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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 1 January
+1848, 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: Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 1 January 1848
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: George R. Graham
+ Robert T. Conrad
+
+Release Date: June 21, 2009 [EBook #29187]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE VOL XXXII ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David T. Jones, Juliet Sutherland and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at
+http://www.pgdpcanada.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+GRAHAM'S
+
+AMERICAN MONTHLY
+
+MAGAZINE
+
+
+Of Literature and Art,
+
+EMBELLISHED WITH
+
+MEZZOTINT AND STEEL ENGRAVINGS, MUSIC, ETC.
+
+WILLIAM C. BRYANT, J. FENIMORE COOPER, RICHARD H. DANA, JAMES K. PAULDING,
+HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, N. P. WILLIS, CHARLES F. HOFFMAN, J. R. LOWELL.
+
+MRS. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY, MISS C. M. SEDGWICK, MRS. FRANCES S. OSGOOD,
+MRS. EMMA C. EMBURY, MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS, MRS. AMELIA B. WELBY,
+MRS. A. M. F. ANNAN, ETC.
+
+PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTORS.
+
+GEORGE R. GRAHAM, AND ROBERT T. CONRAD, EDITORS.
+
+
+VOLUME XXXII.
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA:
+GEORGE R. GRAHAM & CO. 98 CHESTNUT STREET.
+ * * * * *
+1848.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+OF THE
+
+THIRTY-SECOND VOLUME.
+
+JANUARY, 1848, TO JUNE, 1848.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+A Drama of Real Life. By N. P. WILLIS, 61
+
+Autumnal Scenery. By JOSEPH R. CHANDLER, 64
+
+Biographical Sketch of Gen. Wm. O. Butler. By FRANCIS P. BLAIR, 49
+
+Battle of Fort Moultrie. By C. J. PETERSON, 198
+
+Clara Harland. By G. G. FOSTER. (Illustrated.) 241
+
+Cincinnati. By FAYETTE ROBINSON, 352
+
+Captain Samuel Walker. By FAYETTE ROBINSON, (With an Engraving.) 301
+
+Dissolving Views. By F. E. F. 172
+
+Effie Morris. By ENNA DUVAL, 87
+
+First Love. By ENNA DUVAL, 282
+
+Game-Birds of America. By PROF. FROST, 68
+
+Game-Birds of America. By PROF. FROST, 185
+
+Home. By Mrs. H. MARION WARD, 129
+
+Jacob Jones. By T. S. ARTHUR, 193
+
+Jehoiakim Johnson. By MARY SPENCER PEASE, 313
+
+Lace and Diamonds. By THEODORE S. FAY, 1
+
+Le Petit Soulier. By IK. MARVEL, 165
+
+Marginalia. By EDGAR A. POE, 23
+
+Mathew Mizzle. By JOSEPH C. NEAL, 57
+
+Montezuma Moggs. By JOSEPH C. NEAL, 116
+
+Marginalia. By EDGAR A. POE, 130
+
+Mrs. Pelby Smith's Select Party. By Mrs. A. M. F. ANNAN, 152
+
+Marginalia. By EDGAR A. POE, 178
+
+My Lady-Help. By ENNA DUVAL, 180
+
+Mary Warner. By Mrs. E. L. B. COWDERY, 201
+
+Major-General Worth. By FAYETTE ROBINSON, 275
+
+Power of Beauty, and a Plain Man's Love. By N. P. WILLIS, 99
+
+Pauline Dumesnil. By ANGELE DE V. HULL, 121
+
+Pauline Grey. By F. E. F. 229, 265
+
+Phantasmagoria. By JOHN NEAL, 26O
+
+Phantoms All. By CAROLINE H. BUTLER, 304
+
+Poor Penn--. By OLIVER BUCKLEY, 309
+
+Stoke Church and Park. By R. BALMANNO, 73
+
+The Rival Sisters. By HENRY W. HERBERT, 13, 105
+
+The Little Gold-Fish. By J. K. PAULDING, 31
+
+The Teacher Taught. By MARY S. ADAMS, 39
+
+The Islets of the Gulf. By J. F. COOPER, 42, 93, 159
+
+The Cruise of the Gentile. By FRANK BYRNE, 133, 205
+
+The Little Cap-Maker. By Mrs. C. H. BUTLER, 221
+
+The Portrait of General Scott. 234
+
+Theresa. By JANE TAYLOE WORTHINGTON, 247
+
+The Changed and the Unchanged. By PROFESSOR ALDEN, 277
+
+The New England Factory Girl. By Mrs. JOSEPH C. NEAL, 287, 343
+
+The Lone Buffalo. By CHARLES LANMAN, 294
+
+The Fortunes of a Southern Family. By A NEW CONTRIBUTOR, 325
+
+The Double Transformation. By JAMES K. PAULDING, 350
+
+Whortleberrying. By ALFRED B. STREET, 270
+
+
+POETRY.
+
+A Funeral Thought. By J. BAYARD TAYLOR, 10
+
+An Hour. By J. BAYARD TAYLOR, 98
+
+A Butterfly in the City. By THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 104
+
+A Parting. By HENRY S. HAGERT, 238
+
+A Vision. By R. H. STODDART, 286
+
+A Song. By THOMAS BUCHANAN READ, 311
+
+Burial of a Volunteer. By PARK BENJAMIN, 128
+
+Beauty's Bath. (Illustrated.) 131
+
+Contemplation. By JANE R. DANA. (Illustrated.) 190
+
+City Life. By CHARLES W. BAIRD, 204
+
+Coriolanus. By HENRY B. HIRST, 319
+
+Cleopatra. By ELIZABETH J. EAMES, 363
+
+Decay and Rome. By R. H. STODDART, 220
+
+Elsie. By KATE DASHWOOD, 67
+
+Early English Poets. By ELIZABETH J. EAMES, 92
+
+Early English Poets. By ELIZABETH J. EAMES, 171
+
+Epitaph on a Restless Lady, 179
+
+Expectation. By LOUISA M. GREEN, 187
+
+Eurydice. By FRANCES S. OSGOOD, 274
+
+Encouragement. By Mrs. E. C. KINNEY, 276
+
+Fair Margaret. By Wm. H. C. HOSMER, 293
+
+Homeward Bound. By E. CURTISS HINE, 308
+
+Isola. By JOHN TOMLIN, 190
+
+Lenovar. By WM. GILMORE SIMMS, 218
+
+Lines to ---- By CAROLINE F. ORNE, 63
+
+Love. By R. H. STODDARD, 131
+
+Lines to an Ideal. By ELIZABETH L. LINSLEY, 151
+
+Lethe. By HENRY B. HIRST, 179
+
+Lines. By GRETTA, 184
+
+Lennard. By Mrs. MARY G. HORSFORD, 320
+
+Lamartine to Madame Jorelle. By VIRGINIA 303
+
+Lines to ----, By W. HORRY STILWELL, 349
+
+Midnight. By THOMAS BUCHANAN READ, 286
+
+No, Not Forgotten. By EARLE S. GOODRICH, 228
+
+O, Scorn Not Thy Brother. By E. CURTISS HINE, 235
+
+Poetry. A Song. By GEORGE P. MORRISS, 66
+
+Revolution. By ARIAN, 292
+
+Spirit-Yearnings for Love. By Mrs. H. MARION WARD, 12
+
+Sonnet to Graham. By ALTUS, 22
+
+Sonnet to S. D. A. By "THE SQUIRE," 48
+
+Shawangunk Mountain. By A. B. STREET, 59
+
+Sonnet to ----. By CAROLINE F. ORNE, 67
+
+Sunset After Rain. By ALFRED B. STREET, 115
+
+Sonnet to Night. By GRETTA, 120
+
+Spirit-Voices. By CHARLES W. BAIRD, 158
+
+Song of the Elves. By ANNA BLACKWELL, 203
+
+Song for a Sabbath Morning. By T. B. READ, 204
+
+Sonnets. By JAMES LAWSON, 259
+
+Sonnet. By C. E. T. 269
+
+Sonnet. By Mrs. E. C. KINNEY, 281
+
+Stanzas. By W. H. DENNY, 293
+
+Song. By C. E. T. 342
+
+The Memorial Tree. By W. GILMORE SIMMS, 11
+
+The Rainbow. By Mrs. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY, 12
+
+The Penance of Roland. By HENRY B. HIRST, 25
+
+The Sea-Nymphs Song. By W. H. C. HOSMER, 30
+
+The Vesper Bell. By PARK BENJAMIN, 38
+
+The Sunbeam. By MARY E. LEE, 41
+
+The Land of Dreams. By WM. C. BRYANT, 48
+
+The Mourner. By Dr. JOHN D. GODMAN, 67
+
+The Saw-Mill. By WM. C. BRYANT, 86
+
+The Portrait. By R. T. CONRAD. (Illustrated.) 92
+
+The Lost Pleiad. By HENRY B. HIRST, 115
+
+The Bride's Confession. By ALICE G. LEE, 120
+
+The Hermit of Niagara. By Mrs. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY, 127
+
+The Bridal Morning. (Illustrated.) 128
+
+The Alchemist's Daughter. By T. B. READ, 148
+
+The Belle. By MARY L. LAWSON, 164
+
+The Voice of the Fire. By J. B. TAYLOR, 177
+
+Triumphs of Peace. By WM. H. C. HOSMER, 187
+
+To My Wife. By ROBT. T. CONRAD, 190
+
+The Darling. By BLANCHE BENNAIRDE, 197
+
+The Poet's Love. By HENRY B. HIRST, 200
+
+To the Author of "The Raven." By MISS HARRIET B. WINSLOW, 203
+
+The Fire of Drift-Wood. By HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, 204
+
+The Last of His Race. By S. DRYDEN PHELPS, 220
+
+The Sailor-Lover to His Mistress. By R. H. BACON, 233
+
+The Spirit of Song. By Mrs. E. C. KINNEY, 238
+
+The Ancient and the Modern Muse. By LYMAN LONG, 246
+
+The Oak-Tree. By PARK BENJAMIN, 264
+
+The Voice of the Night Wind. By E. CURTISS HINE, 274
+
+The Dayspring. By SAMUEL D. PATTERSON, 281
+
+The Adopted Child. By Mrs. FRANCES B. M. BROTHERSON, 295
+
+The Pole's Farewell. By WM. H. C. HOSMER, 324
+
+The Real and the Ideal. By MARION H. RAND, 341
+
+The Human Voice. By GEO. P. MORRIS, 341
+
+The Enchanted Isle. By LYDIA J. PEIRSON, 311
+
+The Continents. By J. BAYARD TAYLOR, 312
+
+Venice as It Was and as It Is. By PROFESSOR GOODRICH, 342
+
+White Creek. By ALFRED B. STREET, 147
+
+Years Ago. By GEORGE P. MORRIS, 190
+
+
+REVIEWS.
+
+
+The Poetical Works of Fitz-Greene Halleck, 70
+
+The Poetical Works of Lord Byron, 71
+
+The Life of Henry the Fourth, King of France
+and Navarre. By G. P. R James, 72
+
+Artist Life. By H. T. Tuckerman, 72
+
+Poems of Early and After Years. By N. P. Willis, 132
+
+Practical Physiology. By Edward Jarvis, 191
+
+The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. By A. J. DOWNING, 191
+
+Historical and Select Memoirs of the Empress
+Josephine. By M'lle. M. A. Le Normand, 239
+
+Memoir of Sarah B. Judson. By "Fanny Forester," 240
+
+The History of a Penitent. By George W. Bethune, D. D. 240
+
+Keble's Christian Year, 240
+
+Edith Kinnaird. By the Author of "The Maiden Aunt," 298
+
+Jane Eyre. An Autobiography, 299
+
+The Princess. By Alfred Tennyson, 300
+
+The Origin, Progress and Conclusion of the
+Florida War. By John T. Sprague, 300
+
+The Poetical Works of John Milton, 300
+
+An Universal History of the Most Remarkable Events of All
+Nations, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, 354
+
+Lectures on Shakspeare. By H. N. Hudson, 354
+
+Military Heroes of the Revolution. By C. J. Peterson, 356
+
+Old Hicks, the Guide. By C. W. Webber, 356
+
+
+MUSIC.
+
+
+Woman's Love. Poetry by Anon. Music by Mathias Keller, 188
+
+Ben Bolt. The Words and Melody by Thomas Dunn English, 236
+
+When Shall I See the Object that I Love. A
+favorite Swiss Air. Music by J. B. Mueller, 296
+
+
+ENGRAVINGS.
+
+
+Innocence, engraved by W. E. Tucker.
+
+General Butler, engraved by Thomas B. Welsh.
+
+A Portrait, engraved by Ross.
+
+Beauty's Bath, engraved by Sartain.
+
+Paris Fashions, from Le Follet.
+
+Bridal Morning, engraved by A. B. Ross.
+
+Expectation, engraved by J. Addison.
+
+Contemplation, engraved by Addison.
+
+Paris Fashions, from Le Follet.
+
+Gen. Winfield Scott, engraved by Thos. B. Welsh.
+
+Pauline Grey, engraved by J. B. Adams.
+
+Paris Fashions, from Le Follet.
+
+General Worth, engraved by Sartain.
+
+Clara Harland, engraved by Addison.
+
+Paris Fashions, from Le Follet.
+
+Captain Walker, engraved by A. B. Walter.
+
+Cincinnati, engraved by J. W. Steel.
+
+Paris Fashions, from Le Follet.
+
+
+
+
+GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.
+
+VOL. XXXII. PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY, 1848. No. 1.
+
+
+
+
+LACE AND DIAMONDS.
+
+OR TAKE CARE WHAT YOU DO.
+
+BY THEODORE S. FAY.
+
+
+"Don't be angry, ma'ma--I wont jest any more, if it displease you, but
+I will make a plain confession."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Clifford, "let me hear it."
+
+"I have not one feeling which I wish to conceal from you. There have
+been moments when I liked Mr. Franklin," and a pretty color crossed
+her cheek, "but I have been struck with a peculiarity which has
+chilled warmer sentiments. He appears phlegmatic and cold. There is
+about him a perpetual repose that seems inconsistent with energy and
+feeling. I am not satisfied that I could be happy with such a
+person--not certain that he is capable of loving, or of inspiring
+love. When I marry any one, he must worship, he must adore me. He must
+be ready to go crazy for me. Let him be full of faults, but let him
+have--what so few possess--a warm, unselfish heart."
+
+"I have heard you, through," said Mrs. Clifford, "now you must hear
+me. It is very proper that you should not decide without full
+consideration. Examine as long as you think necessary the qualities of
+Mr. Franklin, and never marry him till he inspire you with confidence
+and affection. But remember something is due also to him; and the
+divine rule of acting toward others as you wish them to act toward
+you, must be applied here, as in every affair in life. While you
+should not, I allow, be hurried into a decision, yet your mind once
+made up, he should not be kept a moment in suspense."
+
+"Do you think, ma'ma," asked Caroline, "that he has much feeling?"
+
+"I think he has. I think him peculiarly gifted with unselfish ardor.
+That which appears to you coldness, is, in my opinion, the natural
+reserve of a warm heart--so modest that it rather retires from
+observation than parades itself before the world. Sentiment and fire,
+when common on the lips, are not more likely to be native to the soul.
+It is precisely that calm, that repose you allude to, which forms, in
+my judgment, the guarantee of Mr. Franklin's sincerity, and the
+finishing grace of his character--a character in all other respects,
+also, a true and noble one."
+
+Caroline did not listen without interest.
+
+Mrs. Clifford was a native of New York, and had come over just a year
+ago to enjoy a tour in Europe. Franklin had been a fellow-passenger;
+and a sort of intimacy had grown up between the young people, which
+the gentleman had taken rather _au serieux_. He had gladly availed
+himself of an accidental business necessity which called the son and
+proposed traveling companion of Mrs. Clifford suddenly home, to join
+her little party, and had accompanied them through Italy, France,
+Germany, Belgium, and Holland. The result was, that the happiness of
+his life now appeared to depend upon an affirmative monosyllable in
+reply to the offer he had just made of his heart and hand. Mrs.
+Clifford was the widow of a captain in the American navy, who had left
+her only a moderate income--sufficient, but no more, for the wants of
+herself and daughter. Mr. Franklin was a lawyer of six-and-twenty, who
+had been advised to repair the effects of too severe professional
+application, by change of air, and a year's idleness and travel.
+
+The conversation was scarcely finished, when the subject of it was
+announced.
+
+After the usual salutations, Mr. Franklin said he had come, according
+to appointment, to accompany the ladies on a walk, and to see the
+lions of London, where they had arrived some days before. In a few
+minutes, hats, shawls, and gloves, being duly put in requisition, they
+had left their lodgings in Grosvenor Street, Grosvenor Square, and
+were wending their way toward Regent Street and the Strand, through
+the crowds of this wonderful and magnificent metropolis, of which
+every thing was a delightful curiosity, and where, amid the millions
+around, they knew and were known by scarcely a human creature.
+
+Every stranger, newly arrived and walking about London, has noted the
+effect of this prodigious town upon him; and how singularly he is lost
+in its immensity, overwhelmed by its grandeur, and bewildered amid its
+endless multiplicity of attractions. So it was with our little party.
+Excited by the thousand novel and dazzling objects, the hours fleeted
+away like minutes; and it was late before they had executed or even
+formed any plans.
+
+"Let us at least go somewhere," said Caroline. "Let us go to St.
+Paul's, or Westminster Abbey, or the Tower; and we have, beside,
+purchases to make--for ladies, you know, Mr. Franklin, have always
+shopping to do."
+
+"Well, as it is so late," said Mrs. Clifford, "and we have promised to
+call on Mrs. Porter at half past two, I propose to leave the lions for
+another morning, and only enjoy our walk to-day."
+
+"Then, ma'ma, let us go to that splendid shop, and look at the lace
+once more. Only think, Mr. Franklin, we yesterday saw lace, not
+broader than this, and I had a half fancy to buy some for a new
+dress--and what do you suppose it cost?"
+
+"I am little versed," said Franklin, "in such mysteries--five pounds,
+perhaps--"
+
+"Twelve pounds--twelve pounds and a half sterling--sixty American
+dollars. I never saw any thing so superb. Ma'ma says I ought not even
+to look at such a luxury."
+
+"But is lace really such a luxury?" inquired Franklin, smiling.
+
+"You can have no idea how exquisite this is!"
+
+"As for me," rejoined Franklin, "I can never tell whether a lady's
+lace is worth twelve pounds or twelve cents. Although, I hope, not
+insensible to the general effect of a toilette, yet lace and diamonds,
+and all that sort of thing, are lost upon me entirely."
+
+"Oh, you barbarian!"
+
+"Real beauty was never heightened by such ornaments, and ugliness is
+invariably rendered more conspicuous and ugly."
+
+"You will not find many ladies," said Mrs. Clifford "to agree with
+you."
+
+"Oh, yes! How often do we hear of belles, as distinguished for the
+simplicity of their toilette, as for the beauty of their persons. How
+often in real life, and how frequently in novels. There you read that,
+while the other ladies are shining in satin and lace, and blazing in
+diamonds, the real rose of the evening eclipses them all in a plain
+dress of white, without jewels, like some modest flower, unconscious
+of her charms, and therefore attracting more attention."
+
+"Well, I declare," said Mrs. Clifford, smiling, "it is just as you
+say!"
+
+"And what does Miss Caroline think of my attack on lace and diamonds?"
+
+"Why," said Caroline, laughing, "since you do me the honor to require
+my opinion, I will give it you. I agree that such pretending ornaments
+ill become the old and ugly. There you are right. I agree that the
+extremely beautiful may also dispense with them. These ball-room
+belles of yours--these real roses of the evening--are, I suspect, so
+lovely as to make them exceptions to the general rule. But there is a
+class of young ladies, among whom I place myself, neither so old and
+ugly as to make ornament ridiculous, nor so beautiful as to render it
+unnecessary. To this middle class, a bit of lace--a neat tab--a string
+of pearls here and there--a pretty worked cape--or a coronet of
+diamonds, I assure you, do no harm."
+
+"That you are not so ugly as to render ornament ridiculous," replied
+Franklin, "I allow; but that there is, in your case, any want of
+lovelines to require--to render--which--"
+
+"Take care, Mr. Franklin!" interrupted Caroline, mischievously, "you
+are steering right upon the rocks; and a gentleman who refuses all
+decoration to a lady's toilette, should not embellish his own
+conversation with flattery."
+
+"Upon my word," replied he, in a lower voice, "to whatever class you
+belong, Miss Clifford, you do yourself injustice if you suppose lace
+and diamonds can add to the power of your beauty, any more than the
+greatest splendor of fortune could increase the charms of your--"
+
+"Ma'ma," exclaimed Caroline, "we have passed the lace shop."
+
+"So we have," said Mrs. Clifford; "but why should we go back--you
+certainly don't mean to buy any--?"
+
+"No, ma'ma; but I want some edging, and I might as well get it here,
+if only to enjoy another look at the forbidden fruit."
+
+The shop was one of those magnificent establishments of late years
+common in large metropolises. A long hall led from the street quite
+back through the building, or rather masses of buildings, to another
+equally elegant entrance on the parallel street behind. The doors were
+single sheets of heavy plate-glass. In the windows all the glittering
+and precious treasures of India and Asia seemed draped in gorgeous
+confusion, and blazed also through unbroken expanses of limpid glass
+of yet larger dimensions than the doors. Silks, laces, Cashmere
+shawls, damask, heavy and sumptuous velvets of bright colors, and fit
+for a queen's train, muslins of bewildering beauty, dresses at L200 a
+piece, and handkerchiefs of Manilla of almost fabulous value. The
+interior presented similar displays on all sides, multiplied by
+reflections from broad mirrors, gleaming among marble columns. Perhaps
+those numerous mirrors were intended to neutralize the somewhat gloomy
+effect of the low ceiling, not sufficiently elevated to admit the
+necessary light into the central spaces. At various points, even in
+the day-time, gas-lights burned brilliantly. Before the door were
+drawn up half a dozen elegant coroneted equipages, the well-groomed,
+shining horses, and richly-liveried coachmen, indicating the rank of
+the noble owners; and on the benches before the windows lounged the
+tall and handsome footmen, with their long gold-headed sticks,
+powdered heads, gaudy coats, brightcolored plush breeches, and white
+silk stockings, and gloves.
+
+In the shop there were, perhaps, fifty persons, as it happened to be a
+remarkably fine day in June--one of those grateful gifts from heaven
+to earth which lure people irresistibly out of the dark and weary
+home, and which, when first occurring, after a long and dismal winter,
+as in the present instance, appear to empty into the sunshiny streets,
+every inhabitant, the sick and the well, the lame and the blind alike,
+from every house in town.
+
+Caroline asked to be shown some of the lace which she had looked at
+the day before. It was produced, and Mrs. Clifford and Franklin were
+called to examine it. The wonder consisted as much in the endless
+variety of the patterns, as in the exquisite fineness and richness of
+the material. The counter was soon strewn with the airy treasures, one
+piece after another, unrolled with rapidity, appeared to make a lively
+impression on the young girl, who at last, with a sigh, apologized to
+the polite person patiently waiting the end of an examination which
+his practiced eye had, doubtless, perceived was only one of vain
+curiosity.
+
+"It is too dear," said Caroline, "I cannot afford it. Pray let me see
+some narrow edging."
+
+"That lace is very pretty," remarked a lady of a commanding figure,
+evidently a person of rank.
+
+"Very pretty, my lady," replied the clerk who had waited on Caroline.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Twelve and a half, my lady."
+
+"It is really pretty--give me twenty yards."
+
+"Very good, my lady."
+
+The article was measured and cut almost as soon as ordered, and the
+remnant rewound into a small parcel and thrown upon the counter.
+
+At the same moment, and as a boy handed Caroline the edging, wrapped
+in paper, for which she had already paid, and which she took
+mechanically, she heard one of the bystanders whisper to another: "The
+Countess D----!" (one of the most celebrated women of England.)
+
+"Ma'ma," said Caroline, "did you observe that lady?"
+
+And they left the shop.
+
+"Bless me!" said Mrs. Clifford, looking at her watch, "do you know how
+late it is? Half past two. We promised to be at Mrs. Porter's at this
+very time. She said, you remember, she was going out at four; and it
+will take us, I'm afraid, nearly an hour to get there."
+
+"Then let us make haste, ma'ma!"
+
+And with a very rapid pace they hurried back toward Regent Street and
+Portland Place. They had gone on in this way, perhaps, twenty minutes,
+when a white-headed, respectable-looking old gentleman was thrust
+aside by a rude fellow pushing by, so that he ran against Caroline,
+and caused her to drop her pocket-handkerchief. He stopped, with
+evident marks of mortification, and picked it up, with a polite
+apology. Caroline assured him she was not hurt.
+
+"But, my dear young lady," said the benevolent-looking old gentleman,
+"let me return your parcel."
+
+"Oh, that is not mine," replied Caroline.
+
+"I beg your pardon, it fell with your handkerchief."
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed Caroline, "what have I done! I have
+brought away a piece of that lace! Ma'ma, let us go back directly."
+
+Although the incident had occupied but a minute, Mrs. Clifford and
+Franklin, engaged in conversation, had not perceived it, and had gone
+several paces on. The old gentleman smiled, bowed, and disappeared
+around a corner.
+
+At this moment a man stepped up, and laying his hand roughly on
+Caroline's arm, said,
+
+"Young woman, you must come with me!"
+
+And a second iron-hand grasped her other arm.
+
+Shocked and affrighted, she saw they were policemen.
+
+Then the voice of a person very much out of breath, cried,
+
+"This is the one!--I can swear to her! And look!--there is the very
+lace in her hand!"
+
+Pale as death, bewildered with terror, the poor girl could only
+attempt to say, "Ma'ma! ma'ma!" but her tongue clove to the roof of
+her mouth, and her voice refused its office. A crowd had already
+collected, and the words, "Lady been a stealing!" and, "They've nabbed
+a thief!" were audible enough.
+
+"Come, my beauty!" said the man, pulling her forward, "we've no time
+to lose."
+
+"Scoundrel!" cried the voice of Franklin, as he grasped him by the
+throat, "who are you?"
+
+"You see who we are;" was the stern reply; "we're policemen, in the
+execution of our duty. Take your band off my throat."
+
+Franklin recognized their uniform, and relaxed his hold.
+
+"Policemen! and what have policemen to do with this lady? You have
+made some stupid blunder. This is a lady. She is under my protection.
+Take your hand off her arm!"
+
+"If she's under your protection, the best thing you can do is to
+accompany us," replied the man, bluntly; and he made another attempt
+to drag her away.
+
+Franklin restrained himself with an effort which did him honor,
+conscious that violence would be here out of place, and perceiving
+that it would be utterly useless. He strove a moment to collect his
+thoughts as one stunned by a thunderbolt.
+
+"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.
+
+"If you ask for information," remarked the man, impressed by his
+agonized astonishment, "I will tell you; but wont the young woman get
+into a hack, out of the crowd?"
+
+An empty carriage happened to be passing, into which, like a man in a
+dream, Franklin handed the ladies. One police officer entered with
+them--the other took his seat on the box with the coachman. Caroline,
+although still colorless, had partly regained her courage, and
+endeavored to smile. Mrs. Clifford, in a most distressing state of
+agitation, only found breath to say, "Well, this is a pretty
+adventure, upon my word!"
+
+As the carriage moved away, followed by a troop of ragamuffins,
+leaping, laughing, and shouting, Franklin said,
+
+"And now, my good fellow, I have submitted peaceably to this atrocious
+outrage, tell me by whose authority you act, and in what way this
+young lady has exposed herself to such an infamous insult?"
+
+"Well, in the first place," said the man, coolly, "I act by the
+authority of the Messieurs Blake, Blanchard & Co.; and in the second
+place, the young lady has exposed herself to such an infamous insult
+by stealing ten yards of Brussels' lace, at L12 a yard, value L120
+sterling."
+
+"Scoundrel!" exclaimed Franklin, again grasping his collar.
+
+"Hollo! hollo! hollo!" cried the man--hands off, my cove! and keep a
+civil tongue in your head, you'd best. It aint of no use, I give you
+my word of honor."
+
+"Miss Clifford--"
+
+But Miss Clifford had covered her face with her white hands, which did
+not conceal her still whiter complexion.
+
+"Why, look ye, sir,", said the man, "if you really aint a party to the
+offence, I'm very sorry for you. The business is just this here. The
+shop of Blake, Blanchard & Co., has been frequently robbed, and
+sometimes by ladies. I was called, not four mouths ago, to take a real
+lady to prison, who had stole to the amount of L10. And to prison she
+went, too, though some of the most respectable people in town came
+down and begged for her. Now this here young lady came yesterday to
+the shop of Blake, Blanchard & Co.--tumbled every thing upside down,
+and bought nothing--went away--to-day came again--asked to see the
+most valuable lace--bought ten shillings' worth of narrow edging, and
+left the premises. At her departure she was seen to take ten yards of
+lace--value, L120. I was called in, and followed her, with one of the
+clerks, to identify her person. We perceived her walking fast--very
+fast, indeed. It was as much as we could do to overtake her. The clerk
+can swear to her identity--and the lace was found in her hand. Both
+the young man and myself can swear to it, if she denies it--though I
+caution you, Miss, not to say any thing at present, because it can be
+used against you at your trial."
+
+"I do not deny it," said Caroline, with flashing eyes. "I took the
+lace, but did not know I took it."
+
+"Oh! ho-ho!" said the man. "I hope you can make 'em believe that.
+Perhaps you can."
+
+"My dear friend," cried Mrs. Clifford, now nearly beside herself, "I
+assure you, this is a frightful mistake. She carried the lace away
+from mere carelessness. Here is all the money I have about me. Take it
+for yourself, only let us go. My daughter, I assure you, is utterly
+incapable of stealing. You don't know her. As for the lace, I am
+willing to pay for it. My name is Mrs. Clifford. I live No. ----
+Grosvenor Street, Grosvenor Square. My dear, kind, good sir, turn the
+carriage and let us go home. My husband was Captain Clifford, of the
+American navy. Do you think we would be guilty of stealing? I will
+give you any money you desire. I will give you L50--only let us go."
+
+"If your husband was Admiral Nelson himself," replied the man, with
+dignity, "I could not let you go now--not if you were to give me L500.
+I have only to do my duty. It's a very painful one--but it must be
+done. I aint a judge. I'm a policeman; and my business is to deliver
+you safe into the hands of Blake, Blanchard & Co."
+
+To describe the whirl of thoughts which swept through the mind of
+Franklin during the interval would be impossible. He saw that a simple
+act of carelessness had been committed by Caroline; but he was enough
+of a lawyer to perceive that the proof against her was singularly
+striking and unanswerable--and he knew the world too well, not to feel
+extraordinary alarm at the possible consequences. In London, alone,
+without friends or acquaintances, a glance into the future almost
+drove him to distraction. At moments he was half mastered by the
+impulse to bear Caroline away, by a sudden _coup de main_; but his
+hand was held by the reflection, that even were such a wild scheme
+possible, success would be no means of security, inasmuch as Mrs.
+Clifford had given her address; while the attempt would exasperate the
+other party, appear but a new evidence of guilt, and in every way
+enhance the danger of their position.
+
+As they approached the fatal shop, a large crowd had collected around
+the door. Franklin felt that he was in one of those crises on which
+hang human destiny and life, and that he had need of more prudence and
+wisdom than man can possess, except it be given him from above. Deep,
+therefore, and trusting, was his silent prayer to Him who hath said,
+"_Be strong and of a good courage. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
+thee._"
+
+Caroline appeared ready to sink into the earth when the carriage
+stopped.
+
+"My dearest Miss Clifford," said Franklin, "these men have fallen into
+a bungling error, and it will require some prudence on our part to
+make them see it. But compose yourself. Put down your veil; say
+nothing till I call you--and may God, in his mercy, grant that our
+ordeal be short!"
+
+These words were uttered with a composure and cheerful presence of
+mind which reassured in some degree the fainting girl. She had at her
+side a protector who would never desert her--a pilot with a strong
+arm, a steady eye, and a bold heart--who would steer her through the
+wild storm, if any human being could.
+
+Mrs. Clifford, speechless with terror, let down her daughter's veil as
+well as her shaking hands permitted, and was led by Franklin from the
+carriage into the house. He then handed, or rather lifted, out
+Caroline, who clung to him with helplessness and terror. The trembling
+party--a hundred unfeeling eyes bent upon them--were conducted
+through the shop to a back parlor, into the presence of Mr. Jennings,
+the only one of the firm of Blake, Blanchard & Co. who happened to be
+at home. As Franklin saw him his heart sank in his bosom, and the
+courage which had begun to mount with the danger, seemed a mockery.
+
+Mr. Jennings was a respectable looking man of forty, of a thin, hard
+countenance, repelling manners, and sharp voice, which, when excited,
+rose to a piercing and discordant note. There was no sign of mercy or
+moderation in his physiognomy. This man, who, after faithful
+subordinate services, had become the inferior and hardest working
+partner, happened to be afflicted with a very violent temper, which
+had been wrought into a rage by various recent purloinings, apparently
+like the present, attributed to female customers, and perpetrated with
+a combined cunning and daring which baffled detection, and he had long
+yearned to lay his hand upon one of them. His passions and interests
+were mingled together in this desire, which, in addition, he supposed
+fully sanctioned by duty; and when a man, and particularly such a man,
+of a narrow mind and cold heart--loving power, and rarely enabled to
+taste its sweets, once gets into his head the idea that he is acting
+from duty--God help the poor victim that falls within his grasp.
+
+Such was the individual before whom, in the attitude of a detected
+criminal, was dragged the sweet and trembling girl. Such was the man
+before whom Franklin stood, curbing within the limits of prudence his
+high wrought feelings.
+
+"Now, my honest women," said Jennings, seating himself magisterially
+in a large arm-chair by a table, while the rest stood in a circle
+around, like prisoners at a bar before their judge, "what have you to
+say with regard to the atrocious act of felony--"
+
+"One moment, sir," said Franklin. "You will have the kindness to order
+chairs for those ladies."
+
+Mr. Jennings paused, fixed a surprised glance at the speaker, and
+obeyed.
+
+"Well then, _now_--" demanded he.
+
+"I beg your pardon!" again interrupted Franklin, "permit me, in your
+own interest, to make another suggestion. Before you proceed in this
+examination, I warn you, with all deference to the sincerity of your
+present error, that you have before you two ladies of respectability,
+and unblemished reputation, and who are entirely innocent in this
+matter."
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated Mr. Jennings.
+
+"Silence, sir," cried Franklin, with an indignation irrepressible.
+"You have dragged before you through the streets of London, a young
+and innocent girl, like a criminal. If circumstances seem for a moment
+to give you the right, humanity, as well as decency requires, at least
+till the question of her guilt be settled, that you address her with
+respect, and hear her defence with candor and attention."
+
+Mr. Jennings turned pale, swallowed his rage, and replied: "Speak,
+sir! speak, sir! I am all candor and attention."
+
+"I beg your pardon," resumed Franklin, "if I have answered with too
+much asperity. But this young lady is perfectly innocent. She has high
+friends. You will consider her under the protection of the American
+Ambassador at this Court! State to me, if you please, your reasons for
+dragging her before you in the custody of policemen."
+
+Awed by Franklin's tone, but rather infuriated than melted, Mr.
+Jennings answered with sarcastic politeness--
+
+"Certainly, sir, your request is a just one. The case is this. The
+young lady came to my shop this morning, and had brought out for her
+examination the most expensive lace, of which, however, she purchased
+none, but, instead, expended ten shillings for some narrow edging. I
+must inform you that persons in the dress of ladies, and even persons
+in the rank of ladies, have more than once committed thefts of this
+kind, and I have ordered one of the young men to watch. This
+individual saw in a mirror the young lady, as she was about to leave,
+seize a parcel of lace, and carry it out under cover of her
+pocket-handkerchief. We sent directly for policemen--but so rapid was
+the flight of the party, including yourself, that it was not without
+considerable difficulty and delay that they were overtaken, when the
+stolen lace was found in her hand. We are often obliged to forego the
+gratification of punishing such misdemeanors by the technical
+difficulty of proving the crime upon the criminal. You perceive how
+the present case stands. I am willing to allow it is but fair you
+should be heard, if you have any thing to say in reply."
+
+"I have much to say," resumed Franklin, smiling with assumed
+confidence, "enough to satisfy any reasonable man, and I hope I stand
+before such a one. That the young lady took the lace no one can deny.
+But I will tell you how she took it. For the first time in London, her
+mind naturally excited, she was bewildered amid the novel and
+interesting objects around her. The splendor of your establishment
+dazzled her eyes and distracted her attention. In company with her
+mother and myself she came here to see the lace in question, but she
+could not have intended to steal it, if I must answer to such a
+charge, because it would have been impossible for her to use such an
+article without the knowledge of her mother. If she is a thief her
+mother and I share her guilt. I therefore repeat to you that these
+ladies can command references to raise them above the slightest breath
+of suspicion--references sufficient to satisfy the most
+incredulous--the most unreasonable. She is a person of the purest life
+and strongest principles. Not one of her friends, and, after a proper
+examination, not one of the public, will ever believe her guilty of
+any thing worse than a mere moment of bewilderment and absence of
+mind."
+
+"Upon my word, sir," said Mr. Jennings, "you have undertaken a pretty
+difficult task--no less than to convince me that black is white, and
+that two and two don't make four. Who are you?--and where are your
+references?"
+
+Franklin did not succeed in concealing a certain trepidation at this
+blunt demand, and it was not lost upon Jennings.
+
+"My references do not reside in England."
+
+"Ah! ha!"
+
+"I am a stranger in your metropolis."
+
+"Oh! ho!"
+
+"And therefore," added Franklin, "every noble-minded and fair-play
+loving Englishman will say, possessing greater claim upon your
+moderation. I can bring you, from my own country--through the official
+intervention of the American Minister, references to outweigh a
+thousand fold--ten million fold--all opposite appearances. I can give
+a moral demonstration that the intentional commission by this young
+lady of the act with which she is charged, is an utter, and a
+ridiculous impossibility."
+
+"I have now heard you," said Jennings, "and I am sorry to say, I must,
+notwithstanding, send the lady before a magistrate. The ingenious
+arguments you have used are equally applicable to every theft. No
+reference--no rank--no character can weigh against so plain a fact,
+proved by ocular demonstration. No rational judge or jury can doubt
+she _stole_ the lace. It is my duty to make an example of her. This is
+not the first, nor the second time, we have been robbed by ladies in
+affluent circumstances, and respectably connected. It is a peculiar
+crime, and generally committed in a way which renders it both
+difficult and dangerous, even when we know the criminal, to attempt to
+fix the fact upon her. This time we have caught her in the very _act_.
+We have eye-witnesses enough to render doubt impossible. She does not
+deny it. She fled with precipitation. She was overtaken a long
+distance off--nearly half an hour after the offence--the lace was
+found in her hand--and her companion tried to bribe the policeman with
+L50 to let her escape. And do you now talk to me of 'respectability,'
+and 'connections,' and such nonsense? I would go as far as you or any
+man to save an innocent person from destruction. But when once
+convinced, by my own eyes, of deliberate guilt, it is too late for
+mercy. The ignorant beggar, who steals to save himself from starving,
+I could pity--I could almost release; but when the rich and the
+educated resort to stealing, to gratify their vanity and avarice,
+hoping to shelter themselves from punishment by their 'connections,'
+and their high position in society--they must be taught, sir, that
+they do it at a fearful peril, and that detection will bring down upon
+them the same vulgar and rigorous penalties as if they were the lowest
+dregs of the people."
+
+"I agree with you perfectly," replied Franklin, with forced composure,
+although the plain picture appalled him, and robbed his countenance of
+every trace of color, "but permit me to remark that you must be quite
+sure the person before you belongs to this guilty class. Her innocence
+can be rendered morally certain. The whole world will brand as cruel
+injustice any harsh treatment. A careless girl has been absent-minded.
+All people are liable to be so. You look for your spectacles when they
+are on your nose--or seek your pocket-handkerchief, and find it in
+your hand--"
+
+"Our opinions differ on that point," said Mr. Jennings coldly, "and a
+jury must decide between us. Policemen, take the party before the
+magistrate. I will follow with my witnesses, and I pledge myself to
+visit so heinous a crime with the utmost rigor of the law."
+
+The policemen stepped to the side of Caroline.
+
+"I appeal to your generosity--to your mercy," cried Franklin, "that
+she may at least be taken to the American Minister, instead of being
+dragged before a magistrate. I request only that you act with
+gentleness."
+
+Mr. Jennings pointed the policemen to the door.
+
+"And I not only request, I demand it!" cried Franklin. "If you refuse
+me, you refuse me at your peril--"
+
+"You have nothing to command here, sir," replied Mr. Jennings. "The
+American Minister can make his statement before the magistrate. I am
+not disposed to exercise the least mercy. Policemen, your duty. If her
+fate be a terrible one, she has herself to thank for it. I hope it may
+deter others from following her example."
+
+"And what will be my daughter's fate?" asked the unsteady voice of
+Mrs. Clifford.
+
+"Transportation for life," was the reply.
+
+Mrs. Clifford shrieked. Caroline rose wildly and staggered toward the
+door. Mr. Jennings, as if thirsting for her destruction, and fearing
+her escape, seized her so roughly that she screamed with pain and
+terror, when Franklin dragged him back and hurled him to the wall. His
+impulse was to strike him to the earth, but with one of the highest
+qualities attained by man, self-government, he recollected himself and
+refrained.
+
+"Policemen," shouted Mr. Jennings, very white, "I command you to take
+the whole party into custody. You witnessed the assault. I am in
+danger of my life. They are a gang of thieves and cut-throats. Off
+with them this instant."
+
+"Stop!" cried Franklin, and there was something in his voice which
+arrested the step of the policemen, and _compelled_ Jennings to stand
+in breathless attention. "I demand the presence of one or both of your
+partners, before the young lady be removed. You will not, because you
+_dare_ not, refuse me this reasonable request. If you do, sir, it were
+better you never had been born. Guilty, or not guilty, the person
+whom, before she has been tried, your infamous lips have branded as a
+common thief, has a right to all mild and gentle treatment, consistent
+with law and justice. You say the jury will decide. But the question
+is now whether your house is prepared to send her before a jury. That
+is the question to be discussed, and you are not in a temper of mind,
+sir, to enable you to decide it impartially. The affair will ring from
+one end of England and the United States to the other, and the
+execrations of thousands, who have as yet never heard of you, will
+fall upon your name. You will find that there are two sides to the
+question. You will find that if the lady has a malignant accuser she
+has also indignant and powerful defenders. The world will say you
+might have been excusable not to release her, but you had no right to
+hurry her before the public with needless and brutal precipitation.
+They will say--and I will take care to tell them--that, overcome by
+your violent temper, you insulted--you _assaulted_--a helpless young
+girl in your power, whose guilt had not been proved, and that, because
+I dragged you back--blind with wrath, and burning with revenge--you
+dared to take upon yourself, alone, the whole responsibility of this
+outrage, which will bring punishment on you, and disgrace on your
+house. They will say let no lady hereafter trust herself across the
+threshold of Blake, Blanchard & Co., where the watch is set and the
+trap laid for the unwary. They will say that Mr. Jennings is a foul
+calumniator of woman as a sex--that he has charged the noble ladies of
+England with crime. They will judge whether the young girl could be
+guilty without the participation of her mother and myself, who, as you
+say, fled with her. The case is one of mere carelessness, or we are
+three thieves. Go on, if you dare, without your partners. Your house,
+will become infamous, and you--yourself--mark me, sir, shall not
+escape the chastisement you deserve!"
+
+He ceased, and the silence remained for a while unbroken.
+
+This appeal was not, on the part of Franklin, the mere result of
+passion and despair, although from both it received a strange power.
+It was a wise calculation that Jennings, who could not be reasoned or
+melted, might be terrified from his purpose, till the arrival of his
+partners, before whom the matter might take a different turn. By a
+happy inspiration Franklin had read the man aright, and he saw changes
+of countenance, as he proceeded, which gave boldness to his heart and
+fire to his lips. Jennings was a coward. He was terror-struck at the
+idea of acting on his "sole responsibility," in an affair which seemed
+likely to be so hotly contested. The blood curdled in his veins at the
+thought of the deadly enemies, darkly hinted at, and the consequences
+clearly threatened. He saw Caroline was no common thief, and Franklin
+no common man. There were moments when he actually believed the fact
+really was as Franklin represented--and, thus quailing under the
+torrent of eloquence to which the voice and manner gave something
+absolutely irresistible, half suffocated with rage and fear, he said
+with ill assumed indifference:
+
+"Oh! very well, sir, very well. I will wait for my partners. Nothing
+shall be done rashly. Nothing from revenge. But the young lady shall
+not escape. Mr. Williams, go and see if Mr. Blake or Mr. Blanchard
+have come in."
+
+And thus at least more time was gained.
+
+Mr. Williams went out, and returned to say that Mr. Blake had not yet
+come in, but Mr. Blanchard had, and would join them immediately.
+
+The door opened and the person in question entered. He was a young man
+of thirty, of unusually prepossessing exterior. A stream of hope shot
+through Franklin's heart as he read his face.
+
+Mr. Blanchard seated himself gravely in the large chair which was
+abdicated in his favor by Jennings, who related to him the facts,
+respectfully and clearly, and called up the policemen and Mr. Williams
+in confirmation.
+
+"It is a bad case," said Mr. Blanchard. "Our duty is clear. Is there
+any thing said in the defence?"
+
+"Oh yes, there is a powerful defence!" replied Mr. Jennings, with a
+sneer, "the young lady took the lace, and kept it half an hour,
+running away as fast as she could, but she _but she didn't know she
+had it_!! ha! ha! ha!"
+
+Mr. Blanchard shook his head.
+
+"Sir, may I speak?" said Franklin.
+
+"Speak," returned Mr. Blanchard, in a low voice. "If you have any
+thing to say I will hear it with the sincerest desire to find it of
+weight. But you have a difficult task before you. These occasions are
+extremely painful. The necessity of sending to prison a respectable
+young lady, as you represent this person to be, is harrowing indeed;
+but private feelings must give way to higher considerations. I have a
+duty to perform--a duty to society--a duty to my partners--a duty to
+God!"
+
+"You have," rejoined Franklin, "but if you properly examine your
+conscience, and ask light of Him who knows the truth, you will hear
+the voice of God himself, warning you not to perform that duty
+prematurely, carelessly, or cruelly. I ask time. I offer references to
+prove that the person in question, from education, character, habits,
+opinions, religious principles, and her whole, pure and artless life,
+is not, and could not be intentionally guilty of the act in question.
+I request time to produce these references. My young companion took
+the lace in a moment of bewilderment--of absence of mind. She has just
+arrived in London--is dazzled and excited. If, sir, you have a sister,
+a daughter, a mother, a wife, picture her--after such a careless
+accident--grasped by a policeman, dragged through the streets, exposed
+to the eyes of the jesting crowd--the blackest construction put upon
+her action, shrinking before a magistrate, cast into prison, and, God
+knows what else!--and all because of an act, not in reality more
+inexplicable than that of a man who walks off with a hat not his own,
+or another person's umbrella--in a fit of forgetfulness."
+
+Jennings leaned over and whispered something to Mr. Blanchard.
+
+"It is quite probable," said Mr. Blanchard, "that you believe her
+innocent, but the various and glaring circumstances do not permit me
+to be of your opinion. The expressive flight, the intervening time,
+long enough to discover a mistake merely accidental--the bribe of
+L50--no--no--it is impossible," said he, rising, "I am sorry for you,
+sir, but this matter rests no longer with me. The prisoner must be
+removed."
+
+"What I ask," said Franklin, "is not her release. It is only time to
+make you acquainted with the proofs of which the case is susceptible.
+The 'prisoner,' as you call her, is as innocent as the snow yet
+unfallen from heaven. I do not ask you to sacrifice what you fancy
+your duty, I ask you only to pause ere you execute it. I request you
+ere you thrust a shrinking girl, as a suspected thief, before the
+public, that you more carefully examine her side of the question. Her
+bankers, the Messrs. Baring, will answer for her presence whenever you
+desire. My banker will answer for her. The American Minister will
+satisfy you of the strong impropriety of any other proceeding. Oh!
+sir, in the name of a mother's breaking heart--in the name of sweet
+girlish innocence--in the name of God, believe what I say! If you err,
+err on the side of mercy. Think, when you lay your head this night on
+your pillow, the day has not been lost, for it was marked by an act of
+mercy. Think, when on your death-bed, you plead at the throne of God,
+He has said, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.'
+If she really had committed the offence, I should not fear to ask you
+for mercy on her young head--her inexperienced life. Our Divine Master
+granted mercy even to the guilty. Will you refuse it then to this
+trembling and innocent girl, for whose guileless intention, in this
+terrible accident, I answer before man and God, and with my life and
+soul. Come here, Miss Clifford! Take off your veil. Tell Mr.
+Blanchard, in the simple language of truth, how this incident took
+place."
+
+"Yes, come here, my young friend," said Mr. Blanchard, "and tell me
+how this sad mistake arose."
+
+Perhaps it was Franklin's eloquence--perhaps it was Caroline's
+appearance--perhaps it was both, which drew the silent tear from Mr.
+Blanchard's eyes, and those two significant words from his lips. But
+oh! to Franklin's soul, wrought up almost to despair--almost, to
+madness--they were rapture, they were ecstasy, they were like the
+first streak of golden sky which announces to the half-wrecked sailor
+that the tempest is over.
+
+"Speak, my dear young lady," said Mr. Blanchard, "do not tremble so!
+you have nothing to fear from me!"
+
+"I left the door," said Caroline, in a low voice, "without knowing I
+had the lace. A gentleman ran against me and knocked it out of my
+hand. He picked it up. I then saw what I had done. I exclaimed,
+'ma'ma, let us go back!'--but ma'ma had gone on--I was alone--two men
+seized me--and--and--"
+
+She covered her face with her hands, and sunk into the chair.
+
+"But, so far from coming back," said Mr. Jennings' piercing voice,
+"you were walking rapidly away."
+
+"No," said Caroline.
+
+"But I say yes!" screamed Jennings. "Mr. Williams, was not the young
+woman walking rapidly away?"
+
+"She _had been_ walking rapidly," said Mr. Williams, "but when we came
+up she was, as she says, standing still, looking at the lace. It is
+also true that an old gentleman ran against her, knocked the lace out
+of her hand, and picked it up again. That I saw from the distance."
+
+"Mark you!" exclaimed Franklin, "how each small feature of her story
+is confirmed."
+
+"But you left our door," exclaimed Mr. Jennings, "at a furious pace."
+
+"That I can explain to your satisfaction," said Franklin. "We were
+engaged to call upon a lady, Mrs. Porter, No. ----, Portland-Place, at
+half past two. This Mrs. Porter herself can testify. We left your door
+too late, and walked rapidly to keep our appointment. You can
+ascertain from your clerks at what hour we left."
+
+"It was just half past two," said Mr. Williams. "I looked at the
+clock."
+
+"Mark!" cried Franklin, with an air of triumph.
+
+"Upon my word, Mr. Jennings," said Mr. Blanchard, "we have been too
+hasty--"
+
+At this moment the door opened, and another person entered.
+
+"Just in time," muttered Mr. Jennings.
+
+It was Mr. Blake, chief partner in the firm of Blake, Blanchard & Co.
+He was a venerable old gentleman, of an agreeable person, with a
+certain dignity which well became his snow-white hair, but through
+which, on the present occasion, appeared a settled firmness, almost a
+sternness, boding no good.
+
+"You have come in time," said Jennings. "Do you know what is going on
+here?"
+
+"I do. The facts have been related to me."
+
+"And the famous defence?" added Jennings, with one of his worst
+sneers, "do you know that also?"
+
+"I do. It is a clear case. There is but one course for us."
+
+"And yet," cried Jennings, "Mr. Blanchard has been thinking it will
+not do to send so respectable a young lady to prison. But I say you
+will not have a case in forty years so proper to make a wholesome
+example of. If you let this one go, whom can you punish? Precautions
+were useless, if thieves can commit their depredations under our very
+noses with impunity."
+
+"I am of your opinion," said Mr. Blake. "The offence is of a very
+aggravated description; and I deem it absolutely necessary to send the
+delinquent before a magistrate to be punished as she deserves."
+
+"I have explained--" said Franklin.
+
+But while he commenced once more his agonizing task, Mr. Jennings took
+Mr. Blake aside, and whispered to him some minutes vehemently.
+Franklin attempted to speak again.
+
+"I will hear no explanation," said the old gentleman. "No argument--no
+character--no references can prevail against so wicked a felony so
+clearly proved. The youth, condition in life, and education of the
+person, only render the crime more detestable, and the necessity for a
+terrible example more unavoidable. Your own good sense should have
+taught you, sir, that threats are here out of place, and violence can
+only make matters worse. I have solemnly vowed that I would meet the
+next case with the utmost rigor of the law. I am determined to
+prosecute. Where is the prisoner? Policemen, take her into custody."
+
+"But," cried Franklin.
+
+"I will hear no more," said Mr. Blake, coldly and firmly. "Mr.
+Jennings, who has gone over the case with the most attention, is
+thoroughly convinced--"
+
+"Thoroughly!" said Mr. Jennings.
+
+"Policemen--"
+
+Franklin's brain whirled in wild despair. He clasped his hands--he
+conjured the mild, mistaken man, whose slightest word could save
+Caroline from destruction.
+
+"Mercy! I ask only one day."
+
+"Young man, you plead in vain! Ask mercy of God, but not of me."
+
+"Then listen, heart of stone!" cried Franklin, "and hear my final
+words. You are old. Your head is white; your feet are already in the
+grave. You will, ere long, be called before your Maker--yourself a
+trembling suppliant for mercy. If, with cold-blooded, stupid
+obstinacy, in the face of my warning, you drag this innocent and
+modest girl, prematurely, into a police office--at a bar for
+criminals--to stand a spectacle for the public, amid robbers, and
+murderers, and to run the fearful chances of the law, I solemnly warn
+you, old man, you will have innocent blood on your conscience--you
+will call down God's curse upon your head."
+
+"What can I do?" said Mr. Blake, overwhelmed by his irresistible
+earnestness.
+
+"You can do unto others, as you would have them do unto you--you can
+give us time for proof, and yourself for reflection. You can suppose
+it was your own daughter in her place. You can examine more carefully.
+You can break from the leading-strings of that malignant Mr. Jennings.
+You can consult with Mr. Blanchard, a man of reason and feeling, who
+disapproves your severity. You can wait to satisfy yourself that this
+young lady is distinguished for a stainless character, a pure life,
+strict religious principles, humble faith in God, and habitual
+communion with him. You can judge for yourself whether this is a case
+of _monomania_--whether a person thus distinguished, could be guilty
+of intentional purloining. Sir, ocular demonstration weighs _nothing_
+against such a character. You can ask yourself more dispassionately
+whether it be not a possibility--a very natural one--for an
+absent-minded person to commit such an act mechanically and
+unconsciously. You can hear her artless story from her own lips, and
+candidly consider if it _may not_ be the truth."
+
+Carried away by Franklin's eloquent vehemence, Mr. Blake did look.
+Caroline had risen. The last spark of earthly hope had fled. She
+stood, without gesture or tear. It seemed as if death had already
+laid his icy hand upon her, only her eyes were lifted above, while she
+breathed a silent prayer to Him whose mighty hand can raise the
+trusting heart, in one instant, from the lowest depths of despair.
+
+"Ha! What! God bless my soul!" suddenly ejaculated the old gentleman,
+in great astonishment. "What do I see! My dearest, sweetest young
+lady! Mr. Blanchard! Mr. Jennings! Mr. Williams--"
+
+Caroline gazed at him a moment--uttered a shriek which thrilled to
+every heart with an electric shock, cried, "Oh, sir, save me--_you_
+can save me!" and fell insensible into the arms of Franklin.
+
+"Policemen!--off with you!" cried Mr. Blake, with tears in his eyes.
+"Mr. Jennings, you are a fool! I answer with my life for this young
+lady. I ran against her in the street. I picked up the lace, and saw
+her look of astonishment and horror; and heard her exclaim, '_ma'ma!
+let us go back directly!_' Go, proclaim to every one in the
+establishment that she is innocent. We are the guilty party--and we
+are at _her_ mercy!"
+
+To terminate the exciting scene, Franklin proposed to return home. A
+carriage was called. Caroline had revived, and her feelings,
+fortunately, found vent in tears. She wept bitterly on her mother's
+bosom, who gave it back with interest. But in the midst of their joy,
+not one of the three forgot to offer up their secret, thankful prayer,
+to that overruling Providence, whose watchful mercy had rescued them
+from a fate too horrible for imagination.
+
+Franklin could scarcely wait till they walked to the carriage. He
+wished to carry--to drag Caroline away. He shifted his position
+continually, without apparent cause; at last shook hands with his
+companions, saying he would follow the carriage, as he wanted air and
+exercise.
+
+They soon arrived home, where Caroline, in a high state of excitement,
+was ordered to bed by a physician; but, after soothing medicines had
+calmed certain hysterical symptoms, she fell into a deep sleep, which
+the doctor said was worth more than all the apothecaries could
+compound. In fact, she did not wake till late next morning, and in a
+day or two was comparatively restored.
+
+But poor Franklin had gone home in a raging fever, which increased
+during the night to delirium. His ravings were of magistrates, the
+jeering crowd, dungeons, chains, and the convict-ship. Then he was at
+the penal settlement. He heard the frightful oaths, obscene jests, and
+blasphemous laughter of the convicts. Among them he beheld Caroline
+Clifford--haggard, and in rags--now toiling at her task, now shrieking
+beneath the bloody lash--and he seemed to grasp the throat of
+Jennings, and implored him to stay his hellish hand.
+
+More than a month passed before he was sufficiently recovered to leave
+his room. Every day Mrs. Clifford had visited him, and watched over
+him with a mother's love. Every day the carriage of Mr. Blake brought
+the old gentleman to the bed-side of the poor invalid, where he
+listened to the ravings of his disturbed imagination, and shuddered
+to think of what horrors--but for a providential coincidence--he might
+have added to the history of human wo.
+
+At length Mr. Franklin was allowed to take a drive. It is scarcely
+necessary to say that he called on the ladies. Mrs. Clifford,
+previously apprized of his intended visit, at the sound of the bell,
+accidentally remembered that she had left her scissors up stairs. So
+Franklin found Caroline alone.
+
+"You are very, very pale," cried the greatly agitated girl, her eyes
+filling with good, honest tears, as she gave him her hand.
+
+He raised it to his lips.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Clifford."
+
+But, like Beatrice, she seemed to hold it there again with a fervor
+which even the modest Franklin could not wholly misunderstand.
+
+"I owe you more than my life," cried Caroline, with such a look as she
+had never bestowed upon him before.
+
+"And yet," cried Franklin, "you fraudulently withhold from me the only
+payment in your power."
+
+"Nonsense--what payment," cried she, blushing deeply.
+
+"Your dear self!" answered Franklin, in a timid voice.
+
+"Then you must collect your debt, as other hard-hearted creditors
+do--by force."
+
+"In that case," rejoined Franklin, with a boldness which astonished
+himself, "an execution must issue, and proceedings commence directly."
+
+Mrs. Clifford, having found her scissors, just then entered the room,
+but not before the ardent lawyer had performed the threatened
+duty--not quite so harrowing a one as that attempted by Mr. Jennings,
+though it led to the same result, viz., she was obviously
+_transported_, and, as it turned out---_for life_.
+
+Nor is this all.
+
+Old Mr. Blake had learned how the land lay from Mrs. Clifford, and he
+resolved to make the young people reparation. He owed it to them in
+all conscience. They were married in about six weeks; and when the
+ceremony was over, a parcel was brought in, directed "_To Mrs.
+Franklin, with the compliments of Messrs. Blake, Blanchard & Co.,_"
+which, on being opened, was found to contain a superb Cashmere
+shawl--thirty yards of the L12 lace, and a neat mahogany box, with a
+coronet of diamonds for the young criminal.
+
+We wont go into the history of the ladies' objections to accepting
+these costly testimonials. Mr. Blake pleaded almost as eloquently as
+Franklin had done, till at last Franklin "put his foot down," as I
+recommend all young husbands to do on such occasions, and showed Mr.
+Blake who was master.
+
+Nor was this all either.
+
+A number of years afterward, when Mr. and Mrs. Franklin had returned
+to New York, and while the fond wife and happy mother was one day
+profoundly engaged in arranging a highly ornamented and curious little
+cap, her husband entered with a letter, and read as follows:
+
+ TO MRS. CAROLINE FRANKLIN.
+
+ _London, Feb_. 10, 184-.
+
+ MADAM,--It has become my duty to inform you, that,
+ by the will of the late Mr. Blake, of the firm of
+ Blake, Blanchard & Co., you have become entitled to
+ his blessing, and a legacy of L2500 sterling,
+ which, upon proving your identity, you can either
+ draw for on me, at thirty days, or have remitted in
+ any other way you desire.
+
+ I have the honor to be, madam, very respectfully,
+ your obedient servant,
+ JOHN LOCKLEY,
+
+ Solicitor, No. ---- Russel Square.
+
+
+
+
+A FUNERAL THOUGHT.
+
+BY J. BAYARD TAYLOR.
+
+
+ When the pale Genius, to whose hollow tramp
+ Echo the startled chambers of the soul,
+ Waves his inverted torch o'er that wan camp
+ Where the archangel's marshaling trumpets roll,
+ I would not meet him in the chamber dim,
+ Hushed, and o'erburthened with a nameless fear,
+ When the breath flutters, and the senses swim,
+ And the dread hour is near!
+
+ Though Love's dear arms might clasp me fondly then,
+ As if to keep the Summoner at bay,
+ And woman's wo and the calm grief of men
+ Hallow at last the still, unbreathing clay--
+ These are Earth's fetters, and the soul would shrink,
+ Thus bound, from Darkness and the dread Unknown,
+ Stretching its arms from Death's eternal brink,
+ Which it must dare alone!
+
+ But in the awful silence of the sky,
+ Upon some mountain summit, never trod
+ Through the bright ether would I climb, to die
+ Afar from mortals, and alone with God!
+ To the pure keeping of the stainless air
+ Would I resign my feeble, failing breath,
+ And with the rapture of an answered prayer
+ Welcome the kiss of Death!
+
+ The soul, which wrestled with that doom of pain,
+ Prometheus-like, its lingering portion here,
+ Would there forget the vulture and the chain,
+ And leap to freedom from its mountain-bier!
+ All that it ever knew, of noble thought,
+ Would guide it upward to the glorious track,
+ Nor the keen pangs by parting anguish wrought,
+ Turn its bright glances back!
+
+ Then to the elements my frame would turn;
+ No worms should riot on my coffined clay,
+ But the cold limbs, from that sepulchral urn,
+ In the slow storms of ages waste away!
+ Loud winds, and thunder's diapason high,
+ Should be my requiem through the coming time,
+ And the white summit, fading in the sky,
+ My monument sublime!
+
+
+
+
+THE MEMORIAL TREE.
+
+BY WM. GILMORE SIMMS, AUTHOR OF "THE YEMASSE," "RICHARD HURDIS," ETC.
+
+ Great trees that o'er us grow--
+ Green leaves that gather round them--the fresh hues,
+ That tell of fruit, and blossoms yet to blow,
+ Opening fond bosoms to the embracing dews;
+
+ These, now so bright,
+ That deck the slopes about thy childhood's home,
+ And seem, in long duration, to thy sight,
+ As they had promise of perpetual bloom;
+
+ So linked with all
+ The first dear throbs of feeling in thy heart,
+ When, at the dawn of summer and of fall,
+ Thou weptst the leaf that must so soon depart!
+
+ What had all these,
+ Of frail, deciduous nature, to persuade,
+ Howe'er their sweets might charm, and beauty please,
+ The memories that their own could never aid?
+
+ They kept no tale--
+ No solemn history of the fruitful hour;
+ The lover's promise, the beloved one's wail--
+ To wake the dead leaf in each lonely bower!
+
+ The autumn breath
+ O'erthrew each frail memorial of their past;
+ And every token was resigned to death,
+ In the first summons of the northern blast.
+
+ They nourished naught
+ That to the chain of moral being binds
+ The recollections of the once gay spot,
+ And its sweet offices, to future minds.
+
+ Thou may'st repair--
+ Thou, who hast loved in summer-eve to glide
+ With her whom thou hast still beheld as fair,
+ When she no longer wandered by thy side.
+
+ And thou wilt weep
+ Each altered aspect of that happiest home,
+ Which saw the joys its memories could not keep,
+ Save by the sympathy which shares their doom.
+
+ Thus Ruin stands
+ For Ruin--and the wreck of favorite things,
+ To him who o'er the waste but wrings his hands,
+ Proofs of the _fall_, and not the spring-time brings.
+
+ Ah! who will weep,
+ In after seasons, when thou too art gone,
+ Within this grot, where shadowy memories keep
+ Their watch above the realm they keep alone?
+
+ Who will lament,
+ In fruitless tears, that she the dear one died,
+ And thy surviving heart, in languishment,
+ Soon sought the grave and withered at her side?
+
+ A newer bright
+ Makes young the woods--and bowers that not to thee
+ Brought fruit or blossom, triumph in the sight
+ Of those who naught but fruit and blossom see;
+
+ To whom no voice
+ Whispers, that through the loved one's would the root
+ Of that exulting shrub, with happiest choice,
+ Has gone, with none its passage to dispute.
+
+ While thine own heart,
+ In neighboring hillock, conscious, it may be--
+ Quivers to see the fibres rend and part
+ The fair white breast which was so dear to thee.
+
+ Of all the past,
+ That precious history of thy love and youth,
+ When not a cloud thy happy dawn o'ercast,
+ When all thou felt'st was joy, thou saw'st was truth;
+
+ These have no speech
+ For idiot seasons that still come and go--
+ To whom the heart no offices can teach,
+ Vainer than breezes that at midnight blow!
+
+ And yet there seem
+ Memorials still in nature, which are taught,--
+ Unless all pleasant fancies be a dream,
+ To bring our sweetest histories back to thought.
+
+ A famous tree
+ Was this, three hundred years ago, when stood
+ The hunter-chief below it, bold and free,
+ Proud in his painted pomp and deeds of blood.
+
+ By hunger taught,
+ He gathered the brown acorn in its shade,
+ And ere he slept, still gazing upward, caught
+ Sweet glimpses of the night, in stars arrayed.
+
+ His hatchet sunk
+ With sharp wound, fixing his own favorite sign,
+ Deep in the living column of its trunk,
+ Where thou may'st read a history such as thine.
+
+ He, too, could feel
+ Such passion as awakes the noble soul--
+ And in fond hour, perchance, would hither steal,
+ With one, of all his tribe, who could his ire control.
+
+ And others signs,
+ Tokens of races, greatlier taught, that came
+ To write like record, though in smoother lines,
+ And thus declare a still more human flame.
+
+ Here love's caprice--
+ The hope, the doubt, the dear despondencies---
+ Joy that had never rest, hope without peace--
+ These each declared the grief he never flies.
+
+ And the great oak
+ Grew sacred to each separate pilgrimage,
+ Nor heeded, in his bulk, the sudden stroke
+ That scarred his giant trunk with seams of age.
+
+ And we who gaze
+ Upon each, rude memorial--letter and date--
+ Still undefaced by storm and length of days,
+ Stand, as beneath the shadow of a fate!
+
+ Some elder-born,
+ A sire of wood and vale, guardian and king
+ Of separate races, unsubdued, unshorn,
+ Whose memories grasp the lives of every meaner thing!
+
+ With great white beard
+ Far streaming with a prophet-like display,
+ Such as when Moses on the Mount appeared,
+ And prostrate tribes looked down, or looked away!
+
+ With outstretched arms,
+ Paternal, as if blessing--with a grace,
+ Such as, in strength and greatness, ever charms,
+ As wooing the subdued one to embrace!
+
+ Thus still it stood,
+ While the broad forests, 'neath the pioneer,
+ Perished--proud relic of the ancient wood--
+ Men loved the record-tree, and bade them spare!
+
+ And still at noon,
+ Repairing to its shadow, they explore
+ Its chronicles, still musing o'er th' unknown,
+ And telling well-known histories, told of yore!
+
+ We shall leave ours,
+ Dear heart! and when our sleep beneath its boughs
+ Shall suffer spring to spread o'er us her flowers,
+ Eyes that vow love like ours shall trace our vows.
+
+
+
+
+THE RAINBOW.
+
+BY MRS. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY.
+
+
+ Mountain! that first received the foot of man--
+ Giving him shelter, when the shoreless flood
+ Went surging by, that whelmed a buried world--
+ I see thee in thy lonely grandeur rise--
+ I see the white-haired Patriarch, as he knelt
+ Beside his earthen altar, 'mid his sons,
+ While beat in praise the only pulse of life
+ Upon this buried planet,--
+ O'er the gorged
+ And furrowed soil, swept forth a numerous train,
+ Horned, or cloven-footed, fierce, or tame,
+ While, mixed with song, the sound of countless wings,
+ His rescued prisoners, fanned the ambient air.
+
+ The sun drew near his setting, clothed in gold,
+ But on the Patriarch, ere from prayer he rose,
+ A darkly-cinctured cloud chill tears had wept,
+ And rain-drops lay upon his silver hairs.
+ Then burst an arch of wondrous radiance forth,
+ Spanning the vaulted skies. Its mystic scroll
+ Proclaimed the amnesty that pitying Heaven
+ Granted to earth, all desolate and void.
+ Oh signet-ring, with which the Almighty sealed
+ His treaty with the remnant of the clay
+ That shrank before him, to remotest time
+ Stamp wisdom on the souls that turn to thee.
+ Unswerving teacher, who four thousand years
+ Hast ne'er withheld thy lesson, but unfurled
+ As shower and sunbeam bade, thy glorious scroll,--
+ Oft, 'mid the summer's day, I musing sit
+ At my lone casement, to be taught of thee.
+ Born of the tear-drop and the smile, methinks,
+ Thou hast affinity with man, for such
+ His elements, and pilgrimage below.
+ Our span of strength and beauty fades like thine,
+ Yet stays its fabric on eternal truth
+ And boundless mercy.
+ The wild floods may come--
+ The everlasting fountains burst their bounds--
+ The exploring dove without a leaf return--
+ Yea, the fires glow that melt the solid rock,
+ And earth be wrecked: _What then?_--be still, my soul,
+ Enter thine Ark--God's promise cannot fail--
+ For surely as yon rainbow tints the cloud,
+ His truth, thine Ararat, will shelter thee.
+
+
+
+
+SPIRIT-YEARNINGS FOR LOVE.
+
+BY MRS. H. MARION WARD.
+
+
+ Love me, darling, love me, for my wild and wayward heart,
+ Like Noah's dove in search of rest, will hover where thou art;
+ Will linger round thee, like a spell, till by thy hand caressed,
+ It folds its weary, care-worn wings, to nestle on thy breast.
+
+ Love me, darling, love me! When my soul was sick with strife,
+ Thy soothing words have been the sun that warmed it into life;
+ Thy breath called forth the passion-flowers, that slumbered
+ 'neath the ice
+ Of self-distrust, and now their balm makes earth a _Paradise_.
+
+ Love me, darling, love me! Let thy dreams be all of _me_!
+ Let waking thoughts be round my path, as mine will cling to thee!
+ But if--oh, God! it cannot be--but if thou _shouldst_ grow cold
+ And weary of my jealous love, or think it over-bold--
+
+ Or if, perchance, some fairer form should charm thy truant eye,
+ Thou'lt find me _woman_--proud and calm, so leave me--let me die.
+ I'd not reclaim a wavering heart whose pulse has once grown cold,
+ To write my name in princely halls, with diamonds and gold.
+
+ So love me, only love me, for I have no world but thee,
+ And darksome clouds are in my sky--'tis woman's destiny;
+ But let them frown--I heed them not--no fear can they impart,
+ If thou art near, with smiles to bend hope's rainbow round my heart.
+
+
+
+
+THE RIVAL SISTERS.
+
+AN ENGLISH TRAGEDY OF REAL LIFE.
+
+BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, AUTHOR OF "THE ROMAN TRAITOR,"
+"MARMADUKE WYVIL," ETC.
+
+
+It has been gravely stated by an Italian writer of celebrity, that
+"the very atrocity of the crimes which are therein committed, proves
+that in Italy the growth of man is stronger and more vigorous, and
+nearer to the perfect standard of manhood, than in any other country."
+
+A strange paradox, truly, but not an uningenious--at least for a
+native of that "purple land, where law secures not life," who would
+work out of the very reproach, an argument of honor to his country. If
+it be true, however, that proneness to the commission of unwonted and
+atrocious crime is to be held a token of extraordinary vigor--vigor of
+nerve, of temperament, of passion, of physical development--in a race
+of men, then surely must the Anglo-Norman breed, under all
+circumstances of time, place, and climate, be singularly destitute of
+all these qualities--nay, singularly frail, effeminate, and
+incomplete.
+
+For it is an undoubted fact, both of the past and present history of
+that great and still increasing race, whether limited to the narrow
+bounds of the Island Realm which gave it being, or extended to the
+boundless breadth of isles, and continents, and oceans, which it has
+filled with its arms, its arts, its industry, its language--it is, I
+say, an undoubted fact, that those dreadful and sanguinary crimes,
+forming a class apart and distinct of themselves, engendered for the
+most part by morbid passions, love, lust, jealousy, and revenge, which
+are of daily occurrence in the southern countries of, Europe, Asia,
+and America, are almost unknown in those happier lands, where English
+laws prevail, with English liberty and language.
+
+It is to this that must be ascribed the fact, that, in the very few
+instances where crimes of this nature have occurred in England or
+America, the memory of them is preserved with singular pertinacity,
+the smallest details handed down from generation to generation, and
+the very spots in which they have occurred, howmuchsoever altered or
+improved in the course of ages, haunted, as if by an actual presence,
+by the horror and the scent of blood; while on the other hand the fame
+of ordinary deeds of violence and rapine seems almost to be lost
+before the lives of the perpetrators are run out.
+
+One, and almost, I believe, a singular instance of this kind--for I
+would not dignify the brawls and assassinations which have disgraced
+some of our southern cities, the offspring of low principles and an
+unregulated society, by comparing them to the class of crimes in
+question, which imply even in their atrocity a something of perverted
+honor, of extravagant affection, or at least of not ignoble
+passion--is the well-known Beauchamp tragedy of Kentucky, a tale of
+sin and horror which has afforded a theme to the pens of several
+distinguished writers, and the details of which are as well known on
+the spot at present, as if years had not elapsed since its occurrence.
+And this, too, in a country prone above all others, from the migratory
+habits of its population, to cast aside all tradition, and to lose
+within a very few years the memory of the greatest and most
+illustrious events upon the very stage of their occurrence.
+
+It is not, therefore, wonderful that in England, where the immobility
+of the population, the reverence for antiquity, and the great
+prevalence of oral tradition, induced probably at first by the want of
+letters, cause the memory of even past trifles to dwell for ages in
+the breasts of the simple and moral people, any deed of romantic
+character, any act of unusual atrocity, any crime prompted by unusual
+or extraordinary motives, should become, as it were, part and parcel
+of the place wherein it was wrought; that the leaves of the trees
+should whisper it to the winds of evening; that the echoes of the
+lonely hills should repeat it; that the waters should sigh a burthen
+to its strain; and that the very night should assume a deeper shadow,
+a more horrid gloom, from the awe of the unforgotten sin.
+
+I knew a place in my boyhood, thus haunted by the memory of strange
+crime; and whether it was merely the terrible romance of the story, or
+the wild and gloomy character of the scenery endowed with a sort of
+natural fitness to be the theatre of terrible events, or yet again the
+union of the two, I know not; but it produced upon my mind a very
+powerful influence, amounting to a species of fascination, which
+constantly attracted me to the spot, although when there, the weight
+of the tradition, and the awe of the scene produced a sense of actual
+pain.
+
+The place to which I allude was but a few miles distant from the
+celebrated public school, at which I passed the happiest days of a not
+uneventful life, and was within an easy walk of the college limits; so
+that when I had attained that favored eminence, known as the sixth
+form, which allows its happy occupants to roam the country, free from
+the fear of masters, provided only they attend at appointed hours, it
+was my frequent habit to stroll away from the noisy playing-fields
+through the green hedgerow lanes, or to scull my wherry over the
+smooth surface of the silver Thames, toward the scene of dark
+tradition; and there to lap myself in thick coming fancies, half sad,
+half sweet, yet terrible withal, and in their very terror attractive,
+until the call of the homeward rooks, and the lengthened shadows of
+the tall trees on the greensward, would warn me that I too must hie me
+back with speed, or pay the penalty of undue delay.
+
+Now, as the story has in itself, apart from the extraneous interest
+with which a perfect acquaintance with its localities may have
+invested it in my eyes, a powerful and romantic character; as its
+catastrophe was no less striking than un-English; and as the passions
+which gave rise to it were at once the strongest and the most
+general--though rarely prevailing, at least among us Anglo-Normans, to
+so fearful an extent--I am led to hope that others may find in it
+something that may enchain their attention for a time, though it may
+not affect them as it has me with an influence, unchanged by change of
+scene, unaltered by the lapse of time, which alters all things.
+
+I propose, therefore, to relate it, as I heard it first from an old
+superannuated follower of the family, which, owning other, though not
+fairer demesnes in some distant county, had never more used
+Ditton-in-the-Dale as their dwelling place, although well nigh two
+centuries had elapsed since the transaction which had scared them away
+from their polluted household gods.
+
+But first, I must describe briefly the characteristics of the scenery,
+without which a part of my tale would be hardly comprehensible, while
+the remarkable effect produced by the coincidence, if I may so express
+myself, between the nature of the deed, and the nature of the place,
+would be lost entirely.
+
+In the first place, then, I must premise that the name of
+Ditton-in-the-Dale is in a great measure a misnomer, as the house and
+estate which bear that name, are situated on what a visiter would be
+at first inclined to call a dead level, but on what is in truth a
+small secondary undulation, or hollow, in the broad, flat valley
+through which the father of the English rivers, the royal-towered
+Thames, pursues, as Gray sang,
+
+ The turf, the flowers, the shades among,
+ His silver-winding way.
+
+But so destitute is all that country of any deep or well defined
+valleys, much less abrupt glens or gorges, that any hollow containing
+a tributary stream, which invariably meanders in slow and sluggish
+reaches through smooth, green meadow-land, is dignified with the name
+of dale, or valley. The country is, however, so much intersected by
+winding lanes, bordered with high straggling white-thorn hedges full
+of tall timber trees, is subdivided into so many small fields, all
+enclosed with similar fences, and is diversified with so many woods,
+and clumps of forest trees, that you lose sight of the monotony of its
+surface, in consequence of the variety of its vegetation, and of the
+limited space which the eye can comprehend, at any one time.
+
+The lane by which I was wont to reach the demesne of Ditton, partook
+in an eminent degree of this character, being very narrow, winding
+about continually without any apparent cause, almost completely
+embowered by the tall hawthorn hedges, and the yet taller oaks and
+ashes which grew along their lines, making, when in full verdure,
+twilight of noon itself, and commanding no view whatever of the
+country through which it ran, except when a field-gate, or cart-track
+opened into it, affording a glimpse of a lonely meadow, bounded,
+perhaps, by a deep wood-side.
+
+On either hand of this lane was a broad, deep ditch, both of them
+quite unlike any other ditches I have ever seen. Their banks were
+irregular; and it would seem evident that they had not been dug for
+any purposes of fencing or enclosure; and I have sometimes imagined,
+from their varying width and depth--for in places they were ten feet
+deep, and three times as broad, and at others but a foot or two
+across, and containing but a few inches of water--that their beds had
+been hollowed out to get marl or gravel for the convenience of the
+neighboring cultivators.
+
+Be this as it may, they were at all times brimful of the clearest and
+most transparent water I ever remember to have seen--never turbid even
+after the heaviest rains; and though bordered by water-flags, and
+tapestried in many places by the broad, round leaves of the white and
+yellow water-lilies, never corrupted by a particle of floating scum,
+or green duckweed.
+
+Whether they were fed by secret springs I know not; or whether they
+communicated by sluices or side-drains with the neighboring Thames; I
+never could discover any current or motion in their still, glassy
+waters, though I have wandered by their banks a hundred times,
+watching the red-finned roach and silvery dace pursue each other among
+the shadowy lily leaves, now startling a fat yellow frog from the
+marge, and following him as he dived through the limpid blackness to
+the very bottom, now starting in my own turn, as a big water-rat would
+swim from side to side, and vanish in some hole of the marly bank, and
+now endeavoring to catch the great azure-bodied, gauze-winged
+dragon-flies, as they shot to and fro on their poised wings, pursuing
+kites of the insect race, some of the smaller ephemera.
+
+It was those quiet, lucid waters, coupled with the exceeding shadiness
+of the trees, and its very unusual solitude--I have walked it, I
+suppose, from end to end at least a hundred times, and I never
+remember to have met so much even as a peasant returning from his
+daily labor, or a country maiden tripping to the neighboring
+town--that gave its character, and I will add, its charm to this half
+pastoral, half sylvan lane. For nearly three miles it ran in one
+direction, although, as I have said, with many devious turns, and
+seemingly unnecessary angles, and through that length it did not pass
+within the sound of one farm-yard, or the sight of one cottage
+chimney. But to make up for this, of which it was, indeed, a
+consequence, the nightingales were so bold and familiar that they
+might be heard all day long filling the air with their delicious
+melodies, not waiting, as in more frequented spots, the approach of
+night, whose dull ear to charm with amorous ravishment; nay, I have
+seen them perched in full view on the branches, gazing about them
+fearless with their full black eyes, and swelling their emulous
+throats in full view of the spectator.
+
+Three miles passed, the lane takes a sudden turn to the northward,
+having previously run, for the most part, east and west; and here, in
+the inner angle, jutting out suddenly from a dense thicket of
+hawthorns and hazels, an old octagonal summer-house, with a roof
+shaped like an extinguisher, projects into the ditch, which here
+expands into a little pool, some ten or twelve yards over in every
+direction, and perhaps deeper than at any other point of its course.
+
+Beyond the summer-house there is a little esplanade of green turf,
+faced with a low wall toward the ditch, allowing the eye to run down a
+long, narrow avenue of gigantic elm-trees, meeting at the top in the
+perfect semblance of a Gothic aisle, and bordered on each hand by
+hedges of yew, six feet at least in height, clipped into the form and
+almost into the solidity of a wall. At the far end of this avenue,
+which must be nearly two-thirds of a mile in length, one can discern a
+glimpse of a formal garden, and beyond that, of some portion of what
+seems to be a large building of red brick.
+
+At the extremity of the esplanade and little wall, there grows an
+enormous oak, not very tall, but with an immense girth of trunk, and
+such a spread of branches that it completely overshadows the
+summer-house, and overhangs the whole surface of the small pool in
+front of it. Thenceforth, the tall and tangled hedge runs on, as usual
+denying all access of the eye, and the deep, clear ditch all access of
+the foot, to the demesnes within; until at the distance of perhaps a
+mile and a quarter, a little bridge crosses the latter, and a green
+gate, with a pretty rustic lodge beside it, gives entrance to a smooth
+lawn, with a gravel-road running across it, and losing itself on the
+farther side, in a thick belt of woodland.
+
+It is, however, with the summer-house that I have to do principally,
+for it is to it that the terror of blood has clung through the lapse
+of years, as the scent of the Turkish Atar is said to cling,
+indestructible, to the last fragment of the vessel which had once
+contained it.
+
+When first I saw that small lonely pavilion, I had heard nothing of
+the strange tradition which belonged to it, yet as I looked on the
+plastered walls, all covered with spots of damp and mildew, on the
+roof overrun with ivy, in masses so wildly luxuriant as almost to
+conceal the shape, on the windows, one in each side of the octagon,
+closed by stout jalousies, which had been once green with paint, but
+were now green with damp and vegetable mould, a strange feeling, half
+of curiosity and half of terror, came over me, mixed with that
+singular fascination of which I have spoken, which seemed to deny me
+any rest until I should have searched out the mystery--for I felt sure
+that mystery there was--connected with that summer-house, so desolate
+and so fast lapsing into ruin, while the hedges and gardens within
+appeared well cared for, and in trim cultivation.
+
+I well remember the first time I beheld that lonely and deserted
+building. It was near sunset, on as lovely a summer evening as ever
+shed its soft light on the earth; the air was breathless; the sky
+cloudless; thousands of swallows were upon the wing, some skimming the
+limpid surface of those old ditches, others gliding on balanced
+pinions so far aloft in the darkening firmament that the eye could
+barely discern them.
+
+The nightingales were warbling their rich, melancholy notes from every
+brake and thicket; the bats had come forth and were flitting to and
+fro on their leathern wings under the dark trees; but the brilliant
+dragon-flies, and all the painted tribe of butterflies had vanished
+already, and another race, the insects of the night, had taken their
+places.
+
+The rich scent of the new-mown hay loaded the air with fragrance, and
+vied with the odors of the eglantine and honeysuckle, which, increased
+by the falling dew, steamed up like incense to the evening skies.
+
+I was alone, and thoughtful; for the time although sweet and
+delicious, had nothing in it gay or joyous; the lane along which I was
+strolling was steeped in the fast increasing shadows, for although the
+air aloft was full of sunshine, and the topmost leaves of the tall
+ashes shimmered like gold in the late rays, not a single beam
+penetrated the thick hedgerows, or fell upon the sandy horse-road. The
+water in the deep ditches looked as black as night, and the plunge of
+the frogs into their cool recesses startled the ear amid the solitude
+and stillness of the place.
+
+It was one of those evenings, in a word, which calls up, we know not
+why, a train of thought not altogether sad, nor wholly tender, but
+calm and meditative and averse to action. I had been wandering along
+thus for nearly an hour, musing deeply all the while, yet perfectly
+unconscious that I was musing, much more what was the subject of my
+meditations, when coming suddenly to the turn of the lane, the old
+summer-house met my eyes, and almost startled me, so little did I
+expect in that place to see any thing that should recall to my mind
+the dwellings or the vicinity of man.
+
+The next minute I began to scrutinize, and to wonder--for it was
+evident that this building must be an appendage to the estate of some
+gentleman or person of degree, and, knowing all the families of note
+in that neighborhood, I was well assured that no one dwelt here of
+sufficient position to be the owner of what appeared at first sight to
+be a noble property.
+
+Anxious as I was, however, to effect my entrance into that enchanted
+ground, I could discover no means of doing so; for the depth of the
+water effectually cut off all access to the hedgerow banks, even if
+there had been any prospect of forcing a passage through the tangled
+thorn-bushes beyond. Before I could find any solution to my problem,
+the fast thickening shadows admonished me that I must beat my retreat;
+and it was only by dint of redoubled speed that I reached college in
+time to escape the consequences of absence from roll-call.
+
+An early hour of the evening found me at my post on the following day;
+for having a direct object now in view, I wasted no time on the road,
+and the sun was still some distance above the horizon, when I reached
+the summer-house.
+
+It had been my hope, as I went along, that I might find some shallow
+spot, with a corresponding gap in the hedge, before reaching the
+place, by means of which I might turn the defences, and take the enemy
+in the rear; but it was all in vain; and I came upon the ground
+without discovering any opening by which an animal larger than a rat
+could enter the forbidden ground.
+
+Difficulty, it is well known, heightens desire; and, if I wished
+before, I was now determined that I would get in. Quickening my pace,
+I set off at a smart run to reconnoitre the defences beyond, but
+having found nothing that favored my plans, in some half mile or so, I
+again returned, now bent on forcing my way, even if I should be
+compelled to undress, and swim across the pool to the further side.
+
+Before having recourse to this last step, however, I reconnoitered my
+ground somewhat more narrowly than before, and soon discovered that
+one of the main limbs of the great oak shot quite across the pool, and
+extended some little distance on my side over terra firma.
+
+It is true that the nearer extremity of the branch was rather of the
+slenderest, to support the weight even of a boy, and that the lowest
+point was a foot or two above my head. But what of that? I was young
+and active in those days, and somewhat bold withal; and without a
+spice of danger, where were the pleasure or excitement of adventure?
+
+It did not take me long to make up my mind, and before I had well
+thought of the risk, I had swung myself up into the branches, and was
+creeping, with even less difficulty than I had anticipated, along the
+great gnarled bough above the mirrored pool.
+
+Danger, in fact, there was none; for slender as the extremities
+appeared, they were tough English oak, and the parent branch once
+gained, would have supported the weight of Otus and Ephialtes, and all
+their giant crew, much more of one slight Etonian.
+
+In five minutes, or less, I had reached the fork of the trunk, and,
+swarming down on the further side, stood in the full fruition of my
+hopes, on that enchanted ground.
+
+It was as I had expected to find it, a singular and gloomy spot; the
+tall elm trees which formed the avenue, and the black wall of clipped
+yew, which followed their course, diverging to the right and left,
+formed a semicircle, the chord of which was the low wall and hawthorn
+hedge, the summer-house standing, as I entered, in the angle on my
+left hand.
+
+Although, as I have said, the sun was still high in heaven, the little
+area was almost dark already; and it was difficult, indeed, to
+conjecture for what end the wisdom of our ancestors had planted a
+sun-dial in the centre of the grass-plat, where it seemed physically
+impossible that a chance sunbeam should ever strike it, to tell the
+hour.
+
+If it had not been for the narrow open space between the oak tree and
+the summer-house, the little lawn would even now have been as black as
+night; as it was, a sort of misty-gray twilight, increased, perhaps,
+by the thin vapors rising from the tranquil pool, filled all its
+precincts; and beyond these, stretching away in long perspective until
+the arch at the further end seemed dwindled to the size of a needle's
+eye, was the long aisle of gloomy foliage, as massive and impenetrable
+to any ray of light as the stone arches of a Gothic cloister.
+
+The only thing that conveyed an idea of gayety or life, to the cold
+and tomb-like scenery, was the glimpse of bright sunshine which lay on
+the open garden at the extremity of the elm-walk, with the gaudy and
+glowing hues, indistinctly seen in the distance, of some summer
+flowers.
+
+Yet even this was not all unmixed with something of melancholy, for
+the contrast of the gay sunbeams and bright flowers only rendered the
+gloom more apparent, and like a convent-garden, seemed to awaken
+cravings after the joyous world without, diminishing nothing of the
+sorrow and monotony within.
+
+But I was not in those days much given to moralizing, or to the
+investigation of my own inward feelings.
+
+I had come thither to inquire, to see, to learn, to find out
+things--not causes. And perceiving at one glance that my first
+impression was correct, that the grass-plots were recently mown, the
+gravel-walks newly rolled, and spotless of weeds, the tall yew hedges
+assiduously clipped into the straightest and most formal lines; that
+every thing, in short, displayed the most heedful tendance, the
+neatest cultivation, with the exception of the summer-pavilion, which
+evidently was devoted to decay, I became but the more satisfied that
+there was some mystery, and the more resolute to probe it to the core.
+
+It was quite clear that when that garden was laid out, and that avenue
+planted, how many years ago the giant size of the old elms denoted,
+the summer-house was the meaning of the whole design. The avenue had
+no object but to lead to it, the little lawn no purpose but to receive
+it. Doubly strange, therefore, did it seem that these should be kept
+up in all their trimness, that suffered to fall into decay.
+
+It was the tragedy of Hamlet, with Hamlet's part omitted!
+
+I stood for a little while wondering, and half overcome by a sort of
+indescribable fanciful superstition. A cloud had come over the sun,
+the nightingales had ceased to sing, and there was not a sound of any
+kind to be heard, except the melancholy murmur of the summer air in
+the tree-tops.
+
+In a moment, however, the transitory spell was shaken off, and, once
+more the bold and reckless schoolboy, I turned to the performance of
+my self-imposed task.
+
+The summer-house, as I have said, was octagon, three of its sides,
+with a window in each, jutting out into the clear pool, and three,
+with a door in the centre, and a window on each side, fronting the
+little lawn. But, alas! the windows were all secured with jalousies,
+strongly bolted and barred from within, and the door was secured by a
+lock, the key of which was absent.
+
+A short examination showed, however, that the door was held by no
+bolts at the top or bottom; and the rusty condition of both lock and
+hinges rendered it probable that it would not stand a very violent
+assault.
+
+Wherefore, retreating some twenty paces, I ran at it _more Etonensi_,
+at the top of my speed, planted the sole of my foot even and square
+against the key-hole, with the whole impetus of my charge, and had the
+satisfaction of feeling the door fly open in an instant, while a
+jingling clatter within showed that my entrance had been effected with
+no greater damage to the premises than the starting of the staple into
+which the bolt of the lock shot.
+
+Having entered thus, my first task was to repair damages, which was
+effected in five minutes, by driving the staple into its old place by
+aid of a great stone; my second, to provide means for future visits,
+which was as speedily managed by driving back the bolt of the lock
+with the same great stone; and my third, to look eagerly and curiously
+about me. To do this more effectually, I soon opened the two windows
+looking upon the lawn, and let in the light, for the first time, I
+fancy, in many a year, to that deserted room.
+
+If I had marveled much before I entered, much more did I marvel now;
+for although every thing within showed marks of the utmost negligence
+and decay, though spiders had woven their webs in every angle, though
+mildew and damp mould had defaced the painted walls, though the
+gilding was black and tarnished, though the dust lay thick on the
+furniture, still I had never seen any thing in my life, except the
+state-rooms at Hampton Court and Windsor Castle, which could have vied
+with this pavilion in the splendor of its original decoration.
+
+Its area was about thirty feet in diameter, and in height nearly the
+same, with a domed roof, richly fretted with what had once been golden
+scroll-work upon an azure ground. The walls were painted, as even _I_
+could discover, by the hand of a master, with copies from Guido and
+Caracci, in compartments bordered with massive gilded scroll-work, the
+ground between the panels having been originally, like the ceiling, of
+bright azure. The window-frames had been gilded; and the inside of the
+door painted, like the walls, in azure, with pictures of high merit in
+the panels. Every side of the octagon but two, the opposite walls to
+the right and left, were occupied by windows or a door; but that to
+the right was filled by a mantel-piece, exquisitely wrought with
+Caryatides in white Carrara marble, with a copy of the Aurora above
+it, while the space opposite to it had been occupied by a superb
+mirror, reaching from the cornice of the ceiling.
+
+Nearly in the centre of this mirror, however, there was a small
+circular fracture, as if made by a stone or a bullet, with long cracks
+radiating, like the beams of a star, in all directions over the
+shivered plate; and when I looked at it more closely, I observed that
+it was dashed in many places with large drops of some dark purple
+fluid, which had hardened with time into compact and solid gouts.
+
+I thought little of this at the time, and only wondered why people
+could be so mad as to abandon so beautiful a place; and why, since
+they had abandoned it, they did not remove the furniture, of which
+even a boy's eye could detect the value.
+
+There was a centre-table of circular form, the pedestal of which,
+curiously carved, had been wrought, like all the rest, in gold and
+azure, while the slat, when I had wiped away with some fresh green
+leaves the thick layer of dust which covered it, positively astonished
+my eyes, by the delicacy and beauty of the designs with which it was
+adorned. Beside this, there were divans and arm-chairs of the same
+fashion and colors, with cushions which had been once of sky-blue
+damask, though their brilliancy, and even their hues, had long ago
+been defaced by the dust, the dampness, and the squalor of that
+neglected place.
+
+I should have mentioned, that on the beautiful table I discovered
+gouts of the same dark substance which I had previously observed on
+the broken mirror: and that there were still clearly perceptible on
+one of the divans, dark splashes, and what must, when fluid, have been
+almost a pool of the same deep, rusty hue.
+
+At the time, it is true, I paid little attention to these things,
+being busily employed in the boy-like idea of putting my newly
+discovered palace of Armida into a complete state of repair, and
+coming to pass all my leisure moments, even to the studying my
+Prometheus Bound, and composing my weekly hexameters and Alcaics in
+this sweet sequestered spot.
+
+And, in truth, within a week I had put the greater part of my plan
+into execution; purloined dusters from my dame's boarding-house, green
+boughs of the old elms for brooms, and water from the ditch, soon made
+things clean at least; and the air, which I suffered, so long as I was
+there, daily, to blow through it in all directions, soon rendered it,
+comparatively speaking, dry and comfortable; and when all its windows
+were thrown wide, it would be scarcely possible to find a more
+lightsome or delicious spot for summer musing than that old English
+summer-house.
+
+Thus things went on for weeks, for months, unsuspected--for I always
+latched the door, and secured the windows from within, before leaving
+my fairy palace for the night; and as all looked just as usual
+without, no one so much as dreamed of trying the lock, to ascertain if
+a door were still fastened, the threshhold of which, as men believed,
+no human foot had crossed since the days of the second James.
+
+I could often, it is true, discover the traces of recent labor in the
+immediate neighborhood of my discovery; I could perceive at a glance
+where the grass had been newly shorn, the yew hedges clipped, or the
+gravel-walks rolled, but never, in the course of several months,
+during which I spent every fine evening, either reading, or musing, or
+composing my boy verses, in that my enchanted castle--for I began
+really to consider it almost my own--did I see any human being on the
+premises.
+
+The cause of this, which I did not suspect until it was revealed to
+me, after chance had discovered my visits to the place, was simply
+this, that my intrusions were confined solely to the evening,
+whereas, so great was the awe of the servants and the workmen for that
+lonely and terror-haunted spot, that nothing short of absolute
+compulsion, or the strongest necessity, would have induced them to go
+near the place, after the sun had turned downward from the zenith.
+
+In the meantime, gratified by the complete success of my first inroad,
+and the possession of my first discovery, I felt no inclination to
+push my advances further, or to make any incursion into the body of
+the place.
+
+Every evening, as early as I could escape from the college walls, I
+was at my post, and lingered there as late as college hours would
+permit. It was a strange fancy in a boy, and stranger yet than would
+at first appear in this, that there was a very considerable admixture
+of something nearly approaching to fear, and that of a painful kind,
+in the feelings which made me so assiduous in my visits to that old
+pavilion.
+
+There was, it is true, nothing definite in my fancies. I knew nothing,
+I cannot say even that I suspected any thing, concerning the
+mysterious closing of the place; and often, since I have been made
+acquainted with the tale, I have marveled at my own obtuseness, and
+wondered that a secret so transparent should have escaped me.
+
+So it was, however, that I suspected nothing, although I felt sure
+that mystery there was; and being of somewhat an imaginative temper, I
+used to amuse myself by accounting for it in my own mind, weaving all
+sorts of strange and wild romances, and inventing the most horrible
+stories that can be conceived, until, as the shadows would fall dark
+around me, daunted by my own conceptions, I would make all secure and
+fast with trembling fingers, swing myself back across over the pool by
+my accustomed oak-branch, and run home as hard as my legs could carry
+me, haunted by indistinct and almost superstitious horror.
+
+Thus things went on, until at the end of summer I was at last detected
+in my stolen visits, and the whole mystery was cleared up.
+
+I remember as clearly as if I heard it now, the exclamation of terror
+and dismay uttered by the old gardener, who, having left some
+implement behind him on the lawn during the morning labors, had been
+forced to bend his unwilling steps back to the haunted ground to
+recover it.
+
+I could not but smile afterward, when he recounted to me his
+astonishment and terror at seeing the old summer-house, which never
+had been opened within the memory of man, with all its windows wide to
+the free air and evening sunshine--when he told me how often he turned
+back to seek aid from his fellows--how he almost believed that fiends
+or evil spirits were holding their foul sabbath there, and how he
+started aghast with horror, not now for himself, but for me, as he
+beheld the young Etonian stretched tranquilly upon the blood-stained
+couch--for those dark stains were of human gore--conning his task for
+the morrow.
+
+I rushed out of the place at his hurried outcry; a few words told my
+story, and plead my excuse--with the good, simple-minded rustic little
+excuse was needed--but it was not till after many sittings, and many a
+long afternoon's discourse, that I learned all the details of the sad
+event which had converted that fair pavilion into a place as terrible,
+to the ideas of the country folks, as a dark charnel-vault.
+
+"Ay!" said the old man, as he gazed fearfully about him, after I had
+persuaded him at length to cross the dreaded threshhold, "Ay! it is
+all as they tell, though not a man of them has ever seen it. There is
+the glass which the bullet broke, after passing right through his
+brain; and there is his blood, all spattered on the mirror. And look,
+young master, those spots on the table came from _her_ heart; and that
+couch you was lying on, is where they laid her when they took her up.
+See, it's all dabbled yet; and where your head was resting now, the
+dead girl's head lay, more than a hundred years since! Come away,
+master--come away! I never thought to have looked on these things,
+though I know all about them."
+
+"Oh, tell me--tell me about them!" I exclaimed. "I am not a bit
+afraid. Do tell me all about them."
+
+"Not now--not now--nor not here," said the old man, gazing about as if
+he expected to see a spirit stalk out of some shady nook of the
+surrounding trees. "I would not tell you here to be master of all
+Ditton-in-the-Dale! But come up, if you will, to the great house
+to-morrow, and ask for old Matthew Dawson, and I'll show you all the
+place--the family never lives here now, nor hasn't since that deed was
+done--and then I'll tell you all about it, if you must hear. But if
+you're wise, you'll shun it; for it will chill your young blood to
+listen, and cling to your young heart with a gloom forever."
+
+"Oh, I will come, be sure, Matthew! I would not miss it for the world.
+But it is getting late, so I'll fasten up the old place, and be
+going;" and suiting the action to the word, I soon secured the
+fastenings, while the old gardener stood by, marvelling and muttering
+at the boldness of young blood, until I had finished setting things in
+order, when I shook hands with the old man, slipping my _one_ half
+crown into his horny palm, and saying,
+
+"Well, good night, Matthew Dawson, and don't forget to-morrow
+evening."
+
+"That I wont, master," he replied, greatly propitiated by my offering.
+"But which way are you going?"
+
+"Oh, I'll soon show you," I replied; and swinging myself up my tree, I
+was beyond the precincts of the haunted ground almost in a moment.
+
+"The very way _he_ came the time he did it," cried the old gardener,
+with upturned hands, and eyes aghast. But I tarried then to ask no
+further questions, being quite sufficiently terrified for one night;
+although my pride forbade my displaying my terrors to the old rustic.
+
+The next day I was punctual to my appointment; and then, for the first
+time, I heard the melancholy tale which, at length, I purpose to
+relate.
+
+It was a proud and noble Norman family which had held the demesnes of
+Ditton-in-the-Dale, since the reign of the last Plantagenet--a brave
+and loyal race, which had poured its blood like water on many a
+foreign, many a native battle-field. At Evesham, a Fitz-Henry had
+fought beside Prince Edward's bridle-rein, against the great De
+Montfort, and his confederate barons; and afterward through all the
+long and cruel wars of the Roses, on every field a Fitz-Henry had won
+honor or lost blood, upholding the claims of the true sovereign
+house--the house of York--until at fatal Bosworth the house itself
+went down, and dragged down with it the fortunes of its bold
+supporters.
+
+Thereafter, during the reign of the Tudors, the name of Fitz-Henry was
+heard rarely in the court, or on the field; impoverished in fortune by
+fines and sequestrations, suspected of disloyalty to the now sovereign
+house, the heads of the family had wisely held themselves aloof from
+intrigue and conspiracy, and dwelt among their yeomen, who had in old
+times been their fathers' vassals, stanch lovers of field-sports, true
+English country gentlemen, seeking the favor and fearing the ill-will
+of no man--no, not of England's king.
+
+Attached to the old religion, though neither bigots nor zealots, they
+had escaped the violence of bluff Harry, when he turned Protestant for
+Bullen's eyes; and had, though something to leeward of her favor, as
+lukewarm Romanists and no lovers of the Spaniard, passed safely
+through the ordeal of Mary's cruel reign.
+
+But with the accession of the man-minded Elizabeth, the fortunes of
+the house revived for a while. It was the policy of that great and
+gracious queen to gather around her all that were brave, honest, and
+manly in her realm, without regard to family creeds, or family
+traditions. Claiming descent as much from one as from the other of the
+rival houses of Lancaster and York, loyalty to the one was no more
+offence to her clear eyes than good faith to the other. While loyalty
+to what he honestly believed to be the true sovereign house, was the
+strongest recommendation to her favor in each and every subject.
+
+The Fitz-Henry, therefore, of her day, a young and gallant soldier,
+who visited the shores of the New World with Cavendish and Raleigh,
+fought for his native land, although a Catholic, against the terrible
+armada of the Most Catholic King, with Drake, and Frobisher and
+Howard, waged war in the Low Countries, and narrowly missed death at
+Tutphen by Philip Sidney's side, stood as high in the favor of his
+queen as in the estimation of all good and honorable men. It is true,
+when the base and odious James succeeded to the throne of the
+lion-queen, and substituted mean and loathsome king-craft for frank
+and open English policy, the gray-haired soldier, navigator,
+statesman--for he had shone in each capacity--retired, as his
+ancestors had done before him, during the reigns of the seventh and
+eighth Henrys, to the peaceful shades and innocent pleasures of
+Ditton-in-the-Dale.
+
+So true, however, was he to the time-honored principles of his high
+race, so loyally did he bring up his son, so firmly did he strengthen
+his youthful mind with all maxims, and all laws of honor, linking the
+loyal subject to the rightful king, that no sooner had the troubles
+broken out between the misguided monarch and his rebellious
+Parliament--although the veteran of Elizabeth had fallen asleep long
+before, full of years and honors--than his young heir, Osborn
+Fitz-Henry, displayed the cognizance of his old house, mustered his
+tenantry, and set foot in stirrup, well nigh the first, to withdraw it
+the very last, of the adherents of the hapless Charles. So long did he
+resist in arms, so pertinaciously did he uphold the authority of the
+first Charles, so early did he rise again in behalf of the second,
+that he was noted by the Parliament as an incorrigible and most
+desperate malignant; and, had it not been that, by his gallantry in
+the field, and his humanity when the strife was ended, he had won the
+personal good-will of Cromwell, it is most likely that it would have
+gone hard with his fortunes if not with his life.
+
+After the restoration, he was of course neglected by the fiddling,
+gambling, wenching, royal buffoon, who succeeded the royal martyr, and
+whose necessities he had supplied, when an outcast pauper exile in a
+foreign land, from the proceeds of those very estates which he had so
+nearly lost in fighting for his crown.
+
+Osborn Fitz-Henry, too, was gathered to his fathers. He died little
+advanced beyond the prime of life, worn out with the toil he had
+undergone in the camp, and shattered by the wounds which he had
+received on almost every battle-field from Edge-Hill to Dunbar and
+Worcester.
+
+He had, however, married very young, before the breaking out of the
+rebellion, and had lived to see not his son only a noble and superior
+man, ready to fill his place when vacant, and in it uphold the honor
+of his family, but his son's children also advancing fast toward
+maturity.
+
+Allan Fitz-Henry, the son of Charles' stout partisan, the grandson of
+Elizabeth's warrior, was the head of the house, when my tale
+commences.
+
+He, too, had married young--such, indeed, was the custom of his
+house--and had survived his wife, by whom he had two fair daughters,
+but no heir; and this was a source of vexation so constantly present
+to his mind, that in the end it altered the whole disposition of the
+man, rendering him irritable, harsh, stern, unreasonable, and unhappy.
+
+Fondly attached to the memory of his lost wife, whom he had loved
+devotedly while living, it never entered his mind to marry a second
+time, even with the hope of begetting an heir by whom to perpetuate
+the honors and principles of his house; although he was continually on
+the fret--miserable himself, and making others miserable, in
+consequence of the certainty that he should be the last of his race.
+
+His only hope was now centered in his daughters, or to speak more
+correctly, in his eldest daughter--for her he had determined to
+constitute his heiress, endowing her with all his landed property, all
+his heirlooms, all that could constitute her the head of his house; in
+return for which he had predetermined that she should become the wife
+of some husband of his own choosing, who should unite to a pedigree
+as noble as that of the Howards, all qualifications which should fit
+him to represent the house into which he should be adopted; and who
+should be willing to drop his own paternal name and bearings, how
+ancient and noble soever, in order to adopt the style and the arms of
+Fitz-Henry.
+
+Proud by nature, by blood, and by education--though with a clear and
+honorable pride--he had been rendered a thousand times prouder and
+more haughty by the very circumstances which seemed to threaten a
+downfall to the fortunes of his house--his house, which had survived
+such desperate reverses; which had come out of every trial, like pure
+gold, the better and the brighter from the furnace--his house, which
+neither the ruin of friendly monarchs, nor the persecutions of hostile
+monarchs, nor the neglect of ungrateful monarchs, had been able to
+shake, any more than the autumnal blasts, or the frosts of winter, had
+availed to uproot the oak trees of his park, coeval with his name.
+
+In the midst of health and wealth, honor and good esteem, with an
+affectionate family, and a devoted household around him, Allan
+Fitz-Henry fancied himself a most unhappy man--perhaps the most
+unhappy of mankind.
+
+Alas! was it to punish such vain, such sinful, such senseless, and
+inordinate repinings?
+
+Who shall presume to scrutinize the judgments, or pry into the secrets
+of the Inscrutable?
+
+This much alone is certain, that ere he was gathered to his fathers,
+Allan Fitz-Henry might, and that not unjustly, have termed himself
+that, which now, in the very wantonness of pampered and insatiate
+success he swore that he was daily--the most unhappy of the sons of
+men.
+
+For to calamities so dreadful as might have disturbed the reason of
+the strongest minded, remorse was added, so just, so terrible, so
+overwhelming, that men actually marveled how he lived on and was not
+insane.
+
+But I must not anticipate.
+
+It was a short time after the failure of the Duke of Monmouth's weak
+and ungrateful attempt at revolution, a short time after the
+conclusion of the merciless and bloody butcheries of that disgrace to
+the English ermine, the ferocious Jefferies, that the incidents
+occurred, which I learned first on the evening subsequent to my
+discovery in the fatal summer-house.
+
+At this time Allan Fitz-Henry--it was a singular proof, by the way, of
+the hereditary pride of this old Norman race, that having numbered
+among them so many friends and counsellors of monarchs, no one of
+their number had been found willing to accept titular honors, holding
+it a higher thing to be the premier gentleman than the junior peer of
+England--At this time, I say, Allan Fitz-Henry was a man of some
+forty-five or fifty years, well built and handsome, of courtly air and
+dignified presence; nor must it be imagined that in his fancied
+grievances he forgot to support the character of his family, or that
+he carried his griefs abroad with him into the world.
+
+At times, indeed, he might be a little grave and thoughtful,
+especially at such times as he heard mention made of the promise or
+success of this or that scion of some noble house; but it was only
+within his own family circle, and to his most familiar friends, that
+he was wont to open his heart, and complain of his ill-fortune, at
+being the first childless father of his race--for so, in his contempt
+for the poor girls, whom he still, strange contradiction! loved fondly
+and affectionately, he was accustomed in his dark hours to style
+himself; as if forsooth an heir male were the only offspring worthy to
+be called the child of such a house.
+
+Though he was fond, and gentle, and at times even tender to his
+motherless daughters--for, to do him justice, he never suffered a
+symptom of his disappointment and disgust to break out to their
+annoyance, yet was there no gleam of paternal satisfaction in his sad
+eye, no touch of paternal pride in his vexed heart, as he looked upon
+their graceful forms, and noted their growing beauties.
+
+And yet they were a pair of whom the haughtiest potentate on earth
+might have been proud, and with justice.
+
+Blanche and Agnes Fitz-Henry were at this time in their eighteenth and
+seventeenth years--but one summer having passed between their births,
+and their mother having died within a few hours after the latter saw
+the light.
+
+They were, indeed, as lovely girls as the sun of merry England shone
+upon; and in those days it was still _merry_ England, and famous then
+as now for the rare beauty of its women, whether in the first dawn of
+girlhood, or in the full-blown flush of feminine maturity.
+
+Both tall, above the middle height of women, both exquisitely formed,
+with figures delicate and slender, yet full withal, and voluptuously
+rounded, with the long taper hands, the small and shapely feet and
+ankles, the swan-like necks, and classic heads gracefully set on,
+which are held to denote, in all countries, the predominance of gentle
+blood; when seen at a distance, and judged by the person only, it
+would have been almost impossible to distinguish the elder from the
+younger sister.
+
+But look upon them face to face, and never, in all respects, were two
+girls of kindred race so entirely dissimilar. The elder, Blanche, was,
+as her name denotes, though ladies' names are oftentimes misnomers, a
+genuine English blonde. Her abundant and beautiful hair, trained to
+float down upon her snowy shoulders in silky masses of unstudied
+curls, was of the lightest golden brown. There was not a shade of red
+in its hues, although her complexion was of that peculiarly dazzling
+character which is common to red-haired persons; yet when the sun
+shone on its glistening waves, so brilliantly did the golden light
+flash from it, that you might almost have imagined there was a circlet
+of living glory above her clear white brow.
+
+Her eyebrows and eyelashes were many shades darker than her hair,
+relieving her face altogether from that charge of insipidity which is
+so often, and for the most part so truly, brought against fair-haired
+and fair-featured beauties. The eyes themselves, which those long
+lashes shrouded, were of the deepest violet blue; so deep, that at
+first sight you would have deemed them black, but for the soft and
+humid languor which is never seen in eyes of that color. The rest of
+her features were as near as possible to the Grecian model, except
+that there was a slight depression where the nose joins the brow,
+breaking that perfectly straight line of the classical face, which,
+however beautiful to the statue, is less attractive in life than the
+irregular outline of the northern countenance.
+
+Her mouth, with the exception of--perhaps I should rather say in
+conjunction with--her eyes, was the most lovely and expressive feature
+in her face. There were twin dimples at its corners; yet was not its
+expression one of habitual mirth, but of tenderness and softness
+rather, unmixed, although an anchorite might have been pardoned the
+wish to press his lips to its voluptuous curve, with the slightest
+expression of sensuality.
+
+Her complexion was, as I have said, dazzlingly brilliant; but it was
+the brilliance of the lily rather than of the rose, though at the
+least emotion, whether of pain or pleasure, the eloquent blood would
+rush, like the morning's glow over some snow-crowned Alp, across
+cheek, brow, and neck, and bosom, and vanish thence so rapidly, that
+ere you should have time to say, nay, even to think,
+
+ "Look! look how beautiful, 't was fled."
+
+Such was the elder beauty, the destined heiress of the ancient house,
+the promised mother of a line of sons, who should perpetuate the name
+and hand down the principles of the Fitz-Henries to far distant ages.
+Such were the musings of her father,
+
+ Proh! coeca mens mortalium!
+
+and at such times alone, if ever, a sort of doubtful pride would come
+to swell his hope, whispering that for such a creature, no man,
+however high or haughty, but would be willing to renounce the pride of
+birth, even untempted by the demesnes of Ditton-in-the-Dale, and many
+another lordly manor coupled to the time-honored name of Fitz-Henry.
+
+Her sister, Agnes, though not less beautiful than Blanche--and there
+were those who insisted that she was more so--was as different from
+her, in all but the general resemblance of figure and carriage, as
+night is from morning, or autumn from early summer-time.
+
+Her ringlets, not less profuse than Blanche's, and clustering in
+closer and more mazy curls, were as black as the raven's wing, and,
+like the feathers of the wild bird, were lighted up when the sun
+played on them with a sort of purplish and metallic gloss, that defies
+alike the pen of the writer, and the painter's pencil to depict to the
+eye.
+
+Her complexion, though soft and delicate, was of the very darkest hue
+that is ever seen in persons of unmixed European blood; so dark that
+the very blood which would mantle to her cheek at times in burning
+blushes, was shaded, as it were, with a darker hue, like damask roses
+seen through the medium of a gold-tinted window-pane.
+
+Her brows and lashes were as black as night, but, strange to say, the
+eyes that flashed from beneath them with an almost painful splendor,
+were of a clear, deep azure, less dark than those of the fairer
+sister, giving a singular and wild character to her whole face, and
+affecting the style of her beauty, but whether for the better or the
+worse it was for those who admired or shunned--and there were who took
+both parts--to determine. Her face was rounder and fuller than her
+sister's, and, in fact, this was true of her whole person--so much so
+that she was often mistaken for the elder--her features were less
+regular, her nose having a slight tendency to that form which has no
+name in our language, but which charmed all beholders in Roxana, as
+_retroussie_. Her mouth was as warm, as soft, as sweetly dimpled, but
+it was not free from that expression which Blanche's lacked
+altogether, and might have been blamed as too wooing and luxurious.
+
+Such were the various characters of the sisters' personal
+appearance--the characters of their mental attributes were as
+distinctly marked, and as widely different.
+
+Blanche was all gentleness and moderation from her very cradle--a
+delicate and tender child, smiling always, but rarely laughing; never
+boisterous or loud even in her childish plays. And as she grew older,
+this character became more definite, and was more strongly observed;
+she was a pensive, tranquil creature, not melancholy, much less
+sad--for she was awake to all that was beautiful or grand, all that
+was sweet or gentle in the face of nature, or in the history of man;
+and there was, perhaps, more real happiness concealed under her calm
+exterior, than is often to be found under the wilder mirth of merrier
+beings. Ever ready to yield her wishes to those of her friends or
+companions, many persons imagined that she had little will, and no
+fixed wishes, or deliberate aspirations--passionless and pure as the
+lily of the vale, many supposed that she was cold and heartless. Oh!
+ignorant! not to remember that the hearts of the fiercest volcanos
+boil still beneath a head of snow; and that it is even in the calmest
+and most moderate characters that passion once enkindled burns fierce,
+perennial and unquenchable! Thus far, however, had she advanced into
+the flower of fair maidenhood, undisturbed by any warmer dream than
+devoted affection toward her parent, whose wayward grief she could
+understand if she could not appreciate, and whom she strove by every
+gentle wile to wean from his morbid fancies; and earnest love toward
+her sister, whom she, indeed, almost adored--perhaps adored the more
+from the very difference of their minds, and for her very
+imperfections.
+
+For Agnes was all gay vivacity, and petulance, and fire--so that her
+young companions, who sportively named Blanche the icicle, had
+christened her the sunbeam; and, in truth, if the first name were ill
+chosen, the second seemed to be an inspiration; for like a sunbeam
+that touched nothing but to illuminate it, like a sunbeam she played
+with all things, smiled on all things in their turn--like a sunbeam
+she brought mirth with her presence, and after her departure, left a
+double gloom behind her.
+
+More dazzling than Blanche, she made her impression at first sight,
+and so long as the skies were clear, and the atmosphere unruffled, the
+sunbeam would continue to gild, to charm, to be worshiped. But if the
+time of darkness and affliction came, the gay sunbeam held aloof,
+while the poor icicle, melted from its seeming coldness, was ever
+ready to weep for the sorrows of those who had neglected her in the
+days of their happiness.
+
+Unused to yield, high-spirited when crossed, yet carrying off even her
+stubbornness and quick temper by the brilliancy, the wit, the lively
+and bold audacity which she cast around them, Agnes ruled in her
+circle an imperious and despotic queen; while her slaves, even as they
+trembled before her half sportive but emphatic frown, did not suspect
+the sceptre of the tyrant beneath the spell of the enchantress.
+
+Agnes, in one word, was the idol of the rich and gay; Blanche was the
+saint of the poor, the lowly, the sick, and those who mourn.
+
+It may be that the peculiarity of her position, the neglect which she
+had always experienced from her father, and mediately from the
+hirelings of the household, ever prompt to pander to the worst
+feelings of their superiors--the consciousness that born co-heiress
+with her sister, she was doomed to sink into the insignificance of an
+undowered and uncared-for girl, had tended in some degree to form the
+character which Agnes had ever borne, and which alone she had
+displayed, until the period when my tale commences.
+
+It may be that the consciousness of wrong endured, had hardened a
+heart naturally soft and tender, and rendered it unyielding and
+rebellious--it may be that injustice, endured at the hands of
+hirelings in early years, had engendered a spirit of resistance, and
+armed her mind and quickened her tongue against the world, which, as
+she fancied, wronged her. It may be, more than all, that a secret,
+perhaps an unconscious jealousy of her sister's superior advantages,
+not in the wretched sense of worldly wealth or position, but of the
+love and reverence of friends and kindred, had embittered her young
+soul, and caused her to cast over it a veil of light and wild
+demeanor, of free speech, and daring mirth, which had by degrees grown
+into habits, and become part and parcel of her nature.
+
+If it were so, however, there were no outward indications that such
+was the case; for never were there seen two sisters more united and
+affectionate--nor would it have been easy to say on which side the
+balance of kindness preponderated. For if Blanche was ever the first
+to cede to her sister's wishes, and the last, in any momentary
+disappointment or annoyance, to speak one quick or unkind word, so was
+Agnes, with her expressive features, and flashing eye, and ready,
+tameless wit, prompt as light to avenge the slightest reflection cast
+on Blanche's tranquillity and coldness; and if at times a quick word
+or sharp retort broke from her lips, and called a tear to the eye of
+her calmer sister, not a moment would elapse before she would cast
+herself upon her neck and weep her sincere contrition, and be for
+hours an altered being; until her natural spirit would prevail, and
+she would be again the wild, mirthful madcap, whose very faults could
+call forth no keener reproach than a grave and thoughtful smile from
+the lips of those who loved her the most dearly.
+
+Sad were the daughters of Allan Fitz-Henry--daughters whom not a peer
+in England but would have regarded as the brightest gems of his
+coronets, as the pride and ornament of his house; but whom, by a
+strange anomaly, their own father, full as he was of warm affections,
+and kindly inclinations, never looked upon but with a secret feeling
+of discontent and disappointment, that they were not other than they
+were: and with a half confessed conviction, that fair as they were,
+tender, and loving, graceful, accomplished, delicate and noble-minded,
+he could have borne to lay them both in the cold grave, so that a son
+could be given to the house, in exchange for their lost loveliness.
+
+In outward demeanor, however, he was to his children all that a father
+should be; a little querulous at times, perhaps, and irritable, but
+fond, though not doting, and considerate; and I have wandered greatly
+from my intention, if any thing that I have said has been construed to
+signify that there existed the slightest estrangement between the
+father and his children--for had Allan Fitz-Henry but suspected the
+possibility of such a thing, he had torn the false pride, like a
+venomous weed, from his heart, and had been a wiser and a happier man.
+In his case it was the blindness of the heart that caused its partial
+hardness; but events were at hand, that should flood it with the
+clearest light, and melt it to more than woman's tenderness.
+
+[_To be continued._
+
+
+
+
+SONNET TO GRAHAM.
+
+
+On, in thy mission! 'T is a holy power
+ That which thou wieldest o'er a people's heart:
+And wastes of mind, that never knew a flower,
+ Bloom now and brighten, 'neath thy magic art.
+Hearthstones are cheerful that were chill before;
+ And softened beams, like light that melteth through
+The stained glass of old cathedrals, pour
+ Stream upon stream of beauty. All that's true,
+All that is brave and beautiful, 't is thine--
+ High office, high and holy! thus to shed,
+Sun-like, and sole, in shadow or in shine,
+ Thoughts that bedew and rouse minds cold and dead,
+Startling the pulse that stirred not. This is thine!
+Be proudly humble: 't is a power divine!
+
+ _New Orleans, October_ 1, 1847. ALTUS.
+
+
+
+
+MARGINALIA
+
+BY EDGAR A. POE.
+
+We mere men of the world, with no principle--a very old-fashioned and
+cumbersome thing--should be on our guard lest, fancying him on his
+last legs, we insult, or otherwise maltreat some poor devil of a
+genius at the very instant of his putting his foot on the top round of
+his ladder of triumph. It is a common trick with these fellows, when
+on the point of attaining some long-cherished end, to sink themselves
+into the deepest possible abyss of seeming despair, for no other
+purpose than that of increasing the space of success through which
+they have made up their minds immediately to soar.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+All that the man of genius demands for his exaltation is moral matter
+in motion. It makes no difference _whither_ tends the motion--whether
+for him or against him--and it is absolutely of _no_ consequence
+"_what_ is the matter."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In Colton's "American Review" for October, 1845, a gentleman, well
+known for his scholarship, has a forcible paper on "The Scotch School
+of Philosophy and Criticism." But although the paper is "forcible," it
+presents the most singular admixture of error and truth--the one
+dovetailed into the other, after a fashion which is novel, to say the
+least of it. Were I to designate in a few words what the whole article
+demonstrated, I should say "the folly of not beginning at the
+beginning--of neglecting the giant Moulineau's advice to his friend
+Ram." Here is a passage from the essay in question:
+
+ "The Doctors [Campbell and Johnson] both charge
+ Pope with error and inconsistency:--error in
+ supposing that _in English_, of metrical lines
+ unequal in the number of syllables and pronounced
+ in equal times, the longer suggests celerity (this
+ being the principle of the
+ Alexandrine:)--inconsistency, in that Pope himself
+ uses the same contrivance to convey the contrary
+ idea of slowness. But why in English? It is not and
+ cannot be disputed that, in the Hexameter verse of
+ the Greeks and Latins--which is the model in this
+ matter--what is distinguished as the 'dactylic
+ line' was uniformly applied to express velocity.
+ How was it to do so? Simply from the fact of being
+ pronounced in an equal time with, while containing
+ a greater number of syllables or 'bars' than the
+ ordinary or average measure; as, on the other hand,
+ the spondaic line, composed of the minimum number,
+ was, upon the same principle, used to indicate
+ slowness. So, too, of the Alexandrine in English
+ versification. No, says Campbell, there is a
+ difference: the Alexandrine is not in fact, like
+ the dactylic line, pronounced in the common time.
+ But does this alter the principle? What is the
+ rationale of Metre, whether the classical hexameter
+ or the English heroic?"
+
+I have written an essay on the "Rationale of Verse," in which the
+whole topic is surveyed _ab initio_, and with reference to general and
+immutable principles. To this essay (which will soon appear) I refer
+Mr. Bristed. In the meantime, without troubling myself to ascertain
+whether Doctors Johnson and Campbell are wrong, or whether Pope is
+wrong, or whether the reviewer is right or wrong, at this point or at
+that, let me succinctly state what is _the truth_ on the topics at
+issue.
+
+And first; the same principles, in _all_ cases, govern _all_ verse.
+What is true in English is true in Greek.
+
+Secondly; in a series of lines, if one line contains more syllables
+than the law of the verse demands, and if, nevertheless, this line is
+pronounced in the same time, upon the whole, as the rest of the lines,
+then this line suggests celerity--on account of the increased rapidity
+of enunciation required. Thus in the Greek Hexameter the dactylic
+lines--those most abounding in dactyls--serve best to convey the idea
+of rapid motion. The spondaic lines convey that of slowness.
+
+Thirdly; it is a gross mistake to suppose that the Greek dactylic
+line is 'the model in this matter'--the matter of the English
+Alexandrine. The Greek dactylic line is of the same number of
+feet--bars--beats--pulsations--as the ordinary dactylic-spondaic lines
+among which it occurs. But the Alexandrine is longer by one foot--by
+one pulsation--than the pentameters among which it arises. For its
+pronunciation it demands _more time_, and therefore, _ceteris
+paribus_, it would well serve to convey the impression of length, or
+duration, and thus, indirectly, of slowness. I say _ceteris paribus_.
+But, by varying conditions, we can effect a total change in the
+impression conveyed. When the idea of slowness is conveyed by the
+Alexandrine, it is not conveyed by any slower enunciation of
+syllables--that is to say, it is not _directly_ conveyed--but
+indirectly, through the idea of _length_ in the whole line. Now, if we
+wish to convey, by means of an Alexandrine, the impression of
+velocity, we readily do so by giving rapidity to our enunciation of
+the syllables composing the several feet. To effect this, however, we
+must have _more_ syllables, or we shall get through the whole line too
+quickly for the intended time. To get more syllables, all we have to
+do, is to use, in place of iambuses, what our prosodies call
+anapoests.[1] Thus, in the line,
+
+ Flies o'er the unbending corn and skims along the main,
+
+the syllables '_the unbend_' form an anapoest and, demanding unusual
+rapidity of enunciation, in order that we may get them in in the
+ordinary time of an iambus, serve to suggest celerity. By the elision
+of _e_ in _the_, as is customary, the whole of the intended effect is
+lost; for _th'unbend_ is nothing more than the usual iambus. In a
+word, wherever an Alexandrine expresses celerity, we shall find it to
+contain one or more anapoests--the more anapoests, the more decided
+the impression. But the tendency of the Alexandrine consisting merely
+of the usual iambuses, is to convey slowness--although it conveys this
+idea feebly, on account of conveying it indirectly. It follows, from
+what I have said, that the common pentameter, interspersed with
+anapoests, would better convey celerity than the Alexandrine
+interspersed with them in a similar degree;--and it unquestionably
+does.
+
+[Footnote 1: I use the prosodial word "anapoest," merely because here
+I have no space to show what the reviewer will admit I have distinctly
+shown in the essay referred to--viz: that the additional syllable
+introduced, does _not_ make the foot an anapoest, or the equivalent of
+an anapoest, and that, if it did, it would spoil the line. On this
+topic, and on all topics connected with verse, there is not a prosody
+in existence which is not a mere jumble of the grossest error.]
+
+
+ * * * * *
+
+To converse well, we need the cool tact of talent--to talk well, the
+glowing _abandon_ of genius. Men of _very_ high genius, however, talk
+at one time _very_ well, at another _very_ ill:--well, when they have
+full time, full scope, and a sympathetic listener:--ill, when they fear
+interruption and are annoyed by the impossibility of exhausting the topic
+during that particular talk. The partial genius is flashy--scrappy. The
+true genius shudders at incompleteness--imperfection--and usually
+prefers silence to saying the something which is not every thing that
+should be said. He is so filled with his theme that he is dumb, first
+from not knowing how to begin, where there seems eternally beginning
+behind beginning, and secondly from perceiving his true end at so
+infinite a distance. Sometimes, dashing into a subject, he blunders,
+hesitates, stops short, sticks fast, and, because he has been
+overwhelmed by the rush and multiplicity of his thoughts, his hearers
+sneer at his inability to think. Such a man finds his proper element
+in those "great occasions" which confound and prostrate the general
+intellect.
+
+Nevertheless, by his conversation, the influence of the
+conversationist upon mankind in general, is more decided than that of
+the talker by his talk:--the latter invariably talks to best purpose
+with his pen. And good conversationists are more rare than respectable
+talkers. I know many of the latter; and of the former only five or
+six:--among whom I can call to mind, just now, Mr. Willis, Mr. J. T.
+S. S.--of Philadelphia, Mr. W. M. R.--of Petersburg, Va., and Mrs.
+S----d, formerly of New York. Most people, in conversing, force us to
+curse our stars that our lot was not cast among the African nation
+mentioned by Eudoxus--the savages who, having no mouths, never opened
+them, as a matter of course. And yet, if denied mouth, some persons
+whom I have in my eye would contrive to chatter on still--as they do
+now--through the nose.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ All in a hot and copper sky
+ The bloody sun at noon
+ Just up above the mast did stand,
+ No bigger than the moon.--COLERIDGE.
+
+Is it possible that the poet did not know the apparent diameter of the
+moon to be greater than that of the sun?
+
+If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize, at one effort, the
+universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment,
+the opportunity is his own--the road to immortal renown lies straight,
+open, and unencumbered before him. All that he has to do is to write
+and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple--a few
+plain words--"My Heart Laid Bare." But--this little book must be _true
+to its title_.
+
+Now, is it not very singular that, with the rabid thirst for notoriety
+which distinguishes so many of mankind--so many, too, who care not a
+fig what is thought of them after death, there should not be found one
+man having sufficient hardihood to write this little book? To _write_,
+I say. There are ten thousand men who, if the book were once written,
+would laugh at the notion of being disturbed by its publication during
+their life, and who could not even conceive _why_ they should object
+to its being published after their death. But to write it--_there_ is
+the rub. No man dare write it. No man ever will dare write it. No man
+_could_ write it, even if he dared. The paper would shrivel and blaze
+at every touch of the fiery pen.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ For all the rhetorician's rules
+ Teach nothing but to name the tools.--HUDIBRAS.
+
+What these oft-quoted lines go to show is, that a falsity in verse
+will travel faster and endure longer than a falsity in prose. The man
+who would sneer or stare at a silly proposition nakedly put, will
+admit that "there is a good deal in that" when "_that_" is the point
+of an epigram shot into the ear. The rhetorician's rules--if they
+_are_ rules--teach him not only to name his tools, but to use his
+tools, the capacity of his tools--their extent--their limit; and from
+an examination of the nature of the tools--(an examination forced on
+him by their constant presence)--force him, also, into scrutiny and
+comprehension of the material on which the tools are employed, and
+thus, finally, suggest and give birth to new material for new tools.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Among his _eidola_ of the den, the tribe, the forum, the theatre,
+etc., Bacon might well have placed the great _eidolon_ of the parlor
+(or of the wit, as I have termed it in one of the previous
+Marginalia)--the idol whose worship blinds man to truth by dazzling
+him with the _apposite_. But what title could have been invented for
+_that_ idol which has propagated, perhaps, more of gross error than
+all combined?--the one, I mean, which demands from its votaries that
+they reciprocate cause and effect--reason in a circle--lift themselves
+from the ground by pulling up their pantaloons--and carry themselves
+on their own heads, in hand-baskets, from Beersheba to Dan.
+
+All--absolutely all the argumentation which I have seen on the nature
+of the soul, or of the Deity, seems to me nothing but worship of this
+unnameable idol. _Pour savoir ce qu'est Dieu_, says Bielfeld, although
+nobody listens to the solemn truth, _il faut etre Dieu meme_--and to
+reason about the reason is of all things the most unreasonable. At
+least, he alone is fit to discuss the topic who perceives at a glance
+the insanity of its discussion.
+
+
+
+
+THE PENANCE OF ROLAND.
+
+A ROMANCE OF THE PEINE FORTE ET DURE.
+
+BY HENRY B. HIRST.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+When the weird and wizard bats were flitting round his dusky way,
+Over a moorland, like a whirlwind, rushed the knight, Sir Roland Grey;
+When the crimson sun was setting, as the yellow moon arose,
+Far and faint, behind Sir Roland, sank the slogan of his foes--
+
+Far and faint; and growing fainter as he reached the forest sward,
+Spreading round for many an acre over the lands which owned him lord.
+As he dashed along the woodland, fitfully, upon the breeze,
+Swept the tu-who-o of the owlet through the naked forest trees;
+
+And the loudly whirring black-cock through the creaking branches sprung,
+Frightened by his horse's hoofs, that like the Cyclop's anvil rung--
+Like a hurricane on he hurried, wood and valley gliding past,
+While around him, o'er him, on him, burst the sudden autumn blast.
+
+Down upon him, in a deluge, rushed the cold November rain;
+But the wind about him whistled, and the tempest swept in vain.
+What to him was wind or tempest, when his brain was seared with flame?
+What to him was earth or heaven, when his soul was sick with shame?
+
+In the dreary, desolate desert on his ears had burst a tale,
+That, like falling thunder, stunned and left him terrified and pale;
+How, while he was battling bravely, like a true and holy knight,
+For the sacred tomb of Christ, against the swarthy Moslemite;
+
+How, while round him lances shivered, armor rang, and arrows fell,
+And the air was mad with noises--Arab shout and Paynim yell--
+She, the partner of his heart, descended (so the legend said)
+From the ancient Saxon monarchs, sank in shame her sunny head.
+
+From his friends--his growing glory--over dark and dangerous seas--
+From his red-cross banner proudly flowing, floating on the breeze--
+Over field and flood he traveled, flinging fame and honor by,
+With a heart as full of hell as full of glory was the sky.
+
+All his mind became a chaos; but along its waste there stole
+What his bloody purpose shook, and what was manna to his soul,--
+Memories of his youthful moments, when through grassy glen and wood
+He wandered with the Lady Gwineth, dreaming none so fair and good;
+
+And he saw her sweetly smiling, as when at her feet he knelt,
+And with bold but modest manner on his burning passion dwelt--
+Felt her fall upon his bosom--felt her tears upon his cheek,
+As he felt them when his tongue was all too full of joy to speak!
+
+And his heart was slowly softening--when a hoarse voice bade him "yield!"
+And a claymore clanked and clattered on the bosses of his shield;--
+Rising round him, closing on him, sprang an ambush of his foe,
+The despoiler of his honor! All his answer was a blow!
+
+All his soul was in his arm; and, as his foemen closed around,
+Vassal after vassal, wounded, yelling, fell and bit the ground;
+But when through the wood there rushed an hundred thronging to the fight,
+Charging through them, still defying, Roland safety sought in flight.
+
+When the crimson sun descended, as the yellow moon arose,
+Far and faint behind Sir Roland sank the slogan of his foes--
+Far and faint, and waxing fainter, as he reached the forest sward,
+Spreading round for many an acre, over the lands that owned him lord.
+
+Like a whirlwind on he hurried, though the storm was raging sore:
+In his heart he carried torture: there was music in its roar--
+Like a hurricane on he hurried, spurring on with loosened rein,
+Till he checked his jaded courser on his old paternal plain.
+
+Clouds were scudding o'er the heavens; wild the tempest roared around;
+And the very earth was shaking with the thunder's heavy sound;
+But between the lightning flashes, frowning grimly, here and there,
+Loomed his old ancestral castle, with its old ancestral air.
+
+There, the barbican--the draw-bridge--there, the ancient donjon-keep,
+With its iron-banded portals--there, the moat in sullen sleep!--
+Galloping onward, lo! he halted, for they kept strict watch and ward,
+And his courser's clanking hoofs had roused the ever-wary guard.
+
+Loud above the increasing tempest rose the warder's threatening hail;
+Louder rose the ringing answer from a lip that scorned to quail:
+"Grey of Grey!" the warrior thundered, "he who fears nor bolt nor dart--
+He who is your master, vassal--Roland of the Lion Heart!"
+
+Clanking, clattering, grating, slowly up the huge portcullis went,
+And the draw-bridge over the moat creaking, shrieking, downward bent;
+On his armor flashed the torch-light, over helmet, cuirass, shield,
+With its _lion d' or couchant_ upon a stainless _argent_ field.
+
+Over rode he, frowning fiercely, throwing from him ruddy light,
+Flashing, like a burning beacon, on his startled vassal's sight.
+Rose the draw-bridge, fell the barrier, closed the oaken gates behind.
+--All was silence save the roaring of the wild November wind.
+
+
+PART II.
+
+
+In a lofty vaulted chamber, pillared, Gothic, full of gloom,
+But that flashes of the fire-light fitfully fell athwart the room--
+Ruddy gleams of fading fire-light, lighting many a bearded face,
+On the fluted hangings woven--founders of her husband's race--
+
+On a carven couch in slumber lay the Lady Gwineth Grey,
+Traces of a smile yet lingering on a cheek of rosy May--
+On the softest velvet slumbering, in a mist of golden hair,
+Trembling on her heaving bosom, and along her neck as fair.
+
+Seemed she like the Goddess Dian sleeping in some lonely wood,
+Or a nun on convent pallet dreaming only what was good:
+By her stood an outened flambeaux, from which, blue, and thin, and rare,
+Stole a wave of trembling vapor, slowly melting into air.
+
+But the tapestry was lifted, and a form in steel array
+Suddenly entered, and his coming drove the waning mist away.
+Treading softly o'er the rushes Roland stept beside his bride,
+In the passing of a moment standing at her couch's side.
+
+Like an angel seemed the lady, lying in her rosy rest;
+Like a devil seemed the knight, with passion raging in his breast:
+For within his bosom, gnawing all his heart with teeth of fire,
+Reigned Revenge, and on his forehead burned the purple hue of ire.
+
+Slowly bending o'er his wife, but making not a sound, he gazed
+Upon her, while his glaring eye-balls, like twin torches, brightly blazed.
+--Starting, feeling one was near her, Gwineth raised her golden head,
+Looking round her--flashed his falchion, and she sank in silence--dead!
+
+Roared the tempest; crashed the thunder; even the castle seemed to quail
+And tremble, like a living thing, before the fury of the gale;
+But the fierce and fearless murderer turned to where his child reclined,
+Asleep, amid the thunder's crash, the rushing rain and roaring wind.
+
+As he bent above his boy, dim memories of days long back
+Came, like stars an instant seen amid the autumn tempest's rack;
+But as swiftly over his spirit flashed the ruin of his name--
+Flashed the withering thought that even that child might be the child
+ of shame.
+
+Wildly then he raised his glaive, but wilder, sterner, still, without,
+Swelled the tempest, burst the thunder, yelled the winds with maniac shout;
+While the lightning, red and vivid, quivered through the skies in ire,
+Till the chamber with its flashes seemed a blazing hall of fire.
+
+With this climax of the tempest--thunder, lightning, rain and wind--
+Roland felt an awful doubt creep tremblingly athwart his mind;
+Slowly, slowly, it arose, and grew gigantic; slowly, slowly,
+Cloud-like, overshadowing him, darkening his spirit wholly.
+
+Then, like Saul of Eld, he trembled, feeling his deed was one of guilt--
+Believing heaven itself asserted it was innocent blood he spilt--
+Feeling heaven was interfering, sank his heart, and fell his blade,
+And the superstitious murderer tottered, wailing and dismayed.
+
+"Be she spotless," groaned the warrior, "I have done a grievous crime--
+Stained the snowiest shield that ever graced the temple-walls of Time.
+--Thou, my noblest and my fairest! with thy mother's Saxon eye--
+Shall my hand, too, strike thee lifeless? No! I cannot see thee die!"
+
+Suddenly Roland saw the peril hanging over his guilty head--
+Felt that he could never hide him from the vengeance of the dead--
+Saw the heartless headsman smiling, and the axe, and heard the crowd
+Shouting curses on the assassin--and the chieftain groaned aloud--
+
+Groaned, for that his deed had robbed him of a home and of a name,
+Hurling on his orphan son the damning heritage of shame:
+Life and lands by law were forfeit; he had driven his offspring forth,
+Rudely, ruthlessly, to wander, one of the Ishmaelites of earth.
+
+But a sudden thought came o'er him, and his lofty eye again
+Flashed with resolution, stern and strong as was his spirit's pain.
+"Shall I rob thee of thy birthright--rob thee of thy noble name,
+Of our old ancestral castle, and our fathers' deeds of fame?
+
+"Shall I fling thee forth to struggle with a never-sparing world;
+Knowing every eye will scorn thee, every lip at thee be curled?
+Know thee, budding bloom of beauty, withering in thy youth away--
+Feel thy infant promise fading--see thy falcon-eye decay?
+
+"Did I give thee life to cloud it--life to poison every breath?
+Better far the dreary dungeon, and the dark and iron death!
+Never! Let them heap upon me rock on rock Olympus high;
+None shall see a sinew quiver, none shall hear the slightest cry.
+
+"'Blood for blood' is rightly written: I have slain a spotless wife,
+And will dree a heavy penance--yield the law my forfeit life;
+Come the judgment, I will meet it; and the torture shall not tear
+Word from me to make a beggar of my rightful, righteous heir."
+
+As the stricken knight was speaking, in the distance died the storm;
+And the moonlight on the casement wandered sweetly, rested warm;
+Through the golden glass it floated, fluttering over the lady's hair,
+Till she seemed a mild Madonna, watched by angels, slumbering there.
+
+Shaken by the storm of conscience, Roland sank upon his knee,
+Sudden as before a hurricane falls some famous forest tree;
+Sank beside pale, placid Gwineth, weeping, wailing, sorrow riven,
+Feeling God had spoken, praying that his crime might be forgiven.
+
+All that long and dreary night, Sir Roland watched beside the dead,
+Humbly kneeling in the rushes strown around the carven bed.
+Slowly, quietly approaching came the gray-eyed dreamy dawn,
+Making every thing about him seem more desolate and wan.
+
+One by one the stars went out, and slowly over the Orient came
+Streaks of rose and tints of purple, flakes of gold and rays of flame,
+And around the ancient castle Roland heard the hum of those
+That from quiet sleep were waking, as they, one by one, arose.
+
+Slowly through the painted casement, touching first the chamber crown
+And the groined roof, the sunlight stole in lovely lustre down
+Over the tapestry, that glistened, gleaming with its golden ray,
+Till it kissed the russet rushes where in yellow sleep it lay.
+
+Came the Lady Gwineth's maidens, starting at the sudden sight
+Of their lord, Sir Roland, standing like a warrior for the fight;
+But he waved them on; and, wondering, they unto the sleeper went--
+Shrieking loudly, shrieking wildly as above her corpse they bent.
+
+Startled by the sudden clamor, Roland's son in fright awoke,
+As from all sides, madly rushing in the room, the vassals broke;
+Gathering round him, gazing on him, looking on the bloody brand
+And the lady, who, when living, was the loveliest in the land.
+
+Not a word the warrior uttered, though his son implored him sore,
+And they led him like an infant toward the oaken chamber-door;
+There he turned and gazed on Gwineth, looking on her face his last;
+Then between his guards in silence to the castle-prison passed.
+
+There they left him; but at mid-day came, and, beckoning, bade him forth
+To journey, not as he was wont to, from his ancient honored hearth:
+To an armed guard they gave him, and amid their stern array,
+Haughty, lofty-souled and silent Roland sternly rode away.
+
+
+PART III.
+
+
+When the gathering gloom of night in swarthy shadows floated down
+On the mountain and the forest, Roland saw the distant town:
+O'er its walls, and round its towers, a dim and sickly lustre lay.
+Like the gray and ghostly haze that heraldeth the dawning day.
+
+While, behind those walls and turrets, standing blackly in her light,
+Full and large the lurid moon rose ghastily upon the night;
+Shrouded in a cloud of crimson, slowly, slowly as he came
+Rising higher, higher, higher, till the east was full of flame.
+
+As his guards approached the gates--did she sink or did they rise?
+Behind the black gigantic towers the planet vanished from his eyes.
+All without was solemn blackness, but within was drearier dark,
+Save when from some grim old building stole a taper's trembling spark.
+
+Slowly through the lengthy streets, between old houses, rising high,
+Over which, dark, dusk, sepulchral, bent the purple pall-like sky,
+Through the town they bore him on, until frowningly, at last,
+Rose the castle-walls before them, huge and massy, broad and vast.
+
+With a last look on the heavens, the knight rode on beneath the gate:
+Stepping from his steed he bowed him, stately, to his fearful fate:
+On his limbs they fastened fetters, cold! how cold! their chillness ran
+Freezing through his blood, the spirit of the stern, unconquered man.
+
+Through a gallery they led him to a dark and dismal cell.
+Where they left him. Sad and solemn, heavy, awful as a knell,
+Seemed the fading of their footsteps, as he heard them slowly glide
+Through the long and vaulted corridor till their very echo died.
+
+Days went by--days dark with anguish, for his conscience, like a spur,
+Drove him o'er the wastes of memory which were never black before;
+Weeks slid by, and months--such months! such bitter months of pungent pain,
+That their very hours seemed serpents gnawing at his heart and brain.
+
+Next they led him forth to trial: like a child he bowed and went,
+With his once black hair like snow, and his stalwart form so bent,
+And his beard so long and white, and his cheek so thin and wan,
+Even his very keepers thought it was a ghost they gazed upon!
+
+When before his ermined judges, stately, silent, Roland came,
+Over his cheek there flashed and faded, suddenly, a flash of flame:
+Like a falling star it faded: lofty and erect he turned,
+With the feeling that aroused it under his iron Will inurned.
+
+"Roland, Baron Grey!" the crier, in the ancient Latin tongue,
+Which, like some old bell in tolling, through the vaulted building rung:--
+Cold and stern the prisoner answered--cold and stern--devoid of fear--
+Looking haughtily around him:--"Roland, Baron Grey, is here!"
+
+Muttering the solemn charge, they bade him answer; but he stood
+Cold, and calm, and motionless, as though he were nor flesh nor blood,
+But, rather, all a bronzed statue of the proud, primeval time--
+In his silence self-devoted--in his very guilt sublime.
+
+Thrice they prayed him: while he listened, not a quiver on his brow,
+Not the movement of a hair upon his head or beard of snow,
+Not the motion of a lip, nor even the flutter of an eye,
+Betokening that he even heard them--he was there alone to die.
+
+In the distant, dreary years, so run the legends even now--
+Misty legends on whose summits slumber centuries of snow--
+Lofty legends round whose summits clouds have lain for solemn ages--
+Legends penned with iron pens in blood by Draco-minded sages--
+
+It was written, they should bear him to a dungeon under ground,
+Far beneath the castle moat, where came no single human sound,
+And unto the earth should chain him, naked, on the icy ground--
+Naked, like the sage Prometheus, on the mountain's summit bound.
+
+Water--there was none for him, save that which flowed in the castle moat,
+On whose green and slimy surface newts and mosses loved to float--
+Bread--a crust a day--so, starving, freezing, there the Doomed was spread,
+Pressed with weights of stone and iron till he answered or was dead.
+
+Did he answer guiltless, lo! the trial; guilty, lo! the axe;
+Death before the grinning thousand! worse than were a myriad racks!
+While the trial were an evil quite as grievous, quite as great,
+For the verdict of his peers would rend from him his proud estate:
+
+But, if he died silent, then his lands would pass in quiet down
+To bless his boy, his innocent boy, and not escheat unto the crown:
+So he chose the darksome dungeon, rather there to die alone
+Than by cowardly fear to steal the birthright of his orphan son.
+
+But, beside this, came the thought that, by this penance he might win
+Forgiveness from offended Heaven for his now-repented sin.
+"Noble Roland," quoth his judges, "answer, ere it be too late;
+Heavy, else, must be our judgment--heavier thine awful fate."
+
+Then arose the ghostly knight, with his spectral eyes aflame,
+While a more than mortal vigor coursed and circled through his frame;
+And he gazed upon them smiling, and like hollow thunder broke
+His accents on the swarthy silence:--thus and so the chieftain spoke:
+
+"Lords! I answer not. If guilty, God will judge my sinful soul:
+For my body--that is yours! I yield it to your stern control.
+Would you have me--me, a warrior, like a coward plead for life?
+Death and I are old acquaintance! I have met him in the strife--
+
+"I have met him when the air was swooning with a ghastly fear;
+When the Moslem swept before us, driven like a herd of deer;
+When our voices mocked the thunder, shouting 'England and Saint George!'
+And the lightning of our falchions fell like flashes from a forge!
+
+"There, amid the clash and clang of sword and shield, I strove with Death--
+That I conquered, ye may see; and now I yield to him my breath
+Where there is no rescue, yield! and, as one would call a bride,
+So I bid the grisly monarch smilingly unto my side.
+
+"Shall I yield my broad estates, my castles and my manor lands,
+To the harpies of the law, to hold them with unhallowed hands?
+Shall I send my youthful heir forth with a stain upon his crest?
+No! my eaglet yet shall reign an eagle in his parent nest.
+
+"Lords and judges, I have done: no further words shall pass my lips,
+Save prayers to Heaven, that my soul may, sun-like, rise from death's
+ eclipse."
+Silently, he braved them still; and, sighing, sad, and full of gloom,
+His judges sent him forth to struggle with the sharp and lingering doom.
+
+Did he tremble at their sentence? Not a muscle quivered, not
+A sign to mark he heard, save on his cheek one purple spot:
+Statelier yet than ever, firmer, with a long triumphant breath,
+Roland, smiling on his judges, sternly walked to certain death.
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+
+In his cell the knight is lying, naked, fettered foot and hand;
+Bound unto the rocky ground with many an iron link and band;
+On him lie the piles of granite, pressing, pressing; yet he still
+Looks on death with lofty eye--so giant is his mighty will.
+
+Day by day, he lay and suffered, wrung with agony, but content--
+Day by day, though hard to bear was his grievous punishment--
+Never once, though, hour on hour, they piled the jagged granite higher
+On his quivering limbs, he murmured; yet his very veins were fire.
+
+Once, however, came his jailer, saying that his nephew sought
+His presence; and the knight, consenting, in his brother's son was brought:
+"Uncle Roland," quoth he, weeping, "what is this that I have done?
+Curses, curses on my head! curse, uncle, curse thy brother's son!
+
+Mine the tongue that wrought this evil--mine the false and slanderous
+ tongue
+That done to death the Lady Gwineth--O! my soul is sadly wrung!"
+"Demon, devil!" groaned the warrior--"devil of the evil eye!
+Look upon the awful horror wrought by thy atrocious lie.
+
+Tell me? was it all a falsehood? Tell me, was it all--all--all?
+Speak! and let these prison walls, oppressed with horror, on thee fall!"
+"All was false! Mine, too the ambush; for I sought to grasp thy lands--
+Sought to win the Lady Gwineth, with thy blood upon my hands.
+
+But she drove me forth with scorn; and then I coined the lying tale--
+O! forgive me, Uncle Roland! give me leave to weep and wail;
+Give me leave to sit in sackcloth, heaping ashes on my head;
+Mourning in some craggy cavern for the early lost and dead."
+
+"Unexampled liar and traitor! first of all our noble name
+Guilty of so black a treason! first to stain our shield with shame!
+Hence! away! I--No! repent! begone! and pray for my repose:
+Life on both of us too soon for our grievous crimes will close.
+
+I forgive thee--now away--nay, do not touch me! I am wan--
+Sick with suffering--mad with anguish--Go!" The penitent man is gone.
+--Once again he lies alone, save his agony, alone;
+Then they come and pile upon him heavier weights of iron and stone.
+
+Still more pallid, at the even, Roland in his anguish lay,
+Wrestling, for his soul was strong, with his body's slow decay;
+And the sweat upon his forehead stood and rolled and fell like rain,
+Cold, while pain and fire and fever battled in his heart and brain.
+
+Now and then his senses wandered; now again his mind was calm,
+And he wrung from out his suffering penitential draughts of balm;
+Then again his senses left him, and he lay in phrenzy there,
+Talking wildly in his madness with the dim, impalpable air.
+
+Now, he saw the Lady Gwineth wandering in her maiden joy;
+Now, he viewed her in her chamber frolic with her baby boy;
+Now, he saw her sadly lying, all her bosom bathed with blood;
+And beheld himself as o'er her on that fatal night he stood.
+
+Was he dreaming? through his dungeon stole a pale purpureal light,
+Flowing round him, floating round him, making daylight of its night;
+In its midst, his gentle Gwineth, while around her brow there flowed,
+Fluttering flame, a golden halo! that with heavenly glory glowed.
+
+Did he hear her? Was it real? With an angel's voice she spoke:
+How the words, like flakes of music, silver music! sweetly broke,
+Round and round him! how they floated, ringing in his ravished ears,
+Like the notes of Memnon's lyre, or chantings from the distant spheres!
+
+"Coming, Roland, from that heaven where, though clad with light, I sigh
+And languish for the softer lustre of thy gentle loving eye,
+I await thee, singing, singing hymns to cheer thy dying hour
+That the Cherubim sang in Eden when it first arose in flower.
+
+Hearken! how my notes are mingling--one by one, and two by two,
+Dropping on thy brain as falls on fading roses freshening dew;
+Three by three, they upward circle: thou hast heard them in thy dreams,
+When I came, a missioned spirit, from the four eternal streams.
+
+I can see them, though thine eyes can only compass earthly vision:
+Soon, O, Roland! soon, O, Roland! thou shalt see with eyes elysian:
+Then the notes that now thou hearest thou shalt see, as on they flow,--
+Angels that are rarest air! and view them through their dances go."
+
+Still, entranced, the sufferer listened; and it seemed as from his pain
+Sweeter music yet was born, for holier hymning lulled his brain;
+Very wild his agony; very; but between its bars his eyes
+Saw the angels as they wandered on the walls of Paradise.
+
+Faint and fainter grew he, while the melody loud and louder rang,
+Till it seemed not only Gwineth but a myriad angels sang;
+And his soul seemed rising, rising, rising from his pallid clay,
+Which, each moment, grew more feeble--faintlier wrestling with decay.
+
+Burst upon his ears one swell! it seemed an anthem of the spheres,
+Jubilant, divinely ringing; swam his eyes with happy tears--
+"Come, forgiven one," the cadence, "chastened spirit, come, arise
+From thine earthly prison-house to holy homes beyond the skies."
+
+Fainter, fainter, still more feeble, grew the sufferer as he heard,
+And a sigh swooned on the silence, soft as breathing of a bird,--
+And all was over. In his trance his spirit's sparkling feet had trod
+The realms of space, and gone from earth, through air, to judgment and
+ to God.
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+The judgment of the _peine forte et dure_, on an instance of which our
+ballad is founded, was well known in the ancient law of England. As
+has been seen, it was terribly severe. The circumstances of the
+judgment were as follows: When a prisoner stood charged with an
+offence, and an indictment had been found against him, before he could
+be tried he was called upon to answer, or, in technical parlance, to
+plead. A plea in bar is an answer, either affirming or denying the
+offence charged in the indictment, or, if of a dilatory character,
+showing some ground why the defendant should not be called upon to
+answer at all. In those days, in all capital cases, the estates of the
+criminal, on conviction and judgment, were forfeited to the crown. The
+blood of the offender was considered as corrupted, and, as a
+consequence, his property could not pass to his family, who, although
+innocent, suffered for the faults of the criminal. Crimes, therefore,
+where the punishment fell, not only on the criminal but on his family,
+were comparatively of rare occurrence. An admission of guilt produced
+the same effect as a conviction. If the defendant, however, stood
+mute, obstinately refusing to answer, by which behaviour he preserved
+his estates to his family, he was sentenced to undergo the judgment of
+the _peine forte et dure_.
+
+"The English judgment of penance for standing mute," says Chief
+Justice Blackstone, in his admirable Commentaries, "was as follows:
+That the prisoner be remanded to the prison from whence he came, and
+put into a low, dark chamber; and there be laid on his back, naked,
+unless where decency forbids: that there be placed upon his body as
+great a weight of iron as he could bear and more; that he have no
+sustenance, save only on the first day, three morsels of the worst
+bread; and, on the second day, three draughts of standing water, that
+should be nearest to the prison door; and in this situation this
+should be alternately his daily diet _till he died_, or (as anciently
+the judgement ran) _till he answered_."
+
+With respect to this horrid judgment, Christian, in his notes to the
+same work, goes on to say: that "the prosecutor and the court could
+exercise no discretion, or show no favour to a prisoner who stood
+obstinately mute." "In the legal history of this country," (England,)
+he continues, "are numerous instances of persons who have had
+resolution and patience to undergo so terrible a death in order to
+benefit their heirs by preventing a forfeiture of their estates, which
+would have been a consequence of a conviction by a verdict. There is a
+memorable story of an ancestor of an ancient family in the north of
+England. In a fit of jealousy he killed his wife; and put to death his
+children who were at home, by throwing them from the battlements of
+his castle; and proceeding with an intent to destroy his only
+remaining child, an infant nursed at a farm-house at some distance, he
+was intercepted by a storm of thunder and lightning. This awakened in
+his breast compunction of conscience. He desisted from his purpose,
+and having surrendered himself to justice, in order to secure his
+estates to this child, he had the resolution to die under the dreadful
+judgment of the _peine forte et dure_." This tale is the base of our
+romance.
+
+
+
+
+THE SEA NYMPH'S SONG.
+
+BY WILLIAM H. C. HOSMER.
+
+
+ Sound is he sleeping
+ Far under the wave--
+ Sea nymphs are keeping
+ A watch for the brave:
+ Deep was our grief and wild--
+ Wilder our dirge
+ When the doomed ocean child
+ Drowned in the surge.
+
+ Within a bright chamber
+ His form we have laid;
+ With spar, pearl and amber
+ The walls are arrayed--
+ Though high rolls the billow
+ He wakes not at morn,
+ And sponge for his pillow
+ From rocks we have torn.
+
+ I heard thy name spoken
+ When down came the mast;
+ His hold was then broken,
+ That _word_ was his last.
+ A picture is lying,
+ Lorn maid! on his breast--
+ That picture in dying
+ His hand closely prest.
+
+ Why turns thy cheek paler
+ These tidings to know?
+ The truth of thy sailor
+ Should lessen thy wo:
+ The wave could not chill it
+ That stifled his breath;
+ Pure _love_--can aught kill it?
+ Give answer, Oh, Death!
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE GOLD-FISH.
+
+A FAIRY TALE.
+
+BY JAMES K. PAULDING, AUTHOR OF THE "DUTCHMAN'S FIRESIDE," ETC.
+
+
+In the reign of good King Doddipol, surnamed the Gnatsnapper, there
+lived in a stately castle, on the top of a high mountain, a rich old
+Norseman, who had an only son whom he loved with great ardor, and
+little discretion, on account of his being the last of an illustrious
+family. The youth was called Violet, partly because he had for his
+godmother the Fairy Violetta, and partly on account of having on his
+left shoulder an impression of that flower, so perfectly defined, and
+so vivid in color, that the old nurse mistook it at first sight for a
+real violet, and declared it smelled like a nosegay.
+
+Being the only son of a great and rich nobleman, as well as somewhat
+indolent and unambitious, Violet passed much of his time, while
+growing up to manhood, in thinking much and doing nothing. He was
+without companions, having no equals around him, and was prohibited
+from associating with his inferiors by the strict etiquette which
+prevailed throughout the dominions of good King Doddipol. As he grew
+up thus in almost entire solitude his temperament became highly
+poetical and imaginative, his feelings irregular and ardent, and it
+was predicted that some day or other he would become a martyr to love.
+
+Much of his time was spent in lonely rambles among the mountains which
+surrounded the residence of the Old Man of the Hills, as he was
+called, a distance of many miles in every direction, and one summer
+day, wandering on without knowing or caring whither he went, he at
+length found himself in a region where he had never been before. It
+was a deep, sequestered, rocky dell, shaded by gloomy pines, from the
+farther extremity of which there tumbled a bright cascade of
+snow-white foam, which, after forming a deep transparent basin at its
+foot, escaped murmuring among the rocks below and disappeared. Not a
+sound was heard but that of the falling waters and the gurgling
+stream, for the birds delight not in the gloom of perpetual shade, and
+neither hunter nor woodman ever visited this lonely retreat.
+
+Tired with his long ramble, Violet sat down at the foot of a lofty
+tree, whose roots seemed to drink of the crystal basin, and fell into
+a deep reverie, during which his eyes were fixed unconsciously on the
+transparent water, which, though clear as our northern lakes, was so
+deep that no one could see the bottom. While thus occupied in weaving
+webs of youthful anticipation, he saw a little gold-fish suddenly dart
+from under the rock on which he was seated, and play around with
+infinite grace, quivering its fins and fanning its tail, while their
+bright colors glittered in the rippling water with indescribable
+brilliancy.
+
+The youth watched its motions with increasing interest, and an
+eagerness he had never experienced before. Sometimes it would come up
+close to the spot, almost within reach of his hand, and after
+balancing on the surface awhile, again dart away, only to return and
+play a thousand fantastic gambols, full of vivacity and grace. At
+other times it would remain stationary awhile, looking him in the face
+with its mellow, melancholy eyes, and an expression of sorrowful
+tenderness that sunk into his heart. He remained watching its motions
+in deep solicitude, until the gathering shadows of twilight warned him
+away, and reached home so late that he found his father anxiously
+awaiting his return. The Old Man of the Hills inquired of him where he
+had been, and what had detained him so long; but he answered
+evasively, being ashamed to confess he had been fascinated by a little
+gold-fish.
+
+That night he could think of nothing but the little gold-fish, and
+when at length sleep came over his eyelids, he dreamed it was a
+beautiful princess, transformed by the power of some wicked enchanter
+or malignant fairy. The impression was so vivid in his mind, that when
+he awoke he could not decide whether it was indeed a dream, or whether
+he had not actually seen the charming princess, whose features were
+indelibly impressed on his memory. The next morning he again sought
+the path he had traveled the day before, and about mid-day arrived at
+the glen of the shining cascade. He had scarcely seated himself, when
+the little gold-fish darted from under the rock as before, and winning
+its way to the surface of the crystal basin, looked at him with an
+expression of its beautiful eyes that spoke a joyful welcome. Violet
+put forth his hand, and tried to woo it still nearer, but it only gave
+a melancholy shake of the head, and when he attempted to seize it,
+retired beyond his reach with a lingering hesitation that seemed to
+indicate a mingled desire and apprehension.
+
+Thus the little creature continued to coquette with him for several
+days during which he repeated his visits, staying all day, and
+dreaming every night the same dream of the beautiful princess changed
+into a little gold-fish. While absent from the crystal basin, his
+imagination was forever dwelling on the form and features of the
+princess, and the mysterious connection he was convinced subsisted
+between his waking thoughts and experience and his nightly dreams. By
+degrees the two became inseparably associated together in his mind,
+and insensibly he fell in love to distraction, but whether with the
+beautiful princess or the little gold-fish he could not decide. He
+became so melancholy in consequence that the latter, as if conscious
+of his feelings, permitted him to take it in his hand, kiss it, and
+nestle it in his bosom at pleasure. At such times he would beseech it
+in the most moving terms to speak to him, tell him if his dreams were
+true, and respond to his devoted affection. But it only replied by a
+silent tear, and a look of strange meaning, which he could not
+comprehend.
+
+Violet grew every day more sad, and his youthful form continued to
+waste away, so that as he walked in the sun, his shadow could scarcely
+be seen. During this period the behavior of the little gold-fish was
+so full of inconsistencies and contradictions that Violet was well
+nigh distracted. Sometimes it would contemplate his pale cheek and
+wasted form with tears in its eyes, while at the next moment it looked
+at him with an expression of unfeeling triumph. Then its eyes would
+glance rapidly and eagerly, sometimes toward himself, at others down
+on the crystal basin, and at others upward to the skies.
+
+One bright morning, when the position of the sun toward the east had
+become gradually changed, and the beams of the former fell directly
+upon the crystal basin, Violet was sitting, as usual, fondling the
+little gold-fish in his hand, admiring its soft hazel eyes, and
+addressing a thousand endearments to the little dumb creature, which
+at that moment appeared insensible to his affection. Keeping its eyes
+earnestly fixed on the transparent waters, which now glittered in the
+golden beams of the sun, the youth suddenly felt it tremble as if with
+ecstasy in his hand, as with a sudden spring it vaulted into the basin
+and instantly disappeared. He gazed with intense anxiety, expecting
+every moment it would reappear; but it returned no more, and after
+waiting in vain, until dusky twilight enveloped the glen in shadows,
+he bent his way homeward, scarcely conscious whither he was going.
+That night he slept from the mere weariness of sorrow, and dreamed the
+beautiful princess appeared to thank and bless him for her
+disenchantment.
+
+The next day the Old Man of the Hills called his son before him, and
+announced with great satisfaction that he had just concluded a treaty
+of marriage between him and the oldest daughter of King Doddipol, a
+lady of great discretion, and old enough to be his mother. The young
+man quitted the presence of his father in despair, and, scarcely
+conscious of whither he was wandering, sought the crystal basin at the
+foot of the shining cascade. Here, seated on the rock, he gazed
+himself almost blind, in the hope of seeing the little gold-fish once
+more appear, to receive his last farewell. But he gazed in vain for
+hours, and hours, until in the bitterness of disappointment he at
+length cried out aloud--"It is all in vain. It will come no more, and
+nothing is now left me but a remembrance carrying with it eternal
+regrets. But one hope remains. I will seek my adored princess, for
+such I know she is, where she disappeared from my sight, and either
+find her or a grave." Saying this he plunged into the basin in an
+agony of despair.
+
+He continued to sink, as it appeared to him, for nearly half an hour,
+without once drawing his breath, until, just as he felt himself quite
+exhausted, he found himself precipitated into what seemed a new
+world, far more beautiful than that he had just abandoned. The skies
+were of a deeper blue, and being likewise far more transparent,
+reflected the features of the lower world as in a vast illimitable
+mirror. There was no sun visible in the heavens. Yet a soft, delicious
+mellow light, more rich and yet more gentle than that of summer
+twilight, diffused itself everywhere, giving to every object the charm
+of distance, and giving to the air a genial warmth inexpressibly
+grateful. The meadows seemed like endless waving seas of verdure, and
+together with the foliage of the woods, exhibited all the freshness of
+the new-born spring; the little warbling birds seemed to revel among
+the groves and verdant meads in joyous luxury, filling the air with
+their melodious concert; the meadows were sprinkled with beds of
+flowers of various hues and fragrance, and a thousand delicious odors
+gave zest to every breath he drew. Vast fields of violets, most
+especially, were spread out in every direction, larger and more
+beautiful than any he had ever seen before. A gentle river meandered
+deep and clear through a long valley spread out before him, skirted on
+either side by pale blue hills, so high they seemed to reach and
+mingle with the heavens above. A cool, refreshing zephyr played about
+his brow, and as he breathed its inspiring odors, Violet felt himself
+suddenly restored to all his wonted vigor and activity.
+
+As he stood gazing in almost stupefied wonder at the scene before him,
+and doubtful whether it was merely a creation of his bewildered fancy,
+he perceived a radiant female form approaching, seated in a chariot
+formed of a single violet, and crowned with a diadem of the same
+flowers. Her dress, too, was composed of many-colored violets, and her
+chariot drawn by butterflies, whose wings of gold and purple were of
+glorious lustre. The chariot stood still on coming up to the youth;
+the lady springing out, lighted on the flowers without ruffling their
+leaves, and giving him her tiny hand addressed him as follows:
+
+ "Welcome, Prince Violet, for such you are by birth,
+ and by my creation. I was the friend of your
+ mother. I presided at your birth, and I gave you
+ your name. I therefore feel in some measure
+ responsible for your happiness, and am come hither
+ to give you the benefit of my advice and
+ assistance. Know, my prince, that you are brought
+ here by a destiny you could not avoid. You are in
+ the dominions, I might almost say in the power of
+ the wicked enchanter Curmudgeon, who is as potent
+ as he is wicked. Among his other diabolical acts,
+ he is an adept in the new science of animal
+ magnetism, can put you to sleep by the waving of
+ his hand, pull out your teeth without your knowing
+ any thing about it, and divorce your spirit from
+ your body, sending it wandering away to distant
+ regions, while the body remains unconscious though
+ not inanimate. In short, there is no end to his
+ wicked devices, and he is the most mischievous,
+ malignant monster in the world, inexorable in his
+ revenge, and clothed with the power of gratifying
+ it to its utmost extent. It is to warn you against
+ him that I am here. My name is Violetta."
+
+The prince, as he must now be called, listened to this speech with
+great gravity and decorum, though he thought it rather long, and
+replied with infinite discretion. He thanked the fairy for her kind
+intentions, and concluded by observing that he had often, when a
+child, heard his mother speak of the Fairy Violetta with great
+affection.
+
+"Your mother was a woman of taste," said the fairy, "but there is not
+a moment to be lost, for the enchanter is by this time apprized of
+your coming, and the purport of your visit. Do not ask me what that
+is. It is sufficient that you are here to fulfill your destiny."
+
+The fairy then stamped three times with her little foot on a bed of
+violets. At the first stamp there rose out of the ground a superb suit
+of violet-colored armor; at the second a sword and spear; and at the
+third a gallant violet-colored steed richly caparisoned.
+
+"Take these, arm thyself, mount, and away. You will meet with many
+obstacles in your course, but you have nothing to fear so long as you
+fear nothing. Your first enemy will be a little mischievous caitiff,
+called Master Whipswitchem, a creature of the wicked enchanter; your
+second a monstrous giant; your third a beautiful spectre, and your
+fourth the enchanter himself. The first you must circumvent by your
+wit; the second by your valor; the third by your self-command; and the
+fourth by your promptitude and sagacity. There is no magic in your
+weapons, though they are equally good and true. Your dependence must
+be on yourself alone; on your valor, your constancy, and your cause;
+and remember, that should you ever turn your back on an enemy, whether
+man, beast, or fiend, your happy destiny will never be accomplished.
+You will never see your little gold-fish again.
+
+"My little gold-fish!" exclaimed the prince eagerly--"What dost thou
+mean? O tell me, most beneficent fairy!"
+
+"You will know in good time, if you do not turn recreant," answered
+the fairy, with a significant smile. "But away, away, my prince. Mount
+and away. Follow the course of the river, and once more, never turn
+aside let what will be before you, remembering that nothing is
+impossible to courage, conduct, and perseverance in a good cause."
+
+The prince bowed himself before the lady, repeated his grateful
+thanks, mounted his neighing steed, which pawed the ground
+impatiently, and was about clapping spurs to his sides, when the fairy
+suddenly stopped him.
+
+"Hold, prince! I had almost forgotten. Take this bouquet of violets,
+place it in your bosom, and guard it well. But be careful not to draw
+it forth except in the last extremity, depending always on your valor
+and your sword. When your life shall hang suspended by a single hair;
+when the last breath is quivering on thy lips, and all other means
+fail, then, and not till then, use it as your instinct may direct.
+Adieu, my prince--be faithful, bold and fortunate."
+
+The fairy mounted her chariot, the butterflies spread their gorgeous
+wings, and ascending rapidly through the transparent skies the whole
+pageant disappeared. The prince lost not a moment in pursuing the
+course pointed out by the fairy, and as he proceeded, gradually fell
+into a reverie, the subject of which was the hint that it would depend
+on himself whether he ever saw the little gold-fish again. The thought
+roused him to the utmost height of daring, and he resolved, come what
+might, nothing should be wanting on his part to the accomplishment of
+a glorious and happy destiny. He fell himself suddenly animated by
+this determination to gain a noble prize by noble exertions, for
+nothing is more certain than that none but groveling, abject beings,
+to whom nature has denied the ordinary faculties of mind, can remain
+insensible to the excitement of glory, or the rewards of love.
+
+He had not, however, proceeded far, when on a sudden there alighted on
+the head of his steed, right between the ears, one of the most
+extraordinary creatures he had ever seen. It was a little imp, about
+three feet high, exactly resembling one of those scarecrows we
+sometimes see in corn-fields, except that it was a great deal more
+_outre_ in its form and dimensions. It wore an immense hat, of the
+shape of a cullender, and with almost as many holes, through which
+protruded little wisps of straw instead of feathers. The face was
+perfectly undefinable, having neither dimensions nor shape, resembling
+nothing of the live human species, and consisting apparently entirely
+of a nose which projected several inches beyond the brim of his hat;
+his shirt-collar was tied with a piece of rope; his jacket was as much
+too short as his breeches were too long, one being out at the elbows,
+the other at the knees, the latter of which were tied with a wisp of
+straw tortured into a true lover's knot; his legs seemed nothing but a
+pair of short broom-sticks, of neither shape nor substance, ensconced
+in an old pair of spatterdashes; and the toes of his shoes curled
+upward like a pair of old-fashioned skates. Altogether he cut a
+curious figure, and the prince could not help laughing at his new
+traveling companion. "This," thought he, "must be Master
+Whipswitchem."
+
+But his gallant steed did not seem to enter into the spirit of the
+joke. He pricked his ears, pawed the ground, snorted, champed and
+foamed, and finally stood stock still, trembling like a leaf. Prince
+Violet began to wax somewhat impatient. Yet at length said to him very
+courteously--
+
+"My friend, if it is the same thing to you, I had rather you would get
+off and walk."
+
+"Thank you, my friend, but if it's the same thing to you, I'd rather
+ride. Ho-ho! ha-hah!" and thereupon he laughed like a whole swarm of
+flies.
+
+Then the valiant prince drew his sword and gave Master Whipswitchem a
+great blow under the short-ribs, which he took it for granted would
+cut him in two; but the sword rebounded as if it had struck on an
+empty bladder, while the little imp only bounded upward about three
+yards, alighting in the same place as before, and crying out, "Ho-ho!
+hah-hah!" At this rate, thought Prince Violet, I shall never get to
+the end of my journey. Still he repeated his blows, at each one of
+which the pestiferous little imp only jumped higher and laughed
+louder, and the gallant steed only snorted, pawed, and stamped more
+vehemently, until both steed and master became quite exhausted. The
+latter then resorted to artifice, seeing that force was unavailing. So
+putting up his sword, he affected to expostulate with his troublesome
+companion on the impropriety of his conduct, watching at the same time
+for an opportunity of laying hold of him. When he seemed off his
+guard, and was crying "Ho-ho! ha-hah!" with infinite glee, the prince
+suddenly throwing himself forward, seized him by the long nose, and
+after holding him up kicking in the air for a few moments--for he was
+as light as a feather--with a sudden jerk pitched him away out into
+the river, where, after bobbing up and down some half a dozen times,
+and crying "Ho-ho! ha-hah!" he disappeared. "Ho-ho! ha-hah!" cried the
+prince, "I think I have done Master Whipstichem's business this time."
+After which he proceeded gayly on his journey.
+
+Before, however, he had time to enjoy the victory, his gallant steed
+suddenly began to rear up before, and then to kick up behind with
+great violence. The prince clapped his hand on his trusty blade,
+thinking he was approaching the giant, but on looking round in every
+direction could see neither castle nor draw-bridge. Indeed nothing
+visible seemed to justify the horse in his unseemly gambols, and the
+prince accused his gallant steed of being in league with his enemies,
+when happening to look over his shoulder, who should he see but Master
+Whipswitchem seated quietly on the crupper, and spurring away with an
+old rusty nail he had fixed in the heel of his shoe, while he held by
+the horse's tail for a bridle. "I swear by the eyes of my beautiful
+gold-fish," cried the prince, "but this is too bad!" And then he
+attempted to dislodge the pestilent imp, by thrusting his elbow into
+his back; but the little caitiff every time bounced up like a
+tennis-ball, and the next instant was in his seat, crying, "Ho-ho!
+ha-ha!" louder than ever. This time he was too cunning for the prince;
+for knowing by experience that his nose was the most exposed part of
+his outworks, he kept his back to the prince, and his face toward the
+tail of the horse. At the expiration of an hour the prince became so
+worried that he could scarcely lift his hand to his head, and his
+horse so exhausted that he could kick no more. At length, however,
+while the little caitiff was spurring and laughing away with great
+glee, the prince turning suddenly round on the saddle, seized the rope
+which he wore round his neck for a cravat, and leaping from his steed,
+hoisted him up to an old sign-post at the road-side, where he left him
+dangling in the air. "Ho-ho! ha-ha!" said the prince, "I think I shall
+have no more trouble with Master Whipswitchem."
+
+Finding himself as well as his steed quite exhausted, and both
+requiring rest and refreshment, Prince Violet dismounted in a
+pleasant, shady grove, through which meandered a clear stream,
+bordered by rich, luxuriant grass, thus furnishing both drink and food
+to the panting animal, whom, having turned loose, he left to roam at
+will. Seating himself among a bed of fragrant flowers, he lighted a
+cigar, and sat smoking and thinking of his future prospects.
+
+"Ho-ho! ha-hah! my prince, what are you about? You put me in mind of a
+smoking chimney, though from your mighty contented look, I should
+suppose you were very pleasantly occupied. I should like to take a
+puff too, if you have no objection."
+
+"O, beneficent Fairy Violetta," exclaimed the prince, "what shall I do
+with this pestiferous caitiff, who minds neither hanging nor
+drowning?" And thereupon the fairy, who doubtless heard his
+adjuration, inspired him with a lucky thought. Knowing that the little
+caitiff was but a man of straw, animated by the wicked enchanter, he
+at once resolved to take advantage of that circumstance.
+
+"Ho-ho! ha-hah! are you there, my friend?" replied the prince. "Well,
+I see there is no use in quarreling with such a pleasant fellow. Come,
+sit down, and take a puff with me, and let us swear eternal
+friendship."
+
+"Agreed!" replied the little caitiff, briskly. "It is true you played
+a joke or two on me, but I flatter myself, on the whole, I paid you
+beforehand; and for the present the account is pretty well balanced."
+
+So they sat down and smoked very sociably together, talking about
+various matters, until the little caitiff's cigar being burnt to a
+stump, and somewhat incommoding his long nose, he began turning and
+twisting it about, until it set fire to some blades of straw that
+projected from his nostrils, which straight-way communicated to his
+head, and thence to his body, and in a moment he was in full blaze.
+
+"I am a gone sucker!" exclaimed he, and the words were scarcely out of
+his mouth when, he became nothing but a heap of black ashes.
+
+"Ho-ho! ha-hah!" quoth the prince, "if he is a gone sucker, I take it
+for granted, it is all Dicky with Master Whipswitchem." And then,
+himself and his horse being sufficiently refreshed, he mounted and
+rode forward on his journey.
+
+Ascending a high, wearisome hill, he saw at a little distance a great
+and magnificent castle, which he at once took for that of the
+enchanter Curmudgeon. The crisis of his fate was then at hand; and
+after inspecting his armor and equipments, the prince spurred on
+briskly to consummate his destiny. A few moments brought him to a
+tower, at the end of a draw-bridge, where hung an enormous bell,
+which, without hesitating a moment, he rung till it resounded far and
+near. Instantly at the sound there rose up from the inner side, a
+monstrous and deformed giant, upward of sixteen feet high. As he
+advanced, he seemed all body and no legs--the latter being utterly
+disproportioned to the former; his shoulders rose like mountains, one
+higher than the other, almost to the top of his head; his body was all
+over covered with impenetrable scales like an alligator, and he wore
+on his head an old Continental cocked-hat, from which projected a
+queue of such unaccountable length that it was said nobody ever saw
+the end of it. But his most atrocious feature was a great proboscis,
+growing just over a little pug nose, he used for smelling, about the
+size of that of an elephant, which it exactly resembled in strength
+and elasticity.
+
+"What want you here?" roared the monster, in a voice so loud and
+horrible, that it set the bell tinkling, and in a most discourteous
+manner peculiar to giants, who are notorious for their ill manners.
+
+"I wish to see the far-famed and puissant enchanter, the great
+Curmudgeon, with whom I have a bone to pick, an please your worship,"
+replied the prince, with infinite politeness.
+
+"You see him--what good will that do? He would not look at, much less
+speak to, such a sloppy stripling as you. To the right-about--march!
+or I'll make mince-meat of you in less than no time."
+
+"Stand aside, and let me pass!" cried the enraged prince, drawing his
+sword.
+
+"Advance at your peril!" roared the giant, twirling his proboscis, and
+twisting his long queue like a great black-snake.
+
+And now commenced a battle, the like of which is not recorded in
+history, tradition, or romance. The sword of the valiant prince
+gleamed, and flashed, and flew about like lightning, raining such a
+shower of dry blows on the monster, that had not his hide been
+invulnerable to any but enchanted weapons, he would in good time have
+been a gone sucker, as Sir Bruin said. The giant, on the other hand,
+had managed his proboscis with admirable skill, his great object being
+to entwine the prince in its folds, and squeeze him to death.
+Sometimes he would stretch it out at least six yards, and at others
+draw it in suddenly, in hopes the prince would be deceived as to its
+length, and come within the sphere of its action. But the prince being
+gloriously seconded by his gallant steed, displayed an activity fully
+equal to the craft of the giant; and for an hour at least the fight
+continued doubtful. The only vulnerable part of the monster was his
+long queue, which the prince, in hopes that, like Sampson, his
+strength might peradventure lie in his hair, by an adroit manoeuvre
+cut off about six feet from his head. Thereupon he roared like ten
+thousand bulls of Bashan, insomuch that the enchanter, Curmudgeon,
+feared he was vanquished, and trembled in the recesses of his castle.
+
+The giant frantic with rage at the loss of what he was more vain of
+than even his stately proboscis, now redoubled his efforts, while the
+prince every moment became more exhausted, and his gallant steed
+ceased his usual activity. The giant seeing this, watched his
+opportunity, till he at length succeeded in throwing a slipping noose,
+made by twisting his proboscis over the head of the prince. This he
+gradually tightened with all his force, until the prince perceived
+himself rapidly suffocating. His eyes failed him, and seemed bursting
+from their orbits; his vision presented nothing but gleams of many
+colored lights dancing before him; his heart heaved and panted with
+throes of desperate agony; his arm became almost nerveless, and his
+sword fell from his hand, while the shouts of the giant announced that
+the victory was won.
+
+At this moment of extreme peril, when the last gleam of consciousness
+lingered in his brain, the prince recollected the bouquet of violets
+which he still carried in his bosom, and drawing it forth with a
+desperate effort, thrust it into the little pug nose of the giant,
+which was directly before him. That instant the proboscis relaxed, as
+if by magic, and the giant suddenly untwining its folds, commenced a
+fit of sneezing, awful to hear, jumping up several feet from the
+ground at every paroxysm, swearing at intervals like a trooper, and
+cutting the most enormous capers. The moment Prince Violet recovered
+himself sufficiently, he dismounted, and regaining his trusty sword,
+belabored the impenetrable hide of the egregious monster with such
+arrant good will, that he retreated backward between every fit of
+sneezing, until finally falling into the moat, he stuck fast in the
+mud, sneezing and roaring most vociferously.
+
+Prince Violet lost no time, but passed swiftly into the castle, and
+proceeding through several apartments, far more vast and magnificent
+than the palace of King Doddipol, at length came to the study where
+the wicked enchanter practiced Mesmerism, and other diabolical
+devices. The old sinner was seated in an arm-chair of ebony, curiously
+carved, and ornamented with figures of strange, misshapen imps, among
+which the prince recognized his old friend, Master Whipswitchem. By
+his side stood a female of such transcendent and inimitable beauty,
+that the prince at once concluded this was the phantom against whom he
+was so emphatically warned by his good friend the fairy. He allowed
+himself but one glance, which sufficed to convince him she resembled
+exactly the charming princess he had so often seen in his dreams, and
+which had like to have proved fatal. Then shutting his eyes, he
+advanced backward, sword in hand, toward the enchanter, who at the
+first moment he saw him, began those mysterious wavings of the hand
+with which he was wont to put his victims to sleep, and those
+cabalistic words which changed men into beasts, insects, and reptiles.
+But the prince having his eyes shut, and his back toward him, could
+not see his motions, and the enchanter being horribly affrighted, as
+well as naturally a great blockhead, was so long in recollecting the
+formula of his incantation, that the prince, seeing by a sly glance
+over the shoulder, that he was sufficiently near, suddenly turned
+round, and with one blow severed his head from his shoulders. Then
+catching it before it fell to the ground, he threw it into the great
+kettle that hung boiling over the fire. He was just in time, for
+Curmudgeon had got to the last but one of his cabalistic words, and in
+a single instant more, Prince Violet would have been changed into a
+cabbage. No sooner was the head thrown into the kettle, than the water
+began to hiss and foam, and blaze up in spires of blue sulphureous
+flame, until finally the kettle burst into a thousand fragments, and
+the head disappeared up the chimney. Then the phantom beauty, uttering
+a shrill, dismal scream, melted into air--and the enchantment was
+dissolved forever. At that moment Prince Violet heard a voice from the
+skies, as tuneful as the music of the spheres, saying, "Well done, my
+prince, the death of the wicked enchanter was necessary to the
+recovery of thy lost gold-fish--for while he lived thou wouldst never
+have seen it again. Go on--thy destiny ere long will be accomplished."
+A strain of aerial music succeeded, which gradually faded into
+whispering zephyrs, bearing on their wings the mingled perfume of a
+thousand flowers.
+
+The prince took possession of the castle by right of conquest; and
+when the people over whom the enchanter had reigned with a cruel and
+despotic sway heard of the gallantry with which he had rid them of
+their tyrant, they gathered themselves together, and with one voice
+chose him for their king.
+
+Prince Violet proved an excellent sovereign; but, though he made his
+subjects happy, he partook not in what he so freely bestowed on
+others. The recollection of the little gold-fish, and of the beautiful
+princess he had so often seen in his dreams, was ever present, and
+poisoned his days and nights with perpetual sorrows. Though courted by
+King Grabyall, and all the surrounding potentates, who had grown up
+daughters, he declined their advances, passing most of his leisure
+hours in wandering along the river he had followed in his journey, and
+which flowed just at the foot of the terrace of his stately castle. He
+remembered that it issued from the aperture through which he had
+emerged from the crystal basin, and constantly fed his sickly fancy
+with the hope that the little gold-fish might have vanished in the
+same direction. If so, it was probably still in the river, if it lived
+at all; and he was perpetually bending over the stream, watching the
+gambols of the finny tribes, to see if he could not detect among them
+his lost wanderer.
+
+One day having rambled much further than he had ever been before in
+that direction, he perceived in turning a sharp angle of the river, a
+noble marble villa, which had never attracted his notice before. It
+basked its white, unsullied beauties on the bank of the murmuring
+stream, and its turrets rose from out a sea of green foliage that
+almost hid them from sight. Led by curiosity, or rather by his
+destiny, he approached the building by a winding walk, that seemed
+almost a labyrinth, now bringing him near, and anon carrying him to a
+distance, until tired at last, he stopped, and rested himself under
+the shade of a stately beech, that spread its broad arms afar, and
+afforded a delightful canopy. Here, gazing around in listless apathy,
+his attention was attracted by the letter V, carved on the smooth
+bark, and environed with a chaplet of violets, underneath which the
+motto, "Forget me not," was cut in graceful letters. While pondering
+on this rural emblem of constant love, he was startled by a low and
+plaintive female voice chanting the following simple strain, with the
+gentle pathos of chastened sorrow:
+
+ "Forget me not! forget me not!
+ Pale, withered leaf, in which I read
+ The sad, mysterious, lonely lot
+ By cruel fate for me decreed.
+
+ "Pale, withered leaf, you mind me now
+ Of him whose gentle name you bear,
+ Whose lips once uttered many a vow,
+ In breath more sweet than violets are.
+
+ "Oft would he take me in his hands,
+ Oft hide me in his throbbing heart;
+ Oft kiss my eyes with words so bland--
+ Was ever scaly imp so blessed;
+
+ "I joy'd his wasting form to see,
+ His stately beauties fade away;
+ 'T was wo to him, but bliss to me--
+ It made him sad, while I was gay.
+
+ "But I shall never see him more,
+ Nor share with him my life's dear lot;
+ Sweet youth, whose memory I adore--
+ Forget me not! forget me not!"
+
+These words, sung to a sweet, melancholy melody, equally excited the
+sympathy and wonder of the prince. The idea of a young lady being
+delighted at seeing the face of her lover wither, and his body waste
+away, he thought did little credit to the heart of woman; and that
+what made him sad should make her gay, appeared to show a great want
+of sympathy. As to the "little scaly imp," he could make nothing of
+it. Still there was that in the song which seemed to bear some strange
+allusion to his own peculiar situation; and his curiosity became so
+excited, that without reflecting on the impropriety of his conduct, or
+its consequences, he, as it were, impelled by an involuntary yet
+irresistible impulse, advanced in the direction whence the voice
+proceeded.
+
+Passing through a long winding avenue bordered by beds of violets, and
+overshadowed by lofty trees, he at length came to a bower of
+clambering vines entwined with each other, at the further extremity of
+which, seated on a bank of flowers, he beheld a female figure, her
+cheek resting on her hand, and tears flowing from her eyes. He gazed
+on her face, which was turned toward the heavens, and shuddered as he
+recognized an exact likeness of the phantom beauty he had seen at the
+side of the enchanter's chair. He sought to retreat, but continued to
+advance by an irresistible impulse, until the lady, at the sound of
+his footsteps, looked toward him. The moment she saw the prince she
+uttered a piercing shriek, at the same time rushing forward with
+extended arms, and a face glowing with joyous welcome. Then, as if
+suddenly recollecting herself, she hastily retired, and sunk down on
+the seat, her cheek glowing with blushes. The prince continued to
+advance, controlled by an influence he could not withstand, and coming
+up to her, apologized as well as the confusion of his mind would
+permit, for his unceremonious intrusion.
+
+The lady remained gazing at him, with mingled smiles and blushes, for
+a few moments, and then addressed the prince in words that seemed to
+come from a mouth of roses.
+
+"Don't you know me, my prince?"
+
+"Know you," faltered he, "I believe--I fear--I know you but too well.
+You are the phantom beauty. The chosen instrument of the wicked
+enchanter, Curmudgeon."
+
+"Alas! no. I am no phantom, nor, I trust, an instrument of mischief at
+least to you. The phantom was formed in my likeness, because--because,
+as the enchanter confessed, he could create nothing so beautiful as
+myself by the utmost exertion of his arts."
+
+The prince gazed at her in a trance of admiration, for never, with the
+single exception of the phantom, and the idol princess of his dreams,
+had he seen a being so enchantingly lovely. The lady received his
+scrutiny with smiles of modest pleasure, and at length repeated her
+question--
+
+"Do you not know me, my prince?"
+
+The prince emboldened by her smiles, or impelled by his destiny,
+seated himself by her side, and gazed ardently, yet wistfully, in her
+face. There was something in the expression of her eyes he fancied he
+had seen before, but when or where he could not call to mind. At
+length the lady, compassionating his perplexity, again anxiously
+asked--
+
+"Do you remember a certain little gold-fish?"
+
+"Remember? I shall never forget," and his eyes glistened.
+
+"Do you remember how you used to come to the crystal basin, at the
+foot of the shining cascade, and stay all day long fondling a little
+gold-fish, kissing its eyes, and hiding it in your bosom?"
+
+"Remember!" cried the prince, "the recollection constitutes the hope,
+or rather the despair, of my life. Would that I could see my dear
+little companion again. Methinks I should then be happy, or at least
+die content."
+
+"Look in my face--look steadily," replied the lady, greatly agitated.
+
+Their eyes met, and that look of mutual intelligence which never
+deceives, disclosed the mystery. He recognized at once that glance of
+mingled love and gratitude he had so often seen beaming from the soft
+expressive eyes of the little gold-fish. He started from her side,
+threw himself at her feet, and exclaimed--
+
+"Tell me--tell me! art not _thou_ my little gold-fish?"
+
+"I am," rejoined the lady. "Once thy little gold-fish, now thy
+faithful and devoted handmaid, the Princess Violetta. It is to thy
+constancy I am indebted for the recovery of my former self; and such
+as I am, I will be to thee what thou choosest to make me."
+
+"Mine forever! my beloved, my adored wife!" cried the prince, as he
+folded her in his arms, kissed her as he was wont to do the little
+gold-fish, and at that moment reaped the reward of all his sufferings.
+
+After enjoying the first delights of mutual love, the princess said to
+him, "Doubtless you are anxious to know how I came to be transformed
+into a fish; and I will tell you now, that there may be nothing to
+explain hereafter. I must begin early, for my misfortunes commenced
+almost at my birth. I am the only child of King Grabyall, in whose
+dominions you now are; and according to the universal custom of all
+royal christenings, a great many fairies were invited to mine, and
+some few vulgar things came without invitation. Among the latter was
+an old fairy, so ill-natured and malicious, that, though very powerful
+to do evil, no one would pay her the least attention; for they knew
+that no kindness could conciliate the wicked old creature. Of course,
+neither my father nor mother paid her the least attention, or made her
+presents; and no one spoke a word to her, at which she flew into a
+great rage, and went away shaking her wand, and mumbling in a spiteful
+manner, 'Well, good people, you are all mighty silent now, but before
+long you shall have talking enough, I promise you!'
+
+"Everybody laughed at the spiteful old woman--but it was no such
+laughing matter, I assure you, my prince; for she was hardly out of
+sight, when, to the astonishment of the whole court, I began to talk
+with such volubility that nobody could keep pace with me. First I
+scolded the nurse, then abused the fairies, and finally took my
+parents to task roundly for attempting to stop me. The courtiers tried
+to persuade them that this was only an omen of my precocious genius,
+and that, beyond all doubt, I should one day become the wisest, most
+eloquent princess in the world. But they remembered the threat of the
+malicious old fairy, and became exceeding sorrowful. As I grew up my
+volubility increased; I talked from morning till night, and all night
+too. Sleeping or waking, it was just the same; and my voice was so
+loud and shrill that it could be heard all over the palace. What
+rendered the matter still worse, I was exceeding ill-natured,
+satirical, and witty, insomuch, that all were afraid to come near me;
+and I was obliged at last to talk to myself. It is necessary I should
+apprise you that I grew up to great beauty, and by the time I was
+sixteen, many of the neighboring princes came to pay their addresses
+to me. But I never gave them an opportunity, for before they could
+open their lips, I poured a torrent of satirical reproaches in their
+ears that struck them all dumb; insomuch, that it was said some of
+them never recovered their speech afterward. Do you not hate me, my
+prince, for being such a termagant?"
+
+The prince, to say the truth, was a little startled at this detail,
+but replied with a look that was perfectly satisfactory; and the
+princess proceeded with her story.
+
+"At the age of seventeen, the enchanter, Curmudgeon, incited by the
+report of my beauty, came to pay my father a visit--my mother being
+long since dead. He at first sight fell violently in love, and
+demanded me in marriage of my father, who, though a kind-hearted, good
+man, was, I believe, heartily glad to get rid of me, but at the same
+time frankly apprized him of my infirmity. 'O, ho!' answered the
+enchanter, 'never mind that--I shall soon cure her, I warrant you.' He
+then approached to make his declaration, when, being exceedingly
+provoked at his slighting expressions, which I had overheard, I gave
+him such an explosion of satire, spleen, and ill-nature, as he had
+never probably heard before. I ridiculed his pretensions, scoffed at
+his person, despised his offers, and defied his power, until he could
+stand it no longer. Stamping his foot on the floor, waving his hand,
+and muttering some cabalistic words, he at length cried out in a rage,
+'BE DUMB FOREVER! or at least till such time as some prince shall be
+fool enough to fall in love with you, and pine away until he makes no
+shadow in the sun.'
+
+"At that moment I found myself changed into a gold-fish, and swimming
+in the crystal basin where you first saw me. How long I remained there
+before you made your appearance I cannot tell, but I know that I was
+heartily tired of my loneliness, and at first felt the loss of speech
+very severely. I rejoiced when I first saw you. Your caresses
+penetrated my heart, and--you must forgive me, my dear prince--but
+when I beheld you wasting away daily, and knew it was for love of me,
+my happiness grew with your sorrows, for I felt that my deliverance
+was at hand, and that I should live to reward you for all your
+sufferings. The day the sun first shone full into the crystal basin,
+and I saw that you cast no shadow there, you may remember, I suddenly
+darted from your hand and disappeared. It was very ungrateful, but I
+could not resist my destiny. I was instantly transformed to my
+original likeness, and--but don't be alarmed, my prince, for I assure
+you my propensity to talking was effectually and forever repressed, by
+the long habit of silence I had preserved as the little gold-fish. I
+was received by my father with affectionate welcome, and--and what
+else shall I say? I have mourned your absence day after day, until I
+almost ceased to hope that I should ever see you again. But," added
+the princess, with a look of unutterable tenderness, "thou hast come
+back once more to me--thou hast sought and found thy little gold-fish,
+and I am happy."
+
+The prince had scarcely time to return suitable acknowledgments, and
+vow eternal love, when they were roused by the sound of the hunter's
+horn, announcing the return of King Grabyall from the chase. The
+princess introduced him to the prince; and his majesty being in high
+good humor, having been very successful that morning, beside having
+an excellent appetite for dinner, received him most graciously. The
+ardent prince lost no time in declaring his love; and King Grabyall,
+knowing that he had been chosen to govern the territories of the
+enchanter, Curmudgeon, beside inheriting all his vast riches,
+graciously consented to the marriage. He did this the more willingly,
+knowing from late experience that the princess, having fulfilled the
+denunciation of the malicious old fairy, had survived her infirmity.
+
+There was never in this world such a splendid and happy wedding; and
+what added to the pleasure of all parties, was seeing the good fairy,
+Violetta, enter the superb saloon to honor the ceremony.
+
+"Welcome, my prince," said she, holding out her little, delicate hand,
+"I congratulate you; you have triumphed by valor and constancy."
+
+When the ceremony was over, the prince inquired anxiously whether she
+knew aught of his father, and was informed that he had married the
+daughter of good King Doddipol, and was wasting his substance as fast
+as possible, by giving _fetes_ to the bride, and lending great sums to
+his father-in-law. Prince Violet sighed at the fate of the Old Man of
+the Hills, but in good time forgot all his griefs in the arms of love
+and beauty.
+
+The Princess Violetta made a most excellent wife, and never afterward
+talked more than became a reasonable woman. The wicked giant, who, it
+should have been premised, had been extricated from the moat, and
+finished his fit of sneezing, being freed from the diabolical
+influence of the enchanter, Curmudgeon, took the pledge, became a
+tetotailer, and lived ever after an example to all overgrown monsters,
+past, present, and future.
+
+
+
+
+THE VESPER BELL.
+
+BY PARK BENJAMIN.
+
+
+ How deep and mournfully at eve's sweet hour
+ The bell for vespers chimes its holiest note,
+ When the soft twilight lends its soothing power
+ And on the air a silence seems to float!
+
+ The weary wand'rer knows a home of rest,
+ He toils not now who toiled the livelong day,
+ Friends cherish fondest recollections, blest
+ With thoughts of them whose love cannot decay,
+
+ The best affections of the heart are told,
+ We greet with joy our dear, domestic hearth,
+ And think how strong the viewless bonds that hold
+ Unwearied love to transient things of Earth.
+
+ And visions of his lyre the poet sees
+ At this lone time of Nature's sweet repose,
+ When fancied music, borne on every breeze,
+ AEolian-like, with thrilling sadness flows.
+
+ Oh, then move thoughts, the holiest and best,
+ O'er the soul's calm and mild serenity,
+ Like beauteous birds that skim along the breast
+ Of the still waters in some waveless sea.
+
+ Where that deep bell sends forth its solemn tone,
+ How many worship at Devotion's shrine!
+ How many voices rise before the throne
+ Whence the bright glories of the Godhead shine!
+
+ Not when the glories of th' opening day
+ With crimson blushes usher in the dawn,
+ Not when the noontide pours its deepest ray
+ On forest, glade, blue lake and emerald lawn;
+
+ Not when the moonbeams shed their silvery light
+ In richest lustre over copse and dell,
+ Come sainted hopes, sweet dreams and fancies bright
+ As when through shadows sounds the Vesper Bell.
+
+
+
+
+THE TEACHER TAUGHT.
+
+BY MARY S. ADAMS.
+
+
+"Three months' imprisonment! Heigho!" soliloquized Harvey Hall, as he
+entered the school-room, and surveyed the array of seats before him.
+"Well, poverty is a crime punished not only by one's state and
+country, but by the whole world. Here am I longing for a profession
+which shall give some play to my mind, which shall enable me to take a
+stand among men; and now to purchase that profession I must 'teach
+young ideas' till the requisite sum is obtained. The daughters of
+Darius were condemned for the murder of their husbands to fill leaky
+vessels in Tartarus--that is, they became teachers! It is hard that
+those who have neither _been_ nor _murdered_ husbands should endure
+like punishment."
+
+Harvey Hall always spoke the truth, albeit sometimes the truth a
+little _swollen_; so he was, as he said, condemned to a temporary
+reign over children and spelling-books, in order to pursue his
+studies--for the expenses of which the limited finances of his parents
+would not suffice; and he had taken the academy at L., with the due
+announcement of all his qualifications in the county newspaper.
+
+"Some bright faces here," thought he, as his eyes glanced over those
+of his scholars upturned to him, and rested on one with eyes bright
+enough to light Cupid on his way to any untenanted heart, but bearing
+the expression of smothered mirth, never relished by those who do not
+happen to know the _mot d'enigme_. Small white fingers traced
+something rapidly on the slate, which was then given to a young lady,
+who, on the perusal of its characters, gave a stifled laugh, and
+buried her face in a handkerchief. But the author of the mischief,
+whatever it was, instantly turned to gravity, and met the searching
+gaze of Hall with a demure look which amused him not a little.
+
+"That daughter of Parson Hinton finds fun enough in something. I wish
+her father could preach her into better behavior. She is the most
+troublesome sprite I have in school. Young ladies," he said, assuming
+all the dignity of his position, "less whispering, and more attention
+to your studies would conduce to your improvement."
+
+Annie Hinton and her chum took their books, and were soon apparently
+absorbed in them. Annie met with some question she could not solve;
+and taking her book to the teacher, she asked an explanation. It was
+given.
+
+"And you made an observation just now, sir, which I wish to remember.
+Will you be so kind as to repeat it," she added, bending toward him
+with the greatest mock attention and deference.
+
+It is said that the worst reception of a compliment is to request its
+repetition; and the remark is just as applicable to a reproof.
+Certainly Harvey Hall found it so. Impudence he could have met
+successfully; but there was something in the arch air of respect, so
+evidently assumed, and in the polite tone accompanying bright eyes
+which _would_ almost laugh out, which told him that the present scene
+would figure in some after frolic formidable enough to young gentlemen
+who are never proof against the ridicule of mirthful girls in their
+teens. He longed to laugh with her at it all, but an assembled school,
+a roguish scholar, would not exactly admit of this; so, coloring a
+little, and then provoked at himself for the _gossiping_ blood which
+betrayed his inward embarrassment, he said,
+
+"Oh, merely that study is more appropriate to the school-room than
+amusement. I shall be happy to have it dwell in your memory and
+practice, Miss Hinton."
+
+Annie bowed gracefully, gravely, and turned away, but not before Hall
+mentally resolved never to admonish her again if he could avoid it.
+
+When the day for compositions came--that bore which all parties would
+gladly overlook instead of look over--Hall, dreading trite essays on
+all the hackneyed themes of school, told the misses under his charge
+to write on any thing that interested them--they might describe some
+of the manners and customs among them.
+
+"But we have _no manners_, and very few customs, Mr. Hall," said
+Annie.
+
+"Well, select any subject that pleases yourself, Miss Annie."
+
+The composition was on Dignity, and was so ludicrous, so _personal_ a
+description of it, that Mr. Hall was fairly puzzled. What shall I say
+to this merry damsel, who seems to turn into sport all I say or do. I
+cannot correct her.
+
+"Miss Hinton, carry this home to your father, and see if he says it is
+a proper article for you to bring in as a composition."
+
+The next day it was returned with, "My father thinks Dignity one of
+the finest things he has ever seen," she said, half hesitating, as if
+unwilling to utter such praise, but looking as if all the spirits of
+fun had taken the opportunity to look out of her eyes. Of course, her
+reverend parent had never had a glimpse of it--and this her teacher
+very well knew.
+
+But why watch her with more interest than all the "well behaved" of
+his school? In accordance with Scripture, he left the ninety and nine
+just ones, to search for the one who went astray. The lessons she
+recited had for him a double interest; the days she was absent were
+like the dull, gray sky of autumn--nay, several times he even
+acknowledged to himself that teaching was _not_ the dull routine he
+had supposed, and the term of his probation had not the leaden wings
+he had anticipated.
+
+But there was an apprehension to disturb the tenor of his thoughts,
+and fall heavily upon his official capacity. He had--yes, he certainly
+had seen Annie Hinton receive a billet from Charles Lane; and Charles
+Lane was a bright youth--a fine scholar--ready to enter college the
+next term--and just her age. It was wrong, decidedly wrong, to have
+any silly flirtations between mere boys and girls--he had always
+considered it so; but now it was wonderful to see how strong his
+reasoning, and firm his opinions were on this subject. And personal
+experience _has_ an extraordinary power in giving edge to moral
+reflections; how it draws them out of the shade, concentrates and
+clinches them.
+
+Well, Harvey Hall felt really grieved that scholars should have their
+attention drawn away from their studies by such nonsense as a
+children's love affair. Charles Lane was a promising boy to be sure;
+but he must go through college, and be settled in life before he ought
+to think of fancying any one. He might become dissipated--such bright
+boys often did; or fickle--in short, no one knew which rein of his
+character the future might pull. And Annie--pretty creature--who could
+not pass a day without some mirthful episode, how ridiculous for a
+child like her to think of selecting a lover! her mind was not
+disciplined at all--her taste not pronounced; she might make a
+different choice when she really knew her own wishes, and had seen
+more of the world. It would be wrong to entangle herself with any
+passing fancy like the present--really wrong to suffer a child to make
+a decision by which the _woman_ must abide. And then the good minister
+would be shocked to see his plaything, Annie, forming any foolish
+attachment. Yes, he must do all he could to prevent it. But how could
+Parson Hinton be so blind? The other evening when he called there,
+Charles Lane knocked at the door, to bring a slip of geranium, which
+he had walked several miles to get for Annie; and the old gentleman
+only said, "You are very obliging, Charles--drop in and see us often."
+So strange, not to know it was just like such precocious youths to
+fancy themselves in love with every pretty girl. So laws were enacted
+stricter than those of the Medes and Persians, against all billets
+passed in school; as if Cupid, had he made the essay, would not have
+delighted to jeopardize all regulations, and fly in the face of all
+laws.
+
+One day as Mr. Hall was ascending the steps to enter school, he saw
+Annie give Charles Lane a knitted purse, and heard her say something
+about "the phillipina." As I said, he was _principled_ against such
+interchange of sentiment, or gifts, between such children; but the
+present instance did not come precisely under his dominion, being
+_out_ of school--and he entered upon his duties with a somewhat cloudy
+brow. Every one has observed how much the sky of his feelings
+influences the earth of reality. If one wakes "out of tune" in the
+morning, the events of the day seldom harmonize him. Let you walk out
+in a city, feeling blue and burthened, and how many things conspire to
+annoy you. You are blinded by dust, or contaminated with mud, or the
+snow slumps, or your feet slip at every step; a child is almost run
+over in the street; people jostle rudely; the bell tolls; the
+town-crier seems to scream at every corner where you turn; the lady
+you particularly admire is talking with vast animation to ----, and
+does not even perceive you; a bow thrown away; Mr. Lawkens, the deaf
+man, will cross over to speak to you, but cannot hear your answer,
+although you have repeated it the third time; a gust of wind blows off
+your hat, and a bore holds you by the button to tell you, what you
+well knew, the election has gone against your favorite candidate;
+while you inwardly exclaim, "misfortunes never come single."
+
+Our pedagogue had a hazy atmosphere around his spirit this day--and
+nothing cleared it. The recitations were miserable, and the boys full
+of pranks--which boys are heir to; the girls were any thing but
+book-intent. The class in chemistry was called, and as Mr. Hall was
+performing some experiments on the apparatus, he said,
+
+"Now, when I apply this, you will see that--it wont go," he added, as
+the desired result, from some cause, failed.
+
+"Certainly, we see it," smilingly whispered Annie to the next on her
+seat.
+
+The sound reached Mr. Hall, already mortified by the failure of the
+experiment.
+
+"Miss Hinton," he exclaimed, in a loud, stern tone, "take your books,
+and go home."
+
+Annie looked surprised, as well she might, and waited, as if to be
+sure she did not misunderstand him. The attention of the school was
+roused--there could be no revocation--so the mandate was repeated, and
+obeyed.
+
+Poor Hall! his chemical manipulations were no more successful that
+day; classes were called, and heard at random. The small scholars
+thought "it was a grand time--master did not seem to mind them;" while
+older ones wondered at his unwonted humor. Meanwhile his reflections
+were any thing but agreeable. How could he have been so harsh for such
+a trifle, and ungentlemanly too. All Annie's faults were the mere
+exuberance of a joyous spirit; and she was quick to acknowledge and
+regret them; and yet he had not expostulated, but abruptly commanded
+her to leave. How she must despise him! And she had a great deal of
+sensibility; he had seen the color suffuse her face, and the tears
+glisten in her dark eyes, when a tale of sorrow or delicious poem had
+excited her emotion. Perhaps she was at that very moment weeping at
+his harshness; and then proofs of interest in _him_, albeit she was a
+laughter-loving spirit, stole over his memory. He thought of an
+evening he had lately passed at her house, when his conversation
+seemed to rivet her attention, although he afterward heard her say,
+"There! Mary Jane has a party to-night, and I entirely forgot it until
+too late. Well, I have enjoyed myself better here." And _he_, the
+ingrate! how had he returned it, by unwarrantable rudeness! She was
+just beginning to talk to him with confiding frankness of her books,
+her tastes, and opening to _his_ study a mind as well worth it as the
+changing loveliness of her face--when this folly had destroyed it all.
+And what would the good minister say? He who had received him so
+kindly; so hospitably told him to come to him at any and all times
+when he could be of assistance--what would _he_ say to have his pet,
+at once his amusement and pride, turned out of school like any common
+urchin?
+
+Oh! how the hours of school dragged. Every moment seemed to bear a
+weight of lead, and carry to the luckless teacher a thousand arrows
+poisoned by self-reproach. No sooner was his fiat of release obtained,
+than with mingled regret and apprehension, he wended his steps to the
+parsonage. He knocked at the door, desired to see Mr. Hinton, and was
+accordingly shown up into his study.
+
+"He looks as if something lay on his mind," thought the clergyman, as
+he saw him enter, and advanced to shake hands with him. "Perhaps he is
+considering the concerns of his soul. Heaven help me to counsel him
+aright!" and there was an unusual kindliness in his tone, as he urged
+him to be seated, which was "heaping coals of fire" on the head of the
+conscience-stricken teacher.
+
+A pause. "I am--I have called--I regret--"
+
+"Ah, yes," mentally ejaculated the old man, "he feels the burden of
+sin, and is under conviction, I see--"
+
+"In short, sir, I am sorry to trouble you at this time, but I--"
+
+"Speak out freely, my dear young man," said his benignant listener.
+
+Is it possible he does not know what has passed?
+
+"I regret to say that, vexed by the inattention of the scholars, and
+by whispering, in which Miss Annie joined, I hastily told her to leave
+school."
+
+"Told my daughter Annie to leave school!"
+
+The door of the study was thrown open, and Annie danced into the
+middle of the room, her bonnet hanging on her arm, flowers in her
+hair, and a bouquet in her hand, fresh from the woods in which she had
+been rambling. "Father! father!" she stopped, and gazed first at her
+father, and then at Mr. Hall, with a mingled expression of regret and
+surprise. Her long walk that afternoon had given her a heightened
+color; and the varied feelings which moved her were clearly depicted
+on her face.
+
+"Come here, Annie," said Hall, extending his hand, "come here, and say
+you forgive the rudeness of this afternoon." She hesitated an
+instant--the crimson deepened on her cheek, and the lip slightly
+trembled; then looking up with one of her own radiant smiles, she gave
+her small, white hand to the teacher.
+
+Not long after he made another visit to the good minister's study,
+not, indeed, to ask forgiveness for turning Annie out of school, but
+to beg permission to transplant her one day to a home of his own.
+Whatever was said, we suspect Annie might have served as "an instance
+in point" for that rather broad generalization of Swift,
+
+ "No girl is pleased with what is taught
+ But has _the teacher_ in her thought."
+
+"Young gentlemen," said Harvey Hall, (Judge Hall then,) when some
+years afterward two or three of his law students were spending the
+evening at his hospitable mansion, "young gentlemen, never regret the
+necessity of exerting yourself in order to obtain your profession; for
+beside the habit of _self-help_ thus formed, which is invaluable, you
+may," he added, glancing archly at the face, fair as ever, of her who
+sat with muslin stitchery by the centre-table, "meet with a wayside
+rose as precious as Annie."
+
+
+
+
+THE SUNBEAM.
+
+(FROM THE FRENCH OF LAMARTINE.)
+
+
+ Come! watch with me this sunbeam, as o'er the moss bank green
+ It glides, and enters swiftly the foliage dark between;
+ Resting its golden lever, of mystic length and line,
+ Upon the dewy herbage, in an oblique decline:
+ Toward its moving column the stamen of the flowers
+ Whirl, as by strong attraction; and through the daylight hours
+ Gay insects, azure atoms, with every-colored wing,
+ Swim 'mid the light, still lending fresh sparkles as they spring.
+
+ See! how in cadenced measure they gravitate below,
+ Now linking, then unlinking, in quick, harmonious flow;
+ Of Plato's worlds ideal the semblance here appears,
+ Those worlds that danced in circles to the music of the spheres:
+ So small is every atom, amid yon countless band,
+ That hosts of them were needful to make a grain of sand;
+ They form the lowest step of that brilliant ladder trod,
+ Ascending from the light mote to the all-present God.
+
+ And yet a separate being exists in every part,
+ Within each airy globule there dwells a beating heart;
+ One world, perchance, presiding o'er worlds unnumbered, free,
+ To which the lightning's passage is an eternity;
+ Yet, doubtless, each enjoying, within their drop of space,
+ Days, nights, in all fulfilling their order and their place;
+ And while in wondrous ecstasy, man's throbbing eye looks on,
+ A thousand worlds are ended, their destinies are won!
+
+ O God! how vast the sources which feed such life and death,
+ How piercing is that vision which marks out every breath;
+ How infinite that Spirit which cherishes each grade;
+ And more than all, how boundless that love, free, unrepaid,
+ Which nurtures into being each particle that floats,
+ Descending from far sun-worlds to microscopic motes;
+ O God! so grand and awful in yonder little ray,
+ What thought dare seek to fathom the blaze of thy full day?
+
+ MARY E. LEE.
+
+
+
+
+THE ISLETS OF THE GULF;
+
+OR, ROSE BUDD.
+
+ Ay, now I am in Arden; the more fool
+ I; when I was at home I was in a better place; but
+ Travelers must be content. AS YOU LIKE IT.
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF "PILOT," "RED ROVER," "TWO ADMIRALS,"
+"WING-AND-WING," "MILES WALLINGFORD," ETC.
+
+
+[Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by J.
+Fenimore Cooper, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
+United States, for the Northern District of New York.]
+
+(_Continued from page_ 293.)
+
+
+
+
+PART XV.
+
+ The screams of rage, the groan, the strife,
+ The blow, the grasp, the horrid cry,
+ The panting, throttled prayer for life,
+ The dying's heaving sigh,
+ The murderer's curse, the dead man's fixed, still glare,
+ And fear's and death's cold sweat--they all are there.
+ MATTHEW LEE.
+
+
+It was high time that Capt. Spike should arrive when his foot touched
+the bottom of the yawl. The men were getting impatient and anxious to
+the last degree, and the power of Senor Montefalderon to control them
+was lessening each instant. They heard the rending of timber, and the
+grinding on the coral, even more distinctly than the captain himself,
+and feared that the brig would break up while they lay alongside of
+her, and crush them amid the ruins. Then the spray of the seas that
+broke over the weather side of the brig, fell like rain upon them; and
+every body in the boat was already as wet as if exposed to a violent
+shower. It was well, therefore, for Spike that he descended into the
+boat as he did, for another minute's delay might have brought about
+his own destruction.
+
+Spike felt a chill at his heart when he looked about him and saw the
+condition of the yawl. So crowded were the stern-sheets into which he
+had descended, that it was with difficulty he found room to place his
+feet; it being his intention to steer, Jack was ordered to get into
+the eyes of the boat, in order to give him a seat. The thwarts were
+crowded, and three or four of the people had placed themselves in the
+very bottom of the little craft, in order to be as much as possible
+out of the way, as well as in readiness to bail out water. So
+seriously, indeed, were all the seamen impressed with the gravity of
+this last duty, that nearly every man had taken with him some vessel
+fit for such a purpose. Rowing was entirely out of the question, there
+being no space for the movement of the arms. The yawl was too low in
+the water, moreover, for such an operation in so heavy a sea. In all,
+eighteen persons were squeezed into a little craft that would have
+been sufficiently loaded, for moderate weather at sea, with its four
+oarsmen and as many sitters in the stern-sheets, with, perhaps, one in
+the eyes to bring her more on an even keel. In other words, she had
+just twice the weight in her, in living freight, that it would have
+been thought prudent to receive in so small a craft, in an ordinary
+time, in or out of a port. In addition to the human beings enumerated,
+there was a good deal of baggage, nearly every individual having had
+the forethought to provide a few clothes for a change. The food and
+water did not amount to much, no more having been provided than enough
+for the purposes of the captain, together with the four men with whom
+it had been his intention to abandon the brig. The effect of all this
+cargo was to bring the yawl quite low in the water; and every
+seafaring man in her had the greatest apprehensions about her being
+able to float at all when she got out from under the lee of the Swash,
+or into the troubled water. Try it she must, however, and Spike, in a
+reluctant and hesitating manner, gave the final order to "Shove off!"
+
+The yawl carried a lugg, as is usually the case with boats at sea, and
+the first blast of the breeze upon it satisfied Spike that his present
+enterprise was one of the most dangerous of any in which he had ever
+been engaged. The puffs of wind were quite as much as the boat would
+bear; but this he did not mind, as he was running off before it, and
+there was little danger of the yawl capsizing with such a weight in
+her. It was also an advantage to have swift way on, to prevent the
+combing waves from shooting into the boat, though the wind itself
+scarce outstrips the send of the sea in a stiff blow. As the yawl
+cleared the brig and began to feel the united power of the wind and
+waves, the following short dialogue occurred between the boatswain and
+Spike.
+
+"I dare not keep my eyes off the breakers ahead," the captain
+commenced, "and must trust to you, Strand, to report what is going on
+among the man-of-war's men. What is the ship about?"
+
+"Reefing her top-sails just now, sir. All three are on the caps, and
+the vessel is laying-too, in a manner."
+
+"And her boats?"
+
+"I see none, sir--ay, ay, there they come from alongside of her in a
+little fleet! There are four of them, sir, and all are coming down
+before the wind, wing and wing, carrying their luggs reefed."
+
+"Ours ought to be reefed by rights, too, but we dare not stop to do
+it; and these infernal combing seas seem ready to glance aboard us
+with all the way we can gather. Stand by to bail, men; we must pass
+through a strip of white water--there is no help for it. God send that
+we go clear of the rocks!"
+
+All this was fearfully true. The adventurers were not yet more than a
+cable's length from the brig, and they found themselves so completely
+environed with the breakers as to be compelled to go through them. No
+man in his senses would ever have come into such a place at all,
+except in the most unavoidable circumstances; and it was with a
+species of despair that the seamen of the yawl now saw their little
+craft go plunging into the foam.
+
+But Spike neglected no precaution that experience or skill could
+suggest. He had chosen his spot with coolness and judgment. As the
+boat rose on the seas he looked eagerly ahead, and by giving it a
+timely sheer, he hit a sort of channel, where there was sufficient
+water to carry them clear of the rock, and where the breakers were
+less dangerous than in the shoaler places. The passage lasted about a
+minute; and so serious was it, that scarce an individual breathed
+until it was effected. No human skill could prevent the water from
+combing in over the gunwales; and when the danger was passed, the yawl
+was a third filled with water. There was no time or place to pause,
+but on the little craft was dragged almost gunwale to, the breeze
+coming against the lugg in puffs that threatened to take the mast out
+of her. All hands were bailing; and even Biddy used her hands to aid
+in throwing out the water.
+
+"This is no time to hesitate, men," said Spike, sternly. "Every thing
+must go overboard but the food and water. Away with them at once, and
+with a will."
+
+It was a proof how completely all hands were alarmed by this, the
+first experiment in the breakers, that not a man stayed his hand a
+single moment, but each threw into the sea, without an instant of
+hesitation, every article he had brought with him and had hoped to
+save. Biddy parted with the carpet-bag, and Senor Montefalderon,
+feeling the importance of example, committed to the deep a small
+writing-desk that he had placed on his knees. The doubloons alone
+remained, safe in a little locker where Spike had deposited them along
+with his own.
+
+"What news astern, boatswain?" demanded the captain, as soon as this
+imminent danger was passed, absolutely afraid to turn his eyes off the
+dangers ahead for a single instant. "How come on the man-of-war's
+men?"
+
+"They are running down in a body toward the wreck, though one of their
+boats does seem to be sheering out of the line, as if getting into our
+wake. It is hard to say, sir, for they are still a good bit to
+windward of the wreck."
+
+"And the Molly, Strand?"
+
+"Why, sir, the Molly seems to be breaking up fast; as well as I can
+see, she has broke in two just abaft the fore-chains, and cannot hold
+together in any shape at all many minutes longer."
+
+This information drew a deep groan from Spike, and the eye of every
+seaman in the boat was turned in melancholy on the object they were
+so fast leaving behind them. The yawl could not be said to be sailing
+very rapidly, considering the power of the wind, which was a little
+gale, for she was much too deep for that; but she left the wreck so
+fast as already to render objects on board her indistinct. Everybody
+saw that, like an overburthened steed, she had more to get along with
+than she could well bear; and, dependent as seamen usually are on the
+judgment and orders of their superiors, even in the direst
+emergencies, the least experienced man in her saw that their chances
+of final escape from drowning were of the most doubtful nature. The
+men looked at each other in a way to express their feelings; and the
+moment seemed favorable to Spike to confer with his confidential
+sea-dogs in private; but more white water was also ahead, and it was
+necessary to pass through it, since no opening was visible by which to
+avoid it. He deferred his purpose, consequently, until this danger was
+escaped.
+
+On this occasion Spike saw but little opportunity to select a place to
+get through the breakers, though the spot, as a whole, was not of the
+most dangerous kind. The reader will understand that the preservation
+of the boat at all, in white water, was owing to the circumstance that
+the rocks all around it lay so near the surface of the sea as to
+prevent the possibility of agitating the element very seriously, and
+to the fact that she was near the lee side of the reef. Had the
+breakers been of the magnitude of those which are seen where the deep
+rolling billows of the ocean first meet the weather side of shoals or
+rocks, a craft of that size, and so loaded, could not possibly have
+passed the first line of white water without filling. As it was,
+however, the breakers she had to contend with were sufficiently
+formidable, and they brought with them the certainty that the boat was
+in imminent danger of striking the bottom at any moment. Places like
+those in which Mulford had waded on the reef, while it was calm, would
+now have proved fatal to the strongest frame, since human powers were
+insufficient long to withstand the force of such waves as did glance
+over even these shallows.
+
+"Look out!" cried Spike, as the boat again plunged in among the white
+water. "Keep bailing, men--keep bailing."
+
+The men did bail, and the danger was over almost as soon as
+encountered. Something like a cheer burst out of the chest of Spike,
+when he saw deeper water around him, and fancied he could now trace a
+channel that would carry him quite beyond the extent of the reef. It
+was arrested, only half uttered, however, by a communication from the
+boatswain, who sat on a midship thwart, his arms folded, and his eye
+on the brig and the boats.
+
+"There goes the Molly's masts, sir! Both have gone together; and as
+good sticks was they, before them bomb-shells passed through our
+rigging, as was ever stepped in a keelson."
+
+The cheer was changed to something like a groan, while a murmur of
+regret passed through the boat.
+
+"What news from the man-of-war's men, boatswain? Do they still stand
+down on a mere wreck?"
+
+"No, sir; they seem to give it up, and are getting out their oars to
+pull back to their ship. A pretty time they'll have of it, too. The
+cutter that gets to windward half a mile in an hour, ag'in such a sea,
+and such a breeze, must be well pulled and better steered. One chap,
+however, sir, seems to hold on."
+
+Spike now ventured to look behind him, commanding an experienced hand
+to take the helm. In order to do this he was obliged to change places
+with the man he had selected to come aft, which brought him on a
+thwart alongside of the boatswain and one or two other of his
+confidents. Here a whispered conference took place, which lasted
+several minutes, Spike appearing to be giving instructions to the men.
+
+By this time the yawl was more than a mile from the wreck, all the
+man-of-war boats but one had lowered their sails, and were pulling
+slowly and with great labor back toward the ship, the cutter that kept
+on, evidently laying her course after the yawl, instead of standing on
+toward the wreck. The brig was breaking up fast, with every
+probability that nothing would be left of her in a few more minutes.
+As for the yawl, while clear of the white water, it got along without
+receiving many seas aboard, though the men in its bottom were kept
+bailing without intermission. It appeared to Spike that so long as
+they remained on the reef, and could keep clear of breakers--a most
+difficult thing, however--they should fare better than if in deeper
+water, where the swell of the sea, and the combing of the waves,
+menaced so small and so deep-loaded a craft with serious danger. As it
+was, two or three men could barely keep the boat clear, working
+incessantly, and much of the time with a foot or two of water in her.
+
+Josh and Simon had taken their seats, side by side, with that sort of
+dependence and submission that causes the American black to abstain
+from mingling with the whites more than might appear seemly. They were
+squeezed on to one end of the thwart by a couple of robust old
+sea-dogs, who were two of the very men with whom Spike had been in
+consultation. Beneath that very thwart was stowed another confident,
+to whom communications had also been made. These men had sailed long
+in the Swash, and having been picked up in various ports, from time to
+time, as the brig had wanted hands, they were of nearly as many
+different nations as they were persons. Spike had obtained a great
+ascendency over them by habit and authority, and his suggestions were
+now received as a sort of law. As soon as the conference was ended,
+the captain returned to the helm.
+
+A minute more passed, during which the captain was anxiously surveying
+the reef ahead, and the state of things astern. Ahead was more white
+water--the last before they should get clear of the reef; and astern
+it was now settled that the cutter that held on through the dangers of
+the place, was in chase of the yawl. That Mulford was in her Spike
+made no doubt; and the thought embittered even his present calamities.
+But the moment had arrived for something decided. The white water
+ahead was much more formidable than any they had passed; and the
+boldest seaman there gazed at it with dread. Spike made a sign to the
+boatswain, and commenced the execution of his dire project.
+
+"I say, you Josh," called out the captain, in the authoritative tones
+that are so familiar to all on board a ship, "pull in that fender that
+is dragging alongside."
+
+Josh leaned over the gunwale, and reported that there was no fender
+out. A malediction followed, also so familiar to those acquainted with
+ships, and the black was told to look again. This time, as had been
+expected, the negro leaned with his head and body far over the side of
+the yawl, to look for that which had no existence, when two of the men
+beneath the thwart shoved _his_ legs after them. Josh screamed, as he
+found himself going into the water, with a sort of confused
+consciousness of the truth; and Spike called out to Simon to "catch
+hold of his brother-nigger." The cook bent forward to obey, when a
+similar assault on _his_ legs from beneath the thwart, sent him
+headlong after Josh. One of the younger seamen, who was not in the
+secret, sprang up to rescue Simon, who grasped his extended hand, when
+the too generous fellow was pitched headlong from the boat.
+
+All this occurred in less than ten seconds of time, and so
+unexpectedly and naturally, that not a soul beyond those who were in
+the secret, had the least suspicion it was any thing but an accident.
+Some water was shipped, of necessity, but the boat was soon bailed
+free. As for the victims of this vile conspiracy, they disappeared
+amid the troubled waters of the reef, struggling with each other. Each
+and all met the common fate so much the sooner, from the manner in
+which they impeded their own efforts.
+
+The yawl was now relieved from about five hundred pounds of the weight
+it had carried--Simon weighing two hundred alone, and the youngish
+seaman being large and full. So intense does human selfishness get to
+be, in moments of great emergency, that it is to be feared most of
+those who remained, secretly rejoiced that they were so far benefitted
+by the loss of their fellows. The Senor Montefalderon was seated on
+the aftermost thwart, with his legs in the stern-sheets, and
+consequently with his back toward the negroes, and he fully believed
+that what had happened was purely accidental.
+
+"Let us lower our sail, Don Esteban," he cried, eagerly, "and save the
+poor fellows."
+
+Something very like a sneer gleamed on the dark countenance of the
+captain, but it suddenly changed to a look of assent.
+
+"Good!" he said, hastily--"spring forward, Don Wan, and lower the
+sail--stand by the oars, men!"
+
+Without pausing to reflect, the generous-hearted Mexican stepped on a
+thwart, and began to walk rapidly forward, steadying himself by
+placing his hands on the heads of the men. He was suffered to get as
+far as the second thwart, or past most of the conspirators, when his
+legs were seized from behind. The truth now flashed on him, and
+grasping two of the men in his front, who knew nothing of Spike's dire
+scheme, he endeavored to save himself by holding to their jackets.
+Thus assailed, those men seized others with like intent, and an awful
+struggle filled all that part of the craft. At this dread instant the
+boat glanced into the white water, shipping so much of the element as
+nearly to swamp her, and taking so wild a sheer as nearly to
+broach-to. This last circumstance probably saved her, fearful as was
+the danger for the moment. Everybody in the middle of the yawl was
+rendered desperate by the amount and nature of the danger incurred,
+and the men from the bottom rose in their might, underneath the
+combatants, when a common plunge was made by all who stood erect, one
+dragging overboard another, each a good deal hastened by the assault
+from beneath, until no less than five were gone. Spike got his helm
+up, the boat fell off, and away from the spot it flew, clearing the
+breakers, and reaching the northern wall-like margin of the reef at
+the next instant. There was now a moment when those who remained could
+breathe, and dared to look behind them.
+
+The great plunge had been made in water so shoal, that the boat had
+barely escaped being dashed to pieces on the coral. Had it not been so
+suddenly relieved from the pressure of near a thousand pounds in
+weight, it is probable that this calamity would have befallen it, the
+water received on board contributing so much to weigh it down. The
+struggle between these victims ceased, however, the moment they went
+over. Finding bottom for their feet, they released each other, in a
+desperate hope of prolonging life by wading. Two or three held out
+their arms, and shouted to Spike to return and pick them up. This
+dreadful scene lasted but a single instant, for the waves dashed one
+after another from his feet, continually forcing them all, as they
+occasionally regained their footing, toward the margin of the reef,
+and finally washing them off it into deep water. No human power could
+enable a man to swim back to the rocks, once to leeward of them, in
+the face of such seas, and so heavy a blow; and the miserable wretches
+disappeared in succession, as their strength became exhausted, in the
+depths of the gulf.
+
+Not a word had been uttered while this terrific scene was in the
+course of occurrence; not a word was uttered for some time afterward.
+Gleams of grim satisfaction had been seen on the countenances of the
+boatswain, and his associates, when the success of their nefarious
+project was first assured; but they soon disappeared in looks of
+horror, as they witnessed the struggles of the drowning men.
+Nevertheless, human selfishness was strong within them all, and none
+there was so ignorant as not to perceive how much better were the
+chances of the yawl now than it had been on quitting the wreck. The
+weight of a large ox had been taken from it, counting that of all the
+eight men drowned; and as for the water shipped, it was soon bailed
+back again into the sea. Not only, therefore, was the yawl in a better
+condition to resist the waves, but it sailed materially faster than it
+had done before. Ten persons still remained in it, however, which
+brought it down in the water below its proper load-line; and the speed
+of a craft so small was necessarily a good deal lessened by the least
+deviation from its best sailing, or rowing trim. But Spike's projects
+were not yet completed.
+
+All this time the man-of-war's cutter had been rushing as madly
+through the breakers, in chase, as the yawl had done in the attempt to
+escape. Mulford was, in fact, on board it; and his now fast friend,
+Wallace, was in command. The latter wished to seize a traitor, the
+former to save the aunt of his weeping bride. Both believed that they
+might follow wherever Spike dared to lead. This reasoning was more
+bold than judicious notwithstanding, since the cutter was much larger,
+and drew twice as much water as the yawl. On it came, nevertheless,
+faring much better in the white water than the little craft it
+pursued, but necessarily running a much more considerable risk of
+hitting the coral, over which it was glancing almost as swiftly as the
+waves themselves; still it had thus far escaped--and little did any in
+it think of the danger. This cutter pulled ten oars; was an excellent
+sea boat; had four armed marines in it, in addition to its crew, but
+carried all through the breakers, receiving scarcely a drop of water
+on board, on account of the height of its wash-boards, and the general
+qualities of the craft. It may be well to add here, that the
+Poughkeepsie had shaken out her reefs, and was betraying the
+impatience of Capt. Mull to make sail in chase, by firing signal guns
+to his boats to bear a hand and return. These signals the three boats
+under their oars were endeavoring to obey, but Wallace had got so far
+to leeward as now to render the course he was pursuing the wisest.
+
+Mrs. Budd and Biddy had seen the struggle in which the Senor
+Montefalderon had been lost, in a sort of stupid horror. Both had
+screamed, as was their wont, though neither probably suspected the
+truth. But the fell designs of Spike extended to them, as well as to
+those whom he had already destroyed. Now the boat was in deep water,
+running along the margin of the reef, the waves were much increased in
+magnitude, and the comb of the sea was far more menacing to the boat.
+This would not have been the case had the rocks formed a lee; but they
+did not, running too near the direction of the trades to prevent the
+billows that got up a mile or so in the offing, from sending their
+swell quite home to the reef. It was this swell, indeed, which caused
+the line of white water along the northern margin of the coral,
+washing on the rocks by a sort of lateral effort, and breaking, as a
+matter of course. In many places no boat could have lived to pass
+through it.
+
+Another consideration influenced Spike to persevere. The cutter had
+been overhauling him, hand over hand, but since the yawl was relieved
+of the weight of no less than eight men, the difference in the rate of
+sailing was manifestly diminished. The man-of-war's boat drew nearer,
+but by no means as fast as it had previously done. A point was now
+reached in the trim of the yawl, when a very few hundreds in weight
+might make the most important change in her favor; and this change the
+captain was determined to produce. By this time the cutter was in deep
+water, as well as himself, safe through all the dangers of the reef,
+and she was less than a quarter of a mile astern. On the whole, she
+was gaining, though so slowly as to require the most experienced eye
+to ascertain the fact.
+
+"Madame Budd," said Spike, in a hypocritical tone, "we are in great
+danger, and I shall have to ask you to change your seat. The boat is
+too much by the starn, now we've got into deep water, and your weight
+amidships would be a great relief to us. Just give your hand to the
+boatswain, and he will help you to step from thwart to thwart, until
+you reach the right place, when Biddy shall follow."
+
+Now Mrs. Budd had witnessed the tremendous struggle in which so many
+had gone overboard, but so dull was she of apprehension, and so little
+disposed to suspect any thing one-half so monstrous as the truth, that
+she did not hesitate to comply. She was profoundly awed by the horrors
+of the scene through which she was passing, the raging billows of the
+gulf, as seen from so small a craft, producing a deep impression on
+her; still a lingering of her most inveterate affectation was to be
+found in her air and language, which presented a strange medley of
+besetting weakness, and strong, natural, womanly affection.
+
+"Certainly, Capt. Spike," she answered, rising. "A craft should never
+go astern, and I am quite willing to ballast the boat. We have seen
+such terrible accidents to-day, that all should lend their aid in
+endeavoring to get under way, and in averting all possible hamper.
+Only take me to my poor, dear Rosy, Capt. Spike, and every thing shall
+be forgotten that has passed between us. This is not a moment to bear
+malice; and I freely pardon you all and every thing. The fate of our
+unfortunate friend, Mr. Montefalderon, should teach us charity, and
+cause us to prepare for untimely ends."
+
+All the time the good widow was making this speech, which she uttered
+in a solemn and oracular sort of manner, she was moving slowly toward
+the seat the men had prepared for her, in the middle of the boat,
+assisted with the greatest care and attention by the boatswain and
+another of Spike's confidents. When on the second thwart from aft, and
+about to take her seat, the boatswain cast a look behind him, and
+Spike put the helm down. The boat luffed and lurched, of course, and
+Mrs. Budd would probably have gone overboard to leeward, by so sudden
+and violent a change, had not the impetus thus received been aided by
+the arms of the men who held her two hands. The plunge she made into
+the water was deep, for she was a woman of great weight for her
+stature. Still, she was not immediately gotten rid of. Even at that
+dread instant, it is probable that the miserable woman did not suspect
+the truth, for she grasped the hand of the boatswain with the tenacity
+of a vice, and, thus dragged on the surface of the boiling surges, she
+screamed aloud for Spike to save her. Of all who had yet been
+sacrificed to the captain's selfish wish to save himself, this was the
+first instance in which any had been heard to utter a sound, after
+falling into the sea. The appeal shocked even the rude beings around
+her, and Biddy chiming in with a powerful appeal to "save the missus!"
+added to the piteous nature of the scene.
+
+"Cast off her hand," said Spike reproachfully, "she'll swamp the boat
+by her struggles--get rid of her at once! Cut her fingers off if she
+wont let go."
+
+The instant these brutal orders were given, and that in a fierce,
+impatient tone, the voice of Biddy was heard no more. The truth forced
+itself on her dull imagination, and she sat a witness of the terrible
+scene, in mute despair. The struggle did not last long. The boatswain
+drew his knife across the wrist of the hand that grasped his own, one
+shriek was heard, and the boat plunged into the trough of a sea,
+leaving the form of poor Mrs. Budd struggling with the wave on its
+summit, and amid the foam of its crest. This was the last that was
+ever seen of the unfortunate relict.
+
+"The boat has gained a good deal by that last discharge of cargo,"
+said Spike to the boatswain, a minute after they had gotten rid of the
+struggling woman--"she is much more lively, and is getting nearer to
+her load-line. If we can bring her to _that_, I shall have no fear of
+the man-of-war's men; for this yawl is one of the fastest boats that
+ever floated."
+
+"A very little _now_, sir, would bring us to our true trim."
+
+"Ay, we must get rid of more cargo. Come, good woman," turning to
+Biddy, with whom he did not think it worth his while to use much
+circumlocution, "_your_ turn is next. It's the maid's duty to follow
+her mistress."
+
+"I know'd it _must_ come," said Biddy, meekly. "If there was no mercy
+for the missus, little could I look for. But ye'll not take the life
+of a Christian woman widout giving her so much as one minute to say
+her prayers?"
+
+"Ay, pray away," answered Spike, his throat becoming dry and husky,
+for, strange to say, the submissive quiet of the Irish woman, so
+different from the struggle he had anticipated with _her_, rendered
+him more reluctant to proceed than he had hitherto been in all of that
+terrible day. As Biddy kneeled in the bottom of the stern-sheets,
+Spike looked behind him, for the double purpose of escaping the
+painful spectacle at his feet, and that of ascertaining how his
+pursuers came on. The last still gained, though very slowly, and
+doubts began to come over the captain's mind whether he could escape
+such enemies at all. He was too deeply committed, however, to recede,
+and it was most desirable to get rid of poor Biddy, if it were for no
+other motive than to shut her mouth. Spike even fancied that some idea
+of what had passed was entertained by those in the cutter. There was
+evidently a stir in that boat, and two forms that he had no
+difficulty, now, in recognizing as those of Wallace and Mulford, were
+standing on the grating in the eyes of the cutter, or forward of the
+foresail. The former appeared to have a musket in his hand, and the
+other a glass. The last circumstance admonished him that all that was
+now done would be done before dangerous witnesses. It was too late to
+draw back, however, and the captain turned to look for the Irish
+woman.
+
+Biddy arose from her knees, just as Spike withdrew his eyes from his
+pursuers. The boatswain and another confident were in readiness to
+cast the poor creature into the sea, the moment their leader gave the
+signal. The intended victim saw and understood the arrangement, and
+she spoke earnestly and piteously to her murderers.
+
+"It's not wanting will be violence," said Biddy, in a quiet tone, but
+with a saddened countenance. "I know it's my turn, and I will save yer
+sowls from a part of the burden of this great sin. God, and His Divine
+Son, and the Blessed Mother of Jesus have mercy on me if it be wrong;
+but I would far radder jump into the saa widout having the rude hands
+of man on me, than have the dreadful sight of the missus done over
+ag'in. It's a fearful thing is wather, and sometimes we have too
+little of it, and sometimes more than we want--"
+
+"Bear a hand, bear a hand, good woman," interrupted the boatswain,
+impatiently. "We must clear the boat of you, and the sooner it is done
+the better it will be for all of us."
+
+"Don't grudge a poor morthal half a minute of life, at the last
+moment," answered Biddy. "It's not long that I'll throuble ye, and so
+no more need be said."
+
+The poor creature then got on the quarter of the boat, without any
+one's touching her; there she placed herself with her legs outboard,
+while she sat on the gunwale. She gave one moment to the thought of
+arranging her clothes with womanly decency, and then she paused to
+gaze with a fixed eye, and pallid cheek, on the foaming wake that
+marked the rapid course of the boat. The troughs of the sea seemed
+less terrible to her than their combing crests, and she waited for the
+boat to descend into the next.
+
+"God forgive ye all, this deed, as I do!" said Biddy, earnestly, and
+bending her person forward, she fell, as it might be "without hands,"
+into the gulf of eternity. Though all strained their eyes, none of the
+men, Jack Tier excepted, ever saw more of Biddy Noon. Nor did Jack see
+much. He got a frightful glimpse of an arm, however, on the summit of
+a wave, but the motion of the boat was too swift, and the surface of
+the ocean too troubled, to admit of aught else.
+
+A long pause succeeded this event. Biddy's quiet submission to her
+fate had produced more impression on her murderers than the desperate,
+but unavailing, struggles of those who had preceded her. Thus it is
+ever with men. When opposed, the demon within blinds them to
+consequences as well as to their duties; but, unresisted, the silent
+influence of the image of God makes itself felt, and a better spirit
+begins to prevail. There was not one in that boat who did not, for a
+brief space, wish that poor Biddy had been spared. With most that
+feeling, the last of human kindness they ever knew, lingered until the
+occurrence of the dread catastrophe which, so shortly after, closed
+the scene of this state of being on their eyes.
+
+"Jack Tier," called out Spike, some five minutes after Biddy was
+drowned, but not until another observation had made it plainly
+apparent to him that the man-of-war's men still continued to draw
+nearer, being now not more than fair musket shot astern.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered Jack, coming quietly out of his hole, from
+forward of the mast, and moving aft as if indifferent to the danger,
+by stepping lightly from thwart to thwart, until he reached the
+stern-sheets.
+
+"It is your turn, little Jack," said Spike, as if in a sort of
+sorrowful submission to a necessity that knew no law, "we cannot spare
+you the room."
+
+"I have expected this, and am ready. Let me have my own way, and I
+will cause you no trouble. Poor Biddy has taught me how to die. Before
+I go, however, Stephen Spike, I must leave you this letter. It is
+written by myself, and addressed to you. When I am gone, read it, and
+think well of what it contains. And now, may a merciful God pardon the
+sins of both, through love for his Divine Son. I forgive you, Stephen;
+and should you live to escape from those who are now bent on hunting
+you to the death, let this day cause you no grief on my account. Give
+me but a moment of time, and I will cause you no trouble."
+
+Jack now stood upon the seat of the stern-sheets, balancing himself
+with one foot on the stern of the boat. He waited until the yawl had
+risen to the summit of a wave, when he looked eagerly for the
+man-of-war's cutter. At that moment she was lost to view in the trough
+of the sea. Instead of springing overboard, as all expected, he asked
+another instant of delay. The yawl sunk into the trough itself, and
+rose on the succeeding billow. Then he saw the cutter, and Wallace and
+Mulford standing in its bows. He waved his hat to them, and sprang
+high into the air, with the intent to make himself seen; when he came
+down, the boat had shot her length away from the place, leaving him to
+buffet with the waves. Jack now managed admirably, swimming lightly
+and easily, but keeping his eyes on the crests of the waves, with a
+view to meet the cutter. Spike now saw this well planned project to
+avoid death, and regretted his own remissness in not making sure of
+Jack. Everybody in the yawl was eagerly looking after the form of
+Tier.
+
+"There he is on the comb of that sea, rolling over like a keg!" cried
+the boatswain.
+
+"He's through it," answered Spike, "and swimming with great strength
+and coolness."
+
+Several of the men started up involuntarily and simultaneously to
+look, hitting their shoulders and bodies together. Distrust was at its
+most painful height; and bull-dogs do not spring at the ox's muzzle
+more fiercely than those six men throttled each other. Oaths, curses,
+and appeals for help, succeeded; each man endeavoring, in his frenzied
+efforts, to throw all the others overboard, as the only means of
+saving himself. Plunge succeeded plunge; and when that combat of
+demons ended, no one remained of them all but the boatswain. Spike had
+taken no share in the struggle, looking on in grim satisfaction, as
+the Father of Lies may be supposed to regard all human strife, hoping
+good to himself, let the result be what it might to others. Of the
+five men who thus went overboard, not one escaped. They drowned each
+other by continuing their maddened conflict in an element unsuited to
+their natures.
+
+Not so with Jack Tier. His leap had been seen, and a dozen eyes in the
+cutter watched for his person, as that boat came foaming down before
+the wind. A shout of "There he is!" from Mulford succeeded; and the
+little fellow was caught by the hair, secured, and then hauled into
+the boat by the second lieutenant of the Poughkeepsie and our young
+mate.
+
+Others in the cutter had noted the incident of the hellish fight. The
+fact was communicated to Wallace, and Mulford said, "That yawl will
+outsail this loaded cutter, with only two men in it."
+
+"Then it is time to try what virtue there is in lead," answered
+Wallace. "Marines, come forward, and give the rascal a volley."
+
+The volley was fired; one ball passed through the head of the
+boatswain, killing him dead on the spot. Another went through the
+body of Spike. The captain fell in the stern-sheets, and the boat
+instantly broached to.
+
+The water that came on board apprised Spike fully of the state in
+which he was now placed, and by a desperate effort, he clutched the
+tiller, and got the yawl again before the wind. This could not last,
+however. Little by little, his hold relaxed, until his hand
+relinquished its grasp altogether, and the wounded man sunk into the
+bottom of the stern-sheets, unable to raise even his head. Again the
+boat broached-to. Every sea now sent its water aboard, and the yawl
+would soon have filled, had not the cutter come glancing down past it,
+and rounding-to under its lee, secured the prize.
+
+[_To be continued._
+
+
+
+
+THE LAND OF DREAMS.
+
+BY WILLIAM C. BRYANT.
+
+
+ A mighty realm is the Land of Dreams,
+ With steeps that hang in the twilight sky,
+ And weltering oceans and trailing streams
+ That gleam where the dusky valleys lie.
+
+ But over its shadowy border flow
+ Sweet rays from the world of endless morn,
+ And the nearer mountains catch the glow,
+ And flowers in the nearer fields are born.
+
+ The souls of the happy dead repair,
+ From their bowers of light, to that bordering land,
+ And walk in the fainter glory there,
+ With the souls of the living, hand in hand.
+
+ One calm sweet smile in that shadowy sphere,
+ From eyes that open on earth no more--
+ One warning word from a voice once dear--
+ How they rise in the memory o'er and o'er!
+
+ Far off from those hills that shine with day,
+ And fields that bloom in the heavenly gales,
+ The Land of Dreams goes stretching away
+ To dimmer mountains and darker vales.
+
+ There lie the chambers of guilty delight,
+ There walk the spectres of guilty fear,
+ And soft low voices that float through the night
+ Are whispering sin in the helpless ear.
+
+ Dear maids, in thy girlhood's opening flower,
+ Scarce weaned from the love of childish play!
+ The tears on whose cheeks are but the shower
+ That freshens the early blooms of May!
+
+ Thine eyes are closed, and over thy brow
+ Pass thoughtful shadows and joyous gleams,
+ And I know, by the moving lips, that now
+ Thy spirit strays in the Land of Dreams.
+
+ Light-hearted maiden, oh, heed thy feet!
+ Oh keep where that beam of Paradise falls;
+ And only wander where thou may'st meet
+ The blessed ones from its shining walls.
+
+ So shalt thou come from the Land of Dreams,
+ With love and peace, to this world of strife;
+ And the light that over that border streams
+ Shall lie on the path of thy daily life.
+
+
+
+
+SONNET--TO S. D. A.
+
+BY "THE SQUIRE."
+
+
+ When the young Morning, like a new-drest bride,
+ With pearls of dew fresh glistening in her hair,
+ Walks through the east in early summer-tide.
+ Her robe loose floating on the scented air,
+ The laughing hours assembled at her side
+ Or circling round her--then is she less fair
+ Than, in my heart, the picture, sweet and rare,
+ Thy presence left.--My books go unperused,
+ Old friends are shunned, and time flies by unused,
+ While I, grown idle, nothing do but dream;
+ Gazing upon that picture till I seem
+ _Thyself_, again, before my eyes to see,
+ And not the ideal show: so that to me
+ The semblance turns to sweet reality.
+
+
+[Illustration
+_Engraved by T. S. WELCH. FOR GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE_
+_FROM AN ORIGINAL DAGUERREOTYPE_]
+
+_Entered according to act of Congress in the Year 1847 by G.R. Graham
+in the Clerks Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of
+P^a._
+
+
+
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
+
+OF GENERAL WILLIAM O. BUTLER.
+
+BY FRANCIS P. BLAIR.
+
+
+In memoirs of individuals of distinction it is usual to look back to
+their ancestry. The feeling is universal which prompts us to learn
+something of even an ordinary acquaintance in whom interest is felt.
+It will indulge, therefore, only a necessary and proper curiosity to
+introduce the subject of this notice by a short account of a family
+whose striking traits survive in him so remarkably. General Butler's
+grandfather, Thomas Butler, was born 6th April, 1720, in Kilkenny,
+Ireland. He married there in 1742. Three of his five sons who attained
+manhood, Richard, William and Thomas, were born abroad. Pierce, the
+father of General William O. Butler, and Edward, the youngest son,
+were born in Pennsylvania. It is remarkable that all these men, and
+all their immediate male descendants, with a single exception, (who
+was a judge,) were engaged in the military service of this country.
+
+The eldest, Richard, was Lieut. Col. of Morgan's celebrated
+rifle-regiment, and to him it owed much of the high character that
+gave it a fame of its own, apart from the other corps of the
+Revolution. The cool, disciplined valor which gave steady and deadly
+direction to the rifles of this regiment, was derived principally from
+this officer, who devoted himself to the drill of his men. He was
+promoted to the full command of his regiment sometime during the war,
+(when Morgan's great merit and services had raised him to the rank of
+general,) and in that capacity had commanded Wayne's left in the
+attack on Stony Point. About the year 1790, he was appointed
+major-general. On the 4th of November, 1791, he was killed in St.
+Clair's bloody battle with the Indians. His combat with the Indians,
+after he was shot, gave such a peculiar interest to his fate that a
+representation of himself and the group surrounding him was exhibited
+throughout the Union in wax figures. Notices of this accomplished
+soldier will be found in Marshall's Life of Washington, pages 290,
+311, 420. In Gen. St. Clair's report, in the American Museum, volume
+xi. page 44, Appendix.
+
+William Butler, the second son, was an officer throughout the
+revolutionary war; rose to the rank of colonel, and was in many of the
+severest battles. He was the favorite of the family, and was boasted
+of by this race of heroes as the coolest and boldest man in battle
+they had ever known. When the army was greatly reduced in rank and
+file, and there were many superfluous officers, they organized
+themselves into a separate corps, and elected him to the command.
+General Washington declined receiving this novel corps of
+commissioned soldiers, but in a proud testimonial did honor to their
+devoted patriotism.
+
+Of Thomas Butler, the third son, we glean the following facts from the
+American Biographical Dictionary. In the year 1776, whilst he was a
+student of law in the office of the eminent Judge Wilson of
+Philadelphia, he left his pursuit and joined the army as a subaltern.
+He soon obtained the command of a company, in which he continued to
+the close of the revolutionary war. He was in almost every action
+fought in the Middle States during the war. At the battle of
+Brandywine he received the thanks of Washington on the field of
+battle, through his aid-de-camp Gen. Hamilton, for his intrepid
+conduct in rallying a detachment of retreating troops, and giving the
+enemy a severe fire. At the battle of Monmouth he received the thanks
+of Gen. Wayne for defending a defile, in the face of a severe fire
+from the enemy, while Col. Richard Butler's regiment made good its
+retreat. At the close of the war he retired into private life, as a
+farmer, and continued in the enjoyment of rural and domestic happiness
+until the year 1791, when he again took the field to meet the savage
+foe that menaced our western frontier. He commanded a battalion in the
+disastrous battle of Nov. 4, 1791, in which his brother fell. Orders
+were given by Gen. St. Clair to charge with the bayonet, and Major
+Butler, though his leg had been broken by a ball, yet on horseback,
+led his battalion to the charge. It was with difficulty his surviving
+brother, Capt. Edward Butler, removed him from the field. In 1792 he
+was continued in the establishment as major, and in 1794 he was
+promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel commandant of the 4th
+sub-legion. He commanded in this year Fort Fayette, at Pittsburg, and
+prevented the deluded insurgents from taking it, more by his name than
+by his forces, for he had but few troops. The close of his life was
+embittered with trouble. In 1803 he was arrested by the commanding
+general--Wilkinson--at Fort Adams, on the Mississippi, and sent to
+Maryland, where he was tried by a court-martial, and acquitted of all
+the charges, save that of _wearing his hair_. He was then ordered to
+New Orleans, where he arrived, to take command of the troops, October
+20th. He was again arrested next month; but the court did not sit
+until July of the next year, and their decision is not known. Col.
+Butler died Sept. 7, 1805. Out of the arrest and persecution of this
+sturdy veteran, Washington Irving (Knickerbocker) has worked up a fine
+piece of burlesque, in which Gen. Wilkinson's character is inimitably
+delineated in that of the vain and pompous Gen. Von Poffenburg.
+
+Percival Butler, the fourth son, father of General Wm. O. Butler, was
+born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1760. He entered the army as a
+lieutenant at the age of eighteen; was with Washington at Valley
+Forge; was in the battle of Monmouth, and at the taking of
+Yorktown--being through the whole series of struggles in the Middle
+States, with the troops under the commander-in-chief, except for a
+short period when he was attached to a light corps commanded by La
+Fayette, who presented him a sword. Near the close of the war he went
+to the South with the Pennsylvania brigade, where peace found him. He
+emigrated to Kentucky in 1784. He was the last of the old stock left
+when the war of 1812 commenced. He was made adjutant-general when
+Kentucky became a State, and in that capacity joined one of the armies
+sent out by Kentucky during the war.
+
+Edward Butler, the youngest of the five brothers, was too young to
+enter the army in the first stages of the Revolution, but joined it
+near the close, and had risen to a captaincy when Gen. St. Clair took
+the command, and led it to that disastrous defeat in which so many of
+the best soldiers of the country perished. He there evinced the
+highest courage and strongest fraternal affection, in carrying his
+wounded brother out of the massacre, which was continued for miles
+along the route of the retreating army, and from which so few escaped,
+even of those who fled unencumbered. He subsequently became
+adjutant-general in Wayne's army.
+
+Of these five brothers four had sons--all of whom, with one exception,
+were engaged in the military or naval service of the country during
+the last war.
+
+1st. General Richard Butler's son, William, died a lieutenant in the
+navy, early in the last war. His son, Captain James Butler, was at the
+head of the Pittsburg Blues, which company he commanded in the
+campaigns of the Northwest, and was particularly distinguished in the
+battle of Massissinnawa.
+
+2d. Colonel William Butler, also of the revolutionary army, had two
+sons, one died in the navy, the other a subaltern in Wayne's army. He
+was in the battle with the Indians in 1794.
+
+3d. Lieut. Col. Thomas Butler, of the old stock, had three sons, the
+eldest a judge. The second, Col. Robert Butler, was at the head of
+Gen. Jackson's staff throughout the last war. The third, William E.
+Butler, also served in the army of Gen. Jackson.
+
+4th. Percival Butler, captain in the revolutionary war, and
+adjutant-general of Kentucky during the last war, had four sons:
+first, Thomas, who was a captain, and aid to Gen. Jackson at New
+Orleans. Next, Gen. William O. Butler, the subject of this notice.
+Third, Richard, who was assistant adjutant-general in the campaigns of
+the war of 1812. Percival Butler, the youngest son, now a
+distinguished lawyer, was not of an age to bear arms in the last war.
+Of this second generation of the Butler's, there are nine certainly,
+and probably more, engaged in the present war.
+
+This glance at the family shows the character of the race. An
+anecdote, derived from a letter of an old Pennsylvania friend to the
+parents, who transplanted it from Ireland, shows that its military
+instinct was an inheritance. "While the five sons," says the letter,
+"were absent from home in the service of the country, the old father
+took it in his head to go also. The neighbors collected to remonstrate
+against it; but his wife said, 'Let him go! I can get along without
+him, and raise something to feed the army in the bargain; and the
+country wants every man who can shoulder a musket.'" It was doubtless
+this extraordinary zeal of the Butler family which induced Gen.
+Washington to give the toast--"The Butlers, and their five sons," at
+his own table, whilst surrounded by a large party of officers. This
+anecdote rests on the authority of the late Gen. Findlay, of
+Cincinnati. A similar tribute of respect was paid to this devoted
+house of soldiers by Gen. La Fayette, in a letter now extant, and in
+the possession of a lady connected with them by marriage. La Fayette
+says, "_When I wanted a thing well done, I ordered a Butler to do
+it._"
+
+From this retrospect it will be seen that in all the wars of the
+country, in the revolutionary war, in the Indian war, in the last
+British war, and the present Mexican war, the blood of almost every
+Butler able to bear arms has been freely shed in the public cause.
+Maj. Gen. William O. Butler is now among the highest in the military
+service of his country; and he has attained this grade from the
+ranks--the position of a private being the only one he ever sought. At
+the opening of the war of 1812, he had just graduated in the
+Transylvania University, and was looking to the law as a profession.
+The surrender of Detroit, and the army by Hull, aroused the patriotism
+and the valor of Kentucky--and young Butler, yet in his minority, was
+among the first to volunteer. He gave up his books, and the enjoyments
+of the gay and polished society of Lexington, where he lived among a
+circle of fond and partial relations--the hope to gratify their
+ambition in shining at the bar, or in the political forum of the
+state--to join Capt. Hart's company of infantry as a private soldier.
+
+Before the march to join the northwestern army, he was elected a
+corporal. In this grade he marched to the relief of Fort Wayne, which
+was invested by hostile Indians. These were driven before the Kentucky
+volunteers to their towns on the Wabash, which were destroyed, and the
+troops then returned to the Miami of the lakes, where they made a
+winter encampment. Here an ensign's commission in the second regiment
+of United States infantry was tendered to the volunteer corporal,
+which he declined, unless permitted to remain with the northwestern
+army, which he had entered to share in the effort of the Kentucky
+militia to wipe out the disgrace of Hull's surrender by the recapture
+of Detroit. His proposition was assented to, and he received an
+ensign's appointment in the seventeenth infantry, then a part of the
+northwestern army, under the command of Gen. Winchester. After
+enduring every privation in a winter encampment, in the wildernesses
+and frozen marshes of the lake country, awaiting in vain the expected
+support of additional forces, the Kentucky volunteers, led by Lewis,
+Allen, and Madison, with Well's regiment, (17th U. S.) advanced to
+encounter the force of British and Indians which defended Detroit. On
+leaving Kentucky the volunteers had pledged themselves to drive the
+British invaders from our soil. These men and their leaders were held
+in such estimation at home, that the expectation formed of them
+exceeded their promises; and these volunteers, though disappointed in
+every succor which they had reason to anticipate--wanting in
+provision, clothes, cannon, in every thing--resolved, rather than lose
+reputation, to press on to the enterprise, and to endeavor to draw on
+to them, by entering into action, the troops behind. It is not proper
+here to enter into explanations of the causes of the disaster at the
+River Raisin, the consequence of this movement, nor to give the
+particulars of the battle. The incidents which signalized the
+character of the subject of this memoir alone are proper here.
+
+There were two battles at the River Raisin, one on the 18th, the other
+on the 22d of January. In the first, the whole body of Indian
+warriors, drawn together from all the lake tribes, for the defence of
+Upper Canada against the approaching Kentuckians, were encountered. In
+moving to the attack of this formidable force of the fiercest, and
+bravest, and most expert warriors on the continent, a strong party of
+them were descried from the line with which Ensign Butler advanced,
+running forward to reach a fence, and hold it as a cover from which to
+ply their rifles. Butler instantly proposed, and was permitted, to
+anticipate them. Calling upon some of the most alert and active men of
+the company, he ran directly to meet the Indians at the fence. He and
+his comrades out-stripped the enemy, and getting possession of the
+fence, kept the advantage of the position for their advancing friends.
+This incident, of however little importance as to results, is worth
+remembrance in giving the traits of a young soldier's character. It is
+said that the hardiest veteran, at the opening of the fire in battle,
+feels, for the moment, somewhat appalled. And Gen. Wolfe, one of the
+bravest of men, declared that the "horrid yell of the Indian strikes
+the boldest heart with affright." The strippling student, who, for the
+first time, beheld a field of battle on the snows of the River Raisin,
+presenting in bold relief long files of those terrible enemies, whose
+massacres had filled his native State with tales of horror, must have
+felt some stirring sensations. But the crack of the Indian rifle, and
+his savage yell, awoke in him the chivalric instincts of his nature;
+and the promptitude with which he communicated his enthusiasm to a few
+comrades around, and rushed forward to meet danger in its most
+appalling form, risking himself to save others, and secure a triumph
+which he could scarcely hope to share, gave earnest of the military
+talent, the self-sacrificing courage, and the soldierly sympathies
+which have drawn to him the nation's esteem. The close of the battle
+of the 18th gave another instance in which these latter traits of Gen.
+Butler's character were still more strikingly illustrated. The
+Indians, driven from the defences around the town on the River Raisin,
+retired fighting into the thick woods beyond it. The contest of
+sharp-shooting from tree to tree was here continued--the Kentuckians
+pressing forward, and the Indians retreating, until night closed in,
+when the Kentuckians were recalled to the encampment in the village.
+The Indians advanced as their opposers withdrew, and kept up the fire
+until the Kentuckians emerged from the woods into the open ground.
+Just as the column to which Ensign Butler belonged reached the verge
+of the dark forest, the voice of a wounded man, who had been left some
+distance behind, was heard calling out most piteously for help. Butler
+induced three of his company to go back in the woods with him to bring
+him off. He was found, and they fought their way back--one of the men,
+Jeremiah Walker, receiving a shot, of which he subsequently died.
+
+In the second sanguinary battle of the River Raisin, on the 22d of
+January, with the British and Indians, another act of self-devotion
+was performed by Butler. After the rout and massacre of the right
+wing, belonging to Wells' command, the whole force of the British and
+Indians was concentrated against the small body of troops under Major
+Madison, that maintained their ground within the picketed gardens. A
+double barn, commanding the plot of ground on which the Kentuckians
+stood, was approached on one side by the Indians, under the cover of
+an orchard and fence; the British, on the other side, being so posted
+as to command the space between it and the pickets. A party in the
+rear of the barn were discovered advancing to take possession of it.
+All saw the fatal consequences of the secure lodgment of the enemy at
+a place which would present every man within the pickets at close
+rifle-shot to the aim of their marksmen. Major Madison inquired if
+there was no one who would volunteer to run the gauntlet of the fire
+of the British and Indian lines, and put a torch to the combustibles
+within the barn, to save the remnant of the little army from
+sacrifice. Butler, without a moment's delay, took some blazing slicks
+from a fire at hand, leaped the pickets, and running at his utmost
+speed, thrust the fire into the straw within the barn. One who was an
+anxious spectator of the event we narrate, says, "that although volley
+upon volley was fired at him, Butler, after making some steps on his
+way back, turned to see if the fire had taken, and not being
+satisfied, returned to the barn and set it in a blaze. As the
+conflagration grew, the enemy was seen retreating from the rear of the
+building, which they had entered at one end, as the flame ascended in
+the other. Soon after reaching the pickets in safety, amid the shouts
+of his friends, he was struck by a ball in his breast. Believing from
+the pain he felt that it had penetrated his chest, turning to Adjutant
+(now Gen.) McCalla, one of his Lexington comrades, and pressing his
+hand to the spot, he said, "I fear this shot is mortal, but while I am
+able to move, I will do my duty." To the anxious inquiries of this
+friend, who met him soon afterward, he opened his vest, with a smile,
+and showed him that the ball had spent itself on the thick wadding of
+his coat and on his breast bone. He suffered, however, for many
+weeks.
+
+The little band within the pickets, which Winchester had surrendered,
+after being carried himself a prisoner into Proctor's camp, denied his
+powers. They continued to hold the enemy at bay until they were
+enabled to capitulate on honorable terms, which, nevertheless, Proctor
+shamefully violated, by leaving the sick and wounded who were unable
+to walk to the tomahawk of his allies. Butler, who was among the few
+of the wounded who escaped the massacre, was marched through Canada to
+Fort Niagara--suffering under his wound, and every privation--oppressed
+with grief, hunger, fatigue, and the inclement cold of that desolate
+region. Even here he forgot himself, and his mind wandered back to the
+last night scene which he surveyed on the bloody shores of the River
+Raisin. He gave up the heroic part and became the schoolboy again, and
+commemorated his sorrows for his lost friends in verse, like some
+passionate, heart-broken lover. These elegiac strains were never
+intended for any but the eye of mutual friends, whose sympathies, like
+his own, poured out tears with their plaints over the dead. We give
+some of these lines of his boyhood, to show that the heroic youth had
+a bosom not less kind than brave.
+
+THE FIELD OF RAISIN.
+
+ The battle's o'er! the din is past,
+ Night's mantle on the field is cast;
+ The Indian yell is heard no more,
+ An silence broods o'er Erie's shore.
+ At this lone hour I go to tread
+ The field where valor vainly bled--
+ To raise the wounded warrior's crest,
+ Or warm with tears his icy breast;
+ To treasure up his last command,
+ And bear it to his native land.
+ It may one pulse of joy impart
+ To a fond mother's bleeding heart;
+ Or for a moment it may dry
+ The tear-drop in the widow's eye.
+ Vain hope, away! The widow ne'er
+ Her warrior's dying wish shall hear.
+ The passing zephyr bears no sigh,
+ No wounded warrior meets the eye--
+ Death is his sleep by Erie's wave,
+ Of Raisin's snow we heap his grave!
+ How many hopes lie murdered here--
+ The mother's joy, the father's pride,
+ The country's boast, the foeman's fear,
+ In wilder'd havoc, side by side.
+ Lend me, thou silent queen of night,
+ Lend me awhile thy waning light,
+ That I may see each well-loved form,
+ That sunk beneath the morning storm.
+
+These lines are introductory to what may be considered a succession of
+epitaphs on the personal friends whose bodies he found upon the field.
+It would extend the extract too far to insert them. We can only add
+the close of the poem, where he takes leave of a group of his young
+comrades in Hart's company, who had fallen together.
+
+ And here I see that youthful band,
+ That loved to move at Hart's command;
+ I saw them for the battle dressed,
+ And still where danger thickest pressed,
+ I marked their crimson plumage wave.
+ How many filled this bloody grave!
+ Their pillow and their winding-sheet
+ The virgin snow--a shroud most meet!
+ But wherefore do I linger here?
+ Why drop the unavailing tear?
+ Where'er I turn, some youthful form,
+ Like floweret broken by the storm,
+ Appeals to me in sad array,
+ And bids me yet a moment stay.
+ Till I could fondly lay me down
+ And sleep with him on the cold, cold ground.
+ For thee, thou dread and solemn plain,
+ I ne'er shall look on thee again;
+ And Spring, with her effacing showers,
+ Shall come, and Summer's mantling flowers;
+ And each succeeding Winter throw
+ On thy red breast new robes of snow;
+ Yet I will wear thee in my heart,
+ All dark and gory as thou art.
+
+Shortly after his return from Canada. Ensign Butler was promoted to a
+captaincy in the regiment to which he belonged. But as this promotion
+was irregular, being made over the heads of senior officers in that
+regiment, a captaincy was given him in the 44th, a new raised
+regiment. When free from parole, by exchange, in 1814, he instantly
+entered on active duty, with a company which he had recruited at
+Nashville, Tennessee. His regiment was ordered to join General Jackson
+in the South, but Captain Butler finding its movements too tardy,
+pushed on, and effected that junction with his company alone. Gen.
+Call, at that time an officer in Capt. Butler's company, (since Gov.
+of Florida,) in a letter addressed to Mr. Tanner of Kentucky,
+presents, as an eye-witness, so graphically, the share which Capt.
+Butler had in the campaign which followed, that it may well supersede
+any narrative at second hand.
+
+ "_Tallehasse, April_ 3, 1844.
+
+ "SIR,--I avail myself of the earliest leisure I
+ have had since the receipt of your letter of the
+ 18th of February, to give you a reply.
+
+ "A difference of political sentiments will not
+ induce me to withhold the narrative you have
+ requested, of the military services of Col. Wm. O.
+ Butler, during the late war with Great Britain,
+ while attached to the army of the South. My
+ intimate association with him, in camp, on the
+ march, and in the field, has perhaps made me as
+ well acquainted with his merits, as a gentleman and
+ a soldier, as any other man living. And although we
+ are now standing in opposite ranks, I cannot forget
+ the days and nights we have stood side by side,
+ facing the common enemy of our country, sharing the
+ same fatigues, dangers, and privations, and
+ participating in the same pleasures and enjoyments.
+ The feelings and sympathies springing from such
+ associations in the days of our youth can never be
+ removed or impaired by a difference of opinion with
+ regard to men or measures, when each may well
+ believe the other equally sincere as himself, and
+ where the most ardent desire of both is to sustain
+ the honor, the happiness and prosperity of our
+ country.
+
+ "Soon after my appointment in the army of the
+ United States, as a lieutenant, in the fall of
+ 1814, I was ordered to join the company of Capt.
+ Butler, of the 44th regiment of infantry, then at
+ Nashville, Tennessee. When I arrived, and reported
+ myself, I found the company under orders to join
+ our regiment in the South. The march, mostly
+ through an unsettled wilderness, was conducted by
+ Capt. Butler with his usual promptitude and energy,
+ and by forced and rapid movements we arrived at
+ Fort Montgomery, the headquarters of Gen. Jackson,
+ a short distance above the Florida line, just in
+ time to follow our beloved general in his bold
+ enterprise to drive the enemy from his strong
+ position in a neutral territory. The van-guard of
+ the army destined for the invasion of Louisiana had
+ made Pensacola its headquarters, and the British
+ navy in the Gulf of Mexico had rendezvoused in that
+ beautiful bay.
+
+ "The penetrating sagacity of Gen. Jackson
+ discovered the advantage of the position assumed by
+ the British forces, and with a decision and energy
+ which never faltered, he resolved to find his
+ enemy, even under the flag of a neutral power. This
+ was done by a prompt and rapid march, surprising
+ and cutting off all the advanced pickets, until we
+ arrived within gun-shot of the fort at Pensacola.
+ The army of Gen. Jackson was then so inconsiderable
+ as to render a reinforcement of a single company,
+ commanded by such an officer as Capt. Butler, an
+ important acquisition. And although there were
+ several companies of regular troops ordered to
+ march from Tennessee at the same time, Capt.
+ Butler's, by his extraordinary energy and
+ promptitude, was the only one which arrived in time
+ to join this expedition. His company formed a part
+ of the centre column of attack at Pensacola. The
+ street we entered was defended by a battery in
+ front, which fired on us incessantly, while several
+ strong block-houses, on our flanks, discharged upon
+ us small arms and artillery. But a gallant and
+ rapid charge soon carried the guns in front, and
+ the town immediately surrendered.
+
+ "In this fight Capt. Butler led on his company with
+ his usual intrepidity. He had one officer, Lieut.
+ Flournoy, severely wounded, and several
+ non-commissioned officers and privates killed and
+ wounded.
+
+ "From Pensacola, after the object of the expedition
+ was completed, by another prompt and rapid
+ movement, we arrived at New Orleans a few weeks
+ before the appearance of the enemy.
+
+ "On the 23d of December the signal-gun announced
+ the approach of the enemy. The previous night they
+ had surprised and captured one of our pickets; had
+ ascended a bayou, disembarked, and had taken
+ possession of the left bank of the Mississippi,
+ within six miles of New Orleans. The energy of
+ every officer was put in requisition, to
+ concentrate our forces in time to meet the enemy.
+ Capt. Butler was one of the first to arrive at the
+ general's quarters, and ask instructions; they were
+ received and promptly executed. Our regiment,
+ stationed on the opposite side, was transported
+ across the river. All the available forces of our
+ army, not much exceeding fifteen hundred men, were
+ concentrated in the city; and while the sun went
+ down the line of battle was formed; and every
+ officer took the station assigned him in the fight.
+ The infantry formed on the open square, in front of
+ the Cathedral, waiting in anxious expectation for
+ the order to move. During this momentary pause,
+ while the enemy was expected to enter the city, a
+ scene of deep and thrilling interest was presented.
+ Every gallery, porch and window around the square
+ were filled with the fair forms of beauty, in
+ silent anxiety and alarm, waving their
+ handkerchiefs to the gallant and devoted band which
+ stood before them, prepared to die, or defend them
+ from the rude intrusion of a foreign soldiery. It
+ was a scene calculated to awaken emotions never to
+ be forgotten. It appealed to the chivalry and
+ patriotism of every officer and soldier--it
+ inspired every heart, and nerved every arm for
+ battle. From this impressive scene the army marched
+ to meet the enemy, and about eight o'clock at night
+ they were surprised in their encampment,
+ immediately on the banks of the Mississippi.
+ Undiscovered, our line was formed in silence within
+ a short distance of the enemy; a rapid charge was
+ made into their camp, and a desperate conflict
+ ensued. After a determined resistance the enemy
+ gave way, but disputing every inch of ground we
+ gained. In advancing over ditches and fences in the
+ night, rendered still more dark by the smoke of the
+ battle, much confusion necessarily ensued, and many
+ officers became separated from their commands. It
+ more than once occurred during the fight that some
+ of our officers, through mistake, entered the
+ enemy's lines; and the British officers in like
+ manner entered ours. The meritorious officer in
+ command of our regiment, at the commencement of the
+ battle, lost his position in the darkness and
+ confusion, and was unable to regain it until the
+ action was over. In this manner, for a short time,
+ the regiment was without a commander, and its
+ movements were regulated by the platoon officers,
+ which increased the confusion and irregularity of
+ the advance. In this critical situation, and in the
+ heat of the battle, Capt. Butler, as the senior
+ officer present, assumed command of the regiment,
+ and led it on most gallantly to repeated and
+ successful charges, until the fight ended in the
+ complete rout of the enemy. We were still pressing
+ on their rear, when an officer of the general's
+ staff rode up and ordered the pursuit discontinued.
+ Captain Butler urged its continuance, and expressed
+ the confident belief of his ability to take many
+ prisoners, if permitted to advance. But the order
+ was promptly repeated, under the well-founded
+ apprehension that our troops might come in
+ collision with each other, an event which had
+ unhappily occurred at a previous hour of the fight.
+ No corps on that field was more bravely led to
+ battle than the regiment commanded by Capt. Butler,
+ and no officer of any rank, save the
+ commander-in-chief, was entitled to higher credit
+ for the achievement of that glorious night.
+
+ "A short time before the battle of the 8th of
+ January, Capt. Butler was detailed to command the
+ guard in front of the encampment. A house standing
+ near the bridge, in advance of his position, had
+ been taken possession of by the light troops of the
+ enemy, from whence they annoyed our guard. Capt.
+ Butler determined to dislodge them and burn the
+ house. He accordingly marched to the attack at the
+ head of his command, but the enemy retired before
+ him. Seeing them retreat, he halted his guard, and
+ advanced himself, accompanied by two or three men
+ only, for the purpose of burning the house. It was
+ an old frame building, weather-boarded, without
+ ceiling or plaster in the inside, with a single
+ door opening to the British camp. On entering the
+ house he found a soldier of the enemy concealed in
+ one corner, whom he captured, and sent to the rear
+ with his men, remaining alone in the house. While
+ he was in the act of kindling a fire, a detachment
+ of the enemy, unperceived, occupied the only door.
+ The first impulse was to force, with his single
+ arm, a passage through them, but he was instantly
+ seized in a violent manner by two or three stout
+ fellows, who pushed him back against the wall with
+ such force as to burst off the weather-boarding
+ from the wall, and he fell through the opening thus
+ made. In an instant he recovered himself, and under
+ a heavy fire from the enemy, he retreated until
+ supported by the guard, which he immediately led on
+ to the attack, drove the British light troops from
+ their strong position, and burnt the house in the
+ presence of the two armies.
+
+ "I witnessed on that field many deeds of daring
+ courage, but none of which more excited my
+ admiration than this.
+
+ "Capt. Butler was soon after in the battle of the
+ 8th of January, where he sustained his previously
+ high and well earned reputation for bravery and
+ usefulness. But that battle, which, from its
+ important results, has eclipsed those which
+ preceded it, was but a slaughter of the enemy, with
+ trivial loss on our part, and presenting few
+ instances of individual distinction.
+
+ "Capt. Butler received the brevet rank of major for
+ his gallant services during that eventful campaign,
+ and the reward of merit was never more worthily
+ bestowed. Soon after the close of the war, he was
+ appointed aid-de-camp to Gen. Jackson, in which
+ station he remained until he retired from the army.
+ Since that period I have seldom had the pleasure of
+ meeting with my valued friend and companion in
+ arms, and I know but little of his career in civil
+ life. But in camp, his elevated principles, his
+ intelligence and generous feelings, won for him the
+ respect and confidence of all who knew him; and
+ where he is best known, I will venture to say, he
+ is still most highly appreciated for every
+ attribute which constitutes the gentleman and the
+ soldier.
+ "I am, sir, very respectfully,
+ "R. K. CALL."
+"MR. WILLIAM TANNER."
+
+General Jackson's sense of the services of Butler, in this memorable
+campaign, was strongly expressed in the following letter to a member
+of the Kentucky Legislature:
+
+ "_Hermitage, Feb._ 20, 1844.
+
+ "MY DEAR SIR,--You ask me to give you my opinion of
+ the military services of the then Captain, now
+ Colonel, Wm. O. Butler, of Kentucky, during the
+ investment of New Orleans by the British forces in
+ 1814 and 1815. I wish I had sufficient strength to
+ speak fully of the merit of the services of Col.
+ Butler on that occasion; this strength I have not:
+ Suffice it to say, that on all occasions he
+ displayed that heroic chivalry, and calmness of
+ judgment in the midst of danger, which distinguish
+ the valuable officer in the hour of battle. In a
+ conspicuous manner were those noble qualities
+ displayed by him on the night of the 23d December,
+ 1814, and on the 8th of January, 1815, as well as
+ at all times during the presence of the British
+ army at New Orleans. In short, he was to be found
+ at all points where duty called. I hazard nothing
+ in saying that should our country again be engaged
+ in war during the active age of Col. Butler, he
+ would be one of the very best selections that could
+ be made to command our army, and lead the Eagles of
+ our country on to victory and renown. He has
+ sufficient energy to assume all responsibility
+ necessary to success, and for his country's good.
+
+ "ANDREW JACKSON."
+
+Gen. Jackson gave earlier proof of the high estimation in which he
+held the young soldier who had identified himself with his own glory
+at New Orleans. He made him his aid-de-camp in 1816--which station he
+retained on the peace establishment, with the rank of colonel. But,
+like his illustrious patron, he soon felt that military station and
+distinction had no charms for him when unattended with the dangers,
+duties, and patriotic achievements of war. He resigned, therefore,
+even the association with his veteran chief, of which he was so proud,
+and retired in 1817 to private life. He resumed his study of the
+profession that was interrupted by the war, married, and settled down
+on his patrimonial possession at the confluence of the Kentucky and
+Ohio rivers, in the noiseless but arduous vocations of civil life. The
+abode which he had chosen made it peculiarly so with him. The region
+around him was wild and romantic, sparsely settled, and by pastoral
+people. There are no populous towns. The high, rolling, and yet rich
+lands--the precipitous cliffs of the Kentucky, of Eagle, Tavern and
+other tributaries which pour into it near the mouth--make this section
+of the State still, to some extent a wilderness of thickets--and the
+tangled pea-vine, the grape-vine and nut-bearing trees, which rendered
+all Kentucky, until the intrusion of the whites, one great Indian
+park. The whole luxuriant domain was preserved by the Indians as a
+pasture for buffalo, deer, elk, and other animals--their enjoyment
+alike as a chase and a subsistence--by excluding every tribe from
+fixing a habitation in it. Its name consecrated it as the dark and
+bloody ground; and war pursued every foot that trod it. In the midst
+of this region, in April, 1791, Wm. O. Butler was born, in Jessamine
+county, on the Kentucky River. His father had married, in Lexington,
+soon after his arrival in Kentucky, 1782, Miss Howkins, a
+sister-in-law of Col. Todd, who commanded and perished in the battle
+of the Blue-Licks. Following the instincts of his family, which seemed
+ever to court danger, Gen. Pierce Butler, as neighborhood encroached
+around him, removed, not long after the birth of his son William, to
+the mouth of the Kentucky River. Through this section the Indian
+warpath into the heart of Kentucky passed. Until the peace of 1794,
+there was scarcely a day that some hostile Savage did not prowl
+through the tangled forests, and the labyrinths of hills, streams and
+cliffs, which adapted this region to their lurking warfare. From it
+they emerged when they made their last formidable incursion, and
+pushed their foray to the environs of Frankfort, the capital of the
+State. General Pierce Butler had on one side of him the Ohio, on the
+farther shore of which the savage hordes still held the mastery, and
+on the other the romantic region through which they hunted and pressed
+their war enterprises. And here, amid the scenes of border warfare,
+his son William had that spirit, which has animated him through life,
+educated by the legends of the Indian-fighting hunters of Kentucky.
+
+To the feelings and taste inspired by the peculiarities of the place
+and circumstances adverted to, must be attributed the return of Col.
+Butler to his father's home, to enter on his profession as a lawyer.
+There were no great causes or rich clients to attract him--no dense
+population to lift him to the political honors of the State. The
+eloquence and learning, the industry and integrity which he gave to
+adjust the controversies of Gallatin and the surrounding counties,
+would have crowned him with wealth and professional distinction, if
+exhibited at Louisville or Lexington. But he coveted neither.
+Independence, the affections of his early associates, the love of a
+family circle, and the charm which the recollection of a happy boyhood
+gave to the scenes in which he was reared, were all he sought. And he
+found them all in the romantic dells and woodland heights of Kentucky,
+and on the sides of the far spreading, gently flowing, beautiful Ohio.
+The feeling which his sincere and sensitive nature had imbibed here
+was as strong as that of the Switzer for his bright lakes, lofty
+mountains, and deep valleys. The wild airs of the boat horn, which
+have resounded for so many years from arks descending the Ohio and
+Kentucky, floating along the current and recurring in echoes from the
+hollows of the hills, like its eddies, became as dear to him as the
+famous Rans de Vache to the native of Switzerland. We insert, as
+characteristic alike of the poetical talent and temperament of Butler,
+some verses which the sound of this rude instrument evoked when he
+returned home, resigning with rapture "the ear piercing fife and
+spirit stirring drum" for the wooden horn, which can only compass in
+its simple melody such airs as that to which Burns has set his
+beautiful words--
+
+ When wild war's deadly blast was blawn,
+ And gentle peace returning,
+ Wi' mony a sweet babe fatherless,
+ And many a widow mourning;
+ I left the lines and tented field.
+
+The music of this song made the burden of the "Boatman's Horn," and
+always announced the approaching ark to the river villages.
+
+The sentiments of the poet, as well as the sweet and deep tones which
+wafted the plaintive air over the wide expanse of the Ohio, may have
+contributed to awaken the feeling which pervade these lines.
+
+THE BOAT HORN.
+
+ O, boatman! wind that horn again,
+ For never did the list'ning air
+ Upon its lambent bosom bear
+ So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain--
+ What though thy notes are sad, and few,
+ By every simple boatman blown,
+ Yet is each pulse to nature true,
+ And melody in every tone.
+ How oft in boyhood's joyous day,
+ Unmindful of the lapsing hours,
+ I've loitered on my homeward way
+ By wild Ohio's brink of flowers,
+ While some lone boatman, from the deck,
+ Poured his soft numbers to that tide,
+ As if to charm from storm and wreck
+ The boat where all his fortunes ride!
+ Delighted Nature drank the sound,
+ Enchanted--Echo bore it round
+ In whispers soft, and softer still,
+ From hill to plain, and plain to hill,
+ Till e'en the thoughtless, frolick boy,
+ Elate with hope, and wild with joy,
+ Who gamboled by the river's side,
+ And sported with the fretting tide,
+ Feels something new pervade his breast,
+ Chain his light step, repress his jest,
+ Bends o'er the flood his eager ear
+ To catch the sounds far off yet dear--
+ Drinks the sweet draught, but knows not why
+ The tear of rapture fills his eye
+ And can he now, to manhood grown,
+ Tell why those notes, simple and lone,
+ As on the ravished ear they fall,
+ Bind every sense in magic spell?
+ There is a tide of feeling given
+ To all on earth, its fountain Heaven.
+ Beginning with the dewy flower,
+ Just oped in Flora's vernal bower--
+ Rising creation's orders through
+ With louder murmur, brighter hue--
+ That _tide_ is sympathy! its ebb and flow
+ Give life its hues of joy and wo.
+ Music, the master-spirit that can move
+ Its waves to war, or lull them into love--
+ Can cheer the sinking sailor mid the wave,
+ And bid the soldier on! nor fear the grave--
+ Inspire the fainting pilgrim on his road,
+ And elevate his soul to claim his God.
+ Then, boatman! wind that horn again!
+ Though much of sorrow mark its strain,
+ Yet are its notes to sorrow dear;
+ What though they wake fond memory's tear!
+ Tears are sad memory's sacred feast,
+ And rapture oft her chosen guest.
+
+This retirement, which may almost be considered seclusion, was enjoyed
+by Col. Butler nearly twenty-five years, when he was called out by the
+Democratic party to redeem by his personal popularity the
+congressional district in which he lived. It was supposed that no one
+else could save it from the Whigs. Like all the rest of his family,
+none of whom had made their military service a passport to the honors
+and emoluments of civil stations, he was averse to relinquish the
+attitude he occupied to enter on a party struggle. The importunity of
+friends prevailed; and he was elected to two successive terms in
+Congress, absolutely refusing to be a candidate a third time. He spoke
+seldom in Congress, but in two or three fine speeches which appear in
+the debates, a power will readily be detected which could not have
+failed to conduct to the highest distinction in that body. Taste,
+judgment, and eloquence, characterized all his efforts in Congress. A
+fine manner, an agreeable voice, and the high consideration accorded
+to him by the members of all parties, gave him, what it is the good
+fortune of few to obtain, an attentive and gratified audience.
+
+In 1844 the same experiment was made with Butler's popularity to carry
+the state for the Democracy, as had succeeded in his congressional
+district. He was nominated as the Democratic candidate for governor by
+the 8th of January Convention; and there is good ground to believe
+that he would have been chosen over his estimable Whig competitor,
+Governor Owsley, but for the universal conviction throughout the state
+that the defeat of Mr. Clay's party, by the choice of a Democratic
+governor in August, would have operated to injure Mr. Clay's prospects
+throughout the Union, in the presidential election which followed
+immediately after in November. With Mr. Clay's popularity, and the
+activity of all his friends--with the state pride so long exalted by
+the aspiration of giving a President to the Union--more eagerly than
+ever enlisted against the Democracy, Col. Butler diminished the Whig
+majority from twenty thousand to less than five thousand.
+
+The late military events with which Maj. Gen. Butler has been
+connected--in consequence of his elevation to that grade in 1846, with
+the view to the command of the volunteers raised to support Gen.
+Taylor in his invasion of Mexico--are so well known to the country
+that minute recital is not necessary. He acted a very conspicuous part
+in the severe conflict at Monterey, and had, as second in command
+under Gen. Taylor, his full share in the arduous duties and
+responsibilities incurred in that important movement. The narrative of
+Major Thomas, senior assistant adjutant-general of the army in Mexico,
+and hence assigned by Gen. Taylor to the staff of Gen. Butler, reports
+so plainly and modestly the part which Gen. Butler performed in
+subjecting the city, that it may well stand for history. This passage
+is taken from it.
+
+ "The army arrived at their camp in the vicinity of
+ Monterey about noon September 19th. That afternoon
+ the general endeavored by personal observation to
+ get information of the enemy's position. He, like
+ Gen. Taylor, saw the importance of gaining the road
+ to Saltillo, and fully favored the movement of Gen.
+ Worth's division to turn their left, &c. Worth
+ marched Sunday, September 20th, for this purpose,
+ thus leaving Twiggs' and Butler's divisions with
+ Gen. Taylor. Gen. Butler was also in favor of
+ throwing his division across the St. John's river,
+ and approaching the town from the east, which was
+ at first determined upon. This was changed, as it
+ would leave but one, and perhaps the smallest
+ division, to guard the camp, and attack in front.
+ The 20th the general also reconnoitered the enemy's
+ position. Early the morning of the 21st the force
+ was ordered out to create a diversion in favor of
+ Worth, that he might gain his position; and before
+ our division came within long range of the enemy's
+ principal battery, the foot of Twiggs' division had
+ been ordered down to the northeast side of the
+ town, to make an armed reconnoisance of the
+ advanced battery, and to take it if it could be
+ done without great loss. The volunteer division was
+ scarcely formed in rear of our howitzer and mortar
+ battery, established the night previous under cover
+ of a rise of ground, before the infantry sent down
+ to the northeast side of the town became closely
+ and hotly engaged, the batteries of that division
+ were sent down, _and we were then ordered to
+ support the attack._ Leaving the Kentucky regiment
+ to support the mortar and howitzer battery, the
+ general rapidly put in march, by a flank movement,
+ the other three regiments, moving for some one and
+ a half or two miles under a heavy fire of round
+ shot. As further ordered, the Ohio regiment was
+ detached from Quitman's brigade, and led by the
+ general (at this time accompanied by Gen. Taylor)
+ into the town. Quitman carried his brigade directly
+ on the battery first attacked, and gallantly
+ carried it. Before this, however, as we entered the
+ suburbs, the chief engineer came up and advised us
+ to withdraw, as the object of the attack had
+ failed, and if we moved on we must meet with great
+ loss. The general was loath to fall back without
+ consulting with Gen. Taylor, which he did do--the
+ general being but a short distance off. As we were
+ withdrawing, news came that Quitman had carried the
+ battery, and Gen. Butler led the Ohio regiment back
+ to the town at a different point. In the street we
+ became exposed to a line of batteries on the
+ opposite side of a small stream, and also from a
+ _tete de pont_ (bridge-head) which enfiladed us.
+ Our men fell rapidly as we moved up the street to
+ get a position to charge the battery across the
+ stream. Coming to a cross-street, the general
+ reconnoitered the position, and determining to
+ charge from that point, sent me back a short
+ distance to stop the firing, and advance the
+ regiment with the bayonet. I had just left him,
+ when he was struck in the leg, being on foot, and
+ was obliged to leave the field."
+
+ "On entering the town, the general and his troops
+ became at once hotly engaged at short musket range.
+ He had to make his reconnoisances under heavy fire.
+ This he did unflinchingly, and by exposing his
+ person--on one occasion passing through a large
+ gateway into a yard which was entirely open to the
+ enemy. When he was wounded, at the intersection of
+ the two streets, he was exposed to a cross-fire of
+ musketry and grape."
+
+ "In battle the general's bearing was truly that of
+ a soldier; and those under him felt the influence
+ of his presence. He had the entire confidence of
+ his men."
+
+The narrative of Major Thomas continues:
+
+ "When Gen. Taylor went on his expedition to
+ Victoria, in December, he placed Gen. Butler in
+ command of the troops left on the Rio Grande, and
+ at the stations from the river on to
+ Saltillo--Worth's small division of regulars being
+ at the latter place. Gen. Wool's column had by this
+ time reached Parras, one hundred or more miles west
+ of Saltillo. General Butler had so far recovered
+ from his wound as to walk a little and take
+ exercise on horseback, though with pain to his
+ limb. One night, (about the 19th December,) an
+ express came from Gen. Worth at Saltillo, stating
+ that the Mexican forces were advancing in large
+ numbers from San Luis de Potosi, and that he
+ expected to be attacked in two days. His division,
+ all told, did not exceed 1500 men, if so many, and
+ he asked reinforcements. The general remained up
+ during the balance of the night, sent off the
+ necessary couriers to the rear for reinforcements,
+ and had the 1st Kentuckey, and the 1st Ohio foot,
+ then encamped three miles from town, in the place
+ by daylight; and these two regiments, with
+ Webster's battery, were encamped that night ten
+ miles on the road to Saltillo. This promptness
+ enabled the general to make his second day's march
+ of twenty-two miles in good season, and to hold the
+ celebrated pass of Los Muertos, and check the enemy
+ should he have attacked Gen. Worth on that day, and
+ obliged him to evacuate the town. Whilst on the
+ next, and last day's march, the general received
+ notice that the reported advance of the enemy was
+ untrue. Arriving at the camp-ground, the general
+ suffered intense pain from his wound, and slept not
+ during the night. This journey, over a rugged,
+ mountainous road, and the exercise he took in
+ examining the country for twenty miles in advance
+ of Saltillo, caused the great increase of pain now
+ experienced."
+
+The major's account then goes on to relate Gen. Butler's proceedings
+while in command of all the forces after the junction of Generals
+Worth and Wool--his dispositions to meet the threatened attack of
+Santa Anna--the defences created by him at Saltillo, and used during
+the attack at Buena Vista in dispersing Minon's forces--his just
+treatment of the people of Saltillo, with the prudent and effectual
+precautions taken to make them passive in the event of Santa Anna's
+approach. It concludes by stating that all apprehensions of Santa
+Anna's advance subsiding, Gen. Butler returned to meet Gen. Taylor at
+Monterey, to report the condition of affairs; and the latter, having
+taken the command at Saltillo, transmitted a leave of absence to Gen.
+Butler, to afford opportunity for the cure of his wound.
+
+This paper affords evidence of the kind feeling which subsisted
+between the two generals during the campaign, and this sentiment was
+strongly evinced by Gen. Butler, on his arrival in Washington, where
+he spoke in the most exalted terms of the leader under whom he served.
+
+In person Gen. Butler is tall, straight, and handsomely formed,
+exceedingly active and alert--his mien is inviting--his manners
+graceful--his gait and air military--his countenance frank and
+pleasing--the outline of his features of the aquiline cast, thin and
+pointed in expression--the general contour of his head is Roman.
+
+The character of Gen. Butler in private life is in fine keeping with
+that exhibited in his public career. In the domestic circle, care,
+kindness, assiduous activity in anticipating the wants of all around
+him--readiness to forego his own gratifications to gratify others,
+have become habits growing out of his affections. His love makes
+perpetual sunshine at his home. Among his neighbors, liberality,
+affability, and active sympathy mark his social intercourse, and
+unbending integrity and justice all his dealings. His home is one of
+unpretending simplicity. It is too much the habit in Kentucky, with
+stern and fierce men, to carry their personal and political ends with
+a high hand. Gen. Butler, with all the masculine strength, courage,
+and reputation to give success to attempts of this sort, never evinced
+the slightest disposition to indulge the power, whilst his well-known
+firmness always forbade such attempts on him. His life has been one of
+peace with all men, except the enemies of his country.
+
+
+
+
+MATHEW MIZZLE,
+OF THE INQUIRING MIND.
+
+BY THE LATE JOSEPH C. NEAL.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+How could he help it? Born with an inquiring turn of mind, and gifted
+from the first with a disposition toward experimental philosophy, by
+what processes would you undertake to change the current of Mathew
+Mizzle's mind? He is one of those who take nothing for granted. A
+weight of authority is little in his mind when compared to the
+personal investigation of the fact--facts for the people, and for
+himself as one of the people--that's the pivot on which Mathew Mizzle
+turns and returns, one fact being to his mind worth whole volumes of
+speculative assumption; and to Mizzle all facts, let them relate to
+what they may, are of peculiar interest. It is useless to tell him so.
+He must go, see and examine for himself. Often, for instance, as he
+had been told that Gruffenhoff's big dog would bite at the aspect of
+strange visitations, do you think that this species of information
+would content the youthful Mizzle? No--he must see into the matter for
+himself, and ascertain it beyond the possibility of a doubt, by
+touching up Gruffenhoff's big dog with a stick, as the aforesaid big
+dog lay asleep in the sun, whereby the demonstration was immediately
+afforded. The big dog would bite--he did bite severely; and thus the
+little Mizzle added another fact to his magazine of knowledge, as well
+as an enduring scar to his person, which placed the result upon
+record, and kept memory fresh on the subject. One dog, at least, will
+bite; and thenceforth, Mathew Mizzle admitted the inference that dogs
+are apt to bite, under circumstances congenial to such dental
+performances. If you doubt it, there's the mark.
+
+"Burnee--burnee, baby," are the notes of warning often heard in the
+nursery, when heated stoves become an object of interest to little
+human specimens just learning to creep. But "burnee, burnee," conveyed
+no precise idea to the infantile Mizzle during his preliminary
+locomotive operations; and in consonance with the impulses of his
+nature, he soon tried the stove in its most intense displays of
+caloric, and in this way determined that "burnee, burnee," was
+unpleasant to the person, and injurious to the costume and raiment of
+that person, to say nothing of its threatening dispositions toward the
+whole establishment. "Burnee, burnee," to the house, as well as
+"burnee, burnee," to the baby. And so also as to lamps and
+candles--that they would "burnee" too, was placed, painfully, beyond
+the impertinent reach of a doubt in minds of the most sceptic order.
+Mathew Mizzle can show you the evidences to this day, scored, as it
+were, upon the living parchment, and engrossed in characters not to be
+misunderstood upon the cuticular binding of his physical identity.
+
+It was useless, also, to place the little Mathew at the head of
+stairs, with information that any further advance on his part would
+prove matter of injury. How could he know until he had tried? Indeed,
+it required several clear tumbles down an entire flight to satisfy his
+judgment on this point, and to imprint it on his mind, through the
+medium of his bumpology, that the swiftest transition from one place
+to another, especially when effected by the downward movement, is not
+always the safest and the most agreeable. But afterward, none knew
+better than he what is meant by the word "landing," as applied to the
+staircase. "The Landing of Columbus" may be celebrated in pictures;
+but Mathew Mizzle accomplished landings that made very nearly as much
+noise as that effected by "the world-seeking Genoese," and the voyages
+of both were accompanied by squalls.
+
+But it was not by the touch alone that Mathew Mizzle sought after
+information in his earlier career. His taste was equally curious.
+Strange bottles were subjects of the most intense interest, so that
+like Mithridates, he almost became proof against injury by the
+frequent imbibings of poison. He knew that pleasant draughts came from
+bottles, but had to learn that because a bottle has contents, it does
+not necessarily follow that these contents are either safe or
+agreeable. Ink, for instance--a copious mouthful of ink--however
+literary one may be, ink thus administered is not a matter over which
+the recipient is inclined greatly to rejoice. It did not appear so, at
+least, when Mathew Mizzle, in frock and trowsers, astonished, after
+this fashion, his mouth, his clothing and the carpet--so astonished
+himself that he forgot to reverse the bottle, but permitted it to pour
+in a steady stream right into the aperture of his lovely countenance.
+No one probably in the wide world ever acquired a greater variety of
+knowledge, as to the effect of substances of all kinds upon the human
+palate, than was obtained by Mathew Mizzle in the course of his
+earlier investigations into the relative qualities of solids and
+liquids. A spoonful of Cayenne pepper probably afforded him as much of
+surprise as any thing of the same portable compass. The varied
+expressions of his countenance would have been a study to a Lavater.
+The opera-house never witnessed a dance more remarkable for force and
+for expression; and if ever Mathew Mizzle was wide awake--wider than
+on any previous occasion, it was when he had seasoned himself highly
+with Cayenne. It made Mathew piquant to a degree; and something of the
+same kind might have been said of him when under the influence of
+mustard. He was then the warmest boy anywhere about; and fully
+appreciated the cheering influence of "the castors"--he did not go
+upon castors for a long time afterward, and never again to the same
+extent.
+
+There was another source of trouble to Mathew Mizzle. His eyes proper
+were sharp enough; but the knowledge they acquired was not sufficient
+to satisfy his devouring thirst for information, and therefore much of
+his seeing was done with the tips of his fingers, or the grasp of his
+hands. He must touch every thing, and of course spoilt many things.
+Leave him alone in the room for a moment, and he would open all the
+letters, peep into every drawer, smell at every unknown substance,
+displace your china, spoil your musical-box, climb up the piano-forte,
+and pull over the vases of flowers. If you did not hear a crash this
+time, do not flatter yourself. Some secret, but equally important
+mischief has been accomplished, though it may not be apparent for
+days. The Mathew Mizzles always leave their mark; and when a gun went
+off in his hands, the shot that fractured the mirror rendered it
+fortunate that the mark was only a mirror, as Mathew Mizzle roared
+with terror at "the sound himself had made."
+
+Mathew Mizzle, grown as he is now to man's estate, has perchance
+changed the objects of his pursuit, but the activity both of his mind
+and of his body remains undiminished. Curious as ever to ascertain
+facts. He is one of those who have ever an eye upon their neighbors.
+He follows people to ascertain whither they are going. It is a
+favorite amusement of his to peep through the blinds of an evening, to
+ascertain what you and your family are about. He listens at doors, and
+he peers through cracks and patronizes knot-holes. If he can learn
+nothing else, it is a satisfaction for him to ascertain what you are
+about to have for dinner, and who stopped in to tea. Speak over loud
+in the street, and Mathew Mizzle saunters close at your elbow, but
+with such an unconscious look, that you would never dream that he had
+come merely for information.
+
+No one knows better than he all about the domestic difficulties of
+families. His sources of intelligence are innumerable. Sometimes you
+may find him on the back fence, taking observations of the domestic
+circle; and he has been seen of an evening up the linden-tree in front
+of domiciles, for similar purposes. The servants of the vicinage are
+all on confidential terms with Mathew Mizzle; and--have you not noted
+the fact?--when you would have secret discourse with a friend, Mizzle
+comes upon you, as the birds of prey scent a battle-field. All secrets
+appear to hold a species of telegraphic communication with our friend
+Mathew Mizzle, as to the fact at least, that there is a secret in
+existence, as well as a regard to its local habitation.
+
+Ubiquitous Mathew Mizzle, yet invariably out of place. Open the door
+suddenly, and Mathew Mizzle is almost knocked down. Throw out a bucket
+of water at night, and Mathew Mizzle is there to receive its contents.
+Pass a stick through the key-hole, and it's Mizzle's eye that suffers
+the detriment. You stumble over him in dark entries--you find him
+lying perdu in the closet. Go where you will, there is Mizzle, if it
+be in the wrong place for Mizzle's presence.
+
+Behold him prowling round the scenes to investigate the mysteries of a
+theatrical performance. There he is, just where he was told not to be,
+and William Tell was not in fault that his arrow has stricken Mathew
+Mizzle breathless. What business had Mizzle there in Switzerland,
+lurking near the walls of Altorf?
+
+Mizzle's last catastrophe, like the last catastrophe of many other
+distinguished citizens, was effected by means of a ladder, which he
+had ascended cautiously by night, after the painters had left their
+work, to see what was going on in the chamber of a second story.
+Suddenly, there was a dog at the bottom of the aforesaid ladder, and a
+cudgel at the top, presenting the alternatives of a dilemma. Switches
+above and bark below, what could the unfortunate Mathew Mizzle do but
+surrender himself a prisoner of war? Poor Mizzle! They put him under
+the pump, and made him acquainted with the nature of ducks.
+
+Is it not a pity that the system of "espionage" does not obtain in
+America, that Mathew Mizzle might have a field for the exercise of the
+qualities which are so remarkably developed in his constitution? It
+would be a perfect union of duty and of pleasure, if he could be
+employed to find out every thing that goes on in town and about, and
+it is a great pity that means could not be devised to save so fine a
+young man from the waste of his genius.
+
+"People are so fussy about their secrets," says he, "as if there were
+any use of having secrets, if it were not for the fun of finding them
+out and talking about them. It's mean and selfish to abridge
+intelligence in that sort of way, and if I knew of any country where
+they manage matters on a different system, I'd emigrate right away, I
+would. A pretty piece of business, to put a man under the pump,
+because he seeks after knowledge."
+
+
+
+
+SHAWANGUNK MOUNTAIN.
+
+BY ALFRED B. STREET.
+
+
+ Before the plough had scattered fields of grain
+ And grassy orchards midst the oaken woods
+ Of Shawangunk, upon the mountain's top
+ Stood a wood-cutter's hut. Himself and wife
+ Shared it alone. The spot was green and sweet.
+ The earth was covered with a velvet sward,
+ Grouped with low thickets, here and there a tree
+ Rearing its dark rich foliage in the heavens.
+
+ Pleasant the echoes of his fast plied axe,
+ Merrily rattling through the mountain-woods,
+ To those who sought the old surveyor's road
+ For shade and coolness; and amidst the sounds
+ Would boom deep heavy shocks of falling trees,
+ Like growls of thunder in the noontide-hush,
+ So that the eye would glance impulsively
+ Up to the tree-tops, to discern the peak
+ Of the ascending cloud.
+
+ His forest-life,
+ Though rude, was joyous. When the mellow charm
+ Of sunset on the smiling mountains lay,
+ The creaking of his high-piled cart would blend
+ With song or whistle blithe, as, dipping down
+ The road, he sought the village in the midst
+ Of the green hollow. This slight mountain-road
+ Went slanting to the summit, with blazed trunks
+ On either side, and soft delicious grass
+ Spreading its carpet; one faint track alone
+ Telling that wheel had e'er its beauty scarred.
+ Close to the hut it passed, then downward plunged,
+ And sought the level of the opposite side.
+
+ 'T was at the close of one cold winter day
+ That down this road I trod. My weary steps,
+ With efforts vain, had tracked, for hours, the deer,
+ And now, with empty flask and rifle, swift,
+ I journeyed homeward. Nature's great bright eye
+ Low beaming in the west, still poured sweet light
+ Upon the mountain. The pure snow, all round,
+ In delicate rose-tints glowed. The hemlocks smiled,
+ Speckled with gold. The oak's sear foliage, still
+ Tight clinging to the boughs, was kindled up
+ To warm rich brown. The myriad trunks and sprays
+ Traced their black lines upon the soft snow-blush
+ Beneath, until it seemed a tangled maze.
+ Upon the mountain's top, a thread of smoke
+ From the low cabin rose, as though a streak
+ Of violet had been painted on the air.
+ I heard the ring of the wood-cutter's axe,
+ And, through an opening, saw his instrument
+ Flashing into a walnut's giant stem,
+ Whose upborne mass, in the fast lowering light,
+ Seemed cut in copper. A broad wind-fall near
+ Let down my eyes upon the hollow. White
+ In snow it lay, with long and dusky lines
+ Of fences crossing--groups of orchard-trees--
+ Hay-barracks--barns and long low dwelling-roofs.
+ Straight as an arrow ran the streak of road
+ Athwart the hollow. As I looked, the eye
+ In the red west sank lower, till half quenched
+ Behind the upland, then a shred of light
+ Glittered and vanished, and the sky was bare.
+
+ Whilst gazing on this splendor, suddenly
+ I heard a shriek. Shrill, ringing midst the woods
+ In piercing clearness, through my ears it cut,
+ And left a sense of deafness. Startled, round
+ I gazed. Again the horrid sound thrilled past.
+ I knew it then as the terrific cry
+ Of the fierce, bloody panther. In our woods
+ Naught fiercer, bloodier dwells, when roused by rage
+ Or hunger. Oft our hunters had of late
+ Marked the huge foot-prints of the ravenous beast,
+ And heard his scream at midnight, but no eye
+ As yet had seen him. With a nervous grasp
+ Upon my useless weapon, and a weight
+ Of helplessness, like lead, upon my soul,
+ I started on my path. At every step
+ I thought his tawny form and fierce green eye
+ Would meet my sight, upon some limb o'erhead.
+ But naught was seen. The village soon I reached,
+ And gladly crossed the threshold of my home.
+
+ The long, cold, breathless night came swiftly down.
+ The clear, magnificent moon seemed not inlaid
+ In the bright blue, but stood out bold, distinct,
+ As though impending from the cloudless skies
+ Glittering with frost. Upon the sparkling snow
+ The rich light slept in such sweet purity
+ As naught on earth can match. The hours sped on,
+ The silver day still shone serene and clear,
+ And twinkled on the crystals shooting round.
+ Gazing once more upon the splendid scene,
+ Before I sought the couch, my wandering eye
+ Glanced at the mountain. There it grandly stood
+ A giant mass of ivory. On the spot
+ Where the steep slanting road the hollow joined,
+ My sight a moment dwelt, for there I last
+ Had swept around a quick and piercing gaze,
+ In search of the gaunt monster whose keen cry
+ Still echoed in my ears. Is that a spot
+ Of shadow flickering in some transient breeze?
+ No. O'er the hollow, gliding swift, it comes.
+ Is it the ravenous panther, fierce for blood,
+ Seeking the village? Closer as it speeds
+ A clearer shape it shows--a human form--
+ 'T is the wood-cutter's wife! She loudly shrieks,
+ "My husband--lost--wake, wake!" the moonlight falls
+ Upon her features swollen with tears. A band
+ Of villagers was soon aroused, and forth
+ We sallied toward the mountain. So intense
+ The cold, the snow creaked shrilly at our tread,
+ And the strewed diamonds on its surface flashed
+ Back the keen moonlight. As we trod along,
+ The wife in breathless haste, her story told,
+ How, when the sunset fell, she watched to see
+ Her husband's form swift speeding up the road,
+ From the side-clearing, at that wonted hour,
+ Toward his low roof. The sunset died, and night
+ Sprang on the earth; the absent one came not.
+ The moon moved up; the latch-string was not pulled
+ For entrance in the cabin. Hours sped on.
+ And still, upon the silvered snow, no form
+ Her gaze rewarded. Once she heard afar
+ A panther's shriek. Her fear to frenzy rose.
+ To the side-clearing sped she; naught was there
+ But solitude and moonlight. As she told
+ Her tale I shuddered. In my ear again
+ Rang the fierce shriek I heard as sunset glowed,
+ And my flesh crept with horror. Up we trod
+ Our mountain snow-path speedily. At length,
+ To where the narrow opening in the woods
+ Led from the road, we came. 'T was at this spot
+ I stood, and watched the form and flashing axe
+ Of him, the lost. We passed within. The moon
+ Threw on the little clearing a full flood
+ Of radiance. There the crusted wood-pile stood;
+ There was the walnut with a ghastly notch
+ Deep in its heart. A ledge of rock rose up
+ Beside the wounded tree, and at its base
+ A space of blackest hue proclaimed a chasm.
+ No life was stirring on the brilliant waste;
+ The trees rose like a wall on every side
+ But where the ledge frowned darkly. As I checked
+ My footsteps at the half-hewn walnut, drops
+ Thick sprinkled round--the snow stamped down--an axe
+ Lying upon the high wreathed roots, my gaze,
+ As with a charm, arrested. From this spot
+ Large prints and a broad furrow stretched along
+ To the black chasm within the rocky ledge.
+ We clustered round the mouth. A low, deep growl
+ Came from the depths. Two orbs of flashing fire
+ Glared in the darkness. Brace, the hunter, aimed
+ His rifle just between the flaming spots,
+ And fired. Fierce growls and gnashings loud of teeth
+ Blent with the echoes, and then all was still.
+ The spots were seen no more. A few had brought
+ Splinters of pine for torches, and the flint
+ Supplied the flame. With one hand grasping tight
+ A hatchet keen, the other a bright torch,
+ The dauntless hunter ventured, with slow steps,
+ Within the cavern. Soon a shout we heard,
+ And Brace appeared, with all his giant strength
+ Dragging a lifeless panther. In again
+ He passed, and then brought out a human form,
+ Mangled and crushed. A shriek pealed wild and high,
+ And, swooning, sank the wife upon the snow,
+ Beside the dead. With silent, deep-felt awe
+ We bore both to the hut. A sudden cloud
+ Rose frowning from the north, and deep and fierce
+ Howled the loosed tempest. From her death-like swoon,
+ Roused by our care, the hapless wife poured out
+ Her cries and wailings. Through the livelong night
+ We heard her moans and screams and ravings wild,
+ Blending with all those stern and awful tones
+ That the scourged forest yields. But morning dawned,
+ And brought the widowed and the broken heart
+ The peace of death. Beside the lonely hut,
+ Two graves were opened in the frozen snow,
+ And silence then fell deeply on the spot.
+ No more the smoke curled up. No more the axe
+ Rang in the mountain; and a few short years
+ Leveled the cabin with the forest-earth,
+ Midst spreading bushes, fern and waving grass.
+
+
+
+
+INNOCENCE.
+
+
+ Let me, lamb-like, share caresses,
+ From thy hand that knows not stain;
+ Flowers that woo, the smile that blesses,
+ Hours that pass and leave no pain!
+
+ Be with me in sleeping, waking;
+ Be with me in toil and rest;
+ Living, thine; and, life forsaking,
+ Let me slumber on thy breast!
+
+[Illustration: INNOCENCE]
+
+
+
+
+A DRAMA OF REAL LIFE.
+
+(IN A LETTER FROM N. P. WILLIS TO THE EDITOR OF GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.)
+
+
+ TO GEO. R. GRAHAM, ESQ.
+ _New York, December_ 1, 1847.
+
+ DEAR SIR,--By to-night's mail should go to you a
+ piece of mental statuary, which is yet in a marble
+ block of the reluctant quarry of my brain--due to
+ you by agreement on the first of December, one
+ unconceived tale! But though we do so strangely
+ bargain the invisible wares of the imagination,
+ deliverable, like merchandize, on a certain day,
+ the contractor is still liable to the caprices of
+ the world he trades from, and your order on me for
+ fancy yet undug, must, I fear, be protested. You
+ would not believe me if I were to tell you
+ literally why. But the truth is that I, and a
+ certain cave (mentioned by Humboldt, on the banks
+ of the Oronookoo, which he calls a "subterranean
+ organ,") can only give out music in certain states
+ of the weather. With the dry, sharp, icy north wind
+ of the last few days, I could no more write than I
+ could supply electricity to Morse's wire.
+
+ But--no failure is _quite_ twenty shillings in the
+ pound. What say you to the assets? The statue will
+ not be forth coming--but will you have the model,
+ after which the undug block was to have been
+ chiseled? Shall I send you the literal truth which
+ I had intended to drape with imagination--tell the
+ facts of real life which I had designed to weave
+ into a story. I shall thus, at least, clear
+ _yourself_ of the non-fulfillment of the promise of
+ your pre-advertised contents, and (engaging to send
+ you a story properly completed for the next number)
+ shall effect, perhaps, a compromise for my
+ delinquent punctuality.
+
+ This, then, is the thread of literal truth which
+ was to have run through the fancy-woof of my story.
+
+ Some years ago, after a year or two of residence in
+ different cities of Italy, I found myself very much
+ at home in Naples. It was an unusually gay
+ season--the concentration of the rank and fashion
+ of the floating society of travelers varying
+ between Rome, Florence, and Naples, very much as it
+ does, in our country, between the different
+ watering-places--by caprices that no one can
+ foresee. The English people of rank, more
+ particularly, were in very great force; and the
+ blonde moustaches, so much admired in the
+ dark-haired South, and the skins of alabaster and
+ rose, so envied by the brunettes of Italy, abounded
+ at the balls and in the public places. The king
+ kept very gay court, the royal entertainments
+ accessible to all strangers properly introduced,
+ and the ambassadors and bankers, nobles and wealthy
+ strangers, seemed to want twice as many nights and
+ mornings in the week, so conflicting were the balls
+ and breakfasts, driving-parties and dinners.
+
+ As, of course, an unobserved looker-on in scenes of
+ such brilliant rivalry and display, I had more
+ attention to spare than most whom I met; and I
+ soon found myself--eyes, mind, fancy, and
+ interest, absorbed in one study--a new revelation
+ of a type of woman. We are accustomed to see the
+ sex in classes--hundreds of a kind--and find them
+ sufficiently absorbing as nouns of multitude. It is
+ probably one of Heaven's principles of human
+ safety, that women are made in "lots" so like, that
+ a transfer of a slighted heart, from an unwilling
+ beauty to some willing likeness of her, safely
+ vents the volcano. Proportionately dangerous,
+ however, are those rare women--of whom a man sees,
+ perhaps, one or two in his life--who are the only
+ ones of their type and kind; for, out of love for
+ them, their is no exit but through their hearts.
+
+ You are going too fast if you fancy I am about to
+ record a fruitless passion of my own. Though of
+ "easy wax," I am not stamped, except by will of the
+ imprintress; and my only cobweb thread of personal
+ remembrance is a horseback excursion to Camaldoli,
+ in which I played the propriety-third to the best
+ of my discretion. It is necessary to define thus
+ much, to redeem my estimate of the lady from the
+ imputation of mere fancy. Had I known her
+ intimately, or not known her at all, my judgment of
+ her would be less reliable. In just the position
+ for untroubled and most favorable observation, I
+ studied her in silence through that brilliant
+ season, and laid away her image (as one does
+ without more than one or two choked-down
+ aspirations) to people castles in the air, and fill
+ niches in the temple of dreams.
+
+ The foregoing prepares you for a portrait of the
+ proposed heroine of my story--but that you would
+ have had, had the story been written. I never could
+ draw a picture of a woman but from the life, and to
+ that fictitious tale I should have transferred,
+ with studied and careful truthfulness, the enamel
+ portrait burnt in upon my memory, and which you
+ would have admired my fancy for conceiving. Oh! the
+ mistake of supposing that we can imagine things
+ brighter than we have seen with our eyes--that
+ there is any kingdom of air, visitable by poets,
+ which is comparable to the glorious world we live
+ in, with its _some_ women, _some_ sunsets, _some_
+ strains of music, and _some_ fore-tasted
+ heaven-thrills of emotion.
+
+ The heir to one of the oldest titles of England was
+ the husband of this lady. The fortunes of his
+ family had been wasted; and they had lived for a
+ generation or two in comparative obscurity, when
+ the present Lord ---- came of age. He had been
+ educated carefully, but was of great personal
+ beauty, and I thought when I first saw him, was as
+ fine a model as I had ever seen of the quiet,
+ reserved, self-intrenched school of modern English
+ manners. With his beauty and his title, though with
+ little or no estate, he had easily married a lady
+ of fortune--the only daughter of a retired banker.
+ And this heiress, Lady ----, is the one whose story
+ I would have told through a veil of fiction.
+
+ The Countess of ---- was an unsurpassed horsewoman,
+ and rode constantly. Her blood-horses had been sent
+ round by ship from England; and she was always
+ mounted on an animal whose every fibre seemed
+ obedient to her thought, and with whose motion
+ every line of her own tall and slenderly-rounded
+ person, and every ringlet of her flowing, golden
+ curls seemed in a correspondence governed by the
+ very spirit of beauty. She rode with her rein
+ loose, and her mind apparently absorbed with any
+ thing but her horse. A turn of her head, or the
+ pressure of her foot upon his shoulder, was
+ probably the animal's guidance. But, of an
+ excessively impassioned nature, she conversed in
+ the saddle with the expression and gesture of the
+ most earnest untrammeling of mind, and, in full
+ speed, as in the repose upon a lounge in a saloon,
+ she carried away the listener with her
+ uncalculating and passionate absorption--no
+ self-possession, however on its guard it might be,
+ able, apparently, to withstand the enveloping and
+ resistless influence which she herself was a slave
+ to. Unconsciousness of every thing in the world,
+ except the feeling she was pouring from her soul,
+ seemed the only and every-day condition and law of
+ her nature; and supreme as she was in fashion of
+ dress, and style of manner, these seemed matters
+ learned and lost thought of--she having returned to
+ nature, leaving her triumphs as a belle to be cared
+ for by infallible habit. A separate spirit of
+ light, speaking from the lips of the most
+ accomplished and best perfected of women--the
+ spirit, and the form possessed, being each in full
+ exercise of their best faculties--could scarcely
+ have conveyed more complete impressions of wondrous
+ mind, in perfect body, or have blended more
+ ravishingly, the entireness of heavenly with the
+ most winning earthly development. She was an
+ earnest angel, in the person of a self-possessed
+ and unerringly graceful woman.
+
+ I chanced to be looking on, when Prince ----, one
+ of the brothers of a royal family of central
+ Europe, was presented to the Countess ----. It was
+ at a crowded ball; and I observed that, after a few
+ minutes of conversation with her, he suddenly
+ assumed a ceremonious indifference of manner, and
+ went into another room. I saw at once that the
+ slightness of the attention was an "anchor to
+ windward," and that, in even those few minutes the
+ prince had recognized a rare gem, and foreseen
+ that, in the pursuit of it, he might need to be
+ without any remembered particularity of attention.
+ Lady ----- conversed with him with her usual
+ earnest openness, but started a little, once or
+ twice, at words which were certainly unaccompanied
+ by their corresponding expression of countenance;
+ and this, too, I put down for an assumption of
+ disguise on the part of the prince. It was natural
+ enough; with his conspicuous rank, he could only
+ venture to be unguarded in his attentions to those
+ for whom he had no presentiment of future intimacy.
+
+ That the progress of this acquaintance should
+ assume for me the interest of a drama--a scene of
+ it played every night, with interludes every day,
+ in public drives and excursions--would not be
+ wonderful to you, could I have drawn the portrait
+ of the principal performer in it, so that you would
+ understand its novelty. I had never seen such a
+ woman, and I was intensely interested to know how
+ she would bear temptation. The peculiar character
+ of the prince I easily understood; and I felt at
+ once, that of all stages of an accomplished man's
+ progress, he was at the one most dangerous to her,
+ while, perhaps, no other kind of woman in the world
+ would have called upon any but very practiced
+ feelings of his own. He was of middle age, and had
+ intellect enough to have long anticipated the ebb
+ of pleasure. With his faculties and perceptions in
+ full force, he was most fastidious in permitting
+ himself to enjoy an enthusiasm, to admire, to yield
+ to, or to embark upon with risk. The admiration of
+ mere beauty, mere style, mere wit, mere superiority
+ of intellect in woman, or of any of these combined,
+ was but a recurrent phase of artificial life. He
+ had been to the terminus, the farthest human
+ capability of enjoyment of this, and was now back
+ again to nature, with his keenest relish in
+ reserve, looking for such outdoings of art as
+ nature sometimes shows in her caprices. In the
+ Countess ---- he recognized at once a rare miracle
+ of this--a woman whose beauty, whose style, whose
+ intellect, whose pride, were all abundant, but,
+ abundant as they were, still all subservient to
+ electric and tumultuous _sensation_. Her life, her
+ impulse--the consciousness with which she
+ breathed--was the one gift given her by Heaven in
+ tenfold measure, and her impression on those she
+ expanded to, was like the magnetizing presence of
+ ten full existences poured into one. The heart
+ acknowledged it before her--though the reason knew
+ not always why.
+
+ Lord ---- would scarce have been human had he not
+ loved such a woman, and she his wife. He did love
+ her--and doubtless loves her at this hour with all
+ the tenderness of which he could ever be capable.
+ If they had lived only on their estates in England,
+ where seclusion would have put up no wall of
+ concealment to his feelings, she might have drawn
+ from the open well of his heart, the water for
+ which her ardent being was athirst. But with the
+ usage of fashionable life, he followed his own
+ amusements during the day, leaving the countess to
+ hers; and in scenes of gayety they were, of course,
+ still separated by custom; and all she enjoyed of
+ nature in her rides, or of excitement in society,
+ was, of course, with others than her husband.
+ Naples is in the midst of palace-gardens, and of
+ wonders of scenery--in seeing which love is
+ engendered in the bosom and brain with tropical
+ fruitfulness--and Lady ---- could no more have
+ lived that year in Italy without passionate loving,
+ than she could have stayed from breathing the
+ fragrance of the orange blossoms, when galloping
+ between the terraced gardens of Sorrento.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ When abroad, a little more than a year ago, I made
+ a visit to a friend, whose estate is in the same
+ county with that of the father of Lady ----, and
+ between whose park-gates and his extends the
+ distance of a morning's drive through one of the
+ loveliest hedged winding-roads of lovely England. A
+ very natural inquiry was of the whereabout and
+ happiness of the Countess of ----, whom I had left
+ at Naples ten years before, and had not been in the
+ way of hearing of since; and I named her in the gay
+ tone with which one speaks of the brilliant and
+ happy. We were sitting at the dinner-table, and I
+ observed that I had mis-struck a chord of feeling
+ in the company present, and with well-bred tact,
+ the master of the house informed me that
+ misfortunes had befallen the family since the
+ period I spoke of, and turned the conversation to
+ another topic. After dinner, I heard from him the
+ following outline of the story, and its affecting
+ sequel.
+
+ Near the close of the season when Lord ---- was at
+ Naples, he suddenly left that city and returned
+ with his wife and their one child to England. To
+ the surprise of the wondering world, Lady ---- went
+ to her father's, and Lord ---- to the small estate
+ of his widowed mother, where they remained for a
+ while in unexplained seclusion. It was not long
+ before rumors arrived from Italy, of a nature
+ breathing upon the reputation of the lady; and soon
+ after a formal separation took place, Mr. ----, her
+ father, engaging to leave his whole fortune to the
+ son of Lord ----, if that nobleman would consent to
+ give him to the exclusive keeping of his mother.
+ With these facts ended the world's knowledge of the
+ parties, the separated pair remaining, year after
+ year, in absolute seclusion; and Lady ---- never
+ having been known to put foot beyond the extending
+ forest in which her home was hidden from view, and
+ the gates to which were guarded from all entrance,
+ even of family friends.
+
+ It was but a few days before this sequel was
+ narrated to me, that the first communication had
+ been made from the Countess of ---- to her
+ husband. It was a summons to attend, if he wished,
+ the burial of his only child--the heir of his name,
+ and the bringer-back, had he lived, of wealth to
+ the broken fortunes of his title. A severer blow
+ could hardly have followed the first--for it struck
+ down heart, pride, and all that could brighten this
+ world's future. Lord ----came. The grave was made
+ in a deep grove of firs on the estate of the boy's
+ mother. There were but three mourners
+ present--herself, her father, and her husband. The
+ boy was ten or eleven years old when he died, and
+ one of the most gifted and noble lads, in mind and
+ person, that had ever been seen by those who knew
+ him. On his horse, with his servant behind him, the
+ young boy-lord was a constant sight of pride and
+ beauty to the inhabitants of the county, and was
+ admired and beloved every where he rode in his
+ daily excursions.
+
+ The service was read; the two parents stood side by
+ side at the grave, while the body was laid in
+ it--the first time they had met since their
+ separation, and both in the prime of life, and with
+ hearts yearning--both hearts, beyond a doubt--with
+ love, and longing for forgiveness; and when the
+ earth rang on the coffin, they _parted without
+ exchanging a word_. The carriage of Lord ----
+ waited for him in the avenue; and with the expiring
+ echo of his wheels through that grove of fir-trees,
+ died all hope and prospect, if any had been
+ conceived, of a re-union, in grief, of these proud
+ broken-hearted.
+
+ I have told you thus, with literal truth, all that
+ I could know of this drama of real life; but, of
+ course, its sketchy outline could be easily filled
+ out by fancy. Your readers, perhaps, will like to
+ do this for themselves.
+ Yours truly,
+ N. P. WILLIS.
+
+
+
+
+LINES TO ----.
+
+BY CAROLINE F. ORNE.
+
+
+ Like a cloud of the summer sunset
+ Gleaming across the blue,
+ Like a star of the golden twilight
+ Through the misty evening dew,
+ Like a strain of heavenly music
+ Breathed mournfully and low,
+ Charming the heart to sadness
+ By its bewildering flow--
+ Thou camest to my presence
+ In the far off long-ago.
+ Thou camest for a moment,
+ Then fleeted swift away,
+ As the rosy cloud of sunset
+ Fades at the close of day,
+ As the beaming star of twilight
+ Withdraws its golden ray.
+ Thou hast past from out my presence
+ As the songs low cadence dies,
+ Which the heart seeketh ever,
+ And evermore it flies.
+ Oh, in my weary journeying
+ Come to me yet once more,
+ While still my footsteps wander
+ On Time's uncertain shore.
+ Come to me, oh, sweet vision
+ Of what my soul has sought,
+ And with mine once more mingle
+ Thy far, sky-piercing thought.
+ Call I in vain thy spirit?
+ Do I seek thee all in vain?
+ Shall I never hear thy accent
+ In music fall again?
+ Why didst thou cross my pathway,
+ Oh soul so pure and true?
+ To fade like the clouds of sunset.
+ Like the star from the misty blue?
+
+
+
+
+AUTUMNAL SCENERY.
+
+WHAT IS NECESSARY TO THE ENJOYMENT OF NATURE'S BEAUTIES.
+
+BY JOSEPH R. CHANDLER.
+
+
+I am not of those who think that a true enjoyment of the beauties of
+nature, of natural scenery, and natural objects, generally, is a test
+of the purity of principle or the delicacy of sentiment, any more than
+I hold that a love of music is essential to domestic, social or
+political virtue. The cultivation of the eye and the ear--or the
+capabilities in those organs for cultivation--have more to do with all
+this than many seem to allow; and men and women of the purest
+principles, and the highest benevolence, may stand within the
+loveliest scenes that nature has ever spread out, or may listen to the
+most delicious music that art has ever prepared and performed, without
+comprehending the beauties or the excellence of either, or imagining
+that there is a moral test applied to them in these attractions.
+Nevertheless, there is an enjoyment in such scenes and such sounds,
+and those who are permitted to share therein have another life--or
+such an additional enjoyment added to _that_ of ordinary minds, that
+they seem to live more, if not longer, in such pleasures than the
+common allotment; and none, I suspect, will doubt that the indulgence
+of a taste for natural beauties tends to soften the mind, soothe the
+passions, and thus elevate the feelings and aspirations.
+
+If I have less of the power of appreciating and enjoying rural sights
+and rural sounds, if there is vouchsafed to me a _limited_ capability
+of understanding and delighting in the beauties of the field and wood,
+of gathering pleasure from the outstretched loveliness of land and
+stream, still I thank God; and I speak with reverence, I thank God
+that I have _some_ pleasure in these things; and more than that, I
+have a certain fixed delight in noticing the enjoyment which the
+better formed and higher cultivated mind derives from what a good
+Providence has poured out for the decoration of the earth. Humble as
+this faculty may be, which is partly exercised through intermediate
+objects, I find it useful to me, and, still better, I find that it
+ministers to other pleasures--to enjoy what is lovely is a high and a
+cultivated talent--the enjoyment of that loveliness with another
+kindred or more elevated mind is a yet higher attainment, as the
+performance of _concerted_ music is more difficult and more gratifying
+than a simple solo.
+
+Rarely within my recollection, and that is as inclusive as the
+remembrance of almost any around me, rarely has an autumn been more
+delightful than that which has just closed, in its clear, shining
+sunlight, or more attractive for its bland and healthful temperature.
+Not leisure--for that I have little to boast of, or to _fear_. Let my
+young readers mark that word, _fear_. I am not about to write a
+homily upon the uses of time and talents, but let me parenthetically
+note that the gift of enjoying leisure is so rare in the young, that a
+lack of constant occupation should be rather feared than courted. I do
+not speak of the danger of flagrant vice, but of a growing propensity
+to disregard portions of time, because only _portions_ may be
+necessary to the discharge of admitted duties--the danger is
+imminent--but not to the young alone. In youth, love of action _may_
+employ the leisure to the promotion of vice in age, a tendency to
+inertness may induce the abuse of the leisure to total inaction. I can
+hardly imagine any object more unsightly than an idle old man--the
+dead trunk of a decayed tree, marring the landscape and injuring
+culture. But I must return. Not leisure, for I have little of that to
+boast of or fear; not leisure, but a love, a growing love for the
+partial solitude of the field, and something of an enjoyment of the
+elevating communion which it leaves, sent me more than once in
+November last strolling beyond the dusty roads and noisy turnpike in
+the vicinity of our city. It was, as I have reason to recollect, on
+the eighteenth of November, that I was wandering observantly, but in
+deep contemplation, across some of the fields that lie near the road
+leading from the city to Frankford. It was a lovely day, and every
+feeling of my heart was consonant to the scene. Ascending a little
+eminence, I obtained an extensive view. The forest trees had lost
+their rich garb of mottled beauties, and their denuded limbs stretched
+out with attenuated delicacy, seemed to streak the distant horizon
+with darkened lines. On my right the winding Delaware lay stretched
+out in glassy beauty, and near me, glittering in the sunlight beyond,
+were a thousand gossamer webs that had survived a recent storm. The
+fields were unusually green, for the season, as if the year were
+clothing itself, like an expiring prelate, with its richest
+habiliments, that its departure might leave the impress of that beauty
+which comes from its usefulness. I had yielded to the influences of
+the scene, had allowed my feeling to predominate, and was in the midst
+of an unwonted abstraction from all ordinary cares and relations,
+catching something of that state with which the more gifted are
+indulged, when I was startled by the sound of footsteps upon the
+carpet-like grass around me.
+
+"Hardly looking for game here?" said the person inquiringly.
+
+"And without dog and gun?" said I.
+
+"There's not much game in these parts," said he.
+
+"And yet I was hunting!" said I. "Hunting pleasure from the prospect."
+
+"I do not derive much pleasure," said my companion, "from such
+things. Almost all fields are alike to me. Generally they are places
+for labor, or they lie between my residence and labor, and thus make a
+toilsome distance."
+
+"But do you not enjoy the pleasure of this scene? Do you not, while
+looking abroad from some eminence, feel a sensation different from
+what you experience while walking on the turnpike?"
+
+"Most generally. I think there was once or twice a feeling came over
+me here which I did not exactly understand."
+
+"And when was that?"
+
+"Always on Sunday morning, as I have been crossing the field to attend
+service at the church yonder. I could not tell whether it was a sense
+of relief from ordinary labor, or something connected with the service
+in which I was about to join; but, certainly, the fields, and woods,
+and water beyond, had a different appearance, and seemed to affect me
+differently from their ordinary influence. Perhaps as these feelings
+are recent, they may have sprung from another cause."
+
+"If the beauties of nature, and the influence of religious aspirations
+could not account for those feelings which you experienced, I can
+scarcely tell whence you derived the sensation."
+
+"I suppose that all beauties are not discernable at once, and our
+sympathies are not all awakened by a single exhibition of what may be
+productive of delight or sorrow. Whatever of pleasure I have derived
+from the beauties observable from such places as this, are not
+primarily referable to my own powers of application, but rather from
+the lessons of another--lessons derived from a few words, and from
+constant example."
+
+"And, pray, what _example_ could open to you new beauties in a
+landscape, or develop attractions in a scene which you had been in the
+habit of seeing for many years?"
+
+"I do not know that any one has taught me by word and example to see
+from any point of observation, aught that I had not discerned before,
+but it is certain that what was unnoticeable became an object of
+contemplation, and points of the scenery have been made to harmonize
+by association, when viewed separately, they had little that was
+attractive.
+
+"A few years since, a young lady, I think of European birth, was
+brought to live in the house which stands near yonder clump of trees;
+her situation seemed that of an humble companion to the lady--but her
+services and her influence made her more than loved. I never saw more
+affection exhibited than all of the household manifested toward her. I
+cannot tell you what means she used to acquire such a mastery over the
+love of all around her, but, though less within the influence of her
+attractive manners than some others, I yet shared in the general
+feeling of regard. She was a frequent visiter to a small eminence in
+this immediate neighborhood, and I often followed her thither, though
+I was careful not to reach the place until her departure; and then I
+have gone around as she did, looking at the various points of the
+scenery, to try to have the enjoyment which was imparted to her from
+the visits. Once I came when she was here, and met a condescension
+entirely hidden in kindness; she called my attention to what she
+designated the numerous beauties of the place, and subsequently I went
+frequently to the spot to look at what she had pointed out, and I
+think I occasionally derived some new pleasure from the scene. I am
+not able now to say whether that pleasure was the result of new
+capacities to behold beauties, or whether it was consequent upon my
+respect for her who had imparted the lesson. Perhaps both.
+
+"There was a young man, a relative of Mrs. ----, with whom this lady
+resided, that came frequently to the house. I never saw a person
+apparently more winning in his manner, or more delicate in his
+attentions; and, as all expected, he proposed for marriage to the
+young woman. It was thought that there would be objections on the part
+of _his_ relations--and there were; but they came from the gentleman
+of the house, who plainly declared that the young man was not worthy
+of the woman he sought. Her heart, it was evident, was concerned; it
+was whispered, I know not how truly, that the youth had associations
+in the city unworthy his relations at home. But when do the young and
+confiding ever regard monitions of this kind. She, whose good sense
+had restored order to a family that needed direction, and had
+sustained her against all adverse circumstances among strangers, could
+not influence her against the pleadings of her own heart. The young
+man, more than a year since, received a commission, and joined the
+army at Mexico. He left with her a sealed paper, and his favorite dog.
+The animal was already most affectionately attached to her, and now
+became her constant companion. Never did I see an animal so completely
+devoted to a human being; never was kindness more reciprocated than
+was that of the companion of her walks; he patiently awaited at the
+door of the church for the conclusion of the services, and at night
+held vigils beneath her window. I think the dog, too, must have
+understood something of the beauty of this scenery; for I have seen
+him for an hour together standing wistfully beside his mistress, and
+gazing up into her face, and then not meeting with an encouraging
+look, stretching his sight far away in the direction of her eyes, as
+if determined to share with her whatever contributed to her pleasure
+or her pain.
+
+"Less than four months ago news reached the family of the death of the
+young man--I do not remember the exact time, or the place of the
+engagement in which he fell--but his death produced deep sensation in
+the family generally, but it went to the heart of the young lady. I
+saw her once or twice on her favorite place in the field, but I dared
+not approach her--she had no companion but the faithful dog. In two
+weeks she was confined to her bed--and shortly afterward the family
+was plunged in new afflictions by her death. I was inquiring of one of
+the family relative to the particular disease of which she died, and
+heard it suggested that it might have been a rapid consumption."
+
+"I think not," said a very little girl, who had shared in the
+affectionate instruction of the deceased.
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Can the heart of a person break to pieces?" asked the child.
+
+"The heart may be broken," I said.
+
+"Then that is it--for I heard mamma tell sister that Miss Mary's heart
+was broken."
+
+"I have noticed that the death of an affianced one is more severely
+felt by a woman, as a severe disturbance of affection, than is the
+death of a husband. And I suppose this comes from the delicacy of a
+maiden that shrinks from the utterance of a grief which finds vent and
+sympathy with a widow. I never hear of such a bereavement without
+deeper sorrow for the survivor's sufferings, than I have for the
+mourning wife. God help her who's crushed by a grief that she may not
+openly indulge; who must hide in her bosom the fire that is consuming
+her life."
+
+The sealed paper was reopened; it contained a rich bequest to the
+young woman, and with it was a small piece of paper, containing _her_
+request to be buried beyond us, whence she had so often contemplated
+the scene around us. The field was her own property, by the will of
+the young man. She relinquished all else of his gift. "We buried her
+_there_. I say _we_--for though my position was far below hers, yet
+none felt more deeply her loss than those who looked up to admire her.
+The little paling that surrounds the eminence was erected to keep away
+the foot of the thoughtless. Shall we go to see the grave?"
+
+I followed the man into the enclosure. The sods which covered the
+grave of Mary had not yet united; and one or two seemed to be worn, as
+if they had been treated with some rudeness. I drew the attention of
+my guide to the abrasion.
+
+"Ah, yes! that is poor Lara's doings," said he. "Poor dog! I looked
+around for him at the funeral, expecting to see him at the grave, but
+was disappointed. Every evening since the funeral, just before the sun
+goes down, and often in the morning--the hours in which Miss Mary was
+wont to come hither to enjoy the scenery--poor Lara has been seen
+stretched out upon the grave, uttering his grief in a low wail. I
+scarcely believe that he will recover from the loss he has sustained;
+and others might be equally unconsolable, if they did not feel that it
+is better with Mary now than when she lived."
+
+When I had looked downward to the grave for a time, and almost into
+it, that I might the better contemplate the character and end of her
+who rested there, my companion drew my attention to the beauty of what
+was around us.
+
+"Miss Mary loved to stand here," said he, "and enjoy the rich sunset.
+Mark, now, how richly its beams are thrown from the windows of yonder
+Gothic house beyond the turnpike, and on the new dwelling a little
+this side. A mellowness is in that light, to soothe where it falls;
+and the whispering of the southern wind that we now hear, is like the
+cries of spirits communing with their good sister below us."
+
+"You seem now to enjoy the scenery, my friend," said I, "as much as
+almost any other person."
+
+"Sir, I have felt, of late, a growing fondness for this place and this
+scene; and last Sunday, when returning from the afternoon service, I
+stood here almost wrapt in the pleasure which the place afforded to
+the departed one, and I have since come to believe that there is
+something more than book-knowledge necessary to the relish of natural
+scenery."
+
+"May I ask what that _something_ is, which you think assists us to
+appreciate the beauty of a landscape?"
+
+"Why, sir--perhaps I am wrong, you certainly know better than I--but,
+it appears to me, my growing sense of enjoyment in this scene is due
+to the memory of the virtues of her whom I constantly connect with
+this place, and that enjoyment is fixed and augmented by the frame of
+mind in which I go to, or come from the place of worship."
+
+"If I understand you correctly, you have come to the conclusion that
+to enjoy nature, our hearts must be touched, and our affections
+mellowed by earthly sympathies, and our views expanded and elevated by
+a sense of religious duties."
+
+"Something like that, sir."
+
+"And is not that what is understood by 'LOVE TO GOD, AND LOVE TO MAN?'"
+
+
+
+
+POETRY.--A SONG.
+
+BY GEORGE P. MORRIS.
+
+
+ To me the world's an open book
+ Of sweet and pleasant poetry;
+ I read it in the running brook
+ That sings its way toward the sea:
+ It whispers in the leaves of trees,
+ The swelling grain, the waving grass.
+ And in the cool fresh evening breeze
+ That crisps the wavelets as they pass.
+
+ The flowers below--the stars above--
+ In all their bloom and brightness given,
+ Are, like the attributes of love,
+ The poetry of earth and heaven.
+ Thus Nature's volume, read aright,
+ Attunes the soul to minstrelsy,
+ Tinging life's clouds with rosy light,
+ And all the world with poetry.
+
+
+
+
+THE MOURNER.
+
+BY THE LATE DR. JOHN D. GODMAN.
+
+
+ Why is thy visage o'ershadowed by gloom,
+ Are Nature's enchantments not scattered around,
+ Has the rose lost her fragrance, the tulip her bloom,
+ Has the streamlet no longer its mild, soothing sound?
+ Say what are thy pleasures--or whence is thy bliss,
+ In thy breast can no movements of sympathy rise?
+ Canst thou glance o'er a region so lovely as this,
+ And no bright ray of pleasure enliven thine eyes?
+ Where are there fields more delightfully drest,
+ In a verdure still fresh'ning with every shower?
+ Here are oak-covered mountains, with valleys of rest,
+ Richly clothed in the blossoming sweet scented flower.
+ Why lingerest thou ever to gaze on that star,
+ Sinking low in the west e'er the twilight is o'er?
+ While the shadows of evening extending afar
+ Bid the warbler's blithe carol be poured forth no more,
+ Oh why when the Sabbath bell's pleasantest tone
+ Wakes the soul of devotion in song to rejoice,
+ Are thy features with sorrow o'erclouded alone,
+ While no sounds but of sadness are heard from thy voice?
+
+ Listen, while I tell thee, stranger!
+ In a brief and hurried measure:
+ Though my soul drink not of pleasure,
+ Though mine eyes be sunk in gloom;
+ Tis not from fear of coming danger,
+ Nor yet from dread of doom.
+
+ The youngest leaves must fall,
+ When summer beams have ceased to play;
+ And may not sorrow spread her pall,
+ When joy, and hope, and love decay?
+ Earth's loveliest scenes;
+ The boons of heaven most cherished;
+ Fields dressed in gladdening greens,
+ Are drear, when hope has perished:
+ Spring's beauteousness,
+ Followed by summer's glory,
+ May fade without the power to bless,
+ As doth a dreamed story.
+
+ It gives me peace to gaze at even,
+ Watching the latest, faintest gleam
+ Of yon bright traveler of heaven,
+ Reflected in the silver stream;
+ For she I love has gently leaned--
+ While my fond heart with bliss was swelling--
+ Upon my arm, to see descend
+ That brilliant star in light excelling.
+
+ The chiming bells give joy no more,
+ Long since the tones have lost their sweetness;
+ They now but wake me to deplore
+ The bliss that fled with air-like fleetness.
+ Blame not my sorrow: chilling pride
+ Nor clouds my brow nor kills the smile;
+ For loss of wealth I never sighed,
+ But all for her I mourn the while.
+ She was my all, my fairest, dearest, best;
+ I loved--I lost her--tears may speak the rest.
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE.
+
+BY KATE DASHWOOD.
+
+
+ A young white rose-bud--with its leaves
+ Just blown apart, and wet with dew--
+ A fair child in a garland weaves
+ 'Mid glowing flowers of every hue.
+ She sitteth by the rushing river,
+ While the soft and balmy air
+ Scarce stirs the starry flowers that quiver
+ Amid her sunny hair--
+ Thou of the laughing eyes! 'mid all
+ The roses of thy coronal--
+ Thou'rt fairest of the fair.
+
+ Ah, bright young dreamer! may thy heart
+ In its early freshness ever be
+ Pure as the leaves--just blown apart--
+ Of the rose thou'rt wreathing in childish glee.
+ Ah, well I know those flowers thou'rt twining
+ For thy fair pale mother dear--
+ For the love-light in those blue eyes shining
+ Is shadowed by a tear;
+ And thy thoughts are now in that dim, hushed room--
+ With the sad, sweet smile, and the fading bloom--
+ _Thou'rt all too young to fear._
+
+
+
+
+SONNET TO ----.
+
+
+ The crimson clouds had gathered round the sun,
+ Sinking full slowly to his nightly rest,
+ And gilding with a glory all his own
+ The bannered splendor of the glowing west,
+ Entranced I gazed upon the gorgeous scene
+ That thus so fair before my vision lay;
+ The calm, serene, blue heavens looked out between,
+ And softly smiled upon retiring day.
+ All was so beautiful, I could but feel
+ A shade of sadness that thou wert not nigh,
+ The radiant glory to behold with me;
+ And still the thought would o'er my spirit steal,
+ That all the clouds and mists in my dark sky
+ Would gather rays of glory, my life's sun, from thee!
+ C. O.
+
+
+
+
+GAME-BIRDS OF AMERICA.--NO. VIII.
+
+AMERICAN STARLING OR MEADOW-LARK.
+
+
+This well-known inhabitant of our meadows like the Partridge, is
+sociable, somewhat gregarious, and partially migratory. The change of
+country, however, appears to be occasioned only by scarcity of food,
+and many of them pass the whole winter with us. They may be bought in
+our markets when snow is on the ground; and in the month of February,
+Wilson found them picking up a scanty subsistence in the company of
+the snow-birds, on a road over the heights of the Alleghanies. Its
+flight, like that of the Partridge, is laborious and steady. Though
+they collect their food from the ground, they are frequently shot on
+trees, their perch being either the main branches, or the topmost
+twigs. At the time of pairing, they exhibit a little of the jealous
+disposition of the tribe, but his character vindicated by his bravery,
+and the victory achieved, he retires from his fraternity to assist his
+mate in the formation of her nest. The flesh of the Meadow-Lark is
+white, and for size and delicacy, it is considered little inferior to
+the Partridge. In length, he measures ten and a half inches, in alar
+extent, nearly seventeen. Above, his plumage, as described by Nuttall,
+is variegated with black, bright bay, and ochreous. Tail, wedged, the
+feathers pointed, the four outer nearly all white; sides, thighs, and
+vent, pale ochreous, spotted with black; upper mandible brown, the
+lower bluish-white; iris, hazel; legs and feet, large, pale
+flesh-colour. In the young bird the color is much fainter than in the
+adult.
+
+[Illustration: RICE BUNTING. (_Emberiza Oryzivora._ WILSON.)]
+
+This is the Rice and Reed-Bird of Pennsylvania and the Southern
+States, and the Boblink of New York and New England. He is of little
+size, but of great consequence, hailed with pleasure by the sportsman
+and the epicure, and dreaded as worse than a locust by the careful
+planter. Wilson has treated of him fully, and from his eloquent
+account we shall endeavor to select a few points in his history worthy
+of notice. According to his best biographer, then, three good
+qualities recommend him, particularly as these three are rarely found
+in the same individual--his plumage is beautiful, his song highly
+musical, and his flesh excellent. To these he added the immense range
+of his migrations, and the havoc he commits. The winter residence of
+this species is from Mexico to the Amazon, from whence they issue in
+great hosts every spring. In the whole United States, north of
+Pennsylvania, they remain during the summer, raising their progeny;
+and as soon as the young are able to fly they collect together in
+great multitudes, and pour down on the oat-fields of New England.
+During the breeding season, they are dispersed over the country; but
+as soon as the young are able to fly, they collect together in great
+multitudes, like a torrent, depriving the proprietors of a good tithe
+of their harvest, but in return often supply his table with a very
+delicious dish. From all parts of the north and western regions they
+direct their course toward the south, and about the middle of August,
+revisit Pennsylvania, on their route to winter quarters. For several
+days they seem to confine themselves to the fields and uplands; but as
+soon as the seeds of the reed are ripe, they resort to the shores of
+the Delaware and Schuylkill in multitudes; and these places, during
+the remainder of their stay, appear to be their grand rendezvous. The
+reeds, or wild oats, furnish them with such abundance of nutritious
+food, that in a short time they become extremely fat, and are supposed
+by some of our epicures to be equal to the famous Ortolans of Europe.
+Their note at this season is a single chuck, and is heard overhead,
+with little intermission from morning till night. These are halcyon
+days for our gunners of all descriptions, and many a lame and rusty
+gun-barrel is put in requisition for the sport. The report of musketry
+along the reedy shores of the Delaware and Schuylkill is almost
+incessant, resembling a running fire. The markets of Philadelphia, at
+this season, exhibit proofs of the prodigious havoc made among these
+birds, for almost every stall is ornamented with some hundreds of
+Reed Birds.
+
+The Rice Bunting is seven inches and a half long, and eleven and a
+half in extent. His spring dress is as follows: upper part of the
+head, wings, tail, and sides of the neck, and whole lower parts,
+black; the feathers frequently skirted with brownish-yellow, as he
+passes into the color of the female; back of the head, a cream color;
+back, black, seamed with brownish-yellow; scapulars, pure white; rump
+and tail coverts the same; lower part of the back, bluish-white; tail,
+formed like those of the Woodpecker genus, and often used in the same
+manner, being thrown in to support it while ascending the stalks of
+the reed; this habit of throwing in the tail it retains even in the
+cage; legs, a brownish flesh color; hind heel, very long; bill, a
+bluish-horn color; eye, hazel. In the month of June this plumage
+gradually changes to a brownish-yellow, like that of the female, which
+has the back streaked with brownish-black; whole lower parts,
+dull-yellow; bill, reddish-flesh color; legs and eyes as in the male.
+The young birds retain the dress of the female until early in the
+succeeding spring. The plumage of the female undergoes no material
+change of color.
+
+[Illustration: CEDAR BIRD. (_Ampelis Americana._)]
+
+The Cedar-Bird, (_Ampelis Americana_,) is very frequently shot at the
+same time with the Robin. The plumage of this bird is of an
+exquisitely fine and silky texture, lying extremely smooth and glossy.
+The name Chatterers has been given to them, but they make only a
+feeble, lisping sound, chiefly as they rise or alight. On the Blue
+Mountains, and other ridges of the Alleghanies, they spend the months
+of August and September, feeding on the abundant whortleberries; then
+they descend to the lower cultivated parts of the country to feed on
+the berries of the sour gum and red cedar. In the fall and beginning
+of summer, when fat, they are in high esteem for the table, and great
+numbers find purchasers in the market of Philadelphia. They have
+derived their name from one kind of their favorite food; from other
+sorts they have also been called Cherry Birds, and to some they are
+known by the name of Crown Birds.
+
+
+
+
+REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.
+
+
+ _The Poetical Works of Fitz-Greene Halleck. Now
+ first collected. Illustrated with Steel Engravings,
+ from drawings by American Artists. New York: D.
+ Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 8vo._
+
+This volume is a perfect luxury to the eye, in its typography and
+embellishments. The fact of an author's appearance in so rich a dress,
+is itself an evidence of his popularity. We have here, for the first
+time, a complete edition of the author's poems, tender and humorous,
+serious and satirical, in a beautiful form. It contains Alnwick
+Castle, Burns, Marco Bozzarris, Red Jacket, A Poet's Daughter,
+Connecticut, Wyoming, and other pieces which have passed into the
+memory of the nation, together with the delicious poem of Fanny, and
+the celebrated Croaker Epistles. The illustrations are all by American
+artists, and really embellish the volume. The portrait of Halleck is
+exceedingly characteristic of the man, expressing that union of
+intellect and fancy, sound sense, and poetic power, which his
+productions are so calculated to suggest. His great popularity--a
+popularity which has always made the supply of his poems inferior to
+the demand--will doubtless send the present magnificent volume through
+many editions.
+
+The poems of Halleck are not only good in themselves, but they give an
+impression of greater powers than they embody. They seem to indicate a
+large, broad, vigorous mind, of which poetry has been the recreation
+rather than the vocation. A brilliant mischievousness, in which the
+serious and the ludicrous, the tender and the comic, the practical and
+the ideal, are brought rapidly together, is the leading characteristic
+of his muse. In almost every poem in his volume, serious, or
+semi-serious, the object appears to be the production of striking
+effects by violent contrasts. The poet himself rarely seems thoroughly
+in earnest, though at the same time he never lacks heartiness. There
+are two splendid exceptions to this remark--Burns, and Marco
+Bozzarris--poems in which the delicacy and energy of the author's mind
+find free expression. They show that if the poet commonly plays with
+his subject, it is not from an incapacity to feel and conceive it
+vividly, but from a beautiful willfulness of nature, which is
+impatient of the control of one idea or emotion. Halleck's perceptions
+of the ideal and practical appears equally clear and vivid. His fancy
+cannot suggest a poetical view of life, without his wit at the same
+time suggesting its prosaic counterpart in society. A mind thus
+exquisitely sensitive both to the beautiful and laughable sides of a
+subject--looking at life at once with the eye of the poet and the man
+of the world--naturally finds delight in a fine mockery of its own
+idealisms, and loves to sport with its own high-raised feelings. His
+poetry is not, therefore, so much an exhibition of the real nature and
+capacity of the man, as of the play and inter-penetration of his
+various mental powers, in periods of pleasant relaxation from the
+business of life. In a few instances, we think, his humorous insight
+has been deceived from the unconscious influence upon his mind of the
+sentiment of Byron and Moore. Thus he occasionally falls into the
+exaggerations of misanthropy and sentimentality. In his poem entitled
+Woman, we are informed that man has no constancy of affection,--
+
+ His vows are broke,
+ Even while his parting kiss is warm;
+ But woman's love all change will mock,
+ And, like the ivy round the oak,
+ Cling closest in the storm.
+
+Here, for the purpose of a vivid contrast, there is a sacrifice of
+poetic truth. The same piece closes with asserting that the smiles and
+tears of woman,
+
+ Alone keep bright, through Time's long hour,
+ That frailer thing than leaf or flower,
+ A poet's immortality.
+
+Here the thought, redeemed as it is by beautiful expression, is worthy
+only of a sentimental poetaster of the Della Cruscan school; and we
+can easily imagine what a mocking twinkle would light the eye of its
+author, if some one should tell him that Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and
+Milton were "kept bright" by the smiles and tears of woman. These, and
+one or two other passages in Halleck, are unworthy of his manly and
+cant-hating mind; and it is wonderful how they could have escaped his
+brilliant good sense.
+
+Fanny, and the Croaker Epistles are the most brilliant things of their
+kind in American literature, full of wit, fancy, and feeling, and in
+all their rapid transitions, characterized by an ethereal lightness of
+movement, a glancing felicity of expression, which betray a poet's
+plastic touch equally in the sentiment and the merriment. No American
+poems have been more eagerly sought after, and more provokingly
+concealed, than these. Three editions of Fanny have been published,
+but the difficulty of obtaining a copy has always been great. Many who
+were smitten with a love for it have been compelled to transcribe it
+from the copy of a more fortunate collector. The Croaker Epistles have
+been even more cunningly suppressed. Now we have both in a form which
+will endure with the stereotype plates. They evince the most brilliant
+characteristics of Halleck's genius, and continually suggest the
+thought, that if the mind of the author be so powerful and various in
+its almost extempore sport and play, it must have still greater
+capacity in itself.
+
+Fanny, and the Croaker Epistles swarm with local and personal
+allusions which a New-Yorker alone can fully appreciate. Van Buren,
+Webster, Clinton, the politicians and authors generally of the period
+when the poems were written, are all touched with a light and graceful
+pencil. Fanny is conceived and executed after the manner of Byron's
+Beppo and Don Juan. It is full of brilliant rogueries, produced by
+bringing sentiment and satire together with a shock. For instance,
+
+ Dear to the exile is his native land,
+ In memory's twilight beauty seen afar:
+ Dear to the broker is a note of hand
+ Collaterally secured--the polar star
+ Is dear at midnight to the sailor's eyes,
+ _And dear are Bristed's volumes at half price._
+
+ The sun is loveliest as he sinks to rest;
+ The leaves of Autumn smile when fading fast;
+ The swan's last song is sweetest--and the best
+ Of Meigs's speeches, doubtless, was his last.
+
+In a mocking attempt to prove that New York exceeded Greece in the
+Fine Arts, we have the following convincing arguments:
+
+ In sculpture we've a grace the Grecian master,
+ Blushing, had owned his purest model lacks;
+ We've Mr. Bogart in the best of plaster,
+ The Witch of Endor in the best of wax,
+ Beside the head of Franklin on the roof
+ Of Mr. Lang, both jest and weather-proof.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In painting we have Trumbull's proud _chef d'oeuvre_, Blending in one
+the funny and the fine;
+
+ His independence will endure forever--
+ And so will Mr. Allen's lottery sign;
+ And all that grace the Academy of Arts,
+ From Dr. Hosack's face to Bonaparte's.
+
+ In physic, we have Francis and McNeven,
+ Famed for long heads, short lectures, and long bills;
+ And Quackenboss, and others, who from heaven
+ _Were rained upon us in a shower of pills._
+
+It would be impossible to give a notion of the genial satire of the
+Croakers by extracts. The following, from the epistle to the Recorder,
+is unmatched for felicity and exquisite contrast:
+
+ The Caesar passed the Rubicon
+ With helm, and shield, and breast-plate on,
+ Dashing his war-horse through the waters;
+ The R*d*r would have built a barge,
+ Or steamboat, at the city's charge,
+ And passed it with his wife and daughters.
+
+In the same piece occurs the following fine tribute to Bryant:
+
+ Bryant, whose songs are thoughts that bless
+ The heart, its teachers, and its joy,
+ As mothers blend with their caress
+ Lessons of truth and gentleness,
+ And virtue for the listening boy.
+ Spring's lovelier flowers for many a day
+ Have blossomed on his wandering way,
+ Beings of beauty and decay,
+ They slumber in their autumn tomb;
+ But those that graced his own Green River,
+ And wreathed the lattice of his home,
+ Charmed by his song from mortal doom,
+ Bloom on, and will bloom on forever.
+
+Pope has become famous for his divine compliments, but certainly no
+poet ever celebrated the genius of another with more felicity and
+sweetness than in the above beautiful passage.
+
+It would be impossible to notice all the striking poems in this
+volume--and they are too favorably known to need it. There is one
+piece, however, which deserves especial commendation, and its merits
+do not appear to have called forth the eulogy which has been
+bountifully lavished on many others. We allude to his exquisite
+translation from Goethe, on the eighty-third page--the invocation to
+the ideal world, which precedes Faust. It is one of the gems of the
+volume.
+
+
+ _The Poetical Works of Lord Byron. Complete in one
+ Volume. Collected and Arranged, with Illustrative
+ Notes. Illustrated by Elegant Steel Engravings. New
+ York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 8vo._
+
+This edition of Byron might bear the palm from all other American
+editions, in respect to its combination of cheapness with elegance, if
+it were not the most valuable in point of completeness and
+illustrative notes. It is a reprint of Murray's Library edition, and
+while executed in a similar style of typography, excells it, if we are
+not mistaken, in the number of its embellishments. It contains an
+admirable portrait of Byron, a view of Newstead Abbey, and also six
+fine steel engravings, executed with great beauty and finish. It is
+uniform with the same publisher's library edition of Southey and
+Moore, contains eight hundred pages of closely printed matter, and
+includes every thing that Byron wrote in verse. It does honor to the
+enterprise and taste of the publishers, and will doubtless have a
+circulation commensurate with its merits. As long as our American
+booksellers evince a disposition to publish classical works in so
+beautiful a form, it is a pleasant duty of the press to commend their
+editions. We cordially wish success to all speculations which imply a
+confidence in the public taste.
+
+It would be needless here to express any opinion of the intellectual
+or moral character of Byron's poems. Everybody's mind is made up on
+those points. The present edition is admirably adapted to convey to
+the reader Byron's idea of himself, the opinions formed of him by his
+contemporaries, and the effect of his several works on the public mind
+as they appeared. It contains an immense number of notes by Moore,
+Scott, Jeffrey, Campbell, Wilson, Rogers, Heber, Milman, Gifford,
+Ellis, Bridges, and others, which will be found extremely useful and
+entertaining. Extracts are taken from Byron's own diary, and from the
+recorders of his conversations, giving an accurate impression of each
+poem, as regards its time and manner of composition, the feelings from
+which it sprung, and the opinion he entertained of its reception by
+the public. Profuse quotations are made from the first draught of each
+poem, showing how some of the most striking ideas were originally
+written, and the improvements introduced in their expression by the
+author's "sober second thoughts." The opinions expressed of the
+various poems by the leading reviews of the time, including the
+criticisms of Scott, Jeffrey, Gifford, Heber, and others, are largely
+quoted. Added to these are numerous notes, explaining allusions, or
+illustrating images which the common reader might be supposed not to
+understand. Taken altogether, the edition will enable almost any
+person to obtain a clear understanding of Byron and his works, without
+any trouble or inconvenience. There is no other edition which can
+compare with it in this respect.
+
+Many of the notes are exceedingly curious, and if not absolutely new,
+have been gathered from such a wide variety of sources, as to be novel
+to a majority of readers. We have been struck with the impression
+which Byron's energy made upon Dr. Parr, the veteran linguist. After
+reading the Island, he exclaims--"Byron! the sorcerer! He can do with
+me according to his will. If it is to throw me headlong upon a desert
+island; if it is to place me on the summit of a dizzy cliff--his power
+is the same. I wish he had a friend, or a servant, appointed to the
+office of the slave, who was to knock every morning at the
+chamber-door of Philip of Macedon, and remind him he was mortal." From
+Parr's life we learn that Sardanapalus affected him even more
+strongly. "In the course of the evening the doctor cried out, 'Have
+you read Sardanapalus?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Right; and you couldn't sleep a
+wink after it?' 'No.' 'Right, right--now don't say a word more about
+it to-night.' The memory of that fine poem seemed to act like a spell
+of horrible fascination upon him." Perhaps from a few anecdotes like
+this, we gain a much more vivid impression of the sensation which
+Byron's poems excited on their first appearance, and their strong hold
+upon the imagination and passions of the public, than we could obtain
+from the most elaborate description of their effects. If such was
+their power upon an old scholar like Parr, what must have been their
+influence upon younger and more inflammable minds?
+
+The editor's preface to Don Juan is no less valuable than
+entertaining. It contains not merely the opinions expressed of the
+poem by the reviews and magazines, but those of the newspapers, and
+enables us to gather the judgment of the English people upon that
+strange combination of sublimity and ribaldry, sentiment and wit,
+tenderness and mockery, at the time it first blazed forth from the
+press. The suppressed dedication of the poem to Southey is also given
+in full, with all its brutal blackguardism and drunken brilliancy. In
+truth, the volume conveys an accurate impression of all the sides of
+Byron's versatile nature, and from its very completeness is the less
+likely to be injurious. There is no edition of his poems which we
+could more safely commend to the reader, as it exhibits Byron the
+poet, Byron the scoffer, Byron the roue, in his true colors and real
+dimensions; and if, after reading it, a person should adopt the old
+cant about his brilliant rascalities, and the old drivel about his
+sentimental misanthropy, the fault is in the reader rather than the
+volume. For our own part we are acquainted with no edition of any
+celebrated author, equaling this in the remorselessness with which the
+man is stripped of all the factitious coverings of the poet, and
+stands out more clearly in his true nature and character.
+
+
+ _The Life of Henry the Fourth, King of France and
+ Navarre. By G. P. R. James. New York: Harper &
+ Brothers. 2 vols. 12mo._
+
+Few kings have been so fortunate as Henry the Fourth in the reputation
+and good will they have obtained from the people. By democrats as well
+as monarchists his name is held in a kind of loving veneration. Much
+of this popularity is doubtless owing to his superiority, in
+disposition as well as mind, to the ferocious bigotry of his age, and
+to his great edict of toleration which healed for a time the horrible
+religious dissensions of France. Apart from his ability, however, his
+virtues as a king sprung rather from good-nature and benevolence, than
+from moral or religious principle. His toleration was the result of
+his indifference as much as his good sense; and he was not a
+persecutor, because to him neither Catholicism nor Protestantism was
+of sufficient importance to justify persecution. He was a fanatic only
+in sensuality; and if he committed crime, it would be rather for a
+mistress than a doctrine. The last act of his reign, growing out of
+his impatience in having his designs on the Princess of Conde baffled,
+showed that lust could urge him into an unjust and unprincipled war,
+where religious superstition would have been totally ineffective.
+
+Mr. James's Life of Henry is a careful compilation from the most
+reliable sources of information, and embodies a large amount of
+important knowledge. Though far from realizing the higher conditions
+of historical art, it is more accurate and spirited than the general
+run of historical works. Mr. James's conscience in the matter of the
+present book, seems to have been much greater than we might have
+expected from the king of book-makers. When his history was ready for
+the press, the French Government commenced publishing the "Lettres
+Missives" of Henry IV., and Mr. James delayed his book four years, in
+order that its facts might be verified or increased by comparison with
+that important publication. His work, therefore, is probably the
+fullest and most accurate one we possess on the age of which it
+treats. It is well worthy of an attentive perusal. It abounds in
+incidents and characters which would make the fortune of a novel, and
+is an illustration of that kind of truth which is stranger than
+fiction. The Harpers have issued the work in a tasteful form.
+
+
+ _Artist Life. By H. T. Tuckerman. New York: D.
+ Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._
+
+Mr. Tuckerman is an author whose productions we have repeatedly had
+occasion to notice and to praise. They have always a finished air,
+which favorably distinguishes them from many American publications,
+the products of mingled talent and haste. Mr Tuckerman does not appear
+to rush into print, with unformed ideas hastily clad in a loose
+undress of language--as if the palm of excellence were due to the
+swiftest runner in the race of expression. His style is clear,
+polished, graceful, and harmonious, combining a flowing movement with
+condensation, and free from the tricks and charlatanries of diction.
+He is not so popular as he would be if he made more noise about his
+words and thoughts, and called the attention of the public to every
+felicity of his style or reflection by a pugnacious manner, and a
+strained expression. Though possessing a singularly rich and
+suggestive fancy, and a wide variety of information, his use of
+ornament and allusion is characterized by a taste, an appropriateness,
+a reserve, which men of smaller stores rarely practice. As a critic,
+he is calm, clear, judicious, sympathetic, and making the application
+of a principle all the more stringent, from his vivid perception of
+the object of his criticism. The present volume is worthy of its
+subject, and is more calculated to convey accurate information of the
+lives, character, and works of American artists, than any other we
+have seen. It is also exceedingly interesting, being full of anecdotes
+and biographical memoranda of artists who are commonly known only as
+painters, not as men. In this respect the volume contains much
+original information, which will be valuable to the future historian
+of American art. In his criticism, Mr. Tuckerman evinces knowledge as
+well as taste; and by avoiding technical terms, he contrives to render
+agreeable and clear what is generally unintelligible to the
+uninitiated reader of _critiques_ on paintings. The volume contains,
+among other sketches and biographies, very interesting notices of the
+lives and works of West, Copley, Stuart, Allston, Morse, Durand, W. E.
+West, Sully, Inman, Cole, Weir, Leutze, and Brown.
+
+
+ _Appleton's Library Manuel: Containing a Catalogue
+ Raisonne of upwards of Twelve Thousand of the most
+ Important Works in Every Department of Knowledge,
+ in all Modern Languages, New York; D. Appleton &
+ Co. 1 vol. 8vo._
+
+This is one of the most available and valuable bibliographical works
+extant. Its object is indicated by its title. Such a book should be in
+the possession of every student, scholar, book-collector, and
+librarian. There is hardly a subject which can attract the attention
+of an inquisitive mind, which is not included in this collection, and
+the titles of the best books, in different languages, which relate to
+it given in full, with the various editions, and their price. It would
+be needless to dilate upon the value of such a work. The compilers
+deserve the highest credit for the labor, intelligence, and expense
+they have devoted to it. The cost is but one dollar.
+
+
+ _Sybil Lennard, a Record of Woman's Life._
+
+Mrs. Grey is one of the most popular novel writers of the present day,
+and Sybil Lennard is unquestionably the best of her works. It is
+published by Mr. T. B. Peterson, by whom the advance sheets were
+procured from England.
+
+
+ _Chambers' Miscellany._
+
+Part No. 5, of Chamber's interesting Miscellany has been published,
+and the articles it contains are of the highest order of excellence.
+Messrs. Zieber & Co. are the Philadelphia publishers.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+POSTHUMOUS WRITINGS OF JOSEPH C. NEAL, ESQ.--We have several admirable
+Charcoal Sketches by Mr. Neal--a rich legacy bequeathed expressly to
+us by our gifted and lamented friend. Now that the fountain, whose
+outpourings have so often enriched our pages, is forever closed, these
+gems of genius will have a new and peculiar value. We commence their
+publication in our present number.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+THE NEW YORK MIRROR.--This journal is edited with surpassing ability;
+and its continued and advancing popularity is creditable to the taste
+of the community in which it is published. Spirited, independent, and
+liberal, it not merely, as its name indicates, reflects the light of
+the age, but shines with a lustre of its own. It is well worthy its
+good fortune.
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Some likely incorrect spellings and probable dialect have been left as
+printed, but the following corrections have been made:
+
+1. page 2--removed extra word 'the' after '...before the windows
+ lounged...'
+
+2. page 6--typo 'Jenning' corrected to 'Jennings'
+
+3. page 9--added missing double quotation mark at start of sentence
+ 'What do I see! My dearest...'
+
+4. page 10--added double quotation mark after 'Nonsense--what payment,'
+
+5. page 10--added double quotation mark at end of paragraph '...and
+ proceedings commence directly.'
+
+6. page 18--added double quotation mark missing at start of paragraph
+ 'Oh I'll soon show you,'
+
+7. page 23--added missing period in sentence 'our prosodies call
+ anapoests'
+
+8. page 28--removed extra 'a' in second line of stanza beginning 'Did he
+ answer guiltless, lo!'
+
+9. page 28--typo 'stife' corrected to 'strife'
+
+10. page 32--added period to sentence '...whither he was going'
+
+11. page 43--likely missing word 'for' inserted in sentence '...off
+ the dangers ahead for a single instant.'
+
+12. page 45--typo 'exhaused' corrected to 'exhausted'
+
+13. page 46--typo 'minuute' corrected to 'minute'
+
+14. page 58--typo 'observatious' corrected to 'observations'
+
+15. page 66--inserted opening quotation mark at assumed start of speech
+ "We buried her _there_. I say..."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 1
+January 1848, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE VOL XXXII ***
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