimes prairie,
+between Menindie and Cooper's Creek, and had reached the borders of the
+Gulf of Carpentaria, on the extreme north of the continent; also, that
+he was there in January, enduring the fiercest heat of summer, and men
+and beasts alike languishing for water, and nearly out of provisions. It
+was all in vain that he deplored the tardiness of Wright, and hoped, as
+he neared Cooper's Creek, for the coming of those who alone had the
+means of life for his little squad of famished men. Equally in vain that
+Wills with three camels reconnoitred the ground for scores of miles,
+hoping to find water. Not an oasis, not a rivulet, was to be found, and
+without a single drop of water to quench their parched lips they set out
+on another long and dreary march. Desiring to secure the utmost speed,
+Burke had left Brahe on the 16th of December with the sick and most of
+his provisions at Cooper's Creek, to remain three months at least, and
+longer if they were able, while he, with Wills, Grey and King, and six
+camels, pushed bravely on, determined not to halt till the Pacific was
+reached. Battling with the terrible heat, sometimes for days together
+without water, and again obtaining a supply when they had almost
+perished for want of it, having occasional fierce conflicts with the
+natives, and more deadly encounters with poisonous serpents, but with an
+energy and courage that knew no such word as failure, the indomitable
+quartette went bravely on. The wished-for goal was reached, and the
+heroes, jubiliant though worn and weary, then returned once more to
+Cooper's Creek, to find the post deserted by Brahe, and Wright not
+arrived, while neither water nor provisions remained to supply their
+need.
+
+[Illustration: VALLEY OF LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+All this Howitt learned after his arrival at the rendezvous, where he
+observed cut in the bark of a tree the word "Dig," and on throwing up
+the earth found an iron casket deposited by Brahe, giving the date of
+his departure and reasons for withdrawal before the appointed time. Of
+far deeper interest were papers written by Burke, announcing that he had
+reached the Pacific coast, and retraced his steps as far as Cooper's
+Creek--that for two months the little party had advanced rapidly, making
+constantly new discoveries of fertile lands, widespread prairies,
+gushing streams and well-watered valleys. Occasionally they had found
+lagoons of salt water, hills of red sand, trees of beautiful foliage,
+and mounds indicating the presence at some unknown period of the
+aboriginal inhabitants. They had discovered a range of high mountains in
+the north, and called them the Standish Mountains, while at their foot
+lay outspread a scene so lovely, of verdant groves and fertile meadows,
+of well-watered plains and heavy forest trees, that they christened it
+the Land of Promise. Then they reached again more sterile lands, parched
+and dry, without a rivulet or an oasis. They suffered for water and food
+grew scarce, but, sure of relief at Cooper's Creek, they pushed bravely
+on, and reached the rendezvous to learn that the men who could have
+saved them had passed on but seven hours before! After having
+accomplished so much, so bravely battled with heat and hunger, serpents
+and cannibals, to perish at last of starvation, seemed a fate too
+terrible; and we cannot wonder that the little band fought their destiny
+to the last. Little scraps of the journal of Burke and his friends tell
+the sad tale of the last few weeks of agony. On March 6th, Burke seemed
+near dying from having eaten a bit of a large serpent that he had
+cooked. On the 30th they killed one of their camels, and on April 10th
+they killed "Billy," Burke's favorite riding-horse. On the 11th they
+were forced to halt on account of the condition of Grey, who was no
+longer able to proceed. On the 21st they reached an oasis--a little
+squad of human skeletons, scarcely more than alive.
+
+
+[Illustration: COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+Far and wide their longing eyes gazed in search of succor: they called
+aloud with all their little remaining strength, but the oasis was
+deserted, and the echo of their own sad voices was all the reply that
+reached the despairing men. Then, at their rendezvous, finding the word
+"Dig" on the tree where Howitt found it at a later day, they opened the
+soil, and so learned the departure of Brahe on that very morning. How
+terribly tantalizing, after their exhausting march and still more
+exhausting return, after having killed and eaten all their camels but
+two, and all their horses, after making discoveries that unlocked to the
+world the vast interior of this hitherto unknown continent, to find that
+they were just too late to be saved! Despair and death seemed staring
+them in the face: their long overtaxed powers of endurance failed them
+utterly, and the gaunt spectre of famine that had been journeying with
+the brave men for weeks threatened now to enfold them in its terrible
+embrace. Should they yield without another struggle? Burke suddenly
+remembered Mount Despair, a cattle-station about one hundred and fifty
+leagues away, and with his indomitable resolution persuaded his
+companions to start for it, depositing first in the little iron casket
+the journal of his discoveries and the date of his departure. As if to
+add the last finishing stroke of agony to the sad story, Burke and his
+companions had hardly turned their faces westward ere Brahe and Wright,
+who had met at the passage of the Loddon, and were now overwhelmed with
+remorse at their careless neglect of their leader's orders, determined
+to revisit Cooper's Creek, and see if any tidings were to be gained of
+the missing party.
+
+[Illustration: GORGE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+Thoughtless as imprudent, they did not examine the casket, but supposing
+it had remained undisturbed where they left it, they turned their faces
+southward to the Darling, utterly unsuspicious of the recent visit of
+Burke and his unfortunate comrades. Within two days after the trio began
+their dreary march to Mount Despair both their camels fell from
+exhaustion, but still the poor weary travelers pressed onward,
+continuing their search till the 24th of May. Discovering no eminence
+above the horizon, they then gave up in despair and began to retrace
+their steps, leaving on a tree the date of departure. In one more day's
+march they would have reached the summit and been saved!
+
+On the 20th of June it was evident that young Wills could not long
+survive, and on the 29th are dated his last words, a letter to his
+father full of tenderness and resignation: "My death here within a few
+hours is certain, but my soul is calm." Still, almost in the last agony
+he made another effort to escape his fatal destiny, and set forth to
+reconnoitre the ground once more if perchance succor might be found.
+Alone, with none to close his eyes, he fell asleep, and Howitt after
+long search found the skeleton body stretched upon the sands, the
+natives having compassionately covered it with boughs and leaves.
+Burke's last words are dated on the 28th, one day earlier than those of
+Wills: "We have gained the shores of the ocean, but we have been
+aband--" The last word is unfinished, as if his pen had refused to make
+the cruel record. Burke's wasted remains too were found, covered with
+leaves and boughs. By his side lay his revolver, and the record of his
+great exploits was in the little casket at the foot of the tree. King
+survived, and was found by Howitt, naked, famished and unable to speak
+or walk; but after long recruiting he was able to relate the details of
+suffering of those last few months, unknown to all the world save
+himself. Howitt reverently wrapped the precious remains in the union
+jack, and, leaving them in their lonely grave, retraced his steps to
+Melbourne with the precious casket of papers, the last legacy of the
+dead heroes. On the 6th of the following December, Howitt again visited
+the desolate spot, charged with the melancholy mission of bringing back
+the remains for interment in Melbourne. The chaste and elegant monument
+that marks the spot where the heroes sleep is a far less enduring
+memorial than exists in the wonderful development and unprecedented
+prosperity which mark the colony as the fruit of the labors, sufferings
+and death of these martyred heroes.
+
+A pretty romance is associated with the discovery and naming of Van
+Diemen's Land. A young man, Tasman by name, who had been scornfully
+rejected by a Dutch nabob as the suitor of his daughter, resolved to
+prove himself worthy of the lady of his heart. So, while his inamorata
+was cruelly imprisoned in the palace of her sire at Batavia, young
+Tasman, instead of wasting time in regrets, set forth on a voyage of
+adventure, seeking to win by prowess what gallantry had failed to
+effect. On his first voyage he so far circumnavigated the island as to
+be convinced of its insular character, but really saw little of the
+land. In subsequent voyages he made extensive explorations, calling not
+only the mainland, but all the little islets he discovered, by the
+several names and synonyms of Mademoiselle Van Diemen, his beloved. When
+at length he was able to lay before the Dutch government the charts of
+his voyages and a digest of his discoveries in the beautiful land where
+he had already planted the standard of Holland, the cruel sire relented
+and consented to receive as a son-in-law the successful adventurer.
+Tasman, it seems, never very fully explored the waters that surrounded
+his domain, and the honor was reserved to two young men, Flinders and
+Bass, of discovering in 1797 the deep, wide strait of two hundred and
+seventy miles in width that bears the name of Bass. The scenery of Van
+Diemen's Land is full of picturesque beauty--a sort of miniature
+Switzerland, with snow-clad peaks, rocks and ravines, foaming cataracts
+and multitudinous little lakes with their circling belt of green and
+dancing rivulets bordered with flowers. The Valley of Launceston is a
+very Arcadia of pastoral repose, while the Tamar--which in its whole
+course is rather a succession of beautiful lakes than an ordinary
+river--with its narrow defiles, basaltic rocks and sparkling cataracts,
+picturesque rocks that cut off one lake and suddenly reveal another, is
+a very miracle of beauty, dancing, frothing, foaming, like some playful
+sprite possessed with the very spirit of mischief.
+
+[Illustration: HOBART TOWN.]
+
+Hobart Town, the capital of Tasmania, is a quiet, hospitable little
+town, but a very hotbed of aristocracy--the single spot on the
+Australian continent where English exclusiveness can, after the gay
+seasons of the large cities, retire to aristocratic country-seats, to
+nurse and revivify its pride of birth, without fear of coming in contact
+with anything parvenu or plebeian. The town is prettily laid out, with a
+genuine Gothic château for its government palace, and elegant private
+residences. It seems tame and deserted when visited from Sydney or
+Melbourne, but offers just the rest and refreshment one needs after a
+season of exhausting labor in the mines of Ballarat.
+
+
+The rapid growth of the Australian colonies, their remoteness from the
+mother country, and the vastness of the territory over which they are
+spread, naturally suggest the question whether they are destined to
+remain in a condition of dependence or are likely to follow the example
+of their American prototypes. On this point the opinion of the count of
+Beauvoir is entitled to consideration, as that of an impartial as well
+as intelligent observer. He had expected, he tells us, in visiting the
+country, to find it preparing for its speedy emancipation; but he left
+it with the conviction that, far from desiring a severance of the
+connection, the colonists would regard it as a blow to their material
+interests--the one event, in fact, capable of arresting their
+unparalleled progress. It can only occur as the result of a European war
+in which the power of England shall be so crippled as to disable her
+from protecting these distant possessions, casting upon them the whole
+burden of self-defence, and forcing them to assume the responsibilities
+of national existence.
+
+
+
+
+THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.]
+
+
+A somewhat tedious journey of thirty hours from Paris brought me one
+fine afternoon in the early part of July to Kulstein, an ancient
+fortress forming the frontier-town of the North Tyrol, toward Bavaria.
+While occupied in passing my portmanteau through the prying and
+unutterably dirty hands of the custom-house officials I was accosted by
+a man dressed in the garb of a Tyrolese mountaineer--short leathern
+breeches reaching to the knee, gray stockings, heavy hobnailed shoes, a
+nondescript species of jacket of the roughest frieze, and a battered hat
+adorned with two or three feathers of the capercailzie and a plume of
+the royal eagle. Old Hansel was one of the gamekeepers on a large
+imperial preserve close by, with whom some years previously I had on
+more than one occasion shared a hard couch under the stunted pines when
+inopportune night overtook us near the glaciers while in hot pursuit of
+the chamois.
+
+This unexpected meeting proved a source of the liveliest interest to me,
+inasmuch as this old veteran of the mountains was on the point of
+starting on an expedition of a somewhat remarkable character. A pair of
+golden eagles, it appeared, had made a neighboring valley the scene of
+their frequent ravages and depredations among the cattle and game, and
+Hansel was about to organize an expedition to search for, and if
+possible despoil, the eyrie. Of late years these birds have become very
+rare. Switzerland is nearly, if not quite, cleared of them, while the
+Tyrol, affording greater solitude and a larger stock of game, can boast
+of eight or at the most ten couples. They are, as is well known, the
+largest and most powerful of all the birds of prey inhabiting Europe,
+measuring from eight to eight and a half feet in the span, and
+possessing terrible strength of beak, talons and wings. A full-grown
+golden eagle can easily carry off a young chamois, a full-grown roe or a
+sheep, none of them weighing less than thirty pounds; and well-attested
+cases have occurred of young children being thus abstracted. In the fall
+of 1873 a boy nearly eight years of age was carried away by one of these
+birds from the very door of his parents' cottage, situated not far from
+the celebrated Königsee, near Salzburg.
+
+[Illustration: OUR ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.]
+
+The breeding-season falls in the month of June, and in the course of the
+first fortnight of the succeeding month the young offspring take wing
+and commence their raids in quest of pillage on their own account. The
+eyrie or nest is an object of the greatest care with the parent birds,
+the site being chosen with a view to the greatest possible security,
+generally in some crevice on the face of a perpendicular precipice
+several hundred feet in height. It is built of dry sticks of wood coated
+on the inside with moss. Hansel informed me of a surmise that the eyrie
+of this pair would be discovered in the face of the terribly steep
+"Falknerwand;" and although I had once before been engaged in a similar
+exploit, I could not resist the temptation to join in this expedition,
+and despatched on the spot a telegram to the friend who was awaiting my
+arrival in Ampezzo in order to make some ascents in the Dolomites,
+announcing a detention of some days. This done, we re-entered the cars
+and proceeded a few stations farther down the line to quaint old
+Rattenberg, a small town on the banks of the swift Inn. Not an hour from
+this place the scantily-inhabited Brandenberg valley opens on the broad
+and sunny Innthal. The former is merely a mountain-gorge. Far up in its
+recesses stands a small cottage belonging to the keeper of a wood-drift,
+and in close proximity to this solitary habitation is a second very wild
+and wellnigh inaccessible ravine, the scene of the coming adventure.
+
+Having passed the night in the modest little inn at Rattenberg, Hansel
+and I set off next morning long before sunrise on our eight hours' tramp
+to the wood-drift by a path which was in most places of just sufficient
+breadth to allow of one person passing at a time. Few of my
+fellow-travelers of the day before would have recognized me in the
+costume I had donned for the occasion--an old and much-patched coat,
+short leathern trousers, as worn and torn as the poorest woodcutter's,
+and a ten-seasoned hat which had been originally green, then brown, and
+had now become gray. My face and knees were still bronzed from the
+exposure attendant on a long course of Alpine climbing the year before.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF TOMERL'S COTTAGE.]
+
+The keeper of the wood-drift was an old acquaintance of mine, whose
+qualities as a keen sportsman had shone forth when four or five years
+previously I had quartered myself for a month in his secluded
+neighborhood, spending the day, and frequently also the night, on the
+peaks and passes surrounding his cottage. To the buxom Moidel, his
+pretty young wife, I was also no stranger, and her smile and blush
+assured me that she still remembered the time when, reigning supreme
+over her father's cattle on a neighboring alp, she had administered to
+the wants of the young sportsman seeking a night's lodging in the
+lonesome chalet. Many a merry evening had I spent in the low,
+oak-paneled "general room" of Tomerl's cottage when he was still a gay
+young bachelor, and no change had since been made in the aspect of the
+apartment. In one corner stood the huge pile of pottery used for heating
+the room, and round it were still fixed the rows of wooden laths by
+means of which I had so frequently dried my soaking apparel. Running the
+whole length of the room was a broad bench, in front of which were
+placed two strong tables; and at one of these were seated, at our
+entrance, two woodcutters, who had heard of the intended expedition and
+come to offer their help. They informed us that four more men engaged in
+wood-felling in a forest an hour or so distant would also be delighted
+to join us, as they did at the close of their day's work.
+
+The evening was spent in discussing the details of the approaching
+exploit and getting our various arrangements and implements in order. At
+nine o'clock, leaving Tomerl and his wife their accustomed bed on the
+top of the stove, the rest of us retired to our common bed-room, the
+hayloft. We were up again by three, and an hour later were all ready to
+start. Tomerl led the way, but stopped ere we lost sight of the cottage
+to shout a last "jodler" to his wife, who returned the greeting with a
+clear, bell-like voice, though her heart was doubtless beating fast
+under her smartly-laced bodice.
+
+Three hours later we had reached the gorge, and after some difficult
+scrambling and wading through turbulent torrents we arrived at the base
+of the Falknerwand, which rises perpendicularly upward of nine hundred
+feet--an altitude diminished in appearance by the tenfold greater height
+of the surrounding mountains. Finding, after a few minutes' close
+observation, that nothing could be done from the base of the cliff, we
+proceeded to scale it by a circuitous route up a practicable but
+nevertheless terribly steep incline. Safely arrived at the top, we threw
+down our burdens and began to reconnoitre the terrain, which we did
+_ventre à terre_, bending over the cliff as far as we dared. Great
+was our dismay to perceive that some eighty or ninety feet below us a
+narrow rocky ledge, which had escaped our notice when looking up from
+the foot of the cliff, projected shelf-wise from the face of the
+precipice, shutting out all view of a crevice which we had descried from
+the bottom, and which, as we anticipated, contained the eyrie.
+
+After consulting some time, we decided to lower ourselves down to this
+rock-band, and make it the base of our further movements, instead of
+operating, as we had intended, from the crest of the cliff, where
+everything but for this obstacle would have been tenfold easier. Posting
+one of the men at the top of the cliff to lower the heavy rope, three
+hundred feet in length, by means of a cord, we descended to the ledge,
+which was nowhere more than three feet in width, and in several places
+scarcely over a foot and a half. Standing in a single row on this
+miniature platform, we had to manipulate the rope with a yawning gulf
+some eight hundred feet in depth beside us, and nothing to lay hold of
+for support but the smooth face of the rock.
+
+We began operations by driving a strong iron hook into the solid rock,
+at a point some two or three feet above the ledge. Through this hook the
+rope was passed, one end pendent over the cliff; and to obviate the
+peril of its being frayed and speedily severed by the sharp outer edge
+of our platform, we rigged up a block of wood with some iron stays to
+serve as an immovable pulley. These preparations completed, the men were
+assigned to their respective positions. Hansel and Tomerl, two renowned
+shots, were to lie at full length, rifle in hand, one at each end of the
+row, to act as my guardian angels if I were surprised and attacked by
+the old eagles while engaged in the work of spoliation. The remaining
+woodcutters, with the exception of the one who had been left on the top
+of the cliff, were placed in file along the ledge to lower and raise the
+plank which was to serve as my seat, and to which the rope was securely
+fastened after being passed through an iron ring attached to my stout
+leathern girdle. A signal-line was to hang at my side, and a
+hunting-knife, a revolver, a strong canvas bag to hold the booty, and an
+ashen pole iron-shod at one end and provided with a strong iron boathook
+at the other, completed my equipment, each article of which had
+undergone the strictest scrutiny before its adoption.
+
+Taking the pole from the hands of Hansel, I let myself glide over the
+edge of the cliff, and the next moment hung in empty space. After being
+lowered about eighty feet, I found myself on a level with the crevice
+before mentioned, and gave the preconcerted signal for arresting my
+downward progress. Owing, however, to a beetling crag or boulder which
+overhung the recess, I was still at a distance of ten or twelve feet
+horizontally from the goal. Fixing the boathook into a convenient
+indentation of the rock, I gradually pulled myself in till I reached the
+face of the wall. Then leaving the plank, I crawled up an inclined slab
+of rock which led to the actual crevice, until I was stopped by a
+barrier of dry sticks about two feet in height. Raising myself on my
+knees, I peered into the oval-shaped eyrie, and saw perched up at the
+farther side two splendid young golden eagles.
+
+[Illustration: "FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED
+MYSELF IN."]
+
+It is a very rare occurrence to find two young eagles in one eyrie.
+These, though only four or five weeks old, were formidable birds,
+measuring considerably over six feet in the span, and displaying beaks
+and talons of imposing size. It took some time to capture and pinion
+these powerful and refractory ornithological specimens, whose loud,
+discordant screams caused me several times to glance involuntarily over
+my shoulder at the strip of horizon visible, to assure myself that the
+old eagles were not swooping down to the rescue. I was in the more haste
+to leave the eyrie that the stench which emanated from the remains of
+numerous victims strewn in and about it was something terrific. These
+relics, which I had the curiosity to count, consisted of a half-devoured
+carcass of a chamois, three pairs of chamois' horns and the
+corresponding bones of the animals, the skeleton of a goat picked clean,
+the remains of an Alpine hare, and the head and neck of a fawn.
+
+[Illustration: ENTERING THE EYRIE.]
+
+The canvas bag being too small to contain both the eaglets, I was
+obliged to hang one of them to my belt, after tying my handkerchief
+round his beak. The game secured, I crept cautiously down the slab to
+the plank, and fixing the hook of my pole in the indentation of which I
+had made use in drawing myself in, I gave the preconcerted two jerks
+with the signal-line. Now occurred the first of a series of accidents
+which came near resulting fatally to the whole party. Contrary to my
+strict injunctions, the men hauling the rope gave a sudden and violent
+pull, wrenching the pole from my grasp, and communicating to the plank a
+motion like that of a pendulum, which sent me flying out into space,
+with the immediate prospect of being dashed by the retrograde swing
+against the solid wall of rock. Happily, I preserved my presence of
+mind, and grasped instantly the only chance of escape. Tilting myself
+back as far as the rope and the ring on my belt allowed, and stretching
+out my legs horizontally, I awaited the contact. Half a second later
+came a heavy blow on the soles of my feet, the pain of which ran through
+my whole frame like the shock of a galvanic battery. Had it been my
+head, the reader would probably never have been troubled with any
+account of my sensations. As it was, my feet, though protected by
+immensely heavy iron-shod shoes, received a concussion the effects of
+which continued to be felt for weeks.
+
+Almost at the moment of this incident I had noticed a dark object
+shooting past me, at so close a proximity that I distinctly heard the
+whistling sound as it cleft the air. Supposing it to be a stone, I gave
+it no further thought, and my attention was presently occupied by a
+sharp gash which the young eagle at my belt managed to inflict on my
+left thigh. It was not until I had stopped the haemorrhage by strewing
+some grains of powder into the wound that I perceived with surprise that
+I was still stationary, instead of ascending, as in due course I ought
+to have been. The boulder of rock projecting a few feet over my head
+prevented any view of the ledge, and my shouts inquiring the cause of
+the delay received indistinct answers, the words "patience" and "wait"
+being the only intelligible ones. These might have had a consoling
+influence but for the fact that a thunderstorm--an occurrence of great
+frequency in the beginning of summer in the High Alps--was fast
+approaching, and my position was one that exposed me to its full fury
+without any possibility of escape. Ere long it burst over my head,
+drenching me to the skin in the first five minutes, while the lightning
+played about me in every direction, and terrific claps of thunder
+followed each other at intervals of scarcely a few seconds. What
+heightened the danger as well as the absurdity of my situation was the
+chance that one or both of the old eagles might return at any moment,
+under circumstances that must render a struggle, if any ensued, a most
+unequal one. Supposing my guards to be still at their post, the distance
+of the ledge was such as to make a shot at a flying bird, large as it
+might be, anything but a sure one; and the tactics of the golden eagle
+when defending its home do not allow of any second attempt. A speck is
+seen on the horizon, and the next moment the powerful bird is down with
+one fell swoop: a flap with its strong wing and the unhappy victim is
+stunned, and immediately ripped open from the chest to his hip, while
+his skull is cleft or fractured by a single blow of the tremendous beak.
+Instances are, however, known in which the cool and self-possessed
+"pendant" has shot or cut down his foe at the very instant of the
+encounter. Happily, my own powers were not put to so severe a test: the
+old birds were that day far off, circling probably in majestic swoops
+over some distant valley or gorge.
+
+I was forced, however, to be constantly on the alert, and my impatience
+and perplexity may be imagined as hours elapsed and there were still no
+signs of my approaching deliverance. The storm had long since passed
+over, and darkness was settling down when I again felt a pull at the
+rope, and continued my ascent, begun nearly four hours before. It was of
+the utmost importance that the whole party should regain the top of the
+cliff before night had fairly set in. I therefore deferred, on my
+arrival at the ledge, all questions and rebukes till we had gained a
+place of safety. The heavy rope, fastened to the cord, was hauled up by
+the man on the top, and after it had been secured to a tree-stump we
+swarmed up without loss of time. We had still before us a somewhat
+perilous scramble in the darkness down the steep incline, but the
+exhaustion we had undergone made it necessary that we should first
+recruit our strength by means of the food and bottle of "Schnapps" with
+which we were fortunately provided. While we were thus engaged I
+received from my companions an account of the causes of the perilous
+delay.
+
+On receiving my signal they had begun to haul, but after the first pull
+had felt a sudden jerk, and perceived that the block, supposed to have
+been securely fastened at the edge of the platform, was gone. They
+imagined at first that it had struck and killed me, but my shouts soon
+apprised them of my safety. Fearing to continue the process of hauling
+lest the rope should be cut by the sharp-edged stones, they informed the
+man on the cliff of the mishap, and despatched him to procure a second
+block. He accordingly ran down the slope to the bottom of the mountain,
+cut a young pine tree, shaped a block, and was in the act of carrying it
+up when the storm burst forth, and the lightning, playing around him in
+vivid flashes, cleft and splintered a rock weighing hundreds of tons
+that had stood within thirty paces of him. He received no injury except
+being thrown on the ground and partially stunned by the terrible
+concussion, but it was not till after a considerable time that he was
+able to rise and continue his ascent. Had he been killed, our situation
+would have been a most precarious one. There would have been no
+possibility of regaining the cliff without help, and as our party
+comprised all the working force of the neighborhood, and Tomerl's
+cottage was the only dwelling within fifteen or twenty miles, our
+chances of rescue would have been extremely slight.
+
+We reached the bottom of the mountain as the upper part was beginning to
+be lit by the rays of a full moon, and a three hours' tramp brought us
+without further mishap to the cottage. Moidel, forewarned of our return
+by a series of "jodlers," a sound which may challenge competition as a
+joyful acclaim, had prepared an ample supper; and when Tomerl produced
+his well-tuned "zither," a species of guitar producing simple but soft
+and highly musical strains, the mirth was at its height. Then followed
+songs eulogistic of the life of the chamois-stalker, who, "with his gun
+in his hand, a chamois on his back and a girl in his heart," has no
+cause to envy a king. A dance called the "Schuhblatteln," in which the
+art consists in touching the soles of one's shoes with the palm of the
+hand, finished our evening's amusement, and we retired, rather worn out,
+just as day was breaking.
+
+After four hours' sleep we rose refreshed and eager to examine our two
+captives. Attached to Tomerl's cottage was a diminutive barn, from which
+we removed the door, and nailing strong laths across the aperture,
+managed to improvise a large and roomy cage. A couple of rabbits
+furnished a luxurious breakfast, which was devoured with extraordinary
+voracity. The hen-bird, as is the case with all birds of prey, was
+considerably larger and stronger than her brother, though the latter had
+the finer head and eyes.
+
+A week after their capture they were "feathered" for the first time.
+This process consists in pulling out the long down-like plumes situated
+on the under side of the strong tail-feathers. These plumes, which, if
+taken from a full-grown eagle, frequently measure seven or eight inches
+in length, are highly prized by the Tyrolese peasants, but still more by
+the inhabitants of the neighboring Bavarian Highlands, who do not
+hesitate to expend a month's wages in the purchase of two or three with
+which to adorn their hats or those of their buxom sweethearts. The value
+of a crop of plumes varies somewhat. Generally, however, an eagle yields
+about forty florins' ($16) worth of feathers per annum.
+
+Six weeks after this incident I again wended my steps into the secluded
+Brandenburg valley, and found the eagles thriving and much grown. Being
+curious to see if their confinement had subdued their wild and ferocious
+spirit, I removed one of the laths and entered the barn. An angry hiss,
+similar to that of a snake, warned me of danger, but too late to save my
+hands some severe scratches. With one bound and a flap of their gigantic
+wings they were on me, and had it not been for Tomerl, who was standing
+just behind me armed with a stout cudgel, I should have paid dearly for
+my incautious visit.
+
+I know of no instance where human skill has subdued in the slightest
+degree the haughty spirit of the free-born golden eagle. An untamable
+ferocity is the predominating characteristic of this noble bird, more
+than of any other animal. Circling majestically among the fleeting
+clouds, he reigns lord paramount over his vast domain, avoiding the
+sight and resenting the approach of man.
+
+                                        W.A. BAILLIE-GROHMAN.
+
+
+
+
+THREE FEATHERS.
+
+BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A PRINCESS OF THULE."
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+MABYN DREAMS.
+
+
+"Yes, mother," said Mabyn, bursting into the room, "here I am; and
+Jennifer's down stairs with my box; and I am to stay with you here for
+another week or a fortnight; and Wenna's to go back at once, for the
+whole world is convulsed because of Mr. Trelyon's coming of age; and
+Mrs. Trelyon has sent and taken all our spare rooms; and father says
+Wenna must come back directly, for it's always 'Wenna, do this,' and
+'Wenna, do that;' and if Wenna isn't there, of course the sky will
+tumble down on the earth--Mother, what's the matter, and where's Wenna?"
+
+Mabyn was suddenly brought up in the middle of her voluble speech by the
+strange expression on her mother's face.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn, something dreadful has happened to our Wenna."
+
+Mabyn turned deadly white. "Is she ill?" she said, almost in a whisper.
+
+"No, not ill, but a great trouble has fallen on her."
+
+Then the mother, in a low voice, apparently fearful that any one should
+overhear, began to tell her younger daughter of all she had learnt
+within the past day or two--how young Trelyon had been bold enough to
+tell Wenna that he loved her; how Wenna had dallied with her conscience
+and been loath to part with him; how at length she had as good as
+revealed to him that she loved him in return; and how she was now
+overwhelmed and crushed beneath a sense of her own faithlessness and the
+impossibility of making reparation to her betrothed.
+
+"Only to think, Mabyn," said the mother in accents of despair, "that all
+this distress should have come about in such a quiet and unexpected way!
+Who could have foreseen it? Why, of all the people in the world, you
+would have thought our Wenna was the least likely to have any misery of
+this sort; and many a time--don't you remember?--I used to say it was so
+wise of her getting engaged to a prudent and elderly man, who would save
+her from the plagues and trials that young girls often suffer at the
+hands of their lovers. I thought she was so comfortably settled.
+Everything promised her a quiet and gentle life. And now this sudden
+shock has come upon her, she seems to think she is not fit to live, and
+she goes on in such a wild way--"
+
+"Where is she?" Mabyn said abruptly.
+
+"No, no, no!" the mother said anxiously, "you must not speak a word to
+her, Mabyn. You must not let her know I have told you anything about it.
+Leave her to herself, for a while at least: if you speak to her, she
+will take it you mean to accuse her, for she says you warned her, and
+she would pay no heed. Leave her to herself, Mabyn."
+
+"Then where is Mr. Trelyon?" said Mabyn, with some touch of indignation
+in her voice. "What is he doing? Is he leaving her to herself too?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean, Mabyn," her mother said timidly.
+
+"Why doesn't he come forward like a man and marry her?" said Mabyn
+boldly. "Yes, that is what I would do if I were a man. She has sent him
+away? Yes, of course: that is right and proper. And Wenna will go on
+doing what is right and proper, if you allow her, to the very end, and
+the end will be a lifetime of misery: that's all. No, my notion is, that
+she should do something that is not right and is quite improper, if only
+it makes her happy; and you'll see if I don't get her to do it. Why,
+mother, haven't you had eyes to see that these two have been in love for
+years? Nobody in the world had ever the least control over him but her:
+he would do anything for Wenna; and she--why she always came back
+singing after she had met and spoken to him. And then you talk about a
+prudent and sensible husband! I don't want Wenna to marry a watchful,
+mean, old, stocking-darning cripple, who will creep about the house all
+day and peer into cupboards, and give her fourpence-halfpenny a week to
+live on. I want her to marry a man--one that is strong enough to protect
+her. And I tell you, mother--I've said it before, and I say it
+again--she _shall not_ marry Mr. Roscorla."
+
+"Mabyn," said her mother, "you are getting madder than ever. Your
+dislike to Mr. Roscorla is most unreasonable. A cripple! Why--"
+
+"Oh, mother!" Mabyn cried with a bright light on her face, "only think
+of our Wenna being married to Mr. Trelyon, and how happy and pleased and
+pretty she would look as they went walking together! And then how proud
+he would be to have so nice a wife! and he would joke about her and be
+very impertinent, but he would simply worship her all the same, and do
+everything he could to please her. And he would take her away and show
+her all the beautiful places abroad; and he would have a yacht, too; and
+he would give her a fine house in London. And don't you think our Wenna
+would fascinate everybody with her mouselike ways and her nice small
+steps? And if they did have any trouble, wouldn't she be better to have
+somebody with her not timid and anxious and pettifogging, but somebody
+who wouldn't be cast down, but make her as brave as himself?"
+
+Miss Mabyn was a shrewd young woman, and she saw that her mother's
+quick, imaginative, sympathetic nature was being captivated by this
+picture. She determined to have her as an ally.
+
+"And don't you see, mother, how it all lies within her reach? Harry
+Trelyon is in love with her: there was no need for him to say so. I knew
+it long before he did. And she--why, she has told him now that she cares
+for him; and if I were he, I know what I'd do in his place. What is
+there in the way? Why, a--a sort of understanding."
+
+"A promise, Mabyn," said the mother.
+
+"Well, a promise," said the girl desperately, and coloring somewhat.
+"But it was a promise given in ignorance: she didn't know--how could she
+know? Everybody knows that such promises are constantly broken. If you
+are in love with somebody else, what's the good of your keeping the
+promise? Now, mother, won't you argue with her? See here: if she keeps
+her promise, there's three people miserable. If she breaks it, there's
+only one; and I doubt whether he's got the capacity to be miserable.
+That's two to one, or three to one, is it? Now, will you argue with her,
+mother?"
+
+"Mabyn, Mabyn," the mother said with a shake of the head, but evidently
+pleased with the voice of the tempter, "your fancy has run away with
+you. Why, Mr. Trelyon has never proposed to marry her."
+
+"I know he wants to," said Mabyn confidently.
+
+"How can you know?"
+
+"I'll ask him and prove it to you."
+
+"Indeed," said the mother sadly, "it is no thought of marriage that is
+in Wenna's head just now. The poor girl is full of remorse and
+apprehension. I think she would like to start at once for Jamaica, and
+fling herself at Mr. Roscorla's feet and confess her fault. I am glad
+she has to go back to Eglosilyan: that may distract her mind in a
+measure: at present she is suffering more than she shows."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"In her own room, tired out and fast asleep. I looked in a few minutes
+ago."
+
+Mabyn went up stairs, after having seen that Jennifer had properly
+bestowed her box. Wenna had just risen from the sofa, and was standing
+in the middle of the room. Her younger and taller sister went blithely
+forward to her, kissed her as usual, took no notice of the sudden flush
+of red that sprang into her face, and proceeded to state, in a
+business-like fashion, all the arrangements that had to be made.
+
+"Have you been enjoying yourself, Wenna?" Mabyn said with a fine air of
+indifference.
+
+"Oh yes," Wenna answered; adding hastily, "Don't you think mother is
+greatly improved?"
+
+"Wonderfully! I almost forgot she was an invalid. How lucky you are to
+be going back to see all the fine doings at the Hall! Of course they
+will ask you up."
+
+"They will do nothing of the kind," Wenna said with some asperity, and
+with her face turned aside.
+
+"Lord and Lady Amersham have already come to the Hall."
+
+"Oh, indeed!"
+
+"Yes. They said some time ago that there was a good chance of Mr.
+Trelyon marrying the daughter--the tall girl with yellow hair, you
+remember?"
+
+"And the stooping shoulders? Yes. I should think they would be glad to
+get her married to anybody. She's thirty."
+
+"Oh, Wenna!"
+
+"Mr. Trelyon told me so," said Wenna sharply.
+
+"And they are a little surprised," continued Mabyn in the same
+indifferent way, but watching her sister all the while, "that Mr.
+Trelyon has remained absent until so near the time. But I suppose he
+means to take Miss Penaluna with him. She lives here, doesn't she? They
+used to say there was a chance of a marriage there too."
+
+"Mabyn, what do you mean?" Wenna said suddenly and angrily. "What do I
+care about Mr. Trelyon's marriage? What is it you mean?"
+
+But the firmness of her lips began to yield: there was an ominous
+trembling about them, and at the same moment her younger sister caught
+her to her bosom, and hid her face there and hushed her wild sobbing.
+She would hear no confession. She knew enough. Nothing would convince
+her that Wenna had done anything wrong, so there was no use speaking
+about it.
+
+"Wenna," she said in a low voice, "have you sent him any message?"
+
+"Oh no, no!" the girl said trembling. "I fear even to think of him; and
+when you mentioned his name, Mabyn, it seemed to choke me. And now I
+have to go back to Eglosilyan; and oh, if you only knew how I dread
+that, Mabyn!"
+
+Mabyn's conscience was struck. She it was who had done this thing. She
+had persuaded her father that her mother needed another week or
+fortnight at Penzance; she had frightened him by telling what bother he
+would suffer if Wenna were not back at the inn during the festivities at
+Trelyon Hall; and then she had offered to go and take her sister's post.
+George Rosewarne was heartily glad to exchange the one daughter for the
+other. Mabyn was too independent; she thwarted him; sometimes she
+insisted on his bestirring himself. Wenna, on the other hand, went about
+the place like some invisible spirit of order, making everything
+comfortable for him without noise or worry. He was easily led to issue
+the necessary orders; and so it was that Mabyn thought she was doing her
+sister a friendly turn by sending her back to Eglosilyan in order to
+join in congratulating Harry Trelyon on his entrance into man's estate.
+Now Mabyn found that she had only plunged her sister into deeper
+trouble. What could be done to save her?
+
+"Wenna," said Mabyn rather timidly, "do you think he has left Penzance?"
+
+Wenna turned to her with a sudden look of entreaty in her face: "I
+cannot bear to speak of him, Mabyn. I have no right to: I hope you will
+not ask me. Just now I--I am going to write a letter--to Jamaica. I
+shall tell the whole truth. It is for him to say what must happen now. I
+have done him a great injury: I did not intend it, I had no thought of
+it, but my own folly and thoughtlessness brought it about, and I have to
+bear the penalty. I don't think he need be anxious about punishing me."
+
+She turned away with a tired look on her face, and began to get out her
+writing materials. Mabyn watched her for a moment or two in silence;
+then she left and went to her own room, saying to herself, "Punishment!
+Whoever talks of punishment will have to address himself to me."
+
+When she got to her own room she wrote these words on a piece of paper
+in her firm, bold, free hand: "A friend would like to see you for a
+minute in front of the post-office in the middle of the town." She put
+that in an envelope, and addressed the envelope to Harry Trelyon, Esq.
+Still keeping her bonnet on, she went down stairs and had a little
+general conversation with her mother, in the course of which she quite
+casually asked the name of the hotel at which Mr. Trelyon had been
+staying. Then, just as if she were going out to the Parade to have a
+look at the sea, she carelessly left the house.
+
+The dusk of the evening was growing to dark. A white mist lay over the
+sea. The solitary lamps were being lit along the Parade, each golden
+star shining sharply in the pale purple twilight, but a more confused
+glow of orange showed where the little town was busy in its narrow
+thoroughfares. She got hold of a small boy, gave him the letter, a
+sixpence and his instructions. He was to ask if the gentleman were in
+the hotel. If not, had he left Penzance, or would he return that night?
+In any case, the boy was not to leave the letter unless Mr. Trelyon was
+there.
+
+The small boy returned in a couple of minutes. The gentleman was there,
+and had taken the letter. So Mabyn at once set out for the centre of the
+town, and soon found herself in among a mass of huddled houses, bright
+shops and thoroughfares pretty well filled with strolling sailors, women
+getting home from market and townspeople come out to gossip. She had
+accurately judged that she would be less observed in this busy little
+place than out on the Parade; and as it was the first appointment she
+had ever made to meet a young gentleman alone, she was just a little
+nervous.
+
+Trelyon was there. He had recognized the handwriting in a moment. He had
+no time to ridicule or even to think of Mabyn's school-girl affectation
+of secresy: he had at once rushed off to the place of appointment, and
+that by a short cut of which she had no knowledge.
+
+"Mabyn, what's the matter? Is Wenna ill?" he said, forgetting in his
+anxiety even to shake hands with her.
+
+"Oh no, she isn't," said Mabyn rather coldly and defiantly. If he was in
+love with her sister, it was for him to make advances. "Oh no, she's
+pretty well, thank you," continued Mabyn, indifferently. "But she never
+could stand much worry. I wanted to see you about that. She is going
+back to Eglosilyan to-morrow; and you must promise not to have her asked
+up to the Hall while these grand doings are going on--you must not try
+to see her and persuade her. If you could keep out of her way
+altogether--"
+
+"You know all about it, then, Mabyn?" he said suddenly; and even in the
+dusky light of the street she could see the rapid look of gladness that
+filled his face. "And you are not going to be vexed, eh? You'll remain
+friends with me, Mabyn--you will tell me how she is from time to time.
+Don't you see, I must go away; and--and, by Jove, Mabyn! I've got such a
+lot to tell you!"
+
+She looked round.
+
+"I can't talk to you here. Won't you walk back by the other road behind
+the town?" he said.
+
+Yes, she would go willingly with him now. The anxiety of his face, the
+almost wild way in which he seemed to beg for her help and friendship,
+the mere impatience of his manner, pleased and satisfied her. This was
+as it should be. Here was no sweetheart by line and rule, demonstrating
+his affection by argument, and acting at all times with a studied
+propriety; but a real, true lover, full of passionate hope and as
+passionate fear; ready to do anything, and yet not knowing what to do.
+Above all, he was "brave and handsome, like a prince," and therefore a
+fit lover for her gentle sister.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Trelyon," she said with a great burst of confidence, "I did so
+fear that you might be indifferent!"
+
+"Indifferent!" said he with some bitterness. "Perhaps that is the best
+thing that could happen, only it isn't very likely to happen. Did you
+ever see anybody placed as I am placed, Mabyn? Nothing but
+stumbling-blocks every way I look. Our family have always been
+hot-headed and hot-tempered: if I told my grandmother at this minute how
+I am situated, I believe she would say, 'Why don't you go like a man and
+run off with the girl?'"
+
+"Yes!" said Mabyn, quite delighted.
+
+"But suppose you've bothered and worried the girl until you feel ashamed
+of yourself, and she begs of you to leave her, aren't you bound in fair
+manliness to go?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mabyn doubtfully.
+
+"Well, I do. It would be very mean to pester her. I'm off as soon as
+these people leave the Hall. But then there are other things. There is
+your sister engaged to this fellow out in Jamaica--"
+
+"Isn't he a horrid wretch?" said Mabyn between her teeth.
+
+"Oh, I quite agree with you. If I could have it out with him now! But,
+after all, what harm has the man done? Is it any wonder he wanted to get
+Wenna for a wife?"
+
+"Oh, but he cheated her," said Mabyn warmly. "He persuaded her and
+reasoned with her, and argued her into marrying him. And what business
+had he to tell her that love between young people is all bitterness and
+trial, and that a girl is only safe when she marries a prudent and
+elderly man who will look after her? Why, it is to look after him that
+he wants her. Wenna is going to him as a housekeeper and a nurse.
+Only--only, Mr. Trelyon, _she hasn't gone to him just yet_!"
+
+"Oh, I don't think he did anything unfair," the young man said gloomily.
+"It doesn't matter, anyhow. What I was going to say is, that my
+grandmother's notion of what one of our family ought to do in such a
+case can't be carried out: whatever you may think of a man, you can't go
+and try to rob him of his sweetheart behind his back. Even supposing she
+were willing to break with him--which she is not--you've at least got to
+wait to give the fellow a chance."
+
+"There I quite disagree with you, Mr. Trelyon," Mabyn said warmly. "Wait
+to give him a chance to make our Wenna miserable! Is she to be made the
+prize of a sort of fight? If I were a man I'd pay less attention to my
+own scruples and try what I could do for her--Oh, Mr. Trelyon--I--I beg
+your pardon."
+
+Mabyn suddenly stopped on the road, overwhelmed with confusion. She had
+been so warmly thinking of her sister's welfare that she had been
+hurried into something worse than an indiscretion.
+
+"What then, Mabyn?" said he, profoundly surprised.
+
+"I beg your pardon: I have been so thoughtless. I had no right to assume
+that you wished--that you wished for the--for the opportunity--"
+
+"Of marrying Wenna?" said he with a great stare. "But what else have we
+been speaking about? Or rather, I suppose we did assume it. Well, the
+more I think over it, Mabyn, the more I am maddened by all these
+obstacles, and by the notion of all the things that may happen. That's
+the bad part of my going away. How can I tell what may happen? He might
+come back and insist on her marrying him right off."
+
+"Mr. Trelyon," said Mabyn, speaking very clearly, "there's one thing you
+may be sure of. If you let me know where you are, nothing will happen to
+Wenna that you don't hear of."
+
+He took her hand and pressed it in mute thankfulness. He was not
+insensible to the value of having so warm an advocate, so faithful an
+ally, always at Wenna's side.
+
+"How long do letters take in going to Jamaica?" Mabyn asked.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"I could fetch him back for you directly," said she, "if you would like
+that."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By writing and telling him that you and Wenna were going to get
+married. Wouldn't that fetch him back pretty quickly?"
+
+"I doubt it. He wouldn't believe it of Wenna. Then he is a sensible sort
+of fellow, and would say to himself that if the news was true he would
+have his journey for nothing. Besides, Barnes says that things are
+looking well with him in Jamaica--better than anybody expected. He might
+not be anxious to leave."
+
+They had now got back to the Parade, and Mabyn stopped: "I must leave
+you now, Mr. Trelyon. Mind not to go near Wenna when you get to
+Eglosilyan."
+
+"She sha'n't even see me. I shall be there only a couple of days or so;
+then I am going to London. I am going to have a try at the Civil Service
+examinations--for first commissions, you know. I shall only come back to
+Eglosilyan for a day now and again at long intervals. You have promised
+to write to me, Mabyn. Well, I'll send you my address."
+
+She looked at him keenly as she offered him her hand. "I wouldn't be
+downhearted if I were you," she said. "Very odd things sometimes
+happen."
+
+"Oh, I sha'n't be very down-hearted," said he, "so long as I hear that
+she is all right, and not vexing herself about anything."
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Trelyon. I am sorry I can't take any message for you."
+
+"To her? No, that is impossible. Good-bye, Mabyn: I think you are the
+best friend I have in the world."
+
+"We'll see about that," she said as she walked rapidly off.
+
+Her mother had been sufficiently astonished by her long absence: she was
+now equally surprised by the excitement and pleasure visible in her
+face.
+
+"Oh, mammy, do you know whom I've seen? Mr. Trelyon."
+
+"Mabyn!"
+
+"Yes. We've walked right round Penzance all by ourselves. And it's all
+settled, mother."
+
+"What is all settled?"
+
+"The understanding between him and me. An offensive and defensive
+alliance. Let tyrants beware!"
+
+She took off her bonnet and came and sat down on the floor by the side
+of the sofa: "Oh, mammy, I see such beautiful things in the future! You
+wouldn't believe it if I told you all I see. Everybody else seems
+determined to forecast such gloomy events. There's Wenna crying and
+writing letters of contrition, and expecting all sorts of anger and
+scolding; there's Mr. Trelyon haunted by the notion that Mr. Roscorla
+will suddenly come home and marry Wenna right off; and as for him out
+there in Jamaica, I expect he'll be in a nice state when he hears of all
+this. But far on ahead of all that I see such a beautiful picture!"
+
+"It is a dream of yours, Mabyn," her mother said, but there was an
+imaginative light in her fine eyes too.
+
+"No, it is not a dream, mother, for there are so many people all wishing
+now that it should come about, in spite of these gloomy fancies. What is
+there to prevent it when we are all agreed?--Mr. Trelyon and I heading
+the list with our important alliance; and you, mother, would be so proud
+to see Wenna happy; and Mrs. Trelyon pets her as if she were a daughter
+already; and everybody--every man, woman and child--in Eglosilyan would
+rather see that come about than get a guinea apiece. Oh, mother, if you
+could see the picture that I see just now!"
+
+"It is a pretty picture, Mabyn," her mother said, shaking her head. "But
+when you think of everybody being agreed, you forget one, and that is
+Wenna herself. Whatever she thinks fit and right to do, that she is
+certain to do, and all your alliances and friendly wishes won't alter
+her decision, even if it should break her heart. And indeed I hope the
+poor child won't sink under the terrible strain that is on her: what do
+you think of her looks, Mabyn?"
+
+"They want mending--yes, they want mending," Mabyn admitted, apparently
+with some compunction, but then she added boldly, "and you know as well
+as I do, mother, that there is but the one way of mending them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+FERN IN DIE WELT.
+
+
+If this story were not tied by its title to the duchy of Cornwall, it
+might be interesting enough to follow Mr. Roscorla into the new world
+that had opened all around him, and say something of the sudden shock
+his old habits had thus received, and of the quite altered views of his
+own life he had been led to form. As matters stand, we can only pay him
+a flying visit.
+
+He is seated in a verandah fronting a garden, in which pomegranates and
+oranges form the principal fruit. Down below him some blacks are
+bringing provisions up to Yacca Farm along the cactus avenue leading to
+the gate. Far away on his right the last rays of the sun are shining on
+the summit of Blue Mountain Peak, and along the horizon the reflected
+glow of the sky shines on the calm sea. It is a fine, still evening; his
+cigar smells sweet in the air; it is a time for indolent dreaming and
+for memories of home.
+
+But Mr. Roscorla is not so much enraptured by thoughts of home as he
+might be. "Why," he is saying to himself, "my life in Basset Cottage was
+no life at all, but only a waiting for death. Day after day passed in
+that monotonous fashion: what had one to look forward to but old age,
+sickness, and then the quiet of a coffin? It was nothing but an hourly
+procession to the grave, varied by rabbit-shooting. This bold breaking
+away from the narrow life of such a place has given me a new lease of
+existence. Now I can look back with surprise on the dullness of that
+Cornish village, and on the regularity of habits which I did not know
+were habits. For is not that always the case? You don't know that you
+are forming a habit: you take each act to be an individual act, which
+you may perform or not at will; but, all the same, the succession of
+them is getting you into its power; custom gets a grip of your ways of
+thinking as well as your ways of living; the habit is formed, and it
+does not cease its hold until it conducts you to the grave. Try Jamaica
+for a cure. Fling a sleeping man into the sea, and watch if he does not
+wake. Why, when I look back to the slow, methodical, common-place life I
+led at Eglosilyan, can I wonder that I was sometimes afraid of Wenna
+Rosewarne regarding me as a somewhat staid and venerable individual, on
+whose infirmities she ought to take pity?"
+
+He rose and began to walk up and down the verandah, putting his foot
+down firmly. His loose linen suit was smart enough: his complexion had
+been improved by the sun. The consciousness that his business affairs
+were promising well did not lessen his sense of self-importance.
+
+"Wenna must be prepared to move about a bit when I go back," he was
+saying to himself. "She must give up that daily attendance on cottagers'
+children. If all turns out well, I don't see why we should not live in
+London, for who will know there who her father was? That consideration
+was of no consequence so long as I looked forward to living the rest of
+my life in Basset Cottage: now there are other things to be thought of
+when there is a chance of my going among my old friends again."
+
+By this time, it must be observed, Mr. Roscorla had abandoned his hasty
+intention of returning to England to upbraid Wenna with having received
+a ring from Harry Trelyon. After all, he reasoned with himself, the mere
+fact that she should talk thus simply and frankly about young Trelyon
+showed that, so far as she was concerned, her loyalty to her absent
+lover was unbroken. As for the young gentleman himself, he was, Mr.
+Roscorla knew, fond of joking. He had doubtless thought it a fine thing
+to make a fool of two or three women by imposing on them this
+cock-and-bull story of finding a ring by dredging. He was a little angry
+that Wenna should have been deceived; but then, he reflected, these
+gypsy rings are so much like one another that the young man had probably
+got a pretty fair duplicate. For the rest, he did not want to quarrel
+with Harry Trelyon at present.
+
+But as he was walking up and down the verandah, looking a much younger
+and brisker man than the Mr. Roscorla who had left Eglosilyan, a servant
+came through the house and brought him a couple of letters. He saw they
+were respectively from Mr. Barnes and from Wenna; and, curiously enough,
+he opened the reverend gentleman's first--perhaps as schoolboys like to
+leave the best bit of a tart to the last.
+
+He read the letter over carefully; he sat down and read it again; then
+he put it before him on the table. He was evidently puzzled by it. "What
+does this man mean by writing these letters to me?"--so Mr. Roscorla,
+who was a cautious and reflective person, communed with himself.--"He is
+no particular friend of mine. He must be driving at something. Now he
+says that I am to be of good cheer. I must not think anything of what he
+formerly wrote. Mr. Trelyon is leaving Eglosilyan for good, and his
+mother will at last have some peace of mind. What a pity it is that this
+sensitive creature should be at the mercy of the rude passions of this
+son of hers! that she should have no protector! that she should be
+allowed to mope herself to death in a melancholy seclusion!"
+
+An odd fancy occurred to Mr. Roscorla at this moment, and he smiled: "I
+think I have got a clew to Mr. Barnes's disinterested anxiety about my
+affairs. The widower would like to protect the solitary and unfriended
+widow, but the young man is in the way. The young man would be very much
+in the way if he married Wenna Rosewarne; the widower's fears drive him
+into suspicion, then into certainty; nothing will do but that I should
+return to England at once and spoil this little arrangement. But as soon
+as Harry Trelyon declares his intention of leaving Eglosilyan for good,
+then my affairs may go anyhow. Mr. Barnes finds the coast clear: I am
+bidden to stay where I am. Well, that is what I mean to do; but now I
+fancy I understand Mr. Barnes's generous friendship for me and his
+affectionate correspondence."
+
+He turned to Wenna's letter with much compunction. He owed her some
+atonement for having listened to the disingenuous reports of this
+scheming clergyman. How could he have so far forgotten the firm,
+uncompromising rectitude of the girl's character, her sensitive notions
+of honor, the promises she had given?
+
+He read her letter, and as he read his eyes seemed to grow hot with
+rage. He paid no heed to the passionate contrition of the trembling
+lines--to the obvious pain that she had endured in telling the story,
+without concealment, against herself--to the utter and abject
+wretchedness with which she awaited his decision. It was thus that she
+had kept faith with him the moment his back was turned! Such were the
+safeguards afforded by a woman's sense of honor! What a fool he had
+been, to imagine that any woman could remain true to her promise so soon
+as some other object of flirtation and incipient love-making came in her
+way!
+
+He looked at the letter again: he could scarcely believe it to be in her
+handwriting. This the quiet, reasonable, gentle and timid Wenna
+Rosewarne, whose virtues were almost a trifle too severe? The despair
+and remorse of the letter did not touch him--he was too angry and
+indignant over the insult to himself--but it astonished him. The
+passionate emotion of those closely-written pages he could scarcely
+connect with the shy, frank, kindly little girl he remembered: it was a
+cry of agony from a tortured woman, and he knew at least that for her
+the old quiet time was over.
+
+He knew not what to do. All this that had happened was new to him: it
+was old and gone by in England, and who could tell what further
+complications might have arisen? But his anger required some vent: he
+went in-doors, called for a lamp, and sat down and wrote with a hard and
+resolute look on his face:
+
+     "I have received your letter. I am not surprised. You are a woman,
+     and I ought to have known that a woman's promise is of value so
+     long as you are by her side to see that she keeps it. You ask what
+     reparation you can make: I ask if there is any that you can
+     suggest. No: you have done what cannot be undone. Do you think a
+     man would marry a woman who is in love with, or has been in love
+     with, another man, even if he could overlook her breach of faith
+     and the shameless thoughtlessness of her conduct? My course is
+     clear, at all events. I give you back the promise that you did not
+     know how to keep; and now you can go and ask the young man who has
+     been making a holiday toy of you whether he will be pleased to
+     marry you.
+
+                "RICHARD ROSCORLA."
+
+He sealed and addressed this letter, still with the firm, hard look
+about his face: then he summoned a servant--a tall, red-haired Irishman.
+He did not hesitate for a moment: "Look here, Sullivan: the English
+mails go out to-morrow morning. You must ride down to the post-office as
+hard as you can go; and if you're a few minutes late, see Mr. Keith and
+give him my compliments, and ask him if he can possibly take this letter
+if the mails are not made up. It is of great importance. Quick, now!"
+
+He watched the man go clattering down the cactus avenue until he was out
+of sight. Then he turned, put the letters in his pocket, went in-doors,
+and again struck a small gong that did duty for a bell. He wanted his
+horse brought round at once. He was going over to Pleasant Farm:
+probably he would not return that night. He lit another cigar, and paced
+up and down the gravel in front of the house until the horse was brought
+round.
+
+When he reached Pleasant Farm the stars were shining overhead, and the
+odors of the night-flowers came floating out of the forest, but inside
+the house there were brilliant lights and the voices of men talking. A
+bachelor supper-party was going forward. Mr. Roscorla entered, and
+presently was seated at the hospitable board. They had never seen him so
+gay, and they had certainly never seen him so generously inclined, for
+Mr. Roscorla was economical in his habits. He would have them all to
+dinner the next evening, and promised them such champagne as had never
+been sent to Kingston before. He passed round his best cigars, he hinted
+something about unlimited loo, he drank pretty freely, and was
+altogether in a jovial humor.
+
+"England!" he said, when some one mentioned the mother-country. "Of one
+thing I am pretty certain: England will never see me again. No, a man
+lives here: in England he waits for his death. What life I have got
+before me I shall live in Jamaica: that is my view of the question."
+
+"Then she is coming out to you?" said his host with a grin.
+
+Roscorla's face flushed with anger. "There is no _she_ in the matter,"
+he said abruptly, almost fiercely. "I thank God I am not tied to any
+woman!"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," said his host good-naturedly, who did not care
+to recall the occasions on which Mr. Roscorla had been rather pleased to
+admit that certain tender ties bound him to his native land.
+
+"No, there is not," he said. "What fool would have his comfort and peace
+of mind depend on the caprice of a woman? I like your plan better,
+Rogers: when they're dependent on you, you can do as you like, but when
+they've got to be treated as equals, they're the devil. No, my boys, you
+don't find me going in for the angel in the house--she's too exacting.
+Is it to be unlimited?"
+
+Now to play unlimited loo in a reckless fashion is about the easiest way
+of getting rid of money that the ingenuity of man has devised. The other
+players were much better qualified to run such risks than Mr. Roscorla,
+but none played half so wildly as he. His I.O.U.'s went freely about. At
+one point in the evening the floating paper bearing the signature of Mr.
+Roscorla represented a sum of about three hundred pounds, and yet his
+losses did not weigh heavily on him. At length every one got tired, and
+it was resolved to stop short at a certain hour. But from this point the
+luck changed: nothing could stand against his cards; one by one his
+I.O.U.'s were recalled; and when they all rose from the table he had won
+about forty-eight pounds. He was not elated.
+
+He went to his room and sat down in an easy-chair; and then it seemed to
+him that he saw Eglosilyan once more, and the far coasts of Cornwall,
+and the broad uplands lying under a blue English sky. That was his home,
+and he had cut himself away from it, and from the little glimmer of
+romance that had recently brightened it for him. Every bit of the place,
+too, was associated somehow with Wenna Rosewarne. He could see the seat
+fronting the Atlantic on which she used to sit and sew on the fine
+summer forenoons. He could see the rough road leading over the downs on
+which he met her one wintry morning, she wrapped up and driving her
+father's dog-cart, while the red sun in the sky seemed to brighten the
+pink color the cold wind had brought into her cheeks. He thought of her
+walking sedately up to church; of her wild scramblings among the rocks
+with Mabyn; of her enjoyment of a fierce wind when it came laden with
+the spray of the great rollers breaking on the cliff outside. What was
+the song she used to sing to herself as she went along the quiet
+woodland ways?--
+
+    Your Polly has never been false, she declares,
+    Since last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs.
+
+He could not let her go. All the anger of wounded vanity had left his
+heart: he thought now only of the chance he was throwing away. Where
+else could he hope to find for himself so pleasant a companion and
+friend, who would cheer up his dull daily life with her warm sympathies,
+her quick humor, her winning womanly ways?
+
+He thought of that letter he had sent away, and cursed his own folly. So
+long as she was bound by her promise he knew he could marry her when he
+pleased, but now he had voluntarily released her. In a couple of weeks
+she would hold her manumission in her hands; the past would no longer
+have any power over her; if ever they met they would meet as mere
+acquaintances. Every moment the prize slipping out of his grasp seemed
+to grow more valuable; his vexation with himself grew intolerable; he
+suddenly resolved that he would make a wild effort to get back that
+fatal letter.
+
+He had sat communing with himself for over an hour: all the household
+was fast asleep. He would not wake any one, for fear of being compelled
+to give explanations; so he noiselessly crept along the dark passages
+until he got to the door, which he carefully opened and let himself out.
+The night was wonderfully clear, the constellations throbbing and
+glittering overhead: the trees were black against the pale sky.
+
+He made his way round to the stables, and had some sort of notion that
+he would try to get at his horse, until it occurred to him that some
+suddenly awakened servant or master would probably send a bullet
+whizzing at him. So he abandoned that enterprise, and set off to walk as
+quickly as he could down the slopes of the mountain, with the stars
+still shining over his head, the air sweet with powerful scents, the
+leaves of the bushes hanging silently in the semi-darkness.
+
+How long he walked he did not know: he was not aware that when he
+reached the sleeping town a pale gray was lightening the eastern skies.
+He went to the house of the postmaster and hurriedly aroused him. Mr.
+Keith began to think that the ordinarily sedate Mr. Roscorla had gone
+mad.
+
+"But I must have the letter," he said. "Come now, Keith, you can give it
+me back if you like. Of course I know it is very wrong, but you'll do it
+to oblige a friend."
+
+"My dear sir," said the postmaster, who could not get time for
+explanation, "the mails were made up last night--"
+
+"Yes, yes, but you can open the English bag."
+
+"They were sent on board last night."
+
+"Then the packet is still in the harbor: you might come down with me."
+
+"She sails at daybreak."
+
+"It is not daybreak yet," said Mr. Roscorla, looking up.
+
+Then he saw how the gray dawn had come over the skies, banishing the
+stars, and he became aware of the wan light shining around him. With the
+new day his life was altered; he would no more be as he had been; the
+chief aim and purpose of his existence had been changed.
+
+Walking heedlessly back, he came to a point from which he had a distant
+view of the harbor and the sea beyond. Far away out on the dull gray
+plain was a steamer slowly making her way toward the east. Was that the
+packet bound for England, carrying to Wenna Rosewarne the message that
+she was free?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+"BLUE IS THE SWEETEST."
+
+
+The following correspondence may now, without any great breach of
+confidence, be published:
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN, Monday morning.
+
+    DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know what Mr. Roscorla says in the
+    letter Wenna has just received? Why, that you could not get
+    up that ring by dredging, but that you must have bought the
+    other one at Plymouth. Just think of the wicked old wretch
+    fancying such things! As if you would give a ring _of emeralds
+    to any one_! Tell me that this is a story, that I may bid
+    Wenna contradict him at once. I have got no patience with a man
+    who is given over to such mean suspicions. Yours faithfully,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+
+    "LONDON, Tuesday night.
+
+    Dear Mabyn: I am sorry to say Mr. Roscorla is right. It was a
+    foolish trick--I did not think it would be successful, for my
+    hitting the size of her finger was rather a stroke of luck--but
+    I thought it would amuse her if she did find it out after an
+    hour or two. I was afraid to tell her afterward, for she would
+    think it impertinent. What's to be done? Is she angry about it.
+    Yours sincerely,
+
+    HARRY TRELYON."
+
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN.
+
+    Dear Mr. Trelyon: How could you do such a thing? Why, to give
+    Wenna, of all people in the world, an emerald ring, just after I
+    had got Mr. Roscorla to give her one, for bad luck to himself!
+    Why, how could you do it? I don't know what to say about it,
+    unless you demand it back, _and send her one with sapphires in
+    it at once_.
+
+    Yours, M.R.
+
+    P.S.--As quick as ever you can."
+
+
+    "LONDON, Friday evening.
+
+    Dear Mabyn: Why, you know she wouldn't take a sapphire ring or
+    any other from me. Yours faithfully,
+
+    H. TRELYON."
+
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. TRELYON: Pray don't lose any time in writing, but
+    send me at once a sapphire ring for Wenna. You have hit the size
+    once, and you can do it again; but in any case I have marked the
+    size on this bit of thread, and the jeweler will understand. And
+    please, dear Mr. Trelyon, don't get a very expensive one, but a
+    plain, good one, just what a poor person like me would buy for a
+    present if I wanted to. And post it at once, please: _this is
+    very important_. Yours most sincerely,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+In consequence of this correspondence Mabyn one morning proceeded to
+seek out her sister, whom she found busy with the accounts of the sewing
+club, which was now in a flourishing condition. Mabyn seemed a little
+shy. "Oh, Wenna," she said, "I have something to tell you. You know I
+wrote to ask Mr. Trelyon about the ring. Well, he's very, very
+sorry--oh, you don't know how sorry he is, Wenna--but it's quite true.
+He thought he'd please you by getting the ring, and that you would make
+a joke of it when you found it out; and then he was afraid to speak of
+it afterward."
+
+Wenna had quietly slipped the ring off her finger. She betrayed no
+emotion at the mention of Mr. Trelyon's name. Her face was a trifle red:
+that was, all. "It was a stupid thing to do," she said, "but I suppose
+he meant no harm. Will you send him back the ring?"
+
+"Yes," she said eagerly. "Give me the ring, Wenna."
+
+She carefully wrapped it up in a piece of paper and put it in her
+pocket. Any one who knew her would have seen by her face that she meant
+to give that ring short shrift. Then she said timidly, "You are not very
+angry, Wenna?"
+
+"No. I am sorry I should have vexed Mr. Roscorla by my carelessness."
+
+"Wenna," the younger sister continued, even more timidly, "do you know
+what I've heard about rings?--that when you've worn one for some time on
+a finger, you ought never to leave it off altogether: I think it affects
+the circulation, or something of that kind. Now, if Mr. Trelyon were to
+send you another ring, just to--to keep the place of that one until Mr.
+Roscorla came back--"
+
+"Mabyn, you must be mad to think of such a thing," said her sister,
+looking down.
+
+"Oh yes," Mabyn said meekly, "I thought you wouldn't like the notion of
+Mr. Trelyon giving you a ring. And so, dear Wenna, I've--I've got a ring
+for you--you won't mind taking it from me--and if you do wear it on the
+engaged finger, why, that doesn't matter, don't you see?"
+
+She produced the ring of dark blue stones, and herself put it on Wenna's
+finger.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn," Wenna said, "how could you be so extravagant? And just
+after you gave me that ten shillings for the Leans!"
+
+"You be quiet," said Mabyn briskly, going off with a light look on her
+face.
+
+And yet there was some determination about her mouth. She hastily put on
+her hat and went out. She took the path by the hillside over the little
+harbor, and eventually she reached the face of the black cliff, at the
+foot of which a gray-green sea was dashing in white masses of foam:
+there was not a living thing around her but the choughs and daws, and
+the white seagulls sailing overhead.
+
+She took out a large sheet of brown paper and placed it on the ground.
+Then she sought out a bit of rock weighing about two pounds. Then she
+took out the little parcel which contained the emerald ring, tied it up
+carefully along with the stone in the sheet of brown paper: finally, she
+rose up to her full height and heaved the whole into the sea. A splash
+down there, and that was all.
+
+She clapped her hands with joy: "And now, my precious emerald ring,
+that's the last of you, I imagine! And there isn't much chance of a fish
+bringing you back, to make mischief with your ugly green stones."
+
+Then she went home, and wrote this note:
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN, Monday.
+
+    DEAR MR. TRELYON: I have just thrown the emerald ring you gave
+    Wenna into the sea, and she wears the other one now _on her
+    engaged finger_, but she thinks I bought it. Did you ever
+    hear of an old-fashioned rhyme that is this?--
+
+         Oh, green is forsaken,
+           And yellow's forsworn;
+         And blue is thesweetest
+           Color that's worn.
+
+    You can't tell what mischief that emerald ring might not have
+    done. But the sapphires that Wenna is wearing now are perfectly
+    beautiful; and Wenna is not so heartbroken that she isn't very
+    proud of them. I never saw such a beautiful ring. Yours
+    sincerely,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE.
+
+    P.S.--Are you never coming back to Eglosilyan any more?"
+
+So the days went by, and Mabyn waited with a secret hope to see what
+answer Mr. Roscorla would send to that letter of confession and
+contrition Wenna had written to him at Penzance. The letter had been
+written as an act of duty, and posted too; but there was no mail going
+out for ten days thereafter, so that a considerable time had to elapse
+before the answer came.
+
+During that time Wenna went about her ordinary duties just as if there
+was no hidden fire of pain consuming her heart; there was no word spoken
+by her or to her of all that had recently occurred; her mother and
+sister were glad to see her so continuously busy. At first she shrank
+from going up to Trelyon Hall, and would rather have corresponded with
+Mrs. Trelyon about their joint work of charity, but she conquered the
+feeling, and went and saw the gentle lady, who perceived nothing altered
+or strange in her demeanor. At last the letter from Jamaica came; and
+Mabyn, having sent it up to her sister's room, waited for a few minutes,
+and then followed it. She was a little afraid, despite her belief in the
+virtues of the sapphire ring.
+
+When she entered the room she uttered a slight cry of alarm and ran
+forward to her sister. Wenna was seated on a chair by the side of the
+bed, but she had thrown her arms out on the bed, her head was between
+them, and she was sobbing as if her heart would break.
+
+"Wenna, what is the matter? what has he said to you?"
+
+Mabyn's eyes were all afire now. Wenna would not answer. She would not
+even raise her head.
+
+"Wenna, I want to see that letter."
+
+"Oh no, no!" the girl moaned. "I deserve it: he says what is true. I
+want you to leave me alone, Mabyn: you--you can't do anything to
+help this."
+
+But Mabyn had by this time perceived that her sister held in her hand,
+crumpled up, the letter which was the cause of this wild outburst of
+grief. She went forward and firmly took it out of the yielding fingers:
+then she turned to the light and read it. "Oh, if I were a man!" she
+said; and then the very passion of her indignation, finding no other
+vent, filled her eyes with proud and angry tears. She forgot to rejoice
+that her sister was now free. She only saw the cruel insult of those
+lines, and the fashion in which it had struck down its victim. "Wenna,"
+she said hotly, "you ought to have more spirit. You don't mean to say
+you care for the opinion of a man who would write to any girl like that?
+You ought to be precious glad that he has shown himself in his true
+colors. Why, he never cared a bit for you--never!--or he would never
+turn at a moment's notice and insult you."
+
+"I have deserved it all; it is every word of it true; he could not have
+written otherwise." That was all that Wenna would say between her sobs.
+
+"Well," retorted Mabyn, "after all, I am glad he was angry. I did not
+think he had so much spirit. And if this is his opinion of you, I don't
+think it is worth heeding, only I hope he'll keep to it. Yes, I do. I
+hope he'll continue to think you everything that is wicked, and remain
+out in Jamaica. Wenna, you must not lie and cry like that. Come, get up,
+and look at the strawberries that Mr. Trewhella has sent you."
+
+"Please, Mabyn, leave me alone, there's a good girl."
+
+"I shall be up again in a few minutes, then: I want you to drive me over
+to St. Gwennis. Wenna, I _must_ go over to St. Gwennis before lunch; and
+father won't let me have anybody to drive. Do you hear, Wenna?"
+
+Then she went out and down into the kitchen, where she bothered Jennifer
+for a few minutes until she had got an iron heated at the fire. With
+this implement she carefully smoothed out the crumpled letter, and then
+she as carefully folded it, took it up stairs, and put it safely away in
+her own desk. She had just time to write a few lines:
+
+    "DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know what news I have got to tell you?
+    Can you guess? The engagement between Mr. Roscorla and Wenna
+    _is broken off_; and I have got in my possession the letter
+    in which he sets her free. If you knew how glad I am! I should
+    like to cry 'Hurrah! hurrah!' all through the streets of
+    Eglosilyan; and I think every one else would do the same if only
+    they knew. Of course she is very much grieved, for he has been
+    most insulting. I cannot tell you the things he has said: you
+    would kill him if you heard them. But she will come round very
+    soon, I know: and then she will have her freedom again, and no
+    more emerald rings, and letters all filled with arguments. Would
+    you like to see her, Mr. Trelyon? But don't come yet--not for a
+    long time: she would only get angry and obstinate. I'll tell you
+    when to come; and in the mean time, you know, she is still
+    wearing your ring, so that you need not be afraid. How glad I
+    shall be to see you again! Yours most faithfully,
+
+    "MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+She went down stairs quickly and put this letter in the letter-box.
+There was an air of triumph on her face. She had worked for this
+result--aided by the mysterious powers of Fate, whom she had conjured to
+serve her--and now the welcome end of her labors had arrived. She bade
+the hostler get out the dog-cart, as if she were the queen of Sheba
+going to visit Solomon. She went marching up to her sister's room,
+announcing her approach with a more than ordinarily accurate rendering
+of "Oh, the men of merry, merry England!" so that a stranger might have
+fancied that he heard the very voice of Harry Trelyon, with all its
+unmelodious vigor, ringing along the passage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE EXILE'S RETURN.
+
+
+Perhaps you have been away in distant parts of the earth, each day
+crowded with new experiences and slowly obscuring the clear pictures of
+England with which you left: perhaps you have only been hidden away in
+London, amid its ceaseless noise, its strange faces, its monotonous
+recurrence of duties. Let us say, in any case, that you are returning
+home for a space to the quiet of Northern Cornwall.
+
+You look out of the high window of a Plymouth hotel early in the
+morning. There is a promise of a beautiful autumn day--a ring of pink
+mist lies around the horizon; overhead the sky is clear and blue; the
+white sickle of the moon still lingers visible. The new warmth of the
+day begins to melt the hoarfrost in the meadows, and you know that out
+beyond the town the sun is shining brilliantly on the wet grass, with
+the brown cattle gleaming red in the light.
+
+You leave the great world behind, with all its bustle, crowds and
+express engines, when you get into the quiet little train that takes you
+leisurely up to Launceston, through woods, by the sides of rivers, over
+great valleys. There is a sense of repose about this railway journey.
+The train stops at any number of small stations--apparently to let the
+guard have a chat with the station-master--and then jogs on in a quiet,
+contented fashion. And on such an autumn day as this, that is a
+beautiful, still, rich-colored and English-looking country through which
+it passes. Here is a deep valley, all glittering with the dew and the
+sunlight. Down in the hollow a farmyard is half hidden behind the
+yellowing elms; a boy is driving a flock of white geese along the
+twisting road; the hedges are red with the withering briers. Up here,
+along the hillsides, the woods of scrub-oak are glowing with every
+imaginable hue of gold, crimson and bronze, except where a few dark firs
+appear, or where a tuft of broom, pure and bright in its green, stands
+out among the faded brackens. The gorse is profusely in bloom: it always
+is in Cornwall. Still farther over there are sheep visible on the
+uplands; beyond these, again, the bleak brown moors rise into peaks of
+hills; overhead the silent blue, and all around the sweet, fresh country
+air.
+
+With a sharp whistle the small train darts into an opening in the hills:
+here we are in the twilight of a great wood. The tall trees are becoming
+bare; the ground is red with the fallen leaves; through the branches the
+blue-winged jay flies, screaming harshly; you can smell the damp and
+resinous odors of the ferns. Out again we get into the sunlight! and lo!
+a rushing, brawling, narrow stream, its clear flood swaying this way and
+that by the big stones; a wall of rock overhead crowned by glowing
+furze; a herd of red cattle sent scampering through the bright-green
+grass. Now we get slowly into a small white station, and catch a glimpse
+of a tiny town over in the valley: again we go on by wood and valley, by
+rocks and streams and farms. It is a pleasant drive on such a morning.
+
+In one of the carriages in this train Master Harry Trelyon and his
+grandmother were seated. How he had ever persuaded her to go with him to
+Cornwall by train was mysterious enough, for the old lady thoroughly
+hated all such modern devices. It was her custom to go traveling all
+over the country with a big, old-fashioned phaeton and a pair of horses;
+and her chief amusement during these long excursions was driving up to
+any big house she took a fancy to, in order to see if there was a chance
+of its being let to her. The faithful old servant who attended her, and
+who was about as old as the coachman, had a great respect for his
+mistress, but sometimes he swore--inaudibly--when she ordered him to
+make the usual inquiry at the front-door of some noble lord's country
+residence, which he would as soon have thought of letting as of
+forfeiting his seat in the House of Peers or his hopes of heaven. But
+the carriage and horses were coming down, all the same, to Eglosilyan,
+to take her back again.
+
+"Harry," she was saying at this moment, "the longer I look at you, the
+more positive I am that you are ill. I don't like your color: you are
+thin and careworn and anxious. What is the matter with you?"
+
+"Going to school again at twenty-one is hard work, grandmother," he
+said. "Don't you try it. But I don't think I'm particularly ill: few
+folks can keep a complexion like yours, grandmother."
+
+"Yes," said the old lady, rather pleased, "many's the time they said
+that about me, that there wasn't much to complain of in my looks; and
+that's what a girl thinks of then, and sweethearts and balls, and all
+the other men looking savage when she's dancing with any one of them.
+Well, well, Harry; and what is all this about you and the young lady
+your mother has made such a pet of? Oh yes, I have my suspicions; and
+she's engaged to another man, isn't she? Your grandfather would have
+fought him, I'll be bound; but we live in a peaceable way now. Well,
+well, no matter; but hasn't that got something to do with your glum
+looks, Harry?"
+
+"I tell you, grandmother, I have been hard at work in London. You can't
+look very brilliant after a few months in London."
+
+"And what keeps you in London at this time of the year?" said this
+plain-spoken old lady. "Your fancy about getting into the army?
+Nonsense, man! don't tell me such a tale as that. There's a woman in the
+case: a Trelyon never puts himself so much about from any other cause.
+To stop in town at this time of the year! Why, your grandfather, and
+your father too, would have laughed to hear of it. I haven't had a brace
+of birds or a pheasant sent me since last autumn--not one. Come, sir, be
+frank with me. I'm an old woman, but I can hold my tongue."
+
+"There's nothing to tell, grandmother," he said. "You just about hit it
+in that guess of yours: I suppose Juliott told you. Well, the girl is
+engaged to another man: what more is to be said?"
+
+"The man's in Jamaica?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why are you going down to-day?"
+
+"Only for a brief visit: I've been a long time away."
+
+The old lady sat silent for some time. She had heard of the whole affair
+before, but she wished to have the rumor confirmed. And at first she was
+sorely troubled that her grandson should contemplate marrying the
+daughter of an innkeeper, however intelligent, amiable and well-educated
+the young lady might be; but she knew the Trelyons pretty well, and knew
+that if he had made up his mind to it, argument and remonstrance would
+be useless. Moreover, she had a great affection for this young man, and
+was strongly disposed to sympathize with any wish of his. She grew in
+time to have a great interest in Miss Wenna Rosewarne: at this moment
+the chief object of her visit was to make her acquaintance. She grew to
+pity young Trelyon in his disappointment, and was inclined to believe
+that the person in Jamaica was something of a public enemy. The fact
+was, her mere sympathy for her grandson would have converted her to a
+sympathy with the wildest project he could have formed.
+
+"Dear! dear!" she said, "what awkward things engagements are when they
+stand in your way! Shall I tell you the truth? I was just about as good
+as engaged to John Cholmondeley when I gave myself up to your
+grandfather. But there! when a girl's heart pulls her one way, and her
+promise pulls her another way, she needs to be a very firm-minded young
+woman if she means to hold fast. John Cholmondeley was as good-hearted a
+young fellow as ever lived--yes, I will say that for him--and I was
+mightily sorry for him; but--but you see, that's how things come about.
+Dear! dear! that evening at Bath--I remember it as well as if it was
+yesterday; and it was only two months after I had run away with your
+grandfather. Yes, there was a ball that night; and we had kept very
+quiet, you know, after coming back; but this time your grandfather had
+set his heart on taking me out before everybody, and you know he had to
+have his way. As sure as I live, Harry, the first man I saw was John
+Cholmondeley--just as white as a ghost: they said he had been drinking
+hard and gambling pretty nearly the whole of these two months. He
+wouldn't come near me: he wouldn't take the least notice of me. The
+whole night he pretended to be vastly gay and merry: he danced with
+everybody, but his eyes never came near me. Well--you know what a girl
+is--that vexed me a little bit; for there never was a man such a slave
+to a woman as he was to me. Dear! dear! the way my father used to laugh
+at him, until he got wild with anger! Well, I went up to him at last,
+when he was by himself, and I said to him, just in a careless way, you
+know, 'John, aren't you going to dance with me to-night?' Well, do you
+know, his face got quite white again; and he said--I remember the very
+words, all as cold as ice--'Madam,' says he, 'I am glad to find that
+your hurried trip to Scotland has impaired neither your good looks nor
+your self-command.' Wasn't it cruel of him?--but then, poor fellow! he
+had been badly used, I admit that. Poor young fellow! he never did
+marry; and I don't believe he ever forgot me to his dying day. Many a
+time I'd like to have told him all about it, and how there was no use in
+my marrying him if I liked another man better; but though we met
+sometimes, and especially when he came down about the Reform Bill
+time--and I do believe I made a red-hot radical of him--he was always
+very proud, and I hadn't the heart to go back on the old story. But I'll
+tell you what your grandfather did for him: he got him returned at the
+very next election, and he on the other side, too; and after a bit a man
+begins to think more about getting a seat in Parliament than about
+courting an empty-headed girl. I have met this Mr. Roscorla, haven't I?"
+
+"Of course you have."
+
+"A good-looking man rather, with a fresh complexion and gray hair?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean by good looks," said Trelyon shortly. "I
+shouldn't think people would call him an Adonis. But there's no
+accounting for tastes."
+
+"Perhaps I may have been mistaken," the old lady said, "but there was a
+gentleman at Plymouth Station who seemed to be something like what I can
+recall of Mr. Roscorla: you didn't see him, I suppose?"
+
+"At Plymouth Station, grandmother?" the young man said, becoming rather
+uneasy.
+
+"Yes. He got into the train just as we came up. A neatly-dressed man,
+gray hair and a healthy-looking face. I must have seen him somewhere
+about here before."
+
+"Roscorla is in Jamaica," said Trelyon positively.
+
+Just at this moment the train slowed into Launceston Station, and the
+people began to get out on the platform.
+
+"That is the man I mean," said the old lady.
+
+Trelyon turned and stared. There, sure enough, was Mr. Roscorla, looking
+not one whit different from the precise, elderly, fresh-colored
+gentleman who had left Cornwall some seven months before.
+
+"Good Lord, Harry!" said the old lady nervously, looking at her
+grandson's face, "don't have a fight here."
+
+The next second Mr. Roscorla wheeled round, anxious about some luggage,
+and now it was his turn to stare in astonishment and anger--anger,
+because he had been told that Harry Trelyon never came near Cornwall,
+and his first sudden suspicion was that he had been deceived. All this
+had happened in a minute. Trelyon was the first to regain his
+self-command. He walked deliberately forward, held out his hand, and
+said, "Hillo, Roscorla! back in England again? I didn't know you were
+coming."
+
+"No," said Mr. Roscorla, with his face grown just a trifle grayer--"no,
+I suppose not."
+
+In point of fact, he had not informed any one of his coming. He had
+prepared a little surprise. The chief motive of his return was to get
+Wenna to cancel for ever that unlucky letter of release he had sent her,
+which he had done more or less successfully in subsequent
+correspondence; but he had also hoped to introduce a little romanticism
+into his meeting with her. He would enter Eglosilyan on foot. He would
+wander down to the rocks at the mouth of the harbor on the chance of
+finding Wenna there. Might he not hear her humming to herself, as she
+sat and sewed, some snatch of "Your Polly has never been false, she
+declares"? or was that the very last ballad in the world she would now
+think of singing? Then the delight of regarding again the placid, bright
+face and earnest eyes, of securing once more a perfect understanding
+between them, and their glad return to the inn!
+
+All this had been spoiled by the appearance of this young man: he loved
+him none the more for that.
+
+"I suppose you haven't got a trap waiting for you?" said Trelyon with
+cold politeness. "I can drive you over if you like."
+
+He could do no less than make the offer: the other had no alternative
+but to accept. Old Mrs. Trelyon heard this compact made with
+considerable dread.
+
+Indeed, it was a dismal drive over to Eglosilyan, bright as the forenoon
+was. The old lady did her best to be courteous to Mr. Roscorla and
+cheerful with her grandson, but she was oppressed by the belief that it
+was only her presence that had so far restrained the two men from giving
+vent to the rage and jealousy that filled their hearts.
+
+The conversation kept up was singular.
+
+"Are you going to remain in England long, Roscorla?" said the younger of
+the two men, making an unnecessary cut at one of the two horses he was
+driving.
+
+"Don't know yet. Perhaps I may."
+
+"Because," said Trelyon with angry impertinence, "I suppose if you do,
+you'll have to look round for a housekeeper."
+
+The insinuation was felt; and Roscorla's eyes looked anything but
+pleasant as he answered, "You forget I've got Mrs. Cornish to look after
+my house."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Cornish is not much of a companion for you."
+
+"Men seldom want to make companions of their housekeepers," was the
+retort, uttered rather hotly.
+
+"But sometimes they wish to have the two offices combined, for economy's
+sake."
+
+At this juncture Mrs. Trelyon struck in, somewhat wildly, with a remark
+about an old ruined house which seemed to have had at one time a private
+still inside: the danger was staved off for the moment. "Harry," she
+said, "mind what you are about: the horses seem very fresh."
+
+"Yes, they like a good run: I suspect they've had precious little to do
+since I left Cornwall."
+
+Did she fear that the young man was determined to throw them into a
+ditch or down a precipice, with the wild desire of killing his rival at
+any cost? If she had known the whole state of affairs between them--the
+story of the emerald ring, for example--she would have understood at
+least the difficulty experienced by these two men in remaining decently
+civil toward each other.
+
+So they passed over the high and wide moors until far ahead they caught
+a glimpse of the blue plain of the sea. Mr. Roscorla relapsed into
+silence: he was becoming a trifle nervous. He was probably so occupied
+with anticipations of his meeting with Wenna that he failed to notice
+the objects around him; and one of these, now become visible, was a very
+handsome young lady, who was coming smartly along a wooded lane,
+carrying a basket of bright-colored flowers.
+
+"Why, here's Mabyn Rosewarne! I must wait for her."
+
+Mabyn had seen at a distance Mrs. Trelyon's gray horses: she guessed
+that the young master had come back, and that he had brought some
+strangers with him. She did not like to be stared at by strangers. She
+came along the path with her eyes fixed on the ground: she thought it
+impertinent of Harry Trelyon to wait to speak to her.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn," he cried, "you must let me drive you home. And let me
+introduce you to my grandmother. There is some one else whom you know."
+
+The young lady bowed to Mrs. Trelyon; then she stared and changed color
+somewhat when she saw Mr. Roscorla; then she was helped up into a seat.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Trelyon?" she said. "I am very glad to see you have
+come back.--How do you do, Mr. Roscorla?"
+
+She shook hands with them both, but not quite in the same fashion.
+
+"And you have sent no message that you were coming?" she said, looking
+her companion straight in the face.
+
+"No--no, I did not," he said, angry and embarrassed by the open enmity
+of the girl. "I thought I should surprise you all."
+
+"You have surprised me, any way," said Mabyn, "for how can you be so
+thoughtless? Wenna has been very ill--I tell you she has been very ill
+indeed, though she has said little about it--and the least thing upsets
+her. How can you think of frightening her so? Do you know what you are
+doing? I wish you would go away back to Launceston or London, and write
+her a note there, if you are coming, instead of trying to frighten her."
+
+This was the language, it appeared to Mr. Roscorla, of a virago; only,
+viragoes do not ordinarily have tears in their eyes, as was the case
+with Mabyn when she finished her indignant appeal.
+
+"Mr. Trelyon, do you think it is fair to go and frighten Wenna so?" she
+demanded.
+
+"It is none of my business," Trelyon answered with an air as if he had
+said to his rival, "Yes, go and kill the girl. You are a nice sort of
+gentleman, to come down from London to kill the girl!"
+
+"This is absurd," said Mr. Roscorla contemptuously, for he was stung
+into reprisal by the persecution of these two: "a girl isn't so easily
+frightened out of her wits. Why, she must have known that my coming home
+was at any time probable."
+
+"I have no doubt she feared that it was," said Mabyn, partly to herself:
+for once she was afraid of speaking out. Presently, however, a brighter
+light came over the girl's face. "Why, I quite forgot," she said,
+addressing Harry Trelyon--"I quite forgot that Wenna was just going up
+to Trelyon Hall when I left. Of course she will be up there. You will be
+able to tell her that Mr. Roscorla has arrived, won't you?"
+
+The malice of this suggestion was so apparent that the young gentleman
+in front could not help grinning at it: fortunately, his face could not
+be seen by his rival. What _he_ thought of the whole arrangement
+can only be imagined. And so, as it happened, Mr. Roscorla and his
+friend Mabyn were dropped at the inn, while Harry Trelyon drove his
+grandmother up and on to the Hall.
+
+"Well, Harry," the old lady said, "I am glad to be able to breathe at
+last: I thought you two were going to kill each other."
+
+"There is no fear of that," the young man said: "that is not the way in
+which this affair has to be settled. It is entirely a matter for her
+decision; and look how everything is in his favor. I am not even allowed
+to say a word to her; and even if I could, he is a deal cleverer than me
+in argument. He would argue my head off in half an hour."
+
+"But you don't turn a girl's heart round by argument, Harry. When a girl
+has to choose between a young lover and an elderly one, it isn't always
+good sense that directs her choice. Is Miss Wenna Rosewarne at all like
+her sister?"
+
+"She's not such a tomboy," he said, "but she is quite as straightforward
+and proud, and quick to tell you what is the right thing to do. There's
+no sort of shamming tolerated by these two girls. But then Wenna is
+gentler and quieter, and more soft and lovable, than Mabyn--in my fancy,
+you know; and she is more humorous and clever, so that she never gets
+into those school-girl rages. But it is really a shame to compare them
+like that; and, indeed, if any one said the least thing against one of
+these girls, the other would precious soon make him regret the day he
+was born. You don't catch me doing that with either of them. I've had a
+warning already when I hinted that Mabyn might probably manage to keep
+her husband in good order. And so she would, I believe, if the husband
+were not of the right sort; but when she is really fond of anybody, she
+becomes their slave out and out. There is nothing she wouldn't do for
+her sister; and her sister thinks there's nobody in the world like
+Mabyn. So you see--"
+
+He stopped in the middle of this sentence.
+
+"Grandmother," he said, almost in a whisper, "here she is coming along
+the road."
+
+"Miss Rosewarne?"
+
+"Yes: shall I introduce you?"
+
+"If you like."
+
+Wenna was coming down the steep road between the high hedges with a
+small girl on each side of her, whom she was leading by the hand. She
+was gayly talking to them: you could hear the children laughing at what
+she said. Old Mrs. Trelyon came to the conclusion that this merry young
+lady, with the light and free step, the careless talk and fresh color in
+her face, was certainly not dying of any love-affair.
+
+"Take the reins, grandmother, for a minute."
+
+He had leapt down into the road, and was standing before her almost ere
+she had time to recognize him. For a moment a quick gleam of gladness
+shone on her face: then, almost instinctively, she seemed to shrink from
+him, and she was reserved, distant, and formal.
+
+He introduced her to the old lady, who said something nice to her about
+her sister. The young man was looking wistfully at her, troubled at
+heart that she treated him so coldly.
+
+"I have got to break some news to you," he said: "perhaps you will
+consider it good news."
+
+She looked up quickly.
+
+"Nothing has happened to anybody--only some one has arrived. Mr.
+Roscorla is at the inn."
+
+She did not flinch. He was vexed with her that she showed no sign of
+fear or dislike. On the contrary, she quickly said that she must then go
+down to the inn; and she bade them both good-bye in a placid and
+ordinary way, while he drove off with dark thoughts crowding into his
+imagination of what might happen down at the inn during the next few
+days. He was angry with her, he scarcely knew why.
+
+Meanwhile Wenna, apparently quite calm, went on down the road, but there
+was no more laughing in her voice, no more light in her face.
+
+"Miss Wenna," said the smaller of the two children, who could not
+understand this change, and who looked up with big, wondering eyes, "why
+does oo tremble so?"
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+SONNET.
+
+
+    The curious eye may watch her lovely face,
+      Whereon such rare and roseate tinctures glow,
+    And cry, How fair the rose and lily show
+      Mid all the glories of a maiden grace!
+    If this sweet show, this bloom and tender glance,
+      Would so attract a stranger's unskilled eyes,
+    Until he sees the light of Paradise
+      Dawn in the garden of that countenance--
+    I, to whom love hath given finer powers,
+      See there the emblems of a flowering soul
+    That hath its root in other world than ours,
+      And which doth ever seek its native goal;
+    Meanwhile decks life with love and grace and flowers,
+      And in one beauteous garland binds the whole.
+
+                                        F.A. HILLARD.
+
+
+
+
+NICE.
+
+
+Twenty-Two centuries ago--eighteen hundred years before Columbus sailed
+in quest of the New World--a Phocean colony from Marseilles founded this
+celebrated city, calling it Nichê (Nice or Victory), in honor of a
+signal triumph obtained by their arms over their enemies, the Ligurians,
+or inhabitants of the northern coast of Italy. For ages it flourished,
+being almost as famous with the ancients as a health-resort as it is
+to-day; but its evil hour came when the Goths, Lombards and Franks in
+A.D. 405, pouring through the defiles and gorges of the Maritime Alps,
+laid Nice and almost all the other cities of Italy, even beyond Rome, in
+ashes. A hundred years later it was rebuilt, but its beautiful forum,
+its classical temples, its mosaic-paved villas and marble theatres had
+disappeared utterly, and the new city was but a shadow of the old. In
+the tenth century the Saracens conquered Nice, and remained in quiet
+possession for seventy years, and during their stay introduced much of
+the tropical vegetation which we still admire. They were finally driven
+away by the insurgent natives in A.D. 975, but they left the impress of
+their occupation in many Arabic words which still mark the local
+_patois_; and as a number of the fugitives were captured and reduced to
+slavery, intermarrying in the course of time with the native population,
+the Moorish type is still very noticeable amongst the peasantry. Freed
+from the Saracenic yoke, the Niçois lived in peace for nearly two
+centuries, being only disturbed from time to time by the unwelcome
+visitations of pirates. Later on, toward the middle of the thirteenth
+century, like most other Southern and Italian cities, Nice fell a victim
+to the constant quarrels of the powerful families allied respectively to
+the Ghibelline and Guelphic factions. Thus, the incessant broils between
+the Lascaris of Tenda, the Grimaldis of Monaco and the Dorias of
+Dolceacqua desolated the surrounding country, and often reduced the city
+to a state of siege. The Niçois were compelled to keep up a perpetual
+guerilla, which, however inspiriting, was by no means conducive to their
+material prosperity. In 1364 an invasion of locusts from Africa led to a
+famine, and ultimately a plague which destroyed two-thirds of the
+population. The people, attributing their misfortunes to the
+intercession of the Jews with the powers below, rose up and massacred
+them: only five Israelites out of over two thousand are said to have
+escaped their blind fury. When order was at last re-established, and the
+Niçois began to settle down again, they perceived their impoverished and
+subordinate position to be so alarming that their only chance of safety
+was immediately to place themselves under the protection of the dukes of
+Savoy, who for a century and a half defended them from the attacks of
+their numerous enemies in a most valiant manner. But in 1521, Francis I.
+of France wrenched the city and province from the beneficent rule of the
+Savoyards and proclaimed himself count of Nice. In 1524 war broke out
+between Francis and the emperor Charles V., and the contending armies
+alternately devastated and pillaged Nice and its environs. The pest
+reappeared, and with it a drought and famine of so fearful a character
+that many thousand persons perished, and others in their despair slew
+themselves. Pope Paul III. undertook the difficult task of reconciling
+the belligerents, and even went so far as to travel to Nice for the
+purpose. A marble cross which gives its name to a suburb of the town
+("La Croix de Marbre") still marks the spot where the conference took
+place in which Francis and Charles swore a peace in the presence of His
+Holiness which they took the first opportunity to violate. In 1540 the
+war recommenced, and a number of dissolute young men of good family
+formed themselves into organized companies of bandits and overran
+the country, to the terror of the wretched peasantry and the utter ruin
+of many hundreds of honest families. But in 1543 a second Joan of Arc
+was raised up by Providence to deliver the Niçois in the person of the
+still popular heroine, Catterina Segurana. Francis I. had recently
+scandalized Christendom by allying himself with the famous Mohammedan
+corsair, Barbarossa of Algiers with a view of reconquering Nice, which
+he considered the key of Italy. Accordingly, one fine morning three
+hundred vessels belonging to the Algerine pirate entered the neighboring
+port of Villefranche, and presently the whole country was filled with a
+horde of turbaned freebooters. Cimiez, Montboron, Mont Gros and a
+hundred other villages and hamlets were soon alive with French marauders
+and Turkish pirates, who presently proceeded to bombard the city itself.
+The siege was short, but terrible, and the inhabitants were at the last
+gasp when the energetic Catterina Segurana, a washer-woman by trade, and
+surnamed _Mao faccia_ ("Ugly face"), on account of the homeliness of her
+countenance, seized a hatchet, and, after a vigorous address to her
+fellow-citizens, placed herself at their head and led them against the
+enemy. The same result attended her efforts as did those of her
+immediate prototype, the glorious Maid of Orleans. She so animated the
+people, so roused their patriotism, that before the day was over the
+French and infidels were conquered, and the bold and generous Catterina.
+stood surrounded by her enthusiastic fellow-citizens, waving the
+conquered Algerine flag, in token of victory, from the summit of the
+castle hill, on the spot where formerly stood her statue.[001]
+
+From the time of the brave Catterina to our own, Nice has sustained at
+least a dozen sieges of more or less severity. That of 1706 was perhaps
+one of the most shocking on record. The city, by the treaty of Turin of
+1696, had once more passed under the protectorate of the dukes of Savoy,
+but the French, who have always had a longing eye for the "Department of
+the Maritime Alps," as they even then called it, broke the treaty they
+had themselves framed, and sent the duc de la Feuillade over the
+frontier with twenty thousand men to conquer the country. Nice was then
+governed by the marquis de Caraglio, who, although entreated by the
+enemy to allow the women and children to leave the city's gates,
+positively refused to do so. The consequence was that during the siege,
+which lasted six months, more than a third of the inhabitants perished
+from starvation. Men are said to have killed their wives for food, and
+women their children. Sixty thousand shells fell in various parts of the
+town, and the castle, cathedral and many churches were entirely
+destroyed.[002]
+
+In 1792, under the First Republic, Nice was again occupied by the
+French, and declared a _chef-lieu de département_. By the treaty of 1814
+the place was handed over to the Piedmontese, and stayed contentedly
+beneath the rule of the Sardinian kings until 1860, when, by the treaty
+of March 24, Napoleon III. annexed the county of Nice and the duchy of
+Savoy to his imperial possessions, in exchange for the services his army
+had rendered Italy at Magenta and Solferino. How long Nice will continue
+French is a question somewhat difficult to answer just now. There exists
+in the city and province a very strong Italian party, and during the war
+of 1870, Nice was declared in a state of siege, owing to the constant
+and very serious demonstrations of a certain part of the population. One
+of the leading inhabitants, a noted banker, even went so far as
+to travel to Florence with the intention of proving to the Italian
+government that whilst the French troops were concentrated in the north
+those of Victor Emmanuel would find no difficulty in crossing the
+frontier and uniting Nice to Italy. To the honor of the Italian
+government, this treacherous suggestion was rejected, but in those days
+the feeling between France and Italy was more cordial than it has since
+been. The Italian party is so active in the city and the department that
+the government has difficulty in keeping note of its proceedings.
+Thousands of pamphlets are secretly circulated amongst the lower orders,
+in which the advantages of the city's return to Italy are vividly
+contrasted with the disadvantages it suffers from by remaining French.
+The clergy, however, who are both numerous and influential, are French
+to a man, and dread the hour which will see them governed by the "jailer
+of Pius IX.," and consequently prove a very great assistance to the
+authorities in counteracting the intrigues of the Italians. But should
+ever, in future years, a war break out between either France and Italy,
+or between France and Italy's new ally, Prussia, the _question de Nice_
+will be once more on the _tapis_, and victory alone will preserve this
+magnificent possession to its present owners.
+
+Nice may well boast herself a rival in point of splendor of natural
+position of the most famous cities of the South--of Lisbon, Genoa,
+Naples and Constantinople--and she eclipses them in point of climate.
+Built at the eastern extremity of a fine gulf--that of Les Anges--and
+backed by an amphitheatre of hills and lofty mountains, she is sheltered
+from cold winds in winter, and in summer the Alpine breezes temper an
+atmosphere which would else be unendurably sultry, owing to the
+prevalence of the sirocco, a hot wind which passes directly hither over
+the Mediterranean from the burning shores of Africa. One can scarcely
+imagine a more glorious panorama than that of this city and its environs
+as seen from the sea or from any neighboring elevation. Let us suppose
+it a fine morning late in spring, and that we stand upon the deck of a
+yacht about a mile and a half distant from the shore. Nice, we see,
+surrounds a steep and rugged rock which rises almost perpendicularly
+from the Mediterranean to the height of about six hundred feet, and is
+crested by the ruins of the ancient castle, and covered with terraced
+gardens forming a delicious promenade. Groves of cypresses and sycamores
+hang on the declivities of this rock, which in places is rough with
+cactuses and aloes and with the Indian fig, whose bright orange flowers,
+when the sun's rays fall on them, have a magic splendor of color. A
+group of palm trees at the extremest elevation, standing out on a high
+crag, add not a little to the picturesque appearance of this singular
+urban hill. On one side of this rock the rapid torrent Paillon,
+traversed by several handsome bridges, some of them adorned with
+statues, separates the "old" from the "new" town. On the other is the
+port, filled with steamers and innumerable fishing-craft. Beyond the
+port stretches the Boulevard de l'Impératrice, inaugurated a few years
+since by the late empress of Russia, with its fine villas, notably the
+splendid Venetian Palace, an exact reproduction of the celebrated
+Moncenigo Palace at Venice, belonging to Viscount Vigier, whose wife was
+once a popular idol of the musical world of Paris and London--Sophie
+Cruvelli--and the extraordinary Moresque-looking castle of Mr. Smith,
+which is well called the _Folie d'un Anglais_--the "craze of an
+Englishman." The latter stands on the end of a promontory, and with its
+lofty towers and domes closes in the view. It is perhaps the most
+curious residence in the world, being built on a barren rock, and its
+apartments literally hewn out of the marble of which it is composed. On
+the top of the hill is a long building, with two curious twin towers and
+a dome, built of red brick faced with white marble. Here is situated the
+chief entrance. You descend from the spacious entry-hall a long well
+staircase cut in the rock and lighted from above, until you reach a
+superb octagonal chamber of white marble ornamented with
+statues and Oriental divans covered with Persian silk. This is the great
+saloon, and leading out of it are other fine chambers, all of them lined
+with polished marble and furnished with Eastern magnificence.
+Externally, there is no trace of these chambers visible. They are, as I
+have said, excavated, like Egyptian tombs, in the heart of the mountain.
+The proprietor, an eccentric English bachelor, never inhabits this
+fantastic mansion, but lives in a second-rate hotel, spending thousands
+annually in adding embellishments to his astonishing castle, where,
+notwithstanding its magnificent suites of apartments, no human being has
+ever slept a night or eaten a meal.
+
+"Smith's Craze," as I have said, closes in the view to our right. To the
+left, beyond the torrent Paillon, is situated modern Nice, with its
+quays, leviathan hotels, and an almost interminable line of villas
+marking the celebrated Promenade des Anglais. The background of the
+scene is filled up by a semicircle of well-wooded hills, verdant with
+vines, fig, orange, olive and pomegranate trees, and sparkling with
+white country-seats, convents, and campanili. Towering over these hills
+appears another range, of rocky and bold outlines, and then another, of
+lofty mountains whose peaks lose themselves in clouds, and by their
+fantastic figures form as delightful an horizon as the eye can behold.
+In the centre rises the conical peak of Monte Cao, an extinct volcano,
+exactly resembling Vesuvius in conformation, and only wanting a curl of
+smoke issuing from its crater to make the illusion perfect. Alongside of
+Monte Cao is another extinct volcano, on which are seen the ruins of the
+ancient and deserted village of Châteauneuf, while between the two
+summits (thirty-five hundred feet high) are distinctly visible the peaks
+of some of the ever-snowy Alps. The foreground of the picture is formed
+by the deep indigo waters of the Mediterranean, diversified by a hundred
+sunny sails, and overhead hangs the cloudless Italian sky.
+
+Let us now put back to port and walk through the city, visiting first
+Old Nice, then the modern Pompeii, as Alphonse Karr pleasantly calls
+the new town. Old Nice resembles Genoa on a small scale, and has very
+narrow streets of lofty (and in some cases really fine) houses, no end
+of churches, gloomy-looking convents, and one or two palaces. In the
+narrow streets surrounding the cathedral--a large and showy building,
+formerly a parish church--is a market supplied with native
+fruits--oranges, lemons, grapes, figs, and many varieties of melons and
+nuts. The streets, which are in places so narrow that you can almost
+stretch your arms across them, are full of bright-looking shops, with
+all their varied goods displayed at the open, unglazed windows. Here and
+there one comes across remains of ancient times of considerable
+interest. Thus, in the Rue Droite is an old house, with a series of
+quaint little arches and a curious Gothic gateway, which was formerly
+part of the palace inhabited by Joanna II. of Naples. Near the church of
+St. Jacques is another old residence, with an odd decoration on its
+front in the shape of colossal figures of Adam and Eve, executed in
+alto-rilievo, which have their feet on either side of the doorway and
+their heads above the fifth story. The tree of knowledge, over-laden
+with its dangerous fruit, flourishes between the windows of what was
+once the saloon, and is now a manufactory of maccaroni. In the Rue du
+Centre is the quondam palace of the Lascaris family, an old Italian
+mansion, with marble balconies, wide, majestic staircases adorned with
+Corinthian columns, and vast apartments frescoed by Carlone, a reputable
+Genoese painter of mythological subjects. Carlone's gods and goddesses
+look down no longer on the members of the House of Lascaris, who once
+ruled over Tenda, and were the lineal descendants of the imperial
+Byzantine house of Del Comneno, but on those of an amiable Niçois
+family, who most willingly show the old palace to any stranger who may
+choose to knock at their door.
+
+Some years ago a Turinese lawyer, looking over his father's private
+papers, discovered that he was the legitimate heir to the Lascaris
+titles and estates, which had been left unreclaimed for many
+centuries. This gentleman, on proving his claim, assumed the grandiose
+title of Prince Lascaris del Comneno, grand duke of Macedonia. His glory
+was short-lived. His wife went to Rome and obtained a full recognition
+of her rights from the Holy Father and admission into the first circles
+of Roman society, but was subsequently expelled from the city for
+plotting against the papal government; but she returned with the
+Piedmontese occupation in 1870, only, however, to get into a still worse
+pickle by exposing herself to the charge of defrauding Flaminio Spada's
+bank of a large sum of money. During the trial she _mizzled_, and has
+not, I believe, been heard of since. This lady is the famous "Princess
+Mopsa" about whose adventures the Roman papers have entertained their
+readers considerably during the last year or so.
+
+The churches are usually in the Italian style, having heavy façades,
+plain brick sides and queer but rather picturesque bell-towers.
+Internally, they are gaudy and tasteless, the altars ornamented on high
+days and holidays with innumerable wax candles, festoons of red, white
+and blue drapery, and huge pyramids of paper roses with gold foliage.
+Ecclesiastical affairs are presided over by Monsignor Pietro Sola, a
+charming old bishop, who is the essence of kindliness and charity. He
+was formerly one of the spiritual directors of Queen Adelaide of
+Austria, the late wife of Victor Emmanuel. The number of priests, monks
+and nuns is very considerable. There is a very large Franciscan
+monastery up at Cimiez on the hill, and a rambling old Capuchin convent
+at St. Bartolomé. The Nice Capuchins are a splendid body of men, and a
+goodly sight to see marching in a procession with their
+chocolate-colored hooded robes and long, flowing beards. Their present
+prior is a marquis Raggi of Genoa, a man of high family and rank, who
+some years since abandoned a world he had known only too well, gave all
+his fortune to the poor, and turned monk.
+
+There is a street in the old part of Nice which is perfectly unique. It
+is nearly a mile and a half long, runs parallel with the sea, and
+consists of a double row of low, one-storied houses having a paved
+terrace on their roofs, to which you ascend by several handsome
+staircases. The terrace forms a very popular promenade of an evening,
+and from it are enjoyed lovely views of the bay and mountains. Between
+these two rows of houses is the fish-market, where are frequently seen
+displayed monsters like Victor Hugo's famous _pieuve_ sprawling out
+their dozen glutinous legs fringed with eyes and deadly weapons in
+almost supernatural hideousness, to the admiration of a group of English
+or American tourists. Hard by the fish-market is the Corso, a shady
+promenade round which the gala carriages drive in Carnival time, while
+the masked inmates pelt and get pelted in turn with comfits made of
+painted clay. The Corso is also the scene of numerous religious
+processions, some of which are quaint and picturesque. There are a
+number of ancient confraternities established amongst the trades-people
+of Nice, who wear costumes of, red, white, black and blue serge,
+according to the guild they belong to. This sack-like garment covers
+them from head to foot, face and all, there being only two eyeholes slit
+in the mask to permit the wearer to see out. These brotherhoods attend
+the sick, bury the dead and take care of the widows and orphans, and in
+Holy Week make the narrow streets of the old city delightful to the
+artistic eye by the bright mass of their vivid-colored raiment, the
+flickering of their tapers, and the gigantic crucifixes of gold and
+silver they carry in procession from church to church. Every morning
+there is a market held on the Corso of fruits, vegetables and flowers.
+Such magnificent baskets of camellias, japonicas and roses, such
+nosegays of violets and orange-blossoms, can be seen, I fancy, nowhere
+but at Nice. Here also the peasant-women sometimes bring immense pots of
+Peruvian aloes for sale, whose snowy blossoms are scented like those of
+the magnolia, and rise in gigantic pyramids of magnificent cup-shaped
+flowers. They are plants to salute respectfully as you pass by
+them, such is their size and dignity. In Holy Week women are to be seen
+all over the old town selling plaited palm branches of a pale
+straw-color, some of which are bedecked with little bows of ribbon or
+stars of tinsel, used in the ceremonies of Palm Sunday. The
+peasant-girls who come to market at Nice are rather handsome, but as
+dark as Nubians, with almond-shaped eyes and long, coarse black hair,
+which they wear plaited into tails bound round the head with broad
+velvet ribbons, like a coronet. On the top of this headgear they sport a
+wide-brimmed straw hat of peculiar shape, ornamented with little black
+crosses made of narrow velvet. In Princess Marie Lichtenstein's _Holland
+House_ there is a portrait of Lady Augusta Holland wearing one of these
+Nice hats.
+
+But it is time for us to cross the bridges and pay our respects to Nice
+the "new." When I first visited Nice in 1856 at least two-thirds of this
+part of the city were not in existence. There were no splendid
+railway-stations then; only one or two, instead of twenty, monster
+hotels; the Promenade des Anglais only extended about a mile along the
+shore, instead of four; and there were but one quay and two bridges. Now
+superb quays line the river on either side, and there are six bridges,
+and Heaven only knows how many churches for the accommodation of all the
+denominations imaginable and unimaginable, from Père Lavigne's very
+beautiful and very orthodox church, in which Monsignor Capel has
+preached in Lent, down to Léon Pilate's, where collections are made for
+the evangelical missions presided over by Mrs. Gould and W.C. Van Metre.
+There is a Greek church of exceeding beauty, the altar-screen of which
+was sent from Moscow as a present from the czar; and an Episcopal
+church, surrounded by a beautiful cemetery, where sleeps the philosophic
+Bussy d'Anglas, with many others whose names are well known. The real
+Niçois almost all dwell in Old Nice, leaving the new city to the foreign
+colony. Indeed, the natives are rarely if ever seen, except in the
+street. They keep to their old quiet way of living, and, beyond letting
+their houses and selling their goods, appear to be utterly unconscious
+even of the existence of the strangers on the other side of Paillon.
+Many of the Nice families are titled and wealthy, but with the exception
+of that of the count de Cessoles, it is very rare to meet the Niçois in
+society. Mademoiselle Mathilde de Cessoles is the reigning belle, and
+deserves the honor. She is a superb-looking woman, with a head and
+countenance worthy of a regal diadem. Her features resemble those of the
+House of Bourbon, her complexion is admirable, and she has a certain
+good-natured, indolent, sultana way of moving which is perfectly
+charming. Cupid alone knows how many have sighed for her hand since her
+long reign as a queen of society began, but none have as yet been
+favored with a kinder glance than that of friendship. Scottish dukes,
+Roman princes and American officers have wooed, but never won: la belle
+Mathilde still walks the orange groves of her villa, "in virgin
+meditation, fancy free."
+
+"But it waxes late--'tis near three o'clock:" let us hasten past the
+casinos, cafes, reading-rooms, Turkish baths and American drinking-bars
+which flourish on the quays, and make our way to the Promenade des
+Anglais, by this time alive with fashionables. The "Promenade," as I
+have said, is nearly four miles long, and faces the sea. It is very
+broad, and has on one side a row of villas and hotels--on the other a
+walk shaded by oleanders and palm trees, through the openings of which
+are obtained magnificent views of the Mediterranean. Some of these
+villas are remarkably beautiful, especially that of the Princes Stirby,
+the former sovereigns of Wallachia, which is surrounded with exquisite
+gardens abounding with noble camellia trees, some of which produce as
+many as fifteen hundred flowers. The Villa de Dempierre is very pretty,
+and is the property of the countess of that name, who is a most
+noteworthy person. Madame de Dempierre belongs to one of the most
+ancient and wealthy families of France. She was once a great
+beauty, and is still a brilliant wit and charming artist. Some years ago
+she visited the empress of Russia, then residing at Nice, where she
+died. Her Imperial Majesty, who was noted for her habit of making
+personal remarks, said bluntly, "Madame la comtesse, how beautiful you
+must have been!" "Majesty," answered the _spirituelle_ Madame de
+Dempierre, "you were complaining of the nearness of your sight: since
+you can distinguish my beauty through the vista of so many years, I
+think you enjoy long-sightedness in a remarkable degree." The empress
+wrinkled her nose, and presently observed: "I think, countess, I
+remember to have seen your husband, General de Dempierre, in Russia."
+"Doubtless Your Majesty did so: he was the first Frenchman that entered
+the Kremlin." The czarina was silent: the fall of Moscow was not a
+pleasant subject of conversation to the wife of Nicholas. The Villa de
+Diesbach comes next, the winter residence of the historical family of
+that name, into which married a few years since a tall, gazelle-eyed
+American belle, Miss Meta McCall. Then follows the pretty Villa
+Bouxhoevden, the property of a Corlandese count of a very noble house,
+whose wife hails from New Jersey. The countess is much the fashion, and
+her hospitable house is a rendezvous of the elite of the foreign and
+American colony. She is a tall, graceful woman, with a pale and
+interesting countenance, shadowed with clusters of light-brown curls,
+which reminds one of Vandyke's portraits of Queen Henrietta Maria--a
+likeness somewhat increased by costumes admirably suited to her
+style--long flowing robes of rich silk trimmed with ermine and costly
+lace. Then there is Mrs. Williams's garden, with Indian creepers and
+gaudy Eastern plants, sent to her by her gallant son, the Crimean hero,
+from the slopes of the Himalayas. Here on a Sunday gathers a pleasant
+circle to drink five-o'clock tea and listen to the bright remarks of
+Madame de la Caume, the daughter of the hostess, who knows more about
+French politics than many a deputy at Versailles. But whilst we have
+been looking in at villa-gardens the Promenade has filled up rapidly. A
+continuous stream of carriages occupies the centre of the road, a throng
+of gay folks animate with their showiest toilets the oleander walk and
+the Jardin Publique, where a tolerable band plays for two or three hours
+thrice a week. The marble stairs of the Casino are crowded with
+loungers, and the windows and balconies of every villa are filled with
+well-dressed men and women. Nowhere, perhaps, excepting in Rotten Row or
+the Bois de Boulogne, can so many celebrated and beautiful women and
+handsome or famous men be seen parading up and down together as on the
+Promenade des Anglais of a fine afternoon in the season. Here gathers
+the _crême de la crême_ of two worlds, the Old and the New, Europe and
+America. In the winter of 1870 the town was crowded to excess. Never
+before were there so many notabilities assembled at Nice--never was
+there so much gossip, so much _cancan_ and small talk. It was amusing to
+sit in the shade of a palm tree on the promenade and review the
+_personæ_ of this Vanity Fair. Frederick Charles of Prussia and his
+princess in a landau, with two Nubians on the box; the crown-princess
+Victoria of England and her sister of Hesse-Darmstadt, on a trip from
+Cannes, where they were then visiting; Her Grace of Newcastle; De
+Villemessant of the _Figaro_, in an invalid's chair, the most
+accomplished of _causeurs_; Count Montalivet, the former minister of
+Louis Philippe, and by him, for a few days at the full of the season, a
+little old gentleman with a squeaky voice, M. Adolphe Thiers. Next comes
+a group of ladies, the three daughters of the Hispano-Mexican duchess De
+Fernan-Nuñez; all three looking exactly alike, tall and dark; all three
+of a height; all three invariably dressed in black, with lofty Tyrolese
+hats and cocks' feathers; all three unmarried; all three marriageable,
+and worth Croesus only knows how many millions; all three invariably
+alone--a fact which made old Madame Colaredo scream out of her window
+one day, "_Tiens! voilà les trois cent (sans) gardes_!" Then follow
+Lord Rokeby, the most affable of lordships; Lord Portarlington;
+General Sir William Williams of Kars; Princess Kantacuzène, the last
+descendant of the imperial Byzantine house of that name; the ideally
+lovely Miss Amy Shaw of Boston; the three pretty Miss Warrens of New
+York; Madame Gavini de Campile, the wife of the prefect, a fine-looking
+dame gloriously arrayed in showy robes, whom half the society adored and
+the rest cordially hated; the duke de Mouchy, who married Anna Murat;
+the duke de Périgord-Talleyrand, who married an American; the duke de la
+Conquista, who derives his title from the conquest of Peru; the lovely
+countess Del Borgo; and the famous Italian beauty, Madame Bellotti, a
+Milanese lady, whose maiden name was Visconti, of that semi-royal house.
+Theresa Bellotti's beauty is of a grand style seen nowhere out of Italy.
+Picture her to yourself as I once saw her at a masquerade at the
+préfecture. Round her superb figure swept an ample robe of crimson
+velvet looped up with bands of gold. Her bare arms, models worthy of the
+chisel of Canova, gleamed from the rich sables which lined the hanging
+sleeves of her dress. Her hair, dark as night, was gathered up in the
+high fashion Sir Joshua Reynolds loved to depict. A half-moon of
+enormous diamonds fastened a plume over her left temple, and her neck
+and fingers flashed back the colors of the rainbow from a thousand gems.
+As to her face, it was radiant. Rich color flushed her cheeks, her eyes
+sparkled with animation when she spoke; but at times, when her features
+resumed a calm after conversation, she resembled the portraits of some
+of the famous Italian women of the Renaissance--her own ancestress, for
+instance, Bianca Visconti, duchess of Milan, or Veronica Cibò, or
+Lucrezia Petroni, whose daughter was the ill-fated Beatrice Cenci. And
+now come by the fascinating Mrs. Lloyd, whom all the world knows and
+likes; grand-looking Mrs. Senator Grymes of Louisiana, a witty,
+brilliant old lady, whose salon is one of the most elegant in Nice;
+Baron Haussmann, and with him his colossal daughter, Madame de Perneti,
+the handsomest of giantesses, who was once asked to join in private
+theatricals, but when the stage was built up in her friend's
+drawing-room, being about five feet from the level of the rest of the
+chamber, it was discovered that _la belle Caryatide_, as her friends
+call her, could not act on it, for the simple reason that she was a full
+head taller than the scenery; clever Madame de Skariatine, the daughter
+of the famous Count Schouvalof (the "Shoveloff" of our times), who,
+after being Russian ambassador half over Europe, turned Barnabite monk
+at Rome; Lady Dalling and Bulwer, the great duke of Wellington's niece,
+and now the widow of one of England's most illustrious statesmen;
+hospitable Marquise de St. Agnan, and her pretty daughter, Mademoiselle
+Henriette; and Princess Souvarow, _ci-devant_ widow Apraxine, _ci-devant_
+widow Kisselof, the most fascinating of Russian princesses, and one of
+the greatest of female gamblers, who one night broke the bank at Monte
+Carlo for two hundred and fifty thousand francs, and lost them the next.
+On the opposite side of the way, screening herself from observation,
+demurely clad in sober-colored attire, Madame Volnis passes along from
+some mission of charity. This lady was once one of the most popular
+actresses on the French stage, and with Mademoiselle Mars and Rose Chéri
+was the idol of Paris--Léontine Fay. She was, if possible, a still
+greater favorite in St. Petersburg, where, on her retirement from the
+stage, she became French reader to the late czarina. Since the death of
+the empress she has always resided at Nice, where she is distinguished
+for her exalted piety and extreme charity. Even when on the stage this
+lady devoted her leisure to charitable works. She was always remarked
+for her modesty of manner: her dress was simplicity itself. At the
+theatre she wore costumes rich and elegant, suited to the parts she
+enacted, but in society she invariably appeared in plain white muslin or
+dark silk. It would be impossible to exaggerate her goodness. Her whole
+life has been passed amongst the poor, in the minute fulfillment
+of her duties, and on her knees in church. After acting one part of
+the evening, she would hasten, on the fall of the curtain, to pass the
+rest of it watching by the bedside of some poor wretch stricken low
+perhaps by some infectious disease. During the war of 1870, Madame
+Volnis's conduct was angelical. If there was some awful operation to be
+performed upon any of the wounded soldiers sent to Nice from the field
+of battle, it was she who was present, who held the sufferer's hand, and
+who consoled and cheered with the tenderness of a Sister of Charity--of
+a mother.
+
+As the austere figure of Léontine Fay passes away, hidden in a cloud of
+sunny dust raised by the wheels of a hundred carriages, another form
+comes upon the stage, radiant amongst the most brilliant, the observed
+of all observers--Madame Rattazzi, _née_ Princess Bonaparte Wyse. What a
+wonderful toilette is hers! One fine afternoon she appeared upon the
+Promenade clad in a purple velvet robe, edged and flounced with
+canary-colored satin, looped up voluminously _en panier_, and adorned
+with big bows of yellow ribbon. Her hat was a broad-brimmed Leghorn
+straw trimmed with large bunches of pansies. No one but Madame Rattazzi
+could have worn such an attire in the public streets without the risk of
+being hooted, but such are the grace and beauty of this celebrated woman
+that her costume seemed in perfect keeping. She was in Nice one winter
+for at least five months, and every day saw her out in a fresh dress.
+When she travels she has more boxes than Madame Ristori. She dwelt on
+the Promenade, over the dowager of Colaredo, who had a special spite
+against her; in consequence of which she invariably illuminated her
+windows, when she had company, with the Italian colors, red, white and
+green, to the supreme disgust of the old Ultramontane countess. Her
+apartment was elegantly furnished, and adorned with beautiful vases of
+mignonette and plants of moss-roses. When she received of an evening the
+chambers were agreeably lighted up with many pale and subdued lamps. Her
+tables were always covered with new books, magazines and several copies
+of her own poems and novels, including an exceedingly clever story,
+_Louise Keller_, which she had just finished. On the walls hung pictures
+in oil and water-colors of her own execution; on the piano were
+scattered, together with much classical music, some hymns, polkas and
+ballads of her composition. One night she acted in a comedy of her own
+writing, and her rendering of the part of the heroine, a witty and
+intriguing widow, was inimitable. Many severe critics have declared that
+Madame Rattazzi is, as an actress, a worthy rival of Fargeuil or
+Madeleine Brohan. Her manners are very fascinating--a little bit too
+natural to be quite French, and a little too ceremonious to be quite
+Italian. She would have proved an invaluable acquisition at the downfall
+of the tower of Babel, for she is mistress of I dare not say how many
+languages. As a rule, women hate her, and men do just the contrary. This
+is not to be wondered at, for she is very beautiful even now. Her face
+has the chiseled cameo features of her uncle, Napoleon I.; her eyes are
+deep violet, fringed with long sweeping lashes; her mouth is perfectly
+exquisite, and on either side of it two pretty dimples appear whenever
+she smiles. So many enemies has she amongst her own sex that to avenge
+herself for the affronts they constantly offer her she published a
+magazine in Florence called the _Matinées Italiennes_, for the purpose
+of showing up her female antagonists. Here is a sample: "At Nice a grand
+ball; Madame la Viscomtesse de B---- _en grande toilette_, looking for
+all the world like a big Nuremberg doll, with her black hair dyed an
+impossible straw-color, and appearing at least five years younger than
+she did when I first saw her make her _début_ in society five-and-twenty
+years ago; and she was then a gushing maiden of twenty-one." By and by
+comes the hour of vengeance. Madame Rattazzi gives a ball, and not a
+woman will go to it. In 1870 she gave one at the Grand Hotel, to which
+half the town was invited. There arrived at the festal scene
+about five hundred men and just thirty-two women. It was funny enough.
+The thirty-two women besported themselves with thirty-two partners in
+the centre of the hall to the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut,
+psaltery, and all kinds of musical instruments, whilst the rest of the
+men stood round the hall five deep, like a deep dark fringe on a Turkish
+carpet. Madame Rattazzi, however, achieved a great triumph against all
+odds. By dint of grace, charm of manners and tact she put all her guests
+in the best humor. The "thirty-two" had a fine time of it, and danced to
+their hearts' content. The five hundred men were introduced and grouped
+and wined and punched until every man there swore that earth did not
+hold a fairer or more genial hostess. Madame Rattazzi was "supported,"
+as the phrase goes, on this memorable occasion by Madame la Princesse,
+her mother, a rather formidable-looking dowager, a daughter of Lucian
+Bonaparte, and widow of Sir Thomas Wyse, once British consul at Athens.
+Her Imperial Highness Princess Letitia must have been a wonderful beauty
+in her youth--a stately grand being who one could easily imagine might
+have resembled the Roman Agrippina or empress Livia. Once the barrier of
+her stately manners overcome, she proved to be a talkative, affable
+woman of the world, with a huge experience thereof. I can see her now,
+dressed in a scarlet satin robe and glittering with jewels. She wore a
+headdress of diamonds with two long ostrich feathers in it, one of
+which, a white one, got out of its place and stood bolt upright, as if
+it was frightened, until some charitable hand laid it down. This was, I
+fancy, the last ball Princess Letitia ever graced, for she died a very
+little while afterward. Poor Rattazzi was there too. He was not a
+striking-looking man, but agreeable and excessively polite. He rarely
+talked politics--I rather suspect from the fear of compromising
+himself--but his conversation was was pleasant and varied. After his
+death Madame Rattazzi removed to Monaco, where she busied herself with
+editing his letters and memoirs--a task which, it appears, the Italian
+government would be delighted that she should spare herself, as his
+papers are said to be very full of compromising matter relative to the
+Mentana expedition. A large sum of money was offered her to relinquish
+her hold on these documents, but she answered by a letter published in
+the Italian papers that they were left to her as a sacred trust, and
+that she felt herself in duty bound to make their contents public, in
+order to justify her husband's memory. As a curious proof of her
+political sagacity--unless it is to be considered a mere coincidence--I
+may mention that in January, 1870, she came to a masked ball at the
+Casino dressed as Mars, in a short skirt of red satin, a cuirass of
+gold, on her head a helmet, in one hand a spear, and in the other a
+shield, and on it was written "Roma." Did Madame Rattazzi foresee that
+by September of the same year there would be a war, and that as one of
+its results Rome would so soon become the capital of that Italy which
+her husband had helped to build up?[003]
+
+From this somewhat rambling sketch the reader will readily understand
+that Nice is one of the great centres of society in Europe, and indeed
+in late years it is rather, as a place of gay reunion that it is
+frequented than as a resort for invalids. Since the foundation of
+quieter colonies at Mentone and San Remo, Nice has somewhat lost its
+reputation as a sanitarium, for it is rather difficult, especially for
+young people, to resist the temptation of its innumerable balls and
+round of gayeties; and these are not considered conducive to the
+preservation of health even amongst the healthiest. The medical men,
+therefore, recommend places along the neighboring coast which enjoy
+the same or even greater advantages of climate. That of Nice, after
+all that has been written about it, still seems to me one of the finest
+in the world. The air is exquisitely pure and clear, and has proved
+beneficial in many hundreds of cases of incipient consumption. But the
+fatal error is often made of sending hither patients in whom the disease
+has made considerable progress. In such cases the irritating air hastens
+death. I have known people brought here in the second and last stages of
+consumption, who have been carried off in a fortnight after their
+arrival, and who might have lingered on for years elsewhere. The patient
+who finds himself benefited should remain at Nice for at least three or
+four years, only varying the air in summer by a visit to some of the
+many pleasant places in the neighboring mountains, where the atmosphere
+is pure, cool and wholesome. Perhaps, it is owing in part to the
+brightness of the sunshine and the beauty of the scenery that soon after
+his arrival the health of the invalid often revives as if by
+enchantment. Alphonse Karr, a resident of many years, who knows every
+nook and corner of the place, and who has cultivated a garden in its
+environs as celebrated throughout the world as his own sparkling pen,
+says well: "Who is there so downhearted as to resist the glorious heat
+of the sun, the beauty of that deepest of blue seas, the loveliness of
+the varied trees, the tropical vegetation, the scent of the
+orange-flowers, the music of the brooks, the sight of the ever-changing
+hues of the mountains of _Nizza la bella_?"
+
+                                        R. DAVEY.
+
+
+
+
+THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.
+
+FROM THE FRENCH OF ANATOLE LEROY-BEAULIEU.
+
+
+
+
+I.--ORIGIN OF THE RASKOL.
+
+
+For more than two centuries Russian orthodoxy has been undermined by
+obscure sects, unknown to foreigners, and little known to Russians
+themselves. Beneath the imposing pile of the official Church have been
+hollowed out vast underground burrows and a labyrinth of gloomy crypts,
+which form a retreat for the popular beliefs and superstitions. We
+propose to descend into these catacombs of ignorance and fanaticism. We
+shall attempt to map them out, to explore their remotest nooks, and to
+lay hold in this, their hiding-place, of the character and aspirations
+of the people. Nothing could yield better means of acquaintance with the
+genius of the nation and the groundwork of Russian society. The
+_Raskol_, with its thousand sects, is perhaps the most original
+feature of Russia, and what most sharply distinguishes it from Western
+Europe.
+
+Like rivers colored by the soil through which they flow, religions often
+change their characteristics according to the nations who practice them.
+The Raskol is Byzantine Christianity issuing from the Russian lower
+classes. In the thick and muddy waters of Muscovite sectarianism we can
+distinguish foreign admixtures, sometimes Protestant, sometimes Jewish,
+or even Mohammedan, more frequently Gnostic or pagan. The Raskol,
+nevertheless, remains wholly different, in principle and in tendency,
+from all the religions and religious movements of the world: it is
+original and national from the foundation up. So thoroughly Russian is
+it that outside of its native country it has never made a proselyte, and
+even within the empire has hardly any adherents excepting among the
+people of "Greater Russia," the most thoroughly national of all. So
+spontaneous has been its growth that in all its phases it is its own
+best interpreter, and if confined to an isolated continent, its
+development would have been the same. The Raskol is the most national of
+all the religious movements to which Christianity has given birth, and
+at the same time the most exclusively popular. It took its rise, not in
+the schools, nor in the monasteries, but in the mujik's hovel and in the
+shop; and it has never spread beyond its birthplace. Hence, the student
+of politics and the philosopher take a keener interest in ignorant
+heresies than is to be found in their doctrines alone. These sects of
+lately-liberated peasants claim an attention by no means due to their
+meagre theology, from their being the symptom of a mental condition and
+a social state for even a distant approach to which all Western Europe
+would be scoured in vain.
+
+The Raskol (schism) is neither a sect nor a group of sects. It is,
+rather, an aggregate of doctrines and heresies, which are often
+divergent or even contradictory, with no other tie than a common
+starting-point and a common hostility to the official orthodox Church.
+In this respect the Raskol is more nearly analogous to Protestantism
+than to anything else. It is inferior to Protestantism in the numbers
+and education of its adherents, but it almost equals it as regards the
+variety and originality of its developments. Further the likeness cannot
+be fairly said to go. In the midst of their unfilial revolt, German
+Protestantism and the Russian Raskol preserve alike the signs of their
+origin, the stamp (so to speak) of the Church whence they have issued,
+as well as of the widely-differing states of society which gave them
+birth. In Western Europe love of speculation and a critical spirit gave
+rise to the larger part of modern sects, while in Russia they are the
+offspring of reverence and unenlightened obstinacy. In the West, the
+predominance of feeling over the value attached to the externals of
+religion has been the cause of religious divisions, whereas the same
+result has been produced in Russia by an extraordinary reverence for
+external forms for ritual and ceremonial. The two movements thus seem to
+be in absolutely opposite directions, but they have nevertheless
+terminated at the same point. In other words, the Raskol, when once
+freed from the authority which maintained the unity of the faith, was as
+powerless as Protestantism to establish any authority within itself. It
+has in consequence become a prey to the same license of opinion, to the
+same individualism, and, finally, to the same anarchy.
+
+Few religious revolutions have involved results so, complex as the
+Raskol, yet few have been simpler in their inception. The countless
+sects which for two centuries have had their being among the Russian
+people took their rise, in general, from the revision of the liturgy.
+One stock produced them nearly all: only a few sects (though these, by
+the way, are by no means the least curious) date from an earlier time or
+have another origin than this liturgic reform. The Middle Ages in
+Russia, as elsewhere, were marked by the rise of heresies. Of these the
+oldest may have arisen before the Mongol conquest, from contact with
+Greeks or Slaves, particularly with the Bulgarian Bogomiles, the
+ancestors or Oriental brethren of the Albigenses. Other heresies sprang
+up later in the North, in the Novgorod region, from intercourse with
+Jewish or other Western traders. Of most of these the name alone
+remains: such are the _Martinovtsy_, the _Strigolniki_, the
+Judaizers, and so on. All these sects were dying away when the Raskol
+broke out; and it absorbed all the vague, embryonic beliefs floating in
+the popular mind. Some of these antique heresies--the Strigolniki, for
+instance--after having disappeared from history, seem to have come to
+light again in the shape of certain sects of our own days; and one might
+fancy that they had been for centuries running on in an underground
+channel.
+
+In the dim disputes of mediæval times, however, one may make out with
+some clearness the fundamental principle of the Raskol: it is a
+scrupulous veneration for the letter--formalism, in a word. "In such a
+year," says a Novgorod chronicler of the fifteenth century, "certain
+philosophers began to chant, '_O_ Lord, have mercy upon us!' while
+others said, '_Lord_, have mercy upon us!'"[004] In this remark the
+whole Raskol stands revealed. Controversies like these begat the schism
+which has rent the Russian Church asunder. Religious invocations have
+for this people the nature of magical formulæ, the slightest change in
+which destroys their efficacy. The Russian clings to the heathen
+feeling, though he hides it under a Christian veil. He believes in the
+power of particular words and gestures. He still seems to regard his
+priest as a kind of _chaman_, religious ceremonies as enchantments,
+and religion in general as witchcraft. A fondness for rites
+(_obriad_) is indeed one of the characteristics of the inhabitant
+of Greater Russia. The way in which Russia was converted to Christianity
+has much to do with this. The mass of the people became Christians at
+the bidding of others, and with no sufficient preparatory instruction,
+without even having passed through all the stages of that polytheistic
+evolution from which other nations of Europe had emerged before their
+adoption of Christianity. The religion of the gospel was, in its highest
+statement, too far advanced for the mental and social condition of the
+people; and so it was corrupted, or rather reduced to external forms.
+Russia adopted merely the outside of Christianity; and there, even more
+strictly than in the West, it is true that the peasant was still a
+heathen. Other nations have adopted the outside of a religion, and have
+afterward absorbed its spirit: from its geographical and historical
+remoteness such an absorption was hard for Russia to achieve. It was
+separated from the centres of the Christian world by distance and by
+Mongol rule: its religion, like everything else, was debased by poverty
+and ignorance. Theology, properly speaking, utterly vanished, and its
+place was taken by ceremonial, which thus became the whole of religion.
+Amidst the general degradation a knowledge of the words and rites of
+public worship was all that could be exacted of a clergy which did not
+always know how to read.
+
+The changes which had taken place in the traditional texts and ritual
+have little solid ground for the popular devotion entertained for them.
+The liturgy was corrupted by the superstitious veneration paid it by the
+ignorant. False readings had crept into the books which contained the
+various local "uses," to borrow a term from the Anglican terminology.
+Liturgical unity had imperceptibly disappeared amidst various readings
+and discordant ceremonies. In course of transcription absurdities had
+slipped into the missals, along with grotesque additions and arbitrary
+intercalations, while the new readings were received with the respect
+due to antiquity, and these sometimes unintelligible passages acquired a
+sanctity in direct proportion to their obscurity. The devout mind found
+in them mysteries and occult meanings. On such perverted texts were
+erected theories and systems which pious fraud from time to time
+expanded into treatises attributed to the Fathers of the Church. So wild
+was the confusion, and so palpable the alterations, that early in the
+sixteenth century Vassili IV., a Russian prince, summoned a Greek monk
+for the purpose of revising the liturgical books. But the blind
+veneration of the clergy and people rendered this attempt abortive. The
+reviser, Maximus, was condemned by a council, and confined on a charge
+of heresy in a distant monastery. The crisis was superinduced by the
+introduction of the press. Here, as elsewhere, the new discovery brought
+with it a taste for the study and revision of texts, and ultimately
+violent theological contests. The missals which issued from the Russian
+presses of the sixteenth century at first only aggravated the evils for
+which they should have afforded a remedy. The errors of the manuscripts
+from which they were printed received from these missals the authority
+and circulation of type. The copyists had introduced countless
+variations, but these acquired a fresh unity and unanimity from the very
+fact of their publication in such a form.
+
+The Slavonic liturgy of Russia seemed in a state of hopeless corruption
+when, toward the middle of the seventeenth century, the patriarch Nikon
+determined upon a measure of reform. In addition to a degree of
+cultivation unusual in his age and country, and an enterprising and
+determined character, he possessed what was specially required for such
+a step: he had learning, firmness and power, for through his influence
+over Alexis, the czar, he ruled the State almost as thoroughly as he
+ruled the Church. In Russia, as it was before Peter the Great, a task so
+completely dependent on learning was indeed a bold undertaking. By order
+of the patriarch ancient Greek and Slavonic manuscripts were gathered
+from all quarters, and monks were summoned from Byzantium and from the
+learned community of Athos to collate the Slavic versions with their
+Greek originals. The interpolations due to the ignorance or whims of
+copyists were remorselessly stricken out, and into the ritual, thus
+purified, was introduced the pomp customary at the court of Byzantium.
+The new missals were printed and adopted by a council (through the
+patriarch's influence), and finally imposed, with all the authority of
+the state government, on every Russian province. "A sore trembling laid
+hold upon me," says a copyist of the sixteenth century, "and I was
+affrighted when the reverend Maximus the Greek bade me blot out certain
+lines from one of our Church books." Not less was the scandal under
+Peter the Great. The man who laid hands on the sacred books was
+everywhere held guilty of sacrilege. Whether from a knowledge of the
+propriety of the measure, or from the spirit of ecclesiastical fidelity,
+the higher clergy upheld the patriarch, but their inferiors and the
+common people made a determined fight. And even now, after the lapse of
+more than two centuries, a large body adhere immovably to the ancient
+books and the ancient ritual, which are made sacred to them by the
+approbation of national councils and the blessing of generations of
+patriarchs. Such was the inception of the schism, the Raskol, which
+still divides the Russian Church. Tracing the matter back to its source,
+the contest is seen to turn upon the knotty question of the transmission
+and the translation of the sacred texts, which has more than once
+divided the churches of the West. In Russia no one was competent to form
+a proper judgment of the essence of the dispute, and it was thus
+rendered only more lasting and bitter. Monks, deacons, plain sextons,
+denounced the innovations as novelties borrowed from Rome or from the
+Protestants, and as being tantamount to the bringing in of a new
+religion. When the Church brought to bear upon these recusants the pains
+and penalties everywhere employed against heretics, the only result was
+to give the schism martyrs, and with martyrs a fresh impetus. Ten years
+after the promulgation of the revised liturgy its rash author fell a
+victim to the jealousy of the boyards and to his own arrogance, and was
+solemnly deposed by a council. To the Raskol his deposition appeared in
+the light of a justification of their own course. The condemnation of
+the reformer seemed necessarily to involve the condemnation of the
+reform. Great, then, was the popular bewilderment when the council
+turned from deposing the author of the liturgic revision to hurl its
+anathemas against those who opposed that revision. The share taken in
+this excommunication by the Oriental patriarchs rather lessened than
+added to its weight, since the dissenters denied to Greek and Syrian
+bishops, who knew not a letter of the Slavonic alphabet, the right of
+passing judgment on Slavonic books.
+
+The theological world is no stranger to subtleties, but never perhaps
+did causes so trifling breed such interminable quarrels. The sign and
+the form of the cross, the heading of processions westward or eastward,
+the reading of a particular article of the Creed, the spelling of the
+name of Jesus, the inscription to be placed over the crucifix, the
+single or double repetition of the Hallelujah, the number of eucharistic
+wafers to be consecrated,--such are the leading points in the
+controversy which ever since has rent the Russian Church. The orthodox
+make the sign of the cross with three fingers, while the dissenters
+follow the Armenian practice of only two. The former permit the cross
+with four arms, like our own: the latter cannot away with any but that
+with eight arms, with a crosspiece for the Saviour's head and another
+for his feet. Since the reform the Church chants the Hallelujah thrice,
+the Raskolniks only twice. The dissenters defend their persistence by
+symbolical interpretations, and delight to make a profession of faith
+out of the simplest rite. For instance, they insist that after their
+fashion of making the sign of the cross the three closed fingers render
+homage to the Trinity, while the two others testify to the double nature
+of Christ, so that, without uttering a word, the sign of the cross is an
+act of adherence to the three fundamental dogmas of Christianity--the
+Trinity, the incarnation and the atonement. In like manner they
+interpret the double Hallelujah following the three Glorias, and cast it
+in the teeth of their opponents that they ignore in their ritual one or
+another of the great Christian doctrines. Such interpretations, based on
+corrupted texts or feigned visions, show the grotesque blending of
+coarseness and subtlety which makes up the Raskol.
+
+If we may judge from the origin of the schism, its essence lies in the
+worship of the letter, the servile respect for forms. To the
+anti-reforming Russian, ceremonies form the whole of Christianity, and
+liturgy is one with orthodoxy. The same confusion between faith and the
+outward forms of worship is revealed by the chosen name in which the
+dissenters delight. Not content with the title of _Starovbriadtsy_
+(old ritualists), they adopt that of _Starovery_ (maintainers of
+the old faith), which amounts to styling themselves _true_
+believers, the genuine orthodox, since in religious matters, unlike
+those of human science, authority is on the side of antiquity, and even
+innovations must come forward invoking the past. Here, as often happens,
+there is little ground for the Starovery's boast, for if they preserve
+the ancient Russian books, their opponents have gone back to the old
+Byzantine liturgy; and the party which most loudly vaunts its claim to
+antiquity does so with least reason.
+
+The principle of the Raskol, which sometimes runs out into the wildest
+dreams of mysticism, is essentially realistic. Under this materialistic
+_cultus_, however, there lurks a sort of idealism, of coarse
+spiritualism. Religious vagaries, with all their absurdities, always
+have a lofty, sometimes even a sublime, side. It would be wrong to fancy
+that there is nothing but ignorant superstition in the Starovere's
+scrupulous attachment to his ancestral worship. The vulgar heresy is, in
+fact, only an overdone ritualism, whose logic lands it in absurdity. The
+Old Believer's reverence for the letter comes from his belief that
+letter and spirit are indissolubly united, and that the forms of
+religion are as needful as its essence. Religion is to him, both as
+regards forms and dogmas, a whole, all whose parts hang together; and no
+human hand can touch this masterpiece of Providence without blemishing
+it. There is an occult sense in every word and in every rite. He cannot
+believe that any ceremony or formula of the Church is void of meaning or
+of efficacy. Divine service has nothing in it merely accessory,
+indifferent or unmeaning. Holy things are holy throughout: in the
+worship of the Lord everything is deep and full of mystery; and it is
+blasphemy to change anything or to withhold from it its proper
+veneration. The Starovere, of course, cannot formulate his doctrine, but
+if he could, religion would appear, according to his view, a sort of
+completed and adequate representation of the supernatural world. His
+simple logic exacts from all public worship an absolute perfection which
+it is impossible to realize. Looked at in this light, the Old Believer
+who marched to the stake for the sign of the cross, and sacrificed his
+tongue rather than chant another Hallelujah, grows highly respectable.
+From this standing-point the Russian schism is essentially religious:
+its mistake, so to speak, is the excess of religion. Symbolism is the
+principle of its formalism, or rather the Raskol is symbolism run into a
+heresy. This gives it originality and value in sectarian history. To
+these extravagant ritualists ceremonies are not simply the garb of
+religion: they are its flesh and blood, in whose absence dogma is but a
+lifeless skeleton. Thus, the Raskol is the direct opposite of ordinary
+Protestantism, which by its very nature sets small store by outward
+ceremonies, regarding them as needless ornament or a dangerous
+superfluity. Ritual to the Starovere is as much an integral part of
+traditional Christianity as doctrine: it, is equally the legacy of
+Christ and the apostles; and the sole mission of the Church and the
+clergy is to preserve both intact. This leaning to symbolism saves his
+scrupulous fidelity to outward forms from degenerating into a slavish
+superstition. On the other hand, the allegorizing tendency which clings
+fast to the letter sometimes takes odd liberties with the spirit of
+ceremonies and texts. It is the peculiarity of the symbolizing temper
+scrupulously to respect the form while arbitrarily dealing with the
+spirit. Thus, the ritual and the sacred books become a kind of heavenly
+charade, whose answer must be found by the imagination. And so, in their
+hunt after the hidden sense of narratives and words, some of the
+Raskolniks have allegorized the histories of the Old and New Testaments,
+and changed the gospel records into parables. Some have gone so far as
+to see in the greatest of the gospel miracles nothing but types.[005]
+Such a system of exegesis easily leads to a kind of mystic rationalism:
+the forms of religion tend to gain more consistency than the essence,
+and public worship to be placed above doctrine. Some of the extreme
+sects of the Raskol have actually reached this point. A perfect carnival
+of wild interpretation prevailed among this ignorant rabble, and crazy
+doctrines and grotesque tenets were not slow in following in its train.
+
+The Old Believer loves his peculiar rites, not only for the meaning he
+puts into them, but also for the sake of the authority on which he holds
+them: the moral and social _rationale_ of the schism is a deep
+respect for traditional customs and for the habits handed down from his
+forefathers. But even in his slavish devotion to ancestral ritual and
+prayers the Starovere simply exaggerates a feeling which, if not
+properly religious, commonly links itself with religion and adds to its
+influence. All men and all nations set great store by the maintenance of
+their hereditary faith, and even the common rhetorical abuse of such
+phrases demonstrates its power. When thus intertwined with the
+associations of family and country, religion assumes the guise of an
+inheritance solemnly committed to our trust by the departed. This
+feeling is singularly powerful in Russia from linking itself with a
+superstitious veneration for antiquity. You can often get no other
+reason from many of these sectaries for the faith that is in them. Quite
+recently a judge tried to bring to reason a group of peasants who were
+under prosecution for celebrating clandestine religious rites, but he
+could extract no other answer than this: "Our fathers practiced these
+customs. Take us anywhere you please, but leave us free to worship as
+our fathers did." A like reply is said to have been made by the Old
+Believers of Moscow to the late czarovitch on occasion of a visit to
+their burying-ground at Rogojski.
+
+The liturgic reform of the seventeenth century was a revolution in the
+simplest elements of worship: it called upon the son to unlearn the sign
+of the cross that his mother had taught him. Such a change would have
+been hazardous anywhere, but it caused a peculiarly serious disturbance
+in Russia, where all prayer is connected with a kind of ceremonial of
+repeated bowings and crossings, which more closely resemble the
+devotional customs of the Mohammedans than those of other Christian
+countries. The people violently rejected the new sign of the cross and
+the entire reformed liturgy. It mattered little that the new ritual was
+more ancient than their own. The ignorant Russian knows no antiquity
+older than his fathers and grandfathers, and his attachment to the outer
+forms of orthodoxy was only intensified by remembering the recent
+attempts of popes and Jesuits to gain a foothold in the country. If he
+suffered the least change in his cherished customs, he might risk being
+Romanized, and, like the United Greeks of Poland, one day wake up and
+find himself part and parcel of the spiritual dominion of the papacy.
+With such dim fears the Old Believer opposed to the orthodox hierarchy a
+blind fidelity to orthodoxy. Their dread of seeing the Church corrupted
+inspired people and clergy with suspicion of all foreigners, even of
+their brethren in the faith whom the czars or the patriarchs had invited
+from Byzantium and from Kief. The Russian alone, of all the orthodox
+nations, had maintained his independence against infidel and pope, and
+he held himself the people of God, chosen to preserve the true faith.
+Everything European was indiscriminately rejected by this long-isolated
+nation. Their detestation of the West, its churches and its
+civilization, leads some of the Old Believers to anathematize even the
+language of theology and learning. Not longer ago than the close of the
+last century one of their writers waxed hot against the orthodox priests
+of Lesser Russia, many of whom, he said, "study the thrice-accursed
+Latin tongue." He reviled them for their readiness to commit the mortal
+sin of calling God _Deus_, and God the Father _Pater_, as
+though the Deity could have no other than the Slavic name of _Bog_,
+or the change of appellation involved a change of God. A like spirit is
+evident in the resistance offered by the Staroveres to the correct
+spelling of the name of Jesus, whom they persist in calling Issous,
+rejecting as diabolical the more accurate form Iissous. Such
+peculiarities show a nation shut up in its own vastness and isolated by
+its position and its history. It is a kind of Christianized China,
+knowing, and desiring to know, nothing beyond itself.
+
+The revolt against the innovating patriarch was, in reality, a revolt
+against foreign, particularly against Western, influences. Instead of
+the accusation that he leaned to Romanism or Lutheranism, it would have
+been a better representation of the real grievance to charge him and the
+czar with borrowing from the West, not its theology, but its spirit and
+civilization, and even this, perhaps, unwittingly. The outbreak of the
+Raskol synchronizes with the introduction of foreign influence; and the
+coincidence is not accidental. The schism was but the reaction against
+the reforms which the Romanoffs carried out in so European a spirit. The
+patriarch's enterprise has been sometimes attributed to his vanity or
+his thirst for literary fame, but it was really the first indication of
+the approaching revolution, and of a growing sympathy with the West,
+where (as in England, for instance) at about the same period
+analogous[006] reforms gave birth to similar disturbances. If the former
+hermit of the White Sea invited criticism and learning to review the
+ritual of his Church, it was only in obedience to the same
+_Zeitgeist_ which under Peter the Great's elder brother, who
+succeeded Alexis, was to found at Moscow a kind of ecclesiastical
+university modeled on that of Kief. The Church, not less than the State,
+felt the Western breeze that was rising on the Russian steppes. And, as
+the Western spirit first attempted to introduce itself in the sphere of
+religion, so religion confronted it with its most formidable barrier.
+From the historian's point of view, the Raskol is that same popular
+resistance to the introduction of Western novelties which under Peter
+the Great passed from its original aspect of an ecclesiastical and
+religious revolt into the further stage of a social and civil
+insurrection.
+
+
+
+
+II.--OPPOSITION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.
+
+
+In spite of himself, Peter the Great both inherited and aggravated
+the schism. At the present day it is hard to picture the impression
+produced upon his subjects by Peter I. He not merely astonished and
+bewildered them: he scandalized them. An open, systematic and
+sometimes brutal attack was made upon the customs, traditions and
+prejudices of the people. The reformer did not confine himself to
+the civil institutions: he laid violent hands upon the Church, and
+forced his way into the family, regulating, as the whim seized him,
+both public affairs and the private life of the citizen. The
+old-fashioned Russian was a stranger in Peter's new empire. His eyes
+were shocked by the spectacle of an unaccustomed garb, and novel
+administrative titles fell strangely on his ear. Names and things,
+the almanac and the laws, the alphabet and the fashions of
+dress,--everything was transformed. The very elements of
+civilization were hardly recognizable. The year began on the first
+of January, instead of the first of September. Men were no longer to
+date from the creation, but must adopt the Latin era. The old
+Slavonic characters, hallowed by immemorial ecclesiastical use, were
+partly cast aside, and what were retained took a new shape. The
+masculine attire was altered and the chin was shorn of its beard,
+while the veil no longer might protect the modesty of the women. The
+impression made by such a succession of shocks upon a nation so
+bigotedly attached to its ancestral ways was comparable only to an
+earthquake rocking Old Russia to its foundations.
+
+Many of these innovations, as being borrowed from the Romanists or
+the Lutherans of the West, had a religious significance for the
+people. The change introduced by Peter the Great in the ancient
+calendar, in the Slavonic alphabet and in the national costume
+seemed but a carrying out of those which Nikon had initiated. So
+natural was the parallel that the Old Believers held the one to be
+but the continuation of the other; and the notion took shape in a
+seditious legend, according to which Peter was the adulterous
+offspring of the patriarch. The popular aversion felt for the
+reforms of the latter was augmented by that aroused by the emperor's
+innovations: the social revolt took the disguise of religion, since
+it had been provoked by a Church measure, and still more because
+Russia had not yet emerged from that stage of civilization in which
+every great popular movement assumes a religious aspect. A national
+prestige was thus communicated to the Raskol, which in its turn lent
+to the popular resistance the energy of religion. By giving the
+social revolt the semblance of a struggle for the rights of
+conscience the schism imparted to it a vigor and persistency which
+the lapse of two centuries has not succeeded in crushing.
+
+But the Raskol rebelled not only against innovations and the
+introduction of foreign elements, but still more obstinately against
+the principle of the reforms and the modern method of state
+administration. The Russian, like the Mohammedan East of to-day and
+all other primitive societies, was most keenly sensitive to the
+burdens and vexations made necessary by this imitation of the
+European governmental system. From this point of view the Raskol was
+the opposition of a half-patriarchal society to the regular,
+scientific, omnipresent, impersonal system of European
+administration. It kicks instinctively against centralization and
+bureaucracy--against the state's encroachments upon private life,
+the family and the community. It struggles to tear itself loose from
+the pitiless machinery of government, hemming every life within its
+iron pale. The Cossack took refuge in the wild freedom of nomadic
+life, and the Old Believer was equally averse to giving in to the
+complicated mechanism of government. He would have nothing to do
+with the census, with passports or stamped paper. He strove to elude
+the new systems of taxation and conscription, and to this day some
+of the Raskolniks are in a state of systematic revolt against the
+simplest of governmental methods. Religious grounds, of course, are
+found for this insubordination, and they have theological arguments
+to urge against the census, as well as against the registration of
+births and deaths. In the opinion of a strict Old Believer the right
+of numbering the people belongs to God alone, as is shown by the
+biblical record of David's punishment. Sometimes the official
+designations strengthen the scruples of these simple folk, with
+their tendency to attach a great importance to phrases and names;
+and hence, partly at least, the popular antipathy to the poll-tax
+under its Russian form, "soul-tax." The revolt against such phrases
+is the fashion in which this nation of serfs, whose body was chained
+to the soil, asserted its possession of a soul.[007]
+
+The struggle against the supervision and interference of the state
+has gone with some sects to the length of refusing submission to
+obligations imposed by every civilized country. The _Stranniki_
+(wanderers) in particular boast of keeping up a ceaseless struggle
+with the civil authority, and make rebellion a moral principle and a
+religious duty. From condemning the state as the protector and
+helper of the Church, they have come to cursing it for its own
+tendencies and claims. Thus, the singular spectacle is presented of
+the more extreme schismatics looking upon their native government
+with the same feelings as were entertained by some of the Christians
+of the first three centuries toward the pagan empire of Rome. To
+these fanatics the government of the orthodox czars came to be the
+reign of Satan and the dominion of Antichrist. Nor was this an empty
+metaphor: it was a clear, determined conviction, and it still exerts
+a strong religious and political influence upon the schism. The
+Raskolniks could see but one interpretation of the overturning of
+public and private order under Peter the Great, and for what they
+regarded as the triumph of darkness: to them it was the coming end
+of the world and the advent of Antichrist. The old customs, it
+seemed, must carry with them in their fall the Church, society and
+all mankind. For centuries the extremity of agony or of wonder has
+wrung this cry from Christendom. After political revolutions and
+disastrous wars, in the most enlightened countries of Europe, in
+France and elsewhere, religious persons, in the panic of calamity,
+have been seen to take refuge in this last solution for the woes of
+Church or of State, and proclaim with the Raskolniks that the time
+was at hand. But what must have been the state of mind in Old Russia
+when the stunning blows of Peter the Great seemed to be dashing
+everything to pieces? Even at the period of the liturgic reform the
+fanatics had cried that the patriarch's fall was the harbinger of
+the world's end. The days of man, they said, are numbered; the
+Apocalyptic woes are at hand; Antichrist draws nigh. With the
+accession of Peter the Great, while he was reducing everything to
+confusion before their bewildered eyes, and trampling under foot the
+old customs, along with morality itself at times, the Raskolniks
+were at no loss to recognize in him the coming Antichrist. Nations
+are not always clear-sighted: the creator of modern Russia was
+regarded by a considerable portion of his subjects as an envoy or
+representative of hell; and his empire has never ceased to hold the
+unexampled position of a government cursed by a part of its own
+people as the dominion of Antichrist.
+
+This Satanic apotheosis derived no little support from some of the
+reformer's idiosyncrasies. He was to his subjects what a rejected
+claimant of the Messianic office may have been to the Jews--a stone
+of stumbling and a rock of offence to the people whom he came to
+bring to a new birth. His civil and ecclesiastical reforms, with the
+seeming decapitation of the Church by the abrogation of the
+patriarchate, were to the mass of the people an enigma only one
+shade less disreputable than the demeanor of himself and his
+courtiers. The repudiation of his legitimate wife, Eudoxia, and his
+adulterous connection with a foreign concubine, the death
+(perhaps by his own hand) of his son Alexis, even the morbid state
+of his health and the nervous twitching of his face, and his
+astonishing triumphs after equally incredible disasters, contributed
+to invest the sombre and gigantic physiognomy of the reformer with a
+kind of diabolic halo. The vices of Ivan the Terrible had been as
+monstrous, but even in the thick of his crimes he was a true
+Russian, as superstitious a devotee as the meanest of his subjects.
+But the astonishment and bewilderment inspired by Peter the Great
+were only deepened by the reverence felt by the old Russian for the
+person of his sovereign. Men could not help doubting whether such a
+man, who had cast aside his national and scriptural title for the
+foreign and heathen style of emperor, could be the true, the "white"
+czar. The story of the usurpers and the false Dmitri had not faded
+from the popular memory; and thus there grew up amidst the
+unlettered and bewildered Russian people a string of legends in
+which were harmonized their belief in the reign of Antichrist and
+the popular respect for the czar. In this way the Raskolniks have
+created a fantastic history which has been handed down to our own
+days, according to one version of which, as has been said, Peter the
+Great is the impious bastard of the patriarch Nikon (and from such a
+parentage only a devil's offspring could be looked for); while
+another asserts that Peter Alexovitch was a pious prince, like his
+forefathers, but that he had perished at sea, and in his stead had
+been substituted a Jew of the race of Danof, or Satan. On gaining
+possession of the throne, continues the legend, the false czar
+immured the czarina in a convent, slew the czarovitch, espoused a
+German adventuress and filled Russia with foreigners. Such is the
+Old Believers' explanation of the portentous phenomenon of a Russian
+czar engaged in destroying the institutions of Holy Russia. In the
+midst of the nineteenth century the incidents of Peter's career,
+whether insignificant or important--his vices not less than his
+glory--are used as proofs of his infernal mission. The remarkable
+victories with which he recovered from terrible disasters were
+miracles wrought by the help of the devil and the Freemasons. The
+extension of his power beyond that of all previous Russian monarchs
+and of all the ancient _bogatyrs_ was effected by the determination
+of Satan that his offspring should receive divine honors. The same
+interpretation is applied to the simplest events. Thus, Peter's
+celebration with allegorical figures and festivals of the beginning
+of the year on the first of January was due to his desire to restore
+the worship of false deities and "the old Roman idol Janus." These
+silly fables, and this incapacity of understanding how a pagan name
+or emblem can be used without falling back into paganism, betray one
+of the peculiar features of the Raskol--namely, the realistic
+nature, of its symbolism, and its matter-of-fact determination to
+fill images, allegories and words with occult meaning.
+
+When once the presence of Antichrist was clearly made out, there was
+nothing to hinder the application to Russia of the gloomy
+descriptions of the prophets. Their disposition to hunt out
+mysterious enigmas in names and numbers made it easy for the
+fanatics to find the whole Apocalypse in modern Russia; and the
+number of the Beast was sought in the names of Peter and of his
+successors. Each letter of the Slavonic alphabet, as of the Greek,
+has a numerical value, and the problem is thus to add up the total
+of the letters of a name, and so obtain the Apocalyptic number 666
+(Rev. xiii. 18). By inserting, reduplicating or omitting certain
+letters, and not insisting too strongly on an exact result, the
+sectaries have discovered the infernal number in the names of most
+of the Russian sovereigns from Peter the Great to Nicholas. Such
+alterations are defended on the ground that to throw investigators
+off the scent the Beast changes the number which is meant to
+designate him, so that he should be recognized under the number 662
+or 664 as clearly as under 666. Turning from the particular
+sovereign to the imperial title, the Raskolniks have unearthed the
+number of the Beast in the letters composing it. Singularly
+enough, it happens that all which is needed to obtain the
+Apocalyptic number from the word _imperator_ is the omission of the
+second letter; whence they say that Antichrist hides his accursed
+name behind the letter M. By an equally odd and embarrassing
+coincidence the Council of Moscow--which, after deposing Nikon,
+definitively excommunicated the schismatics--met in 1666. Here,
+plainly enough was the fatal number, and when the reform of the
+calendar attracted the attention of the Old Believers to the point,
+they considered it a weapon thrust into their hands by their
+opponents. The year in question, accordingly, was fixed as the date
+of Satan's accession. But not content with turning the line of
+monarchs into so many emissaries of hell, some of these champions of
+Old Russia have managed, by the help of an anagram, to identify
+their native country with the mysterious land which is the object of
+so many prophetic curses. In the _Asshur_ of the Bible they find
+_Russia_, and apply to it the anathemas launched by the prophets
+against Nineveh and Babylon.
+
+The infernal sign, however, was visible to the Raskolniks not only
+in the title and the names of their rulers, but in all their
+innovations as well, and in all that they imported from abroad.
+Since Russia is under the dominion of the "devil, the demon's son,"
+the truly faithful are bound to reject all that has been introduced
+during "the years of Satan." Encouraged by the notion of Antichrist,
+the Raskol's opposition against the modern reform of government
+spread until it embraces in its hostility everything brought from
+the West. In no other of its developments do we see more distinctly
+the characteristic features of the schism, its narrow formalism and
+its coarse allegorizing, its blind worship of the past and its
+national exclusiveness. It presented the novel spectacle of a group
+of popular sects holding in abomination every object of foreign
+commerce, everything new--material articles of consumption not less
+than the discoveries of science. While the products of the East and
+West Indies were pouring into the rest of Europe, the Old Believer
+rigorously excluded them. He frowned upon the use of tobacco, of
+tea, of coffee and of sugar, and by a curious transfer of his
+respect for antiquity to his meat and drink, he stormed against
+almost all colonial produce as heretical and diabolical. All that
+had come in since Nikon and Peter was put under the ban by the
+champions of the ancient liturgy. One Raskolnik forbade traveling on
+turnpikes, because they were an invention of Antichrist. More
+recently, another showed that the potato was the forbidden fruit
+which caused the fall of our first mother. On every side the Old
+Believer raised about him a wall of scruples and prejudices,
+entrenching himself behind his stagnation and ignorance, and
+anathematizing all civilization in a breath. To meet Peter's edicts
+enjoining a new costume or alphabet or calendar, the Raskol put
+forth a second decalogue: "Thou shalt not shave; Thou shalt not
+smoke; Thou shalt use no sugar," etc. In the North, where they are
+stricter and more numerous, many Raskolniks still have conscientious
+scruples about using tobacco and putting sugar in their tea. The
+scriptural arguments urged for this opposition are generally marked
+by the coarsest realism. The Old Believer who will not smoke adduces
+the passage, "There is nothing from without a man that entering into
+him can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are
+they that defile the man." The rebuker of the use of sugar urges
+that blood is used in its manufacture; whereas Scripture forbids the
+eating of the blood of animals--a prohibition, by the way, which
+seems to have been maintained longer in Russia than in any other
+Christian country. The true ground of the opposition to this or that
+article or habit is to be sought not in these theological arguments,
+but in its novelty and late introduction. As regards his way of life
+and his faith, his table and his devotions, he is minded to tread in
+his forefathers' footsteps. A Raskolnik and a member of the orthodox
+Church were drinking together, when the latter took a cigar. "Out on
+the infernal poison!" cried the Raskolnik.--"What do you, think of brandy?"
+asked his companion. "Oh! Wine" (_vino_, the Russian name for
+brandy)--"wine was Noah's favorite drink."--"Very good!" said the
+other: "now prove to me that Noah was not a smoker." These folk are
+still in the patriarchal stage, and an appeal to antiquity is an end
+of controversy, "Jeer not at the old," says one of their proverbs,
+"for the old man knows old things and teaches justice."
+
+The parties to any political or religious contest need a
+standard--some outward sign which appeals to the eye and the
+intelligence of all. The most serious of the political questions
+that convulse France to-day are symbolized and summed up in the
+color of a flag; and thus in the Russian conflict between popular
+obstinacy and the modern propagandism the rallying-sign of the Old
+Believers, and the emblem of the champions of nationality and
+conservatism, was the beard. The national chin was the centre of a
+conflict less puerile than might be fancied. Long before Peter the
+Great imitators of Western ways had begun to shave, thus setting at
+defiance the Oriental custom which everywhere prevailed in Russia.
+Under Peter's father one of the Raskol leaders, the protopope
+Avvakum, denounced "these bold-faced" men--bold-faced meaning
+shaven. The prohibition of Leviticus (xxix. 27; xxi. 5) was first
+adduced, in conformity with the love for alleging religious
+scruples. Recourse was next had to the ancient missals and the
+decrees of the _Stoglaf_, a sort of ecclesiastical code attributed
+to a national council. The prohibition of the razor was at first
+confined to the clergy, but it spread by little and little to all
+the faithful of the orthodox Church. Up to the time of Nikon the
+patriarchs had laid hardly less stress on forms and on the exclusion
+of foreign ways than their future opponents of the Raskol, and had
+condemned shaving as "an heretical practice which disfigures the
+image of God, and makes men look like dogs and cats." This is the
+main theological argument of the foes of the barber, and their
+current interpretation of the verse of Genesis, "God created man in
+His own image," "The image of God is the beard," writes a Raskolnik
+about 1830, "and His likeness is the moustache." "Look at the old
+images of Christ and the saints," urge the Old Believers: "all of
+them wear their beards." And so cogent is the argument that the
+orthodox theologians are fain to hunt up the scanty list of
+beardless saints to be found in Byzantine iconography. Whatever the
+force of the arguments drawn from divinity, at bottom the opposition
+was only the simple folks' one way of seeing things--the same
+clinging to forms, the same compound of symbolism and realism. The
+living work of God is to them as sacred as the text of the divine
+word. Every word and letter of the sacred office must have its
+separate significance; and they cannot admit that the hair with
+which the Almighty has covered a man's face is without a meaning. It
+is to them the distinctive mark of the male countenance; to remove
+it is to change, and therefore to disfigure, the divine handiwork:
+it is, in short, hardly less than mutilation.[008]
+
+The beard, like the single repetition of the Hallelujah and the
+cross with eight branches, has had its martyrs. No later than last
+year (1874), on the Gulf of Finland a peasant who had been drafted
+for the navy obstinately refused to be shaved, and rather than
+betray his religion underwent a sentence of several years for
+insubordination. Scruples of this sort have led the government to
+grant permission to wear the beard in the case of certain corps (for
+instance, the Cossacks of the Ural) which are mainly composed of Old
+Believers. Peter the Great used every means to overcome these
+popular prejudices, but the beard was too much for the reformer.
+Finding himself unable to shave all the recusants by force, he
+bethought him of laying a tax on the wearers of long beards, but in
+vain. He was similarly foiled in his attempt to lay a double tax on
+the schismatic upholders of the ancient ways. He forbade them to live
+in the towns; he deprived them of civil rights; he forced them to
+wear a bit of red cloth on the shoulder as a distinctive badge; but
+these measures only marked them out as the bravest champions of
+national traditions, and increased the respect everywhere rendered
+them.
+
+Such an attitude toward civilization leaves no room for mistake as
+to the social and political character of the schism. It is a popular
+protest against the irruption of foreign customs. It is a reaction
+against the reforms of Peter the Great, somewhat as Ultramontanism
+is a reaction against the spirit of the French Revolution. The
+Staroveres are the champions of ancient customs in the civil sphere
+as well as in the religious. The Old Believer is emphatically the
+old-fashioned Russian--the Slavophilist of the lower classes--and
+hence extreme to the point of absurdity. His revolt against
+authority has more resemblance to that of La Vendée than to that of
+the Jacobins. Like a conscript obstinately refusing to join his
+regiment, he holds back from all part and lot in the changes of
+modern Russia; and in this light the schism is the feature which
+above all others assimilates Russia to the East.
+
+And just as the East has bound itself fast to externals, so the
+Raskolnik praises his fossilism to the skies, and would gladly run
+the risk of petrifying society in its inherited shape. With him, as
+with the child or the Oriental, wisdom and science belong to the
+infancy of civilization, and the maxims of antiquity leave nothing
+to be learnt. Under both aspects the Old Believer is reactionary,
+opposed to the very principle of progress--the hero of routine and a
+martyr to prejudice. His gaze turns naturally to the past, and if
+reform ever enters his mind, he dreams of a return to the good old
+times of yore. Even his struggle against authority is based on the
+old idea of sovereignty: his political motto, as well as that of
+most of the people, is, "No emperor, but a czar!" The czar was one
+day pointed out to a Raskolnik conscript. "That is no czar," he
+said: "he wears a moustache, a uniform and a sword, like all the
+rest of the officers. He is nothing but a general." These
+worshipers of the past, with their devotion to ceremonial, think of
+the czar only as a long-bearded man in a flowing robe, such as they
+see in the ancient images. The Old Believers are the exaggerated
+representatives of the spirit of stagnation which everywhere
+confronts the Russian government. Nothing gives a clearer conception
+of the obstacles still in the way of reforms which elsewhere would
+be matters of course (as, for instance, the substitution of the
+Gregorian for the Julian calendar) than the resistance which other
+measures have already encountered.
+
+In principle the Raskol is conservative, not to say reactionary, but
+its attitude toward the Church and the State, and the habits
+engendered by two centuries of opposition and persecution, give it a
+revolutionary, or even an anarchical, character. A secret tie unites
+all the branches of public authority, and the rejection of one leads
+to the rejection of another. As has been said by an eminent
+historian of Russia, the refusal to submit to a single form of
+authority brings into activity a disposition to rid one's self of
+all social and moral ties. The Hussite revolt against Rome speedily
+results in the Taborite revolt against society: Luther calls the
+Anabaptists into being. The same phenomenon is repeated in Russia,
+in England and in Scotland. Once carried away by the spirit of
+revolt, an irresistible tendency sweeps the schism on in the
+direction of civil liberty; and both in theory and in practice some
+of these sects have reached the most unbridled license. Hence, by
+one of those contrasts which are so common in Russia, the Raskol is
+judged in two utterly different ways, each of which is partly
+correct. The reactionary movement in its inception had the
+appearance of an assertion of the rights of individual liberty and
+national life, as opposed to the autocratic government; and such it
+was, after a fashion--the fashion of refractory conscripts or of
+smugglers, not to say of brigands--the fashion, in short, in which
+all abuses and prejudices are defended. What it claimed
+was liberty, indeed, but liberty as the commonalty understand
+it--liberty to retain its customs, its superstitions and its
+ignorance--liberty to go and come as it chose. But in all this there
+was no notion of political freedom. With all his hatred of foreign
+importations, the Old Believer is no enemy to reform in the sense of
+national tradition or of furthering the interests of the lower
+classes, the artisan and the peasant. Like all popular movements,
+the Raskol is essentially democratic, and in some of its sects
+socialistic and communistic.
+
+Two things which have especially tended to give the Raskol a
+democratic--or even liberal--complexion are serfdom and the
+bureaucratic despotism of the country. It was no mere coincidence
+which caused the Raskol to break out about half a century after
+serfdom was established. Much of its popularity and life was due to
+the enslavement of the mass of the people. The slave was proud of
+having a different faith from his master; and slavery is always a
+propitious soil for the growth of sects. This nation of serfs dimly
+felt the Raskol to be an assertion of religious liberty and
+self-respect against master, Church and government; and these were
+symbolized by the beard and the peculiar sign of the cross. The
+Raskol offered to all the oppressed a moral, and often a material,
+refuge, an asylum for all enemies of the master and the law, and a
+shelter for the fugitive serf, for the deserter, for public debtors
+and outlaws of every description. Some sects (as the Wanderers, for
+example) are specially organized for such purposes. In these
+respects the Raskol was unconsciously one form of the opposition to
+serfdom and official despotism; and hence the Old Believers are most
+numerous among the most refractory elements of Russia--in the North
+among the free peasants (the old colonists of Novgorod), and in the
+South among the independent Cossacks of the steppes. Religious and
+political opposition have joined hands, and to this combination is
+due the strength of the great popular movements of the seventeenth
+and eighteenth centuries, such as the Streltsy insurrections at the
+time of the revolt of Pougatchef, whose excesses curiously recall
+the wars of the Peasants and Anabaptists in the West before the
+abolition of serfdom. In the great Russian Jacquerie, and in all the
+seditions which held out the hope of emancipation, the first place
+was taken by the Old Believers and the Cossacks, most of whom held
+the same faith. These two forms of national resistance are naturally
+akin. They equally personify the character and the prejudices of the
+old Russian. Their main point is their character of protests, so
+that an Old Believer may be described as a Cossack in religion,
+transporting into that domain the instincts peculiar to the wild
+horsemen of the Don. But both Cossack and Starovere have found
+themselves forced to give way before the march of civilization, and
+the different branches into which the Raskol has split have reached
+very divergent conclusions both as to politics and religion.
+
+
+
+
+III.--INTERNAL DIVISIONS.
+
+
+Nothing is more logical than religious creeds--nothing more rigorously
+consequent in its deductions than the theological mind. Religious
+thought has an unimpeded course in the twilight of mystery where it
+takes its airy flight, and no material facts avail to check it or divert
+it from the chosen path. The innate logic of the Russian mind adds force
+to the kindred theological quality in its influence upon the Raskol, for
+the inhabitant of Greater Russia is distinguished for his logical
+consecutiveness and his acceptance of the extremest consequences of a
+position. This is partly the cause of the multiplicity and growth of the
+strange doctrines prevalent among them; and while this disposition
+frequently lands the schism in the most grotesque of absurdities, it
+gives a remarkable unity and regularity to even its apparent
+divergencies and variations. Irregularity and the play of chance have as
+little real place in this spiritual phenomenon as in one belonging to
+the region of physics; and a knowledge of the _terminus a quo_
+would have suggested its complications as well as the point ultimately
+reached. One is now and then tempted to look upon the various sects as
+utterly chaotic, but it is not difficult to trace the general course of
+their natural evolution.
+
+A less robust faith might easily have been cast down by the obstacle
+which confronted the schism at the outset. The revolt aimed at
+maintaining the ritual, yet the lack of priests to officiate
+necessitated its abandonment. The defenders of the old faith found
+themselves, at the first step, deprived of the means of practicing its
+rites. A single bishop, Paul of Kolomna, had held out for the ancient
+books at the time of Nikon's reform, but he had been imprisoned, and
+perhaps put to death: at all events, he died without consecrating a
+bishop, and the Raskol was consequently left without an episcopate or a
+priesthood. Now, Oriental orthodoxy is not simply doctrinal in its
+character, but, as M. A. Réville has remarked of Catholicism, "is, above
+all, a method of establishing communication between man and God by the
+medium of an organized priesthood, whose successive members transmit
+uninterruptedly the divine powers which they hold from Christ;" and the
+death of Paul of Kolomna snapped the chain uniting the Old Believers
+with Christ, for ever depriving the schism of the powers conferred by
+Christ on the apostles and essential to the continuance of the
+priesthood and the Church.
+
+The Raskol, so to speak, was stillborn. Unless they retraced their
+steps, there were but two paths to take--either to admit priests
+consecrated by a Church they had condemned, or to dispense with the
+clergy, who alone could celebrate the rites in defence of which they had
+revolted. There was little to choose between the two self-contradictory
+courses, and each had its partisans. This first check split the schism
+into two groups, whose hostility has not been allayed by the lapse of
+two centuries. According to some, as Christianity cannot exist without a
+priesthood, its complicity with Nikon's heresy has not deprived the
+Russian Church of apostolic powers--of the _cheirotonia_, or right
+to consecrate bishops and priests by the laying on of hands; and as
+their ordination is valid, the schismatics have only to bring back
+priests of the official Church to the observance of the ancient ritual.
+To this it is answered that by abandoning the ancient books and
+anathematizing the ancient traditions the sect of Nikon has lost all
+claim to the apostolical succession, so that the established clergy
+constitute no longer a Church, but the synagogue of Satan. All communion
+with these emissaries of hell is a sin, and ordination by the apostate
+bishops a defilement. The Oriental patriarchs have shared the heresy of
+the Russian prelates by agreeing to their anathemas against the ancient
+rites, and orthodoxy has carried with it in its fall the episcopate,
+apostolical succession and the lawful priesthood.
+
+Thus, in the first generation the Raskol fell into two sections--the
+_Popovtsy_, who adhere to the priests, and the _Bezpopovtsy_,
+who do not. To recruit their clergy the Popovtsy were fain to have
+recourse to deserters from the established Church, and were thus
+dependent upon it; though we shall see that of late they have succeeded
+in getting an independent episcopate along with a complete
+ecclesiastical hierarchy. By maintaining a priesthood, however scanty
+and ignorant, the Popovtsy preserve the sacraments and the orthodox
+Christian system; and, despite the inconsistency of admitting the
+priests of a Church that they condemn, they have paused at the first
+step of schism and maintain the original position. It is almost
+impossible, on the other hand, for the Bezpopovtsy to stop on the slope
+down which their logic inexorably drags them. Involved in the
+abandonment of the priesthood is that of orthodoxy, or at least of the
+orthodox ritual, and the sacrament of orders carries with it the
+sacraments which none but the priest can administer. Of the seven
+traditional channels of divine grace, baptism alone remains open: the
+other six are dried up for ever. Thus, the first step of the Bezpopovtsy
+brings them to the destruction of the first principle of Christian
+worship. The more rigid of them do not shrink from this most glaring of
+contradictions. To save the entire ritual they have sacrificed its most
+essential parts. For the double Hallelujah and the sign of the cross
+with two fingers instead of three they have foregone the whole Christian
+life and the one visible link between man and God, which is to be found
+only in the sacraments. The abolition of the sacred ministry and divine
+service is their protest against the trifling changes introduced into
+their devotional customs by the established Church. In barring the
+entrance to Nikon's so-called innovations they have done away with the
+priesthood, and so with every dyke against sectarian whimsies or the
+very novelties against which they blindly contend.
+
+In the melancholy upshot of the Bezpopovtsy movement there was nothing
+to satisfy the fondness for ceremonial and tradition to which the schism
+owed its birth; and it was hard to fill the gap left by the loss of
+priesthood and sacraments. The old orthodox law had become impossible to
+carry out, yet it had not been abrogated. Though perfectly united as to
+rejecting the priesthood, they accordingly fell into new fragments,
+marked now by hesitations and compromises, and now by grotesque fancies
+or by cruel doctrines. For the timid and for those who clung to public
+worship it was impossible to believe in Christian life and salvation
+without the divinely-appointed means; and in the perplexed effort to
+supply the loss of the sacraments their piety resorted to all manner of
+ingenious make-believes. Priestly absolution being out of the question,
+confession is sometimes made to the "elder" or to a woman, and the
+promise of pardon has to do duty for the direct absolution. As the
+Eucharist cannot be consecrated, famishing souls resort to types or
+memorials of the holy sacrament; and for this _quasi_ communion
+rites have been devised which are sometimes pleasing, sometimes bloody
+and horrible. One of these is the distribution of raisins by a young
+girl; while one sect (which is, however, but indirectly connected with
+the Raskol) use the breast of a young maiden instead of the element of
+bread. To one of the Bezpopovtsy sects the name of "gapers" is given,
+because they are accustomed to keep their mouths open during the
+Maundy-Thursday service, that the angels, God's only remaining
+ministers, may give them drink from an invisible chalice, since, as they
+hold, Christ cannot have wholly deprived the faithful of the flesh and
+blood offered upon the cross.
+
+Such are the expedients of the more gentle or enthusiastic to escape
+from the religious vacuum into which schism has precipitated them. Quite
+different is the course of the more strict and dauntless theologians;
+and the ascendency of logic over pious feeling carries with these the
+majority of the Bezpopovtsy. No consequence is too revolting for them,
+and no hesitating subterfuge worthy of a thought. The priesthood, they
+hold, is extinct, leaving only the sacrament of baptism, which the laity
+may administer. Make-believes are of no avail. The chain that linked
+Heaven with earth is snapped, and can be reunited only by miracle.
+Meanwhile, the faithful are like men shipwrecked on a desert island
+without a priest among them. Eucharist, penitence, chrism, and, more
+than all, marriage, are alike impossible. The priest alone can pronounce
+the nuptial benediction; and where there is no priest there can be no
+marriage. Such is the ultimate consequence of the schism--the rock on
+which the Bezpopovtsy split. With marriage the family goes, society with
+the family, and such teachings can never be in harmony with the
+feelings, with society or with morality. Marriage is their
+stumbling-block and the principal matter on which their discussions and
+divisions turn, giving rise to the wildest aberrations and strangest
+compromises. The more practical retain marriage as a social
+conventionality, while the more logical make celibacy universally
+binding, thereby fostering anything but asceticism. Among the Russian
+sectaries the familiar combination is repeated of sensuality and
+mysticism. Free-love has been both preached and practiced among them;
+and among the lower classes the grossest heresies of ancient Gnosticism
+have mingled with the wildest and most morbid of modern social theories.
+Most of their theological writers, while avoiding such extremes, urge
+the most extraordinary maxims in connection with their forbiddance of
+marriage, such as that immorality, being but a passing weakness, is less
+criminal than marriage, which is interdicted by the faith.... To such a
+point as this have the conscientious champions of old ceremonial been
+brought. They have carried with them a few shreds of ancient ritual, and
+they have not only abandoned Christian and natural morality, but in
+their struggle with modern government and civilization deny the
+principle which upholds all society.
+
+Even fanatics must stand affrighted before conclusions like these, and
+the Bezpopovtsy feel the need of some justification for their subversal
+of the _cultus_ and the morality of Christianity. They find but one
+solution for the awful enigma presented by Christ's abandonment of the
+Church and mankind, by the extinction of appointed sacraments and means
+of grace, and by the impious rupture of the tie between man and God. The
+downfall of Church and priesthood and the triumph of falsehood and wrong
+were foretold by the prophets. This is the time predicted in Holy Writ,
+when the very elect shall be wellnigh seduced, and when God shall seem
+to give up His own into the hand of the Adversary. The priestless Church
+is the Church in the state of widowhood foretold by Daniel in the last
+days. Thus, the Raskol was brought by the new path of theology to that
+belief in the approaching end of the world and the reign of Antichrist
+to which we have already seen it led by its aversion to ecclesiastical
+and civil reforms. That the reign of Antichrist is begun is the
+fundamental doctrine of the Raskol, and particularly of the
+Bezpopovstchin. In the light of this new dogma all the contradictions of
+the latter are explained and justified. This is the reason for the
+extinction of the priesthood, of marriage and of the family.
+Wherefore--many ask--wherefore continue the race when the archangel's
+trump is about to proclaim the end of humanity?
+
+The end of the world was announced to be nigh even before Peter the
+Great; and they who proclaimed it are not yet weary of awaiting it. Like
+Christians in the West in other periods, they are not undeceived by the
+delay of the destined time, and are at no loss to explain it. Many
+consider the reign of Antichrist to be a period or era which may last
+for centuries, as one of the three great epochs in religious history,
+and as having, like those of the old and the new dispensations, a law of
+its own which abrogates what went before. All of the Raskolniks, or even
+of the Bezpopovtsy, however, do not agree as to Antichrist; for while
+his reign is generally admitted, it seems to be very differently
+understood. Those who retain the priesthood and the more moderate of
+their opponents hold his reign to be spiritual and invisible, and
+government and established Church to be the unconscious or unwilling
+tools of Satan; while the extremists of the Bezpopovstchin maintain that
+Antichrist reigns materially and palpably. He it is, as we have seen,
+who occupies the throne of the czars since Peter the Great, and his
+Sanhedrim that usurps the name of the holy synod. Trivial as the
+difference is, theologically speaking, its political consequences are
+considerable; for the state may arrive at some understanding with sects
+that only regard it as blind and misled, while even a truce is out of
+the question with those which look upon it as the incarnate enemy of
+souls.
+
+Very singular are the vagaries to which the ignorant peasants are
+naturally led by this belief. Since the world is in subjection to
+"Satan, the son of Beelzebub," all contact with it was defiling, and
+submission to its laws nothing short of a denial of the faith. To escape
+the hellish contagion the best means was isolation or rigid withdrawal
+into inaccessible retreats or desert places. In their spiritual
+confusion and terror some of the sectaries saw no refuge but death, and
+murder and suicide were systematically resorted to for the purpose of
+shortening the time of probation and hastening their departure from the
+accursed world. With some fanatics, called "child-slayers"
+(_dietoubütsy_), it was held a duty to expedite the entrance to
+heaven of newborn children, and thus to save them infernal anguish.
+Others, called "stranglers" or "butchers" (_duchelstchiki,
+tiukalstchiki_), think they render a valuable service to their
+relatives and friends by anticipating a natural death, in hastening the
+end of those who are seriously ill. Taking with a savage literalness the
+text, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it
+by force" (Matt. xi. 12), they hold that none can enter into the kingdom
+of heaven but those who die a violent death. One of the most numerous
+and powerful bodies in the first century of the Raskol, the
+_Philipovtsy_, or "burners," like the Indian fakeers, preached
+redemption by suicide, and salvation by the baptism of fire, holding
+that the flames alone could purify men from the defilements of a world
+which had fallen under the rule of Satan. In Siberia and the
+neighborhood of the Ural these sectaries have been known to burn
+themselves in hundreds on enormous piles built for the purpose, or by
+families in their hovels, to the sound of hymns and chants. Such acts
+have been known even during the present century.
+
+One insanity begets another, and belief in the presence of Antichrist
+leads to belief in the approaching restoration of the earth, the second
+advent of Christ and the millennium, which has infected the more extreme
+sects of the Bezpopovstchin, thus connecting it with Gnostic sects of
+various origins. Russian literalism, like many early Christian heresies,
+interprets the prophets and the Apocalypse in a purely material sense.
+The mujik or artisan looks for the establishment of Christ's temporal
+kingdom, and anticipates the dominion promised to the saints. Such a
+belief opens the door to a trust in prophets, and to all the
+extravagances and rascalities that come in its train. In vain does the
+Russian statute-book condemn false prophets and lying miracles: from
+time to time the country is overrun by _illuminati_ proclaiming the
+Second Advent, and occasionally giving themselves out as the expected
+Messiah. They are frequently accompanied by a woman, who plays the part
+of mystical mother or spouse, and to whom they give the title of the
+Mother of God or the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes it is only the simple
+folk who are themselves hunting for the Redeemer; and not long since
+appeared a body of Siberian sectaries, called "Christ-hunters,"
+maintaining that the Saviour was about to appear, and scouring desert
+and forest to find him. Peasants have even been known to refuse payment
+of their taxes under pretext that Christ was come and had done away with
+them. The Messiah of the Russian sectaries is sometimes sought in the
+person of a simple peasant, and sometimes in a native or foreign prince.
+Some have long beheld the expected liberator in Napoleon, for their
+persuasion that the Russian state is the reign of Antichrist easily led
+to welcoming as a Saviour any one who seemed destined to destroy it; and
+in the great enemy of the empire, the great furtherer of a general
+abolition of serfdom, many recognized the conquering Messiah of the
+prophets. It is said that at their meetings an image of Napoleon is
+worshiped, and busts of him are certainly nowhere met with more commonly
+than in Russia. An equal veneration is paid to pictures representing the
+first emperor surrounded by his marshals and floating above the clouds
+in a kind of apotheosis, which is literally accepted by the
+matter-of-fact Russian. The story runs among his worshipers that
+Napoleon is not dead, but has escaped from St. Helena and taken shelter
+on the shores of Lake Baikal, whence he will one day come forth to
+overturn the throne of Satan and found the kingdom of justice and peace.
+
+The main point of these millennial hopes was the abolition of forced
+labor and the _obrok_, the emancipation of the serfs, and the
+equitable distribution of land and other property. A ready reception was
+sure to await such a gospel, with its combination of promises of liberty
+and faint dreams of communism; and something of the kind is necessary to
+explain the easy success of so many extravagant sects, lying prophets
+and feigned Messiahs. Dreams like these in the West incited the
+revolutions of the peasants in mediæval times and of the Anabaptists in
+the sixteenth century, but they must slowly vanish with the slavery
+which gave them birth. The age of freedom anticipated by the mujik, the
+kingdom of God of which he caught a glimpse in the promises of the
+prophets, is come at last: the Messiah and freer of the people has
+appeared, and his reign is begun. The emancipation of the serfs has
+given a blow to these millennial dreams, and consequently to the more
+advanced sects of the Raskol: its ruin will be completed by education
+and material improvement.
+
+The sects whose general evolution we have sketched may appear to us
+ridiculous and childish. We are tempted to look with contempt upon a
+people capable of such extravagances; but such an estimate would be
+erroneous. Absurdity and extravagance have always found a ready welcome
+when presented under the garb of religion; and countries boasting of
+older and more widespread civilization are not behind Russia in this
+regard. The Raskol has its counterpart in the past and the contemporary
+sectarianism of England and of the United States. A strong likeness
+holds between the Puritans and the Old Believers; and both as to
+originality and religious eccentricities the Anglo-Saxon and the
+inhabitant of Greater Russia may be compared. The Russians delight in
+pointing out the resemblances between their country and the great
+republic of the New World; and this is not the least of them. The
+Americans have their prophets and prophetesses, just like the old
+Russian serfs, and no absurdity or immorality is too gross to find
+preachers and converts among them. How shall we account for so striking
+an analogy between the two most extensive empires of the two continents?
+To characteristics of race and an incomplete blending of different
+stocks, or to the nature of the soil, the extremes of heat and cold, and
+the strong contrasts of the seasons? to the vastness of their
+territories and the scanty diffusion of population and culture over
+areas so immense? or still again to the rapid and inharmonious growth of
+the two countries--to the lack of popular education in the one, and the
+low standard of the higher education in the other? Separately or
+combined, these causes fail completely to explain the curious
+phenomenon; and still they are the most striking points of resemblance
+between the two colossal powers. In some respects, the sectarian spirit
+presents itself in a different and almost opposite manner in the
+democratic republic and the despotic empire. In the United States the
+ranker growths of religious enthusiasm spring from an excess of
+individualism and enterprise--from the independent and pushing temper
+transported from politics and business into religion. In Russia, on the
+contrary, the popular mind has thrown off all restraint in the religious
+sphere, simply because this was long the only one in which it could
+disport itself unchecked. The religious boldness and extravagance which
+in the one country is the direct consequence of the state of society is
+in the other rather a reaction against it. Russia's advantage over
+America lies in the fact that there the excesses of fancy and zeal
+prevail in a more primitive, unsophisticated and childlike race. Some
+diseases are best passed through early in life, before the time of full
+development. It is no less true of some moral maladies: childhood
+suffers from them less than youth or maturity. Russia is still in that
+stage of civilization which is naturally subject to attacks of feverish
+and mystical religion, but one day it will emerge from it; and the
+precocious skepticism of a large portion of its educated classes shows
+plainly that no inexorable fate condemns the national character to
+credulity and superstition.
+
+The Raskol is more than a morbid symptom or a sign of weakness. If it
+does little credit to the sense or cultivation of the people, it does
+much to its heart, its conscience and its will. Independence and
+individuality are often said to be lacking in it, but the Old Believers
+show that firmness and conception of duty which are as needful as
+intelligence to a nation's strength. Beneath the dull, monotonous
+surface of political society these sects give us a glimpse of the hard
+rock which is the groundwork of this seemingly inert race: its
+originality and stern individuality are what are dear to it. One day
+Russia will display in other spheres the originality and patient, sturdy
+energy which these religious struggles have called forth. That a
+considerable portion of the people have revolted against the liturgic
+reform shows that it is not the stupid, sluggish herd Europe has so long
+imagined. On one ground at least its conscience has displayed sufficient
+independence, and told despotism that it is not all-powerful. And if
+mere ritual alterations have aroused such opposition, what would result
+from a change of religion--from the transition to Catholicism or
+Protestantism so often dreamed of and advised by Western theologians? So
+far from being always docile and void of will and determination, the
+Russian people, even in their religious vagaries, have displayed a
+singular power of organization and combination.
+
+
+
+
+ELEANOR'S CAREER.
+
+
+I first met Eleanor Vachy at a boarding-school in the city of R----,
+where we soon became intimate friends. Eleanor was the result of a
+system. When but a few months old, and an orphan, she had been left to
+the care of her aunt, Miss Willmanson, a reformer, a progressionist,
+advanced both in life and opinions, who had spared nothing to make her
+niece an example to her sex. No pugilist ever believed more fully in
+training than did Miss Willmanson: she looked upon institutions of
+learning as forcing-houses, where nipping, budding and improving the
+natural growth was the constant occupation, and where the various
+branches of knowledge were cultivated, like cabbages, at so much a head.
+When Eleanor became, so to speak, her property, she seized with avidity
+the opportunity of submitting her principles to the test of
+experiment--of demonstrating to an incredulous world the power of
+education, and the vigor of the female mind and body when formed by
+proper discipline. The child was fed in accordance with the most recent
+discoveries in chemistry: she was taught to read after the latest
+improvement in primers; she was provided with mathematical toys and
+gymnastic exercises. Did she take a walk in summer, her attention was
+directed to botany; if she picked up a stone to make it skip over a
+passing brook, passages from the _Medals of Creation_ or _Thoughts on a
+Pebble_ were quoted; and when the stone went skimming over the surface
+of the calm pool, the theory of the ricochet was explained and the
+wonders of natural philosophy were dilated upon. Every sentence she
+spoke was made the text of a lesson, and the names of sages and
+philosophers became as familiar to her as those of Jack the Giant-killer
+and Blue Beard are to ordinary children.
+
+Especially were the stories of distinguished women repeated by Miss
+Willmanson in glowing language, pointed out as precedents, and dwelt
+upon as worthy of emulation. "If their genius was great enough," she
+would remark, "to extort a recognition in times when only masculine pens
+wrote history, what could not the same ability do now?--now, when,
+strengthened by waiting, encouraged by ungrudging praise, and sure of
+having chroniclers of their own sex who will do them justice, a new era
+is dawning. The history of the world needs to be reseen from a woman's
+point of view, and rewritten by a woman's hand. Men have had
+the monopoly of making public opinion, and have distorted facts. What in
+a king they name policy, in a queen is called cruelty; what in a
+minister is diplomacy, in a favorite is deceit; what in a man is
+justice, in a woman is inhumanity; vigor is coarseness, generosity is
+weakness, sincerity becomes shallowness; and faults that are passed over
+lightly in the hero are sufficient to doom the heroine for all
+posterity."
+
+The peculiar views of Eleanor's aunt did not prevent her from being an
+agreeable acquaintance. Although she believed in the intellectual
+capacity of woman, she did not look upon herself as a representative of
+the class: her admiration of her sex did not degenerate into
+self-laudation, and her enthusiasm was not tainted by egotism. Hers was
+not a strong-mindedness that showed itself in ungainly coiffures and
+tasteless attire. It was content with desiring and claiming for woman
+whatever is best, noblest and most lovely in mind and body. She would
+have given her life to further this end, but thought it mattered little
+if her name were forgotten in the bulletin that announced success to the
+cause.
+
+Owing to her extreme reserve in talking of herself, it was very
+gradually that I gained this knowledge of Miss Willmanson's character;
+but many of her opinions were received at second hand from Eleanor, who
+admired her aunt greatly, and never tired of quoting her. It was she who
+told me that this talented lady was engaged upon a book the title of
+which was _Footsteps of Women in All Ages_. The aunt returned this
+admiration in no stinted measure, and her highest ambition seemed
+centred in her niece.
+
+Eleanor was a tall, well-formed, unaffected girl, with a clear olive
+complexion; a slight rose-colored bloom on cheeks and lips; deep blue
+eyes, rather purple than blue, rather amethyst than purple, that looked
+every one candidly in the face; and hair reminding you of late
+twilight--a shade that, though dark, still bore traces of having once
+been light, even sunny.
+
+As to her acquirements, however, what in the older lady was love of
+information, in the younger appeared to be what Pepys called a "curious
+curiosity." If she had been obliged to investigate a subject by constant
+labor, I doubt whether she would have stood the test. At school she was
+a parlor-boarder, attended outside lectures on the sciences, went to
+concerts and the opera, frequented museums, had small blank-books in
+which she took voluminous notes, and was constantly busy with some new
+scheme of improvement. In looking at her I often thought that could her
+aunt's dreams be realized, could her intellect ever approach the unusual
+symmetry and beauty of her face and form, it would indeed be an
+achievement. But was it likely that Nature, who is so grudging of her
+gifts, after having endowed her so highly physically would do as much
+for her mentally? "Aunt Will," as the girl called her, had none of these
+misgivings. This beautiful physique she believed to be the effect of her
+own foresight and care--of proper food and clothing, of training in the
+gymnasium, riding and walking. It was itself an earnest of the success
+of her plans, and made her confident for the future. One of the tenets
+of her faith was that Eleanor needed only to decide in what direction to
+exert herself, and that in any career success was certain. For this
+reason she gave her opportunities of every kind, that her choice might
+be unlimited.
+
+In this, as in every other opinion, Eleanor agreed with her aunt, not
+through vanity, but through respect and habit. What she intended to
+become was the theme of long confidences between us when alone together,
+for the time which most other girls of her age devote to dreams of love
+and lovers was employed by her in speculations about her future
+profession. The artlessness of the girl in thus appropriating to herself
+the whole field of human wisdom would have been ludicrous had it not
+been so frank: it reminded you of a child reaching out its chubby hands
+to seize the moon.
+
+In regard to love and marriage, Aunt Will was most resolute in speaking
+against them, and by precept and example she endeavored to influence her
+niece in the same direction. "It is a state which mentally
+unfits a woman for anything"--a dictum which was accepted by Eleanor
+without argument. It was understood that her life was to be devoted to
+being great, not to being loved. But Aunt Will refused to lend her help
+or advice in deciding what the career should be, believing that the
+prophetic fire would kindle itself without human help, and fearing that
+the least hint of what she desired might fetter a waking genius, though
+the girl often plaintively remarked, "I wish aunt would settle it for
+me."
+
+The entire faith with which these two women looked forward to the future
+roused no little curiosity on my part as to the realization of their
+hopes. A year after our acquaintance began the ladies left R---- to
+travel abroad. Eleanor assured me solemnly that she should not return
+until she had won renown, that vision of so many young hearts on leaving
+home. "The great trouble is to decide what to do;" and here she sighed.
+"But Aunt Will says our work shapes itself without our knowing. Some
+morning we wake and find it ready for our hands, with no more doubt on
+the subject. I am waking."
+
+"Meanwhile enjoying yourself."
+
+"Why not?" she answered, smiling: "it is what aunt wishes me to do."
+
+At first I had frequent letters from my friend, but the intervals
+between them became longer, as is usual when a new life replaces the
+old. In those which I received there was no allusion to the career, and
+I felt that inquiries on the subject would be indiscreet. If she were
+succeeding, I should hear of it soon enough; and if not, why should I
+give her pain? After a separation of about eighteen months, and a
+silence of six, one morning, on being sent for to the parlor, what was
+my surprise to find myself face to face with Eleanor Vachy, and the
+girl, prettier than ever, pressing warm kisses on my cheeks!
+
+We had been talking on every conceivable topic for perhaps an hour, as
+only friends can talk, when I chanced to remark, "You intended to make a
+much longer stay when you left: I hope nothing disagreeable has
+happened to bring you home."
+
+"Nothing _dis_agreeable," she replied, looking slightly
+embarrassed. "I would have written about it, but thought I would rather
+tell you. I hope it won't alter your opinion of me when you hear it: I
+hope you won't think less of me;" and the color mounted swiftly in her
+cheeks as she gave me one deprecating glance out of her purple eyes, and
+then as quickly hid them under their long lashes.
+
+"I will try to be impartial," I answered gravely, seeing that she was
+not in a humor to be laughed at. "I suppose it is in reference to your
+career?"
+
+"Yes it is," she replied, looking attentively at the point of her
+boot; "and I fear aunt is disappointed, although she says nothing;
+and it is very possible that you will be disappointed also."
+
+"If you have chosen anything reasonable," I remarked encouragingly, "I
+am sure your aunt will be satisfied: she is so unprejudiced, and you
+know she always declared that she would not influence you."
+
+"She trusted me too much," sighing. "What I have preferred,
+you--maybe she--that is, many people--would think no career at all."
+
+"Ah, indeed! Poetry?" (I knew that Aunt Will had no great opinion of
+most of the versifiers.)
+
+She interlocked her fingers and gave them a slight twist, looked still
+more intently at the toe of her boot, and dropped ruefully one little
+word, "No."
+
+"It is not the stage, surely?" looking at her perfect beauty with a
+sudden start.
+
+"No, no! it is not that. You cannot guess. I may as well tell you. I
+will begin at the beginning, and you will see that I could not help
+it: that is--For Mercy's sake don't look at me as if I were a
+criminal, or I won't say another word!"
+
+"Nonsense, Eleanor! I am not looking at you as if you were a criminal.
+Go on and tell me."
+
+"It is too late now," she said hastily: "I have been here so long
+already. I will see you to-morrow."
+
+"If you dare to go without making a full confession, I will never
+forgive you. Sit down: the sooner it is over the more composed you
+will feel. I have been so anxious to hear about it!"
+
+"Well, if it must be. I know you will be disgusted. I have to begin when
+we left here."
+
+"I have plenty of time to listen."
+
+    "You remember we started on the voyage by ourselves. At our first
+    dinner on board aunt recognized an old friend, a Mrs. Kenderdine,
+    who was also crossing, together with her son. That first dinner was
+    our last for some time, for, though we tried to be as strong-minded
+    as possible, in the end we were obliged to stay in our cabins.
+    Having recovered sooner than aunt, one day I stumbled out as far as
+    the companion-way, and was sitting there very disconsolately when
+    Mr. Kenderdine, passing by, stopped to ask if he should assist me on
+    deck. Of course I was only too glad to go. He had not been sick at
+    all, and could walk about quite easily, which gave me a high opinion
+    of his abilities. Later he brought me my dinner, with a glass of
+    wine, of which he did not spill a drop, and by evening I found that
+    with the aid of his arm I could promenade.
+
+    "That day was a sample of all until the voyage was over, for if I
+    attempted to move alone I stumbled, rolled and behaved with a lack
+    of dignity that was frightful; and yet, after getting a taste of
+    fresh air, I could not bear to stay below. Somehow, it became
+    understood that each morning Mr. Kenderdine might find me in the
+    companion-way at a certain hour; and as aunt would not leave her
+    state-room, and old Mrs. Kenderdine could not, we had nothing to do
+    but to try and amuse each other; so we ended by becoming pretty well
+    acquainted by the time we arrived at Queenstown.
+
+    "In England aunt was very busy. You used to think her a student
+    here: I wish you could have seen her there. For six months she spent
+    almost every hour of daylight in the library of the British Museum,
+    where she had been introduced by a learned friend. Aunt Will has a
+    wonderful admiration for Boadicea: she was also critically examining
+    the history of Queen Henrietta and of Elizabeth. She thinks the
+    latter did not do justice to her opportunities, and that her vanity
+    was the mark of a feeble mind. You know aunt has no patience with
+    vanity and--"
+
+"But about yourself, Eleanor?"
+
+    "I am coming to that directly. Mrs. Kenderdine had gone abroad to
+    get medical advice: as her health would permit her to take but
+    little exercise, a morning drive, with receiving and paying visits
+    (she is of an English family and well connected), was all she was
+    capable of.
+
+    "It happened in this way that the only ones of our party fit for
+    active duty were Fred--I mean Mr. Kenderdine--and myself. As we had
+    formed the habit of amusing each other on the voyage, we still
+    continued it. Aunt would join us when any historical site was to be
+    visited; but there were many places that were not historical, but
+    that were just as pleasant or as beautiful as if they had been, and
+    to these we went together. We stayed in London until the season was
+    over, and then started for Paris.
+
+    "You can form no idea how aunt reveled in the antiquities of Paris.
+    If she went to the Musée Cluny in the morning, we might be sure we
+    should see no more of her for that day at least. She absolutely took
+    rooms at Versailles for two weeks that she might study up the
+    _locale_ of the Pompadour, whom she regards as a female Richelieu,
+    and she also found a rich field of investigation in the lives of the
+    French queens."
+
+"And what were you doing all this time?"
+
+    "Oh! I had professors, French, Italian and German, for the
+    languages, I visited the galleries, and aunt would read me her
+    notes, so that I was gaining much information. You see, in a foreign
+    country it is not the thing to sit in the house to study: you must
+    go about as much as possible and use your eyes, which is an
+    education in itself. That is what I was doing."
+
+"About your career, I mean?"
+
+    "Don't be so impatient: I am about to tell you. We concluded to
+    spend the winter in Rome, aunt and I: the Kenderdines
+    remained in Paris. Aunt preceded me to Brussels about two weeks
+    to explore the libraries there, as we were to make the Rhine tour
+    before going to Italy. I should have accompanied her, but we were
+    expecting a remittance from home that had not arrived, and I was
+    obliged to wait for it. The day before I left Paris I was regretting
+    that I had not been to Montmorency, and Mr. Kenderdine, who
+    overheard me, proposed that as I did not mind fatigue we should go.
+    By starting early in the morning we could make our 'last day,' as he
+    called it, a _fête_. I consented, and we arranged to take the early
+    train to Enghien, to breakfast there, ride through Montmorency to
+    the Château de la Chasse, where we could have dinner, and return in
+    time for the Belgian train in the evening. The next morning I was
+    ready, my riding-skirt in a satchel, and off we went. The day was
+    perfect, the air cool and delicious. We took the cars at the Gare du
+    Nord, and in less than an hour we arrived at Enghien, ordered
+    breakfast at a charming little hotel that overlooks the lake, and
+    had it brought to us on the balcony, from whence we could listen to
+    the band playing, and look at the beautiful villas that border the
+    water, watch the invalids taking their constitutionals, and see the
+    brightly-painted boats bobbing over the small waves. While waiting
+    for the horses, Fred made me go to the springs and taste the water,
+    which is horrid: then we mounted and cantered leisurely on to
+    Montmorency, a hilly, desolate-looking place, although so much
+    lauded by the Parisians: I suppose the beautiful forest in the
+    vicinity is its attraction. The road for the next five or six miles
+    was shaded by trees, and most of it was a soft turf on which the
+    horses' hoofs rebounded noiselessly, with views of rolling country
+    at intervals. The château had been a hunting-lodge two or three
+    hundred years ago, but nothing remains of it now but a couple of
+    towers, to which a modern country inn has been added, where
+    excellent dinners may be had, as I can testify. It is a great place
+    for the picnics and pleasure-parties of the natives, but foreigners
+    seldom visit it. After we had wandered about for several hours,
+    enjoying ourselves in that silly French way, with nothing but light
+    hearts, fresh air, green grass and blue sky for all incitement
+    thereto, I, in consideration of my evening journey, recommended our
+    return. We had the horses brought round, and then my career
+    commenced."
+
+"Why, how?"
+
+    "You know that road from the château? No you don't, but I will tell
+    you of it. The woods lie on one side, and an ivy-covered wall
+    separates it from sloping fields on the other--the prettiest place
+    on earth." ("Artistic," thought I: "she has decided on
+    landscape-painting;" but I did not interrupt.) "It was just there
+    that Mr. Kenderdine came to my side: he had dismounted to open the
+    gate, and was leading his horse. He came to my side, and, looking up
+    at me, said half seriously, half smiling, 'You are very happy
+    to-day, Miss Eleanor: what will you do when I am not with you to
+    ride and walk and talk to?'
+
+    "'I suppose I shall find some one in Rome who rides, walks and talks
+    as well. They say the Campagna is lovely for riding.'
+
+    "'And perhaps some one who waltzes as well.'
+
+    "'Certainly: that is no great accomplishment. Like playing a
+    hurdy-gurdy, if you turn round often enough you cannot fail to make
+    a successful performance.'
+
+    "'There is one thing you will not find, Eleanor;' and he laid his
+    hand on my wrist: 'that is, some one who loves you as well.'
+
+    "'Mr. Kenderdine, please get on your horse, and don't talk
+    nonsense.'
+
+    "'I suppose I have as good a right to talk nonsense as any one, and
+    I believe the fancy for doing so comes to all of us once in our
+    lifetime.'
+
+    "'I admit your right to talk, and claim mine to refuse to listen;'
+    so saying, I gave my horse a cut. The animal started, but Fred's
+    hand was still on my bridle-wrist, and with a motion he checked the
+    animal so violently that it reared, afterward coming down on the sod
+    with a thud that almost unseated me.
+
+    "'I will talk, and you shall listen,' said Mr. Fred, looking
+    dangerous.
+
+    "'So it appears,' I retorted, thoroughly provoked; 'but I hope you
+    will oblige me by being as expeditious as possible, for I am very
+    much afraid that I shall miss the train to-night.'
+
+    "He looked at me a moment as if to be sure he understood my meaning,
+    then turned and sprang on his horse, at the same time remarking,
+    'You are right: I had better not detain you. I had forgotten your
+    journey.'
+
+    "We cantered on in silence for about three miles. The flush of anger
+    had slowly faded out of his face, when he commenced abruptly: 'Miss
+    Vachy, I have no _right_ to ask you what I intend asking, but I have
+    always thought you had a kind heart, and perhaps you will answer my
+    question. You may depend that the confidence you may place in me
+    will be held sacred.' Then less quickly, 'Will you tell me, have you
+    an understanding, or are you engaged, or do you care for any one
+    else?'
+
+    "For a moment I thought of entering into an explanation--of telling
+    him what my aunt expected of me, and what I intended doing--only I
+    did not myself know what I intended doing; and it seemed absurd to
+    begin such an account without being able to complete it. Besides, if
+    he thought I cared for some one else, it would end the matter and
+    save a world of argument; so I replied hesitatingly, 'I am sorry,
+    Mr. Kenderdine, that I cannot answer your question, but--'
+
+    "'Enough: I understand.'
+
+    "Then our canter quickened into a gallop, and the gallop into a
+    race. I am quite sure those horses never went at such a pace in
+    their lives before. Fred seemed unconscious of the run we were
+    making of it, unconscious of everything, urging his poor beast
+    whenever it flagged, and fretting its mouth by alternately jerking
+    and loosening the reins, until had it been anything but a livery
+    hack it would have been frantic. Conversation was impossible, and I
+    had nothing to sustain me during the ride but the satisfaction of
+    feeling that I had done my duty."
+
+    "It don't seem to me that you are getting any nearer the end of your
+    story."
+
+    "The darkest hour is that which precedes the dawn," said Eleanor,
+    adding maliciously, "if you are tired I will tell you the rest
+    to-morrow. Don't you see that I must bring you up to it gradually,
+    so that the shock will not be too great?"
+
+    "But think of the suspense I am in."
+
+    "My dear, the first steps in any career are as important as the
+    last; so curb your curiosity and listen. If you were telling it, you
+    would not get on one bit faster."
+
+    "Perhaps not," I answered doubtfully: "however, continue."
+
+    "Thanks to our haste, we got to Paris early enough to allow me to
+    rest and have supper. I had sent on my baggage by express, and had
+    nothing to worry about Starting at seven, I should arrive next
+    morning at Brussels. I can sleep famously in the cars, and I
+    apprehended no difficulty. Fred, looking as black as a thundercloud,
+    took me to the station, and was preposterous enough to ask me if I
+    was not sorry I was going."
+
+    "And what did you say?"
+
+    "Say? Why, the truth--that I was glad; and then Mr. Thundercloud
+    looked blacker than ever.
+
+    "I had several stations to pass before we reached Creil, where I was
+    to change cars and take the express. I settled myself comfortably,
+    so that I could look out of the window, and I whiled away the time
+    by reviewing the whole of my acquaintance with Mr. Kenderdine. I was
+    forced to admit that I had acted imprudently in not letting him know
+    from the beginning what my life was to be, but I never thought it
+    would matter to him. Then my conscience reproached me for the lie I
+    had implied: I might have told him the truth, and spared him the
+    mortification of believing that I preferred some one else. I knew,
+    in thinking of it calmly, that it was not to avoid an argument that
+    I had done it, but to make him feel as badly as possible, because I
+    was angry at him for stopping my horse. It was mean in me,
+    especially as that De Vezin was the person he would pitch on. You
+    see, I had made a good deal of De Vezin while in Paris, but it was
+    only to improve my French accent--a fact which poor Fred
+    could not know.
+
+    "The train whizzed on. The night grew dark: I could scarcely
+    distinguish objects outside the blurred window, but I still remained
+    attentive to the voice of the conductor as he called out the names
+    of the successive stations until--until I heard no more: I had
+    fallen asleep.
+
+    "I suppose I slept profoundly for about half an hour, when I was
+    suddenly awakened by a jerk: the cars had stopped. I was not aware I
+    had been sleeping, but I had an undefined sense that something was
+    wrong. I hastily opened the window and heard the name Liancourt
+    shouted. There was no such stopping-place between Paris and Creil,
+    for I had studied up my route before starting. The truth flashed
+    upon me, and impulsively I left my car, rushed to the conductor, and
+    asked, 'What place is this?'
+
+    "'Liancourt.'
+
+    "'And where is Creil?'
+
+    "'We have passed it. Did you want to go there?'
+
+    "'Of course I did. Why did you not call it?'
+
+    "'We did call it,' said he indignantly: 'you must have been asleep.'
+
+    "'No such thing,' I replied, for at the moment I did not think it
+    could be possible.
+
+    "There was but little time for reflection. Should I go on to the
+    next large town, or should I stay? If I went on, I should get to my
+    destination in the middle of the night, and, knowing nothing of the
+    place, might have great difficulty in finding lodgings. If I stayed,
+    I might get a train back or a carriage, or even find here a hotel of
+    some kind where they would accommodate me until morning. I decided
+    to remain, and off went the cars.
+
+    "One of the ticket-agents came forward from the office--as I
+    supposed to offer his services: there were but few people about, but
+    all understood my situation. As I said, the man came forward and
+    bowed: 'Your fare, if you please.'
+
+    "I handed him my ticket: he stood before me and repeated, 'Your
+    fare, if you please.'
+
+    "'I have given you my ticket,' said I, looking at him inquiringly.
+
+    "'This one is not for Liancourt: it is for Creil.'
+
+    "'I was going to Creil, only the train brought me past.'
+
+    "'Exactly, and you will please pay for the extra distance,' said he
+    politely.
+
+    "It was too much. I had the misfortune of being carried out of my
+    way, and this exasperating clerk was coolly asking me to pay the
+    company a premium for the result of the conductor's carelessness. It
+    was one of those situations in which words fail to express the
+    extent of your indignation. The fellow's audacity verged on the
+    sublime. He stood there with the calmness of a hero. And what did I
+    do? Why, I paid him. But I tell you truly that I have hated that
+    whole railroad company with the blackest hatred ever since. That was
+    not all. As soon as he received the provoking money--I wish it had
+    been red hot--he turned on his heel and walked into his office.
+
+    "But it was not the time to indulge in resentment: I must act
+    promptly. The people there when I arrived were fast dispersing. I
+    addressed myself to a half-grown boy who was standing near me: 'When
+    does the next train go to Paris?' I thought I had better return and
+    start afresh in the morning.
+
+    "'The last has gone for to-night,' answered the lad.
+
+    "'Are you quite sure?'
+
+    "He gave his head a decisive jerk.
+
+    "'How far is this place from Creil?'
+
+    "'About five miles.'
+
+    "'Can I get a carriage to take me there?'
+
+    "'No.' This time he looked for corroboration to the group who had
+    gathered round us, all of whom with one accord wagged their heads in
+    the negative.
+
+    "'Is there a hotel here?'
+
+    "'No.'
+
+    "'Isn't it a town?'
+
+    "'No,' much intensified.
+
+    "I knew that there are many stations in France consisting of a
+    single building located in the midst of fields: these places take
+    their names from the nearest town (which may be several
+    miles distant), and are marked on the maps by a black spot like a
+    hyphen: many of them are served by an omnibus. I found, on further
+    questioning, that this was one of the aforesaid black spots, minus
+    the omnibus.
+
+    "'What is the nearest town?' I continued.
+
+    "'Liancourt is a little more than a mile off, but it is a village.'
+
+    "'Is there an inn there?'
+
+    "'I believe there is.'
+
+    "By this time most of my audience had satisfied their curiosity and
+    departed, leaving only the boy, and an old man who attracted my
+    attention. He held a lantern which illuminated a kindly,
+    weatherbeaten face, looking like that of an old sailor. I discovered
+    later that he had come from Normandy, and like most Normans had
+    spent half his life on the waves. He seemed interested in my hapless
+    plight: perhaps he would assist me.
+
+    "'I want to go back to Creil' (I knew I should find a hotel there):
+    'won't you come with me and show me the way with your lantern?'
+
+    "'Can't, mademoiselle: can't leave here.' He gave an indicative jerk
+    of his head and thumb in a certain direction toward the railroad.
+
+    "'Why not?'
+
+    "'I am the night-watchman, and should lose my place if I left.'
+
+    "Then please point out the road: I shall have to return alone.'
+
+    "'Can't, mademoiselle: it is too dark. You would get lost.'
+
+    "I thought I could not get much more lost than I was at that moment,
+    but did not say so. Just then a bright idea struck me: 'I will walk
+    back on the railroad: I cannot fail to find my way.'
+
+    "The old man looked aghast at the proposition, and pointed to the
+    long line of high thick hedge that bordered it on each side.
+
+    "'How could you leave the track if you did get to Creil? They are
+    locked up there for the night. Besides, you would be crushed by
+    passing trains, and you would be fined too, for it is against the
+    law. Now,' he went on in that patronizing manner which, from its
+    naïveté is so charming in the French peasant--'now, mademoiselle
+    does not wish to die to-night, does she, and be also fined?'
+
+    "'No,' I replied dolefully, seeing my chances of shelter
+    diminishing, 'but I shall certainly die if you will not help me to
+    find a hotel.'
+
+    "'Wait,' he whispered--'wait a little until all the world is gone.
+    It won't be five minutes until every one has departed and every
+    light is out in the station; then--'
+
+    "I could not see how this was to improve my condition, but, having
+    no choice, I waited patiently while he went and busied himself about
+    his work. Presently he returned. Everything was silent, and pointing
+    mysteriously to the waiting-room in the building, he said in a low
+    voice, '_There_ is where you can stay till morning. They would not
+    allow it if they knew, but no one will be the wiser. You can leave
+    as soon as it is light, and to-night sleep on one of the sofas.
+    That's where I sit at night, and I will give it up to you.'
+
+    "The idea was repugnant to me. I could not consent; it was too
+    frightful; it was impossible. I hastened to say, 'It will not do--I
+    cannot stay here: you must take me back. Do take me to Creil.'
+
+    "'Can't do it.'
+
+    "'Well, take me to the next town: there is an inn, and it is not
+    far.'
+
+    "He wavered, and seeing my distress his good-nature conquered. 'I
+    will go with you,' he answered, slowly shaking his head as if
+    admonishing himself for being such a fool; 'but if they should find
+    it out--'
+
+    "You may think it was unkind in me to let him run the risk of losing
+    his place, but what was I to do? I could not submit to stay at the
+    station like a vagabond, and I could not find my way alone. So,
+    without allowing him time to change his mind, I set out. The road
+    was bad and the night dark; the lantern threw a circle of light
+    around us, but all beyond was impenetrable; still, the hope of
+    shelter at the end made the walk agreeable to me. We
+    stumbled along in silence, and by and by heard the barking of dogs
+    that always heralds a night approach to a village. The first house
+    that greeted my eyes had the welcome signboard swinging before it,
+    and above its lintel a bush. It was a tiny place, but it was a
+    refuge, and I felt quite cheerful as I requested the old tar to
+    knock.
+
+    "He did so, and the sound echoed and re-echoed, but there was no
+    response.
+
+    "'Again,' I said, and 'again,' and 'again,' with no better result.
+    It was anything but encouraging.
+
+    "'They cannot hear, they are asleep: take up a stone and beat the
+    door. You must awaken them.'
+
+    "He obediently picked up a stone, and there followed a noise like
+    thunder. I should not have been surprised to see the wee house tilt
+    over and lie down on its side under the force of the blows. Now a
+    gruff voice called out, 'What do you want?'
+
+    "'Lodging.'
+
+    "'We have no room for any one: go away.'
+
+    "'Tell him I must stay,' And with the help of my prompting the old
+    fellow put my case in the most persuasive light possible, but,
+    although we talked and knocked with perseverance, the owner of the
+    voice neither appeared, nor would he vouchsafe us another answer.
+    One might have thought the house had been suddenly enchanted.
+
+    "'It is of no use--of no use whatever: they will not open,' finally
+    said my exhausted companion.
+
+    "'Is there no other inn here?'
+
+    "'No: you will have to return.'
+
+    "'Then you must take me to Creil.'
+
+    "'That I can't do. I have been away too long already: there is a
+    freight-train expected, and I must see that the track is clear. We
+    must go back;' and he turned resolutely and led the way.
+
+    "Just as we left the village a gay party of peasant-girls passed us
+    coming from a ball, laughing and chatting merrily with their beaus.
+    I had an insane idea of accosting them, appealing to their pity, and
+    asking them to keep me for the night, but fear lest they should
+    refuse restrained me: I was too dejected to risk a second repulse.
+    I have been able to realize the poetical things they tell us of the
+    sensations of outcasts, of adventurers; and homeless wanderers ever
+    since. The sight of this merry party made me feel more terribly
+    alone; and the beaus--well, I confess I did wonder what Fred was
+    doing at that moment. Then I thought of the horror of my aunt could
+    she know where I was, and what she would think of the 'footsteps'
+    her own niece was making just then, could she see her.
+
+    "When we arrived at the station my guide preceded me to the
+    waiting-room, and I, completely worn out, meekly followed him.
+
+    "'This is much better than sleeping in the fields,' he remarked
+    cheerily as we entered: 'shall I make you a fire?'
+
+    "'No, thank you, but let me go into the other room.' My reason for
+    this was that its sofas and chairs had some pretensions to comfort,
+    being 'first class.' He went to open the connecting door. It was
+    locked.
+
+    "'This is the only room that is open: I am sorry. Wait a moment: I
+    will bring something to make a pillow, and you can sleep like a
+    top.' He went out, and returned with an old coat, which he folded
+    for me, and which, after covering it with my handkerchief, made a
+    tolerable resting-place for my head. My bed was a hard bench.
+
+    "'Now,' said my protector in a tone of much satisfaction--'now, you
+    will be well. _Voilà un bon gîte_! Both these other doors are
+    fastened, and this one you can lock after me. Very early I will come
+    and take you part of the way back, and by daylight you can easily
+    find the rest yourself. _Bonne nuit, mademoiselle: dormez bien_.' He
+    went to the door, and taking the key from the outside put it inside.
+    It would not turn. The lock had been made to work with two keys, and
+    the other was absent.
+
+    "'I will tell you what I will do,' said my friend, not in the least
+    discomfited: 'I will lock the door and take the key with me. I must
+    go up the road about two miles on my beat, but you can feel
+    quite safe: no one can get in while I am gone. There is another
+    watchman on the road: he might come while I am away, and--and raise
+    a row. It is best to lock you up.' He nodded his head with great
+    complacency at his good management, and prepared to leave me. I
+    could suggest nothing better. I was at the end of my resources, and
+    had to accept my fate. It would be interesting to know what the
+    Pompadour or Queen Elizabeth would have done under the
+    circumstances, wouldn't it?
+
+    "It was with no pleasant feeling that I saw the door shut, heard the
+    key turned, then withdrawn: the lantern glimmered for a moment
+    through the window, and I was left in the darkness a prisoner.
+    Thoroughly a prisoner, for none of the three doors had keys on my
+    side, and the windows, with their tiny panes of ground glass, were
+    high above the floor. Then, too, the old man had insisted on
+    speaking in a whisper, and walked about on tiptoe. Who were those
+    persons he evidently feared to waken? Persons near by, of course.
+    Probably they carried the missing keys and could enter at any
+    moment. And the other watchman? What if he should come, and, this
+    being the room allotted to himself and companion, refuse to be
+    barred out? Those other unknowns would be aroused by his knocking,
+    and rush in to seek an explanation. If I were found there, should I
+    be taken before the police as a vagabond? Or imagine a fire--a fire
+    and no one knowing that I am here! A fire and no means of escape! My
+    friends losing all trace of me, unable to ascertain how I came by my
+    death! And such a horrible death! Four hours yet till dawn! What
+    might not happen in four hours? The man himself might only have gone
+    to seek an accomplice to murder me. He might have known that the key
+    would not turn on the inside. But at last, in spite of myself,
+    fatigue conquered fear and I slept.
+
+    "I cannot say how long I had been unconscious when I was awakened by
+    hearing a key turning in the lock: the door cautiously opened, and a
+    man entered and came toward the bench where I was lying. My
+    drowsiness calmed me. I wondered quite placidly whether it was to be
+    robbery or murder. What a paragraph it would make in the _Moniteur_
+    next day! I would cheerfully give him my watch and purse if they
+    would content him. I might call out and rouse the house, but most
+    likely Brunhilda in my situation would have held a parley. A good
+    precedent. I sat up to show that I was awake, and in doing so
+    recognized my old man. Though nothing could look more threatening as
+    he stealthily advanced, shading his light, taking pains to make no
+    noise, I could not entirely mistrust the weatherbeaten face with its
+    anxious, benevolent eyes that met mine.
+
+    "'Is it time to go?' I asked.
+
+    "'Not yet, but soon. I have just returned, and came in to know if
+    you would have a fire: it is cold outside.'
+
+    "'No, never mind: I am doing well enough. I think I will take
+    another nap.'
+
+    "'Very well: I shall be near for the rest of the night, so you need
+    not be afraid.' And he left, carefully locking me in again.
+
+    "When he came for me the dawn was beginning to break; the morning
+    star was shining in the sky; the earliest birds were twittering, and
+    cocks answered each other from distance to distance; but not a human
+    being was to be seen. We crossed ploughed fields and stubble to find
+    the road, and I felt the truth of my guide's augury of the night
+    before. Had I attempted to go alone I should have become bewildered,
+    and ended by sleeping in the fields. It did strike me that if the
+    man wished to rob me, now would be his chance, and at first I
+    intentionally kept a little behind; but his innocent garrulity was
+    such as to allay all suspicions, and we jogged on very amicably
+    until, coming to two roads, he pointed out that which leads to
+    Creil, and bade me good-bye.
+
+    "Had I had the giving of a medal of the Legion of Honor, I should
+    have decorated him on the spot. I believe it repaid me for my
+    annoyance to have found such ample goodness, such chivalry, such
+    kindness, growing as it were by the wayside. It was as if
+    the world had rolled back into the days of knight-errantry, when to
+    rescue and protect distressed damsels ranked next to religious
+    worship. Sure am I if my weatherbeaten old man had lived at that
+    time, none would have been more renowned for gentle deeds: in this
+    prosaic age he is but a watchman on a railroad. I was about to pour
+    out my gratitude, when I remembered we were in the nineteenth
+    century, and looking into his face, I fancied that something more
+    substantial would be better. I drew out my purse. He was frankly
+    delighted with what I gave him, saying only that it was too much,
+    and we separated mutually pleased.
+
+    "I sauntered on, lingering by the way to avoid waiting at Creil;
+    consequently, I was just able to procure my ticket and a paper of
+    brioches at the buffet when the English train came in. As I stood at
+    the door, knowing that as soon as it moved off the Belgian train was
+    due, whom should I see get out but Fred! I thought he would re-enter
+    in a moment, and placed myself so that he could not see me. I was
+    mistaken. The train started, and mine puffed up: there he was still.
+    In the crowd I hoped I should not be discovered, but as I stepped
+    from the door his eyes met mine, and he rushed up to me with the
+    exclamation, 'In the name of Heaven, how did you get here? Was there
+    an accident? Are you hurt? What is the matter?'
+
+    "It was singular how his voice unnerved me: I could not say a word.
+    The crowd carried us with them, and he helped me into a car, sitting
+    by me and recommencing his questions. Then I stammered, 'You will be
+    taken on if you do not get out: there is nothing wrong.'
+
+    "For answer he shut the door of the compartment, and said, 'I am
+    going with you. Now tell me how you come to be here?'
+
+    "I do not know why I should have given way when all danger was
+    over--I believe there is no parallel case in the life of any
+    celebrated woman--but I suppose I was tired out. My anxiety and
+    fright, a night spent on a hard board, the surprise of meeting Mr.
+    Kenderdine,--whatever it was, I leaned back in the corner of the
+    seat, took out my handkerchief, and cried harder than I had ever
+    done in my life before. He was greatly alarmed, but, like a sensible
+    man, waited until I became more composed, and when I was able to
+    tell him, instead of blaming me or thinking I was stupid, he
+    censured himself for not accompanying me.
+
+    "'I did mean to ask your permission to do so, Miss Eleanor,' he said
+    slightly embarrassed, 'and I was prig enough to think you would
+    allow it, but when you told me of your engagement I did not dare.
+    After you left I had a dread that something might happen, and I
+    could not rest satisfied until I had made up my mind to come on and
+    see that you had arrived safely. I thought you would forgive me, as
+    it is for the last time, and De Vezin need not be jealous, for he
+    will have you for ever, while I--' Fred can be wonderfully pathetic.
+
+    "Then I made up my mind to undeceive him, as was my duty, you know.
+    I told him very gently that he was under a false impression. I was
+    not engaged: my aunt had educated me for a purpose, and we both had
+    quite determined that I should never marry, but instead do something
+    great in the world, though I had not yet decided what. I explained
+    it to him fully, so that there should be no more mistakes about it.
+    When I ended I did not venture to look at him for a long time,
+    fearing to see him grieved at this irrevocable barrier; but when I
+    did, what was my surprise to see his face beaming with joy! He began
+    impetuously, 'If you had told me I was to be crowned at Brussels, it
+    would not be better news. I was sure it was De Vezin who separated
+    us. Now I can hope.'
+
+    "'You must not talk in that way if you do not want our friendship to
+    cease: you offend me deeply. Can't you see that if you persist in
+    this idea of yours, our pleasant acquaintance must end?' It was so
+    frivolous in Fred, and I spoke very decidedly.
+
+    "'Not at all, Eleanor: it would only begin. Why should not our whole
+    life be like this past year?'
+
+    "'You know it can't,' said I. 'Haven't I told you the reason?'
+
+    "'It will be no reason when De Vezin asks you,' said he
+    suspiciously.
+
+    "'De Vezin is nothing to me.'
+
+    "'You carry a _gage d'amour_ from him on your watch-chain at this
+    very minute.'
+
+    "Now, wasn't that talk silly? De Vezin had brought me a two-centime
+    piece one day because I said I had never seen one, and I put a hole
+    in it and hung it to my chain. Fred to call that a _gage d'amour!_
+
+    "'Nonsense!' said I.
+
+    "'De Vezin thought the same when he saw it there. I took him for a
+    fool, but I see he was right.'
+
+    "'Well, now you will see you were both fools,' said I angrily, and I
+    twisted off the coin and threw it from the window.
+
+    "'Is only that preposterous notion in the way?' he asked, looking
+    happy again and taking a seat by me.
+
+    "I told you how I cried on first entering the cars, and now--would
+    you believe it?--I got terribly embarrassed. It seemed as if
+    everything I did or said made matters worse. I was scarcely able to
+    stammer, 'My aunt--'
+
+    "'I will speak to her. Let me put this on your finger until I can
+    replace it by another:' and he slipped off his seal and leaned
+    forward with an entreating look.
+
+    "I shook my head.
+
+    "'I won't ask you to promise anything: only wear it that I may not
+    be forgotten in Rome.'
+
+    "'No, no, I cannot!' I exclaimed, clasping my hands. I suppose the
+    action and tone were very exaggerated, for Mr. Kenderdine drew back,
+    saying, 'I shall not _force_ you to take it;' and then went to the
+    other window, took a newspaper out of his pocket and pretended to
+    read it, while I was angry and sorry and miserable, though why I
+    should feel so much like crying at what had only amused me the day
+    before I cannot understand. I suppose none of those wonderful ladies
+    would have acted so, would they?
+
+    "But you are tired long ago, and you can easily imagine what comes
+    after. See!" and she turned a ring on her finger until I could catch
+    the shimmer of its stone. "That is how it ended; and though I did
+    not accept it until the next spring in Rome, I shall always blame
+    that night for the whole affair. When I asked Fred why he took the
+    trouble to follow me after the double snubbing I had given him, he
+    said 'I was worth it.' But since we are engaged he teases me
+    shamefully--calls me doctor, hopes I intend to support him in
+    comfort and ease, and says that it always was his ambition to be the
+    husband of a strong-minded woman, and broadly hints about my
+    experience in traveling being so useful to him. And aunt? When I
+    first told her she looked so shocked and disappointed that I threw
+    myself in her arms, saying I would not distress her for the world;
+    that I would do anything she desired; that if she wished she might
+    send Fred off, for I loved her best on earth. But after some minutes
+    of deep thought she looked at me quizzically and replied, 'You know,
+    dear, I always said you must choose your career for yourself.' Then
+    seeing that I seemed hurt and ashamed, she kissed me and whispered,
+    'Love makes us selfish: my affection for you has grown stronger than
+    my ambition. If _you_ are happy, my Eleanor, I can wait patiently
+    for the advancement of the rest of my sex.'"
+
+Then Eleanor rose, and drawing her shawl round her preparatory to going,
+said shyly, "And what I came to tell you is, that the wedding will take
+place at Christmas."
+
+                                        ITA ANIOL PROKOP.
+
+
+
+
+AN AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY YEARS AGO.
+
+
+We are looking over sundry trunks and boxes, the careful and the
+careless gatherings of three generations. There are law-papers in dusty
+files; familiar gossipy letters from brothers and sisters and college
+chums; dignified letters from reverend judges and law-makers; letters
+bursting with scandalized Federalisms, and burning or melting with
+long-forgotten joys and sorrows. We have read some thousands of these
+papers, and begin to be very uncertain about the times we are living in.
+What indeed is this year of our Lord? We have a dim recollection that we
+have been wished a happy New Year in 1875, yet we are living and
+thinking with the boys and girls of 1776, who have grown to be the men
+and women of Jefferson's time.
+
+To make things more misty to our comprehension, we are sitting by a
+dormer window in a high, "hip-roofed" garret of a mansion built just
+before the Revolution, and the air is redolent of ancient memories. The
+very cobweb that swung across the window just now has a venerable
+appearance, entirely inconsistent with the fact that the housemaid's
+broom was supposed to have whisked across these beams but yesterday. But
+then the housemaids of to-day, as everybody knows, are, as a source of
+perplexity and vexation of spirit, always to be relied upon, but never
+to be relied upon for anything else. And with the thought we sigh for
+the "good old days" and the "good old servants" of our grandmothers.
+
+Happy grandmothers! so blessed in their simple, quiet lives, unvexed by
+ever-changing fashions and domestics! What did they know of trouble
+whose best silk gowns remained in fashion from year to year, and whose
+cooks never treated them to an empty breakfast-table, and a cool "I
+thought I'd be a-lavin' this marnin', mum"? Happy grandmothers!
+
+Thus thinking, we pick up a little rough paper-book with marbled covers
+from the corner of the old hair trunk where it was long ago thrown by
+some careless hand. The little tumbled book proves to be a diary. Not a
+record of a soul's strivings and pantings after a higher life, or a
+curiously minute inquiry into the possible reasons which induced the
+Almighty to allow Satan to afflict Job, but a simple daily note-book,
+the memoranda of a housekeeper. The old letters had been to us what the
+newspapers of to-day will be to the great-grandchildren of the present
+generation. The diary carried us back into the immediate home-life of
+seventy years ago.
+
+The diarist had been a fair and stately dame in her day, and it is easy
+to remove her from the frame where her portrait hangs on the walls of
+the south parlor, and fancy her seated in the same room before the
+crackling fire jotting down the memoranda of the day. She is a pretty
+sight, we think, sitting in her straight-backed mahogany arm-chair, with
+her feet on the polished brass fender and her book resting on the little
+stand, which also holds the two tall silver candlesticks with their tall
+tallow candles, for wax candles are saved for gala-nights, when diaries
+are not in requisition. She must have been nearly forty years old when
+she wrote in this little book, but we see her as her portrait shows her,
+very young-looking in spite of her stateliness, enhanced though it is by
+the high turban of embroidered muslin edged with soft lace falling over
+the clusters of fair curls on her temples, and by the black satin gown,
+short-waisted and scanty, relieved only by delicate lace frills, which
+shade the beautiful throat and the strong, white, shapely hands. The
+shadow on her face as she gazes into the fire is not marvelous, for it
+is winter in her quiet Connecticut home; the post comes but twice a
+week; her husband is representing his State in Washington, and her only
+child is studying in distant Yale. Perhaps, though, the shadow is not
+that of pure loneliness. Is there not some perplexity in it? And
+something also of vexation? Yes, and it is the very vexation of spirit
+which--in the face of Solomon's venerable testimony to the contrary--we
+had fancied to be peculiar to our own evil days. Almost the first entry
+in this quaint little diary is to the effect that "Jim was sulky
+to-night and gave short answers." A little farther on we find that
+"Yesterday Jim went away without leave, and stayed all night;" which
+delinquency, being accompanied by a suspicion of drunkenness, caused the
+anxious dame to "send for General T---- to come and give Jim a lecture."
+Lecturing, however, was not then so popular as now, and Jim appears to
+have profited little by the veteran general's discourse, for on the very
+next night he repeats his offence. We have reason also to fear that
+Jim's honesty was not above suspicion, for we read that Betsey, an
+American woman who acted as assistant housekeeper and companion, "found
+in Jim's possession a red morocco pocket-book which I had given her, but
+"--alas for Betsey!--"with the contents all gone."
+
+Other entries to the effect that madam one day lost her key to the
+wine-cellar, and the next day discovered the bibulous Jim in the said
+cellar "sucking brandy through a straw inserted in the bunghole of the
+cask," and that, "furthermore, Jim had confessed to having stolen and
+sold a coffee-basin for rum," do not tend to raise in our estimation
+this pattern of an ancient darkey. This time it appears that madam did
+not need to call in the aid of General T----, for she admits that she
+herself "lectured Jim severely;" sarcastically adding, "he professed
+penitence, but that did not hinder him from stealing another basin
+to-day."
+
+But the refractory Jim, we think, must have been the exception which
+proved the rule that all servants prior to the late Celtic invasion were
+models of deportment. Accordingly, we are not surprised to find that
+Betsey was a handmaiden held in high estimation, and that "old Jack" was
+a servant whose shortcomings were offset by his general good conduct and
+affectionate heart. But we find also that there was a certain Sally, who
+could be tolerated only because of her great culinary skill; and an
+uncertain Silvy, who appears to have been in mind, if not in fact, the
+twin-sister of Jim, with a spice of Topsy thrown in.
+
+The trouble in those days was not the prospect of suddenly losing cook
+or nursemaid, but that there was no getting rid of either. The fact of
+slavery was, under the act of 1793, slowly fading away from Connecticut,
+but all its habits remained in full force. "I wish I could send Jim and
+Silvy away," writes madam, "but the poor rascals have no place to go
+to."
+
+Silvy was a tricksome spright that delighted in breaking bottles of the
+"best Madeira wine and spilling the contents over the new English
+carpet" when the mistress had invited the parson's and the doctor's
+families to dinner. This, though of course it was "not to be endured,"
+might have been accidental, and so was very "tolerable" in comparison
+with Silvy's next exploits of poisoning the beloved house-dog and
+throwing by the roadside the bottle of wine--possibly emptied first--the
+jar of jelly and the fresh quarter of lamb which had been sent to a poor
+and sick old woman. These two offences, occurring on the same day, we
+are sorry to confess, incited the stately, white-handed dame to do
+something more decisive than to "deliver a lecture" to Silvy. It is
+demurely recorded that "for these two misdeeds I whipped Silvy." What
+effect the whipping had upon that somewhat too frolicsome damsel we are
+not informed, but madam admits that it made herself ill, and adds that
+"if Silvy does not reform it is impossible to see what can be done for
+her, for she will not listen to remonstrance. Betsey is not strong
+enough to punish so strapping a wench, and it does not seem right that a
+man should be set to whip any woman or girl, even a wench, else Jack
+could do it."
+
+However, Jack's own patience having been tried by the refractory Silvy,
+he seems to have taken the matter into his own hands, for his mistress
+tells us how she was scandalized, on her return from church, by "finding
+Jack whipping Silvy," while that young lady was "screaming vehemently,
+so that all the people passing by could hear her." As Jack had
+discovered Silvy engaged in the amiable diversion of breaking the legs
+of the young calves by throwing stones at them, one can have a little
+charity for his summary action, although, as madam gravely remarks, "he
+might at least have waited until Monday."
+
+The calves, by the way, had an unlucky winter of it, and were especially
+shaky about the legs. We find that a few weeks later "Jack having
+neglected to repair the barn floor, as he had been directed, a plank had
+given way and three of the calves' legs had been broken by the fall." We
+have felt a deep interest in the fate of these calves, but with all our
+anxiety have failed to discover whether three calves had all their legs
+broken, or only three legs in all had been sacrificed to Jack's culpable
+neglect.
+
+By this time we begin to think that madam would have been just as well
+off if she had not kept so many servants, and to wonder what they could
+have had to do. Perhaps it was the idle man's playmate that made the
+trouble. But a little farther reading in the old diary dissipates this
+illusion. If anybody thinks that our grandmothers must have been cursed
+with ennui because they did not attend three parties a night three times
+a week, with operas and theatres to fill in the off nights, they are
+mightily mistaken.
+
+Of sociability there could have been no lack in this rural neighborhood,
+for besides a ball or two madam records numbers of tea-drinkings and
+debating clubs, and meetings of the Clio, a literary club, at which
+assisted at least two future judges of the supreme courts of the States
+of their adoption, and several other men and women whose names would
+attract attention even in our clattering days. Visiting, too, of the
+old-fashioned spend-the-day sort had not gone out of date--was indeed so
+common that madam one evening enters in her journal--whether in sorrow
+or in thankfulness there is nothing to tell us, but at least as a
+notable fact--that she had "had no company to-day."
+
+But it was not company that occupied all the hours of so busy a dame as
+our diarist. Though she had not to remodel her dresses in hot chase
+after the last novelty of the fashion-weekly, she had to superintend the
+manufacture of the stuff of which her maids' gowns and her own
+morning-gowns were made, to say nothing of bed-and table-linen, etc.
+Bridget in our day seems to think that to do a family washing is a labor
+of Hercules. Yet seventy years ago before a towel could be washed the
+soap wherewith to cleanse it must be made at home; and this not by the
+aid of condensed lye or potash, but with lye drawn by a tedious process
+of filtering water through barrels or leach-tubs of hard-wood ashes. The
+"setting" of these tubs was one of the first labors of the spring, and
+to see that Silvy or Jim poured on the water at regular intervals, and
+did not continue pouring after the lye had become "too weak to bear up
+an egg," was a part of Betsey's daily duty for some weeks. Then came the
+soap-boiling in great iron kettles over the fire in the wide fireplace.
+Apparently, this was not always a certain operation. Science had not yet
+put her meddling but useful finger into the soap-pot, for madam sadly
+records that on the twenty-first of May she had superintended the
+soap-boiling, but had not been blessed with "good luck;" and on the
+third of June we find the suggestive entry, "Finished the soap-boiling
+to-day." Eleven days--for we must of course count out the two
+Sundays--eleven days of greasy, odorous soap-boiling! We think that if
+we had been in madam's slippers we should have allowed Sally, Silvy and
+the rest to try the virtues of the unaided waters of heaven upon the
+family washing, and when this ceased to be efficacious should have let
+the clothes be purified by fire. But upon second thoughts, no: it was
+too much trouble to make those clothes.
+
+We are not yet through with the preparations for the washing. The
+ancient housewife could not do without starch for her "ruffs and cuffs
+and fardingales," and for her lord's elaborately plaited ruffles. Yet
+she could not buy a box of "Duryea's best refined." The starch, like the
+soap, must be made at home. "On this day," writes our diarist, "had a
+bushel of wheat put in soak for starch;" and in another place we find
+the details of the starch-making process. The wheat was put into a tub
+and covered with water. As the chaff rose to the top it was skimmed off.
+Each day the water was carefully turned off, without disturbing the
+wheat, and fresh water was added, until after several days there was
+nothing left but a hard and perfectly white mass in the bottom of the
+tub. This mass was spread upon pewter platters and dried in the sun.
+
+Another sore trouble was the breadmaking. The great wheat-fields of the
+West were not then opened, and we find that the wheat was frequently
+"smutty;" hence, that "the barrel was bad," which must sorely have tried
+the soul of the good housewife. Woe be to Silvy if that damsel did not
+carry herself gingerly on the baking-day when the long, flat shovel
+removed from the cavernous brick oven only heavy and sticky lumps of
+baked dough, in place of the light white loaves which the painstaking
+housewife had a right to expect!
+
+In the absence of husband and son the care of a large farm fell upon our
+madam's shoulders, and the details of cost and income are dotted through
+the little journal. We can imagine the lady, gracious in her
+stateliness, marshaling old General T---- and Colonel C----, two
+veterans of the Revolution, out into her barnyard to get their opinion
+as to the value of her fat cattle, and the concealed disapproval with
+which she received their judgment that forty-five dollars was a fair
+price for the pair, "when," as she quietly remarks, "I considered that
+fifty dollars was little enough for so fine a pair of fat cattle; and in
+fact I got my own price for them the next day."
+
+Fifty dollars was a much larger sum then than now. Imagine how many
+things could be bought for fifty dollars, when butter brought but ten,
+veal three or four, beef six or seven cents respectively per pound, and
+a pair of fat young chickens brought but twenty-five cents! There is one
+article upon whose accession of price we can dwell with pleasure. Madam
+records discontentedly that it "took two men all day to kill four hogs,
+_notwithstanding_ that she had spent fifty cents for a half gallon
+of rum for them to drink." Fancy the sort of liquor that could now be
+bought for a dollar the gallon, and the sort of men that could drink two
+quarts thereof and live!
+
+It is heretical, of course, to hint a syllable against the open
+wood-fire which crackled and flickered so beautifully while our madam
+wrote about her cattle and pigs and Jim and Silvy, but in truth we
+cannot envy our ancestors the care of those fires. With three yawning,
+devouring fireplaces constantly to be fed, and an additional one for
+each of the guest-rooms so often occupied during the winter--for this
+was the visiting season--there was no lack of business for Ralph, a
+white man; and his colored coadjutors, Jack and Jim. When we look at the
+still existing kitchen fireplace, nine feet in width and four in depth,
+we cease to blame Jack for neglecting to mend the barn floor. We only
+wonder that he found time to whip Silvy.
+
+Among the occupations of the women one great time-consumer must have
+been the daily scouring, so much woodwork was left unpainted to be kept
+as white as a clean sea-beach by applications of soap and sand. Probably
+a good deal of this hand-and-knee work fell upon the unfortunate Silvy,
+as well as the polishing of the pewter plates, the brass fenders,
+andirons, tongs, shovels, door-knobs, knockers, and the various brazen
+ornaments which bedecked the heavy sideboards and tall secretaries.
+
+Seventy years ago, when gas and kerosene were not, and wax candles were
+an extravagance indulged in only on state occasions, even by the
+wealthy, the tallow dip was an article of necessity, and "candle
+dip-day" was as certain of recurrence as Christmas, though perhaps even
+less welcome than the equally certain annual Fast Day. Fancy an immense
+kitchen with the before-mentioned fireplace in the centre of one side.
+Over the blaze of backlog and forestick, and something like half a cord
+of "eight-foot wood," are swinging the iron cranes laden with great
+kettles of melting tallow. On the opposite side of the kitchen two long
+poles about two feet apart are supported at their extremities upon the
+seats of chairs. Beside the poles are other great kettles containing
+melted tallow poured on the top of hot water. Across the poles are the
+slender candle-rods, from which depend ranks upon ranks of candle-wicks
+made of tow, for cotton wick is a later invention. Little by little, by
+endlessly repeating the slow process of dipping into the kettles of
+melted tallow and hanging them to cool, the wicks take on their proper
+coating of tallow. To make the candles as large as possible was the aim,
+for the more tallow the brighter the light. When done, the ranks of
+candles, still depending from the rods, were hung in the sunniest spots
+of a sunny garret to bleach.
+
+But all these employments were as play compared with the home
+manufacture of dry goods. Ralph, Jack and Jim had no time for such work,
+so two other men were all winter kept busy in the barn at "crackling
+flax" and afterward passing it through a coarse hetchel to separate the
+coarsest or "swingling tow." After this the flax was made up into
+switches or "heads" like those which we see in pictures, or that which
+Faust's Marguerite so temptingly wields. These were deposited in barrels
+in the garret. During the winter the "heads" were brought down by the
+women to be rehetcheled once and again, removing first the coarser, and
+then the finer tow. This must have been a fearfully dusty operation. It
+makes one cough only to think of "the inch depth of flax-dust" which
+settled upon Betsey's protecting handkerchief while she "hetcheled."
+
+The finest and best of the flax was saved for spinning into thread, for
+cotton thread there was none, excepting, possibly, a little of very poor
+quality in small skeins. The small wheel that we see in the far corner
+of the garret--just like Marguerite's--was used for spinning the fine
+thread. A larger wheel was used to spin the tow into yarn for the coarse
+clothing for boys and negroes or for "filling" in the coarser linens.
+All the boys, and very often the men--perhaps even our M.C.
+himself--wore in summer trousers made of linen cloth, for which the yarn
+was spun at home by the maids, and was then taken to the weaver's to be
+made into cloth. Part of the linen yarn was dyed blue, and, mingled with
+white or unbleached yarn, was woven into a chequered stuff for the
+curtains of servants' beds and for dresses for the maids and aprons for
+their mistresses. In view of the fact that all the bed-linen and most of
+the table-linen was thus made at home, one cannot wonder that a
+house-wife's linen-closet was an object of special care and pride.
+
+If there were at that time any woolen manufactories in the United
+States, their powers of production must have been very limited, while
+foreign cloths could only have been worn by the gentlemen, and by them
+probably not at all times, for a few years later than the date of
+madam's diary we find that English cloths were sold at the then fearful
+prices of eighteen and twenty dollars per yard. So sheep must be kept
+and sheared, and their wool carded, rolled and spun. As linen-spinning
+was the fancy-work of winter, so wool-spinning was that of summer. Back
+and forth before the loud-humming big wheel briskly stepped the cheerful
+spinner through the long bright afternoons of summer, busily spinning
+the yarn that was to be woven into cloths and flannels of different
+textures. Busily indeed must both mistress and maids have stepped, for
+not without their labors could be provided the coats and trousers, the
+undershirts, the petticoats and the woolen sheets, to say nothing of
+blankets, white or chequered, and the heavy coverlets of blue or green
+and white yarns woven into curiously intermingling figures, all composed
+of little squares; and last, but not least, the yarn for countless pairs
+of long warm stockings for the feet of master and man, mistress and
+maid. For as a legacy from dying slavery the servants were still unable
+or unwilling to provide for their own wants, and the house-mistress had
+frequently to knit Jack's stockings with her own fair fingers, as well
+as to "cut out the stuff for Jim's pantaloons," which she will "try to
+teach Silvy to sew."
+
+Did we think that we had reached the last purpose for which the homespun
+woolen yarn was required? We were mistaken, for here is the entry:
+"To-day dyed the yarn for back-hall carpet. Remember to tell the weaver
+that I prefer it plaided instead of striped."
+
+Economy of time must, one would think, have been the most necessary of
+economies to the old-time housewives. With so many things to do, how did
+they find time to make those marvels of misplaced industry, the patched
+bed-quilts? Our diarist, rich as her closets were in blankets and linen,
+left but few bed-quilts to vex the eyes of her descendants, yet we read
+that "Betsey and I quilted a bed-quilt this afternoon"--their fingers
+were surely nimble--"and in the evening"--happy change of
+employment!--"Betsey finished reading aloud from Blair's
+_Lectures._ To-morrow evening we shall begin the _Spectator_.
+My husband has sent us by private hand Mr. A. Pope's translation of the
+_Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, but it has not yet arrived. Strange
+that a private hand should be slower than the post!"
+
+And indeed the slowness of the post had been a source of frequent
+disquietude to our madam during this lonely winter, for very lonely it
+was to the waiting wife and mother, notwithstanding all her occupations.
+"'Life's employments are life's enjoyments,'" she sadly writes on the
+night before Christmas, "and surely I have not a few of them; but with
+my beloved husband and son far from me I cannot half enjoy my life. I
+have given the servants their presents to-night" (though living in
+Puritan Connecticut, our madam was of Hollandish stock, and did not
+ignore the Christmas festival), "and paid them eighteen pence apiece not
+to wish me a Merry Christmas to-morrow, for little merriment indeed
+should there be for me."
+
+Yet she was a cheerful soul, this stately madam who sadly gazes into the
+fire on the Christmas Eve of seventy years ago--a cheerful, loving soul,
+and a kindly (notwithstanding her chastisement of the delinquent Silvy);
+and after all the winter wore not unhappily away.
+
+With the opening spring husband and son returned to gladden her heart,
+and we close the little diary with a smile at once of sympathy and of
+amusement as we read that while madam had intended to meet her loved
+ones with the family coach on their landing from the sloop at
+Poughkeepsie, thirty miles from her home, she was "so detained by reason
+of the depth and vileness of the mud that it was full fifteen miles this
+side the river" (Hudson) "that our coach fell in with a hired carriage
+coming this way. The road was so bad that we had difficulty in passing,
+and it was not until we were almost by that my dear husband noticed his
+own coach. There was some trouble in getting from the one carriage to
+the other, but when all were safely in the coach there was much
+rejoicing, you may be sure."
+
+                                        ETHEL C. GALE.
+
+
+
+
+A MARCH VIOLET.
+
+
+    Black boughs against a pale, clear sky,
+    Slight mists of cloud-wreaths floating by;
+    Soft sunlight, gray-blue smoky air,
+    Wet thawing snows on hillsides bare;
+    Loud streams, moist sodden earth; below
+    Quick seedlings stir, rich juices flow
+    Through frozen veins of rigid wood,
+    And the whole forest bursts in bud.
+    No longer stark the branches spread
+    An iron network overhead,
+    Albeit naked still of green;
+    Through this soft, lustrous vapor seen,
+    On budding boughs a warm flush glows,
+    With tints of purple and pale rose.
+    Breathing of spring, the delicate air
+    Lifts playfully the loosened hair
+    To kiss the cool brow. Let us rest
+    In this bright, sheltered nook, now blest
+    With broad noon sunshine over all,
+    Though here June's leafiest shadows fall.
+    Young grass sprouts here. Look up! the sky
+    Is veiled by woven greenery,
+    Fresh little folded leaves--the first,
+    And goldener than green, they burst
+    Their thick full buds and take the breeze.
+    Here, when November stripped the trees,
+    I came to wrestle with a grief:
+    Solace I sought not, nor relief.
+    I shed no tears, I craved no grace,
+    I fain would see Grief face to face,
+    Fathom her awful eyes at length,
+    Measure my strength against her strength.
+    I wondered why the Preacher saith,
+    "Like as the grass that withereth."
+    The late, close blades still waved around:
+    I clutched a handful from the ground.
+    "He mocks us cruelly," I said:
+    "The frail herb lives, and she is dead."
+    I lay dumb, sightless, deaf as she;
+    The long slow hours passed over me.
+    I saw Grief face to face; I know
+    The very form and traits of Woe.
+    I drained the galled dregs of the draught
+    She offered me: I could have laughed
+    In irony of sheer despair,
+    Although I could not weep. The air
+    Thickened with twilight shadows dim:
+    I rose and left. I knew each limb
+    Of these great trees, each gnarled, rough root
+    Piercing the clay, each cone of fruit
+    They bear in autumn.
+                         What blooms here,
+    Filling the honeyed atmosphere
+    With faint, delicious fragrancies,
+    Freighted with blessed memories?
+    The earliest March violet,
+    Dear as the image of Regret,
+    And beautiful as Hope. Again
+    Past visions thrill and haunt my brain.
+    Through tears I see the nodding head,
+    The purple and the green dispread.
+    Here, where I nursed despair that morn,
+    The promise of fresh joy is born,
+    Arrayed in sober colors still,
+    But piercing the gray mould to fill
+    With vague sweet influence the air,
+    To lift the heart's dead weight of care,
+    Longings and golden dreams to bring
+    With joyous phantasies of spring.
+
+                            EMMA LAZARUS.
+
+
+
+
+WHAT IS A CONCLAVE?
+
+
+It may be that before these lines meet the eye of the readers they are
+intended for the world will be once again witnessing that function of
+the Roman Catholic Church which of all others makes the highest
+pretensions to transcendental spiritual significance, and is in reality
+the most utterly and grossly mundane--a _conclave_. In any case, it
+cannot be long before that singular spectacle is enacted on the
+accustomed stage before the converging eyes of Christendom. In any case,
+too, it will be nearly thirty years since the world has seen the like.
+And never before since St. Peter sat (or did not sit) in the seat of the
+Roman bishops has so long a period elapsed unmarked by the election of a
+supreme pontiff. The coming conclave will be held under circumstances
+essentially dissimilar from those surrounding all its predecessors, as
+will be readily understood if we consider the difference which recent
+changes, both lay and ecclesiastical, have made in the position of the
+pope. If, on the one hand, the political changes in Europe have taken
+from the cardinals the power of creating a sovereign prince, the
+ecclesiastical changes which the late ecumenical council has wrought in
+the constitution of the Church have placed in their hands the power and
+duty of selecting a supreme ruler of the Church with acknowledged claims
+to a loftier and more tremendous authority than the most high-handed of
+his predecessors has hitherto claimed. And the nature of this authority
+is such that the political rulers of the world may well feel--and are,
+as we know, feeling--a more anxious interest in the result of the
+election than they have for many a generation felt in the elevation of a
+temporal ruler of the ci-devant States of the Church. Under these
+circumstances it may be acceptable to our readers to have some brief
+account of what conclaves are and have been.
+
+That this method of choosing a supreme head of the universal Church was
+in its origin abusive--that the earliest popes were chosen by the
+suffrages of the entire body of the faithful, that by a process of
+encroachment this election was in the course of time arrogated to
+themselves by the Roman clergy, and was ultimately, by a further process
+of similar encroachment, monopolized by the "Sacred College" of
+cardinals,--all this is sufficiently well known. It is, however, curious
+enough to merit a passing word, that a precisely analogous process of
+progressive encroachment may be observed to have taken place in the mode
+of appointing the bishops of the Church, not only in the Catholic, but
+also in the Protestant branch of it. First freely elected by the body of
+the faithful, they were subsequently chosen by the clergy, and lastly by
+a small and select body of these in the form of a "chapter." Only in
+this case a further step of encroachment being still possible, that step
+has been made; and bishops are nominated in the Catholic Church
+formally, and in the Anglican really, by the pope and the sovereign
+respectively.
+
+It does not seem that in the earliest elections made by the cardinals
+the precautions of a "conclave," or a shutting up together of the
+cardinals, was adopted. The first conclave seems to have been that which
+elected Innocent IV. in 1243, and the motive for the locking up appears
+to have been the fear of interference by the emperor Frederick, who was
+at the time ravaging all the country around Rome. The first conclave
+that was guarded by a Savelli, in whose family the office of marshal of
+the Church and guardian of the conclaves became hereditary, was that
+which elected Nicholas IV. in 1288. The mode in which this pontiff
+merited his elevation is worth telling, apropos of conclaves. The
+conclave had lasted over ten months, and been prolonged into the hottest
+and most unhealthy season, insomuch that six cardinals died, many more
+fell ill, and all ran away save one, the bishop of Palestrina. He,
+"keeping large fires continually burning to correct the air," stuck to
+it, remained in conclave all alone, and was unanimously elected pope at
+the return of the cardinals when the pestilence had ceased. In 1270 we
+find a conclave sitting under difficulties of another kind. It was at
+Viterbo, and their Eminences sat for two years without making any
+election; whereupon, we are told, Raniero Gatti, the captain of the
+city, took the step of unroofing the palace in which they were assembled
+as a means of hastening their decision. That their Eminences were not
+thus to be hurried, however, is proved by their having subsequently
+dated a bull, still to be seen with its seventeen seals, "from the
+unroofed episcopal palace of Viterbo." There were four or five popes
+elected subsequently to this, however, without conclaves; but from the
+death of Boniface VIII. in 1303 the series of conclaves has been
+unbroken. Celestine V., who abdicated in 1294, drew up the rules which,
+confirmed by his successor, Boniface VIII., and by many subsequent popes
+from time to time down to the last century, still regulate the
+assembling and holding of the conclave, modified in some degree, as
+regards the food and private comforts of the cardinals, by indulgence of
+later pontiffs.
+
+In old and long-since-forgotten books concerning the conclaves many
+curious particulars may be found respecting the customs and ceremonies
+connected with the disposal of the body of the deceased pontiff. A
+learnedly antiquarian dispute has been raised on the question whether in
+early times the body of a pope was embalmed, as we understand the word,
+or only exteriorly washed and perfumed. It seems, on the whole, clear
+that the first pope who was, properly speaking, embalmed, was Julius
+II., who died in 1513. But here is a striking account of the condition
+of things in the papal palace after the death of that great, high-handed
+and powerful pontiff, Sixtus IV., which occurred in 1484, after a reign
+of thirteen years. The statement is that of Burcardo (Burckhardt), the
+papal master of the ceremonies, the same writer whose diary, jotted down
+from day to day, has revealed to us the incredible atrocities of the
+court of Alexander VI., the Borgia pope, who died in 1503. "For all that
+I could do," writes the master of the ceremonies, who perhaps at that
+time occupied some less conspicuous post in the papal court, "I could
+not get a basin, a towel, or any kind of utensil in which the wine and
+the water for the odoriferous herbs could be put for washing the body of
+the deceased. Nor could I obtain drawers or a clean shirt for putting on
+the body, though I asked for them again and again. At length the cook
+lent me the copper kettle in which he was wont to heat the water for
+washing the plates, together with some hot water; and Andrew the barber
+brought me his barber's basin from his shop. So the pontiff was washed.
+And as there was no towel to wipe the body with, I caused him to be
+wiped with the shirt in which he died, torn into two halves. I could not
+change the drawers in which he died and was washed, because there were
+no others. His canonical vestments were put upon him without any shirt,
+and a pair of red cloth stockings, furnished by the bishop of Cervia,
+who was his chamberlain, and a long tunic, if I remember rightly, of red
+damask, as well as some other things." This pope, whose body was thus
+washed with his shirt torn in half for want of a towel, was that same
+Sixtus the enormous wealth and boundless luxury of whose nephews seem
+almost fabulous to readers even of these money-abounding days.
+
+The explanation of the extraordinary state of things above described is
+to be found in the custom which existed of sacking the apartments of the
+deceased pope as soon as ever the breath was out of his body. The utter
+lawlessness which prevailed at Rome _sede vacante_--that is to say,
+during the interval between the death of one pope and the election of
+his successor--was not, indeed, confined to the residence of the
+departed pontiff. Throughout Rome all law used to be on those occasions
+in abeyance. The streets were scenes of the most unbridled excesses and
+violence of all sorts. That was the time for the satisfying of old
+grudges. Murder was as common as murderous hate; and no man's life was
+safe save in so far as his own hand or his own walls could protect it.
+And walls did not always avail. I find a petition to Leo X. from a
+monastery in Rome, setting forth that a document assuring certain
+indulgences to the house had been lost at the time of the sack and
+plunder of the convent during the last conclave. No sort of claim, it is
+to be observed, is attempted to be set up of redress for the plunder and
+destruction of the property of the convent; only a prayer that the
+privileges in question might be again granted in consideration of the
+loss of the document. A very curious illustration of Roman manners in
+the sixteenth century is to be found in a practice with regard to these
+periods of interregnum which I find recorded by Cancellieri in his work
+on the conclaves. Roman wives, it seems, were forbidden--not without
+reason--to leave their homes and go forth into the streets of Rome at
+their pleasure. But in the articles of the marriage contract it was
+stipulated that the lady should be free to go out on certain specified
+occasions, mainly ecclesiastical festivals; and among these it was
+always specially provided that the lady might go out during the days of
+the exposition of the body of a deceased pope for the purpose of kissing
+his feet. One would have thought that, looking to the state of things in
+the city, the time of the interregnum would have been the very last to
+select for ladies to venture into the streets. It would seem, however,
+that the Roman matrons thought otherwise. Cancellieri says that it was
+in those days a common saying among Roman ladies that "Happy were they
+who were married to Spaniards!" For it would seem that the Spanish
+husbands in Rome did not think it necessary to enforce this restraint on
+their wives--a circumstance that rather curiously contradicts our
+general notions of Spanish marital feelings and discipline.
+
+In truth, the condition of Rome during the period of the conclave down
+to very recent times affords a singular evidence of the virtue of the
+old French formula, "Le roi est mort! Vive le roi!" as signifying the
+non-existence of any period of transition between one embodiment of law
+and authority and his successor; for the absence of any similar
+provision in the case of the popes made Rome a veritable hell upon earth
+during the period of a papal election.
+
+But if the city outside the walls within which the purple fathers of the
+Church were deliberating presented a scene which was a disgrace and a
+scandal to Christendom, that which was being enacted within those walls
+was very often still more profoundly scandalous. Never probably has any
+human institution existed in which practice was more grossly and
+notoriously in disaccord with pretensions and theory, and with respect
+to which the highest and most sacred of all conceivable human sanctions
+was so shamelessly desecrated and profaned to the lowest and vilest
+uses.
+
+Before touching on this part of the subject, however, it is necessary
+first to give in as few words as possible some intelligible account of
+the formal regulations and method of holding the conclave and electing
+the pontiff. All the regulations, which have been made with extreme
+minuteness, together with the subsequent modifications of them by
+different pontiffs, would occupy far too much space to be given here.
+The following rules seem to be the essential points. Ten days, including
+that of the pope's death, are to be allowed for the coming of absent
+cardinals. This delay may, however, be dispensed with for urgent
+reasons. The conclave should properly be held in the building in which
+the pope died. Regulations of various degrees of rigor have been made
+for securing the isolation of the members of the Sacred College, greater
+latitude and indulgence having been permitted as we approach modern
+times. Sundry means also were devised for hastening the deliberations of
+their Eminences. The old rule of Gregory X. prescribed that if an
+election were not made in three days, the cardinals should be supplied
+during the following five days with one dish only at dinner and one at
+supper; and if at the end of those five days the election was still
+uncompleted, the electors should be allowed only bread and water till
+they had accomplished their task. But, as may be readily supposed, all
+this has been materially modified. Many of the minute and rigorous
+precautions for preventing communication with the world outside the
+conclave have also fallen into desuetude. The purpose of these,
+however--that is, the absolute prevention of any possibility of
+consultation between those in conclave and those outside--is still
+sought to be, and probably is, maintained. Cardinals obliged to leave
+the conclave by ill-health, on sworn certificates of the two physicians
+who are shut up with them in conclave, may return to it, if able to do
+so, before the election is made. No censure or excommunication or
+deposition of any cardinal by the pope whose successor is to be elected
+can avail to deprive such cardinal of the right to take part in the
+conclave and in the election. No cardinal under pain of excommunication
+may say anything, or promise anything, or request anything, to or from
+another cardinal for the purpose of influencing him in the giving of his
+vote. It may safely be asserted, however, that pretty much all that is
+done in the conclave from the beginning to the end of it is one long
+contravention of this rule. The whole--at all events, the
+main--occupation of those in conclave consists of exactly what is here
+forbidden. The rule proceeds to declare that all such bargains,
+agreements and obligations, even sworn to, are _ipso facto_ void,
+and "he who does not keep them merits praise rather than the blame of
+perjury." This merit elected popes have usually been found to strive
+after with all their strength. Julius II., by a bull issued in 1505,
+declared that any pope elected by means of bargains or promises is
+elected simoniacally; that his election is null even if he have the vote
+of every cardinal; that he is a heresiarch and no pope; that such an
+election cannot become valid by enthronation, or by lapse of time, or by
+the obedience of the cardinals; that it is lawful for the cardinals, the
+clergy and the people of Rome to refuse obedience to a pope so elected.
+On all which Monsignor Spondano in his ecclesiastical annals, remarks,
+with a naïveté of hypocrisy which is irresistibly amusing, that inasmuch
+as there would be considerable difficulty in applying the remedy
+proposed, God has specially provided that there should never be any need
+of it. How far Monsignor Spondano can have supposed that such was the
+case will become evident from the account of the doings of a conclave
+which I propose giving to the reader presently.
+
+Together with the cardinals there are shut up in the conclave two
+attendants, called "conclavisti," for each cardinal, or three for such
+of them as are ill or infirm; one sacristan, two masters of the
+ceremonies, one confessor, two physicians, one surgeon, one carpenter,
+two barbers and ten porters. Any conclavist who may leave the conclave
+cannot on any account return. The different cells prepared in the
+Quirinal, Vatican or other place in which the conclave may be held are
+assigned to the cardinals by lot. The election may be made in the
+conclave in either of three different manners--by scrutiny of votes, by
+compromise, or by acclamation. A vote by scrutiny is to be taken twice
+every day in the conclave--once in the morning and once in the
+afternoon. All the cardinals, save such as are confined to their cells
+by infirmity, proceed to the chapel, and there, after the mass, receive
+the communion. They then return each to his cell to breakfast, and
+afterward meet in the chapel again. The next morning at 8 A.M. the
+sub-master of the ceremonies rings a bell at the door of each cell; at
+half-past eight he rings again; and at nine a third time, adding in a
+loud voice the summons, "_In capellam Domini!_"
+
+The arrangement of the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican, in which the
+voting takes place, is as follows: The floor is raised by a boarding to
+the level of the pontifical throne, which stands by the side of the
+altar, and which is left in its place in readiness for the newly-elected
+pope to seat himself and receive the "adoration" of his electors. All
+around the walls of the chapel are erected as many thrones as there are
+cardinals, and over each of them a canopy, so arranged that by means of
+a cord it can be suddenly let down; so that at the moment the election
+is pronounced all the canopies are suddenly made to fall except that of
+the new pope. In front of each throne and under each canopy there is a
+little table covered with silk--green in the case of all those cardinals
+who have been created previously to the pontificate of the pope recently
+deceased, and purple in the case of those created by him. The colors of
+the canopies are similar. On each table are printed registers prepared
+for registering the votes at each scrutiny, the schedules for giving the
+votes, the means for sealing, etc. On the front of each table is
+inscribed the name of the cardinal who is to occupy it, together with
+his armorial bearings. In the midst of the body of the chapel are six
+little tables covered with green cloth, with a seat at each of them for
+the use of any cardinal who may fear that his neighbor might overlook
+him while writing his voting paper if he wrote it on the table before
+his throne. In front of the altar there is a large table covered with
+crimson silk, on which are folded schedules, wafers, sealing-wax; four
+candles, not lighted, but ready for use; a tinder-box with steel and
+matches; scarlet and purple twine for filing the voting schedules; a box
+of needles for the same purpose; a tablet with seventy holes in it,
+answering to the number of cardinals if the college were full, and in
+each hole a little wooden counter with the name of a cardinal, so that
+there are as many counters as cardinals in the college; and finally, a
+copy of the form of oath respecting the putting the schedules into the
+urns, the two urns themselves, and a box with a key, used for receiving
+the voting papers of such cardinals as may be too ill to leave their
+cells. The two urns, however, at the time of the scrutiny are placed on
+the altar. Behind the altar there is placed a little iron brazier or
+stove, in which, after every scrutiny which does not succeed in electing
+a pope, the voting papers are burned, together with some damp straw, the
+object being to cause a dense smoke, which, passing by a pipe outside
+the building, serves to inform the Romans that no election has yet been
+made. Twice a day, at about the same hour every day till the election is
+achieved, this smoke, which is eagerly watched for by all Rome, and
+specially by the commandant of the Castle of St. Angleo, who is waiting
+to fire a salute for the new pope, tells the city that there is no pope
+yet. When the hour passes and no smoke is seen, it is known that the
+election is made, and the cannoneers fire away without waiting to know
+whom they are saluting.
+
+There is no portion of the day or of the lives of the cardinals in
+conclave which is not regulated by a host of minute regulations and
+ceremonies. The introduction of the food supplied to them; the form of
+bringing it from their palaces; the method of communication with the
+outside world, and the precautions taken to prevent any communication
+with reference to the great business in hand; the form and color of the
+garments to be worn by their Eminences and by all the subordinates; the
+amount of remuneration and perquisites to be received by the latter
+(among which regulations I find the following: "Let no man receive
+anything who has not purchased the office he holds"); the order of
+precedence of everybody, from the dean of the Sacred College to the last
+sweeper who enters the conclave with their Eminences,--all subject to
+minute rules, which would require, one would imagine, a lifetime to make
+one's self master of, and which, curious as some of them are, it is
+impossible to find place for here. We must get on to the method of
+voting.
+
+Each cardinal has a schedule about eight inches long by six wide,
+divided by printed lines into five parts. On the topmost is printed
+"Ego, Cardinalis----," to be filled up with the name and titles of the
+elector using it. On the second space are printed, toward either side of
+the paper, two circles, indicating the exact place where the paper when
+folded is to be sealed. On the middle space is printed the words "Eligo
+in Summum Pontificem R'um D'um meum Dom. Card.," leaving only the name
+of the person chosen to be filled in. On the fourth space two circles
+are printed, as on the second, indicating the places of two more seals,
+which, when the paper is folded and sealed down, make it impossible to
+see the motto which is written, together with a number, on the last
+space. On the back of the second and fourth divisions are printed the
+words "nomen" and "signum," denoting that immediately under them are the
+name and motto of the elector. There are also printed certain ornamental
+flourishes, the object of which is to render it impossible to see the
+writing within through the paper. Thus, the schedule, with its top and
+bottom folds sealed down, can be freely opened so far as to allow the
+name of the cardinal for whom the vote is given to be seen, but not so
+far as to make it possible to see the name or motto of the giver of the
+vote.
+
+When the voting papers have been thus prepared, the senior cardinal, the
+dean of the Sacred College, rises from his throne and walks to the foot
+of the altar, holding his schedule aloft between his finger and thumb.
+There he kneels and passes a brief time in private prayer. Then rising
+to his feet, he pronounces aloud in a sonorous voice the following oath:
+"Testor Christum Dominum qui me judicaturus est, me eligire quem
+secundum Deum judico eligi debere, et quod in accessu praestabo" ("I
+call to witness the Lord Christ, who shall judge me, that I elect him
+whom before God I judge ought to be elected, and which vote I shall give
+also in the _accessit_"). The last words allude to a subsequent
+part of the business of the election, to be explained presently. It is
+hardly necessary to point out to the reader that this oath, solemn as it
+sounds, might just as well be omitted. It is as a matter of course
+evident that each elector will give his vote for the person who
+_ought_ in his opinion to be elected. But as to the _motives_
+of that opinion, as to the _grounds_ on which it seems best to each
+elector that such and such a man _ought_ to be elected, the oath
+says nothing. The cardinals whose votes Alexander VI. bought thought, no
+doubt, that in all honesty they _ought_ to give their voices for
+the man who had fairly paid for them. But, putting aside such gross
+cases, let the reader reflect for a moment how extensive a ground is
+covered by the celebrated "A.M.D.G." formula ("Ad majorem Dei gloriam").
+The conscience of an elector may be supposed to speak to him thus: "It
+is true that I know A.B. to be a profligate and thoroughly worldly man,
+but his influence with such or such a statesman or monarch will probably
+be the means of saving the Church from a schism in this, that or the
+other country. And that assuredly is A.M.D.G. And he is the man,
+therefore, who ought to be elected."
+
+Well, the oath having been thus pronounced, the voter places his folded
+schedule on a silver salver, and with this casts it into the silver urn
+which is on the altar. And one after another every cardinal present does
+the same--every cardinal present except, however, any one who may not
+have received at least deacon's orders. One so disqualified may indeed
+be empowered to vote by dispensation of the deceased pope; but this
+dispensation is usually given for a limited period--a few days
+probably--only; and if this time has expired before the election is
+completed the cardinal who is not in sacred orders must cease to vote
+till he have received orders. It has frequently occurred that cardinals
+have been ordained under these circumstances in the conclave. When all
+the schedules have been placed in the urn, three cardinals, who have
+been previously chosen by lot for the purpose, as scrutineers proceed to
+verify the result of the voting. First, the schedules are counted to
+ascertain that they are equal in number to the number of the cardinals
+present. If this should not be the case, all are forthwith burned and
+the business is recommenced. But if this is all right, then comes the
+moment of interest which sets many an old heart beating under its purple
+vestments. The three scrutineers seat themselves at the large table with
+their backs turned to the altar, so that they face the assembly. Then
+each cardinal in his throne-seat places on the little table before him a
+large sheet duly prepared with the names of all the cardinals living,
+and ruled columns for the votes, and pen in hand awaits the declaration
+of these. The first scrutineer takes a schedule from the urn, unfolds
+the central part, leaving the two sealed ends intact, takes note of the
+vote declared within, and hands the paper to the second scrutineer, who
+also notes the vote and hands it to the third, who declares the vote
+aloud in a voice audible to all present, and each cardinal marks it on
+his register. Then, if the votes shall have been sufficient to elect the
+pope--that is, two-thirds of those voting--there is nothing more to be
+done save to number the votes, to verify them, and then burn the
+schedules. But if this is not the case, as it rarely if ever is, the
+cardinals proceed to the _accessit_. The papers and all the forms
+for this are precisely the same as for the first voting, save that in
+the place of the word "Eligo" there is the word "Accedo," and that in
+the place of the name of the cardinal voted for those who do not choose
+to alter their previous vote write "Nemini" ("To no one"). Then the
+matter proceeds as before; and if no election is effected, the assembly
+breaks up, and meets for another voting and scrutiny that afternoon or
+the next morning, as the case may be. And this is done twice every day
+till the election is made. The reader, I fear, may think that I have
+been prolix in my statement of these particulars of the method of the
+election, but I can assure him that I have given him only the main and
+important points, selected from some hundreds of pages in the works of
+those who have treated on the wonderfully minute regulations and
+prescriptions with which the whole matter is surrounded.
+
+It will be easily seen that the moment of proceeding to the accessit is
+the time for fine strokes of policy, for the most cautious prudence and
+craftiest cunning. The general condition of the ground has been
+disclosed by the results of the previous scrutiny. The possibilities and
+chances begin to discover themselves. "Frequently," says the President
+de Brosses, who was at Rome during the conclave which elected Benedict
+XIV. in 1740, in the charming published volume of his
+letters--"Frequently at the accessit everything which was done at the
+preceding ceremony is reversed; and it is at the accessit that the most
+subtle strokes of policy are practiced. Sometimes, for example, when a
+party has been formed for any cardinal, the leader of the party keeps in
+reserve for the accessit all the votes that he can count on as certain,
+and induces those that he suspects may be doubtful to vote for the
+person intended to be made pope at the first scrutiny, so as to make
+sure by the number of votes given whether his supporters have been true
+to their party, and to avoid unmasking his policy till he shall be sure
+of his _coup_."
+
+The story of the conclave which elected Cardinal Lambertini pope as
+Benedict XIV., gives a curious picture of the schemes and intrigues
+carried on in the mysterious seclusion of the conclave. Clement XII., of
+the Florentine Corsini family, had died. The cardinal Corsini, his
+nephew, was at the head of one faction in the conclave, and the cardinal
+Albani, nephew of Clement XI., who died in 1721, at the head of the
+other. The former party seemed at the beginning of the conclave to be
+the most numerous. But De Brosses describes the two men as follows.
+Corsini, he says, had little intelligence, less sense, and no capacity
+for affairs. Of Albani, he says that he was "highly considered for his
+capacity, and both hated and feared to excess--a man without faith,
+without principles; an implacable enemy even when appearing to be
+reconciled; of a great genius for affairs; inexhaustible in resource and
+intrigue; the ablest man in the college, and the worst-hearted man in
+Rome." It soon became clear that the struggle between the factions thus
+led would be severe, and the conclave a long one. The history of the
+plots and counterplots by which each strove to circumvent the other is
+extremely amusing, but too long to be given here. After various
+fruitless attempts, the Corsini faction concentrated all their forces on
+Cardinal Aldrovandi. He was a man of decent character, and had the
+support of a small body of independent cardinals, called the "Zelanti,"
+who, to the great disgust and contempt of their brethren in purple, were
+mainly influenced by the consideration of the worthiness of his
+character. The number of voices needed to make the election was
+thirty-four: Aldrovandi had thirty-three. Cardinal Passionei, the
+scrutator who had to declare the votes, and a member of the opposite
+faction, became, we are told, as pale as death when he announced with
+trembling voice the thirty-third vote. There was every reason to think
+that at the accessit he would have the one other vote needful to make
+the election. But it was not so. The terrible Albani was too much
+feared, and had his own party too well in hand. But the thing was run
+very close. The danger was great that during the hours of the night that
+must intervene before the next scrutiny some means might be found to
+detach _one_ Albani follower from his allegiance. There was the
+great bait to be offered that the one who changed his vote would be in
+effect the maker of the new pope. Under these circumstances, Albani felt
+that nothing but some "heroic" measure could save him. What he did was
+this: There was a certain Father Ravali, a Cordelier, and one of the
+leading men of his order, on whom Albani could depend, and who was, in
+language more expressive than ecclesiastical, "up to anything." This
+monk was instructed to seek a conference with Aldrovandi at the
+_rota_. (The rota was the opening in the wall at which such
+interviews were permitted in presence of certain high dignitaries
+specially appointed to attend it, for the express purpose of hearing all
+that might be said, and preventing any communication having reference to
+the business of the conclave. How they performed their duty the present
+story shows.) The monk began by saying that all Rome looked upon the
+election of Aldrovandi as a certain thing. Aldrovandi, doing the humble,
+replied that to be sure many of his brethren had deigned to think of
+him, but that he did not make any progress--that there were those who
+were too determinately opposed to his election, etc. The monk thereupon
+goes into a long and unctuous discourse on all the sad evils to
+Christendom of a conclave so prolonged. (It had already lasted over five
+months.) To which Aldrovandi replies that he ought rather to address his
+remonstrances to Cardinal Albani, who is in truth the cause of the
+inability of the conclave to come to an election. "Ah, monsignor,"
+returns the Cordelier, "put yourself in the place of the cardinal
+Albani. I know his sentiments from the many conversations we have had
+together. He is far from feeling any personal objection or enmity to
+you. But you know that there has been in the past unpleasant feeling
+between your family and his, and he fears that you are animated by
+hostility toward him." "I assure you," replies Aldrovandi, falling into
+the trap, "that he is greatly mistaken. I have long since forgotten all
+the circumstances you allude to. Besides, as I remember, the cardinal
+had no part in the matter. He can't doubt that I have the greatest
+respect for his personal character. Besides, I am not the man to forget
+a service rendered to me." "Since those are the sentiments of Your
+Eminence," cries the monk, "I begin to see an end to this interminable
+conclave. I perceive that there will be no difficulty in arranging
+matters between Your Eminence and the cardinal Albani. Will you permit
+me to be the medium of your sentiments upon the subject?" Aldrovandi is
+delighted, and feels the tiara already on his head. Then, after a little
+indifferent talk, the Cordelier, in the act of taking leave of the
+cardinal, turns back and says, "But, after all, the mere word of a poor
+monk like me is hardly sufficient between personages such as Your
+Eminence and the cardinal Albani. Permit me to write you a letter, in
+which I will lay before Your Eminence those considerations concerning
+the crying evils of the length of this conclave which I have ventured to
+mention to you, and that will give me an opportunity of entering on the
+matters we have been speaking of. And then you, in your reply to me, can
+take occasion to say what you have already been observing to me of your
+sentiments toward the cardinal Albani." Aldrovandi eagerly agreed to
+this, and the two letters were at once written. "I am told," adds De
+Brosses, "that the letter of Aldrovandi was strong on the subject of the
+_gratitude_ he should feel toward Albani." No sooner has the
+perfidious Cordelier got the letter into his hand than he runs with it
+to Albani, who goes with it at once to the body of the "Zelanti"
+cardinals with pious horror in his face: "Here! Look at your Aldrovandi,
+your man of God, that you tell me is incapable of intriguing in order to
+become His vicar! Here he is making promises to seduce me into violating
+my conscience."--"Alas! alas! It is too true! Clearly the Holy Ghost
+will none of him. Speak to us of him no more!" So Aldrovandi's chance
+was gone, and Albani found the means of uniting the necessary number of
+voices on Lambertini, a good-enough sort of man, by all accounts, but
+hardly of the wood from which popes are or should be made. He became
+that Benedict XIV. who was Voltaire's correspondent, and who, as the
+story goes, when he was asked by a young Roman patrician to make him a
+list of the books he would recommend for his studies, replied, "My dear
+boy, we always keep a list of the best books ready made. It is called
+the _Index Expurgatorius_!"
+
+Such were the doings of conclaves, and such the popes which resulted
+from them, in that eighteenth century whose boasted philosophy pretty
+well culminated in the conviction that pudding was good and sugar sweet.
+Such will not be the conclave which will assemble at the death of the
+present pontiff. The election will doubtless be scrupulously canonical
+on all points; and, though it may be doubted how far the deliberations
+of the Sacred College will be calculated to advance the truly understood
+spiritual interests of humanity, there is, I think, little doubt that
+they will be directed, according to the lights of the members, to the
+choice of that individual who shall in their opinion be most likely to
+advance the interests of the Church "A.D.M.G."
+
+                                        T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
+
+
+
+
+MONSOOR PACHA.
+
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, it is pleasant to meet
+     Here, in the heart of this treacherous town--
+  Where faith is a peril and courtship a cheat,
+     More false to the touch than a rose overblown--
+     With a soul that is true to itself, as your own.
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, as two gentlemen may,
+     Civilized, city-bred, link we our hands:
+  Now from the town to the desert away!
+     Ours is a friendship whose spirit demands
+     The scope of the sky and the stretch of the sands.
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, doff your courtier's garb;
+     We have given to courtesy all of its dues;
+  Spring to your throne on the back of your barb,
+     Shake to the breezes your regal burnous,
+     Wave your lance-sceptre wherever you choose!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! ah, I know you at length!
+     King of the desert, your children are come
+  To cluster, like sheep, in the shade of your strength,
+     Or to strike, like young lions, for country and home,
+     When your eyes are ablaze at the roll of the drum!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! now one gallop, to see
+     The land you have sworn that no despot shall grind!
+  Though sun-tanned and arid, by Allah! 'tis free!
+     Its crops are these lances: these sons of the wind,
+     Our steeds, are its flocks--a grim harvest to bind!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! how we dash o'er the sand,
+     Hissing behind us like storm-driven snow!
+  Flash the long guns of your wild Arab band,
+     Brandish the spears, and the light jereeds throw,
+     As, half-winged, through the shrill singing breezes we go!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! send the horses away:
+     The sports of your tribe I have seen with delight.
+  Now let us watch while the rose-tinted day
+     Fades from the desert, and peace-bearing Night
+     Shakes the first gem on her brow in our sight.
+
+  Monsoor, my host! lo, I enter your tent,
+     As brother by brother, hands clasping, is led:
+  I sleep like a child in a dream Heaven-sent;
+     For have I not eaten the salt and the bread?
+     And Monsoor will answer for me with his head.
+
+                                        GEORGE H. BOKER.
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 10, 1875.
+
+
+
+
+HOW HAM WAS CURED.
+
+
+This was in slave times. It was also immediately after dinner, and the
+gentlemen had gone to the east piazza. Mr. Smith was walking back and
+forth, talking somewhat excitedly for him, while Dr. Rutherford sat with
+his feet on the railing, thoughtfully executing the sentimental
+performance of cutting his nails. Dr. Rutherford was an old friend of
+Mr. Smith who had been studying surgery in Philadelphia, and now, on his
+way back to South Carolina, had tarried to make us a visit.
+
+"You see," Mr. Smith was saying, "about a week ago one of our old
+negroes died under the impression that she was 'tricked' or bewitched,
+and the consequence has been that the entire plantation is demoralized.
+You never saw anything like it."
+
+"Many a time," said Dr. Rutherford, and calmly cut his nails.
+
+"There is not a negro on the place," continued Edward, "who does not lie
+down at night in terror of the Evil Eye, and go to his work in the
+morning paralyzed by dread of what the day may bring. Why, there is a
+perfect panic among them. They are falling about like a set of ten-pins.
+This morning I sent for Wash (best hand on the place) to see about
+setting out tobacco plants, and behold Wash curled up under a haystack
+getting ready to die! It is enough to--So as soon as you came this
+morning a plan entered my head for putting a stop to the thing. It will
+be necessary to acknowledge that two or three of them are under the
+spell, and it is better to select those who already fancy themselves
+so.--Rosalie!" I appeared at the window. "Are any of the house-servants
+'witched?"
+
+"Mercy is," said I, "and I presume Mammy is going to be: I saw her make
+a curtsey to the black cat this morning."
+
+"Well, what is your plan?" inquired Dr. Rutherford.
+
+Mr. Smith seated himself on the piazza railing, dangling his feet
+thereagainst, rounding his shoulders in the most attractive and engaging
+manner, as you see men do, and proceeded to develop his idea. I was
+called off at the moment, and did not return for an hour or two. As I
+did so I heard Dr. Rutherford say, "All right! Blow the horn;" and the
+overseer down in the yard
+
+    Blew a blast as loud and shrill
+    As the wild-boar heard on Temple Hill--
+
+an event which at this unusual hour of the day produced perfect
+consternation among the already excited negroes. They no doubt supposed
+it the musical exercise set apart for the performance of the angel
+Gabriel on the day of judgment, and in less than ten minutes all without
+exception had come pell-mell, helter-skelter, running to "the house."
+The dairymaid left her churn, and the housemaid put down her broom; the
+ploughs stood still, and when the horses turned their heads to see what
+was the matter they found they had no driver; she also who was cooking
+for the hands "fled from the path of duty" (no Casabianca nonsense for
+_her!_), leaving the "middling" to sputter into blackness and the
+corn-pones to share its fate. Mothers had gathered up their children of
+both sexes, and grouped them in little terrified companies about the
+yard and around the piazza-steps.
+
+Edward was now among them, endeavoring to subdue the excitement, and
+having to some extent succeeded, he made a signal to Dr. Rutherford, who
+came forward to address the negroes. Throwing his shoulders back and
+looking around with dignity, he exclaimed, "I am the great Dr.
+Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I was far away in the North,
+hundreds of miles from here, and I saw a spot on the sun, and it looked
+like the Evil Eye! And I found it was a great black smoke. Then I knew
+that witch-fires were burning in the mountains, and witches were dancing
+in the valleys; and the light of the Eye was red! I am the great Dr.
+Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I called my black cat up and
+told her to smell for blood, and she smelled, and she smelled, and she
+smelled! She smelled, and she smelled, and she smelled! And presently
+her hair stood up like bristles, and her eyes shot out sparks of fire,
+and her tail was as stiff as iron!" He threw his shoulders back, looked
+imposingly around and repeated: "I am the great Dr. Rutherford the
+witch-doctor of Boston! My black Cat tells me that the witch is
+here--that she has hung the deadly nightshade at your cabin-doors, and
+your blood is turning to water. You are beginning to wither away. You
+shiver in the sunshine; you don't want to eat; your hearts are heavy and
+you don't feel like work; and when you come from the field you don't
+take down the banjo and pat and shuffle and dance, but you sit down in
+the corner with your heads on your hands, and would go to sleep, but you
+know that as soon as you shut your eyes she will cast hers on you
+through the chinks in the cabin-wall."
+
+"Dat's me!" said Mercy--"dat certny is me!"
+
+"Gret day in de mornin', mas' witch-doctor! How you know? Is you been
+tricked?" inquired Martha, who, having been reared on the plantation,
+was unacquainted with the etiquette observed at lectures.
+
+Wash groaned heavily, and shook his head from side to side in silent
+commendation of the doctor's lore.
+
+"My black cat tells me that the witch is here; and she _is_ here!"
+(Immense sensation among the children of Ham.) "But," continued he with
+a majestic wave of the arm, "she can do you no harm, for I _also_ am
+here, the great Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston!"
+
+"Doctor," inquired Edward in a loud voice, "can you tell who is conjured
+and who is not?"
+
+"I cannot tell unless robed in the blandishments of plagiarism and the
+satellites of hygienic art as expunged by the gyrations of nebular
+hypothesis. Await ye!" He and Mr, Smith went into the house.
+
+The negroes were very much impressed. They have excessive reverence for
+grandiloquent language, and the less they understand of it the better
+they like it.
+
+"What dat he say, honey?" asked old Mammy. "I can't heer like I used
+ter."
+
+"He says he will be back soon, Mammy, and tell if any of you are
+tricked," said I; and just then Edward and the doctor reappeared,
+bearing between them a pine table. On this table were arranged about
+forty little pyramids of whitish-looking powder, and in their midst
+stood a bottle containing some clear liquid, like water. Dr. Rutherford
+seated himself behind it, robed in the black gown he had used in the
+dissecting-room, and crowned by a conical head-piece about two feet
+high, manufactured by Edward and himself, and which they had completed
+by placing on the pinnacle thereof a human skull. The effect of this
+picturesque costume was heightened by two large red circles around the
+doctor's eyes--whether obtained from the juice of the pokeberry or the
+inkstand on Edward's desk need not be determined.
+
+In front of the table stood the negroes, men, women and children. There
+was the preacher, decked in the clerical livery of a standing collar and
+white cravat, but, perhaps in deference to the day of the week, these
+were modified by the secular apparel of a yellow cotton shirt and
+homespun pantaloons, attached to a pair of old "galluses," which had
+been mended with twine, and pieced with leather, and lengthened with
+string, till, if any of the original remained, none could tell the color
+thereof nor what they had been in the day of their youth. The effect was
+not harmonious. There was Mammy, with her low wrinkled forehead, and
+white turban, and toothless gums, and skin of shining blackness, which
+testified that her material wants were not neglected. There was Wash, a
+great, stalwart negro, who ordinarily seemed able to cope with any ten
+men you might meet, now looking so subdued and dispirited, and of a
+complexion so ashy, that he really appeared old and shrunken and weak.
+There was William Wirt, the ploughboy, affected by a chronic grin which
+not even the solemnity of this occasion could dissipate, but the
+character of which seemed changed by the awestruck eyes that rolled
+above the heavy red lips and huge white teeth. There was Apollo--in
+social and domestic circles known as 'Poller--there was Apollo, his hair
+standing about his head in little black tufts or horns wrapped with
+cotton cord to make it grow, one brawny black shoulder protruding from a
+rent in his yellow cotton shirt, his pantaloons hanging loosely around
+his hips, and bagging around that wonderful foot which did not suggest
+his name, unless his sponsors in baptism were of a very satirical turn.
+There were Martha, and Susan, and Minerva, and Cinderella, and
+Chesterfield, and Pitt, and a great many other grown ones, besides a
+crowd of children, the smallest among the latter being clad in the
+dishabille of a single garment, which reached perhaps to the knee, but
+had little to boast in the way of latitude.
+
+There they all stood in little groups about the yard, looking with awe
+and reverence at the great Dr. Rutherford, who sat behind the table with
+his black gown and frightful eyes and skull-crowned cap.
+
+"You see these little heaps of powder and this bottle of water. You will
+come forward one at a time and pour a few drops of the water in this
+bottle on one of these little heaps of powder. If the powder turns
+black, the person who pours on the water is 'witched. If the powder
+remains white, the person who pours on the water is _not_ 'witched. You
+may all examine the powders, and see for yourselves whether there is any
+difference between them, and you will each pour from the same bottle."
+
+During a silence so intense that nothing was heard save the hum of two
+great "bumblebees" that darted in and out among the trees and flew at
+erratic angles above our heads, the negroes came forward and stretched
+their necks over each other's shoulders, peering curiously at the
+little mounds of powder that lay before them, at the innocent-looking
+bottle that stood in their midst, and the great high priest who sat
+behind. They stretched their necks over each other's shoulders, and each
+endeavored to push his neighbor to the front; but those in front, with
+due reverence for the uncanny nature of the table, were determined not
+to be forced too near it, and the result was a quiet struggle, a silent
+wrestle, an undertone of wriggle, that was irresistibly funny.
+
+Then arose the great high priest: "Range ye!"
+
+Not knowing the nature of this order, the negroes scattered instanter
+and then collected _en masse_ around Mr. Smith.
+
+"Range ye! range!" repeated the doctor with dignity, and Edward
+proceeded to arrange them in a long, straggling row, urging upon them
+that there was no cause for alarm, as, even should any of them prove
+'witched, the doctor had charms with him by which to cast off the spell.
+
+"Come, Martha," said Edward; but Martha was dismayed, and giving her
+neighbor a hasty shove, exclaimed,
+
+"You go fus', Unk' Lumfrey: you's de preacher."
+
+Uncle Humphrey disengaged his elbow with an angry hitch: "I don't keer
+if I is: go 'long yose'f."
+
+"Well, de Lord knows I'm 'feerd to go," said Martha; "but ef I sot up
+for preachin', 'peers to me I wouldn' be'feerd to sass witches nor
+goses, nor nuffin' else."
+
+"I don't preach no time but Sundays, an' dis ain't Sunday," said Uncle
+Humphrey.
+
+"Hy, nigger!" exclaimed Martha in desperation, "is you gwine to go back
+on de Lord cos 'tain't Sunday? How come you don't trus' on Him
+week-a-days?"
+
+"I does trus' on Him fur as enny sense in doin' uv it; but ef I go to
+enny my foolishness, fus' thing I know de Lord gwine leave me to take
+keer uv myse'f, preacher or no preacher--same as ef He was ter say,
+'Dat's all right, cap'n: ef you gwine to boss dis job, boss it;' an'
+den whar _I_ be? Mas' Ned tole you to go: go on, an' lemme 'lone."
+
+"Uncle Humphrey," said Edward, "there is nothing whatever to be afraid
+of, and you must set the rest an example. Come!"
+
+Uncle Humphrey obeyed, but as he did so he turned his head and
+rolled--or, as the negroes say, _walled_--his eyes at Martha in a manner
+which convinced her, whatever her doubts in other matters pertaining to
+theology, that there is such a thing as future punishment. The old
+fellow advanced, and under direction of the great high priest poured
+some of the contents of the bottle on the powder indicated to him, and
+it remained white.
+
+"Thang Gord!" he exclaimed with a fervency which left no doubt of his
+sincerity, and hastened away.
+
+Two or three others followed with a similar result. Then came Mercy, the
+housemaid, and as her trembling fingers poured the liquid forth, behold
+the powder changed and turned to black! The commotion was indescribable,
+and Mercy was about to have a nervous fit when Dr. Rutherford, fixing
+his eyes on her, said in a tone of command, "Be quiet--be perfectly
+quiet, and in two hours I will destroy the spell. Go over there and sit
+down."
+
+She tottered to a seat under one of the trees.
+
+One or two more took their turn, among them Mammy, but the powders
+remained white. I had entreated Edward not to pronounce her 'witched,
+because she was so old and I loved her so: I could not bear that she
+should be frightened. You should have seen her when she found that she
+was safe. The stiff old limbs became supple and the terrified
+countenance full of joy, and the dear ridiculous old thing threw her
+arms up in the air, and laughed and cried, and shouted, and praised God,
+and knocked off her turban, and burst open her apron-strings, and
+refused to be quieted till the doctor ordered her to be removed from the
+scene of action. The idea of retiring to the seclusion of her cabin
+while all this was going on was simply preposterous, and Mammy at once
+exhibited the soothing effect of the suggestion; so the play proceeded.
+
+More white powders. Then Apollo's turned black, and, poor fellow! when
+it did so, he might have been a god or a demon, or anything else you
+never saw, for his face looked little like that of a human being, giving
+you the impression only of wildly-rolling eyeballs, and great white
+teeth glistening in a ghastly, feeble, almost idiotic grin.
+
+Edward went up to him and laid his hand on his shoulder: "That's all
+right, my boy. We'll have you straight in no time, and you will be the
+best man at the shucking to-morrow night."
+
+More white powders. Then came Wash, great big Wash; and when his powder
+changed, what do you suppose he did? Well, he just fainted outright.
+
+The remaining powders retaining their color, and Wash having been
+restored to consciousness, Dr. Rutherford directed him to a clump of
+chinquapin bushes near the "big gate" at the entrance of the plantation.
+There he would find a flat stone. Beneath this stone he would find
+thirteen grains of moulding corn and some goat's hair. These he was to
+bring back with him. Under the first rail near the same gate Mercy would
+find: a dead frog with its eyes torn out, and across the road in the
+hollow of a stump Apollo was to look for a muskrat's tail and a weasel's
+paw. They went off reluctantly, the entire _corps de plantation_
+following, and soon they all came scampering back, trampling down the
+ox-eyed daisies and jamming each other against the corners of the rail
+fence, for, sure enough, the witch's treasures had been found, but not a
+soul had dared to touch them. Dr. Rutherford sternly ordered them back,
+but all hands hung fire, and their countenances evinced resistance of
+such a stubborn character that Edward at length volunteered to go with
+them. Then it was all right, and presently returned the most laughable
+procession that was ever seen--Wash with his arms at right angles,
+bearing his grains of moulding grain on a burdock leaf which he held at
+as great a distance as the size of the leaf and the length of his arms
+would admit, his neck craned out and his eyes so glued to the uncanny
+corn that he stumbled over every stick and stone that lay in his path;
+Mercy next, with ludicrous solemnity, bearing her unsightly burden on
+the end of a corn-stalk; Apollo last, his weasel's paw and muskrat's
+tail deposited in the toe of an old brogan which he had found by the
+roadside, brown and wrinkled and stiff, with a hole in the side and the
+ears curled back, and which he had hung by the heel to a long crooked
+stick. On they came, the crowd around them following at irregular
+distances, surging back and forth, advancing or retreating as they were
+urged by curiosity or repelled by fear.
+
+It was now getting dark, so Dr. Rutherford, having had the table
+removed, brought forth three large plates filled with different colored
+powders. On one he placed Mercy's frog, on another Wash's corn, and on
+the third the muskrat's tail and weasel's paw taken from Apollo's shoe.
+Then we all waited in silence while with his hands behind him he strode
+solemnly back and forth in front of the three plates. At length the bees
+had ceased to hum; the cattle had come home of themselves, and could be
+heard lowing in the distance; the many shadows had deepened into one;
+twilight had faded and darkness come. Then he stood still: "I am the
+great Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I will now set fire to
+these witch's eggs, and if they burn the flames will scorch her. She
+will scream and fly away, and it will be a hundred years before another
+witch appears in this part of the country."
+
+He applied a match to Apollo's plate and immediately the whole place was
+illuminated by a pale blue glare which fell with ghastly effect on the
+awestricken countenances around, while in the distance, apparently near
+the "big gate," arose a succession of the most frightful shrieks ever
+heard or imagined. Then the torch was applied to Mercy's frog, and
+forthwith every nook and corner, every leaf and every blade of grass was
+bathed in a flood of blood-red light, while the cries grew, if
+possible, louder and fiercer. Then came Wash's corn, which burned with a
+poisonous green glare, and lashed its sickly light over the house and
+yard and the crowd of black faces; and hardly had this died away when
+from the direction of the big gate there slowly ascended what appeared
+to be a blood-red ball.
+
+"There she goes!" said the great Dr. Rutherford, and we all stood gazing
+up into the heavens, till at length the thing burst into flames, the
+sparks died away and no more was to be seen.
+
+"Now, that is the last of her!" impressively announced the witch-doctor
+of Boston; "and neither she nor her sisters will dare come to this
+country again for the next hundred years. You can all make your minds
+easy about witches."
+
+Then came triumph instead of dread, and scorn took the place of fear.
+There arose a succession of shouts and cheers, laughter and jeers. They
+patted their knees and shuffled their feet and wagged their heads in
+derision.
+
+"Hyar! hyar! old gal! Done burnt up, is you? Take keer whar you lay yo'
+aigs arfer dis!" advised William Wirt in a loud voice.--"Go 'long, pizen
+sass!" said Martha. "You done lay yo' las' aig, you is!"--"Hooray
+tag-rag!" shouted Chesterfield.--"Histe yo' heels, ole Mrs. Satan,"
+cried one.--"You ain't no better'n a free nigger!" said another.--"Yo'
+wheel done skotch for good, ole skeer-face! hyar! hyar! You better not
+come foolin' 'long o' Mas' Ned's niggers no mo'!"
+
+The next night was a gala one, and a merrier set of negroes never sang
+at a corn-shucking, nor did a jollier leader than Wash ever tread the
+pile, while Mercy sat on a throne of shucks receiving Sambo's homage,
+and, unmolested by fear, coyly held a corncob between her teeth as she
+hung her head and bashfully consented that he should come next day to
+"ax Mas' Ned de liberty of de plantashun."
+
+
+"But, Edward," said I, "why did those three powders turn black?"
+
+"Because they were calomel, my dear, and it was lime-water that was
+poured on them," said Mr. Smith.
+
+"Well, but why did not the others turn black too?"
+
+"Because the others were tartarized antimony."
+
+"Where did you get what was in the plates, that made the lights, you
+know?"
+
+"Rutherford had the material. He is going to settle in a small country
+town, so he provided himself with all sorts of drugs and chemicals
+before he left Philadelphia."
+
+"But, Edward," persisted I, putting my hand over his book to make him
+stop reading, "how came those things where they were found? and the
+balloon to ascend just at the proper moment? and who or what was it
+screaming so? Neither you nor Dr. Rutherford had left the yard except to
+go into the house."
+
+"No, my dear; but you remember Dick Kirby came over just after dinner,
+and he would not ask any better fun than to fix all that."
+
+"Humph!" said I, "men are not so stupid, after all."
+
+Edward looked more amused than flattered, which shows how conceited men
+are.
+
+                                        JENNIE WOODVILLE.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.
+
+
+The last thing which the student learns, the last thing which the world,
+that universal student, comprehends, is how to study. It is only after
+our little store of facts has been laboriously accumulated, after we
+have tried path after path that promised to take us by an easy way up
+the Hill Difficulty, and have abandoned each in turn,--it is only when
+we have attained a point somewhere near the top, that we can look down
+and see the way we should have come, the one road that avoided
+unnecessary steepness and needless windings, and led by the quickest and
+easiest direction to the summit. The knowledge that we have thus gained,
+however late to profit by it ourselves, should at least be valuable to
+others. But, unfortunately, as Balzac has said, experience is an article
+that no one will use at second hand. When the great teachers of the
+world, who have been its most patient scholars, shall go to work to
+teach us how to study, and when we are content to learn, then we shall
+all be in a fair way to become sages.
+
+But, in the mean time, there are two things we must apprehend--truisms
+both of them, but, like all truisms, better known theoretically than
+practically. The first is, that we must not use a microscope if we want
+to study the stars; and the second is, that we must beware of having a
+fly between the lenses of our telescope, unless we wish to discover a
+monster in the moon. If a discriminating public would not consider it an
+insult, one might add, in the third place, that it is useless to look
+for lunar rainbows in the daytime.
+
+It is true that all this sounds like child's play, but it is astonishing
+how many of our Shakespearian critics commit one or all of these faults.
+Forgetting entirely that criticism demands common sense, impartial
+judgment, intense sympathy, a total absence of prejudice, and a great
+deal of general information, they bring to their task minds deeply
+tinctured with preconceived systems of truth, goodness and beauty, upon
+whose Procrustean bed the unfortunate poet must be stretched; while, as
+if ignorant of the history of thought, they judge the productions of
+another age and another atmosphere by the canons of criticism that hold
+good to-day among ourselves. Not only this, but they snuff enigmas in
+every line, and scent abstruse theories behind the simplest
+statement. They take up passages of Shakespeare whose obvious meaning
+any person of average intelligence can understand, and turn and twist
+them into such intricate doublings that they cannot undo their own
+puzzle. They attack his poetry as if it were a second Rosetta Stone, or
+as if it had to be read, like the lines in a Hebrew book, backward. They
+study him in the spirit of the fool, who, being given a book upside
+down, stood on his head to read it--a position naturally confusing to
+the intellect.
+
+Nor is it only in their methods of investigation that many of our
+Shakespearian critics are at fault. Their fondness for rearing vast
+temples of possibilities upon small corner-stones of fact is proverbial.
+We know that Shakespeare went to London, where he both wrote and acted
+plays, and upon this slender basis you may find, in almost any of his
+commentators, such added items of biography as this sentence from
+Heraud's book upon Shakespeare's _Inner Life:_ "That he had a house in
+Southwark, that his brother Edmund lived with him, and that his wife was
+his frequent companion in London, are all exceedingly probable
+suppositions." So they may be to Mr. Heraud's mind, but the next
+biographer shall form a totally different set of "exceedingly probable
+suppositions" equally satisfactory to himself. The same critic says that
+when Shakespeare, in his Sonnets, spoke of "a black beauty" (a phrase
+universally used to express a brunette as late even as the age of Queen
+Anne), the poet had his Bible open at Solomon's Song, and meant the
+Bride "who is black but comely;" in other words, the Reformed Church.
+Mr. Page, the artist, finds in the Chandos portrait, after it has been
+cleaned and scraped, and upon the photographs of the German mask, a
+certain mark which he thinks the indication of a scar. Two gentlemen,
+one an artist, who have seen the mask itself, assure him that they find
+his scar to be merely a slight abrasion or discoloration of the plaster;
+but Mr. Page, secure in his position, quotes Sonnet 112,
+
+    Your love and pity doth the impression fill
+    Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow,
+
+and triumphantly asks, "If that doesn't refer to the scar, what does it
+refer to?"
+
+The Sonnets of Shakespeare have been quite too much neglected by the
+lovers of his plays, and Stevens said that the strongest act of
+Parliament that could be framed would fail to compel readers into their
+service. Two classes of minds, however, have always pondered over
+them--the poets, who could not fail to appreciate their wonderful power
+and beauty, and the psychologists, who have found in them an ample field
+for speculation. The variety and extent of the theories of these latter
+gentlemen can only be rivaled by the feat of the camel-evolving German.
+Indeed, it is the true German school of thought to which these
+speculations belong, and it is but just that to a genuine Teuton belongs
+the honor of the most extraordinary solution of the mystery yet given.
+It would take too long to sum up all the theories that have been
+broached upon the subject, but two or three will do as an example.
+Without stopping to dwell upon the ideas of M. Philarète Chasles, or of
+Gen. Hitchcock, who believes the Sonnets to be addressed to the Ideal
+Beauty, we will pass on to the book of Mr. Henry Browne, published in
+London in 1870. His idea is that the Sonnets are dedicated to William
+Herbert, afterward earl of Pembroke, and are intended chiefly as a
+parody upon the reigning fashion of mistress-sonneting and upon the
+sonneteers of the day, especially Davies and Drayton; that they also
+contain much which is valuable in the way of autobiography, and that
+"the key to the whole mystery lies in _Shakespeare's_ conceit (_i. e_.,
+Mr. Browne's conceit) of the union of his friend and his Muse by
+marriage of verse and mind; by which means, and for which favor, his
+youth and beauty are immortalized, but which theme does not fully
+commence till the friend had declined the invitation to marriage, which
+refusal begets the mystic melody." Mr. Browne graciously accepts the
+Sonnets in their order, and professes to be unable to name the real
+mistress of Herbert, though he considers Lady Penelope Rich to
+be the object of their allegorical satire.
+
+Mr. Heraud also accepts the order of the Sonnets as correct. His book
+contains an article on the Sonnets published by him in _Temple Bar_ for
+April, 1862, the result, he declares (and far be it from us to dispute
+it), of pure induction. He has evolved the theory that Shakespeare in
+writing against celibacy had in view the practice of the Roman Catholic
+Church; that the friend whom he apostrophizes was the Ideal Man, the
+universal humanity, who gradually develops into the Divine Ideal, and
+becomes a Messiah, while the Woman is the Church, the "black but comely
+bride" of Solomon. "Shakespeare found himself between two loves--the
+celibate Church on the one hand, that deified herself, and the Reformed
+Church on the other, that eschewed Mariolatry and restored worship to
+its proper object.... Thus, Shakespeare parabolically opposed the
+Mariolatry of his time to the purer devotion of the word of God, which
+it was the mission of his age to inaugurate."
+
+This is pretty well for a flight of inductive genius, but it is quite
+surpassed by the soaring Teutonic mind before mentioned, who, in the
+words of the reflective Breitmann,
+
+    Dinks so deeply
+    As only Deutschers can.
+
+This mighty philosopher, of whom Mr. Heraud speaks with becoming
+reverence, is Herr Barnstorff, who published a book in 1862 to prove
+that the "W.H." of the dedication means _William Himself_, and that the
+Sonnets are apostrophes to Shakespeare's Interior Individuality! Mr.
+Heraud thinks this idea is rather too German, but, after all, not so
+very far out of the way, for in Sonnet 42 the poet certainly declares
+that his Ideal Man is simply his Objective Self.[009] For, as Mr. Heraud
+beautifully and lucidly remarks, "the Many, how multitudinous soever,
+are yet properly but the reflex of the One, and the sum of both is the
+Universe." And herein, according to Mr. Heraud, we find the key to the
+mystery.
+
+In 1866, Mr. Gerald Massey published a large volume on the same
+subject, with the somewhat pretentious title. _Shakespeare's Sonnets,
+never before interpreted; his private friends identified; together with
+a recovered likeness of himself_. The first chapter contains a summary
+of the opinions of Coleridge, Wordsworth and others upon the Sonnets; a
+notice of the theory of Bright and Boaden (_Gentleman's Magazine_,
+1832), afterward confirmed by a book written by Charles Armitage Brown
+(1838); the theories of Hunter, Hallam, Dyce, Mrs. Jameson, M. Chasles,
+Ulrici, Gervinus and many others (most of them, by the way, confirming
+the theory originated by Boaden and Bright); and having thus gone over
+the work of twenty-five _named_ authors, and a space of time extending
+from 1817 to 1866, Mr. Massey begins his second chapter by saying that
+as yet there has never been any genuine attempt to interpret the
+Sonnets, "nothing having been done except a little surface-work." Mr. C.
+Armitage Brown in particular (who, by the way, must not be confounded
+with Mr. _Henry Browne_) appears to be Mr. Massey's special aversion.
+The very name of Brown irritates him as scarlet does an excitable bull.
+Armitage Brown was the intimate friend of Keats and Landor, and, Severn
+says, was considered to know more about the Sonnets than any man then
+living, while the "personal theory," as Mr. Massey styles it, has had a
+far larger number of supporters than any other. Unfortunately, the
+opinions of others have not the slightest weight with Mr. Massey, and
+words are too weak to express his scorn of this theory and its
+supporters. Mr. Brown wraps things in a winding sheet of witless words
+(delicious alliteration!); he leaves the subject dark and dubious as
+ever; his theory has only served to trouble deep waters, and make them
+so muddy that it is impossible to see to the bottom; in short, Mr. Brown
+and his fellow thinkers, in the opinion of Mr. Massey, are
+arch-deceivers and audacious misinterpreters, and have no more idea of
+what Shakespeare meant than they have of telling the truth about it. Why
+Mr. Massey should have worked himself into a passion before he
+began to write is a mystery darker than any he attempts to solve, but
+the intemperate, bitter and self-conceited tone of the whole book is
+alone an immense injury to its critical value.
+
+In constructing his elaborate theory of the Sonnets, Mr. Massey has
+committed many grave offences against the rules of criticism. He has
+gone to his work with the strongest possible prejudices; he has begun it
+with certain preconceived ideas of what Shakespeare meant to write; he
+has found it necessary to destroy entirely the order of the poems, and
+to rearrange them, even sometimes to alter the text, to fit his own
+notions; and he has carried his investigations into such puerile and
+minute twistings of the text as can only be paralleled by Mr. Page's
+quotation in support of his scar. For instance, in Sonnet 78 occur these
+lines:
+
+    Thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing
+      And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,
+    Have added feathers to the learned's wing
+      And given grace a double majesty.
+
+Mr. Massey thinks that in this quatrain (which the vulgar mind would
+accept as it stands, nor expect to treat as other than figurative)
+Shakespeare was passing in review the writers under the patronage of the
+earl of Southampton, to whom the sonnet is addressed, and that he can
+identify the four personifications! Shakespeare of course is the Dumb
+taught to sing by the favor of the earl; resolute John Florio, the
+translator of Montaigne, is Heavy Ignorance; Tom Nash is the Learned,
+who has had feathers added to his wing; and Marlowe is the Grace to whom
+is given a double majesty! Marlowe's chief characteristic was majesty,
+says Mr. Massey; therefore, we suppose, he is spoken of as _grace_. The
+rest of his "exquisite reasons" may be found at pages 134-143 of the
+book.
+
+This is nothing, however, to the feats of which Mr. Massey's subtlety is
+capable. Sonnet 38 begins:
+
+    How can my Muse want subject to invent,
+      While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse
+    Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
+      For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
+
+That is, kindly explains Mr. Massey--lest we should be tempted to accept
+the obvious meaning of the lines, that the poet could not want a
+subject while his friend lived, whose worth was too great for every
+ordinary writing to celebrate fitly--"that is, the new subject of the
+earl's suggesting and the new form of the earl's inventing are too
+choice to be committed to _common paper_; which means that Shakespeare
+had until then written his personal sonnets on slips of paper provided
+by himself, and now the excelling argument of the earl's love is to be
+written in Southampton's own book"! Perhaps it means that Shakespeare
+had taken to gilt-edged, hot-pressed, double-scented Bath note.
+
+Mr. Massey's ingenuity in getting over a difficulty is as great as his
+faculty of construction. Having assumed Lady Rich (that Stella whose
+golden hair makes half the glory of Sidney's verse) to be the "black
+beauty" of the Sonnets, he finds that Sonnet 130 perversely says, "If
+hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head"--a bit of evidence that
+would seem to upset this theory. But Mr. Massey is not to be put down so
+easily. This is ironical, he says in effect; Shakespeare did not mean
+this; "it is a bit of malicious subtlety to call the lady's hair black
+wires, which was so often besung as golden hair; and _she had been so
+vain of its mellow splendor!_ ... And there is the '_if_' to be
+considered--'much virtue in an _if'!_--'_If_ hairs be wires,' says the
+speaker, 'black wires grow on her head!' So that the 'black' is only
+used conditionally, and the fact remains that 'hairs' are _not_
+'wires.'" If we are to interpret Shakespeare in this manner, where is
+such foolery to cease?
+
+To sum up the principal facts of Mr. Massey's elaborate theory in a few
+words, we find that he considers the Sonnets to be dedicated to William
+Herbert, earl of Pembroke, as "their only begetter" (or obtainer) for
+the publisher, Mr. Thomas Thorpe; that they consist properly of two
+series, the first written for Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton,
+the second for the earl of Pembroke; that they begin with the poet's
+advice to Southampton to marry; that when the earl fell in love with
+Elizabeth Vernon, he suggested a new argument (see Sonnet 38),
+wherein is no such thing as a _new_ argument, by the way; and that then
+the poet begins to write love-poems in the person of his friend. This
+continues up to the year 1603, when the earl of Southampton was released
+from prison, the dramatic sonnets being interspersed with personal ones.
+These dramatic sonnets also include sonnets written for Elizabeth Vernon
+of and to Penelope Lady Rich, of whom she is supposed to be jealous;
+sonnets from Southampton to herself upon the lovers' quarrel, and the
+desperate flirtation of Elizabeth Vernon to punish her lover (which Mr.
+Massey says ensued upon this jealousy); together with various other
+sonnets between them, and upon the earl's varying fortunes, his
+marriage, imprisonment, etc., which make up the first series. The second
+series are love-poems written for William Herbert, and addressed to Lady
+Rich, who is supposed by Mr. Massey to be the "black beauty" (or
+brunette) of the closing sonnets, although it is well known that Lady
+Rich was a golden blonde, with nothing dark about her but her black
+eyes. To make out this complicated story, Mr. Massey arranges the
+Sonnets in groups to suit his fancy, baptizes them as he chooses, and
+does not scruple to vilify the fair name of man or woman in order to
+make out his argument and to defend the spotless purity of Shakespeare's
+moral character.
+
+_Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems_, by Charles Armitage Brown
+(1838), is the book which more than all others on the subject seems to
+have excited Mr. Massey's indignation, chiefly because it is the leading
+advocate of "the personal theory"--that is, the autobiographical and
+non-dramatic character of the poems. This implies an acceptance of the
+statement clearly made in the Sonnets of Shakespeare's infidelity to his
+wife; and this Mr. Massey pronounces an outrageous and unwarranted
+slander. But in order to leave the name of Shakespeare pure from any
+stain of mortal imperfection, Mr. Massey arranges a dramatic intention
+for the Sonnets which involves, with more or less of light or evil
+conduct, no less than four other names--the earl of Southampton and
+Elizabeth Vernon (daughter of Sir John Vernon), whom he afterward
+married; William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and Lady Rich, for whom Mr.
+Massey finds no words too abusive, and whom he considers the "worser
+spirit" of the later Sonnets. The history of this lady is sufficiently
+well known, and, so far as I can ascertain, there is no historical
+warrant for supposing her to have been the mistress of Herbert, or the
+beguiler of Southampton into such a lapse of duty to his beloved
+Elizabeth Vernon as should inspire the expressions of Sonnets 134, 133,
+144, which Mr. Massey says are written in the person of this lady to
+Lady Rich. Lady Penelope Devereux, sister of Essex, was born in 1563,
+and her father, who died when she was but thirteen, expressed a desire
+that she should be married to Sir Philip Sidney. For some unknown reason
+the intended match was broken off, and the fair Penelope, who is
+described as "a lady in whom lodged all attractive graces of beauty, wit
+and sweetness of behavior which might render her the absolute mistress
+of all eyes and hearts," was married in 1580 to Lord Rich, a man whom
+she detested. Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_, a series of one hundred
+and eight sonnets and poems addressed to Lady Rich, and celebrating the
+strength and the purity of their love for each other, was first printed
+in 1591. Sidney had died five years before, and so long as he lived, at
+least, no whisper had been breathed against Lady Rich. In 1600 we have
+the first notice of her losing the queen's favor from a suspicion of her
+infidelity to her husband, and in 1605, having been divorced, her lover,
+the earl of Devonshire, formerly Lord Mountjoy, immediately married her.
+He defended her in an eloquent _Discourse_ and an _Epistle to the King_,
+in which he says: "A lady of great birth and virtue, being in the power
+of her friends, was by them married against her will unto one against
+whom she did protest at the very solemnity and ever after." Lord Rich
+treated her with great brutality, and having ceased to live with her for
+twelve years, "did by persuasions and threatenings move her to
+consent unto a divorce, and to confess a fault with a nameless
+stranger." In spite of Mountjoy's noble pleadings for his wife, the
+whole court rose up against his marriage. The earl's sensitive heart was
+broken by the disgrace he had brought upon one whom he had loved so
+dearly and so long (for he was Sidney's rival in his early youth, and
+had been rejected by Lady Penelope's family before her marriage with
+Lord Rich), and he died of grief four months after their marriage, April
+3, 1606. His countess, "worn out with lamentation," did not long survive
+him.
+
+Does that look like the conduct of a light and fickle heart? or was it
+likely that so noble a man as Charles Mountjoy would have died of grief
+for the disgrace he had brought upon a notoriously bad woman? As to Lord
+Southampton's alleged flirtation with Lady Rich, which so excited
+Elizabeth Vernon's jealousy, Mr. Massey has not one circumstance in
+proof of it but the forced interpretation he chooses to put upon certain
+lines of certain sonnets which he has wrested from their proper places,
+as well as their proper meaning. After using such sonnets as the 144th
+to express this jealousy, he quietly confesses at the end of the chapter
+that it could not have gone very deep, as the intimacy of the two fair
+cousins (for such was their relationship) continued to be of the
+closest--that it was to Lady Rich's house that Elizabeth Vernon retired
+after her secret marriage to the earl in 1598, and there her baby was
+born, named Penelope after her cousin and friend! There was only matter
+enough in it for poetry, Mr. Massey concludes after having upset the
+whole order of the Sonnets to prove its reality.
+
+Now, as to the story of Lady Rich's having been the mistress of Herbert,
+for whom Mr. Massey says that twenty-four of the Sonnets were written.
+William Herbert, afterward earl of Pembroke, was born in 1580. He came
+up to London in 1598, being then eighteen years of age, and made the
+acquaintance of Shakespeare, who was then thirty-four years old. Lady
+Rich, at that time, according to Mr. Massey's own statement, was
+"getting on for forty." The fact is that she was just thirty-five,
+having been born, as he tells us, in 1563. According to the obvious
+meaning of the Sonnets, the lady spoken of is much younger than
+Shakespeare, instead of a year older, and, according to Mr. Massey, Lady
+Rich was at that time (1597) in the midst of her love-affair with
+Mountjoy. The lady of the Sonnets, if we take them literally, could have
+borne no such high position as Lady Rich: she seems to have been neither
+remarkably beautiful and high-bred, nor virtuous, and was evidently a
+married woman of no reputation. (_Sonnets_ 150, 152.)
+
+It is impossible to bring up separately, in a single article, the items
+contained in a volume of 603 pages, so we must be content to leave Mr.
+Massey's theory with these meagre allusions to its principal statements,
+and pass on to that of Mr. Charles Armitage Brown. Upholding the opinion
+that the Sonnets are autobiographical, he maintains that they are in
+reality not sonnets, but poems in the sonnet stanza, there being but
+three sonnets, properly so called, in the series. The poems are six in
+number, terminating each with an appropriate _envoi_, and are addressed,
+the first five to the poet's friend, "W.H.," and the sixth to his
+mistress. That friend must have been very young, very handsome, of high
+birth and fortune; and to all this the description of William Herbert
+exactly answers. The divisions made by Mr. Brown are as follows: First
+poem, 1 to 26--to his friend, persuading him to marry. Second poem, 27
+to 55--to his friend, who had robbed the poet of his mistress, forgiving
+him. Third poem, 56 to 77--to his friend, complaining of his coldness,
+and warning him of life's decay. Fourth poem, 78 to 101--to his friend,
+complaining that he prefers another poet's praises, and reproving him
+for faults that may injure his character. Fifth poem, 102 to 126--to his
+friend, excusing himself for having been some time silent, and
+disclaiming the charge of inconstancy. Sixth poem, 127 to 152--to his
+mistress, on her infidelity. In this last poem, says Mr. Brown,
+we find the whole tenor to be "hate of my sin grounded on sinful
+loving." However the poet may waver, and for the moment seem to return
+to his former thralldom, indignation at the faithlessness of his
+mistress and at her having been, through treachery, the cause of his
+estrangement from a friend, at the last completely conquers his sinful
+loving. "For myself," continues Mr. Brown, "I confess I have not the
+heart to blame him at all, purely because he so keenly reproaches
+himself for his own sin and folly. Fascinated as he was, he did not,
+like other poets similarly guilty, directly or by implication obtrude
+his own passions on the world as reasonable laws. Had such been the
+case, he might have merited our censure, possibly our contempt."
+
+Having thus glanced over the work of the principal commentators upon the
+Sonnets, let us try the simple plan of reading them as we read
+Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, for instance, or the _Sonnets from the
+Portuguese_, by Mrs. Browning. In Mr. R.G. White's admirable edition of
+Shakespeare he confesses that he has no opinion upon the subject: "Mr.
+Thomas Thorpe appears in his dedication as the Sphinx of literature, and
+thus far he has not met his Oedipus." But herein have we not the main
+difficulty stated? The first great error committed by almost all
+students of the Sonnets, if we may be pardoned the opinion, is to take
+it for granted that they are a mystery whose key is lost. Just so long
+as the Sonnets are considered as a species of enigma they will be
+misunderstood and misinterpreted. It was not Shakespeare's habit to talk
+in riddles or to propound psychological problems: of all poets except
+Chaucer he is the most simple, direct and straightforward.
+
+We have in the _Amoretti_ of Spenser, and in the _Astrophel and Stella_
+of Sir Philip Sidney, admirable examples of autobiographical poems
+written mostly in sonnet stanza, of irregular and varied construction
+and subject, although the general theme is the same. Surely we may bring
+to the study of Shakespeare's poems the same simple method used in
+reading these. Poets of his own day, and using in their highest flights
+the form which was Shakespeare's familiar relaxation, nobody has tried
+to ascribe to Sidney and Spenser metaphysical mysteries and
+psychological conceits. Let us hope that some day this mistaken idolatry
+of Shakespeare, which besmokes his shrine with concealing clouds of
+incense, will be done away with, and that we shall be allowed to behold
+the simple truth, which never suffers in his case for being naked.
+
+In his 76th Sonnet, Shakespeare says,
+
+    Why write I still all one, ever the same.
+      And keep invention in a noted weed,
+    _That every word doth almost tell my name_,
+      _Showing their birth and whence they did proceed_?
+    Oh know, sweet love, I always write of you,
+    And you and love are still my argument.
+
+With this explicit declaration of Shakespeare, the general character of
+the poems, and the similar writings of his friends and contemporaries,
+we can but consider the Sonnets as autobiographical poems, written
+during a period of time beginning certainly as early as 1598 (when Meres
+speaks of Shakespeare's having written sonnets), and ceasing some time
+before their first publication in 1609. In the same way were written the
+poems composing Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, which, although dedicated to
+"A.H.H.," close with a long poem addressed to the poet's sister.
+
+The first and principal series of the Sonnets (divided from the second
+in many editions of Shakespeare by a mark of separation) is clearly
+addressed to a male friend. The extremely lover-like use of language by
+which they are characterized was a common trait of the age; and here
+again we see the necessity of thoroughly understanding the atmosphere
+that Shakespeare breathed. To us, with our frigid vocabulary of
+friendship, such a style sounds unnatural, and undignified perhaps: with
+the Elizabethans it was an every-day habit. Lilly, the author of
+_Euphues_, says in his _Endymion,_ "The love of men to women is a thing
+common and of course; the friendship of man to man, infinite and
+immortal." And indeed it is to the influence of the _Euphues_ that much
+of the poetic ardor of language characterizing the masculine friendship
+of the time was due. A man's beauty was as often the theme of
+verse as a woman's, and the endearing terms only associated by us with
+the conversation of lovers were used continually among men. The friends
+in Shakespeare's plays, as in all the other dramas and novels of the
+period, continually address each other as "sweet," and even "sweet love"
+and "beloved." Ben Jonson called himself the "lover" of Camden, and
+dedicated his eulogistic lines to "my beloved Mr. William Shakespeare."
+There is therefore no reason for considering the language of the first
+series of Sonnets as necessarily inapplicable to a masculine friend. The
+second series, beginning with the 127th Sonnet, is as evidently
+addressed, as Mr. Brown says, "to his mistress, on her infidelity;" and
+the Sonnets end with two upon "Cupid's Brand," admitted by all to be
+separate poems, and wrongfully tacked on to the Sonnets proper.
+
+Taking it for granted, then, from this very literal survey of the text,
+that the Sonnets are autobiographical, we find their study divided into
+two branches: (1) the story that the poems themselves tell by the most
+simple and direct statements; and (2) the conjectural explanation of the
+personages of that story, involving a careful historical comparison of
+names and dates, but amounting, after all is said that can be said,
+simply to conjecture, incapable of direct proof. The first part is to
+the real lover of Shakespeare and of poetry the only important one; the
+second concerns that which is mortal and has passed away. The first
+implies a knowledge of the friendship and the love of Shakespeare; the
+second the discovery of the names of his friend, of the poet who was his
+rival in the praises of that friend, and of the mistress who was
+unworthy of them both; not to mention such other items concerning time
+and place as might be ascertained by a persevering antiquarian.
+
+It is impossible, within less than a volume, to quote from the Sonnets
+very freely, therefore we shall be compelled to trust to the reader's
+recollection of them, assisted by an occasional reference; this
+explanation of them being simply a record of the impressions they have
+produced upon an unbiased mind reading them as one would read any other
+poetry of the same character.
+
+The story unfolded by the Sonnets, then, is this: Shakespeare had an
+ardent friendship, made all the livelier by the fervor of the poetic
+temperament, for a young man of noble birth and very great personal
+beauty, himself a lover of poetry, if not a poet. This youth was very
+much younger than Shakespeare, who was already beginning to speak of
+himself as past the prime of life, although he was probably not more
+than thirty-four. The friend of Shakespeare was almost perfect in
+beauty, intellect and disposition, but he had two faults: he was
+extremely fond of flattery (Sonnet 84), and he was over-addicted to
+pleasure:
+
+    How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
+    Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,
+    Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!   (95.)
+
+Shakespeare scorned to palter with the truth--"fair, kind and true" he
+had called his friend--but he saw his faults with the keen eye of love,
+that cannot bear an imperfection in the one who should be all-perfect.
+
+    Thou truly fair wert truly sympathized
+    In true plain words by thy true-telling friend;   (82.)
+
+and
+
+                        I love thee in such sort,
+    As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report;   (36.)
+
+therefore in all love he warns him to take heed.
+
+Such was the character of Shakespeare's friend, to whom he begins by
+addressing seventeen sonnets (or poems in the sonnet stanza, which is
+the better definition), urging him to marry. He knows the weakness of
+his character and the temptations that beset him, and in a strain of
+loving persuasion, whose theme bears great resemblance to many passages
+in Sidney's _Arcadia_, he beseeches him, now that he stands upon the top
+of happy hours,
+
+    Make thee another self for love of me.
+    That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
+
+Sonnet 17 in a most beautiful manner sums up the argument and ends the
+subject.
+
+The Sonnets from the 18th to the 126th are all addressed to this beloved
+friend, who nevertheless, early in the history of their
+friendship, inflicted upon the poet a cruel wrong. With the 33d Sonnet
+begin the references to this double treachery. It is impossible for an
+unprejudiced reader to interpret this and the other poems upon the same
+subject in any way but one. The mistress of Shakespeare, fascinated by
+the beauty and brilliant qualities of his friend, took advantage of the
+poet's absence to win that facile heart, so incapable of resisting the
+charms of woman and the tongue of flattery;
+
+    And when a woman woos, what woman's son
+    Will sourly leave her till she have prevailed? (41.)
+
+His friend's loss was the greater to the poet, for, although he loved
+with passionate strength, it was against his conscience and his reason.
+Such a love, he says, is "enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;"
+"Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream."
+
+    All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
+    To shun the heaven that leadeth to this hell. (129.)
+
+Nor does he mince matters in directly addressing her. She is a brunette,
+with black eyes and black hair, yet black in nothing except her deeds,
+which have given her an evil reputation. She has sealed false bonds of
+love as often as he, and is twice forsworn, having deceived both her
+husband and her lover. She is as cruel as if she had that transcendent
+beauty which in reality she only possesses in his doting eyes. He knows
+that her heart is "a bay where all men ride," and yet love persuades him
+to believe her true.
+
+    Who taught thee how to make me love thee more
+    The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
+
+She is his "worser spirit," tempting him to ill--his "false plague,"
+whom he knows to be "as black as hell, as dark as night," though he has
+sworn her fair and true. His friend's name is Will also, and Sonnets
+135, 136 contain a play upon their names:
+
+    Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy "Will,"
+    And "Will" to boot, and "Will" in overplus.
+
+Only love my name, he says to her, and then you will still love me, for
+_my_ name too is "Will."
+
+Such are the three actors in this tragedy of sin and sorrow and remorse;
+and the more we read these wonderful poems, and perceive the intense
+passion that throbs through them, the nearer we seem to get to the great
+heart of Shakespeare, the real inner life of that man of whose outer
+personality we know so little. We see him wounded to the quick by his
+dearest friend, yet weighing the sin of that friend in the balance of
+divinest mercy as he acknowledges the strength of the temptation, and,
+while he does not extenuate the sin, extends a loving pardon to the
+sinner. He knows weakness of his own soul: he himself struggles in the
+toils of an unworthy passion, which his reason abhors while his heart is
+led captive. His is the battle and the defeat: who is he that he should
+judge with indignant virtue the failing of another?--
+
+    I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
+      Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
+    And yet love knows it is a greater grief
+      To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.   (40.)
+
+He pardons the penitent as freely as only so great and magnanimous a
+soul can, but gently reminds him that "though thou repent, yet I have
+still the loss:"
+
+    The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
+    To him that bears the strong offence's cross. (34.)
+
+Hereafter we two must be twain, the poet says, although our undivided
+loves are one, for fear thy good report suffer, which is to me as my
+own. Do not even remember me after I am dead, if that remembrance cause
+you any sorrow, nor rehearse my poor name, but let your love decay with
+my life;
+
+    Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
+    And mock you with me after I am gone.
+
+Such is the story of the Sonnets, the saddest of all stories, as it
+comes to us from the simple and unbiased reading of the series as it
+stands, without alteration or transposition. The meaning is sufficiently
+obvious without making any change, although, judging from the purely
+eulogistic character of some of the first series of the Sonnets, and the
+purely reflective style of others, it seems probable that those which
+are more or less reproachful in tone may belong together, nearer the
+second series. Still, even to this rearrangement there are objections
+when we consider the alternations of feeling and the different
+conditions that must have affected the poet during the space of time
+covered by these poems. In the 104th Sonnet three years are mentioned as
+having elapsed since the friends first met, and the time covered by the
+whole series was probably still longer. Conjectural evidence points to
+William Herbert as the person to whom the Sonnets are addressed. His
+name, his age, his beauty, his rank, all agree with Shakespeare's
+description. As for the earl of Southampton, the poet's early patron, to
+whom the _Venus and Adonis_ and the _Lucrece_ are dedicated, his name
+was Henry; he was but nine years younger than Shakespeare, and therefore
+not likely to have been called by him "a sweet boy;" he was a remarkably
+plain man, instead of an Adonis, and noted, not for his devotion to
+women in general, but for his ardent attachment to Mistress Elizabeth
+Vernon, whom he married secretly, in spite of the queen's opposition, in
+1598. Now, the earliest mention that we have of Shakespeare's poems is
+when Meres speaks of "his sugared sonnets among his private friends."
+This was in 1598, and, as Hallam and other critics have argued, is
+probably a reference to earlier sonnets which have been lost, not to
+those published in 1609. It was in 1598 that William Herbert, a
+brilliant and fascinating young man, addicted to pleasure and
+susceptible to flattery, but strongly disinclined to marriage, came up
+to London to live, having visited the metropolis during the previous
+year.
+
+As for Lady Rich, besides the objections already urged on the score of
+her personal appearance and her age, Shakespeare would never have dared
+to speak of a reigning beauty of the court in the words of Sonnets 137,
+144, 152. In fact, Mr. Massey's whole argument upon this head is based
+upon his assertion that the poems are dramatic and not personal.
+
+Mr. Massey's conviction that Marlowe is the rival poet of whose "great
+verse" Shakespeare was jealous depends upon Southampton, and not
+Herbert, being acknowledged to be the friend addressed, for Marlowe died
+in 1593, when Herbert was but thirteen years old, and five years before
+we have the first mention of Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets.
+Certainly, a writer who had died five years before we find any mention
+of the Sonnets can hardly be the living poet of whom Shakespeare
+distinctly speaks in Sonnets 80 and 86. Also in Sonnet 82 he makes
+mention of the "dedicated words" this rival addresses to his friend.
+Now, we have no evidence that Marlowe ever dedicated anything to
+Southampton, although Mr. Massey tries to bolster up a desperate case by
+saying that "there is nothing improbable in supposing that Marlowe's
+_Hero and Leander_ was intended to be dedicated to Southampton" had the
+poet lived to finish it!
+
+A stronger chain of evidence (still conjectural, it must be remembered)
+points to Ben Jonson as this rival poet. His _Epigrams_, which contain a
+eulogy upon Pembroke, and his _Catiline_, were both dedicated to this
+earl, although neither of them was published till after the Sonnets. We
+find the earl of Pembroke's name among the actors in Ben Jonson's
+masques, and Falkland's eclogue testifies to their intimacy. And in the
+80th Sonnet, Shakespeare uses the same comparison of himself and his
+rival, to two ships of different bulk, which Fuller used to describe
+Shakespeare and Ben Jonson as they appeared at the Mermaid Tavern.
+
+As for the name of the false woman who ensnared two such noble hearts,
+it is lost for ever, let us hope, in a deserved oblivion. The scanty
+data that we have given here are about all that can be accepted without
+wrenching history and poetry from their proper sphere. But so long as
+the spirit is more than the letter, so long will the Sonnets of
+Shakespeare be read by all true lovers of true poetry, whether their
+historical significance ever be known or not. They are the saddest and
+the sweetest story of friendship that we have in all literature; and
+while one faithful friend remains possessed of that fine wit that can
+"hear with eyes what silent love hath writ," his heart will beat in
+answer to the perfect love of the greatest of all poets and the noblest
+of all friends.
+
+                                        KATE HILLARD.
+
+
+
+
+OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+
+ARTISTS' MODELS IN ROME.
+
+
+Some visitors to the Eternal City leave it without having found time to
+see this one of its wonders, while others are driven by the sad
+inelasticity of the hours to leave a different class of objects for
+"another time." But it may be safely asserted that none who have been at
+Rome for even twenty-four hours ever left it without having had their
+attention forcibly arrested by the groups of painters' and sculptors'
+models--the former mainly--who haunt the upper part of the great steps
+that lead up from the Piazza di Spagna to the Trinità di Monti, and
+perhaps even more specially the corner where the Via Sistina falls into
+the Piazza Barberini. But very few probably have asked for, and fewer
+still obtained, information as to who and what these people are, and
+whence they come. Yet to an attentive observer many points about the
+appearance of these groups must suggest that a curious interest might
+attach itself to the reply to such questions. There are sights in Rome
+of grander and greater interest, but there is nothing in all the famous
+centre of the Catholic world more distinctively, essentially and
+exclusively Roman, more unlike anything that is seen elsewhere, more
+instinct with _couleur locale_, than these singularly picturesque groups
+of nomads.
+
+Let us, then, take a stroll among them, starting from that bright centre
+of the foreigners' quarter of Rome, the Piazza di Spagna. It is a
+brilliant January day, and, we will say, ten o'clock in the morning. In
+the Via Babuino and the neighboring streets, which the sun has not yet
+visited, the morning cold is a little sharp. _Matutina parum cautos jam
+frigora mordent_. But the magnificent flight of the great stair--there
+are properly eleven flights, divided by as many spacious and handsomely
+balustraded landing-places, each flight consisting of twelve steps, and
+all of white marble--with its southern exposure has almost the
+temperature of a hothouse. There are two or three beggars basking in the
+sunshine near the bottom of the steps. But our models do not consort
+with these. Not only are they not beggars, but they belong to a
+different caste and a different race. We leisurely saunter up the huge
+stair, pausing at each landing-place to turn and enjoy the view over the
+city, and the gradually rising luminous haze around the cupola of St.
+Peter's, and the heights of Monte Mario clear against the brilliant blue
+sky. It is not till we are at the topmost flight that we come upon the
+objects of our ramble. There we fall in with a group of them, consisting
+perhaps of three or four girls, as many children, a man in the prime of
+life, and an aged patriarch. There is not the smallest possibility that
+we should pass them unobserved. They are far too remarkable and too
+unlike anything else around us. Even those who have no eye for the
+specialties of type which characterize the human countenance will not
+fail to be struck by the peculiarities of the costume of the group of
+figures before us. At the first glance the eye is caught by the quantity
+of bright color in their dresses. The older women wear the picturesque
+white, flatly-folded linen cloth on their heads which is the usual dress
+of the _contadine_ women in the neighborhood of Rome. The younger have
+their hair ornamented with some huge filagree pin or other device of a
+fashion which proclaims itself to the most unskilled eye as that of some
+two or three hundred years ago. All have light bodices of bright blue or
+red stuff laced in front, and short petticoats of some equally bright
+color, not falling below the ankle. But the most singular portion of the
+costume is the universally-worn apron. It consists of a piece of very
+stout and coarsely-woven wool of the brightest blue, green or yellow,
+about twenty inches broad by thirty-three in length, across which, near
+the top and near the bottom, run two stripes, each about eight
+inches wide, of hand-worked embroidery of the strangest,
+old-world-looking patterns and the most brilliant colors. These things
+are manufactured by the peasantry of the hill-country in the
+neighborhood of San Germano, who grow, shear, spin, weave, dye and
+embroider the wool themselves. And being barbarously unsophisticated by
+any adulteration of cotton, and in no wise stinted in the quantity of
+material, they are wonderfully strong and enduring. The most remarkable
+thing about them, however, is the unerring instinct with which these
+uneducated manufacturers harmonize the most audaciously violent
+contrasts of brilliant color. It is not too much to assert that they are
+_never_ at fault in this respect. So much is this the case, and so truly
+artistic is this homely peasant manufacture, that there is hardly a
+painter's studio in Rome in which two or three of these richly colored
+apron-cloths may not be seen covering a sofa or thrown over the back of
+a chair. A great part of the singularly picturesque and striking
+appearance of the group of figures we are speaking of is due to the
+universal use of these aprons by the women. The men also affect an
+unusually large amount of bright color in their costume. The waistcoat
+is almost always scarlet; the velveteen jacket or short coat generally
+blue; the breeches sometimes the same, but often of bright yellow
+leather, and the stockings a lighter blue. The men often wear a long
+cloak reaching to the heels, always hanging open in front, and generally
+lined with bright green baize. They generally, too, have some
+bright-colored ribbons around their high-peaked, conical felt hats. But
+I must not forget to mention the costume of the children. It consists of
+an exact copy in miniature of that of their elders; and the
+inconceivable quaintness and queer old-world look produced is not to be
+imagined by those who have never witnessed it. Fancy a little imp of six
+or seven years old dressed in little blue jacket, bright-yellow leather
+breeches, blue stockings, sheepskin sandals on his little bits of feet,
+and long bright flaxen curls streaming down from under a gayly-ribboned
+brigand's hat!
+
+But if the first glance is given to this singularity of costume, the
+second will not fail to take cognizance of the remarkable beauty of
+feature to be observed in almost every individual of this race of
+models. The men are well grown, almost invariably wear their black hair
+streaming over their shoulders, and have generally fine eyes and
+picturesquely colored, swarthy red faces. But the beauty of the girls is
+in almost every case something quite extraordinary; and the same may be
+said of the children. The next thing which the closeness of observation
+this unusual degree of beauty is calculated to attract will reveal to
+the observer is that all these singularly lovely faces are remarkably
+like each other, and at the same time remarkably unlike any of the faces
+around them. There is often much beauty among the Roman women of the
+lower classes, but it is of an essentially different type. The Roman
+beauty is generally large in stature and ample in development, with
+features whose tendency to heaviness needs the majestic and Juno-like
+style of beauty which the Roman women so frequently have to redeem them.
+But the countenances of the women of whom we have been speaking have
+nothing at all of this. The features are small, delicately cut, the form
+of face generally short, rather than tending to oval, being in this
+respect also in marked contrast with the ordinary Roman type. There is a
+type of face well known to most English eyes, though less so, I take it,
+to those on the western side of the Atlantic, which is strangely
+recalled to the memory by these model-girls; and that is the gypsy type.
+There is the same Oriental look about them, the same brilliancy of dark
+eyes under dark low brows, the same delicately-cut noses and full yet
+finely-chiseled lips. They have also almost invariably the same wondrous
+wealth of long raven black tresses, glossy but not fine. The complexions
+are fresher, more delicate, and with more of bloom, than is often seen
+among the gypsies; and this is the principal difference between the two
+types. There is also another point of similarity, which, if the
+accounts of Eastern travelers may be accepted, seems also to point to an
+Oriental origin. I allude to the singular gracefulness of "pose" which
+is observable in these people, among the men and women alike. There they
+stand and lounge, or sit propped, half recumbent, against a balustrade
+in the sun, in all sorts of attitudes, but in all they are graceful.
+There is that indefinable simplicity and ease in the natural movement
+and disposition of their limbs which tuition can never, and birth in the
+purple can so rarely, enable a European to assume. It may perhaps be
+supposed that the exigencies of their profession have not been without
+influence in producing the effect I am speaking of. But I do not think
+that such is the case. In the young and the old, in the children even,
+the same thing is observable; and the exceeding difficulty of teaching
+it may be accepted, I think, as a guarantee that it has not been taught
+in the case of creatures so unteachable as these half-wild sons and
+daughters of Nature.
+
+Now, if these people, who for generations past have exercised the
+profession of artists' models in Rome, do really belong to a race apart
+from the inhabitants of the district around Rome, as I think cannot be
+doubted by any one who has carefully observed them, the question
+suggests itself, Who and what are they, and whence do they come?
+Fortunately, we are not unprovided with an answer, and the answer is
+rather a curious one. If the excursionist from Rome to Tivoli will
+extend his ramble a little way among the Sabine Mountains which lie
+behind it, up the valley through which the Teverone--the _præceps Anio_
+of Horace--runs down into the Campagna, he will see on his right hand,
+when he has left Tivoli about ten miles behind him, a most romantically
+situated little town on the summit of a conically shaped mountain. The
+name of it is Saracinesco, and its story is as curious as its situation.
+It is said--and the tradition has every appearance of truth--that the
+town was founded by a body of Saracens after their defeat by Berengarius
+in the ninth century. The spot is just such as might have been selected
+for such a purpose. It is difficult of access to an extraordinary
+degree, and it is said to be no less than two thousand five hundred feet
+above the stream which flows at the base of the rocky hill on which it
+is built. Tradition, however, is not the only testimony to the truth of
+this account of the origin of the strangely placed little town, for in
+many cases the inhabitants have preserved their old Arabic names. It is
+from this strange eyrie of Saracinesco that our picturesque and handsome
+friends of the Piazzi di Spagna descend to seek a living at Rome from
+the profession which they have followed for generations of artists'
+models. And this is the explanation of the singular sameness of
+beautiful feature, the utterly un-Roman type, the sharply-cut features,
+and the admirable grace of movement and of attitude which characterize
+these denizens of the steps--if of the steppes no longer.
+
+What a life they lead! From early morn to dewy eve there they lounge, in
+every sort of restful attitude, basking in the sun, with nothing on
+earth to occupy mind or body save an eternal clatter. On what subjects,
+who shall say or attempt to guess? Every now and then one of the tribe
+is hired by an artist to go and _pose_ for a Judith, a Lucretia, a
+Venus, as the case may be. Some are wanted for an arm, some for a hand,
+some for a brow, some for a leg, some for a bust. Some one may have a
+special gift for personating an ancient Roman, and another exactly
+assume the saintly look of a Madonna or the smile and expression of a
+Venus. Their several and special gifts and capacities are all well known
+in the world of their patrons, and special reputations are made in the
+art-world accordingly. It is a strange life: not probably conducive to a
+high development of intellectual and moral excellence, but very much so
+to the picturesque peopling of the most magnificent flight of stairs in
+Christendom.
+
+                                        T. A. T.
+
+
+
+
+FAUST IN POLAND.
+
+
+Nowhere do we see the genuine soul and character of a people so
+distinctly as in its myths, legends, popular songs and traditions. They
+reflect faithfully, though--perhaps we should say,
+_because_--unconsciously, the deeds, aspirations and beliefs of the
+earlier ages, and not only afford to our own precious material for
+philological and ethnological study, but still exert, in many instances
+at least, considerable influence over the ideas and feelings of men. The
+Faust legend will never lose its mysterious fascination: many poets have
+felt it, but Goethe's insight penetrated all its depth of meaning, and
+his marvelous poem is for us the supreme expression of it.
+
+But it is interesting to find the same legend in Poland, with
+characteristic variations from the German conception, illustrative of
+the hospitality and chivalry and the dominant influence of woman which
+are such marked features in Polish history. Twardowsky (the Doctor
+Faustus of Poland) lived in the sixteenth century, in the time of
+Sigismund Augustus. He studied at the University of Cracow, rose to the
+rank of doctor, and devoted himself especially to chemistry and physics,
+having a secret laboratory in a vast cavern of Mount Krzemionki. Science
+in those days was regarded as intimately associated with the black arts,
+and it was not surprising that Twardowsky's contemporaries added the
+title of sorcerer to those of doctor and professor, supposed he had made
+an alliance with Satan, and fancied an army of demons always waiting to
+do his bidding. All this did not prevent his enjoyment of the king's
+favor. Sigismund had married, against his mother's wish, Barbara
+Radziwill, the beautiful daughter of a Polish magnate. The nobles,
+probably influenced by Bona, the mother of the king, demanded that
+Barbara should be repudiated: he indignantly refused, and shortly
+afterward she was poisoned. The grief and rage of Sigismund were
+without bounds: he exiled his mother, wore black all the rest of his
+life, and had the apartments of his palace hung with it. His melancholy
+gave him new interest in the occult sciences, and he became more than
+ever intimate with Twardowsky, sometimes visiting him in his cavern,
+sometimes receiving him secretly in his palace. At first, he was
+satisfied with the chemical experiments which the populace regarded as
+supernatural, but after a while he urgently desired Twardowsky to
+produce for him a vision of Barbara. Twardowsky appointed a night for
+the exhibition of his skill, and after drawing a magic circle and
+pronouncing some mysterious words, he called Barbara thrice by name, and
+she appeared--not as a spectre risen from the tomb, but in all the
+beauty and freshness which had been the king's delight. He fainted at
+the sight, and his regard for the magician increased greatly. But one
+fatal evening he found the door of the cavern shut. Twardowsky, not
+expecting him, was not there. After some delay the door was opened by a
+beautiful young woman. "Barbara!" exclaimed Sigismund. "Barbara is my
+name, but I am alive, not dead," was her reply. Twardowsky's device was
+now exposed. He had created an illusion for the satisfaction of
+Sigismund by employing this substitute for his lost Barbara. She was a
+girl named Barbara Gisemka, whom Twardowsky had rescued from the hands
+of a furious mob, had concealed in his cavern, and initiated into the
+sciences to which he devoted himself. She became his adept and his
+mistress. But the king, furious at the imposition which had been
+practiced upon him, and desirous of making this beautiful creature his
+own, had Twardowsky murdered, and gave out that the devil had carried
+him off. Barbara Gisemka acquired immense influence over the mind of her
+royal lover, which lasted while he lived. When he was ill she suffered
+no physician to approach him, and was with him when he died in 1572.
+
+So much for history. Tradition has transformed Twardowsky into a gay and
+brilliant gentleman, who, in order to gain all the pleasures of life,
+sold his soul to the devil, engaging on his honor to give it up to him
+whenever he (the devil) should enter the city of Rome. Twardowsky now
+enjoyed to the full his new power, reveling in luxury himself, and
+lavishing gifts and banquets on his friends. The populace also
+shared his generosity--all the more, too, from the strange manner of it.
+On one occasion, we are told, he pierced three holes in a shoemaker's
+nose with his own awl, and caused a tun of brandy to flow from it for
+the refreshment of the crowd. One day he was informed that a stranger
+who was at the inn called the "City of Rome" wished to see him. He went
+at once to the place with no misgivings, but on his arrival there found
+the devil, who had come to claim the fulfillment of the contract.
+Provoked at the quibble, he resolved to employ a ruse himself, and just
+as the devil was about to take possession of him he seized the infant
+child of the innkeeper from its cradle and held it up before him, its
+innocence being a sure defence against Satan's power. He, however,
+demanded what had become of his plighted word. The honor of the Polish
+gentleman could not resist this appeal. He put down the child and rose
+into the air with Satan. But while they were still hovering over Cracow
+the sound of church-bells awoke in Twardowsky's recollection a hymn to
+the Virgin, which he forthwith sang, and the devil could hold him no
+longer. Twardowsky, however, could not get down again, but remains
+suspended in the air, only receiving news from the earth by means of a
+spider which happened to be on the tail of his coat, and which
+occasionally spins a thread and goes down, for a while, returning with
+whatever it may have picked up for his information and amusement.
+
+No Polish story would be complete without a woman, and so we find that
+Twardowsky had a wife, beautiful, witty and imperious, with all the
+fascinations universally conceded to the Polish women. Madame Twardowsky
+is said to have ruled her husband just as he ruled the devil during the
+time of that personage's subjection; and there is a second version of
+the story which makes her too much for Satan himself. According to this
+account, Twardowsky was entertaining a number of friends at the "City of
+Rome," when suddenly the devil appeared. While Twardowsky, to gain
+time, was reading over the compact, his wife, looking over his
+shoulder, suddenly laughed, and addressing the devil, told him there
+were still three conditions for him to fulfill, on failure of which the
+parchment should be torn up, and asked whether she might impose them.
+The devil politely replied in the affirmative. "Here, then," said she,
+"see this horse painted on the wall of the inn: I wish to mount him, and
+you must make me a whip of sand and a staple of walnuts." The devil
+bowed, and in a moment the horse was prancing before their eyes. The
+lady now had a large tub of holy water brought in, and invited the
+devil, as his second task, to plunge into it and refresh his weary
+limbs. He coughed, shivered, then went in resolutely, coming out again
+as quickly as possible, and shaking himself well. "The third task will
+be a pleasant one," said the lady with her most bewitching smile: "The
+first year my husband passes in hell you shall spend with me, swearing
+to me love, fidelity and implicit obedience. Will you?" The devil rushed
+toward the door, but she was too quick for him, and succeeded in locking
+it and putting the key into her pocket. Satan, resolved to escape from
+the servitude in store for him, could only do so by going through the
+keyhole, which has been black ever since.
+
+                                        E. C. R.
+
+
+
+
+A LETTER FROM HAVANA.
+
+HAVANA, Feb. 14, 1875.
+
+
+It is not a very long sail from home to Cuba--you pass into the Bay of
+Havana on the morning of the fifth day, if you have luck--but the sky
+and land you left behind at this wintry season at home are very
+different from those you find on arriving here. It is a great change in
+so short a time from the dun-colored shore and the frozen river to the
+waving verdure of the Cuban coast and the sparkling blue and white of
+the water. We made the land before daylight, and, the rules forbidding
+us to enter the harbor till sunrise, we bobbed up and down for two or
+three hours a mile or so outside of the Moro Castle, which guards the
+narrow entrance to Havana. The moon was so brilliant that we did not
+have to wait for day to enjoy the scene before us: in fact, it could not
+have been improved by the sun. The fortress of Moro crouches on a bed of
+rock, rearing a tall lighthouse aloft. Its Moorish turrets have a soft
+rounded outline, and the undulations of the shore blend with the masonry
+of the castle; only a sharp retiring angle here and there gives an
+occasional glimpse of a grim purpose. When the Moro light is put out,
+ships in the offing may enter the bay. The mouth of the harbor is not
+more than half a mile wide, and on the shore opposite to the Moro the
+town of Havana comes down to the water's edge, withdrawing up the bay on
+one hand, and up the sea-coast on the other. A pilot is not necessary
+except for the perquisites of office, but one comes on board, and with
+anxious countenance directs the ship straight on through clear water for
+a mile, when the anchor is dropped.
+
+Just as day breaks on the high ground on the Moro shore, and the growing
+light brings houses and trees and ships into relief, with all their rich
+variety of color, the scene is memorable and full of beauty. On the
+green slope behind the castle, while the outline of the tropical
+vegetation is only stealing into view, there is hid, and yet visible, a
+long, low building of yellow columns, blue facade, brown gables and red
+tiles: if you shut out the rest of the landscape with your hands, you
+would say it was a picture by Fortuny. The expanse of the bay is fine,
+and the large fleet at anchor furnishes it but thinly. Townward, as the
+sun's rays begin to dissipate the brown shadows and define shape and
+color, the city sparkles like a gorgeous mosaic; but in another half
+hour, when the sun is higher, the hazy softness has departed and the
+city is ablaze with light, so that your eyes can scarcely look at it.
+Then, if you have seen it earlier, it loses its charm.
+
+I was jealous of Havana from what I had heard and read of it: if the
+shore-line, and the entrance, and the bay, and the scene were finer than
+Rio, I was prepared to be angry; but Rio is grand and Havana is pretty,
+so that one may like both and not divide his allegiance. A patchwork of
+good pictures in the Moorish vein of town, and shore, and water would
+reproduce, and yet not copy, all that Havana has to offer; but there is
+not a picture in the world that aspires to the grandeur of Rio. But I
+won't deny the sparkle and brilliancy of Havana. At this moment the sky
+is of a perfect "Himmel-blau." I can see from my window, near the roof,
+the rich, harmonious Moorish blending of varied colors in the houses;
+and beyond these "the white feet of the wind shine along the sea." A
+ship with all sail set is coming into port, the white-capped waves
+rolling her along before the stiff sea-breeze. Wind is the bane of the
+place. It sets in to blow, as the sailors say, soon after daylight nine
+days in ten, and blows all day, and sometimes far into the night. It is
+not always the soft, perennial zephyr of tradition, but often chill and
+raw, and then there is no escape from it except to shut yourself in your
+room; and that means hermetically sealing, for when you close a window
+here you close a shutter, and thus, if you shut out the breeze, you shut
+the light out also. The doors and windows are not meant to exclude the
+air, and so when the breeze gets on a frolic it whirls up stairs and
+down--goeth, in fact, where it listeth; and sometimes one feels it going
+through him like a knife.
+
+The houses are built in one width of rooms round a hollow square;
+consequently, when you put your boots out you put them out of doors. In
+the midst of the house, with the sky overhead, the umbrageous palm tree
+and banana spread their broad leaves. The rooms are high and white, with
+little furniture, and no curtains, with open ceiling of painted rafters,
+and iron gratings, like a prison's bars, shutting out the street in the
+front of the house. Behind these gratings the passer-by may see the
+Cuban family arranged in two prim rows of arm-chairs _vis-à-vis_,
+or gathered about the bars as if looking for some means of escape.
+Occasionally now in some of the better quarters a child of either sex,
+but black as night, disports itself in full view, "covered by the
+darkness only." There is an infinite variety of opinion in regard to the
+clothing necessary to comfort here. I have often found a light overcoat
+comfortable, but there is a tribe or clan from some Spanish province
+whose boast it is to wear coat nor vest by day or night. The
+representatives of the various provinces maintain their individuality
+here, and preserve for festive occasions the costumes which characterize
+them in Spain. Some of these are very rich, and many of the men,
+especially of the lower orders, being stalwart and handsome, their gala
+appearance is decidedly striking. In the fête in honor of Alfonso XII.
+there were some beautiful groups of men, women and children in Spanish
+costumes, dancing in the procession with silk emblems and flower
+wreaths, and singing provincial songs. Others were mounted on the
+splendid Andalusian horses, which make one's mouth water with desire to
+ride them. They are as beautiful as Fromentin and Gérôme have painted
+them--such eyes and nostrils, and such action! It has taken centuries to
+produce him, but at last there is a saddle-horse: if only for parade
+occasions, that is no matter. He is perfect in his kind. The Arab keeps
+his horse in his tent, but the Cuban keeps his in his house. We should
+say that the horse-owning Cuban sleeps over a stable, but no doubt to
+his mind his stable is merely under his room. A rich gentleman in town
+has encased his horses in a beautiful drawing-room of cedar and
+satin-wood, and it is rather pleasant than otherwise to pass through it
+on the way to the other apartments.
+
+The houses of Havana are low; the streets are narrow; the sidewalks
+ditto: there is an occasional plaza of broad, white glare, which must be
+intolerable in summer-time. The Prado has trees which are rather Dutch
+than tropical; and the Paseo, where the driving is, is quite a fine
+avenue. This afternoon, though it is Lent, the Carnival will rage there.
+Some people go in masks, but not many; and there are no confetti. It is
+mainly a parade--rich people turning out in their best, poor people
+making light of their poverty: the rich gorgeous in apparel, and
+splendid in equipage, the poor arrayed in some gay, inexpensive motley,
+and crowded into miserable vehicles. The particolored costumes give an
+aspect of brightness to the street; but it is a solemn sight to see four
+Cuban women, of the middle age, drawn by a four-in-hand, arrayed in full
+ball-dress, powdered and bejeweled, and passing in review of admiring
+mankind.
+
+The ugliness of the women amounts to a vice, and is unredeemed by any
+quality such as sometimes palliates plainness of features. I have cried
+aloud for the beautiful Cuban, but in vain. I am assured that she
+exists, am told, "My dear fellow, you never made a greater mistake in
+your life," am poohpoohed in various ways; but I cannot find her. I hear
+it said that owing to the political chaos here she has retired from
+public view, but it is not denied that she will go to the Carnival and
+the opera. I was warned not to expect her at the ball in Alfonso's honor
+at the Spanish Club, and certainly it was a timely warning. Fancy a long
+hall of colored marble, pillars running the length of it forming
+arcades; balconies on both sides hanging over the streets, and full of
+young men smoking cigarettes; men parading up and down the hall and
+quizzing the women, who were all seated--two rows of them, hundreds all
+together--seriously contemplating the male procession: enameled,
+powdered, attired in the wealth of the Indies, saying nothing, doing
+nothing, not smiling, not blinking, just sitting there, an awful array
+of hideousness. After the band struck up and the dancing began, I
+remained long enough to lose in the music the horrible impression of,
+the opening scene, and then hurried home. At the opera and the Carnival
+it is not so positively unendurable, but a handsome face, or a pretty
+face, or even an intelligent, expressive face, I have not yet seen in a
+woman in Havana; and at this season of the year, if ever, Havana is
+Cuba. I don't condemn them--I merely give my luck.
+
+The town is of course full of Spanish military and their accessories,
+civil functionaries who are all Spanish, money-makers, adventurers,
+shoddy. The Spanish army is at "the front," posted across or partly
+across the island on a sort of strong picket-line, fortified by
+block-houses, whence watch is kept on the movements of the insurgents,
+who seem to come and go as they please in the Spanish front, and cross
+the lines with impunity. The Spanish hold the whole seaboard, all
+important towns and villages, hold the insurgents practically in check,
+so far as the fertile region of the island is concerned, and from year
+to year keep military matters just about in _statu quo_. The
+insurgents dwell in the wildest portion of the island, often in almost
+impenetrable woods, living the life of savages, and depending on the
+bounty of Nature for their daily bread.
+
+So the war lingers. It is not what we would call a war: it is a
+condition of armed hostility. It is conducted almost wholly at the
+expense of Spain in _men_, wholly at the expense of Cuba in
+_money_. The Cuban volunteers are a home-guard, but the purse of
+the Cubans is open. Spain is not loath to dip into it, and taxation
+for carrying on the government and the war has become very
+onerous--dreadfully so, in fact, though I believe that the Cubans do not
+realize it so fully as strangers do. The government is impoverished; the
+war makes no progress; what becomes of the enormous revenue derived from
+the taxes? A rich planter said to me dryly, "They are ignorant men: they
+make mistakes in applying it." Hard things are openly said of all
+Spanish officials; and all officials, from the captain-general to the
+harbor pilot, are Spanish. Startling things are heard here every day in
+political and military discussions. The people think in classes: there
+is the Spanish view, the Creole view, the foreign view--none very
+dispassionate, and none very accurate. There is no accepted basis of
+fact for anything: nobody believes anybody else, and truth here lies in
+a _very_ deep well. But one thing else is clear. Cuba, so gifted by
+Nature, is being despoiled by man; and what ought to be a garden will
+become overgrown with weeds if there is not a change of fortune. There
+is taxation without representation under an iron despotism: there is an
+army without war, and the people look on. It is not necessary to find
+any new means of going to the bad at a gallop. The rich give practical
+support to the Spanish, and moral support to the insurrection; but if
+the insurrection should triumph, I can't see how it will benefit the
+Creole Cubans of property. I think ideas here are confused on the
+subject, and while they are giving hearty encouragement to neither
+cause, between the two they are sure to be utterly ruined.
+
+I have spent a week in all on sugar plantations in the interior. I was
+delightfully entertained, and reveled in the luxury of soft air and
+out-of-door life. I was on horseback a good deal, riding one of the
+shuffling little animals they have here, whose gait is so easy that it
+doesn't amount to motion. The crops are to a great extent still uncut;
+the green cane, which looks like our broom-corn at a distance, waves in
+the winds as far as the eye can reach. The country is level, but has a
+frame of mountain-land. The woods are festooned with air-plants and
+parasites; palm trees dot the landscape in every direction or run in
+splendid avenues, sometimes in double rows, alternating with the round,
+full mamey tree, whose deep green foliage brings into fine relief the
+white stalk of the palm. The breeze rustles through the broad
+plantations of bananas and sways the orange groves. The gardens are rich
+in flowers of brilliant hues. The fields swarm with negroes and
+ox-carts; the ponderous machinery of the boiling-houses maintains a
+steady hum; the picturesque buildings are all touched with Fortuny-like
+tints: there is much to see and much to tell of, but I must have some
+regard for your patience. I have not finished, but I must stop.
+
+                                        F. C. N.
+
+
+
+
+FRENCH SLANG.
+
+
+Reading the slang of a language is much like seeing the said language in
+its intellectual shirt-sleeves, off duty and taking its ease: one feels
+sure of detecting some essential characteristics of the people who speak
+it, and one turns over the pages of a slang dictionary expecting to
+recognize through its corruption and perversions the real nature of the
+people who have created it. French slang is no exception to this,
+theory: the two hundred and thirty double-columned pages of M. Larcher's
+_Dictionnaire historique, etymologique et anecdotique de l'argot
+parisien_ tell us that the two grand sources and inspirations of our
+American slang are entirely wanting: there is not a humorous word or
+phrase from beginning to end; and hardly an instance of that incongruous
+exaggeration which is so salient a picture of our best-known and most
+original slang phrases. But, on the other hand, there is satire keen and
+fine on every page, a reckless, devil-may-care gayety, and throughout
+that mocking spirit which is so essentially French, making game alike of
+its own pain and that of others, and jeering always at the sight of an
+altar, never mind what may chance to be thereon, whether its own sacred
+things or those of others. Half the words in the book are quaint,
+grotesque phrasings of two ideas--ideas which most people on our side of
+the water are hardly inclined to joke about: one is the idea of death,
+and the other the frailty or falseness of women. One is specially struck
+by the wealth of words and the sameness of ideas, and, above all, by the
+quickwittedness that must belong to the people who can all catch a
+verbal allusion or suggestion as Anglo-Saxons might a plump, square hit.
+Sometimes a little unconscious pathos mingles with the mocking vein, for
+courage is moving when it is light-hearted. When a Frenchman tells you
+he has eaten nothing for two days, he adds, "Ça, ce n'est pas drôle"
+("Now, that's no joke"). "Coeur d'artichaut" (a heart like an artichoke)
+is a felicitous expression for a person who has a succession of caprices
+and short-lived fancies; and there is something to the point in the
+satire which calls a surgical instrument "baume d'acier" (steel balm),
+or in the saying which mocks the credulous faith many people vaguely
+have in the efficacy of mineral waters: "Croyez cela et buvez de l'eau"
+(Believe that and drink water). There is something desperately
+significant in a language in which the lover who supports, protects and
+is deceived is called "le dessus," and the one who is favored at his
+expense "le dessous;" while the words "une femme," a woman, without
+qualification, are identical with frailty, and virtue, being the
+exception, demands an adjective to identify and proclaim it.
+
+But there is something fine in the old French slang for the beginning of
+a war: "La danse va commencer" (The dance is about to begin, or the ball
+to open), and this dates from time immemorial: fighting has always been
+fun to Frenchmen. And there is something better still in the phrase
+which has become an official one, and has a proper technical meaning,
+with which the orders of a naval officer when sent on a difficult or
+dangerous expedition always end. "Debrouillez vous," meaning simply
+"Come well out of it." There must be stuff in men who can be trusted to
+always extricate themselves from a tight place with credit to their flag
+without more words than that simple exhortation. But one cannot say much
+for the morality of a country where, when any one says "la muette" (the
+dumb one), it is understood to mean conscience.
+
+The instances are rare of resemblance between our slang phrases and
+theirs. Once in a while such a phrase as "Asseyezvous dessus"
+(literally, Sit on him) strikes one; but seldom. French slang teems with
+words that caricature and satirize personal defects, of which many are
+brutally coarse and not quotable. A comical expression for a sumptuous
+meal is a "Balthazar" (Belshazzar); and an unpleasant one for a coffin
+is a "boite a dominos" (a box of dominoes); a droll phrase for a
+plagiarist is "demarqueur de linge" (some one who alters the marking of
+another's linen). An interesting fact for the notice of physiologists is
+that when the officers of the engineer corps lose a comrade from
+insanity, they say, "Il s'est passé au dixième," in allusion to the fact
+that their loss in numbers from this cause amounts to practical
+decimation. This is attributed to the close study of the exact sciences.
+Under "femme du demi-monde" we find the origin of the phrase as created
+by A. Dumas fils: "Femme née dans un monde distingué, dont elle conserve
+les manières sans en respecter les lois" ("a woman belonging by birth to
+the upper class, the manners of which she retains, without respecting
+its laws"); but the present meaning is quite different from this, the
+phrase being now used as a euphuistic designation of a disreputable
+woman. French slang is saturated with irreverence. A common term for an
+emaciated-looking man is to call him an "ecce homo," and a "grippe
+Jésus" is thieves' slang for a gendarme.
+
+The author of this dictionary evidently sympathizes with modern
+romanticists and light literature in general, for we find "académicien"
+defined as "littérateur suranné." One is always inclined to suspect sour
+grapes of giving the flavor to French sarcasm concerning the Academy,
+and is reminded of Piron's epigram in the shape of his own epitaph:
+
+    Ci git Piron qui ne fut rien,
+    Pas même académicien.
+
+He wrote it, however, after his failure to obtain one of the
+much-coveted arm-chairs.
+
+Our national vanity might be flattered by hearing that the phrase
+"L'oeil Américain" is used to describe an eye whose piercing vision is
+escaped by nothing, were we not told that it dates from the translation
+of Cooper's Leatherstocking tales into French, and has no reference, as
+"Natty Bumpo" would say, to "_white_ gifts."
+
+We find long, elaborate definitions of those much-disputed words,
+"chic," "cachet" and "chien," which, after all has been said, seem to
+take their meaning from the intention of those who use them and the
+perception of those who hear. "Chocnoso" is a delightfully expressive
+and absurd onomatopeic word to describe what is brilliant, startling and
+remarkable. The most striking feature of this elaborate book is that,
+although it contains almost words enough to constitute the vocabulary of
+a miniature language, yet the vast majority of these words would be as
+unintelligible to an educated Frenchman as to an Englishman. The bulk of
+French slang is never heard by the ears of educated people nor uttered
+by their lips: it circulates among the classes which create it; and the
+size of this dictionary is therefore not necessarily appalling to a
+Frenchman's eyes: it does not represent the corruption of the language,
+because slang does not taint the speech of those classes who control and
+make the standard speech and literature of the nation. If a dictionary
+of English slang were published now, how many young ladies and gentlemen
+of the educated classes, either in England or America, could profess
+honest and absolute ignorance of the meaning of most of the words? The
+answer to this question makes the moral of this paper.
+
+                                        F. A.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+If it be true, as a writer in the February Gossip says, that "it is what
+Mr. Mill has omitted to tell us in his _Autobiography_, quite as much as
+what he has there told us, that excites popular curiosity," the
+following anecdote told by John Neal, one of Jeremy Bentham's
+secretaries, may be found interesting. The father of John Stuart Mill,
+it seems, was in the habit of borrowing books of Bentham, and was even
+allowed the privilege of carrying them away without asking permission--a
+courtesy so well utilized that from five to seven hundred volumes found
+their way in time from Bentham's library into the study of the elder
+Mill. He was a more conscientious borrower, however, than most of his
+class are, for he had a case made for these books, kept them carefully
+locked up, and carried the key in his pocket. This put the owner to some
+trouble occasionally when he wanted to consult his books. In one
+instance he begged Mr. Mill to leave the key when the latter was going
+out of town. In vain, however, for Mill marched off to the country
+carrying the key with him, and Bentham had to wait a whole month for a
+peep at his own books. If we could know all the facts, doubtless it
+would be found that Mill knew too well the careless habits of the
+philosopher to trust him to such an extent. It is not prudent to
+decide until the evidence is all in. It is that these books--two or
+three thousand dollars' worth, according to Neal--were, on the death of
+Mr. Bentham, all recovered by his heir.
+
+
+Quarritch, a London bookseller, lately advertised for sale a Chinese
+book from the library of the emperor Khang-Hi, bearing the following
+title: _Yu Sionan Row-wen youen kien_--that is, "Mirror of the Profound
+Resources of Ancient Literature," being extracts from those profound
+resources arranged chronologically in the order of their production; but
+the singular thing about the book is its typography. It is printed in
+inks of four different colors. All the articles dating from the time of
+Confucius (B.C. 550) to the Mongol dynasty (A.D. 1260) are printed in
+black, with punctuations in red. All names of persons and places are
+upon scrolls, to distinguish them from the ordinary text. Observations
+upon the emperor Khang-Hi (who annotated the whole book autographically)
+are printed in yellow, the color of the reigning dynasty; those upon
+scholars and authors living at the time of the publication of the book
+are printed in red, the color of the living; those upon persons deceased
+in blue, the mourning color of China. The work is in twenty-five
+volumes, preserved in four cases. It was printed in 1685.
+
+
+In the infancy of astronomy the moon and all the planets of our solar
+system were supposed to be gliding along over the smooth blue firmament
+like a boat upon smooth water or a sleigh upon ice. The blue vault was a
+solid substance; hence the word _firm_ament. In this vault were set the
+"fixed" stars, and of course the moon or any planet passing across it
+might run straight into the constellation Leo or some other dreadful
+beast; and this explained why direful things happened to this world,
+which was supposed to be the only world in the universe. As the moon has
+always been the most observed of all the heavenly bodies, and as she
+passes most rapidly across the constellations of the zodiac, it is easy
+to understand that her phases should excite profound wonder, and that
+strange effects should be predicated upon these phases, called "changes"
+from time immemorial. In fact, however, the moon is not "changing" at
+one time any more than at another. She is continually passing in and out
+of the earth's shadow as she revolves around the earth, and the width of
+this shadow, with the state of being in the full light of the sun,
+constitutes her phases or changes. She does not "enter" any sign of the
+zodiac in the sense of entering, as understood by the illiterate; and if
+she did, the signs Cancer, Leo, Virgo, have no comprehensible relation,
+to plants or parts of the human body. Again, if the moon or sun, or any
+of the planets, are said to "enter" these signs, they are not now the
+same as the constellations known as the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin. They
+did correspond some two thousand or more years ago, when the zodiacal
+belt was divided into twelve parts and named; but at present, on account
+of the nutation or gyratory motion of the poles of the earth, the signs
+of the zodiac (not the constellations) are drifting westward at the rate
+of one degree in about seventy-one years. This movement is known in
+astronomy as the precession or recession of the equinoxes. It happens,
+therefore, that when the astrologer consults his tables, and finds that,
+at, the time of the birth of a person whose horoscope he is going to
+cast, Venus was in Cancer--a terrible condition of things for happiness
+in love--Venus is in reality passing the constellation Gemini or the
+Twins, which ought to make everything all lovely. The development of the
+Copernican system did a great deal of damage to the interests of
+astrology, but it was not until the discovery of the precession of the
+equinoxes that this venerable and pretentious art received its
+death-blow. To be sure, "the fools are not all dead yet," for certain
+people still pay five dollars to have their horoscopes cast, and not a
+few rustics consult the moon or the almanac before planting beans or
+weaning calves.
+
+
+
+
+LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+
+The Romance of the English Stage.
+  By Percy Fitzgerald.
+  Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott
+  & Co.
+
+
+According to Carlyle, the only biographies in the English language worth
+reading--of course with implied exceptions--are the lives of players.
+Over English biographers in general there hangs, as he says, a
+"Damocles' sword of Respectability," forbidding revelations that might
+either offend somebody's sensibilities or exhibit the subject in any
+other than a dignified attitude and sober light, and, as a consequence,
+compelling the suppression of details which were needed to render the
+portraiture characteristic and lifelike. Actors being as a class outside
+the pale of "respectability," no such sacrifice is demanded in their
+case; and whereas in their lifetime they assume many characters, and
+though constantly before the public are known to it only in disguised
+forms and borrowed attributes, after death their personality is laid
+bare, and they are made to contribute once more to the entertainment of
+the world by a last appearance in which nothing is unreal and nothing
+dissembled or concealed. This, of course, applies far better to a former
+period than to the present, as does also the explanation of the same
+fact offered by Mr. Fitzgerald--namely, the romantic interest attaching
+to the stage and exciting curiosity in regard to those wonderful beings
+who appear before us as embodiments of passion and poetry, humor and
+whimsicality, transporting us into an ideal world, and leaving us, when
+they vanish, in a prosaic one to which they do not seem to belong.
+Illusions of this kind are scarcely retained by even the young--perhaps,
+indeed, least of all by the young--of our generation. Moreover, the
+changes which society has undergone during the last half century have
+rubbed out much that was distinctive in the actor's life, and have given
+to manners and habits in general a uniformity that leaves little that is
+striking and piquant to describe. The adventures and the eccentricities
+of actors and actresses of a bygone time were paralleled or exceeded by
+those of other classes. At present such sources of interest are rare in
+any class, and we are obliged to have recourse to sensational novels or
+the records of crime.
+
+Future biographers are no more likely to have such a subject as Samuel
+Johnson than such a one as George Frederick Cooke; while both Boswell
+and Dunlap, had they written in our day, would probably have been much
+more reticent and much less amusing. We cannot therefore agree with Mr.
+Fitzgerald in thinking that the colorless character of the few
+theatrical biographies that have appeared in recent times is to be
+ascribed to the decay of the art of acting and the lack of an ideal
+involving a long and arduous struggle in the attainment of eminence. In
+France, as he justly observes, the history of the profession has never
+possessed the same adventurous interest, the lives of French actors
+showing in general a mere record of steady and regular progression, such
+as is found in other professions. The stage in France, as in all
+Catholic countries, lay under a heavier ban than in England; but on this
+very account the actors constituted a separate class, having little
+contact with society, receiving few recruits from without, regulated by
+fixed usages, and confined to a particular groove. In England, on the
+contrary, the stage was an outlet for irregular talent, impatient of
+steady labor or severe restrictions, and captivated by the freedom and
+diversity of a career which, beginning in vagrancy, might lead at a
+single bound to a brilliant and enviable position. Hence the biographies
+of English players, taken collectively, offer a vast store of amusing
+anecdotes, illustrative not only of the history of the stage, but of
+personal character and social manners. Yet books of this kind; though
+read with avidity on their first appearance, have naturally fallen into
+neglect. Like most other biographies, they are overloaded with details
+that have no abiding interest, and few readers of the present day are
+tempted to explore the mass for themselves. It was, however, no very
+arduous task to sift out the more valuable relics and dispose them in
+proper order, and we can only wonder that Mr. Fitzgerald was not
+anticipated in the performance of it by some earlier collector. Gait's
+_Lives of the Players_ and Dr. Doran's _History of the English
+Stage_ have left this particular field almost wholly unworked, and it
+is one for which Mr. Fitzgerald was well fitted, both by his previous
+labors and knowledge of the soil, and by his practiced dexterity in the
+use of the necessary implements. He has accordingly produced a volume
+which may either be read consecutively or dipped into at random with the
+certainty of entertainment and without risk of tedium. Among the sources
+from which his material is drawn he assigns the first place to the
+_Memoirs of Tate Wilkinson_ and its sequel, _The Wandering
+Patentee_, and the summary which he gives, as far as possible in the
+narrator's own language, presents a graphic picture of the provincial
+stage at a period when it formed a real nursery of talent for the
+metropolitan theatres, enriched with anecdotes of Foote and Garrick as
+lively and dramatic as any of the scenes in their own farces, and
+affording the strongest confirmation of their protégé's account of his
+unrivaled mimicry. The story of George Anne Bellamy, and that of Mrs.
+Robinson, the "Perdita" of a somewhat later day, deal with the more
+familiar and less obsolete vicissitudes of betrayed beauty, while giving
+us glimpses of a social crust that has since been replaced by a more
+composite exterior. A deeper and far more pathetic interest attaches to
+the brief career of Gerald Griffin, the author of _The Collegians_
+and _Gisippus_, who, had he lived in our day, would have been in
+danger of having his head turned by premature success, instead of being
+heart-sickened by long neglect and coarse rebuffs, and smothering his
+aspirations in a convent. In striking contrast with this pale figure is
+the portly and imposing one of Robert William Elliston, type of
+theatrical charlatans, embodiment of bombast and puffery, monarch over
+the realm of pasteboard, immortalized by Lamb, and surely not
+undeserving of the honor. With him may be said to have ended the line of
+the eccentrics, which fills a large space in Mr. Fitzgerald's volume.
+The great actors are comparatively unnoticed, Garrick, Siddons and Kean
+being only introduced incidentally, while a whole chapter is given to
+"the ill-fated Mossop." This is consistent with the general design of
+the book, but there was no good reason for a fresh repetition of the
+oft-told tale of the Ireland forgeries. There are, as Mr. Fitzgerald
+remarks, many subjects--such as the lives of Macklin and Quin, of Mrs.
+Inchbald and Mrs. Jordan--omitted which might fairly have claimed a
+place, and which would furnish ample matter for a second and equally
+agreeable volume.
+
+
+Democracy and Monarchy in France from the
+  Inception of the Great Revolution to the
+  Overthrow of the Second Empire.
+  By Charles Kendall Adams, Professor of History
+  in the University of Michigan.
+  New York: Henry Holt & Co.
+
+
+There can be no more fruitful and interesting study than that of the
+changes and struggles which have occurred in France since the fall of
+the ancient monarchy. But the time has not yet come when a general
+survey can be taken of this important epoch, its successive phases seen
+in their true relations and proportions, and its character fully and
+correctly appreciated. The overthrow of the Second Empire was clearly
+not the closing scene of the drama, and even within the last few weeks a
+sudden turn in the line of events has awakened curiosity afresh, and
+prepared us for the introduction of new elements or new complications,
+with results which can only be conjectured. For lack of that key which
+the Future still holds in its hand the most acute and comprehensive mind
+must be at fault in the endeavor to analyze the workings and appreciate
+the significance of the conflicting principles. If Professor Adams has
+had no such misgivings, this seems to be accounted for by his ready
+acceptance of a theory which has long passed current in England and
+America, and which springs from a habit peculiar to the people of these
+two countries of regarding the movements of all other nations, when not
+on a parallel course, as deviations from a prescribed orbit. According
+to this theory, the excesses of the First Revolution, due in part to the
+passions engendered by a long course of misgovernment, in part to wild
+speculations and experiments, produced an anarchical spirit which has
+frustrated every subsequent attempt to establish a solid government of
+any form, including the constitutional monarchy of Louis Philippe,
+patterned on the English model--the resemblance being in fact that of a
+castle of cards to its Gothic prototype--which offered the proper
+compound of liberty and authority in sufficiently balanced proportions.
+The French people having thus proved itself incapable of uniting liberty
+with order, the one great need is the destruction or suppression of the
+revolutionary spirit, to which end a strong government of whatever kind
+is the first requisite, and some form of Napoleonism the most available,
+it being improbable that the nation would accept permanently anything
+better. Such is the view of Professor Adams, one with which all readers
+have long been familiar, but which most independent thinkers have come
+to reject as shallow and false. However obscure the issue, however
+doubtful the solution, it cannot but be apparent to all who, casting
+aside prejudices, have studied the history of France in its entirety and
+recognized its special character, that its course during the period in
+question exhibits no mere series of lawless oscillations, but a process
+of development, often checked and retarded, often prematurely hastened,
+but passing from stage to stage without suffering itself to be stifled
+by factitious aid or crushed by arbitrary repression. What underlies the
+history of these events, what distinguishes it from the galvanic
+agitations of the torpid Spanish populations in Europe and America, is
+the constant presence and activity of ideas, shaping and shaped by
+events, hardened or fused by conflict, and preserving through all
+vicissitudes and convulsions the incomparable vitality of the nation.
+France, more than any other country, is to be studied as a living
+spirit, not as an inert mass, and in a study of this kind the
+mechanico-philosophical method will not carry us far. It does not appear
+to strike Professor Adams as singular that a nation "abandoned for the
+last eighty years to the domination of Siva, the fierce god of
+destruction," should have all this while been cutting a somewhat
+respectable figure in literature, science and the arts, and during most
+of that period paid its way in the solid and shining metal considered by
+our rulers to have merely a mythical significance. Or rather he seems to
+contend that civilization has in fact perished in France, that as "such
+a tendency to turbulence is destructive of all healthy national growth,"
+the inevitable result has ensued. He admits that there are still some
+good scholars in France, but he proves--need we add, by
+statistics?--that the illiteracy of the masses is greater than it was
+under the _ancien regime_, if not in the reign of Clovis. The
+controlling influence of Paris is shown, of course, to have been a prime
+source of mischief, and we are asked to "imagine the United States
+withdrawing from all interest in political affairs, and saying to New
+York City, 'Govern us as you please: we do not care to interfere.'" The
+fact, as most people are aware, is not at all as here assumed; but that
+aside, is it possible that Professor Adams knows so little of the
+difference in the origin and structure of the two nations as not to
+perceive that the comparison is ridiculous?
+
+
+
+
+_Books Received_.
+
+
+Social Life in Greece, from Homer to Menander.
+  By Rev. J.P. Mahaffy, M.A.
+  London: MacMillan & Co.
+
+A Free Lance in the Field of Life and Letters.
+  By William Cleaver Wilkinson.
+  New York: Albert Mason.
+
+The Bewildered Querists and other Nonsense.
+  By Francis Blake Crofton.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+A Practical Theory of Voussoir Arches.
+  By Professor William Cain, C.E.
+  New York: D. Van Nostrand.
+
+On Teaching: Its Ends and Means.
+  By Henry Calderwood.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+The Influence of Music on Health and Life.
+  By Dr. H. Chomet.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+The Man in the Moon, and Other People.
+  By R.W. Raymond.
+  New York: J.B. Ford & Co.
+
+Sowed by the Wind; or, The Poor Boy's Fortune.
+  By Elijah Kellogg.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Religion and Modern Materialism.
+  By James Martineau.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith.
+  By Alfred P. Putnam.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Winter Homes for Invalids. By Joseph W. Howe, M.D.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Helps to a Life of Prayer. By Rev. J.M. Manning, D.D.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Far from the Madding Crowd. By Thomas Hardy.
+  New York: Henry Holt & Co.
+
+A Foregone Conclusion. By W.D. Howells.
+  Boston: James R. Osgood & Co.
+
+That Queer Girl. By Virginia F. Townsend.
+  Illustrated.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Magnetism and Electricity. By John Angell.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Estelle: A Novel. By Mrs. Annie Edwards.
+  New York: Sheldon & Co.
+
+A Rambling Story. By Mary Cowden Clarke.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Life and Times of Sir Philip Sidney.
+  New York: J.B. Ford & Co.
+
+An Old Sailor's Story. By George Sergeant.
+  Boston: Henry Hoyt.
+
+Nature and Culture. By Harvey Rice.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+The Story of Boon. By H.H.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+[Footnote 001: Another statue to this remarkable woman is now in
+progress of execution, and will be soon ready to place on its
+pedestal in one of the principal squares of the town.]
+
+[Footnote 002: So complete was the destruction that few persons who
+now visit Nice would ever imagine that the hill in its centre, which
+is laid out with terraced gardens and used as a public promenade, was
+before the siege of 1706 completely covered with houses, churches, an
+episcopal palace, a fine cathedral of great antiquity, and an immense
+castle, which still gives its name to the fashionable walk, _Le
+Château_. Every vestige, save the crumbling walls of the fortress, of
+this by far the largest portion of the old town has entirely
+disappeared, and picnics are now made under the shade of beautiful
+avenues of trees which replace the labyrinthine streets of yore.]
+
+[Footnote 003: Madame Rattazzi is now living in Paris, in the little
+palace once inhabited by the duke d'Aquila, in the Cour de la Reine,
+where she entertains the literary and artistic world once a week. Her
+soirées this year are becoming famous. Recently she acted in
+Ponsard's _Horace et Lydie_ and in other little comedies, assisted by
+the greatest actors and actresses of Paris including Mesdames Favart
+and Roussel, but according to universal testimony her own performance
+was by far the finest. Never has Madame Rattazzi been so popular as
+at present, and her salon is frequented by all the celebrities of the
+French capital, to whom she extends the most charming hospitality.]
+
+[Footnote 004: This refers to the _Gospodi pomiloui_ (the Roman
+Catholic _Kyrie eleison_), which perpetually recurs in the Russian
+liturgy. Similar discussions about the _Hallelujah_ and other
+liturgic forms are met with long before the Raskol broke out.]
+
+[Footnote 005: If we may trust Dmitri of Rostof, a bishop of the last
+century, even so early certain sectaries regarded the raising of
+Lazarus as not a fact, but a parable: "Lazarus is the human soul, and
+his death is sin. His sisters, Martha and Mary, are the body and the
+soul. The tomb represents the cares of this life, and his raising
+from the dead is conversion. Similarly, Christ's entry into Jerusalem
+sitting on an ass is a mere parable."]
+
+[Footnote 006: The analogy must certainly be admitted to lie very far
+from the surface.--(_Note of the Translator_.)]
+
+[Footnote 007: The opposition of some of the Raskolniks to this tax
+(which has lately been modified) was rendered more determined by the
+fact that in the interval between one census and another the tax
+continued to be paid for "dead souls." Gogol's novel is founded on
+this. From its being nominally levied on the dead, this tax was
+regarded by these simple people as a sacrilege.]
+
+[Footnote 008: To combat this notion, an orthodox bishop, Dmitri of
+Rostof, wrote a treatise on the image and likeness of God. A
+Raskolnik told this prelate, "We would as lief lose our heads as our
+beard."--"Will your heads grow again?" was the bishop's retort.]
+
+[Footnote 009: "But here's the joy, my friend and I are one..."]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular
+Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 14324-8.txt or 14324-8.zip *****
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+    <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF
+    POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE - APRIL, 1875. Vol. XV, No. 88.</title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature
+And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88, 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: Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 11, 2004 [EBook #14324]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Gundry and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <div class="trans-note">
+        Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents and the list of
+        illustrations were added by the transcriber.
+    </div>
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+    <h1>LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE</h1>
+
+    <h3>OF</h3><br />
+
+
+    <h2><i>POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE</i>.</h2>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <h4>APRIL, 1875.<br />
+     Vol. XV, No. 88</h4>
+    <hr class="short" />
+    <br />
+
+    <hr />
+
+    <div class="toc">
+        <p><big><b>TABLE OF CONTENTS</b></big>
+        <span class="TOCpagenum"><b>Page</b></span></p><br />
+        <br />
+
+
+        <p><b>AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.</b></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CONCLUDING
+        PAPER.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#AUSTRALIAN_SCENES_AND_ADVENTURES">
+        <b>393</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE<br />
+         by W. A.
+        BAILLIE-GROHMAN.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#THE_GOLDEN_EAGLE_AND_HIS_EYRIE">
+        <b>407</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>THREE FEATHERS by WILLIAM BLACK.</b></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CHAPTER
+        XXIX&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;MABYN
+        DREAMS.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>415</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CHAPTER
+        XXX&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;FERN IN DIE
+        WELT.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>420</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CHAPTER
+        XXXI&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"BLUE IS THE
+        SWEETEST."<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><b>
+        424</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">CHAPTER XXXII.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        EXILE"S
+        RETURN.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"><b>
+        428</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>SONNET by F. A.
+        HILLARD.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#SONNET"><b>433</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+
+        <p><b>NICE by R.
+        DAVEY.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#NICE"><b>434</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+
+        <p><b>THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.</b></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ORIGIN OF THE
+        RASKOL.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#I_ORIGIN_OF_THE_RASKOL">
+        <b>444</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;OPPOSITION TO MODERN
+        CIVILIZATION.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#II_OPPOSITION_TO_MODERN_CIVILIZATION">
+        <b>451</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;INTERNAL
+        DIVISIONS.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#III_INTERNAL_DIVISIONS">
+        <b>457</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>ELEANOR'S CAREER by ITA ANIOL
+        PROKOP.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#ELEANORS_CAREER">
+        <b>463</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>AN AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY<br />
+         YEARS AGO by ETHEL C.
+        GALE.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#AN_AMERICAN_LADYS_OCCUPATIONS_SEVENTY_YEARS_AGO">
+        <b>475</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>A MARCH VIOLET by EMMA
+        LAZARUS.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#A_MARCH_VIOLET">
+        <b>481</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>WHAT IS A CONCLAVE? by T. ADOLPHUS
+        TROLLOPE.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#WHAT_IS_A_CONCLAVE">
+        <b>482</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>MONSOOR PACHA by GEORGE H.
+        BOKER.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#MONSOOR_PACHA">
+        <b>491</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>HOW HAM WAS CURED by JENNIE
+        WOODVILLE.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#HOW_HAM_WAS_CURED">
+        <b>492</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>ON THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS<br />
+         by KATE
+        HILLARD.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#ON_THE_STUDY_OF_SHAKESPEARES_SONNETS">
+        <b>497</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.</b></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">ARTISTS' MODELS IN ROME by T. A.
+        T.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#ARTISTS_MODELS_IN_ROME">
+        <b>507</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">FAUST IN POLAND by E. C.
+        R.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#FAUST_IN_POLAND"><b>510</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">A LETTER FROM HAVANA by F. C.
+        N.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#A_LETTER_FROM_HAVANA"><b>
+        511</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">FRENCH SLANG by F.
+        A.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#FRENCH_SLANG"><b>514</b></a></span></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">
+        NOTES.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#NOTES"><b>517</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+
+        <p><b>LITERATURE OF THE
+        DAY.</b><span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#LITERATURE_OF_THE_DAY">
+        <b>518</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p class="i4"><i>Books
+        Received</i>.<span class="TOCpagenum"><a href="#Books_Received">
+        <b>519</b></a></span></p><br />
+
+
+        <p><b>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</b></p><br />
+
+
+        <blockquote>
+            <p><a href="#FOREST_OF_COCKATOOS">FOREST OF
+            COCKATOOS.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#SYDNEY">SYDNEY.</a></p>
+
+            <p>
+            <a href="#ASTROLABE_AND_ZELEE_ON_CORAL_REEFS">ASTROLABE
+            AND Z&Eacute;L&Eacute;E ON CORAL REEFS</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#CANNIBAL_FIRES">CANNIBAL FIRES.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#MONUMENT_TO_BURKE_AND_WILLS">MONUMENT TO
+            BURKE AND WILLS.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#RETURN_TO_COOPERS_CREEK">BAS-RELIEF:
+            RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#DEATH_OF_BURKE">BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF
+            BURKE.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#FINDING_OF_BURKE">BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF
+            BURKE.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#VALLEY_OF_LAUNCESTON">VALLEY OF
+            LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#COURSE_OF_THE_TAMAR">COURSE OF THE TAMAR,
+            VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#GORGE_OF_THE_TAMAR">GORGE OF THE TAMAR,
+            VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#HOBART_TOWN">HOBART TOWN.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#ON_THE_WAY_TO_THE_WOOD_DRIFT">ON THE WAY
+            TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#ARRIVAL_AT_THE_DRIFT_KEEPERS_COTTAGE">OUR
+            ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#INTERIOR_OF_TOMERLS_COTTAGE">INTERIOR OF
+            TOMERL'S COTTAGE.</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#I_PULLED_MYSELF_IN">"FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK
+            INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED MYSELF IN."</a></p>
+
+            <p><a href="#ENTERING_THE_EYRIE">ENTERING THE
+            EYRIE.</a></p>
+        </blockquote>
+
+        <p><a href="#FOOT_NOTES"><b>FOOTNOTES.</b></a></p>
+    </div><br />
+
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 393]</span> <br />
+     <a id="AUSTRALIAN_SCENES_AND_ADVENTURES"
+          name="AUSTRALIAN_SCENES_AND_ADVENTURES"></a>
+
+    <h2>AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.</h2>
+
+    <h3>CONCLUDING PAPER.</h3>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="FOREST_OF_COCKATOOS"
+             name="FOREST_OF_COCKATOOS"></a><img alt="FOREST_OF_COCKATOOS (182K)"
+             src="images/0001-1.gif"
+             height="457"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>FOREST OF COCKATOOS.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>People who go to Australia expecting every other man they
+    meet to be a convict, and every convict a ruffian in felon's
+    garb, will assuredly find themselves mistaken. And if
+    contemplating a residence in Sydney or Melbourne they need not
+    anticipate the necessity of living in a tent or a shanty, nor
+    yet of accepting the society of convicts or negroes as the only
+    alternative to a life of solitude. Neither will it be necessary
+    to go armed with revolvers by day, nor to place plate and
+    jewels under guard at night. Sydney, the capital of the penal
+    colony, is a quiet, <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    394]</span>orderly city, abounding in villas and gardens,
+    churches and schools, and about its well-lighted streets ride
+    and walk well-dressed and well-bred people, whose visages
+    betray neither the ruffian nor the cannibal. Some of them may
+    be convicts or "ticket-of-leave-men," but this a stranger would
+    need to be told, as they dress like others, their equipages are
+    quite as stylish, and many of them not only amass more
+    property, but are really more honest, than some of those never
+    sentenced, because they know that the continuance of their
+    freedom depends on their reputation.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="SYDNEY"
+             name="SYDNEY"></a><img alt="SYDNEY (111K)"
+             src="images/0002-1.gif"
+             height="403"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>SYDNEY</b>
+    </div>.
+
+    <p>The city, built on the south side of a beautiful lake, is
+    perfectly unique in design, being composed of five broad
+    promontories, looking like the five fingers of a hand slightly
+    expanded. All the important streets run from east to west, and
+    each terminates in a distinct harbor, <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    395]</span>while clearly visible from the upper portion of the
+    street is a grand moving panorama of vessels of every
+    description, with masts, sails and colors that seem peering out
+    from every interstice between the houses. Each day witnesses
+    the arrival and departure of eight or ten steamers, ferry-boats
+    leave every half hour all the principal landings for the
+    various sections of the city, and the wharves are lined with
+    the shipping of every nation, many of the vessels ranging from
+    fifteen hundred to two thousand tons burden. On a huge rock in
+    Watson's Bay stands the lighthouse at the entrance of Port
+    Jackson. The sea lashes the black rock with ceaseless fury, the
+    light from the summit rendering even the base visible at a
+    great distance. The light is 350 feet above the level of the
+    sea, yet it was almost under its very rays that the good ship
+    Dunbar came to grief. Missing the passage, she was engulfed in
+    the raging sea, and her three hundred and ninety passengers
+    perished in full view of the homes they were seeking.</p>
+
+    <p>Orange and almond trees, with other tropical plants, loaded
+    with blossoms and fruit, beautify the lowlands, while in more
+    elevated localities are found the fruits and foliage of the
+    temperate zone, very many of them exotics brought by the
+    settlers from their English homes. Down to the very water's
+    edge extends the verdure of tree and shrub, overshadowing to
+    the right Fort Jackson, and to the left Middle Harbor. The
+    Government House commands the bay with the imposing mien of a
+    fortress, and the magnificent reception-rooms are worthy of a
+    sovereign's court. The garden surrounding it occupies a
+    beautiful promontory, its borders washed by the sea, the walks
+    shaded by trees imported from Europe, and the whole parterre
+    redolent with tropical beauty and fragrance. On the promenades
+    are frequently assembled at evening two or three hundred ladies
+    and gentlemen in full dress, while military bands discourse
+    sweet music for the entertainment of the brilliant throng.</p>
+
+    <p>Ballarat may be called the city of gold; Melbourne, of
+    clubs, democracy and thriving commerce; Hobart Town takes the
+    premium for hospitality and picturesque beauty; but Sydney
+    bears the impress of genuine English aristocracy, in
+    combination with a sort of Creole piquancy singularly in
+    contrast with English exclusiveness, yet giving a wonderful
+    charm to the society of this city of high life, so full of
+    gayety, brilliancy and luxury. Who would recognize in the
+    Sydney of to-day, with its four hundred thousand inhabitants,
+    its churches, theatres and libraries, the outgrowth of the
+    penal colony of Botany Bay, planted only eighty-seven years ago
+    on savage shores? It was in May, 1787, that the first colony
+    left England for Botany Bay, a squadron of eleven vessels,
+    carrying eleven hundred and eighteen colonists to make a
+    lodgment on an unknown shore inhabited by savages. Of these
+    eleven hundred and eighteen, there were six hundred male and
+    two hundred and fifty female convicts, the remaining portion
+    being composed of officers and soldiers to take charge of the
+    new penal settlement, under the command of Governor Phillip.
+    From so unpromising a beginning has grown the present rich and
+    flourishing settlement, and in lieu of the few temporary
+    shanties erected by the first colonists there stands a
+    magnificent city of more than ordinarily fine architecture,
+    with banks and hospitals, schools and churches&mdash;among the
+    latter a superb cathedral&mdash;all displaying the proverbial
+    prodigality of labor and expense for which the English are
+    noted in the erection and adornment of their public edifices.
+    Among the educational establishments are the English
+    University, with a public hall like that of Westminster; St.
+    John's College (Catholic); and national primary and high
+    schools, where are educated about thirty-four thousand pupils
+    at an annual expense to the government of more than three
+    hundred thousand dollars. From the parent colony have sprung
+    others, while the poverty and corruption that were the
+    distinguishing features of the original element have been
+    gradually lost in the more recent importations of honest and
+    respectable citizens.</p>
+
+    <p>Apart from the wealth and gayety of
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 396]</span>Sydney, there is much in
+    its various grades of society to interest the average tourist.
+    The "ticket-of-leave men"&mdash;that is, convicts who, having
+    served out a portion of their term and been favorably reported
+    for good conduct, are permitted to go at large and begin life
+    anew&mdash;form a distinct class, and exert a widespread
+    influence by their wealth, benevolence and commercial
+    enterprise.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="ASTROLABE_AND_ZELEE_ON_CORAL_REEFS"
+             name="ASTROLABE_AND_ZELEE_ON_CORAL_REEFS"></a><img alt="ASTROLABE_AND_ZELEE_ON_CORAL_REEFS (114K)"
+             src="images/0005-1.gif"
+             height="421"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>ASTROLABE AND Z&Eacute;L&Eacute;E ON CORAL REEFS</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Very many of the better class are talented and well
+    educated, with the manners and appearance of gentlemen; and in
+    some cases there has been perhaps but the <i>single</i> crime
+    for which they suffered expatriation and disgrace. Such as
+    these, as a rule, conduct themselves with propriety from the
+    moment of being sentenced; never murmur at their work or
+    discipline, be it ever so hard; and probably after a single
+    year of hardship are favorably reported, and permitted to seek
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 397]</span>or make homes for
+    themselves. Many of them own bank shares and real estate, and
+    some become immensely rich, either by ability or chance
+    good-fortune. The property is their own, but the owners are
+    always watched by those in power, and are liable at any moment
+    to be ordered back to their old positions. These "remanded men"
+    are treated with the greatest severity, and few have sufficient
+    power of endurance to live out even a short term with its
+    increase of rigor and hardship. Yet to the energy and
+    enterprise of the liberated felons is probably due, more than
+    to any other cause, that increase of prosperity which has long
+    since rendered these colonies not only self-supporting, but a
+    source of revenue to the Crown.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="CANNIBAL_FIRES"
+             name="CANNIBAL_FIRES"></a><img alt="CANNIBAL_FIRES (104K)"
+             src="images/0006-1.gif"
+             height="346"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>CANNIBAL FIRES.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Another and the most dangerous class of convicts are those
+    known as "bushrangers." They are desperate fellows, composed of
+    the very lowest scum of England, have ordinarily been sentenced
+    for life, and, having no hope of pardon or desire for
+    amendment, they escape as soon as possible, often by the murder
+    of one or more of their guards, and take refuge in the wilds of
+    the interior. Some of these bushrangers are associated together
+    in large hordes, but others roam solitary for months before
+    they will venture to trust their lives in the hands of other
+    desperadoes like themselves. There are hundreds of these
+    lawless men prowling like wild beasts for their prey in the
+    vicinity of every thoroughfare between the cities and the
+    mines, robbing and murdering defenceless passengers, plundering
+    the mails, and constantly exacting the best of their flocks and
+    herds from the stockmen and shepherds, who in their isolated
+    positions dare not refuse their demands. So desperate is the
+    character of these outlaws that they are seldom taken, though
+    thousands of pounds are occasionally offered for the head of
+    some noted ringleader. They may be killed in skirmishes, but
+    will not suffer themselves to be taken alive. A man calling
+    himself "Black Darnley" ranged the woods for years, committing
+    all sorts of crimes, but at length met a violent death at the
+    hands of another convict, whose daughter he had outraged.</p>
+
+    <p>A curious memento of the first theatre opened in Sydney and
+    the first performance within its walls has come down to us from
+    the year 1796, about eight years after the establishment of the
+    penal colony. It was opened by permission of the governor: all
+    the actors were convicts who won the privilege by good
+    behavior, and the price of admission was
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 398]</span> one shilling, payable in
+    silver, flour, meat or wine. The prologue, written by a
+    <i>cidevant</i> pickpocket of London, illustrates the character
+    of the times in those early days of the colony:</p>
+
+    <div class='poem_1'
+         align="center">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we
+            come,</p>
+
+            <p>Though not with much <i>&eacute;clat</i> or beat of
+            drum,</p>
+
+            <p>True patriots all; for be it understood,</p>
+
+            <p>We left our country for our country's good:</p>
+
+            <p>No private views disgraced our generous zeal;</p>
+
+            <p>What urged our travels was our country's weal;</p>
+
+            <p>And none will doubt but that our emigration</p>
+
+            <p>Has proved most useful to the British nation.</p>
+
+            <p>But, you inquire, what could our breasts inflame</p>
+
+            <p>With this new passion for theatric fame?</p>
+
+            <p>What in the practice of our former days</p>
+
+            <p>Could shape our talents to exhibit plays?</p>
+
+            <p>Your patience, sirs: some observations made,</p>
+
+            <p>You'll grant us equal to the scenic trade.</p>
+
+            <p>He who to midnight ladders is no stranger</p>
+
+            <p>You'll own will make an admirable Ranger,</p>
+
+            <p>And sure in Filch I shall be quite at home:</p>
+
+            <p>Some true-bred Falstaff we may hope to start.</p>
+
+            <p>The scene to vary, we shall try in time</p>
+
+            <p>To treat you with a little pantomime.</p>
+
+            <p>Here light and easy Columbines are found,</p>
+
+            <p>And well-tried Harlequins with us abound.</p>
+
+            <p>From durance vile our precious selves to keep,</p>
+
+            <p>We often had recourse to the flying leap,</p>
+
+            <p>To a black face have sometimes owed escape,</p>
+
+            <p>And Hounslow Heath has proved the worth of
+            crape.</p>
+
+            <p>But how, you ask, can we e'er hope to soar.</p>
+
+            <p>Above these scenes, and rise to tragic lore?</p>
+
+            <p>Too oft, alas! we've forced the unwilling tear,</p>
+
+            <p>And petrified the heart with real fear.</p>
+
+            <p>Macbeth a harvest of applause will reap,</p>
+
+            <p>For some of us, I fear, have murdered sleep.</p>
+
+            <p>His lady, too, with grace will sleep and talk:</p>
+
+            <p>Our females have been used at night to walk.</p>
+
+            <p>Grant us your favor, put us to the test:</p>
+
+            <p>To gain your smiles we'll do our very best,</p>
+
+            <p>And without dread of future Turnkey Lockets,</p>
+
+            <p>Thus, in an honest way, still <i>pick your
+            pockets</i>!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>It was by the coral-bound Straits of Torres, reckoned by
+    navigators the most difficult in the world, that the English
+    government determined a few years ago to send an envoy to open
+    communication between the Australian colony and the Dutch
+    possessions of Java and Sumatra. The Hero was the vessel
+    selected for this perilous mission&mdash;a voyage of twelve
+    hundred miles through seas studded thickly with reefs and
+    islands of coral, many of which lay just beneath the surface of
+    the waves&mdash;hidden pitfalls of death whose yawning jaws
+    threatened instant destruction to the unwary voyager. The
+    splendid steamer Cowarra had been wrecked on these reefs only a
+    few months before, but a single one of her two hundred and
+    seventy-five passengers escaping a watery grave. Her tall
+    masts, still standing bolt upright amid the coral-reefs,
+    presented a gaunt spectacle, plainly visible from the Hero's
+    decks as she threaded her way among the shoaly waters, while a
+    similar though less tragical warning was the disaster that had
+    overtaken two other vessels, the Astrolabe and the
+    Z&eacute;l&eacute;e, which by a sudden ebb of the tide were
+    thrown high and dry upon the sands, and remained in this
+    frightful condition for eight days before the returning waters
+    drifted them off. But the Hero was a staunch craft&mdash;an
+    iron blockade-runner, built at Glasgow during our late war. She
+    was of twelve hundred tons burden, manned by forty-two men, and
+    had already weathered storms and dangers enough to earn a right
+    to the name she bore. Right nobly she fulfilled her dangerous
+    mission, threading her way with difficulty among whole fields
+    of coral, that sometimes almost enclosed her low hull as
+    between two walls; again seeming upon the very verge of the
+    breakers or ready to be engulfed in their whirling eddies, but
+    emerging at last into the open channel, a monument of the skill
+    and watchfulness of her officers. Many of these for days
+    together never left the deck, and the lead was cast three or
+    four times an hour during the whole passage of these dangerous
+    seas. Such is the history of navigation in coral seas, but if
+    full of danger, they are equally replete with picturesque
+    beauty. In the coral isle, with its blue lagoon, its circling
+    reef and smiling vegetation, there is a wondrous fascination;
+    while in the long reefs, with the ocean driving furiously upon
+    them, only to be driven pitilessly back, all wreathed in white
+    foam and diamond spray, there is enough of the sublime to
+    transfix the most careless observer. The barrier reef that
+    skirts the north-east coast of the Australian continent is the
+    grandest coral formation in the world, stretching for a
+    distance of a thousand miles, with a varying breadth of from
+    two hundred yards to a mile. The maximum distance from the
+    shore is seventy miles, but it rarely exceeds twenty-five or
+    thirty. Between this and the mainland lies a sheltered channel,
+    safe, for the most part, when reached; but there are few open
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 399]</span>passages from the ocean,
+    and the shoals of imperfectly-formed coral that lie concealed
+    just below the surface render the most watchful care necessary
+    to a safe passage. The fires of the cannibals, visible on every
+    peak all along the coast, shed their ruddy light over the blue
+    waters, illumining here and there some lofty crest, and adding
+    a weird beauty to the enchanting scene.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="MONUMENT_TO_BURKE_AND_WILLS"
+             name="MONUMENT_TO_BURKE_AND_WILLS"></a><img alt="MONUMENT_TO_BURKE_AND_WILLS (70K)"
+             src="images/0009-1.gif"
+             height="425"
+             width="278" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"America has no monuments," say our Transatlantic cousins,
+    "because it is but two hundred years old." Well, Australia,
+    with little more than three-quarters of a hundred, has already
+    its monument&mdash;a beautiful bronze monument erected to the
+    memory of the explorers Burke and Wills on a lofty pedestal of
+    elegant workmanship, and occupying a commanding eminence in the
+    city of Melbourne. <span class="pagenum">[Pg 400]</span>The
+    figures, two in number, are of more than life size, one rising
+    above the other&mdash;the chief, with noble form and dignified
+    air, fraternally supporting his younger confrere. The pedestal
+    shows three bas-reliefs of exquisite design&mdash;one the
+    return to Cooper's Creek,</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="RETURN_TO_COOPERS_CREEK"
+             name="RETURN_TO_COOPERS_CREEK"></a><img alt="RETURN_TO_COOPER'S_CREEK (84K)"
+             src="images/0010-1.gif"
+             height="294"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>BAS-RELIEF: RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>where the torn garments and emaciated limbs tell with sad
+    emphasis the woeful tale of hardship and toil through which the
+    heroic explorers had been passing; another exhibiting the
+    subsequent death of Burke;</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="DEATH_OF_BURKE"
+             name="DEATH_OF_BURKE"></a><img alt="DEATH_OF_BURKE (89K)"
+             src="images/0010-2.gif"
+             height="287"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF BURKE.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>and the third the finding of the remains.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="FINDING_OF_BURKE"
+             name="FINDING_OF_BURKE"></a><img alt="FINDING_OF_BURKE (104K)"
+             src="images/0011-1.gif"
+             height="290"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF BURKE.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Burke and Wills, to whom belongs the honor of being the
+    first explorers that crossed the entire continent of Australia,
+    extending their researches from the Australian to the Pacific
+    Ocean, set out on the 20th of August, 1860, with a party of
+    fifteen hardy pioneers upon their perilous mission. Burke was
+    in the prime of life, a man of iron frame, dauntless courage
+    and an enthusiasm that knew neither difficulty nor danger.
+    Wills, who belonged to a family that had already given one of
+    its members to Sir John Franklin's fatal expedition, to find a
+    martyr's grave among the eternal icebergs of the north, was
+    somewhat younger, and perhaps less enthusiastic, but was
+    endowed with a rare discretion and far-seeing sagacity that
+    peculiarly fitted him to be the friend and counselor of the
+    enthusiastic Burke in such an undertaking. All Melbourne was in
+    excitement: the government gave fifty thousand dollars, various
+    individuals ten thousand, to aid the enterprise; and every
+    heart was aglow with aspirations for their success as the
+    little band of heroes <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    401]</span>waved their adieus and turned their faces outward to
+    seek paths hitherto untrodden by the white man's foot. Besides
+    horses, twenty-seven camels had been imported from India for
+    the express use of the explorers and for the transportation of
+    tents, baggage, equipments, and fifteen months' supply of
+    provisions, with vessels for carrying such supplies of water as
+    the character of the country over which they were passing
+    should require them to take with them. Their plan of march
+    divided itself into three stages, of which Cooper's Creek was
+    the middle one, and about the centre of the Australian
+    continent. At first their progress was slow, encumbered as they
+    were by excess of baggage and equipments: then discontents
+    arose in the little band, and Burke, too ardent and impulsive
+    for a leader, was first grieved, and then angered, at what he
+    deemed a want of spirit among some of his men. On the 19th of
+    October, at Menindie, he left a portion of the troop under the
+    command of Lieutenant Wright, with orders after a short rest to
+    rejoin him at Cooper's Creek. It was the end of January before
+    Wright set out for the point indicated. Meanwhile, as month
+    followed month, bringing to Melbourne no news of Burke's party,
+    the worst fears were awakened concerning its fate, and an
+    expedition was fitted out to search for the lost heroes. To
+    young Howitt was given the command, and it was his fortune to
+    unveil the sad mystery that had enveloped their fate. On the
+    29th of June, 1861, crossing the river Loddon, Howitt
+    encountered a portion of Burke's company under the lead of
+    Brahe, the fourth lieutenant. Four of his men had died of
+    scurvy, and the rest of his little band seemed utterly
+    dispirited. Howitt learned that in two months Burke had crossed
+    the entire route, sometimes desert, sometimes prairie, between
+    Menindie and Cooper's Creek, and had reached the borders of the
+    Gulf of Carpentaria, on the extreme north of the continent;
+    also, that he was there in January, enduring the fiercest heat
+    of summer, and men and beasts alike languishing for water, and
+    nearly out of provisions. It was all in vain that he deplored
+    the tardiness of Wright, and hoped, as he neared Cooper's
+    Creek, for the coming of those who alone had the means of life
+    for his little squad of famished men. Equally in vain that
+    Wills with three camels reconnoitred the ground for scores of
+    miles, hoping to find water. Not an oasis, not a rivulet, was
+    to be found, and without a single drop of water to quench their
+    parched lips they set out on another long and dreary march.
+    Desiring to secure the utmost speed, Burke had left Brahe on
+    the 16th of December with the sick and most of his provisions
+    at Cooper's Creek, to remain three months at least, and longer
+    if they were able, while he, with Wills, Grey and King, and six
+    camels, pushed bravely <span class="pagenum">[Pg 402]</span>on,
+    determined not to halt till the Pacific was reached. Battling
+    with the terrible heat, sometimes for days together without
+    water, and again obtaining a supply when they had almost
+    perished for want of it, having occasional fierce conflicts
+    with the natives, and more deadly encounters with poisonous
+    serpents, but with an energy and courage that knew no such word
+    as failure, the indomitable quartette went bravely on. The
+    wished-for goal was reached, and the heroes, jubiliant though
+    worn and weary, then returned once more to Cooper's Creek, to
+    find the post deserted by Brahe, and Wright not arrived, while
+    neither water nor provisions remained to supply their need.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="VALLEY_OF_LAUNCESTON"
+             name="VALLEY_OF_LAUNCESTON"></a><img alt="VALLEY_OF_LAUNCESTON (130K)"
+             src="images/0012-1.gif"
+             height="449"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>VALLEY OF LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>All this Howitt learned after his arrival at the rendezvous,
+    where he observed cut in the bark of a tree the word "Dig," and
+    on throwing up the earth found an iron casket deposited by
+    Brahe, giving the date of his departure and reasons for
+    withdrawal before the appointed time. Of far deeper interest
+    were papers written by Burke, announcing that he had reached
+    the Pacific coast, and retraced his steps as far as Cooper's
+    Creek&mdash;that for two months the little party had advanced
+    rapidly, making constantly new discoveries of fertile lands,
+    widespread prairies, gushing streams and well-watered valleys.
+    Occasionally they had found lagoons of salt water, hills of red
+    sand, trees of beautiful foliage, and mounds indicating the
+    presence at some unknown period of the aboriginal inhabitants.
+    They had discovered a range of high mountains in the north, and
+    called them the Standish Mountains, while at their foot lay
+    outspread a scene so lovely, of verdant groves and fertile
+    meadows, of well-watered plains and heavy forest trees, that
+    they christened it the Land of Promise. Then they reached again
+    more sterile lands, parched and dry, without a rivulet or an
+    oasis. They suffered for water and food grew scarce, but, sure
+    of relief at Cooper's Creek, they pushed bravely on, and
+    reached the rendezvous to learn that the men who could have
+    saved them had passed on but seven hours before! After having
+    accomplished so much, so bravely battled with heat and hunger,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 403]</span>serpents and cannibals, to
+    perish at last of starvation, seemed a fate too terrible; and
+    we cannot wonder that the little band fought their destiny to
+    the last. Little scraps of the journal of Burke and his friends
+    tell the sad tale of the last few weeks of agony. On March 6th,
+    Burke seemed near dying from having eaten a bit of a large
+    serpent that he had cooked. On the 30th they killed one of
+    their camels, and on April 10th they killed "Billy," Burke's
+    favorite riding-horse. On the 11th they were forced to halt on
+    account of the condition of Grey, who was no longer able to
+    proceed. On the 21st they reached an oasis&mdash;a little squad
+    of human skeletons, scarcely more than alive.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="COURSE_OF_THE_TAMAR"
+             name="COURSE_OF_THE_TAMAR"></a><img alt="COURSE_OF_THE_TAMAR (181K)"
+             src="images/0013-1.gif"
+             height="451"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Far and wide their longing eyes gazed in search of succor:
+    they called aloud with all their little remaining strength, but
+    the oasis was deserted, and the echo of their own sad voices
+    was all the reply that reached the despairing men. Then, at
+    their rendezvous, finding the word "Dig" on the tree where
+    Howitt found it at a later day, they opened the soil, and so
+    learned the departure of Brahe on that very morning. How
+    terribly tantalizing, after their exhausting march and still
+    more exhausting return, after having killed and eaten all their
+    camels but two, and all their horses, after making discoveries
+    that unlocked to the world the vast interior of this hitherto
+    unknown continent, to find that they were just too late to be
+    saved! Despair and death seemed staring them in the face: their
+    long overtaxed powers of endurance failed them utterly, and the
+    gaunt spectre of famine that had been journeying with the brave
+    men for weeks threatened now to enfold them in its terrible
+    embrace. Should they yield without another struggle? Burke
+    suddenly remembered Mount Despair, a cattle-station about one
+    hundred and fifty leagues away, and with his indomitable
+    resolution persuaded his companions to start for it, depositing
+    first in the little iron casket the journal of his discoveries
+    and the date of his departure. As if to add the last finishing
+    stroke of agony to the sad story, Burke and his companions had
+    hardly turned their faces westward ere Brahe and Wright, who
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 404]</span>had met at the passage of
+    the Loddon, and were now overwhelmed with remorse at their
+    careless neglect of their leader's orders, determined to
+    revisit Cooper's Creek, and see if any tidings were to be
+    gained of the missing party.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="GORGE_OF_THE_TAMAR"
+             name="GORGE_OF_THE_TAMAR"></a><img alt="GORGE_OF_THE_TAMAR (92K)"
+             src="images/0014-1.gif"
+             height="550"
+             width="351" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>GORGE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Thoughtless as imprudent, they did not examine the casket,
+    but supposing it had remained undisturbed where they left it,
+    they turned their faces southward to the Darling, utterly
+    unsuspicious of the recent visit of Burke and his unfortunate
+    comrades. Within two days after the trio began their dreary
+    march to Mount Despair both their camels fell from exhaustion,
+    but still the poor weary travelers pressed onward, continuing
+    their search till the 24th of May. Discovering no eminence
+    above the horizon, they then gave up in despair and began to
+    retrace their steps, leaving on a tree the date of departure.
+    In one more day's march they would have reached the summit and
+    been saved!</p>
+
+    <p>On the 20th of June it was evident that young Wills could
+    not long survive, and on the 29th are dated his last words, a
+    letter to his father full of tenderness and resignation: "My
+    death here within a few hours is certain, but my soul is calm."
+    Still, almost in the last agony he made another effort to
+    escape his fatal destiny, and set forth to reconnoitre the
+    ground once more if perchance succor might be found. Alone,
+    with none to close his eyes, he fell asleep, and Howitt after
+    long search found the skeleton body stretched upon the sands,
+    the natives having compassionately covered it with boughs and
+    leaves. Burke's last words are dated on the 28th, one day
+    earlier than those of Wills: "We have gained the shores of the
+    ocean, but we have been a band&mdash;" The last word is
+    unfinished, as if his pen had refused to make the cruel record.
+    Burke's wasted remains too were found, covered with leaves and
+    boughs. By his side lay his <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    405]</span>revolver, and the record of his great exploits was
+    in the little casket at the foot of the tree. King survived,
+    and was found by Howitt, naked, famished and unable to speak or
+    walk; but after long recruiting he was able to relate the
+    details of suffering of those last few months, unknown to all
+    the world save himself. Howitt reverently wrapped the precious
+    remains in the union jack, and, leaving them in their lonely
+    grave, retraced his steps to Melbourne with the precious casket
+    of papers, the last legacy of the dead heroes. On the 6th of
+    the following December, Howitt again visited the desolate spot,
+    charged with the melancholy mission of bringing back the
+    remains for interment in Melbourne. The chaste and elegant
+    monument that marks the spot where the heroes sleep is a far
+    less enduring memorial than exists in the wonderful development
+    and unprecedented <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    406]</span>prosperity which mark the colony as the fruit of the
+    labors, sufferings and death of these martyred heroes.</p>
+
+    <p>A pretty romance is associated with the discovery and naming
+    of Van Diemen's Land. A young man, Tasman by name, who had been
+    scornfully rejected by a Dutch nabob as the suitor of his
+    daughter, resolved to prove himself worthy of the lady of his
+    heart. So, while his inamorata was cruelly imprisoned in the
+    palace of her sire at Batavia, young Tasman, instead of wasting
+    time in regrets, set forth on a voyage of adventure, seeking to
+    win by prowess what gallantry had failed to effect. On his
+    first voyage he so far circumnavigated the island as to be
+    convinced of its insular character, but really saw little of
+    the land. In subsequent voyages he made extensive explorations,
+    calling not only the mainland, but all the little islets he
+    discovered, by the several names and synonyms of Mademoiselle
+    Van Diemen, his beloved. When at length he was able to lay
+    before the Dutch government the charts of his voyages and a
+    digest of his discoveries in the beautiful land where he had
+    already planted the standard of Holland, the cruel sire
+    relented and consented to receive as a son-in-law the
+    successful adventurer. Tasman, it seems, never very fully
+    explored the waters that surrounded his domain, and the honor
+    was reserved to two young men, Flinders and Bass, of
+    discovering in 1797 the deep, wide strait of two hundred and
+    seventy miles in width that bears the name of Bass. The scenery
+    of Van Diemen's Land is full of picturesque beauty&mdash;a sort
+    of miniature Switzerland, with snow-clad peaks, rocks and
+    ravines, foaming cataracts and multitudinous little lakes with
+    their circling belt of green and dancing rivulets bordered with
+    flowers. The Valley of Launceston is a very Arcadia of pastoral
+    repose, while the Tamar&mdash;which in its whole course is
+    rather a succession of beautiful lakes than an ordinary
+    river&mdash;with its narrow defiles, basaltic rocks and
+    sparkling cataracts, picturesque rocks that cut off one lake
+    and suddenly reveal another, is a very miracle of beauty,
+    dancing, frothing, foaming, like some playful sprite possessed
+    with the very spirit of mischief.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="HOBART_TOWN"
+             name="HOBART_TOWN"></a><img alt="HOBART_TOWN (131K)"
+             src="images/0015-1.gif"
+             height="407"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>HOBART TOWN</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Hobart Town, the capital of Tasmania, is a quiet, hospitable
+    little town, but a very hotbed of aristocracy&mdash;the single
+    spot on the Australian continent where English exclusiveness
+    can, after the gay seasons of the large cities, retire to
+    aristocratic country-seats, to nurse and revivify its pride of
+    birth, without fear of coming in contact with anything parvenu
+    or plebeian. The town is prettily laid out, with a genuine
+    Gothic ch&acirc;teau for its government palace, and elegant
+    private residences. It seems tame and deserted when visited
+    from Sydney or Melbourne, but offers just the rest and
+    refreshment one needs after a season of exhausting labor in the
+    mines of Ballarat.</p>
+    <hr class='short' />
+
+    <p>The rapid growth of the Australian colonies, their
+    remoteness from the mother country, and the vastness of the
+    territory over which they are spread, naturally suggest the
+    question whether they are destined to remain in a condition of
+    dependence or are likely to follow the example of their
+    American prototypes. On this point the opinion of the count of
+    Beauvoir is entitled to consideration, as that of an impartial
+    as well as intelligent observer. He had expected, he tells us,
+    in visiting the country, to find it preparing for its speedy
+    emancipation; but he left it with the conviction that, far from
+    desiring a severance of the connection, the colonists would
+    regard it as a blow to their material interests&mdash;the one
+    event, in fact, capable of arresting their unparalleled
+    progress. It can only occur as the result of a European war in
+    which the power of England shall be so crippled as to disable
+    her from protecting these distant possessions, casting upon
+    them the whole burden of self-defence, and forcing them to
+    assume the responsibilities of national
+    existence.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 407]</span>
+    <a id="THE_GOLDEN_EAGLE_AND_HIS_EYRIE"
+          name="THE_GOLDEN_EAGLE_AND_HIS_EYRIE"></a>
+
+    <h2>THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE.</h2>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="ON_THE_WAY_TO_THE_WOOD_DRIFT"
+             name="ON_THE_WAY_TO_THE_WOOD_DRIFT"></a><img alt="ON_THE_WAY_TO_THE_WOOD-DRIFT (175K)"
+             src="images/0018-1.gif"
+             height="442"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>ON THE WAY TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>A somewhat tedious journey of thirty hours from Paris
+    brought me one fine afternoon in the early part of July to
+    Kulstein, an ancient fortress forming the frontier-town of the
+    North Tyrol, toward Bavaria. While occupied in passing my
+    portmanteau through the prying and unutterably dirty hands of
+    the custom-house officials I was accosted by a man dressed in
+    the garb of a Tyrolese mountaineer&mdash;short leathern
+    breeches reaching to the knee, gray stockings, heavy hobnailed
+    shoes, a nondescript species of jacket of the roughest frieze,
+    and a battered hat adorned with two or three feathers of the
+    capercailzie and a plume of the royal eagle. Old Hansel was one
+    of the gamekeepers on a large imperial preserve close by, with
+    whom some years previously I had on more than one occasion
+    shared a hard couch under the stunted pines when inopportune
+    night overtook us near the glaciers while in hot pursuit of the
+    chamois.</p>
+
+    <p>This unexpected meeting proved a source of the liveliest
+    interest to me, inasmuch as this old veteran of the mountains
+    was on the point of starting on an expedition of a somewhat
+    remarkable character. A pair of golden eagles, it appeared, had
+    made a neighboring valley the scene of their frequent ravages
+    and depredations among the cattle and game, and Hansel was
+    about to organize an expedition to search for, and if possible
+    despoil, the eyrie. Of late years these birds have become very
+    rare. Switzerland is nearly, if not quite, cleared of them,
+    while the Tyrol, affording greater solitude and a larger stock
+    of game, can boast of eight or at the most ten couples. They
+    are, as is well known, the largest and most powerful of all the
+    birds of prey inhabiting Europe, measuring from eight to eight
+    and a half feet in the span, and possessing terrible strength
+    of beak, talons and wings. A full-grown golden eagle can easily
+    carry off a young chamois, a full-grown roe or a sheep, none of
+    them weighing less <span class="pagenum">[Pg 408]</span>than
+    thirty pounds; and well-attested cases have occurred of young
+    children being thus abstracted. In the fall of 1873 a boy
+    nearly eight years of age was carried away by one of these
+    birds from the very door of his parents' cottage, situated not
+    far from the celebrated K&ouml;nigsee, near Salzburg.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="ARRIVAL_AT_THE_DRIFT_KEEPERS_COTTAGE"
+             name="ARRIVAL_AT_THE_DRIFT_KEEPERS_COTTAGE"></a><img alt="ARRIVAL_AT_THE_DRIFT-KEEPER'S_COTTAGE (109K)"
+             src="images/0019-1.gif"
+             height="450"
+             width="415" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>OUR ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The breeding-season falls in the month of June, and in the
+    course of the first fortnight of the succeeding month the young
+    offspring take wing and commence their raids in quest of
+    pillage on their own account. The eyrie or nest is an object of
+    the greatest care with the parent birds, the site being chosen
+    with a view to the greatest possible security, generally in
+    some crevice on the face of a perpendicular precipice several
+    hundred feet in height. It is built of dry sticks of wood
+    coated on the inside with moss. Hansel informed me of a surmise
+    that the eyrie of this pair would be discovered in the face of
+    the terribly steep "Falknerwand;" and although I had once
+    before been engaged in a similar exploit, I could not resist
+    the temptation to join in this expedition, and despatched on
+    the spot a telegram to the friend who was awaiting my arrival
+    in Ampezzo in order to make some ascents in the Dolomites,
+    announcing a detention of some days. This done, we re-entered
+    the cars and proceeded a few stations farther down the line to
+    quaint old Rattenberg, a small town on the banks of the swift
+    Inn. Not an hour from this place the scantily-inhabited
+    Brandenberg valley opens on the broad and sunny Innthal. The
+    former is merely a mountain-gorge. Far up in its recesses
+    stands a small cottage belonging to the keeper of a wood-drift,
+    and in close proximity to this solitary habitation is a
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 409]</span>second very wild and
+    wellnigh inaccessible ravine, the scene of the coming
+    adventure.</p>
+
+    <p>Having passed the night in the modest little inn at
+    Rattenberg, Hansel and I set off next morning long before
+    sunrise on our eight hours' tramp to the wood-drift by a path
+    which was in most places of just sufficient breadth to allow of
+    one person passing at a time. Few of my fellow-travelers of the
+    day before would have recognized me in the costume I had donned
+    for the occasion&mdash;an old and much-patched coat, short
+    leathern trousers, as worn and torn as the poorest
+    woodcutter's, and a ten-seasoned hat which had been originally
+    green, then brown, and had now become gray. My face and knees
+    were still bronzed from the exposure attendant on a long course
+    of Alpine climbing the year before.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="INTERIOR_OF_TOMERLS_COTTAGE"
+             name="INTERIOR_OF_TOMERLS_COTTAGE"></a><img alt="INTERIOR_OF_TOMERLS_COTTAGE (191K)"
+             src="images/0020-1.gif"
+             height="447"
+             width="625" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>INTERIOR OF TOMERL'S COTTAGE.</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The keeper of the wood-drift was an old acquaintance of
+    mine, whose qualities as a keen sportsman had shone forth when
+    four or five years previously I had quartered myself for a
+    month in his secluded neighborhood, spending the day, and
+    frequently also the night, on the peaks and passes surrounding
+    his cottage. To the buxom Moidel, his pretty young wife, I was
+    also no stranger, and her smile and blush assured me that she
+    still remembered the time when, reigning supreme over her
+    father's cattle on a neighboring alp, she had administered to
+    the wants of the young sportsman seeking a night's lodging in
+    the lonesome chalet. Many a merry evening had I spent in the
+    low, oak-paneled "general room" of Tomerl's cottage when he was
+    still a gay young bachelor, and no change had since been made
+    in the aspect of the apartment. In one corner stood the huge
+    pile of pottery used for heating the room, and round it were
+    still fixed the rows of wooden laths by means of which I had so
+    frequently dried my soaking apparel. Running the whole length
+    of the room was a broad bench, in front of which were placed
+    two strong tables; and at one of these were seated, at our
+    entrance, two woodcutters, who had heard of the intended
+    expedition and come to offer their help. They informed us that
+    four more men engaged in wood-felling in a forest an hour or so
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 410]</span>distant would also be
+    delighted to join us, as they did at the close of their day's
+    work.</p>
+
+    <p>The evening was spent in discussing the details of the
+    approaching exploit and getting our various arrangements and
+    implements in order. At nine o'clock, leaving Tomerl and his
+    wife their accustomed bed on the top of the stove, the rest of
+    us retired to our common bed-room, the hayloft. We were up
+    again by three, and an hour later were all ready to start.
+    Tomerl led the way, but stopped ere we lost sight of the
+    cottage to shout a last "jodler" to his wife, who returned the
+    greeting with a clear, bell-like voice, though her heart was
+    doubtless beating fast under her smartly-laced bodice.</p>
+
+    <p>Three hours later we had reached the gorge, and after some
+    difficult scrambling and wading through turbulent torrents we
+    arrived at the base of the Falknerwand, which rises
+    perpendicularly upward of nine hundred feet&mdash;an altitude
+    diminished in appearance by the tenfold greater height of the
+    surrounding mountains. Finding, after a few minutes' close
+    observation, that nothing could be done from the base of the
+    cliff, we proceeded to scale it by a circuitous route up a
+    practicable but nevertheless terribly steep incline. Safely
+    arrived at the top, we threw down our burdens and began to
+    reconnoitre the terrain, which we did <i>ventre &agrave;
+    terre</i>, bending over the cliff as far as we dared. Great was
+    our dismay to perceive that some eighty or ninety feet below us
+    a narrow rocky ledge, which had escaped our notice when looking
+    up from the foot of the cliff, projected shelf-wise from the
+    face of the precipice, shutting out all view of a crevice which
+    we had descried from the bottom, and which, as we anticipated,
+    contained the eyrie.</p>
+
+    <p>After consulting some time, we decided to lower ourselves
+    down to this rock-band, and make it the base of our further
+    movements, instead of operating, as we had intended, from the
+    crest of the cliff, where everything but for this obstacle
+    would have been tenfold easier. Posting one of the men at the
+    top of the cliff to lower the heavy rope, three hundred feet in
+    length, by means of a cord, we descended to the ledge, which
+    was nowhere more than three feet in width, and in several
+    places scarcely over a foot and a half. Standing in a single
+    row on this miniature platform, we had to manipulate the rope
+    with a yawning gulf some eight hundred feet in depth beside us,
+    and nothing to lay hold of for support but the smooth face of
+    the rock.</p>
+
+    <p>We began operations by driving a strong iron hook into the
+    solid rock, at a point some two or three feet above the ledge.
+    Through this hook the rope was passed, one end pendent over the
+    cliff; and to obviate the peril of its being frayed and
+    speedily severed by the sharp outer edge of our platform, we
+    rigged up a block of wood with some iron stays to serve as an
+    immovable pulley. These preparations completed, the men were
+    assigned to their respective positions. Hansel and Tomerl, two
+    renowned shots, were to lie at full length, rifle in hand, one
+    at each end of the row, to act as my guardian angels if I were
+    surprised and attacked by the old eagles while engaged in the
+    work of spoliation. The remaining woodcutters, with the
+    exception of the one who had been left on the top of the cliff,
+    were placed in file along the ledge to lower and raise the
+    plank which was to serve as my seat, and to which the rope was
+    securely fastened after being passed through an iron ring
+    attached to my stout leathern girdle. A signal-line was to hang
+    at my side, and a hunting-knife, a revolver, a strong canvas
+    bag to hold the booty, and an ashen pole iron-shod at one end
+    and provided with a strong iron boathook at the other,
+    completed my equipment, each article of which had undergone the
+    strictest scrutiny before its adoption.</p>
+
+    <p>Taking the pole from the hands of Hansel, I let myself glide
+    over the edge of the cliff, and the next moment hung in empty
+    space. After being lowered about eighty feet, I found myself on
+    a level with the crevice before mentioned, and gave the
+    preconcerted signal for arresting my downward progress. Owing,
+    however, to a beetling crag or boulder which overhung the
+    recess, I was still at <span class="pagenum">[Pg 411]</span>a
+    distance of ten or twelve feet horizontally from the goal.
+    Fixing the boathook into a convenient indentation of the rock,
+    I gradually pulled myself in till I reached the face of the
+    wall. Then leaving the plank, I crawled up an inclined slab of
+    rock which led to the actual crevice, until I was stopped by a
+    barrier of dry sticks about two feet in height. Raising myself
+    on my knees, I peered into the oval-shaped eyrie, and saw
+    perched up at the farther side two splendid young golden
+    eagles.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="I_PULLED_MYSELF_IN"
+             name="I_PULLED_MYSELF_IN"></a><img alt="I_PULLED_MYSELF_IN (95K)"
+             src="images/0023-1.gif"
+             height="450"
+             width="306" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>"FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED
+        MYSELF IN."</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>It is a very rare occurrence to find two young eagles in one
+    eyrie. These, though only four or five weeks old, were
+    formidable birds, measuring considerably over six feet in the
+    span, and displaying beaks and talons of imposing size. It took
+    some time to capture and pinion these powerful and refractory
+    ornithological specimens, whose loud, discordant screams caused
+    me several times to glance involuntarily over my shoulder at
+    the strip of horizon visible, to assure myself that the old
+    eagles were not swooping down to <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    412]</span>the rescue. I was in the more haste to leave the
+    eyrie that the stench which emanated from the remains of
+    numerous victims strewn in and about it was something terrific.
+    These relics, which I had the curiosity to count, consisted of
+    a half-devoured carcass of a chamois, three pairs of chamois'
+    horns and the corresponding bones of the animals, the skeleton
+    of a goat picked clean, the remains of an Alpine hare, and the
+    head and neck of a fawn.</p>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <a id="ENTERING_THE_EYRIE"
+             name="ENTERING_THE_EYRIE"></a><img alt="ENTERING_THE_EYRIE (96K)"
+             src="images/0024-1.gif"
+             height="450"
+             width="390" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div align="center">
+        <b>ENTERING THE EYRIE</b>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The canvas bag being too small to contain both the eaglets,
+    I was obliged to hang one of them to my belt, after tying my
+    handkerchief round his beak. The game secured, I crept
+    cautiously down the slab to the plank, and fixing the hook of
+    my pole in the indentation of which I had made use in drawing
+    myself in, I gave the preconcerted two jerks with the
+    signal-line. Now occurred the first of a series of accidents
+    which came near resulting fatally to the whole party. Contrary
+    to my strict injunctions, the men hauling the rope gave a
+    sudden and violent pull, wrenching the pole from my grasp, and
+    communicating to the plank a motion like that of a pendulum,
+    which sent me flying out into space, with the immediate
+    prospect of being dashed by the retrograde swing against the
+    solid wall of rock. Happily, I preserved my presence of mind,
+    and grasped instantly the only chance of escape. Tilting myself
+    back as far as the rope and the ring on my belt allowed, and
+    stretching out my legs horizontally, I awaited the contact.
+    Half a second later came a heavy blow on the soles of my feet,
+    the pain of which ran through my whole frame like the shock of
+    a galvanic battery. Had it <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    413]</span> been my head, the reader would probably never have
+    been troubled with any account of my sensations. As it was, my
+    feet, though protected by immensely heavy iron-shod shoes,
+    received a concussion the effects of which continued to be felt
+    for weeks.</p>
+
+    <p>Almost at the moment of this incident I had noticed a dark
+    object shooting past me, at so close a proximity that I
+    distinctly heard the whistling sound as it cleft the air.
+    Supposing it to be a stone, I gave it no further thought, and
+    my attention was presently occupied by a sharp gash which the
+    young eagle at my belt managed to inflict on my left thigh. It
+    was not until I had stopped the haemorrhage by strewing some
+    grains of powder into the wound that I perceived with surprise
+    that I was still stationary, instead of ascending, as in due
+    course I ought to have been. The boulder of rock projecting a
+    few feet over my head prevented any view of the ledge, and my
+    shouts inquiring the cause of the delay received indistinct
+    answers, the words "patience" and "wait" being the only
+    intelligible ones. These might have had a consoling influence
+    but for the fact that a thunderstorm&mdash;an occurrence of
+    great frequency in the beginning of summer in the High
+    Alps&mdash;was fast approaching, and my position was one that
+    exposed me to its full fury without any possibility of escape.
+    Ere long it burst over my head, drenching me to the skin in the
+    first five minutes, while the lightning played about me in
+    every direction, and terrific claps of thunder followed each
+    other at intervals of scarcely a few seconds. What heightened
+    the danger as well as the absurdity of my situation was the
+    chance that one or both of the old eagles might return at any
+    moment, under circumstances that must render a struggle, if any
+    ensued, a most unequal one. Supposing my guards to be still at
+    their post, the distance of the ledge was such as to make a
+    shot at a flying bird, large as it might be, anything but a
+    sure one; and the tactics of the golden eagle when defending
+    its home do not allow of any second attempt. A speck is seen on
+    the horizon, and the next moment the powerful bird is down with
+    one fell swoop: a flap with its strong wing and the unhappy
+    victim is stunned, and immediately ripped open from the chest
+    to his hip, while his skull is cleft or fractured by a single
+    blow of the tremendous beak. Instances are, however, known in
+    which the cool and self-possessed "pendant" has shot or cut
+    down his foe at the very instant of the encounter. Happily, my
+    own powers were not put to so severe a test: the old birds were
+    that day far off, circling probably in majestic swoops over
+    some distant valley or gorge.</p>
+
+    <p>I was forced, however, to be constantly on the alert, and my
+    impatience and perplexity may be imagined as hours elapsed and
+    there were still no signs of my approaching deliverance. The
+    storm had long since passed over, and darkness was settling
+    down when I again felt a pull at the rope, and continued my
+    ascent, begun nearly four hours before. It was of the utmost
+    importance that the whole party should regain the top of the
+    cliff before night had fairly set in. I therefore deferred, on
+    my arrival at the ledge, all questions and rebukes till we had
+    gained a place of safety. The heavy rope, fastened to the cord,
+    was hauled up by the man on the top, and after it had been
+    secured to a tree-stump we swarmed up without loss of time. We
+    had still before us a somewhat perilous scramble in the
+    darkness down the steep incline, but the exhaustion we had
+    undergone made it necessary that we should first recruit our
+    strength by means of the food and bottle of "Schnapps" with
+    which we were fortunately provided. While we were thus engaged
+    I received from my companions an account of the causes of the
+    perilous delay.</p>
+
+    <p>On receiving my signal they had begun to haul, but after the
+    first pull had felt a sudden jerk, and perceived that the
+    block, supposed to have been securely fastened at the edge of
+    the platform, was gone. They imagined at first that it had
+    struck and killed me, but my shouts soon apprised them of my
+    safety. Fearing to continue the process of hauling lest the
+    rope should be cut by the sharp-edged <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    414]</span> stones, they informed the man on the cliff of the
+    mishap, and despatched him to procure a second block. He
+    accordingly ran down the slope to the bottom of the mountain,
+    cut a young pine tree, shaped a block, and was in the act of
+    carrying it up when the storm burst forth, and the lightning,
+    playing around him in vivid flashes, cleft and splintered a
+    rock weighing hundreds of tons that had stood within thirty
+    paces of him. He received no injury except being thrown on the
+    ground and partially stunned by the terrible concussion, but it
+    was not till after a considerable time that he was able to rise
+    and continue his ascent. Had he been killed, our situation
+    would have been a most precarious one. There would have been no
+    possibility of regaining the cliff without help, and as our
+    party comprised all the working force of the neighborhood, and
+    Tomerl's cottage was the only dwelling within fifteen or twenty
+    miles, our chances of rescue would have been extremely
+    slight.</p>
+
+    <p>We reached the bottom of the mountain as the upper part was
+    beginning to be lit by the rays of a full moon, and a three
+    hours' tramp brought us without further mishap to the cottage.
+    Moidel, forewarned of our return by a series of "jodlers," a
+    sound which may challenge competition as a joyful acclaim, had
+    prepared an ample supper; and when Tomerl produced his
+    well-tuned "zither," a species of guitar producing simple but
+    soft and highly musical strains, the mirth was at its height.
+    Then followed songs eulogistic of the life of the
+    chamois-stalker, who, "with his gun in his hand, a chamois on
+    his back and a girl in his heart," has no cause to envy a king.
+    A dance called the "Schuhblatteln," in which the art consists
+    in touching the soles of one's shoes with the palm of the hand,
+    finished our evening's amusement, and we retired, rather worn
+    out, just as day was breaking.</p>
+
+    <p>After four hours' sleep we rose refreshed and eager to
+    examine our two captives. Attached to Tomerl's cottage was a
+    diminutive barn, from which we removed the door, and nailing
+    strong laths across the aperture, managed to improvise a large
+    and roomy cage. A couple of rabbits furnished a luxurious
+    breakfast, which was devoured with extraordinary voracity. The
+    hen-bird, as is the case with all birds of prey, was
+    considerably larger and stronger than her brother, though the
+    latter had the finer head and eyes.</p>
+
+    <p>A week after their capture they were "feathered" for the
+    first time. This process consists in pulling out the long
+    down-like plumes situated on the under side of the strong
+    tail-feathers. These plumes, which, if taken from a full-grown
+    eagle, frequently measure seven or eight inches in length, are
+    highly prized by the Tyrolese peasants, but still more by the
+    inhabitants of the neighboring Bavarian Highlands, who do not
+    hesitate to expend a month's wages in the purchase of two or
+    three with which to adorn their hats or those of their buxom
+    sweethearts. The value of a crop of plumes varies somewhat.
+    Generally, however, an eagle yields about forty florins' ($16)
+    worth of feathers per annum.</p>
+
+    <p>Six weeks after this incident I again wended my steps into
+    the secluded Brandenburg valley, and found the eagles thriving
+    and much grown. Being curious to see if their confinement had
+    subdued their wild and ferocious spirit, I removed one of the
+    laths and entered the barn. An angry hiss, similar to that of a
+    snake, warned me of danger, but too late to save my hands some
+    severe scratches. With one bound and a flap of their gigantic
+    wings they were on me, and had it not been for Tomerl, who was
+    standing just behind me armed with a stout cudgel, I should
+    have paid dearly for my incautious visit.</p>
+
+    <p>I know of no instance where human skill has subdued in the
+    slightest degree the haughty spirit of the free-born golden
+    eagle. An untamable ferocity is the predominating
+    characteristic of this noble bird, more than of any other
+    animal. Circling majestically among the fleeting clouds, he
+    reigns lord paramount over his vast domain, avoiding the sight
+    and resenting the approach of man.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">W. A.
+    BAILLIE-GROHMAN.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 415]</span>
+
+    <h2>THREE FEATHERS.</h2>
+
+    <p class="center">BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A PRINCESS OF
+    THULE."</p><a id="CHAPTER_XXIX"
+          name="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER XXIX.</h3>
+
+    <p class="center"><b>MABYN DREAMS</b>.</p><br />
+
+
+    <p>"Yes, mother," said Mabyn, bursting into the room, "here I
+    am; and Jennifer's down stairs with my box; and I am to stay
+    with you here for another week or a fortnight; and Wenna's to
+    go back at once, for the whole world is convulsed because of
+    Mr. Trelyon's coming of age; and Mrs. Trelyon has sent and
+    taken all our spare rooms; and father says Wenna must come back
+    directly, for it's always 'Wenna, do this,' and 'Wenna, do
+    that;' and if Wenna isn't there, of course the sky will tumble
+    down on the earth&mdash;Mother, what's the matter, and where's
+    Wenna?"</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn was suddenly brought up in the middle of her voluble
+    speech by the strange expression on her mother's face.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mabyn, something dreadful has happened to our
+    Wenna."</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn turned deadly white. "Is she ill?" she said, almost in
+    a whisper.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, not ill, but a great trouble has fallen on her."</p>
+
+    <p>Then the mother, in a low voice, apparently fearful that any
+    one should overhear, began to tell her younger daughter of all
+    she had learnt within the past day or two&mdash;how young
+    Trelyon had been bold enough to tell Wenna that he loved her;
+    how Wenna had dallied with her conscience and been loath to
+    part with him; how at length she had as good as revealed to him
+    that she loved him in return; and how she was now overwhelmed
+    and crushed beneath a sense of her own faithlessness and the
+    impossibility of making reparation to her betrothed.</p>
+
+    <p>"Only to think, Mabyn," said the mother in accents of
+    despair, "that all this distress should have come about in such
+    a quiet and unexpected way! Who could have foreseen it? Why, of
+    all the people in the world, you would have thought our Wenna
+    was the least likely to have any misery of this sort; and many
+    a time&mdash;don't you remember?&mdash;I used to say it was so
+    wise of her getting engaged to a prudent and elderly man, who
+    would save her from the plagues and trials that young girls
+    often suffer at the hands of their lovers. I thought she was so
+    comfortably settled. Everything promised her a quiet and gentle
+    life. And now this sudden shock has come upon her, she seems to
+    think she is not fit to live, and she goes on in such a wild
+    way&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is she?" Mabyn said abruptly.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, no!" the mother said anxiously, "you must not speak
+    a word to her, Mabyn. You must not let her know I have told you
+    anything about it. Leave her to herself, for a while at least:
+    if you speak to her, she will take it you mean to accuse her,
+    for she says you warned her, and she would pay no heed. Leave
+    her to herself, Mabyn."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then where is Mr. Trelyon?" said Mabyn, with some touch of
+    indignation in her voice. "What is he doing? Is he leaving her
+    to herself too?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know what you mean, Mabyn," her mother said
+    timidly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why doesn't he come forward like a man and marry her?" said
+    Mabyn boldly. "Yes, that is what I would do if I were a man.
+    She has sent him away? Yes, of course: that is right and
+    proper. And Wenna will go on doing what is right and proper, if
+    you allow her, to the very end, and the end will be a lifetime
+    of misery: that's all. No, my notion is, that she should do
+    something that is not right and is quite improper, if only it
+    makes her happy; and you'll see if I don't get her to do it.
+    Why, mother, haven't you had eyes to see that these two have
+    been in love for years? Nobody in the world had ever the least
+    control over him but her: he would do anything for Wenna; and
+    she&mdash;why she always came back singing after she had met
+    and spoken to him. And then you talk about a prudent and
+    sensible husband! <span class="pagenum">[Pg 416]</span>I don't
+    want Wenna to marry a watchful, mean, old, stocking-darning
+    cripple, who will creep about the house all day and peer into
+    cupboards, and give her fourpence-halfpenny a week to live on.
+    I want her to marry a man&mdash;one that is strong enough to
+    protect her. And I tell you, mother&mdash;I've said it before,
+    and I say it again&mdash;she <i>shall not</i> marry Mr.
+    Roscorla."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn," said her mother, "you are getting madder than ever.
+    Your dislike to Mr. Roscorla is most unreasonable. A cripple!
+    Why&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, mother!" Mabyn cried with a bright light on her face,
+    "only think of our Wenna being married to Mr. Trelyon, and how
+    happy and pleased and pretty she would look as they went
+    walking together! And then how proud he would be to have so
+    nice a wife! and he would joke about her and be very
+    impertinent, but he would simply worship her all the same, and
+    do everything he could to please her. And he would take her
+    away and show her all the beautiful places abroad; and he would
+    have a yacht, too; and he would give her a fine house in
+    London. And don't you think our Wenna would fascinate everybody
+    with her mouselike ways and her nice small steps? And if they
+    did have any trouble, wouldn't she be better to have somebody
+    with her not timid and anxious and pettifogging, but somebody
+    who wouldn't be cast down, but make her as brave as
+    himself?"</p>
+
+    <p>Miss Mabyn was a shrewd young woman, and she saw that her
+    mother's quick, imaginative, sympathetic nature was being
+    captivated by this picture. She determined to have her as an
+    ally.</p>
+
+    <p>"And don't you see, mother, how it all lies within her
+    reach? Harry Trelyon is in love with her: there was no need for
+    him to say so. I knew it long before he did. And she&mdash;why,
+    she has told him now that she cares for him; and if I were he,
+    I know what I'd do in his place. What is there in the way? Why,
+    a&mdash;a sort of understanding."</p>
+
+    <p>"A promise, Mabyn," said the mother.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, a promise," said the girl desperately, and coloring
+    somewhat. "But it was a promise given in ignorance: she didn't
+    know&mdash;how could she know? Everybody knows that such
+    promises are constantly broken. If you are in love with
+    somebody else, what's the good of your keeping the promise?
+    Now, mother, won't you argue with her? See here: if she keeps
+    her promise, there's three people miserable. If she breaks it,
+    there's only one; and I doubt whether he's got the capacity to
+    be miserable. That's two to one, or three to one, is it? Now,
+    will you argue with her, mother?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn, Mabyn," the mother said with a shake of the head,
+    but evidently pleased with the voice of the tempter, "your
+    fancy has run away with you. Why, Mr. Trelyon has never
+    proposed to marry her."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know he wants to," said Mabyn confidently.</p>
+
+    <p>"How can you know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll ask him and prove it to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed," said the mother sadly, "it is no thought of
+    marriage that is in Wenna's head just now. The poor girl is
+    full of remorse and apprehension. I think she would like to
+    start at once for Jamaica, and fling herself at Mr. Roscorla's
+    feet and confess her fault. I am glad she has to go back to
+    Eglosilyan: that may distract her mind in a measure: at present
+    she is suffering more than she shows."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is she?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In her own room, tired out and fast asleep. I looked in a
+    few minutes ago."</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn went up stairs, after having seen that Jennifer had
+    properly bestowed her box. Wenna had just risen from the sofa,
+    and was standing in the middle of the room. Her younger and
+    taller sister went blithely forward to her, kissed her as
+    usual, took no notice of the sudden flush of red that sprang
+    into her face, and proceeded to state, in a business-like
+    fashion, all the arrangements that had to be made.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you been enjoying yourself, Wenna?" Mabyn said with a
+    fine air of indifference.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh yes," Wenna answered; adding hastily, "Don't you think
+    mother is greatly improved?"</p>
+
+    <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 417]</span>"Wonderfully! I almost
+    forgot she was an invalid. How lucky you are to be going back
+    to see all the fine doings at the Hall! Of course they will ask
+    you up."</p>
+
+    <p>"They will do nothing of the kind," Wenna said with some
+    asperity, and with her face turned aside.</p>
+
+    <p>"Lord and Lady Amersham have already come to the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. They said some time ago that there was a good chance
+    of Mr. Trelyon marrying the daughter&mdash;the tall girl with
+    yellow hair, you remember?"</p>
+
+    <p>"And the stooping shoulders? Yes. I should think they would
+    be glad to get her married to anybody. She's thirty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Wenna!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Trelyon told me so," said Wenna sharply.</p>
+
+    <p>"And they are a little surprised," continued Mabyn in the
+    same indifferent way, but watching her sister all the while,
+    "that Mr. Trelyon has remained absent until so near the time.
+    But I suppose he means to take Miss Penaluna with him. She
+    lives here, doesn't she? They used to say there was a chance of
+    a marriage there too."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn, what do you mean?" Wenna said suddenly and angrily.
+    "What do I care about Mr. Trelyon's marriage? What is it you
+    mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>But the firmness of her lips began to yield: there was an
+    ominous trembling about them, and at the same moment her
+    younger sister caught her to her bosom, and hid her face there
+    and hushed her wild sobbing. She would hear no confession. She
+    knew enough. Nothing would convince her that Wenna had done
+    anything wrong, so there was no use speaking about it.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna," she said in a low voice, "have you sent him any
+    message?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh no, no!" the girl said trembling. "I fear even to think
+    of him; and when you mentioned his name, Mabyn, it seemed to
+    choke me. And now I have to go back to Eglosilyan; and oh, if
+    you only knew how I dread that, Mabyn!"</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn's conscience was struck. She it was who had done this
+    thing. She had persuaded her father that her mother needed
+    another week or fortnight at Penzance; she had frightened him
+    by telling what bother he would suffer if Wenna were not back
+    at the inn during the festivities at Trelyon Hall; and then she
+    had offered to go and take her sister's post. George Rosewarne
+    was heartily glad to exchange the one daughter for the other.
+    Mabyn was too independent; she thwarted him; sometimes she
+    insisted on his bestirring himself. Wenna, on the other hand,
+    went about the place like some invisible spirit of order,
+    making everything comfortable for him without noise or worry.
+    He was easily led to issue the necessary orders; and so it was
+    that Mabyn thought she was doing her sister a friendly turn by
+    sending her back to Eglosilyan in order to join in
+    congratulating Harry Trelyon on his entrance into man's estate.
+    Now Mabyn found that she had only plunged her sister into
+    deeper trouble. What could be done to save her?</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna," said Mabyn rather timidly, "do you think he has
+    left Penzance?"</p>
+
+    <p>Wenna turned to her with a sudden look of entreaty in her
+    face: "I cannot bear to speak of him, Mabyn. I have no right
+    to: I hope you will not ask me. Just now I&mdash;I am going to
+    write a letter&mdash;to Jamaica. I shall tell the whole truth.
+    It is for him to say what must happen now. I have done him a
+    great injury: I did not intend it, I had no thought of it, but
+    my own folly and thoughtlessness brought it about, and I have
+    to bear the penalty. I don't think he need be anxious about
+    punishing me."</p>
+
+    <p>She turned away with a tired look on her face, and began to
+    get out her writing materials. Mabyn watched her for a moment
+    or two in silence; then she left and went to her own room,
+    saying to herself, "Punishment! Whoever talks of punishment
+    will have to address himself to me."</p>
+
+    <p>When she got to her own room she wrote these words on a
+    piece of paper in her firm, bold, free hand: "A friend would
+    like to see you for a minute in front of the post-office in the
+    middle of the town." She put that in an envelope,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 418]</span>and addressed the envelope
+    to Harry Trelyon, Esq. Still keeping her bonnet on, she went
+    down stairs and had a little general conversation with her
+    mother, in the course of which she quite casually asked the
+    name of the hotel at which Mr. Trelyon had been staying. Then,
+    just as if she were going out to the Parade to have a look at
+    the sea, she carelessly left the house.</p>
+
+    <p>The dusk of the evening was growing to dark. A white mist
+    lay over the sea. The solitary lamps were being lit along the
+    Parade, each golden star shining sharply in the pale purple
+    twilight, but a more confused glow of orange showed where the
+    little town was busy in its narrow thoroughfares. She got hold
+    of a small boy, gave him the letter, a sixpence and his
+    instructions. He was to ask if the gentleman were in the hotel.
+    If not, had he left Penzance, or would he return that night? In
+    any case, the boy was not to leave the letter unless Mr.
+    Trelyon was there.</p>
+
+    <p>The small boy returned in a couple of minutes. The gentleman
+    was there, and had taken the letter. So Mabyn at once set out
+    for the centre of the town, and soon found herself in among a
+    mass of huddled houses, bright shops and thoroughfares pretty
+    well filled with strolling sailors, women getting home from
+    market and townspeople come out to gossip. She had accurately
+    judged that she would be less observed in this busy little
+    place than out on the Parade; and as it was the first
+    appointment she had ever made to meet a young gentleman alone,
+    she was just a little nervous.</p>
+
+    <p>Trelyon was there. He had recognized the handwriting in a
+    moment. He had no time to ridicule or even to think of Mabyn's
+    school-girl affectation of secresy: he had at once rushed off
+    to the place of appointment, and that by a short cut of which
+    she had no knowledge.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn, what's the matter? Is Wenna ill?" he said,
+    forgetting in his anxiety even to shake hands with her.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh no, she isn't," said Mabyn rather coldly and defiantly.
+    If he was in love with her sister, it was for him to make
+    advances. "Oh no, she's pretty well, thank you," continued
+    Mabyn, indifferently. "But she never could stand much worry. I
+    wanted to see you about that. She is going back to Eglosilyan
+    to-morrow; and you must promise not to have her asked up to the
+    Hall while these grand doings are going on&mdash;you must not
+    try to see her and persuade her. If you could keep out of her
+    way altogether&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"You know all about it, then, Mabyn?" he said suddenly; and
+    even in the dusky light of the street she could see the rapid
+    look of gladness that filled his face. "And you are not going
+    to be vexed, eh? You'll remain friends with me, Mabyn&mdash;you
+    will tell me how she is from time to time. Don't you see, I
+    must go away; and&mdash;and, by Jove, Mabyn! I've got such a
+    lot to tell you!"</p>
+
+    <p>She looked round.</p>
+
+    <p>"I can't talk to you here. Won't you walk back by the other
+    road behind the town?" he said.</p>
+
+    <p>Yes, she would go willingly with him now. The anxiety of his
+    face, the almost wild way in which he seemed to beg for her
+    help and friendship, the mere impatience of his manner, pleased
+    and satisfied her. This was as it should be. Here was no
+    sweetheart by line and rule, demonstrating his affection by
+    argument, and acting at all times with a studied propriety; but
+    a real, true lover, full of passionate hope and as passionate
+    fear; ready to do anything, and yet not knowing what to do.
+    Above all, he was "brave and handsome, like a prince," and
+    therefore a fit lover for her gentle sister.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mr. Trelyon," she said with a great burst of
+    confidence, "I did so fear that you might be indifferent!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Indifferent!" said he with some bitterness. "Perhaps that
+    is the best thing that could happen, only it isn't very likely
+    to happen. Did you ever see anybody placed as I am placed,
+    Mabyn? Nothing but stumbling-blocks every way I look. Our
+    family have always been hot-headed and hot-tempered: if I told
+    my grandmother at this minute how I am situated, I believe she
+    would say, 'Why don't you go like a man and run off with the
+    girl?'"</p>
+
+    <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 419]</span>"Yes!" said Mabyn,
+    quite delighted.</p>
+
+    <p>"But suppose you've bothered and worried the girl until you
+    feel ashamed of yourself, and she begs of you to leave her,
+    aren't you bound in fair manliness to go?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know," said Mabyn doubtfully.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I do. It would be very mean to pester her. I'm off as
+    soon as these people leave the Hall. But then there are other
+    things. There is your sister engaged to this fellow out in
+    Jamaica&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Isn't he a horrid wretch?" said Mabyn between her
+    teeth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I quite agree with you. If I could have it out with him
+    now! But, after all, what harm has the man done? Is it any
+    wonder he wanted to get Wenna for a wife?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, but he cheated her," said Mabyn warmly. "He persuaded
+    her and reasoned with her, and argued her into marrying him.
+    And what business had he to tell her that love between young
+    people is all bitterness and trial, and that a girl is only
+    safe when she marries a prudent and elderly man who will look
+    after her? Why, it is to look after him that he wants her.
+    Wenna is going to him as a housekeeper and a nurse.
+    Only&mdash;only, Mr. Trelyon, <i>she hasn't gone to him just
+    yet</i>!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I don't think he did anything unfair," the young man
+    said gloomily. "It doesn't matter, anyhow. What I was going to
+    say is, that my grandmother's notion of what one of our family
+    ought to do in such a case can't be carried out: whatever you
+    may think of a man, you can't go and try to rob him of his
+    sweetheart behind his back. Even supposing she were willing to
+    break with him&mdash;which she is not&mdash;you've at least got
+    to wait to give the fellow a chance."</p>
+
+    <p>"There I quite disagree with you, Mr. Trelyon," Mabyn said
+    warmly. "Wait to give him a chance to make our Wenna miserable!
+    Is she to be made the prize of a sort of fight? If I were a man
+    I'd pay less attention to my own scruples and try what I could
+    do for her&mdash;Oh, Mr. Trelyon&mdash;I&mdash;I beg your
+    pardon."</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn suddenly stopped on the road, overwhelmed with
+    confusion. She had been so warmly thinking of her sister's
+    welfare that she had been hurried into something worse than an
+    indiscretion.</p>
+
+    <p>"What then, Mabyn?" said he, profoundly surprised.</p>
+
+    <p>"I beg your pardon: I have been so thoughtless. I had no
+    right to assume that you wished&mdash;that you wished for
+    the&mdash;for the opportunity&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of marrying Wenna?" said he with a great stare. "But what
+    else have we been speaking about? Or rather, I suppose we did
+    assume it. Well, the more I think over it, Mabyn, the more I am
+    maddened by all these obstacles, and by the notion of all the
+    things that may happen. That's the bad part of my going away.
+    How can I tell what may happen? He might come back and insist
+    on her marrying him right off."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Trelyon," said Mabyn, speaking very clearly, "there's
+    one thing you may be sure of. If you let me know where you are,
+    nothing will happen to Wenna that you don't hear of."</p>
+
+    <p>He took her hand and pressed it in mute thankfulness. He was
+    not insensible to the value of having so warm an advocate, so
+    faithful an ally, always at Wenna's side.</p>
+
+    <p>"How long do letters take in going to Jamaica?" Mabyn
+    asked.</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know."</p>
+
+    <p>"I could fetch him back for you directly," said she, "if you
+    would like that."</p>
+
+    <p>"How?"</p>
+
+    <p>"By writing and telling him that you and Wenna were going to
+    get married. Wouldn't that fetch him back pretty quickly?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I doubt it. He wouldn't believe it of Wenna. Then he is a
+    sensible sort of fellow, and would say to himself that if the
+    news was true he would have his journey for nothing. Besides,
+    Barnes says that things are looking well with him in
+    Jamaica&mdash;better than anybody expected. He might not be
+    anxious to leave."</p>
+
+    <p>They had now got back to the Parade, and Mabyn stopped: "I
+    must leave you now, Mr. Trelyon. Mind not to go near Wenna when
+    you get to Eglosilyan."</p>
+
+    <p>"She sha'n't even see me. I shall be
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 420]</span>there only a couple of
+    days or so; then I am going to London. I am going to have a try
+    at the Civil Service examinations&mdash;for first commissions,
+    you know. I shall only come back to Eglosilyan for a day now
+    and again at long intervals. You have promised to write to me,
+    Mabyn. Well, I'll send you my address."</p>
+
+    <p>She looked at him keenly as she offered him her hand. "I
+    wouldn't be downhearted if I were you," she said. "Very odd
+    things sometimes happen."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I sha'n't be very down-hearted," said he, "so long as I
+    hear that she is all right, and not vexing herself about
+    anything."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good-bye, Mr. Trelyon. I am sorry I can't take any message
+    for you."</p>
+
+    <p>"To her? No, that is impossible. Good-bye, Mabyn: I think
+    you are the best friend I have in the world."</p>
+
+    <p>"We'll see about that," she said as she walked rapidly
+    off.</p>
+
+    <p>Her mother had been sufficiently astonished by her long
+    absence: she was now equally surprised by the excitement and
+    pleasure visible in her face.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, mammy, do you know whom I've seen? Mr. Trelyon."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. We've walked right round Penzance all by ourselves.
+    And it's all settled, mother."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is all settled?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The understanding between him and me. An offensive and
+    defensive alliance. Let tyrants beware!"</p>
+
+    <p>She took off her bonnet and came and sat down on the floor
+    by the side of the sofa: "Oh, mammy, I see such beautiful
+    things in the future! You wouldn't believe it if I told you all
+    I see. Everybody else seems determined to forecast such gloomy
+    events. There's Wenna crying and writing letters of contrition,
+    and expecting all sorts of anger and scolding; there's Mr.
+    Trelyon haunted by the notion that Mr. Roscorla will suddenly
+    come home and marry Wenna right off; and as for him out there
+    in Jamaica, I expect he'll be in a nice state when he hears of
+    all this. But far on ahead of all that I see such a beautiful
+    picture!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a dream of yours, Mabyn," her mother said, but there
+    was an imaginative light in her fine eyes too.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, it is not a dream, mother, for there are so many people
+    all wishing now that it should come about, in spite of these
+    gloomy fancies. What is there to prevent it when we are all
+    agreed?&mdash;Mr. Trelyon and I heading the list with our
+    important alliance; and you, mother, would be so proud to see
+    Wenna happy; and Mrs. Trelyon pets her as if she were a
+    daughter already; and everybody&mdash;every man, woman and
+    child&mdash;in Eglosilyan would rather see that come about than
+    get a guinea apiece. Oh, mother, if you could see the picture
+    that I see just now!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a pretty picture, Mabyn," her mother said, shaking
+    her head. "But when you think of everybody being agreed, you
+    forget one, and that is Wenna herself. Whatever she thinks fit
+    and right to do, that she is certain to do, and all your
+    alliances and friendly wishes won't alter her decision, even if
+    it should break her heart. And indeed I hope the poor child
+    won't sink under the terrible strain that is on her: what do
+    you think of her looks, Mabyn?"</p>
+
+    <p>"They want mending&mdash;yes, they want mending," Mabyn
+    admitted, apparently with some compunction, but then she added
+    boldly, "and you know as well as I do, mother, that there is
+    but the one way of mending them."</p><br />
+     <a id="CHAPTER_XXX"
+          name="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>
+
+    <h3>CHAPTER XXX.</h3>
+
+    <p class="center"><b>FERN IN DIE WELT.</b></p><br />
+
+
+    <p>If this story were not tied by its title to the duchy of
+    Cornwall, it might be interesting enough to follow Mr. Roscorla
+    into the new world that had opened all around him, and say
+    something of the sudden shock his old habits had thus received,
+    and of the quite altered views of his own life he had been led
+    to form. As matters stand, we can only pay him a flying
+    visit.</p>
+
+    <p>He is seated in a verandah fronting a garden, in which
+    pomegranates and oranges form the principal fruit. Down
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 421]</span>below him some blacks are
+    bringing provisions up to Yacca Farm along the cactus avenue
+    leading to the gate. Far away on his right the last rays of the
+    sun are shining on the summit of Blue Mountain Peak, and along
+    the horizon the reflected glow of the sky shines on the calm
+    sea. It is a fine, still evening; his cigar smells sweet in the
+    air; it is a time for indolent dreaming and for memories of
+    home.</p>
+
+    <p>But Mr. Roscorla is not so much enraptured by thoughts of
+    home as he might be. "Why," he is saying to himself, "my life
+    in Basset Cottage was no life at all, but only a waiting for
+    death. Day after day passed in that monotonous fashion: what
+    had one to look forward to but old age, sickness, and then the
+    quiet of a coffin? It was nothing but an hourly procession to
+    the grave, varied by rabbit-shooting. This bold breaking away
+    from the narrow life of such a place has given me a new lease
+    of existence. Now I can look back with surprise on the dullness
+    of that Cornish village, and on the regularity of habits which
+    I did not know were habits. For is not that always the case?
+    You don't know that you are forming a habit: you take each act
+    to be an individual act, which you may perform or not at will;
+    but, all the same, the succession of them is getting you into
+    its power; custom gets a grip of your ways of thinking as well
+    as your ways of living; the habit is formed, and it does not
+    cease its hold until it conducts you to the grave. Try Jamaica
+    for a cure. Fling a sleeping man into the sea, and watch if he
+    does not wake. Why, when I look back to the slow, methodical,
+    common-place life I led at Eglosilyan, can I wonder that I was
+    sometimes afraid of Wenna Rosewarne regarding me as a somewhat
+    staid and venerable individual, on whose infirmities she ought
+    to take pity?"</p>
+
+    <p>He rose and began to walk up and down the verandah, putting
+    his foot down firmly. His loose linen suit was smart enough:
+    his complexion had been improved by the sun. The consciousness
+    that his business affairs were promising well did not lessen
+    his sense of self-importance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna must be prepared to move about a bit when I go back,"
+    he was saying to himself. "She must give up that daily
+    attendance on cottagers' children. If all turns out well, I
+    don't see why we should not live in London, for who will know
+    there who her father was? That consideration was of no
+    consequence so long as I looked forward to living the rest of
+    my life in Basset Cottage: now there are other things to be
+    thought of when there is a chance of my going among my old
+    friends again."</p>
+
+    <p>By this time, it must be observed, Mr. Roscorla had
+    abandoned his hasty intention of returning to England to
+    upbraid Wenna with having received a ring from Harry Trelyon.
+    After all, he reasoned with himself, the mere fact that she
+    should talk thus simply and frankly about young Trelyon showed
+    that, so far as she was concerned, her loyalty to her absent
+    lover was unbroken. As for the young gentleman himself, he was,
+    Mr. Roscorla knew, fond of joking. He had doubtless thought it
+    a fine thing to make a fool of two or three women by imposing
+    on them this cock-and-bull story of finding a ring by dredging.
+    He was a little angry that Wenna should have been deceived; but
+    then, he reflected, these gypsy rings are so much like one
+    another that the young man had probably got a pretty fair
+    duplicate. For the rest, he did not want to quarrel with Harry
+    Trelyon at present.</p>
+
+    <p>But as he was walking up and down the verandah, looking a
+    much younger and brisker man than the Mr. Roscorla who had left
+    Eglosilyan, a servant came through the house and brought him a
+    couple of letters. He saw they were respectively from Mr.
+    Barnes and from Wenna; and, curiously enough, he opened the
+    reverend gentleman's first&mdash;perhaps as schoolboys like to
+    leave the best bit of a tart to the last.</p>
+
+    <p>He read the letter over carefully; he sat down and read it
+    again; then he put it before him on the table. He was evidently
+    puzzled by it. "What does this man mean by writing these
+    letters to me?"&mdash;so Mr. Roscorla, who was a cautious and
+    reflective person, communed with himself.&mdash;"He is no
+    particular friend <span class="pagenum">[Pg 422]</span>of mine.
+    He must be driving at something. Now he says that I am to be of
+    good cheer. I must not think anything of what he formerly
+    wrote. Mr. Trelyon is leaving Eglosilyan for good, and his
+    mother will at last have some peace of mind. What a pity it is
+    that this sensitive creature should be at the mercy of the rude
+    passions of this son of hers! that she should have no
+    protector! that she should be allowed to mope herself to death
+    in a melancholy seclusion!"</p>
+
+    <p>An odd fancy occurred to Mr. Roscorla at this moment, and he
+    smiled: "I think I have got a clew to Mr. Barnes's
+    disinterested anxiety about my affairs. The widower would like
+    to protect the solitary and unfriended widow, but the young man
+    is in the way. The young man would be very much in the way if
+    he married Wenna Rosewarne; the widower's fears drive him into
+    suspicion, then into certainty; nothing will do but that I
+    should return to England at once and spoil this little
+    arrangement. But as soon as Harry Trelyon declares his
+    intention of leaving Eglosilyan for good, then my affairs may
+    go anyhow. Mr. Barnes finds the coast clear: I am bidden to
+    stay where I am. Well, that is what I mean to do; but now I
+    fancy I understand Mr. Barnes's generous friendship for me and
+    his affectionate correspondence."</p>
+
+    <p>He turned to Wenna's letter with much compunction. He owed
+    her some atonement for having listened to the disingenuous
+    reports of this scheming clergyman. How could he have so far
+    forgotten the firm, uncompromising rectitude of the girl's
+    character, her sensitive notions of honor, the promises she had
+    given?</p>
+
+    <p>He read her letter, and as he read his eyes seemed to grow
+    hot with rage. He paid no heed to the passionate contrition of
+    the trembling lines&mdash;to the obvious pain that she had
+    endured in telling the story, without concealment, against
+    herself&mdash;to the utter and abject wretchedness with which
+    she awaited his decision. It was thus that she had kept faith
+    with him the moment his back was turned! Such were the
+    safeguards afforded by a woman's sense of honor! What a fool he
+    had been, to imagine that any woman could remain true to her
+    promise so soon as some other object of flirtation and
+    incipient love-making came in her way!</p>
+
+    <p>He looked at the letter again: he could scarcely believe it
+    to be in her handwriting. This the quiet, reasonable, gentle
+    and timid Wenna Rosewarne, whose virtues were almost a trifle
+    too severe? The despair and remorse of the letter did not touch
+    him&mdash;he was too angry and indignant over the insult to
+    himself&mdash;but it astonished him. The passionate emotion of
+    those closely-written pages he could scarcely connect with the
+    shy, frank, kindly little girl he remembered: it was a cry of
+    agony from a tortured woman, and he knew at least that for her
+    the old quiet time was over.</p>
+
+    <p>He knew not what to do. All this that had happened was new
+    to him: it was old and gone by in England, and who could tell
+    what further complications might have arisen? But his anger
+    required some vent: he went in-doors, called for a lamp, and
+    sat down and wrote with a hard and resolute look on his
+    face:</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"I have received your letter. I am not surprised. You
+        are a woman, and I ought to have known that a woman's
+        promise is of value so long as you are by her side to see
+        that she keeps it. You ask what reparation you can make: I
+        ask if there is any that you can suggest. No: you have done
+        what cannot be undone. Do you think a man would marry a
+        woman who is in love with, or has been in love with,
+        another man, even if he could overlook her breach of faith
+        and the shameless thoughtlessness of her conduct? My course
+        is clear, at all events. I give you back the promise that
+        you did not know how to keep; and now you can go and ask
+        the young man who has been making a holiday toy of you
+        whether he will be pleased to marry you.</p>
+
+        <p class='author'>"RICHARD ROSCORLA."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>He sealed and addressed this letter, still with the firm,
+    hard look about his face: then he summoned a servant&mdash;a
+    tall, red-haired Irishman. He did not hesitate for a moment:
+    "Look here, Sullivan: <span class="pagenum">[Pg 423]</span>the
+    English mails go out to-morrow morning. You must ride down to
+    the post-office as hard as you can go; and if you're a few
+    minutes late, see Mr. Keith and give him my compliments, and
+    ask him if he can possibly take this letter if the mails are
+    not made up. It is of great importance. Quick, now!"</p>
+
+    <p>He watched the man go clattering down the cactus avenue
+    until he was out of sight. Then he turned, put the letters in
+    his pocket, went in-doors, and again struck a small gong that
+    did duty for a bell. He wanted his horse brought round at once.
+    He was going over to Pleasant Farm: probably he would not
+    return that night. He lit another cigar, and paced up and down
+    the gravel in front of the house until the horse was brought
+    round.</p>
+
+    <p>When he reached Pleasant Farm the stars were shining
+    overhead, and the odors of the night-flowers came floating out
+    of the forest, but inside the house there were brilliant lights
+    and the voices of men talking. A bachelor supper-party was
+    going forward. Mr. Roscorla entered, and presently was seated
+    at the hospitable board. They had never seen him so gay, and
+    they had certainly never seen him so generously inclined, for
+    Mr. Roscorla was economical in his habits. He would have them
+    all to dinner the next evening, and promised them such
+    champagne as had never been sent to Kingston before. He passed
+    round his best cigars, he hinted something about unlimited loo,
+    he drank pretty freely, and was altogether in a jovial
+    humor.</p>
+
+    <p>"England!" he said, when some one mentioned the
+    mother-country. "Of one thing I am pretty certain: England will
+    never see me again. No, a man lives here: in England he waits
+    for his death. What life I have got before me I shall live in
+    Jamaica: that is my view of the question."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then she is coming out to you?" said his host with a
+    grin.</p>
+
+    <p>Roscorla's face flushed with anger. "There is no <i>she</i>
+    in the matter," he said abruptly, almost fiercely. "I thank God
+    I am not tied to any woman!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I beg your pardon," said his host good-naturedly, who
+    did not care to recall the occasions on which Mr. Roscorla had
+    been rather pleased to admit that certain tender ties bound him
+    to his native land.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, there is not," he said. "What fool would have his
+    comfort and peace of mind depend on the caprice of a woman? I
+    like your plan better, Rogers: when they're dependent on you,
+    you can do as you like, but when they've got to be treated as
+    equals, they're the devil. No, my boys, you don't find me going
+    in for the angel in the house&mdash;she's too exacting. Is it
+    to be unlimited?"</p>
+
+    <p>Now to play unlimited loo in a reckless fashion is about the
+    easiest way of getting rid of money that the ingenuity of man
+    has devised. The other players were much better qualified to
+    run such risks than Mr. Roscorla, but none played half so
+    wildly as he. His I.O.U.'s went freely about. At one point in
+    the evening the floating paper bearing the signature of Mr.
+    Roscorla represented a sum of about three hundred pounds, and
+    yet his losses did not weigh heavily on him. At length every
+    one got tired, and it was resolved to stop short at a certain
+    hour. But from this point the luck changed: nothing could stand
+    against his cards; one by one his I.O.U.'s were recalled; and
+    when they all rose from the table he had won about forty-eight
+    pounds. He was not elated.</p>
+
+    <p>He went to his room and sat down in an easy-chair; and then
+    it seemed to him that he saw Eglosilyan once more, and the far
+    coasts of Cornwall, and the broad uplands lying under a blue
+    English sky. That was his home, and he had cut himself away
+    from it, and from the little glimmer of romance that had
+    recently brightened it for him. Every bit of the place, too,
+    was associated somehow with Wenna Rosewarne. He could see the
+    seat fronting the Atlantic on which she used to sit and sew on
+    the fine summer forenoons. He could see the rough road leading
+    over the downs on which he met her one wintry morning, she
+    wrapped up and driving her father's dog-cart, while the red sun
+    in the sky seemed to brighten the pink color the cold wind had
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 424]</span>brought into her cheeks.
+    He thought of her walking sedately up to church; of her wild
+    scramblings among the rocks with Mabyn; of her enjoyment of a
+    fierce wind when it came laden with the spray of the great
+    rollers breaking on the cliff outside. What was the song she
+    used to sing to herself as she went along the quiet woodland
+    ways?&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <p>Your Polly has never been false, she declares,</p>
+
+        <p>Since last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He could not let her go. All the anger of wounded vanity had
+    left his heart: he thought now only of the chance he was
+    throwing away. Where else could he hope to find for himself so
+    pleasant a companion and friend, who would cheer up his dull
+    daily life with her warm sympathies, her quick humor, her
+    winning womanly ways?</p>
+
+    <p>He thought of that letter he had sent away, and cursed his
+    own folly. So long as she was bound by her promise he knew he
+    could marry her when he pleased, but now he had voluntarily
+    released her. In a couple of weeks she would hold her
+    manumission in her hands; the past would no longer have any
+    power over her; if ever they met they would meet as mere
+    acquaintances. Every moment the prize slipping out of his grasp
+    seemed to grow more valuable; his vexation with himself grew
+    intolerable; he suddenly resolved that he would make a wild
+    effort to get back that fatal letter.</p>
+
+    <p>He had sat communing with himself for over an hour: all the
+    household was fast asleep. He would not wake any one, for fear
+    of being compelled to give explanations; so he noiselessly
+    crept along the dark passages until he got to the door, which
+    he carefully opened and let himself out. The night was
+    wonderfully clear, the constellations throbbing and glittering
+    overhead: the trees were black against the pale sky.</p>
+
+    <p>He made his way round to the stables, and had some sort of
+    notion that he would try to get at his horse, until it occurred
+    to him that some suddenly awakened servant or master would
+    probably send a bullet whizzing at him. So he abandoned that
+    enterprise, and set off to walk as quickly as he could down the
+    slopes of the mountain, with the stars still shining over his
+    head, the air sweet with powerful scents, the leaves of the
+    bushes hanging silently in the semi-darkness.</p>
+
+    <p>How long he walked he did not know: he was not aware that
+    when he reached the sleeping town a pale gray was lightening
+    the eastern skies. He went to the house of the postmaster and
+    hurriedly aroused him. Mr. Keith began to think that the
+    ordinarily sedate Mr. Roscorla had gone mad.</p>
+
+    <p>"But I must have the letter," he said. "Come now, Keith, you
+    can give it me back if you like. Of course I know it is very
+    wrong, but you'll do it to oblige a friend."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear sir," said the postmaster, who could not get time
+    for explanation, "the mails were made up last night&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, but you can open the English bag."</p>
+
+    <p>"They were sent on board last night."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then the packet is still in the harbor: you might come down
+    with me."</p>
+
+    <p>"She sails at daybreak."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not daybreak yet," said Mr. Roscorla, looking up.</p>
+
+    <p>Then he saw how the gray dawn had come over the skies,
+    banishing the stars, and he became aware of the wan light
+    shining around him. With the new day his life was altered; he
+    would no more be as he had been; the chief aim and purpose of
+    his existence had been changed.</p>
+
+    <p>Walking heedlessly back, he came to a point from which he
+    had a distant view of the harbor and the sea beyond. Far away
+    out on the dull gray plain was a steamer slowly making her way
+    toward the east. Was that the packet bound for England,
+    carrying to Wenna Rosewarne the message that she was
+    free?</p><br />
+
+
+    <h3><a id="CHAPTER_XXXI"
+       name="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h3>
+
+    <p class="center"><b>"BLUE IS THE SWEETEST."</b></p><br />
+
+
+    <p>The following correspondence may now, without any great
+    breach of confidence, be published:</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p class="author">"EGLOSILYAN, Monday morning.</p>
+
+        <p>DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+        425]</span>what Mr. Roscorla says in the letter Wenna has
+        just received? Why, that you could not get up that ring by
+        dredging, but that you must have bought the other one at
+        Plymouth. Just think of the wicked old wretch fancying such
+        things! As if you would give a ring <i>of emeralds to any
+        one</i>! Tell me that this is a story, that I may bid Wenna
+        contradict him at once. I have got no patience with a man
+        who is given over to such mean suspicions. Yours
+        faithfully,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">MABYN ROSEWARNE."</p><br />
+
+
+        <p class="author">"LONDON, Tuesday night.</p>
+
+        <p>Dear Mabyn: I am sorry to say Mr. Roscorla is right. It
+        was a foolish trick&mdash;I did not think it would be
+        successful, for my hitting the size of her finger was
+        rather a stroke of luck&mdash;but I thought it would amuse
+        her if she did find it out after an hour or two. I was
+        afraid to tell her afterward, for she would think it
+        impertinent. What's to be done? Is she angry about it.
+        Yours sincerely,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">HARRY TRELYON."</p><br />
+
+
+        <p class="author">"EGLOSILYAN.</p>
+
+        <p>Dear Mr. Trelyon: How could you do such a thing? Why, to
+        give Wenna, of all people in the world, an emerald ring,
+        just after I had got Mr. Roscorla to give her one, for bad
+        luck to himself! Why, how could you do it? I don't know
+        what to say about it, unless you demand it back, <i>and
+        send her one with sapphires in it at once</i>.</p>
+
+        <p class="author">Yours, M.R.</p>
+
+        <p>P.S.&mdash;As quick as ever you can."</p><br />
+
+
+        <p class="author">"LONDON, Friday evening.</p>
+
+        <p>Dear Mabyn: Why, you know she wouldn't take a sapphire
+        ring or any other from me. Yours faithfully,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">H. TRELYON."</p><br />
+
+
+        <p>"MY DEAR MR. TRELYON: Pray don't lose any time in
+        writing, but send me at once a sapphire ring for Wenna. You
+        have hit the size once, and you can do it again; but in any
+        case I have marked the size on this bit of thread, and the
+        jeweler will understand. And please, dear Mr. Trelyon,
+        don't get a very expensive one, but a plain, good one, just
+        what a poor person like me would buy for a present if I
+        wanted to. And post it at once, please: <i>this is very
+        important</i>. Yours most sincerely,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">MABYN ROSEWARNE."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>In consequence of this correspondence Mabyn one morning
+    proceeded to seek out her sister, whom she found busy with the
+    accounts of the sewing club, which was now in a flourishing
+    condition. Mabyn seemed a little shy. "Oh, Wenna," she said, "I
+    have something to tell you. You know I wrote to ask Mr. Trelyon
+    about the ring. Well, he's very, very sorry&mdash;oh, you don't
+    know how sorry he is, Wenna&mdash;but it's quite true. He
+    thought he'd please you by getting the ring, and that you would
+    make a joke of it when you found it out; and then he was afraid
+    to speak of it afterward."</p>
+
+    <p>Wenna had quietly slipped the ring off her finger. She
+    betrayed no emotion at the mention of Mr. Trelyon's name. Her
+    face was a trifle red: that was, all. "It was a stupid thing to
+    do," she said, "but I suppose he meant no harm. Will you send
+    him back the ring?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," she said eagerly. "Give me the ring, Wenna."</p>
+
+    <p>She carefully wrapped it up in a piece of paper and put it
+    in her pocket. Any one who knew her would have seen by her face
+    that she meant to give that ring short shrift. Then she said
+    timidly, "You are not very angry, Wenna?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No. I am sorry I should have vexed Mr. Roscorla by my
+    carelessness."</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna," the younger sister continued, even more timidly,
+    "do you know what I've heard about rings?&mdash;that when
+    you've worn one for some time on a finger, you ought never to
+    leave it off altogether: I think it affects the circulation, or
+    something of that kind. Now, if Mr. Trelyon were to send you
+    another ring, just to&mdash;to keep the place of that one until
+    Mr. Roscorla came back&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Mabyn, you must be mad to think of such a thing," said her
+    sister, looking down.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh yes," Mabyn said meekly, "I thought you wouldn't like
+    the notion of Mr. Trelyon giving you a ring. And so, dear
+    Wenna, I've&mdash;I've got a ring for <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    426]</span>you&mdash;you won't mind taking it from me&mdash;and
+    if you do wear it on the engaged finger, why, that doesn't
+    matter, don't you see?"</p>
+
+    <p>She produced the ring of dark blue stones, and herself put
+    it on Wenna's finger.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mabyn," Wenna said, "how could you be so extravagant?
+    And just after you gave me that ten shillings for the
+    Leans!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You be quiet," said Mabyn briskly, going off with a light
+    look on her face.</p>
+
+    <p>And yet there was some determination about her mouth. She
+    hastily put on her hat and went out. She took the path by the
+    hillside over the little harbor, and eventually she reached the
+    face of the black cliff, at the foot of which a gray-green sea
+    was dashing in white masses of foam: there was not a living
+    thing around her but the choughs and daws, and the white
+    seagulls sailing overhead.</p>
+
+    <p>She took out a large sheet of brown paper and placed it on
+    the ground. Then she sought out a bit of rock weighing about
+    two pounds. Then she took out the little parcel which contained
+    the emerald ring, tied it up carefully along with the stone in
+    the sheet of brown paper: finally, she rose up to her full
+    height and heaved the whole into the sea. A splash down there,
+    and that was all.</p>
+
+    <p>She clapped her hands with joy: "And now, my precious
+    emerald ring, that's the last of you, I imagine! And there
+    isn't much chance of a fish bringing you back, to make mischief
+    with your ugly green stones."</p>
+
+    <p>Then she went home, and wrote this note:</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p class="author">"EGLOSILYAN, Monday.</p>
+
+        <p>DEAR MR. TRELYON: I have just thrown the emerald ring
+        you gave Wenna into the sea, and she wears the other one
+        now <i>on her engaged finger</i>, but she thinks I bought
+        it. Did you ever hear of an old-fashioned rhyme that is
+        this?&mdash;</p>
+
+        <div class="poem">
+            <div class="stanza">
+                <p>Oh, green is forsaken,</p>
+
+                <p class="i2">And yellow's forsworn;</p>
+
+                <p>And blue is thesweetest</p>
+
+                <p class="i2">Color that's worn.</p>
+            </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p>You can't tell what mischief that emerald ring might not
+        have done. But the sapphires that Wenna is wearing now are
+        perfectly beautiful; and Wenna is not so heartbroken that
+        she isn't very proud of them. I never saw such a beautiful
+        ring. Yours sincerely,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">MABYN ROSEWARNE.</p>
+
+        <p>P.S.&mdash;Are you never coming back to Eglosilyan any
+        more?"</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>So the days went by, and Mabyn waited with a secret hope to
+    see what answer Mr. Roscorla would send to that letter of
+    confession and contrition Wenna had written to him at Penzance.
+    The letter had been written as an act of duty, and posted too;
+    but there was no mail going out for ten days thereafter, so
+    that a considerable time had to elapse before the answer
+    came.</p>
+
+    <p>During that time Wenna went about her ordinary duties just
+    as if there was no hidden fire of pain consuming her heart;
+    there was no word spoken by her or to her of all that had
+    recently occurred; her mother and sister were glad to see her
+    so continuously busy. At first she shrank from going up to
+    Trelyon Hall, and would rather have corresponded with Mrs.
+    Trelyon about their joint work of charity, but she conquered
+    the feeling, and went and saw the gentle lady, who perceived
+    nothing altered or strange in her demeanor. At last the letter
+    from Jamaica came; and Mabyn, having sent it up to her sister's
+    room, waited for a few minutes, and then followed it. She was a
+    little afraid, despite her belief in the virtues of the
+    sapphire ring.</p>
+
+    <p>When she entered the room she uttered a slight cry of alarm
+    and ran forward to her sister. Wenna was seated on a chair by
+    the side of the bed, but she had thrown her arms out on the
+    bed, her head was between them, and she was sobbing as if her
+    heart would break.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna, what is the matter? what has he said to you?"</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn's eyes were all afire now. Wenna would not answer. She
+    would not even raise her head.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wenna, I want to see that letter."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh no, no!" the girl moaned. "I deserve it: he says what is
+    true. I want <span class="pagenum">[Pg 427]</span>you to leave
+    me alone, Mabyn: you&mdash;you can't do anything to help
+    this."</p>
+
+    <p>But Mabyn had by this time perceived that her sister held in
+    her hand, crumpled up, the letter which was the cause of this
+    wild outburst of grief. She went forward and firmly took it out
+    of the yielding fingers: then she turned to the light and read
+    it. "Oh, if I were a man!" she said; and then the very passion
+    of her indignation, finding no other vent, filled her eyes with
+    proud and angry tears. She forgot to rejoice that her sister
+    was now free. She only saw the cruel insult of those lines, and
+    the fashion in which it had struck down its victim. "Wenna,"
+    she said hotly, "you ought to have more spirit. You don't mean
+    to say you care for the opinion of a man who would write to any
+    girl like that? You ought to be precious glad that he has shown
+    himself in his true colors. Why, he never cared a bit for
+    you&mdash;never!&mdash;or he would never turn at a moment's
+    notice and insult you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have deserved it all; it is every word of it true; he
+    could not have written otherwise." That was all that Wenna
+    would say between her sobs.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," retorted Mabyn, "after all, I am glad he was angry.
+    I did not think he had so much spirit. And if this is his
+    opinion of you, I don't think it is worth heeding, only I hope
+    he'll keep to it. Yes, I do. I hope he'll continue to think you
+    everything that is wicked, and remain out in Jamaica. Wenna,
+    you must not lie and cry like that. Come, get up, and look at
+    the strawberries that Mr. Trewhella has sent you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Please, Mabyn, leave me alone, there's a good girl."</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall be up again in a few minutes, then: I want you to
+    drive me over to St. Gwennis. Wenna, I <i>must</i> go over to
+    St. Gwennis before lunch; and father won't let me have anybody
+    to drive. Do you hear, Wenna?"</p>
+
+    <p>Then she went out and down into the kitchen, where she
+    bothered Jennifer for a few minutes until she had got an iron
+    heated at the fire. With this implement she carefully smoothed
+    out the crumpled letter, and then she as carefully folded it,
+    took it up stairs, and put it safely away in her own desk. She
+    had just time to write a few lines:</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        "DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know what news I have got to tell
+        you? Can you guess? The engagement between Mr. Roscorla and
+        Wenna <i>is broken off</i>; and I have got in my possession
+        the letter in which he sets her free. If you knew how glad
+        I am! I should like to cry 'Hurrah! hurrah!' all through
+        the streets of Eglosilyan; and I think every one else would
+        do the same if only they knew. Of course she is very much
+        grieved, for he has been most insulting. I cannot tell you
+        the things he has said: you would kill him if you heard
+        them. But she will come round very soon, I know: and then
+        she will have her freedom again, and no more emerald rings,
+        and letters all filled with arguments. Would you like to
+        see her, Mr. Trelyon? But don't come yet&mdash;not for a
+        long time: she would only get angry and obstinate. I'll
+        tell you when to come; and in the mean time, you know, she
+        is still wearing your ring, so that you need not be afraid.
+        How glad I shall be to see you again! Yours most
+        faithfully,
+
+        <p class="author">"MABYN ROSEWARNE."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>She went down stairs quickly and put this letter in the
+    letter-box. There was an air of triumph on her face. She had
+    worked for this result&mdash;aided by the mysterious powers of
+    Fate, whom she had conjured to serve her&mdash;and now the
+    welcome end of her labors had arrived. She bade the hostler get
+    out the dog-cart, as if she were the queen of Sheba going to
+    visit Solomon. She went marching up to her sister's room,
+    announcing her approach with a more than ordinarily accurate
+    rendering of "Oh, the men of merry, merry England!" so that a
+    stranger might have fancied that he heard the very voice of
+    Harry Trelyon, with all its unmelodious vigor, ringing along
+    the passage.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="CHAPTER_XXXII"
+       name="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h3>
+
+    <p class="center"><b>THE EXILE'S RETURN.</b></p><br />
+
+
+    <p>Perhaps you have been away in distant parts of the earth,
+    each day crowded with new experiences and slowly obscuring
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 428]</span>the clear pictures of
+    England with which you left: perhaps you have only been hidden
+    away in London, amid its ceaseless noise, its strange faces,
+    its monotonous recurrence of duties. Let us say, in any case,
+    that you are returning home for a space to the quiet of
+    Northern Cornwall.</p>
+
+    <p>You look out of the high window of a Plymouth hotel early in
+    the morning. There is a promise of a beautiful autumn
+    day&mdash;a ring of pink mist lies around the horizon; overhead
+    the sky is clear and blue; the white sickle of the moon still
+    lingers visible. The new warmth of the day begins to melt the
+    hoarfrost in the meadows, and you know that out beyond the town
+    the sun is shining brilliantly on the wet grass, with the brown
+    cattle gleaming red in the light.</p>
+
+    <p>You leave the great world behind, with all its bustle,
+    crowds and express engines, when you get into the quiet little
+    train that takes you leisurely up to Launceston, through woods,
+    by the sides of rivers, over great valleys. There is a sense of
+    repose about this railway journey. The train stops at any
+    number of small stations&mdash;apparently to let the guard have
+    a chat with the station-master&mdash;and then jogs on in a
+    quiet, contented fashion. And on such an autumn day as this,
+    that is a beautiful, still, rich-colored and English-looking
+    country through which it passes. Here is a deep valley, all
+    glittering with the dew and the sunlight. Down in the hollow a
+    farmyard is half hidden behind the yellowing elms; a boy is
+    driving a flock of white geese along the twisting road; the
+    hedges are red with the withering briers. Up here, along the
+    hillsides, the woods of scrub-oak are glowing with every
+    imaginable hue of gold, crimson and bronze, except where a few
+    dark firs appear, or where a tuft of broom, pure and bright in
+    its green, stands out among the faded brackens. The gorse is
+    profusely in bloom: it always is in Cornwall. Still farther
+    over there are sheep visible on the uplands; beyond these,
+    again, the bleak brown moors rise into peaks of hills; overhead
+    the silent blue, and all around the sweet, fresh country
+    air.</p>
+
+    <p>With a sharp whistle the small train darts into an opening
+    in the hills: here we are in the twilight of a great wood. The
+    tall trees are becoming bare; the ground is red with the fallen
+    leaves; through the branches the blue-winged jay flies,
+    screaming harshly; you can smell the damp and resinous odors of
+    the ferns. Out again we get into the sunlight! and lo! a
+    rushing, brawling, narrow stream, its clear flood swaying this
+    way and that by the big stones; a wall of rock overhead crowned
+    by glowing furze; a herd of red cattle sent scampering through
+    the bright-green grass. Now we get slowly into a small white
+    station, and catch a glimpse of a tiny town over in the valley:
+    again we go on by wood and valley, by rocks and streams and
+    farms. It is a pleasant drive on such a morning.</p>
+
+    <p>In one of the carriages in this train Master Harry Trelyon
+    and his grandmother were seated. How he had ever persuaded her
+    to go with him to Cornwall by train was mysterious enough, for
+    the old lady thoroughly hated all such modern devices. It was
+    her custom to go traveling all over the country with a big,
+    old-fashioned phaeton and a pair of horses; and her chief
+    amusement during these long excursions was driving up to any
+    big house she took a fancy to, in order to see if there was a
+    chance of its being let to her. The faithful old servant who
+    attended her, and who was about as old as the coachman, had a
+    great respect for his mistress, but sometimes he
+    swore&mdash;inaudibly&mdash;when she ordered him to make the
+    usual inquiry at the front-door of some noble lord's country
+    residence, which he would as soon have thought of letting as of
+    forfeiting his seat in the House of Peers or his hopes of
+    heaven. But the carriage and horses were coming down, all the
+    same, to Eglosilyan, to take her back again.</p>
+
+    <p>"Harry," she was saying at this moment, "the longer I look
+    at you, the more positive I am that you are ill. I don't like
+    your color: you are thin and careworn and anxious. What is the
+    matter with you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Going to school again at twenty-one
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 429]</span>is hard work,
+    grandmother," he said. "Don't you try it. But I don't think I'm
+    particularly ill: few folks can keep a complexion like yours,
+    grandmother."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said the old lady, rather pleased, "many's the time
+    they said that about me, that there wasn't much to complain of
+    in my looks; and that's what a girl thinks of then, and
+    sweethearts and balls, and all the other men looking savage
+    when she's dancing with any one of them. Well, well, Harry; and
+    what is all this about you and the young lady your mother has
+    made such a pet of? Oh yes, I have my suspicions; and she's
+    engaged to another man, isn't she? Your grandfather would have
+    fought him, I'll be bound; but we live in a peaceable way now.
+    Well, well, no matter; but hasn't that got something to do with
+    your glum looks, Harry?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I tell you, grandmother, I have been hard at work in
+    London. You can't look very brilliant after a few months in
+    London."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what keeps you in London at this time of the year?"
+    said this plain-spoken old lady. "Your fancy about getting into
+    the army? Nonsense, man! don't tell me such a tale as that.
+    There's a woman in the case: a Trelyon never puts himself so
+    much about from any other cause. To stop in town at this time
+    of the year! Why, your grandfather, and your father too, would
+    have laughed to hear of it. I haven't had a brace of birds or a
+    pheasant sent me since last autumn&mdash;not one. Come, sir, be
+    frank with me. I'm an old woman, but I can hold my tongue."</p>
+
+    <p>"There's nothing to tell, grandmother," he said. "You just
+    about hit it in that guess of yours: I suppose Juliott told
+    you. Well, the girl is engaged to another man: what more is to
+    be said?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The man's in Jamaica?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why are you going down to-day?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Only for a brief visit: I've been a long time away."</p>
+
+    <p>The old lady sat silent for some time. She had heard of the
+    whole affair before, but she wished to have the rumor
+    confirmed. And at first she was sorely troubled that her
+    grandson should contemplate marrying the daughter of an
+    innkeeper, however intelligent, amiable and well-educated the
+    young lady might be; but she knew the Trelyons pretty well, and
+    knew that if he had made up his mind to it, argument and
+    remonstrance would be useless. Moreover, she had a great
+    affection for this young man, and was strongly disposed to
+    sympathize with any wish of his. She grew in time to have a
+    great interest in Miss Wenna Rosewarne: at this moment the
+    chief object of her visit was to make her acquaintance. She
+    grew to pity young Trelyon in his disappointment, and was
+    inclined to believe that the person in Jamaica was something of
+    a public enemy. The fact was, her mere sympathy for her
+    grandson would have converted her to a sympathy with the
+    wildest project he could have formed.</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear! dear!" she said, "what awkward things engagements are
+    when they stand in your way! Shall I tell you the truth? I was
+    just about as good as engaged to John Cholmondeley when I gave
+    myself up to your grandfather. But there! when a girl's heart
+    pulls her one way, and her promise pulls her another way, she
+    needs to be a very firm-minded young woman if she means to hold
+    fast. John Cholmondeley was as good-hearted a young fellow as
+    ever lived&mdash;yes, I will say that for him&mdash;and I was
+    mightily sorry for him; but&mdash;but you see, that's how
+    things come about. Dear! dear! that evening at Bath&mdash;I
+    remember it as well as if it was yesterday; and it was only two
+    months after I had run away with your grandfather. Yes, there
+    was a ball that night; and we had kept very quiet, you know,
+    after coming back; but this time your grandfather had set his
+    heart on taking me out before everybody, and you know he had to
+    have his way. As sure as I live, Harry, the first man I saw was
+    John Cholmondeley&mdash;just as white as a ghost: they said he
+    had been drinking hard and gambling pretty nearly the whole of
+    these two months. He wouldn't come near me: he wouldn't take
+    the least notice of me. The whole night he pretended to
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 430]</span>be vastly gay and merry:
+    he danced with everybody, but his eyes never came near me.
+    Well&mdash;you know what a girl is&mdash;that vexed me a little
+    bit; for there never was a man such a slave to a woman as he
+    was to me. Dear! dear! the way my father used to laugh at him,
+    until he got wild with anger! Well, I went up to him at last,
+    when he was by himself, and I said to him, just in a careless
+    way, you know, 'John, aren't you going to dance with me
+    to-night?' Well, do you know, his face got quite white again;
+    and he said&mdash;I remember the very words, all as cold as
+    ice&mdash;'Madam,' says he, 'I am glad to find that your
+    hurried trip to Scotland has impaired neither your good looks
+    nor your self-command.' Wasn't it cruel of him?&mdash;but then,
+    poor fellow! he had been badly used, I admit that. Poor young
+    fellow! he never did marry; and I don't believe he ever forgot
+    me to his dying day. Many a time I'd like to have told him all
+    about it, and how there was no use in my marrying him if I
+    liked another man better; but though we met sometimes, and
+    especially when he came down about the Reform Bill
+    time&mdash;and I do believe I made a red-hot radical of
+    him&mdash;he was always very proud, and I hadn't the heart to
+    go back on the old story. But I'll tell you what your
+    grandfather did for him: he got him returned at the very next
+    election, and he on the other side, too; and after a bit a man
+    begins to think more about getting a seat in Parliament than
+    about courting an empty-headed girl. I have met this Mr.
+    Roscorla, haven't I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course you have."</p>
+
+    <p>"A good-looking man rather, with a fresh complexion and gray
+    hair?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know what you mean by good looks," said Trelyon
+    shortly. "I shouldn't think people would call him an Adonis.
+    But there's no accounting for tastes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Perhaps I may have been mistaken," the old lady said, "but
+    there was a gentleman at Plymouth Station who seemed to be
+    something like what I can recall of Mr. Roscorla: you didn't
+    see him, I suppose?"</p>
+
+    <p>"At Plymouth Station, grandmother?" the young man said,
+    becoming rather uneasy.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. He got into the train just as we came up. A
+    neatly-dressed man, gray hair and a healthy-looking face. I
+    must have seen him somewhere about here before."</p>
+
+    <p>"Roscorla is in Jamaica," said Trelyon positively.</p>
+
+    <p>Just at this moment the train slowed into Launceston
+    Station, and the people began to get out on the platform.</p>
+
+    <p>"That is the man I mean," said the old lady.</p>
+
+    <p>Trelyon turned and stared. There, sure enough, was Mr.
+    Roscorla, looking not one whit different from the precise,
+    elderly, fresh-colored gentleman who had left Cornwall some
+    seven months before.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good Lord, Harry!" said the old lady nervously, looking at
+    her grandson's face, "don't have a fight here."</p>
+
+    <p>The next second Mr. Roscorla wheeled round, anxious about
+    some luggage, and now it was his turn to stare in astonishment
+    and anger&mdash;anger, because he had been told that Harry
+    Trelyon never came near Cornwall, and his first sudden
+    suspicion was that he had been deceived. All this had happened
+    in a minute. Trelyon was the first to regain his self-command.
+    He walked deliberately forward, held out his hand, and said,
+    "Hillo, Roscorla! back in England again? I didn't know you were
+    coming."</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said Mr. Roscorla, with his face grown just a trifle
+    grayer&mdash;"no, I suppose not."</p>
+
+    <p>In point of fact, he had not informed any one of his coming.
+    He had prepared a little surprise. The chief motive of his
+    return was to get Wenna to cancel for ever that unlucky letter
+    of release he had sent her, which he had done more or less
+    successfully in subsequent correspondence; but he had also
+    hoped to introduce a little romanticism into his meeting with
+    her. He would enter Eglosilyan on foot. He would wander down to
+    the rocks at the mouth of the harbor on the chance of finding
+    Wenna there. Might he not hear her humming to herself, as she
+    sat and sewed, some snatch of "Your Polly has never been false,
+    she declares"? <span class="pagenum">[Pg 431]</span>or was that
+    the very last ballad in the world she would now think of
+    singing? Then the delight of regarding again the placid, bright
+    face and earnest eyes, of securing once more a perfect
+    understanding between them, and their glad return to the
+    inn!</p>
+
+    <p>All this had been spoiled by the appearance of this young
+    man: he loved him none the more for that.</p>
+
+    <p>"I suppose you haven't got a trap waiting for you?" said
+    Trelyon with cold politeness. "I can drive you over if you
+    like."</p>
+
+    <p>He could do no less than make the offer: the other had no
+    alternative but to accept. Old Mrs. Trelyon heard this compact
+    made with considerable dread.</p>
+
+    <p>Indeed, it was a dismal drive over to Eglosilyan, bright as
+    the forenoon was. The old lady did her best to be courteous to
+    Mr. Roscorla and cheerful with her grandson, but she was
+    oppressed by the belief that it was only her presence that had
+    so far restrained the two men from giving vent to the rage and
+    jealousy that filled their hearts.</p>
+
+    <p>The conversation kept up was singular.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you going to remain in England long, Roscorla?" said
+    the younger of the two men, making an unnecessary cut at one of
+    the two horses he was driving.</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't know yet. Perhaps I may."</p>
+
+    <p>"Because," said Trelyon with angry impertinence, "I suppose
+    if you do, you'll have to look round for a housekeeper."</p>
+
+    <p>The insinuation was felt; and Roscorla's eyes looked
+    anything but pleasant as he answered, "You forget I've got Mrs.
+    Cornish to look after my house."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mrs. Cornish is not much of a companion for you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Men seldom want to make companions of their housekeepers,"
+    was the retort, uttered rather hotly.</p>
+
+    <p>"But sometimes they wish to have the two offices combined,
+    for economy's sake."</p>
+
+    <p>At this juncture Mrs. Trelyon struck in, somewhat wildly,
+    with a remark about an old ruined house which seemed to have
+    had at one time a private still inside: the danger was staved
+    off for the moment. "Harry," she said, "mind what you are
+    about: the horses seem very fresh."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, they like a good run: I suspect they've had precious
+    little to do since I left Cornwall."</p>
+
+    <p>Did she fear that the young man was determined to throw them
+    into a ditch or down a precipice, with the wild desire of
+    killing his rival at any cost? If she had known the whole state
+    of affairs between them&mdash;the story of the emerald ring,
+    for example&mdash;she would have understood at least the
+    difficulty experienced by these two men in remaining decently
+    civil toward each other.</p>
+
+    <p>So they passed over the high and wide moors until far ahead
+    they caught a glimpse of the blue plain of the sea. Mr.
+    Roscorla relapsed into silence: he was becoming a trifle
+    nervous. He was probably so occupied with anticipations of his
+    meeting with Wenna that he failed to notice the objects around
+    him; and one of these, now become visible, was a very handsome
+    young lady, who was coming smartly along a wooded lane,
+    carrying a basket of bright-colored flowers.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, here's Mabyn Rosewarne! I must wait for her."</p>
+
+    <p>Mabyn had seen at a distance Mrs. Trelyon's gray horses: she
+    guessed that the young master had come back, and that he had
+    brought some strangers with him. She did not like to be stared
+    at by strangers. She came along the path with her eyes fixed on
+    the ground: she thought it impertinent of Harry Trelyon to wait
+    to speak to her.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mabyn," he cried, "you must let me drive you home. And
+    let me introduce you to my grandmother. There is some one else
+    whom you know."</p>
+
+    <p>The young lady bowed to Mrs. Trelyon; then she stared and
+    changed color somewhat when she saw Mr. Roscorla; then she was
+    helped up into a seat.</p>
+
+    <p>"How do you do, Mr. Trelyon?" she said. "I am very glad to
+    see you have come back.&mdash;How do you do, Mr. Roscorla?"</p>
+
+    <p>She shook hands with them both, but not quite in the same
+    fashion.</p>
+
+    <p>"And you have sent no message that <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    432]</span>you were coming?" she said, looking her companion
+    straight in the face.</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no, I did not," he said, angry and embarrassed by
+    the open enmity of the girl. "I thought I should surprise you
+    all."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have surprised me, any way," said Mabyn, "for how can
+    you be so thoughtless? Wenna has been very ill&mdash;I tell you
+    she has been very ill indeed, though she has said little about
+    it&mdash;and the least thing upsets her. How can you think of
+    frightening her so? Do you know what you are doing? I wish you
+    would go away back to Launceston or London, and write her a
+    note there, if you are coming, instead of trying to frighten
+    her."</p>
+
+    <p>This was the language, it appeared to Mr. Roscorla, of a
+    virago; only, viragoes do not ordinarily have tears in their
+    eyes, as was the case with Mabyn when she finished her
+    indignant appeal.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Trelyon, do you think it is fair to go and frighten
+    Wenna so?" she demanded.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is none of my business," Trelyon answered with an air as
+    if he had said to his rival, "Yes, go and kill the girl. You
+    are a nice sort of gentleman, to come down from London to kill
+    the girl!"</p>
+
+    <p>"This is absurd," said Mr. Roscorla contemptuously, for he
+    was stung into reprisal by the persecution of these two: "a
+    girl isn't so easily frightened out of her wits. Why, she must
+    have known that my coming home was at any time probable."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have no doubt she feared that it was," said Mabyn, partly
+    to herself: for once she was afraid of speaking out. Presently,
+    however, a brighter light came over the girl's face. "Why, I
+    quite forgot," she said, addressing Harry Trelyon&mdash;"I
+    quite forgot that Wenna was just going up to Trelyon Hall when
+    I left. Of course she will be up there. You will be able to
+    tell her that Mr. Roscorla has arrived, won't you?"</p>
+
+    <p>The malice of this suggestion was so apparent that the young
+    gentleman in front could not help grinning at it: fortunately,
+    his face could not be seen by his rival. What <i>he</i> thought
+    of the whole arrangement can only be imagined. And so, as it
+    happened, Mr. Roscorla and his friend Mabyn were dropped at the
+    inn, while Harry Trelyon drove his grandmother up and on to the
+    Hall.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Harry," the old lady said, "I am glad to be able to
+    breathe at last: I thought you two were going to kill each
+    other."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is no fear of that," the young man said: "that is not
+    the way in which this affair has to be settled. It is entirely
+    a matter for her decision; and look how everything is in his
+    favor. I am not even allowed to say a word to her; and even if
+    I could, he is a deal cleverer than me in argument. He would
+    argue my head off in half an hour."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you don't turn a girl's heart round by argument, Harry.
+    When a girl has to choose between a young lover and an elderly
+    one, it isn't always good sense that directs her choice. Is
+    Miss Wenna Rosewarne at all like her sister?"</p>
+
+    <p>"She's not such a tomboy," he said, "but she is quite as
+    straightforward and proud, and quick to tell you what is the
+    right thing to do. There's no sort of shamming tolerated by
+    these two girls. But then Wenna is gentler and quieter, and
+    more soft and lovable, than Mabyn&mdash;in my fancy, you know;
+    and she is more humorous and clever, so that she never gets
+    into those school-girl rages. But it is really a shame to
+    compare them like that; and, indeed, if any one said the least
+    thing against one of these girls, the other would precious soon
+    make him regret the day he was born. You don't catch me doing
+    that with either of them. I've had a warning already when I
+    hinted that Mabyn might probably manage to keep her husband in
+    good order. And so she would, I believe, if the husband were
+    not of the right sort; but when she is really fond of anybody,
+    she becomes their slave out and out. There is nothing she
+    wouldn't do for her sister; and her sister thinks there's
+    nobody in the world like Mabyn. So you see&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>He stopped in the middle of this sentence.</p>
+
+    <p>"Grandmother," he said, almost in a whisper, "here she is
+    coming along the road."</p>
+
+    <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 433]</span>"Miss Rosewarne?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes: shall I introduce you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"If you like."</p>
+
+    <p>Wenna was coming down the steep road between the high hedges
+    with a small girl on each side of her, whom she was leading by
+    the hand. She was gayly talking to them: you could hear the
+    children laughing at what she said. Old Mrs. Trelyon came to
+    the conclusion that this merry young lady, with the light and
+    free step, the careless talk and fresh color in her face, was
+    certainly not dying of any love-affair.</p>
+
+    <p>"Take the reins, grandmother, for a minute."</p>
+
+    <p>He had leapt down into the road, and was standing before her
+    almost ere she had time to recognize him. For a moment a quick
+    gleam of gladness shone on her face: then, almost
+    instinctively, she seemed to shrink from him, and she was
+    reserved, distant, and formal.</p>
+
+    <p>He introduced her to the old lady, who said something nice
+    to her about her sister. The young man was looking wistfully at
+    her, troubled at heart that she treated him so coldly.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have got to break some news to you," he said: "perhaps
+    you will consider it good news."</p>
+
+    <p>She looked up quickly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing has happened to anybody&mdash;only some one has
+    arrived. Mr. Roscorla is at the inn."</p>
+
+    <p>She did not flinch. He was vexed with her that she showed no
+    sign of fear or dislike. On the contrary, she quickly said that
+    she must then go down to the inn; and she bade them both
+    good-bye in a placid and ordinary way, while he drove off with
+    dark thoughts crowding into his imagination of what might
+    happen down at the inn during the next few days. He was angry
+    with her, he scarcely knew why.</p>
+
+    <p>Meanwhile Wenna, apparently quite calm, went on down the
+    road, but there was no more laughing in her voice, no more
+    light in her face.</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss Wenna," said the smaller of the two children, who
+    could not understand this change, and who looked up with big,
+    wondering eyes, "why does oo tremble so?"</p>
+
+    <p class="center">[TO BE CONTINUED.]</p><a id="SONNET"
+          name='SONNET'></a>
+
+    <h2 align="center">SONNET.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem_1"
+         align="center">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>The curious eye may watch her lovely face,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Whereon such rare and roseate tinctures
+            glow,</p>
+
+            <p>And cry, How fair the rose and lily show</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Mid all the glories of a maiden
+            grace!</p>
+
+            <p>If this sweet show, this bloom and tender
+            glance,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Would so attract a stranger's unskilled
+            eyes,</p>
+
+            <p>Until he sees the light of Paradise</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Dawn in the garden of that
+            countenance&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>I, to whom love hath given finer powers,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">See there the emblems of a flowering
+            soul</p>
+
+            <p>That hath its root in other world than ours,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And which doth ever seek its native
+            goal;</p>
+
+            <p>Meanwhile decks life with love and grace and
+            flowers,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And in one beauteous garland binds the
+            whole.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p class="author">F. A. HILLARD.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    434]</span>
+
+    <h2><a name="NICE"
+       id="NICE"></a>NICE.</h2>
+
+    <p>Twenty-Two centuries ago&mdash;eighteen hundred years before
+    Columbus sailed in quest of the New World&mdash;a Phocean
+    colony from Marseilles founded this celebrated city, calling it
+    Nich&ecirc; (Nice or Victory), in honor of a signal triumph
+    obtained by their arms over their enemies, the Ligurians, or
+    inhabitants of the northern coast of Italy. For ages it
+    flourished, being almost as famous with the ancients as a
+    health-resort as it is to-day; but its evil hour came when the
+    Goths, Lombards and Franks in A.D. 405, pouring through the
+    defiles and gorges of the Maritime Alps, laid Nice and almost
+    all the other cities of Italy, even beyond Rome, in ashes. A
+    hundred years later it was rebuilt, but its beautiful forum,
+    its classical temples, its mosaic-paved villas and marble
+    theatres had disappeared utterly, and the new city was but a
+    shadow of the old. In the tenth century the Saracens conquered
+    Nice, and remained in quiet possession for seventy years, and
+    during their stay introduced much of the tropical vegetation
+    which we still admire. They were finally driven away by the
+    insurgent natives in A.D. 975, but they left the impress of
+    their occupation in many Arabic words which still mark the
+    local <i>patois</i>; and as a number of the fugitives were
+    captured and reduced to slavery, intermarrying in the course of
+    time with the native population, the Moorish type is still very
+    noticeable amongst the peasantry. Freed from the Saracenic
+    yoke, the Ni&ccedil;ois lived in peace for nearly two
+    centuries, being only disturbed from time to time by the
+    unwelcome visitations of pirates. Later on, toward the middle
+    of the thirteenth century, like most other Southern and Italian
+    cities, Nice fell a victim to the constant quarrels of the
+    powerful families allied respectively to the Ghibelline and
+    Guelphic factions. Thus, the incessant broils between the
+    Lascaris of Tenda, the Grimaldis of Monaco and the Dorias of
+    Dolceacqua desolated the surrounding country, and often reduced
+    the city to a state of siege. The Ni&ccedil;ois were compelled
+    to keep up a perpetual guerilla, which, however inspiriting,
+    was by no means conducive to their material prosperity. In 1364
+    an invasion of locusts from Africa led to a famine, and
+    ultimately a plague which destroyed two-thirds of the
+    population. The people, attributing their misfortunes to the
+    intercession of the Jews with the powers below, rose up and
+    massacred them: only five Israelites out of over two thousand
+    are said to have escaped their blind fury. When order was at
+    last re-established, and the Ni&ccedil;ois began to settle down
+    again, they perceived their impoverished and subordinate
+    position to be so alarming that their only chance of safety was
+    immediately to place themselves under the protection of the
+    dukes of Savoy, who for a century and a half defended them from
+    the attacks of their numerous enemies in a most valiant manner.
+    But in 1521, Francis I. of France wrenched the city and
+    province from the beneficent rule of the Savoyards and
+    proclaimed himself count of Nice. In 1524 war broke out between
+    Francis and the emperor Charles V., and the contending armies
+    alternately devastated and pillaged Nice and its environs. The
+    pest reappeared, and with it a drought and famine of so fearful
+    a character that many thousand persons perished, and others in
+    their despair slew themselves. Pope Paul III. undertook the
+    difficult task of reconciling the belligerents, and even went
+    so far as to travel to Nice for the purpose. A marble cross
+    which gives its name to a suburb of the town ("La Croix de
+    Marbre") still marks the spot where the conference took place
+    in which Francis and Charles swore a peace in the presence of
+    His Holiness which they took the first opportunity to violate.
+    In 1540 the war recommenced, and a number of dissolute young
+    men of good family <span class="pagenum">[Pg 435]</span>formed
+    themselves into organized companies of bandits and overran the
+    country, to the terror of the wretched peasantry and the utter
+    ruin of many hundreds of honest families. But in 1543 a second
+    Joan of Arc was raised up by Providence to deliver the
+    Ni&ccedil;ois in the person of the still popular heroine,
+    Catterina Segurana. Francis I. had recently scandalized
+    Christendom by allying himself with the famous Mohammedan
+    corsair, Barbarossa of Algiers with a view of reconquering
+    Nice, which he considered the key of Italy. Accordingly, one
+    fine morning three hundred vessels belonging to the Algerine
+    pirate entered the neighboring port of Villefranche, and
+    presently the whole country was filled with a horde of turbaned
+    freebooters. Cimiez, Montboron, Mont Gros and a hundred other
+    villages and hamlets were soon alive with French marauders and
+    Turkish pirates, who presently proceeded to bombard the city
+    itself. The siege was short, but terrible, and the inhabitants
+    were at the last gasp when the energetic Catterina Segurana, a
+    washer-woman by trade, and surnamed <i>Mao faccia</i> ("Ugly
+    face"), on account of the homeliness of her countenance, seized
+    a hatchet, and, after a vigorous address to her
+    fellow-citizens, placed herself at their head and led them
+    against the enemy. The same result attended her efforts as did
+    those of her immediate prototype, the glorious Maid of Orleans.
+    She so animated the people, so roused their patriotism, that
+    before the day was over the French and infidels were conquered,
+    and the bold and generous Catterina. stood surrounded by her
+    enthusiastic fellow-citizens, waving the conquered Algerine
+    flag, in token of victory, from the summit of the castle hill,
+    on the spot where formerly stood her
+    statue.<a name="FNanchor_001_1"
+       id="FNanchor_001_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_001_1"
+       class="fnanchor">[001]</a></p>
+
+    <p>From the time of the brave Catterina to our own, Nice has
+    sustained at least a dozen sieges of more or less severity.
+    That of 1706 was perhaps one of the most shocking on record.
+    The city, by the treaty of Turin of
+    <!-- Page 67 --><a name="Page_67"
+       id="Page_67"></a> 1696, had once more passed under the
+       protectorate of the dukes of Savoy, but the French, who have
+       always had a longing eye for the "Department of the Maritime
+       Alps," as they even then called it, broke the treaty they
+       had themselves framed, and sent the duc de la Feuillade over
+       the frontier with twenty thousand men to conquer the
+       country. Nice was then governed by the marquis de Caraglio,
+       who, although entreated by the enemy to allow the women and
+       children to leave the city's gates, positively refused to do
+       so. The consequence was that during the siege, which lasted
+       six months, more than a third of the inhabitants perished
+       from starvation. Men are said to have killed their wives for
+       food, and women their children. Sixty thousand shells fell
+       in various parts of the town, and the castle, cathedral and
+       many churches were entirely
+       destroyed.<a name="FNanchor_002_2"
+       id="FNanchor_002_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_002_2"
+       class="fnanchor">[002]</a></p>
+
+    <p>In 1792, under the First Republic, Nice was again occupied
+    by the French, and declared a <i>chef-lieu de
+    d&eacute;partement</i>. By the treaty of 1814 the place was
+    handed over to the Piedmontese, and stayed contentedly beneath
+    the rule of the Sardinian kings until 1860, when, by the treaty
+    of March 24, Napoleon III. annexed the county of Nice and the
+    duchy of Savoy to his imperial possessions, in exchange for the
+    services his army had rendered Italy at Magenta and Solferino.
+    How long Nice will continue French is a question somewhat
+    difficult to answer just now. There exists in the city and
+    province a very strong Italian party, and during the war of
+    1870, Nice was declared in a state of siege, owing to the
+    constant and very serious demonstrations of a certain part of
+    the population. One of the leading inhabitants, a noted banker,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 436]</span>even went so far as to
+    travel to Florence with the intention of proving to the Italian
+    government that whilst the French troops were concentrated in
+    the north those of Victor Emmanuel would find no difficulty in
+    crossing the frontier and uniting Nice to Italy. To the honor
+    of the Italian government, this treacherous suggestion was
+    rejected, but in those days the feeling between France and
+    Italy was more cordial than it has since been. The Italian
+    party is so active in the city and the department that the
+    government has difficulty in keeping note of its proceedings.
+    Thousands of pamphlets are secretly circulated amongst the
+    lower orders, in which the advantages of the city's return to
+    Italy are vividly contrasted with the disadvantages it suffers
+    from by remaining French. The clergy, however, who are both
+    numerous and influential, are French to a man, and dread the
+    hour which will see them governed by the "jailer of Pius IX.,"
+    and consequently prove a very great assistance to the
+    authorities in counteracting the intrigues of the Italians. But
+    should ever, in future years, a war break out between either
+    France and Italy, or between France and Italy's new ally,
+    Prussia, the <i>question de Nice</i> will be once more on the
+    <i>tapis</i>, and victory alone will preserve this magnificent
+    possession to its present owners.</p>
+
+    <p>Nice may well boast herself a rival in point of splendor of
+    natural position of the most famous cities of the
+    South&mdash;of Lisbon, Genoa, Naples and
+    Constantinople&mdash;and she eclipses them in point of climate.
+    Built at the eastern extremity of a fine gulf&mdash;that of Les
+    Anges&mdash;and backed by an amphitheatre of hills and lofty
+    mountains, she is sheltered from cold winds in winter, and in
+    summer the Alpine breezes temper an atmosphere which would else
+    be unendurably sultry, owing to the prevalence of the sirocco,
+    a hot wind which passes directly hither over the Mediterranean
+    from the burning shores of Africa. One can scarcely imagine a
+    more glorious panorama than that of this city and its environs
+    as seen from the sea or from any neighboring elevation. Let us
+    suppose it a fine <!-- Page 69 --><a name="Page_69"
+       id="Page_69"></a>morning late in spring, and that we stand
+       upon the deck of a yacht about a mile and a half distant
+       from the shore. Nice, we see, surrounds a steep and rugged
+       rock which rises almost perpendicularly from the
+       Mediterranean to the height of about six hundred feet, and
+       is crested by the ruins of the ancient castle, and covered
+       with terraced gardens forming a delicious promenade. Groves
+       of cypresses and sycamores hang on the declivities of this
+       rock, which in places is rough with cactuses and aloes and
+       with the Indian fig, whose bright orange flowers, when the
+       sun's rays fall on them, have a magic splendor of color. A
+       group of palm trees at the extremest elevation, standing out
+       on a high crag, add not a little to the picturesque
+       appearance of this singular urban hill. On one side of this
+       rock the rapid torrent Paillon, traversed by several
+       handsome bridges, some of them adorned with statues,
+       separates the "old" from the "new" town. On the other is the
+       port, filled with steamers and innumerable fishing-craft.
+       Beyond the port stretches the Boulevard de
+       l'Imp&eacute;ratrice, inaugurated a few years since by the
+       late empress of Russia, with its fine villas, notably the
+       splendid Venetian Palace, an exact reproduction of the
+       celebrated Moncenigo Palace at Venice, belonging to Viscount
+       Vigier, whose wife was once a popular idol of the musical
+       world of Paris and London&mdash;Sophie Cruvelli&mdash;and
+       the extraordinary Moresque-looking castle of Mr. Smith,
+       which is well called the <i>Folie d'un Anglais</i>&mdash;the
+       "craze of an Englishman." The latter stands on the end of a
+       promontory, and with its lofty towers and domes closes in
+       the view. It is perhaps the most curious residence in the
+       world, being built on a barren rock, and its apartments
+       literally hewn out of the marble of which it is composed. On
+       the top of the hill is a long building, with two curious
+       twin towers and a dome, built of red brick faced with white
+       marble. Here is situated the chief entrance. You descend
+       from the spacious entry-hall a long well staircase cut in
+       the rock and lighted from above, until you reach a superb
+       octagonal chamber of white marble <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+       437]</span>ornamented with statues and Oriental divans
+       covered with Persian silk. This is the great saloon, and
+       leading out of it are other fine chambers, all of them lined
+       with polished marble and furnished with Eastern
+       magnificence. Externally, there is no trace of these
+       chambers visible. They are, as I have said, excavated, like
+       Egyptian tombs, in the heart of the mountain. The
+       proprietor, an eccentric English bachelor, never inhabits
+       this fantastic mansion, but lives in a second-rate hotel,
+       spending thousands annually in adding embellishments to his
+       astonishing castle, where, notwithstanding its magnificent
+       suites of apartments, no human being has ever slept a night
+       or eaten a meal.</p>
+
+    <p>"Smith's Craze," as I have said, closes in the view to our
+    right. To the left, beyond the torrent Paillon, is situated
+    modern Nice, with its quays, leviathan hotels, and an almost
+    interminable line of villas marking the celebrated Promenade
+    des Anglais. The background of the scene is filled up by a
+    semicircle of well-wooded hills, verdant with vines, fig,
+    orange, olive and pomegranate trees, and sparkling with white
+    country-seats, convents, and campanili. Towering over these
+    hills appears another range, of rocky and bold outlines, and
+    then another, of lofty mountains whose peaks lose themselves in
+    clouds, and by their fantastic figures form as delightful an
+    horizon as the eye can behold. In the centre rises the conical
+    peak of Monte Cao, an extinct volcano, exactly resembling
+    Vesuvius in conformation, and only wanting a curl of smoke
+    issuing from its crater to make the illusion perfect. Alongside
+    of Monte Cao is another extinct volcano, on which are seen the
+    ruins of the ancient and deserted village of Ch&acirc;teauneuf,
+    while between the two summits (thirty-five hundred feet high)
+    are distinctly visible the peaks of some of the ever-snowy
+    Alps. The foreground of the picture is formed by the deep
+    indigo waters of the Mediterranean, diversified by a hundred
+    sunny sails, and overhead hangs the cloudless Italian sky.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us now put back to port and walk through the city,
+    visiting first Old Nice, <!-- Page 71 --><a name="Page_71"
+       id="Page_71"></a>then the modern Pompeii, as Alphonse Karr
+       pleasantly calls the new town. Old Nice resembles Genoa on a
+       small scale, and has very narrow streets of lofty (and in
+       some cases really fine) houses, no end of churches,
+       gloomy-looking convents, and one or two palaces. In the
+       narrow streets surrounding the cathedral&mdash;a large and
+       showy building, formerly a parish church&mdash;is a market
+       supplied with native fruits&mdash;oranges, lemons, grapes,
+       figs, and many varieties of melons and nuts. The streets,
+       which are in places so narrow that you can almost stretch
+       your arms across them, are full of bright-looking shops,
+       with all their varied goods displayed at the open, unglazed
+       windows. Here and there one comes across remains of ancient
+       times of considerable interest. Thus, in the Rue Droite is
+       an old house, with a series of quaint little arches and a
+       curious Gothic gateway, which was formerly part of the
+       palace inhabited by Joanna II. of Naples. Near the church of
+       St. Jacques is another old residence, with an odd decoration
+       on its front in the shape of colossal figures of Adam and
+       Eve, executed in alto-rilievo, which have their feet on
+       either side of the doorway and their heads above the fifth
+       story. The tree of knowledge, over-laden with its dangerous
+       fruit, flourishes between the windows of what was once the
+       saloon, and is now a manufactory of maccaroni. In the Rue du
+       Centre is the quondam palace of the Lascaris family, an old
+       Italian mansion, with marble balconies, wide, majestic
+       staircases adorned with Corinthian columns, and vast
+       apartments frescoed by Carlone, a reputable Genoese painter
+       of mythological subjects. Carlone's gods and goddesses look
+       down no longer on the members of the House of Lascaris, who
+       once ruled over Tenda, and were the lineal descendants of
+       the imperial Byzantine house of Del Comneno, but on those of
+       an amiable Ni&ccedil;ois family, who most willingly show the
+       old palace to any stranger who may choose to knock at their
+       door.</p>
+
+    <p>Some years ago a Turinese lawyer, looking over his father's
+    private papers, discovered that he was the legitimate heir to
+    the Lascaris titles and estates, <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    438]</span>which had been left unreclaimed for many centuries.
+    This gentleman, on proving his claim, assumed the grandiose
+    title of Prince Lascaris del Comneno, grand duke of Macedonia.
+    His glory was short-lived. His wife went to Rome and obtained a
+    full recognition of her rights from the Holy Father and
+    admission into the first circles of Roman society, but was
+    subsequently expelled from the city for plotting against the
+    papal government; but she returned with the Piedmontese
+    occupation in 1870, only, however, to get into a still worse
+    pickle by exposing herself to the charge of defrauding Flaminio
+    Spada's bank of a large sum of money. During the trial she
+    <i>mizzled</i>, and has not, I believe, been heard of since.
+    This lady is the famous "Princess Mopsa" about whose adventures
+    the Roman papers have entertained their readers considerably
+    during the last year or so.</p>
+
+    <p>The churches are usually in the Italian style, having heavy
+    fa&ccedil;ades, plain brick sides and queer but rather
+    picturesque bell-towers. Internally, they are gaudy and
+    tasteless, the altars ornamented on high days and holidays with
+    innumerable wax candles, festoons of red, white and blue
+    drapery, and huge pyramids of paper roses with gold foliage.
+    Ecclesiastical affairs are presided over by Monsignor Pietro
+    Sola, a charming old bishop, who is the essence of kindliness
+    and charity. He was formerly one of the spiritual directors of
+    Queen Adelaide of Austria, the late wife of Victor Emmanuel.
+    The number of priests, monks and nuns is very considerable.
+    There is a very large Franciscan monastery up at Cimiez on the
+    hill, and a rambling old Capuchin convent at St.
+    Bartolom&eacute;. The Nice Capuchins are a splendid body of
+    men, and a goodly sight to see marching in a procession with
+    their chocolate-colored hooded robes and long, flowing beards.
+    Their present prior is a marquis Raggi of Genoa, a man of high
+    family and rank, who some years since abandoned a world he had
+    known only too well, gave all his fortune to the poor, and
+    turned monk.</p>
+
+    <p>There is a street in the old part of Nice
+    <!-- Page 73 --><a name="Page_73"
+       id="Page_73"></a>which is perfectly unique. It is nearly a
+       mile and a half long, runs parallel with the sea, and
+       consists of a double row of low, one-storied houses having a
+       paved terrace on their roofs, to which you ascend by several
+       handsome staircases. The terrace forms a very popular
+       promenade of an evening, and from it are enjoyed lovely
+       views of the bay and mountains. Between these two rows of
+       houses is the fish-market, where are frequently seen
+       displayed monsters like Victor Hugo's famous <i>pieuve</i>
+       sprawling out their dozen glutinous legs fringed with eyes
+       and deadly weapons in almost supernatural hideousness, to
+       the admiration of a group of English or American tourists.
+       Hard by the fish-market is the Corso, a shady promenade
+       round which the gala carriages drive in Carnival time, while
+       the masked inmates pelt and get pelted in turn with comfits
+       made of painted clay. The Corso is also the scene of
+       numerous religious processions, some of which are quaint and
+       picturesque. There are a number of ancient confraternities
+       established amongst the trades-people of Nice, who wear
+       costumes of, red, white, black and blue serge, according to
+       the guild they belong to. This sack-like garment covers them
+       from head to foot, face and all, there being only two
+       eyeholes slit in the mask to permit the wearer to see out.
+       These brotherhoods attend the sick, bury the dead and take
+       care of the widows and orphans, and in Holy Week make the
+       narrow streets of the old city delightful to the artistic
+       eye by the bright mass of their vivid-colored raiment, the
+       flickering of their tapers, and the gigantic crucifixes of
+       gold and silver they carry in procession from church to
+       church. Every morning there is a market held on the Corso of
+       fruits, vegetables and flowers. Such magnificent baskets of
+       camellias, japonicas and roses, such nosegays of violets and
+       orange-blossoms, can be seen, I fancy, nowhere but at Nice.
+       Here also the peasant-women sometimes bring immense pots of
+       Peruvian aloes for sale, whose snowy blossoms are scented
+       like those of the magnolia, and rise in gigantic pyramids of
+       magnificent cup-shaped<span class="pagenum">[Pg
+       439]</span>flowers. They are plants to salute respectfully
+       as you pass by them, such is their size and dignity. In Holy
+       Week women are to be seen all over the old town selling
+       plaited palm branches of a pale straw-color, some of which
+       are bedecked with little bows of ribbon or stars of tinsel,
+       used in the ceremonies of Palm Sunday. The peasant-girls who
+       come to market at Nice are rather handsome, but as dark as
+       Nubians, with almond-shaped eyes and long, coarse black
+       hair, which they wear plaited into tails bound round the
+       head with broad velvet ribbons, like a coronet. On the top
+       of this headgear they sport a wide-brimmed straw hat of
+       peculiar shape, ornamented with little black crosses made of
+       narrow velvet. In Princess Marie Lichtenstein's <i>Holland
+       House</i> there is a portrait of Lady Augusta Holland
+       wearing one of these Nice hats.</p>
+
+    <p>But it is time for us to cross the bridges and pay our
+    respects to Nice the "new." When I first visited Nice in 1856
+    at least two-thirds of this part of the city were not in
+    existence. There were no splendid railway-stations then; only
+    one or two, instead of twenty, monster hotels; the Promenade
+    des Anglais only extended about a mile along the shore, instead
+    of four; and there were but one quay and two bridges. Now
+    superb quays line the river on either side, and there are six
+    bridges, and Heaven only knows how many churches for the
+    accommodation of all the denominations imaginable and
+    unimaginable, from P&egrave;re Lavigne's very beautiful and
+    very orthodox church, in which Monsignor Capel has preached in
+    Lent, down to L&eacute;on Pilate's, where collections are made
+    for the evangelical missions presided over by Mrs. Gould and
+    W.C. Van Metre. There is a Greek church of exceeding beauty,
+    the altar-screen of which was sent from Moscow as a present
+    from the czar; and an Episcopal church, surrounded by a
+    beautiful cemetery, where sleeps the philosophic Bussy
+    d'Anglas, with many others whose names are well known. The real
+    Ni&ccedil;ois almost all dwell in Old Nice, leaving the new
+    city to the foreign colony. Indeed, the natives are rarely if
+    ever seen, except <!-- Page 75 --><a name="Page_75"
+       id="Page_75"></a>in the street. They keep to their old quiet
+       way of living, and, beyond letting their houses and selling
+       their goods, appear to be utterly unconscious even of the
+       existence of the strangers on the other side of Paillon.
+       Many of the Nice families are titled and wealthy, but with
+       the exception of that of the count de Cessoles, it is very
+       rare to meet the Ni&ccedil;ois in society. Mademoiselle
+       Mathilde de Cessoles is the reigning belle, and deserves the
+       honor. She is a superb-looking woman, with a head and
+       countenance worthy of a regal diadem. Her features resemble
+       those of the House of Bourbon, her complexion is admirable,
+       and she has a certain good-natured, indolent, sultana way of
+       moving which is perfectly charming. Cupid alone knows how
+       many have sighed for her hand since her long reign as a
+       queen of society began, but none have as yet been favored
+       with a kinder glance than that of friendship. Scottish
+       dukes, Roman princes and American officers have wooed, but
+       never won: la belle Mathilde still walks the orange groves
+       of her villa, "in virgin meditation, fancy free."</p>
+
+    <p>"But it waxes late&mdash;'tis near three o'clock:" let us
+    hasten past the casinos, cafes, reading-rooms, Turkish baths
+    and American drinking-bars which flourish on the quays, and
+    make our way to the Promenade des Anglais, by this time alive
+    with fashionables. The "Promenade," as I have said, is nearly
+    four miles long, and faces the sea. It is very broad, and has
+    on one side a row of villas and hotels&mdash;on the other a
+    walk shaded by oleanders and palm trees, through the openings
+    of which are obtained magnificent views of the Mediterranean.
+    Some of these villas are remarkably beautiful, especially that
+    of the Princes Stirby, the former sovereigns of Wallachia,
+    which is surrounded with exquisite gardens abounding with noble
+    camellia trees, some of which produce as many as fifteen
+    hundred flowers. The Villa de Dempierre is very pretty, and is
+    the property of the countess of that name, who is a most
+    noteworthy person. Madame de Dempierre belongs to one of the
+    most ancient and wealthy families of France.
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 440]</span>She was once a great
+    beauty, and is still a brilliant wit and charming artist. Some
+    years ago she visited the empress of Russia, then residing at
+    Nice, where she died. Her Imperial Majesty, who was noted for
+    her habit of making personal remarks, said bluntly, "Madame la
+    comtesse, how beautiful you must have been!" "Majesty,"
+    answered the <i>spirituelle</i> Madame de Dempierre, "you were
+    complaining of the nearness of your sight: since you can
+    distinguish my beauty through the vista of so many years, I
+    think you enjoy long-sightedness in a remarkable degree." The
+    empress wrinkled her nose, and presently observed: "I think,
+    countess, I remember to have seen your husband, General de
+    Dempierre, in Russia." "Doubtless Your Majesty did so: he was
+    the first Frenchman that entered the Kremlin." The czarina was
+    silent: the fall of Moscow was not a pleasant subject of
+    conversation to the wife of Nicholas. The Villa de Diesbach
+    comes next, the winter residence of the historical family of
+    that name, into which married a few years since a tall,
+    gazelle-eyed American belle, Miss Meta McCall. Then follows the
+    pretty Villa Bouxhoevden, the property of a Corlandese count of
+    a very noble house, whose wife hails from New Jersey. The
+    countess is much the fashion, and her hospitable house is a
+    rendezvous of the elite of the foreign and American colony. She
+    is a tall, graceful woman, with a pale and interesting
+    countenance, shadowed with clusters of light-brown curls, which
+    reminds one of Vandyke's portraits of Queen Henrietta
+    Maria&mdash;a likeness somewhat increased by costumes admirably
+    suited to her style&mdash;long flowing robes of rich silk
+    trimmed with ermine and costly lace. Then there is Mrs.
+    Williams's garden, with Indian creepers and gaudy Eastern
+    plants, sent to her by her gallant son, the Crimean hero, from
+    the slopes of the Himalayas. Here on a Sunday gathers a
+    pleasant circle to drink five-o'clock tea and listen to the
+    bright remarks of Madame de la Caume, the daughter of the
+    hostess, who knows more about French politics than many a
+    deputy at Versailles. But whilst we have been looking in
+    <!-- Page 77 --><a name="Page_77"
+       id="Page_77"></a>at villa-gardens the Promenade has filled
+       up rapidly. A continuous stream of carriages occupies the
+       centre of the road, a throng of gay folks animate with their
+       showiest toilets the oleander walk and the Jardin Publique,
+       where a tolerable band plays for two or three hours thrice a
+       week. The marble stairs of the Casino are crowded with
+       loungers, and the windows and balconies of every villa are
+       filled with well-dressed men and women. Nowhere, perhaps,
+       excepting in Rotten Row or the Bois de Boulogne, can so many
+       celebrated and beautiful women and handsome or famous men be
+       seen parading up and down together as on the Promenade des
+       Anglais of a fine afternoon in the season. Here gathers the
+       <i>cr&ecirc;me de la cr&ecirc;me</i> of two worlds, the Old
+       and the New, Europe and America. In the winter of 1870 the
+       town was crowded to excess. Never before were there so many
+       notabilities assembled at Nice&mdash;never was there so much
+       gossip, so much <i>cancan</i> and small talk. It was amusing
+       to sit in the shade of a palm tree on the promenade and
+       review the <i>person&aelig;</i> of this Vanity Fair.
+       Frederick Charles of Prussia and his princess in a landau,
+       with two Nubians on the box; the crown-princess Victoria of
+       England and her sister of Hesse-Darmstadt, on a trip from
+       Cannes, where they were then visiting; Her Grace of
+       Newcastle; De Villemessant of the <i>Figaro</i>, in an
+       invalid's chair, the most accomplished of <i>causeurs</i>;
+       Count Montalivet, the former minister of Louis Philippe, and
+       by him, for a few days at the full of the season, a little
+       old gentleman with a squeaky voice, M. Adolphe Thiers. Next
+       comes a group of ladies, the three daughters of the
+       Hispano-Mexican duchess De Fernan-Nu&ntilde;ez; all three
+       looking exactly alike, tall and dark; all three of a height;
+       all three invariably dressed in black, with lofty Tyrolese
+       hats and cocks' feathers; all three unmarried; all three
+       marriageable, and worth Croesus only knows how many
+       millions; all three invariably alone&mdash;a fact which made
+       old Madame Colaredo scream out of her window one day,
+       "<i>Tiens! voil&agrave; les trois cent (sans) gardes</i>!"
+       Then follow Lord <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+       441]</span>Rokeby, the most affable of lordships; Lord
+       Portarlington; General Sir William Williams of Kars;
+       Princess Kantacuz&egrave;ne, the last descendant of the
+       imperial Byzantine house of that name; the ideally lovely
+       Miss Amy Shaw of Boston; the three pretty Miss Warrens of
+       New York; Madame Gavini de Campile, the wife of the prefect,
+       a fine-looking dame gloriously arrayed in showy robes, whom
+       half the society adored and the rest cordially hated; the
+       duke de Mouchy, who married Anna Murat; the duke de
+       P&eacute;rigord-Talleyrand, who married an American; the
+       duke de la Conquista, who derives his title from the
+       conquest of Peru; the lovely countess Del Borgo; and the
+       famous Italian beauty, Madame Bellotti, a Milanese lady,
+       whose maiden name was Visconti, of that semi-royal house.
+       Theresa Bellotti's beauty is of a grand style seen nowhere
+       out of Italy. Picture her to yourself as I once saw her at a
+       masquerade at the pr&eacute;fecture. Round her superb figure
+       swept an ample robe of crimson velvet looped up with bands
+       of gold. Her bare arms, models worthy of the chisel of
+       Canova, gleamed from the rich sables which lined the hanging
+       sleeves of her dress. Her hair, dark as night, was gathered
+       up in the high fashion Sir Joshua Reynolds loved to depict.
+       A half-moon of enormous diamonds fastened a plume over her
+       left temple, and her neck and fingers flashed back the
+       colors of the rainbow from a thousand gems. As to her face,
+       it was radiant. Rich color flushed her cheeks, her eyes
+       sparkled with animation when she spoke; but at times, when
+       her features resumed a calm after conversation, she
+       resembled the portraits of some of the famous Italian women
+       of the Renaissance&mdash;her own ancestress, for instance,
+       Bianca Visconti, duchess of Milan, or Veronica Cib&ograve;,
+       or Lucrezia Petroni, whose daughter was the ill-fated
+       Beatrice Cenci. And now come by the fascinating Mrs. Lloyd,
+       whom all the world knows and likes; grand-looking Mrs.
+       Senator Grymes of Louisiana, a witty, brilliant old lady,
+       whose salon is one of the most elegant in Nice; Baron
+       Haussmann, and with <!-- Page 79 --><a name="Page_79"
+       id="Page_79"></a>him his colossal daughter, Madame de
+       Perneti, the handsomest of giantesses, who was once asked to
+       join in private theatricals, but when the stage was built up
+       in her friend's drawing-room, being about five feet from the
+       level of the rest of the chamber, it was discovered that
+       <i>la belle Caryatide</i>, as her friends call her, could
+       not act on it, for the simple reason that she was a full
+       head taller than the scenery; clever Madame de Skariatine,
+       the daughter of the famous Count Schouvalof (the "Shoveloff"
+       of our times), who, after being Russian ambassador half over
+       Europe, turned Barnabite monk at Rome; Lady Dalling and
+       Bulwer, the great duke of Wellington's niece, and now the
+       widow of one of England's most illustrious statesmen;
+       hospitable Marquise de St. Agnan, and her pretty daughter,
+       Mademoiselle Henriette; and Princess Souvarow,
+       <i>ci-devant</i> widow Apraxine, <i>ci-devant</i> widow
+       Kisselof, the most fascinating of Russian princesses, and
+       one of the greatest of female gamblers, who one night broke
+       the bank at Monte Carlo for two hundred and fifty thousand
+       francs, and lost them the next. On the opposite side of the
+       way, screening herself from observation, demurely clad in
+       sober-colored attire, Madame Volnis passes along from some
+       mission of charity. This lady was once one of the most
+       popular actresses on the French stage, and with Mademoiselle
+       Mars and Rose Ch&eacute;ri was the idol of
+       Paris&mdash;L&eacute;ontine Fay. She was, if possible, a
+       still greater favorite in St. Petersburg, where, on her
+       retirement from the stage, she became French reader to the
+       late czarina. Since the death of the empress she has always
+       resided at Nice, where she is distinguished for her exalted
+       piety and extreme charity. Even when on the stage this lady
+       devoted her leisure to charitable works. She was always
+       remarked for her modesty of manner: her dress was simplicity
+       itself. At the theatre she wore costumes rich and elegant,
+       suited to the parts she enacted, but in society she
+       invariably appeared in plain white muslin or dark silk. It
+       would be impossible to exaggerate her goodness. Her whole
+       life has been passed amongst the poor, in the minute
+       fulfillment <span class="pagenum">[Pg 442]</span>of her
+       duties, and on her knees in church. After acting one part of
+       the evening, she would hasten, on the fall of the curtain,
+       to pass the rest of it watching by the bedside of some poor
+       wretch stricken low perhaps by some infectious disease.
+       During the war of 1870, Madame Volnis's conduct was
+       angelical. If there was some awful operation to be performed
+       upon any of the wounded soldiers sent to Nice from the field
+       of battle, it was she who was present, who held the
+       sufferer's hand, and who consoled and cheered with the
+       tenderness of a Sister of Charity&mdash;of a mother.</p>
+
+    <p>As the austere figure of L&eacute;ontine Fay passes away,
+    hidden in a cloud of sunny dust raised by the wheels of a
+    hundred carriages, another form comes upon the stage, radiant
+    amongst the most brilliant, the observed of all
+    observers&mdash;Madame Rattazzi, <i>n&eacute;e</i> Princess
+    Bonaparte Wyse. What a wonderful toilette is hers! One fine
+    afternoon she appeared upon the Promenade clad in a purple
+    velvet robe, edged and flounced with canary-colored satin,
+    looped up voluminously <i>en panier</i>, and adorned with big
+    bows of yellow ribbon. Her hat was a broad-brimmed Leghorn
+    straw trimmed with large bunches of pansies. No one but Madame
+    Rattazzi could have worn such an attire in the public streets
+    without the risk of being hooted, but such are the grace and
+    beauty of this celebrated woman that her costume seemed in
+    perfect keeping. She was in Nice one winter for at least five
+    months, and every day saw her out in a fresh dress. When she
+    travels she has more boxes than Madame Ristori. She dwelt on
+    the Promenade, over the dowager of Colaredo, who had a special
+    spite against her; in consequence of which she invariably
+    illuminated her windows, when she had company, with the Italian
+    colors, red, white and green, to the supreme disgust of the old
+    Ultramontane countess. Her apartment was elegantly furnished,
+    and adorned with beautiful vases of mignonette and plants of
+    moss-roses. When she received of an evening the chambers were
+    agreeably lighted up with many pale and subdued lamps. Her
+    tables <!-- Page 81 --><a name="Page_81"
+       id="Page_81"></a>were always covered with new books,
+       magazines and several copies of her own poems and novels,
+       including an exceedingly clever story, <i>Louise Keller</i>,
+       which she had just finished. On the walls hung pictures in
+       oil and water-colors of her own execution; on the piano were
+       scattered, together with much classical music, some hymns,
+       polkas and ballads of her composition. One night she acted
+       in a comedy of her own writing, and her rendering of the
+       part of the heroine, a witty and intriguing widow, was
+       inimitable. Many severe critics have declared that Madame
+       Rattazzi is, as an actress, a worthy rival of Fargeuil or
+       Madeleine Brohan. Her manners are very fascinating&mdash;a
+       little bit too natural to be quite French, and a little too
+       ceremonious to be quite Italian. She would have proved an
+       invaluable acquisition at the downfall of the tower of
+       Babel, for she is mistress of I dare not say how many
+       languages. As a rule, women hate her, and men do just the
+       contrary. This is not to be wondered at, for she is very
+       beautiful even now. Her face has the chiseled cameo features
+       of her uncle, Napoleon I.; her eyes are deep violet, fringed
+       with long sweeping lashes; her mouth is perfectly exquisite,
+       and on either side of it two pretty dimples appear whenever
+       she smiles. So many enemies has she amongst her own sex that
+       to avenge herself for the affronts they constantly offer her
+       she published a magazine in Florence called the
+       <i>Matin&eacute;es Italiennes</i>, for the purpose of
+       showing up her female antagonists. Here is a sample: "At
+       Nice a grand ball; Madame la Viscomtesse de B&mdash;&mdash;
+       <i>en grande toilette</i>, looking for all the world like a
+       big Nuremberg doll, with her black hair dyed an impossible
+       straw-color, and appearing at least five years younger than
+       she did when I first saw her make her <i>d&eacute;but</i> in
+       society five-and-twenty years ago; and she was then a
+       gushing maiden of twenty-one." By and by comes the hour of
+       vengeance. Madame Rattazzi gives a ball, and not a woman
+       will go to it. In 1870 she gave one at the Grand Hotel, to
+       which half the town was invited. There arrived at the festal
+       <span class="pagenum">[Pg 443]</span>scene about five
+       hundred men and just thirty-two women. It was funny enough.
+       The thirty-two women besported themselves with thirty-two
+       partners in the centre of the hall to the sound of the
+       cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of
+       musical instruments, whilst the rest of the men stood round
+       the hall five deep, like a deep dark fringe on a Turkish
+       carpet. Madame Rattazzi, however, achieved a great triumph
+       against all odds. By dint of grace, charm of manners and
+       tact she put all her guests in the best humor. The
+       "thirty-two" had a fine time of it, and danced to their
+       hearts' content. The five hundred men were introduced and
+       grouped and wined and punched until every man there swore
+       that earth did not hold a fairer or more genial hostess.
+       Madame Rattazzi was "supported," as the phrase goes, on this
+       memorable occasion by Madame la Princesse, her mother, a
+       rather formidable-looking dowager, a daughter of Lucian
+       Bonaparte, and widow of Sir Thomas Wyse, once British consul
+       at Athens. Her Imperial Highness Princess Letitia must have
+       been a wonderful beauty in her youth&mdash;a stately grand
+       being who one could easily imagine might have resembled the
+       Roman Agrippina or empress Livia. Once the barrier of her
+       stately manners overcome, she proved to be a talkative,
+       affable woman of the world, with a huge experience thereof.
+       I can see her now, dressed in a scarlet satin robe and
+       glittering with jewels. She wore a headdress of diamonds
+       with two long ostrich feathers in it, one of which, a white
+       one, got out of its place and stood bolt upright, as if it
+       was frightened, until some charitable hand laid it down.
+       This was, I fancy, the last ball Princess Letitia ever
+       graced, for she died a very little while afterward. Poor
+       Rattazzi was there too. He was not a striking-looking man,
+       but agreeable and excessively polite. He rarely talked
+       politics&mdash;I rather suspect from the fear of
+       compromising himself&mdash;but his conversation was was
+       pleasant and varied. After his death Madame Rattazzi removed
+       to Monaco, where she busied herself with editing his letters
+       and memoirs&mdash;a task <!-- Page 83 --><a name="Page_83"
+       id="Page_83"></a>which, it appears, the Italian government
+       would be delighted that she should spare herself, as his
+       papers are said to be very full of compromising matter
+       relative to the Mentana expedition. A large sum of money was
+       offered her to relinquish her hold on these documents, but
+       she answered by a letter published in the Italian papers
+       that they were left to her as a sacred trust, and that she
+       felt herself in duty bound to make their contents public, in
+       order to justify her husband's memory. As a curious proof of
+       her political sagacity&mdash;unless it is to be considered a
+       mere coincidence&mdash;I may mention that in January, 1870,
+       she came to a masked ball at the Casino dressed as Mars, in
+       a short skirt of red satin, a cuirass of gold, on her head a
+       helmet, in one hand a spear, and in the other a shield, and
+       on it was written "Roma." Did Madame Rattazzi foresee that
+       by September of the same year there would be a war, and that
+       as one of its results Rome would so soon become the capital
+       of that Italy which her husband had helped to build
+       up?<a name="FNanchor_003_3"
+       id="FNanchor_003_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_003_3"
+       class="fnanchor">[003]</a></p>
+
+    <p>From this somewhat rambling sketch the reader will readily
+    understand that Nice is one of the great centres of society in
+    Europe, and indeed in late years it is rather, as a place of
+    gay reunion that it is frequented than as a resort for
+    invalids. Since the foundation of quieter colonies at Mentone
+    and San Remo, Nice has somewhat lost its reputation as a
+    sanitarium, for it is rather difficult, especially for young
+    people, to resist the temptation of its innumerable balls and
+    round of gayeties; and these are not considered conducive to
+    the preservation of health even amongst the healthiest. The
+    medical men, therefore, recommend places along the neighboring
+    coast which enjoy <span class="pagenum">[Pg 444]</span>the same
+    or even greater advantages of climate. That of Nice, after all
+    that has been written about it, still seems to me one of the
+    finest in the world. The air is exquisitely pure and clear, and
+    has proved beneficial in many hundreds of cases of incipient
+    consumption. But the fatal error is often made of sending
+    hither patients in whom the disease has made considerable
+    progress. In such cases the irritating air hastens death. I
+    have known people brought here in the second and last stages of
+    consumption, who have been carried off in a fortnight after
+    their arrival, and who might have lingered on for years
+    elsewhere. The patient who finds himself benefited should
+    remain at Nice for at least three or four years, only varying
+    the air in summer by a visit to some of the many pleasant
+    places in the neighboring mountains, where the atmosphere is
+    pure, cool and wholesome. Perhaps, it is owing in part to the
+    brightness of the sunshine and the beauty of the scenery that
+    soon after his arrival the health of the invalid often revives
+    as if by enchantment. Alphonse Karr, a resident of many years,
+    who knows every nook and corner of the place, and who has
+    cultivated a garden in its environs as celebrated throughout
+    the world as his own sparkling pen, says well: "Who is there so
+    downhearted as to resist the glorious heat of the sun, the
+    beauty of that deepest of blue seas, the loveliness of the
+    varied trees, the tropical vegetation, the scent of the
+    orange-flowers, the music of the brooks, the sight of the
+    ever-changing hues of the mountains of <i>Nizza la
+    bella</i>?"</p>
+
+    <p class="author">R. DAVEY.</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="THE_RASKOL_AND_SECTS_IN_RUSSIA"
+       name="THE_RASKOL_AND_SECTS_IN_RUSSIA"></a>THE RASKOL, AND
+       SECTS IN RUSSIA.</h2>
+
+    <h4>FROM THE FRENCH OF ANATOLE LEROY-BEAULIEU.</h4>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <h3><a name="I_ORIGIN_OF_THE_RASKOL"
+       id="I_ORIGIN_OF_THE_RASKOL"></a>I.&mdash;ORIGIN OF THE
+       RASKOL.</h3>
+
+    <p>For more than two centuries Russian orthodoxy has been
+    undermined by obscure sects, unknown to foreigners, and little
+    known to Russians themselves. Beneath the imposing pile of the
+    official Church have been hollowed out vast underground burrows
+    and a labyrinth of gloomy crypts, which form a retreat for the
+    popular beliefs and superstitions. We propose to descend into
+    these catacombs of ignorance and fanaticism. We shall attempt
+    to map them out, to explore their remotest nooks, and to lay
+    hold in this, their hiding-place, of the character and
+    aspirations of the people. Nothing could yield better means of
+    acquaintance with the genius of the nation and the groundwork
+    of Russian society. The <i>Raskol</i>, with its thousand sects,
+    is perhaps the most original feature of Russia, and what most
+    sharply distinguishes it from Western Europe.</p>
+
+    <p>Like rivers colored by the soil through which they flow,
+    religions often change their characteristics according to the
+    nations who practice them. The Raskol is Byzantine Christianity
+    issuing from the Russian lower classes. In the thick and muddy
+    waters of Muscovite sectarianism we can distinguish foreign
+    admixtures, sometimes Protestant, sometimes Jewish, or even
+    Mohammedan, more frequently Gnostic or pagan. The Raskol,
+    nevertheless, remains wholly different, in principle and in
+    tendency, from all the religions and religious movements of the
+    world: it is original and national from the foundation up. So
+    thoroughly Russian is it that outside of its native country it
+    has never made a proselyte, and even within the empire has
+    hardly any adherents excepting among the people of "Greater
+    Russia," the most thoroughly national of all. So spontaneous
+    has been its growth that in all its phases it is
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 445]</span>its own best interpreter,
+    and if confined to an isolated continent, its development would
+    have been the same. The Raskol is the most national of all the
+    religious movements to which Christianity has given birth, and
+    at the same time the most exclusively popular. It took its
+    rise, not in the schools, nor in the monasteries, but in the
+    mujik's hovel and in the shop; and it has never spread beyond
+    its birthplace. Hence, the student of politics and the
+    philosopher take a keener interest in ignorant heresies than is
+    to be found in their doctrines alone. These sects of
+    lately-liberated peasants claim an attention by no means due to
+    their meagre theology, from their being the symptom of a mental
+    condition and a social state for even a distant approach to
+    which all Western Europe would be scoured in vain.</p>
+
+    <p>The Raskol (schism) is neither a sect nor a group of sects.
+    It is, rather, an aggregate of doctrines and heresies, which
+    are often divergent or even contradictory, with no other tie
+    than a common starting-point and a common hostility to the
+    official orthodox Church. In this respect the Raskol is more
+    nearly analogous to Protestantism than to anything else. It is
+    inferior to Protestantism in the numbers and education of its
+    adherents, but it almost equals it as regards the variety and
+    originality of its developments. Further the likeness cannot be
+    fairly said to go. In the midst of their unfilial revolt,
+    German Protestantism and the Russian Raskol preserve alike the
+    signs of their origin, the stamp (so to speak) of the Church
+    whence they have issued, as well as of the widely-differing
+    states of society which gave them birth. In Western Europe love
+    of speculation and a critical spirit gave rise to the larger
+    part of modern sects, while in Russia they are the offspring of
+    reverence and unenlightened obstinacy. In the West, the
+    predominance of feeling over the value attached to the
+    externals of religion has been the cause of religious
+    divisions, whereas the same result has been produced in Russia
+    by an extraordinary reverence for external forms for ritual and
+    ceremonial. The two movements thus seem to be in absolutely
+    opposite directions, but they have nevertheless terminated at
+    the same point. In other words, the Raskol, when once freed
+    from the authority which maintained the unity of the faith, was
+    as powerless as Protestantism to establish any authority within
+    itself. It has in consequence become a prey to the same license
+    of opinion, to the same individualism, and, finally, to the
+    same anarchy.</p>
+
+    <p>Few religious revolutions have involved results so, complex
+    as the Raskol, yet few have been simpler in their inception.
+    The countless sects which for two centuries have had their
+    being among the Russian people took their rise, in general,
+    from the revision of the liturgy. One stock produced them
+    nearly all: only a few sects (though these, by the way, are by
+    no means the least curious) date from an earlier time or have
+    another origin than this liturgic reform. The Middle Ages in
+    Russia, as elsewhere, were marked by the rise of heresies. Of
+    these the oldest may have arisen before the Mongol conquest,
+    from contact with Greeks or Slaves, particularly with the
+    Bulgarian Bogomiles, the ancestors or Oriental brethren of the
+    Albigenses. Other heresies sprang up later in the North, in the
+    Novgorod region, from intercourse with Jewish or other Western
+    traders. Of most of these the name alone remains: such are the
+    <i>Martinovtsy</i>, the <i>Strigolniki</i>, the Judaizers, and
+    so on. All these sects were dying away when the Raskol broke
+    out; and it absorbed all the vague, embryonic beliefs floating
+    in the popular mind. Some of these antique heresies&mdash;the
+    Strigolniki, for instance&mdash;after having disappeared from
+    history, seem to have come to light again in the shape of
+    certain sects of our own days; and one might fancy that they
+    had been for centuries running on in an underground
+    channel.</p>
+
+    <p>In the dim disputes of medi&aelig;val times, however, one
+    may make out with some clearness the fundamental principle of
+    the Raskol: it is a scrupulous veneration for the
+    letter&mdash;formalism, in a word. "In such a year," says a
+    Novgorod chronicler of the fifteenth century, "certain
+    philosophers <span class="pagenum">[Pg 446]</span>began to
+    chant, '<i>O</i> Lord, have mercy upon us!' while others said,
+    '<i>Lord</i>, have mercy upon us!'"<a name="FNanchor_004_4"
+       id="FNanchor_004_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_004_4"
+       class="fnanchor">[004]</a> In this remark the whole Raskol
+       stands revealed. Controversies like these begat the schism
+       which has rent the Russian Church asunder. Religious
+       invocations have for this people the nature of magical
+       formul&aelig;, the slightest change in which destroys their
+       efficacy. The Russian clings to the heathen feeling, though
+       he hides it under a Christian veil. He believes in the power
+       of particular words and gestures. He still seems to regard
+       his priest as a kind of <i>chaman</i>, religious ceremonies
+       as enchantments, and religion in general as witchcraft. A
+       fondness for rites (<i>obriad</i>) is indeed one of the
+       characteristics of the inhabitant of Greater Russia. The way
+       in which Russia was converted to Christianity has much to do
+       with this. The mass of the people became Christians at the
+       bidding of others, and with no sufficient preparatory
+       instruction, without even having passed through all the
+       stages of that polytheistic evolution from which other
+       nations of Europe had emerged before their adoption of
+       Christianity. The religion of the gospel was, in its highest
+       statement, too far advanced for the mental and social
+       condition of the people; and so it was corrupted, or rather
+       reduced to external forms. Russia adopted merely the outside
+       of Christianity; and there, even more strictly than in the
+       West, it is true that the peasant was still a heathen. Other
+       nations have adopted the outside of a religion, and have
+       afterward absorbed its spirit: from its geographical and
+       historical remoteness such an absorption was hard for Russia
+       to achieve. It was separated from the centres of the
+       Christian world by distance and by Mongol rule: its
+       religion, like everything else, was debased by poverty and
+       ignorance. Theology, properly speaking, utterly vanished,
+       and its place was taken by ceremonial, which thus became the
+       whole of religion. Amidst the general degradation a
+       knowledge of the words and rites of public worship was all
+       that could be exacted of a clergy which did not always know
+       how to read.</p>
+
+    <p>The changes which had taken place in the traditional texts
+    and ritual have little solid ground for the popular devotion
+    entertained for them. The liturgy was corrupted by the
+    superstitious veneration paid it by the ignorant. False
+    readings had crept into the books which contained the various
+    local "uses," to borrow a term from the Anglican terminology.
+    Liturgical unity had imperceptibly disappeared amidst various
+    readings and discordant ceremonies. In course of transcription
+    absurdities had slipped into the missals, along with grotesque
+    additions and arbitrary intercalations, while the new readings
+    were received with the respect due to antiquity, and these
+    sometimes unintelligible passages acquired a sanctity in direct
+    proportion to their obscurity. The devout mind found in them
+    mysteries and occult meanings. On such perverted texts were
+    erected theories and systems which pious fraud from time to
+    time expanded into treatises attributed to the Fathers of the
+    Church. So wild was the confusion, and so palpable the
+    alterations, that early in the sixteenth century Vassili IV., a
+    Russian prince, summoned a Greek monk for the purpose of
+    revising the liturgical books. But the blind veneration of the
+    clergy and people rendered this attempt abortive. The reviser,
+    Maximus, was condemned by a council, and confined on a charge
+    of heresy in a distant monastery. The crisis was superinduced
+    by the introduction of the press. Here, as elsewhere, the new
+    discovery brought with it a taste for the study and revision of
+    texts, and ultimately violent theological contests. The missals
+    which issued from the Russian presses of the sixteenth century
+    at first only aggravated the evils for which they should have
+    afforded a remedy. The errors of the manuscripts from which
+    they were printed received from these missals the authority and
+    circulation of type. The copyists had introduced countless
+    variations, but these acquired a fresh unity and unanimity
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 447]</span>from the very fact of
+    their publication in such a form.</p>
+
+    <p>The Slavonic liturgy of Russia seemed in a state of hopeless
+    corruption when, toward the middle of the seventeenth century,
+    the patriarch Nikon determined upon a measure of reform. In
+    addition to a degree of cultivation unusual in his age and
+    country, and an enterprising and determined character, he
+    possessed what was specially required for such a step: he had
+    learning, firmness and power, for through his influence over
+    Alexis, the czar, he ruled the State almost as thoroughly as he
+    ruled the Church. In Russia, as it was before Peter the Great,
+    a task so completely dependent on learning was indeed a bold
+    undertaking. By order of the patriarch ancient Greek and
+    Slavonic manuscripts were gathered from all quarters, and monks
+    were summoned from Byzantium and from the learned community of
+    Athos to collate the Slavic versions with their Greek
+    originals. The interpolations due to the ignorance or whims of
+    copyists were remorselessly stricken out, and into the ritual,
+    thus purified, was introduced the pomp customary at the court
+    of Byzantium. The new missals were printed and adopted by a
+    council (through the patriarch's influence), and finally
+    imposed, with all the authority of the state government, on
+    every Russian province. "A sore trembling laid hold upon me,"
+    says a copyist of the sixteenth century, "and I was affrighted
+    when the reverend Maximus the Greek bade me blot out certain
+    lines from one of our Church books." Not less was the scandal
+    under Peter the Great. The man who laid hands on the sacred
+    books was everywhere held guilty of sacrilege. Whether from a
+    knowledge of the propriety of the measure, or from the spirit
+    of ecclesiastical fidelity, the higher clergy upheld the
+    patriarch, but their inferiors and the common people made a
+    determined fight. And even now, after the lapse of more than
+    two centuries, a large body adhere immovably to the ancient
+    books and the ancient ritual, which are made sacred to them by
+    the approbation of national councils and the blessing of
+    generations of patriarchs. Such was the inception of the
+    schism, the Raskol, which still divides the Russian Church.
+    Tracing the matter back to its source, the contest is seen to
+    turn upon the knotty question of the transmission and the
+    translation of the sacred texts, which has more than once
+    divided the churches of the West. In Russia no one was
+    competent to form a proper judgment of the essence of the
+    dispute, and it was thus rendered only more lasting and bitter.
+    Monks, deacons, plain sextons, denounced the innovations as
+    novelties borrowed from Rome or from the Protestants, and as
+    being tantamount to the bringing in of a new religion. When the
+    Church brought to bear upon these recusants the pains and
+    penalties everywhere employed against heretics, the only result
+    was to give the schism martyrs, and with martyrs a fresh
+    impetus. Ten years after the promulgation of the revised
+    liturgy its rash author fell a victim to the jealousy of the
+    boyards and to his own arrogance, and was solemnly deposed by a
+    council. To the Raskol his deposition appeared in the light of
+    a justification of their own course. The condemnation of the
+    reformer seemed necessarily to involve the condemnation of the
+    reform. Great, then, was the popular bewilderment when the
+    council turned from deposing the author of the liturgic
+    revision to hurl its anathemas against those who opposed that
+    revision. The share taken in this excommunication by the
+    Oriental patriarchs rather lessened than added to its weight,
+    since the dissenters denied to Greek and Syrian bishops, who
+    knew not a letter of the Slavonic alphabet, the right of
+    passing judgment on Slavonic books.</p>
+
+    <p>The theological world is no stranger to subtleties, but
+    never perhaps did causes so trifling breed such interminable
+    quarrels. The sign and the form of the cross, the heading of
+    processions westward or eastward, the reading of a particular
+    article of the Creed, the spelling of the name of Jesus, the
+    inscription to be placed over the crucifix, the single or
+    double repetition of the Hallelujah, the number of eucharistic
+    wafers to be consecrated,&mdash;such <span class="pagenum">Pg
+    448]</span>are the leading points in the controversy which ever
+    since has rent the Russian Church. The orthodox make the sign
+    of the cross with three fingers, while the dissenters follow
+    the Armenian practice of only two. The former permit the cross
+    with four arms, like our own: the latter cannot away with any
+    but that with eight arms, with a crosspiece for the Saviour's
+    head and another for his feet. Since the reform the Church
+    chants the Hallelujah thrice, the Raskolniks only twice. The
+    dissenters defend their persistence by symbolical
+    interpretations, and delight to make a profession of faith out
+    of the simplest rite. For instance, they insist that after
+    their fashion of making the sign of the cross the three closed
+    fingers render homage to the Trinity, while the two others
+    testify to the double nature of Christ, so that, without
+    uttering a word, the sign of the cross is an act of adherence
+    to the three fundamental dogmas of Christianity&mdash;the
+    Trinity, the incarnation and the atonement. In like manner they
+    interpret the double Hallelujah following the three Glorias,
+    and cast it in the teeth of their opponents that they ignore in
+    their ritual one or another of the great Christian doctrines.
+    Such interpretations, based on corrupted texts or feigned
+    visions, show the grotesque blending of coarseness and subtlety
+    which makes up the Raskol.</p>
+
+    <p>If we may judge from the origin of the schism, its essence
+    lies in the worship of the letter, the servile respect for
+    forms. To the anti-reforming Russian, ceremonies form the whole
+    of Christianity, and liturgy is one with orthodoxy. The same
+    confusion between faith and the outward forms of worship is
+    revealed by the chosen name in which the dissenters delight.
+    Not content with the title of <i>Starovbriadtsy</i> (old
+    ritualists), they adopt that of <i>Starovery</i> (maintainers
+    of the old faith), which amounts to styling themselves
+    <i>true</i> believers, the genuine orthodox, since in religious
+    matters, unlike those of human science, authority is on the
+    side of antiquity, and even innovations must come forward
+    invoking the past. Here, as often happens, there is little
+    ground for the Starovery's boast, for if they preserve the
+    ancient Russian books, their opponents have gone back to the
+    old Byzantine liturgy; and the party which most loudly vaunts
+    its claim to antiquity does so with least reason.</p>
+
+    <p>The principle of the Raskol, which sometimes runs out into
+    the wildest dreams of mysticism, is essentially realistic.
+    Under this materialistic <i>cultus</i>, however, there lurks a
+    sort of idealism, of coarse spiritualism. Religious vagaries,
+    with all their absurdities, always have a lofty, sometimes even
+    a sublime, side. It would be wrong to fancy that there is
+    nothing but ignorant superstition in the Starovere's scrupulous
+    attachment to his ancestral worship. The vulgar heresy is, in
+    fact, only an overdone ritualism, whose logic lands it in
+    absurdity. The Old Believer's reverence for the letter comes
+    from his belief that letter and spirit are indissolubly united,
+    and that the forms of religion are as needful as its essence.
+    Religion is to him, both as regards forms and dogmas, a whole,
+    all whose parts hang together; and no human hand can touch this
+    masterpiece of Providence without blemishing it. There is an
+    occult sense in every word and in every rite. He cannot believe
+    that any ceremony or formula of the Church is void of meaning
+    or of efficacy. Divine service has nothing in it merely
+    accessory, indifferent or unmeaning. Holy things are holy
+    throughout: in the worship of the Lord everything is deep and
+    full of mystery; and it is blasphemy to change anything or to
+    withhold from it its proper veneration. The Starovere, of
+    course, cannot formulate his doctrine, but if he could,
+    religion would appear, according to his view, a sort of
+    completed and adequate representation of the supernatural
+    world. His simple logic exacts from all public worship an
+    absolute perfection which it is impossible to realize. Looked
+    at in this light, the Old Believer who marched to the stake for
+    the sign of the cross, and sacrificed his tongue rather than
+    chant another Hallelujah, grows highly respectable. From this
+    standing-point the Russian schism is essentially religious: its
+    mistake, so to speak, is the <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    449]</span>excess of religion. Symbolism is the principle of
+    its formalism, or rather the Raskol is symbolism run into a
+    heresy. This gives it originality and value in sectarian
+    history. To these extravagant ritualists ceremonies are not
+    simply the garb of religion: they are its flesh and blood, in
+    whose absence dogma is but a lifeless skeleton. Thus, the
+    Raskol is the direct opposite of ordinary Protestantism, which
+    by its very nature sets small store by outward ceremonies,
+    regarding them as needless ornament or a dangerous superfluity.
+    Ritual to the Starovere is as much an integral part of
+    traditional Christianity as doctrine: it, is equally the legacy
+    of Christ and the apostles; and the sole mission of the Church
+    and the clergy is to preserve both intact. This leaning to
+    symbolism saves his scrupulous fidelity to outward forms from
+    degenerating into a slavish superstition. On the other hand,
+    the allegorizing tendency which clings fast to the letter
+    sometimes takes odd liberties with the spirit of ceremonies and
+    texts. It is the peculiarity of the symbolizing temper
+    scrupulously to respect the form while arbitrarily dealing with
+    the spirit. Thus, the ritual and the sacred books become a kind
+    of heavenly charade, whose answer must be found by the
+    imagination. And so, in their hunt after the hidden sense of
+    narratives and words, some of the Raskolniks have allegorized
+    the histories of the Old and New Testaments, and changed the
+    gospel records into parables. Some have gone so far as to see
+    in the greatest of the gospel miracles nothing but
+    types.<a name="FNanchor_005_5"
+       id="FNanchor_005_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_005_5"
+       class="fnanchor">[005]</a> Such a system of exegesis easily
+       leads to a kind of mystic rationalism: the forms of religion
+       tend to gain more consistency than the essence, and public
+       worship to be placed above doctrine. Some of the extreme
+       sects of the Raskol have actually reached this point. A
+       perfect carnival of wild interpretation prevailed among this
+       ignorant rabble, and crazy doctrines and grotesque tenets
+       were not slow in following in its train.</p>
+
+    <p>The Old Believer loves his peculiar rites, not only for the
+    meaning he puts into them, but also for the sake of the
+    authority on which he holds them: the moral and social
+    <i>rationale</i> of the schism is a deep respect for
+    traditional customs and for the habits handed down from his
+    forefathers. But even in his slavish devotion to ancestral
+    ritual and prayers the Starovere simply exaggerates a feeling
+    which, if not properly religious, commonly links itself with
+    religion and adds to its influence. All men and all nations set
+    great store by the maintenance of their hereditary faith, and
+    even the common rhetorical abuse of such phrases demonstrates
+    its power. When thus intertwined with the associations of
+    family and country, religion assumes the guise of an
+    inheritance solemnly committed to our trust by the departed.
+    This feeling is singularly powerful in Russia from linking
+    itself with a superstitious veneration for antiquity. You can
+    often get no other reason from many of these sectaries for the
+    faith that is in them. Quite recently a judge tried to bring to
+    reason a group of peasants who were under prosecution for
+    celebrating clandestine religious rites, but he could extract
+    no other answer than this: "Our fathers practiced these
+    customs. Take us anywhere you please, but leave us free to
+    worship as our fathers did." A like reply is said to have been
+    made by the Old Believers of Moscow to the late czarovitch on
+    occasion of a visit to their burying-ground at Rogojski.</p>
+
+    <p>The liturgic reform of the seventeenth century was a
+    revolution in the simplest elements of worship: it called upon
+    the son to unlearn the sign of the cross that his mother had
+    taught him. Such a change would have been hazardous anywhere,
+    but it caused a peculiarly serious disturbance in Russia, where
+    all prayer is connected with a kind of ceremonial of repeated
+    bowings and crossings, which more closely resemble the
+    devotional customs of the Mohammedans than those
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 450]</span>of other Christian
+    countries. The people violently rejected the new sign of the
+    cross and the entire reformed liturgy. It mattered little that
+    the new ritual was more ancient than their own. The ignorant
+    Russian knows no antiquity older than his fathers and
+    grandfathers, and his attachment to the outer forms of
+    orthodoxy was only intensified by remembering the recent
+    attempts of popes and Jesuits to gain a foothold in the
+    country. If he suffered the least change in his cherished
+    customs, he might risk being Romanized, and, like the United
+    Greeks of Poland, one day wake up and find himself part and
+    parcel of the spiritual dominion of the papacy. With such dim
+    fears the Old Believer opposed to the orthodox hierarchy a
+    blind fidelity to orthodoxy. Their dread of seeing the Church
+    corrupted inspired people and clergy with suspicion of all
+    foreigners, even of their brethren in the faith whom the czars
+    or the patriarchs had invited from Byzantium and from Kief. The
+    Russian alone, of all the orthodox nations, had maintained his
+    independence against infidel and pope, and he held himself the
+    people of God, chosen to preserve the true faith. Everything
+    European was indiscriminately rejected by this long-isolated
+    nation. Their detestation of the West, its churches and its
+    civilization, leads some of the Old Believers to anathematize
+    even the language of theology and learning. Not longer ago than
+    the close of the last century one of their writers waxed hot
+    against the orthodox priests of Lesser Russia, many of whom, he
+    said, "study the thrice-accursed Latin tongue." He reviled them
+    for their readiness to commit the mortal sin of calling God
+    <i>Deus</i>, and God the Father <i>Pater</i>, as though the
+    Deity could have no other than the Slavic name of <i>Bog</i>,
+    or the change of appellation involved a change of God. A like
+    spirit is evident in the resistance offered by the Staroveres
+    to the correct spelling of the name of Jesus, whom they persist
+    in calling Issous, rejecting as diabolical the more accurate
+    form Iissous. Such peculiarities show a nation shut up in its
+    own vastness and isolated by its position and its history. It
+    is a kind of Christianized China, knowing, and desiring to
+    know, nothing beyond itself.</p>
+
+    <p>The revolt against the innovating patriarch was, in reality,
+    a revolt against foreign, particularly against Western,
+    influences. Instead of the accusation that he leaned to
+    Romanism or Lutheranism, it would have been a better
+    representation of the real grievance to charge him and the czar
+    with borrowing from the West, not its theology, but its spirit
+    and civilization, and even this, perhaps, unwittingly. The
+    outbreak of the Raskol synchronizes with the introduction of
+    foreign influence; and the coincidence is not accidental. The
+    schism was but the reaction against the reforms which the
+    Romanoffs carried out in so European a spirit. The patriarch's
+    enterprise has been sometimes attributed to his vanity or his
+    thirst for literary fame, but it was really the first
+    indication of the approaching revolution, and of a growing
+    sympathy with the West, where (as in England, for instance) at
+    about the same period analogous<a name="FNanchor_006_6"
+       id="FNanchor_006_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_006_6"
+       class="fnanchor">[006]</a> reforms gave birth to similar
+       disturbances. If the former hermit of the White Sea invited
+       criticism and learning to review the ritual of his Church,
+       it was only in obedience to the same <i>Zeitgeist</i> which
+       under Peter the Great's elder brother, who succeeded Alexis,
+       was to found at Moscow a kind of ecclesiastical university
+       modeled on that of Kief. The Church, not less than the
+       State, felt the Western breeze that was rising on the
+       Russian steppes. And, as the Western spirit first attempted
+       to introduce itself in the sphere of religion, so religion
+       confronted it with its most formidable barrier. From the
+       historian's point of view, the Raskol is that same popular
+       resistance to the introduction of Western novelties which
+       under Peter the Great passed from its original aspect of an
+       ecclesiastical and religious revolt into the further stage
+       of a social and civil
+       insurrection.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 451]</span>
+
+    <h3><a name="II_OPPOSITION_TO_MODERN_CIVILIZATION"
+       id="II_OPPOSITION_TO_MODERN_CIVILIZATION"></a>II.&mdash;OPPOSITION
+       TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.</h3>
+
+    <p>In spite of himself, Peter the Great both inherited and
+    aggravated the schism. At the present day it is hard to picture
+    the impression produced upon his subjects by Peter I. He not
+    merely astonished and bewildered them: he scandalized them. An
+    open, systematic and sometimes brutal attack was made upon the
+    customs, traditions and prejudices of the people. The reformer
+    did not confine himself to the civil institutions: he laid
+    violent hands upon the Church, and forced his way into the
+    family, regulating, as the whim seized him, both public affairs
+    and the private life of the citizen. The old-fashioned Russian
+    was a stranger in Peter's new empire. His eyes were shocked by
+    the spectacle of an unaccustomed garb, and novel administrative
+    titles fell strangely on his ear. Names and things, the almanac
+    and the laws, the alphabet and the fashions of
+    dress,&mdash;everything was transformed. The very elements of
+    civilization were hardly recognizable. The year began on the
+    first of January, instead of the first of September. Men were
+    no longer to date from the creation, but must adopt the Latin
+    era. The old Slavonic characters, hallowed by immemorial
+    ecclesiastical use, were partly cast aside, and what were
+    retained took a new shape. The masculine attire was altered and
+    the chin was shorn of its beard, while the veil no longer might
+    protect the modesty of the women. The impression made by such a
+    succession of shocks upon a nation so bigotedly attached to its
+    ancestral ways was comparable only to an earthquake rocking Old
+    Russia to its foundations.</p>
+
+    <p>Many of these innovations, as being borrowed from the
+    Romanists or the Lutherans of the West, had a religious
+    significance for the people. The change introduced by Peter the
+    Great in the ancient calendar, in the Slavonic alphabet and in
+    the national costume seemed but a carrying out of those which
+    Nikon had initiated. So natural was the parallel that the Old
+    Believers held the one to be but the continuation of the other;
+    and the notion took shape in a seditious legend, according to
+    which Peter was the adulterous offspring of the patriarch. The
+    popular aversion felt for the reforms of the latter was
+    augmented by that aroused by the emperor's innovations: the
+    social revolt took the disguise of religion, since it had been
+    provoked by a Church measure, and still more because Russia had
+    not yet emerged from that stage of civilization in which every
+    great popular movement assumes a religious aspect. A national
+    prestige was thus communicated to the Raskol, which in its turn
+    lent to the popular resistance the energy of religion. By
+    giving the social revolt the semblance of a struggle for the
+    rights of conscience the schism imparted to it a vigor and
+    persistency which the lapse of two centuries has not succeeded
+    in crushing.</p>
+
+    <p>But the Raskol rebelled not only against innovations and the
+    introduction of foreign elements, but still more obstinately
+    against the principle of the reforms and the modern method of
+    state administration. The Russian, like the Mohammedan East of
+    to-day and all other primitive societies, was most keenly
+    sensitive to the burdens and vexations made necessary by this
+    imitation of the European governmental system. From this point
+    of view the Raskol was the opposition of a half-patriarchal
+    society to the regular, scientific, omnipresent, impersonal
+    system of European administration. It kicks instinctively
+    against centralization and bureaucracy&mdash;against the
+    state's encroachments upon private life, the family and the
+    community. It struggles to tear itself loose from the pitiless
+    machinery of government, hemming every life within its iron
+    pale. The Cossack took refuge in the wild freedom of nomadic
+    life, and the Old Believer was equally averse to giving in to
+    the complicated mechanism of government. He would have nothing
+    to do with the census, with passports or stamped paper. He
+    strove to elude the new systems of taxation and conscription,
+    and to this day some of the Raskolniks are in a state of
+    systematic revolt against the simplest of governmental methods.
+    Religious grounds, of course, are found for this
+    insubordination, and they have theological arguments
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 452]</span>to urge against the
+    census, as well as against the registration of births and
+    deaths. In the opinion of a strict Old Believer the right of
+    numbering the people belongs to God alone, as is shown by the
+    biblical record of David's punishment. Sometimes the official
+    designations strengthen the scruples of these simple folk, with
+    their tendency to attach a great importance to phrases and
+    names; and hence, partly at least, the popular antipathy to the
+    poll-tax under its Russian form, "soul-tax." The revolt against
+    such phrases is the fashion in which this nation of serfs,
+    whose body was chained to the soil, asserted its possession of
+    a soul.<a name="FNanchor_007_7"
+       id="FNanchor_007_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_007_7"
+       class="fnanchor">[007]</a></p>
+
+    <p>The struggle against the supervision and interference of the
+    state has gone with some sects to the length of refusing
+    submission to obligations imposed by every civilized country.
+    The <i>Stranniki</i> (wanderers) in particular boast of keeping
+    up a ceaseless struggle with the civil authority, and make
+    rebellion a moral principle and a religious duty. From
+    condemning the state as the protector and helper of the Church,
+    they have come to cursing it for its own tendencies and claims.
+    Thus, the singular spectacle is presented of the more extreme
+    schismatics looking upon their native government with the same
+    feelings as were entertained by some of the Christians of the
+    first three centuries toward the pagan empire of Rome. To these
+    fanatics the government of the orthodox czars came to be the
+    reign of Satan and the dominion of Antichrist. Nor was this an
+    empty metaphor: it was a clear, determined conviction, and it
+    still exerts a strong religious and political influence upon
+    the schism. The Raskolniks could see but one interpretation of
+    the overturning of public and private order under Peter the
+    Great, and for what they regarded as the triumph of darkness:
+    to them it was the coming end of the world and the advent of
+    Antichrist. The old customs, it seemed, must carry with them in
+    their fall the Church, society and all mankind. For centuries
+    the extremity of agony or of wonder has wrung this cry from
+    Christendom. After political revolutions and disastrous wars,
+    in the most enlightened countries of Europe, in France and
+    elsewhere, religious persons, in the panic of calamity, have
+    been seen to take refuge in this last solution for the woes of
+    Church or of State, and proclaim with the Raskolniks that the
+    time was at hand. But what must have been the state of mind in
+    Old Russia when the stunning blows of Peter the Great seemed to
+    be dashing everything to pieces? Even at the period of the
+    liturgic reform the fanatics had cried that the patriarch's
+    fall was the harbinger of the world's end. The days of man,
+    they said, are numbered; the Apocalyptic woes are at hand;
+    Antichrist draws nigh. With the accession of Peter the Great,
+    while he was reducing everything to confusion before their
+    bewildered eyes, and trampling under foot the old customs,
+    along with morality itself at times, the Raskolniks were at no
+    loss to recognize in him the coming Antichrist. Nations are not
+    always clear-sighted: the creator of modern Russia was regarded
+    by a considerable portion of his subjects as an envoy or
+    representative of hell; and his empire has never ceased to hold
+    the unexampled position of a government cursed by a part of its
+    own people as the dominion of Antichrist.</p>
+
+    <p>This Satanic apotheosis derived no little support from some
+    of the reformer's idiosyncrasies. He was to his subjects what a
+    rejected claimant of the Messianic office may have been to the
+    Jews&mdash;a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the
+    people whom he came to bring to a new birth. His civil and
+    ecclesiastical reforms, with the seeming decapitation of the
+    Church by the abrogation of the patriarchate, were to the mass
+    of the people an enigma only one shade less disreputable than
+    the demeanor of himself and his courtiers. The repudiation of
+    his legitimate wife, Eudoxia, and his adulterous connection
+    with a foreign <span class="pagenum">[Pg 453]</span>concubine,
+    the death (perhaps by his own hand) of his son Alexis, even the
+    morbid state of his health and the nervous twitching of his
+    face, and his astonishing triumphs after equally incredible
+    disasters, contributed to invest the sombre and gigantic
+    physiognomy of the reformer with a kind of diabolic halo. The
+    vices of Ivan the Terrible had been as monstrous, but even in
+    the thick of his crimes he was a true Russian, as superstitious
+    a devotee as the meanest of his subjects. But the astonishment
+    and bewilderment inspired by Peter the Great were only deepened
+    by the reverence felt by the old Russian for the person of his
+    sovereign. Men could not help doubting whether such a man, who
+    had cast aside his national and scriptural title for the
+    foreign and heathen style of emperor, could be the true, the
+    "white" czar. The story of the usurpers and the false Dmitri
+    had not faded from the popular memory; and thus there grew up
+    amidst the unlettered and bewildered Russian people a string of
+    legends in which were harmonized their belief in the reign of
+    Antichrist and the popular respect for the czar. In this way
+    the Raskolniks have created a fantastic history which has been
+    handed down to our own days, according to one version of which,
+    as has been said, Peter the Great is the impious bastard of the
+    patriarch Nikon (and from such a parentage only a devil's
+    offspring could be looked for); while another asserts that
+    Peter Alexovitch was a pious prince, like his forefathers, but
+    that he had perished at sea, and in his stead had been
+    substituted a Jew of the race of Danof, or Satan. On gaining
+    possession of the throne, continues the legend, the false czar
+    immured the czarina in a convent, slew the czarovitch, espoused
+    a German adventuress and filled Russia with foreigners. Such is
+    the Old Believers' explanation of the portentous phenomenon of
+    a Russian czar engaged in destroying the institutions of Holy
+    Russia. In the midst of the nineteenth century the incidents of
+    Peter's career, whether insignificant or important&mdash;his
+    vices not less than his glory&mdash;are used as proofs of his
+    infernal mission. The remarkable victories with which he
+    recovered from terrible disasters were miracles wrought by the
+    help of the devil and the Freemasons. The extension of his
+    power beyond that of all previous Russian monarchs and of all
+    the ancient <i>bogatyrs</i> was effected by the determination
+    of Satan that his offspring should receive divine honors. The
+    same interpretation is applied to the simplest events. Thus,
+    Peter's celebration with allegorical figures and festivals of
+    the beginning of the year on the first of January was due to
+    his desire to restore the worship of false deities and "the old
+    Roman idol Janus." These silly fables, and this incapacity of
+    understanding how a pagan name or emblem can be used without
+    falling back into paganism, betray one of the peculiar features
+    of the Raskol&mdash;namely, the realistic nature, of its
+    symbolism, and its matter-of-fact determination to fill images,
+    allegories and words with occult meaning.</p>
+
+    <p>When once the presence of Antichrist was clearly made out,
+    there was nothing to hinder the application to Russia of the
+    gloomy descriptions of the prophets. Their disposition to hunt
+    out mysterious enigmas in names and numbers made it easy for
+    the fanatics to find the whole Apocalypse in modern Russia; and
+    the number of the Beast was sought in the names of Peter and of
+    his successors. Each letter of the Slavonic alphabet, as of the
+    Greek, has a numerical value, and the problem is thus to add up
+    the total of the letters of a name, and so obtain the
+    Apocalyptic number 666 (Rev. xiii. 18). By inserting,
+    reduplicating or omitting certain letters, and not insisting
+    too strongly on an exact result, the sectaries have discovered
+    the infernal number in the names of most of the Russian
+    sovereigns from Peter the Great to Nicholas. Such alterations
+    are defended on the ground that to throw investigators off the
+    scent the Beast changes the number which is meant to designate
+    him, so that he should be recognized under the number 662 or
+    664 as clearly as under 666. Turning from the particular
+    sovereign to the imperial title, the Raskolniks have unearthed
+    the number of the Beast in the <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    454]</span>letters composing it. Singularly enough, it happens
+    that all which is needed to obtain the Apocalyptic number from
+    the word <i>imperator</i> is the omission of the second letter;
+    whence they say that Antichrist hides his accursed name behind
+    the letter M. By an equally odd and embarrassing coincidence
+    the Council of Moscow&mdash;which, after deposing Nikon,
+    definitively excommunicated the schismatics&mdash;met in 1666.
+    Here, plainly enough was the fatal number, and when the reform
+    of the calendar attracted the attention of the Old Believers to
+    the point, they considered it a weapon thrust into their hands
+    by their opponents. The year in question, accordingly, was
+    fixed as the date of Satan's accession. But not content with
+    turning the line of monarchs into so many emissaries of hell,
+    some of these champions of Old Russia have managed, by the help
+    of an anagram, to identify their native country with the
+    mysterious land which is the object of so many prophetic
+    curses. In the <i>Asshur</i> of the Bible they find
+    <i>Russia</i>, and apply to it the anathemas launched by the
+    prophets against Nineveh and Babylon.</p>
+
+    <p>The infernal sign, however, was visible to the Raskolniks
+    not only in the title and the names of their rulers, but in all
+    their innovations as well, and in all that they imported from
+    abroad. Since Russia is under the dominion of the "devil, the
+    demon's son," the truly faithful are bound to reject all that
+    has been introduced during "the years of Satan." Encouraged by
+    the notion of Antichrist, the Raskol's opposition against the
+    modern reform of government spread until it embraces in its
+    hostility everything brought from the West. In no other of its
+    developments do we see more distinctly the characteristic
+    features of the schism, its narrow formalism and its coarse
+    allegorizing, its blind worship of the past and its national
+    exclusiveness. It presented the novel spectacle of a group of
+    popular sects holding in abomination every object of foreign
+    commerce, everything new&mdash;material articles of consumption
+    not less than the discoveries of science. While the products of
+    the East and West Indies were pouring into the rest of Europe,
+    the Old Believer rigorously excluded them. He frowned upon the
+    use of tobacco, of tea, of coffee and of sugar, and by a
+    curious transfer of his respect for antiquity to his meat and
+    drink, he stormed against almost all colonial produce as
+    heretical and diabolical. All that had come in since Nikon and
+    Peter was put under the ban by the champions of the ancient
+    liturgy. One Raskolnik forbade traveling on turnpikes, because
+    they were an invention of Antichrist. More recently, another
+    showed that the potato was the forbidden fruit which caused the
+    fall of our first mother. On every side the Old Believer raised
+    about him a wall of scruples and prejudices, entrenching
+    himself behind his stagnation and ignorance, and anathematizing
+    all civilization in a breath. To meet Peter's edicts enjoining
+    a new costume or alphabet or calendar, the Raskol put forth a
+    second decalogue: "Thou shalt not shave; Thou shalt not smoke;
+    Thou shalt use no sugar," etc. In the North, where they are
+    stricter and more numerous, many Raskolniks still have
+    conscientious scruples about using tobacco and putting sugar in
+    their tea. The scriptural arguments urged for this opposition
+    are generally marked by the coarsest realism. The Old Believer
+    who will not smoke adduces the passage, "There is nothing from
+    without a man that entering into him can defile him; but the
+    things which come out of him, those are they that defile the
+    man." The rebuker of the use of sugar urges that blood is used
+    in its manufacture; whereas Scripture forbids the eating of the
+    blood of animals&mdash;a prohibition, by the way, which seems
+    to have been maintained longer in Russia than in any other
+    Christian country. The true ground of the opposition to this or
+    that article or habit is to be sought not in these theological
+    arguments, but in its novelty and late introduction. As regards
+    his way of life and his faith, his table and his devotions, he
+    is minded to tread in his forefathers' footsteps. A Raskolnik
+    and a member of the orthodox Church were drinking together,
+    when the latter took a cigar. "Out on the infernal poison!"
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 455]</span>cried the
+    Raskolnik.&mdash;"What do you, think of brandy?" asked his
+    companion. "Oh! Wine" (<i>vino</i>, the Russian name for
+    brandy)&mdash;"wine was Noah's favorite drink."&mdash;"Very
+    good!" said the other: "now prove to me that Noah was not a
+    smoker." These folk are still in the patriarchal stage, and an
+    appeal to antiquity is an end of controversy, "Jeer not at the
+    old," says one of their proverbs, "for the old man knows old
+    things and teaches justice."</p>
+
+    <p>The parties to any political or religious contest need a
+    standard&mdash;some outward sign which appeals to the eye and
+    the intelligence of all. The most serious of the political
+    questions that convulse France to-day are symbolized and summed
+    up in the color of a flag; and thus in the Russian conflict
+    between popular obstinacy and the modern propagandism the
+    rallying-sign of the Old Believers, and the emblem of the
+    champions of nationality and conservatism, was the beard. The
+    national chin was the centre of a conflict less puerile than
+    might be fancied. Long before Peter the Great imitators of
+    Western ways had begun to shave, thus setting at defiance the
+    Oriental custom which everywhere prevailed in Russia. Under
+    Peter's father one of the Raskol leaders, the protopope
+    Avvakum, denounced "these bold-faced" men&mdash;bold-faced
+    meaning shaven. The prohibition of Leviticus (xxix. 27; xxi. 5)
+    was first adduced, in conformity with the love for alleging
+    religious scruples. Recourse was next had to the ancient
+    missals and the decrees of the <i>Stoglaf</i>, a sort of
+    ecclesiastical code attributed to a national council. The
+    prohibition of the razor was at first confined to the clergy,
+    but it spread by little and little to all the faithful of the
+    orthodox Church. Up to the time of Nikon the patriarchs had
+    laid hardly less stress on forms and on the exclusion of
+    foreign ways than their future opponents of the Raskol, and had
+    condemned shaving as "an heretical practice which disfigures
+    the image of God, and makes men look like dogs and cats." This
+    is the main theological argument of the foes of the barber, and
+    their current interpretation of the verse of Genesis, "God
+    created man in His own image," "The image of God is the beard,"
+    writes a Raskolnik about 1830, "and His likeness is the
+    moustache." "Look at the old images of Christ and the saints,"
+    urge the Old Believers: "all of them wear their beards." And so
+    cogent is the argument that the orthodox theologians are fain
+    to hunt up the scanty list of beardless saints to be found in
+    Byzantine iconography. Whatever the force of the arguments
+    drawn from divinity, at bottom the opposition was only the
+    simple folks' one way of seeing things&mdash;the same clinging
+    to forms, the same compound of symbolism and realism. The
+    living work of God is to them as sacred as the text of the
+    divine word. Every word and letter of the sacred office must
+    have its separate significance; and they cannot admit that the
+    hair with which the Almighty has covered a man's face is
+    without a meaning. It is to them the distinctive mark of the
+    male countenance; to remove it is to change, and therefore to
+    disfigure, the divine handiwork: it is, in short, hardly less
+    than mutilation.<a name="FNanchor_008_8"
+       id="FNanchor_008_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_008_8"
+       class="fnanchor">[008]</a></p>
+
+    <p>The beard, like the single repetition of the Hallelujah and
+    the cross with eight branches, has had its martyrs. No later
+    than last year (1874), on the Gulf of Finland a peasant who had
+    been drafted for the navy obstinately refused to be shaved, and
+    rather than betray his religion underwent a sentence of several
+    years for insubordination. Scruples of this sort have led the
+    government to grant permission to wear the beard in the case of
+    certain corps (for instance, the Cossacks of the Ural) which
+    are mainly composed of Old Believers. Peter the Great used
+    every means to overcome these popular prejudices, but the beard
+    was too much for the reformer. Finding himself unable to shave
+    all the recusants by force, he bethought him of laying a tax on
+    the wearers of long beards, but in vain. He was similarly
+    foiled in his attempt to lay a double tax on the schismatic
+    upholders of the ancient ways. He forbade them
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 456]</span>to live in the towns; he
+    deprived them of civil rights; he forced them to wear a bit of
+    red cloth on the shoulder as a distinctive badge; but these
+    measures only marked them out as the bravest champions of
+    national traditions, and increased the respect everywhere
+    rendered them.</p>
+
+    <p>Such an attitude toward civilization leaves no room for
+    mistake as to the social and political character of the schism.
+    It is a popular protest against the irruption of foreign
+    customs. It is a reaction against the reforms of Peter the
+    Great, somewhat as Ultramontanism is a reaction against the
+    spirit of the French Revolution. The Staroveres are the
+    champions of ancient customs in the civil sphere as well as in
+    the religious. The Old Believer is emphatically the
+    old-fashioned Russian&mdash;the Slavophilist of the lower
+    classes&mdash;and hence extreme to the point of absurdity. His
+    revolt against authority has more resemblance to that of La
+    Vend&eacute;e than to that of the Jacobins. Like a conscript
+    obstinately refusing to join his regiment, he holds back from
+    all part and lot in the changes of modern Russia; and in this
+    light the schism is the feature which above all others
+    assimilates Russia to the East.</p>
+
+    <p>And just as the East has bound itself fast to externals, so
+    the Raskolnik praises his fossilism to the skies, and would
+    gladly run the risk of petrifying society in its inherited
+    shape. With him, as with the child or the Oriental, wisdom and
+    science belong to the infancy of civilization, and the maxims
+    of antiquity leave nothing to be learnt. Under both aspects the
+    Old Believer is reactionary, opposed to the very principle of
+    progress&mdash;the hero of routine and a martyr to prejudice.
+    His gaze turns naturally to the past, and if reform ever enters
+    his mind, he dreams of a return to the good old times of yore.
+    Even his struggle against authority is based on the old idea of
+    sovereignty: his political motto, as well as that of most of
+    the people, is, "No emperor, but a czar!" The czar was one day
+    pointed out to a Raskolnik conscript. "That is no czar," he
+    said: "he wears a moustache, a uniform and a sword, like all
+    the rest of the officers. He is nothing but a general." These
+    worshipers of the past, with their devotion to ceremonial,
+    think of the czar only as a long-bearded man in a flowing robe,
+    such as they see in the ancient images. The Old Believers are
+    the exaggerated representatives of the spirit of stagnation
+    which everywhere confronts the Russian government. Nothing
+    gives a clearer conception of the obstacles still in the way of
+    reforms which elsewhere would be matters of course (as, for
+    instance, the substitution of the Gregorian for the Julian
+    calendar) than the resistance which other measures have already
+    encountered.</p>
+
+    <p>In principle the Raskol is conservative, not to say
+    reactionary, but its attitude toward the Church and the State,
+    and the habits engendered by two centuries of opposition and
+    persecution, give it a revolutionary, or even an anarchical,
+    character. A secret tie unites all the branches of public
+    authority, and the rejection of one leads to the rejection of
+    another. As has been said by an eminent historian of Russia,
+    the refusal to submit to a single form of authority brings into
+    activity a disposition to rid one's self of all social and
+    moral ties. The Hussite revolt against Rome speedily results in
+    the Taborite revolt against society: Luther calls the
+    Anabaptists into being. The same phenomenon is repeated in
+    Russia, in England and in Scotland. Once carried away by the
+    spirit of revolt, an irresistible tendency sweeps the schism on
+    in the direction of civil liberty; and both in theory and in
+    practice some of these sects have reached the most unbridled
+    license. Hence, by one of those contrasts which are so common
+    in Russia, the Raskol is judged in two utterly different ways,
+    each of which is partly correct. The reactionary movement in
+    its inception had the appearance of an assertion of the rights
+    of individual liberty and national life, as opposed to the
+    autocratic government; and such it was, after a
+    fashion&mdash;the fashion of refractory conscripts or of
+    smugglers, not to say of brigands&mdash;the fashion, in short,
+    in which all abuses and prejudices are defended. What it
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 457]</span>claimed was liberty,
+    indeed, but liberty as the commonalty understand
+    it&mdash;liberty to retain its customs, its superstitions and
+    its ignorance&mdash;liberty to go and come as it chose. But in
+    all this there was no notion of political freedom. With all his
+    hatred of foreign importations, the Old Believer is no enemy to
+    reform in the sense of national tradition or of furthering the
+    interests of the lower classes, the artisan and the peasant.
+    Like all popular movements, the Raskol is essentially
+    democratic, and in some of its sects socialistic and
+    communistic.</p>
+
+    <p>Two things which have especially tended to give the Raskol a
+    democratic&mdash;or even liberal&mdash;complexion are serfdom
+    and the bureaucratic despotism of the country. It was no mere
+    coincidence which caused the Raskol to break out about half a
+    century after serfdom was established. Much of its popularity
+    and life was due to the enslavement of the mass of the people.
+    The slave was proud of having a different faith from his
+    master; and slavery is always a propitious soil for the growth
+    of sects. This nation of serfs dimly felt the Raskol to be an
+    assertion of religious liberty and self-respect against master,
+    Church and government; and these were symbolized by the beard
+    and the peculiar sign of the cross. The Raskol offered to all
+    the oppressed a moral, and often a material, refuge, an asylum
+    for all enemies of the master and the law, and a shelter for
+    the fugitive serf, for the deserter, for public debtors and
+    outlaws of every description. Some sects (as the Wanderers, for
+    example) are specially organized for such purposes. In these
+    respects the Raskol was unconsciously one form of the
+    opposition to serfdom and official despotism; and hence the Old
+    Believers are most numerous among the most refractory elements
+    of Russia&mdash;in the North among the free peasants (the old
+    colonists of Novgorod), and in the South among the independent
+    Cossacks of the steppes. Religious and political opposition
+    have joined hands, and to this combination is due the strength
+    of the great popular movements of the seventeenth and
+    eighteenth centuries, such as the Streltsy insurrections at the
+    time of the revolt of Pougatchef, whose excesses curiously
+    recall the wars of the Peasants and Anabaptists in the West
+    before the abolition of serfdom. In the great Russian
+    Jacquerie, and in all the seditions which held out the hope of
+    emancipation, the first place was taken by the Old Believers
+    and the Cossacks, most of whom held the same faith. These two
+    forms of national resistance are naturally akin. They equally
+    personify the character and the prejudices of the old Russian.
+    Their main point is their character of protests, so that an Old
+    Believer may be described as a Cossack in religion,
+    transporting into that domain the instincts peculiar to the
+    wild horsemen of the Don. But both Cossack and Starovere have
+    found themselves forced to give way before the march of
+    civilization, and the different branches into which the Raskol
+    has split have reached very divergent conclusions both as to
+    politics and religion.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="III_INTERNAL_DIVISIONS"
+       name="III_INTERNAL_DIVISIONS"></a>III.&mdash;INTERNAL
+       DIVISIONS.</h3>
+
+    <p>Nothing is more logical than religious creeds&mdash;nothing
+    more rigorously consequent in its deductions than the
+    theological mind. Religious thought has an unimpeded course in
+    the twilight of mystery where it takes its airy flight, and no
+    material facts avail to check it or divert it from the chosen
+    path. The innate logic of the Russian mind adds force to the
+    kindred theological quality in its influence upon the Raskol,
+    for the inhabitant of Greater Russia is distinguished for his
+    logical consecutiveness and his acceptance of the extremest
+    consequences of a position. This is partly the cause of the
+    multiplicity and growth of the strange doctrines prevalent
+    among them; and while this disposition frequently lands the
+    schism in the most grotesque of absurdities, it gives a
+    remarkable unity and regularity to even its apparent
+    divergencies and variations. Irregularity and the play of
+    chance have as little real place in this spiritual phenomenon
+    as in one belonging to the region of physics; and a knowledge
+    of the <i>terminus a quo</i> would have suggested its
+    complications as well <span class="pagenum">[Pg 458]</span>as
+    the point ultimately reached. One is now and then tempted to
+    look upon the various sects as utterly chaotic, but it is not
+    difficult to trace the general course of their natural
+    evolution.</p>
+
+    <p>A less robust faith might easily have been cast down by the
+    obstacle which confronted the schism at the outset. The revolt
+    aimed at maintaining the ritual, yet the lack of priests to
+    officiate necessitated its abandonment. The defenders of the
+    old faith found themselves, at the first step, deprived of the
+    means of practicing its rites. A single bishop, Paul of
+    Kolomna, had held out for the ancient books at the time of
+    Nikon's reform, but he had been imprisoned, and perhaps put to
+    death: at all events, he died without consecrating a bishop,
+    and the Raskol was consequently left without an episcopate or a
+    priesthood. Now, Oriental orthodoxy is not simply doctrinal in
+    its character, but, as M. A. R&eacute;ville has remarked of
+    Catholicism, "is, above all, a method of establishing
+    communication between man and God by the medium of an organized
+    priesthood, whose successive members transmit uninterruptedly
+    the divine powers which they hold from Christ;" and the death
+    of Paul of Kolomna snapped the chain uniting the Old Believers
+    with Christ, for ever depriving the schism of the powers
+    conferred by Christ on the apostles and essential to the
+    continuance of the priesthood and the Church.</p>
+
+    <p>The Raskol, so to speak, was stillborn. Unless they retraced
+    their steps, there were but two paths to take&mdash;either to
+    admit priests consecrated by a Church they had condemned, or to
+    dispense with the clergy, who alone could celebrate the rites
+    in defence of which they had revolted. There was little to
+    choose between the two self-contradictory courses, and each had
+    its partisans. This first check split the schism into two
+    groups, whose hostility has not been allayed by the lapse of
+    two centuries. According to some, as Christianity cannot exist
+    without a priesthood, its complicity with Nikon's heresy has
+    not deprived the Russian Church of apostolic powers&mdash;of
+    the <i>cheirotonia</i>, or right to consecrate bishops and
+    priests by the laying on of hands; and as their ordination is
+    valid, the schismatics have only to bring back priests of the
+    official Church to the observance of the ancient ritual. To
+    this it is answered that by abandoning the ancient books and
+    anathematizing the ancient traditions the sect of Nikon has
+    lost all claim to the apostolical succession, so that the
+    established clergy constitute no longer a Church, but the
+    synagogue of Satan. All communion with these emissaries of hell
+    is a sin, and ordination by the apostate bishops a defilement.
+    The Oriental patriarchs have shared the heresy of the Russian
+    prelates by agreeing to their anathemas against the ancient
+    rites, and orthodoxy has carried with it in its fall the
+    episcopate, apostolical succession and the lawful
+    priesthood.</p>
+
+    <p>Thus, in the first generation the Raskol fell into two
+    sections&mdash;the <i>Popovtsy</i>, who adhere to the priests,
+    and the <i>Bezpopovtsy</i>, who do not. To recruit their clergy
+    the Popovtsy were fain to have recourse to deserters from the
+    established Church, and were thus dependent upon it; though we
+    shall see that of late they have succeeded in getting an
+    independent episcopate along with a complete ecclesiastical
+    hierarchy. By maintaining a priesthood, however scanty and
+    ignorant, the Popovtsy preserve the sacraments and the orthodox
+    Christian system; and, despite the inconsistency of admitting
+    the priests of a Church that they condemn, they have paused at
+    the first step of schism and maintain the original position. It
+    is almost impossible, on the other hand, for the Bezpopovtsy to
+    stop on the slope down which their logic inexorably drags them.
+    Involved in the abandonment of the priesthood is that of
+    orthodoxy, or at least of the orthodox ritual, and the
+    sacrament of orders carries with it the sacraments which none
+    but the priest can administer. Of the seven traditional
+    channels of divine grace, baptism alone remains open: the other
+    six are dried up for ever. Thus, the first step of the
+    Bezpopovtsy brings them to the destruction of the first
+    principle of Christian worship. The more rigid of them do not
+    shrink from this most glaring <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    459]</span>of contradictions. To save the entire ritual they
+    have sacrificed its most essential parts. For the double
+    Hallelujah and the sign of the cross with two fingers instead
+    of three they have foregone the whole Christian life and the
+    one visible link between man and God, which is to be found only
+    in the sacraments. The abolition of the sacred ministry and
+    divine service is their protest against the trifling changes
+    introduced into their devotional customs by the established
+    Church. In barring the entrance to Nikon's so-called
+    innovations they have done away with the priesthood, and so
+    with every dyke against sectarian whimsies or the very
+    novelties against which they blindly contend.</p>
+
+    <p>In the melancholy upshot of the Bezpopovtsy movement there
+    was nothing to satisfy the fondness for ceremonial and
+    tradition to which the schism owed its birth; and it was hard
+    to fill the gap left by the loss of priesthood and sacraments.
+    The old orthodox law had become impossible to carry out, yet it
+    had not been abrogated. Though perfectly united as to rejecting
+    the priesthood, they accordingly fell into new fragments,
+    marked now by hesitations and compromises, and now by grotesque
+    fancies or by cruel doctrines. For the timid and for those who
+    clung to public worship it was impossible to believe in
+    Christian life and salvation without the divinely-appointed
+    means; and in the perplexed effort to supply the loss of the
+    sacraments their piety resorted to all manner of ingenious
+    make-believes. Priestly absolution being out of the question,
+    confession is sometimes made to the "elder" or to a woman, and
+    the promise of pardon has to do duty for the direct absolution.
+    As the Eucharist cannot be consecrated, famishing souls resort
+    to types or memorials of the holy sacrament; and for this
+    <i>quasi</i> communion rites have been devised which are
+    sometimes pleasing, sometimes bloody and horrible. One of these
+    is the distribution of raisins by a young girl; while one sect
+    (which is, however, but indirectly connected with the Raskol)
+    use the breast of a young maiden instead of the element of
+    bread. To one of the Bezpopovtsy sects the name of "gapers" is
+    given, because they are accustomed to keep their mouths open
+    during the Maundy-Thursday service, that the angels, God's only
+    remaining ministers, may give them drink from an invisible
+    chalice, since, as they hold, Christ cannot have wholly
+    deprived the faithful of the flesh and blood offered upon the
+    cross.</p>
+
+    <p>Such are the expedients of the more gentle or enthusiastic
+    to escape from the religious vacuum into which schism has
+    precipitated them. Quite different is the course of the more
+    strict and dauntless theologians; and the ascendency of logic
+    over pious feeling carries with these the majority of the
+    Bezpopovtsy. No consequence is too revolting for them, and no
+    hesitating subterfuge worthy of a thought. The priesthood, they
+    hold, is extinct, leaving only the sacrament of baptism, which
+    the laity may administer. Make-believes are of no avail. The
+    chain that linked Heaven with earth is snapped, and can be
+    reunited only by miracle. Meanwhile, the faithful are like men
+    shipwrecked on a desert island without a priest among them.
+    Eucharist, penitence, chrism, and, more than all, marriage, are
+    alike impossible. The priest alone can pronounce the nuptial
+    benediction; and where there is no priest there can be no
+    marriage. Such is the ultimate consequence of the
+    schism&mdash;the rock on which the Bezpopovtsy split. With
+    marriage the family goes, society with the family, and such
+    teachings can never be in harmony with the feelings, with
+    society or with morality. Marriage is their stumbling-block and
+    the principal matter on which their discussions and divisions
+    turn, giving rise to the wildest aberrations and strangest
+    compromises. The more practical retain marriage as a social
+    conventionality, while the more logical make celibacy
+    universally binding, thereby fostering anything but asceticism.
+    Among the Russian sectaries the familiar combination is
+    repeated of sensuality and mysticism. Free-love has been both
+    preached and practiced among them; and among the lower classes
+    the grossest heresies of ancient <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    460]</span>Gnosticism have mingled with the wildest and most
+    morbid of modern social theories. Most of their theological
+    writers, while avoiding such extremes, urge the most
+    extraordinary maxims in connection with their forbiddance of
+    marriage, such as that immorality, being but a passing
+    weakness, is less criminal than marriage, which is interdicted
+    by the faith.... To such a point as this have the conscientious
+    champions of old ceremonial been brought. They have carried
+    with them a few shreds of ancient ritual, and they have not
+    only abandoned Christian and natural morality, but in their
+    struggle with modern government and civilization deny the
+    principle which upholds all society.</p>
+
+    <p>Even fanatics must stand affrighted before conclusions like
+    these, and the Bezpopovtsy feel the need of some justification
+    for their subversal of the <i>cultus</i> and the morality of
+    Christianity. They find but one solution for the awful enigma
+    presented by Christ's abandonment of the Church and mankind, by
+    the extinction of appointed sacraments and means of grace, and
+    by the impious rupture of the tie between man and God. The
+    downfall of Church and priesthood and the triumph of falsehood
+    and wrong were foretold by the prophets. This is the time
+    predicted in Holy Writ, when the very elect shall be wellnigh
+    seduced, and when God shall seem to give up His own into the
+    hand of the Adversary. The priestless Church is the Church in
+    the state of widowhood foretold by Daniel in the last days.
+    Thus, the Raskol was brought by the new path of theology to
+    that belief in the approaching end of the world and the reign
+    of Antichrist to which we have already seen it led by its
+    aversion to ecclesiastical and civil reforms. That the reign of
+    Antichrist is begun is the fundamental doctrine of the Raskol,
+    and particularly of the Bezpopovstchin. In the light of this
+    new dogma all the contradictions of the latter are explained
+    and justified. This is the reason for the extinction of the
+    priesthood, of marriage and of the family. Wherefore&mdash;many
+    ask&mdash;wherefore continue the race when the archangel's
+    trump is about to proclaim the end of humanity?</p>
+
+    <p>The end of the world was announced to be nigh even before
+    Peter the Great; and they who proclaimed it are not yet weary
+    of awaiting it. Like Christians in the West in other periods,
+    they are not undeceived by the delay of the destined time, and
+    are at no loss to explain it. Many consider the reign of
+    Antichrist to be a period or era which may last for centuries,
+    as one of the three great epochs in religious history, and as
+    having, like those of the old and the new dispensations, a law
+    of its own which abrogates what went before. All of the
+    Raskolniks, or even of the Bezpopovtsy, however, do not agree
+    as to Antichrist; for while his reign is generally admitted, it
+    seems to be very differently understood. Those who retain the
+    priesthood and the more moderate of their opponents hold his
+    reign to be spiritual and invisible, and government and
+    established Church to be the unconscious or unwilling tools of
+    Satan; while the extremists of the Bezpopovstchin maintain that
+    Antichrist reigns materially and palpably. He it is, as we have
+    seen, who occupies the throne of the czars since Peter the
+    Great, and his Sanhedrim that usurps the name of the holy
+    synod. Trivial as the difference is, theologically speaking,
+    its political consequences are considerable; for the state may
+    arrive at some understanding with sects that only regard it as
+    blind and misled, while even a truce is out of the question
+    with those which look upon it as the incarnate enemy of
+    souls.</p>
+
+    <p>Very singular are the vagaries to which the ignorant
+    peasants are naturally led by this belief. Since the world is
+    in subjection to "Satan, the son of Beelzebub," all contact
+    with it was defiling, and submission to its laws nothing short
+    of a denial of the faith. To escape the hellish contagion the
+    best means was isolation or rigid withdrawal into inaccessible
+    retreats or desert places. In their spiritual confusion and
+    terror some of the sectaries saw no refuge but death, and
+    murder and suicide were systematically resorted to for the
+    purpose of shortening the time of probation and hastening their
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 461]</span>departure from the
+    accursed world. With some fanatics, called "child-slayers"
+    (<i>dietoub&uuml;tsy</i>), it was held a duty to expedite the
+    entrance to heaven of newborn children, and thus to save them
+    infernal anguish. Others, called "stranglers" or "butchers"
+    (<i>duchelstchiki, tiukalstchiki</i>), think they render a
+    valuable service to their relatives and friends by anticipating
+    a natural death, in hastening the end of those who are
+    seriously ill. Taking with a savage literalness the text, "The
+    kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it
+    by force" (Matt. xi. 12), they hold that none can enter into
+    the kingdom of heaven but those who die a violent death. One of
+    the most numerous and powerful bodies in the first century of
+    the Raskol, the <i>Philipovtsy</i>, or "burners," like the
+    Indian fakeers, preached redemption by suicide, and salvation
+    by the baptism of fire, holding that the flames alone could
+    purify men from the defilements of a world which had fallen
+    under the rule of Satan. In Siberia and the neighborhood of the
+    Ural these sectaries have been known to burn themselves in
+    hundreds on enormous piles built for the purpose, or by
+    families in their hovels, to the sound of hymns and chants.
+    Such acts have been known even during the present century.</p>
+
+    <p>One insanity begets another, and belief in the presence of
+    Antichrist leads to belief in the approaching restoration of
+    the earth, the second advent of Christ and the millennium,
+    which has infected the more extreme sects of the
+    Bezpopovstchin, thus connecting it with Gnostic sects of
+    various origins. Russian literalism, like many early Christian
+    heresies, interprets the prophets and the Apocalypse in a
+    purely material sense. The mujik or artisan looks for the
+    establishment of Christ's temporal kingdom, and anticipates the
+    dominion promised to the saints. Such a belief opens the door
+    to a trust in prophets, and to all the extravagances and
+    rascalities that come in its train. In vain does the Russian
+    statute-book condemn false prophets and lying miracles: from
+    time to time the country is overrun by <i>illuminati</i>
+    proclaiming the Second Advent, and occasionally giving
+    themselves out as the expected Messiah. They are frequently
+    accompanied by a woman, who plays the part of mystical mother
+    or spouse, and to whom they give the title of the Mother of God
+    or the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes it is only the simple folk who
+    are themselves hunting for the Redeemer; and not long since
+    appeared a body of Siberian sectaries, called "Christ-hunters,"
+    maintaining that the Saviour was about to appear, and scouring
+    desert and forest to find him. Peasants have even been known to
+    refuse payment of their taxes under pretext that Christ was
+    come and had done away with them. The Messiah of the Russian
+    sectaries is sometimes sought in the person of a simple
+    peasant, and sometimes in a native or foreign prince. Some have
+    long beheld the expected liberator in Napoleon, for their
+    persuasion that the Russian state is the reign of Antichrist
+    easily led to welcoming as a Saviour any one who seemed
+    destined to destroy it; and in the great enemy of the empire,
+    the great furtherer of a general abolition of serfdom, many
+    recognized the conquering Messiah of the prophets. It is said
+    that at their meetings an image of Napoleon is worshiped, and
+    busts of him are certainly nowhere met with more commonly than
+    in Russia. An equal veneration is paid to pictures representing
+    the first emperor surrounded by his marshals and floating above
+    the clouds in a kind of apotheosis, which is literally accepted
+    by the matter-of-fact Russian. The story runs among his
+    worshipers that Napoleon is not dead, but has escaped from St.
+    Helena and taken shelter on the shores of Lake Baikal, whence
+    he will one day come forth to overturn the throne of Satan and
+    found the kingdom of justice and peace.</p>
+
+    <p>The main point of these millennial hopes was the abolition
+    of forced labor and the <i>obrok</i>, the emancipation of the
+    serfs, and the equitable distribution of land and other
+    property. A ready reception was sure to await such a gospel,
+    with its combination of promises of liberty and faint dreams of
+    communism; and something of the kind is necessary to explain
+    the easy success of so many <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    462]</span>extravagant sects, lying prophets and feigned
+    Messiahs. Dreams like these in the West incited the revolutions
+    of the peasants in medi&aelig;val times and of the Anabaptists
+    in the sixteenth century, but they must slowly vanish with the
+    slavery which gave them birth. The age of freedom anticipated
+    by the mujik, the kingdom of God of which he caught a glimpse
+    in the promises of the prophets, is come at last: the Messiah
+    and freer of the people has appeared, and his reign is begun.
+    The emancipation of the serfs has given a blow to these
+    millennial dreams, and consequently to the more advanced sects
+    of the Raskol: its ruin will be completed by education and
+    material improvement.</p>
+
+    <p>The sects whose general evolution we have sketched may
+    appear to us ridiculous and childish. We are tempted to look
+    with contempt upon a people capable of such extravagances; but
+    such an estimate would be erroneous. Absurdity and extravagance
+    have always found a ready welcome when presented under the garb
+    of religion; and countries boasting of older and more
+    widespread civilization are not behind Russia in this regard.
+    The Raskol has its counterpart in the past and the contemporary
+    sectarianism of England and of the United States. A strong
+    likeness holds between the Puritans and the Old Believers; and
+    both as to originality and religious eccentricities the
+    Anglo-Saxon and the inhabitant of Greater Russia may be
+    compared. The Russians delight in pointing out the resemblances
+    between their country and the great republic of the New World;
+    and this is not the least of them. The Americans have their
+    prophets and prophetesses, just like the old Russian serfs, and
+    no absurdity or immorality is too gross to find preachers and
+    converts among them. How shall we account for so striking an
+    analogy between the two most extensive empires of the two
+    continents? To characteristics of race and an incomplete
+    blending of different stocks, or to the nature of the soil, the
+    extremes of heat and cold, and the strong contrasts of the
+    seasons? to the vastness of their territories and the scanty
+    diffusion of population and culture over areas so immense? or
+    still again to the rapid and inharmonious growth of the two
+    countries&mdash;to the lack of popular education in the one,
+    and the low standard of the higher education in the other?
+    Separately or combined, these causes fail completely to explain
+    the curious phenomenon; and still they are the most striking
+    points of resemblance between the two colossal powers. In some
+    respects, the sectarian spirit presents itself in a different
+    and almost opposite manner in the democratic republic and the
+    despotic empire. In the United States the ranker growths of
+    religious enthusiasm spring from an excess of individualism and
+    enterprise&mdash;from the independent and pushing temper
+    transported from politics and business into religion. In
+    Russia, on the contrary, the popular mind has thrown off all
+    restraint in the religious sphere, simply because this was long
+    the only one in which it could disport itself unchecked. The
+    religious boldness and extravagance which in the one country is
+    the direct consequence of the state of society is in the other
+    rather a reaction against it. Russia's advantage over America
+    lies in the fact that there the excesses of fancy and zeal
+    prevail in a more primitive, unsophisticated and childlike
+    race. Some diseases are best passed through early in life,
+    before the time of full development. It is no less true of some
+    moral maladies: childhood suffers from them less than youth or
+    maturity. Russia is still in that stage of civilization which
+    is naturally subject to attacks of feverish and mystical
+    religion, but one day it will emerge from it; and the
+    precocious skepticism of a large portion of its educated
+    classes shows plainly that no inexorable fate condemns the
+    national character to credulity and superstition.</p>
+
+    <p>The Raskol is more than a morbid symptom or a sign of
+    weakness. If it does little credit to the sense or cultivation
+    of the people, it does much to its heart, its conscience and
+    its will. Independence and individuality are often said to be
+    lacking in it, but the Old Believers show that firmness and
+    conception of duty which are as needful as
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 463]</span>intelligence to a nation's
+    strength. Beneath the dull, monotonous surface of political
+    society these sects give us a glimpse of the hard rock which is
+    the groundwork of this seemingly inert race: its originality
+    and stern individuality are what are dear to it. One day Russia
+    will display in other spheres the originality and patient,
+    sturdy energy which these religious struggles have called
+    forth. That a considerable portion of the people have revolted
+    against the liturgic reform shows that it is not the stupid,
+    sluggish herd Europe has so long imagined. On one ground at
+    least its conscience has displayed sufficient independence, and
+    told despotism that it is not all-powerful. And if mere ritual
+    alterations have aroused such opposition, what would result
+    from a change of religion&mdash;from the transition to
+    Catholicism or Protestantism so often dreamed of and advised by
+    Western theologians? So far from being always docile and void
+    of will and determination, the Russian people, even in their
+    religious vagaries, have displayed a singular power of
+    organization and combination.</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="ELEANORS_CAREER"
+       name="ELEANORS_CAREER"></a>ELEANOR'S CAREER.</h2>
+
+    <p>I first met Eleanor Vachy at a boarding-school in the city
+    of R&mdash;&mdash;, where we soon became intimate friends.
+    Eleanor was the result of a system. When but a few months old,
+    and an orphan, she had been left to the care of her aunt, Miss
+    Willmanson, a reformer, a progressionist, advanced both in life
+    and opinions, who had spared nothing to make her niece an
+    example to her sex. No pugilist ever believed more fully in
+    training than did Miss Willmanson: she looked upon institutions
+    of learning as forcing-houses, where nipping, budding and
+    improving the natural growth was the constant occupation, and
+    where the various branches of knowledge were cultivated, like
+    cabbages, at so much a head. When Eleanor became, so to speak,
+    her property, she seized with avidity the opportunity of
+    submitting her principles to the test of experiment&mdash;of
+    demonstrating to an incredulous world the power of education,
+    and the vigor of the female mind and body when formed by proper
+    discipline. The child was fed in accordance with the most
+    recent discoveries in chemistry: she was taught to read after
+    the latest improvement in primers; she was provided with
+    mathematical toys and gymnastic exercises. Did she take a walk
+    in summer, her attention was directed to botany; if she picked
+    up a stone to make it skip over a passing brook, passages from
+    the <i>Medals of Creation</i> or <i>Thoughts on a Pebble</i>
+    were quoted; and when the stone went skimming over the surface
+    of the calm pool, the theory of the ricochet was explained and
+    the wonders of natural philosophy were dilated upon. Every
+    sentence she spoke was made the text of a lesson, and the names
+    of sages and philosophers became as familiar to her as those of
+    Jack the Giant-killer and Blue Beard are to ordinary
+    children.</p>
+
+    <p>Especially were the stories of distinguished women repeated
+    by Miss Willmanson in glowing language, pointed out as
+    precedents, and dwelt upon as worthy of emulation. "If their
+    genius was great enough," she would remark, "to extort a
+    recognition in times when only masculine pens wrote history,
+    what could not the same ability do now?&mdash;now, when,
+    strengthened by waiting, encouraged by ungrudging praise, and
+    sure of having chroniclers of their own sex who will do them
+    justice, a new era is dawning. The history of the world needs
+    to be reseen from a woman's point of view, and rewritten by a
+    woman's hand. <span class="pagenum">[Pg 464]</span>Men have had
+    the monopoly of making public opinion, and have distorted
+    facts. What in a king they name policy, in a queen is called
+    cruelty; what in a minister is diplomacy, in a favorite is
+    deceit; what in a man is justice, in a woman is inhumanity;
+    vigor is coarseness, generosity is weakness, sincerity becomes
+    shallowness; and faults that are passed over lightly in the
+    hero are sufficient to doom the heroine for all posterity."</p>
+
+    <p>The peculiar views of Eleanor's aunt did not prevent her
+    from being an agreeable acquaintance. Although she believed in
+    the intellectual capacity of woman, she did not look upon
+    herself as a representative of the class: her admiration of her
+    sex did not degenerate into self-laudation, and her enthusiasm
+    was not tainted by egotism. Hers was not a strong-mindedness
+    that showed itself in ungainly coiffures and tasteless attire.
+    It was content with desiring and claiming for woman whatever is
+    best, noblest and most lovely in mind and body. She would have
+    given her life to further this end, but thought it mattered
+    little if her name were forgotten in the bulletin that
+    announced success to the cause.</p>
+
+    <p>Owing to her extreme reserve in talking of herself, it was
+    very gradually that I gained this knowledge of Miss
+    Willmanson's character; but many of her opinions were received
+    at second hand from Eleanor, who admired her aunt greatly, and
+    never tired of quoting her. It was she who told me that this
+    talented lady was engaged upon a book the title of which was
+    <i>Footsteps of Women in All Ages</i>. The aunt returned this
+    admiration in no stinted measure, and her highest ambition
+    seemed centred in her niece.</p>
+
+    <p>Eleanor was a tall, well-formed, unaffected girl, with a
+    clear olive complexion; a slight rose-colored bloom on cheeks
+    and lips; deep blue eyes, rather purple than blue, rather
+    amethyst than purple, that looked every one candidly in the
+    face; and hair reminding you of late twilight&mdash;a shade
+    that, though dark, still bore traces of having once been light,
+    even sunny.</p>
+
+    <p>As to her acquirements, however, what in the older lady was
+    love of information, in the younger appeared to be what Pepys
+    called a "curious curiosity." If she had been obliged to
+    investigate a subject by constant labor, I doubt whether she
+    would have stood the test. At school she was a parlor-boarder,
+    attended outside lectures on the sciences, went to concerts and
+    the opera, frequented museums, had small blank-books in which
+    she took voluminous notes, and was constantly busy with some
+    new scheme of improvement. In looking at her I often thought
+    that could her aunt's dreams be realized, could her intellect
+    ever approach the unusual symmetry and beauty of her face and
+    form, it would indeed be an achievement. But was it likely that
+    Nature, who is so grudging of her gifts, after having endowed
+    her so highly physically would do as much for her mentally?
+    "Aunt Will," as the girl called her, had none of these
+    misgivings. This beautiful physique she believed to be the
+    effect of her own foresight and care&mdash;of proper food and
+    clothing, of training in the gymnasium, riding and walking. It
+    was itself an earnest of the success of her plans, and made her
+    confident for the future. One of the tenets of her faith was
+    that Eleanor needed only to decide in what direction to exert
+    herself, and that in any career success was certain. For this
+    reason she gave her opportunities of every kind, that her
+    choice might be unlimited.</p>
+
+    <p>In this, as in every other opinion, Eleanor agreed with her
+    aunt, not through vanity, but through respect and habit. What
+    she intended to become was the theme of long confidences
+    between us when alone together, for the time which most other
+    girls of her age devote to dreams of love and lovers was
+    employed by her in speculations about her future profession.
+    The artlessness of the girl in thus appropriating to herself
+    the whole field of human wisdom would have been ludicrous had
+    it not been so frank: it reminded you of a child reaching out
+    its chubby hands to seize the moon.</p>
+
+    <p>In regard to love and marriage, Aunt Will was most resolute
+    in speaking against them, and by precept and example she
+    endeavored to influence her niece in the same direction. "It is
+    a <span class="pagenum">[Pg 465]</span>state which mentally
+    unfits a woman for anything"&mdash;a dictum which was accepted
+    by Eleanor without argument. It was understood that her life
+    was to be devoted to being great, not to being loved. But Aunt
+    Will refused to lend her help or advice in deciding what the
+    career should be, believing that the prophetic fire would
+    kindle itself without human help, and fearing that the least
+    hint of what she desired might fetter a waking genius, though
+    the girl often plaintively remarked, "I wish aunt would settle
+    it for me."</p>
+
+    <p>The entire faith with which these two women looked forward
+    to the future roused no little curiosity on my part as to the
+    realization of their hopes. A year after our acquaintance began
+    the ladies left R&mdash;&mdash; to travel abroad. Eleanor
+    assured me solemnly that she should not return until she had
+    won renown, that vision of so many young hearts on leaving
+    home. "The great trouble is to decide what to do;" and here she
+    sighed. "But Aunt Will says our work shapes itself without our
+    knowing. Some morning we wake and find it ready for our hands,
+    with no more doubt on the subject. I am waking."</p>
+
+    <p>"Meanwhile enjoying yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not?" she answered, smiling: "it is what aunt wishes me
+    to do."</p>
+
+    <p>At first I had frequent letters from my friend, but the
+    intervals between them became longer, as is usual when a new
+    life replaces the old. In those which I received there was no
+    allusion to the career, and I felt that inquiries on the
+    subject would be indiscreet. If she were succeeding, I should
+    hear of it soon enough; and if not, why should I give her pain?
+    After a separation of about eighteen months, and a silence of
+    six, one morning, on being sent for to the parlor, what was my
+    surprise to find myself face to face with Eleanor Vachy, and
+    the girl, prettier than ever, pressing warm kisses on my
+    cheeks!</p>
+
+    <p>We had been talking on every conceivable topic for perhaps
+    an hour, as only friends can talk, when I chanced to remark,
+    "You intended to make a much longer stay when you left: I hope
+    nothing disagreeable has happened to bring you home."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing <i>dis</i>agreeable," she replied, looking slightly
+    embarrassed. "I would have written about it, but thought I
+    would rather tell you. I hope it won't alter your opinion of me
+    when you hear it: I hope you won't think less of me;" and the
+    color mounted swiftly in her cheeks as she gave me one
+    deprecating glance out of her purple eyes, and then as quickly
+    hid them under their long lashes.</p>
+
+    <p>"I will try to be impartial," I answered gravely, seeing
+    that she was not in a humor to be laughed at. "I suppose it is
+    in reference to your career?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes it is," she replied, looking attentively at the point
+    of her boot; "and I fear aunt is disappointed, although she
+    says nothing; and it is very possible that you will be
+    disappointed also."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you have chosen anything reasonable," I remarked
+    encouragingly, "I am sure your aunt will be satisfied: she is
+    so unprejudiced, and you know she always declared that she
+    would not influence you."</p>
+
+    <p>"She trusted me too much," sighing. "What I have preferred,
+    you&mdash;maybe she&mdash;that is, many people&mdash;would
+    think no career at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, indeed! Poetry?" (I knew that Aunt Will had no great
+    opinion of most of the versifiers.)</p>
+
+    <p>She interlocked her fingers and gave them a slight twist,
+    looked still more intently at the toe of her boot, and dropped
+    ruefully one little word, "No."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not the stage, surely?" looking at her perfect beauty
+    with a sudden start.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no! it is not that. You cannot guess. I may as well
+    tell you. I will begin at the beginning, and you will see that
+    I could not help it: that is&mdash;For Mercy's sake don't look
+    at me as if I were a criminal, or I won't say another
+    word!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nonsense, Eleanor! I am not looking at you as if you were a
+    criminal. Go on and tell me."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is too late now," she said hastily: "I have been here so
+    long already. I will see you to-morrow."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you dare to go without making a
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 466]</span>full confession, I will
+    never forgive you. Sit down: the sooner it is over the more
+    composed you will feel. I have been so anxious to hear about
+    it!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, if it must be. I know you will be disgusted. I have
+    to begin when we left here."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have plenty of time to listen."</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"You remember we started on the voyage by ourselves. At
+        our first dinner on board aunt recognized an old friend, a
+        Mrs. Kenderdine, who was also crossing, together with her
+        son. That first dinner was our last for some time, for,
+        though we tried to be as strong-minded as possible, in the
+        end we were obliged to stay in our cabins. Having recovered
+        sooner than aunt, one day I stumbled out as far as the
+        companion-way, and was sitting there very disconsolately
+        when Mr. Kenderdine, passing by, stopped to ask if he
+        should assist me on deck. Of course I was only too glad to
+        go. He had not been sick at all, and could walk about quite
+        easily, which gave me a high opinion of his abilities.
+        Later he brought me my dinner, with a glass of wine, of
+        which he did not spill a drop, and by evening I found that
+        with the aid of his arm I could promenade.</p>
+
+        <p>"That day was a sample of all until the voyage was over,
+        for if I attempted to move alone I stumbled, rolled and
+        behaved with a lack of dignity that was frightful; and yet,
+        after getting a taste of fresh air, I could not bear to
+        stay below. Somehow, it became understood that each morning
+        Mr. Kenderdine might find me in the companion-way at a
+        certain hour; and as aunt would not leave her state-room,
+        and old Mrs. Kenderdine could not, we had nothing to do but
+        to try and amuse each other; so we ended by becoming pretty
+        well acquainted by the time we arrived at Queenstown.</p>
+
+        <p>"In England aunt was very busy. You used to think her a
+        student here: I wish you could have seen her there. For six
+        months she spent almost every hour of daylight in the
+        library of the British Museum, where she had been
+        introduced by a learned friend. Aunt Will has a wonderful
+        admiration for Boadicea: she was also critically examining
+        the history of Queen Henrietta and of Elizabeth. She thinks
+        the latter did not do justice to her opportunities, and
+        that her vanity was the mark of a feeble mind. You know
+        aunt has no patience with vanity and&mdash;"</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"But about yourself, Eleanor?"</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"I am coming to that directly. Mrs. Kenderdine had gone
+        abroad to get medical advice: as her health would permit
+        her to take but little exercise, a morning drive, with
+        receiving and paying visits (she is of an English family
+        and well connected), was all she was capable of.</p>
+
+        <p>"It happened in this way that the only ones of our party
+        fit for active duty were Fred&mdash;I mean Mr.
+        Kenderdine&mdash;and myself. As we had formed the habit of
+        amusing each other on the voyage, we still continued it.
+        Aunt would join us when any historical site was to be
+        visited; but there were many places that were not
+        historical, but that were just as pleasant or as beautiful
+        as if they had been, and to these we went together. We
+        stayed in London until the season was over, and then
+        started for Paris.</p>
+
+        <p>"You can form no idea how aunt reveled in the
+        antiquities of Paris. If she went to the Mus&eacute;e Cluny
+        in the morning, we might be sure we should see no more of
+        her for that day at least. She absolutely took rooms at
+        Versailles for two weeks that she might study up the
+        <i>locale</i> of the Pompadour, whom she regards as a
+        female Richelieu, and she also found a rich field of
+        investigation in the lives of the French queens."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"And what were you doing all this time?"</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"Oh! I had professors, French, Italian and German, for
+        the languages, I visited the galleries, and aunt would read
+        me her notes, so that I was gaining much information. You
+        see, in a foreign country it is not the thing to sit in the
+        house to study: you must go about as much as possible and
+        use your eyes, which is an education in itself. That is
+        what I was doing."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"About your career, I mean?"</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"Don't be so impatient: I am about to tell you. We
+        concluded to spend the winter in Rome, aunt and I: the
+        Kenderdines <span class="pagenum">[Pg 467]</span>remained
+        in Paris. Aunt preceded me to Brussels about two weeks to
+        explore the libraries there, as we were to make the Rhine
+        tour before going to Italy. I should have accompanied her,
+        but we were expecting a remittance from home that had not
+        arrived, and I was obliged to wait for it. The day before I
+        left Paris I was regretting that I had not been to
+        Montmorency, and Mr. Kenderdine, who overheard me, proposed
+        that as I did not mind fatigue we should go. By starting
+        early in the morning we could make our 'last day,' as he
+        called it, a <i>f&ecirc;te</i>. I consented, and we
+        arranged to take the early train to Enghien, to breakfast
+        there, ride through Montmorency to the Ch&acirc;teau de la
+        Chasse, where we could have dinner, and return in time for
+        the Belgian train in the evening. The next morning I was
+        ready, my riding-skirt in a satchel, and off we went. The
+        day was perfect, the air cool and delicious. We took the
+        cars at the Gare du Nord, and in less than an hour we
+        arrived at Enghien, ordered breakfast at a charming little
+        hotel that overlooks the lake, and had it brought to us on
+        the balcony, from whence we could listen to the band
+        playing, and look at the beautiful villas that border the
+        water, watch the invalids taking their constitutionals, and
+        see the brightly-painted boats bobbing over the small
+        waves. While waiting for the horses, Fred made me go to the
+        springs and taste the water, which is horrid: then we
+        mounted and cantered leisurely on to Montmorency, a hilly,
+        desolate-looking place, although so much lauded by the
+        Parisians: I suppose the beautiful forest in the vicinity
+        is its attraction. The road for the next five or six miles
+        was shaded by trees, and most of it was a soft turf on
+        which the horses' hoofs rebounded noiselessly, with views
+        of rolling country at intervals. The ch&acirc;teau had been
+        a hunting-lodge two or three hundred years ago, but nothing
+        remains of it now but a couple of towers, to which a modern
+        country inn has been added, where excellent dinners may be
+        had, as I can testify. It is a great place for the picnics
+        and pleasure-parties of the natives, but foreigners seldom
+        visit it. After we had wandered about for several hours,
+        enjoying ourselves in that silly French way, with nothing
+        but light hearts, fresh air, green grass and blue sky for
+        all incitement thereto, I, in consideration of my evening
+        journey, recommended our return. We had the horses brought
+        round, and then my career commenced."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Why, how?"</p>
+
+    <div class="blockquot">
+        <p>"You know that road from the ch&acirc;teau? No you
+        don't, but I will tell you of it. The woods lie on one
+        side, and an ivy-covered wall separates it from sloping
+        fields on the other&mdash;the prettiest place on earth."
+        ("Artistic," thought I: "she has decided on
+        landscape-painting;" but I did not interrupt.) "It was just
+        there that Mr. Kenderdine came to my side: he had
+        dismounted to open the gate, and was leading his horse. He
+        came to my side, and, looking up at me, said half
+        seriously, half smiling, 'You are very happy to-day, Miss
+        Eleanor: what will you do when I am not with you to ride
+        and walk and talk to?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I suppose I shall find some one in Rome who rides,
+        walks and talks as well. They say the Campagna is lovely
+        for riding.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'And perhaps some one who waltzes as well.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Certainly: that is no great accomplishment. Like
+        playing a hurdy-gurdy, if you turn round often enough you
+        cannot fail to make a successful performance.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'There is one thing you will not find, Eleanor;' and he
+        laid his hand on my wrist: 'that is, some one who loves you
+        as well.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Mr. Kenderdine, please get on your horse, and don't
+        talk nonsense.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I suppose I have as good a right to talk nonsense as
+        any one, and I believe the fancy for doing so comes to all
+        of us once in our lifetime.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I admit your right to talk, and claim mine to refuse
+        to listen;' so saying, I gave my horse a cut. The animal
+        started, but Fred's hand was still on my bridle-wrist, and
+        with a motion he checked the animal so violently that it
+        reared, afterward coming down on the sod with a thud that
+        almost unseated me.</p>
+
+        <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 468]</span>"'I will talk, and
+        you shall listen,' said Mr. Fred, looking dangerous.</p>
+
+        <p>"'So it appears,' I retorted, thoroughly provoked; 'but
+        I hope you will oblige me by being as expeditious as
+        possible, for I am very much afraid that I shall miss the
+        train to-night.'</p>
+
+        <p>"He looked at me a moment as if to be sure he understood
+        my meaning, then turned and sprang on his horse, at the
+        same time remarking, 'You are right: I had better not
+        detain you. I had forgotten your journey.'</p>
+
+        <p>"We cantered on in silence for about three miles. The
+        flush of anger had slowly faded out of his face, when he
+        commenced abruptly: 'Miss Vachy, I have no <i>right</i> to
+        ask you what I intend asking, but I have always thought you
+        had a kind heart, and perhaps you will answer my question.
+        You may depend that the confidence you may place in me will
+        be held sacred.' Then less quickly, 'Will you tell me, have
+        you an understanding, or are you engaged, or do you care
+        for any one else?'</p>
+
+        <p>"For a moment I thought of entering into an
+        explanation&mdash;of telling him what my aunt expected of
+        me, and what I intended doing&mdash;only I did not myself
+        know what I intended doing; and it seemed absurd to begin
+        such an account without being able to complete it. Besides,
+        if he thought I cared for some one else, it would end the
+        matter and save a world of argument; so I replied
+        hesitatingly, 'I am sorry, Mr. Kenderdine, that I cannot
+        answer your question, but&mdash;'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Enough: I understand.'</p>
+
+        <p>"Then our canter quickened into a gallop, and the gallop
+        into a race. I am quite sure those horses never went at
+        such a pace in their lives before. Fred seemed unconscious
+        of the run we were making of it, unconscious of everything,
+        urging his poor beast whenever it flagged, and fretting its
+        mouth by alternately jerking and loosening the reins, until
+        had it been anything but a livery hack it would have been
+        frantic. Conversation was impossible, and I had nothing to
+        sustain me during the ride but the satisfaction of feeling
+        that I had done my duty."</p>
+
+        <p>"It don't seem to me that you are getting any nearer the
+        end of your story."</p>
+
+        <p>"The darkest hour is that which precedes the dawn," said
+        Eleanor, adding maliciously, "if you are tired I will tell
+        you the rest to-morrow. Don't you see that I must bring you
+        up to it gradually, so that the shock will not be too
+        great?"</p>
+
+        <p>"But think of the suspense I am in."</p>
+
+        <p>"My dear, the first steps in any career are as important
+        as the last; so curb your curiosity and listen. If you were
+        telling it, you would not get on one bit faster."</p>
+
+        <p>"Perhaps not," I answered doubtfully: "however,
+        continue."</p>
+
+        <p>"Thanks to our haste, we got to Paris early enough to
+        allow me to rest and have supper. I had sent on my baggage
+        by express, and had nothing to worry about Starting at
+        seven, I should arrive next morning at Brussels. I can
+        sleep famously in the cars, and I apprehended no
+        difficulty. Fred, looking as black as a thundercloud, took
+        me to the station, and was preposterous enough to ask me if
+        I was not sorry I was going."</p>
+
+        <p>"And what did you say?"</p>
+
+        <p>"Say? Why, the truth&mdash;that I was glad; and then Mr.
+        Thundercloud looked blacker than ever.</p>
+
+        <p>"I had several stations to pass before we reached Creil,
+        where I was to change cars and take the express. I settled
+        myself comfortably, so that I could look out of the window,
+        and I whiled away the time by reviewing the whole of my
+        acquaintance with Mr. Kenderdine. I was forced to admit
+        that I had acted imprudently in not letting him know from
+        the beginning what my life was to be, but I never thought
+        it would matter to him. Then my conscience reproached me
+        for the lie I had implied: I might have told him the truth,
+        and spared him the mortification of believing that I
+        preferred some one else. I knew, in thinking of it calmly,
+        that it was not to avoid an argument that I had done it,
+        but to make him feel as badly as possible, because I was
+        angry at him for stopping my horse. It was mean in me,
+        especially as that De Vezin was the person he would pitch
+        on. You see, I had made a good deal of De Vezin while in
+        Paris, but it was only to <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+        469]</span>improve my French accent&mdash;a fact which poor
+        Fred could not know.</p>
+
+        <p>"The train whizzed on. The night grew dark: I could
+        scarcely distinguish objects outside the blurred window,
+        but I still remained attentive to the voice of the
+        conductor as he called out the names of the successive
+        stations until&mdash;until I heard no more: I had fallen
+        asleep.</p>
+
+        <p>"I suppose I slept profoundly for about half an hour,
+        when I was suddenly awakened by a jerk: the cars had
+        stopped. I was not aware I had been sleeping, but I had an
+        undefined sense that something was wrong. I hastily opened
+        the window and heard the name Liancourt shouted. There was
+        no such stopping-place between Paris and Creil, for I had
+        studied up my route before starting. The truth flashed upon
+        me, and impulsively I left my car, rushed to the conductor,
+        and asked, 'What place is this?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Liancourt.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'And where is Creil?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'We have passed it. Did you want to go there?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Of course I did. Why did you not call it?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'We did call it,' said he indignantly: 'you must have
+        been asleep.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No such thing,' I replied, for at the moment I did not
+        think it could be possible.</p>
+
+        <p>"There was but little time for reflection. Should I go
+        on to the next large town, or should I stay? If I went on,
+        I should get to my destination in the middle of the night,
+        and, knowing nothing of the place, might have great
+        difficulty in finding lodgings. If I stayed, I might get a
+        train back or a carriage, or even find here a hotel of some
+        kind where they would accommodate me until morning. I
+        decided to remain, and off went the cars.</p>
+
+        <p>"One of the ticket-agents came forward from the
+        office&mdash;as I supposed to offer his services: there
+        were but few people about, but all understood my situation.
+        As I said, the man came forward and bowed: 'Your fare, if
+        you please.'</p>
+
+        <p>"I handed him my ticket: he stood before me and
+        repeated, 'Your fare, if you please.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I have given you my ticket,' said I, looking at him
+        inquiringly.</p>
+
+        <p>"'This one is not for Liancourt: it is for Creil.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I was going to Creil, only the train brought me
+        past.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Exactly, and you will please pay for the extra
+        distance,' said he politely.</p>
+
+        <p>"It was too much. I had the misfortune of being carried
+        out of my way, and this exasperating clerk was coolly
+        asking me to pay the company a premium for the result of
+        the conductor's carelessness. It was one of those
+        situations in which words fail to express the extent of
+        your indignation. The fellow's audacity verged on the
+        sublime. He stood there with the calmness of a hero. And
+        what did I do? Why, I paid him. But I tell you truly that I
+        have hated that whole railroad company with the blackest
+        hatred ever since. That was not all. As soon as he received
+        the provoking money&mdash;I wish it had been red
+        hot&mdash;he turned on his heel and walked into his
+        office.</p>
+
+        <p>"But it was not the time to indulge in resentment: I
+        must act promptly. The people there when I arrived were
+        fast dispersing. I addressed myself to a half-grown boy who
+        was standing near me: 'When does the next train go to
+        Paris?' I thought I had better return and start afresh in
+        the morning.</p>
+
+        <p>"'The last has gone for to-night,' answered the lad.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Are you quite sure?'</p>
+
+        <p>"He gave his head a decisive jerk.</p>
+
+        <p>"'How far is this place from Creil?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'About five miles.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Can I get a carriage to take me there?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No.' This time he looked for corroboration to the
+        group who had gathered round us, all of whom with one
+        accord wagged their heads in the negative.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is there a hotel here?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Isn't it a town?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No,' much intensified.</p>
+
+        <p>"I knew that there are many stations in France
+        consisting of a single building located in the midst of
+        fields: these places take their names from the nearest
+        <span class="pagenum">[Pg 470]</span>town (which may be
+        several miles distant), and are marked on the maps by a
+        black spot like a hyphen: many of them are served by an
+        omnibus. I found, on further questioning, that this was one
+        of the aforesaid black spots, minus the omnibus.</p>
+
+        <p>"'What is the nearest town?' I continued.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Liancourt is a little more than a mile off, but it is
+        a village.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is there an inn there?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I believe there is.'</p>
+
+        <p>"By this time most of my audience had satisfied their
+        curiosity and departed, leaving only the boy, and an old
+        man who attracted my attention. He held a lantern which
+        illuminated a kindly, weatherbeaten face, looking like that
+        of an old sailor. I discovered later that he had come from
+        Normandy, and like most Normans had spent half his life on
+        the waves. He seemed interested in my hapless plight:
+        perhaps he would assist me.</p>
+
+        <p>"'I want to go back to Creil' (I knew I should find a
+        hotel there): 'won't you come with me and show me the way
+        with your lantern?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Can't, mademoiselle: can't leave here.' He gave an
+        indicative jerk of his head and thumb in a certain
+        direction toward the railroad.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Why not?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I am the night-watchman, and should lose my place if I
+        left.'</p>
+
+        <p>"Then please point out the road: I shall have to return
+        alone.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Can't, mademoiselle: it is too dark. You would get
+        lost.'</p>
+
+        <p>"I thought I could not get much more lost than I was at
+        that moment, but did not say so. Just then a bright idea
+        struck me: 'I will walk back on the railroad: I cannot fail
+        to find my way.'</p>
+
+        <p>"The old man looked aghast at the proposition, and
+        pointed to the long line of high thick hedge that bordered
+        it on each side.</p>
+
+        <p>"'How could you leave the track if you did get to Creil?
+        They are locked up there for the night. Besides, you would
+        be crushed by passing trains, and you would be fined too,
+        for it is against the law. Now,' he went on in that
+        patronizing manner which, from its na&iuml;vet&eacute; is
+        so charming in the French peasant&mdash;'now, mademoiselle
+        does not wish to die to-night, does she, and be also
+        fined?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No,' I replied dolefully, seeing my chances of shelter
+        diminishing, 'but I shall certainly die if you will not
+        help me to find a hotel.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Wait,' he whispered&mdash;'wait a little until all the
+        world is gone. It won't be five minutes until every one has
+        departed and every light is out in the station;
+        then&mdash;'</p>
+
+        <p>"I could not see how this was to improve my condition,
+        but, having no choice, I waited patiently while he went and
+        busied himself about his work. Presently he returned.
+        Everything was silent, and pointing mysteriously to the
+        waiting-room in the building, he said in a low voice,
+        '<i>There</i> is where you can stay till morning. They
+        would not allow it if they knew, but no one will be the
+        wiser. You can leave as soon as it is light, and to-night
+        sleep on one of the sofas. That's where I sit at night, and
+        I will give it up to you.'</p>
+
+        <p>"The idea was repugnant to me. I could not consent; it
+        was too frightful; it was impossible. I hastened to say,
+        'It will not do&mdash;I cannot stay here: you must take me
+        back. Do take me to Creil.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Can't do it.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Well, take me to the next town: there is an inn, and
+        it is not far.'</p>
+
+        <p>"He wavered, and seeing my distress his good-nature
+        conquered. 'I will go with you,' he answered, slowly
+        shaking his head as if admonishing himself for being such a
+        fool; 'but if they should find it out&mdash;'</p>
+
+        <p>"You may think it was unkind in me to let him run the
+        risk of losing his place, but what was I to do? I could not
+        submit to stay at the station like a vagabond, and I could
+        not find my way alone. So, without allowing him time to
+        change his mind, I set out. The road was bad and the night
+        dark; the lantern threw a circle of light around us, but
+        all beyond was impenetrable; still, the hope of shelter at
+        the end made the walk agreeable to
+        <span class="pagenum">[Pg 471]</span>me. We stumbled along
+        in silence, and by and by heard the barking of dogs that
+        always heralds a night approach to a village. The first
+        house that greeted my eyes had the welcome signboard
+        swinging before it, and above its lintel a bush. It was a
+        tiny place, but it was a refuge, and I felt quite cheerful
+        as I requested the old tar to knock.</p>
+
+        <p>"He did so, and the sound echoed and re-echoed, but
+        there was no response.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Again,' I said, and 'again,' and 'again,' with no
+        better result. It was anything but encouraging.</p>
+
+        <p>"'They cannot hear, they are asleep: take up a stone and
+        beat the door. You must awaken them.'</p>
+
+        <p>"He obediently picked up a stone, and there followed a
+        noise like thunder. I should not have been surprised to see
+        the wee house tilt over and lie down on its side under the
+        force of the blows. Now a gruff voice called out, 'What do
+        you want?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Lodging.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'We have no room for any one: go away.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Tell him I must stay,' And with the help of my
+        prompting the old fellow put my case in the most persuasive
+        light possible, but, although we talked and knocked with
+        perseverance, the owner of the voice neither appeared, nor
+        would he vouchsafe us another answer. One might have
+        thought the house had been suddenly enchanted.</p>
+
+        <p>"'It is of no use&mdash;of no use whatever: they will
+        not open,' finally said my exhausted companion.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is there no other inn here?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No: you will have to return.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Then you must take me to Creil.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'That I can't do. I have been away too long already:
+        there is a freight-train expected, and I must see that the
+        track is clear. We must go back;' and he turned resolutely
+        and led the way.</p>
+
+        <p>"Just as we left the village a gay party of
+        peasant-girls passed us coming from a ball, laughing and
+        chatting merrily with their beaus. I had an insane idea of
+        accosting them, appealing to their pity, and asking them to
+        keep me for the night, but fear lest they should refuse
+        restrained me: I was too dejected to risk a second repulse.
+        I have been able to realize the poetical things they tell
+        us of the sensations of outcasts, of adventurers; and
+        homeless wanderers ever since. The sight of this merry
+        party made me feel more terribly alone; and the
+        beaus&mdash;well, I confess I did wonder what Fred was
+        doing at that moment. Then I thought of the horror of my
+        aunt could she know where I was, and what she would think
+        of the 'footsteps' her own niece was making just then,
+        could she see her.</p>
+
+        <p>"When we arrived at the station my guide preceded me to
+        the waiting-room, and I, completely worn out, meekly
+        followed him.</p>
+
+        <p>"'This is much better than sleeping in the fields,' he
+        remarked cheerily as we entered: 'shall I make you a
+        fire?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No, thank you, but let me go into the other room.' My
+        reason for this was that its sofas and chairs had some
+        pretensions to comfort, being 'first class.' He went to
+        open the connecting door. It was locked.</p>
+
+        <p>"'This is the only room that is open: I am sorry. Wait a
+        moment: I will bring something to make a pillow, and you
+        can sleep like a top.' He went out, and returned with an
+        old coat, which he folded for me, and which, after covering
+        it with my handkerchief, made a tolerable resting-place for
+        my head. My bed was a hard bench.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Now,' said my protector in a tone of much
+        satisfaction&mdash;'now, you will be well. <i>Voil&agrave;
+        un bon g&icirc;te</i>! Both these other doors are fastened,
+        and this one you can lock after me. Very early I will come
+        and take you part of the way back, and by daylight you can
+        easily find the rest yourself. <i>Bonne nuit, mademoiselle:
+        dormez bien</i>.' He went to the door, and taking the key
+        from the outside put it inside. It would not turn. The lock
+        had been made to work with two keys, and the other was
+        absent.</p>
+
+        <p>"'I will tell you what I will do,' said my friend, not
+        in the least discomfited: 'I will lock the door and take
+        the key with me. I must go up the road about two miles on
+        my beat, but you can feel <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+        472]</span>quite safe: no one can get in while I am gone.
+        There is another watchman on the road: he might come while
+        I am away, and&mdash;and raise a row. It is best to lock
+        you up.' He nodded his head with great complacency at his
+        good management, and prepared to leave me. I could suggest
+        nothing better. I was at the end of my resources, and had
+        to accept my fate. It would be interesting to know what the
+        Pompadour or Queen Elizabeth would have done under the
+        circumstances, wouldn't it?</p>
+
+        <p>"It was with no pleasant feeling that I saw the door
+        shut, heard the key turned, then withdrawn: the lantern
+        glimmered for a moment through the window, and I was left
+        in the darkness a prisoner. Thoroughly a prisoner, for none
+        of the three doors had keys on my side, and the windows,
+        with their tiny panes of ground glass, were high above the
+        floor. Then, too, the old man had insisted on speaking in a
+        whisper, and walked about on tiptoe. Who were those persons
+        he evidently feared to waken? Persons near by, of course.
+        Probably they carried the missing keys and could enter at
+        any moment. And the other watchman? What if he should come,
+        and, this being the room allotted to himself and companion,
+        refuse to be barred out? Those other unknowns would be
+        aroused by his knocking, and rush in to seek an
+        explanation. If I were found there, should I be taken
+        before the police as a vagabond? Or imagine a fire&mdash;a
+        fire and no one knowing that I am here! A fire and no means
+        of escape! My friends losing all trace of me, unable to
+        ascertain how I came by my death! And such a horrible
+        death! Four hours yet till dawn! What might not happen in
+        four hours? The man himself might only have gone to seek an
+        accomplice to murder me. He might have known that the key
+        would not turn on the inside. But at last, in spite of
+        myself, fatigue conquered fear and I slept.</p>
+
+        <p>"I cannot say how long I had been unconscious when I was
+        awakened by hearing a key turning in the lock: the door
+        cautiously opened, and a man entered and came toward the
+        bench where I was lying. My drowsiness calmed me. I
+        wondered quite placidly whether it was to be robbery or
+        murder. What a paragraph it would make in the
+        <i>Moniteur</i> next day! I would cheerfully give him my
+        watch and purse if they would content him. I might call out
+        and rouse the house, but most likely Brunhilda in my
+        situation would have held a parley. A good precedent. I sat
+        up to show that I was awake, and in doing so recognized my
+        old man. Though nothing could look more threatening as he
+        stealthily advanced, shading his light, taking pains to
+        make no noise, I could not entirely mistrust the
+        weatherbeaten face with its anxious, benevolent eyes that
+        met mine.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is it time to go?' I asked.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Not yet, but soon. I have just returned, and came in
+        to know if you would have a fire: it is cold outside.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No, never mind: I am doing well enough. I think I will
+        take another nap.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Very well: I shall be near for the rest of the night,
+        so you need not be afraid.' And he left, carefully locking
+        me in again.</p>
+
+        <p>"When he came for me the dawn was beginning to break;
+        the morning star was shining in the sky; the earliest birds
+        were twittering, and cocks answered each other from
+        distance to distance; but not a human being was to be seen.
+        We crossed ploughed fields and stubble to find the road,
+        and I felt the truth of my guide's augury of the night
+        before. Had I attempted to go alone I should have become
+        bewildered, and ended by sleeping in the fields. It did
+        strike me that if the man wished to rob me, now would be
+        his chance, and at first I intentionally kept a little
+        behind; but his innocent garrulity was such as to allay all
+        suspicions, and we jogged on very amicably until, coming to
+        two roads, he pointed out that which leads to Creil, and
+        bade me good-bye.</p>
+
+        <p>"Had I had the giving of a medal of the Legion of Honor,
+        I should have decorated him on the spot. I believe it
+        repaid me for my annoyance to have found such ample
+        goodness, such chivalry, such <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+        473]</span>kindness, growing as it were by the wayside. It
+        was as if the world had rolled back into the days of
+        knight-errantry, when to rescue and protect distressed
+        damsels ranked next to religious worship. Sure am I if my
+        weatherbeaten old man had lived at that time, none would
+        have been more renowned for gentle deeds: in this prosaic
+        age he is but a watchman on a railroad. I was about to pour
+        out my gratitude, when I remembered we were in the
+        nineteenth century, and looking into his face, I fancied
+        that something more substantial would be better. I drew out
+        my purse. He was frankly delighted with what I gave him,
+        saying only that it was too much, and we separated mutually
+        pleased.</p>
+
+        <p>"I sauntered on, lingering by the way to avoid waiting
+        at Creil; consequently, I was just able to procure my
+        ticket and a paper of brioches at the buffet when the
+        English train came in. As I stood at the door, knowing that
+        as soon as it moved off the Belgian train was due, whom
+        should I see get out but Fred! I thought he would re-enter
+        in a moment, and placed myself so that he could not see me.
+        I was mistaken. The train started, and mine puffed up:
+        there he was still. In the crowd I hoped I should not be
+        discovered, but as I stepped from the door his eyes met
+        mine, and he rushed up to me with the exclamation, 'In the
+        name of Heaven, how did you get here? Was there an
+        accident? Are you hurt? What is the matter?'</p>
+
+        <p>"It was singular how his voice unnerved me: I could not
+        say a word. The crowd carried us with them, and he helped
+        me into a car, sitting by me and recommencing his
+        questions. Then I stammered, 'You will be taken on if you
+        do not get out: there is nothing wrong.'</p>
+
+        <p>"For answer he shut the door of the compartment, and
+        said, 'I am going with you. Now tell me how you come to be
+        here?'</p>
+
+        <p>"I do not know why I should have given way when all
+        danger was over&mdash;I believe there is no parallel case
+        in the life of any celebrated woman&mdash;but I suppose I
+        was tired out. My anxiety and fright, a night spent on a
+        hard board, the surprise of meeting Mr.
+        Kenderdine,&mdash;whatever it was, I leaned back in the
+        corner of the seat, took out my handkerchief, and cried
+        harder than I had ever done in my life before. He was
+        greatly alarmed, but, like a sensible man, waited until I
+        became more composed, and when I was able to tell him,
+        instead of blaming me or thinking I was stupid, he censured
+        himself for not accompanying me.</p>
+
+        <p>"'I did mean to ask your permission to do so, Miss
+        Eleanor,' he said slightly embarrassed, 'and I was prig
+        enough to think you would allow it, but when you told me of
+        your engagement I did not dare. After you left I had a
+        dread that something might happen, and I could not rest
+        satisfied until I had made up my mind to come on and see
+        that you had arrived safely. I thought you would forgive
+        me, as it is for the last time, and De Vezin need not be
+        jealous, for he will have you for ever, while I&mdash;'
+        Fred can be wonderfully pathetic.</p>
+
+        <p>"Then I made up my mind to undeceive him, as was my
+        duty, you know. I told him very gently that he was under a
+        false impression. I was not engaged: my aunt had educated
+        me for a purpose, and we both had quite determined that I
+        should never marry, but instead do something great in the
+        world, though I had not yet decided what. I explained it to
+        him fully, so that there should be no more mistakes about
+        it. When I ended I did not venture to look at him for a
+        long time, fearing to see him grieved at this irrevocable
+        barrier; but when I did, what was my surprise to see his
+        face beaming with joy! He began impetuously, 'If you had
+        told me I was to be crowned at Brussels, it would not be
+        better news. I was sure it was De Vezin who separated us.
+        Now I can hope.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'You must not talk in that way if you do not want our
+        friendship to cease: you offend me deeply. Can't you see
+        that if you persist in this idea of yours, our pleasant
+        acquaintance must end?' It was so frivolous in Fred, and I
+        spoke very decidedly.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Not at all, Eleanor: it would only begin. Why should
+        not our whole life be like this past year?'</p>
+
+        <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 474]</span>"'You know it
+        can't,' said I. 'Haven't I told you the reason?'</p>
+
+        <p>"'It will be no reason when De Vezin asks you,' said he
+        suspiciously.</p>
+
+        <p>"'De Vezin is nothing to me.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'You carry a <i>gage d'amour</i> from him on your
+        watch-chain at this very minute.'</p>
+
+        <p>"Now, wasn't that talk silly? De Vezin had brought me a
+        two-centime piece one day because I said I had never seen
+        one. and I put a hole in it and hung it to my chain. Fred
+        to call that a <i>gage d'amour!</i></p>
+
+        <p>"'Nonsense!' said I.</p>
+
+        <p>"'De Vezin thought the same when he saw it there. I took
+        him for a fool, but I see he was right.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'Well, now you will see you were both fools,' said I
+        angrily, and I twisted off the coin and threw it from the
+        window.</p>
+
+        <p>"'Is only that preposterous notion in the way?' he
+        asked, looking happy again and taking a seat by me.</p>
+
+        <p>"I told you how I cried on first entering the cars, and
+        now&mdash;would you believe it?&mdash;I got terribly
+        embarrassed. It seemed as if everything I did or said made
+        matters worse. I was scarcely able to stammer, 'My
+        aunt&mdash;'</p>
+
+        <p>"'I will speak to her. Let me put this on your finger
+        until I can replace it by another:' and he slipped off his
+        seal and leaned forward with an entreating look.</p>
+
+        <p>"I shook my head.</p>
+
+        <p>"'I won't ask you to promise anything: only wear it that
+        I may not be forgotten in Rome.'</p>
+
+        <p>"'No, no, I cannot!' I exclaimed, clasping my hands. I
+        suppose the action and tone were very exaggerated, for Mr.
+        Kenderdine drew back, saying, 'I shall not <i>force</i> you
+        to take it;' and then went to the other window, took a
+        newspaper out of his pocket and pretended to read it, while
+        I was angry and sorry and miserable, though why I should
+        feel so much like crying at what had only amused me the day
+        before I cannot understand. I suppose none of those
+        wonderful ladies would have acted so, would they?</p>
+
+        <p>"But you are tired long ago, and you can easily imagine
+        what comes after. See!" and she turned a ring on her finger
+        until I could catch the shimmer of its stone. "That is how
+        it ended; and though I did not accept it until the next
+        spring in Rome, I shall always blame that night for the
+        whole affair. When I asked Fred why he took the trouble to
+        follow me after the double snubbing I had given him, he
+        said 'I was worth it.' But since we are engaged he teases
+        me shamefully&mdash;calls me doctor, hopes I intend to
+        support him in comfort and ease, and says that it always
+        was his ambition to be the husband of a strong-minded
+        woman, and broadly hints about my experience in traveling
+        being so useful to him. And aunt? When I first told her she
+        looked so shocked and disappointed that I threw myself in
+        her arms, saying I would not distress her for the world;
+        that I would do anything she desired; that if she wished
+        she might send Fred off, for I loved her best on earth. But
+        after some minutes of deep thought she looked at me
+        quizzically and replied, 'You know, dear, I always said you
+        must choose your career for yourself.' Then seeing that I
+        seemed hurt and ashamed, she kissed me and whispered, 'Love
+        makes us selfish: my affection for you has grown stronger
+        than my ambition. If <i>you</i> are happy, my Eleanor, I
+        can wait patiently for the advancement of the rest of my
+        sex.'"</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Then Eleanor rose, and drawing her shawl round her
+    preparatory to going, said shyly, "And what I came to tell you
+    is, that the wedding will take place at Christmas."</p>
+
+    <p class="author">ITA ANIOL
+    PROKOP.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 475]</span>
+
+    <h2><a name="AN_AMERICAN_LADYS_OCCUPATIONS_SEVENTY_YEARS_AGO"
+       id="AN_AMERICAN_LADYS_OCCUPATIONS_SEVENTY_YEARS_AGO"></a>AN
+       AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY YEARS AGO.</h2>
+
+    <p>We are looking over sundry trunks and boxes, the careful and
+    the careless gatherings of three generations. There are
+    law-papers in dusty files; familiar gossipy letters from
+    brothers and sisters and college chums; dignified letters from
+    reverend judges and law-makers; letters bursting with
+    scandalized Federalisms, and burning or melting with
+    long-forgotten joys and sorrows. We have read some thousands of
+    these papers, and begin to be very uncertain about the times we
+    are living in. What indeed is this year of our Lord? We have a
+    dim recollection that we have been wished a happy New Year in
+    1875, yet we are living and thinking with the boys and girls of
+    1776, who have grown to be the men and women of Jefferson's
+    time.</p>
+
+    <p>To make things more misty to our comprehension, we are
+    sitting by a dormer window in a high, "hip-roofed" garret of a
+    mansion built just before the Revolution, and the air is
+    redolent of ancient memories. The very cobweb that swung across
+    the window just now has a venerable appearance, entirely
+    inconsistent with the fact that the housemaid's broom was
+    supposed to have whisked across these beams but yesterday. But
+    then the housemaids of to-day, as everybody knows, are, as a
+    source of perplexity and vexation of spirit, always to be
+    relied upon, but never to be relied upon for anything else. And
+    with the thought we sigh for the "good old days" and the "good
+    old servants" of our grandmothers.</p>
+
+    <p>Happy grandmothers! so blessed in their simple, quiet lives,
+    unvexed by ever-changing fashions and domestics! What did they
+    know of trouble whose best silk gowns remained in fashion from
+    year to year, and whose cooks never treated them to an empty
+    breakfast-table, and a cool "I thought I'd be a-lavin' this
+    marnin', mum"? Happy grandmothers!</p>
+
+    <p>Thus thinking, we pick up a little rough paper-book with
+    marbled covers from the corner of the old hair trunk where it
+    was long ago thrown by some careless hand. The little tumbled
+    book proves to be a diary. Not a record of a soul's strivings
+    and pantings after a higher life, or a curiously minute inquiry
+    into the possible reasons which induced the Almighty to allow
+    Satan to afflict Job, but a simple daily note-book, the
+    memoranda of a housekeeper. The old letters had been to us what
+    the newspapers of to-day will be to the great-grandchildren of
+    the present generation. The diary carried us back into the
+    immediate home-life of seventy years ago.</p>
+
+    <p>The diarist had been a fair and stately dame in her day, and
+    it is easy to remove her from the frame where her portrait
+    hangs on the walls of the south parlor, and fancy her seated in
+    the same room before the crackling fire jotting down the
+    memoranda of the day. She is a pretty sight, we think, sitting
+    in her straight-backed mahogany arm-chair, with her feet on the
+    polished brass fender and her book resting on the little stand,
+    which also holds the two tall silver candlesticks with their
+    tall tallow candles, for wax candles are saved for gala-nights,
+    when diaries are not in requisition. She must have been nearly
+    forty years old when she wrote in this little book, but we see
+    her as her portrait shows her, very young-looking in spite of
+    her stateliness, enhanced though it is by the high turban of
+    embroidered muslin edged with soft lace falling over the
+    clusters of fair curls on her temples, and by the black satin
+    gown, short-waisted and scanty, relieved only by delicate lace
+    frills, which shade the beautiful throat and the strong, white,
+    shapely hands. The shadow on her face as she gazes into the
+    fire is not marvelous, for it is winter in her quiet
+    Connecticut home; the post comes but twice a week; her husband
+    is representing his State in Washington, and her only child is
+    studying in distant Yale. <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    476]</span>Perhaps, though, the shadow is not that of pure
+    loneliness. Is there not some perplexity in it? And something
+    also of vexation? Yes, and it is the very vexation of spirit
+    which&mdash;in the face of Solomon's venerable testimony to the
+    contrary&mdash;we had fancied to be peculiar to our own evil
+    days. Almost the first entry in this quaint little diary is to
+    the effect that "Jim was sulky to-night and gave short
+    answers." A little farther on we find that "Yesterday Jim went
+    away without leave, and stayed all night;" which delinquency,
+    being accompanied by a suspicion of drunkenness, caused the
+    anxious dame to "send for General T&mdash;&mdash; to come and
+    give Jim a lecture." Lecturing, however, was not then so
+    popular as now, and Jim appears to have profited little by the
+    veteran general's discourse, for on the very next night he
+    repeats his offence. We have reason also to fear that Jim's
+    honesty was not above suspicion, for we read that Betsey, an
+    American woman who acted as assistant housekeeper and
+    companion, "found in Jim's possession a red morocco pocket-book
+    which I had given her, but"&mdash;alas for Betsey!&mdash;"with
+    the contents all gone."</p>
+
+    <p>Other entries to the effect that madam one day lost her key
+    to the wine-cellar, and the next day discovered the bibulous
+    Jim in the said cellar "sucking brandy through a straw inserted
+    in the bunghole of the cask," and that, "furthermore, Jim had
+    confessed to having stolen and sold a coffee-basin for rum," do
+    not tend to raise in our estimation this pattern of an ancient
+    darkey. This time it appears that madam did not need to call in
+    the aid of General T&mdash;&mdash;, for she admits that she
+    herself "lectured Jim severely;" sarcastically adding, "he
+    professed penitence, but that did not hinder him from stealing
+    another basin to-day."</p>
+
+    <p>But the refractory Jim, we think, must have been the
+    exception which proved the rule that all servants prior to the
+    late Celtic invasion were models of deportment. Accordingly, we
+    are not surprised to find that Betsey was a handmaiden held in
+    high estimation, and that "old Jack" was a servant whose
+    shortcomings were offset by his general good conduct and
+    affectionate heart. But we find also that there was a certain
+    Sally, who could be tolerated only because of her great
+    culinary skill; and an uncertain Silvy, who appears to have
+    been in mind, if not in fact, the twin-sister of Jim, with a
+    spice of Topsy thrown in.</p>
+
+    <p>The trouble in those days was not the prospect of suddenly
+    losing cook or nursemaid, but that there was no getting rid of
+    either. The fact of slavery was, under the act of 1793, slowly
+    fading away from Connecticut, but all its habits remained in
+    full force. "I wish I could send Jim and Silvy away," writes
+    madam, "but the poor rascals have no place to go to."</p>
+
+    <p>Silvy was a tricksome spright that delighted in breaking
+    bottles of the "best Madeira wine and spilling the contents
+    over the new English carpet" when the mistress had invited the
+    parson's and the doctor's families to dinner. This, though of
+    course it was "not to be endured," might have been accidental,
+    and so was very "tolerable" in comparison with Silvy's next
+    exploits of poisoning the beloved house-dog and throwing by the
+    roadside the bottle of wine&mdash;possibly emptied
+    first&mdash;the jar of jelly and the fresh quarter of lamb
+    which had been sent to a poor and sick old woman. These two
+    offences, occurring on the same day, we are sorry to confess,
+    incited the stately, white-handed dame to do something more
+    decisive than to "deliver a lecture" to Silvy. It is demurely
+    recorded that "for these two misdeeds I whipped Silvy." What
+    effect the whipping had upon that somewhat too frolicsome
+    damsel we are not informed, but madam admits that it made
+    herself ill, and adds that "if Silvy does not reform it is
+    impossible to see what can be done for her, for she will not
+    listen to remonstrance. Betsey is not strong enough to punish
+    so strapping a wench, and it does not seem right that a man
+    should be set to whip any woman or girl, even a wench, else
+    Jack could do it."</p>
+
+    <p>However, Jack's own patience having been tried by the
+    refractory Silvy, he seems to have taken the matter into his
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 477]</span>own hands, for his
+    mistress tells us how she was scandalized, on her return from
+    church, by "finding Jack whipping Silvy," while that young lady
+    was "screaming vehemently, so that all the people passing by
+    could hear her." As Jack had discovered Silvy engaged in the
+    amiable diversion of breaking the legs of the young calves by
+    throwing stones at them, one can have a little charity for his
+    summary action, although, as madam gravely remarks, "he might
+    at least have waited until Monday."</p>
+
+    <p>The calves, by the way, had an unlucky winter of it, and
+    were especially shaky about the legs. We find that a few weeks
+    later "Jack having neglected to repair the barn floor, as he
+    had been directed, a plank had given way and three of the
+    calves' legs had been broken by the fall." We have felt a deep
+    interest in the fate of these calves, but with all our anxiety
+    have failed to discover whether three calves had all their legs
+    broken, or only three legs in all had been sacrificed to Jack's
+    culpable neglect.</p>
+
+    <p>By this time we begin to think that madam would have been
+    just as well off if she had not kept so many servants, and to
+    wonder what they could have had to do. Perhaps it was the idle
+    man's playmate that made the trouble. But a little farther
+    reading in the old diary dissipates this illusion. If anybody
+    thinks that our grandmothers must have been cursed with ennui
+    because they did not attend three parties a night three times a
+    week, with operas and theatres to fill in the off nights, they
+    are mightily mistaken.</p>
+
+    <p>Of sociability there could have been no lack in this rural
+    neighborhood, for besides a ball or two madam records numbers
+    of tea-drinkings and debating clubs, and meetings of the Clio,
+    a literary club, at which assisted at least two future judges
+    of the supreme courts of the States of their adoption, and
+    several other men and women whose names would attract attention
+    even in our clattering days. Visiting, too, of the
+    old-fashioned spend-the-day sort had not gone out of
+    date&mdash;was indeed so common that madam one evening enters
+    in her journal&mdash;whether in sorrow or in thankfulness there
+    is nothing to tell us, but at least as a notable
+    fact&mdash;that she had "had no company to-day."</p>
+
+    <p>But it was not company that occupied all the hours of so
+    busy a dame as our diarist. Though she had not to remodel her
+    dresses in hot chase after the last novelty of the
+    fashion-weekly, she had to superintend the manufacture of the
+    stuff of which her maids' gowns and her own morning-gowns were
+    made, to say nothing of bed-and table-linen, etc. Bridget in
+    our day seems to think that to do a family washing is a labor
+    of Hercules. Yet seventy years ago before a towel could be
+    washed the soap wherewith to cleanse it must be made at home;
+    and this not by the aid of condensed lye or potash, but with
+    lye drawn by a tedious process of filtering water through
+    barrels or leach-tubs of hard-wood ashes. The "setting" of
+    these tubs was one of the first labors of the spring, and to
+    see that Silvy or Jim poured on the water at regular intervals,
+    and did not continue pouring after the lye had become "too weak
+    to bear up an egg," was a part of Betsey's daily duty for some
+    weeks. Then came the soap-boiling in great iron kettles over
+    the fire in the wide fireplace. Apparently, this was not always
+    a certain operation. Science had not yet put her meddling but
+    useful finger into the soap-pot, for madam sadly records that
+    on the twenty-first of May she had superintended the
+    soap-boiling, but had not been blessed with "good luck;" and on
+    the third of June we find the suggestive entry, "Finished the
+    soap-boiling to-day." Eleven days&mdash;for we must of course
+    count out the two Sundays&mdash;eleven days of greasy, odorous
+    soap-boiling! We think that if we had been in madam's slippers
+    we should have allowed Sally, Silvy and the rest to try the
+    virtues of the unaided waters of heaven upon the family
+    washing, and when this ceased to be efficacious should have let
+    the clothes be purified by fire. But upon second thoughts, no:
+    it was too much trouble to make those clothes.</p>
+
+    <p>We are not yet through with the preparations for the
+    washing. The ancient housewife could not do without starch
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 478]</span>for her "ruffs and cuffs
+    and fardingales," and for her lord's elaborately plaited
+    ruffles. Yet she could not buy a box of "Duryea's best
+    refined." The starch, like the soap, must be made at home. "On
+    this day," writes our diarist, "had a bushel of wheat put in
+    soak for starch;" and in another place we find the details of
+    the starch-making process. The wheat was put into a tub and
+    covered with water. As the chaff rose to the top it was skimmed
+    off. Each day the water was carefully turned off, without
+    disturbing the wheat, and fresh water was added, until after
+    several days there was nothing left but a hard and perfectly
+    white mass in the bottom of the tub. This mass was spread upon
+    pewter platters and dried in the sun.</p>
+
+    <p>Another sore trouble was the breadmaking. The great
+    wheat-fields of the West were not then opened, and we find that
+    the wheat was frequently "smutty;" hence, that "the barrel was
+    bad," which must sorely have tried the soul of the good
+    housewife. Woe be to Silvy if that damsel did not carry herself
+    gingerly on the baking-day when the long, flat shovel removed
+    from the cavernous brick oven only heavy and sticky lumps of
+    baked dough, in place of the light white loaves which the
+    painstaking housewife had a right to expect!</p>
+
+    <p>In the absence of husband and son the care of a large farm
+    fell upon our madam's shoulders, and the details of cost and
+    income are dotted through the little journal. We can imagine
+    the lady, gracious in her stateliness, marshaling old General
+    T&mdash;&mdash; and Colonel C&mdash;&mdash;, two veterans of
+    the Revolution, out into her barnyard to get their opinion as
+    to the value of her fat cattle, and the concealed disapproval
+    with which she received their judgment that forty-five dollars
+    was a fair price for the pair, "when," as she quietly remarks,
+    "I considered that fifty dollars was little enough for so fine
+    a pair of fat cattle; and in fact I got my own price for them
+    the next day."</p>
+
+    <p>Fifty dollars was a much larger sum then than now. Imagine
+    how many things could be bought for fifty dollars, when butter
+    brought but ten, veal three or four, beef six or seven cents
+    respectively per pound, and a pair of fat young chickens
+    brought but twenty-five cents! There is one article upon whose
+    accession of price we can dwell with pleasure. Madam records
+    discontentedly that it "took two men all day to kill four hogs,
+    <i>notwithstanding</i> that she had spent fifty cents for a
+    half gallon of rum for them to drink." Fancy the sort of liquor
+    that could now be bought for a dollar the gallon, and the sort
+    of men that could drink two quarts thereof and live!</p>
+
+    <p>It is heretical, of course, to hint a syllable against the
+    open wood-fire which crackled and flickered so beautifully
+    while our madam wrote about her cattle and pigs and Jim and
+    Silvy, but in truth we cannot envy our ancestors the care of
+    those fires. With three yawning, devouring fireplaces
+    constantly to be fed, and an additional one for each of the
+    guest-rooms so often occupied during the winter&mdash;for this
+    was the visiting season&mdash;there was no lack of business for
+    Ralph, a white man; and his colored coadjutors, Jack and Jim.
+    When we look at the still existing kitchen fireplace, nine feet
+    in width and four in depth, we cease to blame Jack for
+    neglecting to mend the barn floor. We only wonder that he found
+    time to whip Silvy.</p>
+
+    <p>Among the occupations of the women one great time-consumer
+    must have been the daily scouring, so much woodwork was left
+    unpainted to be kept as white as a clean sea-beach by
+    applications of soap and sand. Probably a good deal of this
+    hand-and-knee work fell upon the unfortunate Silvy, as well as
+    the polishing of the pewter plates, the brass fenders,
+    andirons, tongs, shovels, door-knobs, knockers, and the various
+    brazen ornaments which bedecked the heavy sideboards and tall
+    secretaries.</p>
+
+    <p>Seventy years ago, when gas and kerosene were not, and wax
+    candles were an extravagance indulged in only on state
+    occasions, even by the wealthy, the tallow dip was an article
+    of necessity, and "candle dip-day" was as certain of recurrence
+    as Christmas, though perhaps even less welcome than the equally
+    certain <span class="pagenum">[Pg 479]</span>annual Fast Day.
+    Fancy an immense kitchen with the before-mentioned fireplace in
+    the centre of one side. Over the blaze of backlog and
+    forestick, and something like half a cord of "eight-foot wood,"
+    are swinging the iron cranes laden with great kettles of
+    melting tallow. On the opposite side of the kitchen two long
+    poles about two feet apart are supported at their extremities
+    upon the seats of chairs. Beside the poles are other great
+    kettles containing melted tallow poured on the top of hot
+    water. Across the poles are the slender candle-rods, from which
+    depend ranks upon ranks of candle-wicks made of tow, for cotton
+    wick is a later invention. Little by little, by endlessly
+    repeating the slow process of dipping into the kettles of
+    melted tallow and hanging them to cool, the wicks take on their
+    proper coating of tallow. To make the candles as large as
+    possible was the aim, for the more tallow the brighter the
+    light. When done, the ranks of candles, still depending from
+    the rods, were hung in the sunniest spots of a sunny garret to
+    bleach.</p>
+
+    <p>But all these employments were as play compared with the
+    home manufacture of dry goods. Ralph, Jack and Jim had no time
+    for such work, so two other men were all winter kept busy in
+    the barn at "crackling flax" and afterward passing it through a
+    coarse hetchel to separate the coarsest or "swingling tow."
+    After this the flax was made up into switches or "heads" like
+    those which we see in pictures, or that which Faust's
+    Marguerite so temptingly wields. These were deposited in
+    barrels in the garret. During the winter the "heads" were
+    brought down by the women to be rehetcheled once and again,
+    removing first the coarser, and then the finer tow. This must
+    have been a fearfully dusty operation. It makes one cough only
+    to think of "the inch depth of flax-dust" which settled upon
+    Betsey's protecting handkerchief while she "hetcheled."</p>
+
+    <p>The finest and best of the flax was saved for spinning into
+    thread, for cotton thread there was none, excepting, possibly,
+    a little of very poor quality in small skeins. The small wheel
+    that we see in the far corner of the garret&mdash;just like
+    Marguerite's&mdash;was used for spinning the fine thread. A
+    larger wheel was used to spin the tow into yarn for the coarse
+    clothing for boys and negroes or for "filling" in the coarser
+    linens. All the boys, and very often the men&mdash;perhaps even
+    our M.C. himself&mdash;wore in summer trousers made of linen
+    cloth, for which the yarn was spun at home by the maids, and
+    was then taken to the weaver's to be made into cloth. Part of
+    the linen yarn was dyed blue, and, mingled with white or
+    unbleached yarn, was woven into a chequered stuff for the
+    curtains of servants' beds and for dresses for the maids and
+    aprons for their mistresses. In view of the fact that all the
+    bed-linen and most of the table-linen was thus made at home,
+    one cannot wonder that a house-wife's linen-closet was an
+    object of special care and pride.</p>
+
+    <p>If there were at that time any woolen manufactories in the
+    United States, their powers of production must have been very
+    limited, while foreign cloths could only have been worn by the
+    gentlemen, and by them probably not at all times, for a few
+    years later than the date of madam's diary we find that English
+    cloths were sold at the then fearful prices of eighteen and
+    twenty dollars per yard. So sheep must be kept and sheared, and
+    their wool carded, rolled and spun. As linen-spinning was the
+    fancy-work of winter, so wool-spinning was that of summer. Back
+    and forth before the loud-humming big wheel briskly stepped the
+    cheerful spinner through the long bright afternoons of summer,
+    busily spinning the yarn that was to be woven into cloths and
+    flannels of different textures. Busily indeed must both
+    mistress and maids have stepped, for not without their labors
+    could be provided the coats and trousers, the undershirts, the
+    petticoats and the woolen sheets, to say nothing of blankets,
+    white or chequered, and the heavy coverlets of blue or green
+    and white yarns woven into curiously intermingling figures, all
+    composed of little squares; and last, but not least, the yarn
+    for countless pairs of long warm stockings for the feet of
+    master and man, mistress and maid. <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    480]</span>For as a legacy from dying slavery the servants were
+    still unable or unwilling to provide for their own wants, and
+    the house-mistress had frequently to knit Jack's stockings with
+    her own fair fingers, as well as to "cut out the stuff for
+    Jim's pantaloons," which she will "try to teach Silvy to
+    sew."</p>
+
+    <p>Did we think that we had reached the last purpose for which
+    the homespun woolen yarn was required? We were mistaken, for
+    here is the entry: "To-day dyed the yarn for back-hall carpet.
+    Remember to tell the weaver that I prefer it plaided instead of
+    striped."</p>
+
+    <p>Economy of time must, one would think, have been the most
+    necessary of economies to the old-time housewives. With so many
+    things to do, how did they find time to make those marvels of
+    misplaced industry, the patched bed-quilts? Our diarist, rich
+    as her closets were in blankets and linen, left but few
+    bed-quilts to vex the eyes of her descendants, yet we read that
+    "Betsey and I quilted a bed-quilt this afternoon"&mdash;their
+    fingers were surely nimble&mdash;"and in the
+    evening"&mdash;happy change of employment!&mdash;"Betsey
+    finished reading aloud from Blair's <i>Lectures.</i> To-morrow
+    evening we shall begin the <i>Spectator</i>. My husband has
+    sent us by private hand Mr. A. Pope's translation of the
+    <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>, but it has not yet arrived.
+    Strange that a private hand should be slower than the
+    post!"</p>
+
+    <p>And indeed the slowness of the post had been a source of
+    frequent disquietude to our madam during this lonely winter,
+    for very lonely it was to the waiting wife and mother,
+    notwithstanding all her occupations. "'Life's employments are
+    life's enjoyments,'" she sadly writes on the night before
+    Christmas, "and surely I have not a few of them; but with my
+    beloved husband and son far from me I cannot half enjoy my
+    life. I have given the servants their presents to-night"
+    (though living in Puritan Connecticut, our madam was of
+    Hollandish stock, and did not ignore the Christmas festival),
+    "and paid them eighteen pence apiece not to wish me a Merry
+    Christmas to-morrow, for little merriment indeed should there
+    be for me."</p>
+
+    <p>Yet she was a cheerful soul, this stately madam who sadly
+    gazes into the fire on the Christmas Eve of seventy years
+    ago&mdash;a cheerful, loving soul, and a kindly
+    (notwithstanding her chastisement of the delinquent Silvy); and
+    after all the winter wore not unhappily away.</p>
+
+    <p>With the opening spring husband and son returned to gladden
+    her heart, and we close the little diary with a smile at once
+    of sympathy and of amusement as we read that while madam had
+    intended to meet her loved ones with the family coach on their
+    landing from the sloop at Poughkeepsie, thirty miles from her
+    home, she was "so detained by reason of the depth and vileness
+    of the mud that it was full fifteen miles this side the river"
+    (Hudson) "that our coach fell in with a hired carriage coming
+    this way. The road was so bad that we had difficulty in
+    passing, and it was not until we were almost by that my dear
+    husband noticed his own coach. There was some trouble in
+    getting from the one carriage to the other, but when all were
+    safely in the coach there was much rejoicing, you may be
+    sure."</p>
+
+    <p class='author'>ETHEL C. GALE.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    481]</span>
+
+    <h2><a name="A_MARCH_VIOLET"
+       id="A_MARCH_VIOLET"></a>A MARCH VIOLET.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem_1"
+         align="center">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Black boughs against a pale, clear sky,</p>
+
+            <p>Slight mists of cloud-wreaths floating by;</p>
+
+            <p>Soft sunlight, gray-blue smoky air,</p>
+
+            <p>Wet thawing snows on hillsides bare;</p>
+
+            <p>Loud streams, moist sodden earth; below</p>
+
+            <p>Quick seedlings stir, rich juices flow</p>
+
+            <p>Through frozen veins of rigid wood,</p>
+
+            <p>And the whole forest bursts in bud.</p>
+
+            <p>No longer stark the branches spread</p>
+
+            <p>An iron network overhead,</p>
+
+            <p>Albeit naked still of green;</p>
+
+            <p>Through this soft, lustrous vapor seen,</p>
+
+            <p>On budding boughs a warm flush glows,</p>
+
+            <p>With tints of purple and pale rose.</p>
+
+            <p>Breathing of spring, the delicate air</p>
+
+            <p>Lifts playfully the loosened hair</p>
+
+            <p>To kiss the cool brow. Let us rest</p>
+
+            <p>In this bright, sheltered nook, now blest</p>
+
+            <p>With broad noon sunshine over all,</p>
+
+            <p>Though here June's leafiest shadows fall.</p>
+
+            <p>Young grass sprouts here. Look up! the sky</p>
+
+            <p>Is veiled by woven greenery,</p>
+
+            <p>Fresh little folded leaves-the first,</p>
+
+            <p>And goldener than green, they burst</p>
+
+            <p>Their thick full buds and take the breeze.</p>
+
+            <p>Here, when November stripped the trees,</p>
+
+            <p>I came to wrestle with a grief:</p>
+
+            <p>Solace I sought not, nor relief.</p>
+
+            <p>I shed no tears, I craved no grace,</p>
+
+            <p>I fain would see Grief face to face,</p>
+
+            <p>Fathom her awful eyes at length,</p>
+
+            <p>Measure my strength against her strength.</p>
+
+            <p>I wondered why the Preacher saith,</p>
+
+            <p>"Like as the grass that withereth."</p>
+
+            <p>The late, close blades still waved around:</p>
+
+            <p>I clutched a handful from the ground.</p>
+
+            <p>"He mocks us cruelly," I said:</p>
+
+            <p>"The frail herb lives, and she is dead."</p>
+
+            <p>I lay dumb, sightless, deaf as she;</p>
+
+            <p>The long slow hours passed over me.</p>
+
+            <p>I saw Grief face to face; I know</p>
+
+            <p>The very form and traits of Woe.</p>
+
+            <p>I drained the galled dregs of the draught</p>
+
+            <p>She offered me: I could have laughed</p>
+
+            <p>In irony of sheer despair,</p>
+
+            <p>Although I could not weep. The air</p>
+
+            <p>Thickened with twilight shadows dim:</p>
+
+            <p>I rose and left. I knew each
+            limb</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 482]</span>
+
+            <p>Of these great trees, each gnarled, rough root</p>
+
+            <p>Piercing the clay, each cone of fruit</p>
+
+            <p>They bear in autumn.</p>
+
+            <p class="i18">What blooms here,</p>
+
+            <p>Filling the honeyed atmosphere</p>
+
+            <p>With faint, delicious fragrancies,</p>
+
+            <p>Freighted with blessed memories?</p>
+
+            <p>The earliest March violet,</p>
+
+            <p>Dear as the image of Regret,</p>
+
+            <p>And beautiful as Hope. Again</p>
+
+            <p>Past visions thrill and haunt my brain.</p>
+
+            <p>Through tears I see the nodding head,</p>
+
+            <p>The purple and the green dispread.</p>
+
+            <p>Here, where I nursed despair that morn,</p>
+
+            <p>The promise of fresh joy is born,</p>
+
+            <p>Arrayed in sober colors still,</p>
+
+            <p>But piercing the gray mould to fill</p>
+
+            <p>With vague sweet influence the air,</p>
+
+            <p>To lift the heart's dead weight of care,</p>
+
+            <p>Longings and golden dreams to bring</p>
+
+            <p>With joyous phantasies of spring.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p class="author">EMMA LAZARUS.</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="WHAT_IS_A_CONCLAVE"
+       name="WHAT_IS_A_CONCLAVE"></a>WHAT IS A CONCLAVE?</h2>
+
+    <p>It may be that before these lines meet the eye of the
+    readers they are intended for the world will be once again
+    witnessing that function of the Roman Catholic Church which of
+    all others makes the highest pretensions to transcendental
+    spiritual significance, and is in reality the most utterly and
+    grossly mundane&mdash;a <i>conclave</i>. In any case, it cannot
+    be long before that singular spectacle is enacted on the
+    accustomed stage before the converging eyes of Christendom. In
+    any case, too, it will be nearly thirty years since the world
+    has seen the like. And never before since St. Peter sat (or did
+    not sit) in the seat of the Roman bishops has so long a period
+    elapsed unmarked by the election of a supreme pontiff. The
+    coming conclave will be held under circumstances essentially
+    dissimilar from those surrounding all its predecessors, as will
+    be readily understood if we consider the difference which
+    recent changes, both lay and ecclesiastical, have made in the
+    position of the pope. If, on the one hand, the political
+    changes in Europe have taken from the cardinals the power of
+    creating a sovereign prince, the ecclesiastical changes which
+    the late ecumenical council has wrought in the constitution of
+    the Church have placed in their hands the power and duty of
+    selecting a supreme ruler of the Church with acknowledged
+    claims to a loftier and more tremendous authority than the most
+    high-handed of his predecessors has hitherto claimed. And the
+    nature of this authority is such that the political rulers of
+    the world may well feel&mdash;and are, as we know,
+    feeling&mdash;a more anxious interest in the result of the
+    election than they have for many a generation felt in the
+    elevation of a temporal ruler of the ci-devant States of the
+    Church. Under these circumstances it may be acceptable to our
+    readers to have some brief account of what conclaves are and
+    have been.</p>
+
+    <p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 483]</span>That this method of
+    choosing a supreme head of the universal Church was in its
+    origin abusive&mdash;that the earliest popes were chosen by the
+    suffrages of the entire body of the faithful, that by a process
+    of encroachment this election was in the course of time
+    arrogated to themselves by the Roman clergy, and was
+    ultimately, by a further process of similar encroachment,
+    monopolized by the "Sacred College" of cardinals,&mdash;all
+    this is sufficiently well known. It is, however, curious enough
+    to merit a passing word, that a precisely analogous process of
+    progressive encroachment may be observed to have taken place in
+    the mode of appointing the bishops of the Church, not only in
+    the Catholic, but also in the Protestant branch of it. First
+    freely elected by the body of the faithful, they were
+    subsequently chosen by the clergy, and lastly by a small and
+    select body of these in the form of a "chapter." Only in this
+    case a further step of encroachment being still possible, that
+    step has been made; and bishops are nominated in the Catholic
+    Church formally, and in the Anglican really, by the pope and
+    the sovereign respectively.</p>
+
+    <p>It does not seem that in the earliest elections made by the
+    cardinals the precautions of a "conclave," or a shutting up
+    together of the cardinals, was adopted. The first conclave
+    seems to have been that which elected Innocent IV. in 1243, and
+    the motive for the locking up appears to have been the fear of
+    interference by the emperor Frederick, who was at the time
+    ravaging all the country around Rome. The first conclave that
+    was guarded by a Savelli, in whose family the office of marshal
+    of the Church and guardian of the conclaves became hereditary,
+    was that which elected Nicholas IV. in 1288. The mode in which
+    this pontiff merited his elevation is worth telling, apropos of
+    conclaves. The conclave had lasted over ten months, and been
+    prolonged into the hottest and most unhealthy season, insomuch
+    that six cardinals died, many more fell ill, and all ran away
+    save one, the bishop of Palestrina. He, "keeping large fires
+    continually burning to correct the air," stuck to it, remained
+    in conclave all alone, and was unanimously elected pope at the
+    return of the cardinals when the pestilence had ceased. In 1270
+    we find a conclave sitting under difficulties of another kind.
+    It was at Viterbo, and their Eminences sat for two years
+    without making any election; whereupon, we are told, Raniero
+    Gatti, the captain of the city, took the step of unroofing the
+    palace in which they were assembled as a means of hastening
+    their decision. That their Eminences were not thus to be
+    hurried, however, is proved by their having subsequently dated
+    a bull, still to be seen with its seventeen seals, "from the
+    unroofed episcopal palace of Viterbo." There were four or five
+    popes elected subsequently to this, however, without conclaves;
+    but from the death of Boniface VIII. in 1303 the series of
+    conclaves has been unbroken. Celestine V., who abdicated in
+    1294, drew up the rules which, confirmed by his successor,
+    Boniface VIII., and by many subsequent popes from time to time
+    down to the last century, still regulate the assembling and
+    holding of the conclave, modified in some degree, as regards
+    the food and private comforts of the cardinals, by indulgence
+    of later pontiffs.</p>
+
+    <p>In old and long-since-forgotten books concerning the
+    conclaves many curious particulars may be found respecting the
+    customs and ceremonies connected with the disposal of the body
+    of the deceased pontiff. A learnedly antiquarian dispute has
+    been raised on the question whether in early times the body of
+    a pope was embalmed, as we understand the word, or only
+    exteriorly washed and perfumed. It seems, on the whole, clear
+    that the first pope who was, properly speaking, embalmed, was
+    Julius II., who died in 1513. But here is a striking account of
+    the condition of things in the papal palace after the death of
+    that great, high-handed and powerful pontiff, Sixtus IV., which
+    occurred in 1484, after a reign of thirteen years. The
+    statement is that of Burcardo (Burckhardt), the papal master of
+    the ceremonies, the same writer whose diary, jotted down from
+    day to day, has revealed to us the incredible atrocities of the
+    court <span class="pagenum">[Pg 484]</span>of Alexander VI.,
+    the Borgia pope, who died in 1503. "For all that I could do,"
+    writes the master of the ceremonies, who perhaps at that time
+    occupied some less conspicuous post in the papal court, "I
+    could not get a basin, a towel, or any kind of utensil in which
+    the wine and the water for the odoriferous herbs could be put
+    for washing the body of the deceased. Nor could I obtain
+    drawers or a clean shirt for putting on the body, though I
+    asked for them again and again. At length the cook lent me the
+    copper kettle in which he was wont to heat the water for
+    washing the plates, together with some hot water; and Andrew
+    the barber brought me his barber's basin from his shop. So the
+    pontiff was washed. And as there was no towel to wipe the body
+    with, I caused him to be wiped with the shirt in which he died,
+    torn into two halves. I could not change the drawers in which
+    he died and was washed, because there were no others. His
+    canonical vestments were put upon him without any shirt, and a
+    pair of red cloth stockings, furnished by the bishop of Cervia,
+    who was his chamberlain, and a long tunic, if I remember
+    rightly, of red damask, as well as some other things." This
+    pope, whose body was thus washed with his shirt torn in half
+    for want of a towel, was that same Sixtus the enormous wealth
+    and boundless luxury of whose nephews seem almost fabulous to
+    readers even of these money-abounding days.</p>
+
+    <p>The explanation of the extraordinary state of things above
+    described is to be found in the custom which existed of sacking
+    the apartments of the deceased pope as soon as ever the breath
+    was out of his body. The utter lawlessness which prevailed at
+    Rome <i>sede vacante</i>&mdash;that is to say, during the
+    interval between the death of one pope and the election of his
+    successor&mdash;was not, indeed, confined to the residence of
+    the departed pontiff. Throughout Rome all law used to be on
+    those occasions in abeyance. The streets were scenes of the
+    most unbridled excesses and violence of all sorts. That was the
+    time for the satisfying of old grudges. Murder was as common as
+    murderous hate; and no man's life was safe save in so far as
+    his own hand or his own walls could protect it. And walls did
+    not always avail. I find a petition to Leo X. from a monastery
+    in Rome, setting forth that a document assuring certain
+    indulgences to the house had been lost at the time of the sack
+    and plunder of the convent during the last conclave. No sort of
+    claim, it is to be observed, is attempted to be set up of
+    redress for the plunder and destruction of the property of the
+    convent; only a prayer that the privileges in question might be
+    again granted in consideration of the loss of the document. A
+    very curious illustration of Roman manners in the sixteenth
+    century is to be found in a practice with regard to these
+    periods of interregnum which I find recorded by Cancellieri in
+    his work on the conclaves. Roman wives, it seems, were
+    forbidden&mdash;not without reason&mdash;to leave their homes
+    and go forth into the streets of Rome at their pleasure. But in
+    the articles of the marriage contract it was stipulated that
+    the lady should be free to go out on certain specified
+    occasions, mainly ecclesiastical festivals; and among these it
+    was always specially provided that the lady might go out during
+    the days of the exposition of the body of a deceased pope for
+    the purpose of kissing his feet. One would have thought that,
+    looking to the state of things in the city, the time of the
+    interregnum would have been the very last to select for ladies
+    to venture into the streets. It would seem, however, that the
+    Roman matrons thought otherwise. Cancellieri says that it was
+    in those days a common saying among Roman ladies that "Happy
+    were they who were married to Spaniards!" For it would seem
+    that the Spanish husbands in Rome did not think it necessary to
+    enforce this restraint on their wives&mdash;a circumstance that
+    rather curiously contradicts our general notions of Spanish
+    marital feelings and discipline.</p>
+
+    <p>In truth, the condition of Rome during the period of the
+    conclave down to very recent times affords a singular evidence
+    of the virtue of the old French formula, "Le roi est mort! Vive
+    le roi!" as signifying the non-existence of any period of
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 485]</span>transition between one
+    embodiment of law and authority and his successor; for the
+    absence of any similar provision in the case of the popes made
+    Rome a veritable hell upon earth during the period of a papal
+    election.</p>
+
+    <p>But if the city outside the walls within which the purple
+    fathers of the Church were deliberating presented a scene which
+    was a disgrace and a scandal to Christendom, that which was
+    being enacted within those walls was very often still more
+    profoundly scandalous. Never probably has any human institution
+    existed in which practice was more grossly and notoriously in
+    disaccord with pretensions and theory, and with respect to
+    which the highest and most sacred of all conceivable human
+    sanctions was so shamelessly desecrated and profaned to the
+    lowest and vilest uses.</p>
+
+    <p>Before touching on this part of the subject, however, it is
+    necessary first to give in as few words as possible some
+    intelligible account of the formal regulations and method of
+    holding the conclave and electing the pontiff. All the
+    regulations, which have been made with extreme minuteness,
+    together with the subsequent modifications of them by different
+    pontiffs, would occupy far too much space to be given here. The
+    following rules seem to be the essential points. Ten days,
+    including that of the pope's death, are to be allowed for the
+    coming of absent cardinals. This delay may, however, be
+    dispensed with for urgent reasons. The conclave should properly
+    be held in the building in which the pope died. Regulations of
+    various degrees of rigor have been made for securing the
+    isolation of the members of the Sacred College, greater
+    latitude and indulgence having been permitted as we approach
+    modern times. Sundry means also were devised for hastening the
+    deliberations of their Eminences. The old rule of Gregory X.
+    prescribed that if an election were not made in three days, the
+    cardinals should be supplied during the following five days
+    with one dish only at dinner and one at supper; and if at the
+    end of those five days the election was still uncompleted, the
+    electors should be allowed only bread and water till they had
+    accomplished their task. But, as may be readily supposed, all
+    this has been materially modified. Many of the minute and
+    rigorous precautions for preventing communication with the
+    world outside the conclave have also fallen into desuetude. The
+    purpose of these, however&mdash;that is, the absolute
+    prevention of any possibility of consultation between those in
+    conclave and those outside&mdash;is still sought to be, and
+    probably is, maintained. Cardinals obliged to leave the
+    conclave by ill-health, on sworn certificates of the two
+    physicians who are shut up with them in conclave, may return to
+    it, if able to do so, before the election is made. No censure
+    or excommunication or deposition of any cardinal by the pope
+    whose successor is to be elected can avail to deprive such
+    cardinal of the right to take part in the conclave and in the
+    election. No cardinal under pain of excommunication may say
+    anything, or promise anything, or request anything, to or from
+    another cardinal for the purpose of influencing him in the
+    giving of his vote. It may safely be asserted, however, that
+    pretty much all that is done in the conclave from the beginning
+    to the end of it is one long contravention of this rule. The
+    whole&mdash;at all events, the main&mdash;occupation of those
+    in conclave consists of exactly what is here forbidden. The
+    rule proceeds to declare that all such bargains, agreements and
+    obligations, even sworn to, are <i>ipso facto</i> void, and "he
+    who does not keep them merits praise rather than the blame of
+    perjury." This merit elected popes have usually been found to
+    strive after with all their strength. Julius II., by a bull
+    issued in 1505, declared that any pope elected by means of
+    bargains or promises is elected simoniacally; that his election
+    is null even if he have the vote of every cardinal; that he is
+    a heresiarch and no pope; that such an election cannot become
+    valid by enthronation, or by lapse of time, or by the obedience
+    of the cardinals; that it is lawful for the cardinals, the
+    clergy and the people of Rome to refuse obedience to a pope so
+    elected. On all which Monsignor <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    486]</span>Spondano in his ecclesiastical annals, remarks, with
+    a na&iuml;vet&eacute; of hypocrisy which is irresistibly
+    amusing, that inasmuch as there would be considerable
+    difficulty in applying the remedy proposed, God has specially
+    provided that there should never be any need of it. How far
+    Monsignor Spondano can have supposed that such was the case
+    will become evident from the account of the doings of a
+    conclave which I propose giving to the reader presently.</p>
+
+    <p>Together with the cardinals there are shut up in the
+    conclave two attendants, called "conclavisti," for each
+    cardinal, or three for such of them as are ill or infirm; one
+    sacristan, two masters of the ceremonies, one confessor, two
+    physicians, one surgeon, one carpenter, two barbers and ten
+    porters. Any conclavist who may leave the conclave cannot on
+    any account return. The different cells prepared in the
+    Quirinal, Vatican or other place in which the conclave may be
+    held are assigned to the cardinals by lot. The election may be
+    made in the conclave in either of three different
+    manners&mdash;by scrutiny of votes, by compromise, or by
+    acclamation. A vote by scrutiny is to be taken twice every day
+    in the conclave&mdash;once in the morning and once in the
+    afternoon. All the cardinals, save such as are confined to
+    their cells by infirmity, proceed to the chapel, and there,
+    after the mass, receive the communion. They then return each to
+    his cell to breakfast, and afterward meet in the chapel again.
+    The next morning at 8 A.M. the sub-master of the ceremonies
+    rings a bell at the door of each cell; at half-past eight he
+    rings again; and at nine a third time, adding in a loud voice
+    the summons, "<i>In capellam Domini!</i>"</p>
+
+    <p>The arrangement of the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican, in
+    which the voting takes place, is as follows: The floor is
+    raised by a boarding to the level of the pontifical throne,
+    which stands by the side of the altar, and which is left in its
+    place in readiness for the newly-elected pope to seat himself
+    and receive the "adoration" of his electors. All around the
+    walls of the chapel are erected as many thrones as there are
+    cardinals, and over each of them a canopy, so arranged that by
+    means of a cord it can be suddenly let down; so that at the
+    moment the election is pronounced all the canopies are suddenly
+    made to fall except that of the new pope. In front of each
+    throne and under each canopy there is a little table covered
+    with silk&mdash;green in the case of all those cardinals who
+    have been created previously to the pontificate of the pope
+    recently deceased, and purple in the case of those created by
+    him. The colors of the canopies are similar. On each table are
+    printed registers prepared for registering the votes at each
+    scrutiny, the schedules for giving the votes, the means for
+    sealing, etc. On the front of each table is inscribed the name
+    of the cardinal who is to occupy it, together with his armorial
+    bearings. In the midst of the body of the chapel are six little
+    tables covered with green cloth, with a seat at each of them
+    for the use of any cardinal who may fear that his neighbor
+    might overlook him while writing his voting paper if he wrote
+    it on the table before his throne. In front of the altar there
+    is a large table covered with crimson silk, on which are folded
+    schedules, wafers, sealing-wax; four candles, not lighted, but
+    ready for use; a tinder-box with steel and matches; scarlet and
+    purple twine for filing the voting schedules; a box of needles
+    for the same purpose; a tablet with seventy holes in it,
+    answering to the number of cardinals if the college were full,
+    and in each hole a little wooden counter with the name of a
+    cardinal, so that there are as many counters as cardinals in
+    the college; and finally, a copy of the form of oath respecting
+    the putting the schedules into the urns, the two urns
+    themselves, and a box with a key, used for receiving the voting
+    papers of such cardinals as may be too ill to leave their
+    cells. The two urns, however, at the time of the scrutiny are
+    placed on the altar. Behind the altar there is placed a little
+    iron brazier or stove, in which, after every scrutiny which
+    does not succeed in electing a pope, the voting papers are
+    burned, together with some damp straw, the object
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 487]</span>being to cause a dense
+    smoke, which, passing by a pipe outside the building, serves to
+    inform the Romans that no election has yet been made. Twice a
+    day, at about the same hour every day till the election is
+    achieved, this smoke, which is eagerly watched for by all Rome,
+    and specially by the commandant of the Castle of St. Angleo,
+    who is waiting to fire a salute for the new pope, tells the
+    city that there is no pope yet. When the hour passes and no
+    smoke is seen, it is known that the election is made, and the
+    cannoneers fire away without waiting to know whom they are
+    saluting.</p>
+
+    <p>There is no portion of the day or of the lives of the
+    cardinals in conclave which is not regulated by a host of
+    minute regulations and ceremonies. The introduction of the food
+    supplied to them; the form of bringing it from their palaces;
+    the method of communication with the outside world, and the
+    precautions taken to prevent any communication with reference
+    to the great business in hand; the form and color of the
+    garments to be worn by their Eminences and by all the
+    subordinates; the amount of remuneration and perquisites to be
+    received by the latter (among which regulations I find the
+    following: "Let no man receive anything who has not purchased
+    the office he holds"); the order of precedence of everybody,
+    from the dean of the Sacred College to the last sweeper who
+    enters the conclave with their Eminences,&mdash;all subject to
+    minute rules, which would require, one would imagine, a
+    lifetime to make one's self master of, and which, curious as
+    some of them are, it is impossible to find place for here. We
+    must get on to the method of voting.</p>
+
+    <p>Each cardinal has a schedule about eight inches long by six
+    wide, divided by printed lines into five parts. On the topmost
+    is printed "Ego, Cardinalis&mdash;&mdash;," to be filled up
+    with the name and titles of the elector using it. On the second
+    space are printed, toward either side of the paper, two
+    circles, indicating the exact place where the paper when folded
+    is to be sealed. On the middle space is printed the words
+    "Eligo in Summum Pontificem R'um D'um meum Dom. Card.," leaving
+    only the name of the person chosen to be filled in. On the
+    fourth space two circles are printed, as on the second,
+    indicating the places of two more seals, which, when the paper
+    is folded and sealed down, make it impossible to see the motto
+    which is written, together with a number, on the last space. On
+    the back of the second and fourth divisions are printed the
+    words "nomen" and "signum," denoting that immediately under
+    them are the name and motto of the elector. There are also
+    printed certain ornamental flourishes, the object of which is
+    to render it impossible to see the writing within through the
+    paper. Thus, the schedule, with its top and bottom folds sealed
+    down, can be freely opened so far as to allow the name of the
+    cardinal for whom the vote is given to be seen, but not so far
+    as to make it possible to see the name or motto of the giver of
+    the vote.</p>
+
+    <p>When the voting papers have been thus prepared, the senior
+    cardinal, the dean of the Sacred College, rises from his throne
+    and walks to the foot of the altar, holding his schedule aloft
+    between his finger and thumb. There he kneels and passes a
+    brief time in private prayer. Then rising to his feet, he
+    pronounces aloud in a sonorous voice the following oath:
+    "Testor Christum Dominum qui me judicaturus est, me eligire
+    quem secundum Deum judico eligi debere, et quod in accessu
+    praestabo" ("I call to witness the Lord Christ, who shall judge
+    me, that I elect him whom before God I judge ought to be
+    elected, and which vote I shall give also in the
+    <i>accessit</i>"). The last words allude to a subsequent part
+    of the business of the election, to be explained presently. It
+    is hardly necessary to point out to the reader that this oath,
+    solemn as it sounds, might just as well be omitted. It is as a
+    matter of course evident that each elector will give his vote
+    for the person who <i>ought</i> in his opinion to be elected.
+    But as to the <i>motives</i> of that opinion, as to the
+    <i>grounds</i> on which it seems best to each elector that such
+    and such a man <i>ought</i> to be elected, the oath says
+    nothing. The cardinals whose votes Alexander VI. bought
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 488]</span>thought, no doubt, that in
+    all honesty they <i>ought</i> to give their voices for the man
+    who had fairly paid for them. But, putting aside such gross
+    cases, let the reader reflect for a moment how extensive a
+    ground is covered by the celebrated "A.M.D.G." formula ("Ad
+    majorem Dei gloriam"). The conscience of an elector may be
+    supposed to speak to him thus: "It is true that I know A.B. to
+    be a profligate and thoroughly worldly man, but his influence
+    with such or such a statesman or monarch will probably be the
+    means of saving the Church from a schism in this, that or the
+    other country. And that assuredly is A.M.D.G. And he is the
+    man, therefore, who ought to be elected."</p>
+
+    <p>Well, the oath having been thus pronounced, the voter places
+    his folded schedule on a silver salver, and with this casts it
+    into the silver urn which is on the altar. And one after
+    another every cardinal present does the same&mdash;every
+    cardinal present except, however, any one who may not have
+    received at least deacon's orders. One so disqualified may
+    indeed be empowered to vote by dispensation of the deceased
+    pope; but this dispensation is usually given for a limited
+    period&mdash;a few days probably&mdash;only; and if this time
+    has expired before the election is completed the cardinal who
+    is not in sacred orders must cease to vote till he have
+    received orders. It has frequently occurred that cardinals have
+    been ordained under these circumstances in the conclave. When
+    all the schedules have been placed in the urn, three cardinals,
+    who have been previously chosen by lot for the purpose, as
+    scrutineers proceed to verify the result of the voting. First,
+    the schedules are counted to ascertain that they are equal in
+    number to the number of the cardinals present. If this should
+    not be the case, all are forthwith burned and the business is
+    recommenced. But if this is all right, then comes the moment of
+    interest which sets many an old heart beating under its purple
+    vestments. The three scrutineers seat themselves at the large
+    table with their backs turned to the altar, so that they face
+    the assembly. Then each cardinal in his throne-seat places on
+    the little table before him a large sheet duly prepared with
+    the names of all the cardinals living, and ruled columns for
+    the votes, and pen in hand awaits the declaration of these. The
+    first scrutineer takes a schedule from the urn, unfolds the
+    central part, leaving the two sealed ends intact, takes note of
+    the vote declared within, and hands the paper to the second
+    scrutineer, who also notes the vote and hands it to the third,
+    who declares the vote aloud in a voice audible to all present,
+    and each cardinal marks it on his register. Then, if the votes
+    shall have been sufficient to elect the pope&mdash;that is,
+    two-thirds of those voting&mdash;there is nothing more to be
+    done save to number the votes, to verify them, and then burn
+    the schedules. But if this is not the case, as it rarely if
+    ever is, the cardinals proceed to the <i>accessit</i>. The
+    papers and all the forms for this are precisely the same as for
+    the first voting, save that in the place of the word "Eligo"
+    there is the word "Accedo," and that in the place of the name
+    of the cardinal voted for those who do not choose to alter
+    their previous vote write "Nemini" ("To no one"). Then the
+    matter proceeds as before; and if no election is effected, the
+    assembly breaks up, and meets for another voting and scrutiny
+    that afternoon or the next morning, as the case may be. And
+    this is done twice every day till the election is made. The
+    reader, I fear, may think that I have been prolix in my
+    statement of these particulars of the method of the election,
+    but I can assure him that I have given him only the main and
+    important points, selected from some hundreds of pages in the
+    works of those who have treated on the wonderfully minute
+    regulations and prescriptions with which the whole matter is
+    surrounded.</p>
+
+    <p>It will be easily seen that the moment of proceeding to the
+    accessit is the time for fine strokes of policy, for the most
+    cautious prudence and craftiest cunning. The general condition
+    of the ground has been disclosed by the results of the previous
+    scrutiny. The possibilities and chances begin to discover
+    themselves. "Frequently," says the President de
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 489]</span>Brosses, who was at Rome
+    during the conclave which elected Benedict XIV. in 1740, in the
+    charming published volume of his letters&mdash;"Frequently at
+    the accessit everything which was done at the preceding
+    ceremony is reversed; and it is at the accessit that the most
+    subtle strokes of policy are practiced. Sometimes, for example,
+    when a party has been formed for any cardinal, the leader of
+    the party keeps in reserve for the accessit all the votes that
+    he can count on as certain, and induces those that he suspects
+    may be doubtful to vote for the person intended to be made pope
+    at the first scrutiny, so as to make sure by the number of
+    votes given whether his supporters have been true to their
+    party, and to avoid unmasking his policy till he shall be sure
+    of his <i>coup</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>The story of the conclave which elected Cardinal Lambertini
+    pope as Benedict XIV., gives a curious picture of the schemes
+    and intrigues carried on in the mysterious seclusion of the
+    conclave. Clement XII., of the Florentine Corsini family, had
+    died. The cardinal Corsini, his nephew, was at the head of one
+    faction in the conclave, and the cardinal Albani, nephew of
+    Clement XI., who died in 1721, at the head of the other. The
+    former party seemed at the beginning of the conclave to be the
+    most numerous. But De Brosses describes the two men as follows.
+    Corsini, he says, had little intelligence, less sense, and no
+    capacity for affairs. Of Albani, he says that he was "highly
+    considered for his capacity, and both hated and feared to
+    excess&mdash;a man without faith, without principles; an
+    implacable enemy even when appearing to be reconciled; of a
+    great genius for affairs; inexhaustible in resource and
+    intrigue; the ablest man in the college, and the worst-hearted
+    man in Rome." It soon became clear that the struggle between
+    the factions thus led would be severe, and the conclave a long
+    one. The history of the plots and counterplots by which each
+    strove to circumvent the other is extremely amusing, but too
+    long to be given here. After various fruitless attempts, the
+    Corsini faction concentrated all their forces on Cardinal
+    Aldrovandi. He was a man of decent character, and had the
+    support of a small body of independent cardinals, called the
+    "Zelanti," who, to the great disgust and contempt of their
+    brethren in purple, were mainly influenced by the consideration
+    of the worthiness of his character. The number of voices needed
+    to make the election was thirty-four: Aldrovandi had
+    thirty-three. Cardinal Passionei, the scrutator who had to
+    declare the votes, and a member of the opposite faction,
+    became, we are told, as pale as death when he announced with
+    trembling voice the thirty-third vote. There was every reason
+    to think that at the accessit he would have the one other vote
+    needful to make the election. But it was not so. The terrible
+    Albani was too much feared, and had his own party too well in
+    hand. But the thing was run very close. The danger was great
+    that during the hours of the night that must intervene before
+    the next scrutiny some means might be found to detach
+    <i>one</i> Albani follower from his allegiance. There was the
+    great bait to be offered that the one who changed his vote
+    would be in effect the maker of the new pope. Under these
+    circumstances, Albani felt that nothing but some "heroic"
+    measure could save him. What he did was this: There was a
+    certain Father Ravali, a Cordelier, and one of the leading men
+    of his order, on whom Albani could depend, and who was, in
+    language more expressive than ecclesiastical, "up to anything."
+    This monk was instructed to seek a conference with Aldrovandi
+    at the <i>rota</i>. (The rota was the opening in the wall at
+    which such interviews were permitted in presence of certain
+    high dignitaries specially appointed to attend it, for the
+    express purpose of hearing all that might be said, and
+    preventing any communication having reference to the business
+    of the conclave. How they performed their duty the present
+    story shows.) The monk began by saying that all Rome looked
+    upon the election of Aldrovandi as a certain thing. Aldrovandi,
+    doing the humble, replied that to be sure many of his brethren
+    had deigned to think of him, but that he did not make any
+    progress&mdash;that there were those who were too determinately
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 490]</span>opposed to his election,
+    etc. The monk thereupon goes into a long and unctuous discourse
+    on all the sad evils to Christendom of a conclave so prolonged.
+    (It had already lasted over five months.) To which Aldrovandi
+    replies that he ought rather to address his remonstrances to
+    Cardinal Albani, who is in truth the cause of the inability of
+    the conclave to come to an election. "Ah, monsignor," returns
+    the Cordelier, "put yourself in the place of the cardinal
+    Albani. I know his sentiments from the many conversations we
+    have had together. He is far from feeling any personal
+    objection or enmity to you. But you know that there has been in
+    the past unpleasant feeling between your family and his, and he
+    fears that you are animated by hostility toward him." "I assure
+    you," replies Aldrovandi, falling into the trap, "that he is
+    greatly mistaken. I have long since forgotten all the
+    circumstances you allude to. Besides, as I remember, the
+    cardinal had no part in the matter. He can't doubt that I have
+    the greatest respect for his personal character. Besides, I am
+    not the man to forget a service rendered to me." "Since those
+    are the sentiments of Your Eminence," cries the monk, "I begin
+    to see an end to this interminable conclave. I perceive that
+    there will be no difficulty in arranging matters between Your
+    Eminence and the cardinal Albani. Will you permit me to be the
+    medium of your sentiments upon the subject?" Aldrovandi is
+    delighted, and feels the tiara already on his head. Then, after
+    a little indifferent talk, the Cordelier, in the act of taking
+    leave of the cardinal, turns back and says, "But, after all,
+    the mere word of a poor monk like me is hardly sufficient
+    between personages such as Your Eminence and the cardinal
+    Albani. Permit me to write you a letter, in which I will lay
+    before Your Eminence those considerations concerning the crying
+    evils of the length of this conclave which I have ventured to
+    mention to you, and that will give me an opportunity of
+    entering on the matters we have been speaking of. And then you,
+    in your reply to me, can take occasion to say what you have
+    already been observing to me of your sentiments toward the
+    cardinal Albani." Aldrovandi eagerly agreed to this, and the
+    two letters were at once written. "I am told," adds De Brosses,
+    "that the letter of Aldrovandi was strong on the subject of the
+    <i>gratitude</i> he should feel toward Albani." No sooner has
+    the perfidious Cordelier got the letter into his hand than he
+    runs with it to Albani, who goes with it at once to the body of
+    the "Zelanti" cardinals with pious horror in his face: "Here!
+    Look at your Aldrovandi, your man of God, that you tell me is
+    incapable of intriguing in order to become His vicar! Here he
+    is making promises to seduce me into violating my
+    conscience."&mdash;"Alas! alas! It is too true! Clearly the
+    Holy Ghost will none of him. Speak to us of him no more!" So
+    Aldrovandi's chance was gone, and Albani found the means of
+    uniting the necessary number of voices on Lambertini, a
+    good-enough sort of man, by all accounts, but hardly of the
+    wood from which popes are or should be made. He became that
+    Benedict XIV. who was Voltaire's correspondent, and who, as the
+    story goes, when he was asked by a young Roman patrician to
+    make him a list of the books he would recommend for his
+    studies, replied, "My dear boy, we always keep a list of the
+    best books ready made. It is called the <i>Index
+    Expurgatorius</i>!"</p>
+
+    <p>Such were the doings of conclaves, and such the popes which
+    resulted from them, in that eighteenth century whose boasted
+    philosophy pretty well culminated in the conviction that
+    pudding was good and sugar sweet. Such will not be the conclave
+    which will assemble at the death of the present pontiff. The
+    election will doubtless be scrupulously canonical on all
+    points; and, though it may be doubted how far the deliberations
+    of the Sacred College will be calculated to advance the truly
+    understood spiritual interests of humanity, there is, I think,
+    little doubt that they will be directed, according to the
+    lights of the members, to the choice of that individual who
+    shall in their opinion be most likely to advance the interests
+    of the Church "A.D.M.G."</p>
+
+    <p class="author">T. ADOLPHUS
+    TROLLOPE.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 491]</span>
+
+    <h2><a id="MONSOOR_PACHA"
+       name="MONSOOR_PACHA"></a>MONSOOR PACHA.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem_1"
+         align="center">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor Pacha, it is pleasant to meet</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Here, in the heart of this treacherous
+            town&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Where faith is a peril and courtship a cheat,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">More false to the touch than a rose
+            overblown&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">With a soul that is true to itself, as
+            your own.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor Pacha, as two gentlemen may,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Civilized, city-bred, link we our
+            hands:</p>Now from the town to the desert away!
+
+            <p class="i4">Ours is a friendship whose spirit
+            demands</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">The scope of the sky and the stretch of
+            the sands.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor Pacha, doff your courtier's garb;</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">We have given to courtesy all of its
+            dues;</p>
+
+            <p>Spring to your throne on the back of your barb,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Shake to the breezes your regal
+            burnous,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Wave your lance-sceptre wherever you
+            choose!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my chief! ah, I know you at length!</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">King of the desert, your children are
+            come</p>
+
+            <p>To cluster, like sheep, in the shade of your
+            strength,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Or to strike, like young lions, for
+            country and home,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">When your eyes are ablaze at the roll of
+            the drum!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my chief! now one gallop, to see</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">The land you have sworn that no despot
+            shall grind!</p>
+
+            <p>Though sun-tanned and arid, by Allah! 'tis free!</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Its crops are these lances: these sons of
+            the wind,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Our steeds, are its flocks&mdash;a grim
+            harvest to bind!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my chief! how we dash o'er the sand,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Hissing behind us like storm-driven
+            snow!</p>
+
+            <p>Flash the long guns of your wild Arab band,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Brandish the spears, and the light
+            jereeds throw,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">As, half-winged, through the shrill
+            singing breezes we go!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my chief! send the horses away:</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">The sports of your tribe I have seen with
+            delight.</p>
+
+            <p>Now let us watch while the rose-tinted day</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Fades from the desert, and peace-bearing
+            Night</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">Shakes the first gem on her brow in our
+            sight.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Monsoor, my host! lo, I enter your tent,</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">As brother by brother, hands clasping, is
+            led:</p>
+
+            <p>I sleep like a child in a dream Heaven-sent;</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">For have I not eaten the salt and the
+            bread?</p>
+
+            <p class="i4">And Monsoor will answer for me with his
+            head.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p class="author">GEORGE H. BOKER.</p>
+
+    <blockquote class="note">
+        CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 10, 1875.
+    </blockquote><span class="pagenum">[Pg 492]</span>
+
+    <h2><a id="HOW_HAM_WAS_CURED"
+       name="HOW_HAM_WAS_CURED"></a>HOW HAM WAS CURED.</h2>
+
+    <p>This was in slave times. It was also immediately after
+    dinner, and the gentlemen had gone to the east piazza. Mr.
+    Smith was walking back and forth, talking somewhat excitedly
+    for him, while Dr. Rutherford sat with his feet on the railing,
+    thoughtfully executing the sentimental performance of cutting
+    his nails. Dr. Rutherford was an old friend of Mr. Smith who
+    had been studying surgery in Philadelphia, and now, on his way
+    back to South Carolina, had tarried to make us a visit.</p>
+
+    <p>"You see," Mr. Smith was saying, "about a week ago one of
+    our old negroes died under the impression that she was
+    'tricked' or bewitched, and the consequence has been that the
+    entire plantation is demoralized. You never saw anything like
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Many a time," said Dr. Rutherford, and calmly cut his
+    nails.</p>
+
+    <p>"There is not a negro on the place," continued Edward, "who
+    does not lie down at night in terror of the Evil Eye, and go to
+    his work in the morning paralyzed by dread of what the day may
+    bring. Why, there is a perfect panic among them. They are
+    falling about like a set of ten-pins. This morning I sent for
+    Wash (best hand on the place) to see about setting out tobacco
+    plants, and behold Wash curled up under a haystack getting
+    ready to die! It is enough to&mdash;So as soon as you came this
+    morning a plan entered my head for putting a stop to the thing.
+    It will be necessary to acknowledge that two or three of them
+    are under the spell, and it is better to select those who
+    already fancy themselves so.&mdash;Rosalie!" I appeared at the
+    window. "Are any of the house-servants 'witched?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Mercy is," said I, "and I presume Mammy is going to be: I
+    saw her make a curtsey to the black cat this morning."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what is your plan?" inquired Dr. Rutherford.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Smith seated himself on the piazza railing, dangling his
+    feet thereagainst, rounding his shoulders in the most
+    attractive and engaging manner, as you see men do, and
+    proceeded to develop his idea. I was called off at the moment,
+    and did not return for an hour or two. As I did so I heard Dr.
+    Rutherford say, "All right! Blow the horn;" and the overseer
+    down in the yard</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Blew a blast as loud and shrill</p>
+
+            <p>As the wild-boar heard on Temple Hill&mdash;</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>an event which at this unusual hour of the day produced
+    perfect consternation among the already excited negroes. They
+    no doubt supposed it the musical exercise set apart for the
+    performance of the angel Gabriel on the day of judgment, and in
+    less than ten minutes all without exception had come pell-mell,
+    helter-skelter, running to "the house." The dairymaid left her
+    churn, and the housemaid put down her broom; the ploughs stood
+    still, and when the horses turned their heads to see what was
+    the matter they found they had no driver; she also who was
+    cooking for the hands "fled from the path of duty" (no
+    Casabianca nonsense for <i>her!</i>), leaving the "middling" to
+    sputter into blackness and the corn-pones to share its fate.
+    Mothers had gathered up their children of both sexes, and
+    grouped them in little terrified companies about the yard and
+    around the piazza-steps.</p>
+
+    <p>Edward was now among them, endeavoring to subdue the
+    excitement, and having to some extent succeeded, he made a
+    signal to Dr. Rutherford, who came forward to address the
+    negroes. Throwing his shoulders back and looking around with
+    dignity, he exclaimed, "I am the great Dr. Rutherford, the
+    witch-doctor of Boston! I was far away in the North, hundreds
+    of miles from here, and I saw a spot on the sun, and it looked
+    like the Evil Eye! And I found it was a great black smoke. Then
+    I knew that witch-fires were burning in the mountains, and
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 493]</span>witches were dancing in
+    the valleys; and the light of the Eye was red! I am the great
+    Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I called my black
+    cat up and told her to smell for blood, and she smelled, and
+    she smelled, and she smelled! She smelled, and she smelled, and
+    she smelled! And presently her hair stood up like bristles, and
+    her eyes shot out sparks of fire, and her tail was as stiff as
+    iron!" He threw his shoulders back, looked imposingly around
+    and repeated: "I am the great Dr. Rutherford the witch-doctor
+    of Boston! My black Cat tells me that the witch is
+    here&mdash;that she has hung the deadly nightshade at your
+    cabin-doors, and your blood is turning to water. You are
+    beginning to wither away. You shiver in the sunshine; you don't
+    want to eat; your hearts are heavy and you don't feel like
+    work; and when you come from the field you don't take down the
+    banjo and pat and shuffle and dance, but you sit down in the
+    corner with your heads on your hands, and would go to sleep,
+    but you know that as soon as you shut your eyes she will cast
+    hers on you through the chinks in the cabin-wall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dat's me!" said Mercy&mdash;"dat certny is me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Gret day in de mornin', mas' witch-doctor! How you know? Is
+    you been tricked?" inquired Martha, who, having been reared on
+    the plantation, was unacquainted with the etiquette observed at
+    lectures.</p>
+
+    <p>Wash groaned heavily, and shook his head from side to side
+    in silent commendation of the doctor's lore.</p>
+
+    <p>"My black cat tells me that the witch is here; and she
+    <i>is</i> here!" (Immense sensation among the children of Ham.)
+    "But," continued he with a majestic wave of the arm, "she can
+    do you no harm, for I <i>also</i> am here, the great Dr.
+    Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Doctor," inquired Edward in a loud voice, "can you tell who
+    is conjured and who is not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot tell unless robed in the blandishments of
+    plagiarism and the satellites of hygienic art as expunged by
+    the gyrations of nebular hypothesis. Await ye!" He and Mr,
+    Smith went into the house.</p>
+
+    <p>The negroes were very much impressed. They have excessive
+    reverence for grandiloquent language, and the less they
+    understand of it the better they like it.</p>
+
+    <p>"What dat he say, honey?" asked old Mammy. "I can't heer
+    like I used ter."</p>
+
+    <p>"He says he will be back soon, Mammy, and tell if any of you
+    are tricked," said I; and just then Edward and the doctor
+    reappeared, bearing between them a pine table. On this table
+    were arranged about forty little pyramids of whitish-looking
+    powder, and in their midst stood a bottle containing some clear
+    liquid, like water. Dr. Rutherford seated himself behind it,
+    robed in the black gown he had used in the dissecting-room, and
+    crowned by a conical head-piece about two feet high,
+    manufactured by Edward and himself, and which they had
+    completed by placing on the pinnacle thereof a human skull. The
+    effect of this picturesque costume was heightened by two large
+    red circles around the doctor's eyes&mdash;whether obtained
+    from the juice of the pokeberry or the inkstand on Edward's
+    desk need not be determined.</p>
+
+    <p>In front of the table stood the negroes, men, women and
+    children. There was the preacher, decked in the clerical livery
+    of a standing collar and white cravat, but, perhaps in
+    deference to the day of the week, these were modified by the
+    secular apparel of a yellow cotton shirt and homespun
+    pantaloons, attached to a pair of old "galluses," which had
+    been mended with twine, and pieced with leather, and lengthened
+    with string, till, if any of the original remained, none could
+    tell the color thereof nor what they had been in the day of
+    their youth. The effect was not harmonious. There was Mammy,
+    with her low wrinkled forehead, and white turban, and toothless
+    gums, and skin of shining blackness, which testified that her
+    material wants were not neglected. There was Wash, a great,
+    stalwart negro, who ordinarily seemed able to cope with any ten
+    men you might meet, now looking so subdued and dispirited,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 494]</span>and of a complexion so
+    ashy, that he really appeared old and shrunken and weak. There
+    was William Wirt, the ploughboy, affected by a chronic grin
+    which not even the solemnity of this occasion could dissipate,
+    but the character of which seemed changed by the awestruck eyes
+    that rolled above the heavy red lips and huge white teeth.
+    There was Apollo&mdash;in social and domestic circles known as
+    'Poller&mdash;there was Apollo, his hair standing about his
+    head in little black tufts or horns wrapped with cotton cord to
+    make it grow, one brawny black shoulder protruding from a rent
+    in his yellow cotton shirt, his pantaloons hanging loosely
+    around his hips, and bagging around that wonderful foot which
+    did not suggest his name, unless his sponsors in baptism were
+    of a very satirical turn. There were Martha, and Susan, and
+    Minerva, and Cinderella, and Chesterfield, and Pitt, and a
+    great many other grown ones, besides a crowd of children, the
+    smallest among the latter being clad in the dishabille of a
+    single garment, which reached perhaps to the knee, but had
+    little to boast in the way of latitude.</p>
+
+    <p>There they all stood in little groups about the yard,
+    looking with awe and reverence at the great Dr. Rutherford, who
+    sat behind the table with his black gown and frightful eyes and
+    skull-crowned cap.</p>
+
+    <p>"You see these little heaps of powder and this bottle of
+    water. You will come forward one at a time and pour a few drops
+    of the water in this bottle on one of these little heaps of
+    powder. If the powder turns black, the person who pours on the
+    water is 'witched. If the powder remains white, the person who
+    pours on the water is <i>not</i> 'witched. You may all examine
+    the powders, and see for yourselves whether there is any
+    difference between them, and you will each pour from the same
+    bottle."</p>
+
+    <p>During a silence so intense that nothing was heard save the
+    hum of two great "bumblebees" that darted in and out among the
+    trees and flew at erratic angles above our heads, the negroes
+    came forward and stretched their necks over each other's
+    shoulders, peering curiously at the little mounds of powder
+    that lay before them, at the innocent-looking bottle that stood
+    in their midst, and the great high priest who sat behind. They
+    stretched their necks over each other's shoulders, and each
+    endeavored to push his neighbor to the front; but those in
+    front, with due reverence for the uncanny nature of the table,
+    were determined not to be forced too near it, and the result
+    was a quiet struggle, a silent wrestle, an undertone of
+    wriggle, that was irresistibly funny.</p>
+
+    <p>Then arose the great high priest: "Range ye!"</p>
+
+    <p>Not knowing the nature of this order, the negroes scattered
+    instanter and then collected <i>en masse</i> around Mr.
+    Smith.</p>
+
+    <p>"Range ye! range!" repeated the doctor with dignity, and
+    Edward proceeded to arrange them in a long, straggling row,
+    urging upon them that there was no cause for alarm, as, even
+    should any of them prove 'witched, the doctor had charms with
+    him by which to cast off the spell.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come, Martha," said Edward; but Martha was dismayed, and
+    giving her neighbor a hasty shove, exclaimed,</p>
+
+    <p>"You go fus', Unk' Lumfrey: you's de preacher."</p>
+
+    <p>Uncle Humphrey disengaged his elbow with an angry hitch: "I
+    don't keer if I is: go 'long yose'f."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, de Lord knows I'm 'feerd to go," said Martha; "but ef
+    I sot up for preachin', 'peers to me I wouldn' be'feerd to sass
+    witches nor goses, nor nuffin' else."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't preach no time but Sundays, an' dis ain't Sunday,"
+    said Uncle Humphrey.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hy, nigger!" exclaimed Martha in desperation, "is you gwine
+    to go back on de Lord cos 'tain't Sunday? How come you don't
+    trus' on Him week-a-days?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I does trus' on Him fur as enny sense in doin' uv it; but
+    ef I go to enny my foolishness, fus' thing I know de Lord gwine
+    leave me to take keer uv myse'f, preacher or no
+    preacher&mdash;same as ef He was ter say, 'Dat's all right,
+    cap'n: ef you gwine to boss dis job, boss it;' an'
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 495]</span>den whar <i>I</i> be? Mas'
+    Ned tole you to go: go on, an' lemme 'lone."</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncle Humphrey," said Edward, "there is nothing whatever to
+    be afraid of, and you must set the rest an example. Come!"</p>
+
+    <p>Uncle Humphrey obeyed, but as he did so he turned his head
+    and rolled&mdash;or, as the negroes say,
+    <i>walled</i>&mdash;his eyes at Martha in a manner which
+    convinced her, whatever her doubts in other matters pertaining
+    to theology, that there is such a thing as future punishment.
+    The old fellow advanced, and under direction of the great high
+    priest poured some of the contents of the bottle on the powder
+    indicated to him, and it remained white.</p>
+
+    <p>"Thang Gord!" he exclaimed with a fervency which left no
+    doubt of his sincerity, and hastened away.</p>
+
+    <p>Two or three others followed with a similar result. Then
+    came Mercy, the housemaid, and as her trembling fingers poured
+    the liquid forth, behold the powder changed and turned to
+    black! The commotion was indescribable, and Mercy was about to
+    have a nervous fit when Dr. Rutherford, fixing his eyes on her,
+    said in a tone of command, "Be quiet&mdash;be perfectly quiet,
+    and in two hours I will destroy the spell. Go over there and
+    sit down."</p>
+
+    <p>She tottered to a seat under one of the trees.</p>
+
+    <p>One or two more took their turn, among them Mammy, but the
+    powders remained white. I had entreated Edward not to pronounce
+    her 'witched, because she was so old and I loved her so: I
+    could not bear that she should be frightened. You should have
+    seen her when she found that she was safe. The stiff old limbs
+    became supple and the terrified countenance full of joy, and
+    the dear ridiculous old thing threw her arms up in the air, and
+    laughed and cried, and shouted, and praised God, and knocked
+    off her turban, and burst open her apron-strings, and refused
+    to be quieted till the doctor ordered her to be removed from
+    the scene of action. The idea of retiring to the seclusion of
+    her cabin while all this was going on was simply preposterous,
+    and Mammy at once exhibited the soothing effect of the
+    suggestion; so the play proceeded.</p>
+
+    <p>More white powders. Then Apollo's turned black, and, poor
+    fellow! when it did so, he might have been a god or a demon, or
+    anything else you never saw, for his face looked little like
+    that of a human being, giving you the impression only of
+    wildly-rolling eyeballs, and great white teeth glistening in a
+    ghastly, feeble, almost idiotic grin.</p>
+
+    <p>Edward went up to him and laid his hand on his shoulder:
+    "That's all right, my boy. We'll have you straight in no time,
+    and you will be the best man at the shucking to-morrow
+    night."</p>
+
+    <p>More white powders. Then came Wash, great big Wash; and when
+    his powder changed, what do you suppose he did? Well, he just
+    fainted outright.</p>
+
+    <p>The remaining powders retaining their color, and Wash having
+    been restored to consciousness, Dr. Rutherford directed him to
+    a clump of chinquapin bushes near the "big gate" at the
+    entrance of the plantation. There he would find a flat stone.
+    Beneath this stone he would find thirteen grains of moulding
+    corn and some goat's hair. These he was to bring back with him.
+    Under the first rail near the same gate Mercy would find: a
+    dead frog with its eyes torn out, and across the road in the
+    hollow of a stump Apollo was to look for a muskrat's tail and a
+    weasel's paw. They went off reluctantly, the entire <i>corps de
+    plantation</i> following, and soon they all came scampering
+    back, trampling down the ox-eyed daisies and jamming each other
+    against the corners of the rail fence, for, sure enough, the
+    witch's treasures had been found, but not a soul had dared to
+    touch them. Dr. Rutherford sternly ordered them back, but all
+    hands hung fire, and their countenances evinced resistance of
+    such a stubborn character that Edward at length volunteered to
+    go with them. Then it was all right, and presently returned the
+    most laughable procession that was ever seen&mdash;Wash with
+    his arms at right angles, bearing his grains of moulding grain
+    on a burdock leaf which he held at as great a distance as the
+    size of the leaf and the length of his arms
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 496]</span>would admit, his neck
+    craned out and his eyes so glued to the uncanny corn that he
+    stumbled over every stick and stone that lay in his path; Mercy
+    next, with ludicrous solemnity, bearing her unsightly burden on
+    the end of a corn-stalk; Apollo last, his weasel's paw and
+    muskrat's tail deposited in the toe of an old brogan which he
+    had found by the roadside, brown and wrinkled and stiff, with a
+    hole in the side and the ears curled back, and which he had
+    hung by the heel to a long crooked stick. On they came, the
+    crowd around them following at irregular distances, surging
+    back and forth, advancing or retreating as they were urged by
+    curiosity or repelled by fear.</p>
+
+    <p>It was now getting dark, so Dr. Rutherford, having had the
+    table removed, brought forth three large plates filled with
+    different colored powders. On one he placed Mercy's frog, on
+    another Wash's corn, and on the third the muskrat's tail and
+    weasel's paw taken from Apollo's shoe. Then we all waited in
+    silence while with his hands behind him he strode solemnly back
+    and forth in front of the three plates. At length the bees had
+    ceased to hum; the cattle had come home of themselves, and
+    could be heard lowing in the distance; the many shadows had
+    deepened into one; twilight had faded and darkness come. Then
+    he stood still: "I am the great Dr. Rutherford, the
+    witch-doctor of Boston! I will now set fire to these witch's
+    eggs, and if they burn the flames will scorch her. She will
+    scream and fly away, and it will be a hundred years before
+    another witch appears in this part of the country."</p>
+
+    <p>He applied a match to Apollo's plate and immediately the
+    whole place was illuminated by a pale blue glare which fell
+    with ghastly effect on the awestricken countenances around,
+    while in the distance, apparently near the "big gate," arose a
+    succession of the most frightful shrieks ever heard or
+    imagined. Then the torch was applied to Mercy's frog, and
+    forthwith every nook and corner, every leaf and every blade of
+    grass was bathed in a flood of blood-red light, while the cries
+    grew, if possible, louder and fiercer. Then came Wash's corn,
+    which burned with a poisonous green glare, and lashed its
+    sickly light over the house and yard and the crowd of black
+    faces; and hardly had this died away when from the direction of
+    the big gate there slowly ascended what appeared to be a
+    blood-red ball.</p>
+
+    <p>"There she goes!" said the great Dr. Rutherford, and we all
+    stood gazing up into the heavens, till at length the thing
+    burst into flames, the sparks died away and no more was to be
+    seen.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, that is the last of her!" impressively announced the
+    witch-doctor of Boston; "and neither she nor her sisters will
+    dare come to this country again for the next hundred years. You
+    can all make your minds easy about witches."</p>
+
+    <p>Then came triumph instead of dread, and scorn took the place
+    of fear. There arose a succession of shouts and cheers,
+    laughter and jeers. They patted their knees and shuffled their
+    feet and wagged their heads in derision.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hyar! hyar! old gal! Done burnt up, is you? Take keer whar
+    you lay yo' aigs arfer dis!" advised William Wirt in a loud
+    voice.&mdash;"Go 'long, pizen sass!" said Martha. "You done lay
+    yo' las' aig, you is!"&mdash;"Hooray tag-rag!" shouted
+    Chesterfield.&mdash;"Histe yo' heels, ole Mrs. Satan," cried
+    one.&mdash;"You ain't no better'n a free nigger!" said
+    another.&mdash;"Yo' wheel done skotch for good, ole skeer-face!
+    hyar! hyar! You better not come foolin' 'long o' Mas' Ned's
+    niggers no mo'!"</p>
+
+    <p>The next night was a gala one, and a merrier set of negroes
+    never sang at a corn-shucking, nor did a jollier leader than
+    Wash ever tread the pile, while Mercy sat on a throne of shucks
+    receiving Sambo's homage, and, unmolested by fear, coyly held a
+    corncob between her teeth as she hung her head and bashfully
+    consented that he should come next day to "ax Mas' Ned de
+    liberty of de plantashun."</p>
+    <hr class='short' />
+
+    <p>"But, Edward," said I, "why did those three powders turn
+    black?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because they were calomel, my dear,
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 497]</span>and it was lime-water that
+    was poured on them," said Mr. Smith.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but why did not the others turn black too?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because the others were tartarized antimony."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where did you get what was in the plates, that made the
+    lights, you know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Rutherford had the material. He is going to settle in a
+    small country town, so he provided himself with all sorts of
+    drugs and chemicals before he left Philadelphia."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, Edward," persisted I, putting my hand over his book to
+    make him stop reading, "how came those things where they were
+    found? and the balloon to ascend just at the proper moment? and
+    who or what was it screaming so? Neither you nor Dr. Rutherford
+    had left the yard except to go into the house."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, my dear; but you remember Dick Kirby came over just
+    after dinner, and he would not ask any better fun than to fix
+    all that."</p>
+
+    <p>"Humph!" said I, "men are not so stupid, after all."</p>
+
+    <p>Edward looked more amused than flattered, which shows how
+    conceited men are.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">JENNIE WOODVILLE.</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="ON_THE_STUDY_OF_SHAKESPEARES_SONNETS"
+       name="ON_THE_STUDY_OF_SHAKESPEARES_SONNETS"></a>ON THE STUDY
+       OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.</h2>
+
+    <p>The last thing which the student learns, the last thing
+    which the world, that universal student, comprehends, is how to
+    study. It is only after our little store of facts has been
+    laboriously accumulated, after we have tried path after path
+    that promised to take us by an easy way up the Hill Difficulty,
+    and have abandoned each in turn,&mdash;it is only when we have
+    attained a point somewhere near the top, that we can look down
+    and see the way we should have come, the one road that avoided
+    unnecessary steepness and needless windings, and led by the
+    quickest and easiest direction to the summit. The knowledge
+    that we have thus gained, however late to profit by it
+    ourselves, should at least be valuable to others. But,
+    unfortunately, as Balzac has said, experience is an article
+    that no one will use at second hand. When the great teachers of
+    the world, who have been its most patient scholars, shall go to
+    work to teach us how to study, and when we are content to
+    learn, then we shall all be in a fair way to become sages.</p>
+
+    <p>But, in the mean time, there are two things we must
+    apprehend&mdash;truisms both of them, but, like all truisms,
+    better known theoretically than practically. The first is, that
+    we must not use a microscope if we want to study the stars; and
+    the second is, that we must beware of having a fly between the
+    lenses of our telescope, unless we wish to discover a monster
+    in the moon. If a discriminating public would not consider it
+    an insult, one might add, in the third place, that it is
+    useless to look for lunar rainbows in the daytime.</p>
+
+    <p>It is true that all this sounds like child's play, but it is
+    astonishing how many of our Shakespearian critics commit one or
+    all of these faults. Forgetting entirely that criticism demands
+    common sense, impartial judgment, intense sympathy, a total
+    absence of prejudice, and a great deal of general information,
+    they bring to their task minds deeply tinctured with
+    preconceived systems of truth, goodness and beauty, upon whose
+    Procrustean bed the unfortunate poet must be stretched; while,
+    as if ignorant of the history of thought, they judge the
+    productions of another age and another atmosphere by the canons
+    of criticism that hold good to-day among ourselves. Not only
+    this, but they snuff enigmas in every line, and scent abstruse
+    theories <span class="pagenum">[Pg 498]</span>behind the
+    simplest statement. They take up passages of Shakespeare whose
+    obvious meaning any person of average intelligence can
+    understand, and turn and twist them into such intricate
+    doublings that they cannot undo their own puzzle. They attack
+    his poetry as if it were a second Rosetta Stone, or as if it
+    had to be read, like the lines in a Hebrew book, backward. They
+    study him in the spirit of the fool, who, being given a book
+    upside down, stood on his head to read it&mdash;a position
+    naturally confusing to the intellect.</p>
+
+    <p>Nor is it only in their methods of investigation that many
+    of our Shakespearian critics are at fault. Their fondness for
+    rearing vast temples of possibilities upon small corner-stones
+    of fact is proverbial. We know that Shakespeare went to London,
+    where he both wrote and acted plays, and upon this slender
+    basis you may find, in almost any of his commentators, such
+    added items of biography as this sentence from Heraud's book
+    upon Shakespeare's <i>Inner Life:</i> "That he had a house in
+    Southwark, that his brother Edmund lived with him, and that his
+    wife was his frequent companion in London, are all exceedingly
+    probable suppositions." So they may be to Mr. Heraud's mind,
+    but the next biographer shall form a totally different set of
+    "exceedingly probable suppositions" equally satisfactory to
+    himself. The same critic says that when Shakespeare, in his
+    Sonnets, spoke of "a black beauty" (a phrase universally used
+    to express a brunette as late even as the age of Queen Anne),
+    the poet had his Bible open at Solomon's Song, and meant the
+    Bride "who is black but comely;" in other words, the Reformed
+    Church. Mr. Page, the artist, finds in the Chandos portrait,
+    after it has been cleaned and scraped, and upon the photographs
+    of the German mask, a certain mark which he thinks the
+    indication of a scar. Two gentlemen, one an artist, who have
+    seen the mask itself, assure him that they find his scar to be
+    merely a slight abrasion or discoloration of the plaster; but
+    Mr. Page, secure in his position, quotes Sonnet 112,</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Your love and pity doth the impression fill</p>
+
+            <p>Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow,</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>and triumphantly asks, "If that doesn't refer to the scar,
+    what does it refer to?"</p>
+
+    <p>The Sonnets of Shakespeare have been quite too much
+    neglected by the lovers of his plays, and Stevens said that the
+    strongest act of Parliament that could be framed would fail to
+    compel readers into their service. Two classes of minds,
+    however, have always pondered over them&mdash;the poets, who
+    could not fail to appreciate their wonderful power and beauty,
+    and the psychologists, who have found in them an ample field
+    for speculation. The variety and extent of the theories of
+    these latter gentlemen can only be rivaled by the feat of the
+    camel-evolving German. Indeed, it is the true German school of
+    thought to which these speculations belong, and it is but just
+    that to a genuine Teuton belongs the honor of the most
+    extraordinary solution of the mystery yet given. It would take
+    too long to sum up all the theories that have been broached
+    upon the subject, but two or three will do as an example.
+    Without stopping to dwell upon the ideas of M. Philar&egrave;te
+    Chasles, or of Gen. Hitchcock, who believes the Sonnets to be
+    addressed to the Ideal Beauty, we will pass on to the book of
+    Mr. Henry Browne, published in London in 1870. His idea is that
+    the Sonnets are dedicated to William Herbert, afterward earl of
+    Pembroke, and are intended chiefly as a parody upon the
+    reigning fashion of mistress-sonneting and upon the sonneteers
+    of the day, especially Davies and Drayton; that they also
+    contain much which is valuable in the way of autobiography, and
+    that "the key to the whole mystery lies in <i>Shakespeare's</i>
+    conceit (<i>i.e</i>., Mr. Browne's conceit) of the union of his
+    friend and his Muse by marriage of verse and mind; by which
+    means, and for which favor, his youth and beauty are
+    immortalized, but which theme does not fully commence till the
+    friend had declined the invitation to marriage, which refusal
+    begets the mystic melody." Mr. Browne graciously accepts the
+    Sonnets in their order, and professes to be unable to name the
+    real mistress of Herbert, though he considers
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 499]</span>Lady Penelope Rich to be
+    the object of their allegorical satire.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Heraud also accepts the order of the Sonnets as correct.
+    His book contains an article on the Sonnets published by him in
+    <i>Temple Bar</i> for April, 1862, the result, he declares (and
+    far be it from us to dispute it), of pure induction. He has
+    evolved the theory that Shakespeare in writing against celibacy
+    had in view the practice of the Roman Catholic Church; that the
+    friend whom he apostrophizes was the Ideal Man, the universal
+    humanity, who gradually develops into the Divine Ideal, and
+    becomes a Messiah, while the Woman is the Church, the "black
+    but comely bride" of Solomon. "Shakespeare found himself
+    between two loves&mdash;the celibate Church on the one hand,
+    that deified herself, and the Reformed Church on the other,
+    that eschewed Mariolatry and restored worship to its proper
+    object.... Thus, Shakespeare parabolically opposed the
+    Mariolatry of his time to the purer devotion of the word of
+    God, which it was the mission of his age to inaugurate."</p>
+
+    <p>This is pretty well for a flight of inductive genius, but it
+    is quite surpassed by the soaring Teutonic mind before
+    mentioned, who, in the words of the reflective Breitmann,</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <p class="i2">Dinks so deeply</p>
+
+        <p>As only Deutschers can.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>This mighty philosopher, of whom Mr. Heraud speaks with
+    becoming reverence, is Herr Barnstorff, who published a book in
+    1862 to prove that the "W.H." of the dedication means
+    <i>William Himself</i>, and that the Sonnets are apostrophes to
+    Shakespeare's Interior Individuality! Mr. Heraud thinks this
+    idea is rather too German, but, after all, not so very far out
+    of the way, for in Sonnet 42 the poet certainly declares that
+    his Ideal Man is simply his Objective
+    Self.<a name="FNanchor_009_9"
+       id="FNanchor_009_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_009_9"
+       class="fnanchor">[009]</a> For, as Mr. Heraud beautifully
+       and lucidly remarks, "the Many, how multitudinous soever,
+       are yet properly but the reflex of the One, and the sum of
+       both is the Universe." And herein, according to Mr. Heraud,
+       we find the key to the mystery.</p>
+
+    <p>In 1866, Mr. Gerald Massey published a large volume on the
+    same subject, with the somewhat pretentious title.
+    <i>Shakespeare's Sonnets, never before interpreted; his private
+    friends identified; together with a recovered likeness of
+    himself</i>. The first chapter contains a summary of the
+    opinions of Coleridge, Wordsworth and others upon the Sonnets;
+    a notice of the theory of Bright and Boaden (<i>Gentleman's
+    Magazine</i>, 1832), afterward confirmed by a book written by
+    Charles Armitage Brown (1838); the theories of Hunter, Hallam,
+    Dyce, Mrs. Jameson, M. Chasles, Ulrici, Gervinus and many
+    others (most of them, by the way, confirming the theory
+    originated by Boaden and Bright); and having thus gone over the
+    work of twenty-five <i>named</i> authors, and a space of time
+    extending from 1817 to 1866, Mr. Massey begins his second
+    chapter by saying that as yet there has never been any genuine
+    attempt to interpret the Sonnets, "nothing having been done
+    except a little surface-work." Mr. C. Armitage Brown in
+    particular (who, by the way, must not be confounded with Mr.
+    <i>Henry Browne</i>) appears to be Mr. Massey's special
+    aversion. The very name of Brown irritates him as scarlet does
+    an excitable bull. Armitage Brown was the intimate friend of
+    Keats and Landor, and, Severn says, was considered to know more
+    about the Sonnets than any man then living, while the "personal
+    theory," as Mr. Massey styles it, has had a far larger number
+    of supporters than any other. Unfortunately, the opinions of
+    others have not the slightest weight with Mr. Massey, and words
+    are too weak to express his scorn of this theory and its
+    supporters. Mr. Brown wraps things in a winding sheet of
+    witless words (delicious alliteration!); he leaves the subject
+    dark and dubious as ever; his theory has only served to trouble
+    deep waters, and make them so muddy that it is impossible to
+    see to the bottom; in short, Mr. Brown and his fellow thinkers,
+    in the opinion of Mr. Massey, are arch-deceivers and audacious
+    misinterpreters, and have no more idea of what Shakespeare
+    meant than they have of telling the truth about it. Why Mr.
+    Massey should have worked himself <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    500]</span>into a passion before he began to write is a mystery
+    darker than any he attempts to solve, but the intemperate,
+    bitter and self-conceited tone of the whole book is alone an
+    immense injury to its critical value.</p>
+
+    <p>In constructing his elaborate theory of the Sonnets, Mr.
+    Massey has committed many grave offences against the rules of
+    criticism. He has gone to his work with the strongest possible
+    prejudices; he has begun it with certain preconceived ideas of
+    what Shakespeare meant to write; he has found it necessary to
+    destroy entirely the order of the poems, and to rearrange them,
+    even sometimes to alter the text, to fit his own notions; and
+    he has carried his investigations into such puerile and minute
+    twistings of the text as can only be paralleled by Mr. Page's
+    quotation in support of his scar. For instance, in Sonnet 78
+    occur these lines:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,</p>
+
+            <p>Have added feathers to the learned's wing</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And given grace a double majesty.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Mr. Massey thinks that in this quatrain (which the vulgar
+    mind would accept as it stands, nor expect to treat as other
+    than figurative) Shakespeare was passing in review the writers
+    under the patronage of the earl of Southampton, to whom the
+    sonnet is addressed, and that he can identify the four
+    personifications! Shakespeare of course is the Dumb taught to
+    sing by the favor of the earl; resolute John Florio, the
+    translator of Montaigne, is Heavy Ignorance; Tom Nash is the
+    Learned, who has had feathers added to his wing; and Marlowe is
+    the Grace to whom is given a double majesty! Marlowe's chief
+    characteristic was majesty, says Mr. Massey; therefore, we
+    suppose, he is spoken of as <i>grace</i>. The rest of his
+    "exquisite reasons" may be found at pages 134-143 of the
+    book.</p>
+
+    <p>This is nothing, however, to the feats of which Mr. Massey's
+    subtlety is capable. Sonnet 38 begins:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>How can my Muse want subject to invent,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">While thou dost breathe, that pour'st
+            into my verse</p>
+
+            <p>Thine own sweet argument, too excellent</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">For every vulgar paper to rehearse?</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>That is, kindly explains Mr. Massey&mdash;lest we should be
+    tempted to accept the obvious meaning of the lines, that the
+    poet could not want a subject while his friend lived, whose
+    worth was too great for every ordinary writing to celebrate
+    fitly&mdash;"that is, the new subject of the earl's suggesting
+    and the new form of the earl's inventing are too choice to be
+    committed to <i>common paper</i>; which means that Shakespeare
+    had until then written his personal sonnets on slips of paper
+    provided by himself, and now the excelling argument of the
+    earl's love is to be written in Southampton's own book"!
+    Perhaps it means that Shakespeare had taken to gilt-edged,
+    hot-pressed, double-scented Bath note.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Massey's ingenuity in getting over a difficulty is as
+    great as his faculty of construction. Having assumed Lady Rich
+    (that Stella whose golden hair makes half the glory of Sidney's
+    verse) to be the "black beauty" of the Sonnets, he finds that
+    Sonnet 130 perversely says, "If hairs be wires, black wires
+    grow on her head"&mdash;a bit of evidence that would seem to
+    upset this theory. But Mr. Massey is not to be put down so
+    easily. This is ironical, he says in effect; Shakespeare did
+    not mean this; "it is a bit of malicious subtlety to call the
+    lady's hair black wires, which was so often besung as golden
+    hair; and <i>she had been so vain of its mellow splendor!</i>
+    ... And there is the '<i>if</i>' to be considered&mdash;'much
+    virtue in an <i>if'!</i>&mdash;'<i>If</i> hairs be wires,' says
+    the speaker, 'black wires grow on her head!' So that the
+    'black' is only used conditionally, and the fact remains that
+    'hairs' are <i>not</i> 'wires.'" If we are to interpret
+    Shakespeare in this manner, where is such foolery to cease?</p>
+
+    <p>To sum up the principal facts of Mr. Massey's elaborate
+    theory in a few words, we find that he considers the Sonnets to
+    be dedicated to William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, as "their
+    only begetter" (or obtainer) for the publisher, Mr. Thomas
+    Thorpe; that they consist properly of two series, the first
+    written for Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, the second
+    for the earl of Pembroke; that they begin with the poet's
+    advice to Southampton to marry; that when the earl fell in love
+    with Elizabeth Vernon, <span class="pagenum">[Pg 501]</span>he
+    suggested a new argument (see Sonnet 38), wherein is no such
+    thing as a <i>new</i> argument, by the way; and that then the
+    poet begins to write love-poems in the person of his friend.
+    This continues up to the year 1603, when the earl of
+    Southampton was released from prison, the dramatic sonnets
+    being interspersed with personal ones. These dramatic sonnets
+    also include sonnets written for Elizabeth Vernon of and to
+    Penelope Lady Rich, of whom she is supposed to be jealous;
+    sonnets from Southampton to herself upon the lovers' quarrel,
+    and the desperate flirtation of Elizabeth Vernon to punish her
+    lover (which Mr. Massey says ensued upon this jealousy);
+    together with various other sonnets between them, and upon the
+    earl's varying fortunes, his marriage, imprisonment, etc.,
+    which make up the first series. The second series are
+    love-poems written for William Herbert, and addressed to Lady
+    Rich, who is supposed by Mr. Massey to be the "black beauty"
+    (or brunette) of the closing sonnets, although it is well known
+    that Lady Rich was a golden blonde, with nothing dark about her
+    but her black eyes. To make out this complicated story, Mr.
+    Massey arranges the Sonnets in groups to suit his fancy,
+    baptizes them as he chooses, and does not scruple to vilify the
+    fair name of man or woman in order to make out his argument and
+    to defend the spotless purity of Shakespeare's moral
+    character.</p>
+
+    <p><i>Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems</i>, by Charles
+    Armitage Brown (1838), is the book which more than all others
+    on the subject seems to have excited Mr. Massey's indignation,
+    chiefly because it is the leading advocate of "the personal
+    theory"&mdash;that is, the autobiographical and non-dramatic
+    character of the poems. This implies an acceptance of the
+    statement clearly made in the Sonnets of Shakespeare's
+    infidelity to his wife; and this Mr. Massey pronounces an
+    outrageous and unwarranted slander. But in order to leave the
+    name of Shakespeare pure from any stain of mortal imperfection,
+    Mr. Massey arranges a dramatic intention for the Sonnets which
+    involves, with more or less of light or evil conduct, no less
+    than four other names&mdash;the earl of Southampton and
+    Elizabeth Vernon (daughter of Sir John Vernon), whom he
+    afterward married; William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and Lady
+    Rich, for whom Mr. Massey finds no words too abusive, and whom
+    he considers the "worser spirit" of the later Sonnets. The
+    history of this lady is sufficiently well known, and, so far as
+    I can ascertain, there is no historical warrant for supposing
+    her to have been the mistress of Herbert, or the beguiler of
+    Southampton into such a lapse of duty to his beloved Elizabeth
+    Vernon as should inspire the expressions of Sonnets 134, 133,
+    144, which Mr. Massey says are written in the person of this
+    lady to Lady Rich. Lady Penelope Devereux, sister of Essex, was
+    born in 1563, and her father, who died when she was but
+    thirteen, expressed a desire that she should be married to Sir
+    Philip Sidney. For some unknown reason the intended match was
+    broken off, and the fair Penelope, who is described as "a lady
+    in whom lodged all attractive graces of beauty, wit and
+    sweetness of behavior which might render her the absolute
+    mistress of all eyes and hearts," was married in 1580 to Lord
+    Rich, a man whom she detested. Sidney's <i>Astrophel and
+    Stella</i>, a series of one hundred and eight sonnets and poems
+    addressed to Lady Rich, and celebrating the strength and the
+    purity of their love for each other, was first printed in 1591.
+    Sidney had died five years before, and so long as he lived, at
+    least, no whisper had been breathed against Lady Rich. In 1600
+    we have the first notice of her losing the queen's favor from a
+    suspicion of her infidelity to her husband, and in 1605, having
+    been divorced, her lover, the earl of Devonshire, formerly Lord
+    Mountjoy, immediately married her. He defended her in an
+    eloquent <i>Discourse</i> and an <i>Epistle to the King</i>, in
+    which he says: "A lady of great birth and virtue, being in the
+    power of her friends, was by them married against her will unto
+    one against whom she did protest at the very solemnity and ever
+    after." Lord Rich treated her with great brutality, and having
+    ceased to live with her for twelve <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    502]</span>years, "did by persuasions and threatenings move her
+    to consent unto a divorce, and to confess a fault with a
+    nameless stranger." In spite of Mountjoy's noble pleadings for
+    his wife, the whole court rose up against his marriage. The
+    earl's sensitive heart was broken by the disgrace he had
+    brought upon one whom he had loved so dearly and so long (for
+    he was Sidney's rival in his early youth, and had been rejected
+    by Lady Penelope's family before her marriage with Lord Rich),
+    and he died of grief four months after their marriage, April 3,
+    1606. His countess, "worn out with lamentation," did not long
+    survive him.</p>
+
+    <p>Does that look like the conduct of a light and fickle heart?
+    or was it likely that so noble a man as Charles Mountjoy would
+    have died of grief for the disgrace he had brought upon a
+    notoriously bad woman? As to Lord Southampton's alleged
+    flirtation with Lady Rich, which so excited Elizabeth Vernon's
+    jealousy, Mr. Massey has not one circumstance in proof of it
+    but the forced interpretation he chooses to put upon certain
+    lines of certain sonnets which he has wrested from their proper
+    places, as well as their proper meaning. After using such
+    sonnets as the 144th to express this jealousy, he quietly
+    confesses at the end of the chapter that it could not have gone
+    very deep, as the intimacy of the two fair cousins (for such
+    was their relationship) continued to be of the
+    closest&mdash;that it was to Lady Rich's house that Elizabeth
+    Vernon retired after her secret marriage to the earl in 1598,
+    and there her baby was born, named Penelope after her cousin
+    and friend! There was only matter enough in it for poetry, Mr.
+    Massey concludes after having upset the whole order of the
+    Sonnets to prove its reality.</p>
+
+    <p>Now, as to the story of Lady Rich's having been the mistress
+    of Herbert, for whom Mr. Massey says that twenty-four of the
+    Sonnets were written. William Herbert, afterward earl of
+    Pembroke, was born in 1580. He came up to London in 1598, being
+    then eighteen years of age, and made the acquaintance of
+    Shakespeare, who was then thirty-four years old. Lady Rich, at
+    that time, according to Mr. Massey's own statement, was
+    "getting on for forty." The fact is that she was just
+    thirty-five, having been born, as he tells us, in 1563.
+    According to the obvious meaning of the Sonnets, the lady
+    spoken of is much younger than Shakespeare, instead of a year
+    older, and, according to Mr. Massey, Lady Rich was at that time
+    (1597) in the midst of her love-affair with Mountjoy. The lady
+    of the Sonnets, if we take them literally, could have borne no
+    such high position as Lady Rich: she seems to have been neither
+    remarkably beautiful and high-bred, nor virtuous, and was
+    evidently a married woman of no reputation. (<i>Sonnets</i>
+    150, 152.)</p>
+
+    <p>It is impossible to bring up separately, in a single
+    article, the items contained in a volume of 603 pages, so we
+    must be content to leave Mr. Massey's theory with these meagre
+    allusions to its principal statements, and pass on to that of
+    Mr. Charles Armitage Brown. Upholding the opinion that the
+    Sonnets are autobiographical, he maintains that they are in
+    reality not sonnets, but poems in the sonnet stanza, there
+    being but three sonnets, properly so called, in the series. The
+    poems are six in number, terminating each with an appropriate
+    <i>envoi</i>, and are addressed, the first five to the poet's
+    friend, "W.H.," and the sixth to his mistress. That friend must
+    have been very young, very handsome, of high birth and fortune;
+    and to all this the description of William Herbert exactly
+    answers. The divisions made by Mr. Brown are as follows: First
+    poem, 1 to 26&mdash;to his friend, persuading him to marry.
+    Second poem, 27 to 55&mdash;to his friend, who had robbed the
+    poet of his mistress, forgiving him. Third poem, 56 to
+    77&mdash;to his friend, complaining of his coldness, and
+    warning him of life's decay. Fourth poem, 78 to 101&mdash;to
+    his friend, complaining that he prefers another poet's praises,
+    and reproving him for faults that may injure his character.
+    Fifth poem, 102 to 126&mdash;to his friend, excusing himself
+    for having been some time silent, and disclaiming the charge of
+    inconstancy. Sixth poem, 127 to 152&mdash;to his mistress, on
+    her infidelity. In this last poem, says
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 503]</span>Mr. Brown, we find the
+    whole tenor to be "hate of my sin grounded on sinful loving."
+    However the poet may waver, and for the moment seem to return
+    to his former thralldom, indignation at the faithlessness of
+    his mistress and at her having been, through treachery, the
+    cause of his estrangement from a friend, at the last completely
+    conquers his sinful loving. "For myself," continues Mr. Brown,
+    "I confess I have not the heart to blame him at all, purely
+    because he so keenly reproaches himself for his own sin and
+    folly. Fascinated as he was, he did not, like other poets
+    similarly guilty, directly or by implication obtrude his own
+    passions on the world as reasonable laws. Had such been the
+    case, he might have merited our censure, possibly our
+    contempt."</p>
+
+    <p>Having thus glanced over the work of the principal
+    commentators upon the Sonnets, let us try the simple plan of
+    reading them as we read Tennyson's <i>In Memoriam</i>, for
+    instance, or the <i>Sonnets from the Portuguese</i>, by Mrs.
+    Browning. In Mr. R.G. White's admirable edition of Shakespeare
+    he confesses that he has no opinion upon the subject: "Mr.
+    Thomas Thorpe appears in his dedication as the Sphinx of
+    literature, and thus far he has not met his Oedipus." But
+    herein have we not the main difficulty stated? The first great
+    error committed by almost all students of the Sonnets, if we
+    may be pardoned the opinion, is to take it for granted that
+    they are a mystery whose key is lost. Just so long as the
+    Sonnets are considered as a species of enigma they will be
+    misunderstood and misinterpreted. It was not Shakespeare's
+    habit to talk in riddles or to propound psychological problems:
+    of all poets except Chaucer he is the most simple, direct and
+    straightforward.</p>
+
+    <p>We have in the <i>Amoretti</i> of Spenser, and in the
+    <i>Astrophel and Stella</i> of Sir Philip Sidney, admirable
+    examples of autobiographical poems written mostly in sonnet
+    stanza, of irregular and varied construction and subject,
+    although the general theme is the same. Surely we may bring to
+    the study of Shakespeare's poems the same simple method used in
+    reading these. Poets of his own day, and using in their highest
+    flights the form which was Shakespeare's familiar relaxation,
+    nobody has tried to ascribe to Sidney and Spenser metaphysical
+    mysteries and psychological conceits. Let us hope that some day
+    this mistaken idolatry of Shakespeare, which besmokes his
+    shrine with concealing clouds of incense, will be done away
+    with, and that we shall be allowed to behold the simple truth,
+    which never suffers in his case for being naked.</p>
+
+    <p>In his 76th Sonnet, Shakespeare says,</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Why write I still all one, ever the same.</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And keep invention in a noted weed,</p>
+
+            <p><i>That every word doth almost tell my name</i>,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2"><i>Showing their birth and whence they
+            did proceed</i>?</p>
+
+            <p>Oh know, sweet love, I always write of you,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And you and love are still my
+            argument.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>With this explicit declaration of Shakespeare, the general
+    character of the poems, and the similar writings of his friends
+    and contemporaries, we can but consider the Sonnets as
+    autobiographical poems, written during a period of time
+    beginning certainly as early as 1598 (when Meres speaks of
+    Shakespeare's having written sonnets), and ceasing some time
+    before their first publication in 1609. In the same way were
+    written the poems composing Tennyson's <i>In Memoriam</i>,
+    which, although dedicated to "A.H.H.," close with a long poem
+    addressed to the poet's sister.</p>
+
+    <p>The first and principal series of the Sonnets (divided from
+    the second in many editions of Shakespeare by a mark of
+    separation) is clearly addressed to a male friend. The
+    extremely lover-like use of language by which they are
+    characterized was a common trait of the age; and here again we
+    see the necessity of thoroughly understanding the atmosphere
+    that Shakespeare breathed. To us, with our frigid vocabulary of
+    friendship, such a style sounds unnatural, and undignified
+    perhaps: with the Elizabethans it was an every-day habit.
+    Lilly, the author of <i>Euphues</i>, says in his
+    <i>Endymion,</i> "The love of men to women is a thing common
+    and of course; the friendship of man to man, infinite and
+    immortal." And indeed it is to the influence of the
+    <i>Euphues</i> that much of the poetic ardor of language
+    characterizing the masculine friendship of the time was due.
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 504]</span>A man's beauty was as
+    often the theme of verse as a woman's, and the endearing terms
+    only associated by us with the conversation of lovers were used
+    continually among men. The friends in Shakespeare's plays, as
+    in all the other dramas and novels of the period, continually
+    address each other as "sweet," and even "sweet love" and
+    "beloved." Ben Jonson called himself the "lover" of Camden, and
+    dedicated his eulogistic lines to "my beloved Mr. William
+    Shakespeare." There is therefore no reason for considering the
+    language of the first series of Sonnets as necessarily
+    inapplicable to a masculine friend. The second series,
+    beginning with the 127th Sonnet, is as evidently addressed, as
+    Mr. Brown says, "to his mistress, on her infidelity;" and the
+    Sonnets end with two upon "Cupid's Brand," admitted by all to
+    be separate poems, and wrongfully tacked on to the Sonnets
+    proper.</p>
+
+    <p>Taking it for granted, then, from this very literal survey
+    of the text, that the Sonnets are autobiographical, we find
+    their study divided into two branches: (1) the story that the
+    poems themselves tell by the most simple and direct statements;
+    and (2) the conjectural explanation of the personages of that
+    story, involving a careful historical comparison of names and
+    dates, but amounting, after all is said that can be said,
+    simply to conjecture, incapable of direct proof. The first part
+    is to the real lover of Shakespeare and of poetry the only
+    important one; the second concerns that which is mortal and has
+    passed away. The first implies a knowledge of the friendship
+    and the love of Shakespeare; the second the discovery of the
+    names of his friend, of the poet who was his rival in the
+    praises of that friend, and of the mistress who was unworthy of
+    them both; not to mention such other items concerning time and
+    place as might be ascertained by a persevering antiquarian.</p>
+
+    <p>It is impossible, within less than a volume, to quote from
+    the Sonnets very freely, therefore we shall be compelled to
+    trust to the reader's recollection of them, assisted by an
+    occasional reference; this explanation of them being simply a
+    record of the impressions they have produced upon an unbiased
+    mind reading them as one would read any other poetry of the
+    same character.</p>
+
+    <p>The story unfolded by the Sonnets, then, is this:
+    Shakespeare had an ardent friendship, made all the livelier by
+    the fervor of the poetic temperament, for a young man of noble
+    birth and very great personal beauty, himself a lover of
+    poetry, if not a poet. This youth was very much younger than
+    Shakespeare, who was already beginning to speak of himself as
+    past the prime of life, although he was probably not more than
+    thirty-four. The friend of Shakespeare was almost perfect in
+    beauty, intellect and disposition, but he had two faults: he
+    was extremely fond of flattery (Sonnet 84), and he was
+    over-addicted to pleasure:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame</p>
+
+            <p>Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,</p>
+
+            <p>Doth spot the beauty of thy budding
+            name!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (95.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Shakespeare scorned to palter with the truth&mdash;"fair,
+    kind and true" he had called his friend&mdash;but he saw his
+    faults with the keen eye of love, that cannot bear an
+    imperfection in the one who should be all-perfect.</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Thou truly fair wert truly sympathized</p>
+
+            <p>In true plain words by thy true-telling
+            friend;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(82.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>and</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p class="i10">I love thee in such sort,</p>
+
+            <p>As, thou being mine, mine is thy good
+            report;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(36.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>therefore in all love he warns him to take heed.</p>
+
+    <p>Such was the character of Shakespeare's friend, to whom he
+    begins by addressing seventeen sonnets (or poems in the sonnet
+    stanza, which is the better definition), urging him to marry.
+    He knows the weakness of his character and the temptations that
+    beset him, and in a strain of loving persuasion, whose theme
+    bears great resemblance to many passages in Sidney's
+    <i>Arcadia</i>, he beseeches him, now that he stands upon the
+    top of happy hours,</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Make thee another self for love of me.</p>
+
+            <p>That beauty still may live in thine or thee.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Sonnet 17 in a most beautiful manner sums up the argument
+    and ends the subject.</p>
+
+    <p>The Sonnets from the 18th to the 126th are all addressed to
+    this beloved friend, <span class="pagenum">[Pg 505]</span>who
+    nevertheless, early in the history of their friendship,
+    inflicted upon the poet a cruel wrong. With the 33d Sonnet
+    begin the references to this double treachery. It is impossible
+    for an unprejudiced reader to interpret this and the other
+    poems upon the same subject in any way but one. The mistress of
+    Shakespeare, fascinated by the beauty and brilliant qualities
+    of his friend, took advantage of the poet's absence to win that
+    facile heart, so incapable of resisting the charms of woman and
+    the tongue of flattery;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>And when a woman woos, what woman's son</p>
+
+            <p>Will sourly leave her till she have
+            prevailed?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(41.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>His friend's loss was the greater to the poet, for, although
+    he loved with passionate strength, it was against his
+    conscience and his reason. Such a love, he says, is "enjoyed no
+    sooner but despised straight;" "Before, a joy proposed; behind,
+    a dream."</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>All this the world well knows; yet none knows
+            well</p>
+
+            <p>To shun the heaven that leadeth to this
+            hell.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(129.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Nor does he mince matters in directly addressing her. She is
+    a brunette, with black eyes and black hair, yet black in
+    nothing except her deeds, which have given her an evil
+    reputation. She has sealed false bonds of love as often as he,
+    and is twice forsworn, having deceived both her husband and her
+    lover. She is as cruel as if she had that transcendent beauty
+    which in reality she only possesses in his doting eyes. He
+    knows that her heart is "a bay where all men ride," and yet
+    love persuades him to believe her true.</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Who taught thee how to make me love thee more</p>
+
+            <p>The more I hear and see just cause of hate?</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>She is his "worser spirit," tempting him to ill&mdash;his
+    "false plague," whom he knows to be "as black as hell, as dark
+    as night," though he has sworn her fair and true. His friend's
+    name is Will also, and Sonnets 135, 136 contain a play upon
+    their names:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy "Will,"</p>
+
+            <p>And "Will" to boot, and "Will" in overplus.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Only love my name, he says to her, and then you will still
+    love me, for <i>my</i> name too is "Will."</p>
+
+    <p>Such are the three actors in this tragedy of sin and sorrow
+    and remorse; and the more we read these wonderful poems, and
+    perceive the intense passion that throbs through them, the
+    nearer we seem to get to the great heart of Shakespeare, the
+    real inner life of that man of whose outer personality we know
+    so little. We see him wounded to the quick by his dearest
+    friend, yet weighing the sin of that friend in the balance of
+    divinest mercy as he acknowledges the strength of the
+    temptation, and, while he does not extenuate the sin, extends a
+    loving pardon to the sinner. He knows weakness of his own soul:
+    he himself struggles in the toils of an unworthy passion, which
+    his reason abhors while his heart is led captive. His is the
+    battle and the defeat: who is he that he should judge with
+    indignant virtue the failing of another?&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Although thou steal thee all my
+            poverty;</p>
+
+            <p>And yet love knows it is a greater grief</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">To bear love's wrong than hate's known
+            injury.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(40.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He pardons the penitent as freely as only so great and
+    magnanimous a soul can, but gently reminds him that "though
+    thou repent, yet I have still the loss:"</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief</p>
+
+            <p>To him that bears the strong offence's
+            cross.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(34.)</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Hereafter we two must be twain, the poet says, although our
+    undivided loves are one, for fear thy good report suffer, which
+    is to me as my own. Do not even remember me after I am dead, if
+    that remembrance cause you any sorrow, nor rehearse my poor
+    name, but let your love decay with my life;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Lest the wise world should look into your moan,</p>
+
+            <p>And mock you with me after I am gone.</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Such is the story of the Sonnets, the saddest of all
+    stories, as it comes to us from the simple and unbiased reading
+    of the series as it stands, without alteration or
+    transposition. The meaning is sufficiently obvious without
+    making any change, although, judging from the purely eulogistic
+    character of some of the first series of the Sonnets, and the
+    purely reflective style of others, it seems probable that those
+    which are more or less reproachful in tone may belong together,
+    nearer the second series. Still, even to this rearrangement
+    there are objections <span class="pagenum">[Pg 506]</span>when
+    we consider the alternations of feeling and the different
+    conditions that must have affected the poet during the space of
+    time covered by these poems. In the 104th Sonnet three years
+    are mentioned as having elapsed since the friends first met,
+    and the time covered by the whole series was probably still
+    longer. Conjectural evidence points to William Herbert as the
+    person to whom the Sonnets are addressed. His name, his age,
+    his beauty, his rank, all agree with Shakespeare's description.
+    As for the earl of Southampton, the poet's early patron, to
+    whom the <i>Venus and Adonis</i> and the <i>Lucrece</i> are
+    dedicated, his name was Henry; he was but nine years younger
+    than Shakespeare, and therefore not likely to have been called
+    by him "a sweet boy;" he was a remarkably plain man, instead of
+    an Adonis, and noted, not for his devotion to women in general,
+    but for his ardent attachment to Mistress Elizabeth Vernon,
+    whom he married secretly, in spite of the queen's opposition,
+    in 1598. Now, the earliest mention that we have of
+    Shakespeare's poems is when Meres speaks of "his sugared
+    sonnets among his private friends." This was in 1598, and, as
+    Hallam and other critics have argued, is probably a reference
+    to earlier sonnets which have been lost, not to those published
+    in 1609. It was in 1598 that William Herbert, a brilliant and
+    fascinating young man, addicted to pleasure and susceptible to
+    flattery, but strongly disinclined to marriage, came up to
+    London to live, having visited the metropolis during the
+    previous year.</p>
+
+    <p>As for Lady Rich, besides the objections already urged on
+    the score of her personal appearance and her age, Shakespeare
+    would never have dared to speak of a reigning beauty of the
+    court in the words of Sonnets 137, 144, 152. In fact, Mr.
+    Massey's whole argument upon this head is based upon his
+    assertion that the poems are dramatic and not personal.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Massey's conviction that Marlowe is the rival poet of
+    whose "great verse" Shakespeare was jealous depends upon
+    Southampton, and not Herbert, being acknowledged to be the
+    friend addressed, for Marlowe died in 1593, when Herbert was
+    but thirteen years old, and five years before we have the first
+    mention of Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets. Certainly, a
+    writer who had died five years before we find any mention of
+    the Sonnets can hardly be the living poet of whom Shakespeare
+    distinctly speaks in Sonnets 80 and 86. Also in Sonnet 82 he
+    makes mention of the "dedicated words" this rival addresses to
+    his friend. Now, we have no evidence that Marlowe ever
+    dedicated anything to Southampton, although Mr. Massey tries to
+    bolster up a desperate case by saying that "there is nothing
+    improbable in supposing that Marlowe's <i>Hero and Leander</i>
+    was intended to be dedicated to Southampton" had the poet lived
+    to finish it!</p>
+
+    <p>A stronger chain of evidence (still conjectural, it must be
+    remembered) points to Ben Jonson as this rival poet. His
+    <i>Epigrams</i>, which contain a eulogy upon Pembroke, and his
+    <i>Catiline</i>, were both dedicated to this earl, although
+    neither of them was published till after the Sonnets. We find
+    the earl of Pembroke's name among the actors in Ben Jonson's
+    masques, and Falkland's eclogue testifies to their intimacy.
+    And in the 80th Sonnet, Shakespeare uses the same comparison of
+    himself and his rival, to two ships of different bulk, which
+    Fuller used to describe Shakespeare and Ben Jonson as they
+    appeared at the Mermaid Tavern.</p>
+
+    <p>As for the name of the false woman who ensnared two such
+    noble hearts, it is lost for ever, let us hope, in a deserved
+    oblivion. The scanty data that we have given here are about all
+    that can be accepted without wrenching history and poetry from
+    their proper sphere. But so long as the spirit is more than the
+    letter, so long will the Sonnets of Shakespeare be read by all
+    true lovers of true poetry, whether their historical
+    significance ever be known or not. They are the saddest and the
+    sweetest story of friendship that we have in all literature;
+    and while one faithful friend remains possessed of that fine
+    wit that can "hear with eyes what silent love hath writ," his
+    heart will beat in answer to the perfect love of the greatest
+    of all poets and the noblest of all friends.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">KATE HILLARD.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    507]</span>
+
+    <h2><a id="OUR_MONTHLY_GOSSIP"
+       name="OUR_MONTHLY_GOSSIP"></a>OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.</h2>
+
+    <h3><a id="ARTISTS_MODELS_IN_ROME"
+       name="ARTISTS_MODELS_IN_ROME"></a>ARTISTS' MODELS IN
+       ROME.</h3>
+
+    <p>Some visitors to the Eternal City leave it without having
+    found time to see this one of its wonders, while others are
+    driven by the sad inelasticity of the hours to leave a
+    different class of objects for "another time." But it may be
+    safely asserted that none who have been at Rome for even
+    twenty-four hours ever left it without having had their
+    attention forcibly arrested by the groups of painters' and
+    sculptors' models&mdash;the former mainly&mdash;who haunt the
+    upper part of the great steps that lead up from the Piazza di
+    Spagna to the Trinit&agrave; di Monti, and perhaps even more
+    specially the corner where the Via Sistina falls into the
+    Piazza Barberini. But very few probably have asked for, and
+    fewer still obtained, information as to who and what these
+    people are, and whence they come. Yet to an attentive observer
+    many points about the appearance of these groups must suggest
+    that a curious interest might attach itself to the reply to
+    such questions. There are sights in Rome of grander and greater
+    interest, but there is nothing in all the famous centre of the
+    Catholic world more distinctively, essentially and exclusively
+    Roman, more unlike anything that is seen elsewhere, more
+    instinct with <i>couleur locale</i>, than these singularly
+    picturesque groups of nomads.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us, then, take a stroll among them, starting from that
+    bright centre of the foreigners' quarter of Rome, the Piazza di
+    Spagna. It is a brilliant January day, and, we will say, ten
+    o'clock in the morning. In the Via Babuino and the neighboring
+    streets, which the sun has not yet visited, the morning cold is
+    a little sharp. <i>Matutina parum cautos jam frigora
+    mordent</i>. But the magnificent flight of the great
+    stair&mdash;there are properly eleven flights, divided by as
+    many spacious and handsomely balustraded landing-places, each
+    flight consisting of twelve steps, and all of white
+    marble&mdash;with its southern exposure has almost the
+    temperature of a hothouse. There are two or three beggars
+    basking in the sunshine near the bottom of the steps. But our
+    models do not consort with these. Not only are they not
+    beggars, but they belong to a different caste and a different
+    race. We leisurely saunter up the huge stair, pausing at each
+    landing-place to turn and enjoy the view over the city, and the
+    gradually rising luminous haze around the cupola of St.
+    Peter's, and the heights of Monte Mario clear against the
+    brilliant blue sky. It is not till we are at the topmost flight
+    that we come upon the objects of our ramble. There we fall in
+    with a group of them, consisting perhaps of three or four
+    girls, as many children, a man in the prime of life, and an
+    aged patriarch. There is not the smallest possibility that we
+    should pass them unobserved. They are far too remarkable and
+    too unlike anything else around us. Even those who have no eye
+    for the specialties of type which characterize the human
+    countenance will not fail to be struck by the peculiarities of
+    the costume of the group of figures before us. At the first
+    glance the eye is caught by the quantity of bright color in
+    their dresses. The older women wear the picturesque white,
+    flatly-folded linen cloth on their heads which is the usual
+    dress of the <i>contadine</i> women in the neighborhood of
+    Rome. The younger have their hair ornamented with some huge
+    filagree pin or other device of a fashion which proclaims
+    itself to the most unskilled eye as that of some two or three
+    hundred years ago. All have light bodices of bright blue or red
+    stuff laced in front, and short petticoats of some equally
+    bright color, not falling below the ankle. But the most
+    singular portion of the costume is the universally-worn apron.
+    It consists of a piece of very stout and coarsely-woven wool of
+    the brightest blue, green or yellow, about twenty inches broad
+    by thirty-three in length, across which, near the top and
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 508]</span>near the bottom, run two
+    stripes, each about eight inches wide, of hand-worked
+    embroidery of the strangest, old-world-looking patterns and the
+    most brilliant colors. These things are manufactured by the
+    peasantry of the hill-country in the neighborhood of San
+    Germano, who grow, shear, spin, weave, dye and embroider the
+    wool themselves. And being barbarously unsophisticated by any
+    adulteration of cotton, and in no wise stinted in the quantity
+    of material, they are wonderfully strong and enduring. The most
+    remarkable thing about them, however, is the unerring instinct
+    with which these uneducated manufacturers harmonize the most
+    audaciously violent contrasts of brilliant color. It is not too
+    much to assert that they are <i>never</i> at fault in this
+    respect. So much is this the case, and so truly artistic is
+    this homely peasant manufacture, that there is hardly a
+    painter's studio in Rome in which two or three of these richly
+    colored apron-cloths may not be seen covering a sofa or thrown
+    over the back of a chair. A great part of the singularly
+    picturesque and striking appearance of the group of figures we
+    are speaking of is due to the universal use of these aprons by
+    the women. The men also affect an unusually large amount of
+    bright color in their costume. The waistcoat is almost always
+    scarlet; the velveteen jacket or short coat generally blue; the
+    breeches sometimes the same, but often of bright yellow
+    leather, and the stockings a lighter blue. The men often wear a
+    long cloak reaching to the heels, always hanging open in front,
+    and generally lined with bright green baize. They generally,
+    too, have some bright-colored ribbons around their high-peaked,
+    conical felt hats. But I must not forget to mention the costume
+    of the children. It consists of an exact copy in miniature of
+    that of their elders; and the inconceivable quaintness and
+    queer old-world look produced is not to be imagined by those
+    who have never witnessed it. Fancy a little imp of six or seven
+    years old dressed in little blue jacket, bright-yellow leather
+    breeches, blue stockings, sheepskin sandals on his little bits
+    of feet, and long bright flaxen curls streaming down from under
+    a gayly-ribboned brigand's hat!</p>
+
+    <p>But if the first glance is given to this singularity of
+    costume, the second will not fail to take cognizance of the
+    remarkable beauty of feature to be observed in almost every
+    individual of this race of models. The men are well grown,
+    almost invariably wear their black hair streaming over their
+    shoulders, and have generally fine eyes and picturesquely
+    colored, swarthy red faces. But the beauty of the girls is in
+    almost every case something quite extraordinary; and the same
+    may be said of the children. The next thing which the closeness
+    of observation this unusual degree of beauty is calculated to
+    attract will reveal to the observer is that all these
+    singularly lovely faces are remarkably like each other, and at
+    the same time remarkably unlike any of the faces around them.
+    There is often much beauty among the Roman women of the lower
+    classes, but it is of an essentially different type. The Roman
+    beauty is generally large in stature and ample in development,
+    with features whose tendency to heaviness needs the majestic
+    and Juno-like style of beauty which the Roman women so
+    frequently have to redeem them. But the countenances of the
+    women of whom we have been speaking have nothing at all of
+    this. The features are small, delicately cut, the form of face
+    generally short, rather than tending to oval, being in this
+    respect also in marked contrast with the ordinary Roman type.
+    There is a type of face well known to most English eyes, though
+    less so, I take it, to those on the western side of the
+    Atlantic, which is strangely recalled to the memory by these
+    model-girls; and that is the gypsy type. There is the same
+    Oriental look about them, the same brilliancy of dark eyes
+    under dark low brows, the same delicately-cut noses and full
+    yet finely-chiseled lips. They have also almost invariably the
+    same wondrous wealth of long raven black tresses, glossy but
+    not fine. The complexions are fresher, more delicate, and with
+    more of bloom, than is often seen among the gypsies; and this
+    is the principal difference between the two types. There is
+    also another [Pg 509]point of similarity, which, if the
+    accounts of Eastern travelers may be accepted, seems also to
+    point to an Oriental origin. I allude to the singular
+    gracefulness of "pose" which is observable in these people,
+    among the men and women alike. There they stand and lounge, or
+    sit propped, half recumbent, against a balustrade in the sun,
+    in all sorts of attitudes, but in all they are graceful. There
+    is that indefinable simplicity and ease in the natural movement
+    and disposition of their limbs which tuition can never, and
+    birth in the purple can so rarely, enable a European to assume.
+    It may perhaps be supposed that the exigencies of their
+    profession have not been without influence in producing the
+    effect I am speaking of. But I do not think that such is the
+    case. In the young and the old, in the children even, the same
+    thing is observable; and the exceeding difficulty of teaching
+    it may be accepted, I think, as a guarantee that it has not
+    been taught in the case of creatures so unteachable as these
+    half-wild sons and daughters of Nature.</p>
+
+    <p>Now, if these people, who for generations past have
+    exercised the profession of artists' models in Rome, do really
+    belong to a race apart from the inhabitants of the district
+    around Rome, as I think cannot be doubted by any one who has
+    carefully observed them, the question suggests itself, Who and
+    what are they, and whence do they come? Fortunately, we are not
+    unprovided with an answer, and the answer is rather a curious
+    one. If the excursionist from Rome to Tivoli will extend his
+    ramble a little way among the Sabine Mountains which lie behind
+    it, up the valley through which the Teverone&mdash;the
+    <i>pr&aelig;ceps Anio</i> of Horace&mdash;runs down into the
+    Campagna, he will see on his right hand, when he has left
+    Tivoli about ten miles behind him, a most romantically situated
+    little town on the summit of a conically shaped mountain. The
+    name of it is Saracinesco, and its story is as curious as its
+    situation. It is said&mdash;and the tradition has every
+    appearance of truth&mdash;that the town was founded by a body
+    of Saracens after their defeat by Berengarius in the ninth
+    century. The spot is just such as might have been selected for
+    such a purpose. It is difficult of access to an extraordinary
+    degree, and it is said to be no less than two thousand five
+    hundred feet above the stream which flows at the base of the
+    rocky hill on which it is built. Tradition, however, is not the
+    only testimony to the truth of this account of the origin of
+    the strangely placed little town, for in many cases the
+    inhabitants have preserved their old Arabic names. It is from
+    this strange eyrie of Saracinesco that our picturesque and
+    handsome friends of the Piazzi di Spagna descend to seek a
+    living at Rome from the profession which they have followed for
+    generations of artists' models. And this is the explanation of
+    the singular sameness of beautiful feature, the utterly
+    un-Roman type, the sharply-cut features, and the admirable
+    grace of movement and of attitude which characterize these
+    denizens of the steps&mdash;if of the steppes no longer.</p>
+
+    <p>What a life they lead! From early morn to dewy eve there
+    they lounge, in every sort of restful attitude, basking in the
+    sun, with nothing on earth to occupy mind or body save an
+    eternal clatter. On what subjects, who shall say or attempt to
+    guess? Every now and then one of the tribe is hired by an
+    artist to go and <i>pose</i> for a Judith, a Lucretia, a Venus,
+    as the case may be. Some are wanted for an arm, some for a
+    hand, some for a brow, some for a leg, some for a bust. Some
+    one may have a special gift for personating an ancient Roman,
+    and another exactly assume the saintly look of a Madonna or the
+    smile and expression of a Venus. Their several and special
+    gifts and capacities are all well known in the world of their
+    patrons, and special reputations are made in the art-world
+    accordingly. It is a strange life: not probably conducive to a
+    high development of intellectual and moral excellence, but very
+    much so to the picturesque peopling of the most magnificent
+    flight of stairs in Christendom.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">T. A. T.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="FAUST_IN_POLAND"
+       name="FAUST_IN_POLAND"></a>FAUST IN POLAND.</h3>
+
+    <p>Nowhere do we see the genuine soul and character of a people
+    so distinctly <span class="pagenum">[Pg 510]</span>as in its
+    myths, legends, popular songs and traditions. They reflect
+    faithfully, though&mdash;perhaps we should say,
+    <i>because</i>&mdash;unconsciously, the deeds, aspirations and
+    beliefs of the earlier ages, and not only afford to our own
+    precious material for philological and ethnological study, but
+    still exert, in many instances at least, considerable influence
+    over the ideas and feelings of men. The Faust legend will never
+    lose its mysterious fascination: many poets have felt it, but
+    Goethe's insight penetrated all its depth of meaning, and his
+    marvelous poem is for us the supreme expression of it.</p>
+
+    <p>But it is interesting to find the same legend in Poland,
+    with characteristic variations from the German conception,
+    illustrative of the hospitality and chivalry and the dominant
+    influence of woman which are such marked features in Polish
+    history. Twardowsky (the Doctor Faustus of Poland) lived in the
+    sixteenth century, in the time of Sigismund Augustus. He
+    studied at the University of Cracow, rose to the rank of
+    doctor, and devoted himself especially to chemistry and
+    physics, having a secret laboratory in a vast cavern of Mount
+    Krzemionki. Science in those days was regarded as intimately
+    associated with the black arts, and it was not surprising that
+    Twardowsky's contemporaries added the title of sorcerer to
+    those of doctor and professor, supposed he had made an alliance
+    with Satan, and fancied an army of demons always waiting to do
+    his bidding. All this did not prevent his enjoyment of the
+    king's favor. Sigismund had married, against his mother's wish,
+    Barbara Radziwill, the beautiful daughter of a Polish magnate.
+    The nobles, probably influenced by Bona, the mother of the
+    king, demanded that Barbara should be repudiated: he
+    indignantly refused, and shortly afterward she was poisoned.
+    The grief and rage of Sigismund were without bounds: he exiled
+    his mother, wore black all the rest of his life, and had the
+    apartments of his palace hung with it. His melancholy gave him
+    new interest in the occult sciences, and he became more than
+    ever intimate with Twardowsky, sometimes visiting him in his
+    cavern, sometimes receiving him secretly in his palace. At
+    first, he was satisfied with the chemical experiments which the
+    populace regarded as supernatural, but after a while he
+    urgently desired Twardowsky to produce for him a vision of
+    Barbara. Twardowsky appointed a night for the exhibition of his
+    skill, and after drawing a magic circle and pronouncing some
+    mysterious words, he called Barbara thrice by name, and she
+    appeared&mdash;not as a spectre risen from the tomb, but in all
+    the beauty and freshness which had been the king's delight. He
+    fainted at the sight, and his regard for the magician increased
+    greatly. But one fatal evening he found the door of the cavern
+    shut. Twardowsky, not expecting him, was not there. After some
+    delay the door was opened by a beautiful young woman.
+    "Barbara!" exclaimed Sigismund. "Barbara is my name, but I am
+    alive, not dead," was her reply. Twardowsky's device was now
+    exposed. He had created an illusion for the satisfaction of
+    Sigismund by employing this substitute for his lost Barbara.
+    She was a girl named Barbara Gisemka, whom Twardowsky had
+    rescued from the hands of a furious mob, had concealed in his
+    cavern, and initiated into the sciences to which he devoted
+    himself. She became his adept and his mistress. But the king,
+    furious at the imposition which had been practiced upon him,
+    and desirous of making this beautiful creature his own, had
+    Twardowsky murdered, and gave out that the devil had carried
+    him off. Barbara Gisemka acquired immense influence over the
+    mind of her royal lover, which lasted while he lived. When he
+    was ill she suffered no physician to approach him, and was with
+    him when he died in 1572.</p>
+
+    <p>So much for history. Tradition has transformed Twardowsky
+    into a gay and brilliant gentleman, who, in order to gain all
+    the pleasures of life, sold his soul to the devil, engaging on
+    his honor to give it up to him whenever he (the devil) should
+    enter the city of Rome. Twardowsky now enjoyed to the full his
+    new power, reveling in luxury himself, and lavishing gifts and
+    banquets on his <span class="pagenum">[Pg 511]</span>friends.
+    The populace also shared his generosity&mdash;all the more,
+    too, from the strange manner of it. On one occasion, we are
+    told, he pierced three holes in a shoemaker's nose with his own
+    awl, and caused a tun of brandy to flow from it for the
+    refreshment of the crowd. One day he was informed that a
+    stranger who was at the inn called the "City of Rome" wished to
+    see him. He went at once to the place with no misgivings, but
+    on his arrival there found the devil, who had come to claim the
+    fulfillment of the contract. Provoked at the quibble, he
+    resolved to employ a ruse himself, and just as the devil was
+    about to take possession of him he seized the infant child of
+    the innkeeper from its cradle and held it up before him, its
+    innocence being a sure defence against Satan's power. He,
+    however, demanded what had become of his plighted word. The
+    honor of the Polish gentleman could not resist this appeal. He
+    put down the child and rose into the air with Satan. But while
+    they were still hovering over Cracow the sound of church-bells
+    awoke in Twardowsky's recollection a hymn to the Virgin, which
+    he forthwith sang, and the devil could hold him no longer.
+    Twardowsky, however, could not get down again, but remains
+    suspended in the air, only receiving news from the earth by
+    means of a spider which happened to be on the tail of his coat,
+    and which occasionally spins a thread and goes down, for a
+    while, returning with whatever it may have picked up for his
+    information and amusement.</p>
+
+    <p>No Polish story would be complete without a woman, and so we
+    find that Twardowsky had a wife, beautiful, witty and
+    imperious, with all the fascinations universally conceded to
+    the Polish women. Madame Twardowsky is said to have ruled her
+    husband just as he ruled the devil during the time of that
+    personage's subjection; and there is a second version of the
+    story which makes her too much for Satan himself. According to
+    this account, Twardowsky was entertaining a number of friends
+    at the "City of Rome," when suddenly the devil appeared. While
+    Twardowsky, to gain time, was reading over the compact, his
+    wife, looking over his shoulder, suddenly laughed, and
+    addressing the devil, told him there were still three
+    conditions for him to fulfill, on failure of which the
+    parchment should be torn up, and asked whether she might impose
+    them. The devil politely replied in the affirmative. "Here,
+    then," said she, "see this horse painted on the wall of the
+    inn: I wish to mount him, and you must make me a whip of sand
+    and a staple of walnuts." The devil bowed, and in a moment the
+    horse was prancing before their eyes. The lady now had a large
+    tub of holy water brought in, and invited the devil, as his
+    second task, to plunge into it and refresh his weary limbs. He
+    coughed, shivered, then went in resolutely, coming out again as
+    quickly as possible, and shaking himself well. "The third task
+    will be a pleasant one," said the lady with her most bewitching
+    smile: "The first year my husband passes in hell you shall
+    spend with me, swearing to me love, fidelity and implicit
+    obedience. Will you?" The devil rushed toward the door, but she
+    was too quick for him, and succeeded in locking it and putting
+    the key into her pocket. Satan, resolved to escape from the
+    servitude in store for him, could only do so by going through
+    the keyhole, which has been black ever since.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">E. C. R.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="A_LETTER_FROM_HAVANA"
+       name="A_LETTER_FROM_HAVANA"></a>A LETTER FROM HAVANA.</h3>
+
+    <p class="author">HAVANA, Feb. 14, 1875.</p>
+
+    <p>It is not a very long sail from home to Cuba&mdash;you pass
+    into the Bay of Havana on the morning of the fifth day, if you
+    have luck&mdash;but the sky and land you left behind at this
+    wintry season at home are very different from those you find on
+    arriving here. It is a great change in so short a time from the
+    dun-colored shore and the frozen river to the waving verdure of
+    the Cuban coast and the sparkling blue and white of the water.
+    We made the land before daylight, and, the rules forbidding us
+    to enter the harbor till sunrise, we bobbed up and down for two
+    or three hours a mile or so outside of the Moro Castle, which
+    guards the narrow entrance to Havana. The moon
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 512]</span>was so brilliant that we
+    did not have to wait for day to enjoy the scene before us: in
+    fact, it could not have been improved by the sun. The fortress
+    of Moro crouches on a bed of rock, rearing a tall lighthouse
+    aloft. Its Moorish turrets have a soft rounded outline, and the
+    undulations of the shore blend with the masonry of the castle;
+    only a sharp retiring angle here and there gives an occasional
+    glimpse of a grim purpose. When the Moro light is put out,
+    ships in the offing may enter the bay. The mouth of the harbor
+    is not more than half a mile wide, and on the shore opposite to
+    the Moro the town of Havana comes down to the water's edge,
+    withdrawing up the bay on one hand, and up the sea-coast on the
+    other. A pilot is not necessary except for the perquisites of
+    office, but one comes on board, and with anxious countenance
+    directs the ship straight on through clear water for a mile,
+    when the anchor is dropped.</p>
+
+    <p>Just as day breaks on the high ground on the Moro shore, and
+    the growing light brings houses and trees and ships into
+    relief, with all their rich variety of color, the scene is
+    memorable and full of beauty. On the green slope behind the
+    castle, while the outline of the tropical vegetation is only
+    stealing into view, there is hid, and yet visible, a long, low
+    building of yellow columns, blue facade, brown gables and red
+    tiles: if you shut out the rest of the landscape with your
+    hands, you would say it was a picture by Fortuny. The expanse
+    of the bay is fine, and the large fleet at anchor furnishes it
+    but thinly. Townward, as the sun's rays begin to dissipate the
+    brown shadows and define shape and color, the city sparkles
+    like a gorgeous mosaic; but in another half hour, when the sun
+    is higher, the hazy softness has departed and the city is
+    ablaze with light, so that your eyes can scarcely look at it.
+    Then, if you have seen it earlier, it loses its charm.</p>
+
+    <p>I was jealous of Havana from what I had heard and read of
+    it: if the shore-line, and the entrance, and the bay, and the
+    scene were finer than Rio, I was prepared to be angry; but Rio
+    is grand and Havana is pretty, so that one may like both and
+    not divide his allegiance. A patchwork of good pictures in the
+    Moorish vein of town, and shore, and water would reproduce, and
+    yet not copy, all that Havana has to offer; but there is not a
+    picture in the world that aspires to the grandeur of Rio. But I
+    won't deny the sparkle and brilliancy of Havana. At this moment
+    the sky is of a perfect "Himmel-blau." I can see from my
+    window, near the roof, the rich, harmonious Moorish blending of
+    varied colors in the houses; and beyond these "the white feet
+    of the wind shine along the sea." A ship with all sail set is
+    coming into port, the white-capped waves rolling her along
+    before the stiff sea-breeze. Wind is the bane of the place. It
+    sets in to blow, as the sailors say, soon after daylight nine
+    days in ten, and blows all day, and sometimes far into the
+    night. It is not always the soft, perennial zephyr of
+    tradition, but often chill and raw, and then there is no escape
+    from it except to shut yourself in your room; and that means
+    hermetically sealing, for when you close a window here you
+    close a shutter, and thus, if you shut out the breeze, you shut
+    the light out also. The doors and windows are not meant to
+    exclude the air, and so when the breeze gets on a frolic it
+    whirls up stairs and down&mdash;goeth, in fact, where it
+    listeth; and sometimes one feels it going through him like a
+    knife.</p>
+
+    <p>The houses are built in one width of rooms round a hollow
+    square; consequently, when you put your boots out you put them
+    out of doors. In the midst of the house, with the sky overhead,
+    the umbrageous palm tree and banana spread their broad leaves.
+    The rooms are high and white, with little furniture, and no
+    curtains, with open ceiling of painted rafters, and iron
+    gratings, like a prison's bars, shutting out the street in the
+    front of the house. Behind these gratings the passer-by may see
+    the Cuban family arranged in two prim rows of arm-chairs
+    <i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i>, or gathered about the bars as if
+    looking for some means of escape. Occasionally now in some of
+    the better quarters a child of either sex, but black as night,
+    disports itself in full view, "covered
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 513</span>]by the darkness only."
+    There is an infinite variety of opinion in regard to the
+    clothing necessary to comfort here. I have often found a light
+    overcoat comfortable, but there is a tribe or clan from some
+    Spanish province whose boast it is to wear coat nor vest by day
+    or night. The representatives of the various provinces maintain
+    their individuality here, and preserve for festive occasions
+    the costumes which characterize them in Spain. Some of these
+    are very rich, and many of the men, especially of the lower
+    orders, being stalwart and handsome, their gala appearance is
+    decidedly striking. In the f&ecirc;te in honor of Alfonso XII.
+    there were some beautiful groups of men, women and children in
+    Spanish costumes, dancing in the procession with silk emblems
+    and flower wreaths, and singing provincial songs. Others were
+    mounted on the splendid Andalusian horses, which make one's
+    mouth water with desire to ride them. They are as beautiful as
+    Fromentin and G&eacute;r&ocirc;me have painted them&mdash;such
+    eyes and nostrils, and such action! It has taken centuries to
+    produce him, but at last there is a saddle-horse: if only for
+    parade occasions, that is no matter. He is perfect in his kind.
+    The Arab keeps his horse in his tent, but the Cuban keeps his
+    in his house. We should say that the horse-owning Cuban sleeps
+    over a stable, but no doubt to his mind his stable is merely
+    under his room. A rich gentleman in town has encased his horses
+    in a beautiful drawing-room of cedar and satin-wood, and it is
+    rather pleasant than otherwise to pass through it on the way to
+    the other apartments.</p>
+
+    <p>The houses of Havana are low; the streets are narrow; the
+    sidewalks ditto: there is an occasional plaza of broad, white
+    glare, which must be intolerable in summer-time. The Prado has
+    trees which are rather Dutch than tropical; and the Paseo,
+    where the driving is, is quite a fine avenue. This afternoon,
+    though it is Lent, the Carnival will rage there. Some people go
+    in masks, but not many; and there are no confetti. It is mainly
+    a parade&mdash;rich people turning out in their best, poor
+    people making light of their poverty: the rich gorgeous in
+    apparel, and splendid in equipage, the poor arrayed in some
+    gay, inexpensive motley, and crowded into miserable vehicles.
+    The particolored costumes give an aspect of brightness to the
+    street; but it is a solemn sight to see four Cuban women, of
+    the middle age, drawn by a four-in-hand, arrayed in full
+    ball-dress, powdered and bejeweled, and passing in review of
+    admiring mankind.</p>
+
+    <p>The ugliness of the women amounts to a vice, and is
+    unredeemed by any quality such as sometimes palliates plainness
+    of features. I have cried aloud for the beautiful Cuban, but in
+    vain. I am assured that she exists, am told, "My dear fellow,
+    you never made a greater mistake in your life," am poohpoohed
+    in various ways; but I cannot find her. I hear it said that
+    owing to the political chaos here she has retired from public
+    view, but it is not denied that she will go to the Carnival and
+    the opera. I was warned not to expect her at the ball in
+    Alfonso's honor at the Spanish Club, and certainly it was a
+    timely warning. Fancy a long hall of colored marble, pillars
+    running the length of it forming arcades; balconies on both
+    sides hanging over the streets, and full of young men smoking
+    cigarettes; men parading up and down the hall and quizzing the
+    women, who were all seated&mdash;two rows of them, hundreds all
+    together&mdash;seriously contemplating the male procession:
+    enameled, powdered, attired in the wealth of the Indies, saying
+    nothing, doing nothing, not smiling, not blinking, just sitting
+    there, an awful array of hideousness. After the band struck up
+    and the dancing began, I remained long enough to lose in the
+    music the horrible impression of, the opening scene, and then
+    hurried home. At the opera and the Carnival it is not so
+    positively unendurable, but a handsome face, or a pretty face,
+    or even an intelligent, expressive face, I have not yet seen in
+    a woman in Havana; and at this season of the year, if ever,
+    Havana is Cuba. I don't condemn them&mdash;I merely give my
+    luck.</p>
+
+    <p>The town is of course full of Spanish military and their
+    accessories, civil functionaries <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    514]</span>who are all Spanish, money-makers, adventurers,
+    shoddy. The Spanish army is at "the front," posted across or
+    partly across the island on a sort of strong picket-line,
+    fortified by block-houses, whence watch is kept on the
+    movements of the insurgents, who seem to come and go as they
+    please in the Spanish front, and cross the lines with impunity.
+    The Spanish hold the whole seaboard, all important towns and
+    villages, hold the insurgents practically in check, so far as
+    the fertile region of the island is concerned, and from year to
+    year keep military matters just about in <i>statu quo</i>. The
+    insurgents dwell in the wildest portion of the island, often in
+    almost impenetrable woods, living the life of savages, and
+    depending on the bounty of Nature for their daily bread.</p>
+
+    <p>So the war lingers. It is not what we would call a war: it
+    is a condition of armed hostility. It is conducted almost
+    wholly at the expense of Spain in <i>men</i>, wholly at the
+    expense of Cuba in <i>money</i>. The Cuban volunteers are a
+    home-guard, but the purse of the Cubans is open. Spain is not
+    loath to dip into it, and taxation for carrying on the
+    government and the war has become very onerous&mdash;dreadfully
+    so, in fact, though I believe that the Cubans do not realize it
+    so fully as strangers do. The government is impoverished; the
+    war makes no progress; what becomes of the enormous revenue
+    derived from the taxes? A rich planter said to me dryly, "They
+    are ignorant men: they make mistakes in applying it." Hard
+    things are openly said of all Spanish officials; and all
+    officials, from the captain-general to the harbor pilot, are
+    Spanish. Startling things are heard here every day in political
+    and military discussions. The people think in classes: there is
+    the Spanish view, the Creole view, the foreign view&mdash;none
+    very dispassionate, and none very accurate. There is no
+    accepted basis of fact for anything: nobody believes anybody
+    else, and truth here lies in a <i>very</i> deep well. But one
+    thing else is clear. Cuba, so gifted by Nature, is being
+    despoiled by man; and what ought to be a garden will become
+    overgrown with weeds if there is not a change of fortune. There
+    is taxation without representation under an iron despotism:
+    there is an army without war, and the people look on. It is not
+    necessary to find any new means of going to the bad at a
+    gallop. The rich give practical support to the Spanish, and
+    moral support to the insurrection; but if the insurrection
+    should triumph, I can't see how it will benefit the Creole
+    Cubans of property. I think ideas here are confused on the
+    subject, and while they are giving hearty encouragement to
+    neither cause, between the two they are sure to be utterly
+    ruined.</p>
+
+    <p>I have spent a week in all on sugar plantations in the
+    interior. I was delightfully entertained, and reveled in the
+    luxury of soft air and out-of-door life. I was on horseback a
+    good deal, riding one of the shuffling little animals they have
+    here, whose gait is so easy that it doesn't amount to motion.
+    The crops are to a great extent still uncut; the green cane,
+    which looks like our broom-corn at a distance, waves in the
+    winds as far as the eye can reach. The country is level, but
+    has a frame of mountain-land. The woods are festooned with
+    air-plants and parasites; palm trees dot the landscape in every
+    direction or run in splendid avenues, sometimes in double rows,
+    alternating with the round, full mamey tree, whose deep green
+    foliage brings into fine relief the white stalk of the palm.
+    The breeze rustles through the broad plantations of bananas and
+    sways the orange groves. The gardens are rich in flowers of
+    brilliant hues. The fields swarm with negroes and ox-carts; the
+    ponderous machinery of the boiling-houses maintains a steady
+    hum; the picturesque buildings are all touched with
+    Fortuny-like tints: there is much to see and much to tell of,
+    but I must have some regard for your patience. I have not
+    finished, but I must stop.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">F. C. N.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="FRENCH_SLANG"
+       name="FRENCH_SLANG"></a>FRENCH SLANG.</h3>
+
+    <p>Reading the slang of a language is much like seeing the said
+    language in its intellectual shirt-sleeves, off duty and taking
+    its ease: one feels sure of detecting some essential
+    characteristics of the people who speak it, and one turns
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 515]</span>over the pages of a slang
+    dictionary expecting to recognize through its corruption and
+    perversions the real nature of the people who have created it.
+    French slang is no exception to this, theory: the two hundred
+    and thirty double-columned pages of M. Larcher's
+    <i>Dictionnaire historique, etymologique et anecdotique de
+    l'argot parisien</i> tell us that the two grand sources and
+    inspirations of our American slang are entirely wanting: there
+    is not a humorous word or phrase from beginning to end; and
+    hardly an instance of that incongruous exaggeration which is so
+    salient a picture of our best-known and most original slang
+    phrases. But, on the other hand, there is satire keen and fine
+    on every page, a reckless, devil-may-care gayety, and
+    throughout that mocking spirit which is so essentially French,
+    making game alike of its own pain and that of others, and
+    jeering always at the sight of an altar, never mind what may
+    chance to be thereon, whether its own sacred things or those of
+    others. Half the words in the book are quaint, grotesque
+    phrasings of two ideas&mdash;ideas which most people on our
+    side of the water are hardly inclined to joke about: one is the
+    idea of death, and the other the frailty or falseness of women.
+    One is specially struck by the wealth of words and the sameness
+    of ideas, and, above all, by the quickwittedness that must
+    belong to the people who can all catch a verbal allusion or
+    suggestion as Anglo-Saxons might a plump, square hit. Sometimes
+    a little unconscious pathos mingles with the mocking vein, for
+    courage is moving when it is light-hearted. When a Frenchman
+    tells you he has eaten nothing for two days, he adds,
+    "&Ccedil;a, ce n'est pas dr&ocirc;le" ("Now, that's no joke").
+    "Coeur d'artichaut" (a heart like an artichoke) is a felicitous
+    expression for a person who has a succession of caprices and
+    short-lived fancies; and there is something to the point in the
+    satire which calls a surgical instrument "baume d'acier" (steel
+    balm), or in the saying which mocks the credulous faith many
+    people vaguely have in the efficacy of mineral waters: "Croyez
+    cela et buvez de l'eau" (Believe that and drink water). There
+    is something desperately significant in a language in which the
+    lover who supports, protects and is deceived is called "le
+    dessus," and the one who is favored at his expense "le
+    dessous;" while the words "une femme," a woman, without
+    qualification, are identical with frailty, and virtue, being
+    the exception, demands an adjective to identify and proclaim
+    it.</p>
+
+    <p>But there is something fine in the old French slang for the
+    beginning of a war: "La danse va commencer" (The dance is about
+    to begin, or the ball to open), and this dates from time
+    immemorial: fighting has always been fun to Frenchmen. And
+    there is something better still in the phrase which has become
+    an official one, and has a proper technical meaning, with which
+    the orders of a naval officer when sent on a difficult or
+    dangerous expedition always end. "Debrouillez vous," meaning
+    simply "Come well out of it." There must be stuff in men who
+    can be trusted to always extricate themselves from a tight
+    place with credit to their flag without more words than that
+    simple exhortation. But one cannot say much for the morality of
+    a country where, when any one says "la muette" (the dumb one),
+    it is understood to mean conscience.</p>
+
+    <p>The instances are rare of resemblance between our slang
+    phrases and theirs. Once in a while such a phrase as
+    "Asseyezvous dessus" (literally, Sit on him) strikes one; but
+    seldom. French slang teems with words that caricature and
+    satirize personal defects, of which many are brutally coarse
+    and not quotable. A comical expression for a sumptuous meal is
+    a "Balthazar" (Belshazzar); and an unpleasant one for a coffin
+    is a "boite a dominos" (a box of dominoes); a droll phrase for
+    a plagiarist is "demarqueur de linge" (some one who alters the
+    marking of another's linen). An interesting fact for the notice
+    of physiologists is that when the officers of the engineer
+    corps lose a comrade from insanity, they say, "Il s'est
+    pass&eacute; au dixi&egrave;me," in allusion to the fact that
+    their loss in numbers from this cause amounts to practical
+    decimation. This is attributed to the <span class="pagenum">[Pg
+    516]</span>close study of the exact sciences. Under "femme du
+    demi-monde" we find the origin of the phrase as created by A.
+    Dumas fils: "Femme n&eacute;e dans un monde distingu&eacute;,
+    dont elle conserve les mani&egrave;res sans en respecter les
+    lois" ("a woman belonging by birth to the upper class, the
+    manners of which she retains, without respecting its laws");
+    but the present meaning is quite different from this, the
+    phrase being now used as a euphuistic designation of a
+    disreputable woman. French slang is saturated with irreverence.
+    A common term for an emaciated-looking man is to call him an
+    "ecce homo," and a "grippe J&eacute;sus" is thieves' slang for
+    a gendarme.</p>
+
+    <p>The author of this dictionary evidently sympathizes with
+    modern romanticists and light literature in general, for we
+    find "acad&eacute;micien" defined as "litt&eacute;rateur
+    surann&eacute;." One is always inclined to suspect sour grapes
+    of giving the flavor to French sarcasm concerning the Academy,
+    and is reminded of Piron's epigram in the shape of his own
+    epitaph:</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Ci git Piron qui ne fut rien,</p>Pas m&ecirc;me
+            acad&eacute;micien.
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He wrote it, however, after his failure to obtain one of the
+    much-coveted arm-chairs.</p>
+
+    <p>Our national vanity might be flattered by hearing that the
+    phrase "L'oeil Am&eacute;ricain" is used to describe an eye
+    whose piercing vision is escaped by nothing, were we not told
+    that it dates from the translation of Cooper's Leatherstocking
+    tales into French, and has no reference, as "Natty Bumpo" would
+    say, to "<i>white</i> gifts."</p>
+
+    <p>We find long, elaborate definitions of those much-disputed
+    words, "chic," "cachet" and "chien," which, after all has been
+    said, seem to take their meaning from the intention of those
+    who use them and the perception of those who hear. "Chocnoso"
+    is a delightfully expressive and absurd onomatopeic word to
+    describe what is brilliant, startling and remarkable. The most
+    striking feature of this elaborate book is that, although it
+    contains almost words enough to constitute the vocabulary of a
+    miniature language, yet the vast majority of these words would
+    be as unintelligible to an educated Frenchman as to an
+    Englishman. The bulk of French slang is never heard by the ears
+    of educated people nor uttered by their lips: it circulates
+    among the classes which create it; and the size of this
+    dictionary is therefore not necessarily appalling to a
+    Frenchman's eyes: it does not represent the corruption of the
+    language, because slang does not taint the speech of those
+    classes who control and make the standard speech and literature
+    of the nation. If a dictionary of English slang were published
+    now, how many young ladies and gentlemen of the educated
+    classes, either in England or America, could profess honest and
+    absolute ignorance of the meaning of most of the words? The
+    answer to this question makes the moral of this paper.</p>
+
+    <p class="author">F. A.</p>
+
+    <h3><a id="NOTES"
+       name="NOTES"></a>NOTES.</h3>
+
+    <p>If it be true, as a writer in the February Gossip says, that
+    "it is what Mr. Mill has omitted to tell us in his
+    <i>Autobiography</i>, quite as much as what he has there told
+    us, that excites popular curiosity," the following anecdote
+    told by John Neal, one of Jeremy Bentham's secretaries, may be
+    found interesting. The father of John Stuart Mill, it seems,
+    was in the habit of borrowing books of Bentham, and was even
+    allowed the privilege of carrying them away without asking
+    permission&mdash;a courtesy so well utilized that from five to
+    seven hundred volumes found their way in time from Bentham's
+    library into the study of the elder Mill. He was a more
+    conscientious borrower, however, than most of his class are,
+    for he had a case made for these books, kept them carefully
+    locked up, and carried the key in his pocket. This put the
+    owner to some trouble occasionally when he wanted to consult
+    his books. In one instance he begged Mr. Mill to leave the key
+    when the latter was going out of town. In vain, however, for
+    Mill marched off to the country carrying the key with him, and
+    Bentham had to wait a whole month for a peep at his own books.
+    If we could know all the facts, doubtless it would be found
+    <span class="pagenum">[Pg 517]</span>that Mill knew too well
+    the careless habits of the philosopher to trust him to such an
+    extent. It is not prudent to decide until the evidence is all
+    in. It is that these books&mdash;two or three thousand dollars'
+    worth, according to Neal&mdash;were, on the death of Mr.
+    Bentham, all recovered by his heir.</p><br />
+
+
+    <p>Quarritch, a London bookseller, lately advertised for sale a
+    Chinese book from the library of the emperor Khang-Hi, bearing
+    the following title: <i>Yu Sionan Row-wen youen
+    kien</i>&mdash;that is, "Mirror of the Profound Resources of
+    Ancient Literature," being extracts from those profound
+    resources arranged chronologically in the order of their
+    production; but the singular thing about the book is its
+    typography. It is printed in inks of four different colors. All
+    the articles dating from the time of Confucius (B.C. 550) to
+    the Mongol dynasty (A.D. 1260) are printed in black, with
+    punctuations in red. All names of persons and places are upon
+    scrolls, to distinguish them from the ordinary text.
+    Observations upon the emperor Khang-Hi (who annotated the whole
+    book autographically) are printed in yellow, the color of the
+    reigning dynasty; those upon scholars and authors living at the
+    time of the publication of the book are printed in red, the
+    color of the living; those upon persons deceased in blue, the
+    mourning color of China. The work is in twenty-five volumes,
+    preserved in four cases. It was printed in 1685.</p><br />
+
+
+    <p>In the infancy of astronomy the moon and all the planets of
+    our solar system were supposed to be gliding along over the
+    smooth blue firmament like a boat upon smooth water or a sleigh
+    upon ice. The blue vault was a solid substance; hence the word
+    <i>firm</i>ament. In this vault were set the "fixed" stars, and
+    of course the moon or any planet passing across it might run
+    straight into the constellation Leo or some other dreadful
+    beast; and this explained why direful things happened to this
+    world, which was supposed to be the only world in the universe.
+    As the moon has always been the most observed of all the
+    heavenly bodies, and as she passes most rapidly across the
+    constellations of the zodiac, it is easy to understand that her
+    phases should excite profound wonder, and that strange effects
+    should be predicated upon these phases, called "changes" from
+    time immemorial. In fact, however, the moon is not "changing"
+    at one time any more than at another. She is continually
+    passing in and out of the earth's shadow as she revolves around
+    the earth, and the width of this shadow, with the state of
+    being in the full light of the sun, constitutes her phases or
+    changes. She does not "enter" any sign of the zodiac in the
+    sense of entering, as understood by the illiterate; and if she
+    did, the signs Cancer, Leo, Virgo, have no comprehensible
+    relation, to plants or parts of the human body. Again, if the
+    moon or sun, or any of the planets, are said to "enter" these
+    signs, they are not now the same as the constellations known as
+    the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin. They did correspond some two
+    thousand or more years ago, when the zodiacal belt was divided
+    into twelve parts and named; but at present, on account of the
+    nutation or gyratory motion of the poles of the earth, the
+    signs of the zodiac (not the constellations) are drifting
+    westward at the rate of one degree in about seventy-one years.
+    This movement is known in astronomy as the precession or
+    recession of the equinoxes. It happens, therefore, that when
+    the astrologer consults his tables, and finds that, at, the
+    time of the birth of a person whose horoscope he is going to
+    cast, Venus was in Cancer&mdash;a terrible condition of things
+    for happiness in love&mdash;Venus is in reality passing the
+    constellation Gemini or the Twins, which ought to make
+    everything all lovely. The development of the Copernican system
+    did a great deal of damage to the interests of astrology, but
+    it was not until the discovery of the precession of the
+    equinoxes that this venerable and pretentious art received its
+    death-blow. To be sure, "the fools are not all dead yet," for
+    certain people still pay five dollars to have their horoscopes
+    cast, and not a few rustics consult the moon or the almanac
+    before planting beans or weaning
+    calves.</p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 518]</span>
+
+    <h2><a id="LITERATURE_OF_THE_DAY"
+       name="LITERATURE_OF_THE_DAY"></a>LITERATURE OF THE DAY.</h2>
+
+    <p style="text-indent: -1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b>The Romance
+    of the English Stage.</b><br />
+     By Percy Fitzgerald.<br />
+     Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott &amp; Co.</p>
+
+    <p>According to Carlyle, the only biographies in the English
+    language worth reading&mdash;of course with implied
+    exceptions&mdash;are the lives of players. Over English
+    biographers in general there hangs, as he says, a "Damocles'
+    sword of Respectability," forbidding revelations that might
+    either offend somebody's sensibilities or exhibit the subject
+    in any other than a dignified attitude and sober light, and, as
+    a consequence, compelling the suppression of details which were
+    needed to render the portraiture characteristic and lifelike.
+    Actors being as a class outside the pale of "respectability,"
+    no such sacrifice is demanded in their case; and whereas in
+    their lifetime they assume many characters, and though
+    constantly before the public are known to it only in disguised
+    forms and borrowed attributes, after death their personality is
+    laid bare, and they are made to contribute once more to the
+    entertainment of the world by a last appearance in which
+    nothing is unreal and nothing dissembled or concealed. This, of
+    course, applies far better to a former period than to the
+    present, as does also the explanation of the same fact offered
+    by Mr. Fitzgerald&mdash;namely, the romantic interest attaching
+    to the stage and exciting curiosity in regard to those
+    wonderful beings who appear before us as embodiments of passion
+    and poetry, humor and whimsicality, transporting us into an
+    ideal world, and leaving us, when they vanish, in a prosaic one
+    to which they do not seem to belong. Illusions of this kind are
+    scarcely retained by even the young&mdash;perhaps, indeed,
+    least of all by the young&mdash;of our generation. Moreover,
+    the changes which society has undergone during the last half
+    century have rubbed out much that was distinctive in the
+    actor's life, and have given to manners and habits in general a
+    uniformity that leaves little that is striking and piquant to
+    describe. The adventures and the eccentricities of actors and
+    actresses of a bygone time were paralleled or exceeded by those
+    of other classes. At present such sources of interest are rare
+    in any class, and we are obliged to have recourse to
+    sensational novels or the records of crime.</p>
+
+    <p>Future biographers are no more likely to have such a subject
+    as Samuel Johnson than such a one as George Frederick Cooke;
+    while both Boswell and Dunlap, had they written in our day,
+    would probably have been much more reticent and much less
+    amusing. We cannot therefore agree with Mr. Fitzgerald in
+    thinking that the colorless character of the few theatrical
+    biographies that have appeared in recent times is to be
+    ascribed to the decay of the art of acting and the lack of an
+    ideal involving a long and arduous struggle in the attainment
+    of eminence. In France, as he justly observes, the history of
+    the profession has never possessed the same adventurous
+    interest, the lives of French actors showing in general a mere
+    record of steady and regular progression, such as is found in
+    other professions. The stage in France, as in all Catholic
+    countries, lay under a heavier ban than in England; but on this
+    very account the actors constituted a separate class, having
+    little contact with society, receiving few recruits from
+    without, regulated by fixed usages, and confined to a
+    particular groove. In England, on the contrary, the stage was
+    an outlet for irregular talent, impatient of steady labor or
+    severe restrictions, and captivated by the freedom and
+    diversity of a career which, beginning in vagrancy, might lead
+    at a single bound to a brilliant and enviable position. Hence
+    the biographies of English players, taken collectively, offer a
+    vast store of amusing anecdotes, illustrative not only of the
+    history of the stage, but of personal character and social
+    manners. Yet books of this kind; though read with avidity on
+    their first appearance, have naturally fallen into neglect.
+    Like most other biographies, they are overloaded with details
+    that have no abiding interest, and few readers of the present
+    day are tempted to explore the mass for themselves. It was,
+    however, no very arduous task to sift out the more valuable
+    relics and dispose them in proper order, and we can only wonder
+    that Mr. Fitzgerald was not anticipated in the performance of
+    it by some earlier collector. Gait's <i>Lives of the
+    Players</i> and Dr. Doran's <i>History of the English Stage</i>
+    have left this particular field almost wholly unworked, and it
+    is one for which Mr. Fitzgerald was well fitted, both
+    by<span class="pagenum">[Pg 519]</span>his previous labors and
+    knowledge of the soil, and by his practiced dexterity in the
+    use of the necessary implements. He has accordingly produced a
+    volume which may either be read consecutively or dipped into at
+    random with the certainty of entertainment and without risk of
+    tedium. Among the sources from which his material is drawn he
+    assigns the first place to the <i>Memoirs of Tate Wilkinson</i>
+    and its sequel, <i>The Wandering Patentee</i>, and the summary
+    which he gives, as far as possible in the narrator's own
+    language, presents a graphic picture of the provincial stage at
+    a period when it formed a real nursery of talent for the
+    metropolitan theatres, enriched with anecdotes of Foote and
+    Garrick as lively and dramatic as any of the scenes in their
+    own farces, and affording the strongest confirmation of their
+    prot&Atilde;&copy;g&Atilde;&copy;'s account of his unrivaled
+    mimicry. The story of George Anne Bellamy, and that of Mrs.
+    Robinson, the "Perdita" of a somewhat later day, deal with the
+    more familiar and less obsolete vicissitudes of betrayed
+    beauty, while giving us glimpses of a social crust that has
+    since been replaced by a more composite exterior. A deeper and
+    far more pathetic interest attaches to the brief career of
+    Gerald Griffin, the author of <i>The Collegians</i> and
+    <i>Gisippus</i>, who, had he lived in our day, would have been
+    in danger of having his head turned by premature success,
+    instead of being heart-sickened by long neglect and coarse
+    rebuffs, and smothering his aspirations in a convent. In
+    striking contrast with this pale figure is the portly and
+    imposing one of Robert William Elliston, type of theatrical
+    charlatans, embodiment of bombast and puffery, monarch over the
+    realm of pasteboard, immortalized by Lamb, and surely not
+    undeserving of the honor. With him may be said to have ended
+    the line of the eccentrics, which fills a large space in Mr.
+    Fitzgerald's volume. The great actors are comparatively
+    unnoticed, Garrick, Siddons and Kean being only introduced
+    incidentally, while a whole chapter is given to "the ill-fated
+    Mossop." This is consistent with the general design of the
+    book, but there was no good reason for a fresh repetition of
+    the oft-told tale of the Ireland forgeries. There are, as Mr.
+    Fitzgerald remarks, many subjects&mdash;such as the lives of
+    Macklin and Quin, of Mrs. Inchbald and Mrs.
+    Jordan&mdash;omitted which might fairly have claimed a place,
+    and which would furnish ample matter for a second and equally
+    agreeable volume.</p>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <p style="text-indent: -1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b>Democracy
+    and Monarchy in France from the Inception of the Great
+    Revolution to the Overthrow of the Second Empire.</b><br />
+     By Charles Kendall Adams, Professor of History in the
+    University of Michigan.<br />
+     New York: Henry Holt &amp; Co.</p>
+
+    <p>There can be no more fruitful and interesting study than
+    that of the changes and struggles which have occurred in France
+    since the fall of the ancient monarchy. But the time has not
+    yet come when a general survey can be taken of this important
+    epoch, its successive phases seen in their true relations and
+    proportions, and its character fully and correctly appreciated.
+    The overthrow of the Second Empire was clearly not the closing
+    scene of the drama, and even within the last few weeks a sudden
+    turn in the line of events has awakened curiosity afresh, and
+    prepared us for the introduction of new elements or new
+    complications, with results which can only be conjectured. For
+    lack of that key which the Future still holds in its hand the
+    most acute and comprehensive mind must be at fault in the
+    endeavor to analyze the workings and appreciate the
+    significance of the conflicting principles. If Professor Adams
+    has had no such misgivings, this seems to be accounted for by
+    his ready acceptance of a theory which has long passed current
+    in England and America, and which springs from a habit peculiar
+    to the people of these two countries of regarding the movements
+    of all other nations, when not on a parallel course, as
+    deviations from a prescribed orbit. According to this theory,
+    the excesses of the First Revolution, due in part to the
+    passions engendered by a long course of misgovernment, in part
+    to wild speculations and experiments, produced an anarchical
+    spirit which has frustrated every subsequent attempt to
+    establish a solid government of any form, including the
+    constitutional monarchy of Louis Philippe, patterned on the
+    English model&mdash;the resemblance being in fact that of a
+    castle of cards to its Gothic prototype&mdash;which offered the
+    proper compound of liberty and authority in sufficiently
+    balanced proportions. The French people having thus proved
+    itself incapable of uniting liberty with order, the one great
+    need is the destruction or suppression of the revolutionary
+    spirit, to which end a strong government of whatever kind is
+    the first requisite, and some form of Napoleonism the most
+    available, it being improbable that the nation would accept
+    permanently anything better. [Pg 520]Such is the view of
+    Professor Adams, one with which all readers have long been
+    familiar, but which most independent thinkers have come to
+    reject as shallow and false. However obscure the issue, however
+    doubtful the solution, it cannot but be apparent to all who,
+    casting aside prejudices, have studied the history of France in
+    its entirety and recognized its special character, that its
+    course during the period in question exhibits no mere series of
+    lawless oscillations, but a process of development, often
+    checked and retarded, often prematurely hastened, but passing
+    from stage to stage without suffering itself to be stifled by
+    factitious aid or crushed by arbitrary repression. What
+    underlies the history of these events, what distinguishes it
+    from the galvanic agitations of the torpid Spanish populations
+    in Europe and America, is the constant presence and activity of
+    ideas, shaping and shaped by events, hardened or fused by
+    conflict, and preserving through all vicissitudes and
+    convulsions the incomparable vitality of the nation. France,
+    more than any other country, is to be studied as a living
+    spirit, not as an inert mass, and in a study of this kind the
+    mechanico-philosophical method will not carry us far. It does
+    not appear to strike Professor Adams as singular that a nation
+    "abandoned for the last eighty years to the domination of Siva,
+    the fierce god of destruction," should have all this while been
+    cutting a somewhat respectable figure in literature, science
+    and the arts, and during most of that period paid its way in
+    the solid and shining metal considered by our rulers to have
+    merely a mythical significance. Or rather he seems to contend
+    that civilization has in fact perished in France, that as "such
+    a tendency to turbulence is destructive of all healthy national
+    growth," the inevitable result has ensued. He admits that there
+    are still some good scholars in France, but he
+    proves&mdash;need we add, by statistics?&mdash;that the
+    illiteracy of the masses is greater than it was under the
+    <i>ancien regime</i>, if not in the reign of Clovis. The
+    controlling influence of Paris is shown, of course, to have
+    been a prime source of mischief, and we are asked to "imagine
+    the United States withdrawing from all interest in political
+    affairs, and saying to New York City, 'Govern us as you please:
+    we do not care to interfere.'" The fact, as most people are
+    aware, is not at all as here assumed; but that aside, is it
+    possible that Professor Adams knows so little of the difference
+    in the origin and structure of the two nations as not to
+    perceive that the comparison is ridiculous?</p>
+
+    <h2><a id="Books_Received"
+       name="Books_Received"></a><i>Books Received</i>.</h2>
+
+    <p>Social Life in Greece, from Homer to Menander.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Rev. J.P. Mahaffy,
+    M.A.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">London: MacMillan &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     A Free Lance in the Field of Life and Letters.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By William Cleaver
+    Wilkinson.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: Albert
+    Mason.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     The Bewildered Querists and other Nonsense.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Francis Blake
+    Crofton.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     A Practical Theory of Voussoir Arches.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Professor William Cain,
+    C.E.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: D. Van
+    Nostrand.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     On Teaching: Its Ends and Means.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Henry
+    Calderwood.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     The Influence of Music on Health and Life.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Dr. H. Chomet.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     The Man in the Moon, and Other People.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By R.W. Raymond.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: J.B. Ford &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Sowed by the Wind; or, The Poor Boy's Fortune.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Elijah
+    Kellogg.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Lee &amp;
+    Shepard.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Religion and Modern Materialism.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By James
+    Martineau.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Alfred P.
+    Putnam.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Roberts
+    Brothers.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Winter Homes for Invalids. By Joseph W. Howe, M.D.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Helps to a Life of Prayer. By Rev. J.M. Manning, D.D.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Lee &amp;
+    Shepard.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Far from the Madding Crowd. By Thomas Hardy.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: Henry Holt &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     A Foregone Conclusion. By W.D. Howells.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: James R. Osgood &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     That Queer Girl. By Virginia F. Townsend.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Illustrated.</span><br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Lee &amp;
+    Shepard.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Magnetism and Electricity. By John Angell.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: G.P. Putnam's
+    Sons.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Estelle: A Novel. By Mrs. Annie Edwards.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: Sheldon &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     A Rambling Story. By Mary Cowden Clarke.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Roberts
+    Brothers.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Life and Times of Sir Philip Sidney.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">New York: J.B. Ford &amp;
+    Co.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     An Old Sailor's Story. By George Sergeant.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Henry
+    Hoyt.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     Nature and Culture. By Harvey Rice.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Lee &amp;
+    Shepard.</span><br />
+    <br />
+     The Story of Boon. By H.H.<br />
+     <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston: Roberts
+    Brothers.</span></p>
+    <hr class="short" />
+    <br />
+
+
+    <h3><a name="FOOT_NOTES"
+       id="FOOT_NOTES"></a> FOOTNOTES.</h3><br />
+
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_001_1"
+           id="Footnote_001_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_001_1"><span class="label">
+        [001]</span></a> Another statue to this remarkable woman is
+        now in progress of execution, and will be soon ready to
+        place on its pedestal in one of the principal squares of
+        the town.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_002_2"
+           id="Footnote_002_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_002_2"><span class="label">
+        [002]</span></a> So complete was the destruction that few
+        persons who now visit Nice would ever imagine that the hill
+        in its centre, which is laid out with terraced gardens and
+        used as a public promenade, was before the siege of 1706
+        completely covered with houses, churches, an episcopal
+        palace, a fine cathedral of great antiquity, and an immense
+        castle, which still gives its name to the fashionable walk,
+        <i>Le Ch&acirc;teau</i>. Every vestige, save the crumbling
+        walls of the fortress, of this by far the largest portion
+        of the old town has entirely disappeared, and picnics are
+        now made under the shade of beautiful avenues of trees
+        which replace the labyrinthine streets of yore.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_003_3"
+           id="Footnote_003_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_003_3"><span class="label">
+        [003]</span></a> Madame Rattazzi is now living in Paris, in
+        the little palace once inhabited by the duke d'Aquila, in
+        the Cour de la Reine, where she entertains the literary and
+        artistic world once a week. Her soir&eacute;es this year
+        are becoming famous. Recently she acted in Ponsard's
+        <i>Horace et Lydie</i> and in other little comedies,
+        assisted by the greatest actors and actresses of Paris
+        including Mesdames Favart and Roussel, but according to
+        universal testimony her own performance was by far the
+        finest. Never has Madame Rattazzi been so popular as at
+        present, and her salon is frequented by all the celebrities
+        of the French capital, to whom she extends the most
+        charming hospitality.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_004_4"
+           id="Footnote_004_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_004_4"><span class="label">
+        [004]</span></a> This refers to the <i>Gospodi pomiloui</i>
+        (the Roman Catholic <i>Kyrie eleison</i>), which
+        perpetually recurs in the Russian liturgy. Similar
+        discussions about the <i>Hallelujah</i> and other liturgic
+        forms are met with long before the Raskol broke out.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_005_5"
+           id="Footnote_005_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_005_5"><span class="label">
+        [005]</span></a> If we may trust Dmitri of Rostof, a bishop
+        of the last century, even so early certain sectaries
+        regarded the raising of Lazarus as not a fact, but a
+        parable: "Lazarus is the human soul, and his death is sin.
+        His sisters, Martha and Mary, are the body and the soul.
+        The tomb represents the cares of this life, and his raising
+        from the dead is conversion. Similarly, Christ's entry into
+        Jerusalem sitting on an ass is a mere parable."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_006_6"
+           id="Footnote_006_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_006_6"><span class="label">
+        [006]</span></a> The analogy must certainly be admitted to
+        lie very far from the surface.&mdash;(<i>Note of the
+        Translator</i>.)</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_007_7"
+           id="Footnote_007_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_007_7"><span class="label">
+        [007]</span></a> The opposition of some of the Raskolniks
+        to this tax (which has lately been modified) was rendered
+        more determined by the fact that in the interval between
+        one census and another the tax continued to be paid for
+        "dead souls." Gogol's novel is founded on this. From its
+        being nominally levied on the dead, this tax was regarded
+        by these simple people as a sacrilege.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_008_8"
+           id="Footnote_008_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_008_8"><span class="label">
+        [008]</span></a> To combat this notion, an orthodox bishop,
+        Dmitri of Rostof, wrote a treatise on the image and
+        likeness of God. A Raskolnik told this prelate, "We would
+        as lief lose our heads as our beard."&mdash;"Will your
+        heads grow again?" was the bishop's retort.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="footnote">
+        <p><a name="Footnote_009_9"
+           id="Footnote_009_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_009_9"><span class="label">
+        [009]</span></a> "But here's the joy, my friend and I are
+        one..."</p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular
+Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88, by Various
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature
+And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88, 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: Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 11, 2004 [EBook #14324]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Gundry and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+[Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added
+by the transcriber. Footnotes will be found at the end of the text.]
+
+
+
+
+LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.
+
+APRIL, 1875.
+
+Vol. XV, No. 88
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.
+  CONCLUDING PAPER.
+
+THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE by W. A. BAILLIE-GROHMAN.
+
+THREE FEATHERS by WILLIAM BLACK.
+  CHAPTER XXIX      MABYN DREAMS.
+  CHAPTER XXX       FERN IN DIE WELT.
+  CHAPTER XXXI      "BLUE IS THE SWEETEST."
+  CHAPTER XXXII.    THE EXILE'S RETURN.
+
+SONNET by F. A. HILLARD.
+
+NICE by R. DAVEY.
+
+THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.
+  I.    ORIGIN OF THE RASKOL.
+  II.   OPPOSITION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.
+  III.  INTERNAL DIVISIONS.
+
+ELEANOR'S CAREER by ITA ANIOL PROKOP.
+
+AN AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY YEARS AGO by
+  ETHEL C. GALE.
+
+A MARCH VIOLET by EMMA LAZARUS.
+
+WHAT IS A CONCLAVE? by T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
+
+MONSOOR PACHA by GEORGE H. BOKER.
+
+HOW HAM WAS CURED by JENNIE WOODVILLE.
+
+ON THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS by KATE HILLARD.
+
+OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+  ARTISTS' MODELS IN ROME by T. A. T.
+  FAUST IN POLAND by E. C. R.
+  A LETTER FROM HAVANA by F. C. N.
+  FRENCH SLANG by F. A.
+  NOTES.
+
+LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+Books Received.
+
+FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  FOREST OF COCKATOOS.
+
+  SYDNEY.
+
+  ASTROLABE AND ZELEE ON CORAL REEFS
+
+  CANNIBAL FIRES.
+
+  MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF BURKE.
+
+  BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF BURKE.
+
+  VALLEY OF LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  GORGE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
+
+  HOBART TOWN.
+
+  ON THE WAY TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.
+
+  OUR ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.
+
+  INTERIOR OF TOMERL'S COTTAGE.
+
+  "FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED MYSELF IN."
+
+  ENTERING THE EYRIE.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE
+
+OF
+
+_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_.
+
+
+APRIL, 1875.
+
+Vol. XV, No. 88
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES.
+
+CONCLUDING PAPER.
+
+[Illustration: FOREST OF COCKATOOS.]
+
+
+People who go to Australia expecting every other man they meet to be a
+convict, and every convict a ruffian in felon's garb, will assuredly
+find themselves mistaken. And if contemplating a residence in Sydney or
+Melbourne they need not anticipate the necessity of living in a tent or
+a shanty, nor yet of accepting the society of convicts or negroes as the
+only alternative to a life of solitude. Neither will it be necessary to
+go armed with revolvers by day, nor to place plate and jewels under
+guard at night. Sydney, the capital of the penal colony, is a quiet,
+orderly city, abounding in villas and gardens, churches and schools, and
+about its well-lighted streets ride and walk well-dressed and well-bred
+people, whose visages betray neither the ruffian nor the cannibal. Some
+of them may be convicts or "ticket-of-leave-men," but this a stranger
+would need to be told, as they dress like others, their equipages are
+quite as stylish, and many of them not only amass more property, but are
+really more honest, than some of those never sentenced, because they
+know that the continuance of their freedom depends on their reputation.
+
+[Illustration: SYDNEY.]
+
+The city, built on the south side of a beautiful lake, is perfectly
+unique in design, being composed of five broad promontories, looking
+like the five fingers of a hand slightly expanded. All the important
+streets run from east to west, and each terminates in a distinct harbor,
+while clearly visible from the upper portion of the street is a grand
+moving panorama of vessels of every description, with masts, sails and
+colors that seem peering out from every interstice between the houses.
+Each day witnesses the arrival and departure of eight or ten steamers,
+ferry-boats leave every half hour all the principal landings for the
+various sections of the city, and the wharves are lined with the
+shipping of every nation, many of the vessels ranging from fifteen
+hundred to two thousand tons burden. On a huge rock in Watson's Bay
+stands the lighthouse at the entrance of Port Jackson. The sea lashes
+the black rock with ceaseless fury, the light from the summit rendering
+even the base visible at a great distance. The light is 350 feet above
+the level of the sea, yet it was almost under its very rays that the
+good ship Dunbar came to grief. Missing the passage, she was engulfed in
+the raging sea, and her three hundred and ninety passengers perished in
+full view of the homes they were seeking.
+
+Orange and almond trees, with other tropical plants, loaded with
+blossoms and fruit, beautify the lowlands, while in more elevated
+localities are found the fruits and foliage of the temperate zone, very
+many of them exotics brought by the settlers from their English homes.
+Down to the very water's edge extends the verdure of tree and shrub,
+overshadowing to the right Fort Jackson, and to the left Middle Harbor.
+The Government House commands the bay with the imposing mien of a
+fortress, and the magnificent reception-rooms are worthy of a
+sovereign's court. The garden surrounding it occupies a beautiful
+promontory, its borders washed by the sea, the walks shaded by trees
+imported from Europe, and the whole parterre redolent with tropical
+beauty and fragrance. On the promenades are frequently assembled at
+evening two or three hundred ladies and gentlemen in full dress, while
+military bands discourse sweet music for the entertainment of the
+brilliant throng.
+
+Ballarat may be called the city of gold; Melbourne, of clubs, democracy
+and thriving commerce; Hobart Town takes the premium for hospitality and
+picturesque beauty; but Sydney bears the impress of genuine English
+aristocracy, in combination with a sort of Creole piquancy singularly in
+contrast with English exclusiveness, yet giving a wonderful charm to the
+society of this city of high life, so full of gayety, brilliancy and
+luxury. Who would recognize in the Sydney of to-day, with its four
+hundred thousand inhabitants, its churches, theatres and libraries, the
+outgrowth of the penal colony of Botany Bay, planted only eighty-seven
+years ago on savage shores? It was in May, 1787, that the first colony
+left England for Botany Bay, a squadron of eleven vessels, carrying
+eleven hundred and eighteen colonists to make a lodgment on an unknown
+shore inhabited by savages. Of these eleven hundred and eighteen, there
+were six hundred male and two hundred and fifty female convicts, the
+remaining portion being composed of officers and soldiers to take charge
+of the new penal settlement, under the command of Governor Phillip. From
+so unpromising a beginning has grown the present rich and flourishing
+settlement, and in lieu of the few temporary shanties erected by the
+first colonists there stands a magnificent city of more than ordinarily
+fine architecture, with banks and hospitals, schools and churches--among
+the latter a superb cathedral--all displaying the proverbial prodigality
+of labor and expense for which the English are noted in the erection and
+adornment of their public edifices. Among the educational establishments
+are the English University, with a public hall like that of Westminster;
+St. John's College (Catholic); and national primary and high schools,
+where are educated about thirty-four thousand pupils at an annual
+expense to the government of more than three hundred thousand dollars.
+From the parent colony have sprung others, while the poverty and
+corruption that were the distinguishing features of the original element
+have been gradually lost in the more recent importations of honest and
+respectable citizens.
+
+Apart from the wealth and gayety of Sydney, there is much in its various
+grades of society to interest the average tourist. The "ticket-of-leave
+men"--that is, convicts who, having served out a portion of their term
+and been favorably reported for good conduct, are permitted to go at
+large and begin life anew--form a distinct class, and exert a widespread
+influence by their wealth, benevolence and commercial enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: ASTROLABE AND ZELEE ON CORAL REEFS.]
+
+Very many of the better class are talented and well educated, with the
+manners and appearance of gentlemen; and in some cases there has been
+perhaps but the _single_ crime for which they suffered expatriation
+and disgrace. Such as these, as a rule, conduct themselves with
+propriety from the moment of being sentenced; never murmur at their work
+or discipline, be it ever so hard; and probably after a single year of
+hardship are favorably reported, and permitted to seek or make homes for
+themselves. Many of them own bank shares and real estate, and some
+become immensely rich, either by ability or chance good-fortune. The
+property is their own, but the owners are always watched by those in
+power, and are liable at any moment to be ordered back to their old
+positions. These "remanded men" are treated with the greatest severity,
+and few have sufficient power of endurance to live out even a short term
+with its increase of rigor and hardship. Yet to the energy and
+enterprise of the liberated felons is probably due, more than to any
+other cause, that increase of prosperity which has long since rendered
+these colonies not only self-supporting, but a source of revenue to the
+Crown.
+
+[Illustration: CANNIBAL FIRES.]
+
+Another and the most dangerous class of convicts are those known as
+"bushrangers." They are desperate fellows, composed of the very lowest
+scum of England, have ordinarily been sentenced for life, and, having no
+hope of pardon or desire for amendment, they escape as soon as possible,
+often by the murder of one or more of their guards, and take refuge in
+the wilds of the interior. Some of these bushrangers are associated
+together in large hordes, but others roam solitary for months before
+they will venture to trust their lives in the hands of other desperadoes
+like themselves. There are hundreds of these lawless men prowling like
+wild beasts for their prey in the vicinity of every thoroughfare between
+the cities and the mines, robbing and murdering defenceless passengers,
+plundering the mails, and constantly exacting the best of their flocks
+and herds from the stockmen and shepherds, who in their isolated
+positions dare not refuse their demands. So desperate is the character
+of these outlaws that they are seldom taken, though thousands of pounds
+are occasionally offered for the head of some noted ringleader. They may
+be killed in skirmishes, but will not suffer themselves to be taken
+alive. A man calling himself "Black Darnley" ranged the woods for years,
+committing all sorts of crimes, but at length met a violent death at the
+hands of another convict, whose daughter he had outraged.
+
+A curious memento of the first theatre opened in Sydney and the first
+performance within its walls has come down to us from the year 1796,
+about eight years after the establishment of the penal colony. It was
+opened by permission of the governor: all the actors were convicts who
+won the privilege by good behavior, and the price of admission was one
+shilling, payable in silver, flour, meat or wine. The prologue, written
+by a _cidevant_ pickpocket of London, illustrates the character of
+the times in those early days of the colony:
+
+    From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come,
+    Though not with much _eclat_ or beat of drum,
+    True patriots all; for be it understood,
+    We left our country for our country's good:
+    No private views disgraced our generous zeal;
+    What urged our travels was our country's weal;
+    And none will doubt but that our emigration
+    Has proved most useful to the British nation.
+    But, you inquire, what could our breasts inflame
+    With this new passion for theatric fame?
+    What in the practice of our former days
+    Could shape our talents to exhibit plays?
+    Your patience, sirs: some observations made,
+    You'll grant us equal to the scenic trade.
+    He who to midnight ladders is no stranger
+    You'll own will make an admirable Ranger,
+    And sure in Filch I shall be quite at home:
+    Some true-bred Falstaff we may hope to start.
+    The scene to vary, we shall try in time
+    To treat you with a little pantomime.
+    Here light and easy Columbines are found,
+    And well-tried Harlequins with us abound.
+    From durance vile our precious selves to keep,
+    We often had recourse to the flying leap,
+    To a black face have sometimes owed escape,
+    And Hounslow Heath has proved the worth of crape.
+    But how, you ask, can we e'er hope to soar.
+    Above these scenes, and rise to tragic lore?
+    Too oft, alas! we've forced the unwilling tear,
+    And petrified the heart with real fear.
+    Macbeth a harvest of applause will reap,
+    For some of us, I fear, have murdered sleep.
+    His lady, too, with grace will sleep and talk:
+    Our females have been used at night to walk.
+    Grant us your favor, put us to the test:
+    To gain your smiles we'll do our very best,
+    And without dread of future Turnkey Lockets,
+    Thus, in an honest way, still _pick your pockets_!
+
+It was by the coral-bound Straits of Torres, reckoned by navigators the
+most difficult in the world, that the English government determined a
+few years ago to send an envoy to open communication between the
+Australian colony and the Dutch possessions of Java and Sumatra. The
+Hero was the vessel selected for this perilous mission--a voyage of
+twelve hundred miles through seas studded thickly with reefs and islands
+of coral, many of which lay just beneath the surface of the
+waves--hidden pitfalls of death whose yawning jaws threatened instant
+destruction to the unwary voyager. The splendid steamer Cowarra had been
+wrecked on these reefs only a few months before, but a single one of her
+two hundred and seventy-five passengers escaping a watery grave. Her
+tall masts, still standing bolt upright amid the coral-reefs, presented
+a gaunt spectacle, plainly visible from the Hero's decks as she threaded
+her way among the shoaly waters, while a similar though less tragical
+warning was the disaster that had overtaken two other vessels, the
+Astrolabe and the Zelee, which by a sudden ebb of the tide were thrown
+high and dry upon the sands, and remained in this frightful condition
+for eight days before the returning waters drifted them off. But the
+Hero was a staunch craft--an iron blockade-runner, built at Glasgow
+during our late war. She was of twelve hundred tons burden, manned by
+forty-two men, and had already weathered storms and dangers enough to
+earn a right to the name she bore. Right nobly she fulfilled her
+dangerous mission, threading her way with difficulty among whole fields
+of coral, that sometimes almost enclosed her low hull as between two
+walls; again seeming upon the very verge of the breakers or ready to be
+engulfed in their whirling eddies, but emerging at last into the open
+channel, a monument of the skill and watchfulness of her officers. Many
+of these for days together never left the deck, and the lead was cast
+three or four times an hour during the whole passage of these dangerous
+seas. Such is the history of navigation in coral seas, but if full of
+danger, they are equally replete with picturesque beauty. In the coral
+isle, with its blue lagoon, its circling reef and smiling vegetation,
+there is a wondrous fascination; while in the long reefs, with the ocean
+driving furiously upon them, only to be driven pitilessly back, all
+wreathed in white foam and diamond spray, there is enough of the sublime
+to transfix the most careless observer. The barrier reef that skirts the
+north-east coast of the Australian continent is the grandest coral
+formation in the world, stretching for a distance of a thousand miles,
+with a varying breadth of from two hundred yards to a mile. The maximum
+distance from the shore is seventy miles, but it rarely exceeds
+twenty-five or thirty. Between this and the mainland lies a sheltered
+channel, safe, for the most part, when reached; but there are few open
+passages from the ocean, and the shoals of imperfectly-formed coral that
+lie concealed just below the surface render the most watchful care
+necessary to a safe passage. The fires of the cannibals, visible on
+every peak all along the coast, shed their ruddy light over the blue
+waters, illumining here and there some lofty crest, and adding a weird
+beauty to the enchanting scene.
+
+[Illustration: MONUMENT TO BURKE AND WILLS.]
+
+"America has no monuments," say our Transatlantic cousins, "because it
+is but two hundred years old." Well, Australia, with little more than
+three-quarters of a hundred, has already its monument--a beautiful
+bronze monument erected to the memory of the explorers Burke and Wills
+on a lofty pedestal of elegant workmanship, and occupying a commanding
+eminence in the city of Melbourne. The figures, two in number, are of
+more than life size, one rising above the other--the chief, with noble
+form and dignified air, fraternally supporting his younger confrere. The
+pedestal shows three bas-reliefs of exquisite design--one the return to
+Cooper's Creek,
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: RETURN TO COOPER'S CREEK.]
+
+where the torn garments and emaciated limbs tell with sad emphasis the
+woeful tale of hardship and toil through which the heroic explorers had
+been passing; another exhibiting the subsequent death of Burke;
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: DEATH OF BURKE.]
+
+and the third the finding of the remains.
+
+[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF: FINDING OF BURKE.]
+
+Burke and Wills, to whom belongs the honor of being the first explorers
+that crossed the entire continent of Australia, extending their
+researches from the Australian to the Pacific Ocean, set out on the 20th
+of August, 1860, with a party of fifteen hardy pioneers upon their
+perilous mission. Burke was in the prime of life, a man of iron frame,
+dauntless courage and an enthusiasm that knew neither difficulty nor
+danger. Wills, who belonged to a family that had already given one of
+its members to Sir John Franklin's fatal expedition, to find a martyr's
+grave among the eternal icebergs of the north, was somewhat younger, and
+perhaps less enthusiastic, but was endowed with a rare discretion and
+far-seeing sagacity that peculiarly fitted him to be the friend and
+counselor of the enthusiastic Burke in such an undertaking. All
+Melbourne was in excitement: the government gave fifty thousand dollars,
+various individuals ten thousand, to aid the enterprise; and every heart
+was aglow with aspirations for their success as the little band of
+heroes waved their adieus and turned their faces outward to seek paths
+hitherto untrodden by the white man's foot. Besides horses, twenty-seven
+camels had been imported from India for the express use of the explorers
+and for the transportation of tents, baggage, equipments, and fifteen
+months' supply of provisions, with vessels for carrying such supplies of
+water as the character of the country over which they were passing
+should require them to take with them. Their plan of march divided
+itself into three stages, of which Cooper's Creek was the middle one,
+and about the centre of the Australian continent. At first their
+progress was slow, encumbered as they were by excess of baggage and
+equipments: then discontents arose in the little band, and Burke, too
+ardent and impulsive for a leader, was first grieved, and then angered,
+at what he deemed a want of spirit among some of his men. On the 19th of
+October, at Menindie, he left a portion of the troop under the command
+of Lieutenant Wright, with orders after a short rest to rejoin him at
+Cooper's Creek. It was the end of January before Wright set out for the
+point indicated. Meanwhile, as month followed month, bringing to
+Melbourne no news of Burke's party, the worst fears were awakened
+concerning its fate, and an expedition was fitted out to search for the
+lost heroes. To young Howitt was given the command, and it was his
+fortune to unveil the sad mystery that had enveloped their fate. On the
+29th of June, 1861, crossing the river Loddon, Howitt encountered a
+portion of Burke's company under the lead of Brahe, the fourth
+lieutenant. Four of his men had died of scurvy, and the rest of his
+little band seemed utterly dispirited. Howitt learned that in two months
+Burke had crossed the entire route, sometimes desert, sometimes prairie,
+between Menindie and Cooper's Creek, and had reached the borders of the
+Gulf of Carpentaria, on the extreme north of the continent; also, that
+he was there in January, enduring the fiercest heat of summer, and men
+and beasts alike languishing for water, and nearly out of provisions. It
+was all in vain that he deplored the tardiness of Wright, and hoped, as
+he neared Cooper's Creek, for the coming of those who alone had the
+means of life for his little squad of famished men. Equally in vain that
+Wills with three camels reconnoitred the ground for scores of miles,
+hoping to find water. Not an oasis, not a rivulet, was to be found, and
+without a single drop of water to quench their parched lips they set out
+on another long and dreary march. Desiring to secure the utmost speed,
+Burke had left Brahe on the 16th of December with the sick and most of
+his provisions at Cooper's Creek, to remain three months at least, and
+longer if they were able, while he, with Wills, Grey and King, and six
+camels, pushed bravely on, determined not to halt till the Pacific was
+reached. Battling with the terrible heat, sometimes for days together
+without water, and again obtaining a supply when they had almost
+perished for want of it, having occasional fierce conflicts with the
+natives, and more deadly encounters with poisonous serpents, but with an
+energy and courage that knew no such word as failure, the indomitable
+quartette went bravely on. The wished-for goal was reached, and the
+heroes, jubiliant though worn and weary, then returned once more to
+Cooper's Creek, to find the post deserted by Brahe, and Wright not
+arrived, while neither water nor provisions remained to supply their
+need.
+
+[Illustration: VALLEY OF LAUNCESTON, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+All this Howitt learned after his arrival at the rendezvous, where he
+observed cut in the bark of a tree the word "Dig," and on throwing up
+the earth found an iron casket deposited by Brahe, giving the date of
+his departure and reasons for withdrawal before the appointed time. Of
+far deeper interest were papers written by Burke, announcing that he had
+reached the Pacific coast, and retraced his steps as far as Cooper's
+Creek--that for two months the little party had advanced rapidly, making
+constantly new discoveries of fertile lands, widespread prairies,
+gushing streams and well-watered valleys. Occasionally they had found
+lagoons of salt water, hills of red sand, trees of beautiful foliage,
+and mounds indicating the presence at some unknown period of the
+aboriginal inhabitants. They had discovered a range of high mountains in
+the north, and called them the Standish Mountains, while at their foot
+lay outspread a scene so lovely, of verdant groves and fertile meadows,
+of well-watered plains and heavy forest trees, that they christened it
+the Land of Promise. Then they reached again more sterile lands, parched
+and dry, without a rivulet or an oasis. They suffered for water and food
+grew scarce, but, sure of relief at Cooper's Creek, they pushed bravely
+on, and reached the rendezvous to learn that the men who could have
+saved them had passed on but seven hours before! After having
+accomplished so much, so bravely battled with heat and hunger, serpents
+and cannibals, to perish at last of starvation, seemed a fate too
+terrible; and we cannot wonder that the little band fought their destiny
+to the last. Little scraps of the journal of Burke and his friends tell
+the sad tale of the last few weeks of agony. On March 6th, Burke seemed
+near dying from having eaten a bit of a large serpent that he had
+cooked. On the 30th they killed one of their camels, and on April 10th
+they killed "Billy," Burke's favorite riding-horse. On the 11th they
+were forced to halt on account of the condition of Grey, who was no
+longer able to proceed. On the 21st they reached an oasis--a little
+squad of human skeletons, scarcely more than alive.
+
+
+[Illustration: COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+Far and wide their longing eyes gazed in search of succor: they called
+aloud with all their little remaining strength, but the oasis was
+deserted, and the echo of their own sad voices was all the reply that
+reached the despairing men. Then, at their rendezvous, finding the word
+"Dig" on the tree where Howitt found it at a later day, they opened the
+soil, and so learned the departure of Brahe on that very morning. How
+terribly tantalizing, after their exhausting march and still more
+exhausting return, after having killed and eaten all their camels but
+two, and all their horses, after making discoveries that unlocked to the
+world the vast interior of this hitherto unknown continent, to find that
+they were just too late to be saved! Despair and death seemed staring
+them in the face: their long overtaxed powers of endurance failed them
+utterly, and the gaunt spectre of famine that had been journeying with
+the brave men for weeks threatened now to enfold them in its terrible
+embrace. Should they yield without another struggle? Burke suddenly
+remembered Mount Despair, a cattle-station about one hundred and fifty
+leagues away, and with his indomitable resolution persuaded his
+companions to start for it, depositing first in the little iron casket
+the journal of his discoveries and the date of his departure. As if to
+add the last finishing stroke of agony to the sad story, Burke and his
+companions had hardly turned their faces westward ere Brahe and Wright,
+who had met at the passage of the Loddon, and were now overwhelmed with
+remorse at their careless neglect of their leader's orders, determined
+to revisit Cooper's Creek, and see if any tidings were to be gained of
+the missing party.
+
+[Illustration: GORGE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]
+
+Thoughtless as imprudent, they did not examine the casket, but supposing
+it had remained undisturbed where they left it, they turned their faces
+southward to the Darling, utterly unsuspicious of the recent visit of
+Burke and his unfortunate comrades. Within two days after the trio began
+their dreary march to Mount Despair both their camels fell from
+exhaustion, but still the poor weary travelers pressed onward,
+continuing their search till the 24th of May. Discovering no eminence
+above the horizon, they then gave up in despair and began to retrace
+their steps, leaving on a tree the date of departure. In one more day's
+march they would have reached the summit and been saved!
+
+On the 20th of June it was evident that young Wills could not long
+survive, and on the 29th are dated his last words, a letter to his
+father full of tenderness and resignation: "My death here within a few
+hours is certain, but my soul is calm." Still, almost in the last agony
+he made another effort to escape his fatal destiny, and set forth to
+reconnoitre the ground once more if perchance succor might be found.
+Alone, with none to close his eyes, he fell asleep, and Howitt after
+long search found the skeleton body stretched upon the sands, the
+natives having compassionately covered it with boughs and leaves.
+Burke's last words are dated on the 28th, one day earlier than those of
+Wills: "We have gained the shores of the ocean, but we have been
+aband--" The last word is unfinished, as if his pen had refused to make
+the cruel record. Burke's wasted remains too were found, covered with
+leaves and boughs. By his side lay his revolver, and the record of his
+great exploits was in the little casket at the foot of the tree. King
+survived, and was found by Howitt, naked, famished and unable to speak
+or walk; but after long recruiting he was able to relate the details of
+suffering of those last few months, unknown to all the world save
+himself. Howitt reverently wrapped the precious remains in the union
+jack, and, leaving them in their lonely grave, retraced his steps to
+Melbourne with the precious casket of papers, the last legacy of the
+dead heroes. On the 6th of the following December, Howitt again visited
+the desolate spot, charged with the melancholy mission of bringing back
+the remains for interment in Melbourne. The chaste and elegant monument
+that marks the spot where the heroes sleep is a far less enduring
+memorial than exists in the wonderful development and unprecedented
+prosperity which mark the colony as the fruit of the labors, sufferings
+and death of these martyred heroes.
+
+A pretty romance is associated with the discovery and naming of Van
+Diemen's Land. A young man, Tasman by name, who had been scornfully
+rejected by a Dutch nabob as the suitor of his daughter, resolved to
+prove himself worthy of the lady of his heart. So, while his inamorata
+was cruelly imprisoned in the palace of her sire at Batavia, young
+Tasman, instead of wasting time in regrets, set forth on a voyage of
+adventure, seeking to win by prowess what gallantry had failed to
+effect. On his first voyage he so far circumnavigated the island as to
+be convinced of its insular character, but really saw little of the
+land. In subsequent voyages he made extensive explorations, calling not
+only the mainland, but all the little islets he discovered, by the
+several names and synonyms of Mademoiselle Van Diemen, his beloved. When
+at length he was able to lay before the Dutch government the charts of
+his voyages and a digest of his discoveries in the beautiful land where
+he had already planted the standard of Holland, the cruel sire relented
+and consented to receive as a son-in-law the successful adventurer.
+Tasman, it seems, never very fully explored the waters that surrounded
+his domain, and the honor was reserved to two young men, Flinders and
+Bass, of discovering in 1797 the deep, wide strait of two hundred and
+seventy miles in width that bears the name of Bass. The scenery of Van
+Diemen's Land is full of picturesque beauty--a sort of miniature
+Switzerland, with snow-clad peaks, rocks and ravines, foaming cataracts
+and multitudinous little lakes with their circling belt of green and
+dancing rivulets bordered with flowers. The Valley of Launceston is a
+very Arcadia of pastoral repose, while the Tamar--which in its whole
+course is rather a succession of beautiful lakes than an ordinary
+river--with its narrow defiles, basaltic rocks and sparkling cataracts,
+picturesque rocks that cut off one lake and suddenly reveal another, is
+a very miracle of beauty, dancing, frothing, foaming, like some playful
+sprite possessed with the very spirit of mischief.
+
+[Illustration: HOBART TOWN.]
+
+Hobart Town, the capital of Tasmania, is a quiet, hospitable little
+town, but a very hotbed of aristocracy--the single spot on the
+Australian continent where English exclusiveness can, after the gay
+seasons of the large cities, retire to aristocratic country-seats, to
+nurse and revivify its pride of birth, without fear of coming in contact
+with anything parvenu or plebeian. The town is prettily laid out, with a
+genuine Gothic chateau for its government palace, and elegant private
+residences. It seems tame and deserted when visited from Sydney or
+Melbourne, but offers just the rest and refreshment one needs after a
+season of exhausting labor in the mines of Ballarat.
+
+
+The rapid growth of the Australian colonies, their remoteness from the
+mother country, and the vastness of the territory over which they are
+spread, naturally suggest the question whether they are destined to
+remain in a condition of dependence or are likely to follow the example
+of their American prototypes. On this point the opinion of the count of
+Beauvoir is entitled to consideration, as that of an impartial as well
+as intelligent observer. He had expected, he tells us, in visiting the
+country, to find it preparing for its speedy emancipation; but he left
+it with the conviction that, far from desiring a severance of the
+connection, the colonists would regard it as a blow to their material
+interests--the one event, in fact, capable of arresting their
+unparalleled progress. It can only occur as the result of a European war
+in which the power of England shall be so crippled as to disable her
+from protecting these distant possessions, casting upon them the whole
+burden of self-defence, and forcing them to assume the responsibilities
+of national existence.
+
+
+
+
+THE GOLDEN EAGLE AND HIS EYRIE.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO THE WOOD-DRIFT.]
+
+
+A somewhat tedious journey of thirty hours from Paris brought me one
+fine afternoon in the early part of July to Kulstein, an ancient
+fortress forming the frontier-town of the North Tyrol, toward Bavaria.
+While occupied in passing my portmanteau through the prying and
+unutterably dirty hands of the custom-house officials I was accosted by
+a man dressed in the garb of a Tyrolese mountaineer--short leathern
+breeches reaching to the knee, gray stockings, heavy hobnailed shoes, a
+nondescript species of jacket of the roughest frieze, and a battered hat
+adorned with two or three feathers of the capercailzie and a plume of
+the royal eagle. Old Hansel was one of the gamekeepers on a large
+imperial preserve close by, with whom some years previously I had on
+more than one occasion shared a hard couch under the stunted pines when
+inopportune night overtook us near the glaciers while in hot pursuit of
+the chamois.
+
+This unexpected meeting proved a source of the liveliest interest to me,
+inasmuch as this old veteran of the mountains was on the point of
+starting on an expedition of a somewhat remarkable character. A pair of
+golden eagles, it appeared, had made a neighboring valley the scene of
+their frequent ravages and depredations among the cattle and game, and
+Hansel was about to organize an expedition to search for, and if
+possible despoil, the eyrie. Of late years these birds have become very
+rare. Switzerland is nearly, if not quite, cleared of them, while the
+Tyrol, affording greater solitude and a larger stock of game, can boast
+of eight or at the most ten couples. They are, as is well known, the
+largest and most powerful of all the birds of prey inhabiting Europe,
+measuring from eight to eight and a half feet in the span, and
+possessing terrible strength of beak, talons and wings. A full-grown
+golden eagle can easily carry off a young chamois, a full-grown roe or a
+sheep, none of them weighing less than thirty pounds; and well-attested
+cases have occurred of young children being thus abstracted. In the fall
+of 1873 a boy nearly eight years of age was carried away by one of these
+birds from the very door of his parents' cottage, situated not far from
+the celebrated Koenigsee, near Salzburg.
+
+[Illustration: OUR ARRIVAL AT THE DRIFT-KEEPER'S COTTAGE.]
+
+The breeding-season falls in the month of June, and in the course of the
+first fortnight of the succeeding month the young offspring take wing
+and commence their raids in quest of pillage on their own account. The
+eyrie or nest is an object of the greatest care with the parent birds,
+the site being chosen with a view to the greatest possible security,
+generally in some crevice on the face of a perpendicular precipice
+several hundred feet in height. It is built of dry sticks of wood coated
+on the inside with moss. Hansel informed me of a surmise that the eyrie
+of this pair would be discovered in the face of the terribly steep
+"Falknerwand;" and although I had once before been engaged in a similar
+exploit, I could not resist the temptation to join in this expedition,
+and despatched on the spot a telegram to the friend who was awaiting my
+arrival in Ampezzo in order to make some ascents in the Dolomites,
+announcing a detention of some days. This done, we re-entered the cars
+and proceeded a few stations farther down the line to quaint old
+Rattenberg, a small town on the banks of the swift Inn. Not an hour from
+this place the scantily-inhabited Brandenberg valley opens on the broad
+and sunny Innthal. The former is merely a mountain-gorge. Far up in its
+recesses stands a small cottage belonging to the keeper of a wood-drift,
+and in close proximity to this solitary habitation is a second very wild
+and wellnigh inaccessible ravine, the scene of the coming adventure.
+
+Having passed the night in the modest little inn at Rattenberg, Hansel
+and I set off next morning long before sunrise on our eight hours' tramp
+to the wood-drift by a path which was in most places of just sufficient
+breadth to allow of one person passing at a time. Few of my
+fellow-travelers of the day before would have recognized me in the
+costume I had donned for the occasion--an old and much-patched coat,
+short leathern trousers, as worn and torn as the poorest woodcutter's,
+and a ten-seasoned hat which had been originally green, then brown, and
+had now become gray. My face and knees were still bronzed from the
+exposure attendant on a long course of Alpine climbing the year before.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF TOMERL'S COTTAGE.]
+
+The keeper of the wood-drift was an old acquaintance of mine, whose
+qualities as a keen sportsman had shone forth when four or five years
+previously I had quartered myself for a month in his secluded
+neighborhood, spending the day, and frequently also the night, on the
+peaks and passes surrounding his cottage. To the buxom Moidel, his
+pretty young wife, I was also no stranger, and her smile and blush
+assured me that she still remembered the time when, reigning supreme
+over her father's cattle on a neighboring alp, she had administered to
+the wants of the young sportsman seeking a night's lodging in the
+lonesome chalet. Many a merry evening had I spent in the low,
+oak-paneled "general room" of Tomerl's cottage when he was still a gay
+young bachelor, and no change had since been made in the aspect of the
+apartment. In one corner stood the huge pile of pottery used for heating
+the room, and round it were still fixed the rows of wooden laths by
+means of which I had so frequently dried my soaking apparel. Running the
+whole length of the room was a broad bench, in front of which were
+placed two strong tables; and at one of these were seated, at our
+entrance, two woodcutters, who had heard of the intended expedition and
+come to offer their help. They informed us that four more men engaged in
+wood-felling in a forest an hour or so distant would also be delighted
+to join us, as they did at the close of their day's work.
+
+The evening was spent in discussing the details of the approaching
+exploit and getting our various arrangements and implements in order. At
+nine o'clock, leaving Tomerl and his wife their accustomed bed on the
+top of the stove, the rest of us retired to our common bed-room, the
+hayloft. We were up again by three, and an hour later were all ready to
+start. Tomerl led the way, but stopped ere we lost sight of the cottage
+to shout a last "jodler" to his wife, who returned the greeting with a
+clear, bell-like voice, though her heart was doubtless beating fast
+under her smartly-laced bodice.
+
+Three hours later we had reached the gorge, and after some difficult
+scrambling and wading through turbulent torrents we arrived at the base
+of the Falknerwand, which rises perpendicularly upward of nine hundred
+feet--an altitude diminished in appearance by the tenfold greater height
+of the surrounding mountains. Finding, after a few minutes' close
+observation, that nothing could be done from the base of the cliff, we
+proceeded to scale it by a circuitous route up a practicable but
+nevertheless terribly steep incline. Safely arrived at the top, we threw
+down our burdens and began to reconnoitre the terrain, which we did
+_ventre a terre_, bending over the cliff as far as we dared. Great
+was our dismay to perceive that some eighty or ninety feet below us a
+narrow rocky ledge, which had escaped our notice when looking up from
+the foot of the cliff, projected shelf-wise from the face of the
+precipice, shutting out all view of a crevice which we had descried from
+the bottom, and which, as we anticipated, contained the eyrie.
+
+After consulting some time, we decided to lower ourselves down to this
+rock-band, and make it the base of our further movements, instead of
+operating, as we had intended, from the crest of the cliff, where
+everything but for this obstacle would have been tenfold easier. Posting
+one of the men at the top of the cliff to lower the heavy rope, three
+hundred feet in length, by means of a cord, we descended to the ledge,
+which was nowhere more than three feet in width, and in several places
+scarcely over a foot and a half. Standing in a single row on this
+miniature platform, we had to manipulate the rope with a yawning gulf
+some eight hundred feet in depth beside us, and nothing to lay hold of
+for support but the smooth face of the rock.
+
+We began operations by driving a strong iron hook into the solid rock,
+at a point some two or three feet above the ledge. Through this hook the
+rope was passed, one end pendent over the cliff; and to obviate the
+peril of its being frayed and speedily severed by the sharp outer edge
+of our platform, we rigged up a block of wood with some iron stays to
+serve as an immovable pulley. These preparations completed, the men were
+assigned to their respective positions. Hansel and Tomerl, two renowned
+shots, were to lie at full length, rifle in hand, one at each end of the
+row, to act as my guardian angels if I were surprised and attacked by
+the old eagles while engaged in the work of spoliation. The remaining
+woodcutters, with the exception of the one who had been left on the top
+of the cliff, were placed in file along the ledge to lower and raise the
+plank which was to serve as my seat, and to which the rope was securely
+fastened after being passed through an iron ring attached to my stout
+leathern girdle. A signal-line was to hang at my side, and a
+hunting-knife, a revolver, a strong canvas bag to hold the booty, and an
+ashen pole iron-shod at one end and provided with a strong iron boathook
+at the other, completed my equipment, each article of which had
+undergone the strictest scrutiny before its adoption.
+
+Taking the pole from the hands of Hansel, I let myself glide over the
+edge of the cliff, and the next moment hung in empty space. After being
+lowered about eighty feet, I found myself on a level with the crevice
+before mentioned, and gave the preconcerted signal for arresting my
+downward progress. Owing, however, to a beetling crag or boulder which
+overhung the recess, I was still at a distance of ten or twelve feet
+horizontally from the goal. Fixing the boathook into a convenient
+indentation of the rock, I gradually pulled myself in till I reached the
+face of the wall. Then leaving the plank, I crawled up an inclined slab
+of rock which led to the actual crevice, until I was stopped by a
+barrier of dry sticks about two feet in height. Raising myself on my
+knees, I peered into the oval-shaped eyrie, and saw perched up at the
+farther side two splendid young golden eagles.
+
+[Illustration: "FIXING THE BOAT-HOOK INTO AN INDENTATION, I PULLED
+MYSELF IN."]
+
+It is a very rare occurrence to find two young eagles in one eyrie.
+These, though only four or five weeks old, were formidable birds,
+measuring considerably over six feet in the span, and displaying beaks
+and talons of imposing size. It took some time to capture and pinion
+these powerful and refractory ornithological specimens, whose loud,
+discordant screams caused me several times to glance involuntarily over
+my shoulder at the strip of horizon visible, to assure myself that the
+old eagles were not swooping down to the rescue. I was in the more haste
+to leave the eyrie that the stench which emanated from the remains of
+numerous victims strewn in and about it was something terrific. These
+relics, which I had the curiosity to count, consisted of a half-devoured
+carcass of a chamois, three pairs of chamois' horns and the
+corresponding bones of the animals, the skeleton of a goat picked clean,
+the remains of an Alpine hare, and the head and neck of a fawn.
+
+[Illustration: ENTERING THE EYRIE.]
+
+The canvas bag being too small to contain both the eaglets, I was
+obliged to hang one of them to my belt, after tying my handkerchief
+round his beak. The game secured, I crept cautiously down the slab to
+the plank, and fixing the hook of my pole in the indentation of which I
+had made use in drawing myself in, I gave the preconcerted two jerks
+with the signal-line. Now occurred the first of a series of accidents
+which came near resulting fatally to the whole party. Contrary to my
+strict injunctions, the men hauling the rope gave a sudden and violent
+pull, wrenching the pole from my grasp, and communicating to the plank a
+motion like that of a pendulum, which sent me flying out into space,
+with the immediate prospect of being dashed by the retrograde swing
+against the solid wall of rock. Happily, I preserved my presence of
+mind, and grasped instantly the only chance of escape. Tilting myself
+back as far as the rope and the ring on my belt allowed, and stretching
+out my legs horizontally, I awaited the contact. Half a second later
+came a heavy blow on the soles of my feet, the pain of which ran through
+my whole frame like the shock of a galvanic battery. Had it been my
+head, the reader would probably never have been troubled with any
+account of my sensations. As it was, my feet, though protected by
+immensely heavy iron-shod shoes, received a concussion the effects of
+which continued to be felt for weeks.
+
+Almost at the moment of this incident I had noticed a dark object
+shooting past me, at so close a proximity that I distinctly heard the
+whistling sound as it cleft the air. Supposing it to be a stone, I gave
+it no further thought, and my attention was presently occupied by a
+sharp gash which the young eagle at my belt managed to inflict on my
+left thigh. It was not until I had stopped the haemorrhage by strewing
+some grains of powder into the wound that I perceived with surprise that
+I was still stationary, instead of ascending, as in due course I ought
+to have been. The boulder of rock projecting a few feet over my head
+prevented any view of the ledge, and my shouts inquiring the cause of
+the delay received indistinct answers, the words "patience" and "wait"
+being the only intelligible ones. These might have had a consoling
+influence but for the fact that a thunderstorm--an occurrence of great
+frequency in the beginning of summer in the High Alps--was fast
+approaching, and my position was one that exposed me to its full fury
+without any possibility of escape. Ere long it burst over my head,
+drenching me to the skin in the first five minutes, while the lightning
+played about me in every direction, and terrific claps of thunder
+followed each other at intervals of scarcely a few seconds. What
+heightened the danger as well as the absurdity of my situation was the
+chance that one or both of the old eagles might return at any moment,
+under circumstances that must render a struggle, if any ensued, a most
+unequal one. Supposing my guards to be still at their post, the distance
+of the ledge was such as to make a shot at a flying bird, large as it
+might be, anything but a sure one; and the tactics of the golden eagle
+when defending its home do not allow of any second attempt. A speck is
+seen on the horizon, and the next moment the powerful bird is down with
+one fell swoop: a flap with its strong wing and the unhappy victim is
+stunned, and immediately ripped open from the chest to his hip, while
+his skull is cleft or fractured by a single blow of the tremendous beak.
+Instances are, however, known in which the cool and self-possessed
+"pendant" has shot or cut down his foe at the very instant of the
+encounter. Happily, my own powers were not put to so severe a test: the
+old birds were that day far off, circling probably in majestic swoops
+over some distant valley or gorge.
+
+I was forced, however, to be constantly on the alert, and my impatience
+and perplexity may be imagined as hours elapsed and there were still no
+signs of my approaching deliverance. The storm had long since passed
+over, and darkness was settling down when I again felt a pull at the
+rope, and continued my ascent, begun nearly four hours before. It was of
+the utmost importance that the whole party should regain the top of the
+cliff before night had fairly set in. I therefore deferred, on my
+arrival at the ledge, all questions and rebukes till we had gained a
+place of safety. The heavy rope, fastened to the cord, was hauled up by
+the man on the top, and after it had been secured to a tree-stump we
+swarmed up without loss of time. We had still before us a somewhat
+perilous scramble in the darkness down the steep incline, but the
+exhaustion we had undergone made it necessary that we should first
+recruit our strength by means of the food and bottle of "Schnapps" with
+which we were fortunately provided. While we were thus engaged I
+received from my companions an account of the causes of the perilous
+delay.
+
+On receiving my signal they had begun to haul, but after the first pull
+had felt a sudden jerk, and perceived that the block, supposed to have
+been securely fastened at the edge of the platform, was gone. They
+imagined at first that it had struck and killed me, but my shouts soon
+apprised them of my safety. Fearing to continue the process of hauling
+lest the rope should be cut by the sharp-edged stones, they informed the
+man on the cliff of the mishap, and despatched him to procure a second
+block. He accordingly ran down the slope to the bottom of the mountain,
+cut a young pine tree, shaped a block, and was in the act of carrying it
+up when the storm burst forth, and the lightning, playing around him in
+vivid flashes, cleft and splintered a rock weighing hundreds of tons
+that had stood within thirty paces of him. He received no injury except
+being thrown on the ground and partially stunned by the terrible
+concussion, but it was not till after a considerable time that he was
+able to rise and continue his ascent. Had he been killed, our situation
+would have been a most precarious one. There would have been no
+possibility of regaining the cliff without help, and as our party
+comprised all the working force of the neighborhood, and Tomerl's
+cottage was the only dwelling within fifteen or twenty miles, our
+chances of rescue would have been extremely slight.
+
+We reached the bottom of the mountain as the upper part was beginning to
+be lit by the rays of a full moon, and a three hours' tramp brought us
+without further mishap to the cottage. Moidel, forewarned of our return
+by a series of "jodlers," a sound which may challenge competition as a
+joyful acclaim, had prepared an ample supper; and when Tomerl produced
+his well-tuned "zither," a species of guitar producing simple but soft
+and highly musical strains, the mirth was at its height. Then followed
+songs eulogistic of the life of the chamois-stalker, who, "with his gun
+in his hand, a chamois on his back and a girl in his heart," has no
+cause to envy a king. A dance called the "Schuhblatteln," in which the
+art consists in touching the soles of one's shoes with the palm of the
+hand, finished our evening's amusement, and we retired, rather worn out,
+just as day was breaking.
+
+After four hours' sleep we rose refreshed and eager to examine our two
+captives. Attached to Tomerl's cottage was a diminutive barn, from which
+we removed the door, and nailing strong laths across the aperture,
+managed to improvise a large and roomy cage. A couple of rabbits
+furnished a luxurious breakfast, which was devoured with extraordinary
+voracity. The hen-bird, as is the case with all birds of prey, was
+considerably larger and stronger than her brother, though the latter had
+the finer head and eyes.
+
+A week after their capture they were "feathered" for the first time.
+This process consists in pulling out the long down-like plumes situated
+on the under side of the strong tail-feathers. These plumes, which, if
+taken from a full-grown eagle, frequently measure seven or eight inches
+in length, are highly prized by the Tyrolese peasants, but still more by
+the inhabitants of the neighboring Bavarian Highlands, who do not
+hesitate to expend a month's wages in the purchase of two or three with
+which to adorn their hats or those of their buxom sweethearts. The value
+of a crop of plumes varies somewhat. Generally, however, an eagle yields
+about forty florins' ($16) worth of feathers per annum.
+
+Six weeks after this incident I again wended my steps into the secluded
+Brandenburg valley, and found the eagles thriving and much grown. Being
+curious to see if their confinement had subdued their wild and ferocious
+spirit, I removed one of the laths and entered the barn. An angry hiss,
+similar to that of a snake, warned me of danger, but too late to save my
+hands some severe scratches. With one bound and a flap of their gigantic
+wings they were on me, and had it not been for Tomerl, who was standing
+just behind me armed with a stout cudgel, I should have paid dearly for
+my incautious visit.
+
+I know of no instance where human skill has subdued in the slightest
+degree the haughty spirit of the free-born golden eagle. An untamable
+ferocity is the predominating characteristic of this noble bird, more
+than of any other animal. Circling majestically among the fleeting
+clouds, he reigns lord paramount over his vast domain, avoiding the
+sight and resenting the approach of man.
+
+                                        W.A. BAILLIE-GROHMAN.
+
+
+
+
+THREE FEATHERS.
+
+BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A PRINCESS OF THULE."
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+MABYN DREAMS.
+
+
+"Yes, mother," said Mabyn, bursting into the room, "here I am; and
+Jennifer's down stairs with my box; and I am to stay with you here for
+another week or a fortnight; and Wenna's to go back at once, for the
+whole world is convulsed because of Mr. Trelyon's coming of age; and
+Mrs. Trelyon has sent and taken all our spare rooms; and father says
+Wenna must come back directly, for it's always 'Wenna, do this,' and
+'Wenna, do that;' and if Wenna isn't there, of course the sky will
+tumble down on the earth--Mother, what's the matter, and where's Wenna?"
+
+Mabyn was suddenly brought up in the middle of her voluble speech by the
+strange expression on her mother's face.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn, something dreadful has happened to our Wenna."
+
+Mabyn turned deadly white. "Is she ill?" she said, almost in a whisper.
+
+"No, not ill, but a great trouble has fallen on her."
+
+Then the mother, in a low voice, apparently fearful that any one should
+overhear, began to tell her younger daughter of all she had learnt
+within the past day or two--how young Trelyon had been bold enough to
+tell Wenna that he loved her; how Wenna had dallied with her conscience
+and been loath to part with him; how at length she had as good as
+revealed to him that she loved him in return; and how she was now
+overwhelmed and crushed beneath a sense of her own faithlessness and the
+impossibility of making reparation to her betrothed.
+
+"Only to think, Mabyn," said the mother in accents of despair, "that all
+this distress should have come about in such a quiet and unexpected way!
+Who could have foreseen it? Why, of all the people in the world, you
+would have thought our Wenna was the least likely to have any misery of
+this sort; and many a time--don't you remember?--I used to say it was so
+wise of her getting engaged to a prudent and elderly man, who would save
+her from the plagues and trials that young girls often suffer at the
+hands of their lovers. I thought she was so comfortably settled.
+Everything promised her a quiet and gentle life. And now this sudden
+shock has come upon her, she seems to think she is not fit to live, and
+she goes on in such a wild way--"
+
+"Where is she?" Mabyn said abruptly.
+
+"No, no, no!" the mother said anxiously, "you must not speak a word to
+her, Mabyn. You must not let her know I have told you anything about it.
+Leave her to herself, for a while at least: if you speak to her, she
+will take it you mean to accuse her, for she says you warned her, and
+she would pay no heed. Leave her to herself, Mabyn."
+
+"Then where is Mr. Trelyon?" said Mabyn, with some touch of indignation
+in her voice. "What is he doing? Is he leaving her to herself too?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean, Mabyn," her mother said timidly.
+
+"Why doesn't he come forward like a man and marry her?" said Mabyn
+boldly. "Yes, that is what I would do if I were a man. She has sent him
+away? Yes, of course: that is right and proper. And Wenna will go on
+doing what is right and proper, if you allow her, to the very end, and
+the end will be a lifetime of misery: that's all. No, my notion is, that
+she should do something that is not right and is quite improper, if only
+it makes her happy; and you'll see if I don't get her to do it. Why,
+mother, haven't you had eyes to see that these two have been in love for
+years? Nobody in the world had ever the least control over him but her:
+he would do anything for Wenna; and she--why she always came back
+singing after she had met and spoken to him. And then you talk about a
+prudent and sensible husband! I don't want Wenna to marry a watchful,
+mean, old, stocking-darning cripple, who will creep about the house all
+day and peer into cupboards, and give her fourpence-halfpenny a week to
+live on. I want her to marry a man--one that is strong enough to protect
+her. And I tell you, mother--I've said it before, and I say it
+again--she _shall not_ marry Mr. Roscorla."
+
+"Mabyn," said her mother, "you are getting madder than ever. Your
+dislike to Mr. Roscorla is most unreasonable. A cripple! Why--"
+
+"Oh, mother!" Mabyn cried with a bright light on her face, "only think
+of our Wenna being married to Mr. Trelyon, and how happy and pleased and
+pretty she would look as they went walking together! And then how proud
+he would be to have so nice a wife! and he would joke about her and be
+very impertinent, but he would simply worship her all the same, and do
+everything he could to please her. And he would take her away and show
+her all the beautiful places abroad; and he would have a yacht, too; and
+he would give her a fine house in London. And don't you think our Wenna
+would fascinate everybody with her mouselike ways and her nice small
+steps? And if they did have any trouble, wouldn't she be better to have
+somebody with her not timid and anxious and pettifogging, but somebody
+who wouldn't be cast down, but make her as brave as himself?"
+
+Miss Mabyn was a shrewd young woman, and she saw that her mother's
+quick, imaginative, sympathetic nature was being captivated by this
+picture. She determined to have her as an ally.
+
+"And don't you see, mother, how it all lies within her reach? Harry
+Trelyon is in love with her: there was no need for him to say so. I knew
+it long before he did. And she--why, she has told him now that she cares
+for him; and if I were he, I know what I'd do in his place. What is
+there in the way? Why, a--a sort of understanding."
+
+"A promise, Mabyn," said the mother.
+
+"Well, a promise," said the girl desperately, and coloring somewhat.
+"But it was a promise given in ignorance: she didn't know--how could she
+know? Everybody knows that such promises are constantly broken. If you
+are in love with somebody else, what's the good of your keeping the
+promise? Now, mother, won't you argue with her? See here: if she keeps
+her promise, there's three people miserable. If she breaks it, there's
+only one; and I doubt whether he's got the capacity to be miserable.
+That's two to one, or three to one, is it? Now, will you argue with her,
+mother?"
+
+"Mabyn, Mabyn," the mother said with a shake of the head, but evidently
+pleased with the voice of the tempter, "your fancy has run away with
+you. Why, Mr. Trelyon has never proposed to marry her."
+
+"I know he wants to," said Mabyn confidently.
+
+"How can you know?"
+
+"I'll ask him and prove it to you."
+
+"Indeed," said the mother sadly, "it is no thought of marriage that is
+in Wenna's head just now. The poor girl is full of remorse and
+apprehension. I think she would like to start at once for Jamaica, and
+fling herself at Mr. Roscorla's feet and confess her fault. I am glad
+she has to go back to Eglosilyan: that may distract her mind in a
+measure: at present she is suffering more than she shows."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"In her own room, tired out and fast asleep. I looked in a few minutes
+ago."
+
+Mabyn went up stairs, after having seen that Jennifer had properly
+bestowed her box. Wenna had just risen from the sofa, and was standing
+in the middle of the room. Her younger and taller sister went blithely
+forward to her, kissed her as usual, took no notice of the sudden flush
+of red that sprang into her face, and proceeded to state, in a
+business-like fashion, all the arrangements that had to be made.
+
+"Have you been enjoying yourself, Wenna?" Mabyn said with a fine air of
+indifference.
+
+"Oh yes," Wenna answered; adding hastily, "Don't you think mother is
+greatly improved?"
+
+"Wonderfully! I almost forgot she was an invalid. How lucky you are to
+be going back to see all the fine doings at the Hall! Of course they
+will ask you up."
+
+"They will do nothing of the kind," Wenna said with some asperity, and
+with her face turned aside.
+
+"Lord and Lady Amersham have already come to the Hall."
+
+"Oh, indeed!"
+
+"Yes. They said some time ago that there was a good chance of Mr.
+Trelyon marrying the daughter--the tall girl with yellow hair, you
+remember?"
+
+"And the stooping shoulders? Yes. I should think they would be glad to
+get her married to anybody. She's thirty."
+
+"Oh, Wenna!"
+
+"Mr. Trelyon told me so," said Wenna sharply.
+
+"And they are a little surprised," continued Mabyn in the same
+indifferent way, but watching her sister all the while, "that Mr.
+Trelyon has remained absent until so near the time. But I suppose he
+means to take Miss Penaluna with him. She lives here, doesn't she? They
+used to say there was a chance of a marriage there too."
+
+"Mabyn, what do you mean?" Wenna said suddenly and angrily. "What do I
+care about Mr. Trelyon's marriage? What is it you mean?"
+
+But the firmness of her lips began to yield: there was an ominous
+trembling about them, and at the same moment her younger sister caught
+her to her bosom, and hid her face there and hushed her wild sobbing.
+She would hear no confession. She knew enough. Nothing would convince
+her that Wenna had done anything wrong, so there was no use speaking
+about it.
+
+"Wenna," she said in a low voice, "have you sent him any message?"
+
+"Oh no, no!" the girl said trembling. "I fear even to think of him; and
+when you mentioned his name, Mabyn, it seemed to choke me. And now I
+have to go back to Eglosilyan; and oh, if you only knew how I dread
+that, Mabyn!"
+
+Mabyn's conscience was struck. She it was who had done this thing. She
+had persuaded her father that her mother needed another week or
+fortnight at Penzance; she had frightened him by telling what bother he
+would suffer if Wenna were not back at the inn during the festivities at
+Trelyon Hall; and then she had offered to go and take her sister's post.
+George Rosewarne was heartily glad to exchange the one daughter for the
+other. Mabyn was too independent; she thwarted him; sometimes she
+insisted on his bestirring himself. Wenna, on the other hand, went about
+the place like some invisible spirit of order, making everything
+comfortable for him without noise or worry. He was easily led to issue
+the necessary orders; and so it was that Mabyn thought she was doing her
+sister a friendly turn by sending her back to Eglosilyan in order to
+join in congratulating Harry Trelyon on his entrance into man's estate.
+Now Mabyn found that she had only plunged her sister into deeper
+trouble. What could be done to save her?
+
+"Wenna," said Mabyn rather timidly, "do you think he has left Penzance?"
+
+Wenna turned to her with a sudden look of entreaty in her face: "I
+cannot bear to speak of him, Mabyn. I have no right to: I hope you will
+not ask me. Just now I--I am going to write a letter--to Jamaica. I
+shall tell the whole truth. It is for him to say what must happen now. I
+have done him a great injury: I did not intend it, I had no thought of
+it, but my own folly and thoughtlessness brought it about, and I have to
+bear the penalty. I don't think he need be anxious about punishing me."
+
+She turned away with a tired look on her face, and began to get out her
+writing materials. Mabyn watched her for a moment or two in silence;
+then she left and went to her own room, saying to herself, "Punishment!
+Whoever talks of punishment will have to address himself to me."
+
+When she got to her own room she wrote these words on a piece of paper
+in her firm, bold, free hand: "A friend would like to see you for a
+minute in front of the post-office in the middle of the town." She put
+that in an envelope, and addressed the envelope to Harry Trelyon, Esq.
+Still keeping her bonnet on, she went down stairs and had a little
+general conversation with her mother, in the course of which she quite
+casually asked the name of the hotel at which Mr. Trelyon had been
+staying. Then, just as if she were going out to the Parade to have a
+look at the sea, she carelessly left the house.
+
+The dusk of the evening was growing to dark. A white mist lay over the
+sea. The solitary lamps were being lit along the Parade, each golden
+star shining sharply in the pale purple twilight, but a more confused
+glow of orange showed where the little town was busy in its narrow
+thoroughfares. She got hold of a small boy, gave him the letter, a
+sixpence and his instructions. He was to ask if the gentleman were in
+the hotel. If not, had he left Penzance, or would he return that night?
+In any case, the boy was not to leave the letter unless Mr. Trelyon was
+there.
+
+The small boy returned in a couple of minutes. The gentleman was there,
+and had taken the letter. So Mabyn at once set out for the centre of the
+town, and soon found herself in among a mass of huddled houses, bright
+shops and thoroughfares pretty well filled with strolling sailors, women
+getting home from market and townspeople come out to gossip. She had
+accurately judged that she would be less observed in this busy little
+place than out on the Parade; and as it was the first appointment she
+had ever made to meet a young gentleman alone, she was just a little
+nervous.
+
+Trelyon was there. He had recognized the handwriting in a moment. He had
+no time to ridicule or even to think of Mabyn's school-girl affectation
+of secresy: he had at once rushed off to the place of appointment, and
+that by a short cut of which she had no knowledge.
+
+"Mabyn, what's the matter? Is Wenna ill?" he said, forgetting in his
+anxiety even to shake hands with her.
+
+"Oh no, she isn't," said Mabyn rather coldly and defiantly. If he was in
+love with her sister, it was for him to make advances. "Oh no, she's
+pretty well, thank you," continued Mabyn, indifferently. "But she never
+could stand much worry. I wanted to see you about that. She is going
+back to Eglosilyan to-morrow; and you must promise not to have her asked
+up to the Hall while these grand doings are going on--you must not try
+to see her and persuade her. If you could keep out of her way
+altogether--"
+
+"You know all about it, then, Mabyn?" he said suddenly; and even in the
+dusky light of the street she could see the rapid look of gladness that
+filled his face. "And you are not going to be vexed, eh? You'll remain
+friends with me, Mabyn--you will tell me how she is from time to time.
+Don't you see, I must go away; and--and, by Jove, Mabyn! I've got such a
+lot to tell you!"
+
+She looked round.
+
+"I can't talk to you here. Won't you walk back by the other road behind
+the town?" he said.
+
+Yes, she would go willingly with him now. The anxiety of his face, the
+almost wild way in which he seemed to beg for her help and friendship,
+the mere impatience of his manner, pleased and satisfied her. This was
+as it should be. Here was no sweetheart by line and rule, demonstrating
+his affection by argument, and acting at all times with a studied
+propriety; but a real, true lover, full of passionate hope and as
+passionate fear; ready to do anything, and yet not knowing what to do.
+Above all, he was "brave and handsome, like a prince," and therefore a
+fit lover for her gentle sister.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Trelyon," she said with a great burst of confidence, "I did so
+fear that you might be indifferent!"
+
+"Indifferent!" said he with some bitterness. "Perhaps that is the best
+thing that could happen, only it isn't very likely to happen. Did you
+ever see anybody placed as I am placed, Mabyn? Nothing but
+stumbling-blocks every way I look. Our family have always been
+hot-headed and hot-tempered: if I told my grandmother at this minute how
+I am situated, I believe she would say, 'Why don't you go like a man and
+run off with the girl?'"
+
+"Yes!" said Mabyn, quite delighted.
+
+"But suppose you've bothered and worried the girl until you feel ashamed
+of yourself, and she begs of you to leave her, aren't you bound in fair
+manliness to go?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mabyn doubtfully.
+
+"Well, I do. It would be very mean to pester her. I'm off as soon as
+these people leave the Hall. But then there are other things. There is
+your sister engaged to this fellow out in Jamaica--"
+
+"Isn't he a horrid wretch?" said Mabyn between her teeth.
+
+"Oh, I quite agree with you. If I could have it out with him now! But,
+after all, what harm has the man done? Is it any wonder he wanted to get
+Wenna for a wife?"
+
+"Oh, but he cheated her," said Mabyn warmly. "He persuaded her and
+reasoned with her, and argued her into marrying him. And what business
+had he to tell her that love between young people is all bitterness and
+trial, and that a girl is only safe when she marries a prudent and
+elderly man who will look after her? Why, it is to look after him that
+he wants her. Wenna is going to him as a housekeeper and a nurse.
+Only--only, Mr. Trelyon, _she hasn't gone to him just yet_!"
+
+"Oh, I don't think he did anything unfair," the young man said gloomily.
+"It doesn't matter, anyhow. What I was going to say is, that my
+grandmother's notion of what one of our family ought to do in such a
+case can't be carried out: whatever you may think of a man, you can't go
+and try to rob him of his sweetheart behind his back. Even supposing she
+were willing to break with him--which she is not--you've at least got to
+wait to give the fellow a chance."
+
+"There I quite disagree with you, Mr. Trelyon," Mabyn said warmly. "Wait
+to give him a chance to make our Wenna miserable! Is she to be made the
+prize of a sort of fight? If I were a man I'd pay less attention to my
+own scruples and try what I could do for her--Oh, Mr. Trelyon--I--I beg
+your pardon."
+
+Mabyn suddenly stopped on the road, overwhelmed with confusion. She had
+been so warmly thinking of her sister's welfare that she had been
+hurried into something worse than an indiscretion.
+
+"What then, Mabyn?" said he, profoundly surprised.
+
+"I beg your pardon: I have been so thoughtless. I had no right to assume
+that you wished--that you wished for the--for the opportunity--"
+
+"Of marrying Wenna?" said he with a great stare. "But what else have we
+been speaking about? Or rather, I suppose we did assume it. Well, the
+more I think over it, Mabyn, the more I am maddened by all these
+obstacles, and by the notion of all the things that may happen. That's
+the bad part of my going away. How can I tell what may happen? He might
+come back and insist on her marrying him right off."
+
+"Mr. Trelyon," said Mabyn, speaking very clearly, "there's one thing you
+may be sure of. If you let me know where you are, nothing will happen to
+Wenna that you don't hear of."
+
+He took her hand and pressed it in mute thankfulness. He was not
+insensible to the value of having so warm an advocate, so faithful an
+ally, always at Wenna's side.
+
+"How long do letters take in going to Jamaica?" Mabyn asked.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"I could fetch him back for you directly," said she, "if you would like
+that."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By writing and telling him that you and Wenna were going to get
+married. Wouldn't that fetch him back pretty quickly?"
+
+"I doubt it. He wouldn't believe it of Wenna. Then he is a sensible sort
+of fellow, and would say to himself that if the news was true he would
+have his journey for nothing. Besides, Barnes says that things are
+looking well with him in Jamaica--better than anybody expected. He might
+not be anxious to leave."
+
+They had now got back to the Parade, and Mabyn stopped: "I must leave
+you now, Mr. Trelyon. Mind not to go near Wenna when you get to
+Eglosilyan."
+
+"She sha'n't even see me. I shall be there only a couple of days or so;
+then I am going to London. I am going to have a try at the Civil Service
+examinations--for first commissions, you know. I shall only come back to
+Eglosilyan for a day now and again at long intervals. You have promised
+to write to me, Mabyn. Well, I'll send you my address."
+
+She looked at him keenly as she offered him her hand. "I wouldn't be
+downhearted if I were you," she said. "Very odd things sometimes
+happen."
+
+"Oh, I sha'n't be very down-hearted," said he, "so long as I hear that
+she is all right, and not vexing herself about anything."
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Trelyon. I am sorry I can't take any message for you."
+
+"To her? No, that is impossible. Good-bye, Mabyn: I think you are the
+best friend I have in the world."
+
+"We'll see about that," she said as she walked rapidly off.
+
+Her mother had been sufficiently astonished by her long absence: she was
+now equally surprised by the excitement and pleasure visible in her
+face.
+
+"Oh, mammy, do you know whom I've seen? Mr. Trelyon."
+
+"Mabyn!"
+
+"Yes. We've walked right round Penzance all by ourselves. And it's all
+settled, mother."
+
+"What is all settled?"
+
+"The understanding between him and me. An offensive and defensive
+alliance. Let tyrants beware!"
+
+She took off her bonnet and came and sat down on the floor by the side
+of the sofa: "Oh, mammy, I see such beautiful things in the future! You
+wouldn't believe it if I told you all I see. Everybody else seems
+determined to forecast such gloomy events. There's Wenna crying and
+writing letters of contrition, and expecting all sorts of anger and
+scolding; there's Mr. Trelyon haunted by the notion that Mr. Roscorla
+will suddenly come home and marry Wenna right off; and as for him out
+there in Jamaica, I expect he'll be in a nice state when he hears of all
+this. But far on ahead of all that I see such a beautiful picture!"
+
+"It is a dream of yours, Mabyn," her mother said, but there was an
+imaginative light in her fine eyes too.
+
+"No, it is not a dream, mother, for there are so many people all wishing
+now that it should come about, in spite of these gloomy fancies. What is
+there to prevent it when we are all agreed?--Mr. Trelyon and I heading
+the list with our important alliance; and you, mother, would be so proud
+to see Wenna happy; and Mrs. Trelyon pets her as if she were a daughter
+already; and everybody--every man, woman and child--in Eglosilyan would
+rather see that come about than get a guinea apiece. Oh, mother, if you
+could see the picture that I see just now!"
+
+"It is a pretty picture, Mabyn," her mother said, shaking her head. "But
+when you think of everybody being agreed, you forget one, and that is
+Wenna herself. Whatever she thinks fit and right to do, that she is
+certain to do, and all your alliances and friendly wishes won't alter
+her decision, even if it should break her heart. And indeed I hope the
+poor child won't sink under the terrible strain that is on her: what do
+you think of her looks, Mabyn?"
+
+"They want mending--yes, they want mending," Mabyn admitted, apparently
+with some compunction, but then she added boldly, "and you know as well
+as I do, mother, that there is but the one way of mending them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+FERN IN DIE WELT.
+
+
+If this story were not tied by its title to the duchy of Cornwall, it
+might be interesting enough to follow Mr. Roscorla into the new world
+that had opened all around him, and say something of the sudden shock
+his old habits had thus received, and of the quite altered views of his
+own life he had been led to form. As matters stand, we can only pay him
+a flying visit.
+
+He is seated in a verandah fronting a garden, in which pomegranates and
+oranges form the principal fruit. Down below him some blacks are
+bringing provisions up to Yacca Farm along the cactus avenue leading to
+the gate. Far away on his right the last rays of the sun are shining on
+the summit of Blue Mountain Peak, and along the horizon the reflected
+glow of the sky shines on the calm sea. It is a fine, still evening; his
+cigar smells sweet in the air; it is a time for indolent dreaming and
+for memories of home.
+
+But Mr. Roscorla is not so much enraptured by thoughts of home as he
+might be. "Why," he is saying to himself, "my life in Basset Cottage was
+no life at all, but only a waiting for death. Day after day passed in
+that monotonous fashion: what had one to look forward to but old age,
+sickness, and then the quiet of a coffin? It was nothing but an hourly
+procession to the grave, varied by rabbit-shooting. This bold breaking
+away from the narrow life of such a place has given me a new lease of
+existence. Now I can look back with surprise on the dullness of that
+Cornish village, and on the regularity of habits which I did not know
+were habits. For is not that always the case? You don't know that you
+are forming a habit: you take each act to be an individual act, which
+you may perform or not at will; but, all the same, the succession of
+them is getting you into its power; custom gets a grip of your ways of
+thinking as well as your ways of living; the habit is formed, and it
+does not cease its hold until it conducts you to the grave. Try Jamaica
+for a cure. Fling a sleeping man into the sea, and watch if he does not
+wake. Why, when I look back to the slow, methodical, common-place life I
+led at Eglosilyan, can I wonder that I was sometimes afraid of Wenna
+Rosewarne regarding me as a somewhat staid and venerable individual, on
+whose infirmities she ought to take pity?"
+
+He rose and began to walk up and down the verandah, putting his foot
+down firmly. His loose linen suit was smart enough: his complexion had
+been improved by the sun. The consciousness that his business affairs
+were promising well did not lessen his sense of self-importance.
+
+"Wenna must be prepared to move about a bit when I go back," he was
+saying to himself. "She must give up that daily attendance on cottagers'
+children. If all turns out well, I don't see why we should not live in
+London, for who will know there who her father was? That consideration
+was of no consequence so long as I looked forward to living the rest of
+my life in Basset Cottage: now there are other things to be thought of
+when there is a chance of my going among my old friends again."
+
+By this time, it must be observed, Mr. Roscorla had abandoned his hasty
+intention of returning to England to upbraid Wenna with having received
+a ring from Harry Trelyon. After all, he reasoned with himself, the mere
+fact that she should talk thus simply and frankly about young Trelyon
+showed that, so far as she was concerned, her loyalty to her absent
+lover was unbroken. As for the young gentleman himself, he was, Mr.
+Roscorla knew, fond of joking. He had doubtless thought it a fine thing
+to make a fool of two or three women by imposing on them this
+cock-and-bull story of finding a ring by dredging. He was a little angry
+that Wenna should have been deceived; but then, he reflected, these
+gypsy rings are so much like one another that the young man had probably
+got a pretty fair duplicate. For the rest, he did not want to quarrel
+with Harry Trelyon at present.
+
+But as he was walking up and down the verandah, looking a much younger
+and brisker man than the Mr. Roscorla who had left Eglosilyan, a servant
+came through the house and brought him a couple of letters. He saw they
+were respectively from Mr. Barnes and from Wenna; and, curiously enough,
+he opened the reverend gentleman's first--perhaps as schoolboys like to
+leave the best bit of a tart to the last.
+
+He read the letter over carefully; he sat down and read it again; then
+he put it before him on the table. He was evidently puzzled by it. "What
+does this man mean by writing these letters to me?"--so Mr. Roscorla,
+who was a cautious and reflective person, communed with himself.--"He is
+no particular friend of mine. He must be driving at something. Now he
+says that I am to be of good cheer. I must not think anything of what he
+formerly wrote. Mr. Trelyon is leaving Eglosilyan for good, and his
+mother will at last have some peace of mind. What a pity it is that this
+sensitive creature should be at the mercy of the rude passions of this
+son of hers! that she should have no protector! that she should be
+allowed to mope herself to death in a melancholy seclusion!"
+
+An odd fancy occurred to Mr. Roscorla at this moment, and he smiled: "I
+think I have got a clew to Mr. Barnes's disinterested anxiety about my
+affairs. The widower would like to protect the solitary and unfriended
+widow, but the young man is in the way. The young man would be very much
+in the way if he married Wenna Rosewarne; the widower's fears drive him
+into suspicion, then into certainty; nothing will do but that I should
+return to England at once and spoil this little arrangement. But as soon
+as Harry Trelyon declares his intention of leaving Eglosilyan for good,
+then my affairs may go anyhow. Mr. Barnes finds the coast clear: I am
+bidden to stay where I am. Well, that is what I mean to do; but now I
+fancy I understand Mr. Barnes's generous friendship for me and his
+affectionate correspondence."
+
+He turned to Wenna's letter with much compunction. He owed her some
+atonement for having listened to the disingenuous reports of this
+scheming clergyman. How could he have so far forgotten the firm,
+uncompromising rectitude of the girl's character, her sensitive notions
+of honor, the promises she had given?
+
+He read her letter, and as he read his eyes seemed to grow hot with
+rage. He paid no heed to the passionate contrition of the trembling
+lines--to the obvious pain that she had endured in telling the story,
+without concealment, against herself--to the utter and abject
+wretchedness with which she awaited his decision. It was thus that she
+had kept faith with him the moment his back was turned! Such were the
+safeguards afforded by a woman's sense of honor! What a fool he had
+been, to imagine that any woman could remain true to her promise so soon
+as some other object of flirtation and incipient love-making came in her
+way!
+
+He looked at the letter again: he could scarcely believe it to be in her
+handwriting. This the quiet, reasonable, gentle and timid Wenna
+Rosewarne, whose virtues were almost a trifle too severe? The despair
+and remorse of the letter did not touch him--he was too angry and
+indignant over the insult to himself--but it astonished him. The
+passionate emotion of those closely-written pages he could scarcely
+connect with the shy, frank, kindly little girl he remembered: it was a
+cry of agony from a tortured woman, and he knew at least that for her
+the old quiet time was over.
+
+He knew not what to do. All this that had happened was new to him: it
+was old and gone by in England, and who could tell what further
+complications might have arisen? But his anger required some vent: he
+went in-doors, called for a lamp, and sat down and wrote with a hard and
+resolute look on his face:
+
+     "I have received your letter. I am not surprised. You are a woman,
+     and I ought to have known that a woman's promise is of value so
+     long as you are by her side to see that she keeps it. You ask what
+     reparation you can make: I ask if there is any that you can
+     suggest. No: you have done what cannot be undone. Do you think a
+     man would marry a woman who is in love with, or has been in love
+     with, another man, even if he could overlook her breach of faith
+     and the shameless thoughtlessness of her conduct? My course is
+     clear, at all events. I give you back the promise that you did not
+     know how to keep; and now you can go and ask the young man who has
+     been making a holiday toy of you whether he will be pleased to
+     marry you.
+
+                "RICHARD ROSCORLA."
+
+He sealed and addressed this letter, still with the firm, hard look
+about his face: then he summoned a servant--a tall, red-haired Irishman.
+He did not hesitate for a moment: "Look here, Sullivan: the English
+mails go out to-morrow morning. You must ride down to the post-office as
+hard as you can go; and if you're a few minutes late, see Mr. Keith and
+give him my compliments, and ask him if he can possibly take this letter
+if the mails are not made up. It is of great importance. Quick, now!"
+
+He watched the man go clattering down the cactus avenue until he was out
+of sight. Then he turned, put the letters in his pocket, went in-doors,
+and again struck a small gong that did duty for a bell. He wanted his
+horse brought round at once. He was going over to Pleasant Farm:
+probably he would not return that night. He lit another cigar, and paced
+up and down the gravel in front of the house until the horse was brought
+round.
+
+When he reached Pleasant Farm the stars were shining overhead, and the
+odors of the night-flowers came floating out of the forest, but inside
+the house there were brilliant lights and the voices of men talking. A
+bachelor supper-party was going forward. Mr. Roscorla entered, and
+presently was seated at the hospitable board. They had never seen him so
+gay, and they had certainly never seen him so generously inclined, for
+Mr. Roscorla was economical in his habits. He would have them all to
+dinner the next evening, and promised them such champagne as had never
+been sent to Kingston before. He passed round his best cigars, he hinted
+something about unlimited loo, he drank pretty freely, and was
+altogether in a jovial humor.
+
+"England!" he said, when some one mentioned the mother-country. "Of one
+thing I am pretty certain: England will never see me again. No, a man
+lives here: in England he waits for his death. What life I have got
+before me I shall live in Jamaica: that is my view of the question."
+
+"Then she is coming out to you?" said his host with a grin.
+
+Roscorla's face flushed with anger. "There is no _she_ in the matter,"
+he said abruptly, almost fiercely. "I thank God I am not tied to any
+woman!"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," said his host good-naturedly, who did not care
+to recall the occasions on which Mr. Roscorla had been rather pleased to
+admit that certain tender ties bound him to his native land.
+
+"No, there is not," he said. "What fool would have his comfort and peace
+of mind depend on the caprice of a woman? I like your plan better,
+Rogers: when they're dependent on you, you can do as you like, but when
+they've got to be treated as equals, they're the devil. No, my boys, you
+don't find me going in for the angel in the house--she's too exacting.
+Is it to be unlimited?"
+
+Now to play unlimited loo in a reckless fashion is about the easiest way
+of getting rid of money that the ingenuity of man has devised. The other
+players were much better qualified to run such risks than Mr. Roscorla,
+but none played half so wildly as he. His I.O.U.'s went freely about. At
+one point in the evening the floating paper bearing the signature of Mr.
+Roscorla represented a sum of about three hundred pounds, and yet his
+losses did not weigh heavily on him. At length every one got tired, and
+it was resolved to stop short at a certain hour. But from this point the
+luck changed: nothing could stand against his cards; one by one his
+I.O.U.'s were recalled; and when they all rose from the table he had won
+about forty-eight pounds. He was not elated.
+
+He went to his room and sat down in an easy-chair; and then it seemed to
+him that he saw Eglosilyan once more, and the far coasts of Cornwall,
+and the broad uplands lying under a blue English sky. That was his home,
+and he had cut himself away from it, and from the little glimmer of
+romance that had recently brightened it for him. Every bit of the place,
+too, was associated somehow with Wenna Rosewarne. He could see the seat
+fronting the Atlantic on which she used to sit and sew on the fine
+summer forenoons. He could see the rough road leading over the downs on
+which he met her one wintry morning, she wrapped up and driving her
+father's dog-cart, while the red sun in the sky seemed to brighten the
+pink color the cold wind had brought into her cheeks. He thought of her
+walking sedately up to church; of her wild scramblings among the rocks
+with Mabyn; of her enjoyment of a fierce wind when it came laden with
+the spray of the great rollers breaking on the cliff outside. What was
+the song she used to sing to herself as she went along the quiet
+woodland ways?--
+
+    Your Polly has never been false, she declares,
+    Since last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs.
+
+He could not let her go. All the anger of wounded vanity had left his
+heart: he thought now only of the chance he was throwing away. Where
+else could he hope to find for himself so pleasant a companion and
+friend, who would cheer up his dull daily life with her warm sympathies,
+her quick humor, her winning womanly ways?
+
+He thought of that letter he had sent away, and cursed his own folly. So
+long as she was bound by her promise he knew he could marry her when he
+pleased, but now he had voluntarily released her. In a couple of weeks
+she would hold her manumission in her hands; the past would no longer
+have any power over her; if ever they met they would meet as mere
+acquaintances. Every moment the prize slipping out of his grasp seemed
+to grow more valuable; his vexation with himself grew intolerable; he
+suddenly resolved that he would make a wild effort to get back that
+fatal letter.
+
+He had sat communing with himself for over an hour: all the household
+was fast asleep. He would not wake any one, for fear of being compelled
+to give explanations; so he noiselessly crept along the dark passages
+until he got to the door, which he carefully opened and let himself out.
+The night was wonderfully clear, the constellations throbbing and
+glittering overhead: the trees were black against the pale sky.
+
+He made his way round to the stables, and had some sort of notion that
+he would try to get at his horse, until it occurred to him that some
+suddenly awakened servant or master would probably send a bullet
+whizzing at him. So he abandoned that enterprise, and set off to walk as
+quickly as he could down the slopes of the mountain, with the stars
+still shining over his head, the air sweet with powerful scents, the
+leaves of the bushes hanging silently in the semi-darkness.
+
+How long he walked he did not know: he was not aware that when he
+reached the sleeping town a pale gray was lightening the eastern skies.
+He went to the house of the postmaster and hurriedly aroused him. Mr.
+Keith began to think that the ordinarily sedate Mr. Roscorla had gone
+mad.
+
+"But I must have the letter," he said. "Come now, Keith, you can give it
+me back if you like. Of course I know it is very wrong, but you'll do it
+to oblige a friend."
+
+"My dear sir," said the postmaster, who could not get time for
+explanation, "the mails were made up last night--"
+
+"Yes, yes, but you can open the English bag."
+
+"They were sent on board last night."
+
+"Then the packet is still in the harbor: you might come down with me."
+
+"She sails at daybreak."
+
+"It is not daybreak yet," said Mr. Roscorla, looking up.
+
+Then he saw how the gray dawn had come over the skies, banishing the
+stars, and he became aware of the wan light shining around him. With the
+new day his life was altered; he would no more be as he had been; the
+chief aim and purpose of his existence had been changed.
+
+Walking heedlessly back, he came to a point from which he had a distant
+view of the harbor and the sea beyond. Far away out on the dull gray
+plain was a steamer slowly making her way toward the east. Was that the
+packet bound for England, carrying to Wenna Rosewarne the message that
+she was free?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+"BLUE IS THE SWEETEST."
+
+
+The following correspondence may now, without any great breach of
+confidence, be published:
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN, Monday morning.
+
+    DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know what Mr. Roscorla says in the
+    letter Wenna has just received? Why, that you could not get
+    up that ring by dredging, but that you must have bought the
+    other one at Plymouth. Just think of the wicked old wretch
+    fancying such things! As if you would give a ring _of emeralds
+    to any one_! Tell me that this is a story, that I may bid
+    Wenna contradict him at once. I have got no patience with a man
+    who is given over to such mean suspicions. Yours faithfully,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+
+    "LONDON, Tuesday night.
+
+    Dear Mabyn: I am sorry to say Mr. Roscorla is right. It was a
+    foolish trick--I did not think it would be successful, for my
+    hitting the size of her finger was rather a stroke of luck--but
+    I thought it would amuse her if she did find it out after an
+    hour or two. I was afraid to tell her afterward, for she would
+    think it impertinent. What's to be done? Is she angry about it.
+    Yours sincerely,
+
+    HARRY TRELYON."
+
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN.
+
+    Dear Mr. Trelyon: How could you do such a thing? Why, to give
+    Wenna, of all people in the world, an emerald ring, just after I
+    had got Mr. Roscorla to give her one, for bad luck to himself!
+    Why, how could you do it? I don't know what to say about it,
+    unless you demand it back, _and send her one with sapphires in
+    it at once_.
+
+    Yours, M.R.
+
+    P.S.--As quick as ever you can."
+
+
+    "LONDON, Friday evening.
+
+    Dear Mabyn: Why, you know she wouldn't take a sapphire ring or
+    any other from me. Yours faithfully,
+
+    H. TRELYON."
+
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. TRELYON: Pray don't lose any time in writing, but
+    send me at once a sapphire ring for Wenna. You have hit the size
+    once, and you can do it again; but in any case I have marked the
+    size on this bit of thread, and the jeweler will understand. And
+    please, dear Mr. Trelyon, don't get a very expensive one, but a
+    plain, good one, just what a poor person like me would buy for a
+    present if I wanted to. And post it at once, please: _this is
+    very important_. Yours most sincerely,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+In consequence of this correspondence Mabyn one morning proceeded to
+seek out her sister, whom she found busy with the accounts of the sewing
+club, which was now in a flourishing condition. Mabyn seemed a little
+shy. "Oh, Wenna," she said, "I have something to tell you. You know I
+wrote to ask Mr. Trelyon about the ring. Well, he's very, very
+sorry--oh, you don't know how sorry he is, Wenna--but it's quite true.
+He thought he'd please you by getting the ring, and that you would make
+a joke of it when you found it out; and then he was afraid to speak of
+it afterward."
+
+Wenna had quietly slipped the ring off her finger. She betrayed no
+emotion at the mention of Mr. Trelyon's name. Her face was a trifle red:
+that was, all. "It was a stupid thing to do," she said, "but I suppose
+he meant no harm. Will you send him back the ring?"
+
+"Yes," she said eagerly. "Give me the ring, Wenna."
+
+She carefully wrapped it up in a piece of paper and put it in her
+pocket. Any one who knew her would have seen by her face that she meant
+to give that ring short shrift. Then she said timidly, "You are not very
+angry, Wenna?"
+
+"No. I am sorry I should have vexed Mr. Roscorla by my carelessness."
+
+"Wenna," the younger sister continued, even more timidly, "do you know
+what I've heard about rings?--that when you've worn one for some time on
+a finger, you ought never to leave it off altogether: I think it affects
+the circulation, or something of that kind. Now, if Mr. Trelyon were to
+send you another ring, just to--to keep the place of that one until Mr.
+Roscorla came back--"
+
+"Mabyn, you must be mad to think of such a thing," said her sister,
+looking down.
+
+"Oh yes," Mabyn said meekly, "I thought you wouldn't like the notion of
+Mr. Trelyon giving you a ring. And so, dear Wenna, I've--I've got a ring
+for you--you won't mind taking it from me--and if you do wear it on the
+engaged finger, why, that doesn't matter, don't you see?"
+
+She produced the ring of dark blue stones, and herself put it on Wenna's
+finger.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn," Wenna said, "how could you be so extravagant? And just
+after you gave me that ten shillings for the Leans!"
+
+"You be quiet," said Mabyn briskly, going off with a light look on her
+face.
+
+And yet there was some determination about her mouth. She hastily put on
+her hat and went out. She took the path by the hillside over the little
+harbor, and eventually she reached the face of the black cliff, at the
+foot of which a gray-green sea was dashing in white masses of foam:
+there was not a living thing around her but the choughs and daws, and
+the white seagulls sailing overhead.
+
+She took out a large sheet of brown paper and placed it on the ground.
+Then she sought out a bit of rock weighing about two pounds. Then she
+took out the little parcel which contained the emerald ring, tied it up
+carefully along with the stone in the sheet of brown paper: finally, she
+rose up to her full height and heaved the whole into the sea. A splash
+down there, and that was all.
+
+She clapped her hands with joy: "And now, my precious emerald ring,
+that's the last of you, I imagine! And there isn't much chance of a fish
+bringing you back, to make mischief with your ugly green stones."
+
+Then she went home, and wrote this note:
+
+    "EGLOSILYAN, Monday.
+
+    DEAR MR. TRELYON: I have just thrown the emerald ring you gave
+    Wenna into the sea, and she wears the other one now _on her
+    engaged finger_, but she thinks I bought it. Did you ever
+    hear of an old-fashioned rhyme that is this?--
+
+         Oh, green is forsaken,
+           And yellow's forsworn;
+         And blue is thesweetest
+           Color that's worn.
+
+    You can't tell what mischief that emerald ring might not have
+    done. But the sapphires that Wenna is wearing now are perfectly
+    beautiful; and Wenna is not so heartbroken that she isn't very
+    proud of them. I never saw such a beautiful ring. Yours
+    sincerely,
+
+    MABYN ROSEWARNE.
+
+    P.S.--Are you never coming back to Eglosilyan any more?"
+
+So the days went by, and Mabyn waited with a secret hope to see what
+answer Mr. Roscorla would send to that letter of confession and
+contrition Wenna had written to him at Penzance. The letter had been
+written as an act of duty, and posted too; but there was no mail going
+out for ten days thereafter, so that a considerable time had to elapse
+before the answer came.
+
+During that time Wenna went about her ordinary duties just as if there
+was no hidden fire of pain consuming her heart; there was no word spoken
+by her or to her of all that had recently occurred; her mother and
+sister were glad to see her so continuously busy. At first she shrank
+from going up to Trelyon Hall, and would rather have corresponded with
+Mrs. Trelyon about their joint work of charity, but she conquered the
+feeling, and went and saw the gentle lady, who perceived nothing altered
+or strange in her demeanor. At last the letter from Jamaica came; and
+Mabyn, having sent it up to her sister's room, waited for a few minutes,
+and then followed it. She was a little afraid, despite her belief in the
+virtues of the sapphire ring.
+
+When she entered the room she uttered a slight cry of alarm and ran
+forward to her sister. Wenna was seated on a chair by the side of the
+bed, but she had thrown her arms out on the bed, her head was between
+them, and she was sobbing as if her heart would break.
+
+"Wenna, what is the matter? what has he said to you?"
+
+Mabyn's eyes were all afire now. Wenna would not answer. She would not
+even raise her head.
+
+"Wenna, I want to see that letter."
+
+"Oh no, no!" the girl moaned. "I deserve it: he says what is true. I
+want you to leave me alone, Mabyn: you--you can't do anything to
+help this."
+
+But Mabyn had by this time perceived that her sister held in her hand,
+crumpled up, the letter which was the cause of this wild outburst of
+grief. She went forward and firmly took it out of the yielding fingers:
+then she turned to the light and read it. "Oh, if I were a man!" she
+said; and then the very passion of her indignation, finding no other
+vent, filled her eyes with proud and angry tears. She forgot to rejoice
+that her sister was now free. She only saw the cruel insult of those
+lines, and the fashion in which it had struck down its victim. "Wenna,"
+she said hotly, "you ought to have more spirit. You don't mean to say
+you care for the opinion of a man who would write to any girl like that?
+You ought to be precious glad that he has shown himself in his true
+colors. Why, he never cared a bit for you--never!--or he would never
+turn at a moment's notice and insult you."
+
+"I have deserved it all; it is every word of it true; he could not have
+written otherwise." That was all that Wenna would say between her sobs.
+
+"Well," retorted Mabyn, "after all, I am glad he was angry. I did not
+think he had so much spirit. And if this is his opinion of you, I don't
+think it is worth heeding, only I hope he'll keep to it. Yes, I do. I
+hope he'll continue to think you everything that is wicked, and remain
+out in Jamaica. Wenna, you must not lie and cry like that. Come, get up,
+and look at the strawberries that Mr. Trewhella has sent you."
+
+"Please, Mabyn, leave me alone, there's a good girl."
+
+"I shall be up again in a few minutes, then: I want you to drive me over
+to St. Gwennis. Wenna, I _must_ go over to St. Gwennis before lunch; and
+father won't let me have anybody to drive. Do you hear, Wenna?"
+
+Then she went out and down into the kitchen, where she bothered Jennifer
+for a few minutes until she had got an iron heated at the fire. With
+this implement she carefully smoothed out the crumpled letter, and then
+she as carefully folded it, took it up stairs, and put it safely away in
+her own desk. She had just time to write a few lines:
+
+    "DEAR MR. TRELYON: Do you know what news I have got to tell you?
+    Can you guess? The engagement between Mr. Roscorla and Wenna
+    _is broken off_; and I have got in my possession the letter
+    in which he sets her free. If you knew how glad I am! I should
+    like to cry 'Hurrah! hurrah!' all through the streets of
+    Eglosilyan; and I think every one else would do the same if only
+    they knew. Of course she is very much grieved, for he has been
+    most insulting. I cannot tell you the things he has said: you
+    would kill him if you heard them. But she will come round very
+    soon, I know: and then she will have her freedom again, and no
+    more emerald rings, and letters all filled with arguments. Would
+    you like to see her, Mr. Trelyon? But don't come yet--not for a
+    long time: she would only get angry and obstinate. I'll tell you
+    when to come; and in the mean time, you know, she is still
+    wearing your ring, so that you need not be afraid. How glad I
+    shall be to see you again! Yours most faithfully,
+
+    "MABYN ROSEWARNE."
+
+She went down stairs quickly and put this letter in the letter-box.
+There was an air of triumph on her face. She had worked for this
+result--aided by the mysterious powers of Fate, whom she had conjured to
+serve her--and now the welcome end of her labors had arrived. She bade
+the hostler get out the dog-cart, as if she were the queen of Sheba
+going to visit Solomon. She went marching up to her sister's room,
+announcing her approach with a more than ordinarily accurate rendering
+of "Oh, the men of merry, merry England!" so that a stranger might have
+fancied that he heard the very voice of Harry Trelyon, with all its
+unmelodious vigor, ringing along the passage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE EXILE'S RETURN.
+
+
+Perhaps you have been away in distant parts of the earth, each day
+crowded with new experiences and slowly obscuring the clear pictures of
+England with which you left: perhaps you have only been hidden away in
+London, amid its ceaseless noise, its strange faces, its monotonous
+recurrence of duties. Let us say, in any case, that you are returning
+home for a space to the quiet of Northern Cornwall.
+
+You look out of the high window of a Plymouth hotel early in the
+morning. There is a promise of a beautiful autumn day--a ring of pink
+mist lies around the horizon; overhead the sky is clear and blue; the
+white sickle of the moon still lingers visible. The new warmth of the
+day begins to melt the hoarfrost in the meadows, and you know that out
+beyond the town the sun is shining brilliantly on the wet grass, with
+the brown cattle gleaming red in the light.
+
+You leave the great world behind, with all its bustle, crowds and
+express engines, when you get into the quiet little train that takes you
+leisurely up to Launceston, through woods, by the sides of rivers, over
+great valleys. There is a sense of repose about this railway journey.
+The train stops at any number of small stations--apparently to let the
+guard have a chat with the station-master--and then jogs on in a quiet,
+contented fashion. And on such an autumn day as this, that is a
+beautiful, still, rich-colored and English-looking country through which
+it passes. Here is a deep valley, all glittering with the dew and the
+sunlight. Down in the hollow a farmyard is half hidden behind the
+yellowing elms; a boy is driving a flock of white geese along the
+twisting road; the hedges are red with the withering briers. Up here,
+along the hillsides, the woods of scrub-oak are glowing with every
+imaginable hue of gold, crimson and bronze, except where a few dark firs
+appear, or where a tuft of broom, pure and bright in its green, stands
+out among the faded brackens. The gorse is profusely in bloom: it always
+is in Cornwall. Still farther over there are sheep visible on the
+uplands; beyond these, again, the bleak brown moors rise into peaks of
+hills; overhead the silent blue, and all around the sweet, fresh country
+air.
+
+With a sharp whistle the small train darts into an opening in the hills:
+here we are in the twilight of a great wood. The tall trees are becoming
+bare; the ground is red with the fallen leaves; through the branches the
+blue-winged jay flies, screaming harshly; you can smell the damp and
+resinous odors of the ferns. Out again we get into the sunlight! and lo!
+a rushing, brawling, narrow stream, its clear flood swaying this way and
+that by the big stones; a wall of rock overhead crowned by glowing
+furze; a herd of red cattle sent scampering through the bright-green
+grass. Now we get slowly into a small white station, and catch a glimpse
+of a tiny town over in the valley: again we go on by wood and valley, by
+rocks and streams and farms. It is a pleasant drive on such a morning.
+
+In one of the carriages in this train Master Harry Trelyon and his
+grandmother were seated. How he had ever persuaded her to go with him to
+Cornwall by train was mysterious enough, for the old lady thoroughly
+hated all such modern devices. It was her custom to go traveling all
+over the country with a big, old-fashioned phaeton and a pair of horses;
+and her chief amusement during these long excursions was driving up to
+any big house she took a fancy to, in order to see if there was a chance
+of its being let to her. The faithful old servant who attended her, and
+who was about as old as the coachman, had a great respect for his
+mistress, but sometimes he swore--inaudibly--when she ordered him to
+make the usual inquiry at the front-door of some noble lord's country
+residence, which he would as soon have thought of letting as of
+forfeiting his seat in the House of Peers or his hopes of heaven. But
+the carriage and horses were coming down, all the same, to Eglosilyan,
+to take her back again.
+
+"Harry," she was saying at this moment, "the longer I look at you, the
+more positive I am that you are ill. I don't like your color: you are
+thin and careworn and anxious. What is the matter with you?"
+
+"Going to school again at twenty-one is hard work, grandmother," he
+said. "Don't you try it. But I don't think I'm particularly ill: few
+folks can keep a complexion like yours, grandmother."
+
+"Yes," said the old lady, rather pleased, "many's the time they said
+that about me, that there wasn't much to complain of in my looks; and
+that's what a girl thinks of then, and sweethearts and balls, and all
+the other men looking savage when she's dancing with any one of them.
+Well, well, Harry; and what is all this about you and the young lady
+your mother has made such a pet of? Oh yes, I have my suspicions; and
+she's engaged to another man, isn't she? Your grandfather would have
+fought him, I'll be bound; but we live in a peaceable way now. Well,
+well, no matter; but hasn't that got something to do with your glum
+looks, Harry?"
+
+"I tell you, grandmother, I have been hard at work in London. You can't
+look very brilliant after a few months in London."
+
+"And what keeps you in London at this time of the year?" said this
+plain-spoken old lady. "Your fancy about getting into the army?
+Nonsense, man! don't tell me such a tale as that. There's a woman in the
+case: a Trelyon never puts himself so much about from any other cause.
+To stop in town at this time of the year! Why, your grandfather, and
+your father too, would have laughed to hear of it. I haven't had a brace
+of birds or a pheasant sent me since last autumn--not one. Come, sir, be
+frank with me. I'm an old woman, but I can hold my tongue."
+
+"There's nothing to tell, grandmother," he said. "You just about hit it
+in that guess of yours: I suppose Juliott told you. Well, the girl is
+engaged to another man: what more is to be said?"
+
+"The man's in Jamaica?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why are you going down to-day?"
+
+"Only for a brief visit: I've been a long time away."
+
+The old lady sat silent for some time. She had heard of the whole affair
+before, but she wished to have the rumor confirmed. And at first she was
+sorely troubled that her grandson should contemplate marrying the
+daughter of an innkeeper, however intelligent, amiable and well-educated
+the young lady might be; but she knew the Trelyons pretty well, and knew
+that if he had made up his mind to it, argument and remonstrance would
+be useless. Moreover, she had a great affection for this young man, and
+was strongly disposed to sympathize with any wish of his. She grew in
+time to have a great interest in Miss Wenna Rosewarne: at this moment
+the chief object of her visit was to make her acquaintance. She grew to
+pity young Trelyon in his disappointment, and was inclined to believe
+that the person in Jamaica was something of a public enemy. The fact
+was, her mere sympathy for her grandson would have converted her to a
+sympathy with the wildest project he could have formed.
+
+"Dear! dear!" she said, "what awkward things engagements are when they
+stand in your way! Shall I tell you the truth? I was just about as good
+as engaged to John Cholmondeley when I gave myself up to your
+grandfather. But there! when a girl's heart pulls her one way, and her
+promise pulls her another way, she needs to be a very firm-minded young
+woman if she means to hold fast. John Cholmondeley was as good-hearted a
+young fellow as ever lived--yes, I will say that for him--and I was
+mightily sorry for him; but--but you see, that's how things come about.
+Dear! dear! that evening at Bath--I remember it as well as if it was
+yesterday; and it was only two months after I had run away with your
+grandfather. Yes, there was a ball that night; and we had kept very
+quiet, you know, after coming back; but this time your grandfather had
+set his heart on taking me out before everybody, and you know he had to
+have his way. As sure as I live, Harry, the first man I saw was John
+Cholmondeley--just as white as a ghost: they said he had been drinking
+hard and gambling pretty nearly the whole of these two months. He
+wouldn't come near me: he wouldn't take the least notice of me. The
+whole night he pretended to be vastly gay and merry: he danced with
+everybody, but his eyes never came near me. Well--you know what a girl
+is--that vexed me a little bit; for there never was a man such a slave
+to a woman as he was to me. Dear! dear! the way my father used to laugh
+at him, until he got wild with anger! Well, I went up to him at last,
+when he was by himself, and I said to him, just in a careless way, you
+know, 'John, aren't you going to dance with me to-night?' Well, do you
+know, his face got quite white again; and he said--I remember the very
+words, all as cold as ice--'Madam,' says he, 'I am glad to find that
+your hurried trip to Scotland has impaired neither your good looks nor
+your self-command.' Wasn't it cruel of him?--but then, poor fellow! he
+had been badly used, I admit that. Poor young fellow! he never did
+marry; and I don't believe he ever forgot me to his dying day. Many a
+time I'd like to have told him all about it, and how there was no use in
+my marrying him if I liked another man better; but though we met
+sometimes, and especially when he came down about the Reform Bill
+time--and I do believe I made a red-hot radical of him--he was always
+very proud, and I hadn't the heart to go back on the old story. But I'll
+tell you what your grandfather did for him: he got him returned at the
+very next election, and he on the other side, too; and after a bit a man
+begins to think more about getting a seat in Parliament than about
+courting an empty-headed girl. I have met this Mr. Roscorla, haven't I?"
+
+"Of course you have."
+
+"A good-looking man rather, with a fresh complexion and gray hair?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean by good looks," said Trelyon shortly. "I
+shouldn't think people would call him an Adonis. But there's no
+accounting for tastes."
+
+"Perhaps I may have been mistaken," the old lady said, "but there was a
+gentleman at Plymouth Station who seemed to be something like what I can
+recall of Mr. Roscorla: you didn't see him, I suppose?"
+
+"At Plymouth Station, grandmother?" the young man said, becoming rather
+uneasy.
+
+"Yes. He got into the train just as we came up. A neatly-dressed man,
+gray hair and a healthy-looking face. I must have seen him somewhere
+about here before."
+
+"Roscorla is in Jamaica," said Trelyon positively.
+
+Just at this moment the train slowed into Launceston Station, and the
+people began to get out on the platform.
+
+"That is the man I mean," said the old lady.
+
+Trelyon turned and stared. There, sure enough, was Mr. Roscorla, looking
+not one whit different from the precise, elderly, fresh-colored
+gentleman who had left Cornwall some seven months before.
+
+"Good Lord, Harry!" said the old lady nervously, looking at her
+grandson's face, "don't have a fight here."
+
+The next second Mr. Roscorla wheeled round, anxious about some luggage,
+and now it was his turn to stare in astonishment and anger--anger,
+because he had been told that Harry Trelyon never came near Cornwall,
+and his first sudden suspicion was that he had been deceived. All this
+had happened in a minute. Trelyon was the first to regain his
+self-command. He walked deliberately forward, held out his hand, and
+said, "Hillo, Roscorla! back in England again? I didn't know you were
+coming."
+
+"No," said Mr. Roscorla, with his face grown just a trifle grayer--"no,
+I suppose not."
+
+In point of fact, he had not informed any one of his coming. He had
+prepared a little surprise. The chief motive of his return was to get
+Wenna to cancel for ever that unlucky letter of release he had sent her,
+which he had done more or less successfully in subsequent
+correspondence; but he had also hoped to introduce a little romanticism
+into his meeting with her. He would enter Eglosilyan on foot. He would
+wander down to the rocks at the mouth of the harbor on the chance of
+finding Wenna there. Might he not hear her humming to herself, as she
+sat and sewed, some snatch of "Your Polly has never been false, she
+declares"? or was that the very last ballad in the world she would now
+think of singing? Then the delight of regarding again the placid, bright
+face and earnest eyes, of securing once more a perfect understanding
+between them, and their glad return to the inn!
+
+All this had been spoiled by the appearance of this young man: he loved
+him none the more for that.
+
+"I suppose you haven't got a trap waiting for you?" said Trelyon with
+cold politeness. "I can drive you over if you like."
+
+He could do no less than make the offer: the other had no alternative
+but to accept. Old Mrs. Trelyon heard this compact made with
+considerable dread.
+
+Indeed, it was a dismal drive over to Eglosilyan, bright as the forenoon
+was. The old lady did her best to be courteous to Mr. Roscorla and
+cheerful with her grandson, but she was oppressed by the belief that it
+was only her presence that had so far restrained the two men from giving
+vent to the rage and jealousy that filled their hearts.
+
+The conversation kept up was singular.
+
+"Are you going to remain in England long, Roscorla?" said the younger of
+the two men, making an unnecessary cut at one of the two horses he was
+driving.
+
+"Don't know yet. Perhaps I may."
+
+"Because," said Trelyon with angry impertinence, "I suppose if you do,
+you'll have to look round for a housekeeper."
+
+The insinuation was felt; and Roscorla's eyes looked anything but
+pleasant as he answered, "You forget I've got Mrs. Cornish to look after
+my house."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Cornish is not much of a companion for you."
+
+"Men seldom want to make companions of their housekeepers," was the
+retort, uttered rather hotly.
+
+"But sometimes they wish to have the two offices combined, for economy's
+sake."
+
+At this juncture Mrs. Trelyon struck in, somewhat wildly, with a remark
+about an old ruined house which seemed to have had at one time a private
+still inside: the danger was staved off for the moment. "Harry," she
+said, "mind what you are about: the horses seem very fresh."
+
+"Yes, they like a good run: I suspect they've had precious little to do
+since I left Cornwall."
+
+Did she fear that the young man was determined to throw them into a
+ditch or down a precipice, with the wild desire of killing his rival at
+any cost? If she had known the whole state of affairs between them--the
+story of the emerald ring, for example--she would have understood at
+least the difficulty experienced by these two men in remaining decently
+civil toward each other.
+
+So they passed over the high and wide moors until far ahead they caught
+a glimpse of the blue plain of the sea. Mr. Roscorla relapsed into
+silence: he was becoming a trifle nervous. He was probably so occupied
+with anticipations of his meeting with Wenna that he failed to notice
+the objects around him; and one of these, now become visible, was a very
+handsome young lady, who was coming smartly along a wooded lane,
+carrying a basket of bright-colored flowers.
+
+"Why, here's Mabyn Rosewarne! I must wait for her."
+
+Mabyn had seen at a distance Mrs. Trelyon's gray horses: she guessed
+that the young master had come back, and that he had brought some
+strangers with him. She did not like to be stared at by strangers. She
+came along the path with her eyes fixed on the ground: she thought it
+impertinent of Harry Trelyon to wait to speak to her.
+
+"Oh, Mabyn," he cried, "you must let me drive you home. And let me
+introduce you to my grandmother. There is some one else whom you know."
+
+The young lady bowed to Mrs. Trelyon; then she stared and changed color
+somewhat when she saw Mr. Roscorla; then she was helped up into a seat.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Trelyon?" she said. "I am very glad to see you have
+come back.--How do you do, Mr. Roscorla?"
+
+She shook hands with them both, but not quite in the same fashion.
+
+"And you have sent no message that you were coming?" she said, looking
+her companion straight in the face.
+
+"No--no, I did not," he said, angry and embarrassed by the open enmity
+of the girl. "I thought I should surprise you all."
+
+"You have surprised me, any way," said Mabyn, "for how can you be so
+thoughtless? Wenna has been very ill--I tell you she has been very ill
+indeed, though she has said little about it--and the least thing upsets
+her. How can you think of frightening her so? Do you know what you are
+doing? I wish you would go away back to Launceston or London, and write
+her a note there, if you are coming, instead of trying to frighten her."
+
+This was the language, it appeared to Mr. Roscorla, of a virago; only,
+viragoes do not ordinarily have tears in their eyes, as was the case
+with Mabyn when she finished her indignant appeal.
+
+"Mr. Trelyon, do you think it is fair to go and frighten Wenna so?" she
+demanded.
+
+"It is none of my business," Trelyon answered with an air as if he had
+said to his rival, "Yes, go and kill the girl. You are a nice sort of
+gentleman, to come down from London to kill the girl!"
+
+"This is absurd," said Mr. Roscorla contemptuously, for he was stung
+into reprisal by the persecution of these two: "a girl isn't so easily
+frightened out of her wits. Why, she must have known that my coming home
+was at any time probable."
+
+"I have no doubt she feared that it was," said Mabyn, partly to herself:
+for once she was afraid of speaking out. Presently, however, a brighter
+light came over the girl's face. "Why, I quite forgot," she said,
+addressing Harry Trelyon--"I quite forgot that Wenna was just going up
+to Trelyon Hall when I left. Of course she will be up there. You will be
+able to tell her that Mr. Roscorla has arrived, won't you?"
+
+The malice of this suggestion was so apparent that the young gentleman
+in front could not help grinning at it: fortunately, his face could not
+be seen by his rival. What _he_ thought of the whole arrangement
+can only be imagined. And so, as it happened, Mr. Roscorla and his
+friend Mabyn were dropped at the inn, while Harry Trelyon drove his
+grandmother up and on to the Hall.
+
+"Well, Harry," the old lady said, "I am glad to be able to breathe at
+last: I thought you two were going to kill each other."
+
+"There is no fear of that," the young man said: "that is not the way in
+which this affair has to be settled. It is entirely a matter for her
+decision; and look how everything is in his favor. I am not even allowed
+to say a word to her; and even if I could, he is a deal cleverer than me
+in argument. He would argue my head off in half an hour."
+
+"But you don't turn a girl's heart round by argument, Harry. When a girl
+has to choose between a young lover and an elderly one, it isn't always
+good sense that directs her choice. Is Miss Wenna Rosewarne at all like
+her sister?"
+
+"She's not such a tomboy," he said, "but she is quite as straightforward
+and proud, and quick to tell you what is the right thing to do. There's
+no sort of shamming tolerated by these two girls. But then Wenna is
+gentler and quieter, and more soft and lovable, than Mabyn--in my fancy,
+you know; and she is more humorous and clever, so that she never gets
+into those school-girl rages. But it is really a shame to compare them
+like that; and, indeed, if any one said the least thing against one of
+these girls, the other would precious soon make him regret the day he
+was born. You don't catch me doing that with either of them. I've had a
+warning already when I hinted that Mabyn might probably manage to keep
+her husband in good order. And so she would, I believe, if the husband
+were not of the right sort; but when she is really fond of anybody, she
+becomes their slave out and out. There is nothing she wouldn't do for
+her sister; and her sister thinks there's nobody in the world like
+Mabyn. So you see--"
+
+He stopped in the middle of this sentence.
+
+"Grandmother," he said, almost in a whisper, "here she is coming along
+the road."
+
+"Miss Rosewarne?"
+
+"Yes: shall I introduce you?"
+
+"If you like."
+
+Wenna was coming down the steep road between the high hedges with a
+small girl on each side of her, whom she was leading by the hand. She
+was gayly talking to them: you could hear the children laughing at what
+she said. Old Mrs. Trelyon came to the conclusion that this merry young
+lady, with the light and free step, the careless talk and fresh color in
+her face, was certainly not dying of any love-affair.
+
+"Take the reins, grandmother, for a minute."
+
+He had leapt down into the road, and was standing before her almost ere
+she had time to recognize him. For a moment a quick gleam of gladness
+shone on her face: then, almost instinctively, she seemed to shrink from
+him, and she was reserved, distant, and formal.
+
+He introduced her to the old lady, who said something nice to her about
+her sister. The young man was looking wistfully at her, troubled at
+heart that she treated him so coldly.
+
+"I have got to break some news to you," he said: "perhaps you will
+consider it good news."
+
+She looked up quickly.
+
+"Nothing has happened to anybody--only some one has arrived. Mr.
+Roscorla is at the inn."
+
+She did not flinch. He was vexed with her that she showed no sign of
+fear or dislike. On the contrary, she quickly said that she must then go
+down to the inn; and she bade them both good-bye in a placid and
+ordinary way, while he drove off with dark thoughts crowding into his
+imagination of what might happen down at the inn during the next few
+days. He was angry with her, he scarcely knew why.
+
+Meanwhile Wenna, apparently quite calm, went on down the road, but there
+was no more laughing in her voice, no more light in her face.
+
+"Miss Wenna," said the smaller of the two children, who could not
+understand this change, and who looked up with big, wondering eyes, "why
+does oo tremble so?"
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+SONNET.
+
+
+    The curious eye may watch her lovely face,
+      Whereon such rare and roseate tinctures glow,
+    And cry, How fair the rose and lily show
+      Mid all the glories of a maiden grace!
+    If this sweet show, this bloom and tender glance,
+      Would so attract a stranger's unskilled eyes,
+    Until he sees the light of Paradise
+      Dawn in the garden of that countenance--
+    I, to whom love hath given finer powers,
+      See there the emblems of a flowering soul
+    That hath its root in other world than ours,
+      And which doth ever seek its native goal;
+    Meanwhile decks life with love and grace and flowers,
+      And in one beauteous garland binds the whole.
+
+                                        F.A. HILLARD.
+
+
+
+
+NICE.
+
+
+Twenty-Two centuries ago--eighteen hundred years before Columbus sailed
+in quest of the New World--a Phocean colony from Marseilles founded this
+celebrated city, calling it Niche (Nice or Victory), in honor of a
+signal triumph obtained by their arms over their enemies, the Ligurians,
+or inhabitants of the northern coast of Italy. For ages it flourished,
+being almost as famous with the ancients as a health-resort as it is
+to-day; but its evil hour came when the Goths, Lombards and Franks in
+A.D. 405, pouring through the defiles and gorges of the Maritime Alps,
+laid Nice and almost all the other cities of Italy, even beyond Rome, in
+ashes. A hundred years later it was rebuilt, but its beautiful forum,
+its classical temples, its mosaic-paved villas and marble theatres had
+disappeared utterly, and the new city was but a shadow of the old. In
+the tenth century the Saracens conquered Nice, and remained in quiet
+possession for seventy years, and during their stay introduced much of
+the tropical vegetation which we still admire. They were finally driven
+away by the insurgent natives in A.D. 975, but they left the impress of
+their occupation in many Arabic words which still mark the local
+_patois_; and as a number of the fugitives were captured and reduced to
+slavery, intermarrying in the course of time with the native population,
+the Moorish type is still very noticeable amongst the peasantry. Freed
+from the Saracenic yoke, the Nicois lived in peace for nearly two
+centuries, being only disturbed from time to time by the unwelcome
+visitations of pirates. Later on, toward the middle of the thirteenth
+century, like most other Southern and Italian cities, Nice fell a victim
+to the constant quarrels of the powerful families allied respectively to
+the Ghibelline and Guelphic factions. Thus, the incessant broils between
+the Lascaris of Tenda, the Grimaldis of Monaco and the Dorias of
+Dolceacqua desolated the surrounding country, and often reduced the city
+to a state of siege. The Nicois were compelled to keep up a perpetual
+guerilla, which, however inspiriting, was by no means conducive to their
+material prosperity. In 1364 an invasion of locusts from Africa led to a
+famine, and ultimately a plague which destroyed two-thirds of the
+population. The people, attributing their misfortunes to the
+intercession of the Jews with the powers below, rose up and massacred
+them: only five Israelites out of over two thousand are said to have
+escaped their blind fury. When order was at last re-established, and the
+Nicois began to settle down again, they perceived their impoverished and
+subordinate position to be so alarming that their only chance of safety
+was immediately to place themselves under the protection of the dukes of
+Savoy, who for a century and a half defended them from the attacks of
+their numerous enemies in a most valiant manner. But in 1521, Francis I.
+of France wrenched the city and province from the beneficent rule of the
+Savoyards and proclaimed himself count of Nice. In 1524 war broke out
+between Francis and the emperor Charles V., and the contending armies
+alternately devastated and pillaged Nice and its environs. The pest
+reappeared, and with it a drought and famine of so fearful a character
+that many thousand persons perished, and others in their despair slew
+themselves. Pope Paul III. undertook the difficult task of reconciling
+the belligerents, and even went so far as to travel to Nice for the
+purpose. A marble cross which gives its name to a suburb of the town
+("La Croix de Marbre") still marks the spot where the conference took
+place in which Francis and Charles swore a peace in the presence of His
+Holiness which they took the first opportunity to violate. In 1540 the
+war recommenced, and a number of dissolute young men of good family
+formed themselves into organized companies of bandits and overran
+the country, to the terror of the wretched peasantry and the utter ruin
+of many hundreds of honest families. But in 1543 a second Joan of Arc
+was raised up by Providence to deliver the Nicois in the person of the
+still popular heroine, Catterina Segurana. Francis I. had recently
+scandalized Christendom by allying himself with the famous Mohammedan
+corsair, Barbarossa of Algiers with a view of reconquering Nice, which
+he considered the key of Italy. Accordingly, one fine morning three
+hundred vessels belonging to the Algerine pirate entered the neighboring
+port of Villefranche, and presently the whole country was filled with a
+horde of turbaned freebooters. Cimiez, Montboron, Mont Gros and a
+hundred other villages and hamlets were soon alive with French marauders
+and Turkish pirates, who presently proceeded to bombard the city itself.
+The siege was short, but terrible, and the inhabitants were at the last
+gasp when the energetic Catterina Segurana, a washer-woman by trade, and
+surnamed _Mao faccia_ ("Ugly face"), on account of the homeliness of her
+countenance, seized a hatchet, and, after a vigorous address to her
+fellow-citizens, placed herself at their head and led them against the
+enemy. The same result attended her efforts as did those of her
+immediate prototype, the glorious Maid of Orleans. She so animated the
+people, so roused their patriotism, that before the day was over the
+French and infidels were conquered, and the bold and generous Catterina.
+stood surrounded by her enthusiastic fellow-citizens, waving the
+conquered Algerine flag, in token of victory, from the summit of the
+castle hill, on the spot where formerly stood her statue.[001]
+
+From the time of the brave Catterina to our own, Nice has sustained at
+least a dozen sieges of more or less severity. That of 1706 was perhaps
+one of the most shocking on record. The city, by the treaty of Turin of
+1696, had once more passed under the protectorate of the dukes of Savoy,
+but the French, who have always had a longing eye for the "Department of
+the Maritime Alps," as they even then called it, broke the treaty they
+had themselves framed, and sent the duc de la Feuillade over the
+frontier with twenty thousand men to conquer the country. Nice was then
+governed by the marquis de Caraglio, who, although entreated by the
+enemy to allow the women and children to leave the city's gates,
+positively refused to do so. The consequence was that during the siege,
+which lasted six months, more than a third of the inhabitants perished
+from starvation. Men are said to have killed their wives for food, and
+women their children. Sixty thousand shells fell in various parts of the
+town, and the castle, cathedral and many churches were entirely
+destroyed.[002]
+
+In 1792, under the First Republic, Nice was again occupied by the
+French, and declared a _chef-lieu de departement_. By the treaty of 1814
+the place was handed over to the Piedmontese, and stayed contentedly
+beneath the rule of the Sardinian kings until 1860, when, by the treaty
+of March 24, Napoleon III. annexed the county of Nice and the duchy of
+Savoy to his imperial possessions, in exchange for the services his army
+had rendered Italy at Magenta and Solferino. How long Nice will continue
+French is a question somewhat difficult to answer just now. There exists
+in the city and province a very strong Italian party, and during the war
+of 1870, Nice was declared in a state of siege, owing to the constant
+and very serious demonstrations of a certain part of the population. One
+of the leading inhabitants, a noted banker, even went so far as
+to travel to Florence with the intention of proving to the Italian
+government that whilst the French troops were concentrated in the north
+those of Victor Emmanuel would find no difficulty in crossing the
+frontier and uniting Nice to Italy. To the honor of the Italian
+government, this treacherous suggestion was rejected, but in those days
+the feeling between France and Italy was more cordial than it has since
+been. The Italian party is so active in the city and the department that
+the government has difficulty in keeping note of its proceedings.
+Thousands of pamphlets are secretly circulated amongst the lower orders,
+in which the advantages of the city's return to Italy are vividly
+contrasted with the disadvantages it suffers from by remaining French.
+The clergy, however, who are both numerous and influential, are French
+to a man, and dread the hour which will see them governed by the "jailer
+of Pius IX.," and consequently prove a very great assistance to the
+authorities in counteracting the intrigues of the Italians. But should
+ever, in future years, a war break out between either France and Italy,
+or between France and Italy's new ally, Prussia, the _question de Nice_
+will be once more on the _tapis_, and victory alone will preserve this
+magnificent possession to its present owners.
+
+Nice may well boast herself a rival in point of splendor of natural
+position of the most famous cities of the South--of Lisbon, Genoa,
+Naples and Constantinople--and she eclipses them in point of climate.
+Built at the eastern extremity of a fine gulf--that of Les Anges--and
+backed by an amphitheatre of hills and lofty mountains, she is sheltered
+from cold winds in winter, and in summer the Alpine breezes temper an
+atmosphere which would else be unendurably sultry, owing to the
+prevalence of the sirocco, a hot wind which passes directly hither over
+the Mediterranean from the burning shores of Africa. One can scarcely
+imagine a more glorious panorama than that of this city and its environs
+as seen from the sea or from any neighboring elevation. Let us suppose
+it a fine morning late in spring, and that we stand upon the deck of a
+yacht about a mile and a half distant from the shore. Nice, we see,
+surrounds a steep and rugged rock which rises almost perpendicularly
+from the Mediterranean to the height of about six hundred feet, and is
+crested by the ruins of the ancient castle, and covered with terraced
+gardens forming a delicious promenade. Groves of cypresses and sycamores
+hang on the declivities of this rock, which in places is rough with
+cactuses and aloes and with the Indian fig, whose bright orange flowers,
+when the sun's rays fall on them, have a magic splendor of color. A
+group of palm trees at the extremest elevation, standing out on a high
+crag, add not a little to the picturesque appearance of this singular
+urban hill. On one side of this rock the rapid torrent Paillon,
+traversed by several handsome bridges, some of them adorned with
+statues, separates the "old" from the "new" town. On the other is the
+port, filled with steamers and innumerable fishing-craft. Beyond the
+port stretches the Boulevard de l'Imperatrice, inaugurated a few years
+since by the late empress of Russia, with its fine villas, notably the
+splendid Venetian Palace, an exact reproduction of the celebrated
+Moncenigo Palace at Venice, belonging to Viscount Vigier, whose wife was
+once a popular idol of the musical world of Paris and London--Sophie
+Cruvelli--and the extraordinary Moresque-looking castle of Mr. Smith,
+which is well called the _Folie d'un Anglais_--the "craze of an
+Englishman." The latter stands on the end of a promontory, and with its
+lofty towers and domes closes in the view. It is perhaps the most
+curious residence in the world, being built on a barren rock, and its
+apartments literally hewn out of the marble of which it is composed. On
+the top of the hill is a long building, with two curious twin towers and
+a dome, built of red brick faced with white marble. Here is situated the
+chief entrance. You descend from the spacious entry-hall a long well
+staircase cut in the rock and lighted from above, until you reach a
+superb octagonal chamber of white marble ornamented with
+statues and Oriental divans covered with Persian silk. This is the great
+saloon, and leading out of it are other fine chambers, all of them lined
+with polished marble and furnished with Eastern magnificence.
+Externally, there is no trace of these chambers visible. They are, as I
+have said, excavated, like Egyptian tombs, in the heart of the mountain.
+The proprietor, an eccentric English bachelor, never inhabits this
+fantastic mansion, but lives in a second-rate hotel, spending thousands
+annually in adding embellishments to his astonishing castle, where,
+notwithstanding its magnificent suites of apartments, no human being has
+ever slept a night or eaten a meal.
+
+"Smith's Craze," as I have said, closes in the view to our right. To the
+left, beyond the torrent Paillon, is situated modern Nice, with its
+quays, leviathan hotels, and an almost interminable line of villas
+marking the celebrated Promenade des Anglais. The background of the
+scene is filled up by a semicircle of well-wooded hills, verdant with
+vines, fig, orange, olive and pomegranate trees, and sparkling with
+white country-seats, convents, and campanili. Towering over these hills
+appears another range, of rocky and bold outlines, and then another, of
+lofty mountains whose peaks lose themselves in clouds, and by their
+fantastic figures form as delightful an horizon as the eye can behold.
+In the centre rises the conical peak of Monte Cao, an extinct volcano,
+exactly resembling Vesuvius in conformation, and only wanting a curl of
+smoke issuing from its crater to make the illusion perfect. Alongside of
+Monte Cao is another extinct volcano, on which are seen the ruins of the
+ancient and deserted village of Chateauneuf, while between the two
+summits (thirty-five hundred feet high) are distinctly visible the peaks
+of some of the ever-snowy Alps. The foreground of the picture is formed
+by the deep indigo waters of the Mediterranean, diversified by a hundred
+sunny sails, and overhead hangs the cloudless Italian sky.
+
+Let us now put back to port and walk through the city, visiting first
+Old Nice, then the modern Pompeii, as Alphonse Karr pleasantly calls
+the new town. Old Nice resembles Genoa on a small scale, and has very
+narrow streets of lofty (and in some cases really fine) houses, no end
+of churches, gloomy-looking convents, and one or two palaces. In the
+narrow streets surrounding the cathedral--a large and showy building,
+formerly a parish church--is a market supplied with native
+fruits--oranges, lemons, grapes, figs, and many varieties of melons and
+nuts. The streets, which are in places so narrow that you can almost
+stretch your arms across them, are full of bright-looking shops, with
+all their varied goods displayed at the open, unglazed windows. Here and
+there one comes across remains of ancient times of considerable
+interest. Thus, in the Rue Droite is an old house, with a series of
+quaint little arches and a curious Gothic gateway, which was formerly
+part of the palace inhabited by Joanna II. of Naples. Near the church of
+St. Jacques is another old residence, with an odd decoration on its
+front in the shape of colossal figures of Adam and Eve, executed in
+alto-rilievo, which have their feet on either side of the doorway and
+their heads above the fifth story. The tree of knowledge, over-laden
+with its dangerous fruit, flourishes between the windows of what was
+once the saloon, and is now a manufactory of maccaroni. In the Rue du
+Centre is the quondam palace of the Lascaris family, an old Italian
+mansion, with marble balconies, wide, majestic staircases adorned with
+Corinthian columns, and vast apartments frescoed by Carlone, a reputable
+Genoese painter of mythological subjects. Carlone's gods and goddesses
+look down no longer on the members of the House of Lascaris, who once
+ruled over Tenda, and were the lineal descendants of the imperial
+Byzantine house of Del Comneno, but on those of an amiable Nicois
+family, who most willingly show the old palace to any stranger who may
+choose to knock at their door.
+
+Some years ago a Turinese lawyer, looking over his father's private
+papers, discovered that he was the legitimate heir to the Lascaris
+titles and estates, which had been left unreclaimed for many
+centuries. This gentleman, on proving his claim, assumed the grandiose
+title of Prince Lascaris del Comneno, grand duke of Macedonia. His glory
+was short-lived. His wife went to Rome and obtained a full recognition
+of her rights from the Holy Father and admission into the first circles
+of Roman society, but was subsequently expelled from the city for
+plotting against the papal government; but she returned with the
+Piedmontese occupation in 1870, only, however, to get into a still worse
+pickle by exposing herself to the charge of defrauding Flaminio Spada's
+bank of a large sum of money. During the trial she _mizzled_, and has
+not, I believe, been heard of since. This lady is the famous "Princess
+Mopsa" about whose adventures the Roman papers have entertained their
+readers considerably during the last year or so.
+
+The churches are usually in the Italian style, having heavy facades,
+plain brick sides and queer but rather picturesque bell-towers.
+Internally, they are gaudy and tasteless, the altars ornamented on high
+days and holidays with innumerable wax candles, festoons of red, white
+and blue drapery, and huge pyramids of paper roses with gold foliage.
+Ecclesiastical affairs are presided over by Monsignor Pietro Sola, a
+charming old bishop, who is the essence of kindliness and charity. He
+was formerly one of the spiritual directors of Queen Adelaide of
+Austria, the late wife of Victor Emmanuel. The number of priests, monks
+and nuns is very considerable. There is a very large Franciscan
+monastery up at Cimiez on the hill, and a rambling old Capuchin convent
+at St. Bartolome. The Nice Capuchins are a splendid body of men, and a
+goodly sight to see marching in a procession with their
+chocolate-colored hooded robes and long, flowing beards. Their present
+prior is a marquis Raggi of Genoa, a man of high family and rank, who
+some years since abandoned a world he had known only too well, gave all
+his fortune to the poor, and turned monk.
+
+There is a street in the old part of Nice which is perfectly unique. It
+is nearly a mile and a half long, runs parallel with the sea, and
+consists of a double row of low, one-storied houses having a paved
+terrace on their roofs, to which you ascend by several handsome
+staircases. The terrace forms a very popular promenade of an evening,
+and from it are enjoyed lovely views of the bay and mountains. Between
+these two rows of houses is the fish-market, where are frequently seen
+displayed monsters like Victor Hugo's famous _pieuve_ sprawling out
+their dozen glutinous legs fringed with eyes and deadly weapons in
+almost supernatural hideousness, to the admiration of a group of English
+or American tourists. Hard by the fish-market is the Corso, a shady
+promenade round which the gala carriages drive in Carnival time, while
+the masked inmates pelt and get pelted in turn with comfits made of
+painted clay. The Corso is also the scene of numerous religious
+processions, some of which are quaint and picturesque. There are a
+number of ancient confraternities established amongst the trades-people
+of Nice, who wear costumes of, red, white, black and blue serge,
+according to the guild they belong to. This sack-like garment covers
+them from head to foot, face and all, there being only two eyeholes slit
+in the mask to permit the wearer to see out. These brotherhoods attend
+the sick, bury the dead and take care of the widows and orphans, and in
+Holy Week make the narrow streets of the old city delightful to the
+artistic eye by the bright mass of their vivid-colored raiment, the
+flickering of their tapers, and the gigantic crucifixes of gold and
+silver they carry in procession from church to church. Every morning
+there is a market held on the Corso of fruits, vegetables and flowers.
+Such magnificent baskets of camellias, japonicas and roses, such
+nosegays of violets and orange-blossoms, can be seen, I fancy, nowhere
+but at Nice. Here also the peasant-women sometimes bring immense pots of
+Peruvian aloes for sale, whose snowy blossoms are scented like those of
+the magnolia, and rise in gigantic pyramids of magnificent cup-shaped
+flowers. They are plants to salute respectfully as you pass by
+them, such is their size and dignity. In Holy Week women are to be seen
+all over the old town selling plaited palm branches of a pale
+straw-color, some of which are bedecked with little bows of ribbon or
+stars of tinsel, used in the ceremonies of Palm Sunday. The
+peasant-girls who come to market at Nice are rather handsome, but as
+dark as Nubians, with almond-shaped eyes and long, coarse black hair,
+which they wear plaited into tails bound round the head with broad
+velvet ribbons, like a coronet. On the top of this headgear they sport a
+wide-brimmed straw hat of peculiar shape, ornamented with little black
+crosses made of narrow velvet. In Princess Marie Lichtenstein's _Holland
+House_ there is a portrait of Lady Augusta Holland wearing one of these
+Nice hats.
+
+But it is time for us to cross the bridges and pay our respects to Nice
+the "new." When I first visited Nice in 1856 at least two-thirds of this
+part of the city were not in existence. There were no splendid
+railway-stations then; only one or two, instead of twenty, monster
+hotels; the Promenade des Anglais only extended about a mile along the
+shore, instead of four; and there were but one quay and two bridges. Now
+superb quays line the river on either side, and there are six bridges,
+and Heaven only knows how many churches for the accommodation of all the
+denominations imaginable and unimaginable, from Pere Lavigne's very
+beautiful and very orthodox church, in which Monsignor Capel has
+preached in Lent, down to Leon Pilate's, where collections are made for
+the evangelical missions presided over by Mrs. Gould and W.C. Van Metre.
+There is a Greek church of exceeding beauty, the altar-screen of which
+was sent from Moscow as a present from the czar; and an Episcopal
+church, surrounded by a beautiful cemetery, where sleeps the philosophic
+Bussy d'Anglas, with many others whose names are well known. The real
+Nicois almost all dwell in Old Nice, leaving the new city to the foreign
+colony. Indeed, the natives are rarely if ever seen, except in the
+street. They keep to their old quiet way of living, and, beyond letting
+their houses and selling their goods, appear to be utterly unconscious
+even of the existence of the strangers on the other side of Paillon.
+Many of the Nice families are titled and wealthy, but with the exception
+of that of the count de Cessoles, it is very rare to meet the Nicois in
+society. Mademoiselle Mathilde de Cessoles is the reigning belle, and
+deserves the honor. She is a superb-looking woman, with a head and
+countenance worthy of a regal diadem. Her features resemble those of the
+House of Bourbon, her complexion is admirable, and she has a certain
+good-natured, indolent, sultana way of moving which is perfectly
+charming. Cupid alone knows how many have sighed for her hand since her
+long reign as a queen of society began, but none have as yet been
+favored with a kinder glance than that of friendship. Scottish dukes,
+Roman princes and American officers have wooed, but never won: la belle
+Mathilde still walks the orange groves of her villa, "in virgin
+meditation, fancy free."
+
+"But it waxes late--'tis near three o'clock:" let us hasten past the
+casinos, cafes, reading-rooms, Turkish baths and American drinking-bars
+which flourish on the quays, and make our way to the Promenade des
+Anglais, by this time alive with fashionables. The "Promenade," as I
+have said, is nearly four miles long, and faces the sea. It is very
+broad, and has on one side a row of villas and hotels--on the other a
+walk shaded by oleanders and palm trees, through the openings of which
+are obtained magnificent views of the Mediterranean. Some of these
+villas are remarkably beautiful, especially that of the Princes Stirby,
+the former sovereigns of Wallachia, which is surrounded with exquisite
+gardens abounding with noble camellia trees, some of which produce as
+many as fifteen hundred flowers. The Villa de Dempierre is very pretty,
+and is the property of the countess of that name, who is a most
+noteworthy person. Madame de Dempierre belongs to one of the most
+ancient and wealthy families of France. She was once a great
+beauty, and is still a brilliant wit and charming artist. Some years ago
+she visited the empress of Russia, then residing at Nice, where she
+died. Her Imperial Majesty, who was noted for her habit of making
+personal remarks, said bluntly, "Madame la comtesse, how beautiful you
+must have been!" "Majesty," answered the _spirituelle_ Madame de
+Dempierre, "you were complaining of the nearness of your sight: since
+you can distinguish my beauty through the vista of so many years, I
+think you enjoy long-sightedness in a remarkable degree." The empress
+wrinkled her nose, and presently observed: "I think, countess, I
+remember to have seen your husband, General de Dempierre, in Russia."
+"Doubtless Your Majesty did so: he was the first Frenchman that entered
+the Kremlin." The czarina was silent: the fall of Moscow was not a
+pleasant subject of conversation to the wife of Nicholas. The Villa de
+Diesbach comes next, the winter residence of the historical family of
+that name, into which married a few years since a tall, gazelle-eyed
+American belle, Miss Meta McCall. Then follows the pretty Villa
+Bouxhoevden, the property of a Corlandese count of a very noble house,
+whose wife hails from New Jersey. The countess is much the fashion, and
+her hospitable house is a rendezvous of the elite of the foreign and
+American colony. She is a tall, graceful woman, with a pale and
+interesting countenance, shadowed with clusters of light-brown curls,
+which reminds one of Vandyke's portraits of Queen Henrietta Maria--a
+likeness somewhat increased by costumes admirably suited to her
+style--long flowing robes of rich silk trimmed with ermine and costly
+lace. Then there is Mrs. Williams's garden, with Indian creepers and
+gaudy Eastern plants, sent to her by her gallant son, the Crimean hero,
+from the slopes of the Himalayas. Here on a Sunday gathers a pleasant
+circle to drink five-o'clock tea and listen to the bright remarks of
+Madame de la Caume, the daughter of the hostess, who knows more about
+French politics than many a deputy at Versailles. But whilst we have
+been looking in at villa-gardens the Promenade has filled up rapidly. A
+continuous stream of carriages occupies the centre of the road, a throng
+of gay folks animate with their showiest toilets the oleander walk and
+the Jardin Publique, where a tolerable band plays for two or three hours
+thrice a week. The marble stairs of the Casino are crowded with
+loungers, and the windows and balconies of every villa are filled with
+well-dressed men and women. Nowhere, perhaps, excepting in Rotten Row or
+the Bois de Boulogne, can so many celebrated and beautiful women and
+handsome or famous men be seen parading up and down together as on the
+Promenade des Anglais of a fine afternoon in the season. Here gathers
+the _creme de la creme_ of two worlds, the Old and the New, Europe and
+America. In the winter of 1870 the town was crowded to excess. Never
+before were there so many notabilities assembled at Nice--never was
+there so much gossip, so much _cancan_ and small talk. It was amusing to
+sit in the shade of a palm tree on the promenade and review the
+_personae_ of this Vanity Fair. Frederick Charles of Prussia and his
+princess in a landau, with two Nubians on the box; the crown-princess
+Victoria of England and her sister of Hesse-Darmstadt, on a trip from
+Cannes, where they were then visiting; Her Grace of Newcastle; De
+Villemessant of the _Figaro_, in an invalid's chair, the most
+accomplished of _causeurs_; Count Montalivet, the former minister of
+Louis Philippe, and by him, for a few days at the full of the season, a
+little old gentleman with a squeaky voice, M. Adolphe Thiers. Next comes
+a group of ladies, the three daughters of the Hispano-Mexican duchess De
+Fernan-Nunez; all three looking exactly alike, tall and dark; all three
+of a height; all three invariably dressed in black, with lofty Tyrolese
+hats and cocks' feathers; all three unmarried; all three marriageable,
+and worth Croesus only knows how many millions; all three invariably
+alone--a fact which made old Madame Colaredo scream out of her window
+one day, "_Tiens! voila les trois cent (sans) gardes_!" Then follow
+Lord Rokeby, the most affable of lordships; Lord Portarlington;
+General Sir William Williams of Kars; Princess Kantacuzene, the last
+descendant of the imperial Byzantine house of that name; the ideally
+lovely Miss Amy Shaw of Boston; the three pretty Miss Warrens of New
+York; Madame Gavini de Campile, the wife of the prefect, a fine-looking
+dame gloriously arrayed in showy robes, whom half the society adored and
+the rest cordially hated; the duke de Mouchy, who married Anna Murat;
+the duke de Perigord-Talleyrand, who married an American; the duke de la
+Conquista, who derives his title from the conquest of Peru; the lovely
+countess Del Borgo; and the famous Italian beauty, Madame Bellotti, a
+Milanese lady, whose maiden name was Visconti, of that semi-royal house.
+Theresa Bellotti's beauty is of a grand style seen nowhere out of Italy.
+Picture her to yourself as I once saw her at a masquerade at the
+prefecture. Round her superb figure swept an ample robe of crimson
+velvet looped up with bands of gold. Her bare arms, models worthy of the
+chisel of Canova, gleamed from the rich sables which lined the hanging
+sleeves of her dress. Her hair, dark as night, was gathered up in the
+high fashion Sir Joshua Reynolds loved to depict. A half-moon of
+enormous diamonds fastened a plume over her left temple, and her neck
+and fingers flashed back the colors of the rainbow from a thousand gems.
+As to her face, it was radiant. Rich color flushed her cheeks, her eyes
+sparkled with animation when she spoke; but at times, when her features
+resumed a calm after conversation, she resembled the portraits of some
+of the famous Italian women of the Renaissance--her own ancestress, for
+instance, Bianca Visconti, duchess of Milan, or Veronica Cibo, or
+Lucrezia Petroni, whose daughter was the ill-fated Beatrice Cenci. And
+now come by the fascinating Mrs. Lloyd, whom all the world knows and
+likes; grand-looking Mrs. Senator Grymes of Louisiana, a witty,
+brilliant old lady, whose salon is one of the most elegant in Nice;
+Baron Haussmann, and with him his colossal daughter, Madame de Perneti,
+the handsomest of giantesses, who was once asked to join in private
+theatricals, but when the stage was built up in her friend's
+drawing-room, being about five feet from the level of the rest of the
+chamber, it was discovered that _la belle Caryatide_, as her friends
+call her, could not act on it, for the simple reason that she was a full
+head taller than the scenery; clever Madame de Skariatine, the daughter
+of the famous Count Schouvalof (the "Shoveloff" of our times), who,
+after being Russian ambassador half over Europe, turned Barnabite monk
+at Rome; Lady Dalling and Bulwer, the great duke of Wellington's niece,
+and now the widow of one of England's most illustrious statesmen;
+hospitable Marquise de St. Agnan, and her pretty daughter, Mademoiselle
+Henriette; and Princess Souvarow, _ci-devant_ widow Apraxine, _ci-devant_
+widow Kisselof, the most fascinating of Russian princesses, and one of
+the greatest of female gamblers, who one night broke the bank at Monte
+Carlo for two hundred and fifty thousand francs, and lost them the next.
+On the opposite side of the way, screening herself from observation,
+demurely clad in sober-colored attire, Madame Volnis passes along from
+some mission of charity. This lady was once one of the most popular
+actresses on the French stage, and with Mademoiselle Mars and Rose Cheri
+was the idol of Paris--Leontine Fay. She was, if possible, a still
+greater favorite in St. Petersburg, where, on her retirement from the
+stage, she became French reader to the late czarina. Since the death of
+the empress she has always resided at Nice, where she is distinguished
+for her exalted piety and extreme charity. Even when on the stage this
+lady devoted her leisure to charitable works. She was always remarked
+for her modesty of manner: her dress was simplicity itself. At the
+theatre she wore costumes rich and elegant, suited to the parts she
+enacted, but in society she invariably appeared in plain white muslin or
+dark silk. It would be impossible to exaggerate her goodness. Her whole
+life has been passed amongst the poor, in the minute fulfillment
+of her duties, and on her knees in church. After acting one part of
+the evening, she would hasten, on the fall of the curtain, to pass the
+rest of it watching by the bedside of some poor wretch stricken low
+perhaps by some infectious disease. During the war of 1870, Madame
+Volnis's conduct was angelical. If there was some awful operation to be
+performed upon any of the wounded soldiers sent to Nice from the field
+of battle, it was she who was present, who held the sufferer's hand, and
+who consoled and cheered with the tenderness of a Sister of Charity--of
+a mother.
+
+As the austere figure of Leontine Fay passes away, hidden in a cloud of
+sunny dust raised by the wheels of a hundred carriages, another form
+comes upon the stage, radiant amongst the most brilliant, the observed
+of all observers--Madame Rattazzi, _nee_ Princess Bonaparte Wyse. What a
+wonderful toilette is hers! One fine afternoon she appeared upon the
+Promenade clad in a purple velvet robe, edged and flounced with
+canary-colored satin, looped up voluminously _en panier_, and adorned
+with big bows of yellow ribbon. Her hat was a broad-brimmed Leghorn
+straw trimmed with large bunches of pansies. No one but Madame Rattazzi
+could have worn such an attire in the public streets without the risk of
+being hooted, but such are the grace and beauty of this celebrated woman
+that her costume seemed in perfect keeping. She was in Nice one winter
+for at least five months, and every day saw her out in a fresh dress.
+When she travels she has more boxes than Madame Ristori. She dwelt on
+the Promenade, over the dowager of Colaredo, who had a special spite
+against her; in consequence of which she invariably illuminated her
+windows, when she had company, with the Italian colors, red, white and
+green, to the supreme disgust of the old Ultramontane countess. Her
+apartment was elegantly furnished, and adorned with beautiful vases of
+mignonette and plants of moss-roses. When she received of an evening the
+chambers were agreeably lighted up with many pale and subdued lamps. Her
+tables were always covered with new books, magazines and several copies
+of her own poems and novels, including an exceedingly clever story,
+_Louise Keller_, which she had just finished. On the walls hung pictures
+in oil and water-colors of her own execution; on the piano were
+scattered, together with much classical music, some hymns, polkas and
+ballads of her composition. One night she acted in a comedy of her own
+writing, and her rendering of the part of the heroine, a witty and
+intriguing widow, was inimitable. Many severe critics have declared that
+Madame Rattazzi is, as an actress, a worthy rival of Fargeuil or
+Madeleine Brohan. Her manners are very fascinating--a little bit too
+natural to be quite French, and a little too ceremonious to be quite
+Italian. She would have proved an invaluable acquisition at the downfall
+of the tower of Babel, for she is mistress of I dare not say how many
+languages. As a rule, women hate her, and men do just the contrary. This
+is not to be wondered at, for she is very beautiful even now. Her face
+has the chiseled cameo features of her uncle, Napoleon I.; her eyes are
+deep violet, fringed with long sweeping lashes; her mouth is perfectly
+exquisite, and on either side of it two pretty dimples appear whenever
+she smiles. So many enemies has she amongst her own sex that to avenge
+herself for the affronts they constantly offer her she published a
+magazine in Florence called the _Matinees Italiennes_, for the purpose
+of showing up her female antagonists. Here is a sample: "At Nice a grand
+ball; Madame la Viscomtesse de B---- _en grande toilette_, looking for
+all the world like a big Nuremberg doll, with her black hair dyed an
+impossible straw-color, and appearing at least five years younger than
+she did when I first saw her make her _debut_ in society five-and-twenty
+years ago; and she was then a gushing maiden of twenty-one." By and by
+comes the hour of vengeance. Madame Rattazzi gives a ball, and not a
+woman will go to it. In 1870 she gave one at the Grand Hotel, to which
+half the town was invited. There arrived at the festal scene
+about five hundred men and just thirty-two women. It was funny enough.
+The thirty-two women besported themselves with thirty-two partners in
+the centre of the hall to the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut,
+psaltery, and all kinds of musical instruments, whilst the rest of the
+men stood round the hall five deep, like a deep dark fringe on a Turkish
+carpet. Madame Rattazzi, however, achieved a great triumph against all
+odds. By dint of grace, charm of manners and tact she put all her guests
+in the best humor. The "thirty-two" had a fine time of it, and danced to
+their hearts' content. The five hundred men were introduced and grouped
+and wined and punched until every man there swore that earth did not
+hold a fairer or more genial hostess. Madame Rattazzi was "supported,"
+as the phrase goes, on this memorable occasion by Madame la Princesse,
+her mother, a rather formidable-looking dowager, a daughter of Lucian
+Bonaparte, and widow of Sir Thomas Wyse, once British consul at Athens.
+Her Imperial Highness Princess Letitia must have been a wonderful beauty
+in her youth--a stately grand being who one could easily imagine might
+have resembled the Roman Agrippina or empress Livia. Once the barrier of
+her stately manners overcome, she proved to be a talkative, affable
+woman of the world, with a huge experience thereof. I can see her now,
+dressed in a scarlet satin robe and glittering with jewels. She wore a
+headdress of diamonds with two long ostrich feathers in it, one of
+which, a white one, got out of its place and stood bolt upright, as if
+it was frightened, until some charitable hand laid it down. This was, I
+fancy, the last ball Princess Letitia ever graced, for she died a very
+little while afterward. Poor Rattazzi was there too. He was not a
+striking-looking man, but agreeable and excessively polite. He rarely
+talked politics--I rather suspect from the fear of compromising
+himself--but his conversation was was pleasant and varied. After his
+death Madame Rattazzi removed to Monaco, where she busied herself with
+editing his letters and memoirs--a task which, it appears, the Italian
+government would be delighted that she should spare herself, as his
+papers are said to be very full of compromising matter relative to the
+Mentana expedition. A large sum of money was offered her to relinquish
+her hold on these documents, but she answered by a letter published in
+the Italian papers that they were left to her as a sacred trust, and
+that she felt herself in duty bound to make their contents public, in
+order to justify her husband's memory. As a curious proof of her
+political sagacity--unless it is to be considered a mere coincidence--I
+may mention that in January, 1870, she came to a masked ball at the
+Casino dressed as Mars, in a short skirt of red satin, a cuirass of
+gold, on her head a helmet, in one hand a spear, and in the other a
+shield, and on it was written "Roma." Did Madame Rattazzi foresee that
+by September of the same year there would be a war, and that as one of
+its results Rome would so soon become the capital of that Italy which
+her husband had helped to build up?[003]
+
+From this somewhat rambling sketch the reader will readily understand
+that Nice is one of the great centres of society in Europe, and indeed
+in late years it is rather, as a place of gay reunion that it is
+frequented than as a resort for invalids. Since the foundation of
+quieter colonies at Mentone and San Remo, Nice has somewhat lost its
+reputation as a sanitarium, for it is rather difficult, especially for
+young people, to resist the temptation of its innumerable balls and
+round of gayeties; and these are not considered conducive to the
+preservation of health even amongst the healthiest. The medical men,
+therefore, recommend places along the neighboring coast which enjoy
+the same or even greater advantages of climate. That of Nice, after
+all that has been written about it, still seems to me one of the finest
+in the world. The air is exquisitely pure and clear, and has proved
+beneficial in many hundreds of cases of incipient consumption. But the
+fatal error is often made of sending hither patients in whom the disease
+has made considerable progress. In such cases the irritating air hastens
+death. I have known people brought here in the second and last stages of
+consumption, who have been carried off in a fortnight after their
+arrival, and who might have lingered on for years elsewhere. The patient
+who finds himself benefited should remain at Nice for at least three or
+four years, only varying the air in summer by a visit to some of the
+many pleasant places in the neighboring mountains, where the atmosphere
+is pure, cool and wholesome. Perhaps, it is owing in part to the
+brightness of the sunshine and the beauty of the scenery that soon after
+his arrival the health of the invalid often revives as if by
+enchantment. Alphonse Karr, a resident of many years, who knows every
+nook and corner of the place, and who has cultivated a garden in its
+environs as celebrated throughout the world as his own sparkling pen,
+says well: "Who is there so downhearted as to resist the glorious heat
+of the sun, the beauty of that deepest of blue seas, the loveliness of
+the varied trees, the tropical vegetation, the scent of the
+orange-flowers, the music of the brooks, the sight of the ever-changing
+hues of the mountains of _Nizza la bella_?"
+
+                                        R. DAVEY.
+
+
+
+
+THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.
+
+FROM THE FRENCH OF ANATOLE LEROY-BEAULIEU.
+
+
+
+
+I.--ORIGIN OF THE RASKOL.
+
+
+For more than two centuries Russian orthodoxy has been undermined by
+obscure sects, unknown to foreigners, and little known to Russians
+themselves. Beneath the imposing pile of the official Church have been
+hollowed out vast underground burrows and a labyrinth of gloomy crypts,
+which form a retreat for the popular beliefs and superstitions. We
+propose to descend into these catacombs of ignorance and fanaticism. We
+shall attempt to map them out, to explore their remotest nooks, and to
+lay hold in this, their hiding-place, of the character and aspirations
+of the people. Nothing could yield better means of acquaintance with the
+genius of the nation and the groundwork of Russian society. The
+_Raskol_, with its thousand sects, is perhaps the most original
+feature of Russia, and what most sharply distinguishes it from Western
+Europe.
+
+Like rivers colored by the soil through which they flow, religions often
+change their characteristics according to the nations who practice them.
+The Raskol is Byzantine Christianity issuing from the Russian lower
+classes. In the thick and muddy waters of Muscovite sectarianism we can
+distinguish foreign admixtures, sometimes Protestant, sometimes Jewish,
+or even Mohammedan, more frequently Gnostic or pagan. The Raskol,
+nevertheless, remains wholly different, in principle and in tendency,
+from all the religions and religious movements of the world: it is
+original and national from the foundation up. So thoroughly Russian is
+it that outside of its native country it has never made a proselyte, and
+even within the empire has hardly any adherents excepting among the
+people of "Greater Russia," the most thoroughly national of all. So
+spontaneous has been its growth that in all its phases it is its own
+best interpreter, and if confined to an isolated continent, its
+development would have been the same. The Raskol is the most national of
+all the religious movements to which Christianity has given birth, and
+at the same time the most exclusively popular. It took its rise, not in
+the schools, nor in the monasteries, but in the mujik's hovel and in the
+shop; and it has never spread beyond its birthplace. Hence, the student
+of politics and the philosopher take a keener interest in ignorant
+heresies than is to be found in their doctrines alone. These sects of
+lately-liberated peasants claim an attention by no means due to their
+meagre theology, from their being the symptom of a mental condition and
+a social state for even a distant approach to which all Western Europe
+would be scoured in vain.
+
+The Raskol (schism) is neither a sect nor a group of sects. It is,
+rather, an aggregate of doctrines and heresies, which are often
+divergent or even contradictory, with no other tie than a common
+starting-point and a common hostility to the official orthodox Church.
+In this respect the Raskol is more nearly analogous to Protestantism
+than to anything else. It is inferior to Protestantism in the numbers
+and education of its adherents, but it almost equals it as regards the
+variety and originality of its developments. Further the likeness cannot
+be fairly said to go. In the midst of their unfilial revolt, German
+Protestantism and the Russian Raskol preserve alike the signs of their
+origin, the stamp (so to speak) of the Church whence they have issued,
+as well as of the widely-differing states of society which gave them
+birth. In Western Europe love of speculation and a critical spirit gave
+rise to the larger part of modern sects, while in Russia they are the
+offspring of reverence and unenlightened obstinacy. In the West, the
+predominance of feeling over the value attached to the externals of
+religion has been the cause of religious divisions, whereas the same
+result has been produced in Russia by an extraordinary reverence for
+external forms for ritual and ceremonial. The two movements thus seem to
+be in absolutely opposite directions, but they have nevertheless
+terminated at the same point. In other words, the Raskol, when once
+freed from the authority which maintained the unity of the faith, was as
+powerless as Protestantism to establish any authority within itself. It
+has in consequence become a prey to the same license of opinion, to the
+same individualism, and, finally, to the same anarchy.
+
+Few religious revolutions have involved results so, complex as the
+Raskol, yet few have been simpler in their inception. The countless
+sects which for two centuries have had their being among the Russian
+people took their rise, in general, from the revision of the liturgy.
+One stock produced them nearly all: only a few sects (though these, by
+the way, are by no means the least curious) date from an earlier time or
+have another origin than this liturgic reform. The Middle Ages in
+Russia, as elsewhere, were marked by the rise of heresies. Of these the
+oldest may have arisen before the Mongol conquest, from contact with
+Greeks or Slaves, particularly with the Bulgarian Bogomiles, the
+ancestors or Oriental brethren of the Albigenses. Other heresies sprang
+up later in the North, in the Novgorod region, from intercourse with
+Jewish or other Western traders. Of most of these the name alone
+remains: such are the _Martinovtsy_, the _Strigolniki_, the
+Judaizers, and so on. All these sects were dying away when the Raskol
+broke out; and it absorbed all the vague, embryonic beliefs floating in
+the popular mind. Some of these antique heresies--the Strigolniki, for
+instance--after having disappeared from history, seem to have come to
+light again in the shape of certain sects of our own days; and one might
+fancy that they had been for centuries running on in an underground
+channel.
+
+In the dim disputes of mediaeval times, however, one may make out with
+some clearness the fundamental principle of the Raskol: it is a
+scrupulous veneration for the letter--formalism, in a word. "In such a
+year," says a Novgorod chronicler of the fifteenth century, "certain
+philosophers began to chant, '_O_ Lord, have mercy upon us!' while
+others said, '_Lord_, have mercy upon us!'"[004] In this remark the
+whole Raskol stands revealed. Controversies like these begat the schism
+which has rent the Russian Church asunder. Religious invocations have
+for this people the nature of magical formulae, the slightest change in
+which destroys their efficacy. The Russian clings to the heathen
+feeling, though he hides it under a Christian veil. He believes in the
+power of particular words and gestures. He still seems to regard his
+priest as a kind of _chaman_, religious ceremonies as enchantments,
+and religion in general as witchcraft. A fondness for rites
+(_obriad_) is indeed one of the characteristics of the inhabitant
+of Greater Russia. The way in which Russia was converted to Christianity
+has much to do with this. The mass of the people became Christians at
+the bidding of others, and with no sufficient preparatory instruction,
+without even having passed through all the stages of that polytheistic
+evolution from which other nations of Europe had emerged before their
+adoption of Christianity. The religion of the gospel was, in its highest
+statement, too far advanced for the mental and social condition of the
+people; and so it was corrupted, or rather reduced to external forms.
+Russia adopted merely the outside of Christianity; and there, even more
+strictly than in the West, it is true that the peasant was still a
+heathen. Other nations have adopted the outside of a religion, and have
+afterward absorbed its spirit: from its geographical and historical
+remoteness such an absorption was hard for Russia to achieve. It was
+separated from the centres of the Christian world by distance and by
+Mongol rule: its religion, like everything else, was debased by poverty
+and ignorance. Theology, properly speaking, utterly vanished, and its
+place was taken by ceremonial, which thus became the whole of religion.
+Amidst the general degradation a knowledge of the words and rites of
+public worship was all that could be exacted of a clergy which did not
+always know how to read.
+
+The changes which had taken place in the traditional texts and ritual
+have little solid ground for the popular devotion entertained for them.
+The liturgy was corrupted by the superstitious veneration paid it by the
+ignorant. False readings had crept into the books which contained the
+various local "uses," to borrow a term from the Anglican terminology.
+Liturgical unity had imperceptibly disappeared amidst various readings
+and discordant ceremonies. In course of transcription absurdities had
+slipped into the missals, along with grotesque additions and arbitrary
+intercalations, while the new readings were received with the respect
+due to antiquity, and these sometimes unintelligible passages acquired a
+sanctity in direct proportion to their obscurity. The devout mind found
+in them mysteries and occult meanings. On such perverted texts were
+erected theories and systems which pious fraud from time to time
+expanded into treatises attributed to the Fathers of the Church. So wild
+was the confusion, and so palpable the alterations, that early in the
+sixteenth century Vassili IV., a Russian prince, summoned a Greek monk
+for the purpose of revising the liturgical books. But the blind
+veneration of the clergy and people rendered this attempt abortive. The
+reviser, Maximus, was condemned by a council, and confined on a charge
+of heresy in a distant monastery. The crisis was superinduced by the
+introduction of the press. Here, as elsewhere, the new discovery brought
+with it a taste for the study and revision of texts, and ultimately
+violent theological contests. The missals which issued from the Russian
+presses of the sixteenth century at first only aggravated the evils for
+which they should have afforded a remedy. The errors of the manuscripts
+from which they were printed received from these missals the authority
+and circulation of type. The copyists had introduced countless
+variations, but these acquired a fresh unity and unanimity from the very
+fact of their publication in such a form.
+
+The Slavonic liturgy of Russia seemed in a state of hopeless corruption
+when, toward the middle of the seventeenth century, the patriarch Nikon
+determined upon a measure of reform. In addition to a degree of
+cultivation unusual in his age and country, and an enterprising and
+determined character, he possessed what was specially required for such
+a step: he had learning, firmness and power, for through his influence
+over Alexis, the czar, he ruled the State almost as thoroughly as he
+ruled the Church. In Russia, as it was before Peter the Great, a task so
+completely dependent on learning was indeed a bold undertaking. By order
+of the patriarch ancient Greek and Slavonic manuscripts were gathered
+from all quarters, and monks were summoned from Byzantium and from the
+learned community of Athos to collate the Slavic versions with their
+Greek originals. The interpolations due to the ignorance or whims of
+copyists were remorselessly stricken out, and into the ritual, thus
+purified, was introduced the pomp customary at the court of Byzantium.
+The new missals were printed and adopted by a council (through the
+patriarch's influence), and finally imposed, with all the authority of
+the state government, on every Russian province. "A sore trembling laid
+hold upon me," says a copyist of the sixteenth century, "and I was
+affrighted when the reverend Maximus the Greek bade me blot out certain
+lines from one of our Church books." Not less was the scandal under
+Peter the Great. The man who laid hands on the sacred books was
+everywhere held guilty of sacrilege. Whether from a knowledge of the
+propriety of the measure, or from the spirit of ecclesiastical fidelity,
+the higher clergy upheld the patriarch, but their inferiors and the
+common people made a determined fight. And even now, after the lapse of
+more than two centuries, a large body adhere immovably to the ancient
+books and the ancient ritual, which are made sacred to them by the
+approbation of national councils and the blessing of generations of
+patriarchs. Such was the inception of the schism, the Raskol, which
+still divides the Russian Church. Tracing the matter back to its source,
+the contest is seen to turn upon the knotty question of the transmission
+and the translation of the sacred texts, which has more than once
+divided the churches of the West. In Russia no one was competent to form
+a proper judgment of the essence of the dispute, and it was thus
+rendered only more lasting and bitter. Monks, deacons, plain sextons,
+denounced the innovations as novelties borrowed from Rome or from the
+Protestants, and as being tantamount to the bringing in of a new
+religion. When the Church brought to bear upon these recusants the pains
+and penalties everywhere employed against heretics, the only result was
+to give the schism martyrs, and with martyrs a fresh impetus. Ten years
+after the promulgation of the revised liturgy its rash author fell a
+victim to the jealousy of the boyards and to his own arrogance, and was
+solemnly deposed by a council. To the Raskol his deposition appeared in
+the light of a justification of their own course. The condemnation of
+the reformer seemed necessarily to involve the condemnation of the
+reform. Great, then, was the popular bewilderment when the council
+turned from deposing the author of the liturgic revision to hurl its
+anathemas against those who opposed that revision. The share taken in
+this excommunication by the Oriental patriarchs rather lessened than
+added to its weight, since the dissenters denied to Greek and Syrian
+bishops, who knew not a letter of the Slavonic alphabet, the right of
+passing judgment on Slavonic books.
+
+The theological world is no stranger to subtleties, but never perhaps
+did causes so trifling breed such interminable quarrels. The sign and
+the form of the cross, the heading of processions westward or eastward,
+the reading of a particular article of the Creed, the spelling of the
+name of Jesus, the inscription to be placed over the crucifix, the
+single or double repetition of the Hallelujah, the number of eucharistic
+wafers to be consecrated,--such are the leading points in the
+controversy which ever since has rent the Russian Church. The orthodox
+make the sign of the cross with three fingers, while the dissenters
+follow the Armenian practice of only two. The former permit the cross
+with four arms, like our own: the latter cannot away with any but that
+with eight arms, with a crosspiece for the Saviour's head and another
+for his feet. Since the reform the Church chants the Hallelujah thrice,
+the Raskolniks only twice. The dissenters defend their persistence by
+symbolical interpretations, and delight to make a profession of faith
+out of the simplest rite. For instance, they insist that after their
+fashion of making the sign of the cross the three closed fingers render
+homage to the Trinity, while the two others testify to the double nature
+of Christ, so that, without uttering a word, the sign of the cross is an
+act of adherence to the three fundamental dogmas of Christianity--the
+Trinity, the incarnation and the atonement. In like manner they
+interpret the double Hallelujah following the three Glorias, and cast it
+in the teeth of their opponents that they ignore in their ritual one or
+another of the great Christian doctrines. Such interpretations, based on
+corrupted texts or feigned visions, show the grotesque blending of
+coarseness and subtlety which makes up the Raskol.
+
+If we may judge from the origin of the schism, its essence lies in the
+worship of the letter, the servile respect for forms. To the
+anti-reforming Russian, ceremonies form the whole of Christianity, and
+liturgy is one with orthodoxy. The same confusion between faith and the
+outward forms of worship is revealed by the chosen name in which the
+dissenters delight. Not content with the title of _Starovbriadtsy_
+(old ritualists), they adopt that of _Starovery_ (maintainers of
+the old faith), which amounts to styling themselves _true_
+believers, the genuine orthodox, since in religious matters, unlike
+those of human science, authority is on the side of antiquity, and even
+innovations must come forward invoking the past. Here, as often happens,
+there is little ground for the Starovery's boast, for if they preserve
+the ancient Russian books, their opponents have gone back to the old
+Byzantine liturgy; and the party which most loudly vaunts its claim to
+antiquity does so with least reason.
+
+The principle of the Raskol, which sometimes runs out into the wildest
+dreams of mysticism, is essentially realistic. Under this materialistic
+_cultus_, however, there lurks a sort of idealism, of coarse
+spiritualism. Religious vagaries, with all their absurdities, always
+have a lofty, sometimes even a sublime, side. It would be wrong to fancy
+that there is nothing but ignorant superstition in the Starovere's
+scrupulous attachment to his ancestral worship. The vulgar heresy is, in
+fact, only an overdone ritualism, whose logic lands it in absurdity. The
+Old Believer's reverence for the letter comes from his belief that
+letter and spirit are indissolubly united, and that the forms of
+religion are as needful as its essence. Religion is to him, both as
+regards forms and dogmas, a whole, all whose parts hang together; and no
+human hand can touch this masterpiece of Providence without blemishing
+it. There is an occult sense in every word and in every rite. He cannot
+believe that any ceremony or formula of the Church is void of meaning or
+of efficacy. Divine service has nothing in it merely accessory,
+indifferent or unmeaning. Holy things are holy throughout: in the
+worship of the Lord everything is deep and full of mystery; and it is
+blasphemy to change anything or to withhold from it its proper
+veneration. The Starovere, of course, cannot formulate his doctrine, but
+if he could, religion would appear, according to his view, a sort of
+completed and adequate representation of the supernatural world. His
+simple logic exacts from all public worship an absolute perfection which
+it is impossible to realize. Looked at in this light, the Old Believer
+who marched to the stake for the sign of the cross, and sacrificed his
+tongue rather than chant another Hallelujah, grows highly respectable.
+From this standing-point the Russian schism is essentially religious:
+its mistake, so to speak, is the excess of religion. Symbolism is the
+principle of its formalism, or rather the Raskol is symbolism run into a
+heresy. This gives it originality and value in sectarian history. To
+these extravagant ritualists ceremonies are not simply the garb of
+religion: they are its flesh and blood, in whose absence dogma is but a
+lifeless skeleton. Thus, the Raskol is the direct opposite of ordinary
+Protestantism, which by its very nature sets small store by outward
+ceremonies, regarding them as needless ornament or a dangerous
+superfluity. Ritual to the Starovere is as much an integral part of
+traditional Christianity as doctrine: it, is equally the legacy of
+Christ and the apostles; and the sole mission of the Church and the
+clergy is to preserve both intact. This leaning to symbolism saves his
+scrupulous fidelity to outward forms from degenerating into a slavish
+superstition. On the other hand, the allegorizing tendency which clings
+fast to the letter sometimes takes odd liberties with the spirit of
+ceremonies and texts. It is the peculiarity of the symbolizing temper
+scrupulously to respect the form while arbitrarily dealing with the
+spirit. Thus, the ritual and the sacred books become a kind of heavenly
+charade, whose answer must be found by the imagination. And so, in their
+hunt after the hidden sense of narratives and words, some of the
+Raskolniks have allegorized the histories of the Old and New Testaments,
+and changed the gospel records into parables. Some have gone so far as
+to see in the greatest of the gospel miracles nothing but types.[005]
+Such a system of exegesis easily leads to a kind of mystic rationalism:
+the forms of religion tend to gain more consistency than the essence,
+and public worship to be placed above doctrine. Some of the extreme
+sects of the Raskol have actually reached this point. A perfect carnival
+of wild interpretation prevailed among this ignorant rabble, and crazy
+doctrines and grotesque tenets were not slow in following in its train.
+
+The Old Believer loves his peculiar rites, not only for the meaning he
+puts into them, but also for the sake of the authority on which he holds
+them: the moral and social _rationale_ of the schism is a deep
+respect for traditional customs and for the habits handed down from his
+forefathers. But even in his slavish devotion to ancestral ritual and
+prayers the Starovere simply exaggerates a feeling which, if not
+properly religious, commonly links itself with religion and adds to its
+influence. All men and all nations set great store by the maintenance of
+their hereditary faith, and even the common rhetorical abuse of such
+phrases demonstrates its power. When thus intertwined with the
+associations of family and country, religion assumes the guise of an
+inheritance solemnly committed to our trust by the departed. This
+feeling is singularly powerful in Russia from linking itself with a
+superstitious veneration for antiquity. You can often get no other
+reason from many of these sectaries for the faith that is in them. Quite
+recently a judge tried to bring to reason a group of peasants who were
+under prosecution for celebrating clandestine religious rites, but he
+could extract no other answer than this: "Our fathers practiced these
+customs. Take us anywhere you please, but leave us free to worship as
+our fathers did." A like reply is said to have been made by the Old
+Believers of Moscow to the late czarovitch on occasion of a visit to
+their burying-ground at Rogojski.
+
+The liturgic reform of the seventeenth century was a revolution in the
+simplest elements of worship: it called upon the son to unlearn the sign
+of the cross that his mother had taught him. Such a change would have
+been hazardous anywhere, but it caused a peculiarly serious disturbance
+in Russia, where all prayer is connected with a kind of ceremonial of
+repeated bowings and crossings, which more closely resemble the
+devotional customs of the Mohammedans than those of other Christian
+countries. The people violently rejected the new sign of the cross and
+the entire reformed liturgy. It mattered little that the new ritual was
+more ancient than their own. The ignorant Russian knows no antiquity
+older than his fathers and grandfathers, and his attachment to the outer
+forms of orthodoxy was only intensified by remembering the recent
+attempts of popes and Jesuits to gain a foothold in the country. If he
+suffered the least change in his cherished customs, he might risk being
+Romanized, and, like the United Greeks of Poland, one day wake up and
+find himself part and parcel of the spiritual dominion of the papacy.
+With such dim fears the Old Believer opposed to the orthodox hierarchy a
+blind fidelity to orthodoxy. Their dread of seeing the Church corrupted
+inspired people and clergy with suspicion of all foreigners, even of
+their brethren in the faith whom the czars or the patriarchs had invited
+from Byzantium and from Kief. The Russian alone, of all the orthodox
+nations, had maintained his independence against infidel and pope, and
+he held himself the people of God, chosen to preserve the true faith.
+Everything European was indiscriminately rejected by this long-isolated
+nation. Their detestation of the West, its churches and its
+civilization, leads some of the Old Believers to anathematize even the
+language of theology and learning. Not longer ago than the close of the
+last century one of their writers waxed hot against the orthodox priests
+of Lesser Russia, many of whom, he said, "study the thrice-accursed
+Latin tongue." He reviled them for their readiness to commit the mortal
+sin of calling God _Deus_, and God the Father _Pater_, as
+though the Deity could have no other than the Slavic name of _Bog_,
+or the change of appellation involved a change of God. A like spirit is
+evident in the resistance offered by the Staroveres to the correct
+spelling of the name of Jesus, whom they persist in calling Issous,
+rejecting as diabolical the more accurate form Iissous. Such
+peculiarities show a nation shut up in its own vastness and isolated by
+its position and its history. It is a kind of Christianized China,
+knowing, and desiring to know, nothing beyond itself.
+
+The revolt against the innovating patriarch was, in reality, a revolt
+against foreign, particularly against Western, influences. Instead of
+the accusation that he leaned to Romanism or Lutheranism, it would have
+been a better representation of the real grievance to charge him and the
+czar with borrowing from the West, not its theology, but its spirit and
+civilization, and even this, perhaps, unwittingly. The outbreak of the
+Raskol synchronizes with the introduction of foreign influence; and the
+coincidence is not accidental. The schism was but the reaction against
+the reforms which the Romanoffs carried out in so European a spirit. The
+patriarch's enterprise has been sometimes attributed to his vanity or
+his thirst for literary fame, but it was really the first indication of
+the approaching revolution, and of a growing sympathy with the West,
+where (as in England, for instance) at about the same period
+analogous[006] reforms gave birth to similar disturbances. If the former
+hermit of the White Sea invited criticism and learning to review the
+ritual of his Church, it was only in obedience to the same
+_Zeitgeist_ which under Peter the Great's elder brother, who
+succeeded Alexis, was to found at Moscow a kind of ecclesiastical
+university modeled on that of Kief. The Church, not less than the State,
+felt the Western breeze that was rising on the Russian steppes. And, as
+the Western spirit first attempted to introduce itself in the sphere of
+religion, so religion confronted it with its most formidable barrier.
+From the historian's point of view, the Raskol is that same popular
+resistance to the introduction of Western novelties which under Peter
+the Great passed from its original aspect of an ecclesiastical and
+religious revolt into the further stage of a social and civil
+insurrection.
+
+
+
+
+II.--OPPOSITION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.
+
+
+In spite of himself, Peter the Great both inherited and aggravated
+the schism. At the present day it is hard to picture the impression
+produced upon his subjects by Peter I. He not merely astonished and
+bewildered them: he scandalized them. An open, systematic and
+sometimes brutal attack was made upon the customs, traditions and
+prejudices of the people. The reformer did not confine himself to
+the civil institutions: he laid violent hands upon the Church, and
+forced his way into the family, regulating, as the whim seized him,
+both public affairs and the private life of the citizen. The
+old-fashioned Russian was a stranger in Peter's new empire. His eyes
+were shocked by the spectacle of an unaccustomed garb, and novel
+administrative titles fell strangely on his ear. Names and things,
+the almanac and the laws, the alphabet and the fashions of
+dress,--everything was transformed. The very elements of
+civilization were hardly recognizable. The year began on the first
+of January, instead of the first of September. Men were no longer to
+date from the creation, but must adopt the Latin era. The old
+Slavonic characters, hallowed by immemorial ecclesiastical use, were
+partly cast aside, and what were retained took a new shape. The
+masculine attire was altered and the chin was shorn of its beard,
+while the veil no longer might protect the modesty of the women. The
+impression made by such a succession of shocks upon a nation so
+bigotedly attached to its ancestral ways was comparable only to an
+earthquake rocking Old Russia to its foundations.
+
+Many of these innovations, as being borrowed from the Romanists or
+the Lutherans of the West, had a religious significance for the
+people. The change introduced by Peter the Great in the ancient
+calendar, in the Slavonic alphabet and in the national costume
+seemed but a carrying out of those which Nikon had initiated. So
+natural was the parallel that the Old Believers held the one to be
+but the continuation of the other; and the notion took shape in a
+seditious legend, according to which Peter was the adulterous
+offspring of the patriarch. The popular aversion felt for the
+reforms of the latter was augmented by that aroused by the emperor's
+innovations: the social revolt took the disguise of religion, since
+it had been provoked by a Church measure, and still more because
+Russia had not yet emerged from that stage of civilization in which
+every great popular movement assumes a religious aspect. A national
+prestige was thus communicated to the Raskol, which in its turn lent
+to the popular resistance the energy of religion. By giving the
+social revolt the semblance of a struggle for the rights of
+conscience the schism imparted to it a vigor and persistency which
+the lapse of two centuries has not succeeded in crushing.
+
+But the Raskol rebelled not only against innovations and the
+introduction of foreign elements, but still more obstinately against
+the principle of the reforms and the modern method of state
+administration. The Russian, like the Mohammedan East of to-day and
+all other primitive societies, was most keenly sensitive to the
+burdens and vexations made necessary by this imitation of the
+European governmental system. From this point of view the Raskol was
+the opposition of a half-patriarchal society to the regular,
+scientific, omnipresent, impersonal system of European
+administration. It kicks instinctively against centralization and
+bureaucracy--against the state's encroachments upon private life,
+the family and the community. It struggles to tear itself loose from
+the pitiless machinery of government, hemming every life within its
+iron pale. The Cossack took refuge in the wild freedom of nomadic
+life, and the Old Believer was equally averse to giving in to the
+complicated mechanism of government. He would have nothing to do
+with the census, with passports or stamped paper. He strove to elude
+the new systems of taxation and conscription, and to this day some
+of the Raskolniks are in a state of systematic revolt against the
+simplest of governmental methods. Religious grounds, of course, are
+found for this insubordination, and they have theological arguments
+to urge against the census, as well as against the registration of
+births and deaths. In the opinion of a strict Old Believer the right
+of numbering the people belongs to God alone, as is shown by the
+biblical record of David's punishment. Sometimes the official
+designations strengthen the scruples of these simple folk, with
+their tendency to attach a great importance to phrases and names;
+and hence, partly at least, the popular antipathy to the poll-tax
+under its Russian form, "soul-tax." The revolt against such phrases
+is the fashion in which this nation of serfs, whose body was chained
+to the soil, asserted its possession of a soul.[007]
+
+The struggle against the supervision and interference of the state
+has gone with some sects to the length of refusing submission to
+obligations imposed by every civilized country. The _Stranniki_
+(wanderers) in particular boast of keeping up a ceaseless struggle
+with the civil authority, and make rebellion a moral principle and a
+religious duty. From condemning the state as the protector and
+helper of the Church, they have come to cursing it for its own
+tendencies and claims. Thus, the singular spectacle is presented of
+the more extreme schismatics looking upon their native government
+with the same feelings as were entertained by some of the Christians
+of the first three centuries toward the pagan empire of Rome. To
+these fanatics the government of the orthodox czars came to be the
+reign of Satan and the dominion of Antichrist. Nor was this an empty
+metaphor: it was a clear, determined conviction, and it still exerts
+a strong religious and political influence upon the schism. The
+Raskolniks could see but one interpretation of the overturning of
+public and private order under Peter the Great, and for what they
+regarded as the triumph of darkness: to them it was the coming end
+of the world and the advent of Antichrist. The old customs, it
+seemed, must carry with them in their fall the Church, society and
+all mankind. For centuries the extremity of agony or of wonder has
+wrung this cry from Christendom. After political revolutions and
+disastrous wars, in the most enlightened countries of Europe, in
+France and elsewhere, religious persons, in the panic of calamity,
+have been seen to take refuge in this last solution for the woes of
+Church or of State, and proclaim with the Raskolniks that the time
+was at hand. But what must have been the state of mind in Old Russia
+when the stunning blows of Peter the Great seemed to be dashing
+everything to pieces? Even at the period of the liturgic reform the
+fanatics had cried that the patriarch's fall was the harbinger of
+the world's end. The days of man, they said, are numbered; the
+Apocalyptic woes are at hand; Antichrist draws nigh. With the
+accession of Peter the Great, while he was reducing everything to
+confusion before their bewildered eyes, and trampling under foot the
+old customs, along with morality itself at times, the Raskolniks
+were at no loss to recognize in him the coming Antichrist. Nations
+are not always clear-sighted: the creator of modern Russia was
+regarded by a considerable portion of his subjects as an envoy or
+representative of hell; and his empire has never ceased to hold the
+unexampled position of a government cursed by a part of its own
+people as the dominion of Antichrist.
+
+This Satanic apotheosis derived no little support from some of the
+reformer's idiosyncrasies. He was to his subjects what a rejected
+claimant of the Messianic office may have been to the Jews--a stone
+of stumbling and a rock of offence to the people whom he came to
+bring to a new birth. His civil and ecclesiastical reforms, with the
+seeming decapitation of the Church by the abrogation of the
+patriarchate, were to the mass of the people an enigma only one
+shade less disreputable than the demeanor of himself and his
+courtiers. The repudiation of his legitimate wife, Eudoxia, and his
+adulterous connection with a foreign concubine, the death
+(perhaps by his own hand) of his son Alexis, even the morbid state
+of his health and the nervous twitching of his face, and his
+astonishing triumphs after equally incredible disasters, contributed
+to invest the sombre and gigantic physiognomy of the reformer with a
+kind of diabolic halo. The vices of Ivan the Terrible had been as
+monstrous, but even in the thick of his crimes he was a true
+Russian, as superstitious a devotee as the meanest of his subjects.
+But the astonishment and bewilderment inspired by Peter the Great
+were only deepened by the reverence felt by the old Russian for the
+person of his sovereign. Men could not help doubting whether such a
+man, who had cast aside his national and scriptural title for the
+foreign and heathen style of emperor, could be the true, the "white"
+czar. The story of the usurpers and the false Dmitri had not faded
+from the popular memory; and thus there grew up amidst the
+unlettered and bewildered Russian people a string of legends in
+which were harmonized their belief in the reign of Antichrist and
+the popular respect for the czar. In this way the Raskolniks have
+created a fantastic history which has been handed down to our own
+days, according to one version of which, as has been said, Peter the
+Great is the impious bastard of the patriarch Nikon (and from such a
+parentage only a devil's offspring could be looked for); while
+another asserts that Peter Alexovitch was a pious prince, like his
+forefathers, but that he had perished at sea, and in his stead had
+been substituted a Jew of the race of Danof, or Satan. On gaining
+possession of the throne, continues the legend, the false czar
+immured the czarina in a convent, slew the czarovitch, espoused a
+German adventuress and filled Russia with foreigners. Such is the
+Old Believers' explanation of the portentous phenomenon of a Russian
+czar engaged in destroying the institutions of Holy Russia. In the
+midst of the nineteenth century the incidents of Peter's career,
+whether insignificant or important--his vices not less than his
+glory--are used as proofs of his infernal mission. The remarkable
+victories with which he recovered from terrible disasters were
+miracles wrought by the help of the devil and the Freemasons. The
+extension of his power beyond that of all previous Russian monarchs
+and of all the ancient _bogatyrs_ was effected by the determination
+of Satan that his offspring should receive divine honors. The same
+interpretation is applied to the simplest events. Thus, Peter's
+celebration with allegorical figures and festivals of the beginning
+of the year on the first of January was due to his desire to restore
+the worship of false deities and "the old Roman idol Janus." These
+silly fables, and this incapacity of understanding how a pagan name
+or emblem can be used without falling back into paganism, betray one
+of the peculiar features of the Raskol--namely, the realistic
+nature, of its symbolism, and its matter-of-fact determination to
+fill images, allegories and words with occult meaning.
+
+When once the presence of Antichrist was clearly made out, there was
+nothing to hinder the application to Russia of the gloomy
+descriptions of the prophets. Their disposition to hunt out
+mysterious enigmas in names and numbers made it easy for the
+fanatics to find the whole Apocalypse in modern Russia; and the
+number of the Beast was sought in the names of Peter and of his
+successors. Each letter of the Slavonic alphabet, as of the Greek,
+has a numerical value, and the problem is thus to add up the total
+of the letters of a name, and so obtain the Apocalyptic number 666
+(Rev. xiii. 18). By inserting, reduplicating or omitting certain
+letters, and not insisting too strongly on an exact result, the
+sectaries have discovered the infernal number in the names of most
+of the Russian sovereigns from Peter the Great to Nicholas. Such
+alterations are defended on the ground that to throw investigators
+off the scent the Beast changes the number which is meant to
+designate him, so that he should be recognized under the number 662
+or 664 as clearly as under 666. Turning from the particular
+sovereign to the imperial title, the Raskolniks have unearthed the
+number of the Beast in the letters composing it. Singularly
+enough, it happens that all which is needed to obtain the
+Apocalyptic number from the word _imperator_ is the omission of the
+second letter; whence they say that Antichrist hides his accursed
+name behind the letter M. By an equally odd and embarrassing
+coincidence the Council of Moscow--which, after deposing Nikon,
+definitively excommunicated the schismatics--met in 1666. Here,
+plainly enough was the fatal number, and when the reform of the
+calendar attracted the attention of the Old Believers to the point,
+they considered it a weapon thrust into their hands by their
+opponents. The year in question, accordingly, was fixed as the date
+of Satan's accession. But not content with turning the line of
+monarchs into so many emissaries of hell, some of these champions of
+Old Russia have managed, by the help of an anagram, to identify
+their native country with the mysterious land which is the object of
+so many prophetic curses. In the _Asshur_ of the Bible they find
+_Russia_, and apply to it the anathemas launched by the prophets
+against Nineveh and Babylon.
+
+The infernal sign, however, was visible to the Raskolniks not only
+in the title and the names of their rulers, but in all their
+innovations as well, and in all that they imported from abroad.
+Since Russia is under the dominion of the "devil, the demon's son,"
+the truly faithful are bound to reject all that has been introduced
+during "the years of Satan." Encouraged by the notion of Antichrist,
+the Raskol's opposition against the modern reform of government
+spread until it embraces in its hostility everything brought from
+the West. In no other of its developments do we see more distinctly
+the characteristic features of the schism, its narrow formalism and
+its coarse allegorizing, its blind worship of the past and its
+national exclusiveness. It presented the novel spectacle of a group
+of popular sects holding in abomination every object of foreign
+commerce, everything new--material articles of consumption not less
+than the discoveries of science. While the products of the East and
+West Indies were pouring into the rest of Europe, the Old Believer
+rigorously excluded them. He frowned upon the use of tobacco, of
+tea, of coffee and of sugar, and by a curious transfer of his
+respect for antiquity to his meat and drink, he stormed against
+almost all colonial produce as heretical and diabolical. All that
+had come in since Nikon and Peter was put under the ban by the
+champions of the ancient liturgy. One Raskolnik forbade traveling on
+turnpikes, because they were an invention of Antichrist. More
+recently, another showed that the potato was the forbidden fruit
+which caused the fall of our first mother. On every side the Old
+Believer raised about him a wall of scruples and prejudices,
+entrenching himself behind his stagnation and ignorance, and
+anathematizing all civilization in a breath. To meet Peter's edicts
+enjoining a new costume or alphabet or calendar, the Raskol put
+forth a second decalogue: "Thou shalt not shave; Thou shalt not
+smoke; Thou shalt use no sugar," etc. In the North, where they are
+stricter and more numerous, many Raskolniks still have conscientious
+scruples about using tobacco and putting sugar in their tea. The
+scriptural arguments urged for this opposition are generally marked
+by the coarsest realism. The Old Believer who will not smoke adduces
+the passage, "There is nothing from without a man that entering into
+him can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are
+they that defile the man." The rebuker of the use of sugar urges
+that blood is used in its manufacture; whereas Scripture forbids the
+eating of the blood of animals--a prohibition, by the way, which
+seems to have been maintained longer in Russia than in any other
+Christian country. The true ground of the opposition to this or that
+article or habit is to be sought not in these theological arguments,
+but in its novelty and late introduction. As regards his way of life
+and his faith, his table and his devotions, he is minded to tread in
+his forefathers' footsteps. A Raskolnik and a member of the orthodox
+Church were drinking together, when the latter took a cigar. "Out on
+the infernal poison!" cried the Raskolnik.--"What do you, think of brandy?"
+asked his companion. "Oh! Wine" (_vino_, the Russian name for
+brandy)--"wine was Noah's favorite drink."--"Very good!" said the
+other: "now prove to me that Noah was not a smoker." These folk are
+still in the patriarchal stage, and an appeal to antiquity is an end
+of controversy, "Jeer not at the old," says one of their proverbs,
+"for the old man knows old things and teaches justice."
+
+The parties to any political or religious contest need a
+standard--some outward sign which appeals to the eye and the
+intelligence of all. The most serious of the political questions
+that convulse France to-day are symbolized and summed up in the
+color of a flag; and thus in the Russian conflict between popular
+obstinacy and the modern propagandism the rallying-sign of the Old
+Believers, and the emblem of the champions of nationality and
+conservatism, was the beard. The national chin was the centre of a
+conflict less puerile than might be fancied. Long before Peter the
+Great imitators of Western ways had begun to shave, thus setting at
+defiance the Oriental custom which everywhere prevailed in Russia.
+Under Peter's father one of the Raskol leaders, the protopope
+Avvakum, denounced "these bold-faced" men--bold-faced meaning
+shaven. The prohibition of Leviticus (xxix. 27; xxi. 5) was first
+adduced, in conformity with the love for alleging religious
+scruples. Recourse was next had to the ancient missals and the
+decrees of the _Stoglaf_, a sort of ecclesiastical code attributed
+to a national council. The prohibition of the razor was at first
+confined to the clergy, but it spread by little and little to all
+the faithful of the orthodox Church. Up to the time of Nikon the
+patriarchs had laid hardly less stress on forms and on the exclusion
+of foreign ways than their future opponents of the Raskol, and had
+condemned shaving as "an heretical practice which disfigures the
+image of God, and makes men look like dogs and cats." This is the
+main theological argument of the foes of the barber, and their
+current interpretation of the verse of Genesis, "God created man in
+His own image," "The image of God is the beard," writes a Raskolnik
+about 1830, "and His likeness is the moustache." "Look at the old
+images of Christ and the saints," urge the Old Believers: "all of
+them wear their beards." And so cogent is the argument that the
+orthodox theologians are fain to hunt up the scanty list of
+beardless saints to be found in Byzantine iconography. Whatever the
+force of the arguments drawn from divinity, at bottom the opposition
+was only the simple folks' one way of seeing things--the same
+clinging to forms, the same compound of symbolism and realism. The
+living work of God is to them as sacred as the text of the divine
+word. Every word and letter of the sacred office must have its
+separate significance; and they cannot admit that the hair with
+which the Almighty has covered a man's face is without a meaning. It
+is to them the distinctive mark of the male countenance; to remove
+it is to change, and therefore to disfigure, the divine handiwork:
+it is, in short, hardly less than mutilation.[008]
+
+The beard, like the single repetition of the Hallelujah and the
+cross with eight branches, has had its martyrs. No later than last
+year (1874), on the Gulf of Finland a peasant who had been drafted
+for the navy obstinately refused to be shaved, and rather than
+betray his religion underwent a sentence of several years for
+insubordination. Scruples of this sort have led the government to
+grant permission to wear the beard in the case of certain corps (for
+instance, the Cossacks of the Ural) which are mainly composed of Old
+Believers. Peter the Great used every means to overcome these
+popular prejudices, but the beard was too much for the reformer.
+Finding himself unable to shave all the recusants by force, he
+bethought him of laying a tax on the wearers of long beards, but in
+vain. He was similarly foiled in his attempt to lay a double tax on
+the schismatic upholders of the ancient ways. He forbade them to live
+in the towns; he deprived them of civil rights; he forced them to
+wear a bit of red cloth on the shoulder as a distinctive badge; but
+these measures only marked them out as the bravest champions of
+national traditions, and increased the respect everywhere rendered
+them.
+
+Such an attitude toward civilization leaves no room for mistake as
+to the social and political character of the schism. It is a popular
+protest against the irruption of foreign customs. It is a reaction
+against the reforms of Peter the Great, somewhat as Ultramontanism
+is a reaction against the spirit of the French Revolution. The
+Staroveres are the champions of ancient customs in the civil sphere
+as well as in the religious. The Old Believer is emphatically the
+old-fashioned Russian--the Slavophilist of the lower classes--and
+hence extreme to the point of absurdity. His revolt against
+authority has more resemblance to that of La Vendee than to that of
+the Jacobins. Like a conscript obstinately refusing to join his
+regiment, he holds back from all part and lot in the changes of
+modern Russia; and in this light the schism is the feature which
+above all others assimilates Russia to the East.
+
+And just as the East has bound itself fast to externals, so the
+Raskolnik praises his fossilism to the skies, and would gladly run
+the risk of petrifying society in its inherited shape. With him, as
+with the child or the Oriental, wisdom and science belong to the
+infancy of civilization, and the maxims of antiquity leave nothing
+to be learnt. Under both aspects the Old Believer is reactionary,
+opposed to the very principle of progress--the hero of routine and a
+martyr to prejudice. His gaze turns naturally to the past, and if
+reform ever enters his mind, he dreams of a return to the good old
+times of yore. Even his struggle against authority is based on the
+old idea of sovereignty: his political motto, as well as that of
+most of the people, is, "No emperor, but a czar!" The czar was one
+day pointed out to a Raskolnik conscript. "That is no czar," he
+said: "he wears a moustache, a uniform and a sword, like all the
+rest of the officers. He is nothing but a general." These
+worshipers of the past, with their devotion to ceremonial, think of
+the czar only as a long-bearded man in a flowing robe, such as they
+see in the ancient images. The Old Believers are the exaggerated
+representatives of the spirit of stagnation which everywhere
+confronts the Russian government. Nothing gives a clearer conception
+of the obstacles still in the way of reforms which elsewhere would
+be matters of course (as, for instance, the substitution of the
+Gregorian for the Julian calendar) than the resistance which other
+measures have already encountered.
+
+In principle the Raskol is conservative, not to say reactionary, but
+its attitude toward the Church and the State, and the habits
+engendered by two centuries of opposition and persecution, give it a
+revolutionary, or even an anarchical, character. A secret tie unites
+all the branches of public authority, and the rejection of one leads
+to the rejection of another. As has been said by an eminent
+historian of Russia, the refusal to submit to a single form of
+authority brings into activity a disposition to rid one's self of
+all social and moral ties. The Hussite revolt against Rome speedily
+results in the Taborite revolt against society: Luther calls the
+Anabaptists into being. The same phenomenon is repeated in Russia,
+in England and in Scotland. Once carried away by the spirit of
+revolt, an irresistible tendency sweeps the schism on in the
+direction of civil liberty; and both in theory and in practice some
+of these sects have reached the most unbridled license. Hence, by
+one of those contrasts which are so common in Russia, the Raskol is
+judged in two utterly different ways, each of which is partly
+correct. The reactionary movement in its inception had the
+appearance of an assertion of the rights of individual liberty and
+national life, as opposed to the autocratic government; and such it
+was, after a fashion--the fashion of refractory conscripts or of
+smugglers, not to say of brigands--the fashion, in short, in which
+all abuses and prejudices are defended. What it claimed
+was liberty, indeed, but liberty as the commonalty understand
+it--liberty to retain its customs, its superstitions and its
+ignorance--liberty to go and come as it chose. But in all this there
+was no notion of political freedom. With all his hatred of foreign
+importations, the Old Believer is no enemy to reform in the sense of
+national tradition or of furthering the interests of the lower
+classes, the artisan and the peasant. Like all popular movements,
+the Raskol is essentially democratic, and in some of its sects
+socialistic and communistic.
+
+Two things which have especially tended to give the Raskol a
+democratic--or even liberal--complexion are serfdom and the
+bureaucratic despotism of the country. It was no mere coincidence
+which caused the Raskol to break out about half a century after
+serfdom was established. Much of its popularity and life was due to
+the enslavement of the mass of the people. The slave was proud of
+having a different faith from his master; and slavery is always a
+propitious soil for the growth of sects. This nation of serfs dimly
+felt the Raskol to be an assertion of religious liberty and
+self-respect against master, Church and government; and these were
+symbolized by the beard and the peculiar sign of the cross. The
+Raskol offered to all the oppressed a moral, and often a material,
+refuge, an asylum for all enemies of the master and the law, and a
+shelter for the fugitive serf, for the deserter, for public debtors
+and outlaws of every description. Some sects (as the Wanderers, for
+example) are specially organized for such purposes. In these
+respects the Raskol was unconsciously one form of the opposition to
+serfdom and official despotism; and hence the Old Believers are most
+numerous among the most refractory elements of Russia--in the North
+among the free peasants (the old colonists of Novgorod), and in the
+South among the independent Cossacks of the steppes. Religious and
+political opposition have joined hands, and to this combination is
+due the strength of the great popular movements of the seventeenth
+and eighteenth centuries, such as the Streltsy insurrections at the
+time of the revolt of Pougatchef, whose excesses curiously recall
+the wars of the Peasants and Anabaptists in the West before the
+abolition of serfdom. In the great Russian Jacquerie, and in all the
+seditions which held out the hope of emancipation, the first place
+was taken by the Old Believers and the Cossacks, most of whom held
+the same faith. These two forms of national resistance are naturally
+akin. They equally personify the character and the prejudices of the
+old Russian. Their main point is their character of protests, so
+that an Old Believer may be described as a Cossack in religion,
+transporting into that domain the instincts peculiar to the wild
+horsemen of the Don. But both Cossack and Starovere have found
+themselves forced to give way before the march of civilization, and
+the different branches into which the Raskol has split have reached
+very divergent conclusions both as to politics and religion.
+
+
+
+
+III.--INTERNAL DIVISIONS.
+
+
+Nothing is more logical than religious creeds--nothing more rigorously
+consequent in its deductions than the theological mind. Religious
+thought has an unimpeded course in the twilight of mystery where it
+takes its airy flight, and no material facts avail to check it or divert
+it from the chosen path. The innate logic of the Russian mind adds force
+to the kindred theological quality in its influence upon the Raskol, for
+the inhabitant of Greater Russia is distinguished for his logical
+consecutiveness and his acceptance of the extremest consequences of a
+position. This is partly the cause of the multiplicity and growth of the
+strange doctrines prevalent among them; and while this disposition
+frequently lands the schism in the most grotesque of absurdities, it
+gives a remarkable unity and regularity to even its apparent
+divergencies and variations. Irregularity and the play of chance have as
+little real place in this spiritual phenomenon as in one belonging to
+the region of physics; and a knowledge of the _terminus a quo_
+would have suggested its complications as well as the point ultimately
+reached. One is now and then tempted to look upon the various sects as
+utterly chaotic, but it is not difficult to trace the general course of
+their natural evolution.
+
+A less robust faith might easily have been cast down by the obstacle
+which confronted the schism at the outset. The revolt aimed at
+maintaining the ritual, yet the lack of priests to officiate
+necessitated its abandonment. The defenders of the old faith found
+themselves, at the first step, deprived of the means of practicing its
+rites. A single bishop, Paul of Kolomna, had held out for the ancient
+books at the time of Nikon's reform, but he had been imprisoned, and
+perhaps put to death: at all events, he died without consecrating a
+bishop, and the Raskol was consequently left without an episcopate or a
+priesthood. Now, Oriental orthodoxy is not simply doctrinal in its
+character, but, as M. A. Reville has remarked of Catholicism, "is, above
+all, a method of establishing communication between man and God by the
+medium of an organized priesthood, whose successive members transmit
+uninterruptedly the divine powers which they hold from Christ;" and the
+death of Paul of Kolomna snapped the chain uniting the Old Believers
+with Christ, for ever depriving the schism of the powers conferred by
+Christ on the apostles and essential to the continuance of the
+priesthood and the Church.
+
+The Raskol, so to speak, was stillborn. Unless they retraced their
+steps, there were but two paths to take--either to admit priests
+consecrated by a Church they had condemned, or to dispense with the
+clergy, who alone could celebrate the rites in defence of which they had
+revolted. There was little to choose between the two self-contradictory
+courses, and each had its partisans. This first check split the schism
+into two groups, whose hostility has not been allayed by the lapse of
+two centuries. According to some, as Christianity cannot exist without a
+priesthood, its complicity with Nikon's heresy has not deprived the
+Russian Church of apostolic powers--of the _cheirotonia_, or right
+to consecrate bishops and priests by the laying on of hands; and as
+their ordination is valid, the schismatics have only to bring back
+priests of the official Church to the observance of the ancient ritual.
+To this it is answered that by abandoning the ancient books and
+anathematizing the ancient traditions the sect of Nikon has lost all
+claim to the apostolical succession, so that the established clergy
+constitute no longer a Church, but the synagogue of Satan. All communion
+with these emissaries of hell is a sin, and ordination by the apostate
+bishops a defilement. The Oriental patriarchs have shared the heresy of
+the Russian prelates by agreeing to their anathemas against the ancient
+rites, and orthodoxy has carried with it in its fall the episcopate,
+apostolical succession and the lawful priesthood.
+
+Thus, in the first generation the Raskol fell into two sections--the
+_Popovtsy_, who adhere to the priests, and the _Bezpopovtsy_,
+who do not. To recruit their clergy the Popovtsy were fain to have
+recourse to deserters from the established Church, and were thus
+dependent upon it; though we shall see that of late they have succeeded
+in getting an independent episcopate along with a complete
+ecclesiastical hierarchy. By maintaining a priesthood, however scanty
+and ignorant, the Popovtsy preserve the sacraments and the orthodox
+Christian system; and, despite the inconsistency of admitting the
+priests of a Church that they condemn, they have paused at the first
+step of schism and maintain the original position. It is almost
+impossible, on the other hand, for the Bezpopovtsy to stop on the slope
+down which their logic inexorably drags them. Involved in the
+abandonment of the priesthood is that of orthodoxy, or at least of the
+orthodox ritual, and the sacrament of orders carries with it the
+sacraments which none but the priest can administer. Of the seven
+traditional channels of divine grace, baptism alone remains open: the
+other six are dried up for ever. Thus, the first step of the Bezpopovtsy
+brings them to the destruction of the first principle of Christian
+worship. The more rigid of them do not shrink from this most glaring of
+contradictions. To save the entire ritual they have sacrificed its most
+essential parts. For the double Hallelujah and the sign of the cross
+with two fingers instead of three they have foregone the whole Christian
+life and the one visible link between man and God, which is to be found
+only in the sacraments. The abolition of the sacred ministry and divine
+service is their protest against the trifling changes introduced into
+their devotional customs by the established Church. In barring the
+entrance to Nikon's so-called innovations they have done away with the
+priesthood, and so with every dyke against sectarian whimsies or the
+very novelties against which they blindly contend.
+
+In the melancholy upshot of the Bezpopovtsy movement there was nothing
+to satisfy the fondness for ceremonial and tradition to which the schism
+owed its birth; and it was hard to fill the gap left by the loss of
+priesthood and sacraments. The old orthodox law had become impossible to
+carry out, yet it had not been abrogated. Though perfectly united as to
+rejecting the priesthood, they accordingly fell into new fragments,
+marked now by hesitations and compromises, and now by grotesque fancies
+or by cruel doctrines. For the timid and for those who clung to public
+worship it was impossible to believe in Christian life and salvation
+without the divinely-appointed means; and in the perplexed effort to
+supply the loss of the sacraments their piety resorted to all manner of
+ingenious make-believes. Priestly absolution being out of the question,
+confession is sometimes made to the "elder" or to a woman, and the
+promise of pardon has to do duty for the direct absolution. As the
+Eucharist cannot be consecrated, famishing souls resort to types or
+memorials of the holy sacrament; and for this _quasi_ communion
+rites have been devised which are sometimes pleasing, sometimes bloody
+and horrible. One of these is the distribution of raisins by a young
+girl; while one sect (which is, however, but indirectly connected with
+the Raskol) use the breast of a young maiden instead of the element of
+bread. To one of the Bezpopovtsy sects the name of "gapers" is given,
+because they are accustomed to keep their mouths open during the
+Maundy-Thursday service, that the angels, God's only remaining
+ministers, may give them drink from an invisible chalice, since, as they
+hold, Christ cannot have wholly deprived the faithful of the flesh and
+blood offered upon the cross.
+
+Such are the expedients of the more gentle or enthusiastic to escape
+from the religious vacuum into which schism has precipitated them. Quite
+different is the course of the more strict and dauntless theologians;
+and the ascendency of logic over pious feeling carries with these the
+majority of the Bezpopovtsy. No consequence is too revolting for them,
+and no hesitating subterfuge worthy of a thought. The priesthood, they
+hold, is extinct, leaving only the sacrament of baptism, which the laity
+may administer. Make-believes are of no avail. The chain that linked
+Heaven with earth is snapped, and can be reunited only by miracle.
+Meanwhile, the faithful are like men shipwrecked on a desert island
+without a priest among them. Eucharist, penitence, chrism, and, more
+than all, marriage, are alike impossible. The priest alone can pronounce
+the nuptial benediction; and where there is no priest there can be no
+marriage. Such is the ultimate consequence of the schism--the rock on
+which the Bezpopovtsy split. With marriage the family goes, society with
+the family, and such teachings can never be in harmony with the
+feelings, with society or with morality. Marriage is their
+stumbling-block and the principal matter on which their discussions and
+divisions turn, giving rise to the wildest aberrations and strangest
+compromises. The more practical retain marriage as a social
+conventionality, while the more logical make celibacy universally
+binding, thereby fostering anything but asceticism. Among the Russian
+sectaries the familiar combination is repeated of sensuality and
+mysticism. Free-love has been both preached and practiced among them;
+and among the lower classes the grossest heresies of ancient Gnosticism
+have mingled with the wildest and most morbid of modern social theories.
+Most of their theological writers, while avoiding such extremes, urge
+the most extraordinary maxims in connection with their forbiddance of
+marriage, such as that immorality, being but a passing weakness, is less
+criminal than marriage, which is interdicted by the faith.... To such a
+point as this have the conscientious champions of old ceremonial been
+brought. They have carried with them a few shreds of ancient ritual, and
+they have not only abandoned Christian and natural morality, but in
+their struggle with modern government and civilization deny the
+principle which upholds all society.
+
+Even fanatics must stand affrighted before conclusions like these, and
+the Bezpopovtsy feel the need of some justification for their subversal
+of the _cultus_ and the morality of Christianity. They find but one
+solution for the awful enigma presented by Christ's abandonment of the
+Church and mankind, by the extinction of appointed sacraments and means
+of grace, and by the impious rupture of the tie between man and God. The
+downfall of Church and priesthood and the triumph of falsehood and wrong
+were foretold by the prophets. This is the time predicted in Holy Writ,
+when the very elect shall be wellnigh seduced, and when God shall seem
+to give up His own into the hand of the Adversary. The priestless Church
+is the Church in the state of widowhood foretold by Daniel in the last
+days. Thus, the Raskol was brought by the new path of theology to that
+belief in the approaching end of the world and the reign of Antichrist
+to which we have already seen it led by its aversion to ecclesiastical
+and civil reforms. That the reign of Antichrist is begun is the
+fundamental doctrine of the Raskol, and particularly of the
+Bezpopovstchin. In the light of this new dogma all the contradictions of
+the latter are explained and justified. This is the reason for the
+extinction of the priesthood, of marriage and of the family.
+Wherefore--many ask--wherefore continue the race when the archangel's
+trump is about to proclaim the end of humanity?
+
+The end of the world was announced to be nigh even before Peter the
+Great; and they who proclaimed it are not yet weary of awaiting it. Like
+Christians in the West in other periods, they are not undeceived by the
+delay of the destined time, and are at no loss to explain it. Many
+consider the reign of Antichrist to be a period or era which may last
+for centuries, as one of the three great epochs in religious history,
+and as having, like those of the old and the new dispensations, a law of
+its own which abrogates what went before. All of the Raskolniks, or even
+of the Bezpopovtsy, however, do not agree as to Antichrist; for while
+his reign is generally admitted, it seems to be very differently
+understood. Those who retain the priesthood and the more moderate of
+their opponents hold his reign to be spiritual and invisible, and
+government and established Church to be the unconscious or unwilling
+tools of Satan; while the extremists of the Bezpopovstchin maintain that
+Antichrist reigns materially and palpably. He it is, as we have seen,
+who occupies the throne of the czars since Peter the Great, and his
+Sanhedrim that usurps the name of the holy synod. Trivial as the
+difference is, theologically speaking, its political consequences are
+considerable; for the state may arrive at some understanding with sects
+that only regard it as blind and misled, while even a truce is out of
+the question with those which look upon it as the incarnate enemy of
+souls.
+
+Very singular are the vagaries to which the ignorant peasants are
+naturally led by this belief. Since the world is in subjection to
+"Satan, the son of Beelzebub," all contact with it was defiling, and
+submission to its laws nothing short of a denial of the faith. To escape
+the hellish contagion the best means was isolation or rigid withdrawal
+into inaccessible retreats or desert places. In their spiritual
+confusion and terror some of the sectaries saw no refuge but death, and
+murder and suicide were systematically resorted to for the purpose of
+shortening the time of probation and hastening their departure from the
+accursed world. With some fanatics, called "child-slayers"
+(_dietoubuetsy_), it was held a duty to expedite the entrance to
+heaven of newborn children, and thus to save them infernal anguish.
+Others, called "stranglers" or "butchers" (_duchelstchiki,
+tiukalstchiki_), think they render a valuable service to their
+relatives and friends by anticipating a natural death, in hastening the
+end of those who are seriously ill. Taking with a savage literalness the
+text, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it
+by force" (Matt. xi. 12), they hold that none can enter into the kingdom
+of heaven but those who die a violent death. One of the most numerous
+and powerful bodies in the first century of the Raskol, the
+_Philipovtsy_, or "burners," like the Indian fakeers, preached
+redemption by suicide, and salvation by the baptism of fire, holding
+that the flames alone could purify men from the defilements of a world
+which had fallen under the rule of Satan. In Siberia and the
+neighborhood of the Ural these sectaries have been known to burn
+themselves in hundreds on enormous piles built for the purpose, or by
+families in their hovels, to the sound of hymns and chants. Such acts
+have been known even during the present century.
+
+One insanity begets another, and belief in the presence of Antichrist
+leads to belief in the approaching restoration of the earth, the second
+advent of Christ and the millennium, which has infected the more extreme
+sects of the Bezpopovstchin, thus connecting it with Gnostic sects of
+various origins. Russian literalism, like many early Christian heresies,
+interprets the prophets and the Apocalypse in a purely material sense.
+The mujik or artisan looks for the establishment of Christ's temporal
+kingdom, and anticipates the dominion promised to the saints. Such a
+belief opens the door to a trust in prophets, and to all the
+extravagances and rascalities that come in its train. In vain does the
+Russian statute-book condemn false prophets and lying miracles: from
+time to time the country is overrun by _illuminati_ proclaiming the
+Second Advent, and occasionally giving themselves out as the expected
+Messiah. They are frequently accompanied by a woman, who plays the part
+of mystical mother or spouse, and to whom they give the title of the
+Mother of God or the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes it is only the simple
+folk who are themselves hunting for the Redeemer; and not long since
+appeared a body of Siberian sectaries, called "Christ-hunters,"
+maintaining that the Saviour was about to appear, and scouring desert
+and forest to find him. Peasants have even been known to refuse payment
+of their taxes under pretext that Christ was come and had done away with
+them. The Messiah of the Russian sectaries is sometimes sought in the
+person of a simple peasant, and sometimes in a native or foreign prince.
+Some have long beheld the expected liberator in Napoleon, for their
+persuasion that the Russian state is the reign of Antichrist easily led
+to welcoming as a Saviour any one who seemed destined to destroy it; and
+in the great enemy of the empire, the great furtherer of a general
+abolition of serfdom, many recognized the conquering Messiah of the
+prophets. It is said that at their meetings an image of Napoleon is
+worshiped, and busts of him are certainly nowhere met with more commonly
+than in Russia. An equal veneration is paid to pictures representing the
+first emperor surrounded by his marshals and floating above the clouds
+in a kind of apotheosis, which is literally accepted by the
+matter-of-fact Russian. The story runs among his worshipers that
+Napoleon is not dead, but has escaped from St. Helena and taken shelter
+on the shores of Lake Baikal, whence he will one day come forth to
+overturn the throne of Satan and found the kingdom of justice and peace.
+
+The main point of these millennial hopes was the abolition of forced
+labor and the _obrok_, the emancipation of the serfs, and the
+equitable distribution of land and other property. A ready reception was
+sure to await such a gospel, with its combination of promises of liberty
+and faint dreams of communism; and something of the kind is necessary to
+explain the easy success of so many extravagant sects, lying prophets
+and feigned Messiahs. Dreams like these in the West incited the
+revolutions of the peasants in mediaeval times and of the Anabaptists in
+the sixteenth century, but they must slowly vanish with the slavery
+which gave them birth. The age of freedom anticipated by the mujik, the
+kingdom of God of which he caught a glimpse in the promises of the
+prophets, is come at last: the Messiah and freer of the people has
+appeared, and his reign is begun. The emancipation of the serfs has
+given a blow to these millennial dreams, and consequently to the more
+advanced sects of the Raskol: its ruin will be completed by education
+and material improvement.
+
+The sects whose general evolution we have sketched may appear to us
+ridiculous and childish. We are tempted to look with contempt upon a
+people capable of such extravagances; but such an estimate would be
+erroneous. Absurdity and extravagance have always found a ready welcome
+when presented under the garb of religion; and countries boasting of
+older and more widespread civilization are not behind Russia in this
+regard. The Raskol has its counterpart in the past and the contemporary
+sectarianism of England and of the United States. A strong likeness
+holds between the Puritans and the Old Believers; and both as to
+originality and religious eccentricities the Anglo-Saxon and the
+inhabitant of Greater Russia may be compared. The Russians delight in
+pointing out the resemblances between their country and the great
+republic of the New World; and this is not the least of them. The
+Americans have their prophets and prophetesses, just like the old
+Russian serfs, and no absurdity or immorality is too gross to find
+preachers and converts among them. How shall we account for so striking
+an analogy between the two most extensive empires of the two continents?
+To characteristics of race and an incomplete blending of different
+stocks, or to the nature of the soil, the extremes of heat and cold, and
+the strong contrasts of the seasons? to the vastness of their
+territories and the scanty diffusion of population and culture over
+areas so immense? or still again to the rapid and inharmonious growth of
+the two countries--to the lack of popular education in the one, and the
+low standard of the higher education in the other? Separately or
+combined, these causes fail completely to explain the curious
+phenomenon; and still they are the most striking points of resemblance
+between the two colossal powers. In some respects, the sectarian spirit
+presents itself in a different and almost opposite manner in the
+democratic republic and the despotic empire. In the United States the
+ranker growths of religious enthusiasm spring from an excess of
+individualism and enterprise--from the independent and pushing temper
+transported from politics and business into religion. In Russia, on the
+contrary, the popular mind has thrown off all restraint in the religious
+sphere, simply because this was long the only one in which it could
+disport itself unchecked. The religious boldness and extravagance which
+in the one country is the direct consequence of the state of society is
+in the other rather a reaction against it. Russia's advantage over
+America lies in the fact that there the excesses of fancy and zeal
+prevail in a more primitive, unsophisticated and childlike race. Some
+diseases are best passed through early in life, before the time of full
+development. It is no less true of some moral maladies: childhood
+suffers from them less than youth or maturity. Russia is still in that
+stage of civilization which is naturally subject to attacks of feverish
+and mystical religion, but one day it will emerge from it; and the
+precocious skepticism of a large portion of its educated classes shows
+plainly that no inexorable fate condemns the national character to
+credulity and superstition.
+
+The Raskol is more than a morbid symptom or a sign of weakness. If it
+does little credit to the sense or cultivation of the people, it does
+much to its heart, its conscience and its will. Independence and
+individuality are often said to be lacking in it, but the Old Believers
+show that firmness and conception of duty which are as needful as
+intelligence to a nation's strength. Beneath the dull, monotonous
+surface of political society these sects give us a glimpse of the hard
+rock which is the groundwork of this seemingly inert race: its
+originality and stern individuality are what are dear to it. One day
+Russia will display in other spheres the originality and patient, sturdy
+energy which these religious struggles have called forth. That a
+considerable portion of the people have revolted against the liturgic
+reform shows that it is not the stupid, sluggish herd Europe has so long
+imagined. On one ground at least its conscience has displayed sufficient
+independence, and told despotism that it is not all-powerful. And if
+mere ritual alterations have aroused such opposition, what would result
+from a change of religion--from the transition to Catholicism or
+Protestantism so often dreamed of and advised by Western theologians? So
+far from being always docile and void of will and determination, the
+Russian people, even in their religious vagaries, have displayed a
+singular power of organization and combination.
+
+
+
+
+ELEANOR'S CAREER.
+
+
+I first met Eleanor Vachy at a boarding-school in the city of R----,
+where we soon became intimate friends. Eleanor was the result of a
+system. When but a few months old, and an orphan, she had been left to
+the care of her aunt, Miss Willmanson, a reformer, a progressionist,
+advanced both in life and opinions, who had spared nothing to make her
+niece an example to her sex. No pugilist ever believed more fully in
+training than did Miss Willmanson: she looked upon institutions of
+learning as forcing-houses, where nipping, budding and improving the
+natural growth was the constant occupation, and where the various
+branches of knowledge were cultivated, like cabbages, at so much a head.
+When Eleanor became, so to speak, her property, she seized with avidity
+the opportunity of submitting her principles to the test of
+experiment--of demonstrating to an incredulous world the power of
+education, and the vigor of the female mind and body when formed by
+proper discipline. The child was fed in accordance with the most recent
+discoveries in chemistry: she was taught to read after the latest
+improvement in primers; she was provided with mathematical toys and
+gymnastic exercises. Did she take a walk in summer, her attention was
+directed to botany; if she picked up a stone to make it skip over a
+passing brook, passages from the _Medals of Creation_ or _Thoughts on a
+Pebble_ were quoted; and when the stone went skimming over the surface
+of the calm pool, the theory of the ricochet was explained and the
+wonders of natural philosophy were dilated upon. Every sentence she
+spoke was made the text of a lesson, and the names of sages and
+philosophers became as familiar to her as those of Jack the Giant-killer
+and Blue Beard are to ordinary children.
+
+Especially were the stories of distinguished women repeated by Miss
+Willmanson in glowing language, pointed out as precedents, and dwelt
+upon as worthy of emulation. "If their genius was great enough," she
+would remark, "to extort a recognition in times when only masculine pens
+wrote history, what could not the same ability do now?--now, when,
+strengthened by waiting, encouraged by ungrudging praise, and sure of
+having chroniclers of their own sex who will do them justice, a new era
+is dawning. The history of the world needs to be reseen from a woman's
+point of view, and rewritten by a woman's hand. Men have had
+the monopoly of making public opinion, and have distorted facts. What in
+a king they name policy, in a queen is called cruelty; what in a
+minister is diplomacy, in a favorite is deceit; what in a man is
+justice, in a woman is inhumanity; vigor is coarseness, generosity is
+weakness, sincerity becomes shallowness; and faults that are passed over
+lightly in the hero are sufficient to doom the heroine for all
+posterity."
+
+The peculiar views of Eleanor's aunt did not prevent her from being an
+agreeable acquaintance. Although she believed in the intellectual
+capacity of woman, she did not look upon herself as a representative of
+the class: her admiration of her sex did not degenerate into
+self-laudation, and her enthusiasm was not tainted by egotism. Hers was
+not a strong-mindedness that showed itself in ungainly coiffures and
+tasteless attire. It was content with desiring and claiming for woman
+whatever is best, noblest and most lovely in mind and body. She would
+have given her life to further this end, but thought it mattered little
+if her name were forgotten in the bulletin that announced success to the
+cause.
+
+Owing to her extreme reserve in talking of herself, it was very
+gradually that I gained this knowledge of Miss Willmanson's character;
+but many of her opinions were received at second hand from Eleanor, who
+admired her aunt greatly, and never tired of quoting her. It was she who
+told me that this talented lady was engaged upon a book the title of
+which was _Footsteps of Women in All Ages_. The aunt returned this
+admiration in no stinted measure, and her highest ambition seemed
+centred in her niece.
+
+Eleanor was a tall, well-formed, unaffected girl, with a clear olive
+complexion; a slight rose-colored bloom on cheeks and lips; deep blue
+eyes, rather purple than blue, rather amethyst than purple, that looked
+every one candidly in the face; and hair reminding you of late
+twilight--a shade that, though dark, still bore traces of having once
+been light, even sunny.
+
+As to her acquirements, however, what in the older lady was love of
+information, in the younger appeared to be what Pepys called a "curious
+curiosity." If she had been obliged to investigate a subject by constant
+labor, I doubt whether she would have stood the test. At school she was
+a parlor-boarder, attended outside lectures on the sciences, went to
+concerts and the opera, frequented museums, had small blank-books in
+which she took voluminous notes, and was constantly busy with some new
+scheme of improvement. In looking at her I often thought that could her
+aunt's dreams be realized, could her intellect ever approach the unusual
+symmetry and beauty of her face and form, it would indeed be an
+achievement. But was it likely that Nature, who is so grudging of her
+gifts, after having endowed her so highly physically would do as much
+for her mentally? "Aunt Will," as the girl called her, had none of these
+misgivings. This beautiful physique she believed to be the effect of her
+own foresight and care--of proper food and clothing, of training in the
+gymnasium, riding and walking. It was itself an earnest of the success
+of her plans, and made her confident for the future. One of the tenets
+of her faith was that Eleanor needed only to decide in what direction to
+exert herself, and that in any career success was certain. For this
+reason she gave her opportunities of every kind, that her choice might
+be unlimited.
+
+In this, as in every other opinion, Eleanor agreed with her aunt, not
+through vanity, but through respect and habit. What she intended to
+become was the theme of long confidences between us when alone together,
+for the time which most other girls of her age devote to dreams of love
+and lovers was employed by her in speculations about her future
+profession. The artlessness of the girl in thus appropriating to herself
+the whole field of human wisdom would have been ludicrous had it not
+been so frank: it reminded you of a child reaching out its chubby hands
+to seize the moon.
+
+In regard to love and marriage, Aunt Will was most resolute in speaking
+against them, and by precept and example she endeavored to influence her
+niece in the same direction. "It is a state which mentally
+unfits a woman for anything"--a dictum which was accepted by Eleanor
+without argument. It was understood that her life was to be devoted to
+being great, not to being loved. But Aunt Will refused to lend her help
+or advice in deciding what the career should be, believing that the
+prophetic fire would kindle itself without human help, and fearing that
+the least hint of what she desired might fetter a waking genius, though
+the girl often plaintively remarked, "I wish aunt would settle it for
+me."
+
+The entire faith with which these two women looked forward to the future
+roused no little curiosity on my part as to the realization of their
+hopes. A year after our acquaintance began the ladies left R---- to
+travel abroad. Eleanor assured me solemnly that she should not return
+until she had won renown, that vision of so many young hearts on leaving
+home. "The great trouble is to decide what to do;" and here she sighed.
+"But Aunt Will says our work shapes itself without our knowing. Some
+morning we wake and find it ready for our hands, with no more doubt on
+the subject. I am waking."
+
+"Meanwhile enjoying yourself."
+
+"Why not?" she answered, smiling: "it is what aunt wishes me to do."
+
+At first I had frequent letters from my friend, but the intervals
+between them became longer, as is usual when a new life replaces the
+old. In those which I received there was no allusion to the career, and
+I felt that inquiries on the subject would be indiscreet. If she were
+succeeding, I should hear of it soon enough; and if not, why should I
+give her pain? After a separation of about eighteen months, and a
+silence of six, one morning, on being sent for to the parlor, what was
+my surprise to find myself face to face with Eleanor Vachy, and the
+girl, prettier than ever, pressing warm kisses on my cheeks!
+
+We had been talking on every conceivable topic for perhaps an hour, as
+only friends can talk, when I chanced to remark, "You intended to make a
+much longer stay when you left: I hope nothing disagreeable has
+happened to bring you home."
+
+"Nothing _dis_agreeable," she replied, looking slightly
+embarrassed. "I would have written about it, but thought I would rather
+tell you. I hope it won't alter your opinion of me when you hear it: I
+hope you won't think less of me;" and the color mounted swiftly in her
+cheeks as she gave me one deprecating glance out of her purple eyes, and
+then as quickly hid them under their long lashes.
+
+"I will try to be impartial," I answered gravely, seeing that she was
+not in a humor to be laughed at. "I suppose it is in reference to your
+career?"
+
+"Yes it is," she replied, looking attentively at the point of her
+boot; "and I fear aunt is disappointed, although she says nothing;
+and it is very possible that you will be disappointed also."
+
+"If you have chosen anything reasonable," I remarked encouragingly, "I
+am sure your aunt will be satisfied: she is so unprejudiced, and you
+know she always declared that she would not influence you."
+
+"She trusted me too much," sighing. "What I have preferred,
+you--maybe she--that is, many people--would think no career at all."
+
+"Ah, indeed! Poetry?" (I knew that Aunt Will had no great opinion of
+most of the versifiers.)
+
+She interlocked her fingers and gave them a slight twist, looked still
+more intently at the toe of her boot, and dropped ruefully one little
+word, "No."
+
+"It is not the stage, surely?" looking at her perfect beauty with a
+sudden start.
+
+"No, no! it is not that. You cannot guess. I may as well tell you. I
+will begin at the beginning, and you will see that I could not help
+it: that is--For Mercy's sake don't look at me as if I were a
+criminal, or I won't say another word!"
+
+"Nonsense, Eleanor! I am not looking at you as if you were a criminal.
+Go on and tell me."
+
+"It is too late now," she said hastily: "I have been here so long
+already. I will see you to-morrow."
+
+"If you dare to go without making a full confession, I will never
+forgive you. Sit down: the sooner it is over the more composed you
+will feel. I have been so anxious to hear about it!"
+
+"Well, if it must be. I know you will be disgusted. I have to begin when
+we left here."
+
+"I have plenty of time to listen."
+
+    "You remember we started on the voyage by ourselves. At our first
+    dinner on board aunt recognized an old friend, a Mrs. Kenderdine,
+    who was also crossing, together with her son. That first dinner was
+    our last for some time, for, though we tried to be as strong-minded
+    as possible, in the end we were obliged to stay in our cabins.
+    Having recovered sooner than aunt, one day I stumbled out as far as
+    the companion-way, and was sitting there very disconsolately when
+    Mr. Kenderdine, passing by, stopped to ask if he should assist me on
+    deck. Of course I was only too glad to go. He had not been sick at
+    all, and could walk about quite easily, which gave me a high opinion
+    of his abilities. Later he brought me my dinner, with a glass of
+    wine, of which he did not spill a drop, and by evening I found that
+    with the aid of his arm I could promenade.
+
+    "That day was a sample of all until the voyage was over, for if I
+    attempted to move alone I stumbled, rolled and behaved with a lack
+    of dignity that was frightful; and yet, after getting a taste of
+    fresh air, I could not bear to stay below. Somehow, it became
+    understood that each morning Mr. Kenderdine might find me in the
+    companion-way at a certain hour; and as aunt would not leave her
+    state-room, and old Mrs. Kenderdine could not, we had nothing to do
+    but to try and amuse each other; so we ended by becoming pretty well
+    acquainted by the time we arrived at Queenstown.
+
+    "In England aunt was very busy. You used to think her a student
+    here: I wish you could have seen her there. For six months she spent
+    almost every hour of daylight in the library of the British Museum,
+    where she had been introduced by a learned friend. Aunt Will has a
+    wonderful admiration for Boadicea: she was also critically examining
+    the history of Queen Henrietta and of Elizabeth. She thinks the
+    latter did not do justice to her opportunities, and that her vanity
+    was the mark of a feeble mind. You know aunt has no patience with
+    vanity and--"
+
+"But about yourself, Eleanor?"
+
+    "I am coming to that directly. Mrs. Kenderdine had gone abroad to
+    get medical advice: as her health would permit her to take but
+    little exercise, a morning drive, with receiving and paying visits
+    (she is of an English family and well connected), was all she was
+    capable of.
+
+    "It happened in this way that the only ones of our party fit for
+    active duty were Fred--I mean Mr. Kenderdine--and myself. As we had
+    formed the habit of amusing each other on the voyage, we still
+    continued it. Aunt would join us when any historical site was to be
+    visited; but there were many places that were not historical, but
+    that were just as pleasant or as beautiful as if they had been, and
+    to these we went together. We stayed in London until the season was
+    over, and then started for Paris.
+
+    "You can form no idea how aunt reveled in the antiquities of Paris.
+    If she went to the Musee Cluny in the morning, we might be sure we
+    should see no more of her for that day at least. She absolutely took
+    rooms at Versailles for two weeks that she might study up the
+    _locale_ of the Pompadour, whom she regards as a female Richelieu,
+    and she also found a rich field of investigation in the lives of the
+    French queens."
+
+"And what were you doing all this time?"
+
+    "Oh! I had professors, French, Italian and German, for the
+    languages, I visited the galleries, and aunt would read me her
+    notes, so that I was gaining much information. You see, in a foreign
+    country it is not the thing to sit in the house to study: you must
+    go about as much as possible and use your eyes, which is an
+    education in itself. That is what I was doing."
+
+"About your career, I mean?"
+
+    "Don't be so impatient: I am about to tell you. We concluded to
+    spend the winter in Rome, aunt and I: the Kenderdines
+    remained in Paris. Aunt preceded me to Brussels about two weeks
+    to explore the libraries there, as we were to make the Rhine tour
+    before going to Italy. I should have accompanied her, but we were
+    expecting a remittance from home that had not arrived, and I was
+    obliged to wait for it. The day before I left Paris I was regretting
+    that I had not been to Montmorency, and Mr. Kenderdine, who
+    overheard me, proposed that as I did not mind fatigue we should go.
+    By starting early in the morning we could make our 'last day,' as he
+    called it, a _fete_. I consented, and we arranged to take the early
+    train to Enghien, to breakfast there, ride through Montmorency to
+    the Chateau de la Chasse, where we could have dinner, and return in
+    time for the Belgian train in the evening. The next morning I was
+    ready, my riding-skirt in a satchel, and off we went. The day was
+    perfect, the air cool and delicious. We took the cars at the Gare du
+    Nord, and in less than an hour we arrived at Enghien, ordered
+    breakfast at a charming little hotel that overlooks the lake, and
+    had it brought to us on the balcony, from whence we could listen to
+    the band playing, and look at the beautiful villas that border the
+    water, watch the invalids taking their constitutionals, and see the
+    brightly-painted boats bobbing over the small waves. While waiting
+    for the horses, Fred made me go to the springs and taste the water,
+    which is horrid: then we mounted and cantered leisurely on to
+    Montmorency, a hilly, desolate-looking place, although so much
+    lauded by the Parisians: I suppose the beautiful forest in the
+    vicinity is its attraction. The road for the next five or six miles
+    was shaded by trees, and most of it was a soft turf on which the
+    horses' hoofs rebounded noiselessly, with views of rolling country
+    at intervals. The chateau had been a hunting-lodge two or three
+    hundred years ago, but nothing remains of it now but a couple of
+    towers, to which a modern country inn has been added, where
+    excellent dinners may be had, as I can testify. It is a great place
+    for the picnics and pleasure-parties of the natives, but foreigners
+    seldom visit it. After we had wandered about for several hours,
+    enjoying ourselves in that silly French way, with nothing but light
+    hearts, fresh air, green grass and blue sky for all incitement
+    thereto, I, in consideration of my evening journey, recommended our
+    return. We had the horses brought round, and then my career
+    commenced."
+
+"Why, how?"
+
+    "You know that road from the chateau? No you don't, but I will tell
+    you of it. The woods lie on one side, and an ivy-covered wall
+    separates it from sloping fields on the other--the prettiest place
+    on earth." ("Artistic," thought I: "she has decided on
+    landscape-painting;" but I did not interrupt.) "It was just there
+    that Mr. Kenderdine came to my side: he had dismounted to open the
+    gate, and was leading his horse. He came to my side, and, looking up
+    at me, said half seriously, half smiling, 'You are very happy
+    to-day, Miss Eleanor: what will you do when I am not with you to
+    ride and walk and talk to?'
+
+    "'I suppose I shall find some one in Rome who rides, walks and talks
+    as well. They say the Campagna is lovely for riding.'
+
+    "'And perhaps some one who waltzes as well.'
+
+    "'Certainly: that is no great accomplishment. Like playing a
+    hurdy-gurdy, if you turn round often enough you cannot fail to make
+    a successful performance.'
+
+    "'There is one thing you will not find, Eleanor;' and he laid his
+    hand on my wrist: 'that is, some one who loves you as well.'
+
+    "'Mr. Kenderdine, please get on your horse, and don't talk
+    nonsense.'
+
+    "'I suppose I have as good a right to talk nonsense as any one, and
+    I believe the fancy for doing so comes to all of us once in our
+    lifetime.'
+
+    "'I admit your right to talk, and claim mine to refuse to listen;'
+    so saying, I gave my horse a cut. The animal started, but Fred's
+    hand was still on my bridle-wrist, and with a motion he checked the
+    animal so violently that it reared, afterward coming down on the sod
+    with a thud that almost unseated me.
+
+    "'I will talk, and you shall listen,' said Mr. Fred, looking
+    dangerous.
+
+    "'So it appears,' I retorted, thoroughly provoked; 'but I hope you
+    will oblige me by being as expeditious as possible, for I am very
+    much afraid that I shall miss the train to-night.'
+
+    "He looked at me a moment as if to be sure he understood my meaning,
+    then turned and sprang on his horse, at the same time remarking,
+    'You are right: I had better not detain you. I had forgotten your
+    journey.'
+
+    "We cantered on in silence for about three miles. The flush of anger
+    had slowly faded out of his face, when he commenced abruptly: 'Miss
+    Vachy, I have no _right_ to ask you what I intend asking, but I have
+    always thought you had a kind heart, and perhaps you will answer my
+    question. You may depend that the confidence you may place in me
+    will be held sacred.' Then less quickly, 'Will you tell me, have you
+    an understanding, or are you engaged, or do you care for any one
+    else?'
+
+    "For a moment I thought of entering into an explanation--of telling
+    him what my aunt expected of me, and what I intended doing--only I
+    did not myself know what I intended doing; and it seemed absurd to
+    begin such an account without being able to complete it. Besides, if
+    he thought I cared for some one else, it would end the matter and
+    save a world of argument; so I replied hesitatingly, 'I am sorry,
+    Mr. Kenderdine, that I cannot answer your question, but--'
+
+    "'Enough: I understand.'
+
+    "Then our canter quickened into a gallop, and the gallop into a
+    race. I am quite sure those horses never went at such a pace in
+    their lives before. Fred seemed unconscious of the run we were
+    making of it, unconscious of everything, urging his poor beast
+    whenever it flagged, and fretting its mouth by alternately jerking
+    and loosening the reins, until had it been anything but a livery
+    hack it would have been frantic. Conversation was impossible, and I
+    had nothing to sustain me during the ride but the satisfaction of
+    feeling that I had done my duty."
+
+    "It don't seem to me that you are getting any nearer the end of your
+    story."
+
+    "The darkest hour is that which precedes the dawn," said Eleanor,
+    adding maliciously, "if you are tired I will tell you the rest
+    to-morrow. Don't you see that I must bring you up to it gradually,
+    so that the shock will not be too great?"
+
+    "But think of the suspense I am in."
+
+    "My dear, the first steps in any career are as important as the
+    last; so curb your curiosity and listen. If you were telling it, you
+    would not get on one bit faster."
+
+    "Perhaps not," I answered doubtfully: "however, continue."
+
+    "Thanks to our haste, we got to Paris early enough to allow me to
+    rest and have supper. I had sent on my baggage by express, and had
+    nothing to worry about Starting at seven, I should arrive next
+    morning at Brussels. I can sleep famously in the cars, and I
+    apprehended no difficulty. Fred, looking as black as a thundercloud,
+    took me to the station, and was preposterous enough to ask me if I
+    was not sorry I was going."
+
+    "And what did you say?"
+
+    "Say? Why, the truth--that I was glad; and then Mr. Thundercloud
+    looked blacker than ever.
+
+    "I had several stations to pass before we reached Creil, where I was
+    to change cars and take the express. I settled myself comfortably,
+    so that I could look out of the window, and I whiled away the time
+    by reviewing the whole of my acquaintance with Mr. Kenderdine. I was
+    forced to admit that I had acted imprudently in not letting him know
+    from the beginning what my life was to be, but I never thought it
+    would matter to him. Then my conscience reproached me for the lie I
+    had implied: I might have told him the truth, and spared him the
+    mortification of believing that I preferred some one else. I knew,
+    in thinking of it calmly, that it was not to avoid an argument that
+    I had done it, but to make him feel as badly as possible, because I
+    was angry at him for stopping my horse. It was mean in me,
+    especially as that De Vezin was the person he would pitch on. You
+    see, I had made a good deal of De Vezin while in Paris, but it was
+    only to improve my French accent--a fact which poor Fred
+    could not know.
+
+    "The train whizzed on. The night grew dark: I could scarcely
+    distinguish objects outside the blurred window, but I still remained
+    attentive to the voice of the conductor as he called out the names
+    of the successive stations until--until I heard no more: I had
+    fallen asleep.
+
+    "I suppose I slept profoundly for about half an hour, when I was
+    suddenly awakened by a jerk: the cars had stopped. I was not aware I
+    had been sleeping, but I had an undefined sense that something was
+    wrong. I hastily opened the window and heard the name Liancourt
+    shouted. There was no such stopping-place between Paris and Creil,
+    for I had studied up my route before starting. The truth flashed
+    upon me, and impulsively I left my car, rushed to the conductor, and
+    asked, 'What place is this?'
+
+    "'Liancourt.'
+
+    "'And where is Creil?'
+
+    "'We have passed it. Did you want to go there?'
+
+    "'Of course I did. Why did you not call it?'
+
+    "'We did call it,' said he indignantly: 'you must have been asleep.'
+
+    "'No such thing,' I replied, for at the moment I did not think it
+    could be possible.
+
+    "There was but little time for reflection. Should I go on to the
+    next large town, or should I stay? If I went on, I should get to my
+    destination in the middle of the night, and, knowing nothing of the
+    place, might have great difficulty in finding lodgings. If I stayed,
+    I might get a train back or a carriage, or even find here a hotel of
+    some kind where they would accommodate me until morning. I decided
+    to remain, and off went the cars.
+
+    "One of the ticket-agents came forward from the office--as I
+    supposed to offer his services: there were but few people about, but
+    all understood my situation. As I said, the man came forward and
+    bowed: 'Your fare, if you please.'
+
+    "I handed him my ticket: he stood before me and repeated, 'Your
+    fare, if you please.'
+
+    "'I have given you my ticket,' said I, looking at him inquiringly.
+
+    "'This one is not for Liancourt: it is for Creil.'
+
+    "'I was going to Creil, only the train brought me past.'
+
+    "'Exactly, and you will please pay for the extra distance,' said he
+    politely.
+
+    "It was too much. I had the misfortune of being carried out of my
+    way, and this exasperating clerk was coolly asking me to pay the
+    company a premium for the result of the conductor's carelessness. It
+    was one of those situations in which words fail to express the
+    extent of your indignation. The fellow's audacity verged on the
+    sublime. He stood there with the calmness of a hero. And what did I
+    do? Why, I paid him. But I tell you truly that I have hated that
+    whole railroad company with the blackest hatred ever since. That was
+    not all. As soon as he received the provoking money--I wish it had
+    been red hot--he turned on his heel and walked into his office.
+
+    "But it was not the time to indulge in resentment: I must act
+    promptly. The people there when I arrived were fast dispersing. I
+    addressed myself to a half-grown boy who was standing near me: 'When
+    does the next train go to Paris?' I thought I had better return and
+    start afresh in the morning.
+
+    "'The last has gone for to-night,' answered the lad.
+
+    "'Are you quite sure?'
+
+    "He gave his head a decisive jerk.
+
+    "'How far is this place from Creil?'
+
+    "'About five miles.'
+
+    "'Can I get a carriage to take me there?'
+
+    "'No.' This time he looked for corroboration to the group who had
+    gathered round us, all of whom with one accord wagged their heads in
+    the negative.
+
+    "'Is there a hotel here?'
+
+    "'No.'
+
+    "'Isn't it a town?'
+
+    "'No,' much intensified.
+
+    "I knew that there are many stations in France consisting of a
+    single building located in the midst of fields: these places take
+    their names from the nearest town (which may be several
+    miles distant), and are marked on the maps by a black spot like a
+    hyphen: many of them are served by an omnibus. I found, on further
+    questioning, that this was one of the aforesaid black spots, minus
+    the omnibus.
+
+    "'What is the nearest town?' I continued.
+
+    "'Liancourt is a little more than a mile off, but it is a village.'
+
+    "'Is there an inn there?'
+
+    "'I believe there is.'
+
+    "By this time most of my audience had satisfied their curiosity and
+    departed, leaving only the boy, and an old man who attracted my
+    attention. He held a lantern which illuminated a kindly,
+    weatherbeaten face, looking like that of an old sailor. I discovered
+    later that he had come from Normandy, and like most Normans had
+    spent half his life on the waves. He seemed interested in my hapless
+    plight: perhaps he would assist me.
+
+    "'I want to go back to Creil' (I knew I should find a hotel there):
+    'won't you come with me and show me the way with your lantern?'
+
+    "'Can't, mademoiselle: can't leave here.' He gave an indicative jerk
+    of his head and thumb in a certain direction toward the railroad.
+
+    "'Why not?'
+
+    "'I am the night-watchman, and should lose my place if I left.'
+
+    "Then please point out the road: I shall have to return alone.'
+
+    "'Can't, mademoiselle: it is too dark. You would get lost.'
+
+    "I thought I could not get much more lost than I was at that moment,
+    but did not say so. Just then a bright idea struck me: 'I will walk
+    back on the railroad: I cannot fail to find my way.'
+
+    "The old man looked aghast at the proposition, and pointed to the
+    long line of high thick hedge that bordered it on each side.
+
+    "'How could you leave the track if you did get to Creil? They are
+    locked up there for the night. Besides, you would be crushed by
+    passing trains, and you would be fined too, for it is against the
+    law. Now,' he went on in that patronizing manner which, from its
+    naivete is so charming in the French peasant--'now, mademoiselle
+    does not wish to die to-night, does she, and be also fined?'
+
+    "'No,' I replied dolefully, seeing my chances of shelter
+    diminishing, 'but I shall certainly die if you will not help me to
+    find a hotel.'
+
+    "'Wait,' he whispered--'wait a little until all the world is gone.
+    It won't be five minutes until every one has departed and every
+    light is out in the station; then--'
+
+    "I could not see how this was to improve my condition, but, having
+    no choice, I waited patiently while he went and busied himself about
+    his work. Presently he returned. Everything was silent, and pointing
+    mysteriously to the waiting-room in the building, he said in a low
+    voice, '_There_ is where you can stay till morning. They would not
+    allow it if they knew, but no one will be the wiser. You can leave
+    as soon as it is light, and to-night sleep on one of the sofas.
+    That's where I sit at night, and I will give it up to you.'
+
+    "The idea was repugnant to me. I could not consent; it was too
+    frightful; it was impossible. I hastened to say, 'It will not do--I
+    cannot stay here: you must take me back. Do take me to Creil.'
+
+    "'Can't do it.'
+
+    "'Well, take me to the next town: there is an inn, and it is not
+    far.'
+
+    "He wavered, and seeing my distress his good-nature conquered. 'I
+    will go with you,' he answered, slowly shaking his head as if
+    admonishing himself for being such a fool; 'but if they should find
+    it out--'
+
+    "You may think it was unkind in me to let him run the risk of losing
+    his place, but what was I to do? I could not submit to stay at the
+    station like a vagabond, and I could not find my way alone. So,
+    without allowing him time to change his mind, I set out. The road
+    was bad and the night dark; the lantern threw a circle of light
+    around us, but all beyond was impenetrable; still, the hope of
+    shelter at the end made the walk agreeable to me. We
+    stumbled along in silence, and by and by heard the barking of dogs
+    that always heralds a night approach to a village. The first house
+    that greeted my eyes had the welcome signboard swinging before it,
+    and above its lintel a bush. It was a tiny place, but it was a
+    refuge, and I felt quite cheerful as I requested the old tar to
+    knock.
+
+    "He did so, and the sound echoed and re-echoed, but there was no
+    response.
+
+    "'Again,' I said, and 'again,' and 'again,' with no better result.
+    It was anything but encouraging.
+
+    "'They cannot hear, they are asleep: take up a stone and beat the
+    door. You must awaken them.'
+
+    "He obediently picked up a stone, and there followed a noise like
+    thunder. I should not have been surprised to see the wee house tilt
+    over and lie down on its side under the force of the blows. Now a
+    gruff voice called out, 'What do you want?'
+
+    "'Lodging.'
+
+    "'We have no room for any one: go away.'
+
+    "'Tell him I must stay,' And with the help of my prompting the old
+    fellow put my case in the most persuasive light possible, but,
+    although we talked and knocked with perseverance, the owner of the
+    voice neither appeared, nor would he vouchsafe us another answer.
+    One might have thought the house had been suddenly enchanted.
+
+    "'It is of no use--of no use whatever: they will not open,' finally
+    said my exhausted companion.
+
+    "'Is there no other inn here?'
+
+    "'No: you will have to return.'
+
+    "'Then you must take me to Creil.'
+
+    "'That I can't do. I have been away too long already: there is a
+    freight-train expected, and I must see that the track is clear. We
+    must go back;' and he turned resolutely and led the way.
+
+    "Just as we left the village a gay party of peasant-girls passed us
+    coming from a ball, laughing and chatting merrily with their beaus.
+    I had an insane idea of accosting them, appealing to their pity, and
+    asking them to keep me for the night, but fear lest they should
+    refuse restrained me: I was too dejected to risk a second repulse.
+    I have been able to realize the poetical things they tell us of the
+    sensations of outcasts, of adventurers; and homeless wanderers ever
+    since. The sight of this merry party made me feel more terribly
+    alone; and the beaus--well, I confess I did wonder what Fred was
+    doing at that moment. Then I thought of the horror of my aunt could
+    she know where I was, and what she would think of the 'footsteps'
+    her own niece was making just then, could she see her.
+
+    "When we arrived at the station my guide preceded me to the
+    waiting-room, and I, completely worn out, meekly followed him.
+
+    "'This is much better than sleeping in the fields,' he remarked
+    cheerily as we entered: 'shall I make you a fire?'
+
+    "'No, thank you, but let me go into the other room.' My reason for
+    this was that its sofas and chairs had some pretensions to comfort,
+    being 'first class.' He went to open the connecting door. It was
+    locked.
+
+    "'This is the only room that is open: I am sorry. Wait a moment: I
+    will bring something to make a pillow, and you can sleep like a
+    top.' He went out, and returned with an old coat, which he folded
+    for me, and which, after covering it with my handkerchief, made a
+    tolerable resting-place for my head. My bed was a hard bench.
+
+    "'Now,' said my protector in a tone of much satisfaction--'now, you
+    will be well. _Voila un bon gite_! Both these other doors are
+    fastened, and this one you can lock after me. Very early I will come
+    and take you part of the way back, and by daylight you can easily
+    find the rest yourself. _Bonne nuit, mademoiselle: dormez bien_.' He
+    went to the door, and taking the key from the outside put it inside.
+    It would not turn. The lock had been made to work with two keys, and
+    the other was absent.
+
+    "'I will tell you what I will do,' said my friend, not in the least
+    discomfited: 'I will lock the door and take the key with me. I must
+    go up the road about two miles on my beat, but you can feel
+    quite safe: no one can get in while I am gone. There is another
+    watchman on the road: he might come while I am away, and--and raise
+    a row. It is best to lock you up.' He nodded his head with great
+    complacency at his good management, and prepared to leave me. I
+    could suggest nothing better. I was at the end of my resources, and
+    had to accept my fate. It would be interesting to know what the
+    Pompadour or Queen Elizabeth would have done under the
+    circumstances, wouldn't it?
+
+    "It was with no pleasant feeling that I saw the door shut, heard the
+    key turned, then withdrawn: the lantern glimmered for a moment
+    through the window, and I was left in the darkness a prisoner.
+    Thoroughly a prisoner, for none of the three doors had keys on my
+    side, and the windows, with their tiny panes of ground glass, were
+    high above the floor. Then, too, the old man had insisted on
+    speaking in a whisper, and walked about on tiptoe. Who were those
+    persons he evidently feared to waken? Persons near by, of course.
+    Probably they carried the missing keys and could enter at any
+    moment. And the other watchman? What if he should come, and, this
+    being the room allotted to himself and companion, refuse to be
+    barred out? Those other unknowns would be aroused by his knocking,
+    and rush in to seek an explanation. If I were found there, should I
+    be taken before the police as a vagabond? Or imagine a fire--a fire
+    and no one knowing that I am here! A fire and no means of escape! My
+    friends losing all trace of me, unable to ascertain how I came by my
+    death! And such a horrible death! Four hours yet till dawn! What
+    might not happen in four hours? The man himself might only have gone
+    to seek an accomplice to murder me. He might have known that the key
+    would not turn on the inside. But at last, in spite of myself,
+    fatigue conquered fear and I slept.
+
+    "I cannot say how long I had been unconscious when I was awakened by
+    hearing a key turning in the lock: the door cautiously opened, and a
+    man entered and came toward the bench where I was lying. My
+    drowsiness calmed me. I wondered quite placidly whether it was to be
+    robbery or murder. What a paragraph it would make in the _Moniteur_
+    next day! I would cheerfully give him my watch and purse if they
+    would content him. I might call out and rouse the house, but most
+    likely Brunhilda in my situation would have held a parley. A good
+    precedent. I sat up to show that I was awake, and in doing so
+    recognized my old man. Though nothing could look more threatening as
+    he stealthily advanced, shading his light, taking pains to make no
+    noise, I could not entirely mistrust the weatherbeaten face with its
+    anxious, benevolent eyes that met mine.
+
+    "'Is it time to go?' I asked.
+
+    "'Not yet, but soon. I have just returned, and came in to know if
+    you would have a fire: it is cold outside.'
+
+    "'No, never mind: I am doing well enough. I think I will take
+    another nap.'
+
+    "'Very well: I shall be near for the rest of the night, so you need
+    not be afraid.' And he left, carefully locking me in again.
+
+    "When he came for me the dawn was beginning to break; the morning
+    star was shining in the sky; the earliest birds were twittering, and
+    cocks answered each other from distance to distance; but not a human
+    being was to be seen. We crossed ploughed fields and stubble to find
+    the road, and I felt the truth of my guide's augury of the night
+    before. Had I attempted to go alone I should have become bewildered,
+    and ended by sleeping in the fields. It did strike me that if the
+    man wished to rob me, now would be his chance, and at first I
+    intentionally kept a little behind; but his innocent garrulity was
+    such as to allay all suspicions, and we jogged on very amicably
+    until, coming to two roads, he pointed out that which leads to
+    Creil, and bade me good-bye.
+
+    "Had I had the giving of a medal of the Legion of Honor, I should
+    have decorated him on the spot. I believe it repaid me for my
+    annoyance to have found such ample goodness, such chivalry, such
+    kindness, growing as it were by the wayside. It was as if
+    the world had rolled back into the days of knight-errantry, when to
+    rescue and protect distressed damsels ranked next to religious
+    worship. Sure am I if my weatherbeaten old man had lived at that
+    time, none would have been more renowned for gentle deeds: in this
+    prosaic age he is but a watchman on a railroad. I was about to pour
+    out my gratitude, when I remembered we were in the nineteenth
+    century, and looking into his face, I fancied that something more
+    substantial would be better. I drew out my purse. He was frankly
+    delighted with what I gave him, saying only that it was too much,
+    and we separated mutually pleased.
+
+    "I sauntered on, lingering by the way to avoid waiting at Creil;
+    consequently, I was just able to procure my ticket and a paper of
+    brioches at the buffet when the English train came in. As I stood at
+    the door, knowing that as soon as it moved off the Belgian train was
+    due, whom should I see get out but Fred! I thought he would re-enter
+    in a moment, and placed myself so that he could not see me. I was
+    mistaken. The train started, and mine puffed up: there he was still.
+    In the crowd I hoped I should not be discovered, but as I stepped
+    from the door his eyes met mine, and he rushed up to me with the
+    exclamation, 'In the name of Heaven, how did you get here? Was there
+    an accident? Are you hurt? What is the matter?'
+
+    "It was singular how his voice unnerved me: I could not say a word.
+    The crowd carried us with them, and he helped me into a car, sitting
+    by me and recommencing his questions. Then I stammered, 'You will be
+    taken on if you do not get out: there is nothing wrong.'
+
+    "For answer he shut the door of the compartment, and said, 'I am
+    going with you. Now tell me how you come to be here?'
+
+    "I do not know why I should have given way when all danger was
+    over--I believe there is no parallel case in the life of any
+    celebrated woman--but I suppose I was tired out. My anxiety and
+    fright, a night spent on a hard board, the surprise of meeting Mr.
+    Kenderdine,--whatever it was, I leaned back in the corner of the
+    seat, took out my handkerchief, and cried harder than I had ever
+    done in my life before. He was greatly alarmed, but, like a sensible
+    man, waited until I became more composed, and when I was able to
+    tell him, instead of blaming me or thinking I was stupid, he
+    censured himself for not accompanying me.
+
+    "'I did mean to ask your permission to do so, Miss Eleanor,' he said
+    slightly embarrassed, 'and I was prig enough to think you would
+    allow it, but when you told me of your engagement I did not dare.
+    After you left I had a dread that something might happen, and I
+    could not rest satisfied until I had made up my mind to come on and
+    see that you had arrived safely. I thought you would forgive me, as
+    it is for the last time, and De Vezin need not be jealous, for he
+    will have you for ever, while I--' Fred can be wonderfully pathetic.
+
+    "Then I made up my mind to undeceive him, as was my duty, you know.
+    I told him very gently that he was under a false impression. I was
+    not engaged: my aunt had educated me for a purpose, and we both had
+    quite determined that I should never marry, but instead do something
+    great in the world, though I had not yet decided what. I explained
+    it to him fully, so that there should be no more mistakes about it.
+    When I ended I did not venture to look at him for a long time,
+    fearing to see him grieved at this irrevocable barrier; but when I
+    did, what was my surprise to see his face beaming with joy! He began
+    impetuously, 'If you had told me I was to be crowned at Brussels, it
+    would not be better news. I was sure it was De Vezin who separated
+    us. Now I can hope.'
+
+    "'You must not talk in that way if you do not want our friendship to
+    cease: you offend me deeply. Can't you see that if you persist in
+    this idea of yours, our pleasant acquaintance must end?' It was so
+    frivolous in Fred, and I spoke very decidedly.
+
+    "'Not at all, Eleanor: it would only begin. Why should not our whole
+    life be like this past year?'
+
+    "'You know it can't,' said I. 'Haven't I told you the reason?'
+
+    "'It will be no reason when De Vezin asks you,' said he
+    suspiciously.
+
+    "'De Vezin is nothing to me.'
+
+    "'You carry a _gage d'amour_ from him on your watch-chain at this
+    very minute.'
+
+    "Now, wasn't that talk silly? De Vezin had brought me a two-centime
+    piece one day because I said I had never seen one, and I put a hole
+    in it and hung it to my chain. Fred to call that a _gage d'amour!_
+
+    "'Nonsense!' said I.
+
+    "'De Vezin thought the same when he saw it there. I took him for a
+    fool, but I see he was right.'
+
+    "'Well, now you will see you were both fools,' said I angrily, and I
+    twisted off the coin and threw it from the window.
+
+    "'Is only that preposterous notion in the way?' he asked, looking
+    happy again and taking a seat by me.
+
+    "I told you how I cried on first entering the cars, and now--would
+    you believe it?--I got terribly embarrassed. It seemed as if
+    everything I did or said made matters worse. I was scarcely able to
+    stammer, 'My aunt--'
+
+    "'I will speak to her. Let me put this on your finger until I can
+    replace it by another:' and he slipped off his seal and leaned
+    forward with an entreating look.
+
+    "I shook my head.
+
+    "'I won't ask you to promise anything: only wear it that I may not
+    be forgotten in Rome.'
+
+    "'No, no, I cannot!' I exclaimed, clasping my hands. I suppose the
+    action and tone were very exaggerated, for Mr. Kenderdine drew back,
+    saying, 'I shall not _force_ you to take it;' and then went to the
+    other window, took a newspaper out of his pocket and pretended to
+    read it, while I was angry and sorry and miserable, though why I
+    should feel so much like crying at what had only amused me the day
+    before I cannot understand. I suppose none of those wonderful ladies
+    would have acted so, would they?
+
+    "But you are tired long ago, and you can easily imagine what comes
+    after. See!" and she turned a ring on her finger until I could catch
+    the shimmer of its stone. "That is how it ended; and though I did
+    not accept it until the next spring in Rome, I shall always blame
+    that night for the whole affair. When I asked Fred why he took the
+    trouble to follow me after the double snubbing I had given him, he
+    said 'I was worth it.' But since we are engaged he teases me
+    shamefully--calls me doctor, hopes I intend to support him in
+    comfort and ease, and says that it always was his ambition to be the
+    husband of a strong-minded woman, and broadly hints about my
+    experience in traveling being so useful to him. And aunt? When I
+    first told her she looked so shocked and disappointed that I threw
+    myself in her arms, saying I would not distress her for the world;
+    that I would do anything she desired; that if she wished she might
+    send Fred off, for I loved her best on earth. But after some minutes
+    of deep thought she looked at me quizzically and replied, 'You know,
+    dear, I always said you must choose your career for yourself.' Then
+    seeing that I seemed hurt and ashamed, she kissed me and whispered,
+    'Love makes us selfish: my affection for you has grown stronger than
+    my ambition. If _you_ are happy, my Eleanor, I can wait patiently
+    for the advancement of the rest of my sex.'"
+
+Then Eleanor rose, and drawing her shawl round her preparatory to going,
+said shyly, "And what I came to tell you is, that the wedding will take
+place at Christmas."
+
+                                        ITA ANIOL PROKOP.
+
+
+
+
+AN AMERICAN LADY'S OCCUPATIONS SEVENTY YEARS AGO.
+
+
+We are looking over sundry trunks and boxes, the careful and the
+careless gatherings of three generations. There are law-papers in dusty
+files; familiar gossipy letters from brothers and sisters and college
+chums; dignified letters from reverend judges and law-makers; letters
+bursting with scandalized Federalisms, and burning or melting with
+long-forgotten joys and sorrows. We have read some thousands of these
+papers, and begin to be very uncertain about the times we are living in.
+What indeed is this year of our Lord? We have a dim recollection that we
+have been wished a happy New Year in 1875, yet we are living and
+thinking with the boys and girls of 1776, who have grown to be the men
+and women of Jefferson's time.
+
+To make things more misty to our comprehension, we are sitting by a
+dormer window in a high, "hip-roofed" garret of a mansion built just
+before the Revolution, and the air is redolent of ancient memories. The
+very cobweb that swung across the window just now has a venerable
+appearance, entirely inconsistent with the fact that the housemaid's
+broom was supposed to have whisked across these beams but yesterday. But
+then the housemaids of to-day, as everybody knows, are, as a source of
+perplexity and vexation of spirit, always to be relied upon, but never
+to be relied upon for anything else. And with the thought we sigh for
+the "good old days" and the "good old servants" of our grandmothers.
+
+Happy grandmothers! so blessed in their simple, quiet lives, unvexed by
+ever-changing fashions and domestics! What did they know of trouble
+whose best silk gowns remained in fashion from year to year, and whose
+cooks never treated them to an empty breakfast-table, and a cool "I
+thought I'd be a-lavin' this marnin', mum"? Happy grandmothers!
+
+Thus thinking, we pick up a little rough paper-book with marbled covers
+from the corner of the old hair trunk where it was long ago thrown by
+some careless hand. The little tumbled book proves to be a diary. Not a
+record of a soul's strivings and pantings after a higher life, or a
+curiously minute inquiry into the possible reasons which induced the
+Almighty to allow Satan to afflict Job, but a simple daily note-book,
+the memoranda of a housekeeper. The old letters had been to us what the
+newspapers of to-day will be to the great-grandchildren of the present
+generation. The diary carried us back into the immediate home-life of
+seventy years ago.
+
+The diarist had been a fair and stately dame in her day, and it is easy
+to remove her from the frame where her portrait hangs on the walls of
+the south parlor, and fancy her seated in the same room before the
+crackling fire jotting down the memoranda of the day. She is a pretty
+sight, we think, sitting in her straight-backed mahogany arm-chair, with
+her feet on the polished brass fender and her book resting on the little
+stand, which also holds the two tall silver candlesticks with their tall
+tallow candles, for wax candles are saved for gala-nights, when diaries
+are not in requisition. She must have been nearly forty years old when
+she wrote in this little book, but we see her as her portrait shows her,
+very young-looking in spite of her stateliness, enhanced though it is by
+the high turban of embroidered muslin edged with soft lace falling over
+the clusters of fair curls on her temples, and by the black satin gown,
+short-waisted and scanty, relieved only by delicate lace frills, which
+shade the beautiful throat and the strong, white, shapely hands. The
+shadow on her face as she gazes into the fire is not marvelous, for it
+is winter in her quiet Connecticut home; the post comes but twice a
+week; her husband is representing his State in Washington, and her only
+child is studying in distant Yale. Perhaps, though, the shadow is not
+that of pure loneliness. Is there not some perplexity in it? And
+something also of vexation? Yes, and it is the very vexation of spirit
+which--in the face of Solomon's venerable testimony to the contrary--we
+had fancied to be peculiar to our own evil days. Almost the first entry
+in this quaint little diary is to the effect that "Jim was sulky
+to-night and gave short answers." A little farther on we find that
+"Yesterday Jim went away without leave, and stayed all night;" which
+delinquency, being accompanied by a suspicion of drunkenness, caused the
+anxious dame to "send for General T---- to come and give Jim a lecture."
+Lecturing, however, was not then so popular as now, and Jim appears to
+have profited little by the veteran general's discourse, for on the very
+next night he repeats his offence. We have reason also to fear that
+Jim's honesty was not above suspicion, for we read that Betsey, an
+American woman who acted as assistant housekeeper and companion, "found
+in Jim's possession a red morocco pocket-book which I had given her, but
+"--alas for Betsey!--"with the contents all gone."
+
+Other entries to the effect that madam one day lost her key to the
+wine-cellar, and the next day discovered the bibulous Jim in the said
+cellar "sucking brandy through a straw inserted in the bunghole of the
+cask," and that, "furthermore, Jim had confessed to having stolen and
+sold a coffee-basin for rum," do not tend to raise in our estimation
+this pattern of an ancient darkey. This time it appears that madam did
+not need to call in the aid of General T----, for she admits that she
+herself "lectured Jim severely;" sarcastically adding, "he professed
+penitence, but that did not hinder him from stealing another basin
+to-day."
+
+But the refractory Jim, we think, must have been the exception which
+proved the rule that all servants prior to the late Celtic invasion were
+models of deportment. Accordingly, we are not surprised to find that
+Betsey was a handmaiden held in high estimation, and that "old Jack" was
+a servant whose shortcomings were offset by his general good conduct and
+affectionate heart. But we find also that there was a certain Sally, who
+could be tolerated only because of her great culinary skill; and an
+uncertain Silvy, who appears to have been in mind, if not in fact, the
+twin-sister of Jim, with a spice of Topsy thrown in.
+
+The trouble in those days was not the prospect of suddenly losing cook
+or nursemaid, but that there was no getting rid of either. The fact of
+slavery was, under the act of 1793, slowly fading away from Connecticut,
+but all its habits remained in full force. "I wish I could send Jim and
+Silvy away," writes madam, "but the poor rascals have no place to go
+to."
+
+Silvy was a tricksome spright that delighted in breaking bottles of the
+"best Madeira wine and spilling the contents over the new English
+carpet" when the mistress had invited the parson's and the doctor's
+families to dinner. This, though of course it was "not to be endured,"
+might have been accidental, and so was very "tolerable" in comparison
+with Silvy's next exploits of poisoning the beloved house-dog and
+throwing by the roadside the bottle of wine--possibly emptied first--the
+jar of jelly and the fresh quarter of lamb which had been sent to a poor
+and sick old woman. These two offences, occurring on the same day, we
+are sorry to confess, incited the stately, white-handed dame to do
+something more decisive than to "deliver a lecture" to Silvy. It is
+demurely recorded that "for these two misdeeds I whipped Silvy." What
+effect the whipping had upon that somewhat too frolicsome damsel we are
+not informed, but madam admits that it made herself ill, and adds that
+"if Silvy does not reform it is impossible to see what can be done for
+her, for she will not listen to remonstrance. Betsey is not strong
+enough to punish so strapping a wench, and it does not seem right that a
+man should be set to whip any woman or girl, even a wench, else Jack
+could do it."
+
+However, Jack's own patience having been tried by the refractory Silvy,
+he seems to have taken the matter into his own hands, for his mistress
+tells us how she was scandalized, on her return from church, by "finding
+Jack whipping Silvy," while that young lady was "screaming vehemently,
+so that all the people passing by could hear her." As Jack had
+discovered Silvy engaged in the amiable diversion of breaking the legs
+of the young calves by throwing stones at them, one can have a little
+charity for his summary action, although, as madam gravely remarks, "he
+might at least have waited until Monday."
+
+The calves, by the way, had an unlucky winter of it, and were especially
+shaky about the legs. We find that a few weeks later "Jack having
+neglected to repair the barn floor, as he had been directed, a plank had
+given way and three of the calves' legs had been broken by the fall." We
+have felt a deep interest in the fate of these calves, but with all our
+anxiety have failed to discover whether three calves had all their legs
+broken, or only three legs in all had been sacrificed to Jack's culpable
+neglect.
+
+By this time we begin to think that madam would have been just as well
+off if she had not kept so many servants, and to wonder what they could
+have had to do. Perhaps it was the idle man's playmate that made the
+trouble. But a little farther reading in the old diary dissipates this
+illusion. If anybody thinks that our grandmothers must have been cursed
+with ennui because they did not attend three parties a night three times
+a week, with operas and theatres to fill in the off nights, they are
+mightily mistaken.
+
+Of sociability there could have been no lack in this rural neighborhood,
+for besides a ball or two madam records numbers of tea-drinkings and
+debating clubs, and meetings of the Clio, a literary club, at which
+assisted at least two future judges of the supreme courts of the States
+of their adoption, and several other men and women whose names would
+attract attention even in our clattering days. Visiting, too, of the
+old-fashioned spend-the-day sort had not gone out of date--was indeed so
+common that madam one evening enters in her journal--whether in sorrow
+or in thankfulness there is nothing to tell us, but at least as a
+notable fact--that she had "had no company to-day."
+
+But it was not company that occupied all the hours of so busy a dame as
+our diarist. Though she had not to remodel her dresses in hot chase
+after the last novelty of the fashion-weekly, she had to superintend the
+manufacture of the stuff of which her maids' gowns and her own
+morning-gowns were made, to say nothing of bed-and table-linen, etc.
+Bridget in our day seems to think that to do a family washing is a labor
+of Hercules. Yet seventy years ago before a towel could be washed the
+soap wherewith to cleanse it must be made at home; and this not by the
+aid of condensed lye or potash, but with lye drawn by a tedious process
+of filtering water through barrels or leach-tubs of hard-wood ashes. The
+"setting" of these tubs was one of the first labors of the spring, and
+to see that Silvy or Jim poured on the water at regular intervals, and
+did not continue pouring after the lye had become "too weak to bear up
+an egg," was a part of Betsey's daily duty for some weeks. Then came the
+soap-boiling in great iron kettles over the fire in the wide fireplace.
+Apparently, this was not always a certain operation. Science had not yet
+put her meddling but useful finger into the soap-pot, for madam sadly
+records that on the twenty-first of May she had superintended the
+soap-boiling, but had not been blessed with "good luck;" and on the
+third of June we find the suggestive entry, "Finished the soap-boiling
+to-day." Eleven days--for we must of course count out the two
+Sundays--eleven days of greasy, odorous soap-boiling! We think that if
+we had been in madam's slippers we should have allowed Sally, Silvy and
+the rest to try the virtues of the unaided waters of heaven upon the
+family washing, and when this ceased to be efficacious should have let
+the clothes be purified by fire. But upon second thoughts, no: it was
+too much trouble to make those clothes.
+
+We are not yet through with the preparations for the washing. The
+ancient housewife could not do without starch for her "ruffs and cuffs
+and fardingales," and for her lord's elaborately plaited ruffles. Yet
+she could not buy a box of "Duryea's best refined." The starch, like the
+soap, must be made at home. "On this day," writes our diarist, "had a
+bushel of wheat put in soak for starch;" and in another place we find
+the details of the starch-making process. The wheat was put into a tub
+and covered with water. As the chaff rose to the top it was skimmed off.
+Each day the water was carefully turned off, without disturbing the
+wheat, and fresh water was added, until after several days there was
+nothing left but a hard and perfectly white mass in the bottom of the
+tub. This mass was spread upon pewter platters and dried in the sun.
+
+Another sore trouble was the breadmaking. The great wheat-fields of the
+West were not then opened, and we find that the wheat was frequently
+"smutty;" hence, that "the barrel was bad," which must sorely have tried
+the soul of the good housewife. Woe be to Silvy if that damsel did not
+carry herself gingerly on the baking-day when the long, flat shovel
+removed from the cavernous brick oven only heavy and sticky lumps of
+baked dough, in place of the light white loaves which the painstaking
+housewife had a right to expect!
+
+In the absence of husband and son the care of a large farm fell upon our
+madam's shoulders, and the details of cost and income are dotted through
+the little journal. We can imagine the lady, gracious in her
+stateliness, marshaling old General T---- and Colonel C----, two
+veterans of the Revolution, out into her barnyard to get their opinion
+as to the value of her fat cattle, and the concealed disapproval with
+which she received their judgment that forty-five dollars was a fair
+price for the pair, "when," as she quietly remarks, "I considered that
+fifty dollars was little enough for so fine a pair of fat cattle; and in
+fact I got my own price for them the next day."
+
+Fifty dollars was a much larger sum then than now. Imagine how many
+things could be bought for fifty dollars, when butter brought but ten,
+veal three or four, beef six or seven cents respectively per pound, and
+a pair of fat young chickens brought but twenty-five cents! There is one
+article upon whose accession of price we can dwell with pleasure. Madam
+records discontentedly that it "took two men all day to kill four hogs,
+_notwithstanding_ that she had spent fifty cents for a half gallon
+of rum for them to drink." Fancy the sort of liquor that could now be
+bought for a dollar the gallon, and the sort of men that could drink two
+quarts thereof and live!
+
+It is heretical, of course, to hint a syllable against the open
+wood-fire which crackled and flickered so beautifully while our madam
+wrote about her cattle and pigs and Jim and Silvy, but in truth we
+cannot envy our ancestors the care of those fires. With three yawning,
+devouring fireplaces constantly to be fed, and an additional one for
+each of the guest-rooms so often occupied during the winter--for this
+was the visiting season--there was no lack of business for Ralph, a
+white man; and his colored coadjutors, Jack and Jim. When we look at the
+still existing kitchen fireplace, nine feet in width and four in depth,
+we cease to blame Jack for neglecting to mend the barn floor. We only
+wonder that he found time to whip Silvy.
+
+Among the occupations of the women one great time-consumer must have
+been the daily scouring, so much woodwork was left unpainted to be kept
+as white as a clean sea-beach by applications of soap and sand. Probably
+a good deal of this hand-and-knee work fell upon the unfortunate Silvy,
+as well as the polishing of the pewter plates, the brass fenders,
+andirons, tongs, shovels, door-knobs, knockers, and the various brazen
+ornaments which bedecked the heavy sideboards and tall secretaries.
+
+Seventy years ago, when gas and kerosene were not, and wax candles were
+an extravagance indulged in only on state occasions, even by the
+wealthy, the tallow dip was an article of necessity, and "candle
+dip-day" was as certain of recurrence as Christmas, though perhaps even
+less welcome than the equally certain annual Fast Day. Fancy an immense
+kitchen with the before-mentioned fireplace in the centre of one side.
+Over the blaze of backlog and forestick, and something like half a cord
+of "eight-foot wood," are swinging the iron cranes laden with great
+kettles of melting tallow. On the opposite side of the kitchen two long
+poles about two feet apart are supported at their extremities upon the
+seats of chairs. Beside the poles are other great kettles containing
+melted tallow poured on the top of hot water. Across the poles are the
+slender candle-rods, from which depend ranks upon ranks of candle-wicks
+made of tow, for cotton wick is a later invention. Little by little, by
+endlessly repeating the slow process of dipping into the kettles of
+melted tallow and hanging them to cool, the wicks take on their proper
+coating of tallow. To make the candles as large as possible was the aim,
+for the more tallow the brighter the light. When done, the ranks of
+candles, still depending from the rods, were hung in the sunniest spots
+of a sunny garret to bleach.
+
+But all these employments were as play compared with the home
+manufacture of dry goods. Ralph, Jack and Jim had no time for such work,
+so two other men were all winter kept busy in the barn at "crackling
+flax" and afterward passing it through a coarse hetchel to separate the
+coarsest or "swingling tow." After this the flax was made up into
+switches or "heads" like those which we see in pictures, or that which
+Faust's Marguerite so temptingly wields. These were deposited in barrels
+in the garret. During the winter the "heads" were brought down by the
+women to be rehetcheled once and again, removing first the coarser, and
+then the finer tow. This must have been a fearfully dusty operation. It
+makes one cough only to think of "the inch depth of flax-dust" which
+settled upon Betsey's protecting handkerchief while she "hetcheled."
+
+The finest and best of the flax was saved for spinning into thread, for
+cotton thread there was none, excepting, possibly, a little of very poor
+quality in small skeins. The small wheel that we see in the far corner
+of the garret--just like Marguerite's--was used for spinning the fine
+thread. A larger wheel was used to spin the tow into yarn for the coarse
+clothing for boys and negroes or for "filling" in the coarser linens.
+All the boys, and very often the men--perhaps even our M.C.
+himself--wore in summer trousers made of linen cloth, for which the yarn
+was spun at home by the maids, and was then taken to the weaver's to be
+made into cloth. Part of the linen yarn was dyed blue, and, mingled with
+white or unbleached yarn, was woven into a chequered stuff for the
+curtains of servants' beds and for dresses for the maids and aprons for
+their mistresses. In view of the fact that all the bed-linen and most of
+the table-linen was thus made at home, one cannot wonder that a
+house-wife's linen-closet was an object of special care and pride.
+
+If there were at that time any woolen manufactories in the United
+States, their powers of production must have been very limited, while
+foreign cloths could only have been worn by the gentlemen, and by them
+probably not at all times, for a few years later than the date of
+madam's diary we find that English cloths were sold at the then fearful
+prices of eighteen and twenty dollars per yard. So sheep must be kept
+and sheared, and their wool carded, rolled and spun. As linen-spinning
+was the fancy-work of winter, so wool-spinning was that of summer. Back
+and forth before the loud-humming big wheel briskly stepped the cheerful
+spinner through the long bright afternoons of summer, busily spinning
+the yarn that was to be woven into cloths and flannels of different
+textures. Busily indeed must both mistress and maids have stepped, for
+not without their labors could be provided the coats and trousers, the
+undershirts, the petticoats and the woolen sheets, to say nothing of
+blankets, white or chequered, and the heavy coverlets of blue or green
+and white yarns woven into curiously intermingling figures, all composed
+of little squares; and last, but not least, the yarn for countless pairs
+of long warm stockings for the feet of master and man, mistress and
+maid. For as a legacy from dying slavery the servants were still unable
+or unwilling to provide for their own wants, and the house-mistress had
+frequently to knit Jack's stockings with her own fair fingers, as well
+as to "cut out the stuff for Jim's pantaloons," which she will "try to
+teach Silvy to sew."
+
+Did we think that we had reached the last purpose for which the homespun
+woolen yarn was required? We were mistaken, for here is the entry:
+"To-day dyed the yarn for back-hall carpet. Remember to tell the weaver
+that I prefer it plaided instead of striped."
+
+Economy of time must, one would think, have been the most necessary of
+economies to the old-time housewives. With so many things to do, how did
+they find time to make those marvels of misplaced industry, the patched
+bed-quilts? Our diarist, rich as her closets were in blankets and linen,
+left but few bed-quilts to vex the eyes of her descendants, yet we read
+that "Betsey and I quilted a bed-quilt this afternoon"--their fingers
+were surely nimble--"and in the evening"--happy change of
+employment!--"Betsey finished reading aloud from Blair's
+_Lectures._ To-morrow evening we shall begin the _Spectator_.
+My husband has sent us by private hand Mr. A. Pope's translation of the
+_Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, but it has not yet arrived. Strange
+that a private hand should be slower than the post!"
+
+And indeed the slowness of the post had been a source of frequent
+disquietude to our madam during this lonely winter, for very lonely it
+was to the waiting wife and mother, notwithstanding all her occupations.
+"'Life's employments are life's enjoyments,'" she sadly writes on the
+night before Christmas, "and surely I have not a few of them; but with
+my beloved husband and son far from me I cannot half enjoy my life. I
+have given the servants their presents to-night" (though living in
+Puritan Connecticut, our madam was of Hollandish stock, and did not
+ignore the Christmas festival), "and paid them eighteen pence apiece not
+to wish me a Merry Christmas to-morrow, for little merriment indeed
+should there be for me."
+
+Yet she was a cheerful soul, this stately madam who sadly gazes into the
+fire on the Christmas Eve of seventy years ago--a cheerful, loving soul,
+and a kindly (notwithstanding her chastisement of the delinquent Silvy);
+and after all the winter wore not unhappily away.
+
+With the opening spring husband and son returned to gladden her heart,
+and we close the little diary with a smile at once of sympathy and of
+amusement as we read that while madam had intended to meet her loved
+ones with the family coach on their landing from the sloop at
+Poughkeepsie, thirty miles from her home, she was "so detained by reason
+of the depth and vileness of the mud that it was full fifteen miles this
+side the river" (Hudson) "that our coach fell in with a hired carriage
+coming this way. The road was so bad that we had difficulty in passing,
+and it was not until we were almost by that my dear husband noticed his
+own coach. There was some trouble in getting from the one carriage to
+the other, but when all were safely in the coach there was much
+rejoicing, you may be sure."
+
+                                        ETHEL C. GALE.
+
+
+
+
+A MARCH VIOLET.
+
+
+    Black boughs against a pale, clear sky,
+    Slight mists of cloud-wreaths floating by;
+    Soft sunlight, gray-blue smoky air,
+    Wet thawing snows on hillsides bare;
+    Loud streams, moist sodden earth; below
+    Quick seedlings stir, rich juices flow
+    Through frozen veins of rigid wood,
+    And the whole forest bursts in bud.
+    No longer stark the branches spread
+    An iron network overhead,
+    Albeit naked still of green;
+    Through this soft, lustrous vapor seen,
+    On budding boughs a warm flush glows,
+    With tints of purple and pale rose.
+    Breathing of spring, the delicate air
+    Lifts playfully the loosened hair
+    To kiss the cool brow. Let us rest
+    In this bright, sheltered nook, now blest
+    With broad noon sunshine over all,
+    Though here June's leafiest shadows fall.
+    Young grass sprouts here. Look up! the sky
+    Is veiled by woven greenery,
+    Fresh little folded leaves--the first,
+    And goldener than green, they burst
+    Their thick full buds and take the breeze.
+    Here, when November stripped the trees,
+    I came to wrestle with a grief:
+    Solace I sought not, nor relief.
+    I shed no tears, I craved no grace,
+    I fain would see Grief face to face,
+    Fathom her awful eyes at length,
+    Measure my strength against her strength.
+    I wondered why the Preacher saith,
+    "Like as the grass that withereth."
+    The late, close blades still waved around:
+    I clutched a handful from the ground.
+    "He mocks us cruelly," I said:
+    "The frail herb lives, and she is dead."
+    I lay dumb, sightless, deaf as she;
+    The long slow hours passed over me.
+    I saw Grief face to face; I know
+    The very form and traits of Woe.
+    I drained the galled dregs of the draught
+    She offered me: I could have laughed
+    In irony of sheer despair,
+    Although I could not weep. The air
+    Thickened with twilight shadows dim:
+    I rose and left. I knew each limb
+    Of these great trees, each gnarled, rough root
+    Piercing the clay, each cone of fruit
+    They bear in autumn.
+                         What blooms here,
+    Filling the honeyed atmosphere
+    With faint, delicious fragrancies,
+    Freighted with blessed memories?
+    The earliest March violet,
+    Dear as the image of Regret,
+    And beautiful as Hope. Again
+    Past visions thrill and haunt my brain.
+    Through tears I see the nodding head,
+    The purple and the green dispread.
+    Here, where I nursed despair that morn,
+    The promise of fresh joy is born,
+    Arrayed in sober colors still,
+    But piercing the gray mould to fill
+    With vague sweet influence the air,
+    To lift the heart's dead weight of care,
+    Longings and golden dreams to bring
+    With joyous phantasies of spring.
+
+                            EMMA LAZARUS.
+
+
+
+
+WHAT IS A CONCLAVE?
+
+
+It may be that before these lines meet the eye of the readers they are
+intended for the world will be once again witnessing that function of
+the Roman Catholic Church which of all others makes the highest
+pretensions to transcendental spiritual significance, and is in reality
+the most utterly and grossly mundane--a _conclave_. In any case, it
+cannot be long before that singular spectacle is enacted on the
+accustomed stage before the converging eyes of Christendom. In any case,
+too, it will be nearly thirty years since the world has seen the like.
+And never before since St. Peter sat (or did not sit) in the seat of the
+Roman bishops has so long a period elapsed unmarked by the election of a
+supreme pontiff. The coming conclave will be held under circumstances
+essentially dissimilar from those surrounding all its predecessors, as
+will be readily understood if we consider the difference which recent
+changes, both lay and ecclesiastical, have made in the position of the
+pope. If, on the one hand, the political changes in Europe have taken
+from the cardinals the power of creating a sovereign prince, the
+ecclesiastical changes which the late ecumenical council has wrought in
+the constitution of the Church have placed in their hands the power and
+duty of selecting a supreme ruler of the Church with acknowledged claims
+to a loftier and more tremendous authority than the most high-handed of
+his predecessors has hitherto claimed. And the nature of this authority
+is such that the political rulers of the world may well feel--and are,
+as we know, feeling--a more anxious interest in the result of the
+election than they have for many a generation felt in the elevation of a
+temporal ruler of the ci-devant States of the Church. Under these
+circumstances it may be acceptable to our readers to have some brief
+account of what conclaves are and have been.
+
+That this method of choosing a supreme head of the universal Church was
+in its origin abusive--that the earliest popes were chosen by the
+suffrages of the entire body of the faithful, that by a process of
+encroachment this election was in the course of time arrogated to
+themselves by the Roman clergy, and was ultimately, by a further process
+of similar encroachment, monopolized by the "Sacred College" of
+cardinals,--all this is sufficiently well known. It is, however, curious
+enough to merit a passing word, that a precisely analogous process of
+progressive encroachment may be observed to have taken place in the mode
+of appointing the bishops of the Church, not only in the Catholic, but
+also in the Protestant branch of it. First freely elected by the body of
+the faithful, they were subsequently chosen by the clergy, and lastly by
+a small and select body of these in the form of a "chapter." Only in
+this case a further step of encroachment being still possible, that step
+has been made; and bishops are nominated in the Catholic Church
+formally, and in the Anglican really, by the pope and the sovereign
+respectively.
+
+It does not seem that in the earliest elections made by the cardinals
+the precautions of a "conclave," or a shutting up together of the
+cardinals, was adopted. The first conclave seems to have been that which
+elected Innocent IV. in 1243, and the motive for the locking up appears
+to have been the fear of interference by the emperor Frederick, who was
+at the time ravaging all the country around Rome. The first conclave
+that was guarded by a Savelli, in whose family the office of marshal of
+the Church and guardian of the conclaves became hereditary, was that
+which elected Nicholas IV. in 1288. The mode in which this pontiff
+merited his elevation is worth telling, apropos of conclaves. The
+conclave had lasted over ten months, and been prolonged into the hottest
+and most unhealthy season, insomuch that six cardinals died, many more
+fell ill, and all ran away save one, the bishop of Palestrina. He,
+"keeping large fires continually burning to correct the air," stuck to
+it, remained in conclave all alone, and was unanimously elected pope at
+the return of the cardinals when the pestilence had ceased. In 1270 we
+find a conclave sitting under difficulties of another kind. It was at
+Viterbo, and their Eminences sat for two years without making any
+election; whereupon, we are told, Raniero Gatti, the captain of the
+city, took the step of unroofing the palace in which they were assembled
+as a means of hastening their decision. That their Eminences were not
+thus to be hurried, however, is proved by their having subsequently
+dated a bull, still to be seen with its seventeen seals, "from the
+unroofed episcopal palace of Viterbo." There were four or five popes
+elected subsequently to this, however, without conclaves; but from the
+death of Boniface VIII. in 1303 the series of conclaves has been
+unbroken. Celestine V., who abdicated in 1294, drew up the rules which,
+confirmed by his successor, Boniface VIII., and by many subsequent popes
+from time to time down to the last century, still regulate the
+assembling and holding of the conclave, modified in some degree, as
+regards the food and private comforts of the cardinals, by indulgence of
+later pontiffs.
+
+In old and long-since-forgotten books concerning the conclaves many
+curious particulars may be found respecting the customs and ceremonies
+connected with the disposal of the body of the deceased pontiff. A
+learnedly antiquarian dispute has been raised on the question whether in
+early times the body of a pope was embalmed, as we understand the word,
+or only exteriorly washed and perfumed. It seems, on the whole, clear
+that the first pope who was, properly speaking, embalmed, was Julius
+II., who died in 1513. But here is a striking account of the condition
+of things in the papal palace after the death of that great, high-handed
+and powerful pontiff, Sixtus IV., which occurred in 1484, after a reign
+of thirteen years. The statement is that of Burcardo (Burckhardt), the
+papal master of the ceremonies, the same writer whose diary, jotted down
+from day to day, has revealed to us the incredible atrocities of the
+court of Alexander VI., the Borgia pope, who died in 1503. "For all that
+I could do," writes the master of the ceremonies, who perhaps at that
+time occupied some less conspicuous post in the papal court, "I could
+not get a basin, a towel, or any kind of utensil in which the wine and
+the water for the odoriferous herbs could be put for washing the body of
+the deceased. Nor could I obtain drawers or a clean shirt for putting on
+the body, though I asked for them again and again. At length the cook
+lent me the copper kettle in which he was wont to heat the water for
+washing the plates, together with some hot water; and Andrew the barber
+brought me his barber's basin from his shop. So the pontiff was washed.
+And as there was no towel to wipe the body with, I caused him to be
+wiped with the shirt in which he died, torn into two halves. I could not
+change the drawers in which he died and was washed, because there were
+no others. His canonical vestments were put upon him without any shirt,
+and a pair of red cloth stockings, furnished by the bishop of Cervia,
+who was his chamberlain, and a long tunic, if I remember rightly, of red
+damask, as well as some other things." This pope, whose body was thus
+washed with his shirt torn in half for want of a towel, was that same
+Sixtus the enormous wealth and boundless luxury of whose nephews seem
+almost fabulous to readers even of these money-abounding days.
+
+The explanation of the extraordinary state of things above described is
+to be found in the custom which existed of sacking the apartments of the
+deceased pope as soon as ever the breath was out of his body. The utter
+lawlessness which prevailed at Rome _sede vacante_--that is to say,
+during the interval between the death of one pope and the election of
+his successor--was not, indeed, confined to the residence of the
+departed pontiff. Throughout Rome all law used to be on those occasions
+in abeyance. The streets were scenes of the most unbridled excesses and
+violence of all sorts. That was the time for the satisfying of old
+grudges. Murder was as common as murderous hate; and no man's life was
+safe save in so far as his own hand or his own walls could protect it.
+And walls did not always avail. I find a petition to Leo X. from a
+monastery in Rome, setting forth that a document assuring certain
+indulgences to the house had been lost at the time of the sack and
+plunder of the convent during the last conclave. No sort of claim, it is
+to be observed, is attempted to be set up of redress for the plunder and
+destruction of the property of the convent; only a prayer that the
+privileges in question might be again granted in consideration of the
+loss of the document. A very curious illustration of Roman manners in
+the sixteenth century is to be found in a practice with regard to these
+periods of interregnum which I find recorded by Cancellieri in his work
+on the conclaves. Roman wives, it seems, were forbidden--not without
+reason--to leave their homes and go forth into the streets of Rome at
+their pleasure. But in the articles of the marriage contract it was
+stipulated that the lady should be free to go out on certain specified
+occasions, mainly ecclesiastical festivals; and among these it was
+always specially provided that the lady might go out during the days of
+the exposition of the body of a deceased pope for the purpose of kissing
+his feet. One would have thought that, looking to the state of things in
+the city, the time of the interregnum would have been the very last to
+select for ladies to venture into the streets. It would seem, however,
+that the Roman matrons thought otherwise. Cancellieri says that it was
+in those days a common saying among Roman ladies that "Happy were they
+who were married to Spaniards!" For it would seem that the Spanish
+husbands in Rome did not think it necessary to enforce this restraint on
+their wives--a circumstance that rather curiously contradicts our
+general notions of Spanish marital feelings and discipline.
+
+In truth, the condition of Rome during the period of the conclave down
+to very recent times affords a singular evidence of the virtue of the
+old French formula, "Le roi est mort! Vive le roi!" as signifying the
+non-existence of any period of transition between one embodiment of law
+and authority and his successor; for the absence of any similar
+provision in the case of the popes made Rome a veritable hell upon earth
+during the period of a papal election.
+
+But if the city outside the walls within which the purple fathers of the
+Church were deliberating presented a scene which was a disgrace and a
+scandal to Christendom, that which was being enacted within those walls
+was very often still more profoundly scandalous. Never probably has any
+human institution existed in which practice was more grossly and
+notoriously in disaccord with pretensions and theory, and with respect
+to which the highest and most sacred of all conceivable human sanctions
+was so shamelessly desecrated and profaned to the lowest and vilest
+uses.
+
+Before touching on this part of the subject, however, it is necessary
+first to give in as few words as possible some intelligible account of
+the formal regulations and method of holding the conclave and electing
+the pontiff. All the regulations, which have been made with extreme
+minuteness, together with the subsequent modifications of them by
+different pontiffs, would occupy far too much space to be given here.
+The following rules seem to be the essential points. Ten days, including
+that of the pope's death, are to be allowed for the coming of absent
+cardinals. This delay may, however, be dispensed with for urgent
+reasons. The conclave should properly be held in the building in which
+the pope died. Regulations of various degrees of rigor have been made
+for securing the isolation of the members of the Sacred College, greater
+latitude and indulgence having been permitted as we approach modern
+times. Sundry means also were devised for hastening the deliberations of
+their Eminences. The old rule of Gregory X. prescribed that if an
+election were not made in three days, the cardinals should be supplied
+during the following five days with one dish only at dinner and one at
+supper; and if at the end of those five days the election was still
+uncompleted, the electors should be allowed only bread and water till
+they had accomplished their task. But, as may be readily supposed, all
+this has been materially modified. Many of the minute and rigorous
+precautions for preventing communication with the world outside the
+conclave have also fallen into desuetude. The purpose of these,
+however--that is, the absolute prevention of any possibility of
+consultation between those in conclave and those outside--is still
+sought to be, and probably is, maintained. Cardinals obliged to leave
+the conclave by ill-health, on sworn certificates of the two physicians
+who are shut up with them in conclave, may return to it, if able to do
+so, before the election is made. No censure or excommunication or
+deposition of any cardinal by the pope whose successor is to be elected
+can avail to deprive such cardinal of the right to take part in the
+conclave and in the election. No cardinal under pain of excommunication
+may say anything, or promise anything, or request anything, to or from
+another cardinal for the purpose of influencing him in the giving of his
+vote. It may safely be asserted, however, that pretty much all that is
+done in the conclave from the beginning to the end of it is one long
+contravention of this rule. The whole--at all events, the
+main--occupation of those in conclave consists of exactly what is here
+forbidden. The rule proceeds to declare that all such bargains,
+agreements and obligations, even sworn to, are _ipso facto_ void,
+and "he who does not keep them merits praise rather than the blame of
+perjury." This merit elected popes have usually been found to strive
+after with all their strength. Julius II., by a bull issued in 1505,
+declared that any pope elected by means of bargains or promises is
+elected simoniacally; that his election is null even if he have the vote
+of every cardinal; that he is a heresiarch and no pope; that such an
+election cannot become valid by enthronation, or by lapse of time, or by
+the obedience of the cardinals; that it is lawful for the cardinals, the
+clergy and the people of Rome to refuse obedience to a pope so elected.
+On all which Monsignor Spondano in his ecclesiastical annals, remarks,
+with a naivete of hypocrisy which is irresistibly amusing, that inasmuch
+as there would be considerable difficulty in applying the remedy
+proposed, God has specially provided that there should never be any need
+of it. How far Monsignor Spondano can have supposed that such was the
+case will become evident from the account of the doings of a conclave
+which I propose giving to the reader presently.
+
+Together with the cardinals there are shut up in the conclave two
+attendants, called "conclavisti," for each cardinal, or three for such
+of them as are ill or infirm; one sacristan, two masters of the
+ceremonies, one confessor, two physicians, one surgeon, one carpenter,
+two barbers and ten porters. Any conclavist who may leave the conclave
+cannot on any account return. The different cells prepared in the
+Quirinal, Vatican or other place in which the conclave may be held are
+assigned to the cardinals by lot. The election may be made in the
+conclave in either of three different manners--by scrutiny of votes, by
+compromise, or by acclamation. A vote by scrutiny is to be taken twice
+every day in the conclave--once in the morning and once in the
+afternoon. All the cardinals, save such as are confined to their cells
+by infirmity, proceed to the chapel, and there, after the mass, receive
+the communion. They then return each to his cell to breakfast, and
+afterward meet in the chapel again. The next morning at 8 A.M. the
+sub-master of the ceremonies rings a bell at the door of each cell; at
+half-past eight he rings again; and at nine a third time, adding in a
+loud voice the summons, "_In capellam Domini!_"
+
+The arrangement of the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican, in which the
+voting takes place, is as follows: The floor is raised by a boarding to
+the level of the pontifical throne, which stands by the side of the
+altar, and which is left in its place in readiness for the newly-elected
+pope to seat himself and receive the "adoration" of his electors. All
+around the walls of the chapel are erected as many thrones as there are
+cardinals, and over each of them a canopy, so arranged that by means of
+a cord it can be suddenly let down; so that at the moment the election
+is pronounced all the canopies are suddenly made to fall except that of
+the new pope. In front of each throne and under each canopy there is a
+little table covered with silk--green in the case of all those cardinals
+who have been created previously to the pontificate of the pope recently
+deceased, and purple in the case of those created by him. The colors of
+the canopies are similar. On each table are printed registers prepared
+for registering the votes at each scrutiny, the schedules for giving the
+votes, the means for sealing, etc. On the front of each table is
+inscribed the name of the cardinal who is to occupy it, together with
+his armorial bearings. In the midst of the body of the chapel are six
+little tables covered with green cloth, with a seat at each of them for
+the use of any cardinal who may fear that his neighbor might overlook
+him while writing his voting paper if he wrote it on the table before
+his throne. In front of the altar there is a large table covered with
+crimson silk, on which are folded schedules, wafers, sealing-wax; four
+candles, not lighted, but ready for use; a tinder-box with steel and
+matches; scarlet and purple twine for filing the voting schedules; a box
+of needles for the same purpose; a tablet with seventy holes in it,
+answering to the number of cardinals if the college were full, and in
+each hole a little wooden counter with the name of a cardinal, so that
+there are as many counters as cardinals in the college; and finally, a
+copy of the form of oath respecting the putting the schedules into the
+urns, the two urns themselves, and a box with a key, used for receiving
+the voting papers of such cardinals as may be too ill to leave their
+cells. The two urns, however, at the time of the scrutiny are placed on
+the altar. Behind the altar there is placed a little iron brazier or
+stove, in which, after every scrutiny which does not succeed in electing
+a pope, the voting papers are burned, together with some damp straw, the
+object being to cause a dense smoke, which, passing by a pipe outside
+the building, serves to inform the Romans that no election has yet been
+made. Twice a day, at about the same hour every day till the election is
+achieved, this smoke, which is eagerly watched for by all Rome, and
+specially by the commandant of the Castle of St. Angleo, who is waiting
+to fire a salute for the new pope, tells the city that there is no pope
+yet. When the hour passes and no smoke is seen, it is known that the
+election is made, and the cannoneers fire away without waiting to know
+whom they are saluting.
+
+There is no portion of the day or of the lives of the cardinals in
+conclave which is not regulated by a host of minute regulations and
+ceremonies. The introduction of the food supplied to them; the form of
+bringing it from their palaces; the method of communication with the
+outside world, and the precautions taken to prevent any communication
+with reference to the great business in hand; the form and color of the
+garments to be worn by their Eminences and by all the subordinates; the
+amount of remuneration and perquisites to be received by the latter
+(among which regulations I find the following: "Let no man receive
+anything who has not purchased the office he holds"); the order of
+precedence of everybody, from the dean of the Sacred College to the last
+sweeper who enters the conclave with their Eminences,--all subject to
+minute rules, which would require, one would imagine, a lifetime to make
+one's self master of, and which, curious as some of them are, it is
+impossible to find place for here. We must get on to the method of
+voting.
+
+Each cardinal has a schedule about eight inches long by six wide,
+divided by printed lines into five parts. On the topmost is printed
+"Ego, Cardinalis----," to be filled up with the name and titles of the
+elector using it. On the second space are printed, toward either side of
+the paper, two circles, indicating the exact place where the paper when
+folded is to be sealed. On the middle space is printed the words "Eligo
+in Summum Pontificem R'um D'um meum Dom. Card.," leaving only the name
+of the person chosen to be filled in. On the fourth space two circles
+are printed, as on the second, indicating the places of two more seals,
+which, when the paper is folded and sealed down, make it impossible to
+see the motto which is written, together with a number, on the last
+space. On the back of the second and fourth divisions are printed the
+words "nomen" and "signum," denoting that immediately under them are the
+name and motto of the elector. There are also printed certain ornamental
+flourishes, the object of which is to render it impossible to see the
+writing within through the paper. Thus, the schedule, with its top and
+bottom folds sealed down, can be freely opened so far as to allow the
+name of the cardinal for whom the vote is given to be seen, but not so
+far as to make it possible to see the name or motto of the giver of the
+vote.
+
+When the voting papers have been thus prepared, the senior cardinal, the
+dean of the Sacred College, rises from his throne and walks to the foot
+of the altar, holding his schedule aloft between his finger and thumb.
+There he kneels and passes a brief time in private prayer. Then rising
+to his feet, he pronounces aloud in a sonorous voice the following oath:
+"Testor Christum Dominum qui me judicaturus est, me eligire quem
+secundum Deum judico eligi debere, et quod in accessu praestabo" ("I
+call to witness the Lord Christ, who shall judge me, that I elect him
+whom before God I judge ought to be elected, and which vote I shall give
+also in the _accessit_"). The last words allude to a subsequent
+part of the business of the election, to be explained presently. It is
+hardly necessary to point out to the reader that this oath, solemn as it
+sounds, might just as well be omitted. It is as a matter of course
+evident that each elector will give his vote for the person who
+_ought_ in his opinion to be elected. But as to the _motives_
+of that opinion, as to the _grounds_ on which it seems best to each
+elector that such and such a man _ought_ to be elected, the oath
+says nothing. The cardinals whose votes Alexander VI. bought thought, no
+doubt, that in all honesty they _ought_ to give their voices for
+the man who had fairly paid for them. But, putting aside such gross
+cases, let the reader reflect for a moment how extensive a ground is
+covered by the celebrated "A.M.D.G." formula ("Ad majorem Dei gloriam").
+The conscience of an elector may be supposed to speak to him thus: "It
+is true that I know A.B. to be a profligate and thoroughly worldly man,
+but his influence with such or such a statesman or monarch will probably
+be the means of saving the Church from a schism in this, that or the
+other country. And that assuredly is A.M.D.G. And he is the man,
+therefore, who ought to be elected."
+
+Well, the oath having been thus pronounced, the voter places his folded
+schedule on a silver salver, and with this casts it into the silver urn
+which is on the altar. And one after another every cardinal present does
+the same--every cardinal present except, however, any one who may not
+have received at least deacon's orders. One so disqualified may indeed
+be empowered to vote by dispensation of the deceased pope; but this
+dispensation is usually given for a limited period--a few days
+probably--only; and if this time has expired before the election is
+completed the cardinal who is not in sacred orders must cease to vote
+till he have received orders. It has frequently occurred that cardinals
+have been ordained under these circumstances in the conclave. When all
+the schedules have been placed in the urn, three cardinals, who have
+been previously chosen by lot for the purpose, as scrutineers proceed to
+verify the result of the voting. First, the schedules are counted to
+ascertain that they are equal in number to the number of the cardinals
+present. If this should not be the case, all are forthwith burned and
+the business is recommenced. But if this is all right, then comes the
+moment of interest which sets many an old heart beating under its purple
+vestments. The three scrutineers seat themselves at the large table with
+their backs turned to the altar, so that they face the assembly. Then
+each cardinal in his throne-seat places on the little table before him a
+large sheet duly prepared with the names of all the cardinals living,
+and ruled columns for the votes, and pen in hand awaits the declaration
+of these. The first scrutineer takes a schedule from the urn, unfolds
+the central part, leaving the two sealed ends intact, takes note of the
+vote declared within, and hands the paper to the second scrutineer, who
+also notes the vote and hands it to the third, who declares the vote
+aloud in a voice audible to all present, and each cardinal marks it on
+his register. Then, if the votes shall have been sufficient to elect the
+pope--that is, two-thirds of those voting--there is nothing more to be
+done save to number the votes, to verify them, and then burn the
+schedules. But if this is not the case, as it rarely if ever is, the
+cardinals proceed to the _accessit_. The papers and all the forms
+for this are precisely the same as for the first voting, save that in
+the place of the word "Eligo" there is the word "Accedo," and that in
+the place of the name of the cardinal voted for those who do not choose
+to alter their previous vote write "Nemini" ("To no one"). Then the
+matter proceeds as before; and if no election is effected, the assembly
+breaks up, and meets for another voting and scrutiny that afternoon or
+the next morning, as the case may be. And this is done twice every day
+till the election is made. The reader, I fear, may think that I have
+been prolix in my statement of these particulars of the method of the
+election, but I can assure him that I have given him only the main and
+important points, selected from some hundreds of pages in the works of
+those who have treated on the wonderfully minute regulations and
+prescriptions with which the whole matter is surrounded.
+
+It will be easily seen that the moment of proceeding to the accessit is
+the time for fine strokes of policy, for the most cautious prudence and
+craftiest cunning. The general condition of the ground has been
+disclosed by the results of the previous scrutiny. The possibilities and
+chances begin to discover themselves. "Frequently," says the President
+de Brosses, who was at Rome during the conclave which elected Benedict
+XIV. in 1740, in the charming published volume of his
+letters--"Frequently at the accessit everything which was done at the
+preceding ceremony is reversed; and it is at the accessit that the most
+subtle strokes of policy are practiced. Sometimes, for example, when a
+party has been formed for any cardinal, the leader of the party keeps in
+reserve for the accessit all the votes that he can count on as certain,
+and induces those that he suspects may be doubtful to vote for the
+person intended to be made pope at the first scrutiny, so as to make
+sure by the number of votes given whether his supporters have been true
+to their party, and to avoid unmasking his policy till he shall be sure
+of his _coup_."
+
+The story of the conclave which elected Cardinal Lambertini pope as
+Benedict XIV., gives a curious picture of the schemes and intrigues
+carried on in the mysterious seclusion of the conclave. Clement XII., of
+the Florentine Corsini family, had died. The cardinal Corsini, his
+nephew, was at the head of one faction in the conclave, and the cardinal
+Albani, nephew of Clement XI., who died in 1721, at the head of the
+other. The former party seemed at the beginning of the conclave to be
+the most numerous. But De Brosses describes the two men as follows.
+Corsini, he says, had little intelligence, less sense, and no capacity
+for affairs. Of Albani, he says that he was "highly considered for his
+capacity, and both hated and feared to excess--a man without faith,
+without principles; an implacable enemy even when appearing to be
+reconciled; of a great genius for affairs; inexhaustible in resource and
+intrigue; the ablest man in the college, and the worst-hearted man in
+Rome." It soon became clear that the struggle between the factions thus
+led would be severe, and the conclave a long one. The history of the
+plots and counterplots by which each strove to circumvent the other is
+extremely amusing, but too long to be given here. After various
+fruitless attempts, the Corsini faction concentrated all their forces on
+Cardinal Aldrovandi. He was a man of decent character, and had the
+support of a small body of independent cardinals, called the "Zelanti,"
+who, to the great disgust and contempt of their brethren in purple, were
+mainly influenced by the consideration of the worthiness of his
+character. The number of voices needed to make the election was
+thirty-four: Aldrovandi had thirty-three. Cardinal Passionei, the
+scrutator who had to declare the votes, and a member of the opposite
+faction, became, we are told, as pale as death when he announced with
+trembling voice the thirty-third vote. There was every reason to think
+that at the accessit he would have the one other vote needful to make
+the election. But it was not so. The terrible Albani was too much
+feared, and had his own party too well in hand. But the thing was run
+very close. The danger was great that during the hours of the night that
+must intervene before the next scrutiny some means might be found to
+detach _one_ Albani follower from his allegiance. There was the
+great bait to be offered that the one who changed his vote would be in
+effect the maker of the new pope. Under these circumstances, Albani felt
+that nothing but some "heroic" measure could save him. What he did was
+this: There was a certain Father Ravali, a Cordelier, and one of the
+leading men of his order, on whom Albani could depend, and who was, in
+language more expressive than ecclesiastical, "up to anything." This
+monk was instructed to seek a conference with Aldrovandi at the
+_rota_. (The rota was the opening in the wall at which such
+interviews were permitted in presence of certain high dignitaries
+specially appointed to attend it, for the express purpose of hearing all
+that might be said, and preventing any communication having reference to
+the business of the conclave. How they performed their duty the present
+story shows.) The monk began by saying that all Rome looked upon the
+election of Aldrovandi as a certain thing. Aldrovandi, doing the humble,
+replied that to be sure many of his brethren had deigned to think of
+him, but that he did not make any progress--that there were those who
+were too determinately opposed to his election, etc. The monk thereupon
+goes into a long and unctuous discourse on all the sad evils to
+Christendom of a conclave so prolonged. (It had already lasted over five
+months.) To which Aldrovandi replies that he ought rather to address his
+remonstrances to Cardinal Albani, who is in truth the cause of the
+inability of the conclave to come to an election. "Ah, monsignor,"
+returns the Cordelier, "put yourself in the place of the cardinal
+Albani. I know his sentiments from the many conversations we have had
+together. He is far from feeling any personal objection or enmity to
+you. But you know that there has been in the past unpleasant feeling
+between your family and his, and he fears that you are animated by
+hostility toward him." "I assure you," replies Aldrovandi, falling into
+the trap, "that he is greatly mistaken. I have long since forgotten all
+the circumstances you allude to. Besides, as I remember, the cardinal
+had no part in the matter. He can't doubt that I have the greatest
+respect for his personal character. Besides, I am not the man to forget
+a service rendered to me." "Since those are the sentiments of Your
+Eminence," cries the monk, "I begin to see an end to this interminable
+conclave. I perceive that there will be no difficulty in arranging
+matters between Your Eminence and the cardinal Albani. Will you permit
+me to be the medium of your sentiments upon the subject?" Aldrovandi is
+delighted, and feels the tiara already on his head. Then, after a little
+indifferent talk, the Cordelier, in the act of taking leave of the
+cardinal, turns back and says, "But, after all, the mere word of a poor
+monk like me is hardly sufficient between personages such as Your
+Eminence and the cardinal Albani. Permit me to write you a letter, in
+which I will lay before Your Eminence those considerations concerning
+the crying evils of the length of this conclave which I have ventured to
+mention to you, and that will give me an opportunity of entering on the
+matters we have been speaking of. And then you, in your reply to me, can
+take occasion to say what you have already been observing to me of your
+sentiments toward the cardinal Albani." Aldrovandi eagerly agreed to
+this, and the two letters were at once written. "I am told," adds De
+Brosses, "that the letter of Aldrovandi was strong on the subject of the
+_gratitude_ he should feel toward Albani." No sooner has the
+perfidious Cordelier got the letter into his hand than he runs with it
+to Albani, who goes with it at once to the body of the "Zelanti"
+cardinals with pious horror in his face: "Here! Look at your Aldrovandi,
+your man of God, that you tell me is incapable of intriguing in order to
+become His vicar! Here he is making promises to seduce me into violating
+my conscience."--"Alas! alas! It is too true! Clearly the Holy Ghost
+will none of him. Speak to us of him no more!" So Aldrovandi's chance
+was gone, and Albani found the means of uniting the necessary number of
+voices on Lambertini, a good-enough sort of man, by all accounts, but
+hardly of the wood from which popes are or should be made. He became
+that Benedict XIV. who was Voltaire's correspondent, and who, as the
+story goes, when he was asked by a young Roman patrician to make him a
+list of the books he would recommend for his studies, replied, "My dear
+boy, we always keep a list of the best books ready made. It is called
+the _Index Expurgatorius_!"
+
+Such were the doings of conclaves, and such the popes which resulted
+from them, in that eighteenth century whose boasted philosophy pretty
+well culminated in the conviction that pudding was good and sugar sweet.
+Such will not be the conclave which will assemble at the death of the
+present pontiff. The election will doubtless be scrupulously canonical
+on all points; and, though it may be doubted how far the deliberations
+of the Sacred College will be calculated to advance the truly understood
+spiritual interests of humanity, there is, I think, little doubt that
+they will be directed, according to the lights of the members, to the
+choice of that individual who shall in their opinion be most likely to
+advance the interests of the Church "A.D.M.G."
+
+                                        T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
+
+
+
+
+MONSOOR PACHA.
+
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, it is pleasant to meet
+     Here, in the heart of this treacherous town--
+  Where faith is a peril and courtship a cheat,
+     More false to the touch than a rose overblown--
+     With a soul that is true to itself, as your own.
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, as two gentlemen may,
+     Civilized, city-bred, link we our hands:
+  Now from the town to the desert away!
+     Ours is a friendship whose spirit demands
+     The scope of the sky and the stretch of the sands.
+
+  Monsoor Pacha, doff your courtier's garb;
+     We have given to courtesy all of its dues;
+  Spring to your throne on the back of your barb,
+     Shake to the breezes your regal burnous,
+     Wave your lance-sceptre wherever you choose!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! ah, I know you at length!
+     King of the desert, your children are come
+  To cluster, like sheep, in the shade of your strength,
+     Or to strike, like young lions, for country and home,
+     When your eyes are ablaze at the roll of the drum!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! now one gallop, to see
+     The land you have sworn that no despot shall grind!
+  Though sun-tanned and arid, by Allah! 'tis free!
+     Its crops are these lances: these sons of the wind,
+     Our steeds, are its flocks--a grim harvest to bind!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! how we dash o'er the sand,
+     Hissing behind us like storm-driven snow!
+  Flash the long guns of your wild Arab band,
+     Brandish the spears, and the light jereeds throw,
+     As, half-winged, through the shrill singing breezes we go!
+
+  Monsoor, my chief! send the horses away:
+     The sports of your tribe I have seen with delight.
+  Now let us watch while the rose-tinted day
+     Fades from the desert, and peace-bearing Night
+     Shakes the first gem on her brow in our sight.
+
+  Monsoor, my host! lo, I enter your tent,
+     As brother by brother, hands clasping, is led:
+  I sleep like a child in a dream Heaven-sent;
+     For have I not eaten the salt and the bread?
+     And Monsoor will answer for me with his head.
+
+                                        GEORGE H. BOKER.
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 10, 1875.
+
+
+
+
+HOW HAM WAS CURED.
+
+
+This was in slave times. It was also immediately after dinner, and the
+gentlemen had gone to the east piazza. Mr. Smith was walking back and
+forth, talking somewhat excitedly for him, while Dr. Rutherford sat with
+his feet on the railing, thoughtfully executing the sentimental
+performance of cutting his nails. Dr. Rutherford was an old friend of
+Mr. Smith who had been studying surgery in Philadelphia, and now, on his
+way back to South Carolina, had tarried to make us a visit.
+
+"You see," Mr. Smith was saying, "about a week ago one of our old
+negroes died under the impression that she was 'tricked' or bewitched,
+and the consequence has been that the entire plantation is demoralized.
+You never saw anything like it."
+
+"Many a time," said Dr. Rutherford, and calmly cut his nails.
+
+"There is not a negro on the place," continued Edward, "who does not lie
+down at night in terror of the Evil Eye, and go to his work in the
+morning paralyzed by dread of what the day may bring. Why, there is a
+perfect panic among them. They are falling about like a set of ten-pins.
+This morning I sent for Wash (best hand on the place) to see about
+setting out tobacco plants, and behold Wash curled up under a haystack
+getting ready to die! It is enough to--So as soon as you came this
+morning a plan entered my head for putting a stop to the thing. It will
+be necessary to acknowledge that two or three of them are under the
+spell, and it is better to select those who already fancy themselves
+so.--Rosalie!" I appeared at the window. "Are any of the house-servants
+'witched?"
+
+"Mercy is," said I, "and I presume Mammy is going to be: I saw her make
+a curtsey to the black cat this morning."
+
+"Well, what is your plan?" inquired Dr. Rutherford.
+
+Mr. Smith seated himself on the piazza railing, dangling his feet
+thereagainst, rounding his shoulders in the most attractive and engaging
+manner, as you see men do, and proceeded to develop his idea. I was
+called off at the moment, and did not return for an hour or two. As I
+did so I heard Dr. Rutherford say, "All right! Blow the horn;" and the
+overseer down in the yard
+
+    Blew a blast as loud and shrill
+    As the wild-boar heard on Temple Hill--
+
+an event which at this unusual hour of the day produced perfect
+consternation among the already excited negroes. They no doubt supposed
+it the musical exercise set apart for the performance of the angel
+Gabriel on the day of judgment, and in less than ten minutes all without
+exception had come pell-mell, helter-skelter, running to "the house."
+The dairymaid left her churn, and the housemaid put down her broom; the
+ploughs stood still, and when the horses turned their heads to see what
+was the matter they found they had no driver; she also who was cooking
+for the hands "fled from the path of duty" (no Casabianca nonsense for
+_her!_), leaving the "middling" to sputter into blackness and the
+corn-pones to share its fate. Mothers had gathered up their children of
+both sexes, and grouped them in little terrified companies about the
+yard and around the piazza-steps.
+
+Edward was now among them, endeavoring to subdue the excitement, and
+having to some extent succeeded, he made a signal to Dr. Rutherford, who
+came forward to address the negroes. Throwing his shoulders back and
+looking around with dignity, he exclaimed, "I am the great Dr.
+Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I was far away in the North,
+hundreds of miles from here, and I saw a spot on the sun, and it looked
+like the Evil Eye! And I found it was a great black smoke. Then I knew
+that witch-fires were burning in the mountains, and witches were dancing
+in the valleys; and the light of the Eye was red! I am the great Dr.
+Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I called my black cat up and
+told her to smell for blood, and she smelled, and she smelled, and she
+smelled! She smelled, and she smelled, and she smelled! And presently
+her hair stood up like bristles, and her eyes shot out sparks of fire,
+and her tail was as stiff as iron!" He threw his shoulders back, looked
+imposingly around and repeated: "I am the great Dr. Rutherford the
+witch-doctor of Boston! My black Cat tells me that the witch is
+here--that she has hung the deadly nightshade at your cabin-doors, and
+your blood is turning to water. You are beginning to wither away. You
+shiver in the sunshine; you don't want to eat; your hearts are heavy and
+you don't feel like work; and when you come from the field you don't
+take down the banjo and pat and shuffle and dance, but you sit down in
+the corner with your heads on your hands, and would go to sleep, but you
+know that as soon as you shut your eyes she will cast hers on you
+through the chinks in the cabin-wall."
+
+"Dat's me!" said Mercy--"dat certny is me!"
+
+"Gret day in de mornin', mas' witch-doctor! How you know? Is you been
+tricked?" inquired Martha, who, having been reared on the plantation,
+was unacquainted with the etiquette observed at lectures.
+
+Wash groaned heavily, and shook his head from side to side in silent
+commendation of the doctor's lore.
+
+"My black cat tells me that the witch is here; and she _is_ here!"
+(Immense sensation among the children of Ham.) "But," continued he with
+a majestic wave of the arm, "she can do you no harm, for I _also_ am
+here, the great Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston!"
+
+"Doctor," inquired Edward in a loud voice, "can you tell who is conjured
+and who is not?"
+
+"I cannot tell unless robed in the blandishments of plagiarism and the
+satellites of hygienic art as expunged by the gyrations of nebular
+hypothesis. Await ye!" He and Mr, Smith went into the house.
+
+The negroes were very much impressed. They have excessive reverence for
+grandiloquent language, and the less they understand of it the better
+they like it.
+
+"What dat he say, honey?" asked old Mammy. "I can't heer like I used
+ter."
+
+"He says he will be back soon, Mammy, and tell if any of you are
+tricked," said I; and just then Edward and the doctor reappeared,
+bearing between them a pine table. On this table were arranged about
+forty little pyramids of whitish-looking powder, and in their midst
+stood a bottle containing some clear liquid, like water. Dr. Rutherford
+seated himself behind it, robed in the black gown he had used in the
+dissecting-room, and crowned by a conical head-piece about two feet
+high, manufactured by Edward and himself, and which they had completed
+by placing on the pinnacle thereof a human skull. The effect of this
+picturesque costume was heightened by two large red circles around the
+doctor's eyes--whether obtained from the juice of the pokeberry or the
+inkstand on Edward's desk need not be determined.
+
+In front of the table stood the negroes, men, women and children. There
+was the preacher, decked in the clerical livery of a standing collar and
+white cravat, but, perhaps in deference to the day of the week, these
+were modified by the secular apparel of a yellow cotton shirt and
+homespun pantaloons, attached to a pair of old "galluses," which had
+been mended with twine, and pieced with leather, and lengthened with
+string, till, if any of the original remained, none could tell the color
+thereof nor what they had been in the day of their youth. The effect was
+not harmonious. There was Mammy, with her low wrinkled forehead, and
+white turban, and toothless gums, and skin of shining blackness, which
+testified that her material wants were not neglected. There was Wash, a
+great, stalwart negro, who ordinarily seemed able to cope with any ten
+men you might meet, now looking so subdued and dispirited, and of a
+complexion so ashy, that he really appeared old and shrunken and weak.
+There was William Wirt, the ploughboy, affected by a chronic grin which
+not even the solemnity of this occasion could dissipate, but the
+character of which seemed changed by the awestruck eyes that rolled
+above the heavy red lips and huge white teeth. There was Apollo--in
+social and domestic circles known as 'Poller--there was Apollo, his hair
+standing about his head in little black tufts or horns wrapped with
+cotton cord to make it grow, one brawny black shoulder protruding from a
+rent in his yellow cotton shirt, his pantaloons hanging loosely around
+his hips, and bagging around that wonderful foot which did not suggest
+his name, unless his sponsors in baptism were of a very satirical turn.
+There were Martha, and Susan, and Minerva, and Cinderella, and
+Chesterfield, and Pitt, and a great many other grown ones, besides a
+crowd of children, the smallest among the latter being clad in the
+dishabille of a single garment, which reached perhaps to the knee, but
+had little to boast in the way of latitude.
+
+There they all stood in little groups about the yard, looking with awe
+and reverence at the great Dr. Rutherford, who sat behind the table with
+his black gown and frightful eyes and skull-crowned cap.
+
+"You see these little heaps of powder and this bottle of water. You will
+come forward one at a time and pour a few drops of the water in this
+bottle on one of these little heaps of powder. If the powder turns
+black, the person who pours on the water is 'witched. If the powder
+remains white, the person who pours on the water is _not_ 'witched. You
+may all examine the powders, and see for yourselves whether there is any
+difference between them, and you will each pour from the same bottle."
+
+During a silence so intense that nothing was heard save the hum of two
+great "bumblebees" that darted in and out among the trees and flew at
+erratic angles above our heads, the negroes came forward and stretched
+their necks over each other's shoulders, peering curiously at the
+little mounds of powder that lay before them, at the innocent-looking
+bottle that stood in their midst, and the great high priest who sat
+behind. They stretched their necks over each other's shoulders, and each
+endeavored to push his neighbor to the front; but those in front, with
+due reverence for the uncanny nature of the table, were determined not
+to be forced too near it, and the result was a quiet struggle, a silent
+wrestle, an undertone of wriggle, that was irresistibly funny.
+
+Then arose the great high priest: "Range ye!"
+
+Not knowing the nature of this order, the negroes scattered instanter
+and then collected _en masse_ around Mr. Smith.
+
+"Range ye! range!" repeated the doctor with dignity, and Edward
+proceeded to arrange them in a long, straggling row, urging upon them
+that there was no cause for alarm, as, even should any of them prove
+'witched, the doctor had charms with him by which to cast off the spell.
+
+"Come, Martha," said Edward; but Martha was dismayed, and giving her
+neighbor a hasty shove, exclaimed,
+
+"You go fus', Unk' Lumfrey: you's de preacher."
+
+Uncle Humphrey disengaged his elbow with an angry hitch: "I don't keer
+if I is: go 'long yose'f."
+
+"Well, de Lord knows I'm 'feerd to go," said Martha; "but ef I sot up
+for preachin', 'peers to me I wouldn' be'feerd to sass witches nor
+goses, nor nuffin' else."
+
+"I don't preach no time but Sundays, an' dis ain't Sunday," said Uncle
+Humphrey.
+
+"Hy, nigger!" exclaimed Martha in desperation, "is you gwine to go back
+on de Lord cos 'tain't Sunday? How come you don't trus' on Him
+week-a-days?"
+
+"I does trus' on Him fur as enny sense in doin' uv it; but ef I go to
+enny my foolishness, fus' thing I know de Lord gwine leave me to take
+keer uv myse'f, preacher or no preacher--same as ef He was ter say,
+'Dat's all right, cap'n: ef you gwine to boss dis job, boss it;' an'
+den whar _I_ be? Mas' Ned tole you to go: go on, an' lemme 'lone."
+
+"Uncle Humphrey," said Edward, "there is nothing whatever to be afraid
+of, and you must set the rest an example. Come!"
+
+Uncle Humphrey obeyed, but as he did so he turned his head and
+rolled--or, as the negroes say, _walled_--his eyes at Martha in a manner
+which convinced her, whatever her doubts in other matters pertaining to
+theology, that there is such a thing as future punishment. The old
+fellow advanced, and under direction of the great high priest poured
+some of the contents of the bottle on the powder indicated to him, and
+it remained white.
+
+"Thang Gord!" he exclaimed with a fervency which left no doubt of his
+sincerity, and hastened away.
+
+Two or three others followed with a similar result. Then came Mercy, the
+housemaid, and as her trembling fingers poured the liquid forth, behold
+the powder changed and turned to black! The commotion was indescribable,
+and Mercy was about to have a nervous fit when Dr. Rutherford, fixing
+his eyes on her, said in a tone of command, "Be quiet--be perfectly
+quiet, and in two hours I will destroy the spell. Go over there and sit
+down."
+
+She tottered to a seat under one of the trees.
+
+One or two more took their turn, among them Mammy, but the powders
+remained white. I had entreated Edward not to pronounce her 'witched,
+because she was so old and I loved her so: I could not bear that she
+should be frightened. You should have seen her when she found that she
+was safe. The stiff old limbs became supple and the terrified
+countenance full of joy, and the dear ridiculous old thing threw her
+arms up in the air, and laughed and cried, and shouted, and praised God,
+and knocked off her turban, and burst open her apron-strings, and
+refused to be quieted till the doctor ordered her to be removed from the
+scene of action. The idea of retiring to the seclusion of her cabin
+while all this was going on was simply preposterous, and Mammy at once
+exhibited the soothing effect of the suggestion; so the play proceeded.
+
+More white powders. Then Apollo's turned black, and, poor fellow! when
+it did so, he might have been a god or a demon, or anything else you
+never saw, for his face looked little like that of a human being, giving
+you the impression only of wildly-rolling eyeballs, and great white
+teeth glistening in a ghastly, feeble, almost idiotic grin.
+
+Edward went up to him and laid his hand on his shoulder: "That's all
+right, my boy. We'll have you straight in no time, and you will be the
+best man at the shucking to-morrow night."
+
+More white powders. Then came Wash, great big Wash; and when his powder
+changed, what do you suppose he did? Well, he just fainted outright.
+
+The remaining powders retaining their color, and Wash having been
+restored to consciousness, Dr. Rutherford directed him to a clump of
+chinquapin bushes near the "big gate" at the entrance of the plantation.
+There he would find a flat stone. Beneath this stone he would find
+thirteen grains of moulding corn and some goat's hair. These he was to
+bring back with him. Under the first rail near the same gate Mercy would
+find: a dead frog with its eyes torn out, and across the road in the
+hollow of a stump Apollo was to look for a muskrat's tail and a weasel's
+paw. They went off reluctantly, the entire _corps de plantation_
+following, and soon they all came scampering back, trampling down the
+ox-eyed daisies and jamming each other against the corners of the rail
+fence, for, sure enough, the witch's treasures had been found, but not a
+soul had dared to touch them. Dr. Rutherford sternly ordered them back,
+but all hands hung fire, and their countenances evinced resistance of
+such a stubborn character that Edward at length volunteered to go with
+them. Then it was all right, and presently returned the most laughable
+procession that was ever seen--Wash with his arms at right angles,
+bearing his grains of moulding grain on a burdock leaf which he held at
+as great a distance as the size of the leaf and the length of his arms
+would admit, his neck craned out and his eyes so glued to the uncanny
+corn that he stumbled over every stick and stone that lay in his path;
+Mercy next, with ludicrous solemnity, bearing her unsightly burden on
+the end of a corn-stalk; Apollo last, his weasel's paw and muskrat's
+tail deposited in the toe of an old brogan which he had found by the
+roadside, brown and wrinkled and stiff, with a hole in the side and the
+ears curled back, and which he had hung by the heel to a long crooked
+stick. On they came, the crowd around them following at irregular
+distances, surging back and forth, advancing or retreating as they were
+urged by curiosity or repelled by fear.
+
+It was now getting dark, so Dr. Rutherford, having had the table
+removed, brought forth three large plates filled with different colored
+powders. On one he placed Mercy's frog, on another Wash's corn, and on
+the third the muskrat's tail and weasel's paw taken from Apollo's shoe.
+Then we all waited in silence while with his hands behind him he strode
+solemnly back and forth in front of the three plates. At length the bees
+had ceased to hum; the cattle had come home of themselves, and could be
+heard lowing in the distance; the many shadows had deepened into one;
+twilight had faded and darkness come. Then he stood still: "I am the
+great Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I will now set fire to
+these witch's eggs, and if they burn the flames will scorch her. She
+will scream and fly away, and it will be a hundred years before another
+witch appears in this part of the country."
+
+He applied a match to Apollo's plate and immediately the whole place was
+illuminated by a pale blue glare which fell with ghastly effect on the
+awestricken countenances around, while in the distance, apparently near
+the "big gate," arose a succession of the most frightful shrieks ever
+heard or imagined. Then the torch was applied to Mercy's frog, and
+forthwith every nook and corner, every leaf and every blade of grass was
+bathed in a flood of blood-red light, while the cries grew, if
+possible, louder and fiercer. Then came Wash's corn, which burned with a
+poisonous green glare, and lashed its sickly light over the house and
+yard and the crowd of black faces; and hardly had this died away when
+from the direction of the big gate there slowly ascended what appeared
+to be a blood-red ball.
+
+"There she goes!" said the great Dr. Rutherford, and we all stood gazing
+up into the heavens, till at length the thing burst into flames, the
+sparks died away and no more was to be seen.
+
+"Now, that is the last of her!" impressively announced the witch-doctor
+of Boston; "and neither she nor her sisters will dare come to this
+country again for the next hundred years. You can all make your minds
+easy about witches."
+
+Then came triumph instead of dread, and scorn took the place of fear.
+There arose a succession of shouts and cheers, laughter and jeers. They
+patted their knees and shuffled their feet and wagged their heads in
+derision.
+
+"Hyar! hyar! old gal! Done burnt up, is you? Take keer whar you lay yo'
+aigs arfer dis!" advised William Wirt in a loud voice.--"Go 'long, pizen
+sass!" said Martha. "You done lay yo' las' aig, you is!"--"Hooray
+tag-rag!" shouted Chesterfield.--"Histe yo' heels, ole Mrs. Satan,"
+cried one.--"You ain't no better'n a free nigger!" said another.--"Yo'
+wheel done skotch for good, ole skeer-face! hyar! hyar! You better not
+come foolin' 'long o' Mas' Ned's niggers no mo'!"
+
+The next night was a gala one, and a merrier set of negroes never sang
+at a corn-shucking, nor did a jollier leader than Wash ever tread the
+pile, while Mercy sat on a throne of shucks receiving Sambo's homage,
+and, unmolested by fear, coyly held a corncob between her teeth as she
+hung her head and bashfully consented that he should come next day to
+"ax Mas' Ned de liberty of de plantashun."
+
+
+"But, Edward," said I, "why did those three powders turn black?"
+
+"Because they were calomel, my dear, and it was lime-water that was
+poured on them," said Mr. Smith.
+
+"Well, but why did not the others turn black too?"
+
+"Because the others were tartarized antimony."
+
+"Where did you get what was in the plates, that made the lights, you
+know?"
+
+"Rutherford had the material. He is going to settle in a small country
+town, so he provided himself with all sorts of drugs and chemicals
+before he left Philadelphia."
+
+"But, Edward," persisted I, putting my hand over his book to make him
+stop reading, "how came those things where they were found? and the
+balloon to ascend just at the proper moment? and who or what was it
+screaming so? Neither you nor Dr. Rutherford had left the yard except to
+go into the house."
+
+"No, my dear; but you remember Dick Kirby came over just after dinner,
+and he would not ask any better fun than to fix all that."
+
+"Humph!" said I, "men are not so stupid, after all."
+
+Edward looked more amused than flattered, which shows how conceited men
+are.
+
+                                        JENNIE WOODVILLE.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.
+
+
+The last thing which the student learns, the last thing which the world,
+that universal student, comprehends, is how to study. It is only after
+our little store of facts has been laboriously accumulated, after we
+have tried path after path that promised to take us by an easy way up
+the Hill Difficulty, and have abandoned each in turn,--it is only when
+we have attained a point somewhere near the top, that we can look down
+and see the way we should have come, the one road that avoided
+unnecessary steepness and needless windings, and led by the quickest and
+easiest direction to the summit. The knowledge that we have thus gained,
+however late to profit by it ourselves, should at least be valuable to
+others. But, unfortunately, as Balzac has said, experience is an article
+that no one will use at second hand. When the great teachers of the
+world, who have been its most patient scholars, shall go to work to
+teach us how to study, and when we are content to learn, then we shall
+all be in a fair way to become sages.
+
+But, in the mean time, there are two things we must apprehend--truisms
+both of them, but, like all truisms, better known theoretically than
+practically. The first is, that we must not use a microscope if we want
+to study the stars; and the second is, that we must beware of having a
+fly between the lenses of our telescope, unless we wish to discover a
+monster in the moon. If a discriminating public would not consider it an
+insult, one might add, in the third place, that it is useless to look
+for lunar rainbows in the daytime.
+
+It is true that all this sounds like child's play, but it is astonishing
+how many of our Shakespearian critics commit one or all of these faults.
+Forgetting entirely that criticism demands common sense, impartial
+judgment, intense sympathy, a total absence of prejudice, and a great
+deal of general information, they bring to their task minds deeply
+tinctured with preconceived systems of truth, goodness and beauty, upon
+whose Procrustean bed the unfortunate poet must be stretched; while, as
+if ignorant of the history of thought, they judge the productions of
+another age and another atmosphere by the canons of criticism that hold
+good to-day among ourselves. Not only this, but they snuff enigmas in
+every line, and scent abstruse theories behind the simplest
+statement. They take up passages of Shakespeare whose obvious meaning
+any person of average intelligence can understand, and turn and twist
+them into such intricate doublings that they cannot undo their own
+puzzle. They attack his poetry as if it were a second Rosetta Stone, or
+as if it had to be read, like the lines in a Hebrew book, backward. They
+study him in the spirit of the fool, who, being given a book upside
+down, stood on his head to read it--a position naturally confusing to
+the intellect.
+
+Nor is it only in their methods of investigation that many of our
+Shakespearian critics are at fault. Their fondness for rearing vast
+temples of possibilities upon small corner-stones of fact is proverbial.
+We know that Shakespeare went to London, where he both wrote and acted
+plays, and upon this slender basis you may find, in almost any of his
+commentators, such added items of biography as this sentence from
+Heraud's book upon Shakespeare's _Inner Life:_ "That he had a house in
+Southwark, that his brother Edmund lived with him, and that his wife was
+his frequent companion in London, are all exceedingly probable
+suppositions." So they may be to Mr. Heraud's mind, but the next
+biographer shall form a totally different set of "exceedingly probable
+suppositions" equally satisfactory to himself. The same critic says that
+when Shakespeare, in his Sonnets, spoke of "a black beauty" (a phrase
+universally used to express a brunette as late even as the age of Queen
+Anne), the poet had his Bible open at Solomon's Song, and meant the
+Bride "who is black but comely;" in other words, the Reformed Church.
+Mr. Page, the artist, finds in the Chandos portrait, after it has been
+cleaned and scraped, and upon the photographs of the German mask, a
+certain mark which he thinks the indication of a scar. Two gentlemen,
+one an artist, who have seen the mask itself, assure him that they find
+his scar to be merely a slight abrasion or discoloration of the plaster;
+but Mr. Page, secure in his position, quotes Sonnet 112,
+
+    Your love and pity doth the impression fill
+    Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow,
+
+and triumphantly asks, "If that doesn't refer to the scar, what does it
+refer to?"
+
+The Sonnets of Shakespeare have been quite too much neglected by the
+lovers of his plays, and Stevens said that the strongest act of
+Parliament that could be framed would fail to compel readers into their
+service. Two classes of minds, however, have always pondered over
+them--the poets, who could not fail to appreciate their wonderful power
+and beauty, and the psychologists, who have found in them an ample field
+for speculation. The variety and extent of the theories of these latter
+gentlemen can only be rivaled by the feat of the camel-evolving German.
+Indeed, it is the true German school of thought to which these
+speculations belong, and it is but just that to a genuine Teuton belongs
+the honor of the most extraordinary solution of the mystery yet given.
+It would take too long to sum up all the theories that have been
+broached upon the subject, but two or three will do as an example.
+Without stopping to dwell upon the ideas of M. Philarete Chasles, or of
+Gen. Hitchcock, who believes the Sonnets to be addressed to the Ideal
+Beauty, we will pass on to the book of Mr. Henry Browne, published in
+London in 1870. His idea is that the Sonnets are dedicated to William
+Herbert, afterward earl of Pembroke, and are intended chiefly as a
+parody upon the reigning fashion of mistress-sonneting and upon the
+sonneteers of the day, especially Davies and Drayton; that they also
+contain much which is valuable in the way of autobiography, and that
+"the key to the whole mystery lies in _Shakespeare's_ conceit (_i. e_.,
+Mr. Browne's conceit) of the union of his friend and his Muse by
+marriage of verse and mind; by which means, and for which favor, his
+youth and beauty are immortalized, but which theme does not fully
+commence till the friend had declined the invitation to marriage, which
+refusal begets the mystic melody." Mr. Browne graciously accepts the
+Sonnets in their order, and professes to be unable to name the real
+mistress of Herbert, though he considers Lady Penelope Rich to
+be the object of their allegorical satire.
+
+Mr. Heraud also accepts the order of the Sonnets as correct. His book
+contains an article on the Sonnets published by him in _Temple Bar_ for
+April, 1862, the result, he declares (and far be it from us to dispute
+it), of pure induction. He has evolved the theory that Shakespeare in
+writing against celibacy had in view the practice of the Roman Catholic
+Church; that the friend whom he apostrophizes was the Ideal Man, the
+universal humanity, who gradually develops into the Divine Ideal, and
+becomes a Messiah, while the Woman is the Church, the "black but comely
+bride" of Solomon. "Shakespeare found himself between two loves--the
+celibate Church on the one hand, that deified herself, and the Reformed
+Church on the other, that eschewed Mariolatry and restored worship to
+its proper object.... Thus, Shakespeare parabolically opposed the
+Mariolatry of his time to the purer devotion of the word of God, which
+it was the mission of his age to inaugurate."
+
+This is pretty well for a flight of inductive genius, but it is quite
+surpassed by the soaring Teutonic mind before mentioned, who, in the
+words of the reflective Breitmann,
+
+    Dinks so deeply
+    As only Deutschers can.
+
+This mighty philosopher, of whom Mr. Heraud speaks with becoming
+reverence, is Herr Barnstorff, who published a book in 1862 to prove
+that the "W.H." of the dedication means _William Himself_, and that the
+Sonnets are apostrophes to Shakespeare's Interior Individuality! Mr.
+Heraud thinks this idea is rather too German, but, after all, not so
+very far out of the way, for in Sonnet 42 the poet certainly declares
+that his Ideal Man is simply his Objective Self.[009] For, as Mr. Heraud
+beautifully and lucidly remarks, "the Many, how multitudinous soever,
+are yet properly but the reflex of the One, and the sum of both is the
+Universe." And herein, according to Mr. Heraud, we find the key to the
+mystery.
+
+In 1866, Mr. Gerald Massey published a large volume on the same
+subject, with the somewhat pretentious title. _Shakespeare's Sonnets,
+never before interpreted; his private friends identified; together with
+a recovered likeness of himself_. The first chapter contains a summary
+of the opinions of Coleridge, Wordsworth and others upon the Sonnets; a
+notice of the theory of Bright and Boaden (_Gentleman's Magazine_,
+1832), afterward confirmed by a book written by Charles Armitage Brown
+(1838); the theories of Hunter, Hallam, Dyce, Mrs. Jameson, M. Chasles,
+Ulrici, Gervinus and many others (most of them, by the way, confirming
+the theory originated by Boaden and Bright); and having thus gone over
+the work of twenty-five _named_ authors, and a space of time extending
+from 1817 to 1866, Mr. Massey begins his second chapter by saying that
+as yet there has never been any genuine attempt to interpret the
+Sonnets, "nothing having been done except a little surface-work." Mr. C.
+Armitage Brown in particular (who, by the way, must not be confounded
+with Mr. _Henry Browne_) appears to be Mr. Massey's special aversion.
+The very name of Brown irritates him as scarlet does an excitable bull.
+Armitage Brown was the intimate friend of Keats and Landor, and, Severn
+says, was considered to know more about the Sonnets than any man then
+living, while the "personal theory," as Mr. Massey styles it, has had a
+far larger number of supporters than any other. Unfortunately, the
+opinions of others have not the slightest weight with Mr. Massey, and
+words are too weak to express his scorn of this theory and its
+supporters. Mr. Brown wraps things in a winding sheet of witless words
+(delicious alliteration!); he leaves the subject dark and dubious as
+ever; his theory has only served to trouble deep waters, and make them
+so muddy that it is impossible to see to the bottom; in short, Mr. Brown
+and his fellow thinkers, in the opinion of Mr. Massey, are
+arch-deceivers and audacious misinterpreters, and have no more idea of
+what Shakespeare meant than they have of telling the truth about it. Why
+Mr. Massey should have worked himself into a passion before he
+began to write is a mystery darker than any he attempts to solve, but
+the intemperate, bitter and self-conceited tone of the whole book is
+alone an immense injury to its critical value.
+
+In constructing his elaborate theory of the Sonnets, Mr. Massey has
+committed many grave offences against the rules of criticism. He has
+gone to his work with the strongest possible prejudices; he has begun it
+with certain preconceived ideas of what Shakespeare meant to write; he
+has found it necessary to destroy entirely the order of the poems, and
+to rearrange them, even sometimes to alter the text, to fit his own
+notions; and he has carried his investigations into such puerile and
+minute twistings of the text as can only be paralleled by Mr. Page's
+quotation in support of his scar. For instance, in Sonnet 78 occur these
+lines:
+
+    Thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing
+      And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,
+    Have added feathers to the learned's wing
+      And given grace a double majesty.
+
+Mr. Massey thinks that in this quatrain (which the vulgar mind would
+accept as it stands, nor expect to treat as other than figurative)
+Shakespeare was passing in review the writers under the patronage of the
+earl of Southampton, to whom the sonnet is addressed, and that he can
+identify the four personifications! Shakespeare of course is the Dumb
+taught to sing by the favor of the earl; resolute John Florio, the
+translator of Montaigne, is Heavy Ignorance; Tom Nash is the Learned,
+who has had feathers added to his wing; and Marlowe is the Grace to whom
+is given a double majesty! Marlowe's chief characteristic was majesty,
+says Mr. Massey; therefore, we suppose, he is spoken of as _grace_. The
+rest of his "exquisite reasons" may be found at pages 134-143 of the
+book.
+
+This is nothing, however, to the feats of which Mr. Massey's subtlety is
+capable. Sonnet 38 begins:
+
+    How can my Muse want subject to invent,
+      While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse
+    Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
+      For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
+
+That is, kindly explains Mr. Massey--lest we should be tempted to accept
+the obvious meaning of the lines, that the poet could not want a
+subject while his friend lived, whose worth was too great for every
+ordinary writing to celebrate fitly--"that is, the new subject of the
+earl's suggesting and the new form of the earl's inventing are too
+choice to be committed to _common paper_; which means that Shakespeare
+had until then written his personal sonnets on slips of paper provided
+by himself, and now the excelling argument of the earl's love is to be
+written in Southampton's own book"! Perhaps it means that Shakespeare
+had taken to gilt-edged, hot-pressed, double-scented Bath note.
+
+Mr. Massey's ingenuity in getting over a difficulty is as great as his
+faculty of construction. Having assumed Lady Rich (that Stella whose
+golden hair makes half the glory of Sidney's verse) to be the "black
+beauty" of the Sonnets, he finds that Sonnet 130 perversely says, "If
+hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head"--a bit of evidence that
+would seem to upset this theory. But Mr. Massey is not to be put down so
+easily. This is ironical, he says in effect; Shakespeare did not mean
+this; "it is a bit of malicious subtlety to call the lady's hair black
+wires, which was so often besung as golden hair; and _she had been so
+vain of its mellow splendor!_ ... And there is the '_if_' to be
+considered--'much virtue in an _if'!_--'_If_ hairs be wires,' says the
+speaker, 'black wires grow on her head!' So that the 'black' is only
+used conditionally, and the fact remains that 'hairs' are _not_
+'wires.'" If we are to interpret Shakespeare in this manner, where is
+such foolery to cease?
+
+To sum up the principal facts of Mr. Massey's elaborate theory in a few
+words, we find that he considers the Sonnets to be dedicated to William
+Herbert, earl of Pembroke, as "their only begetter" (or obtainer) for
+the publisher, Mr. Thomas Thorpe; that they consist properly of two
+series, the first written for Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton,
+the second for the earl of Pembroke; that they begin with the poet's
+advice to Southampton to marry; that when the earl fell in love with
+Elizabeth Vernon, he suggested a new argument (see Sonnet 38),
+wherein is no such thing as a _new_ argument, by the way; and that then
+the poet begins to write love-poems in the person of his friend. This
+continues up to the year 1603, when the earl of Southampton was released
+from prison, the dramatic sonnets being interspersed with personal ones.
+These dramatic sonnets also include sonnets written for Elizabeth Vernon
+of and to Penelope Lady Rich, of whom she is supposed to be jealous;
+sonnets from Southampton to herself upon the lovers' quarrel, and the
+desperate flirtation of Elizabeth Vernon to punish her lover (which Mr.
+Massey says ensued upon this jealousy); together with various other
+sonnets between them, and upon the earl's varying fortunes, his
+marriage, imprisonment, etc., which make up the first series. The second
+series are love-poems written for William Herbert, and addressed to Lady
+Rich, who is supposed by Mr. Massey to be the "black beauty" (or
+brunette) of the closing sonnets, although it is well known that Lady
+Rich was a golden blonde, with nothing dark about her but her black
+eyes. To make out this complicated story, Mr. Massey arranges the
+Sonnets in groups to suit his fancy, baptizes them as he chooses, and
+does not scruple to vilify the fair name of man or woman in order to
+make out his argument and to defend the spotless purity of Shakespeare's
+moral character.
+
+_Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems_, by Charles Armitage Brown
+(1838), is the book which more than all others on the subject seems to
+have excited Mr. Massey's indignation, chiefly because it is the leading
+advocate of "the personal theory"--that is, the autobiographical and
+non-dramatic character of the poems. This implies an acceptance of the
+statement clearly made in the Sonnets of Shakespeare's infidelity to his
+wife; and this Mr. Massey pronounces an outrageous and unwarranted
+slander. But in order to leave the name of Shakespeare pure from any
+stain of mortal imperfection, Mr. Massey arranges a dramatic intention
+for the Sonnets which involves, with more or less of light or evil
+conduct, no less than four other names--the earl of Southampton and
+Elizabeth Vernon (daughter of Sir John Vernon), whom he afterward
+married; William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and Lady Rich, for whom Mr.
+Massey finds no words too abusive, and whom he considers the "worser
+spirit" of the later Sonnets. The history of this lady is sufficiently
+well known, and, so far as I can ascertain, there is no historical
+warrant for supposing her to have been the mistress of Herbert, or the
+beguiler of Southampton into such a lapse of duty to his beloved
+Elizabeth Vernon as should inspire the expressions of Sonnets 134, 133,
+144, which Mr. Massey says are written in the person of this lady to
+Lady Rich. Lady Penelope Devereux, sister of Essex, was born in 1563,
+and her father, who died when she was but thirteen, expressed a desire
+that she should be married to Sir Philip Sidney. For some unknown reason
+the intended match was broken off, and the fair Penelope, who is
+described as "a lady in whom lodged all attractive graces of beauty, wit
+and sweetness of behavior which might render her the absolute mistress
+of all eyes and hearts," was married in 1580 to Lord Rich, a man whom
+she detested. Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_, a series of one hundred
+and eight sonnets and poems addressed to Lady Rich, and celebrating the
+strength and the purity of their love for each other, was first printed
+in 1591. Sidney had died five years before, and so long as he lived, at
+least, no whisper had been breathed against Lady Rich. In 1600 we have
+the first notice of her losing the queen's favor from a suspicion of her
+infidelity to her husband, and in 1605, having been divorced, her lover,
+the earl of Devonshire, formerly Lord Mountjoy, immediately married her.
+He defended her in an eloquent _Discourse_ and an _Epistle to the King_,
+in which he says: "A lady of great birth and virtue, being in the power
+of her friends, was by them married against her will unto one against
+whom she did protest at the very solemnity and ever after." Lord Rich
+treated her with great brutality, and having ceased to live with her for
+twelve years, "did by persuasions and threatenings move her to
+consent unto a divorce, and to confess a fault with a nameless
+stranger." In spite of Mountjoy's noble pleadings for his wife, the
+whole court rose up against his marriage. The earl's sensitive heart was
+broken by the disgrace he had brought upon one whom he had loved so
+dearly and so long (for he was Sidney's rival in his early youth, and
+had been rejected by Lady Penelope's family before her marriage with
+Lord Rich), and he died of grief four months after their marriage, April
+3, 1606. His countess, "worn out with lamentation," did not long survive
+him.
+
+Does that look like the conduct of a light and fickle heart? or was it
+likely that so noble a man as Charles Mountjoy would have died of grief
+for the disgrace he had brought upon a notoriously bad woman? As to Lord
+Southampton's alleged flirtation with Lady Rich, which so excited
+Elizabeth Vernon's jealousy, Mr. Massey has not one circumstance in
+proof of it but the forced interpretation he chooses to put upon certain
+lines of certain sonnets which he has wrested from their proper places,
+as well as their proper meaning. After using such sonnets as the 144th
+to express this jealousy, he quietly confesses at the end of the chapter
+that it could not have gone very deep, as the intimacy of the two fair
+cousins (for such was their relationship) continued to be of the
+closest--that it was to Lady Rich's house that Elizabeth Vernon retired
+after her secret marriage to the earl in 1598, and there her baby was
+born, named Penelope after her cousin and friend! There was only matter
+enough in it for poetry, Mr. Massey concludes after having upset the
+whole order of the Sonnets to prove its reality.
+
+Now, as to the story of Lady Rich's having been the mistress of Herbert,
+for whom Mr. Massey says that twenty-four of the Sonnets were written.
+William Herbert, afterward earl of Pembroke, was born in 1580. He came
+up to London in 1598, being then eighteen years of age, and made the
+acquaintance of Shakespeare, who was then thirty-four years old. Lady
+Rich, at that time, according to Mr. Massey's own statement, was
+"getting on for forty." The fact is that she was just thirty-five,
+having been born, as he tells us, in 1563. According to the obvious
+meaning of the Sonnets, the lady spoken of is much younger than
+Shakespeare, instead of a year older, and, according to Mr. Massey, Lady
+Rich was at that time (1597) in the midst of her love-affair with
+Mountjoy. The lady of the Sonnets, if we take them literally, could have
+borne no such high position as Lady Rich: she seems to have been neither
+remarkably beautiful and high-bred, nor virtuous, and was evidently a
+married woman of no reputation. (_Sonnets_ 150, 152.)
+
+It is impossible to bring up separately, in a single article, the items
+contained in a volume of 603 pages, so we must be content to leave Mr.
+Massey's theory with these meagre allusions to its principal statements,
+and pass on to that of Mr. Charles Armitage Brown. Upholding the opinion
+that the Sonnets are autobiographical, he maintains that they are in
+reality not sonnets, but poems in the sonnet stanza, there being but
+three sonnets, properly so called, in the series. The poems are six in
+number, terminating each with an appropriate _envoi_, and are addressed,
+the first five to the poet's friend, "W.H.," and the sixth to his
+mistress. That friend must have been very young, very handsome, of high
+birth and fortune; and to all this the description of William Herbert
+exactly answers. The divisions made by Mr. Brown are as follows: First
+poem, 1 to 26--to his friend, persuading him to marry. Second poem, 27
+to 55--to his friend, who had robbed the poet of his mistress, forgiving
+him. Third poem, 56 to 77--to his friend, complaining of his coldness,
+and warning him of life's decay. Fourth poem, 78 to 101--to his friend,
+complaining that he prefers another poet's praises, and reproving him
+for faults that may injure his character. Fifth poem, 102 to 126--to his
+friend, excusing himself for having been some time silent, and
+disclaiming the charge of inconstancy. Sixth poem, 127 to 152--to his
+mistress, on her infidelity. In this last poem, says Mr. Brown,
+we find the whole tenor to be "hate of my sin grounded on sinful
+loving." However the poet may waver, and for the moment seem to return
+to his former thralldom, indignation at the faithlessness of his
+mistress and at her having been, through treachery, the cause of his
+estrangement from a friend, at the last completely conquers his sinful
+loving. "For myself," continues Mr. Brown, "I confess I have not the
+heart to blame him at all, purely because he so keenly reproaches
+himself for his own sin and folly. Fascinated as he was, he did not,
+like other poets similarly guilty, directly or by implication obtrude
+his own passions on the world as reasonable laws. Had such been the
+case, he might have merited our censure, possibly our contempt."
+
+Having thus glanced over the work of the principal commentators upon the
+Sonnets, let us try the simple plan of reading them as we read
+Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, for instance, or the _Sonnets from the
+Portuguese_, by Mrs. Browning. In Mr. R.G. White's admirable edition of
+Shakespeare he confesses that he has no opinion upon the subject: "Mr.
+Thomas Thorpe appears in his dedication as the Sphinx of literature, and
+thus far he has not met his Oedipus." But herein have we not the main
+difficulty stated? The first great error committed by almost all
+students of the Sonnets, if we may be pardoned the opinion, is to take
+it for granted that they are a mystery whose key is lost. Just so long
+as the Sonnets are considered as a species of enigma they will be
+misunderstood and misinterpreted. It was not Shakespeare's habit to talk
+in riddles or to propound psychological problems: of all poets except
+Chaucer he is the most simple, direct and straightforward.
+
+We have in the _Amoretti_ of Spenser, and in the _Astrophel and Stella_
+of Sir Philip Sidney, admirable examples of autobiographical poems
+written mostly in sonnet stanza, of irregular and varied construction
+and subject, although the general theme is the same. Surely we may bring
+to the study of Shakespeare's poems the same simple method used in
+reading these. Poets of his own day, and using in their highest flights
+the form which was Shakespeare's familiar relaxation, nobody has tried
+to ascribe to Sidney and Spenser metaphysical mysteries and
+psychological conceits. Let us hope that some day this mistaken idolatry
+of Shakespeare, which besmokes his shrine with concealing clouds of
+incense, will be done away with, and that we shall be allowed to behold
+the simple truth, which never suffers in his case for being naked.
+
+In his 76th Sonnet, Shakespeare says,
+
+    Why write I still all one, ever the same.
+      And keep invention in a noted weed,
+    _That every word doth almost tell my name_,
+      _Showing their birth and whence they did proceed_?
+    Oh know, sweet love, I always write of you,
+    And you and love are still my argument.
+
+With this explicit declaration of Shakespeare, the general character of
+the poems, and the similar writings of his friends and contemporaries,
+we can but consider the Sonnets as autobiographical poems, written
+during a period of time beginning certainly as early as 1598 (when Meres
+speaks of Shakespeare's having written sonnets), and ceasing some time
+before their first publication in 1609. In the same way were written the
+poems composing Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, which, although dedicated to
+"A.H.H.," close with a long poem addressed to the poet's sister.
+
+The first and principal series of the Sonnets (divided from the second
+in many editions of Shakespeare by a mark of separation) is clearly
+addressed to a male friend. The extremely lover-like use of language by
+which they are characterized was a common trait of the age; and here
+again we see the necessity of thoroughly understanding the atmosphere
+that Shakespeare breathed. To us, with our frigid vocabulary of
+friendship, such a style sounds unnatural, and undignified perhaps: with
+the Elizabethans it was an every-day habit. Lilly, the author of
+_Euphues_, says in his _Endymion,_ "The love of men to women is a thing
+common and of course; the friendship of man to man, infinite and
+immortal." And indeed it is to the influence of the _Euphues_ that much
+of the poetic ardor of language characterizing the masculine friendship
+of the time was due. A man's beauty was as often the theme of
+verse as a woman's, and the endearing terms only associated by us with
+the conversation of lovers were used continually among men. The friends
+in Shakespeare's plays, as in all the other dramas and novels of the
+period, continually address each other as "sweet," and even "sweet love"
+and "beloved." Ben Jonson called himself the "lover" of Camden, and
+dedicated his eulogistic lines to "my beloved Mr. William Shakespeare."
+There is therefore no reason for considering the language of the first
+series of Sonnets as necessarily inapplicable to a masculine friend. The
+second series, beginning with the 127th Sonnet, is as evidently
+addressed, as Mr. Brown says, "to his mistress, on her infidelity;" and
+the Sonnets end with two upon "Cupid's Brand," admitted by all to be
+separate poems, and wrongfully tacked on to the Sonnets proper.
+
+Taking it for granted, then, from this very literal survey of the text,
+that the Sonnets are autobiographical, we find their study divided into
+two branches: (1) the story that the poems themselves tell by the most
+simple and direct statements; and (2) the conjectural explanation of the
+personages of that story, involving a careful historical comparison of
+names and dates, but amounting, after all is said that can be said,
+simply to conjecture, incapable of direct proof. The first part is to
+the real lover of Shakespeare and of poetry the only important one; the
+second concerns that which is mortal and has passed away. The first
+implies a knowledge of the friendship and the love of Shakespeare; the
+second the discovery of the names of his friend, of the poet who was his
+rival in the praises of that friend, and of the mistress who was
+unworthy of them both; not to mention such other items concerning time
+and place as might be ascertained by a persevering antiquarian.
+
+It is impossible, within less than a volume, to quote from the Sonnets
+very freely, therefore we shall be compelled to trust to the reader's
+recollection of them, assisted by an occasional reference; this
+explanation of them being simply a record of the impressions they have
+produced upon an unbiased mind reading them as one would read any other
+poetry of the same character.
+
+The story unfolded by the Sonnets, then, is this: Shakespeare had an
+ardent friendship, made all the livelier by the fervor of the poetic
+temperament, for a young man of noble birth and very great personal
+beauty, himself a lover of poetry, if not a poet. This youth was very
+much younger than Shakespeare, who was already beginning to speak of
+himself as past the prime of life, although he was probably not more
+than thirty-four. The friend of Shakespeare was almost perfect in
+beauty, intellect and disposition, but he had two faults: he was
+extremely fond of flattery (Sonnet 84), and he was over-addicted to
+pleasure:
+
+    How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
+    Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,
+    Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!   (95.)
+
+Shakespeare scorned to palter with the truth--"fair, kind and true" he
+had called his friend--but he saw his faults with the keen eye of love,
+that cannot bear an imperfection in the one who should be all-perfect.
+
+    Thou truly fair wert truly sympathized
+    In true plain words by thy true-telling friend;   (82.)
+
+and
+
+                        I love thee in such sort,
+    As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report;   (36.)
+
+therefore in all love he warns him to take heed.
+
+Such was the character of Shakespeare's friend, to whom he begins by
+addressing seventeen sonnets (or poems in the sonnet stanza, which is
+the better definition), urging him to marry. He knows the weakness of
+his character and the temptations that beset him, and in a strain of
+loving persuasion, whose theme bears great resemblance to many passages
+in Sidney's _Arcadia_, he beseeches him, now that he stands upon the top
+of happy hours,
+
+    Make thee another self for love of me.
+    That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
+
+Sonnet 17 in a most beautiful manner sums up the argument and ends the
+subject.
+
+The Sonnets from the 18th to the 126th are all addressed to this beloved
+friend, who nevertheless, early in the history of their
+friendship, inflicted upon the poet a cruel wrong. With the 33d Sonnet
+begin the references to this double treachery. It is impossible for an
+unprejudiced reader to interpret this and the other poems upon the same
+subject in any way but one. The mistress of Shakespeare, fascinated by
+the beauty and brilliant qualities of his friend, took advantage of the
+poet's absence to win that facile heart, so incapable of resisting the
+charms of woman and the tongue of flattery;
+
+    And when a woman woos, what woman's son
+    Will sourly leave her till she have prevailed? (41.)
+
+His friend's loss was the greater to the poet, for, although he loved
+with passionate strength, it was against his conscience and his reason.
+Such a love, he says, is "enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;"
+"Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream."
+
+    All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
+    To shun the heaven that leadeth to this hell. (129.)
+
+Nor does he mince matters in directly addressing her. She is a brunette,
+with black eyes and black hair, yet black in nothing except her deeds,
+which have given her an evil reputation. She has sealed false bonds of
+love as often as he, and is twice forsworn, having deceived both her
+husband and her lover. She is as cruel as if she had that transcendent
+beauty which in reality she only possesses in his doting eyes. He knows
+that her heart is "a bay where all men ride," and yet love persuades him
+to believe her true.
+
+    Who taught thee how to make me love thee more
+    The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
+
+She is his "worser spirit," tempting him to ill--his "false plague,"
+whom he knows to be "as black as hell, as dark as night," though he has
+sworn her fair and true. His friend's name is Will also, and Sonnets
+135, 136 contain a play upon their names:
+
+    Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy "Will,"
+    And "Will" to boot, and "Will" in overplus.
+
+Only love my name, he says to her, and then you will still love me, for
+_my_ name too is "Will."
+
+Such are the three actors in this tragedy of sin and sorrow and remorse;
+and the more we read these wonderful poems, and perceive the intense
+passion that throbs through them, the nearer we seem to get to the great
+heart of Shakespeare, the real inner life of that man of whose outer
+personality we know so little. We see him wounded to the quick by his
+dearest friend, yet weighing the sin of that friend in the balance of
+divinest mercy as he acknowledges the strength of the temptation, and,
+while he does not extenuate the sin, extends a loving pardon to the
+sinner. He knows weakness of his own soul: he himself struggles in the
+toils of an unworthy passion, which his reason abhors while his heart is
+led captive. His is the battle and the defeat: who is he that he should
+judge with indignant virtue the failing of another?--
+
+    I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
+      Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
+    And yet love knows it is a greater grief
+      To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.   (40.)
+
+He pardons the penitent as freely as only so great and magnanimous a
+soul can, but gently reminds him that "though thou repent, yet I have
+still the loss:"
+
+    The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
+    To him that bears the strong offence's cross. (34.)
+
+Hereafter we two must be twain, the poet says, although our undivided
+loves are one, for fear thy good report suffer, which is to me as my
+own. Do not even remember me after I am dead, if that remembrance cause
+you any sorrow, nor rehearse my poor name, but let your love decay with
+my life;
+
+    Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
+    And mock you with me after I am gone.
+
+Such is the story of the Sonnets, the saddest of all stories, as it
+comes to us from the simple and unbiased reading of the series as it
+stands, without alteration or transposition. The meaning is sufficiently
+obvious without making any change, although, judging from the purely
+eulogistic character of some of the first series of the Sonnets, and the
+purely reflective style of others, it seems probable that those which
+are more or less reproachful in tone may belong together, nearer the
+second series. Still, even to this rearrangement there are objections
+when we consider the alternations of feeling and the different
+conditions that must have affected the poet during the space of time
+covered by these poems. In the 104th Sonnet three years are mentioned as
+having elapsed since the friends first met, and the time covered by the
+whole series was probably still longer. Conjectural evidence points to
+William Herbert as the person to whom the Sonnets are addressed. His
+name, his age, his beauty, his rank, all agree with Shakespeare's
+description. As for the earl of Southampton, the poet's early patron, to
+whom the _Venus and Adonis_ and the _Lucrece_ are dedicated, his name
+was Henry; he was but nine years younger than Shakespeare, and therefore
+not likely to have been called by him "a sweet boy;" he was a remarkably
+plain man, instead of an Adonis, and noted, not for his devotion to
+women in general, but for his ardent attachment to Mistress Elizabeth
+Vernon, whom he married secretly, in spite of the queen's opposition, in
+1598. Now, the earliest mention that we have of Shakespeare's poems is
+when Meres speaks of "his sugared sonnets among his private friends."
+This was in 1598, and, as Hallam and other critics have argued, is
+probably a reference to earlier sonnets which have been lost, not to
+those published in 1609. It was in 1598 that William Herbert, a
+brilliant and fascinating young man, addicted to pleasure and
+susceptible to flattery, but strongly disinclined to marriage, came up
+to London to live, having visited the metropolis during the previous
+year.
+
+As for Lady Rich, besides the objections already urged on the score of
+her personal appearance and her age, Shakespeare would never have dared
+to speak of a reigning beauty of the court in the words of Sonnets 137,
+144, 152. In fact, Mr. Massey's whole argument upon this head is based
+upon his assertion that the poems are dramatic and not personal.
+
+Mr. Massey's conviction that Marlowe is the rival poet of whose "great
+verse" Shakespeare was jealous depends upon Southampton, and not
+Herbert, being acknowledged to be the friend addressed, for Marlowe died
+in 1593, when Herbert was but thirteen years old, and five years before
+we have the first mention of Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets.
+Certainly, a writer who had died five years before we find any mention
+of the Sonnets can hardly be the living poet of whom Shakespeare
+distinctly speaks in Sonnets 80 and 86. Also in Sonnet 82 he makes
+mention of the "dedicated words" this rival addresses to his friend.
+Now, we have no evidence that Marlowe ever dedicated anything to
+Southampton, although Mr. Massey tries to bolster up a desperate case by
+saying that "there is nothing improbable in supposing that Marlowe's
+_Hero and Leander_ was intended to be dedicated to Southampton" had the
+poet lived to finish it!
+
+A stronger chain of evidence (still conjectural, it must be remembered)
+points to Ben Jonson as this rival poet. His _Epigrams_, which contain a
+eulogy upon Pembroke, and his _Catiline_, were both dedicated to this
+earl, although neither of them was published till after the Sonnets. We
+find the earl of Pembroke's name among the actors in Ben Jonson's
+masques, and Falkland's eclogue testifies to their intimacy. And in the
+80th Sonnet, Shakespeare uses the same comparison of himself and his
+rival, to two ships of different bulk, which Fuller used to describe
+Shakespeare and Ben Jonson as they appeared at the Mermaid Tavern.
+
+As for the name of the false woman who ensnared two such noble hearts,
+it is lost for ever, let us hope, in a deserved oblivion. The scanty
+data that we have given here are about all that can be accepted without
+wrenching history and poetry from their proper sphere. But so long as
+the spirit is more than the letter, so long will the Sonnets of
+Shakespeare be read by all true lovers of true poetry, whether their
+historical significance ever be known or not. They are the saddest and
+the sweetest story of friendship that we have in all literature; and
+while one faithful friend remains possessed of that fine wit that can
+"hear with eyes what silent love hath writ," his heart will beat in
+answer to the perfect love of the greatest of all poets and the noblest
+of all friends.
+
+                                        KATE HILLARD.
+
+
+
+
+OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+
+ARTISTS' MODELS IN ROME.
+
+
+Some visitors to the Eternal City leave it without having found time to
+see this one of its wonders, while others are driven by the sad
+inelasticity of the hours to leave a different class of objects for
+"another time." But it may be safely asserted that none who have been at
+Rome for even twenty-four hours ever left it without having had their
+attention forcibly arrested by the groups of painters' and sculptors'
+models--the former mainly--who haunt the upper part of the great steps
+that lead up from the Piazza di Spagna to the Trinita di Monti, and
+perhaps even more specially the corner where the Via Sistina falls into
+the Piazza Barberini. But very few probably have asked for, and fewer
+still obtained, information as to who and what these people are, and
+whence they come. Yet to an attentive observer many points about the
+appearance of these groups must suggest that a curious interest might
+attach itself to the reply to such questions. There are sights in Rome
+of grander and greater interest, but there is nothing in all the famous
+centre of the Catholic world more distinctively, essentially and
+exclusively Roman, more unlike anything that is seen elsewhere, more
+instinct with _couleur locale_, than these singularly picturesque groups
+of nomads.
+
+Let us, then, take a stroll among them, starting from that bright centre
+of the foreigners' quarter of Rome, the Piazza di Spagna. It is a
+brilliant January day, and, we will say, ten o'clock in the morning. In
+the Via Babuino and the neighboring streets, which the sun has not yet
+visited, the morning cold is a little sharp. _Matutina parum cautos jam
+frigora mordent_. But the magnificent flight of the great stair--there
+are properly eleven flights, divided by as many spacious and handsomely
+balustraded landing-places, each flight consisting of twelve steps, and
+all of white marble--with its southern exposure has almost the
+temperature of a hothouse. There are two or three beggars basking in the
+sunshine near the bottom of the steps. But our models do not consort
+with these. Not only are they not beggars, but they belong to a
+different caste and a different race. We leisurely saunter up the huge
+stair, pausing at each landing-place to turn and enjoy the view over the
+city, and the gradually rising luminous haze around the cupola of St.
+Peter's, and the heights of Monte Mario clear against the brilliant blue
+sky. It is not till we are at the topmost flight that we come upon the
+objects of our ramble. There we fall in with a group of them, consisting
+perhaps of three or four girls, as many children, a man in the prime of
+life, and an aged patriarch. There is not the smallest possibility that
+we should pass them unobserved. They are far too remarkable and too
+unlike anything else around us. Even those who have no eye for the
+specialties of type which characterize the human countenance will not
+fail to be struck by the peculiarities of the costume of the group of
+figures before us. At the first glance the eye is caught by the quantity
+of bright color in their dresses. The older women wear the picturesque
+white, flatly-folded linen cloth on their heads which is the usual dress
+of the _contadine_ women in the neighborhood of Rome. The younger have
+their hair ornamented with some huge filagree pin or other device of a
+fashion which proclaims itself to the most unskilled eye as that of some
+two or three hundred years ago. All have light bodices of bright blue or
+red stuff laced in front, and short petticoats of some equally bright
+color, not falling below the ankle. But the most singular portion of the
+costume is the universally-worn apron. It consists of a piece of very
+stout and coarsely-woven wool of the brightest blue, green or yellow,
+about twenty inches broad by thirty-three in length, across which, near
+the top and near the bottom, run two stripes, each about eight
+inches wide, of hand-worked embroidery of the strangest,
+old-world-looking patterns and the most brilliant colors. These things
+are manufactured by the peasantry of the hill-country in the
+neighborhood of San Germano, who grow, shear, spin, weave, dye and
+embroider the wool themselves. And being barbarously unsophisticated by
+any adulteration of cotton, and in no wise stinted in the quantity of
+material, they are wonderfully strong and enduring. The most remarkable
+thing about them, however, is the unerring instinct with which these
+uneducated manufacturers harmonize the most audaciously violent
+contrasts of brilliant color. It is not too much to assert that they are
+_never_ at fault in this respect. So much is this the case, and so truly
+artistic is this homely peasant manufacture, that there is hardly a
+painter's studio in Rome in which two or three of these richly colored
+apron-cloths may not be seen covering a sofa or thrown over the back of
+a chair. A great part of the singularly picturesque and striking
+appearance of the group of figures we are speaking of is due to the
+universal use of these aprons by the women. The men also affect an
+unusually large amount of bright color in their costume. The waistcoat
+is almost always scarlet; the velveteen jacket or short coat generally
+blue; the breeches sometimes the same, but often of bright yellow
+leather, and the stockings a lighter blue. The men often wear a long
+cloak reaching to the heels, always hanging open in front, and generally
+lined with bright green baize. They generally, too, have some
+bright-colored ribbons around their high-peaked, conical felt hats. But
+I must not forget to mention the costume of the children. It consists of
+an exact copy in miniature of that of their elders; and the
+inconceivable quaintness and queer old-world look produced is not to be
+imagined by those who have never witnessed it. Fancy a little imp of six
+or seven years old dressed in little blue jacket, bright-yellow leather
+breeches, blue stockings, sheepskin sandals on his little bits of feet,
+and long bright flaxen curls streaming down from under a gayly-ribboned
+brigand's hat!
+
+But if the first glance is given to this singularity of costume, the
+second will not fail to take cognizance of the remarkable beauty of
+feature to be observed in almost every individual of this race of
+models. The men are well grown, almost invariably wear their black hair
+streaming over their shoulders, and have generally fine eyes and
+picturesquely colored, swarthy red faces. But the beauty of the girls is
+in almost every case something quite extraordinary; and the same may be
+said of the children. The next thing which the closeness of observation
+this unusual degree of beauty is calculated to attract will reveal to
+the observer is that all these singularly lovely faces are remarkably
+like each other, and at the same time remarkably unlike any of the faces
+around them. There is often much beauty among the Roman women of the
+lower classes, but it is of an essentially different type. The Roman
+beauty is generally large in stature and ample in development, with
+features whose tendency to heaviness needs the majestic and Juno-like
+style of beauty which the Roman women so frequently have to redeem them.
+But the countenances of the women of whom we have been speaking have
+nothing at all of this. The features are small, delicately cut, the form
+of face generally short, rather than tending to oval, being in this
+respect also in marked contrast with the ordinary Roman type. There is a
+type of face well known to most English eyes, though less so, I take it,
+to those on the western side of the Atlantic, which is strangely
+recalled to the memory by these model-girls; and that is the gypsy type.
+There is the same Oriental look about them, the same brilliancy of dark
+eyes under dark low brows, the same delicately-cut noses and full yet
+finely-chiseled lips. They have also almost invariably the same wondrous
+wealth of long raven black tresses, glossy but not fine. The complexions
+are fresher, more delicate, and with more of bloom, than is often seen
+among the gypsies; and this is the principal difference between the two
+types. There is also another point of similarity, which, if the
+accounts of Eastern travelers may be accepted, seems also to point to an
+Oriental origin. I allude to the singular gracefulness of "pose" which
+is observable in these people, among the men and women alike. There they
+stand and lounge, or sit propped, half recumbent, against a balustrade
+in the sun, in all sorts of attitudes, but in all they are graceful.
+There is that indefinable simplicity and ease in the natural movement
+and disposition of their limbs which tuition can never, and birth in the
+purple can so rarely, enable a European to assume. It may perhaps be
+supposed that the exigencies of their profession have not been without
+influence in producing the effect I am speaking of. But I do not think
+that such is the case. In the young and the old, in the children even,
+the same thing is observable; and the exceeding difficulty of teaching
+it may be accepted, I think, as a guarantee that it has not been taught
+in the case of creatures so unteachable as these half-wild sons and
+daughters of Nature.
+
+Now, if these people, who for generations past have exercised the
+profession of artists' models in Rome, do really belong to a race apart
+from the inhabitants of the district around Rome, as I think cannot be
+doubted by any one who has carefully observed them, the question
+suggests itself, Who and what are they, and whence do they come?
+Fortunately, we are not unprovided with an answer, and the answer is
+rather a curious one. If the excursionist from Rome to Tivoli will
+extend his ramble a little way among the Sabine Mountains which lie
+behind it, up the valley through which the Teverone--the _praeceps Anio_
+of Horace--runs down into the Campagna, he will see on his right hand,
+when he has left Tivoli about ten miles behind him, a most romantically
+situated little town on the summit of a conically shaped mountain. The
+name of it is Saracinesco, and its story is as curious as its situation.
+It is said--and the tradition has every appearance of truth--that the
+town was founded by a body of Saracens after their defeat by Berengarius
+in the ninth century. The spot is just such as might have been selected
+for such a purpose. It is difficult of access to an extraordinary
+degree, and it is said to be no less than two thousand five hundred feet
+above the stream which flows at the base of the rocky hill on which it
+is built. Tradition, however, is not the only testimony to the truth of
+this account of the origin of the strangely placed little town, for in
+many cases the inhabitants have preserved their old Arabic names. It is
+from this strange eyrie of Saracinesco that our picturesque and handsome
+friends of the Piazzi di Spagna descend to seek a living at Rome from
+the profession which they have followed for generations of artists'
+models. And this is the explanation of the singular sameness of
+beautiful feature, the utterly un-Roman type, the sharply-cut features,
+and the admirable grace of movement and of attitude which characterize
+these denizens of the steps--if of the steppes no longer.
+
+What a life they lead! From early morn to dewy eve there they lounge, in
+every sort of restful attitude, basking in the sun, with nothing on
+earth to occupy mind or body save an eternal clatter. On what subjects,
+who shall say or attempt to guess? Every now and then one of the tribe
+is hired by an artist to go and _pose_ for a Judith, a Lucretia, a
+Venus, as the case may be. Some are wanted for an arm, some for a hand,
+some for a brow, some for a leg, some for a bust. Some one may have a
+special gift for personating an ancient Roman, and another exactly
+assume the saintly look of a Madonna or the smile and expression of a
+Venus. Their several and special gifts and capacities are all well known
+in the world of their patrons, and special reputations are made in the
+art-world accordingly. It is a strange life: not probably conducive to a
+high development of intellectual and moral excellence, but very much so
+to the picturesque peopling of the most magnificent flight of stairs in
+Christendom.
+
+                                        T. A. T.
+
+
+
+
+FAUST IN POLAND.
+
+
+Nowhere do we see the genuine soul and character of a people so
+distinctly as in its myths, legends, popular songs and traditions. They
+reflect faithfully, though--perhaps we should say,
+_because_--unconsciously, the deeds, aspirations and beliefs of the
+earlier ages, and not only afford to our own precious material for
+philological and ethnological study, but still exert, in many instances
+at least, considerable influence over the ideas and feelings of men. The
+Faust legend will never lose its mysterious fascination: many poets have
+felt it, but Goethe's insight penetrated all its depth of meaning, and
+his marvelous poem is for us the supreme expression of it.
+
+But it is interesting to find the same legend in Poland, with
+characteristic variations from the German conception, illustrative of
+the hospitality and chivalry and the dominant influence of woman which
+are such marked features in Polish history. Twardowsky (the Doctor
+Faustus of Poland) lived in the sixteenth century, in the time of
+Sigismund Augustus. He studied at the University of Cracow, rose to the
+rank of doctor, and devoted himself especially to chemistry and physics,
+having a secret laboratory in a vast cavern of Mount Krzemionki. Science
+in those days was regarded as intimately associated with the black arts,
+and it was not surprising that Twardowsky's contemporaries added the
+title of sorcerer to those of doctor and professor, supposed he had made
+an alliance with Satan, and fancied an army of demons always waiting to
+do his bidding. All this did not prevent his enjoyment of the king's
+favor. Sigismund had married, against his mother's wish, Barbara
+Radziwill, the beautiful daughter of a Polish magnate. The nobles,
+probably influenced by Bona, the mother of the king, demanded that
+Barbara should be repudiated: he indignantly refused, and shortly
+afterward she was poisoned. The grief and rage of Sigismund were
+without bounds: he exiled his mother, wore black all the rest of his
+life, and had the apartments of his palace hung with it. His melancholy
+gave him new interest in the occult sciences, and he became more than
+ever intimate with Twardowsky, sometimes visiting him in his cavern,
+sometimes receiving him secretly in his palace. At first, he was
+satisfied with the chemical experiments which the populace regarded as
+supernatural, but after a while he urgently desired Twardowsky to
+produce for him a vision of Barbara. Twardowsky appointed a night for
+the exhibition of his skill, and after drawing a magic circle and
+pronouncing some mysterious words, he called Barbara thrice by name, and
+she appeared--not as a spectre risen from the tomb, but in all the
+beauty and freshness which had been the king's delight. He fainted at
+the sight, and his regard for the magician increased greatly. But one
+fatal evening he found the door of the cavern shut. Twardowsky, not
+expecting him, was not there. After some delay the door was opened by a
+beautiful young woman. "Barbara!" exclaimed Sigismund. "Barbara is my
+name, but I am alive, not dead," was her reply. Twardowsky's device was
+now exposed. He had created an illusion for the satisfaction of
+Sigismund by employing this substitute for his lost Barbara. She was a
+girl named Barbara Gisemka, whom Twardowsky had rescued from the hands
+of a furious mob, had concealed in his cavern, and initiated into the
+sciences to which he devoted himself. She became his adept and his
+mistress. But the king, furious at the imposition which had been
+practiced upon him, and desirous of making this beautiful creature his
+own, had Twardowsky murdered, and gave out that the devil had carried
+him off. Barbara Gisemka acquired immense influence over the mind of her
+royal lover, which lasted while he lived. When he was ill she suffered
+no physician to approach him, and was with him when he died in 1572.
+
+So much for history. Tradition has transformed Twardowsky into a gay and
+brilliant gentleman, who, in order to gain all the pleasures of life,
+sold his soul to the devil, engaging on his honor to give it up to him
+whenever he (the devil) should enter the city of Rome. Twardowsky now
+enjoyed to the full his new power, reveling in luxury himself, and
+lavishing gifts and banquets on his friends. The populace also
+shared his generosity--all the more, too, from the strange manner of it.
+On one occasion, we are told, he pierced three holes in a shoemaker's
+nose with his own awl, and caused a tun of brandy to flow from it for
+the refreshment of the crowd. One day he was informed that a stranger
+who was at the inn called the "City of Rome" wished to see him. He went
+at once to the place with no misgivings, but on his arrival there found
+the devil, who had come to claim the fulfillment of the contract.
+Provoked at the quibble, he resolved to employ a ruse himself, and just
+as the devil was about to take possession of him he seized the infant
+child of the innkeeper from its cradle and held it up before him, its
+innocence being a sure defence against Satan's power. He, however,
+demanded what had become of his plighted word. The honor of the Polish
+gentleman could not resist this appeal. He put down the child and rose
+into the air with Satan. But while they were still hovering over Cracow
+the sound of church-bells awoke in Twardowsky's recollection a hymn to
+the Virgin, which he forthwith sang, and the devil could hold him no
+longer. Twardowsky, however, could not get down again, but remains
+suspended in the air, only receiving news from the earth by means of a
+spider which happened to be on the tail of his coat, and which
+occasionally spins a thread and goes down, for a while, returning with
+whatever it may have picked up for his information and amusement.
+
+No Polish story would be complete without a woman, and so we find that
+Twardowsky had a wife, beautiful, witty and imperious, with all the
+fascinations universally conceded to the Polish women. Madame Twardowsky
+is said to have ruled her husband just as he ruled the devil during the
+time of that personage's subjection; and there is a second version of
+the story which makes her too much for Satan himself. According to this
+account, Twardowsky was entertaining a number of friends at the "City of
+Rome," when suddenly the devil appeared. While Twardowsky, to gain
+time, was reading over the compact, his wife, looking over his
+shoulder, suddenly laughed, and addressing the devil, told him there
+were still three conditions for him to fulfill, on failure of which the
+parchment should be torn up, and asked whether she might impose them.
+The devil politely replied in the affirmative. "Here, then," said she,
+"see this horse painted on the wall of the inn: I wish to mount him, and
+you must make me a whip of sand and a staple of walnuts." The devil
+bowed, and in a moment the horse was prancing before their eyes. The
+lady now had a large tub of holy water brought in, and invited the
+devil, as his second task, to plunge into it and refresh his weary
+limbs. He coughed, shivered, then went in resolutely, coming out again
+as quickly as possible, and shaking himself well. "The third task will
+be a pleasant one," said the lady with her most bewitching smile: "The
+first year my husband passes in hell you shall spend with me, swearing
+to me love, fidelity and implicit obedience. Will you?" The devil rushed
+toward the door, but she was too quick for him, and succeeded in locking
+it and putting the key into her pocket. Satan, resolved to escape from
+the servitude in store for him, could only do so by going through the
+keyhole, which has been black ever since.
+
+                                        E. C. R.
+
+
+
+
+A LETTER FROM HAVANA.
+
+HAVANA, Feb. 14, 1875.
+
+
+It is not a very long sail from home to Cuba--you pass into the Bay of
+Havana on the morning of the fifth day, if you have luck--but the sky
+and land you left behind at this wintry season at home are very
+different from those you find on arriving here. It is a great change in
+so short a time from the dun-colored shore and the frozen river to the
+waving verdure of the Cuban coast and the sparkling blue and white of
+the water. We made the land before daylight, and, the rules forbidding
+us to enter the harbor till sunrise, we bobbed up and down for two or
+three hours a mile or so outside of the Moro Castle, which guards the
+narrow entrance to Havana. The moon was so brilliant that we did not
+have to wait for day to enjoy the scene before us: in fact, it could not
+have been improved by the sun. The fortress of Moro crouches on a bed of
+rock, rearing a tall lighthouse aloft. Its Moorish turrets have a soft
+rounded outline, and the undulations of the shore blend with the masonry
+of the castle; only a sharp retiring angle here and there gives an
+occasional glimpse of a grim purpose. When the Moro light is put out,
+ships in the offing may enter the bay. The mouth of the harbor is not
+more than half a mile wide, and on the shore opposite to the Moro the
+town of Havana comes down to the water's edge, withdrawing up the bay on
+one hand, and up the sea-coast on the other. A pilot is not necessary
+except for the perquisites of office, but one comes on board, and with
+anxious countenance directs the ship straight on through clear water for
+a mile, when the anchor is dropped.
+
+Just as day breaks on the high ground on the Moro shore, and the growing
+light brings houses and trees and ships into relief, with all their rich
+variety of color, the scene is memorable and full of beauty. On the
+green slope behind the castle, while the outline of the tropical
+vegetation is only stealing into view, there is hid, and yet visible, a
+long, low building of yellow columns, blue facade, brown gables and red
+tiles: if you shut out the rest of the landscape with your hands, you
+would say it was a picture by Fortuny. The expanse of the bay is fine,
+and the large fleet at anchor furnishes it but thinly. Townward, as the
+sun's rays begin to dissipate the brown shadows and define shape and
+color, the city sparkles like a gorgeous mosaic; but in another half
+hour, when the sun is higher, the hazy softness has departed and the
+city is ablaze with light, so that your eyes can scarcely look at it.
+Then, if you have seen it earlier, it loses its charm.
+
+I was jealous of Havana from what I had heard and read of it: if the
+shore-line, and the entrance, and the bay, and the scene were finer than
+Rio, I was prepared to be angry; but Rio is grand and Havana is pretty,
+so that one may like both and not divide his allegiance. A patchwork of
+good pictures in the Moorish vein of town, and shore, and water would
+reproduce, and yet not copy, all that Havana has to offer; but there is
+not a picture in the world that aspires to the grandeur of Rio. But I
+won't deny the sparkle and brilliancy of Havana. At this moment the sky
+is of a perfect "Himmel-blau." I can see from my window, near the roof,
+the rich, harmonious Moorish blending of varied colors in the houses;
+and beyond these "the white feet of the wind shine along the sea." A
+ship with all sail set is coming into port, the white-capped waves
+rolling her along before the stiff sea-breeze. Wind is the bane of the
+place. It sets in to blow, as the sailors say, soon after daylight nine
+days in ten, and blows all day, and sometimes far into the night. It is
+not always the soft, perennial zephyr of tradition, but often chill and
+raw, and then there is no escape from it except to shut yourself in your
+room; and that means hermetically sealing, for when you close a window
+here you close a shutter, and thus, if you shut out the breeze, you shut
+the light out also. The doors and windows are not meant to exclude the
+air, and so when the breeze gets on a frolic it whirls up stairs and
+down--goeth, in fact, where it listeth; and sometimes one feels it going
+through him like a knife.
+
+The houses are built in one width of rooms round a hollow square;
+consequently, when you put your boots out you put them out of doors. In
+the midst of the house, with the sky overhead, the umbrageous palm tree
+and banana spread their broad leaves. The rooms are high and white, with
+little furniture, and no curtains, with open ceiling of painted rafters,
+and iron gratings, like a prison's bars, shutting out the street in the
+front of the house. Behind these gratings the passer-by may see the
+Cuban family arranged in two prim rows of arm-chairs _vis-a-vis_,
+or gathered about the bars as if looking for some means of escape.
+Occasionally now in some of the better quarters a child of either sex,
+but black as night, disports itself in full view, "covered by the
+darkness only." There is an infinite variety of opinion in regard to the
+clothing necessary to comfort here. I have often found a light overcoat
+comfortable, but there is a tribe or clan from some Spanish province
+whose boast it is to wear coat nor vest by day or night. The
+representatives of the various provinces maintain their individuality
+here, and preserve for festive occasions the costumes which characterize
+them in Spain. Some of these are very rich, and many of the men,
+especially of the lower orders, being stalwart and handsome, their gala
+appearance is decidedly striking. In the fete in honor of Alfonso XII.
+there were some beautiful groups of men, women and children in Spanish
+costumes, dancing in the procession with silk emblems and flower
+wreaths, and singing provincial songs. Others were mounted on the
+splendid Andalusian horses, which make one's mouth water with desire to
+ride them. They are as beautiful as Fromentin and Gerome have painted
+them--such eyes and nostrils, and such action! It has taken centuries to
+produce him, but at last there is a saddle-horse: if only for parade
+occasions, that is no matter. He is perfect in his kind. The Arab keeps
+his horse in his tent, but the Cuban keeps his in his house. We should
+say that the horse-owning Cuban sleeps over a stable, but no doubt to
+his mind his stable is merely under his room. A rich gentleman in town
+has encased his horses in a beautiful drawing-room of cedar and
+satin-wood, and it is rather pleasant than otherwise to pass through it
+on the way to the other apartments.
+
+The houses of Havana are low; the streets are narrow; the sidewalks
+ditto: there is an occasional plaza of broad, white glare, which must be
+intolerable in summer-time. The Prado has trees which are rather Dutch
+than tropical; and the Paseo, where the driving is, is quite a fine
+avenue. This afternoon, though it is Lent, the Carnival will rage there.
+Some people go in masks, but not many; and there are no confetti. It is
+mainly a parade--rich people turning out in their best, poor people
+making light of their poverty: the rich gorgeous in apparel, and
+splendid in equipage, the poor arrayed in some gay, inexpensive motley,
+and crowded into miserable vehicles. The particolored costumes give an
+aspect of brightness to the street; but it is a solemn sight to see four
+Cuban women, of the middle age, drawn by a four-in-hand, arrayed in full
+ball-dress, powdered and bejeweled, and passing in review of admiring
+mankind.
+
+The ugliness of the women amounts to a vice, and is unredeemed by any
+quality such as sometimes palliates plainness of features. I have cried
+aloud for the beautiful Cuban, but in vain. I am assured that she
+exists, am told, "My dear fellow, you never made a greater mistake in
+your life," am poohpoohed in various ways; but I cannot find her. I hear
+it said that owing to the political chaos here she has retired from
+public view, but it is not denied that she will go to the Carnival and
+the opera. I was warned not to expect her at the ball in Alfonso's honor
+at the Spanish Club, and certainly it was a timely warning. Fancy a long
+hall of colored marble, pillars running the length of it forming
+arcades; balconies on both sides hanging over the streets, and full of
+young men smoking cigarettes; men parading up and down the hall and
+quizzing the women, who were all seated--two rows of them, hundreds all
+together--seriously contemplating the male procession: enameled,
+powdered, attired in the wealth of the Indies, saying nothing, doing
+nothing, not smiling, not blinking, just sitting there, an awful array
+of hideousness. After the band struck up and the dancing began, I
+remained long enough to lose in the music the horrible impression of,
+the opening scene, and then hurried home. At the opera and the Carnival
+it is not so positively unendurable, but a handsome face, or a pretty
+face, or even an intelligent, expressive face, I have not yet seen in a
+woman in Havana; and at this season of the year, if ever, Havana is
+Cuba. I don't condemn them--I merely give my luck.
+
+The town is of course full of Spanish military and their accessories,
+civil functionaries who are all Spanish, money-makers, adventurers,
+shoddy. The Spanish army is at "the front," posted across or partly
+across the island on a sort of strong picket-line, fortified by
+block-houses, whence watch is kept on the movements of the insurgents,
+who seem to come and go as they please in the Spanish front, and cross
+the lines with impunity. The Spanish hold the whole seaboard, all
+important towns and villages, hold the insurgents practically in check,
+so far as the fertile region of the island is concerned, and from year
+to year keep military matters just about in _statu quo_. The
+insurgents dwell in the wildest portion of the island, often in almost
+impenetrable woods, living the life of savages, and depending on the
+bounty of Nature for their daily bread.
+
+So the war lingers. It is not what we would call a war: it is a
+condition of armed hostility. It is conducted almost wholly at the
+expense of Spain in _men_, wholly at the expense of Cuba in
+_money_. The Cuban volunteers are a home-guard, but the purse of
+the Cubans is open. Spain is not loath to dip into it, and taxation
+for carrying on the government and the war has become very
+onerous--dreadfully so, in fact, though I believe that the Cubans do not
+realize it so fully as strangers do. The government is impoverished; the
+war makes no progress; what becomes of the enormous revenue derived from
+the taxes? A rich planter said to me dryly, "They are ignorant men: they
+make mistakes in applying it." Hard things are openly said of all
+Spanish officials; and all officials, from the captain-general to the
+harbor pilot, are Spanish. Startling things are heard here every day in
+political and military discussions. The people think in classes: there
+is the Spanish view, the Creole view, the foreign view--none very
+dispassionate, and none very accurate. There is no accepted basis of
+fact for anything: nobody believes anybody else, and truth here lies in
+a _very_ deep well. But one thing else is clear. Cuba, so gifted by
+Nature, is being despoiled by man; and what ought to be a garden will
+become overgrown with weeds if there is not a change of fortune. There
+is taxation without representation under an iron despotism: there is an
+army without war, and the people look on. It is not necessary to find
+any new means of going to the bad at a gallop. The rich give practical
+support to the Spanish, and moral support to the insurrection; but if
+the insurrection should triumph, I can't see how it will benefit the
+Creole Cubans of property. I think ideas here are confused on the
+subject, and while they are giving hearty encouragement to neither
+cause, between the two they are sure to be utterly ruined.
+
+I have spent a week in all on sugar plantations in the interior. I was
+delightfully entertained, and reveled in the luxury of soft air and
+out-of-door life. I was on horseback a good deal, riding one of the
+shuffling little animals they have here, whose gait is so easy that it
+doesn't amount to motion. The crops are to a great extent still uncut;
+the green cane, which looks like our broom-corn at a distance, waves in
+the winds as far as the eye can reach. The country is level, but has a
+frame of mountain-land. The woods are festooned with air-plants and
+parasites; palm trees dot the landscape in every direction or run in
+splendid avenues, sometimes in double rows, alternating with the round,
+full mamey tree, whose deep green foliage brings into fine relief the
+white stalk of the palm. The breeze rustles through the broad
+plantations of bananas and sways the orange groves. The gardens are rich
+in flowers of brilliant hues. The fields swarm with negroes and
+ox-carts; the ponderous machinery of the boiling-houses maintains a
+steady hum; the picturesque buildings are all touched with Fortuny-like
+tints: there is much to see and much to tell of, but I must have some
+regard for your patience. I have not finished, but I must stop.
+
+                                        F. C. N.
+
+
+
+
+FRENCH SLANG.
+
+
+Reading the slang of a language is much like seeing the said language in
+its intellectual shirt-sleeves, off duty and taking its ease: one feels
+sure of detecting some essential characteristics of the people who speak
+it, and one turns over the pages of a slang dictionary expecting to
+recognize through its corruption and perversions the real nature of the
+people who have created it. French slang is no exception to this,
+theory: the two hundred and thirty double-columned pages of M. Larcher's
+_Dictionnaire historique, etymologique et anecdotique de l'argot
+parisien_ tell us that the two grand sources and inspirations of our
+American slang are entirely wanting: there is not a humorous word or
+phrase from beginning to end; and hardly an instance of that incongruous
+exaggeration which is so salient a picture of our best-known and most
+original slang phrases. But, on the other hand, there is satire keen and
+fine on every page, a reckless, devil-may-care gayety, and throughout
+that mocking spirit which is so essentially French, making game alike of
+its own pain and that of others, and jeering always at the sight of an
+altar, never mind what may chance to be thereon, whether its own sacred
+things or those of others. Half the words in the book are quaint,
+grotesque phrasings of two ideas--ideas which most people on our side of
+the water are hardly inclined to joke about: one is the idea of death,
+and the other the frailty or falseness of women. One is specially struck
+by the wealth of words and the sameness of ideas, and, above all, by the
+quickwittedness that must belong to the people who can all catch a
+verbal allusion or suggestion as Anglo-Saxons might a plump, square hit.
+Sometimes a little unconscious pathos mingles with the mocking vein, for
+courage is moving when it is light-hearted. When a Frenchman tells you
+he has eaten nothing for two days, he adds, "Ca, ce n'est pas drole"
+("Now, that's no joke"). "Coeur d'artichaut" (a heart like an artichoke)
+is a felicitous expression for a person who has a succession of caprices
+and short-lived fancies; and there is something to the point in the
+satire which calls a surgical instrument "baume d'acier" (steel balm),
+or in the saying which mocks the credulous faith many people vaguely
+have in the efficacy of mineral waters: "Croyez cela et buvez de l'eau"
+(Believe that and drink water). There is something desperately
+significant in a language in which the lover who supports, protects and
+is deceived is called "le dessus," and the one who is favored at his
+expense "le dessous;" while the words "une femme," a woman, without
+qualification, are identical with frailty, and virtue, being the
+exception, demands an adjective to identify and proclaim it.
+
+But there is something fine in the old French slang for the beginning of
+a war: "La danse va commencer" (The dance is about to begin, or the ball
+to open), and this dates from time immemorial: fighting has always been
+fun to Frenchmen. And there is something better still in the phrase
+which has become an official one, and has a proper technical meaning,
+with which the orders of a naval officer when sent on a difficult or
+dangerous expedition always end. "Debrouillez vous," meaning simply
+"Come well out of it." There must be stuff in men who can be trusted to
+always extricate themselves from a tight place with credit to their flag
+without more words than that simple exhortation. But one cannot say much
+for the morality of a country where, when any one says "la muette" (the
+dumb one), it is understood to mean conscience.
+
+The instances are rare of resemblance between our slang phrases and
+theirs. Once in a while such a phrase as "Asseyezvous dessus"
+(literally, Sit on him) strikes one; but seldom. French slang teems with
+words that caricature and satirize personal defects, of which many are
+brutally coarse and not quotable. A comical expression for a sumptuous
+meal is a "Balthazar" (Belshazzar); and an unpleasant one for a coffin
+is a "boite a dominos" (a box of dominoes); a droll phrase for a
+plagiarist is "demarqueur de linge" (some one who alters the marking of
+another's linen). An interesting fact for the notice of physiologists is
+that when the officers of the engineer corps lose a comrade from
+insanity, they say, "Il s'est passe au dixieme," in allusion to the fact
+that their loss in numbers from this cause amounts to practical
+decimation. This is attributed to the close study of the exact sciences.
+Under "femme du demi-monde" we find the origin of the phrase as created
+by A. Dumas fils: "Femme nee dans un monde distingue, dont elle conserve
+les manieres sans en respecter les lois" ("a woman belonging by birth to
+the upper class, the manners of which she retains, without respecting
+its laws"); but the present meaning is quite different from this, the
+phrase being now used as a euphuistic designation of a disreputable
+woman. French slang is saturated with irreverence. A common term for an
+emaciated-looking man is to call him an "ecce homo," and a "grippe
+Jesus" is thieves' slang for a gendarme.
+
+The author of this dictionary evidently sympathizes with modern
+romanticists and light literature in general, for we find "academicien"
+defined as "litterateur suranne." One is always inclined to suspect sour
+grapes of giving the flavor to French sarcasm concerning the Academy,
+and is reminded of Piron's epigram in the shape of his own epitaph:
+
+    Ci git Piron qui ne fut rien,
+    Pas meme academicien.
+
+He wrote it, however, after his failure to obtain one of the
+much-coveted arm-chairs.
+
+Our national vanity might be flattered by hearing that the phrase
+"L'oeil Americain" is used to describe an eye whose piercing vision is
+escaped by nothing, were we not told that it dates from the translation
+of Cooper's Leatherstocking tales into French, and has no reference, as
+"Natty Bumpo" would say, to "_white_ gifts."
+
+We find long, elaborate definitions of those much-disputed words,
+"chic," "cachet" and "chien," which, after all has been said, seem to
+take their meaning from the intention of those who use them and the
+perception of those who hear. "Chocnoso" is a delightfully expressive
+and absurd onomatopeic word to describe what is brilliant, startling and
+remarkable. The most striking feature of this elaborate book is that,
+although it contains almost words enough to constitute the vocabulary of
+a miniature language, yet the vast majority of these words would be as
+unintelligible to an educated Frenchman as to an Englishman. The bulk of
+French slang is never heard by the ears of educated people nor uttered
+by their lips: it circulates among the classes which create it; and the
+size of this dictionary is therefore not necessarily appalling to a
+Frenchman's eyes: it does not represent the corruption of the language,
+because slang does not taint the speech of those classes who control and
+make the standard speech and literature of the nation. If a dictionary
+of English slang were published now, how many young ladies and gentlemen
+of the educated classes, either in England or America, could profess
+honest and absolute ignorance of the meaning of most of the words? The
+answer to this question makes the moral of this paper.
+
+                                        F. A.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+If it be true, as a writer in the February Gossip says, that "it is what
+Mr. Mill has omitted to tell us in his _Autobiography_, quite as much as
+what he has there told us, that excites popular curiosity," the
+following anecdote told by John Neal, one of Jeremy Bentham's
+secretaries, may be found interesting. The father of John Stuart Mill,
+it seems, was in the habit of borrowing books of Bentham, and was even
+allowed the privilege of carrying them away without asking permission--a
+courtesy so well utilized that from five to seven hundred volumes found
+their way in time from Bentham's library into the study of the elder
+Mill. He was a more conscientious borrower, however, than most of his
+class are, for he had a case made for these books, kept them carefully
+locked up, and carried the key in his pocket. This put the owner to some
+trouble occasionally when he wanted to consult his books. In one
+instance he begged Mr. Mill to leave the key when the latter was going
+out of town. In vain, however, for Mill marched off to the country
+carrying the key with him, and Bentham had to wait a whole month for a
+peep at his own books. If we could know all the facts, doubtless it
+would be found that Mill knew too well the careless habits of the
+philosopher to trust him to such an extent. It is not prudent to
+decide until the evidence is all in. It is that these books--two or
+three thousand dollars' worth, according to Neal--were, on the death of
+Mr. Bentham, all recovered by his heir.
+
+
+Quarritch, a London bookseller, lately advertised for sale a Chinese
+book from the library of the emperor Khang-Hi, bearing the following
+title: _Yu Sionan Row-wen youen kien_--that is, "Mirror of the Profound
+Resources of Ancient Literature," being extracts from those profound
+resources arranged chronologically in the order of their production; but
+the singular thing about the book is its typography. It is printed in
+inks of four different colors. All the articles dating from the time of
+Confucius (B.C. 550) to the Mongol dynasty (A.D. 1260) are printed in
+black, with punctuations in red. All names of persons and places are
+upon scrolls, to distinguish them from the ordinary text. Observations
+upon the emperor Khang-Hi (who annotated the whole book autographically)
+are printed in yellow, the color of the reigning dynasty; those upon
+scholars and authors living at the time of the publication of the book
+are printed in red, the color of the living; those upon persons deceased
+in blue, the mourning color of China. The work is in twenty-five
+volumes, preserved in four cases. It was printed in 1685.
+
+
+In the infancy of astronomy the moon and all the planets of our solar
+system were supposed to be gliding along over the smooth blue firmament
+like a boat upon smooth water or a sleigh upon ice. The blue vault was a
+solid substance; hence the word _firm_ament. In this vault were set the
+"fixed" stars, and of course the moon or any planet passing across it
+might run straight into the constellation Leo or some other dreadful
+beast; and this explained why direful things happened to this world,
+which was supposed to be the only world in the universe. As the moon has
+always been the most observed of all the heavenly bodies, and as she
+passes most rapidly across the constellations of the zodiac, it is easy
+to understand that her phases should excite profound wonder, and that
+strange effects should be predicated upon these phases, called "changes"
+from time immemorial. In fact, however, the moon is not "changing" at
+one time any more than at another. She is continually passing in and out
+of the earth's shadow as she revolves around the earth, and the width of
+this shadow, with the state of being in the full light of the sun,
+constitutes her phases or changes. She does not "enter" any sign of the
+zodiac in the sense of entering, as understood by the illiterate; and if
+she did, the signs Cancer, Leo, Virgo, have no comprehensible relation,
+to plants or parts of the human body. Again, if the moon or sun, or any
+of the planets, are said to "enter" these signs, they are not now the
+same as the constellations known as the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin. They
+did correspond some two thousand or more years ago, when the zodiacal
+belt was divided into twelve parts and named; but at present, on account
+of the nutation or gyratory motion of the poles of the earth, the signs
+of the zodiac (not the constellations) are drifting westward at the rate
+of one degree in about seventy-one years. This movement is known in
+astronomy as the precession or recession of the equinoxes. It happens,
+therefore, that when the astrologer consults his tables, and finds that,
+at, the time of the birth of a person whose horoscope he is going to
+cast, Venus was in Cancer--a terrible condition of things for happiness
+in love--Venus is in reality passing the constellation Gemini or the
+Twins, which ought to make everything all lovely. The development of the
+Copernican system did a great deal of damage to the interests of
+astrology, but it was not until the discovery of the precession of the
+equinoxes that this venerable and pretentious art received its
+death-blow. To be sure, "the fools are not all dead yet," for certain
+people still pay five dollars to have their horoscopes cast, and not a
+few rustics consult the moon or the almanac before planting beans or
+weaning calves.
+
+
+
+
+LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+
+The Romance of the English Stage.
+  By Percy Fitzgerald.
+  Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott
+  & Co.
+
+
+According to Carlyle, the only biographies in the English language worth
+reading--of course with implied exceptions--are the lives of players.
+Over English biographers in general there hangs, as he says, a
+"Damocles' sword of Respectability," forbidding revelations that might
+either offend somebody's sensibilities or exhibit the subject in any
+other than a dignified attitude and sober light, and, as a consequence,
+compelling the suppression of details which were needed to render the
+portraiture characteristic and lifelike. Actors being as a class outside
+the pale of "respectability," no such sacrifice is demanded in their
+case; and whereas in their lifetime they assume many characters, and
+though constantly before the public are known to it only in disguised
+forms and borrowed attributes, after death their personality is laid
+bare, and they are made to contribute once more to the entertainment of
+the world by a last appearance in which nothing is unreal and nothing
+dissembled or concealed. This, of course, applies far better to a former
+period than to the present, as does also the explanation of the same
+fact offered by Mr. Fitzgerald--namely, the romantic interest attaching
+to the stage and exciting curiosity in regard to those wonderful beings
+who appear before us as embodiments of passion and poetry, humor and
+whimsicality, transporting us into an ideal world, and leaving us, when
+they vanish, in a prosaic one to which they do not seem to belong.
+Illusions of this kind are scarcely retained by even the young--perhaps,
+indeed, least of all by the young--of our generation. Moreover, the
+changes which society has undergone during the last half century have
+rubbed out much that was distinctive in the actor's life, and have given
+to manners and habits in general a uniformity that leaves little that is
+striking and piquant to describe. The adventures and the eccentricities
+of actors and actresses of a bygone time were paralleled or exceeded by
+those of other classes. At present such sources of interest are rare in
+any class, and we are obliged to have recourse to sensational novels or
+the records of crime.
+
+Future biographers are no more likely to have such a subject as Samuel
+Johnson than such a one as George Frederick Cooke; while both Boswell
+and Dunlap, had they written in our day, would probably have been much
+more reticent and much less amusing. We cannot therefore agree with Mr.
+Fitzgerald in thinking that the colorless character of the few
+theatrical biographies that have appeared in recent times is to be
+ascribed to the decay of the art of acting and the lack of an ideal
+involving a long and arduous struggle in the attainment of eminence. In
+France, as he justly observes, the history of the profession has never
+possessed the same adventurous interest, the lives of French actors
+showing in general a mere record of steady and regular progression, such
+as is found in other professions. The stage in France, as in all
+Catholic countries, lay under a heavier ban than in England; but on this
+very account the actors constituted a separate class, having little
+contact with society, receiving few recruits from without, regulated by
+fixed usages, and confined to a particular groove. In England, on the
+contrary, the stage was an outlet for irregular talent, impatient of
+steady labor or severe restrictions, and captivated by the freedom and
+diversity of a career which, beginning in vagrancy, might lead at a
+single bound to a brilliant and enviable position. Hence the biographies
+of English players, taken collectively, offer a vast store of amusing
+anecdotes, illustrative not only of the history of the stage, but of
+personal character and social manners. Yet books of this kind; though
+read with avidity on their first appearance, have naturally fallen into
+neglect. Like most other biographies, they are overloaded with details
+that have no abiding interest, and few readers of the present day are
+tempted to explore the mass for themselves. It was, however, no very
+arduous task to sift out the more valuable relics and dispose them in
+proper order, and we can only wonder that Mr. Fitzgerald was not
+anticipated in the performance of it by some earlier collector. Gait's
+_Lives of the Players_ and Dr. Doran's _History of the English
+Stage_ have left this particular field almost wholly unworked, and it
+is one for which Mr. Fitzgerald was well fitted, both by his previous
+labors and knowledge of the soil, and by his practiced dexterity in the
+use of the necessary implements. He has accordingly produced a volume
+which may either be read consecutively or dipped into at random with the
+certainty of entertainment and without risk of tedium. Among the sources
+from which his material is drawn he assigns the first place to the
+_Memoirs of Tate Wilkinson_ and its sequel, _The Wandering
+Patentee_, and the summary which he gives, as far as possible in the
+narrator's own language, presents a graphic picture of the provincial
+stage at a period when it formed a real nursery of talent for the
+metropolitan theatres, enriched with anecdotes of Foote and Garrick as
+lively and dramatic as any of the scenes in their own farces, and
+affording the strongest confirmation of their protege's account of his
+unrivaled mimicry. The story of George Anne Bellamy, and that of Mrs.
+Robinson, the "Perdita" of a somewhat later day, deal with the more
+familiar and less obsolete vicissitudes of betrayed beauty, while giving
+us glimpses of a social crust that has since been replaced by a more
+composite exterior. A deeper and far more pathetic interest attaches to
+the brief career of Gerald Griffin, the author of _The Collegians_
+and _Gisippus_, who, had he lived in our day, would have been in
+danger of having his head turned by premature success, instead of being
+heart-sickened by long neglect and coarse rebuffs, and smothering his
+aspirations in a convent. In striking contrast with this pale figure is
+the portly and imposing one of Robert William Elliston, type of
+theatrical charlatans, embodiment of bombast and puffery, monarch over
+the realm of pasteboard, immortalized by Lamb, and surely not
+undeserving of the honor. With him may be said to have ended the line of
+the eccentrics, which fills a large space in Mr. Fitzgerald's volume.
+The great actors are comparatively unnoticed, Garrick, Siddons and Kean
+being only introduced incidentally, while a whole chapter is given to
+"the ill-fated Mossop." This is consistent with the general design of
+the book, but there was no good reason for a fresh repetition of the
+oft-told tale of the Ireland forgeries. There are, as Mr. Fitzgerald
+remarks, many subjects--such as the lives of Macklin and Quin, of Mrs.
+Inchbald and Mrs. Jordan--omitted which might fairly have claimed a
+place, and which would furnish ample matter for a second and equally
+agreeable volume.
+
+
+Democracy and Monarchy in France from the
+  Inception of the Great Revolution to the
+  Overthrow of the Second Empire.
+  By Charles Kendall Adams, Professor of History
+  in the University of Michigan.
+  New York: Henry Holt & Co.
+
+
+There can be no more fruitful and interesting study than that of the
+changes and struggles which have occurred in France since the fall of
+the ancient monarchy. But the time has not yet come when a general
+survey can be taken of this important epoch, its successive phases seen
+in their true relations and proportions, and its character fully and
+correctly appreciated. The overthrow of the Second Empire was clearly
+not the closing scene of the drama, and even within the last few weeks a
+sudden turn in the line of events has awakened curiosity afresh, and
+prepared us for the introduction of new elements or new complications,
+with results which can only be conjectured. For lack of that key which
+the Future still holds in its hand the most acute and comprehensive mind
+must be at fault in the endeavor to analyze the workings and appreciate
+the significance of the conflicting principles. If Professor Adams has
+had no such misgivings, this seems to be accounted for by his ready
+acceptance of a theory which has long passed current in England and
+America, and which springs from a habit peculiar to the people of these
+two countries of regarding the movements of all other nations, when not
+on a parallel course, as deviations from a prescribed orbit. According
+to this theory, the excesses of the First Revolution, due in part to the
+passions engendered by a long course of misgovernment, in part to wild
+speculations and experiments, produced an anarchical spirit which has
+frustrated every subsequent attempt to establish a solid government of
+any form, including the constitutional monarchy of Louis Philippe,
+patterned on the English model--the resemblance being in fact that of a
+castle of cards to its Gothic prototype--which offered the proper
+compound of liberty and authority in sufficiently balanced proportions.
+The French people having thus proved itself incapable of uniting liberty
+with order, the one great need is the destruction or suppression of the
+revolutionary spirit, to which end a strong government of whatever kind
+is the first requisite, and some form of Napoleonism the most available,
+it being improbable that the nation would accept permanently anything
+better. Such is the view of Professor Adams, one with which all readers
+have long been familiar, but which most independent thinkers have come
+to reject as shallow and false. However obscure the issue, however
+doubtful the solution, it cannot but be apparent to all who, casting
+aside prejudices, have studied the history of France in its entirety and
+recognized its special character, that its course during the period in
+question exhibits no mere series of lawless oscillations, but a process
+of development, often checked and retarded, often prematurely hastened,
+but passing from stage to stage without suffering itself to be stifled
+by factitious aid or crushed by arbitrary repression. What underlies the
+history of these events, what distinguishes it from the galvanic
+agitations of the torpid Spanish populations in Europe and America, is
+the constant presence and activity of ideas, shaping and shaped by
+events, hardened or fused by conflict, and preserving through all
+vicissitudes and convulsions the incomparable vitality of the nation.
+France, more than any other country, is to be studied as a living
+spirit, not as an inert mass, and in a study of this kind the
+mechanico-philosophical method will not carry us far. It does not appear
+to strike Professor Adams as singular that a nation "abandoned for the
+last eighty years to the domination of Siva, the fierce god of
+destruction," should have all this while been cutting a somewhat
+respectable figure in literature, science and the arts, and during most
+of that period paid its way in the solid and shining metal considered by
+our rulers to have merely a mythical significance. Or rather he seems to
+contend that civilization has in fact perished in France, that as "such
+a tendency to turbulence is destructive of all healthy national growth,"
+the inevitable result has ensued. He admits that there are still some
+good scholars in France, but he proves--need we add, by
+statistics?--that the illiteracy of the masses is greater than it was
+under the _ancien regime_, if not in the reign of Clovis. The
+controlling influence of Paris is shown, of course, to have been a prime
+source of mischief, and we are asked to "imagine the United States
+withdrawing from all interest in political affairs, and saying to New
+York City, 'Govern us as you please: we do not care to interfere.'" The
+fact, as most people are aware, is not at all as here assumed; but that
+aside, is it possible that Professor Adams knows so little of the
+difference in the origin and structure of the two nations as not to
+perceive that the comparison is ridiculous?
+
+
+
+
+_Books Received_.
+
+
+Social Life in Greece, from Homer to Menander.
+  By Rev. J.P. Mahaffy, M.A.
+  London: MacMillan & Co.
+
+A Free Lance in the Field of Life and Letters.
+  By William Cleaver Wilkinson.
+  New York: Albert Mason.
+
+The Bewildered Querists and other Nonsense.
+  By Francis Blake Crofton.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+A Practical Theory of Voussoir Arches.
+  By Professor William Cain, C.E.
+  New York: D. Van Nostrand.
+
+On Teaching: Its Ends and Means.
+  By Henry Calderwood.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+The Influence of Music on Health and Life.
+  By Dr. H. Chomet.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+The Man in the Moon, and Other People.
+  By R.W. Raymond.
+  New York: J.B. Ford & Co.
+
+Sowed by the Wind; or, The Poor Boy's Fortune.
+  By Elijah Kellogg.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Religion and Modern Materialism.
+  By James Martineau.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith.
+  By Alfred P. Putnam.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Winter Homes for Invalids. By Joseph W. Howe, M.D.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Helps to a Life of Prayer. By Rev. J.M. Manning, D.D.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Far from the Madding Crowd. By Thomas Hardy.
+  New York: Henry Holt & Co.
+
+A Foregone Conclusion. By W.D. Howells.
+  Boston: James R. Osgood & Co.
+
+That Queer Girl. By Virginia F. Townsend.
+  Illustrated.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+Magnetism and Electricity. By John Angell.
+  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+Estelle: A Novel. By Mrs. Annie Edwards.
+  New York: Sheldon & Co.
+
+A Rambling Story. By Mary Cowden Clarke.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Life and Times of Sir Philip Sidney.
+  New York: J.B. Ford & Co.
+
+An Old Sailor's Story. By George Sergeant.
+  Boston: Henry Hoyt.
+
+Nature and Culture. By Harvey Rice.
+  Boston: Lee & Shepard.
+
+The Story of Boon. By H.H.
+  Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+[Footnote 001: Another statue to this remarkable woman is now in
+progress of execution, and will be soon ready to place on its
+pedestal in one of the principal squares of the town.]
+
+[Footnote 002: So complete was the destruction that few persons who
+now visit Nice would ever imagine that the hill in its centre, which
+is laid out with terraced gardens and used as a public promenade, was
+before the siege of 1706 completely covered with houses, churches, an
+episcopal palace, a fine cathedral of great antiquity, and an immense
+castle, which still gives its name to the fashionable walk, _Le
+Chateau_. Every vestige, save the crumbling walls of the fortress, of
+this by far the largest portion of the old town has entirely
+disappeared, and picnics are now made under the shade of beautiful
+avenues of trees which replace the labyrinthine streets of yore.]
+
+[Footnote 003: Madame Rattazzi is now living in Paris, in the little
+palace once inhabited by the duke d'Aquila, in the Cour de la Reine,
+where she entertains the literary and artistic world once a week. Her
+soirees this year are becoming famous. Recently she acted in
+Ponsard's _Horace et Lydie_ and in other little comedies, assisted by
+the greatest actors and actresses of Paris including Mesdames Favart
+and Roussel, but according to universal testimony her own performance
+was by far the finest. Never has Madame Rattazzi been so popular as
+at present, and her salon is frequented by all the celebrities of the
+French capital, to whom she extends the most charming hospitality.]
+
+[Footnote 004: This refers to the _Gospodi pomiloui_ (the Roman
+Catholic _Kyrie eleison_), which perpetually recurs in the Russian
+liturgy. Similar discussions about the _Hallelujah_ and other
+liturgic forms are met with long before the Raskol broke out.]
+
+[Footnote 005: If we may trust Dmitri of Rostof, a bishop of the last
+century, even so early certain sectaries regarded the raising of
+Lazarus as not a fact, but a parable: "Lazarus is the human soul, and
+his death is sin. His sisters, Martha and Mary, are the body and the
+soul. The tomb represents the cares of this life, and his raising
+from the dead is conversion. Similarly, Christ's entry into Jerusalem
+sitting on an ass is a mere parable."]
+
+[Footnote 006: The analogy must certainly be admitted to lie very far
+from the surface.--(_Note of the Translator_.)]
+
+[Footnote 007: The opposition of some of the Raskolniks to this tax
+(which has lately been modified) was rendered more determined by the
+fact that in the interval between one census and another the tax
+continued to be paid for "dead souls." Gogol's novel is founded on
+this. From its being nominally levied on the dead, this tax was
+regarded by these simple people as a sacrilege.]
+
+[Footnote 008: To combat this notion, an orthodox bishop, Dmitri of
+Rostof, wrote a treatise on the image and likeness of God. A
+Raskolnik told this prelate, "We would as lief lose our heads as our
+beard."--"Will your heads grow again?" was the bishop's retort.]
+
+[Footnote 009: "But here's the joy, my friend and I are one..."]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular
+Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE ***
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